Pick A School;Any School As Long As It's Princeton

Dani heard the mailman come and ran out to get it. She had completed her studies even with the year long break to do a “normal’ high school and still felt like she had writers cramp from all the applications that Brian and her had filled out to the colleges.

When she opened the box she gulped. The bills had come but they weren’t her concern, it was the other that made her palms break out in a sweat. Four letters addressed to her and it looked like the four corners of the United States.

The first was from UCLA and she flipped it to the bottom, the second from KSU, the third from U of M and the last surprised her the most. She had gotten good grades she knew but Princeton? Oh well, she thought as she tore the envelope open, that one was in New Jersey and at least she knew the place. She really didn’t expect an acceptance to the school though.

Dani stopped abruptly in the drive and just looked at the words again. “Congratulations and welcome” it began. Oh God, they wanted her! Plans began to form in her head on how she could take her pre studies there and then go on to one of the Forensic Anthropology schools to complete her education.
She wasn’t in any hurry to be done with school like so many kids were and she wanted this particular field no matter how long it took. The idea of doing something like this made her feel that she would be giving to the world in another way, something other than music.

‘MOM!!!” she yelled as she slammed the door shut. ‘Just look what your baby girl did.’ Dani danced around the kitchen as Ann sat down to look at the letters.
‘Princeton, Dani. Isn’t that Ivy league?’

‘Yep it is. But Mom I can do it. I have to call Brian, he’ll be so pleased.’ She stopped and turned around in the doorway. ‘Ya know I didn’t look at the others are they good ones too?’ she asked almost shyly.

‘Yes Darlin’ they are.’ Ann smiled at her youngest. ‘And you know you don’t have to make a decision just yet. Interviews won’t begin for another two months.’

‘Yeah,’ Dani sat down and put her chin in her fists. ‘Mom, the only one even near here is KSU and that is a ways away. I don’t know if I’m really ready for this.’

‘You have time.’ Ann said. ‘Lots of it.’

‘Well, Brian first then Jessie.’ Dani jumped up and ran up the stairs to her room.

Brian was excited and said he’d be over to talk later on that evening and so she had time to tell Jessie and get her opinion. After the whole cabin thing she wasn’t sure Kevin would ever let her speak to any Baldwin/Fillion people again but he took it in stride after hearing the whole thing from both Nathan and Adam. It could of happened to anyone. Now though, she knew not to leave if it ever, hah, what was she thinking, the closest she would ever get to camping again was her own back yard.

She hit speed dial on her cell and listened to the familiar chirp at the other end.


Since their cabin trip had been cut short in such a spectacular fashion, Jessie was pretty sure that her father had regressed to his pre-Scotland version. Weeks later, he was still over protective and deeply annoying. She stomped upstairs to change into something less offensive to caveman parents.

She was in the middle of changing into jeans when her cell started playing ‘Barbie Girl.”

“Caleb, I’m going to kill you if you touch my cell again!’ she yelled, then grinned when she saw the familiar name on the display.
‘Hey,’ she said as she made herself comfortable on the pillows.

‘Hey. I got news. Four schools and I don’t know which one to pick. Help me oh logical and knowing Pooba.’

Jessie grinned. ‘Only four? That should be easy enough. Tell all, my son, er, daughter.’

‘Kentucky State but you know, home and all. UCLA but California and Kevin? U of M which has a great program but not quite as extensive as I was hoping for and hold onto something, Princeton.’ Dani held her breath.

Jessie squealed. ‘Princeton? Yey! Of course, there’s always the whole fun in the sun thing with UCLA. You might regret missing the chance to become No.1 party girl.’

‘Not a chance of that I fear. Kevin would have kittens which might be cute but not pretty. But Jessie, I don’t know that I would do well in a dorm or whatever they are called. I’d be close to you though and that is a definite plus.’

Jessie thought for a moment. ‘No, you will become a very scary person. Psycho Dorm Girl. Maybe you could commute?’

‘From Kentucky?!! One hell of a commute there Jessie girl.’

Jessie sighed melodramatically. ‘Are you sure that letter’s from Princeton? You’re not impressing me with your IQ, there, girlie girl. From here. This house. The one in the same general geographical region.’

‘Yeah duh but …’ she stopped for a minute and thought about that. ‘Your house? Gads Jess I don’t know about that. I mean you got a full house as it is. Besides I can’t just show up on the doorstep in a basket with a sign saying love me, let me stay.’

Jessie snorted. ‘Stoopid. This is more for me than you – I am seriously outnumbered here now the Bug is well truly ensconced. I can’t guarantee that you’ll live the life of the carefree co-ed, you would not believe how totally draconian Daddy has become since we got back from the hospital. I swear he’ll have me wearing ear muffins and three wooly scarves well into June.’

‘Oh I can believe Jessie. Carefree and footloose. Let me run it by Mom and pack.’ She giggled,’ I suppose I’ll have to be all big and ask Grizzly and brat too. Oh dammit I forgot about the creepy crawlie you call brother.’

‘Get it right, I think you mean the brother I call creepy crawlie. I think you bonded, or maybe you just got stuck together with all the mud. ‘

‘Either way if you think Princeton is where I belong then that’s the one I can push for when Brian comes by this evening. After I talk to Mom I’ll give you a buzz is that okay?’ she thought about Caleb and grinned into the phone, ‘Yeah, for a Bug he’s okay. Later!’

Jessie grinned as she flipped the cell phone closed.

‘Jessie, if you don’t get down here now, we’re leaving without you,’ Adam called from the bottom of the stairs. She cheerfully poked her tongue out in the general direction and grabbed her jacket. “Coming,’ she replied as she slammed the bedroom door behind her and bounced down the stairs. ‘Let’s shop!’


Dani was clean and jammied by the time Brian came over and Ann put out drinks and snacks and then left the cousins alone to talk. Sometimes she felt left out of her daughter’s life but it was what she had chosen and by the looks of it Kevin and Brian had done a fabulous job of it.

‘So have you decided at all?’ Brian drawled as he looked at each letter with pride.
‘Sorta. I called Jessie and she thinks Princeton.’

Brian laughed, ‘Well she would, you’d be close to her then.’
‘Close to who?’ Kevin asked as he and Alex came in and grabbed sodas and cookies.
‘Jessie.’ Dani said and watched her brother frown.
‘How so?’
Dani picked up the acceptance from the school and waved it in his face, ‘This.’

Kevin nearly went cross eyed as he tried to focus and eventually he grabbed the letter and read. ‘Way to go, girl.’ He grinned at his sister. ‘So you could stay at the Baldwin’s?’
‘I don’t know yet, Brian hasn’t really given his input.’
‘No contest kiddo. Princeton would look good on any resume. But I have to agree with Bear. You need to see if they will accept you, dormlife is not for you.’

Dani rolled her eyes and snorted. ‘And that’s why,’ they both said in unison.

‘Anyone care to hear what I have to say?’ Ann asked and all four turned to look at her.
‘As the mother of a prospective university student I think that Danielle should go to the best school for her. Whichever one offers the most of what you need is where you should go and distance is not a question. I would love to have you here with me, us but if that is not the right option for what you want to do with your life then by all means, jump, run, fly to where you need to be and we will see you when we can.’

‘Oh, Mom,’ Dani said and went to hug her.

Later that night she rang Jessie back and told her what had happened. ‘So can you ask your dad or other dad if they can pick me up at the airport? Mom doesn’t want me to drive that far.’

Jessie grinned, despite the fact Dani couldn’t see her. ‘Oh, I think you should do this one yourself, college girl.’ Before Dani could reply, Jessie had handed the cell phone to Adam.

‘Dani wants to talk to you, Daddy,’ she grinned.

‘Hi Danielle,’ Adam said, his tone a little surprised.

‘Shit, dammit, fuck, fuck, fuck…’

‘And good evening to you, Danielle. Was that all you needed me for, or can I help you with something?’ Adam’s tone was dry, but he winked at Jessie as she hopped nervously from one foot to the other.

‘Oh shit, no, I mean sorry, that wasn’t it. I’m going to be flying to New Jersey in a few weeks for an interview and I was wondering if you or Nathan could pick me up at the airport. My mother, who loves me dearly and would hate to lose her only daughter does not want me to drive that far. But I can if it’s a bother.’ She added hastily. “I will so get you back for this, Jessica Ann Baldwin,” she muttered under her breath.

‘I’m sure one of us can manage that. Can I ask what the interview is for?’ Adam was apparently on his best behaviour.

‘Sure you can.’ Dani waited. ‘Oh, that was you asking huh? I have an interview at Princeton for the Anthropology Department.’
‘Congratulations.’ There was a very long pause.
‘What?’ Jessie asked, still bouncing back and forth.
‘Sorry, Dani, I was just trying to picture you in a Princeton dorm.’ Jessie punched her father’s arm. ‘No, not like that, I mean …’ Adam sighed. ‘Would you like to talk to Nathan.’ Nathan took the cell phone with a quizzical expression.

‘Dani?’

‘Hi Nathan! God I am so excited about this now that I don’t even know where to start. I got four acceptances and of course the first thing I thought was call the girlfriend and spill. So one thing leads to another and then my Mom says, hey go where you need to, do what you need to do and well, duh, like PRINCETON, hello! So I need to set up an appointment in the next two weeks and I need a lift from the airport ‘cos the mommy doesn’t want me to drive that far and as long as I got you on the phone any chance I can stay with you guys for this? I mean Mom and Bear think you’re the tops, and Brian really liked hangin wid you especially. So please? I can try to be good. Nathan please say yes.’ Dani begged.

Nathan laughed. ‘I guessed this was all leading up to something. Is this why Jessie is dancing around like a cat on a hot tine roof?’

Jessie nodded and wrapped her arms round Adam’s neck. ‘Pleeeeeeeeease?’

Adam was trying to work out what was going on. Nathan looked at his partner. ‘Dani wants to live here while she’s at Princeton.’

‘Oh, okay then,’ Adam said, somewhat overwhelmed.

‘YES!!’ Dani shouted through the phone and blew kisses to the people at the other end. She threw the phone down on the bed and ran down the stairs, ‘MOM! Mom! They said yes!’ she shouted and came to a halt as Ann rounded the corner. ‘Good girl. now get everything ready for leaving so we don’t have to run around the last minute.’ She watched Dani’s retreating back. ‘And call your brother!’ She laughed as she went back to doing dishes.

In her room Dani finally noticed the phone on the bed and grabbed it up, ‘Hello? Oh shit, hello?’

Nathan was waiting patiently, having heard Dani’s yell and the sound of retreating footsteps.
‘What’s going on?’ Jessie asked, significantly less patient.

‘Dani screeched and then ran off. Downstairs, I think,’ explained Nathan. ‘Oh, hold on. Hello, Dani.’

‘Oh thank goodness you’re still there. I’m sorry I got carried away and went to tell Mom. So you want me to call back when I have a date then? But I still need to talk to Jessie so don’t hang up.’

Caleb wandered in having gone past and seen his sister hopping around like some demented bunny and stopped inside the door. ‘So what’s going on?’

Jessie grabbed Caleb and danced him round the living room. ‘Dani’s going to Princeton and coming to live here,’ she explained happily as though her words made sense.

‘Hold on, Dani, she’s busy doing a Snoopy dance.’ Nathan explained. ‘Jessie, Dani wants you.’

Caleb allowed himself to be pranced about and then snorted. ‘Great, Daft and Daftier, just what I need,’ he said and headed to the kitchen.

Dani waited patiently for the festivities to stop at that end and sat down on her bed. She looked up as Kevin walked in and smiled. ‘I can stay with them.’ She told him as though he would know who “them” was.

Kevin sat down and nodded. ‘I’m on my way home kiddo, I just came in for a hug. Call me as soon as you have it set up and let me know. Then call again when you hit New Jersey.’

She watched him leave and felt like a part of her childhood just left the building too.

The Rescue?

Caleb could not believe what he was seeing let alone what the implications were. His mind felt frozen and yet as though it were spinning at thousands of revolutions per second, maybe even nanoseconds and he began to run. ‘Dani!; down the embankment Dani! Run NOW!’ He shouted at her.

For a few unreal minutes Dani was glued to the spot she was standing on and everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, everything except the replay of Jessie going over the top of the ropes. How? Her mind kept asking itself and then she began to hear what Caleb was saying and she ran towards the water.

The kids were still tied together and there was no way they weren’t going to end up in the water. Thankfully it headed towards the lake which was calm. If they stayed to the side they were on it would even take them closer to their goal in a perverse sort of way.

Caleb shucked off his pack but he held onto the gun. He wasn’t too worried about being in the water, he could swim with the best of them but he was worried about Jessie, she hadn’t yelled for them or anything. If she hit the water wrong…he refused to think about that. She could just have the wind knocked out of her, be busy taking things off, anything.

Dani hit the water first and she gasped at how cold it felt. Trying to remember everything that Nick had taught her was not easy in the circumstances but she was getting as light as possible. She could see Jessie bobbing but couldn’t tell if she was conscious or not. What she did know was Jessie was not talking to her.

Caleb practically dove into the water and swam towards Dani with even strokes. ‘You okay?’ he asked and she nodded. He spun around and saw his sister floating so her back pack hadn’t taken her under but was so far keeping her above the water. For how long though? ‘I’m gonna try to get to her. Follow along.’ He said not looking to see if she was listening and ready to follow directions or not. All he knew was he had to get to Jessie before that pack filled and pulled her down.

Dani was treading water as she worked to get herself out of the pack and still keep her and Caleb tied together and it was proving to not be as easy a task as she had at first thought. Finally the pack was free and she let it go with a farewell salute. Whether they needed what was in there or not was not uppermost in her mind right now, right now she was more concerned about getting to Jessie and getting her out of the water.

Caleb began to swim but when he saw what Dani was doing he began to strip himself of the pack he had and he reluctantly let the gun go too. Now was not the time to worry about things, Jessie needed them. Dani swam up to him and helped by pulling the pack as he shrugged and soon they were both free. ‘Do not untie yourself no matter what.’ Caleb said and Dani nodded, she didn’t want to waste breath talking until she had too. It had been a long time since she’d been in turbulent waters and she needed her energy and strength for them to be able to reach the disabled teen. Her eyes filled with tears and she sent a silent prayer up for Jessie to be alright and for them to reach her in plenty of time.

The waters seemed to have a different idea of what they wanted and as soon as the two teens would get anywhere near enough to grab at Jessie which they could see now was unconscious, it would swirl them in another direction away from her. Caleb would swear and Dani would get a tightness in her stomach.

After several attempts Caleb stopped and waited for Dani too reach him. ‘This isn’t working very well. I think we may have to untie and go at her from different directions. What do you think?’

Dani coughed as she swallowed yet another mouthful of dirty lake water and turned around to get her bearings. It did seem a good plan in theory but she had reservations on doing it. They could be separated and something really bad could happen. Neither of them might reach Jessie and it was clear now that her pack was filling with water and she would go under soon. ‘Caleb, she could drown.’

Caleb twirled around and looked and slammed a fist into the water, ‘Dammit!’ Both teens began another assault and hoped against hope that they were soon in calmer water so they could reach her and get her to shore.

This time Dani did not follow along behind she swam off to one side and as soon as Caleb saw what she was doing he went the opposite. If anything they would catch Jessie on the rope and be able to pull her along.

It was getting harder to put one arm over the other as they ploughed on and were buffeted back time and again as Jessie slowly sank with the weight she had on her.

‘NO!’ the anguished cry tore itself from Dani’s guts as she watched in horror as Jessie sank beneath the surface. There were bubbles and then there weren’t.

Caleb had been stroking his way along when Dani let out that heat stopping cry and he tread water and watched his sister disappear. Not thinking he untied the rope and dove. The water was calmer underneath and murky, making it difficult to see but he had a pretty good idea where she was and he kicked off strongly in that direction. Jessie being out was a blessing of sorts and the water was cold which was another. He calculated she had about five minutes and he had to reach her.

Dani felt the rope go slack and she kicked off in the general direction of where she had watched Jessie go under. Caleb was nowhere to be seen and she figured he was under after her. She decided to stay put and wait for them. Funnily she was sure that Caleb would succeed in getting her back up but then he would need help getting her to shore.

Caleb bumped into something and reached out to grab at it. Jessie! Her hand! He hauled her up to him and was shaken to the core at how pale she looked and she wasn’t moving or breathing. All he could think of was to get up and get her out and do it now. He kicked off towards the surface and when they broke water Dani was there to help haul her to shore. Thankfully they were close enough so that no one had time to think about what could be happening.

Dani was first out of the water and she grabbed at Jessie’s hands and pulled. Caleb came out dripping water, no more like pouring water and he grabbed her feet. Together they got her far enough out and let her go. Dani dropped down and turned her on her side to get some of the water out of her lungs and her breath hitched as it poured steadily for a few minutes that to Dani felt like an eternity.

Caleb was loosening her clothes and thumping her on the back and as they worked in tandem Jessie was turned on her back. Caleb began to push on her chest to get her heart going and Danni would count the compressions and then breathe for her. ‘Come on breathe!’ Caleb said as he began to sweat. ‘Dammit Jessie don’t you dare!’ he wanted to thump her like they did in the movies but that wouldn’t accomplish anything at all. He was near to tears.

‘…four; five,’ Dani whispered to herself and bent to breathe into Jessie’s lungs again. ‘Come on girlfriend, you can do it. Grissly ol’ grumpy will kill us if you just lay here.’ She bent to breathe again.

The deputy listened to the radio message in stoic silence. It wasn’t so many years since he’d been a teenager, so he could understand why the youngsters had decided to head out on their own, but the Sheriff’s words had sent a chill down his spine.
‘You better hurry, Mike,’ the gruff voice had signed off.
Mike Edwards was the Sheriff’s department’s newest deputy, barely out of his probationer period. Only a month ago, he’d been driving shotgun with one of the older officers, and his pulse was racing at the thought of action, even something as serious as this.
He swung the patrol car off the road onto the muddy track and gritted his teeth as the car’s suspension was put to the test by the narrow and bumpy path. He pushed the car as far as he could, well aware that every yard he managed to cover in the vehicle could be the one that made the difference for the stricken teens.

From memory, Edwards figured he was 300 yards from the river when the track became a path and not even his determination could push the car through the narrow gap between the trees. He grabbed the medical kit from the trunk and started to jog towards the bridge.

There was no sign of any youngsters when he reached the river, but plenty of evidence that they had been there. He could see from the tracks in the mud that they had gone into the river and it was obvious from the swirling water that they would have had no choice but to follow the current downstream to the lake.

The deputy ran along the bank and within minutes he spotted the teenagers. Dripping wet, two of them knelt in the mud and were working on the third. He suppressed his growing sense of dread and ran up to the bedraggled little group.

‘Hey, I’m Mike,’ he said as he dropped his pack and joined the kneeling youngsters. At that moment, the unconscious girl coughed and spluttered, water spilling from her mouth.

Caleb was exhausted from the compressions and he had tears he didn’t even realise running in a steady stream down his cheeks. It didn’t register with him that there was anyone else there until Jessie spluttered and then he thought he would fall apart for sure. His teeth began to chatter and he sat down on his rump in the mud and stared at her. Pink, she was getting pink now.

