A/N: OMG my favorite BETA (Betsy) has finally returned from the dead to help me! I'm so excited to be bringing you guys another chapter of TOTY. School has been a slow and painful process along the way so I had to totally stop writing but I didn't forget! When I got an idea to write this chapter I knew I had to write this chapter with Betsy's help since Sara wasn't available.
A/N: I love reviews...heck I love reviews more than I love George Stults (well ok that's a lie) seriously I love reviews because I get that happy feeling in my stomach when I see you really love me!!
A/N: Read the disclaimer on the front chapter and u will understand why I'm not rich and why The WB is!
A/N: Special thanks to my un-dead friend Betsy!
Mary slammed down the receiver. Dashing into the room Lucy was in; Mary came to a complete halt. On one side of the room, Lucy was turning a color of purple that Mary had only previously seen on Matt's face.
And on the other side of the room was --
"Kevin Kinkirk!" Lucy screamed, pointing accusingly at Kevin. "You... you..." Suddenly, Lucy turned to Mary. "YOU!"
Mary took a step forward. "Luce, calm down..."
"Calm down? CALM DOWN? First, you drag me to Buffalo. Then, I find out you didn't even buy me a ticket. After that, my luggage disappears. Next, someone decides that my eyeliner could be used to blow up an airplane. And to top it all off, the one person that I LEAST want to see is marches in here!" Lucy took a deep breath. "Right now, there is nothing in the world that could make me angrier."
"Mary! There you are!" Three heads whipped around as Ben Kinkirk walked through the door. Mary frantically began gesturing at Ben. Ben, however, did not seem to get the hint.
"I was waiting forever for you guys! Look, you have to make sure Lucy doesn't find out that Kev -- oh, hey Kevin, hey Lucy -- that Kevin's here." Ben smiled, and than did a double take.
"Wait. What?"
Lucy glared at her sister. "Mary, you are so dead."
Mary shrugged helplessly, and then turned to Ben. "Ben, you are so dead."
Kevin, too, was frowning in Ben's direction. "Ben, you are so dead."
Ben threw up his hands. "Why do I get blamed twice?"
Before either Lucy or Mary could respond, Kevin stepped forward. "Alright. I am the officer in charge, and I am taking over this situation."
"Yeah, Officer Bonehead," muttered Lucy.
Kevin shot her a warning look and continued. "Ben, go find Officer Myers. He's the tall blonde guy, he should be standing outside. Tell him that Officer Kinkirk needs the recently confiscated possible hostile object." Ben nodded, and went out of the room.
"Lucy, I'll need you to explain to me exactly what happened out there."
Lucy rolled her eyes and turned to Mary. "Mary, tell Officer Kinkirk that I was simply protesting the brutality of his coworkers in the handling of my luggage."
Before Mary could begin to reply, Kevin spoke up. "Mary, tell your sister that if she had simply complied with the police, there would have been no incident."
"Mary, tell him that if the police had treated me with respect, then I wouldn't have complained."
"Mary, tell your sister that here at Buffalo International Airport, we take threats to our security VERY seriously."
"Mary, tell him that he's a jerk face."
"What? What does that have to do with anything?"
"I'm sorry, was someone talking? All I hear is dull noise."
"Oh, that's real mature, Lucy. Almost as mature as your little hissyfit to my officers."
"Hissyfit? I can show you a hissyfit, if you'd like. I could start screaming anytime..."
"ENOUGH!" Mary yelled so loudly that both Kevin and Lucy jumped.
"Kevin. You obviously realize that Lucy is not a terrorist and that her bag doesn't contain a bomb. Therefore, you will write up a report that this whole incident is a misunderstanding. Lucy, you will apologize to the officers, vow never to be that stupid again, collect your black bag and leave. Any questions?" Mary grabbed Lucy's arm before either of them had a chance to reply, and steered her sister out the door. Lucy managed to stick her tongue out at Kevin over her shoulder.
Ben was walking down the hallway, black bag in hand, when Mary stormed out of the room, Lucy in tow behind her.
Ben briefly considered running and hiding, but unfortunately Mary was walking too quickly for that to be an option.
She grabbed the bag from Ben, slammed it into Lucy's chest, grabbed Ben's arm, and kept walking, all without missing a beat. "You. Are. Dead." Mary muttered through gritted teeth, steering the trio towards the escalators.
"Mary, how are we even getting to the hotel?" Lucy asked, practically jogging to keep up with her sister.
Ben gave a weak cough. "Actually, I'm giving you guys a ride." He replied guilty looking over at Lucy.
Lucy stopped and placed her hands on her hips and glared at Ben. "You have got to be kidding?"
"No I'm not kidding let's go...and fast" Mary replied walking back and grabbing Lucy by her arm and started to follow Ben out to the car port so they could get out of the airport.
