A/N: WOW! The review response to this story has been phenomenal! Long may it continue! Thanks to Ealasaid Una for pointing out my mistake to me. It has been corrected.
Jamie jumped up and opened the curtains, eager to enjoy the seaside sunrise. He had spent the majority of his first two vacation days ironing out as many of the problems he'd been presented with as he could. Eventually, just after noon on Day Two, after having been awake for more 24 hours, he went home, took a short nap so he wouldn't arrive in Quogue exhausted, grabbed a protein bar for 'lunch', and hit the road. He'd finally managed to join his family late in the afternoon. They'd spent an enjoyable evening plotting the week's activities, intertwined with cooking and eating. Now Jamie was outside, sipping coffee, impatiently waiting for the rest of the clan to wake up and be ready to join him in those pastimes planned for today.
"Morning!" he jogged over the adjoining property to join Danny and the boys, who had appeared with a football.
"Uncle Jamie!" chorused the boys. "Catch!" Jamie reacted quickly, perfectly cradling the ball in the crook of his elbows.
"Nice!" Danny lauded. "Sitting on your butt the last couple of days obviously hasn't done you any harm at all."
Jamie winced. He would be glad when the truth could come out, he really would.
It wasn't long before the rest of the family joined them for breakfast, and firmed up their itinerary.
"Dad, can I come with you, ple-ee-aaase?" Jack whined.
"Not this time, Champ," his father said. "Got one planned for later in the week, remember?"
Jack nodded. "Adult males today, all males next time."
XX XX XX XX XX XX
Accordingly, Frank, Danny and Jamie packed their gear (including lunch that Jamie and Henry had prepared the night before) into the smaller car and Frank drove them the ten minutes to the marina. They loaded up the boat they had been given use of for the week, boarded, and headed out for a spot of offshore fishing.
It didn't take long for Danny to address the elephant in the room, and he was nothing if not direct. "So where have you been the last couple of days?" he interrogated his younger brother.
"Somewhere between here and California," came the swift reply.
"What were you doing?" the older sibling pressed.
"Eating, breathing, walking, talking," Jamie listed whatever he could think of without giving his secret away.
Frank looked up inquiringly. "No sleeping?"
"Pfft!" Jamie snorted. "Sleep? Don't know the meaning of the word." He meant it as a joke, but quickly realised his family was taking him seriously.
"Are you still having nightmares and insomnia?" Frank was surprised. He thought his youngest was recovering well from the horrors of his recent past, and his sleeplessness was a thing of the past.
"Not for a while," Jamie turned to adjust his fishing rod, a secondary advantage being he eluded eye contact with his family members.
Danny saw the pain in his father's eyes at his brother's turned back. He sucked in his breath and prepared to let rip.
XX XX XX XX XX XX
Meanwhile Linda, Erin, and the children prepared for a morning of collecting clams in the shallow waters of a nearby bay.
"Got everything we need?" Linda prompted her boys.
"Change of clothes, bucket, trowel, sneakers, towel and gloves." Jack catalogued the items he knew he and his brother needed. "Have we missed anything?"
"Sunscreen, water, nibbles and extra towels," Erin verified what was in her bag.
"And we have rakes and spades for the deeper stuff," Nicky indicated her load as being identical to Linda's.
"So let's go, already!" shouted Sean, bored of all the formalities.
It was only a short walk (or, in the boy's case, run, jog, hop, skip and jump) to their destination. The sandy beach was behind a secluded grassy bay only minutes from the edge of town where their houses were situated. There were picnic tables, toilets, and fully grown trees for shelter. As a bonus, the tide was out, exposing the wet sand prime for digging clams.
"Whew! I'm exhausted!" Sean dramatically threw himself down, panting like a dog. Erin laughed and passed him a water bottle.
"You're such a baby!" Jack sneered in derision.
Sean looked up at his brother in disbelief. The next minute he was hurtling across the grass as fast as his legs could carry him.
XX XX XX XX XX XX
At almost the exact same time Jack was insulting Sean, Danny was getting ready to tear into his brother for the way Jamie was treating Frank.
"Don't you dare – " Danny left his fishing rod and advanced on his brother, no mean feat in the rolling waves.
Frank also left his post. He moved to stand between his irate eldest son and his non-communicative youngest one.
"Danny! Leave him alone!" he ordered.
"No! You need to . . . He has to . . . How's he going to – " Danny sputtered to a stop under Frank's unwavering glare, and returned to his former spot. "How's he going to know you think he's still angry with you for doing you-have-no-idea-what during The Showdown**, if you don't tell him?" He muttered this rhetorical question to Frank, but all three men could plainly see that Jamie overheard him. The clenched jaw, the rigid back, and the tightened fists, clearly showed the amount of discomfort the remark had caused.
Jamie bit his lip so hard it almost bled. How was he going to handle this? He knew he and his father had a strained relationship. He knew it seemed he had been shunning the man for an inordinate amount of time. He just didn't know how to reassure his Dad that there was nothing to fear, that they were okay, without letting the cat out of the bag.
"I'm not avoiding you, Dad," he articulated softly but strongly. "I just can't tell you what is going on, not yet, anyway. Please, believe me, it's not your fault."
"I believe you," Frank asserted.
"Thanks." Jamie visibly relaxed.
Henry and Danny recognised the subject was resolved – for now, anyway.
XX XX XX XX XX XX
"Jack Reagan!" Linda chastised her older son. "You go and apologise, right now!"
Jack looked confusedly between his mother and his brother, who was rapidly disappearing into the distance. He'd been only teasing. He'd done it in the past, and Sean had never reacted so vehemently before. He took off after the other boy, determined to make amends.
By the time Linda, Erin and Nicky had neared they boys, the warring duo were perched side-by-side on the rocks. Jack was gently rubbing the back of his partner-in-crime, who was obviously still upset. Linda opened her mouth to urge the boys back on to dry land, when disaster struck.
BOOM! CRASH! WHOOSH!
A rogue wave engulfed the rocks where the lads had been sitting. When it receded, the boys had vanished.
**See "Jamie Needs A Holiday" Chapter 10