All the familiar characters belong to J.E. However the story line and original characters are mine. I don't own them and I'm not making any money from them, I'm just playing with them for a while.

Authors Note:

Thank you all for your reviews, comments, favorites and follows and your continued support. You really have no idea how much I really do appreciate it. It does means the world to me.

Thank you also for hanging in there with me, and thanks to all of those that have PM'd me asking me if I was continuing, I absolutely am. I took some time out to be an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) reviewer for some authors, because as much as I love to write, I love to read as well. But I've decided to cut back on that and focus on writing again. Even been tossing around writing a book of my own :)

I had hope to get this out before the New Year but I didn't quite make it. I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season. I know I did.

I figured it was time to hear from the Plums again, hope you enjoy it :)

Catching Up with the Plums

Frank:

Frank was sitting in his chair in the living room quietly watching Valerie's two girls playing with their dolls. Angie being 4 and the oldest was explaining to Mary Alice who was 2 how to properly play with her dolls. How she should care for them and act like they are babies and not all crazy by making them jump off of things or liked prance around like they are horses.

He found it fascinating how much each child resembled his own kids when they were that age. Angie was exactly like Valerie making sure that she did everything like she was supposed and being all prim and proper. As well as making sure everything was in its correct place and nice and neat. With Mary Alice acting exactly like Stephanie did at her age, being carefree and not worried about anything. Having that I can do anything attitude and not worried about what anyone else thinks. Both his granddaughters being completely different from each other just like his daughters were.

With that thought he suddenly froze and then just stared at them. The memories flashed in his head and he realized that Angie was now the exact the same age that Stephanie was when she was kidnapped.

It got him thinking more about Stephanie and then he lowered his head as he remembered that today actually marks the 16th anniversary of the day that they said Stephanie died in that horrific accident with the plane.

His next thought was that he knew that he would be the only one in the house that would even remember or think about it, let alone say anything about it. His wife and daughter stopped talking or thinking about Stephanie after they had passed the 5th anniversary of her death and agreed to go to counseling, which only lasted for a few months before they thought that it was better to pretend that she never existed and that she was ever a part of their family.

It hurt him to think about how they reacted like that, but he knew when they ended up taking down all of her pictures that had been hanging on the walls and boxed up everything that was hers and either give it all away or store it someplace where it could hidden and never looked at again. They truly pushed her out of their heads and their hearts.

They didn't even tell him where they had put the stuff because they were afraid he'd drag it all back out, which he probably would have done.

Mary Alice screaming at Angie brought him from his thoughts and bringing him back from those memories. Staring at the girls he felt this great sadness come over him, because he knew that they would never know that they had an Aunt Stephanie, let alone know anything about her.

He was pretty sure that if Mary Alice had ever been given the chance she would love to hear about some of the things that Stephanie used to try to do and how she would try to get away with whatever she could. He's thinks it would help her understand where she gets it from and then be happy to know that she wasn't alone.

He sighed and because he had figured out a long time ago that he would never really get completely over her death but having these two did help to ease some of the pain.

He thought about how Helen and Valerie stopped going to counseling because they just wanted to forget, but he didn't feel that way and he knew he needed it. He was able to determine through years of therapy that he could move forward with his life without the guilt of thinking this was his fault and missing her so much. He also learned that it's OK to still keep a piece of her in his mind and heart.

But even after all the years he still has his bad days especially ones like today when he starts thinking about her. The hardest thing is when he thinks about all of the things that he would never get the chance to do with her or for her. All the milestones that she should have been able to go through in her life but now never will. Everything that every little girl deserved to like going to her first day of school, or going to her high school homecoming or prom, to be able to walk across the stage on her graduation day and eventually him being able to walk her down the aisle when she get married or watch her family grow and being able to hold any of her children.

He sat in his chair with all these thoughts about Stephanie running through his mind while silently watching what the girls were doing, suddenly he began to feel boxed in and his heart starting racing and his head was hurting. It was all too much for him and he knew that he couldn't stay there.

He didn't think about what his next step was he had to get out of that house and get away. He stood up and yelled that he was leaving and then walked out the door without a backward glance. He heard Helen yell something at him and he thought she was trying to call him back but he didn't stop, he just kept on going.

He got in his car and starting it up and drove away. It did occur that he was driving to the same bar that he went to all those years ago until he got there.

