Ok, here's Chapter 61, it's up a bit sooner than I thought it would be and possibly means that I'm getting ahead of myself again but hey ho, once I have no more to post it might mean I get my act togeather and start writing again….
Here it is though, finally they arrive….
There are review responses at the end.
It was just after midnight as they pulled up outside Maggie's house, there had been some kafuffle when they'd hit Minneapolis, having discovered that they didn't have a street map and neither of them could remember the address on the piece of paper that had been left sitting happily pinned to the fridge in Abby and Nick's house. Amelia had suggested calling Nick to get him to give it to them, but it turned out Nick had been harassing Abby for three days about the fact he thought that she and Amelia combined would spend the weekend driving round in circles so Abby had point-blank refused to give him that kind of smug satisfaction. In the end they'd plumbed for calling Maggie for the third time to get her to recite the address, only to discover that they'd left Abby's pen in the diner after she'd given it to Lauren and Imogen to play noughts and crosses; Abby had berated Amelia at some length about the fact she was twenty seven and didn't have a pen in her bag, which she'd been instructed to search through, but she did have seven packets of gum, two whistling lolly pops, about four thousand old receipts, three spare car keys, both of the keys to Jasper's car, more change than you'd find in the average slot machine, a business card offering to teach anyone the English Language, which baffled Abby somewhat, Lauren's beanie baby frog that even Abby had been told at length she'd lost, Jasper's palm pilot, which they'd laughingly agreed he would probably need at some point during his conference, six lighters and a pair of Imogen's socks, which even Amelia couldn't explain, Abby had made several comments about Amelia being a kleptomaniac, after the fourth comment Amelia had told her to 'shut the fuck up' and subsequently been told that she should watch her language by Maggie who was still hanging on the other end of the phone waiting for them to sort themselves out, so finally, after an 'oh for fucks sake' from Abby, another rebuke from Maggie, a fairly close encounter with a curb, and a short bout of uncontrollable laughter they'd settled for eyeliner and the back of the map book. And now, half an hour later they'd arrived.
Turning off the ignition Amelia sighed, Abby had been telling her a variety of stories about her and Eric when they'd been at school, after the initial disbelief Amelia had expressed about the fact Abby had ever gone to catholic school, citing a variety of traits she'd identified in her older sister that dispelled even the vaguest notion that Abby could ever have been a god fearing individual, most of which Abby herself had agreed with, but none the less she'd assure Amelia that she was an ex-catholic school attendant, as was Eric, and she'd launched into a variety of tails of school rebellion that either she or Eric had staged, mostly Eric Amelia noted, all of which had either had Amelia cracking up or in complete disbelief.
"If you tell Lauren any of those stories before she leaves school, or home even, I will hold you personally responsible if she gets expelled or arrested." Amelia said with a hint of laughter as she gathered up her belongings from around her and turned to see her innocent looking sleeping daughter.
"I wouldn't worry about it, they have more than enough power to get themselves expelled or arrested." Abby smiled as she too turned to look at them.
"Fine then, I'll just send you to post bail, it sounds like you've had more than enough experience with that." Amelia said as she suppressed a chuckle, and Abby nodded laughing slightly.
"What's the best way to approach this? Are you thinking wake them up?" Abby asked as she turned to look at Amelia.
"Yep, they're both going to be grumpy as hell though." She replied with a knowing nod.
"Which is why you're going to wake them up and I'm going to go and get Maggie to help carry stuff inside." Abby smiled as she undid her seatbelt, her jacket safely back around her body, and extracted herself from the car, heading for the back porch as Amelia rolled her eyes and turned back to girls', starting on the task of rousing them to get them inside.
Amelia had succeeded in waking both Lauren and Imogen and was now struggling to keep Lauren that way as she practically climbed over the front seat to attach Imogen's shoes to her feet so she could walk to the house.
"Hi." Maggie smiled as she pulled the door beside Lauren open and Abby headed for the trunk.
