Ok, I'm posting this a little earlier than I thought I would, I have a full time job now so the updates are going to get a little sporadic I fear but we'll see how it goes…
Anyway, the road trip is still going and this is almost like a filler chapter while I perfect the next one, which I really want to get right! Hopefully you'll see whether I do by the end of the weekend. Xxx Kay
Thank you all for the reviews, there were some really really nice ones which I'm immensely appreciative of, and it's awesome that there are some new people who've never reviewed before letting me know what they think, that's not to say that all the old faithful's aren't enormously appreciated as well though, so thanks and I'll do responses in the next ch.
It had just turned half six; they'd been driving for a little under an hour and managed to escape the city streets, the sky was a sheet of slate gray and the rain had been falling steadily since they'd set off.
"Mommy I need to go to the bathroom." Lauren called from the back seat, in a deceptively cheerful voice.
"Can you hold on for a couple of minutes Lo?" Amelia questioned glancing in the mirror at Lauren who was considering the question.
"Yeah but not that long." She said seriously.
"Ok, we'll find the next rest stop ok, can you wait until then?" She asked hopefully.
"Ok, but it has to be soon." Lauren informed her helpfully.
"Ok." Amelia nodded at her as Abby smiled to herself and Amelia spied a gas station and pulled off the road.
"Can I borrow your Jacket?" Amelia asked hopefully looking over at Abby who had her exceptionally waterproof looking coat stuffed by her feet.
"Sure." She nodded handing it over to Amelia who donned it immediately and jumped out of the car her shoulders hunched against the rain as she made her way around to Lauren picking her out of the car, wrapping Abby's jacket around her as well as she carried her into the gas station in the absence of her shoes. A few minutes later they reappeared and Amelia deposited Lauren back in the car.
"Immo, since we're here do you want to go to the bathroom too so we don't have to stop again?" Amelia asked as she leaned over Lauren strapping her back in.
"Ok." Imogen nodded congenially as Amelia slammed one door and made her way around to Imogen's side pulling the other door open and picking her out, again wrapping her under Abby's coat and heading back inside.
"So are you excited about going to see Maggie?" Abby asked twisting in her seat to look at Lauren.
"Yeah, Mommy said she was excited about seeing Imm and me too." Lauren said smiling at Abby as she turned away from the window.
"I think she probably is." Abby smiled back at her.
"When you and Imm's Daddy get married will she be Imm's Granny too?" Lauren asked frowning slightly.
"Sort of, yeah." Abby nodded back at her squinting slightly at Lauren indicating that it was slightly more complicated than that.
"Yeah, I think Imm will like that, she doesn't like her other Granny, she said that my Granny was much better than her Granny so it's good that she's going to be both our Granny's." Lauren told her thinking about it as she spoke.
"I think that she's going to like being your granny and Immo's granny." Abby smiled at Lauren.
"I think she is too." Lauren nodded agreeing with Abby as she looked into her eyes.
"So what stuff do you want to do while we're at Maggie's house?" Abby asked still smiling at Lauren, she was a pretty cool kid; she was incredibly straightforward and smiley, and Jesus she looked more like Amelia every day.
"I'm not sure." Lauren started as she pulled her toy giraffe into her lap and kicked her feet slightly. "Daddy said that I have to look after my Mommy, but she said that she just wanted me and Imm to have a nice time." Lauren informed her looking a little concerned as her little brow furrowed.
"Why did Daddy tell you, you have to look after Mommy?" Abby asked a comedic frown on her face.
" 'Cause he said it's his job to look after Mommy and he's not here so I have to look after her, he said that it meant that I had to make her laugh lots and I'm pretty good at making her laugh." Lauren told Abby wisely.
"I know you are yeah." Abby smiled warmly at her niece.
"And you're going to look after Imm right 'cause her Daddy's not here." Lauren said nodding at Abby, telling her rather than asking her as Abby smiled back.
"I am going to look after Imm yeah." Abby nodded back at her laughing a little.
"I can help you if you like." She offered earnestly.
"So if you're looking after your Mommy and you're helping me to look after Imm, who's going to look after you?" Abby asked frowning slightly.
"My Mommy does that, she always looks after me." Lauren informed her, her tone indicating that Abby should already have known that.
"Oh of course." Abby nodded at her still smiling a slight laugh in her voice as she turned back around.