Dani coughed as water went into her mouth and she nearly breathed it in and it was only then that she remembered Nick telling her to be very careful when doing this as bad things could happen. Water wasn’t so bad though and she let out a strangled sob as Jessie took a breath on her. Not realising what she was doing she began to pummel the officer as choked words kept coming from her, ‘Where were you? We needed an adult for this, it wasn’t fair to leave us alone like that. We needed you!’ She broke apart then and reached down to cover Jessie as best she could with her own body to help warm her. ‘She needed you.’

Mike accepted the pounding as his due as he shrugged off his jacket. He bent down to wrap it around the barely conscious girl and then stood up with her in his arms. He’d been a football player in high school, and still carried the muscle and bulk of a quarterback.
‘My patrol car’s about a quarter of mile from the bridge. Can you two walk okay? I think the sooner we get you all in the warm, the better.’

Jessie was barely aware of her surroundings. She was tired, and she wanted to sleep. ‘Hey,’ she said softly and wondered why her throat hurt. ‘S’cold,’ she murmured as she closed her eyes and rested against the deputy’s broad chest.

Dani fussed as the officer lifted Jessie up and gave him a critical look when she complained of the cold as though it was his fault that his coat wasn’t warm enough. ‘We can walk. We made it this far.’

Caleb grinned at her as his teeth tried to tap their way through each other and nodded as she put out a hand to help him up. ‘It’s adrenaline, Bug.’ She told him and he snorted. ‘It’s fucking cold, Dani,’ he retorted as they began the walk to the cruiser.

In the car it was warm and the teens accepted the weight of their fallen comrade when the deputy laid her over their laps. Dani pushed wet curls from Jessie’s face and smiled for the first time in a while. She was breathing, she was pinking up, she was alive! Dani sat back and rested her head on the seat for the trip to the hospital.

Caleb fussed with the coat and tried to make it go as far as it could to cover Jessie’s body. He wanted to get her warmed up as soon as he could. ‘She’s got asthma.’ He said quietly hoping that would hurry the cop along. ‘Call our parents, will you please. We really need them now.’

Mike settled the teens in the back of the patrol car and began to reverse up the track. It was a good quarter of a mile before there was room to turn the car, so he concentrated on the view out of the rear window and tried not to worry about his passengers. Once the car was again facing the right way, he reached for the radio. The conversation was short and to the point.

‘Don’t worry about it, kiddo. The sheriff’s with them and they’re meeting us at the hospital.’ He flipped on the siren and lights as they turned onto the highway and he pushed the gas pedal to the floor.

Jessie’s first thought was that she was wet and she wrinkled her nose as the smell of river water reached her sensitive nostrils. ‘Euw,’ she murmured as she opened her eyes and looked at the roof of the patrol car. She blinked a few times, but the sight didn’t make any more sense.
‘What happened?’ she asked, more to hear the sound of her own voice than because she really expected an answer.

‘You drowned.’ Caleb said and grinned at her. ‘We saved your sorry ass.’
Dani reached over and slugged him and he rubbed his arm and said ‘ow,’ but grinned at her too.

‘Don’t listen to him,’ Dani said. ‘You fell off the bridge somehow and ended up in the water. We were still tied together so guess who followed right along behind you? Lucky for you though we did cos he’s right. Your pack pulled you under the water and Caleb,’ Dani spared him a look of gratitude, ‘dove down and rescued you. Now shush and let this officer of Mayberry get us to the hospital. Grizzly and Momma are waiting for us there.’

‘Huh.’ Jessie closed her eyes and digested that information. ‘Must have slipped. Stoopid.’ She dozed off for a minute or two, then opened her eyes again. ‘Hospital? Why are we going to a hospital?’

Mike radioed his progress in to Dispatch, and concentrated on the road. Fortunately it was dry and fairly quiet, a definite improvement on the previous few days.
‘Just a couple more miles. Is she okay?’

‘Who she?’ Jessie enquired.

‘You need to be seen, you DIED,’ Caleb rolled his eyes.
‘You she dope.’ Dani said. ‘She’s fine and about to pitch a fit over going to the h-o-s-p-i-t-a-l,’ She spelled out so Jessie would have to think for a minute or so, or not.

‘If I had the energy, I would punch you both,’ Jessie grinned weakly. ‘I can spell, you know.’ She coughed a couple of times then noticed the silence.
‘I’m not having an attack, you twits, there’s no need to hold your breath every time I cough. I’m kind of tired though, I don’t think I like white water rafting without a raft.’

Mike grinned to himself at the teens’ conversation and swerved the cruiser into the small hospital’s ER entrance.
‘We’re here.’

‘Yes, well I was just making sure you didn’t have brain damage you know. It could happen with the whole drowning thing. Buffy was never the same after she did.’ Dani said. ‘Oh yes, the hospital, yummy.’ She wrinkled her nose.

‘I would let you too,’ Caleb said, ‘but only this once and I will deny to my dying day that I said so.’ He looked around for a familiar SUV and was disappointed that they hadn’t beat them here. He wanted to hand over the responsibility of this whole mess to those who were used to carrying that ball. Sighing he waited for the deputy to open the door and for Jessie to be hauled off to parts unknown. ‘Don’t let them take her without us.’ He reached over the seat and touched Mike on the back of the shoulder. ‘Not now.’

Dani held onto Jessie a little tighter as though to keep her away from prying hands until they got an answer to that. ‘Not yet.’ She nodded in agreement.

‘Don’t worry,’ Mike said, not too sure what he could do, but certain he would try.

Adam and Nathan were waiting in the ER reception with the Sheriff when he got the call from Dispatch that his deputy and the teens were almost there.
‘I’ll sort out the paperwork,’ Nathan said quietly. ‘Go meet them, but don’t get in the way of the doctor.’
Adam snorted at that. It was automatic, his heart felt like lead; the fear of the past few hours coalescing into a sense of absolute dread, despite the Sheriff’s reassuring words. He waited inside the doors for the car to pull up, keeping out of the way of the doctor, nurses and gurney that were moving to meet the squad car.

He could see his daughter being lifted out of the car, and his heart sank even further. Then he saw that she was awake and protesting against the mask that was being put over her face and he felt a moment of pure joy.
‘Hi, sweetie,’ he said, raising his hand in a wave when Jessie looked in his direction.

‘Hi,’ Jessie said softly through the mask as she waggled her fingers in response.

Caleb was so relieved to see Adam that his knees buckled and Dani reached out to steady him. ‘There is a God,’ he whispered to her. She smiled and nodded. They stood back and let the attendants move Jessie inside, grateful to give the responsibilities over to adults. Now that Adam was there Caleb didn’t feel he had to be with Jessie any longer every step of the way and he hung back with Dani and just watched them go inside.

‘You okay?’ she asked.
‘Yeah.’ He answered.
‘Sure?’
‘Yeah.’
‘She’ll be okay now you know.’ Dani was steadily moving them to the door. It was warm inside and she was still wet and cold although not as wet or as cold as she had been.
‘Dani, I nearly froze when I saw her go under. I could of let her slip through my fingers, she could…’
Dani listened horrified that he was thinking those kinds of thoughts and she did what anyone would do, she wrapped her arms around him and let him cry. She understood the tears were relief, fear and anger. When he stopped and wiped his nose he sighed and looked at her. ‘You aren’t so bad you know.’

‘Yeah, I know,’ she grinned at him. They walked in the doors and went to sit down and wait. Eventually someone would come and let them know how things were with Jessie and then they could really start to breathe again.

Nathan exchanged glances with Adam as his partner followed the gurney into the examination room. He then watched the two stunned teens walk in and head towards the seats.
He walked over to them. ‘Hey,’ he said softly. ‘You guys okay? This nice lady’s going to take you into the staff changing rooms so you can get out of those clothes. There’s showers and she’s going to sort you out something to wear.’
That was of course what Nathan did best. Organise things.
He held out his arms to the youngsters.

Dani was the first to look up in a daze at Nathan and her eyes filled with tears and she threw herself into his open arms. Caleb wasn’t far behind, all manly pretence gone now with a parent here to take over. ‘I’m never coming camping with you people again,’ Dani said when she was done getting Nathan wet. ‘It’s just too scary.’

Caleb watched her follow a nurse to the showers and looked at his dad, ‘We did the best we could,’ he said.

‘Hey, hey,’ Nathan squeezed his son to him, determined not to let him go any time soon. ‘You did good, don’t worry, Caleb.’ He held the youngster and felt him tremble with the cold. ‘Come on, you need to get warm too.’ He steered Caleb in the direction the nurse had gone. ‘Jessie looked okay, they’re just playing it safe.’

Adam stood at his daughter’s bedside and held her hand tightly as the doctor checked her over. ‘Daddy, you can let go, you know, I’m not going anywhere.’ Jessie pointed at the mask that was over her face.
Adam shook his head. ‘Nope. That’s it, I’m never letting go again.’
Jessie rolled her eyes and grinned. ‘Silly daddy.’
She had insisted that he turn round while the nurses undressed her and got her dry before putting into hospital pyjamas.
The doctor wrapped his stethoscope around his neck and looked at his patient. ‘I’m going to give you a couple of shots, antibiotics and steriods and a few more nebuliser treatments over the next hour or so. I’m also going to keep you in overnight, just to be on the safe side.’ He looked up at Adam and then back at Jessie. ‘These are all precautionary measures because of the asthma, you seem to have come through your impromptu dip fairly well.’

‘I don’t remember any of it,’ admitted Jessie.

Dani stood under the hot water letting it soak her and penetrate into her core and sobbed. Her emotions finally came rushing to the surface and she couldn’t of stopped herself if she had tried. When she was free of grime and warm again she waited for the shaking to stop and dressed in the scrubs lying on a chair for her and wrinkled her nose at the pink colour. Jessie would like these, she had a thing for pink.

In the hall she looked around for a phone and when she found one headed for it and dialled the operator. She could hear the ringing and gave her name and nearly broke down again when she heard her mother’s voice. ‘Mama, I’m coming home.’ She started and then the tears fell again. After a bit Anne got the whole story out of her and was shocked that something like that could have happened. She knew that no one could control the weather and that anyone could have made the same decisions but a part of her was angry and she didn’t know why.

After they hung up Dani decided to get a coffee and went down to the cafeteria instead of back to the waiting room. She sat and sipped thinking about school but mostly thinking about Jessie and what was going on with her right then. ‘Let her be alright.’ She whispered into her cup.

Caleb didn’t want a shower or dry clothes or anything until he knew that Jessie was going to really be alright. ‘I’m fine. I can wait.’ He said.

Nathan raised his eyebrow. ‘I’m not asking, kiddo. You need to get clean and dry, so you can go and see Jessie. You can’t go in and drip all over her.’ He ruffled his son’s damp hair. ‘The sooner you get in, the sooner you’ll be done. Plus while we’re in here, Dani’s out there running amok.’

Adam found himself a chair and sat down next to his now sleeping daughter. He still didn’t really know what had happened, and right at that moment, he didn’t much care. The kids were all safe, and he trusted Nathan to look after Caleb and Dani. He leant back and rested his head on the wall. This had definitely been an eventful holiday, and was one they would all need another holiday to recover from.

Caleb sighed and got up. ‘Fine but I’m not wearing anything with ducks on them.’ He went to the showers and after stripping stepped inside and let the water cascade over him. It wasn’t until then he realised how tense he really was. As he washed the kinks out he found he was relaxing too. Things would be fine now. The parents were there to pick up any pieces and life would be good again. It might give them all nightmares for a while but nothing as bad as they could have been.

Out and dried he looked at what the nurses had left him and laughed. ‘So pale blue is not my colour but better than ducks.’ He neglected to mention the trains.

Nathan laughed and put his arm around his son’s shoulders. ‘Right now, I could care less about your affronted fashion sense. Come on, we’ll check on Jessie and Adam, then seek out Dani and food, possibly coffee.’

‘Sounds good to me.’ Caleb said.

Dani finished her coffee and got to throw her cup away. She went down the hall and up two floors and stopped at the nurse’s desk.
‘Yes?’ one of the nurses asked looking up.
‘Jessie Baldwin?’
‘And you would be?’
‘Look lady. I flew nine hundred miles, got stuffed into a car for hours in the back seat with her and her Bug of a brother, dumped in the middle of no where land, rained on, no lights, no food, trees demanding entry into the cabin, dragged miles in the mud and rain and then pulled off a bridge and into freezing water where I watched my best friend in the whole fucking universe drown. Now tell me where the fuck she is or this whole building is going to come down around your ears.’ Dani put her hands on her hips and tapped a foot.

Nathan and Caleb stepped out of the escalator in time to catch the tail end of Dani’s rant. They exchanged looks and Nathan winced. ‘Scary.’ He walked up behind Dani and smiled disarmingly at the nurse.
‘We’re Jessie’s family. We just want to pop in and see how she’s doing.’
The nurse smiled. ‘Room 301, just over there. I think she’s sleeping, and her father’ in there with her.’
‘Thank you, we’ll be quiet.’ Nathan steered the teens towards the hospital room.

Dani turned around and flipped the nurse off before flouncing to the room and in the door. She went over to the bed and looked down at Jessie with the mask over her face and stuck her tongue out. ‘Attention seeker,’ she said and sat on the bed. ‘You look much better than the last time I saw you I have to say. Almost human again. How do you feel?’

Caleb went to the other side and climbed on the bed. ‘Hey.’ He nodded at her and immediately picked up the control and began to raise and lower the bed. ‘Cool.’ He grinned.

‘Hey, you,’ Jessie smiled sleepily at Dani. ‘I’ll do anything for attention, it’s true.’
Nathan and Adam gave Caleb identical looks and Jessie grinned at her brother.
‘Hey bug,’ she said. ‘Nice threads. I’ll be bouncing round the room as soon as the steroids kick in. Anyone want to tell me how we got here so fast?’

Nathan reached over to give his daughter a hug then rested his hand on Adam’s shoulder. Adam reached up and patted his partner’s hand.
‘Pull up a chair, love, you’re making the place look untidy.’

The Motel (The other side of the Cabin)

Adam was watching their purchases be rung through at a snail's pace by the elderly store owner, resisting the temptation to look at his watch or tap his feet. Nathan was watching the torrential rain with fascination. He jumped back when the door flew open with a bang and a tall man encased in a yellow rain slicker entered.`That your SUV out there?' the man enquired, removing the coat to reveal a sheriff's uniform beneath. `Yes, we're just heading back to our cabin.'`By the lake?'`Yes.' Nathan answered, an uneasy feeling growing in his stomach.
`Then you're not. Not today anyways. One of my deputies radioed that the bridge is out. Damned big tree swept down in the floodwater and took out the centre support. Sort of thing only happens in movies, I thought. You'd best see if you can find a room in the motel, or head back to New Jersey if you can.'Adam had overheard the end of the conversation. `That's not an option, the kids are in the cabin.'The sheriff gave him a stern look. `You left children alone up there?`No, they're teenagers, the girls are 16 and Caleb is 13. I'm sure they'll be fine overnight.' Nathan interrupted, trying to sound reassuring. At that moment, his cell phone rang. `Oh, that must be them.'`It's Caleb. Hi, kiddo. Everything okay up there?' Nathan listened for a couple of minutes, his smile fading to be replaced by a concerned look. Adam was looking decidedly manic and was clearly itching to take the phone away from his partner.Nathan held the phone away from his ear for a moment. `No power and there's no fuel for the generator. So they're in the dark, but Jessie's lit the fire so they'll be warm enough.'He carried on talking to his son. `Caleb, the bridge is out so we can't get back up there today.'Nathan looked at the phone in annoyance. `We got cut off.'
`This is ridiculous, there must be another way up there.' Adam looked like he was about ready to explode.`There isn't, Sir. There's only the ford and that has been impassable since the thaw started. I can't let you try that, it would be suicide. And I'd have to arrest you for that.' The sheriff might have been joking, but Nathan wasn't sure.`We'll see if the motel's got room,' he told the sheriff. Adam sighed heavily. `I guess we don't need those groceries now. But we might need toothbrushes. '
After four hours, Nathan was about ready to go back to the store to see if they had a large bottle of scotch, or possibly a rubber mallet. Adam was driving him to drink.
‘Will you please sit down, you’re wearing a groove in the carpet, and making me dizzy.’ He asked politely.
Adam glared at his partner, then slumped on the bed with a sound that was somewhere between a growl and a groan.
‘I hate this.’
‘I can tell. How about we go out to eat?’
Food managed to distract Adam for about an hour, and then he was back to driving Nathan crazy.
‘There is nothing we can do at the moment.’
‘I know that. That is the problem.’
Nathan eventually persuaded Adam to bed by convincing him that everything would be fine at the house overnight.
Ignorance is bliss.
Once in bed, he was able to take Adam’s mind off things for long enough for the big man to fall asleep. Nathan looked at his snoring partner and, just for a microsecond or so, wondered how many years he would get for suffocating him with a pillow.


In the morning, Adam carried on his repeated attempts to get through on the mobile, while Nathan went out to pick up breakfast.

In the diner, Nathan found the sheriff drinking coffee and waiting for his breakfast. The officer had some news, which wasn’t good, but it wasn’t unexpected.

Back in the room, he gave Adam the news that the bridge would be out for another three days. Five minutes later, Adam finally managed to get through to his daughter. When Jessie ended the call, Adam looked at Nathan.
‘The night went okay, but I get the feeling Jessie’s not telling me something.’
‘Adam, I know you’re worried, I am too, but they have enough food, its just not exactly nutritionally sound. A couple of days on snack foods won’t cause them any lasing harm. And there’s plenty of wood for the fire and it’s not the middle of winter. The storm’s passed, they will manage. And I know I’m telling you things you already know.’
Adam sighed heavily. ‘I know. I know. It’s just …’
‘You’re a control freak.’ Nathan grinned.
Adam reluctantly grinned back. ‘Yes, I am.’
The two men tucked into their takeout breakfast, trying not to think about the three teens breakfasting on dry cereal and popcorn.
They spent the morning walking around the small town centre, just to keep themselves occupied. They bought underwear, socks and T shirts, everything they had was already at the cabin.

At lunchtime they stopped at a bar and grill for a burger. The sheriff found them there and pulled up a chair.
‘No news more than this morning. But there is one thing. One of my deputies reminded me there’s an old rope bridge at the top of the lake.’
Adam nodded. ‘I know the one you mean. It’s still there?’
‘As far as we know. It would be a hike through the woods to the cabin, but we might be able to send a couple of guys in a few days when we’re not stretched so thin.’
Nathan looked at his partner, who seemed lost in thought. ‘What are you thinking? I know we don’t have any gear with us, but we could buy boots, kit and packs and try it.’
The sheriff looked at his watch. ‘Not today, you’d be wandering around up there in the dark.’
‘Well, that’s an idea, but that wasn’t what I was thinking. Jessie knows about that bridge.’ Adam looked worried.
‘They wouldn’t, would they?’ The sheriff asked.
Adam and Nathan exchanged knowing looks. ‘Oh, they would.’
Nathan grabbed for his cell phone. As he was finding the buttons, it rang, making him jump.
`Hiya Kiddo, how are you guys doing?' Nathan asked motioning to Adam that it was their son. Nathan heard the scream and then the phone went dead. Nathan moved to redial, but the sheriff put his large hand over the phone.
‘Whatever is happening right now, you phoning will only hinder them. Tell me what he said.
Nathan repeated Caleb’s words almost verbatim.
‘What else did you hear?’
‘I heard a girl scream Caleb’s name.’
‘What else?’
Nathan closed his eyes and thought. ‘Water. Rushing, like on the river.’
‘Nearby?’
‘Yes.’
Adam kept quiet, his face almost white and his jaw clenched.
The sheriff reached for his radio.

