Carrying on the Torch

Disclaimer: I don't own Good Luck Charlie

A/N:

Chapter 15 (Unfortunate News)

After class, Charlotte was doing some leg stretches while Sierra and Jo talked nearby. She'd gotten her bike from Jo's car, with the intention of riding it home, but PJ had sent her a text saying he'd pick her up. He had a bike rack in his car. The family enjoyed taking trips to the mountains and riding their bikes, it wasn't often, but still often enough that the bike rack stayed in the trunk. As she rose from the ground, the door opened and PJ walked in, looking around the building. She smiled and waved for him. "PJ! Over here!"

He looked over and smiled, walking towards her. "Nice facility." Jo and Sierra walked over and Charlotte quickly studied Jo's face. The woman clearly recognized him, her eyes reflected her remembrance, but she didn't appear to be mourning. Rather, she appeared happy to see him. She extended her hand and shook his. PJ's eyebrows lifted as he shook her hand. "You have a firm grip there, I have to say, I'm impressed. Not surprising for a martial arts instructor, though."

"Thank you. Do you remember me, by any chance?" PJ moved his hand back and rubbed his chin, studying her carefully. Charlotte's lips curved upwards into a toothy grin. Although it was probably not the best thing that he let his mind go back to the past, she thought it would still be nice. "Jo, Jo Keener, I was…I was dating Gabe at the time of their accident." His face fell and he lowered his arm, exhaling deeply. Sierra's eyebrows rose with astonishment and Charlotte moved her head in between the two adults.

"It is good to see you again after all these years. How are you doing?" He folded his arms across his chest and gave her a tiny smile. "It has been a very long time…"

"Yeah. I'm doing better now, finally starting to cope, but…it's hard."

"It is. Anyway, it's nice to see you doing well for yourself. I can't say I thought you'd grow up to become a martial arts instructor. But then, you probably wouldn't have pegged me for a homicide detective." Jo's eyebrows rose and a chuckle escaped her lips. Charlotte beamed with pride, she thought that was one of the best jobs around, and PJ had it.

"No, I never actually thought about that. I'm impressed, you seem to be doing well for yourself. How's that friend of yours, by the way? What was his name…the clueless one?"

"Emmett?"

"Yeah! Him. How is he doing?"

"We're not really talking…"

"Oh. I'm sorry." PJ shrugged it off and looked to Charlotte.

"It's fine. Anyway, Charlotte, we need to get back home. I'll tell you what's happening on the way." She nodded and said her goodbyes to Sierra and Jo, bowing, then hurrying off to the door. PJ smiled at Jo one last time and shook her hand. "Again, it's nice to see you after all these years. I'm hearing good things about you from Charlotte, so I'm happy she can look up to you. I hope you have a good evening."

"Thank you, and you too."`

As Charlotte finished putting her bike on the rack and getting in the car, PJ entered the driver's side. He looked upset about something. It worried Charlotte. "Is something wrong? I hope seeing Miss Keener didn't upset you…"

"No, she's fine, it really was nice to see her after all these years." He turned the car on, then started driving. She studied him for a minute. He was tense, his eyes dead set on the road. All she could think that it could be was Teddy, had something happened? Was something wrong with the baby? He looked back at her and smiled slightly, possibly hoping to comfort her. "Don't worry, it's nothing too bad. Everything's fine at home, and for the record, Teddy just has a little cold like Skyler thought. She's taking care of the baby right now and wanted me to come get you, but I thought I should tell you what else is going on right now."

"What's wrong?"

"It's your grandmother." Her eyes started to widen and her mind traveled to Grandma Bosca. Was she okay? PJ stopped at a red light and put his arm up on the chair. He looked at Charlotte and pulled his lips back in a frown. "Not Skyler's mom, of course, I mean Petunia. Grandma Blankenhopper." She exhaled and her heart decided to stop racing. She cared about that grandmother, yes, but at the same time, it was a relief that it wasn't Amanda that anything happened to. "She's had a bad fall yesterday and got out of the emergency room…"

"Is she okay?" Charlotte moved her eyes to the light and pointed at it. "Green light, by the way." PJ nodded and started to drive once more. He breathed in and took a left turn.

"She's okay, but you know how old she is…" Charlotte nodded her head and put her hands behind her head. The last time she saw her grandmother, she was just five or six years old. They went to her place for Christmas, and she practically destroyed Petunia's priceless glass reindeer. Why the woman had them lying on the ground where kids could reach, escaped her, but contrary to what she told PJ, one couldn't just say not to touch something to an overly excited young child. The woman would be pushing eighty-eight in March, and she lived alone. Grandpa Hank died in 2019. Ever since, the woman refused to go into a nursing home, claiming she could do just fine by herself. She was as stubborn as an old bull. "Well, the doctors want to put her in a nursing home, but she keeps refusing. Aunt Diane and I are at a disagreement here…"

"Aunt Diane?" Diane was Petunia's second daughter, and incredibly rich. She was sixty-one, had two children, and one grandchild. The entire family lived together in a large upscale mansion, perfect for moving Petunia in with them. The woman wasn't exactly stuck up, but she didn't really associate much with the Duncan's. "What's her problem?"

"She and her family don't want to take her in. Which…isn't a surprise, really." PJ blinked once and made a right turn onto their street. "Skyler wants me to go to Palm Springs and bring her back here with us. I guess I agree with her, I honestly can't see Grandma living in a nursing home. Remember Uncle Mel?"