"Abby." Lauren started again after a brief pause, her tone a little sheepish.
"Yeah." Abby said turning back around to look at Lauren again.
"When you marry Imm's Daddy…" She started again still looking as though she wasn't sure whether she should carry on or not.
"Yeah." Abby said encouraging her to carry on.
"When you do, does that make you Immo's Mommy cause Mommy said it was going to make you her stepmom and Hattie Foster told me and Imm that all stepmoms' were mean and nasty like in Cinderella." Lauren frowned slightly looking a little worried about the prospect for Imogen's sake.
"It means that I am going to be Immo's stepmom, but I'm not going to be mean and nasty, why is Immo worried about that?" Abby asked frowning slightly concernedly back at Lauren. It was the first time she'd actually admitted that she was going to be Imogen's stepmother, which was a weird prospect in itself but she didn't like the evil stepmother idea that Imogen maybe had bouncing around in her head.
"She said that she didn't think that you were mean and nasty, but Hattie said that that was 'cause you weren't her stepmom yet and then when you were you had to be mean and nasty 'cause those are the rules." Lauren said frowning slightly, looking a little suspiciously at Abby, as if she might turn into this mean and nasty stepmother character in front of her eyes.
"Well that's not going to happen." Abby told her a slight smile crossing her face.
"You promise." Lauren quizzed.
"I promise." Abby nodded at her.
"I think you should tell Immo that, but not while I'm here 'cause Hattie said that we weren't 'posed to talk to you about it." Lauren said seriously.
"Ok." Abby nodded at Lauren mock seriously, pretend frowning at her.
"It's not dry I'll tell you that much." Amelia said, slightly out of breath as she pulled the door open, interrupting Abby and Lauren's conversation as she deposited Imogen back in her seat, not bothering to strap her in before pulling open the drivers door and handing Abby one of the two cups of coffee she was balancing in one hand and placing the other in one of the cup holders on the dash board, subsequently dropping two cartons of chocolate milk on the drivers seat and heading back to strap Imogen in.
"We got snacks too." Imogen informed Abby and Lauren as she looked over at them. Lauren began an instant questioning session about what they'd got as Abby smiled at her.
"Ok." Amelia breathed, sighing slightly as she finished with Imogen and slammed the door shut, along with the driver's door as she headed for the trunk.
"Mommy can I have the Hershey's." Lauren asked twisting around in her seat to talk to Amelia who was now routing around in the trunk.
"Lo, you're going to have to hold on for a couple of minutes." Amelia said looking up for half a second as she pulled a couple of things from the trunk.
"But can I have the Hershey's." She said with a frown as she turned back around slightly grumpily in her seat.
"Lauren just give me a second ok." Amelia said her voice bearing a trace of frustration all of a sudden.
"But I want them though." Lauren huffed.
"If you carry on like that then you're not going to get anything." Amelia warned her as she fell silent with a frown on her face and rubbed her eye, pouting a little bit.
"Abby can I have my chocolate milk?" Imogen asked quietly, a little nervously as she glanced from Lauren and over to Abby.
"Yeah." Abby nodded at her and picked one of the cartons off Amelia's seat, piercing the top and handing it to Imogen. "Lo, d'you want your drink?" Abby asked unassumingly as she looked to Lauren and picked up the second carton.
"Yes please." Lauren nodded at her, her voice a little forlorn, as she rubbed her eye again.
"Abby d'you want a sweater or anything while I'm here?" Amelia called from the trunk.
"No, I'm good thanks." Abby called back her reply.
The trunk slammed and Amelia reappeared by Imogen's side with two rugs and two pillows in her hands, she threw a sweater into the front seat before handing a pillow to Lauren with a readable 'behave yourself' look on her face and then the next to Imogen before throwing one of the rugs over Imogen and the second over Lauren, both of them instantly snuggled into the comfy throws sucking on their drinks.
"Right." Amelia sighed as she eventually climbed back into the front seat, pulling Abby's soaking jacket off her body, and extracting all the junk food she and Imogen had purchased from the pockets before laying the coat on the floor of the back out of everyone's way, instantly moving to pull a thick, light grey hoodie on over her camel colored v-neck, shivering slightly as she did, taking a welcome sip of her still steaming coffee.
"Ok Lo, Hershey's." She said as she sorted through the food now sitting in her lap.