The Cabin (part two)

To say it was a pleasant night would be a gross understatement as all three teens tossed and turned and finally slept fitfully. In the morning they were bleary eyed and groggy and definitely in need of coffee.
The one saving grace was the rain had stopped and the wind died down. It looked as though Jessie’s plan could be put into motion which relieved and frightened them at the same time.
‘I made coffee; sort of,’ Dani said as she held out mugs to the others. ‘Doesn’t this just feel so Little House to you guys?’ She sat Indian style and took a tentative sip of the dark brew and made a face. It was strong but she instantly felt more awake, ‘God I’m turning into my mother,’ she muttered.

Caleb accepted the mug and took a drink of it. ‘Tastes like what Granddad used to make,’ he grinned.

Jessie wrapped her hand around the mug and inhaled deeply. ‘Ahh. Lots of crayons in this one.’ She sipped and her eyes popped awake. ‘Ho. I’m awake.’ She looked around at the other two teens. ‘Hey, we survived. See, it pays to stick together.’
She grinned and then jumped as one of the cell phones rang. She grabbed it and pressed the green button.
‘Hello? Daddy?’
It was Adam. After checking that everyone had survived the night relatively unscathed, and uneaten by unnameable forest dwelling monsters, he told her what they had already guessed, that the bridge would not be repaired for at least another three days. Jessie could hear the worry and concern in her father’s voice, although he probably thought he was hiding it.
‘We’ll be okay, but we may never want to eat popcorn again.’ She ended the call, telling Adam that she didn’t want to run the battery down as there was no way of recharging it.
She gave the others a slightly wobbly smile. ‘Right, we better get our gear together and head out. Everyone know what to pack?’

Dani nodded and started so absorbed she didn’t notice Caleb grab Jessie by the arm and pull her away.
‘So what it is that you aren’t saying?’ he asked raising an eyebrow.
‘About what? The fact that I didn’t tell my Dad because I know he’d say “Absolutely not, don’t you don’t even think about it, young lady”, or the fact that it’s a nice walk in good conditions, but we’re going to be walking through soaking wet undergrowth and mud, and by the time we’ve gone half a mile, we’re going to carrying an extra 20 pounds of muck and water, or the fact that the bridge is going to be wet, slippy and dangerous?’ She grinned and lightly punched her brother’s arm. ‘Look, we just have to get over the bridge and to the road. The phones are back up, so we can ring from there. We’ll take the climbing rope and play it extra safe over the bridge, just in case anyone slips. Now get ready and stop with the eyebrow already.’

Caleb rolled his eyes, ‘And they say you are the bright one. I know all of that. What I want to know is what Adam said.’

‘Oh.’ Jessie blushed. ‘Silly me. He said it was going to be at least another three days before the bridge would be fixed. He sounded worried, and it must be driving him crazy that he can’t fix this. Now will you get ready?’

Half an hour later, the teens were fed, watered and suitably attired. Jessie ran through her mental checklist at least twice, until Caleb lost patience and shoved her out of the door.
They began the trek northwards, opting to stay on the track for as long as possible then cut across to the lake side. They trudged silently along the muddy trail for over two hours, finally stopping when they reached the last cabin and the track ended.
‘Okay, we’ve got to head towards the lake now.’ Jessie pointed towards an apparently impenetrable stand of trees and heavy undergrowth. ‘Anyone need a break?’



Dani adjusted her pack and sighed. ‘No, not yet. I may not do this for a living but I can keep going for a while yet, how ‘bout you?’

Caleb had brought one of the rifles even though Jessie had at first protested but they fell on deaf ears. ‘We may need it. If you know about this bridge others might with less honourable intentions.’ He grinned then, ‘Or you might change your mind about dinner.’
He looked around and then started walking again. Jessie had drawn a crude map and he looked at it for reference. ‘You know if we do go through those trees we should maybe tie ourselves together. You say they’re dense and getting lost is not an option right now.’

Jessie nodded. ‘We’ll try it, but we need to be fairly close together. Dani, you can go in the middle.’ She grinned at her friend. ‘Caleb, you want to go in front? I’ll keep the compass, and let you know if we’re heading off. We’ll head due west, as best we can. It should only be a quarter of a mile or so.’
She held her arms out of the way whilst Caleb secured the rope, then patted Dani on the shoulder. ‘You’re doing pretty good for a novice.’

‘Well thank you ma’am, I do aim to please,’ Dani giggled as Caleb tied her to them both. ‘You know Bear always told me to not play with ropes and boys together.’

Caleb snorted and began to walk. It was mushy and a few times he was sure they were all going to tumble head over heels down an embankment but somehow they managed to stay on their feet. It was slow going though as they had to pull each foot out with force to take another step. ‘Muck and slime,’ he began to recite. ‘Well at least this year I will have something to actually write about in English “What I Did On Summer Vacation”.’





Jessie giggled along with Dani. ‘Oh, but you can play with boys, or you can play with ropes?’ She watched Caleb as he started to make his way forward.
Her first thought had been to lead, but had decided Caleb would feel that his manliness was being called into question. Plus there was the whole gun thing. This way he was less likely to shoot any of them.

The quarter of a mile felt longer than the previous two and a half, and by the time they staggered out onto the lake shore, they were all exhausted. Jessie slumped down on a convenient rock, not caring that it was wet and slimy. From her vantage point, she could just about see the break in the trees where the river fed into the lake. It looked like a long way.
She shrugged off her pack and rotated her shoulders to ease the ache. ‘I think its time for a break.’

‘Me too,’ Dani said and threw herself down onto the sand. ‘Help.’ She was on her back and the pack made it impossible to move. Caleb went over and gave her a hand up and then went to take his off and flex his shoulders and arms. ‘Hey, I could do some fishing while we rest.’ He said. ‘If you guys want to make a fire.’

Dani looked at Jessie from the ground and grinned. ‘I never thought about that but I will definitely bring it up to Bear when I get home.’

Caleb found a suitable stick for a pole and a few worms that he stuffed in a pocket. ‘Pin anyone?’ Girls always seemed to have that sort of thing for some reason. Dani dug around in her back pack and came up with one for him and handed it over. She watched as he fashioned it on the end of some string (that boys always seemed to have) and shook her head. ‘At least that will keep him out of trouble.’

‘I heard that.’ Caleb said as he sat down to watch the pole.

After a drink and a handful of popcorn Dani was ready to find wood. Jessie found a candy bar and broke it into three, shoving the largest piece into Caleb’s mouth. ‘And that should keep him quiet.’ She handed a piece to Dani and popped the last one in her mouth. ‘I’ll help you find wood, you try along there and don’t go too far into the trees.’ Jessie was definitely a Leo.

Dani gave her a look and headed off in the direction she was pointed. All the wood seemed to be wet and she made faces as she gathered a few pieces and weren’t quite as soaked. Somehow this idea did not seem like a very good one to say the least. A rustling noise caught her attention and she went perfectly still. “Jason”. Was all she could think and her throat and mouth went dry at the prospect of having her throat cut or being disembowelled. ‘Fuckin’ great,’ she muttered but refused to scream. More rustling and she was sure she would pee her pants. Then a cute little cub came out and she let her breath out and sighed. Nothing to worry about at all. ‘Hey, baby, you lost?’ she asked as she took a step towards the cub. It bleated and she stopped. ‘Oh,hush now baby, it’s all right. I won’t hurt you.’ Dani said and went a few steps closer.

The sound nearly split her eardrums and she instinctively put her hands over her ears to shut it out. But when she opened her eyes again there was Mama and she did not look happy. Dani whimpered and backed up one step at a time, forgetting the wood. ‘Oh God, oh God,’ she muttered over and over as she kept backing up.

Caleb’s head popped up and he looked in the direction of the trees to the left of him. Blinking he went through all he had been taught about being out in the woods and stood up. Fishing forgotten he ran for the shot gun and then veered off into the woods. He saw Dani before he did the bear and was about to call to her when he spotted both the cub and the grown animal.
‘Don’t look,’ he said as he kept coming forward slowly. ‘Just listen. I need for you to stand really still. I know it’s hard but bears attack when they sense the movement.’ He kept talking in a low voice as he moved forward towards Dani, hoping she was listening and not going to react and run. ‘Steady…steady…’ he brought the gun to his shoulder. ‘Steady…’ took aim. ‘Steady…’ and fired.

At first he was in shock and then he looked down. Blood was gushing from his shoe and he sat down hard.
The bears ran the opposite way which was a great relief to both teens but Caleb was going pale and felt a little sick to his stomach. ‘Dani, come here please.’ He said.
When she got over there she gasped and went down on her haunches to inspect the wound. ‘You shot your toe. I hope you don’t need it.’

Jessie turned and ran back towards the makeshift camp as she heard Dani’s bloodcurdling scream. She saw Caleb running in Dani’s direction as she got near their backpacks, then she heard the shot and then … nothing.

‘Oh, shit.’ She dropped the wood and ran, catching up with her brother just in time to hear Dani’s comment. ‘Double shit.’ She joined Dani at Caleb’s foot. ‘Huh. You made a mess.’ She looked at the hole and the blood, and then at Caleb. ‘You’ll live, Bug, but don’t look at it. If you faint like a little girl, we’re going to have to drag you back to camp through all that mud.’ She squeezed his shoulder. ‘The first aid stuff is in my backpack. I’m going to get it, don’t go anywhere.’ She looked at Dani, who didn’t have much more colour than Caleb. ‘You okay to stay here?’

She stood up and wobbled slightly. Note to self: do not faint like a little girl, she thought. Back at the camp, she grabbed the kit then jogged back to the waiting teens. She paused for a minute, her hands on her thighs while she caught her breath.

‘I’m not looking.’ Caleb said and snorted at the idea of fainting. He watched her leave and sighed. ‘No fishing. We need to just get moving again.’

Dani raised an eyebrow and looked at him, ‘Think you can walk like that?’
‘Well, I will have to now, won’t I?’ At the hurt look on Dani’s face he smiled. ‘Hey, I don’t mean to be cranky but this kinda hurts you know?’

‘I’m sorry Caleb, I know it must a lot. Jessie will be back with the stuff soon and then we’ll get going. I’m such crap at this.’ Dani sat down next to him.

‘You just aren’t mountain girl, you’re more dance girl.’ He grinned.

‘Hey, bug.’ Jessie said when she could breathe again. ‘I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to get that boot off.’ She knelt down next to her brother and unlaced the boot. ‘Do you need a stick to bite?’ Caleb snorted, and Jessie took advantage of the moment to ease the boot off. She handed the boot to Dani and looked at Caleb’s bloodstained sock and somewhat doubtfully at her scissors. ‘Want me to cut it off?’

Dani dropped the boot in surprise. ‘His foot?’ she squeaked.

‘The sock.’ Jessie decided it would be quicker to just pull it off, easing the fabric over the wound as best she could. ‘What were you shooting at?’ she asked, hoping to keep Caleb’s mind occupied. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the wound. By some miracle, Caleb had shot though the side of his fourth toe, just missing his little toe. ‘The good news is there are no toecapitations.’ She put a dressing on the wound and began to wrap a bandage around his foot. ‘How’s the boot?’

‘It’s seen better days,’ Dani said as she waggled a finger through the hole. ‘He wounded it pretty good.’

‘I hope that you are both greatly amused by this because it hurts like hell.’ Caleb said through his teeth. ‘Now, put the boot back on and let’s get going again. I’d like to have this looked at by a doctor before it needs cutting off.’

‘Spoil sport.’ Dani said as she handed him back the boot. ‘Oh, what’s that Caleb doll? You can’t do it by yourself?’

Caleb gave her a look and then looked at Jessie with puppy dog eyes. ‘Would you please?’ He grimaced as the boot was slid back on his foot but refused to give dance girl any satisfaction at all.

‘Brave boy. Much braver than I would be but hey look at the bright side. It was just a bear and not Jason.’

‘I don’t want to sound too much like Daddy, but do I need to knock your heads together?’
She and Dani helped Caleb to his feet. ‘Okay, soldier. Do you need a stick or something?’
Jessie grabbed the rifle and made sure the safety was on. She slung the strap over her shoulder and grabbed the first aid kit.

‘Yeah, I think I’ll be fine. It’s more a wound than a real gun shot hole. Hurts like hell but nothing so bad I can’t walk.’ Caleb said as he took a first step. ‘Give me back that gun, you have enough to carry as it is.’ He took it and slung it over his shoulder. ‘I’m fine.’



Dani snorted and went ahead to get the packs ready again so they could just keep on walking. The sun was getting lower and they still hadn’t made the bridge. It would be slower now she figured as she watched the other two approach and noticed that even though he was being quite brave about it that foot had to really be hurting. The sting alone would be painful. What were Adam and Nathan going to say about this? She wondered as she stood up and grinned. ‘So toppy type girlfriend what are your orders now?’ Dani saluted Jessie as they got to her.

Caleb groaned and shook his head. ‘Don’t give her ideas Dani. Of the three of us she’s been out here the most so just be a good girl and listen to her okay.’

‘No ideas Bug, just the facts and I appreciate her more and more as the day progresses.’ Dani put an arm around his waist and noticed he didn’t pull away this time. Things were looking up or possibly not so much.

Jessie pointed into the distance. ‘Can you see that gap in the trees? That’s where we are headed. You can’t see the bridge, it’s set back about 50 yards or so. From here we can stick to the shore, it’s fairly clear, so it won’t be as muddy and there aren’t as many things to trip over. It’s only half a mile.’ She shouldered her pack. She was worried about Caleb, but there was nothing they could do other than continue on.

She set a steady pace, one that she hoped they could maintain without stopping too often.

There wasn’t any more talking as the teens trudged on towards the goal Jessie had set for them. It wasn’t as hard as through the mud but it was still rough going for them over rocks and sand and trees that had blown down. Caleb would look every so often at the water and thought it would have been fun to go rafting if things had been different. As it was he wanted to get to the town and have his foot cleaned and bandaged asap.

Dani kept the pace up with the other two. Even though she was way past her comfort zone she realised the seriousness of what they were undertaking and that getting to town as soon as they could was the only option open to them now. They weren’t that far away and it would be foolish to turn back.

As they neared the bridge she stopped and looked. ‘You have got to be kidding me.’ She said and looked at Jessie. ‘This is a bridge?’

Caleb laughed and gave her a hug, ‘Looks fine to me.’

Jessie nodded, not really paying attention. She was checking the bridge. It looked sound, and it didn’t appear to have been damaged during the storm. She spared a quick glance for the river below then decided that was a subject best ignored. The water was deep and fast flowing, white water swirling around the jagged rocks. ‘Don’t look down,’ she said to herself.

‘Guys, are you ready?’ She uncoiled the rope again and set about securing them to each other. She looked at the back packs the others were wearing. ‘Right, I’m going to go over first with my pack, and make sure the bridge is okay.’ She wiped her boots and hopped up onto the centre rope. She bounced up and down a couple of times, then nodded to herself. She walked slowly to the other side, dropped her pack and jacket and walked back, scraping at the moss covered rope with her toe as she did.
‘Caleb, take your pack and the rifle off. You’re going to find it harder to keep your balance with that foot. It’s slimy about two-thirds of the way across, so be real careful there.’
She stepped back and helped Caleb up onto the rope. She could see that his foot was really causing him problems. She gave his hand a pat. ‘Go for it. We’ll ring the parentals on the other side, get them to meet us on the road.’

Caleb made his way slowly across, wincing each time his injured foot had to take his weight. On the other side, he wiped his brow, surprised that the effort had made him sweat like that. He really wanted this to be over. Jessie walked quickly over once more with Caleb’s pack and the gun. ‘Nearly there,’ she smiled at her brother and scooted back over the bridge again.

‘Okay, Dani, you’re up. Can you manage with that pack?’ Jessie checked the rope around Dani’s waist then gave her friend a tight hug. ‘You’ll be fine. Concentrate on the bridge in front of you, check your footing before each step, and you’ll be over in no time.’



‘Have I told you that I’m afraid of heights?’ Dani asked. She gingerly stepped on the bridge and swore it moved. ‘I’ve seen Indiana Jones you know.’ She took another step. ‘I know that I fly in the air and get tossed around but there are wires for one and I trust my brother for another.’ Another step and another and another. Soon she was at the middle and the bridge was swaying with the wind. ‘I so am never going camping again. Hotels all the way for me.’ Another step and the bridge went right and she went left as she looked down at the swirling water and she squeaked grabbing for one side.

Jessie swallowed a gasp as Dani lost her balance and grabbed for one side. ‘Dani, you’re doing fine, look at Caleb and just hold on.’ Jessie stepped onto the bridge, knowing it would hold both of them with ease. She walked up behind Dani, talking the whole time. ‘Okay, I’m behind you now, don’t worry. I’m going to help you grab onto the other side, keep as still as you can and just let me guide you.’ She leant over and steered Dani’s hand towards the rope handrail. ‘Right, when you feel ready, I want you to stand up straighter.’ Dani nodded and pulled herself up. ‘Now take a step, just like you were doing, that’s it.’

Jessie grinned at Caleb and gave him the thumbs up sign. Her brother returned the sign then turned his attention to his cell phone.
Dani walked slowly the rest of the way and Jessie breathed a sigh of relief. Once Dani was off the end of the bridge, Jessie moved to follow her.

When the others were asked later, they had no idea what happened. Caleb was concentrating on the phone call and Dani was trying to listen in, and they weren’t watching Jessie.

Suddenly Jessie was falling, and there was nothing for her to grab onto. She hit the icy swirling water with a splash and was swept under the white foam.

‘Hey Dad it’s me.’ Caleb said into the phone.
‘Hiya Kiddo, how are you guys doing?’ Nathan asked motioning to Adam that it was their son.

Dani blinked and then screamed Caleb’s name and he immediately looked up the smile that was on his face gone in a flash.

‘Fine. We’re great actually. A little wet, a little dirty but hey that’s not why I rang. We thought that it would be best to try…..FUCK!’

The phone went dead.

The Cabin

Adam drained his coffee mug and thumped it down on the counter with a resounding thud. ‘Okay, I’m off. As soon as I’m back from the airport with Dani, we are leaving.’

Nathan rolled his eyes at Caleb, who was hunched over his own coffee mug.
‘Yes, dear.’
Adam looked at the back of his partner’s head. ‘Are you rolling your eyes?’