Ben was hoping for a car crash. A lightning strike. Hitting a deer. Anything, ANYTHING to get him out of the car. They were only five minutes into the half hour drive and there had not yet been one word spoken inside the car.
Mary was sitting in the passenger seat, staring intently at the dashboard, pausing only occasionally to shoot dirty looks in his direction. Lucy was huffily reading a magazine in the back seat.
Ben didn't know how someone could read a magazine in a huffy manner, but Lucy was managing. Suddenly, Lucy slammed down her magazine.
"Would anyone care to tell me what exactly is going on?" Lucy leaned forward, crossing her arms across her chest.
Ben tightened his grip on the steering wheel as he felt a bead of sweat start to drip down his forehead.
"Isn't coincidence just so weird? I mean, Kevin just happened to be working, and you guys just happened to be flying on a plane, and I just happened to be at the airport. How... lucky..." Ben trailed off, forcing a laugh. Glancing briefly at Lucy in the rearview mirror, he could tell she wasn't buying it. Ben gulped.
Mary cleared her throat. "Lucy, Ben and I haven't been entirely honest with you. There's something you need to know."
Lucy narrowed her eyes. "What?"
Mary took a deep breath. "Well..."
Ben wasn't quite sure, but he could swear he saw Mary mouth "I'm sorry" out of the corner of his eye.
"Ben and I are dating." Mary shrugged. Lucy gasped. Ben's heart stopped beating. And the car swerved into another lane.
"BEN! ROAD!" Mary and Lucy screamed in unison. Somehow, Ben regained control of his motor skills and swung the car into the correct lane.
"S-Sorry," Ben coughed, attempting to focus on the highway. "I was shocked by the... happiness... shock..." Ben trailed off. Mary noticed that he was turning an odd shade of white, and quickly jumped in.
"You see, Lucy, when Ben and I met up again a few months ago, we found that... uh... we couldn't deny the flames of passion between us."
"Flames of passion??" Ben nearly laughed, but caught the look Mary was shooting him just in time. "Um, I mean, flames of passion. Yeah. Mary was... hot. And, uh, smart. And, you know..." Ben gestured vaguely.
"There it was!" Lucy was looking disbelievingly from one to the other. "You two are dating? Like, each other?"
"Yes we are!" Mary replied, a little too quickly. She reached over and grabbed Ben's leg, nearly causing him to swerve again. "We're just so happy, aren't we honey?"
Ben tried to concentrate on exiting the highway. "That's right. So happy."
"Lucy, I brought you out here so I could tell you. I wanted you to know before the rest of the family."
Lucy let out a squeal and threw her arms around her sister. "I'm sorry I doubted you, Mary! I'm so happy for you. Look, let's get two rooms at the hotel, ok? That way you and Ben can have some alone time!" The car slammed to a halt, throwing all three of them against their seatbelts.
"Sorry," Ben said, sounding strangely high pitched. "Um, red light. So two rooms. How... nice." He stammered, looking into the rearview mirror trying to catch Mary's eye but instead he noticed her red face.
Kevin shuffled his feet towards his locker. He had been up for almost 24 straight hours and the last few hours were defiantly no picnic in the park.
Lucy Camden was the one person whom he had wanted to see for the longest time, but today there she was standing right in front of him and all he knew was that he hated her with a passion.
He hated the fact that she still looked like the same old Lucy had had grown up with and had fallen in love with but she looked a little older.
He also hated that all he wanted to do the entire time that they were yelling at each other even though he was still trying to maintain his dignity, he wanted to do nothing more but to gather her up into his arms and tell her how much he had missed her this past year and wanted to know if she was willing to give them a second chance.
"Hey Kinkirk" someone interrupted his thoughts.
"What?" he snapped back without looking to see who was speaking to him.
"Geeze what's wrong with you? Officer Myers asked him as he twirled the numbers on his combination and opened his locker up.
"Nothing" Kevin muttered as he unlocked his own locker.
"Do you think you could cover my shift for me tonight?"
Kevin thought for a moment and shook his head no "I can't...I promised Ben that I'd meet him for dinner tonight"
Myers looked confused for a second "You and your brother are going to dinner? I thought you and him were meeting those two girls that were here in the security officer for dinner" he replied frowning.
"What do you mean?"
Myers frowned and looked over at Kevin "I thought I heard your brother tell the taller of those two girls that he would meet up her latter and to make sure that they were there first or something like that" he replied
Kevin looked confused for a second "No, it's just Ben and I tonight"
"Oh" Myers replied shrugging his shoulders "I guess I must have misunderstood or something" he replied walking away. "Have a nice night" and with that he walked over towards the time clock and punched out for his dinner hour and disappeared behind the double doors.