"Yeah." Lauren said enthusiastically, perking up significantly at the prospect, having previously thought she'd blown her chances of any snacks at all.
"Yeah what?" Amelia said turning to look at Lauren.
"Please." She added instantly.
"Ok." Amelia said handing her a little fun sized packet of the treats.
"Immo what would you like?" Amelia asked turning to look at her.
"Hershey's too please." Imogen said pushing herself forwards eagerly as she reached to take the candy from Amelia.
"Guy's can you try not to get too chocolaty." Amelia said as she looked at the two in the mirror before looking over at Abby who glanced into the back seat and back at Amelia.
"There's no hope at all." She said shaking her head, laughing slightly as Amelia nodded her agreement and chuckled.
"Can I tempt you to any road trip junk food?" Amelia asked, piling all of the candy, along with an obligatory packet of cigarettes onto the middle armrest between them.
"You've done this road trip thing before haven't you?" Abby asked with a raised eyebrow as she looked through the assorted crap Amelia had purchased.
"I'm a pro." Amelia asserted as she ripped open a packed of Jolly Ranchers and extracted one as she turned the ignition, firing the engine and pulling out of the gas station.
Abby started fiddling with the radio as Amelia pulled onto the freeway, windscreen wipers going ten to the dozen as they sped along the bizarrely empty road.
"D'you want to see if you can find a weather report?" Amelia asked as Abby went through the radio stations going from fuzzy to fuzzier as Amelia glanced up at the sky that was getting darker and grayer but the minute.
"It looks like this is going to turn into one hell of a storm." Abby noted glancing up from the radio and out of the window into the blackness they were heading for.
"Yeah it looks like it might." Amelia agreed as she turned the headlights on full beam, pushing the sleeves of her sweater up to her elbows as Abby eventually found a weather report and they both listened to the weather guy inform them that they were headed towards a hailstorm and 'excessively' high winds.
"You want to find a motel or something?" Abby asked looking over at Amelia who had a trace of a smile on her face.
"D'you mind if we don't, I love driving in weather like this." Amelia said glancing over at her.
"You like driving in weather like this?" Abby said looking at her as though she was insane.
"Yeah." Amelia nodded with a smile on her face, "If it gets really bad then we can stop, but we're only an hour away from home at the moment." She added shrugging checking with Abby that it was ok.
"You're driving." Abby shrugged back as she started playing with the radio again still looking for a decent station.
"It reduces the chances of a high speed chase at least." Amelia said with a smile as Abby raised an eyebrow in agreement, a smile on her face as she let out a half chuckle and continued to play with the radio. "There's a load of CD's in the glove compartment, there should be wet wipes in there as well for the chocolate twins in the back." Amelia added glancing in the mirror at Lauren and Imogen whose faces were covered in the remnants of their snacks.
Abby headed for the glove compartment and extracted three CD wallets and a pack of wet wipes, giving one to each of the little grinning girls instructing them in no uncertain terms to wipe their hands and faces, keeping a beady eye on them as they completed the task relatively effectively and handed her back the dirty wipes and their trash, which she dumped in the door, having extracted the straw from Lauren's carton at Amelia request so she could finish her coffee.
Abby started leafing through the CD's, pausing momentarily to pull a cardigan from her bag by her feet and throwing it on and continuing to flick through the CD's.
"You have a very eclectic mix here." Abby laughed slightly as she flicked from John Denver to The Clash on to Maroon Five and then Pink. Amelia glanced over for a second and then back to the road before speaking.
"It's a big old mix of all mine and Jas's music." She said with a slight smile as Abby continued to flick.
"Can we have the pie song." Imogen asked, pulling her thumb from her mouth causing Amelia to glance in the mirror and look at her.
"I'll have a look for it Immo" Abby said turning to look at Imogen for a second, as she assured her.
"What's the pie song?" Amelia asked glancing over at Abby.
"Don McLean, American Pie." She told her automatically as she continued to flick through the CD's.
"It's in there somewhere I think." Amelia said knowingly, "It's on one of the compellation things I think, something like the greatest all American hits or one of those kind of things." Amelia informed her.
"Sounds like a classy album." Abby mocked her chuckling slightly as she continued to flick through in an effort to find Imogen's request.
"Shut up." Amelia smiled back light-heartedly as she pushed the button to eject whichever CD was already in the machine, handing it to Abby and reaching for another Jolly Rancher.