‘Who, me?’ Nathan said in an injured tone. ‘Maybe we should wake Jessie up and let her know she’s on the clock.’

Adam grabbed his keys and headed for the door. ‘Maybe you should.’

Caleb sat watching much as one does a tennis tourney as his father and uncle chatted, if you could call what they were doing chatting and tried not to smile at the rolling eyes. Sometimes his dad could be so girlie.

He was still put out at this Dani person coming along on what was a “family” thing but as Jessie kept telling him, she was. He would do his best to not make fun of her music. That had become his mantra.

Caleb watched Adam leave and he drained the last dregs from his mug, setting it down much in keeping with Adam’s thumping. He still wasn’t sure what he was going to call that man. Papa was definitely out, way too girlie, Daddy conjured up all sorts of depraved images, Father made him grin trying to picture Adam in clerical garb and there wasn’t much left, Pa, Da, Hey You. He got up and stretched before he went to the doorway, ‘I’ll go wake the sister type up,’ he said and was off up the stairs before Nathan had a chance to respond.

In her room he listened to the quiet snoring that went on somewhere under the covers and bears. He knew was she in there, just where was the million dollar question. Caleb walked over to the bed and poked around a bit and saw slight movement and got a grunt. That helped.
‘Jessie? It’s noon, Adam is on his clock for us getting out. You need to move it or go like that.’ He waited.
Nothing. Well to be fair he had whispered it. But his conscience would be clear. He went to the bathroom and got a glass of water, tip toed back to the bed and pulled the covers free. He grinned when Jessie curled up as tiny as she could but that was not going to save her. He slowly tipped the glass and let the cold water splash on her exposed skin.

Jessie barely registered Caleb’s mumbling, pulling the covers tighter. She was officially on holiday, and that meant serious duvet time. Well, as much as she could get away with, and that wasn’t much in her family. She made a futile grab at the covers and then hid her head under her pillow. ‘Go ‘way,’ she mumbled.
She screeched as the water hit her skin and jumped up. ‘You little shit, I’m going to kill you,’ she yelled and whopped Caleb with the pillow.

Nathan was emptying the fridge when he heard the screech. ‘Keep it down, you two,’ he yelled up the stairs.

Caleb caught the pillow and lobbed it back at her and grinned. ‘Wakey wakey my girl. Coffee’s hot; Dani’s on her way, yippee fuckin doo, and you aren’t packed.’ He walked over to the bed and grabbed the pillow up and bounced it off her head a few times to get her attention. ‘Jessie, c’mon!’

Jessie grabbed the pillow back and swung it at Caleb. ‘Did you say it was noon, or did I dream that bit?’ She made shooing motions. ‘Go, I must shower. I’d like my bacon extra crispy, my eggs extra yolky and the toast hot and buttery.’

Caleb ducked and grabbed at the flying object but missed, ‘I did but I lie. It’s so early even I don’t know what time it really is out there, looks like night but I am assured it is A.M. He headed for the door and peeked back around once in the hallway, ‘Whatever you want ma Cherie, I live to serve.’ He ducked again as the pillow hurled towards him and went down the stairs.
‘Jessie says extra crispy, extra yolky and hot and buttery.’ He poured himself another cup of coffee and sat down at the table.
As he watched his dad he sighed, ‘Why is this girl coming anyway? She’s not family.’

Nathan nodded as he lit the burner on the stove. ‘Are you hungry yet?’ He poured juice and handed it to Caleb. ‘Well, she’s not related, but she’s family.’ He looked at Caleb. ‘And her name is Dani. I want you to be civil, Caleb. I would like you to be friendly, but civil will do for now.’

Caleb rolled his eyes and sighed. ‘Uh huh,’ he mumbled into his mug not committing himself to anything. It wasn’t going to be fair anyways with two girls to contend with even if one of them was cool in his book. ‘What kind of name is that for a girl anyway?’ He wasn’t asking Nathan in particular just muttering. ‘No, no food.’

Nathan pushed a bowlful of dry cereal in Caleb’s direction, assuming his son would snack on it if it was there. He was just putting Jessie’s food on the plate when he heard thumping down the stairs. ‘Ah, the pitter patter of teenage girl feet.’

Jessie slumped at the table. ‘It’s still dark out,’ she moaned, and reached across the table to steal Caleb’s coffee.

‘Yep, it is that. I think this is retribution on their part. Teenagers need to sleep more and that is a fact. Did you know they did a study on it and found out that it is part of the way we are made that we stay up really late and sleep all day? Schools are even thinking about starting at noon to accommodate this naturally occurring cycle in our lives. If the schools are willing to see the error of their ways why can’t parents?’ Caleb stole his coffee back for a sip and then moved it back over to Jessie.

Nathan ignored most of the whining. It was expected, and given half a chance, he’d probably be whining himself. He took the coffee away from Jessie and handed her orange juice instead.

Jessie wrinkled her nose, but drank some anyway before tucking into her breakfast with vigour. ‘The only problem with that it we would then want to stay in bed till teatime, and go to school at night. Vampire school.’ She looked around. ‘No-one else eating?’

Nathan shook his head. ‘Twirly.’ He poured himself another coffee.

‘I’m just sayin.’ Caleb said and gave Nathan a scowl as the coffee disappeared. ‘How will you ever survive without pec boy I’m wondering though. He’s been around a lot lately.’ He looked at her plate and swallowed. ‘How do you do that anyway? Pop out of bed and immediately stuff your face? Just the thought of food …’ he let that trail off thinking it best to not give her ideas.

He sat and rubbed the glass of juice between his hands as he thought about Vampire school and how neat that would be.

Jessie grinned. ‘It’s my genes. Speaking of my genes, how long do we have? Are we supposed to be lined up on the kerb with labels round our necks? Papa, did you remember to “lose” the worst of the music this time?’

Nathan looked a little shifty. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, child. But I did accidentally leave some CDs in the dining room. I have no idea how that happened. And Adam will be back …’ he consulted his watch. ‘In about half an hour, so unless you are travelling in those, Caleb, I suggest you get dressed.’

Caleb looked down at himself and then at his dad, ‘What? You don’t think these are the right kind of travelling clothes?’ He grinned and got up heading for the stairs. ‘Any of THAT music hits my ears and there will be consequences, I swear,’ he said as he climbed them one by one.
In his room his threw on jeans and a skater tee shirt and socks with his trainers. Thinking it might help he ran a comb through his mop and then ran back down. ‘Nineteen minutes and counting.’ He called out tapping at the imaginary watch on his wrist. ‘Jessie you get to be first out on the kerb.’

Jessie finished her breakfast, downed the rest of her juice and burped. ‘Scuse me,’ she grinned at Nathan. Nathan raised his eyebrow, which made Jessie snort.
‘Are you going to wash those?’ Nathan asked just as Caleb yelled from the hall.

‘I would, but I gotta go get ready,’ Jessie smirked as she skipped out of the kitchen.

‘Brat.’

‘Uh huh.’ Jessie thumped up the stairs almost as loudly as she had come down. Knowing her dad, she had packed almost everything into the SUV the night before, so it was just a matter of a final check, then grabbing Animal and her backpack.

She had just deposited her bags in the hall when she heard Dani’s scream.

Caleb sighed and rolled his eyes going up the stairs to hide for as long as he could get away with.

* * *
Adam parked the car and headed for the Arrivals lounge. He looked longingly in the direction of the coffee shop and wondered if he had time. It was really early in the morning, and that meant Dani would be either cranky or bouncy. And he knew he didn’t have enough caffeine in his system for either one.

Dani yawned and waited her turn to stand up like the sardine she was pretending to be and grab her overhead bag. She had had to argue with the baggage people about one extra bag and ended up paying for it to be put on the plane in the end, America, land of opportunity and waited again in line to deplane. She headed straight for claims and found her cases and loaded them onto a trolley. It was so early yet the birds weren’t even up so she was fairly sure where she was going to find Mr. Baldwin and headed for the coffee shop, riding the trolley once she had it up to speed.
‘Hey! Grizzly! Where’s mine?’ She bubbled at him with a grin.

Adam raised his eyebrow. He couldn’t help it, it was programmed that way. ‘Make that to go. And a caramel macchiato and a banana and toffee muffin for the loud, bouncy young lady.’ He paid for the drinks and gave Dani a hug. ‘I see you packed the kitchen sink.’

‘Well yeah but Alex whined a lot.’ Dani said as she hugged him back. It doesn’t have to be to go, if I know Jessie she’s not even up yet and I am a bit nervous about meeting this brother of hers.’ She took her coffee and muffin, setting the cup down on the nearest table, breaking the muffin in two and handed him half. ‘Mmmm, yummy.’

Adam looked at the muffin. ‘Oh, well, if you insist.’ He took a bite and smiled. ‘Nice. Jessie should be up by now, but I can’t guarantee that she’s awake. Don’t worry about Caleb, he’s a good kid. There’s a lot of his Dad in him, although he tries to hide it.’
He finished his half of the muffin and brushed the tell tale crumbs off his shirt. ‘I could probably eat that again, but I won’t.’

Dani reached over and poked his belly, ‘I think you have on a few occasions,’ she giggled. ‘I’m really glad you invited me on this I was dying at home. Mom makes me tell her where, when, with who, and what nowadays. I think she’s still peeved over Scotland.’ Dani took a nibble, ‘Oh My GAWD! I so watch that new show you’re in! Absolutely hysterical but really not enough of you for me. I love that you are always eating and wanting to shoot someone. So cool. I would love to act but alas, I’m way too shy for that.’
‘I’m not always eating.’ Adam thought for a moment. ‘Okay, maybe. There’s bonsai too. Very Zen… actually, very difficult. There’s always this little old Asian guy hovering around, and if I so much as snip a leaf out of place, he goes completely postal. It’s probably a good job I don’t know what he’s talking about.’

‘Yeah I saw that and thought how odd that was that you were doing that on your own,’ she giggled. ‘Just the thought of an Asian going postal is funny as heck. I’m seeing fists of fury and flying feet here.’
She gobbled up all but the last bite of her half and popped the bit into Adam’s mouth. ‘Shall we go then? Can I drive?’

Adam frowned and tried not to splutter muffin everywhere. ‘No, you can’t. This is New Jooisey. Maybe later.’ Like in ten or twelve years he added silently. He handed his half finished coffee to Dani. ‘Okay, you’re on cup duty, I’ll grab the luggage.’

‘Hey I would have you know I haven’t wrecked anything yet and that was before I took the training. Kevin made me after last summer, when I could sit again. I think that was the best summer of my whole life… and the most painful one.’ She took the cup and walked along beside him looking around at familiar and yet strange things. ‘Jessie better be up and ready to roll because I can’t wait to get there and PARTAY!’ Dani whooped and then laughed at the face Adam was pulling. ‘Kidding Grizzly, only kidding.’

‘Well, I’m glad to hear that, but you still can’t drive.’

Adam stifled a groan as he packed Dani’s bags into the back of the SUV. ‘I don’t know about a smaller car, I think I need a bigger one. I don’t suppose I could just leave a couple of these? No? Oh, well. One of you is going to have to travel on the roof rack. Maybe Nathan.’

He abandoned the trolley on the sidewalk, figuring someone else would be happy to reclaim the deposit. ‘Buckle up, kiddo.’

Dani ignored the complaining, she’d heard it all before and hopped in the car. Buckled and ready to go she tapped the dash, ‘Home Peter.’ She pushed the window button and let it down just a bit and settled back.
‘So, Dani what have you been doing with yourself? Hmm, let’s see, we made an album and Bear was not happy with it for most of the time so we kept tweaking it until Mr. Perfection was. My Mom broke her ankle and the hospital was so much fun I could just puke, but the foot was cool, flopped around like a fish then she passed out. Alex got pissed a few times and ran off, Bear brought him back and enough said on that. Kristin had a boy, another boy in the family, when do I get a baby girl to spoil? Oh, Tim found the love of his life and they moved to Oregon and set up shop. His boyfriend is HOT. All the hot ones are gay or priests you know. I broke up with Ryan a while back. He was getting weird about fans. I can’t be doin’ with that kind of shit too, I’m way too young for it. Clyde got a bath and then we had to take him to bear hospital to be resewn and stuffed. He fell apart in the washer. I cried for days. I got my SAT’s back and got accepted into the school I wanted so I have a great big huge favour to ask you but not just yet. I need to talk to Jessie first. And that is about all, thanks for asking.’ Dani kept the chatter up as the miles sped by and wondered just how much Adam filtered out.

Adam concentrated on the road. It didn’t seem to matter what time of day it was, the rest of the drivers were all crazy. He winced at the ankle description and suppressed a smile at Clyde’s misfortunes. He knew all about bear woes. ‘Well, you just let me know when you’re ready to ask your great big favour, I’ll be waiting.’ He backed the car up to the open garage and resisted the temptation to honk the horn.

‘Here we are.’

‘OOOO!!!’ Dani barely waited for the car to stop before she was out and running for the door. ‘JESSIE!!!’ she screamed and giggled at the light coming on in the neighbours house. ‘I’m BACCCK!’ There had been a standing war with her and the people to the right, they being the straight laced, Baptist sort of people and Dani thinking everyone needed to undo the laces every so often.

Adam winced at the sound, and winced again at the answering screams from inside the house. Teenage girls should come with ear defenders as standard, he thought to himself as he looked at the back of the SUV. There was definitely not enough room in there. He looked up at Nathan, who was walking towards him carrying two coolers. ‘Shoot me now.’

‘Uh huh. You love it really.’ Nathan grinned and deposited the coolers just inside the garage. ‘Don’t forget these, darling.’

Adam gave him a look. ‘Once I forgot the food, just once. How about giving me credit for all the times I didn’t forget it? Huh? Now look at this, I’m going to have to take it all out and start again.’ He waved emphatically at the overstuffed SUV.

‘Must you? I’ll go and round up the herd. Don’t take too long or they’ll start to stray and we’ll have to corral them all over again.’

Dani waved absently at Nathan as she ran into the house and threw her arms around Jessie squealing the whole time as they began to bounce up and down together. Once the greetings were out of the way she stood back and looked at her best friend and “hmmed”. ‘I think you’ve grown.’ She said and looked meaningfully at Jessie’s chest, ‘Or is that stuffing for Matt?’ She ducked at the swipe and laughed. ‘Seriously you look fantastic! I hope this cabin is isolated or we’re gonna hafta beat the boys off with big sticks. C’mon I’ll help carry this stuff out.’ She looked around, ‘So where’s Animal? Clyde’s all agog to see him again. I think he has a crush.’

Jessie took a moment to catch her breath. ‘I’ll have you know I don’t need any padding.’ She grinned and grabbed Dani’s hands, spinning the two of them around. ‘Animal’s guarding the contraband, I mean, my backpack. You don’t look half bad yourself, girlfriend.’

Nathan passed the girls on his way upstairs. ‘We’re leaving in five minutes, so this is the last call for the bathroom. Caleb upstairs?’

Jessie shrugged. ‘I guess. He was around a minute ago.’ She grabbed her backpack. ‘I better get this in while I can. Anything else to go, Papa?’

‘No, just the livestock.’

Jessie and Dani exchanged looks. ‘We’ll get him later,’ Jessie whispered.
Dani spun around and then gave a mock curtsey for Jessie as Nathan came in and told them to get ready to move it out. She giggled in spite of herself. ‘I can’t believe I’m nervous about meeting a child. From what you’ve told me though he is not your typical new teen boy type. I’m surprised to see the house still standing,’ she laughed.
She gave a knowing look at the backpack and leant over, ‘I brought some too, just in case they decide to frisk any of us.’

As Nathan passed she stuck her tongue out and then smiled sweetly just to be safe.

Jessie stifled a giggle and pulled Dani in the direction of the door. ‘You can meet him outside. I saw the look on his face, and he’s working up to a major sulk. We can help Daddy Grumpy to pack the car.’

Outside she hugged Adam who was still attempting to get everything into the SUV. ‘Can I just slide this little one in here?’ She pushed Dani forward.

Adam didn’t look round. ‘Jessie, there’s no more room, big, little or miniscule. It’ll have to go on your lap.’

Jessie looked at Dani and shrugged. ‘Well, we can try it.’ The two girls piled into the back seat, Dani on Jessie’s lap.

Adam raised his eyebrow. ‘Just what do you think you are doing?’

‘Daddy, you said …’

‘You did you said no more room, big, little or miniscule.’

Adam sighed. ‘Sit. On your own seats. With your own seats. Now.’ He slammed the door shut and closed the garage door. ‘Okay, I’m set.’

* * *

Nathan tapped on the doorframe of Caleb’s bedroom. ‘Time to go, kiddo.’

‘Already? I would of thought the screeching duo down there would be at it for hours yet. ‘ He struck a pose with one hand on his hip, ‘Oh Jessie you look so marvy poo.’ Changing sides, ‘Why thank you so much Jessie you look divine yourself. Heee Heee.’ Caleb rolled his eyes again and sighed, ‘And I have to live with them for how long?’

Nathan crossed his arms and gave Caleb a look. ‘We have had this conversation. Several times. Do we need to talk about this in more detail?’ His tone implied that the time for talking was over.

‘You.’ Caleb poked Nathan in the chest with a finger,’ do not play fair.’ He grabbed his backpack and headed for the stairs being careful to keep his backside away from itchy hands. When he got to the car he sighed again looking at “that girl” sitting on his sister’s lap and rolled his eyes too, ‘Whatever.’ He said and slid into the available seat and buckled up. ‘Roll ‘em out Pops.’

Nathan finished locking the front door and joined Adam. ‘We can delay no longer.’

‘Oh, we could. But we won’t.’ Adam patted Nathan’s rear end. ‘In you go.’ He started the car and pulled out into the street.

‘Are we there yet?’

‘Jessica Anne Baldwin, don’t make me stop this car.’

Caleb snickered at Jessie and thought about joining in but these family trips always seemed to make the big guy grumpy. Instead he pulled out his Ipod, jammed the headphones on and sat back for the duration.

Dani looked over at Caleb and grinned, ‘Yep, Mom told me about teenage boys but did I believe her? Nope…now I do.’ She slid off Jessie’s lap having been overlooked as they were double buckled and she knew that was illegal. ‘Grizzly’s losin’ it already, grrlfren,’ she whispered to Jessie as she buckled in the middle.

Jessie nodded. ‘Oh, yeah,’ she whispered back. ‘Are we there yet?’

Nathan turned round and reached between the seats. There was the sound of a smack on fabric. ‘Ouch,’ Jessie complained quietly, then fumbled in her backpack for her DS.

She gave Dani a meaningful look, and waited for her friend to turn on her own machine and start up the IM programme.

Adam turned the stereo on and Nathan automatically turned it down.

Caleb was in his own little skater boy world, eyes closed and feeling the car move along the expressway at a decent speed. ‘Are we there yet?’ he asked having missed the drama that played out so close to him.

Dani grumbled at the unfairness of Nathan finding his inner parentiness and dragged her DS out of her backpack not noticing that she actually came into contact with Caleb. He shoved her away and she fell into Jessie. Without much thought she reached over and punched his arm lightly ignoring the growl he emitted.