"Yeah." Uncle Mel was Bob's uncle, and the last of the parents or parent's relatives of Bob and Amy, besides Petunia. He passed away in 2019, lived in a nursing home all his life, and his daughter wanted nothing to do with him. Rather, it was Bob who ever spent any time with him. When Bob and Amy died, Mel spent his remaining years never seeing any of his relatives. "Probably don't want Grandma to go through the same stuff, huh?" Hell, she couldn't remember the last time she saw all her relatives.

"No. I know she isn't the easiest person to get along with, but she doesn't deserve to go into a nursing home and fade away like that."

"That's true. I actually wouldn't mind seeing her around a little more, but that's just me." She shrugged her shoulders and gazed out the window as they passed by several houses. "PJ, did the crash cause us to not see our family?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean Aunt Diane, Uncle Mel, Grandma Petunia…Mel's daughter and grandkids, Diane's kids, everyone…I can't remember the last time we saw any of them. Did the crash separate us from all of them?" If so, then why? Were they that afraid of how to comfort PJ back then? Did they not know how to deal with it all? She thought family was supposed to stick together. PJ turned into the driveway and parked. He let out a sorrowful sigh and leaned back in his seat. Charlotte gazed at their home and smiled at the lit window, she could see Skyler inside, holding Teddy and feeding her with a bottle.

"Sometimes, when you have no idea what to say to someone after a tragedy, you avoid them. Maybe there's no mean to hurt them, but it builds up and can become habitual until you just stop seeing them altogether." Her heart sank and her mind traveled back to the Heglin's. Was that what happened with Emmett and PJ too? Why did everyone let the crash split them all up like that? "Sometimes it can be fixed, but the people involved have to be willing to work on it, or else you're just pushing, and that can make things worse."

"I don't think that's very fair, honestly. It's like you and Emmett, you two were best friends at one point of time, you two should be friends now." She watched her brother tense up for a brief second as he grabbed the door handle and lifted his shoulders.

"Things happen, I'm not too sure we'll ever be friends again, at least not how we were back then. Let's get inside, I'm sure Skyler's wondering what's taking so long."

"Yeah…" Charlotte left the car and moved around to the back. She grabbed her bike and began to remove it from the rack. As she started pushing the bike into the garage, her mind began leading her to a wondrous family reunion with all their friends with them.

She smiled as she imagined sitting around the front living room, she was holding Teddy while on the couch with Regina and Dee on either side of her. PJ was in the kitchen, laughing at Cousin Brad's jokes. Aunt Diane was with her daughter Taylor, Mel's daughter Juliet, and Skyler, all talking by the fireplace and slightly resembling a debutante ball. Juliet's husband Randy and Diane's husband William were attempting to convince Emmett that they could possibly be a new music deal and he should record an album with them.

Randy's three children, all grown adults, were trying to pull the two old men away from Emmett. His granddaughter, Grace, who was just one year younger than Charlotte, was trying to talk Mason into telling her all the juicy details of his relationship with Charlotte. Then there was Tyler, pestering his grandfather Henry, and Ivy about not being tired at all. They wanted him to go to bed.

Then there was Grandma Petunia, competing with Grandma Amanda and Grandpa David over what they did as a grandparent. She was losing. What a perfect reunion this was turning out to be.

Suddenly she was jolted from her daydream. She looked down and chuckled nervously, the tire of the bike bumped into the wall of the garage. Her face went red with embarrassment and she quickly leaned the bike against the wall. Did she have ADHD or something? She was beginning to wonder, after all these years of drifting off into dreamland and losing interest in classes. Shaking herself from that thought, she quickly ran into the house. PJ and Skyler were sitting on the couch, possibly discussing this trip PJ would have to make. She knew it would be difficult, because he would have to take a plane, but he'd done it before with his job. That didn't change the fact that it was probably difficult for him.

"So, what's going to happen? PJ's going down to Palm Springs?" PJ nodded and looked over, his eyebrows rising up slightly. "I know your job's required you to travel, but, do you think you're going to be all right on that plane?" She walked over and PJ stood up, dusting his clothes off. He smiled slightly and folded his arms over.

"It'll be just fine. You know…plane crashes are actually really rare, but either way, Skyler's pretty much planning on giving me a checkup call or two." Skyler smirked and lifted her finger.

"I'll be calling you when you're at the airport, when you're on the plane a couple times, and when you're off the plane, I want you to call me."

"Okay dear." Curious, she would think they'd be with him at the airport. Skyler saw the question in her eyes and gave her a sweet smile.

"He's going to be heading over there tomorrow, I'll be at work and you'll be at school." She nodded in understanding and looked over at PJ, it was hard not to worry about his safety. She was sure he'd be fine, but whenever he got on a plane, she was always afraid he might not be coming back. "He's going to be there until Saturday. That's when the plane comes back. PJ chuckled dryly and shook his head.

"Let's just hope she doesn't try to pack her entire house, there's only so much space we have in this house. The guest bedroom will now become grandma's bedroom, she may not like it, but it'll do." At the very least, Grandma Petunia might appreciate PJ moving her in. She was looking forward to it. "I'll be heading off tomorrow for the eight o'clock flight. Wish me luck. I'll be sure to pack my laptop…" His eyes drifted skyward and a quiet breath left his lips. "Anything to distract me from the plane itself."

So PJ's going to have to pick up old Grandma Blankenhopper, this ought to be interesting.