"Hi." Amelia smiled back from her slightly embarrassing and more than awkward position hanging over the head rest as she finished with Imogen, noticing for the first time just quite how wet it was as the sounds of the downpour made their way into the car.
"Hi Maggie." Imogen mumbled quietly through her thumb, which was stuck in its usual position as she looked over at Maggie.
"Hi sweetie." Maggie smiled back at her warmly.
"Lo, it's time to wake up again." Amelia started again on Lauren who had fallen back to sleep. "Lo, baby, up time." Amelia pushed as she shook her leg slightly and Lauren let out a little objecting wine, trying to pull her leg away from Amelia. "Lo, we're at Maggie's house." She said still shaking Lauren's leg as her eyes began to open slowly and she blinked frowningly over at Amelia before looking towards Maggie and giving her a sleepy smile.
"Hi Lauren." Maggie almost cooed as she ran her hand over Lauren's blond curls, and headed as far as she could into the car to avoid getting drenched.
"Hi." Lauren whispered as she closed her eyes again.
"No, Lo, no, wake up please, you can go to sleep when we get inside." Amelia said stretching around unbelievably awkwardly to try and get Lauren's shoes on her feet without getting out of the car as she battled to keep her daughter awake.
"I can do that." Maggie offered taking Lauren's shoes' from Amelia who smiled gratefully at her before untangling herself from the seats, banging her head as she did, clambering back into the drivers seat, and extracting herself from the car, she ran round to the trunk to find Abby who was extracting both Lauren and Imogen's jackets, she handed them wordlessly to Amelia who, grabbed her own and threw it on as well before heading back around to Imogen's door, pulling it open.
"You still awake there Immo?" Amelia smiled as she unbuckled Imogen, who slid off the seat to stand up, and nodded, her thumb still stuck resolutely in her mouth, only coming out as she allowed Amelia to pull her jacket on to her and zip it up.
"Is she asleep again?" Amelia asked Maggie, trying to see Lauren's face.
"I'm awake." She heard a slightly grumpy Lauren reply as she half laughed with Maggie and handed her Lauren's jacket, which she began to tend to.
Amelia picked Imogen out of the car, standing her on the ground, she grabbed Alice for Imogen and held it herself, not willing to risk Imogen dropping her in a puddle which was immanently possible and would inevitably spell disaster. Holding her hand they headed around to the back of the car and Abby, who'd just finished her second trip into the house and looked exceptionally wet, her hood pulled up around her face, her jeans a shade darker than they had been ten minutes before. Abby slammed the now empty trunk and Imogen shuffled towards her, sheltered slightly by the two women standing over her.
"Everything's inside." Abby shouted over the thundering sounds of the torrential rain as she took Imogen's hand and shouldered her bag. Amelia nodded back, straining to hear her, handing her Alice.
"Ok." Amelia yelled as Abby headed for her last trip from the car to the house running hand in hand with Imogen. Amelia headed around to Lauren and Maggie, cursing herself for having bought a jacket that had no sleeves as the rain soaked through the sweater and then her jumper and hit her skin, goose bumps springing up all over her body. "Maggie go inside before you get completely soaked." Amelia said her voice still loud as she looked at Maggie, her face frowning against the weather, as she pulled Maggie out of her conversation with Lauren.
"Well what about you?" Maggie asked her voice raised as well as she looked over at Amelia.
"I'm already there." Amelia told her with a smile and a shrug as Maggie looked at her and agreed, running back into the house. Amelia made one last trip to pick up her bag and cell and checking that everything else could be left till morning, finally she slammed all the doors and headed back for Lauren, pulling the door open again.
"You ready to run Lo?" Amelia asked as she pulled Lauren's hood up around her face and zipped the zipper right to the top, so the coat covered her chin.
"I want you to carry me." Lauren said with a little frown as she pulled at the part of her coat covering her mouth.
"No, you're going to have to walk because I have other stuff to carry, come on, you set?" She asked releasing Lauren who slid off her seat and looked out at the path ahead of her, the inviting orange glow of Maggie's open back door fifty feet away.
