Disclaimer: I do not own anything you can recognize.
Claimer: I do own anything you can't recognize.
WARNING: mild violence, mild sexual reference, mild swearing, etc.
"Finding Home Again"
Chapter 6 "Welcome To the Family,"
"Spike, are you going to bring Suzy and Adele to the cookout?" asked Lou, getting his gym bag out of locker.
"I'm thinking about it. I'm just concerned about there being alcohol," said Spike.
"Don't worry about that. She's a strong enough person to resist beer, which she hates anyway. She can drink you know without having a relapse, she knows how to control herself," said Lou.
"I guess you're right. She does only order half drinks now and she won't have more than two drinks," said Spike.
"Don't worry about her fitting in; she's never had a problem with that. She can be more laid back or an energy machine. She might give Jules a run for her money in volleyball," said Lou.
"I can see that too. She doesn't let her age stop her. She's still as athletic as she was when we first met," said Spike.
"Even as far back as her junior year of high school. She was a varsity volleyball player, on the varsity swim team, and she was a competitive ice skater," said Lou.
"It's hard to see Suzy ice skating," said Spike.
"She did from age fourteen to twenty-six. She does it just to prove the point she can still do it now. She was an amazing ice skater who loved every second she was on the ice, which showed in her performances," said Lou.
"I learn something new about her every day," laughed Spike.
"So are you going to bring Suzy and Adele?" asked Lou.
"I will if Suzy wants to go," said Spike.
"I would stay and talk but I need to get hamburger buns," said Lou.
"See you there," said Spike.
"I'll be waiting," said Lou.
Spike knocked on Suzy's door. He knew the house was unlocked but didn't want to intrude.
"Suzy are you home?" called Spike.
"Sorry, I was in kitchen," said Suzy, opening the door.
"You had me worried for a second," said Spike, giving Suzy a peck on the forehead.
"That's sweet of you," said Suzy, turning a light shade of pink.
"How has your day been?" asked Spike.
"Look what Adele did," said Suzy, taking Spike into the kitchen.
There was mud on the floor, walls, counter, kitchen table, the chairs, the stove, the refrigerator, and even some on the ceiling. There were pots scattered all over the floor. Adele was sitting in the middle of the kitchen with a guilty look on her face.
"Sweetie what did you do," said Spike in a low tone.
Adele wagged her tail.
"Adele, you made a huge mess," said Spike, "you know better than to leave the doormat when you're muddy."
Suzy sighed as she hosed the ceiling.
"You made your mother's day difficult," said Spike, kneeling down to Adele's height.
Adele whimpered giving Spike huge sad eyes then licked his hand. Suzy's eyes softened at the sight.
"Do you want me to give her a bath while you finish up in here?" asked Spike.
"That would be great," said Suzy.
"Are you up to going to a picnic?" asked Spike "we do it every year at the SRU."
"Of course," said Suzy.
"Are you okay?" asked Spike.
"No. Spike the café is going bankrupt," said Suzy.
"We can get through this," said Spike.
"How?" Suzy asked, tears forming in her eyes.
"We can manage without the café," said Spike.
"For how long before we run out of money?" said Suzy.
"There are many job options out there," said Spike.
"I'm going to file for bankruptcy and find something else to do," said Suzy, taking deep breath.
"See it will be okay if you let yourself think clearly," said Spike.
"I'm so lucky to have you," said Suzy, kissing Spike softly.
"Not as lucky as I am to have you," whispered Spike.
"Let's just agree we are both very lucky," whispered Suzy.
Adele yelped and squashed between Spike and Suzy, making them laugh before going their separate directions.
Suzy was able to finish up before Spike so she joined him in the bathroom.
"Suzy, can you hand me a towel?" asked Spike.
"Sure," said Suzy, handing Spike a towel from the towel rack.
Spike dried off Adele then let her out of the bathtub.
"I just need to grab the pasta from the refrigerator and we can head out," said Spike.
"I'll grab Adele's crate just in case," said Suzy.
"Come on," said Suzy picking up Adele.
"Whose car are we talking?" asked Suzy.
"Mine, Adele doesn't need to be put in her crate," said Spike, coming out with his pasta dish.
"Alright," said Suzy, putting Adele into the car.
Then she grabbed the dog crate and put that in the trunk. She sat down in the front passenger seat, putting Spike's pasta dish on the back seat where the dog wasn't.
"Relax, they'll love you," said Spike.
"Easy for you to say," said Suzy.
"No matter what I'll always love you," said Spike.
"I know and I'll never stop loving you," said Suzy.
