Chapter Nine

After sitting around to watch the edited version of the show from the day before, everyone decided that it couldn't have been a better time to start celebrating Bam's birthday. They did the usual birthday thing of presents and cake and then they all sat around (though some were trying out a couple of Bam's birthday presents) and carried on a conversation. Some parts of their conversation were very reminiscent of the old "Radio Bam" days. At one point the adults sat back and listened to their kids talking, and realized that not much was different between the two groups. Bam leaned back in his chair, watching and listening to the kids' with a soft smirk. He turned to Dico with the same expression.

"Hey Dic, I just thought of something."
"Huh?"
"This might sound like the most random thought, but I just remembered of the time when Gina was still pregnant with Dyllan, Katie and you had recently found out that she was pregnant with Jason, and one of Novak's baby mamas, Lucy I mean, was pregnant with Mark."
"Yeah what about it?"
"Well remember when I was like, if we all have boys, let's do each other a favor and not give them the same fucking name."
Dico smiled with a slight laugh "Yeah I do, and then I was like, we've all ready had to suffer growing up with the same name. And it's not even that great of a name. I mean what kind of name is Brandon? It sounds like some kind of…"
"Old person's cereal! Yeah I remember you saying that! And it's so true too!"
Dico laughed "Yeah. And I'm pretty sure our kids are glad they don't have the same name too."

Bam turned and saw Raab and Dunn by him.

"Hey how long have you been standing there?"
"I've been here since 'old people cereal'." Dunn replied
"And I've been here since 'Novak's baby mamas." Raab answered with a slight smirk
Bam laughed a little and looked at Dico "Did you notice them there?"
Dico smiled "Yeah I did but I didn't say anything." He laughed
"Why not?"
"I wanted to see how long it would take you to notice them."
"Oh…" bam shook his head and turned back to Dunn and Raab "So what's been going on with your hot-ass wives? I haven't seen much of either of them."
"Well… Lilly just has been very busy with work. She was going to try to stop by for a while to see you, but… yeah she couldn't get off work." Raab explained
Dunn nodded as if to confirm what Raab said "Oh I can't believe we haven't said anything about it yet, but Cember and I just found out that she's pregnant."
"Oh really?" Bam asked with a smile
"Yeah it's been a while since her last pregnancy, and we're really hoping that she holds onto this on this time."
"I hope it works out for you two. Did you ever find out what caused the miscarriage the last time?"
Dunn shook his head "No. We're not really worried about it since the doctor said it was most likely just a fluke thing."
"Wow… congratulations!"
"Thanks." Dunn smirked "So how has your birthday been for you?"
"It's been pretty cool so far. I can't complain. It would have been nice if Novak could have made it, but oh well. I mean I still have other great friends here, and our kids are just brilliant. We never would have come up with a show like theirs. I really think that they topped us with it."
"Yeah they all really work well together. And Christene sure as hell isn't worried about that broken arm of hers holding her back." Raab said with a proud grin "I'm really surprised at how good she is behind that camera."
"Raab you're talking about her like she ran the whole show." Dunn said with a laugh
"I am not! Jeeze can't a guy be proud of his kid?"
"Ok before this conversation gets more boring, or the two of you start bickering like married people," Dico said, pointing to Raab and Dunn "I say we move on to something much more entertaining than chit-chatting."
"I'm all ready bored with talking." Bam remarked

Shortly after Bam's comment, the party picked up again once someone did something that set them all in an uproar of side-splitting hysterics. Everything else that happened that night seemed like the good old days of when Bam and his friend were in their 20s. The days before they all got married and had kids. But soon, like all good things, their fun had come to an end and those who came over to celebrate Bam's 44th birthday started to leave for home.

The teens caught Jason and Stacey near the backdoor saying goodbye to each other. As Jason moved in closer to her for a kiss, they were interrupted by catcalls from the onlookers.

"Ooooohhh! Kiss her DiCamillo!"
"Don't make me kick you in the nuts again, Novak." Jason replied to Mark, causing Mark to quickly close his mouth "That's what I thought." Jason said with a nod before turning back to Stacey. He lowered his voice so only Stacey could hear him "So you call me tomorrow and maybe we'll set up a date."
Stacey grinned "Ok that sounds nice."
"You have my number, right?"
"Yeah I do. It's programmed in my phone."
"Good." He glanced back at the others who were still watching from a distant corner, and then looked at Stacey. He leaned in again, giving her a kiss, which resulted in an 'Awwww….' From the others "Shut the fuck up! It's not like that was the first time I kissed her!"
"We know. I still have the tape of that one night. And as I recall, you did more than kiss her, Jase." Christene said

Jason and Stacey rolled their eyes.

"Call me." Jason said softly to her
"I will." She kissed him on the cheek "Bye. It was nice seeing you again." Stacey turned and walked out the door, with Jason watching her with every step she made
Ava walked up to Jason, holding the hand of Wolfgnag, and placed her free hand on Jason's shoulder.
"So you and my sister are going to give it another shot?"
"Um… yeah I guess…" he tried not to blush
"Make sure you learn how to get her bra off this time." She said with a wink before she and Wolfgang walked out the door
"Yeah very funny." Jason rolled his eyes
"What's this about him not being able to get her bra off?" Whispered Wolfgang
"Oh that's right, you haven't seen the tape yet." Ave whispered back "We're going to have to ask Christene to let us borrow it."

Once by one they all left, and then the four Margeras were left to quietly unwind from the past couple days. Dyllan grinned and walked up to his parents.

"What's that look for?" Bam asked his grinning son
"Oh nothing…"
Gina raised an eyebrow "Nothing? Dyllan you never come up to us grinning like that when it's just 'nothing'. Now whatever you have planned to do, break, explode, or whatever thing that would cause harm to or make someone mad… just tell us what is it and maybe we'll tell you not to do it."
Bam looked at her "Why would we tell him not to do it, Ape?"
Gina rolled her eyes "Whatever. Just… what are you grinning about?"
"I just wanted to tell you that this show that we were doing wasn't something we came up with on the spur of the moment just for fun."
"It does seem like you guys put a lot of thought into it." Bam said
"We did. We've actually been secretly pitching ideas to MTV and we told them we were going to film a pilot episode. Now tomorrow I'm going to make a phone call and tell them that we have our pilot ready for them to review."
"Oh really." Gina said, impressed
"Yeah we wanted to keep this a surprise for all of you."
"Oh wow… well I hope you guys get your show." Bam said with a smile "So if you were trying to keep this a surprise, then why did you tell us before you got your show?'
"Um…" Dyllan shrugged "Happy birthday…?"
Bam smirked "Well thanks, son."
"Welcome." He nodded "Well I think I'm going to head up to bed now. G'night." He turned and headed towards the stairs
"Night Dyl!" Gina said before the phone rang "I'll get it."

Gina went to get the phone and then brought it over to Bam.

"It's for you."
Bam took the phone from her "Hello?" he said, still smiling "Yes this is he…" He turned away from Gina. As he listened his broad smiled faded into a serious expression. For a moment he couldn't speak and then he let out a sigh "Yeah… I can come down and identify the body…" He said before hanging up
"What's the matter?"
"I'll be back.' He said before handing her the phone and walking away
Bam grabbed his keys and walked out the door, without saying another word.