"It's really wet Mommy." She noted as she looked up at Amelia who nodded down at her.
"Yes it is." Amelia nodded at her as she picked her out of the car, standing her on her feet as she slammed the final door and locked the car with a cheerful chirp as the lights flashed.
"Can we jump in the puddles?" Lauren asked now clearly wide-awake, struck suddenly by the brilliance of the puddle jumping potential between the car and the back porch.
"Umm." Amelia started as she looked down the path, who was it going to hurt? She was already absolutely drenched and Lauren with any luck would be in her pajamas in about fifteen minutes anyway. "Ok, just one, you can do the call ok?" She said shouting down at Lauren to make herself heard.
"Ok." Lauren called back, craning her head up to look at Amelia, getting a face full of rain as she did, it only succeeded in making her smile wider as the water sloshed down inside her jacket.
"Ok." Amelia said as she and Lauren began to run towards the house.
"Jump." Lauren yelled at the top of her voice as they approached the largest puddle. They both launched themselves into the air and jumped with all their might into what was probably better described as a small lake on Maggie's path. Amelia stood there for a second her breath taken away by the ice cold water that had just splashed up the legs of her pants and was now happily sloshing around inside her shoes, she was brought back by the joyous squealing giggles from beside her as Lauren bent almost double howling with laughter. Amelia smiled and chuckled down at her, before picking her up, hoisting her onto her hip and heading to Maggie's porch, to be met by Abby looking flummoxed.
"What's going on?" She asked, they'd heard the yell and the splash, and Lauren's subsequent laughter, and she was now faced with two people who looked as though they'd been swimming with their clothes on.
"We went puddle jumping." Lauren shouted happily, not quite aware that now they were under a cover she didn't need to yell quite so loudly to make herself heard as Amelia allowed her to slide down off her hip, pretty much actually slide, they were both so wet. Abby looked between the pair a little dubiously, her face taking on a slightly condescending look.
"It was her idea." Amelia shrugged pointing at Lauren who looked up at her.
"My feet are really wet Mommy." Lauren informed her still grinning, as she reached up to steady herself on Amelia's hand as she pulled off her shoes.
"Yeah, mine too." Amelia agreed as she kicked off one of her shoes, picking it up, turning it upside down, allowing the water to drain out.
"Can I go?" Imogen asked looking hopefully up at Abby, obviously a little disappointed she'd missed out in the first place. Abby glanced at Amelia who tipped her head, indicating that she'd do the puddle run once more but the decision was Abby's as Abby looked down at Imogen, smiling faintly.
"If Mealie will take you." Abby nodded down at her, smiling involuntarily as Imogen cheered, and then turned to check that she would.
"Yeah, but why don't you swap shoes with Lo, because yours are new and nice and hers are old and already soaking wet." Amelia suggested, indicating Lauren's sodden sneakers lying on the back step of the porch. Imogen instantly set too pulling off her nice dry shoes, exchanging them eagerly for Lauren's.
"What am I gonna wear then?" Lauren frowned up at her.
"I said just one puddle right, so you did one and Imm will do one and it's so far past bed time that then you'll both go to bed." Amelia smiled down at her, pulling down the zip on her jacket, releasing her from it.
"But then you get to do two and it was my idea." Lauren frowned. Amelia sighed and tipped her head back, shaking her head, she bent back towards Lauren and re zipped her jacket she couldn't be bothered with a tantrum.
"I have to carry you though ok, because Imm's going to wear your shoes." Amelia offered up Lauren her one and only option. It was clearly a good one though as she grinned and put her hands up for Amelia to pick her up. "Ok, let's go Imm." Amelia said, sliding her foot back into her shoe and turning, hand in hand with Imogen, Lauren secured on her hip as they headed back down the steps.
"What are they doing?" Maggie asked as she appeared behind Abby who was watching the trio run towards the biggest puddle.
"Jump." Imogen's muffled voice sounded over the rain and Amelia let go of her hand to secure Lauren more firmly on her hip and they jumped.