Settling back she turned the machine on and brought up IM.

Nathan turned back again and looked at Caleb. He had decided to let him alone as his son was clearly in his own little world. Unfortunately he was still facing the back seat when Caleb shoved and Dani punched, so they both received a smack. He turned back round to find Adam looking at him with eyebrow raised.

‘That is oddly satisfying. Probably because I know it stings like buggery.’

Adam let a small grin form. ‘I’ve made an executive decision.’

‘Which is?’ Nathan asked.
‘Next car? A limo. With a soundproof window between us and them. Then they can happily murder each other, and we can be happily oblivious.’

Nathan laughed. ‘Excellent plan. Oh, by the way …’

‘What?’

‘Are we there yet?’

Adam growled.

Dani stopped IMing and leant forward to tap Adam on the back of the head, ‘Hey Grizzly, I gotta go.’

Caleb looked at her as though she had grown two heads just like that. No one, not even his dad ever had to go when Adam was driving. You held it until your eyes turned yellow if you had to.
‘What?’ she asked him.
‘We don’t…’ he began.
‘Oh poo. We do so. Stop or I wet the seat Big Man.’

She winked at Jessie, it was a girl thing.

Jessie giggled. ‘Me too, it must have been all that coffee.’

Nathan turned around and looked at the girls. He was getting a distinct crick in his neck. ‘I told you to go before we left.’

‘We diiiiiiid,’ whined Jessie.

Adam gave a long suffering sigh. ‘You’ll have to hold it for five minutes. Then we can stop. Otherwise it’s the bushes.’

‘We didn’t if I recall rightly I was hustled off a plane, bribed with coffee and muffin which I want to point out was shared because I am a wonderfully considerate teenager and then was only given two seconds to reacquaint myself with my friend here before I was thrown into a car.’

Caleb rolled his eyes again and wondered if it were true that they could stick if you kept doing that. It wouldn’t matter he would become the invisible boy on this trip he could tell. Those girls would be so wrapped up in each other and making all sorts of girl noises it was going all he could do to not puke.

‘Let ‘em use the bushes, serve ‘em right for not taking care of things before we left.’

‘Muffins, eh?’ Nathan gave Adam a look. ‘Didn’t get enough breakfast?’

‘Shh everyone, Daddy’s looking for a rest stop.’ Adam attempted to ignore Nathan.

Jessie reached over Dani and tickled her brother. ‘Hey grump, you could try to crack a smile, you know.’

‘No tickling, no tickling!’ Caleb squirmed in his seat and kicked the back of Nathan’s trying to dodge her fingers.

‘Tickle fight!’ Dani yelled and went for his ribs.

‘Stop!’ Caleb shouted as he increased his movements, feet and all.

Adam chose that moment to pull off the road into a handy rest stop. Nathan jumped out as the car came to a halt and yanked open the rear door.

‘Out,’ he snapped at Caleb. Jessie took one look at Nathan’s face and slid back down into her seat.

Caleb took his earphones out and handed the player to Dani forgetting that he was not going to make nice with her at all and got out. ‘I don’t have to go.’

Dani slid down in her seat and giggled to Jessie, ‘Oops.’

Adam unbuckled and turned around to glare at the girls. ‘What happened?’

‘Nothing, he’s just being a grump, is all.’ Jessie shrugged and sank a little further.

‘And as far as I could tell he was being a very quiet and reasonably well behaved grump,’ Adam pointed out.

‘Well, okay, but I was only trying to cheer him up.’

‘Tormenting him more like. Leave him alone until we get to the cabin.’

‘Then I can torment him?’

‘Jessica.’

Dani watched them and slid even further in her seat, ‘Sorry Jess.’ She whispered. ‘Does he really hate me that much already?’

‘I don’t think he hates you, just the whole girlie overload thing.’ Jess whispered back.

* * *

Nathan put a firm hand on Caleb’s shoulder and steered him away from the road.
‘What did I say about talking this over in more detail?’

Caleb looked at Nathan and sighed; he didn’t really want to get the girls in trouble too so he kicked at a stone. ‘Sorry. I’ll give it a try.’

Nathan sighed. ‘Look, I understand that two teenage girls can be a bit overwhelming in close proximity, but they weren’t been nasty, they were just messing about. If you weren’t in such a vile mood, you wouldn’t have reacted like that.’ He ruffled Caleb’s hair. ‘Now go to the bathroom.’ Nathan conveniently ignored the fact that Caleb hadn’t wanted to go.
He headed back to the car and joined Adam. ‘Sorted?’

‘Short of lining them up and spanking the lot of ‘em, pretty much.’ Adam’s tone indicated that was not an unlikely scenario. ‘Girls, bathroom, now.’

Jessie figured it was time to make a strategic withdrawal, so she climbed out, dragging Dani with her.
‘Boy and they say we get up on the wrong side of the bed. You know they should really listen to themselves sometimes. I need a recorder.’ She muttered as they headed to the bathroom. ‘Watch out for weird little old ladies with umbrellas.’

Caleb was sure that his dad had lost what little humor he had had in that but shrugged his shoulders and walked towards the bathroom. Inside he looked around for George Michael types and not seeing any went to the urinal and after checking again peed. Surprising himself that he actually could. Snorting he decided he had been papa whipped long enough and he was going to have to make a stand on this whole thing. That man thought he had him eating out of his hand now and that just would not do.

He got back to the car and crawled into his seat and buckled again. Earphones in place he waited for the rest of the crew to do their “bidness” and hustle on back.

Once Adam was satisfied that everyone was buckled in and suitably subdued for the moment, he set off once more. He was surprised that the girls weren’t chattering away. Instead they were engrossed in those odd pink games of theirs, but he was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

* * *

Nathan closed his eyes for a moment, and was surprised to be jolted awake by the car stopping.

‘We’re stopping again?’

‘Have to, or we’ll end up in the lake.’ Adam stretched and cracked his back. ‘Ooh, I need … too many things to mention, but I’ll start with food.’

‘Finally!’ Dani sounded totally exasperated. ‘I need to walk, eat, pee, dance, something but food would be good for a start.’ She climbed out after Jessie and stretched and yawned, ‘Maybe a swim?’

Caleb unhooked himself and got out and looked at the cabin. Tossing his Ipod on the seat he went to the back of the SUV with Adam and waited until the trunk was popped. ‘I’ll help, the sooner we get it all in the sooner we eat.’

Nathan joined Adam and Caleb at the back of the SUV. ‘So where are the coolers? Don’t tell me they’re under all that.’

Adam looked. ‘No, they’re …’ he went back over the whole packing thing in his mind.

‘Oh.’

‘What oh?’

‘Well, they were there,’ Adam pointed. ‘And it wouldn’t shut, so I took them out and rearranged the bags there, put those there, and made a space there, and …’

‘They’re in the garage, aren’t they?’

‘Yes, they are.’

Caleb watched as both men spoke having an idea of just where this was going to lead and it did, no food. Or at least no coolers. There was plenty of food in the woods.
‘Way ta go Uncle Adam,’ he snickered. He rarely called Adam much of anything but he saved the uncle for the times when the big guy screwed up royally, this being one of those times.

He sat on the bumper to listen to the lecture about to be given by his father.

Dani stopped and groaned. ‘Well we did pass a Burger King at some point,’ she said hopefully.

Nathan looked at Adam. ‘You are kidding me.’

‘Do I ever kid about food?’

‘Damn it. Adam.’ Nathan looked round to discover he had acquired an audience. ‘Move along there, nothing to see.’

Jessie sniggered. Adam and Nathan both gave her the same look. She studied the ground, her grin barely hidden.

Nathan turned back to Adam. At that moment, there was the sound of a horn and a car approaching. ‘Saved by the bell,’ Adam grinned.

‘You wish.’ Nathan retorted as they approached the car.

Dani tapped her foot as she listened to the two of them bicker over what everyone had totally expected from the Grizzly type, ‘Oh, please, Adam would not forget food if it was the last thing he had to pack,’ she poked his tummy for emphasis. ‘He just gets distracted.

Caleb laughed. Maybe this girl wouldn’t be quite as bad as he had thought. He looked at Jessie and got up when the horn honked. ‘Let’s go see if there’s anything in the cabin to snack on while they figure it all out.’

Adam smiled at their neighbours.
‘Just arriving? Cabin’s all set for you.’
‘Yes, we’re here for Spring break.’
‘Seems your family just keeps growing.’
Nathan watched the kids make their somewhat chaotic way into the cabin.
‘You’re right there.’
‘Anyways, me and the wife are off to visit our daughter. I brought you some food I thought you could use. Just bits and pieces, cheese, cold cuts, milk, butter. It’s a shame to let it go to waste.’
Adam grinned as he took the box. ‘You’re a life saver. Have a good trip, we’ll see you in the summer.’

Adam and Nathan waved off the car. ‘You’re lucky,’ Nathan commented.
‘I am. Sandwiches?’
‘So long as you packed the box with the bread.’
‘Yes, I did… I think.’

Nathan walked into the kitchen and placed the box on the counter. Jessie had her head in the cupboard. ‘I found a lot of popcorn and very little else,’ she called out.

‘I like popcorn.’ Adam followed Nathan in and placed the bags of food on the counter. ‘We have bread, four types of cereal, cookies and chips. So the carbs are covered.’

Nathan investigated the “goodwill” box. ‘I am making sandwiches. Cheese, ham and baloney in any combination you like.’

‘Ooh, food.’ Jessie investigated the box. ‘Milk, I’ll make tea.’

Caleb went to look with her and then began to put things in the fridge that needed to stay cool. Ham and cheese for me thanks,’ he said and shut the door.

‘I’ll help Mommy then.’ Dani said and went to get paper plates out and set them in a row. ‘Let’s boogie.’

Adam looked at the food production line. ‘Okay then. Caleb, Jessie, come and help me unload the car. There’s no point in lugging all that stuff into town.’

Jessie leant over and whispered in Caleb’s ear. ‘If we’d helped with the loading, he wouldn’t need to lug anything into town.’

Adam swatted her on his way out of the door. ‘I heard that.’

‘I knew there was nothing wrong with his hearing,’ muttered Jessie as she followed her father.

Nathan was dealing out bread onto the plates. ‘We’ll give Adam the baloney, he’ll eat pretty much anything. Plus he deserves it.’

Caleb grabbed what he could and followed along behind staying away from swats or anything else that might be dealt out by the two men. He knew when things did not go according to plan there could be what they called stressors and he was very good at stressing.

Dani started at one end and globbed mustard and mayo onto bread slices and then waited for Nathan to add whatever was going on them before putting the top slice on. She would leave the cutting to him, both him and Adam seemed to think that neither she nor Jessie were capable of cutting a sandwich without ending up needing fingers reattached.
‘Food’s ready!’ she called when he got to the last one and stood back to wait for the thunder of Adam footsteps.

* * *

Nathan stood at the bottom of the stairs and shouted. ‘Kids! We’re driving into town, we’ll be back in time for dinner. Try not to kill each other.’
He dashed to the car, shaking his head free of raindrops as he slammed the door.
‘Thanks,’ spluttered Adam. ‘It’s really starting to come down. I think we’re going to have a week of close quarters and fractious teens.’
Nathan grinned. ‘Oh, and you won’t be fractious?’
Adam grinned back. ‘Nope, I’ll be grouchy, grumpy and generally unbearable.’
‘That would be funny if it wasn’t true. Now get driving, before the road washes out.’
Adam started the engine. ‘You watch too many movies.’

Jessie watched out of the bedroom window. ‘They’re gone!’ she yelled.

Dani finished cleaning up the kitchen and then threw the rag in the sink and whooped. It wasn’t often that she found herself adult-less but this was even better because Jessie was there to share it with her. She ran to the bedroom and flopped on the bed, ‘So what do we do first? Swim? Run through the woods naked? Build a campfire and toast marshmallows?’ She kicked her shoes off and giggled. ‘I’m really glad that you invited me to come along. I needed the break. Thanks.’ She rolled over and pulled Jessie down hugging her.

‘Oh, get a room you two.’ Caleb said from the doorway. ‘Oh. Sorry. You are in a room.’ He grinned and shut the door.

‘You are such a twit,’ Jessie yelled. She sat up and threw a pillow at her brother, then fell back onto the bed giggling.
‘We generally wait until the summer for the naked running. It’s too cold this time of year.’ She jumped up and opened the window. A gust of wind snatched the frame away from her and slammed it against the wall with an ominous crack.
Jessie turned back to Dani. ‘Oops,’ she giggled and fell back onto the bed. The rain beat against the cabin and began to soak the bedroom floor. The wind was blowing hard through the trees and there was a bright flash of lightening and an ominous crack of thunder almost immediately after.

‘Looks like campfires are off as well. Ooh, we could light the fire in the sitting room and roast marshmallows. I think there’s hot chocolate too.’

Caleb went to his room and began to unpack his things when he stopped to listen to the wind. It howled and he jumped when a tree branch hit the glass. ‘Stupid.’ He muttered to himself and threw the things in the drawers and then left the room. He went down the hall and banged on the girls’ door, ‘Hey you two, come on out.’

The lights flickered and he looked up as though he could spot the trouble that way. It was what they always did in the movies just before …they flickered again and went out. ‘Fuck,’ he mumbled.

Dani picked the pillow up and bopped Jessie with it laughing. ‘Fireplaces are good for something then,’ she said and turned around to open the door when the lights went out. ‘Uh oh. Did we do that or is the storm getting worse?’

She made her way back to the window and looked out. ‘Oh, wow, Jessie come and look at this!’ The rain was coming down in a solid sheet and the girls looked at one another. ‘Wicked.’

Caleb fumbled for the door handle and finally found it, ‘Boy, you never really know what dark is until you’re in the woods and it’s lights out.’

Jessie joined Dani at the window. ‘That is a lot of rain.’ She pulled the window shut, getting very wet in the process. There was a large crack running right across the glass.
‘Oh, well. At least it’s still sort of in one piece. I don’t think we did anything, I guess a tree must have taken out a power line or something. Hang on, the generator will start up.’ They waited. ‘In a minute.’ They waited a little longer. ‘Um. I think there’s a problem.’

Caleb looked around at the total darkness and sighed. ‘I’ll go and take a look.’ He didn’t wait to hear what either of them would have to say he just fumbled his way to the stairs and down. It took a bit of doing but he finally found a flashlight and clicked it on grateful for even the small amount of light that it put out. As he went to the kitchen a crack of thunder boomed and he jumped. ‘Stupid.’ He mumbled and opened the back door. The wind grabbed it and he had to fight to shut it again but finally made it. The generator was sitting there dark, dry, and not running. After looking at it for a few minutes he turned the key and nothing happened. He put the flashlight between his knees and opened it to find there was no fuel to start it. ‘Great.’

Caleb was sure there would be some in the small pole barn but he wasn’t too keen on going out there. It wasn’t that far but he was an avid horror movie watcher and several came to mind. Sighing he stepped off the porch and fought with the wind and rain until he got to the barn. Inside was darker than out and it felt colder. He moved the flashlight around and found the gas can which to his dismay was empty. ‘Double great.’

The walk back was not any faster and he found the girls in the kitchen with a couple of lit candles. Jessie was holding a note in her hand. ‘No gas. We’re getting it in the morning.’

Dani shivered just looking at him and he frowned. ‘So we’re stuck with no lights for now. We got candles so that will help. We can still do the fireplace thing and wait till your folks get back they can’t be much longer.’

‘Maybe we should give them a call and let them know what’s going on?’ Caleb asked.

Jessie handed Caleb a towel. ‘I’ll light the fire, you try the phone. You’re so wet, you’ll never get a flame going.’ She knelt down by the fireplace and looked dubiously at the pile of logs next to the grate. ‘Caleb, don’t bother getting too dry, we’re going to need more wood.’

* * *

Adam was watching their purchases be rung through at a snail’s pace by the elderly store owner, resisting the temptation to look at his watch or tap his feet. Nathan was watching the torrential rain with fascination. He jumped back when the door flew open with a bang and a tall man encased in a yellow rain slicker entered.
‘That your SUV out there?’ the man enquired, removing the coat to reveal a sheriff’s uniform beneath.
‘Yes, we’re just heading back to our cabin.’
‘By the lake?’
‘Yes.’ Nathan answered, an uneasy feeling growing in his stomach.
‘Then you’re not. Not today anyways. One of my deputies radioed that the bridge is out. Damned big tree swept down in the floodwater and took out the centre support. Sort of thing only happens in movies, I thought. You’d best see if you can find a room in the motel, or head back to New Jersey if you can.’
Adam had overheard the end of the conversation. ‘That’s not an option, the kids are in the cabin.’
The sheriff gave him a stern look. ‘You left children alone up there?
‘No, they’re teenagers, the girls are 16 and Caleb is 13. I’m sure they’ll be fine overnight.’ Nathan interrupted, trying to sound reassuring. At that moment, his cell phone rang. ‘Oh, that must be them.’

‘Right,’ Caleb said and tossed the towel on the table. ‘Just let me call first and then I’ll go grab some.’

‘Won’t it be wet?’ Dani asked. She blushed when they both looked at her. ‘Sorry.’

Caleb punched at the speed dial and heard the ring at the other end. ‘Dad?’

Dani grabbed a bag of marshmallows out of the cupboard and went to sit next to Jessie. She handed her one on a skewer and put one on for herself. ‘This is not nice. I mean it’s kind of cozy but scary too.’

Jessie sat back as the flames began to catch. ‘I know what you mean. Maybe we’ve seen too many horror movies.’ She grabbed hold of Dani. ‘If we send Caleb out for wood, he’ll be first.’

‘Oh yeah that’s the way to do it. Sacrifice the little brother first.’ Dani agreed and popped her marshmallow in her mouth.

‘It’s Caleb. Hi, kiddo. Everything okay up there?’ Nathan listened for a couple of minutes, his smile fading to be replaced by a concerned look. Adam was looking decidedly manic and was clearly itching to take the phone away from his partner.
Nathan held the phone away from his ear for a moment. ‘No power and there’s no fuel for the generator. So they’re in the dark, but Jessie’s lit the fire so they’ll be warm enough.’
He carried on talking to his son. ‘Caleb, the bridge is out so we can’t get back up there today.’

‘Fuck, fuck and fuck.’ Caleb said not thinking. ‘Well knowing those two they will let me be the first to go.’ Caleb looked over towards the doorway and snorted.

‘Um Jessie? Smoke!’ Dani said and pointed at the fireplace. She had already started coughing and grabbed Jessie’s shirt to pull her back.

‘Oh Shit!’ Caleb yelped and the phone went dead.

Nathan looked at the phone in annoyance. ‘We got cut off.’
‘This is ridiculous, there must be another way up there.’ Adam looked like he was about ready to explode.
‘There isn’t, Sir. There’s only the ford and that has been impassable since the thaw started. I can’t let you try that, it would be suicide. And I’d have to arrest you for that.’ The sheriff might have been joking, but Nathan wasn’t sure.
‘We’ll see if the motel’s got room,’ he told the sheriff.
Adam sighed heavily. ‘I guess we don’t need those groceries now. But we might need toothbrushes.’

