CHAPTER 11

Around 6:30, Beth was pacing back and forth in the living room, moving things about and it was quite frankly getting on Carlton's nerves. When she picked up the remote for the 5th time, Carlton gently stopped her by placing his hands on her shoulders.

"Would you relax, it's just your sister."

She smiled at him as she shrugged his hands off. "Not true! It's Amy, Dan and Adam. I'm just trying to make sure that there's nothing that Adam can get into trouble with."

"He'll be fine, just keep an eye on him."

She opened her mouth to respond, only to get interrupted by a knock at the front door. Placing the remote back on the coffee table, Beth took a deep breath before going over and opening the door. The first thing they noticed was that they were missing someone.

"Where's Adam?" Beth asked as she stepped back to let them in.

Amy shrugged, "Oh, he was being a bit cranky, so we left him with Mom and Dad. This way, we don't have to leave early if he gets too difficult. I mean, we might have to, but I trust Mom will have a handle on things, especially after raising all of us."

"True." Beth said as Carlton took their coats. "So what did you bring?"

Amy grinned as Dan held up a couple bags. Beth squealed. "Oh My Gosh! Have I told you lately how much I love you? I haven't had Boston Market in ages and was thinking about making meatloaf this week."

"Well, now you don't have to. I figured that since you weren't feeling well, that you would prefer something close to homemade. Besides, I've been craving apples all week and they have some of the best cinnamon apples around."

When Beth reached forward to take it, Amy stepped in front. "Nope, Dan's got it. We're going into the kitchen to get plates and silverware." Amy took Beth's arm and led her into the kitchen, calling back, "We'll be right out, meet you guys in the dining room."

Carlton nodded as he opened the front hall closet to hang up the coats. Once he was done he turned to Dan and asked, "Do I even want to know what they're talking about right now?"

Dan shrugged as he led them towards the dining room. "Probably not. Although knowing Amy, she's making sure that Beth is feeling alright. She was a bit concerned about Beth after you phoned her earlier. And then when Beth called, Amy tried to push, but Beth said that she didn't have time and actually hung up on her." Dan set the bags on the table and started emptying them.

"And how did Amy handle that?" Carlton asked as he helped.

"Not well. She called her parents right away to see if they could take Adam for the night, saying that our babysitter had cancelled on us and we really needed help tonight. Of course, Pat was more than happy to help, saying that they could take him more often and not have to depend on, and I quote, a 'flaky teenager.' If Amy wasn't so concerned about Beth, she would have changed her mind about leaving Adam with them."

Carlton nodded and after a second of silence asked, "Amy cares about her a lot, doesn't she?"

"Of course, they're siblings. Irish twins, as they call each other. Amy's always been good at making and keeping friends while Beth hasn't. Beth was even Amy's maid of honor. Between the two of them, we didn't even need a wedding planner. The thing about Beth is that she doesn't take to people easily. Sure, she can talk about unimportant things a mile a minute, but if you can get her to talk about something important, like what happened when their grandmother died, then you know she trusts you. It took almost 6 years for Beth to have an actual conversation with me. Then again, I was off at college most of that time and the rest of it stealing Amy away." Dan put the bags aside and clapped Carlton on the shoulder. "And from what Amy has told me, Beth definitely trusts you. Just be warned, if anything happens to Beth, Amy will hunt you down, even if she is pregnant."

"Thanks for the warning," Carlton said as the kitchen door opened and Beth and Amy came in laughing.

Taking one look at Dan, Amy smiled and crossed her arms, "Is Dan threatening you, Carlton?"

"No, not at all. Just giving me friendly advice."

Amy shook her head as she sat down. "Well, whatever he said about me is most likely true. And don't think that just because you're a cop, that'll stop me. I know plenty of cops, eagle scouts and hunters who will gladly take you out camping and leave you somewhere." She smiled sweetly at him as she started serving herself a plate.

Carlton looked at Beth who shrugged and said, "It's true. But don't worry, nothing will ever happen that will cause her to make that call. Right, Amy?"

They both looked at each other stubbornly until Amy sighed and said, "Right. I mean, I guess I have to thank Carlton for taking care of the whole Fred incidence but I reserve the right to at least cause bodily harm."

Beth nodded as she sat down across from Amy. "Okay, but nothing that requires a stay in the hospital. Visit maybe, but nothing overnight."

"I guess I could live with that." Amy said as she grabbed some meatloaf.

Carlton shook his head as he sat next to Beth, Dan across from him. "You do know that I'm right here, don't you?"

"Yes we do," Beth smiled as she passed him a plate. "And I thank you for letting my sister and I plan your potential bodily harm. You're such a good sport!" She tried to ruffle his hair as Carlton batted her hand away.

"You better watch it, or I might have you arrested for conspiring to assaulting an officer."

"Did you just make that up? Besides, we're so far out of your jurisdiction that it isn't even funny." Beth pointed out as she finished filling her plate.

"Shut up and eat your dinner," Carlton growled.

"Yes mother!" Beth sang as she dug in, ignoring Amy and Dan's smiles.

After a few minutes of quiet eating, Beth said, "Hey Amy?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you remember John Daniels?"