Abby had played Imogen 'American Pie' three times and she was calling for it a fourth when both Abby and Amelia flatly turned down the request, and Abby had decided on the next sound track for the trip as she settled back in her seat, resting her elbow on the armrest and running her other hand through her hair as she shuffled to get comfortable, they'd been back on the road for almost an hour and half seven was approaching fast. The rain was increasing and the roads were getting emptier as they headed north, Abby noticed that Amelia was eating Jolly Ranchers like they were going out of style and Imogen and Lauren were both snuggled under the blankets Amelia had given them, both involved in a relatively uneventful game of car color, given that they only seemed to see one other car every five minutes.
"We should stop and get some food into the pair of them before they fall asleep." Amelia noted glancing into the back seat and then over at Abby ascertaining her agreement.
"There was a sign back there for a diner up here somewhere." Abby said as she looked into the back, her eyes lingering on Imogen who was staring intently out of the window waiting to spy a passing car, her thumb resting in her mouth, one of Alice's elephant ears poking out from underneath the throw covering her body. She couldn't really believe that Abby was going to turn into an evil stepmother could she?
Amelia pulled off the road again and into a car lot, spying a covered space right outside the door; she pulled up and turned the engine off, releasing her seatbelt. The game of car color suddenly got far more interesting as Imogen and Lauren both started spying and counting the cars of the right color eagerly.
"You guys ready for something to eat?" Abby asked as she pulled her jacket up off the floor, putting it on before she even attempted to get out of the car. They both turned and nodded at her, throwing their blankets on the floor and waiting to be released.
"They don't have any shoes on, either of them." Amelia informed her as she made to open the door.
Abby nodded at her and headed round for Imogen, unbuckling her seatbelt and hiding her under her jacket, shielding her from the rain, her bag hanging from her shoulder as they headed inside.
Amelia grabbed her cell from the charger and the map book from the floor by Abby's feet and headed back around to the trunk, this time pulling out her own jacket which she quickly donned before grabbing her bag from the back and releasing Lauren, picking her out of the car, pressing the key to lock it all up and heading inside with Lauren hanging off her hip to join the others.
Abby and Imogen were already set up in a booth as Amelia made her way inside, depositing Lauren on the bench before shrugging off her sleeveless puffer and sitting down beside her.
"What d'you want to eat Imm?" Abby asked as Imogen knelt up on the bench and began to play with the napkin rack.
"Soup." Imogen replied after a seconds thought as she looked over at Abby.
"Just soup?" Abby questioned as Imogen nodded at her. "What kind?" she asked as she scanned the menu.
"Chicken noodle." Imogen decided without hesitation and Abby nodded once at her.
"I'm just going to run to the bathroom, she can get whatever she wants as long as it's actual food." Amelia said as she stood up.
"Ok, what d'you want?" Abby asked looking up at Amelia.
"Coffee and some kind of sandwich." Amelia said glancing down at the menu, "I don't know surprise me." She shrugged smiling as she headed off and the waitress approached to take their order.
Abby was in deep conversation with Lauren and Imogen as Amelia reappeared and slid back into the booth, Imogen was now wearing Abby's jacket which was enormous on her and looked hilarious but kind of cute at the same time as she leaned on the table watching what Abby was doing as Lauren did the same thing from the other side of the table.
"Ok, who's first?" Abby asked as she looked up from the paper in front of her and between the pair.
"Me" Lauren said jumping slightly as she put her hand up in the air like she was in school and reached for the pen in Abby's hand.
"Ok." Abby smiled and handed the pen over for Lauren and Imogen to play naughts and crosses, Imogen leaned into Abby as she watched Lauren's move intently and Abby turned her attention to Amelia who brought her eyes up from the game and smiled over at Abby.
"I just heard a guy over there saying it was snowing in Duluth this morning." Amelia said with slight tilt of her head adding a 'thanks' as the waitress deposited her coffee along with Abby's soda and two glasses of milk.
"Snowing, god, its only just October." Abby said looking a little surprised.
"It's snowing where we're going." Imogen said excitedly as she looked away from her game and up and over at Abby.
"No, not where we're going." Abby told her slightly apologetically, laughing a little, sympathetically as a trace of disappointment crossed her face and Abby rubbed her back in an effort to quell some of her disappointment and she went back to her game a little dejected.
As ever let me know if you have the time and I hope It'll get going again in the next one!!!