"They're jumping in puddles." Abby informed her turning for a second to look towards her before looking back at them, Imogen and Amelia now just seemed to be kicking the water at each other with the occasional added jump.
"Why?" Maggie half laughed as she watched as well.
"I have no idea, but it seems like they're enjoying it." She smiled as she watched.
"They're going to get soaked." Maggie noted.
"I think it might be a little late to be worrying about that." Abby said with a raised eyebrow, and a twinkling laugh as she cast another glance Maggie's way.
"I'll run them a bath, they'll be freezing by the time they've finished." Maggie decided with a nod as she turned on her heel and headed down the passage way towards her bathroom, Abby turned and watched her head away for a second before turning back towards Imogen, Lauren, who was now standing in bare feet in the puddle, waving her socks around joyously above her head, and Amelia who was simply standing laughing at them dancing happily in the freezing puddles in the middle of the night. Abby couldn't help herself, she decided that since all was lost anyway, and, after all, her family was crazy right? Surely she could let some of it creep in too, she headed down the steps, wearing her jeans, her top and her cardigan, without her jacket, she headed towards them a smile on her face. Imogen jumped as hard as she could just as Abby arrived, sending a huge splash up into the air, covering Abby in her entirety; Imogen paused and put her hand over her mouth instantly, realizing what she'd done, only to burst into laughter as Abby picked her up and turned her upside down by the ankles, threatening to dip the top of her head in the water, Imogen's jump hadn't mattered either way, Abby had been drenched by the downpour seconds after making her way out of the porch anyway.
Abby and Amelia were standing, soaking in the puddles in excessively immature fits of laughter as Imogen and Lauren continued to kick and splash around.
"I'm not sure Maggie's neighbors are going to be all that thrilled about our visit." Amelia shouted through her laughter, trying to make herself heard as Imogen kicked water at her and she turned her back to shield herself.
"I'm not sure Maggie's going to be all that thrilled about our visit." Abby yelled sill laughing as she looked over at Amelia, only to receive a face full of water, perfectly aimed from her niece's foot, causing her to splutter and laugh slightly as she scraped her soaking hair out of her face.
"I think that means war." Amelia shouted over to Abby as she turned back towards Lauren who looked a little wary about the boldness of her action.
"It does." Abby yelled her agreement over the storm thundering down around them as she and Amelia launched an attack on Imogen and Lauren who both squealed as Abby and Amelia started kicking tides of water at them with some surprisingly effective retaliation from the two eminently capable five year olds.
Less than five minutes after the war had begun Lauren had announced that her feet were freezing and Imogen had expressed genuine concern about turning into an icicle, they'd been gathered up in the arms of the respective responsible adults, both of whom were now mildly dubious about their capabilities as responsible adults as it turned twelve forty five and they stood drenched in Maggie's porch. Maggie appeared in the doorway and surveyed the quartet; Imogen and Lauren were both visibly shivering now without all the jumping and kicking activity that had previously been keeping them warm as they both clung onto the bodies holding them. Abby and Amelia both looked almost sheepish as they looked at Maggie, and Abby, for one of the rare moments in her life allowed Maggie to take charge and be her mother.
"Right." Maggie started, really not entirely sure where to start in honesty, as she held two exceedingly inviting looking bath towels in her hands. "I ran them a bath." She offered.
"Sorry." Abby mumbled as she shot a comical look in Amelia's direction as her teeth began to chatter together.
"Mommy I'm freezing." Lauren said her teeth chattering eerily in time with Abby's. Imogen's teeth were now clattering against one another so fast that she wasn't even prepared to attempt to speak. Amelia was shaking but also trying not to laugh, she was seriously considering just giving up on trying to sort the situation out, but she wasn't entirely sure where Abby and Maggie stood with this so she took charge.
"Ok, right, guy's it's strip to underwear out here so we don't destroy Maggie's house, run as quick as you can to the bath, get warm, pj's on and bed." Amelia said decisively.
