Chapter 24
They found a family style restaurant just down the road from their motel and once they got through the indignity of the young waiter bringing two high chairs instead of a high chair and a booster seat...after they managed to soothe Maggie's ruffled feathers...
"I not a baby!" she insisted. "I three an' a half!"
"Maggie...he didn't know." Kelly told her. "It's okay...it's not the end of the world."
"He not very smart!"
"SHHH!"
Kelly and Alyssa both looked around them, hoping nobody had heard their very opinionated daughter.
"That's not a nice way to talk..." Alyssa said. "He made a mistake. He didn't mean to hurt your feelings."
"You're just too short...that's all" Andy told her. "Lexi's almost the same size as you! An' she's just one!"
"Shut it down, Andy..." Kelly told him in a low voice. "You're not helping things."
"But it's true!"
Severide leaned over and addressed his firstborn...
"I said 'shut it down'...now...or you and me are gonna go sit in the car while everybody else eats breakfast."
"But Dad...I'm hungry!" Andy protested.
"You're a piggy!" Maggie said.
She had to get her two cents in.
"Maggie...Daddy's handling it..." Alyssa whispered to her.
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Before it could go any further...another country was heard from.
"Da-da?" Lexi piped up. "Num-nums?"
Happy for the distraction Kelly turned to the little girl sitting beside him.
"You want a 'Mickey Mouse' pancake?"
The baby clapped her hands.
"Me-mow!"
Okay...now they knew what one person was ordering. Now they had to figure out the other five.
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As usual, Andy wanted what Kelly ordered...in this case a 'Triple Play'...three pancakes, three eggs, three strips of bacon and hash browns.
"I'll tell you what, Andy..." Alyssa said. "I'll order that...and you order the kiddie menu one and we'll trade."
The kids menu had the 'Single'...one pancake, one egg, one strip of bacon.
Kelly shot her a look across the table.
"I just don't have an appetite." she told him.
His mouth set into a hard line.
Alyssa was taking pain meds, he realized. That always killed her appetite...and she needed every pound she could get. She couldn't afford to skip a meal.
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After their meal...after Lexi ate 'Me-mow's' ears and his 'p-appo' mouth...and tried to get Maggie's 'p-appo'...who wouldn't surrender, so Kelly had to order a couple pieces of the fruit...they got back into the car and headed out to Shaina's family farm.
The family turned off the dirt road and Kelly steered the van slowly up the mile long drive.
"How'd you like to shovel this driveway?" he asked the twins.
"Only if I got to drive Uncle Jose's snowplow." Andy said.
Kelly chuckled.
His buddy Vargas still had his landscaping business and did snow removal in the winter.
They pulled up in front of a huge, white farmhouse. It was a little like stepping back in time. Or waking up in a re-run of that old TV show 'The Waltons'.
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Morgan came out to greet them.
He unbuckled Maggie from her car seat and tossed the little girl into the air. She squealed with delight as he caught her and set her on the ground.
Andy and Jesse tumbled out of the way back seat and Morgan caught them up in a bear hug.
"Hey! You made it!" he said.
"We had to drive forever!" Andy told him.
Amen to that...Kelly thought as he picked Lexi up into his arms.
"Well, you're here now." Morgan said. "And there's a ton of fun stuff we can do together..."
Shaina came out of the house and slowly descended the porch steps.
She went straight to Alyssa and hugged her tight.
"I'm so glad you could come..." she whispered.
"We wouldn't have missed this for the world." Alyssa assured her.
"Come inside..." Shaina told her. "Meet my parents."
Kelly herded the children in front of him as he followed his wife up the steps.
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They found themselves in a Great Room that took up the entire first floor. It was decorated simply...comfortably...with a sitting area and a dining area to the left and a massive kitchen to the right. On the kitchen there were two window seats and they looked out over the entire property.
Andy and Jesse ran over to stare out at the small lake and the endless fields surrounding it.
"Whoa! Would you look at that backyard!" Andy said breathlessly.
It made their yard, which was massive by Chicago standards, look like a postage stamp.
"It must take forever to mow the lawn!" Jesse added.