‘Drat it,’ Jessie coughed and fiddled with the damper. ‘I forgot that.’ She coughed again and scooted back. ‘What’s up, Caleb? Are they on their way? I hope they bring stuff that doesn’t need cooking.’

‘No the phone died.’ He grabbed the one on the wall and tried it and there was only silence. ‘Great the lines are down too.’ He put it back and went to the doorway. ‘They can’t get back tonight the bridge is out. So we’re on our own for tonight.’ He opened the back door and sighed. ‘I’m gonna get some more wood and we can set it over there to dry out.’ He disappeared and came back with an armload.

‘Alone? All night? In this? Wonderful.’ Dani went to the kitchen to see just what there was in food and giggled. ‘We can have peanut butter, jelly, olives, chips, and if anyone gets brave enough to cook on that thing,’ she pointed at the fireplace, ‘we can open this can of spaghettio’s. Oh and there’s cereal and milk too.’

‘Well, we won’t starve.’ Jessie helped Caleb with the logs then squealed when he shook his head free of raindrops. ‘Stoppit, bug. Oh, we’ve got our stashes too!’ She looked at the now dark staircase. ‘Which are upstairs. We should rescue them before the bears eat everything.’ She looked at the staircase again. Caleb was right, it really was dark in the woods with the lights out. ‘Come on, I want to find something warm and snuggly to wear.’ She grabbed the flashlight in one hand and Dani’s hand in the other.

Dani went along willingly; warm and snuggly sounded just about perfect right now. Thankfully Jessie had told her it could get really cold out here at night and so she had packed accordingly.

Caleb grumbled when Jessie stole the flashlight but could see where climbing the stairs could be scary in the total dark that was them. He settled down to toast a marshmallow and think. It was only one night but it could be a long one. He wasn’t really scared, at least not yet. There hadn’t been a mad killer running around outside, no wild animals attacked him when he was out there, just rain and wind.

In front of the fire he began to dry out and he ate another marshmallow while he thought about what they might do if the adults couldn’t make it back tomorrow. He hadn’t wanted to frighten the girls with that but if the bridge was out and the water swelled there wouldn’t be anyway to repair it until things settled down some.

He knew his dad would be worried but if he thought about it he’d at least calm down some. They had shelter, some food and he could always go hunt if he had to. It was Adam he was more concerned about. That man seemed to think they were all around two and needed to be watched every second or they would melt, self destruct, implode, explode or otherwise cause all sorts of mayhem.
He pulled his cell out of his back pocket and tried to find a signal but there was no luck there so that was out. Maybe when the rain stopped. He ate another marshmallow while he waited for the girls to get back.

Jessie tugged Dani up the stairs, the flashlight casting an eerie glow. The shadows on the landing moved and twisted as the wind blew the trees outside.
‘Okay, I’m so not watching any more horror movies.’ They made it to their bedroom unmolested and unslashed. Jessie opened the door with a shove, her heart thudding in her chest. At that moment, there was a horrendous crashing noise, they both screamed and Jessie dropped the flashlight. The girls grabbed each other and whimpered.
‘What was that?’ Jessie whispered before bending down to try and find the light.
‘Got it.’ She stood up with a gasp then let out another scream. ‘It touched me! It’s all slimy.’ She felt a sharp pain near her eye. ‘It bit me.’
She grabbed Dani.

Dani screamed and grabbed for Jessie missing her when Jessie bent for the light. ‘Jessie!!!’ She screamed thinking her friend had been stolen while she was right there. ‘Oh God! Oh God!’ Dani hopped around and then stopped when Jessie surfaced and spoke.

When Jessie screamed again Dani did too not knowing why but there was safety in numbers. ‘What! What touched you!’ Dani spun around trying to find what was in the room with them.

Caleb heard the crash and the screaming and bolted up the stairs not thinking clearly at all. What he knew was the girls were in trouble and he was the only thing to pass for manly in the house. He walked in to find Dani hopping around screaming and Jessie on the floor, feeling in front of her. As her fingers gripped the light he snorted.
‘Really…’ was all he got out before Dani wheeled around and began to smack him. Hey! HEY!’ he shouted as he tried to duck. ‘Stop it you twit!’

Dani stopped and looked at him, ‘Oh sorry. Caleb,’ she grabbed the front of his shirt, ‘something bit Jessie.’

‘What?’ Caleb asked being reasonable. Dani slugged him. ‘If we knew, Einstein, we’d kill it.’

Caleb looked around then took the flashlight from Jessie and moved it around the room. ‘I think your culprit was this.’ He picked up a slimy tree branch and waggled it in front of the girls’ faces. ‘Get your stuff and lets get back downstairs okay? You’re both giving me the creeps.’

Caleb handed the light back to her and went to his room for dry clothes and bedding. No way was he coming back up here to sleep. ‘Ready yet ladies?’ he asked from the doorway.

Dani snorted at Caleb and then put an arm around Jessie, ‘Boys,’ she muttered. When he came back she had gotten clothes, pyjamas, bedding and Clyde. ‘I’m set.’

Jessie peered at the branch. ‘Where did that come from?’ As if in answer, the broken window banged again, accompanied by the tinkle of glass. ‘Oh. Attack bushes. They’re the worst.’ She smiled weakly at Dani then grabbed bedding and anything else she thought she might need and a few things she didn’t. ‘I can’t find Animal,’ she said in a panicked tone, but Dani found him under the branch.
‘You’re all wet, silly, were you trying to save us?’ Jessie shook the bear to dislodge the foliage he had acquired. ‘Cammo Bear. Yep, we’re ready.’

The three teenagers made their way downstairs, hampered by trailing bedclothes and escaping pillows. Jessie dumped her belongings next to the sofa and headed for the kitchen. She found some more candles under the sink, and she set about lighting them and securing them in glasses. Soon the kitchen counter was a blaze of light.
‘Okay, who’s in charge of logistics?’

Dani and Caleb looked at each other and shrugged. ‘You.’ They both said and set about making up the living room into command centre. Caleb stood up and put his hands on his hips looking at it all and then sighed. ‘Okay, I’m going to the basement for a gun and don’t panic, it’s just in case. We don’t really have any way to lock things down and who knows who’s out there.’
‘Or what.’ Dani said helpfully. ‘I’ll go scrounge food.’ She got up and taking a candle with her went to the kitchen. She found the rest of the bread, peanut butter, jelly, butter, popcorn, candy bars and sodas. She grabbed a pot and brought it with her because they could do the popcorn over the fire.

Caleb came back up from the basement and shut the door. ‘I found nails and hammer too so we can nail the door shut just in case.’ He ran upstairs and grabbed a few of the branches to do that with and set about it when he came back down.

‘Can’t be too careful,’ Dani agreed.

Jessie finished positioning the candles around the room to her satisfaction then went to help Caleb. ‘If you shoot yourself in the foot, Daddy’s gonna wallop you into the middle of next week,’ she said softly.

With both doors secured against an unnamed and unnameable threat, she put her hands on her hips and surveyed their handiwork.
‘Looking good. Anyone hungry?’

‘I’ve got the food,’ Dani said holding up a few things.

Caleb stopped and looked at Jessie as though she’d lost it. ‘He can’t if I shoot myself protecting you women folk,’ he said in his best southern accent. ‘Why he’d have to be beholden to me for all time then little missy.’ He looked at Dani, ‘I’m hungry rustle up some grub thar woman.’

Dani threw a piece of bread at him but went on making sandwiches with a smile on her face.

Jessie raised her eyebrow but allowed him his delusion. She sat down next to Dani and grabbed a sandwich.
‘You know, I’ve been thinking…’ she chewed her bite of sandwich with a wrinkled brow. She swallowed. ‘Any soda?’

‘Yeah,’ Dani handed her one. ‘Thinking what?’ Dani asked as she took a bite of her sandwich and handed a soda to Caleb too.

Caleb sat down cross legged between them both and took a drink.

‘They’re not going to be able to fix that bridge tomorrow. They’re going to need to get Army Engineers or something, and there’s only us and the Deliverance folks up in the hills, so we’re not going to be a priority if there’s other stuff happened.’ Jessie took another bite of the sandwich.

Dani just looked at her and kept chewing the food tasting more like sawdust in her mouth.

‘That’s true enough. Isn’t there any other way to town from here?’ Caleb asked.

‘Sort of.’ Jessie grabbed a notepad and a pen, balancing her sandwich on her knee. ‘If we go up to the top of the lake, there’s a bridge across the river. From there, we could head out to the road and walk into town.’ Jessie was leaving out a few pertinent details, and she hoped Dani wouldn’t notice. Her friend was already looking worried.

‘So we have to walk through the woods, how far? Then go across this bridge, what kind of bridge exactly Jess, considering the main one is out won’t this one be too?’ Caleb was looking at the map and trying to get a feel for things. ‘After we get across, if we can how far is it to town? And more importantly will the parental types be pissed?’

Dani looked from one to the other and sighed. ‘We’re gonna die here aren’t we? Jason is out there somewhere just waiting to separate us.’

Jessie punched Dani in the arm. ‘Silly. It’s about 3 miles to the top of the lake. Then it’s a mile or so to the road, and then about 6 miles into town. But we should be able to get a phone signal once we get on the road. It’s a rope bridge, so there’s no reason it should be out. The parental types might possibly be a bit pissed, but it’s either that or we wait it out. And as this is the last of what passes for regular food, we’ll have to eat Caleb.’

Dani frowned but that’s like ten miles all together Jessie,’ Dani said and sighed. ‘Well, I’m game if you both are.’

‘Yeah, I know but I could go shoot a deer.’ Caleb said. He paled a little at the thought of shooting one of Bambi’s kids, but then with a name like Bambi the deer had to be gay so … no kids. He perked up then. ‘I say we try for the bridge in the morning if it has stopped raining. I don’t wanna be out there if it’s still pouring down.’

Dani nodded and hugged Clyde closer.

Jessie put her arm round Dani’s shoulders. ‘We won’t do it all at once, and we won’t go unless the weather gets better. If it keeps raining, we’ll just have to invent the popcorn and cheerio diet.’ She looked at Caleb, then pointedly at the fire. ‘I am not roasting deer bits, I mean bits of deer on that. Plus there’s the whole skinning thing. No hunting. How about we play Yahtzee, we don’t need much light for that.’ Jessie was aware that the other two were getting worried, especially Dani. ‘I’ll make some popcorn, we can make a start on that diet.’

Dani brightened at that and got the game out while Caleb tidied up. Soon the kids were engrossed in the game and as their eyes got heavier and heavier they got silly and finally cleaned things up to go to sleep.
There were whispers for a little while and some getting more comfortable noises and then just the even breathing of sleep in the room.

You'll Take the High Road (Part 11) The Morning After

Adam woke early. The room was shades of grey, the sun not yet fully
risen. He yawned and stretched, then sat up with a start. His
daughter was still asleep in the other bed and Nathan was still
asleep curled next to him. He lay back down, but sleep eluded him.
He got up quietly, showered and shaved and was getting dressed when
Jessie began to stir.
"Daddy?"
"Yes, sweetie?" He said softly, not wanting to wake Nathan.
"Are we going home now?"
"Well, not right now, but we are going today."
"Okay. I'm kinda hungry."
"It's kinda breakfast time, so that's good."
Jessie got up and made her way to the bathroom, stopping to give
Adam a quick hug.

Brian woke up first and groaned quietly. He had a crick in his neck
and drool down the side of his face but soon he would be home and
things would make sense again. He got up and went to the bathroom
while Kevin and Dani were still asleep and had a hot shower, a shave
after locating clean clothes. He hummed to himself while he was in
there and lastly brushed his teeth and ran a brush through is hair.
Grinning at himself he was thinking he felt almost human again.

Kevin met him coming out, clothes in his arms and a grin on his
face. `Perfectly good beds,' He said and ducked inside the bathroom.

`Hey, should we wait for the others, go down or call room service?'
Brian tapped on the door and asked the running water.

`Room service.' Kevin said. Clean and shaved and feeling human too,
the dark haired Kentuckian came out of the bathroom and began to
poodle around the room a bit.

`What do we do about the cars?' Brian asked as he gathered the dirty
clothes he could and threw them in a plastic bag.
`I figure the others will fly back today sometimes, so we can drive
them to the airport and then you take one car and I'll take the
other.'
`Let me do the bug.'
Kevin raised an eyebrow but was glad that Brian had offered. He
hated driving that car, it was too short for him.

Dani yawned and stretched and snuggled down with Clyde nuzzling his
fur before hopping out of the bed and going to the doorway. `Food?'
she asked both of the men in her life.

`Ordered Kiddo.' Brian said and gathered up more clothes, sorting
them as he did.
Kevin went over to his baby sister and picked her up under the arms.
Instinctively she raised both legs to wrap around him as he carried
her to the bedroom, shutting the door with a foot. `Morning.' He
said and planted a kiss on the tip of her nose. `Morning back.' She
said and smiled at him.

`Dani.' Kevin said as he sat down with her still straddling
him, `I'm so sorry.'
This was a first and she just looked at him sitting there with tears
in his eyes. She felt safe and loved again, it was good to be
here. `Kevin…'
`Listen. What I said to you was wrong. The intention may have been
good but the timing was bad. I don't want you to not be with us. You
add so much and it would be so lonely without you.'
`But Kristen..'
`Honey pot, I love the hell out of that woman and don't make a
mistake about that but I raised you. That's a sacred bond between
two people and goes so far beyond anything else. I should have
thought about it a lot longer and I would have never told you to
think about leaving the group.'
`I don't want to. I love singing and making people smile. Although I
could do with a lot less screaming.'
`Me too.'
`So…am I in trouble still?' Dani asked looking through dark lashes
at him.
`So much trouble you may never see the light of day or feel the
sunshine on you after we get home.'
`Exactly what does that mean?'
`You are so grounded and not just to the house, to your room unless
Mom wants help with something. No TV, no music unless we are
rehearsing, no games, no books, no cards, no computer and no
swimming.'
`Harsh Bear.'
`For one week. After that we'll re-evaluate.'
`Brian spanked me. Nathan spanked me.' Dani said as she heard Brian
open the door and talk to the person delivering the food and her
mouth watered a bit while her tummy rumbled.
`I know. `Kevin said and stood her on her feet. 'Let's go eat.'

Fifteen minutes later, father and daughter were waiting for the
elevator. Adam had left a note for Nathan, but he doubted the
younger man would wake before they returned. Jessie slipped her
hand into Adam's. He looked down at her and smiled.
She returned the smile somewhat cautiously.
"Are you still angry?"
"No, Jessie."
"But I am in trouble?"
"Oh, yes."
She sighed heavily. "I didn't really have a choice, you know."
Adam frowned.
"Jessie, that's not true." Adam held up a warning finger. "No,
don't argue with me, let me finish."
Jessie opened her mouth to argue and then shut it again rapidly.
"I think we should wait until we are home before we discuss this any
further. Do you agree?"
"Yes I do." She agreed, nodding vigorously.
Adam laughed and ruffled her hair. "I'm sure you do."

Breakfast was a quiet affair. Jessie's thoughts were a swirl of
guilt and consequences, and now she had been told she would have to
wait until they got home, she perversely wanted everything over and
done with.
After five minutes of watching Jessie fidgeting and toying with her
breakfast, Adam sighed.
"Jessie, eat your breakfast."
"I am."
"No, you're torturing it. What did that poor Danish ever do to you?
Put it out of its misery, please."
Jessie stabbed it several times with her knife. Adam looked at her.
"It was a mercy killing."
"I thought you were hungry."
"I was."
"And now you're all full up on two melon balls and three raisins?"
"I guess."
Adam frowned and Jessie scowled. Adam raised an eyebrow and Jessie
pouted.
"Young lady …"
"I'll get some cereal." She jumped up from her chair and fled for
the buffet.
Adam sighed again and then smiled at a very sleepy Nathan who was
heading for their table.
"I didn't think you'd make it."
"I didn't. I sent a holographic projection in my place. Nathan is
still in bed, asleep." He yawned and rubbed his eyes.
"You look flushed." Adam reached out to feel Nathan's
forehead. "You're very hot."
"I know, babe." Nathan grinned and Adam clipped him across the back
of the head.
"Ow, that's not fair, I'm sick."
"Did you take your pills?"
"Not yet, need coffee."
In answer, Adam handed him a glass of orange juice. Nathan grimaced
and swallowed the pill.
"Now can I have coffee?"
Jessie returned to the table.
"Can I have coffee?" She asked brightly.
"NO." Adam and Nathan said in unison.
Jessie pouted, then hurriedly sat down and poked at her cereal when
Adam glared at her.
"Jessie, eat." Adam said firmly. She swallowed a couple of
mouthfuls then coughed rice pops over the table.
"Okay, we're done." Adam stood and looked at his family. "Back to
the room."
"Adam, I want …" Nathan started.
"Room service." Adam said shortly as he shepherded partner and
daughter back to the lift.
As they approached the room, Jessie whispered something in Nathan's
ear. He answered and she danced off down the corridor ahead of them
and pounded on the door next to their room.

Brian was on one end of the sofa and Dani on the other and they were
both looking under it. Experience had told them both that the
darndest things could find their way to the strangest places and
they were searching as a team for everything they could think of
that was small and capable of being lost in the whole packing thing.
`All clear.' Brian said as he looked at her.
`Except for the dust under here. I don't think the maids move the
furniture at all.'

She stood up and brushed herself off for emphasis. Brian grinned at
her. Kevin came out of the bedroom just as they were shutting a
suitcase with Dani perched on top of it while Brian was zipping
it. `Good. Looks like we're pretty well packed up.' He went to open
the door and go tap on the neighbours when there was a pounding on
theirs instead. He opened it up and grabbed Jessie for a short
tickle and let her go when the squealing began to hurt his
ears. `Where do you girls learn to do that?' He said as he put
fingers in both and waggled them to clear them out. `Come in.' He
shut the door behind her. `So who all is up at your place?'

Jessie wriggled herself back to normal then giggled. "We practice.
Daddy's up and grumpy. Nathan's up, sort of, but he hasn't had
breakfast yet."
There was a tap on the door and Kevin opened it again.
"Everyone awake?" Adam asked with a grin on his face.
"Well, if they weren't, they would be now," Jessie retorted as she
clambered onto the suitcase to help Dani.
"Everything okay?" She whispered.

`Yeah been up, ate, packed,' he looked over his shoulder at the
girls on the suitcase and Brian just getting up again. `We've sort
of made tentative plans. Bri's gonna drive Kristen's car back home
and I'll take Mom's. Dani can ride with whoever she wants. Or maybe
whoever can handle it. Flip ya for the first half,' he said and
winked at Brian. Dani frowned and threw Clyde at him.

`Yep. He's gonna ground me but no talk of you know what yet anyway.
I hope not and get this he said sorry to me. I was in shock.'