Amy thought for a second as she reached for her water before saying, "Didn't he go to our church and was on the soccer team with us in middle school?"

Beth nodded, "Yeah. I kind of ran into him today."

"Really? What does kind of mean?"

Beth blushed as she looked at her plate, mumbling something about the grocery store.

"What?" When Beth didn't repeat herself, Amy turned to Carlton. "What happened?"

Carlton coughed nervously, "Well, we were at the grocery store."

"Okay, so he was shopping or working there?"

"Not exactly." Carlton said before nudging Beth's arm.

She glared at him before sighing and turning to Amy, "I kind of passed out and he was the paramedic who was called to the scene."

"What? And you didn't find it necessary to mention to me about almost going to the hospital? Beth, I thought that we were close, tell each other everything!" Amy said angrily with a hint of hurt.

"I'm sorry, Amy! But it's not something that you just mention casually over the phone!" Beth said before shrugging, "Besides, I got the all clear from John and I've had Carlton watching me like a hawk, and he can be a little bit too overprotective at times."

"Only because you don't take things as seriously as you could, especially when it comes to your health." Carlton inputted before asking, "When was the last time that you went in for a simple check-up, and last January does not count." He added much to Beth's chagrin. When she just shrugged and turned back to her food, Carlton asked Amy, "You know how she is about the important stuff, do you think that I should loosen up a bit?"

Amy shook her head as she grinned, "No, if anything, I think that you need to push her even more."

Beth groaned as she put down her fork. "Can we please change the subject? Dan! You're being awfully quiet today, has anything exciting happened recently to any of your students?"

Amy smiled as Dan blushed before he answered, "Well, do you remember Olivia and Alexia?" When Beth nodded, he continued, "Olivia got accepted into NYU on a music scholarship while Alexia got into Harvard on an academic scholarship."

"That's awesome!" Beth exclaimed before turning to Carlton. "Dan teaches at The Cleveland Institute of Music and Olivia and Alexia are twins who also go to our church. We've known them since they were 7 and have basically watched them grow up. It's a shame that I didn't see them at Church yesterday."

"They have spring break this week so they went on a road trip to check out their future campuses" Amy pitched in. "But they should be back by Sunday."

"So they're not coming Saturday?"

Amy laughed as she shook her head, "I don't know, I sent an invite to them and their parents but as I told you last month, I'm not telling who's coming and who isn't. You'll find out soon enough."

"Fine! But will you at least tell me what time I should expect people? All you've told me is that I should keep the whole day, and possibly weekend, clear. What are you up to?"

Amy grinned as she looked at Dan before getting up and going to her purse. "Well, I meant to give these to you last night, but since you left early, I guess now will have to do." She came back and handed Beth an envelope.

With confusion, Beth quickly opened it and pulled out two debit-like cards and a pamphlet. "Cleveland Plus Pass. What is this?"

Amy sighed as she sat back down. "What is your problem with reading things, hmm? I swear, you get into more trouble from skimming things than anything else. Basically, once you activate it, you can get into 10 different attractions around Cleveland and discounts at a lot of other places listed in the pamphlet. We got you 3 day passes for Friday and Saturday and then either Thursday or Sunday."

"Aw, thanks Amy!" Beth said as she passed Carlton the pamphlet without looking through it. "But you didn't have to do that! The party is more than enough."

"Nonsense! I know how much you enjoyed visiting the museums when we were younger. Besides, they just recently reopened the medieval exhibit."

Beth gasped. "You mean we can go see the suits of armor?"

"Yeah," Amy smiled as she shook her head.

"Sweet!" Beth exclaimed before turning to Carlton. "I was never one for textbooks but you put me in a museum or old building, and I can spend hours looking at stuff."

Amy laughed, "When we were in high school, Beth collected pennies and Canadian coins. Used to drive our parents insane when she would take mom's spare change containers and go through them all. Whatever happened to that?"

"I think I still have that in my room somewhere."

"Good, because I've got a couple jarful of pennies for you to sort through."

"Are you serious?" Beth laughed as Amy nodded. "Bring them over this week and we'll make a day of it!"

"Uh no. I'll drop them off sometime this week but you are on your own for doing that. Maybe get Carlton to help."

"No thank you." Carlton commented.

"Okay, now that that issue is settled, what's next? Card game, board game or movie?" Dan asked as he started cleaning up.

"I don't know, what do you think Carlton?" Beth asked as she collected the plates.

"Oh, um. I think that I saw Scrabble in the hall closet."

Beth groaned as Amy laughed, "You know, I'm liking Carlton more and more."

"Fine, we can play Scrabble only if I can be on a team with Carlton." Beth said as she went to get the game.

"I don't care who's on your team, you'll never beat me." Amy smiled as she passed Dan the last of the food containers.

"Oh, it is so on!" Beth said as she returned with the game.

Carlton just shook his head at the sibling rivalry.

Author's Notes:

So, there's the first part! Since I can only upload 15 chs at a time on here, I'm going to post the next set of chapters sometime in the next week. Like I said, this is a WIP and all chapters will be posted on Psychfic first since all I have to do copy and paste there.

Let me know what you think! Reviews and Suggestions are very much appreciated as I finish this story and work on the next one :D