Disclaimer that should have preceded Ch1 (Sorry for the oversight!): All publicly recognisable characters and settings belong to Someone In America. Anything verifiable belongs to Whoever, Whatever, or Wherever verifies them. Everything else belongs to me.
A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, follow and favourites Big Hugs!
It was already past 8am in the morning. At Frank Reagan's house everyone was present and accounted for, except one. Nicky was keeping her fast-becoming-fed-up-with-still-not-being-on-holiday cousins, Jack and Sean, entertained. Henry was reading the newspaper. Frank was catching up on some last-minute paperwork. Erin was doing her best to stop her older brother, Danny, from blowing his top. Linda was talking on her mobile phone.
"That was Jamie. He says to go on without him. He will join us when he can." Linda came back into the room and informed the group.
"What do you mean "when he can"? Where is he?" Danny was incensed. They were already running late. The cars were packed, the kids rearing to go, and the fish were waiting.
"I don't know. "When he can" means "when he can." He's a big boy, he'll figure it out." Linda picked up her handbag and moved to the door. "Let's go."
"Wait a sec. Where is he? I'll go get him." After the events of the last few weeks, there were nerves still frayed and fences still broken. Jamie and his family needed to relax and reconnect with each other. Therefore, Danny was determined that his younger brother would be with them on this holiday.
"You most certainly will not!" Frank broke in, still convinced that his youngest offspring was avoiding him, and not wishing their precious family time marred with quarrels or sulking. Better to let Jamie arrive in his own good time and on his own terms, than to drag him along kicking and screaming to somewhere he obviously didn't want to be. "Let's go." He glared at Danny while clearing up the last of his papers, daring him to argue.
"All right," Danny conceded. "Let's go, guys. Uncle Jamie's going to meet us there."
"Yay!" "Cool!" "Finally!" were the various responses as hand luggage was collected, doors were locked, and people piled into the two cars – Nicky, Jack, Sean, Henry, and Frank in Erin's smaller two-door car, Danny, Linda, Erin and all the luggage in Linda's far more spacious station wagon.
Jamie ran his hand through his hair and pasted a confident smile on his face as he entered the small seminar room, the only one available for today's gathering. The meeting had not been able to be held at the same house he had visited the night before, so they had decided to reconvene at work. He was still hoping the couple were mistaken and that he could, indeed, join his family later on that day. This was looking increasingly unlikely however. Upon his arrival he found the woman had been joined by another woman, and there were four men, not one, meaning two people had multiplied into six. He just hoped their problems hadn't increased threefold as well. He sunk down into the only chair left on offer. Unfortunately, it was also the least comfortable!
"Okay, Officer Reagan. Now that you are here we can start." One of the new arrivals spoke.
"How bad is it?" the young cop inquired.
"Let's start at the beginning," another suggested.
Jamie gulped.
It had been a unanimous decision by Car One (Frank, Henry, and the children) to follow the coastal route. The change in scenery from roads and buildings to water and sand fuelled young minds so they didn't miss Jamie at all on the 2 ½ hour ride over to Quogue. The kids, because they were too busy plotting their next school-less week. Frank and Henry, because they were too busy putting the kibosh on the most dangerous of those schemes - mostly suggested by Sean, by far the most adventurous of the newest Reagan generation.
"No, Sean, you can't dive-bomb off the pier." That was Henry's input.
"No, Sean, we are not going to cook puffer fish on the barbecue." Frank shuddered internally.
"But Grandpa, my teacher said they were fine if they were cooked properly!"
"I think it'd take more than a barbecue," Jack put in.
"Camp fire?" Sean was unwillingly let go of his 'brilliant idea' just yet.
"How about we stop for ice cream instead?" Frank was relieved to see a dairy up ahead that they all knew served the most ginormous creamy treats in the whole of New York State.
Jamie's natural 'eternally optimistic' nature was once again failing him. The list of hindrances to his work-free paid leave was indeed lengthy. He was supposed to be on his way to the beach. He should be in the back of Linda's car with Danny, driving the girls – sorry, women (he could just hear Erin's voice if he dared refer to them as 'girls') – crazy with deliberately-extremely-tuneless duets of '99 Bottles Of Beer' "The Horse Song' or some other repetitive ditty designed to drive it's listeners insane. Instead he was filling out forms, flicking through folders of photos, listening to and writing down statements, giving his own, listening to mindless arguments and getting antsier by the minute.
"Officer Reagan?" A voice cut into his thoughts and brought him back to the task at hand.
"This one." He pointed to a photo.
"Are you sure?" The woman sounded doubtful.
"Definitely." Jamie was adamant.
"Okay. That means you are one step closer to leaving." For the first time in hours, Jamie grinned, and returned to his tasks with renewed vigour.
In Car Two (the rest of the adults), Danny was determined to make Jamie the subject of discussion for the whole journey.
"I thought he had said he would definitely come. I thought we were getting over – everything." He hit the dashboard in frustration. Beside him, Linda swerved the steering wheel in fright at the unexpected noise, almost broadsiding a truck.
"Danny!" Erin remonstrated after she'd got her breath back. "You heard Linda. Jamie will come when he can. So just accept it and shut up already!"
Danny opened his mouth to defend himself, but quickly closed it when he caught both his wife and his sister eyeing him in the rear-vision mirror.
"Sorry," he muttered.
Thankfully for his longsuffering passengers, they had settled on taking the shortest route to Quogue. After Erin got a text from Nicky informing them of Car One's plans, the trio had agreed to head straight for the accommodation to unpack their vehicle and set up their houses. Hopefully, that would give them about an hour to organise as much as they could before the chaos unfolded. Little did they know that the arrival of their children would only be start of their chaos.