Brian looked at one girl then the other and snorted before standing
up and going to get the other cases and put them over near to the
door. `Whenever you're ready we can head to the airport too. Unless
there is sightseeing you want to do. There's some nice things in
Nashville.'
He backed up a little and looked at Adam. God, the man was huge!
Kevin wasn't that much shorter but he didn't have the bulk that Adam
did so he wasn't quite as intimidating to Brian. Plus they had grown
up together. But this guy was nearly a foot taller and well
huge. `Dani and I have had a couple of field trips here. They have a
great restaurant in the museum not like most places where it's all
nancy foods. This time of year they have monster truck demos too. I
took her to one of those and we nearly got flattened by a wheel that
came off. Good stuff.'

Kevin raised an eyebrow. Adam raised an eyebrow. Dani and Jessie
giggled. `Bad move Brian,' they said together.

"I think sightseeing will have to wait for another time, as Nathan's
not feeling too good. Brian, could you babysit the girls for half
an hour or so? Preferably without any monster trucks." He raised
his eyebrow again. "I realise it's a lot to ask after yesterday,
but Nathan's getting ready, and I'd like to have a word with Kevin
before we all go our separate ways."
Everyone else in the room exchanged glances.
"I don't need babysitting," Jessie protested. "Dani might." She
ducked, giggling as Dani tried to throw Clyde then realised she'd
already thrown him at Kevin.

`Yeah, no problem for me.' Brian said and looked at Kevin who just
shrugged.
After they left Brian looked at the girls and then to the
heavens, `Why me Lord?' he asked and tossed Clyde back to Dani. `Now
bop her.' He said.

Jessie pretended to cower under the onslaught then winked at Dani.
She got up and went over to Brian. Looking up at him through her
eyelashes she smiled sweetly. "You must have been very, very
wicked." She said solemnly.
Brian gave her a look and she grinned.

`This is boring just sitting here. Do we have to stay in this room?
Half hour my ass. You know how Kevin can get. They'll be gone for
hours.' Dani pouted and hugged Clyde who looked as though he were
pouting too.

Brian sighed and shrugged. `Okay, let's go down to the shops and get
you guys swim suits. We can leave a note and you two can go swim
while I sip mint jubilees and dream about lazy days of summer and
being home where the kids are only two and a half feet tall and call
me Daddy.'

He herded the girls down to the main floor and into the nearest shop
for hunting and being male he waited by the door.

Dani grabbed Jessie's hand and pulled her along to the swimsuit
department. `I love these big beautiful hotels with room service, in
door pools and shops.' She said and laughed.

Jessie put her hands on her hips and frowned. "So, are you telling
me you didn't like our motel, then?" She huffed and tossed her
hair, then started to laugh.
"Euw, I'm itching just thinking about it. I never, ever want to
stay anywhere like that again."

She picked up a sea green bikini that seemed to consist of three
small triangles of fabric held together with straps the thickness of
dental floss. "Whatcha think?"

Dani went through the rack and then over to the mix and match. `You
were there, you know.' She found a navy thong but a clearing of the
throat made her put it back. `Spoil sport.' She settled on a navy
that actually covered her butt. She looked at Jessie's and put one
finger under her chin as she hmmmed her. `I like it.' She said and
grinned.

`I think not. Put it back and find something that covers the
important parts please.' Brian said from his perch, shaking his
head. `Lord save me from every having a daughter.'
`Well that's easy enough, Stop doin' the nasty.' Dani said.

Jessie put the bikini back with a pout. "Which bits are the
important ones, Brian?" She called across the shop with a bright
pink cutaway one piece held up in front of her.

"EUW," she said loudly at Dani's comment.
Brian got up and walked over to Jessie and leaning over whispered in
her ear, `The ass and the tits, little girl.' Then he went back to
his post to wait.

Dani giggled. `How do you think you got here madam Jessica? I like
that pink one even better, the colour suits you.'

"I've read the books. Yep, I like the pink one too. It covers my
ass and my tits okay. But I might have to shave …" Brian looked
up. "My legs." She finished and giggled.

Dani bent over and pulled up a pant leg, `Yep. Okay Bri, we're
ready,' she said and went to hand him her choice.' He looked at it
and then took Jessie's offering too. `Barely,' he said to them both
and went to pay.

Jessie looped her arm in Dani's and danced past Brian, taking the
bag as he held it out.
"Thank you! See you by the pool, Poppa."
The girls ran through the hotel lobby and skidded round the corner
in the direction of the pool, giggling wildly.
Within minutes they were admiring their new swimsuits. Jessie
looked at herself in the mirror and wiggled various parts of her
anatomy.
"Tits and ass, tits and ass. Isn't that in a movie?"
Dan rolled her eyes and dragged her through the pool. They dived
in together, surfacing near Brian.
"Got your mint tulip yet?"
Brian held up his glass and saluted them as he was splashed by a
tidal wave of teenage frolicking directed at him. `Oh you two are
mine!' he yelped and setting his glass down dove in clothes and all
and dunked them both amid squeals and protests of innocence.

Adam led Kevin down to the hotel restaurant and ordered coffee. He
looked at Kevin in silence for a few moments and then sighed.
"I think we should talk."
"You're breaking up with me?" Kevin asked and pulled a pouty
face. `And here I thought we'd bonded
Adam gave Kevin a look.
"Two things. One; hopefully you'll sort everything out with Dani
and she'll decide a boring and humdrum life isn't all it's cracked
up to be.
I don't think the fact that she didn't have a choice is relevant;
Jessie didn't have a choice about having a `normal' life. We made
that choice for her, just as you made the choice for Dani. I think
a lot of it is the idea that the grass is greener on the other side
of the fence.
But if it carries on being an issue, she is very welcome to stay
with us, for a week, a month, a semester, whatever it takes. I know
she's finished her home schooling, but a lot of the high school
experience is nothing to do with classes."

Kevin blinked and nodded. `Well, that would be something to think
about. We'd have to talk that over a little more than one cup of
coffee though. She can be quite a handful when she gets started.'
"I'm sure she can. It's just an idea at this stage, but it might
just give you another option if you need it."

Kevin grinned, thinking about Dani doing a semester in a high
school, `She did do kindergarten at a regular school and part of
first grade. Damn, high school though. That'd be a hoot. And two?"

"Two; I know you'll think this is none of my business, but …"
"Go on."
"That damn Discover card has got to go. She's 15. 15 year olds
have allowances, not unlimited lines of credit."
`Somehow I was wondering when you'd get to that. I can't very well
take away her own money though. She worked hard for it no matter
what you may think about our lifestyle, it's hard work.'
"I don't dispute that. She's earned it and you think she should have
it. I think you're wrong. I know it's a cliché, but she'll never
learn the value of money that way."
`The value of money. I haven't heard that expression since my father
died.' Kevin looked at Adam, `I demand to see your driver's license."

"I'm an old, old man."

`Yes, I do think she should have it. I suppose in some ways I can
see what you mean though. Look what she's done with it lately. I'm
not even sure where she's going to put everything.'

"Tell me about it. I don't think I've ever seen so many clothes.
But that's not the point. Pop stars have been known to spend all
their money and have to file for bankruptcy. Teenagers and large
amounts of cash are a deadly combination. Sometimes literally. To
some extent you can currently control what she spends it on, but in
two years she'll be 18."

Kevin wasn't sure how to put this so he just forged ahead, `Adam,
you are talking about the poster child for anti smoking, anti drugs,
anti alcohol anti sex here. I know that a lot of the people in our
business go off the deep end and get themselves in a lot of hurt but
I don't think Dani would ever go for any of that. Now she might be
conned by a sad story or people who say they are friends but aren't
and that would get her into financial troubles but…' he held up a
finger, `I see the point you're making here and yes I have to agree
with most of it in principle. I just don't want you to think that my
baby sister is some sort of Marilyn Manson type who flies off the
deep end over stuff. Yeah she will and the way her trust is set up
she gets a certain amount then, another at 22 when she's gotten her
degree and the remainder at 25. I'm not as generous as you think,'
he grinned. `She worked hard and I thought it best to break up the
bulk into separate trusts with an outside trustee.' He lowered his
eyes and sighed,
`What she spends now is what I give her each month.'

"WHAT? She took out $10,000 yesterday! And she'd already spent a
fortune on flights and all that girly shit they bought."
Adam took a breath, then a mouthful of coffee. "Are you insane?
Now I do feel old." He sighed. "As for the other, Dani might be
the temperance league pin up girl, but that doesn't mean she'll
always be that way. She's seen some bad stuff, and you would think
that would turn her off for good. But we both know it doesn't
always work that way."

`She did which means she still has…oh fudge. So okay what is a
reasonable allowance? I'm not proud, well I am, but not that way.'
Kevin took a gulp of coffee and held his cup up to signal the server
for more.

`She might not but I don't think I need to worry so much there. I
know you mean well here but you didn't see her when Alex was in
rehab. I don't think she'll ever get over that totally. Her choice
of dealing with things is to withdraw from them and everyone around
her which is not a good thing either. Thanks Hon,' he said to the
girl who filled their cups. `So if she did come to stay with at your
house say for a semester how exactly would you be willing to handle
this? I know the minute I mention it to her she's going to want to
hop the next flight to Jersey, so I want to have the game plan in
place first.'

"I don't know what's reasonable. I know what Jessie gets. She gets
$75 a week, and four clothes shopping trips a year. And they are
Hell on Earth."
He sipped his coffee and thought for a moment. "It would only work
if she was part of the family. If she was a guest, and not subject
to the same rules as Jessie, it would lead to problems. I don't
know how you would feel about that. As for what she'd be doing;
school, homework, chores, movies, malls, sleepovers." He shuddered
melodramatically.
"I hate those. Hordes of squealing little girls. And funnily
enough, the squealing has got worse over the past few years."

Kevin's mouth dropped. `That's it? Oh man,' he ran a hand through
his hair and got a hunted look on his face. `She'll throw seven
kinds of fits over this and then the real trouble will start.' He
took a gulp of coffee.

"Yep, that's it. And my little darling is going to have a shock
when she discovers she's forfeited this summer's outing. Although
she's acquired that much this week she may not notice."

`We're due to get an album out come Christmas. This summer is going
to be spent at home, relaxing until the middle of July then we hit
the studio and get it done. That usually takes eight to ten weeks.
Last I knew school started at the end of August so that would give
us just six weeks to get it all done unless we can get together
sooner. Would you be willing to have her this first semester? `Cos
when I mention this to her she's gonna bug the shit out of me till
it's time to wave bye bye. She's really taken a shine to your girl
and I think that Jessie has been good for her in a lot of ways. Dani
may have taken advantage of who and what she is but she really wants
to try it the way she thinks is so cool. I lived it and it wasn't
bad but it wasn't the party she seems to think it is.' He thought
about the whole family thing and sighed. `Well she doesn't know this
but even though Mom is still Mom I have legal guardianship. So I can
sign papers giving you and Nathan temp guardianship while she's with
you if you want. That way you can get her to the docs if she needs
it or the dentist or whatever needs doing. It would also give you
parental rights.'

"That would work. The timing's good for us, and if it's definitely
what she wants, the sooner the better, like you say. The
guardianship is a good idea, Nathan has that for Jessie."
"I don't know when you want to mention it to Dani. I'll let you
take the lead on that one, but at the very least I think we should
get the punishments for the last few days over and done with."

`Brian and Nathan took care of that as far as I'm concerned. I don't
usually back track over someone else. But she is grounded for a week
and then we are going to revisit the whole thing and depending on
how good she's been we'll see. I know they didn't spank her for
some of the things I would have but hey, they aren't me and I think
they did pretty good considering.'

"They did. Nathan as disciplinarian is a whole new direction for
us, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'm leaning towards
grounding, though."

`So say around the middle of August for a tentative date?'
"Works for me."

You'll Take the High Road (Part 10) The Fantastic Four

Nathan and Jessie spent the afternoon watching HBO and talking.
Nathan sat on the bed with his back against the headboard, and
Jessie had tried a variety of positions, ending up curled up with
her head on Nathan's lap.
"You know, this movie is crap." Jessie said in a matter of fact
tone.
"Jessie, you need to stop swearing."
"Why?" She asked innocently, suppressing a giggle.
"Because it's a bad habit, and if you don't stop, you're going to
forget and try it on your father. And we both know that won't end
well."
"Oh. Good point. This movie sucks."
Nathan sighed.
"It does."
"What are we waiting for, exactly?"
"I think Brian must have decided to let Dani finish her shift."
"Poor Dani. Oh, that reminds me; I need to give you your lucky
quarter back."
"My lucky … Jessica, that's terrible."
"I know. I'm so very wicked. But I kinda figured Dani would only
last one shift."
"Well, you are going to have to tell her."
"I will. It was nice knowing you." She giggled again. "She's so
going to kill me."
They sat watching the movie in silence for a few minutes and then
Jessie sighed.
"Is Daddy really mad at you?"
"Jessie, I don't think I …" Nathan hesitated and then sighed
heavily. "Yes, he's really mad at me."
"But things are going to be okay, aren't they?"
"I don't know, Sweetie. I really hope so."
"But he wouldn't … I mean … he isn't going to …" Jessie struggled to
put her fears into words.
"Jessie, are you worried he's going to throw me out of the house?"
"No. Well… kinda. He wouldn't, would he?"
"I don't honestly know, Jessie. I hope not. I think he probably
would have already if he was going to…"
"But you don't know for sure."
"Jessie, I don't think he would."
Jessie jumped up and picked up the cell phone, flipping it open and
pressing speed dial in one fluid motion.
"Jessie, don't." Nathan got up and tried to grab the phone, but she
danced out of his way.
"Daddy?"
"Hi, Jessie. Are you behaving yourself?"
"Course I am. Are you going to throw Uncle Nathan out? Cos that's
really mean and horrible and you just can't. It's his home too, and
he can't help being an idiot. He's not normally an idiot, you know,
and it's just not fair to…"
"JESSICA."
"What?"
"Your Papa is right there, didn't you ask him?"
"He didn't know."
Adam swore under his breath.
"Can I talk to Nathan?"
Jessie silently handed the phone to Nathan, who had a slightly
anxious look on his face.
"Hey, Babe."
"Hey."
"I'm not sure which of you is sillier. No, I am sure, it's got to
be you. Jessie can at least blame teenage hormones."
"Adam …"
"Nathan, I told you what I was going to do, didn't I?"
"Yes, but …"
"Do you really think I would do that to you and then throw you out?
You must have a pretty low opinion of me, Nathan."
"Oh, Adam, don't be angry, please. I was just …"
"Scared?"
"I guess."
"You are an idiot. I love you, and like Jessie said, it's your
home."
"I am an idiot, and I love you too."
"Well, that's unanimous. Everyone thinks you're an idiot. So, can
we expect to see you any time soon?"
"I think we're waiting for Dani's shift to finish."
Adam snorted.
"Then once she and Brian are done, I think we'll eat and head back
to Nashville. This place is pretty grim, and I don't think we want
to spend the night."
"Worried about Norman Bates?"
"That's it."
"Okay, keep me posted. May I talk to Jessie?"
Nathan handed the phone back to Jessie, who was nervously hopping
from one foot to the other.
"Hi Sweetie."
"Hi Daddy."
"You're right, it would be very mean to throw Uncle Nathan out. How
about I just make him sleep in the garage for a month?"
"Daddy, that's …" Jessie looked at Nathan, and her eyes fell on the
bite on his arm. "A very good idea."
"Jessie."
"Hey, it was your idea."
"May I talk to Nathan again, please?"
Jessie passed the phone back to Nathan, who was rolling his eyes at
her.
"What's going on?"
"Oh, you don't want to know."
"Oh, I think I do."
"Talk to you later, Darling."
"Nathan …" Nathan shut the phone and glared at his daughter, who was
giggling. "What did you just agree to?"
"Daddy said you could sleep in the garage for a month. I just
agreed with him."
Nathan grabbed her and started tickling.
"No, no, don't." Jessie escaped from his grip, ran across the room
and clambered on the bed.
Nathan was about to launch an assault when there was a series of
loud knocks on the ceiling below.
"No time, got to go." Jessie gasped and then jumped off the bed.
She pulled on her jeans, wincing as she did so and then grabbed her
jacket.
"Come on, slowpoke." She bounced out of the door and down the
stairs, Nathan following more sedately.
Waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs were Dani and Brian.

Dani came out of the bedroom in time to hear Brian's last words and
she stuck her tongue out at him and then grinned. 'You are so...well
I don't know but you are,' she said and went to the door. 'Are you
coming?'

'Not recently,' Brian muttered under his breath and followed her
out. At the top of the stairs were Nathan and Jessie and Brian swore
that Nathan looked worse than she did. But kids bounce back so
easily, somehow that didn't seem fair. They got the great hair,
great skin, energy to burn and this too.
'Brian!' Dani was standing in front of him waving her arms. When he
looked down she was dangling the keys to Kristen's car in front of
him.

'Shit.' he said as he flipped his phone open and tried to grab
them, 'Dani, yes hello, this is Brian, Dani give me those, Littrell
and I rented a car a little while ago. Yes, uh huh, that's me.
Dani,' he tried grabbing again as she dangled and laughed at
him. 'We will be leaving it here yes. No but I'm sure my navigator
can find it. Thank you.' He flipped the phone shut and grabbed his
cousin around the waist and the keys at the same time.

'Not fair you're bigger than me,' Dani said.
'Yup,' and he swatted her tender bottom for emphasis.
Nathan walked up to Brian, who was looking a little harassed. "All
sorted? Sorry about abandoning you earlier, I just wanted to get it
over with. I figured we should head back and stop on the way for
something to eat. There was a steakhouse just off the interstate
that's probably open late."

Jessie got to the bottom of the stairs and waited patiently for
Brian to stop messing about and then she put her arm round Dani's
shoulders and pulled her to one side.
"So how was your first shift?" She said, a big grin on her
face. "Y'know …" she sniffed the air a couple of times. "I think I
can still smell parfum de grease."

Dani pursed her lips and glared at Jessie. 'You knew didn't you? You
knew how this was going to end and you let me walk right into that
diner and get mauled by eekie old men and yelled at by a fat cook
and hassled by a fat old woman. How could you?' Dani crossed her
arms and then she couldn't hold it in any longer she burst out
laughing. 'It was horrible and I am so not going back there
tomorrow.'
At the grease comment Dani reached up and felt her hair again and
turned to run up the stairs.
'EUW!'

Brian caught her just as she got on the second one and stood looking
at Nathan while his cousin kicked and tried to get him to put her
down. It was nothing new and he just ignored her efforts until she
stopped and then he set her on her feet. 'She's teasing.' he said to
Dani and then grinned at Nathan.

'We may have to discuss desertion in the future but this time I'll
let it slide. I just want to get her back to Kevin and rest. I'm
getting too old for this stuff.
Girls, load up and get in the back, I'll go and pay the bill and be
right there.'

He laughed to himself as he was now free and Nathan was stuck with
not one but two little darlings of the post diner brigade.
Nathan glowered after Brian as he left him alone with the little
darlings.

"I swear, I didn't know, not for definite. I just had a feeling. I
have got a confession, though." Jessie fished a silver coin out of
her pocket and handed it to Dani.