Spike began to drive. Suzy was looking out the window when all off a sudden she had twelve kilograms of fur in her lap. She jumped but then smiled, petting Adele's head.
"She's getting to the point you notice when she jumps on you," said Spike.
"She is two months old and twelve kilograms how couldyou not?" said Suzy.
"We haven't talked about kids yet," said Spike, changing the subject at a stoplight.
"You want to talk about kids while driving?" inquired Suzy.
"Now is as good as any other time," said Spike.
"Okay, what do you want to talk about kids?" asked Suzy as Adele gnawed on her hand.
"How many kids do you want?" asked Spike.
"I don't really know. More than one but no more than four. Once you have more than four you can't easily give them equal attention," said Suzy. "How many do you want?"
"Two or three," said Spike.
"What would you do if I told you I was pregnant right now?" asked Suzy "I'm 99.9 percent sure I'm not but that's way off topic."
"First I would probably crash the car, and then run around the car a few times. Then call Lou to ask him to pick us up," said Spike.
Suzy couldn't help but laugh at Spike's expressions while he talked.
"What would you do if you found out you were pregnant?" asked Spike.
"I would probably take ten tests to make sure it was real, start crying, then take a shower to try to calm down," said Suzy.
"Why would you start crying?" asked Spike.
"First off my hormones would get the best of me and I would be running through all the things that could go wrong in my head," said Suzy.
"I really don't know what to say because if you were pregnant right now I wouldn't know quite what to do or think," said Spike.
"You're a guy, it's supposed to be like that," said Suzy.
"Isn't that stereotyping?" said Spike.
"Have you ever heard of a guy knowing what to do when his wife, fiancée, or girlfriend is pregnant?" asked Suzy.
"No," said Spike.
"Now that I think about it, what would we do?" asked Suzy.
"We both went over the fact I don't know," said Spike.
"I'd be worried about how we could afford a child, and whether people would try to force us to get married," said Suzy.
"There are little side jobs that I could pick up when I didn't have work," said Spike.
"I'm sure we could work it out, we have so far," said Suzy.
"We're here," said Spike.
"That was the shortest twenty minutes of my life," said Suzy.
Spike chuckled.
"Don't laugh at me. I'm nervous enough," said Suzy.
"Stop worrying," said Spike, getting out of the car and getting his pasta dish.
"I wish I could," mumbled Suzy, getting out.
Adele jumped out of Suzy's lap before Suzy could grab her but the dog landed on her feet. Suzy glared at Adele who gave her an innocent look.
"I swear Adele is a kid not a dog," said Suzy.
"Besides that fact that she barks, not talks," said Spike.
Suzy rolled her eyes.
"Come on Adele, I want to put your leash on," said Suzy.
Adele jumped and tried to run away. Suzy had predicted this and scooped her up from behind.
"You can't trick me," said Suzy, attaching the leash to Adele's collar.
"Follow me," said Spike.
Suzy followed Spike through a gate at a normal pace until Adele decided to take off, randomly spiriting and nearly taking off Suzy's arm.
"No," said Suzy in a low voice pulling the leash back a little.
Adele sat down and started to eat the leash.
"Are you okay?" asked Spike, concerned that Suzy had dislocated something.
"I'm fine, she isn't that strong yet," said Suzy.
"She's only two months old and she can nearly snap our wrists— think of when she is six months old," said Spike.
"I might need a shoulder brace by then," said Suzy.
"Hey everyone, I brought pasta!" called out Spike.
"Where have you been?" asked Wordy. "Never mind, I see."
Suzy wasn't sure if she should be insulted. Adele was begging to be let off the leash but Suzy didn't want her turning this peaceful picnic into a hectic gathering of baboons. She could almost see Adele sitting on the picnic table with everything in sight on the ground or in mid-air.
"We had a bit of a mess in the kitchen," said Spike.
"Look what the dog brought in," said Lou, poking Suzy's sides from behind.
"Lou!" gasped Suzy, jumping a few feet in the air.
"You always have to do that if my back is turned don't you," said Suzy, playfully slapping Lou's arm.
"That hurt," Lou whined, trying to keep a straight face.
"IF that hurt you need to work out more. For crying out loud I could take more than that," said Suzy, rolling her eyes.
"Suzy, Lou play nice now," said Spike.
"Aww, come on we're just messing around with each other," said Lou.
"You always say that then she hits you," said Spike.
Right on queue Suzy backhanded Lou's head.
"No fair, you two work together now," said Lou.
Suzy rolled her eyes and Spike tried to put on an innocent look.
"Come on you have a lot of people to meet," said Spike, tugging Suzy's arm.