"But I'm freezing." Lauren said shivering excessively for effect as she did.
"The quicker you get all you're wet clothes off then the quicker you'll get warm." Amelia told her with a nod as she set her on her feet, and glanced to Maggie to ensure that her plan was ok. Maggie nodded at her half smiling as Imogen slipped off Abby's hip. It was weird Abby had noticed, but ever since she'd known Imogen she'd always listened to Amelia, always, even when Lauren was ignoring her completely Imogen always somehow quietly followed Amelia's instructions. Imogen began to pull at the zip of her jacket and Abby bent to help her as this stripping children in the porch plan began to take hold. Lauren was the first one in her underwear and Maggie wrapped her in the first towel and carried her away as Imogen turned to watch her enviously as her best friend was carried into the warmth, she turned back to Abby, holding her arms up in the air as Abby pealed her jumper and tee-shirt off her in one, wrapping her in the towel Maggie had left as they waited for her to return. Abby pulled her cardigan off as Imogen pulled the towel tighter around her and tried to nuzzle herself into Abby's legs and Maggie returned for Imogen, two extra towels in hand as Abby attempted to wring all the excess water from her jeans, Maggie handed the other two towels to Abby and Amelia, who both thanked her genuinely as she gathered Imogen up and headed away with her.
"I'm so cold." Amelia said as she pulled her thick gray hoodie over her head to reveal her sodden camel v-neck. "I'm such an idiot this is cashmere." She said with a chuckle and a shake of her head as she pulled the sopping sweater away from her stomach, allowing it to thud back with the kind of thumping noise only truly soaking material can as she dissolved into laughter. Now the little people she had to worry about were gone she couldn't help herself as she picked up Lauren's pants and whipped them against Abby's tee-shirt clad torso.
"Fucking oww." Abby said as she as she put her hand up in defense before seeking out Imogen's sweater and wringing it out over Amelia's head as she bent to try and squeeze as much water as she could from the bottom of her cords.
"Christ you're immature." Amelia defended herself, her voice a mocking, light-hearted laugh as she stood up, allowing the water to drip down into her eyes. She glanced around her for the next weapon, spotting a bucket, that had clearly been placed under a leak and had a more than satisfactory amount of water inside it, in one swift movement she turned and picked it up.
"No, ok, no, truce, truce." Abby said laughing slightly still as she saw Amelia's intention. "There's a dog, look there's a dog." Abby attempted, laughing slightly still, glancing around, spying Maggie's dog soundly sleeping in the corner of the porch.
"You swear." Amelia nodded at her.
"I promise." Abby replied seriously nodding at Amelia, a trace of a smile on her lips as Amelia returned the bucket to its rain collecting duties.
"You wear cashmere sweaters to play in the rain, how rich are you?" Abby said laughing, going back to Amelia's last comment looking over at her, her eyes narrowed suspiciously a comedic air on her face as she shivered, generally just beyond tired, everything was appearing funny at the moment.
"Shit, tell me we don't actually have to strip to our underwear out here as well, can we go inside at least, it's fucking freezing." Amelia said her voice still punctured with laughter as she looked towards Abby.
"You're the one who advocated this stripping in the porch thing." Abby retorted as she pulled her sodden tee shirt away from her stomach, trying to wring at least a little of the water out of it.
"Well yeah, I was talking about them though, not me, you have to understand that for the most part my parenting do-dah is all about double standards, do as I say not as I do all that bollox." She said still laughing as she pulled off her sweater, leaving behind her now see-through white vest top.
"The fact you describe your parenting as a do-dah say's something about the way you do it." Abby said with a smile and a light chuckle.
"Yeah tell me about it." Amelia nodded as she wrapped the towel around her waist and kicked her cords to the floor, shivering again as she bent to pick up an array of her and Lauren's clothes, moving to squeeze as much excess water as she could out of as many items as she could, hanging as far as she dared out of the porch door.
"Here." Abby said throwing her jeans towards Amelia who finished with the last of Lauren's garments, hanging them on the back of a plastic garden chair sitting conveniently by the door.