"What? Is this a tip? `Cos I got better ones than this."
"Noo. Look at it." Dani looked at the coin. Heads. She turned it
over. Heads.

Nathan watched the play of emotions across Dani's face and sighed.
The only way the bags were getting in the car was if he put them
there. He loaded up the trunk and then turned back to the girls,
his arms crossed.
"Come on, get in. If you behave yourselves, we'll stop for food
before we hit the interstate."

'That's low,' Dani said and laughed. 'Wish I'd thought of it.' She
hugged Jessie and whispered in her ear, 'But you're dead when we get
alone.'

Brian paid the bill and as he was waiting for a receipt he phoned
Kevin again.
'Hey, it's me.'
'Hey.'
'I wanted to let you know we are packing up and getting ready to
head out. Nathan said there was a good steakhouse on the Interstate
so we'll be stopping there for dinner. Besides I'm not sure how much
further we could get this soon after. They are both prancing about a
bit.'
'Adam and I had steak today too, very good ones and make sure that
Dani eats the salad. Her last test came back that she was lacking
iron again.'
'Spinach salad for her then.' Brian said.
'Make it watercress. She hates it but it's packed.'
'Great. So I get to play the bad guy.'
'You already did. This will just nail your coffin shut.' Brian could
hear the grin on Kevin's face and he glared at the phone.
'Thanks.'
'Welcome.'
'Not you, the clerk just gave me the receipt so we're gone Bear.'
'Catch ya in a while then and tell her she still has to get through
me and Mom and Mom's packin' this time.'
'Ouch.'
'Maybe. See ya in a bit then.'
'Eight at the latest. I'm thinking a few stops along the way.'
'Gotcha.'

Brian went out to find the girls goofing around and Nathan just
shutting the trunk of the VW. It was going to be a long trip.

'In. Now,' he said and watched as everyone scrambled.

Jessie grinned at Dani and then dodged round the car and clambered
into the back seat. Nathan pushed the seat back down, sat in the
front passenger seat and started to buckle in. Jessie yelped as she
hit the leather seat too hard.
"Owie," she said loudly into Nathan's ear.

Nathan saluted Brian and got in the car. He buckled in then grinned
across at Brian. "Looks like you're driving. Habit, I guess; the
person giving the orders does the driving. We can switch after
we've eaten if you want."
He flinched and rubbed his ear. "Jessie, don't do that. Otherwise
I might be tempted to give you something to say `Owie' about."

Jessie snorted and sat back, her arms crossed.
"So, where are we going next?" She said in a not very quiet whisper
to Dani.

Dani got in as Brian held the seat for her and buckled, 'Fuck, fuck,
fuck,' she whispered.
'That's one.' Brian said and let the seat fall back and got in. He
buckled and inserted the key, turned the ignition on and adjusted
the mirrors.
`I can't begin to think how Kristen in going to take this; you two
chasing off with her car and all.' He winked at Nathan and backed
out of the parking space.

Dani looked at Jessie and giggled. 'I didn't even think about that
part. Oh well. She'll get over it.' The hum of the tires echoed in
her ears and she wriggled one way and then another, 'Are we there
yet?'

At Jessie's question she blinked and then grinned. China?'

Brian drove on for a bit and then looked over at Nathan and back to
the road, 'I take it Adam doesn't let you drive very often? Kevin
used to be like that. He's the oldest in the group so he's always
had this notion that he's in charge.' He grinned, 'And usually he
is. You can have the wheel after we eat. Now how far to this place?'

"China? Cool. I've always wanted to see the Great Wall. Do you
think they do flights from Newark?" She grinned at Dani and then
snorted at Brian's comment.

"More like never," she muttered.
"Jessie, be quiet."
Jessie put her fingers in her ears and waggled them at Nathan,
pulling her tongue out at the same time.
"No, the SUV is Adam's. I muck about with the mirrors, mess with
the seat and twiddle with the steering wheel. Apparently. We've
never felt the need for two cars."

"I want one of those Smart cars." Jessie interrupted. "A pink one."

"Jessica, you'll be lucky if your father lets you take Driver's Ed
next year after this, never mind picking out a car. Plus you don't
need one." Returning to his conversation with Brian, Nathan
added, "It's about 4 miles. Then it's 40 or so back to Nashville."

Jessie huffed and sat back forcefully, wincing as she did so.
"So was it really horrid in the diner?" She whispered.

'I bet they do and we could try the whole Geisha thing too. I mean
isn't it every woman's dream to be the indentured sex slave to some
slobbering man?' Dani said and made a kissie face when she caught
Brian's face in the rearview mirror. 'Just makin' conversation back
here, keep your eyes on the road.'

Dani giggled at Jessie's antics and joined her for the last
part. 'Muchly. This one old dude grabbed my ass. I was like shocked.
Old guy grabbing my ASS.'
'Danielle Catherine Richardson, that's two.'
'Whatever.' To everyone's surprise Brian pulled off onto the
shoulder of the road, hit the emergency lights and got out. He threw
the seat forward and pulled Dani out by an arm and marched her to
the bushes along the highway.

Nathan turned round to Jessie, who had been silenced by Brian's
sudden move. "And you better keep quiet and start behaving
yourself, young lady, or so help me …"
"I didn't do anything," she whined.
"Jessica."
"Fine." She pouted and slumped down in her seat.
They weren't gone too long and when they came back Dani was not in a
good mood. She climbed in and hunkered down on her side of the seat
and refused to say anything more to anyone.

'There's our stop,' Brian said a few minutes later and he got onto
the off ramp and took a right. They could smell the food already and
it made his stomach rumble. 'Everyone out. Girls, hit the bathroom
before we get seated please.' he said as he held the door for
everyone to go in. 'The food must be good, it's packed. Thank God
it's no smoking or we'd be treated to Dani telling everyone they
were going to die.'
Nathan turned to help Jessie out of the back seat. She pushed him
away and snapped, "I can do it." She jumped out and joined Dani.
Holding hands and giggling, the girls dodged their way past the
other diners to the bathrooms.
Nathan sighed. "My turn." He made his way without the weaving and
dodging, and was leaning on the wall outside the bathrooms when they
came out.
"Don't look now, but there's some weirdo stalking us," Jessie
giggled and nudged Dani. Nathan raised his eyebrow. "That's what I
was waiting for." He grabbed her arm and directed her through the
kitchen and out into the back yard. The kitchen staff looked up
disinterestedly.
Jessie tried to wriggle out of his grasp. "Co-operate, or I will
spank you right here," Nathan hissed in her ear. She quickly
subsided and allowed herself to be directed outside.
"What has got into you?" Nathan asked.
"Nothing."
"Then what is your explanation for all the cheekiness?"
"Dunno."
Nathan sighed. "Jessie, I want you to behave yourself for the rest
of this journey."
Jessie shrugged. "Whatever."
Nathan grabbed Jessie, put his foot up on a beer crate and yanked
the teen over his knee. He swatted her several times and then let
her stand back up.

`Ya know,' Dani said as she leaned against the wall of the
restaurant waiting with Brian for the others to get back, `this has
not been the best day of my life and I haven't had that much life to
rag about.'

Brian raised an eyebrow.

`Well think about this then. All my life I've had to do exactly what
everyone else wanted me too. I went to the best school Kevin could
find when we were in Florida. Then you started home schooling me and
I didn't have the chance to learn to socialise in any sort of
acceptable manner. Going 180 degrees in the wrong direction you guys
think the best way to deal with any and all of my little
girl "antics" is spanking which is so politically incorrect it's not
even in the ball park anymore. I get paraded out in front of
thousands of girls who wish they were me but not me so they can hump
my brother or my cousin even though you're married, which is not a
good moral thing in anyone's estimation but is a fact. If I'm sick I
still have to go and make the little harpies happy `cos they are the
important ones. I could drop dead and all that would be said is, "oh
she was such a trooper". If I ever do decide I like boys enough to
date one, which at this point is debatable given most of them are no
more intelligent than you or your sidekick Slitherman, I'll never
get him past the Gestapo of Backstreet. My life is in the toilet and
I can't even enjoy myself with a friend.'

Brian raised the other eyebrow and then burst into laughter just as
Nathan and Jessie came back.

Jessie hugged Dani and glared at Brian. "You're mean."
Nathan laughed. "I'll have you know, young lady, I do not do any
slithering whatsoever. Can we eat now?"

Jessie shrugged. "Slither, squelch, who cares? The only good thing
I can say about your movies is they don't suck as bad as Daddy's."

Nathan winced. "Oh, well, that's just hitting below the belt. And
don't think I won't tell him. Now, food; before one of you little
monsters decides to take a chunk out of my other arm."

Dani returned the favour and looked at Nathan as though he had
pox. `Funny, I've seen your stuff. Much slithering going on there.
But I do have to agree with Jessie, at least there is misplaced
humour in yours . Tell if you want; just remind him about the erotic
thriller and Cohen and Tate and that'll shut him up.'

`Danielle!' Brian looked at her, `Tell me you did not watch that.'
`Oh, look,' Dani nudged Jessie, `now he wants me to lie.'

Brian looked at his cousin then at Nathan and then at the hostess
that had come up to seat them. `Four please, and hopefully far away
from normal people.'

The hostess led the way to a booth situated in the back with the
little kids and Brian shot the girls a dirty look as if to say "this
is your fault and there will be payback" and smiled as she handed
him a menu.

Jessie giggled and then tried to look innocent and not at all like a
teenager who'd been watching R rated movies. She slid into the
booth next to Dani and smiled sweetly up at Nathan and Brian.
"Well, come on, I thought you wanted to eat." She looked at the
menu briefly and then dropped it on the table.

Dani leant over and whispered something in her ear. "Oh. Hold on,
I'll show you." She grinned at Nathan and took hold of his hand.
He gave her a look, but she ignored him and pushed up the cuff of
his shirt. "See? Very pretty." In spite of her apparent bravado,
she winced at the sight of the bite. "Oops."

Nathan exchanged glances with Brian and then sat down. "Jessica, I
won't tell you again; behave yourself." He raised his eyebrow at
her when she uncovered the swollen bruise, took his hand back and
rolled his sleeve back down. "I mean it."

`Damn girl don't you know that a human bite is like the worst? His
arm is gonna turn green and get all pus-ee-ish and then it'll swell
up and he'll be rolling around on the floor in agony until he dies
from some horrible infection,' Dani said solemnly.

`Okay, Dani, I know what this is about and I've really had enough.'
Brian said as he tried to not look at the bite. `One more word that
isn't about school, work or how not to piss off the adults out of
your mouth and I am going to upend you right here, right now,
understand?'
`Whatever.'
`That's the word,' Brian said and stood up. He grabbed Dani by the
wrist and hauled her out of her seat and over his lap all in one
motion. `Shall we carry on?' he asked.

Dani did not say a word, hoping to not draw attention to this whole
thing. How could he? But then this was Brian and not Kevin and she
really didn't know how far she could push with him. `I give, lemme
up, please.' She said quietly.

Back in her seat she looked at Jessie and then giggled, `Stage does
that to you, y'know. Once Alex almost fell off trying to show off
dance moves like the rappers do and he got to close to the edge and
if Howie hadn't grabbed his pants he would of ended up in the
orchestra section. He did lose his pants though which made a lot of
girls happy.'

The server came back and Dani ordered nachos with extra guacamole.
There was a little debate on whether or not she would have the
watercress salad but Brian won in the end by playing the trump card
that was waiting for her in Nashville.

Jessie ordered a burger and fries. She tried ordering a chocolate
milkshake, but that was changed to orange juice. She huffed and sat
back with her arms crossed. Nathan coughed pointedly, so she sighed
heavily, uncrossed her arms and bowed her head.

Nathan ordered steak with peppercorn sauce. "I don't know about
you, but I think I need to keep my strength up." He grinned at
Brian.
"Jessie, there isn't a world confetti shortage, so you can stop
making it now." He held his hand out and she handed him the
shredded napkin. "You know, you were far better behaved as a 5 year
old."

Jessie glared, but said nothing.

`Yeah, `cos five year olds have nothing to fall back on.' Dani said
in Jessie's ear.

Brian ordered steak, medium rare, homefries, a side of veg and a
salad to start with. He was actually finding that he was starving
after all this activity.

When the food came he smiled at the server and dug in. Dani picked
at the nachos and the salad hoping that he wouldn't notice but when
he tapped her with his fork and pointed to her plate she sighed and
picked up a bigger bite.

`So, Nathan, explain one thing to me please. You're a guy and you
live with a guy and you're a couple. What's the sex like?'

Brian nearly choked on what he had in his mouth and he coughed into
the napkin.
`I'm just curious. Nick talks you know.' She said and rolled her
eyes.
Brian made a mental note to have a long heated discussion with Nick
and soon.

Nathan blinked. Jessie giggled.

"Very good, thank you," Nathan said and took a bite of his steak.

"Noisy, sometimes," Jessie added matter-of-factly, and it was
Nathan's turn to choke.
When he'd recovered, he took a sip of water and turned to Brian.
"I think we'll pass on desserts."

`Well, that's no different than sleeping in the next room from him
then. God, you should hear Lei..'
Brian put his hand over Dani's mouth and looked at her. She licked
his palm. He frowned and wiped his hand on his pant leg.

`Why don't we get dessert?'

"Because we are naughty little girls and don't deserve desserts,
silly," Jessie whispered. "I want dessert," she added more loudly
and pouted.

Nathan frowned at Jessie then took another bite of steak.

`Oh hell,' Dani said and getting up from the table she stood on the
booth seat and then the table and announced, `Excuse me everyone!
These two men are not our fathers and we are being denied dessert.'

All eyes turned to them and Brian felt his face getting hot. Should
he grab her? Should he ignore her? He looked at Nathan and then up
at Dani dressed in his clothes and wondered how long the judge would
give them.

Jessie took one look at Dani and started to climb up onto the seat
next to her.
"Oh, no, you don't." Nathan got up and grabbed her ear, then
reached up and grabbed Dani's, pulling her down off the seat.
"Brian, pay the bill and fend off the mob." He pulled the two
teenage heads towards him and said softly, "the first one to scream,
kick or make any more of a scene than you already have gets spanked
right here."
Jessie knew she had pushed Nathan just as far as he was prepared to
go. She nodded and blinked away tears, hoping desperately that Dani
wasn't going to make a fuss.
"Papa, that hurts," she said, trying not to whine.

Dani yelped when she was yanked from her perch and then there was a
pain in her ear, one she had never had before and she could not
believe that this man was touching her.

Brian got up in a whirl and went to the register to pay and when the
manager came out to talk to him he explained he whole mess to her.
At first he wasn't sure she was going to buy it but he was saved by
her teenage daughter who came squealing up and asking for his
autograph. They chatted for a few minutes and he allowed a photo to
be taken and then he beat it out of there as fast as he could.

`You stupid, arrogant, son of a mother fu..OW!' Dani yelped again.

Nathan marched the two squeaking girls out to the parking lot. He
released Jessie next to one side of the car and walked round to the
driver's side with Dani's ear still firmly gripped between his
fingers.
"Yep, that's me. Now do you want that spanking, or are you going to
get in the car?"

Jessie rubbed her ear and winced. She really hated that. She
waited patiently at the side of the car, not willing to get into any
more trouble.

`You can't,' Dani said and kicked him.

Brian came out in time to hear the very end of that and shook his
head. He walked over and opened the door for Jessie and motioned for
her to get in. Once she had he got in the passenger seat and stuck
the keys in the ignition. It seemed that Nathan had things well in
hand and he was not about to jeopardise Dani respecting him by
butting in. No pun intended.

Jessie climbed into the car and slumped on the back seat, not
wanting any part of what was about to happen.

Nathan was really tired of being kicked. It wouldn't be so bad, but
that was the third time in exactly the same place, and what the Hell
did that girl have on her feet?
"I can." He grabbed her waist and tucked her head under his arm.
It wasn't terribly dignified, but then spankings rarely were. He
spanked fast and hard, not particularly wanting to attract any more
attention.

Dani's protests were muffled and her struggling seemed to be
futile. Nathan decided that would have to do and let the teen stand
up. "Are we done, or would you like to kick me again?"

Dani stood there and looked at him and sniffled, `Well, alright
then.' She said and got in the car sitting with extra care.

Nathan got into the car and looked across at Brian. He didn't say
anything, but his expression spoke volumes. He buckled in and then
turned round to look at the two girls behind him.
"Everyone buckled up? Good. The rules for the remainder of the
journey are as follows: no kicking, no biting, no swearing, no
arguing and no misbehaving in general. You may talk quietly amongst
yourselves, but there will be no bitching and no fomenting of
trouble or general unrest. Is that clear?"

Jessie nodded and Dani sniffled. "Good enough, I suppose. If I
have to, I will stop the car." He turned back round and started the
engine. "Okay then," he muttered, more to himself than anyone else.

Jessie slipped her hand over Dani's and squeezed it gently. Dani
looked up briefly and Jessie winked at her and then settled back in
her seat.

As the miles passed the silence seemed to get louder and louder to
Brian and he turned around to look at the girls a couple of times to
make sure that they were still awake. Dani just glared at him and
looked out her window. There was going to be trouble there, he just
knew it.
'You surprise me sometimes Nathan.'

Dani lent over and whispered to Jessie, 'This is not good. Brian
hardly ever spanks. He always leaves that to Kevin and now this.
What is this world coming to?'

Nathan was enjoying the peace and quiet. He didn't expect it to
last, but it was nice while it did. He grinned when Brian finally
spoke.
"I didn't expect you to break first. Surprise you how, exactly?"

Jessie shook her head and whispered back. "Tell me about it.
Nathan has gone spank-happy. Motels, restaurants, car parks, where
next?" She giggled softly. "And for a beginner, he's got pretty
good technique."
After another mile or two, her stomach rumbled and she giggled. "I'm
hungry," she whispered.

'I didn't expect to break first either but what can I say? I'm a
wimp.' Brian grinned. 'All the moping you were doing at your house,
expecting the worse and all. I guess I don't really know how a
relationship like yours works and that's my ignorance. I just never
expected you to spank anyone let alone my cousin. Although I must
say it was beautiful.'

'Way too good if you want my opinion and let me tell you Jessie, if
they're spanking now life as we know it has ended. Crap,' Dani mused
and kicked the back of Nathan's seat.

Nathan laughed. "I know it might not have seemed like it over the
past few days, but I do spend most of my life being an adult and a
parent. If you ignore the discipline side of things, our
relationship isn't that much different from a marriage, and Adam
gets to wear the pants." He winked at Brian. "Much like you do, I
daresay."
"And as for the spanking of our little darlings in the back seat,
well, once I got over the first hurdle, I must say it got easier."
He grinned. "It's not as though Adam ever had a problem with me
spanking Jessie. I wouldn't do it when she was little, and then it
was just became a habit to defer to Adam."
He felt a jolt to his seat and sighed. "You know, I think it was
the kicking. I can out up with most things, but I really do object
to that. Speaking of which; Dani, don't do that."

Jessie sighed heavily. "It's an epidemic. A positive plague.
Spankings are breaking out all over. There is no escape. