Carrying on the Torch

Disclaimer: I don't own Good Luck Charlie

A/N: This chapter is going to be very different, a bit special if you will. A flashback, but no one in particular from the present. The point of view is Teddy Duncan herself.

Chapter 39 (A Family, Destroyed)

"It sucks, Ivy, go figure Mom and Dad forget Charlie's appointment when it's too late for them to cancel." Sixteen year old Rebecca 'Teddy' Duncan glared over at her parents from the seats across the plane aisle. She was using her brother's silver laptop and had Ivy on Skype Webcam, both girls were recording the chat, like always. This was the family's first trip to Hawaii, and both PJ and Charlotte were going to miss it.

"Oh I'm sure they won't be too upset," Ivy responded with a quick smile. She let out a gasp and held up a blue shirt in front of the camera. "Look at this, T! I have got to work on the sleeve!" Teddy eyed the blue shirt and raised an eyebrow, her friend had recently taken up designing and was learning to create shirts. As far as this one went, the right sleeve was much shorter than the left. Ivy folded the shirt up and tossed it onto her bed with a heavy sigh. "Anyway, how's Gabe holding up? I know he was taking this trip hard when he left."

"Yeah, that was just weird." She'd put it off as something trivial, as Gabe was being quiet about the whole thing. She turned her head to her right, where Gabe was busy snoozing away. "He hasn't said a word since we left. I think he's partially upset over not having the window seat, but I had to have it. It isn't even that bad outside. Clear as day can be."

"Once you land, he'll start to have fun. Besides, I'm sure his girlfriend's more than willing to wait for him, if that's what he's worried about." Teddy chuckled and leaned back in the chair, contemplating just how much someone as young as those two would wait for each other. Young love, what was the point to it really? Even her time with Spencer had turned out to be crap, especially after what he did to Alice. Remembering the situation, she opened her eyes and frowned at the camera.

"Hey Ivy, do you think Spencer will ever shape up when it comes to Alice? I mean, he is a father…" Maybe he was trying, but the last thing he would need was anything else to shake his world up. "I'm sure worse things could scar him than getting someone pregnant…"

"Oh yeah, that's for sure! I'm sorry about that whole thing, by the way."

"Yeah…" The flight attendant's voice erupted over the intercom, informing people that all electronics needed to be off within five minutes, as the plane would be landing soon. Teddy glanced up and grinned. "Well Ivy, that's my cue. I'll call you once we're in the hotel!"

"All right T, talk to you then. Bye girl, don't let Hawaii steal you away too much!" The girls laughed and ended the chat. After turning off the laptop, she woke Gabe by nudging him sharply in the side. He opened his eyes and moaned.

"What's wrong?"

"We're landing soon, Gabe. So put your flight worries to rest, we're safe in Hawaii."

"We are?" He looked around, in a state of shock and mild panic. "Have we landed yet? If not, we might still-" She pressed her lips together and spoke out with a mild grunt. He was actually beginning to annoy her. Sure he was annoying before, but he'd never really acted like this before!

"Gabe. Nothing is going to happen. How many times do we have to tell you that? Planes are the safest there are."

"Not this one. I looked up our round trip flight with the Hana Flight Services, and they're not that reputable of an airline company. Why couldn't dad take American Airlines?" American Airlines wasn't cheap, and their dad was a cheapskate. Simple as that.

After arriving at the hotel, Teddy was now more annoyed, but not with Gabe. She'd discovered this trip had been one big plan involving a timeshare, aka, a free room that their dad had absolutely no intention of buying. What was worse, was she was covering for him. Of course, she would normally care more, if she wasn't so wrapped up with the cute boy she wanted to tell Ivy all about.

Now she was sitting in a two bed hotel room with a view of a golf course, listening to Gabe complain about the location. "Now Gabe, your father spent a lot of money to make this trip possible," Amy said with certainty. Teddy lifted her eyebrows and smirked.

"Sounds believable too."

"I don't want to share a bed with all of you," Gabe remarked. Bob cleared his throat and concluded that they could definitely make the best out of this. To which Amy suggested that she and Teddy sleep in one bed while Gabe and Bob slept in another. There really wasn't any better solution to this, as Teddy had no intention of sleeping in the same bed as Gabe. "So I get stuck with Dad?"

"Yep."

"Great…" After a while, Bob and Amy decided to check out the nearest eatery while Gabe took a shower. During this time, Teddy took advantage of Skype once more and contacted Ivy.

"Hey Ivy, I want to try something out."

"What?" Ivy responded with a yawn. "Can't it wait until later?"

"No, I want to try this now." She couldn't help the time zones, it was seven o'clock where they were at in Hawaii. Denver was four hours ahead, so it was eleven. "Sorry for waking you, Ivy. I just wanted to see if we could do a video diary via Skype communications."

