Headliner
Chapter 17
Shelbie, Mark, David, and Alicia Stokes piled into the bedroom, clearly out of breath. As they dropped to the floor, Shelbie turned to the rest of the kids. "We nearly got caught," she said, "Dad was coming out of the room and we hightailed it out of there. While I don't think he would've blown our cover to the rest of them, he wouldn't have been happy."
"At least you got back here. What's going on down there anyway?" asked Kayla.
"It seems as though they're going out of their usual pattern. They've finally moved on to the big issue. That is, of course, they're discussing Sara's decision to not tell Nick about Lexi. I think this one's going to go on for awhile."
"Did you get any particulars?" asked Tara, who had just come into the room.
Shelbie looked like she'd seen a ghost. "If you're in here, who's watching the kids?"
"Relax, sister, Luke's got it under control. He knows the penalty if any of them get downstairs. Now get back to the story."
"Grandma was upset that she missed out on sixteen years with Uncle Nick's only daughter. She thinks that Sara should've sucked it up and told Nick," Alicia said.
"Dad defended Sara until he was out of breath. I don't think he'll ever be against her. Aunt Leslie was really angry with him. She kept muttering about family values and respect," said Shelbie.
"My mother is completely unreasonable," said a voice.
Eleven heads whipped around. Dillon, the oldest Hutchins child and the only boy, was standing in the doorway. Everyone stood up and backed away. Shelbie glared at her cousin.
"We didn't hear you standing up for Sara," she said.
"When you change shifts every five minutes, you're bound to miss stuff, so shut it, Shelbie."
"Hey, don't talk to my sister like that," Tara said as she and Dillon began a bickering match.
"Hey, hey. Hey!" yelled Kayla and the two fell silent. "You guys don't need to be in here if you're going to fight. Dillon, they're going to wonder where you've gone if you don't get back."
"You're not going to tell on us are you?" David asked.
Dillon looked like he was about to say that was exactly what he was going to do, but his gaze met Lexi's. "No, I'm not going to tell them, just be more discreet," he said softly. Everyone nodded.
The groups of kids continued to circulate and bring back information. Tara had reluctantly gone back to watch the little kids. At last it was Lexi's turn to go with the Hutchins girls again. They stepped down the stairs and resumed their positions of pressing their ears against the door.
"Alright," Henry, Justine's husband, was saying, "we all pretty much agree that Nick is as much at fault in the whole thing as Sara."
"That's true. I always taught my boy to know the people he slept with and be responsible about his actions. If he got carried away, it's his fault. She's not a devil," Jillian stated.
"Fine, but this brings us back to our second problem. If Sara took responsibility for her actions and told Nick, then he would've had the opportunity to take responsibility for his," said Bill.
"Now, wait a minute Bill. I don't think I can be upset anymore with Sara for not choosing to tell a man she'd known one day that she was having his child. Obviously she did take responsibility for her actions because Lexi's here today and she's just fine. I don't know if I would've called a man I hardly knew and asked him to be in my life."
"Yeah, Dad. We have to think about Sara here. This isn't just Nick's life that would've been disrupted. Sara managed to raise a kid and be successful. Who knows where she would've been if she had called him," Camille pointed out.
"Are you saying that Nick would've been bad for her?" He was beginning to turn red.
"No, Dad, I'm not, but think about it. If they had gotten married at twenty and tried to raise a kid together, do you think either of them would've gotten to where they are now?"
"We're getting nowhere with this," Jamie noted, "We've practically all had the same viewpoint for the last two hours. Arguing forever isn't going to help us. All we know about Sara is what we've heard from Nick or Lexi. Sara's been here a total of two days now. Let's give her a chance, okay? I mean you too, Dad."
Out in the hall, Lexi was smiling. She was glad that her Uncle Darren wasn't the only one who liked her mother. She was about to whisper something to Katie when she felt a large hand on her shoulder. She stiffened up. "They done yet?"
All four girls whirled around to face none other than Nicholas Stokes. "I, we, uh, we," stuttered Lexi.
"I know what you were doing, and it's okay. It's nice to have ears when I'm not here. Come outside with me, would you?"
The cousins went out the door and sat on the porch. "How was dinner?" Lexi asked.
"Let's get to that later," said Nick, "Right now I need to know the status on the meeting. Do I bring Sara in, or do we head for the hills?"
"Well, from the looks of it, the group leaning more toward liking her. Grandpa, Mom, Dad, Uncle Don, and Uncle Eric are all against her, but Dillon and everyone else, yes, even Grandma," Katie added at Nick's surprised face, "they're all for Sara."
"I'd say she has a definite chance to win them all over by the time you guys leave," added Ace, "The first thing they argued about was her vegetarianism."
"My father and his love of meats. Well, you guys get upstairs where you're supposed to be, before they figure out you've gone missing. I'm going to bring Sara in and be especially loud about it. Let's see how civilized everyone can be." Nick gave Lexi a quick hug and ushered them into the house. He hopped down the steps and out to the car.
A/N: As usual, please pour your hearts out to me.