"They're getting into their pajama's." Maggie said as she appeared in the doorway.
"Wait." Abby started as she handed Amelia the last of the clothes that needed water extracted. "On their own?" She asked turning her eyes back to Maggie who was nodding looking a little puzzled. "Not a good idea." Abby shook her head as she headed into the house, holding her towel as a semi sarong garment around her waist, pushing her hair out of her eyes as she went.
Maggie cast a still puzzled glance towards Amelia who was looking a little amused as Abby headed away.
"They'll end up just choosing anything, and you can bet that it'll be something that the average person wouldn't use as pajama's, Imogen used Nick's graduation gown once, so they're not trusted to choose them on their own anymore." Amelia explained to Maggie as she finished up with Abby's cardigan, hanging it over the chair. "I'm sorry Maggie we're the worst house guests ever." Amelia smiled forlornly at her, looking over the small puddles adorning Maggie's previously dry porch floor.
"No, don't be ridiculous, listen you must be freezing, why don't you come inside; I'll make tea, do you want to put any of those in the washing machine? I have a dryer as well." Maggie said as she ventured out, picking up half the pile as Amelia gathered the rest and allowed herself to be ushered inside.
Ok there we go, I just read through this and I'm not going to change anything but it just struck me that I appear to have developed some kind of fixation with water fights, and I honestly have no idea why, but there we go, also I've noticed that I put in a lot of smoking, which I'm also not going to change, but I'm in the process of quitting (somewhat unsuccessfully) myself so that may have an effect, and also one last thing is the swearing…um, yeah… I'm not going to change that either… We all do it!
Maura – You're the biggest advocate of me getting this up quickly! Thanks for all the reviews and I'm glad you're enjoying it. I'm glad it made you laugh and frown, that was kind of the aim, laughter in the face of adversity is the way forward in my opinion!
CourtiePie – Evil stepmother indeed…She won't be though, we all know that!
Teertornado – I don't know if I told you already or not but time scale wise Abby and Nick have been together verging on a year, and Amelia's known Abby for around 15 months, the timescale is a little screwed up in my head so I'm just going to go with it, I'm really just going with whatever weather I want to be in the chapters, (probably not the best way but I'm going to employ artistic licence!) thanks for the reviews and questions don't make you a pain in the you-know-what, they just prove you're interested which is great. (that was a long response!)
Lu78 – Thank you so much for all your reviews, they're all always so nice and you give really good reasons for why you like it, which is fantastic, so thank you so much, I hope you continue to enjoy this.
Blah – I'm with you, normally I'm not too crazy about Abby angst either, there's too much of it out there, but it can't be happy all the time and she's been the supporter kind of most of the way through this so I wanted her to be supported for once and that was the result. I'm pleased you thought it was ok though, and I'll give you a clue, I think she will follow through this time….
Hibbs – You really don't have to apologise for not reviewing, I'm honoured that anyone does it at all! I'm glad you liked the Abby/Amelia stuff, I think it's a kind of cool dynamic. It makes me want a sister to have sisterly chats with too, brothers just aren't quite the same! (Although mine are really quite nice)
Tracey – As per usual I'm delighted you loved, I'm still keeping my eye out for a Nick, I'm beginning to think they don't exist! But I'll point him in the direction of Vegas when I find him. (it's very generous of me to be giving him to you I think considering I don't have one either!)
Lillian – More is coming soon and I'm so pleased you're enjoying it.
Carby6 – More is here!
Carbybubbles – Welcome back!
I just printed off a load of reviews from around ch 57, I hope I got everyone but they were all jumbled up and back to front and everything so I don't know if I got everyone and if I replied to the most recent ones and all of that, I hope I did because they are all greatly appreciated, to my shame, I'm always a little overexcited when I check and there are reviews waiting for me so thank you all so much! You are all keeping this going and keeping me off the streets (and out of the pub – which my bank balance is very grateful for) So cheers.