"Sure…you do that, I'm going to fall asleep."

"I wanted to tell you about this cute Hawaiian boy, Kai."

"That can wait until morning, Teddy…I'm tired, it's been a long day, and Emmett's been-" Ivy paused and covered up a blush to the best of her ability, but Teddy caught it. She eyed her friend suspiciously, wondering just what Emmett and Ivy were up to these days. The two had been acting very odd lately.

"We'll talk about that tomorrow too…I'll go ahead and shoot the diary, I guess the chat'll be saved in your computer afterwards. I hope you don't delete these."

"No, I'd never delete them girl. A hurricane could strike, and I'd keep the video." Ivy yawned and leaned back into the bed. Teddy eyed her friend and gazed past her, she thought she saw another hump in the bed, but she figured herself to be mistaken. Ivy waved her hand in the air and mumbled out her words. "Do the diary thing, Charlie, and good luck…" She laughed and smiled at her friend.

"All right Ivy, get some sleep. I promise to make this quick."

The next day was filled with all sorts of crazy activities, mostly due to Amy's hijinks in a golf store. She was messing around with some golf clubs and accidently hit a ball through the store window. The shop owner 'cursed' her and anyone in her family currently vacationing in Hawaii. But of course, she only taunted him. Hell, no one in the family believed in curses to begin with.

The first strange thing, for Teddy, was the fat lady that interfered with her 'surf lesson' with Kai. Next, Gabe actually went on some helicopter with a guide who wound up falling asleep. Not only did this not do any wonders for Gabe, who was already terrified of planes at this point, but it didn't help Teddy, who had to sit there and listen to his panicked ranting for about a full hour!

And of course, at the hotel when everyone was complaining, and Amy looked like she'd gone through hell, Gabe complained about the family being 'cursed' off the wall. Amy immediately confessed to assuming the storekeeper cursed them. It was over the next few days, things started going from bad to worse, including Amy having a severe allergic reaction to something that made her become extremely fat and losing her hair.

During all of this, Teddy had kept pretty well in contact with Ivy, trying to maintain a good calm familiarity in all the insanity, but even that was staring to fail. To the very day they had to return, hours beforehand, Teddy was at least able to talk to Ivy over the phone. "So Ivy, later we're going to do the Skype video diary again, right?"

"Yeah T, I'm going to look so good in this one." Teddy laughed and scratched the back of her head, trying to imagine Ivy going nuts about what outfit to wear for the video diary. It was one of the few that Ivy herself got to be involved in. "At least I won't look like I'm so exhausted I can't move a muscle."

"Yeah, about that one…" She'd been thinking about what she saw there and was actually curious as to whether or not Ivy and Emmet had been having sex. "Was I seeing someone in bed with you the other night? I swear I saw another hump." She heard her friend cough and waited patiently for an answer. If she didn't get it now, oh would she hound the two of them when she got back.

"Who are you talking to, girl? You think I would be having sex with Emmett, of all people?"

"Hey, he's not looking half bad these days, is he, Ivy?"

"Oh please be joking." She could tell Ivy was not being serious about this. It wouldn't be long before she started trying to deflect the topic. "So, tell me about this Kai!" Yep, there was the deflection.

"He was cute, it's a shame we won't see each other again though." Fun while it lasted, and surely he wouldn't be the last cute boy to come along. "Ivy you missed a whole lot of crazy. Mom got all of us in Hawaii cursed, Gabe's gone bat-shit over going on a plane, and Mom started losing her hair! You know, I'd be half tempted to believe Gabe's crazy doomsday tale…any idea how PJ and Charlie are doing?"

"Well Emmett's talked to him once at least, the appointment went well and Charlie's doing great. They're excited, waiting for you guys to come home." She was actually starting to miss PJ too, she really missed Charlie. When she got home, she was going to scoop up her baby sister, then tackle PJ with a strong hug. Hell, Gabe seemed like he might be tempted to do the same exact thing.

"Teddy, it's time to get going!" Bob called out from the doorway. She looked over and quickly grabbed her purse, sighing heavily as she left the hotel room. She still had Ivy on the line, even though she'd be talking to her on Skype in a little while.

When she got onto the plane, she really had a bad feeling in her gut, one she couldn't explain. She eyed Gabe in front of her and pulled the corner of her lip back. Was there any thought to his insanity? "Hey T, stay safe all right? I think you're going to be going through some stormy weather."

"Oh god Ivy, don't say that, you know Gabe will flip out." Her stomach started churning as an unsettling feeling began to come over her. She bit her lip and slowly made her way down the aisle to their seats. When they made it, Gabe pulled PJ's laptop from his carry-on luggage. He'd been holding the laptop for Teddy. She took it and set it in her lap. Her eyes moved to the window and she inhaled deeply, trying to shake the sudden onset of nervousness. "All right, I need to hang up during the takeoff, so have Skype ready. I'll be on after a while."