Lou pouted at the "loss" of his friend.
"Here you can have Adele," said Suzy, holding out the leash.
"Adele you love Uncle Lou don't you?" said Lou, picking up Adele who licked his face.
"Of course she does with all the extra treats you give her," said Suzy, putting her hands on her hips.
"I can spoil her," said Lou.
"Spike does a good enough job of that," said Suzy.
"Come on," said Spike.
Suzy gave in to Spike and sighed.
"Everyone meet Suzy. Suzy meet everyone," called out Spike.
"I don't think every person is named everyone," said Suzy, rolling her eyes playfully.
"I'm not," said Lou.
"Lou, I already know you," said Suzy.
"You could have had a memory lapse," said Lou.
"I would suggest you don't repeat that," warned Suzy
"That didn't come out like I meant it too," said Lou.
"Stop distracting her," said Spike.
"Getting jealous," teased Lou.
"I can distract her if I want to," Spike smirked.
Suzy playfully slapped Spike's arm.
"Now you got me in trouble," said Spike.
Lou laughed.
"Come on you two, we want to meet her, not listen to you two bicker," said Ed.
"That's Ed, you know the tall bald one over there" said Spike.
"How can she tell who is who with that description?" said Lou.
"Hey, watch it!" warned Ed.
Suzy was able to pick up that Ed was the leader but not quite a sergeant. She knew enough about team dynamics to know the traits for the different jobs.
"It's a pleasure meeting you. Spike talks about you all the time," said Ed.
Suzy glared at Spike.
"I'm not telling anything embarrassing," said Spike, throwing his hands up in surrender.
"Spike finally found a girl who isn't afraid of us," said Sam.
"More like a girl who didn't run off after meeting Ed," laughed Wordy.
"Hey! Only one did that," said Spike.
"Suzy doesn't scare easily. She put up with me in high school and my "friends" who liked trying to pay a visit. I'm certain they were more scared of her than she was of them," said Lou.
"First off they knew if they even laid a hand on me my cousin would seriously harm them, and they knew from when I was younger that when I got angry I could and would beat their asses," said Suzy.
"Which cousin?" asked Lou.
"David, who else would they be scared of? Leo was a coward when it came to them. David might have been a jerk most of the time but he does care about family," said Suzy.
"He did changed quite a bit after that accident," said Lou.
"Can we move on?" asked Suzy, her voice becoming icy.
"The blond-haired one back there is Sam," said Spike.
Sam gave a short wave.
"Next to him is Jules," said Spike.
Jules smiled at her but didn't come over since she was currently putting food on her plate.
"That's Wordy," said Spike.
Suzy could see what Lou meant now. Three out of the four guys who she didn't know on the SRU team were either bald or nearly bald. Suzy took note of Wordy's very short brown hair and hoped that she would remember that.
"I'm Greg," said Greg.
"Nice to meet you, Spike talks about you a lot," said Suzy. "Actually he talks about all of you a lot."
"Quick move," laughed Greg.
"Smart move," corrected Lou.
Suzy rolled her eyes.
"You're going to make a great addition to the family," said Jules, patting Suzy on the shoulder.
Suzy gave Spike him a "what the hell is going on?" look. He laughed and said,"She's on a team with all guys." Suzy chuckled at that thought.
Suzy was able to figure out a way to remember who was who by the middle of the cookout. She and Jules had seemed to bond due to the fact they both had lots of guy friends and had both been or currently were on the police force.
"Do you think Spike found the girl?" Wordy asked Greg and Ed.
"I have to admit she fits in better than all the other girls," said Ed.
"I think he found the girl. She understands the job being a former cop so when he loses his temper after a hard call she'll back off. Did you see her with your girls Wordy?" asked Greg.
"She is great with them. Shelly typically doesn't let any of Spike's girlfriends near them the first time but she let her right in. The girl does have a certain effect on people," said Wordy.
"There is a lot we don't know yet. She seems to be very mature, that will be good for Spike," said Greg.
"I think we can accept this one into the family," said Ed.
"Agreed," said Greg.
"Absolutely," said Wordy.
Wordy looked over at Spike and Suzy who were sitting next to Sam and Jules. Suzy and Jules were laughing while Spike and Sam looked flustered. Adele ran away from Wordy's girls and jumped into Suzy's lap. Suzy stroked Adele's fur then ruffled it playfully, getting a playful bark in respond. Suzy picked up a stick and threw it for Adele to chase.
Greg smiled when Wordy pointed out the four of them. That cleared all doubts when he saw how happy they were.
Thank you for reading and please review. I would like to thank PSU96Girl for all her help. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.