He walked in and told the bartender to give him a shot of the strongest shit that he carried. He knew that alcohol didn't solve anything but right now he just couldn't help it. He needed something to make him feel so numb that he wouldn't feel anything. So the second that the bartender set the shot in front of him he downed it and then told the bartender to keep them coming and don't stop until he said.

That's when the bartender realized who he was and that he was serious, he knew that he couldn't in good conscience do what he was asking, so instead he gave him another one and then moved to the other side of the bar to make a phone call.

Frank realized what he was doing and figured that he was going to call Helen or a cab to come get him but after about 10 minutes he was really surprised when it was Joe who walked him and sat down beside him.

Joe looked at the bartender and said "Thanks for calling me" and then ordered two shots of their best whiskey.

The bartender looked at Joe and said "No problem Mr. Mayor. I'd do anything for you and your family." Then set the two whiskies in front of them and walked away to help some other customers.

Joe looked at him picked up his shot glass and simply said "To Stephanie." Frank picked up his glass and pointed to Frank's until he picked it up and then they tapped their glasses together and drank down the shots.

Without looking up at his best friend Frank said "How did you know why I was here?"

Joe had a small smile on his face and said "I know what today is, after all she was my God-Daughter."

Frank sighed and said "I guess if there was one person out there that would understand it would be you. It just got to be too much watching Valerie's girls play, which started me thinking about Stephanie and then when I realized what today was, I just had to get out of the house because I couldn't take it."

Joe nodded his head and said "Honestly, I've been waiting for this call. I figured sometime today it would hit your hard and you would wind up here."

Frank said "It all hit me at once while I was watching the girls play and it became too much for me to handle. So I ran and this is the place I landed. I can't believe it's been 16 years since she's been gone and I know this is going to sound totally insane but sometimes I get the feeling that she's still alive."

He sighed and said "I've never said that out loud before and I've never told anyone that, but it kind of felt good to say."

Joe nodded his head and added "You aren't alone. I can't tell you how many times that I've gone over the reports from the plane crash just to see if I could find something that didn't quite add up. I've even thought about calling the General just to talk to him about it and see if there were pieces missing."

Frank looked at Joe in shock, knowing that he was feeling some of the same things he was about her being alive.

The he looked over at Joe and said "What do you think, should we call him? I know he's still around but I hear he's getting ready to retire soon."

Joe put his arm around Frank and said "Why the hell not. What could it hurt?"

So they made plans to speak to the General the next day to question him and see if there had ever been more information that they had learned over the past years that wasn't shared with them.

With that out of the way Joe said "Let's get you out of here, so you can go home and be with your family."

Frank agreed and they got up and walked out of the bar. Joe drove him home with the promises of picking him up tomorrow so they could get his car and then do whatever they needed to get the answers that they wanted.

Helen:

Helen sighed when she heard Frank yell he was leaving. She tried yelling back at him but it just fell on deaf ears. Lately he hasn't really paid much attention to her or to anything else. If she was being honest with herself the only ones he's really does anything with are Angie and Mary Alice. It's like they are the only thing that keeps him going, before they came along he was also so sad and mopey. Of course she knew why.

And his outburst today, well in all honesty she had been expecting it and just waiting for when it would happen. Of course she knew what today was, how could she not remember what the today was. Even if she would never tell anyone else she would never forget the events that had taken on that dreadful day and honestly what parent could ever forget about their own child, especially one that had died so young when it had happened?

She always tried to make it seem like she had forgotten all about Stephanie because the pain was just so over bearing at times. That's why she had taken to drinking everyone once in a while but had increasingly gotten worse, it had helped to ease the pain she felt.

Her thoughts even now after all these years later went back to blaming herself for what happened. She's tried to hide it for years, but the "what ifs" constantly run through her head. What if she hadn't put her in her room, what if she had paid more attention to her, what if she had let Valerie take her outside, that was the one that scared her the most because then she thinks maybe both of them would have been taken and she could have lost both of them.

She noticed that Valerie was watching her and was wondering what was going on. Helen looked at her and said "He must have remembered about something he had to do."

Valerie nodded but then gave her mom a funny look. Valerie then shook her head and walked out of the kitchen to where her daughters were, leaving Helen by herself, alone with her thoughts.