Kelly stifled a chuckle.
Shaina introduced the Severides to her parents Bert and Lonnie, and her brother Vance.
They'd meet her grandparents and her sisters at the rehearsal dinner tomorrow night.
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Morgan turned to the twins.
"Hey, guys..." he said. "You wanna see how you get around a place this big?"
"How?" Jesse asked.
"You'll see..." Morgan replied with a devilish grin.
He looked up at Kelly...
"You up for a little fun?"
"Who're you talkin' too?" Severide scoffed.
"Let's go then..." Hollywood told him.
Alyssa looked nervously from her husband to his friend...the smell of testosterone was pungent in the air. She had a feeling this...whatever it was... was going to be the boys' dream come true...and one of her worst nightmares.
"Lead the way..." Kelly said.
He gave his wife a quick kiss on his way out the door.
"Be careful, Kelly..." she called after him as the screen door slammed shut.
She turned to Shaina.
"I'm not gonna like this...am I?"
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Morgan led Kelly and the boys out to the barn with his future brother-in-law bringing up the rear.
Along the back wall off to one side there were three tarps...covering three four-wheel ATV's!
"No way..." Kelly said with a huge smile.
He hadn't ridden one of these in years!
"Are we gonna ride on these, Dad?" Andy asked in awe.
"You bet we are..." Kelly answered.
Andy's smile matched his dad's.
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Morgan fitted each of the boys with helmets and goggles...then he and Kelly donned them as well. They pushed the vehicles out of the barn, away from the horses, and Vance gave Kelly a quick refresher course.
They rode all over the property...Andy with his arms locked around his dad's waist...and Jesse hung onto Morgan. They gunned it going up the hills. They went flying over the fields. And they rode through the marshy land down by the lake.
By the time they got back to the house the only parts of them not covered in mud were their heads and around their eyes.
"That was awesome!" Andy cried. "That was better than go-karts!"
"It was better than Batman!" Jesse added.
Batman was their favorite roller-coaster at Great America.
"It was pretty awesome..." Kelly agreed.
This was the kind of thing he loved doing with his boys. The hard-hitting, fast-moving, adrenaline rush kind of things. Their screams and squeals of laughter were pure music to his ears.
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"What in the hell did you do?"
Alyssa couldn't believe what she saw as her husband and her sons made their way back from the barn, laughing all the way.
"Mom! We went four-wheeling!" Andy was practically vibrating with excitement.
"It was so cool!" Jesse added.
"We went all over the whole farm!" Andy went on. "This place is gi-normous!"
"An' we got all muddy!"
"I can see that." Alyssa replied icily.
She was glaring at Kelly.
Andy and Jesse were confused. Why was Mom mad? They just had the best time ever...and Mom looked like she was ready to blow up.
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"Kelly...how could you do this?"
Kelly didn't see what all the fuss was about anymore than the twins did.
"What? They're just a little dirty." he said.
What was important was that he had a great day with his boys...it was a memory that would last for a long, long time.
"A little dirty?" Alyssa sputtered incredulously. "A little? Their clothes are ruined! So are their shoes! And we didn't bring anything for you to change into!"
"So...I'll just hose 'em down...no big deal."
"Oh no you won't. If you think the three of you are getting in my car soaking wet and covered in mud, you've got another thing coming Severide!"
She turned and headed back to the house.
"Lyssa!" Kelly called after her. "Where're you goin'?"
Alyssa turned back to him.
"I'm going to get my keys...and my purse...and I'm going to find a Wal-Mart or something and get Andy and Jesse some clean clothes."
"I'll do it..." he said.
"What part of 'you're not getting in my car' didn't you understand?" she said. "I'm going to get clothes...you're staying here."
She turned away from him again.
"And don't touch my daughters with all that mud on you!" she said over her shoulder.
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Kelly heard the screen door slam...then the other door...then the car door. He heard the engine turn over...and he heard her drive away.
"Dad?" Jesse asked. "Are we in trouble?"
Kelly turned and looked down at his son, into blue eyes so much like his own. He could see the worry in the boy's eyes.
"No...you're not." he said. "Just me..."