"Already on it, girl!"

"Great." She hung up the phone and looked over to Gabe, he was playing some handheld game. Amy and Bob were in the seats in front of them this time, both looking back with smiles on their faces. Teddy couldn't help but wonder, how different would the trip have been if PJ and Charlie had come along? Hell, maybe PJ could have convinced Bob to choose a different airline.

After all, PJ refused to fly any airline other than the popular ones, such as American Airlines. Not these unknown planes. It was just some silly preoccupation of his.

"Mom, Dad, do you guys feel sick at all?" Bob gave her a strange look and shook his head. Amy shook her head and smacked her lips.

"No dear. I don't feel anything other than irritation over the timeshare." She shot her husband a look and Bob chuckled nervously.

"Well look at it this way, Mom. We now have free access to Hawaii, should we ever visit again."

"Uh huh."

Once the parents turned around and the plane started to take off, Teddy could not keep her eyes off the skies outside the window. It was the perfect time to start that video diary. Gabe was about to give PJ a call, so maybe they could say hi to Charlie from the plane.

She flipped on the computer and found Ivy on Skype, immediately her strange nervous emotion fled, as though it had never been there. Her eyes lit up with joy when she saw her friend's familiar face. Ivy's cheekbones were high and her eyes were full of life. "Hey T! What's up!"

"Not much, it's beautiful out. I don't know what you were saying about a storm." She laughed and flicked her eyes towards the window. Maybe the sky wasn't perfect looking, but the clouds only looked a tad grey, if anything. "By the way Ivy, you know that timeshare?"

"What about it?"

"Well we got to keep it, so anytime any of us want to go to Hawaii…it's free!" She circled her finger in the air, laughing a bit as Bob groaned. Apparently his ego had been pretty much shot during the whole trip, but who could blame him? "Anyway, what's going on over there?"

"Well Dad's got a new 'love' right now, some precious silverware of his. Mom's been feeling pretty crappy lately, but she'll get better soon, and I am thinking of hitting a designer shop for some sewing tips!"

"Your mom knows like a million sewing tricks, doesn't she?"

"Yeah, she gets a kick out of her sewing, but that's different." Teddy chuckled and slowly shook her head. She didn't think it was much different at all, but if Ivy said it was different and wanted to believe that, then she could say it was different. "Anyway, you're wanting to get that video diary done, right?"

"Yes. Are you ready?"

"Start talking, girl!" She grinned and glanced over as Gabe started talking on the phone. She could ignore him for the time being. At least he didn't seem all that terrified like he'd been a few days ago. Thank god for that.

After a short amount of time, the video diary was still going on, but Ivy had to take a break. Apparently Emmett called and she wanted to talk to him, so they put the video diary on hold, while leaving the webcam on. She kept the laptop stationed right in her lap when she heard the pilot's voice over the intercom.

"Ladies and Gentlemen this is your pilot speaking. We're experiencing a slight delay, please remain in your seats at all time and make sure your belts are fastened appropriately." Teddy heard Gabe gasp sharply, still on the phone with PJ. Teddy rolled her eyes and moved her forearm up, resting her chin in the palm of her hand.

"Here we go again." She stared outside and felt everything freeze, her eyes widened onto that of giant black clouds surrounding the entire plane. She slowly lowered her arm as thunder jarred her senses. "What the hell? Gabe, it's a storm…"

"Oh god!" Gabe dropped the phone, causing it to shut off and slide down the aisle. He let out a gasp and undid his seatbelt. "The phone!"

"Gabe sit down, it's just a storm, that's all." Gabe shot up and started for the phone, Bob rose up next to try and grab for him. Amy ordered them to sit while Teddy slowly looked outside. Rain was pelting the windows at high speed and lightning was shooting everywhere, this couldn't be a typical storm.

Suddenly her heart started pounding and her body started to tense, her senses sharpened as she felt the plane beginning to shake. Several passengers started screaming and moving towards the window on the other side of the aisle. "We've been hit!" They screamed out. Her eyes widened and the plane was struck again. She slowly moved her eyes to her window and eyed the edge of the wing, the entire wing was on fire! Her mouth opened, but it seemed nothing came out. Rather, she heard her mother scream as the plane shook once more.

"Bob! Gabe! Hurry!"

"Mommy!" Teddy whipped her head around and screamed at the sight, Bob had fallen down and was lying on top of Gabe, who was squirming beneath him.

"Dad!" Fear kept her glued to her seat and shock kept her from remaining calm. Her dad was not moving, the man was lying straight along the aisle, but his head was beneath the one of the seats. His neck against the leg. "Dad get up! Stop messing around!"