Helen stopped mixing the vegetables that she was making to go with dinner, thinking since he left there's no telling when he'd be back so she turned off the burner. Then she walked over to the cabinet and pulled down her bottle of Jack Daniels. Thinking she'll just sit down for a few minutes.

She put her head down and let her mind wonder, something she hardly let herself do because every time she thought about Stephanie it broke her heart. As she took a sip out of the bottle she let the tears fall as she thought about her youngest daughter. She heard her granddaughters in the other room laughing and playing and thought about how much alike they are compared to their mother and her sister.

She always thought she had to be strong for everyone else, that's why she had boxed all of Stephanie's stuff up and either gave it away or like with the pictures she hid them in a place where no one would ever find them.

After her mother came and stayed with them for a little bit things seemed to get better but once she left then everyone went back to being empty shells. Helen thought it was best for them to heal if no one ever spoke her name so she had forbidden it. Valerie seemed to be on the same page as her, so the two of them felt it best to stop seeing the counselor. She sometimes thinks that it might have been a mistake to do that but then she's brought back to reality that here in the burg you don't do those sort of things and you suck it up and bury it deep down.

She always wonders how their lives would have turned out if she had lived, would she have continued to be a wild child and would she have been a wild teenager and an even wilder adult. She could picture how much heart ache that she would have caused her, she sighed just thinking about all the trouble that Stephanie could have gotten into through her life.

Of course every once in a great while there was this feeling deep in her heart that she thought she could still feel Stephanie and that she was still alive and hadn't died. Of course she knew that was impossible because Frank told her that he and Joe had seen the photos that the General showed them. He had made it seem like there was no way she could have ever survived.

She looked over at the clock and realized that she had been in the kitchen by herself for over an hour wallowing in her self-pity but now it was time get up and to once again push all of those thoughts of Stephanie back into the little box where she keeps them in her mind.

So she finished off her drink and went back to the stove and turned on the burner and finished making dinner, she didn't know when Frank would be back but she knew that she needed to have dinner ready when he did.

Valerie:

Valerie heard her dad yell that he was leaving. Then she looked over at her mom and saw the recognition on her face, it told her exactly why her dad left and why her mom didn't care. Her mom noticed that she was staring at her and come up with some excuse why her dad left instead of telling her the truth.

Valerie hated that her family could be so stupid some times. She thought about it and knew that of course they would all remember what today was, but no one would admit it to each other.

This was the day that had changed their whole damn lives. Not just her mom or her dad's but hers as well. She went from being an older sister to being an only child.

Being slightly disgusted by her mom's actions she did the only thing that she could do at that moment. She nodded her head and then got up and walked away. She felt that if her mom wanted to wallow in own self-pity then so be it, she could do it alone. Valerie would use this time to spend time with her girls, while they were waiting for dinner.

She thought about her girls, she loved them so much and there wasn't anything she wouldn't do for them, and spending extra time with them today would be helpful.

Sometimes it made her wonder about her mom and how easy it's seemed for her to just cast Stephanie aside and forget about her. It had made it seem like she had never loved her to begin with.

When she walked in, she had noticed that they had moved on from playing with their dolls to sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table coloring in their favorite coloring books.

When she sat on the couch they looked up and smiled at her. She smiled back at them and thought about the fact that they had no idea what was going on today and that made her sad.

Of course they wouldn't know why today was so important because she had never been allowed to tell them. Her mother had forbid it.

That brought back the memory of the conversation that the two of them had on the day that her and Steve announced that they were pregnant with Angie, she shivered just thinking about it. She couldn't believe how hateful that her mom had been.

She didn't even say congratulations to them before she grabbed Valerie by her arm and dragged her quickly out of the living room and into the kitchen while she was yelling behind her that they needed to get something from the kitchen to celebrate.

What Valerie didn't know was that what her mother really wanted was to speak to her privately and warn her that in no way shape or form that after the baby was born that she was ever to mention her sister to the baby and also that at no point in the child's life should they know anything about Stephanie. Valerie tried to argue but her mom reminded her that she was dead and no longer a part of this family and shouldn't be talked about.

She basically made Valerie promise that she'd never talk about her or she would disown her if she heard that she was even thinking about talking about Stephanie to the child.

Her mom had reminded her that there was a reason she had hidden everything a long time ago and didn't want this to bring up bad memories for her and wanted to make sure they were on the same page.