Kevin sat down on the bench that was behind him, taking his shirt off he started to think to himself.
"Why did Myers think that Ben and I were going to dinner with Lucy and Mary?"
Kevin thought for a second before everything started to come to him at once.
"Oh Course" he cried out snapping his fingers.
This was the reason why Ben was acting so strange, hoe he always got a funny look on his face whenever Lucy's name was mentioned, how he had looked like he wanted to escape this afternoon when he burst into the security officer, how HE WANTED TO TELL HIM SOMETHING OVER DINNER TONIGHT!
It was defiantly becoming clearer to him at each passing minute.
Ben didn't want to tell him anything tonight...Ben wanted Lucy and himself in the same room.
But why?
But there was defiantly no way that Ben could of come up with something this brilliant without some definite help.
But who had helped him? It couldn't have been Matt because the last time they talked Matt threaten him yet once again with his life if he ever dated Lucy.
It couldn't have been Reverend Camden, Mrs. Camden or even his own mother because even though they loved him a great deal they all decided that they should get involved because of the age difference between him and Lucy.
He crossed Simon, Ruthie and the twins off of his list because they were just to young to have put together something so brilliant. He also knew it wasn't Patty-Mary either because from what his mom told him they hadn't spoken to each other for years now.
That meant that only one other person who could of helped Ben.
Mary
And oh boy was she going to get it tonight when he met them for dinner later that evening.
Mary paced her hotel room nevously, fiddling with the chain of her necklace. It was 6:30, and Lucy was STILL doing her hair. Mary glanced over at the wall dividing her and her sisters' adjoining hotel rooms.
She was pretty sure that Lucy had bought the story that the two girls and Ben were going to meet up at the Main Street Grille to celebrate Ben and Mary's new status as a "couple." Briefly, Mary considered arming herself in case Lucy got violent when she saw Kevin at the restaurant.
Her train of thoughts was interrupted by a knock on the door. Mary crossed the room and opened the door.
"Ben? What the heck are you doing here?" Mary grabbed Ben's jacket and yanked him in the hotel room.
"Are you insane? What if my sister saw you?"
Ben shrugged helplessly. "I didn't know what else to do! I think Kevin knows something's up. He's called my phone five times in the past half hour."
Mary groaned. "I knew I couldn't trust you to keep up your end of the plan." Ben glared at her.
Mary sighed. "Fine. I guess it's not really you're fault. So if Kevin knows, what do we do?"
Ben rubbed his hands against his face. "I don't know. But I don't think we can go through with this. Not tonight, if Kevin suspects something. Maybe we can try to get them to talk tomorrow or something..."
Mary nodded. "Ok. This sucks that it ended up like this, but I'll tell Lucy."
"Tell me what?" asked Lucy, entering the Mary's room via her own.
Both Ben and Mary jumped about a foot in the air. "Luce... you weren't listening, were you?" Mary managed to choke out.
Lucy laughed. "Of course not! I heard Ben's voice, so I turned on my TV and gave you guys some privacy. Ben, I think it's so cute you can't even stay away from Mary until 7! Are you driving us to the restaurant?"
Ben glanced at Mary, who nodded almost imperceptibly. "I -- I... yeah, I guess I am. Won't that be great, Mary?" Mary gave a weak smile.
"It'll be so terrific I can't wait!" Lucy grinned. "Okay. Let me just get my jacket, I'll meet you guys in the hall!"
As soon as the door closed behind Lucy, Mary collapsed onto the edge of the bed, a stunned expression on her face. "We. Are. Screwed. Ben, there is no way we're getting out of this alive."
Ben sat down next to her on the edge of the bed. "Tell you what. If we make it through this night without being killed by our siblings, then I'll buy you dinner tomorrow night."
Mary looked up in surprise. Ben was smiling at her. Mary smiled back.
"Come on lovebirds! I'm getting hungry!"
Both Ben and Mary blanched as they stood up. "Tell you what," said Mary, as they reached the door. "Forget dinner tomorrow. If we survive, you're buying me a drink at the bar tonight."
"Deal," mutered Ben, as the two exited into the hallway.
Traffic was surprisingly heavy on the Buffalo roads, and Ben was grateful that they'd left extra time to get to the restaurant. Or he would have been grateful, if it wasn't for the fact that the restaurant was the last place he wanted to be.
"So. I've been dying to ask you guys this all day," Lucy spoke up from the back seat.
Ben and Mary exchanged brief panicked glances but said nothing.
"How did you guys end up dating?"
Ben coughed. "Oh, you don't want to hear that story."
"Sure I do!" Lucy replied, with far too much entusiasm for his liking.
"Uh, ok. Mary, why don't you take this one?"
Mary dug her fingernails into the edge of her seat. "But sweetie, you tell the story so much better than I do!"