"Bob!" Amy cried out. She undid her belt and started running for her husband and son, but the flight attendant grabbed her around the waist while holding onto an emergency bar at the top of the plane. "Let me go! I need to reach my husband! Let me go!"

Teddy began hyperventilating once she realized that her dad was likely unconscious, or no longer alive. She moved the laptop to Gabe's seat, forgetting all about the webcam, and trying desperately to remove the belt. The panic she was feeling was making her fidget and fumble like some sort of clumsy person.

"No!" She screamed in a terrific rage. Gabe's fears had seriously been true? It was the furthest thing from her mind, but still, she couldn't bring herself to believe it. She was fighting against that belt, still, trying hard to reach her father. "Please be okay, please be okay, oh god please be okay!"

"Passengers, this is your copilot speaking. We want to thank you for flying with Hana Air, and we apologize…we've done everything we can…" What was this? She lifted her head up, glaring in an angry panic at the cockpit door. Were they giving up? Seriously? She wanted to scream, she wanted to tear them limb from limb! "Right now I am hanging on for life, the storm has blown out the front window and the pilot has just been sucked out of the plane. If you can try to remain calm-" A loud whistling noise was heard, and then nothing.

Everyone froze, even the furious panting of the frightened passengers and Gabe's screaming had died out. No one moved an inch, trying hard to hear what happened to the pilots driving this thing. Teddy slowly turned her head to the webcam, remembering it at the last instant. She let out one weak sob, tears streaming down her face as hopelessness fled her body. She, like everyone else, knew exactly how this was going to end.

She heard Gabe take his final breath, suffocating under his father's dead weight. She was almost certain that he said Jo before passing. Amy fell to her knees, with the stewardess clinging onto her for dear life. She pushed her away and brought her hands to her face, sobbing bitterly.

"Ch-Charlie…We love you, baby sister. Please, always remember that. Ivy, I know how PJ is, don't let…don't let him distance himself from everyone…I know he will do that. We'll always love you guys. Don't…don't ever forget us, and don't…don't spend all your time mourning." She closed her eyes and started to sob, she didn't need to look out that window to know they were about to crash into the ground within seconds. The plane would erupt into flames, and Ivy wasn't even off the phone yet! "Please…do your best growing up in life…'good luck' doesn't apply here. I don't want to die!" Her weeps came out more frantic, rushed, and she started pleading in her mind to live through this. "All I have left is…goodbye, and I don't want to say goodbye. Please, stay close, don't ever say goodbye to…" She wiped her eyes with her wrist and started to end it altogether. One last 'I love you', and then finally, 'goodbye' would suffice.

"Charlie, PJ, Ivy, Jo, Emmett, everyone…I, we, we all love you. Good-" A gust of wind shot past her and her eyes grew large as an explosion tore through the plane.

Ivy returned to her bedroom after getting off the phone with Emmett, she'd been anxiously waiting to get back to Teddy. "Okay T, I'm back, where-" Her eyes drifted to the computer, the Skype call had ended and Teddy was offline. Had she been away that long? "Where did you go?"

She sat down and opened the Skype archive files, she was beginning to get that same unsettling feeling that Teddy had been having. She took a slow breath as her mouse started hovering over the most recent file June 29th, 2011. Her throat started to lock as she clicked the file and watched through the first part of the video. There was nothing odd going on.

Then it struck, Gabe dropped his phone and the plane began to shake. Her eyes widened as her breath hitched. Her hand flew to her mouth when she almost swore she saw Mr. Duncan falling past the camera. "No…"

Her world grew very dark in the few seconds that the accident was happening. It seemed like it was an eternity, but glancing at the time, she only had about thirty seconds to the end of the video, and she honestly couldn't watch it. She began hyperventilating, shouts ran from her lips without her knowing, and at some point of time she felt her parents wrap their arms around her.

She was numb, her eyes glued to the video, and her surroundings was left to darkness. Her eyes were wet from tears as she stared at her best friend, giving one final look at the computer, all hope gone from her eyes. She put her hand to her lips and whimpered softly, her body trembled with fear and panic. She didn't want to lose Teddy, she didn't want to lose that family.

"Oh god…" Her father reached over and flipped off the video just before Teddy was hit. Ivy couldn't bear to delete it, but she couldn't watch it. She wanted to delete it, but there was a pull that kept her from doing so. A finality, perhaps. She couldn't pretend it didn't happen, she couldn't deny it, as much as she wanted to. It was right there in front of her. A reminder.

As she broke down and wept bitter tears, her parents hugged her close, rocking back and forth. Her gaze shook upon the date of the video. She would never forget. A part of her died that day, a part of everyone that ever knew the Duncan family. They made everyone feel like family. Alice, Skyler, Emmett, and even Mrs. Dabney. They were all family.

June 29th, 2011: An entire family, destroyed.

There is not much I can say here, let me know what you thought of the chapter.