She told her that if she ever thought about trying to find any of it to show her child or any of her children that she would just burn it all and no one would have anything. Valerie thought about protesting because she didn't really think it was fair but she agreed with her mom and obeyed her and had never say a word.

Once Angie had been born she had kept her promise and never talked about Stephanie, even though sometimes she was very tempted to.

After a couple of years when her and Steve announced that she was pregnant again, while her mom was holding Angie she looked over at Valerie and gave her a very telling stare and she just nodded her head back acknowledging what she was trying to say. What she was alluding to of course was their prior conversation when she was pregnant with Angie.

Shaking her head of those moments she looked back at her girls and noticed that Angie of course was staying perfectly in the lines and Mary Alice was just following her own style and coloring where she liked.

As she watched them, she remembered how her and her sister used to sit there and color like her girls were doing now and that like Mary Alice, Stephanie used to color the same way. She remembered how much at the time that it used to drive her nuts the same way it does Angie now. About that time Angie looked at Mary Alice and yelled at her for drawing outside the lines.

She realized that her girls were so much like her and Stephanie when they were that age that it was scary.

Getting up and walking toward the front window she stood staring out to the neighborhood as she thought about how there were times when she was younger that she hated Stephanie because she had left her and made her an only child.

As she became an adult and started to mature she finally understood that this wasn't something that Stephanie had done and that she had died on purpose but sometimes she missed just having her sister to talk to.

She thought about that first year after Stephanie had died, the worst times were when people would stop and either stare at her or try to talk to her. They would look at her with pity in their eyes because she was the poor soul that had lost her sister to a horrible accident. If they dared to talk to her then it would be nothing but how sorry to hear what happened or what a tragic loss for you and your family or her favorite that she must be so torn up about losing her sister that way.

Because she was so young sometimes her temper would get the best of her and she wanted to yell at them that Stephanie deserved what she got because she did something she wasn't supposed to. However, she knew that her mom would have never accepted that or would even allow an outburst like that because she always had to be the proper young lady and do what I was supposed to and never speak out like that.

She turned around and walked back to the couch and sat down, she started watching them again and wondered how many times she wanted to try and speak to her mom about where she had hidden the pictures so that she could show them, but she had never found the courage to do it.

Sometimes she felt like she was cheating her own girls by not allowing them to get to know Stephanie, even though she was so young and didn't live long, it didn't seem fair to keep her away from them.

She knew that it would help Mary Alice to know that she wasn't the only black sheep of the family. Always trying to break free of all the rules and do her own thing, just like Stephanie used to.

It was times like these that she wished her sister was still alive and there were times when she thought that she could still feel her like she was alive but she knew that wasn't true.

She would sometimes wonder what kind of life that Stephanie would have lived because she knew would have been fun to watch her live her life being so carefree. Valerie was pretty sure that her mom would have hated what she would have decided to do and would try to get her to concede to live her life the way a proper woman of the 'Burg should, but Stephanie would have fought her tooth and nail over it.

Stephanie would have never wanted to live like she did. Valerie always knew that she'd end up like the perfect 'Burg wife because that's what she wanted, but Stephanie wouldn't have ever wanted this type of life.

She saw Mary Alice take several of the crayons and send them rolling right into Angie's pile, making them spread out. When Angie got mad Mary Alice just looked at her and smiled. Valerie at that point knew that she had done it just to piss Angie off because she was tired of Angie getting on her and seeing that that made her laugh out loud.

When the girls heard her, they looked up at her with questioning looks, she smiled at them then remembering that she couldn't really tell them about what had made her laugh about decided that she was done feeling sad so she said "Hey sounds like Grandpa left for a while and dinner is probably going to take a while so instead of waiting why don't we go to Pino's and get some pizza."

They both stood up looked towards the kitchen like they were waiting for their Grandpa to come out and tell them "No" but after a few seconds when that didn't happen they both yelled "Yes!"

Quietly Valerie said "Hurry up and clean up then and make sure you put everything away and we'll leave as soon as you're done."

Valerie watched them as they gathered everything up and quickly put it where they belonged.

She thought if her mom wanted to drown her sorrows in her special drinks then she could do it in alone.

The day still made Valerie sad but she didn't want to wallow in her own misery anymore, she wanted to make it a better day by being with her girls and having a little fun.

So after they were done they walked out of the house without saying anything to her mom.

Thanks again for all your support.