Ben did his best to smile. "But honeybunch, I have to concentrate on the road!"
Mary glared. Ben was so going to pay for this later.
"Ok. Well, Luce, it began..." Mary cleared her throat. "Um, it began when Ben and I ran intto each other awhile back."
"How long ago?" Lucy interuppted.
Mary glared at her sister. "Lucy, do you want to hear the story or not?"
Lucy sat back in her seat. "Fine. Continue."
"Ok. So we ran into each other. And, um, Ben... asked me if I wanted to go have lunch."
"Because I like food, and I liked Mary," Ben added, trying to be helpful. From the look Mary shot him, he could tell he hadn't been very helpful.
"So we went to lunch. And, uh, we were eating lunch -- it was pizza. I remember that Ben put down his slice in the middle of eating it, and I was shocked because I had never seen Ben stop eating anything before."
Lucy laughed, and Ben, in a burst of inspiration cut in. "Well, I never put down my food unless i have something important to say. And I did. I told Mary that I'm not too good at pretending stuff, so I was just going to say it. I had only spent a few minutes with her, but I liked her. So why should we do the whole stupid thing where we try to guess who likes who? I've known Mary for as long as I can remember, and dating her would be like dating a best friend. And after I told her all this, I asked her out. And she said yes." Fearfully, Ben glanced over at Mary, expecting another death glance.
He was surprised, however, to see her smiling. In fact, he could have sworn she was even blushing a little.
"Ben Kinkirk," Lucy said, "you have to be the sweetest guy in the world. Do me a favor. Next time you see your brother, give him some lessons in how to treat a girl. And then kick him, really hard. I would do it myself, but I never want to see him again. Oh, look, there's the restaurant!"
Mary glanced over at Ben, a panicked look on her face. "Um... yay?"
Ben parked the car, and the three began walking towards the restaurant. Mary's head was spinning. There was no way that the three of them could walk in together; Ben somehow had to prepare Kevin first.
Mary stopped in her tracks. "Ben, give me the keys. I left my phone in your car, I want to grab it. Lucy, will you come with me?"
"Sure," replied Lucy, turning around.
Mary walked over to Ben and took the keys. Realizing Lucy was watching, she quickly pulled Ben into a hug. "I'll stall for as long as I can. Figure out something to say to Kevin." Mary pulled away, and she and Lucy headed back to the car.
Ben groaned. "God, if you're listening, remember, I go to church all the time. You so owe me," he muttered, and walked up the stairs towards the door of the restaurant.
Lucy stood outside the car while Mary unlocked the door and grabbed her phone, which had been sitting on the passenger seat. As she shut the door, and relocked it, she turned to Lucy. "Luce, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure," replied Lucy, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
"What you said about Kevin... did you mean that? Do you really never want to see him again?"
Lucy sighed and stared at the ground. "I don't know. I mean, yeah, part of me doesn't. I mean, I shouldn't have to put up with all the drama right?"
Lucy looked up at her sister. "But then there's this other part of me. And that part is still in love with him, and always has been. It's telling me I should just forget all the stupididty of the past and get over myself and just admit that he's the one for me. I mean, sometimes I even forget why we're not together."
Mary remained silent for a moment. "So, if you saw Kevin..."
Lucy grinned. "Oh, don't get me wrong. I'd kick him. But I'd feel a little bad about it."
Mary laughed "Alright, we better get going we don't want to make Ben late for dinner"
Lucy laughed as she followed Mary back towards the restaurant.
Ben walked into the restaurant and was ready to head towards where the hostess was when he spotted Kevin out of the corner of his eye sitting at the bar.
He gave a little waved and then prayed to god that Lucy and Mary wouldn't walk in behind him. He walked up to where the hostess was standing.
"Good Evening sir how many?" she asked him with her pen ready.
"Actually we did a call a head and the name is Kinkirk" Ben replied.
"Kinkirk...Kinkirk...party of 4?" she asked?
"Yes—" Ben started to say before someone cut him off.
"Actually can we make it a party of 5 please?" he heard Kevin tell the hostess.
"What the hell--?" Ben started to say as he turned around and saw some tall, twig like brunette haired women standing behind Kevin with her back facing him.
"I decided to bring a date along with us...you know in case I get bored with you?" Kevin told him giving him a quick wink.
"But...What...You...I..." Ben tried to speak but couldn't. He was screwed and Mary was defiantly going to kill him.
"Can I talk to you for a second?" Ben asked him grabbing a hold of his jacket and practically dragging him over to the corner.
"What the hell were you—"Ben started to say when he heard the bells twinkling that someone was opening the doors.
Ben prayed that it wasn't Mary and Lucy but when they stepped through the doors Ben groaned.
They were screwed.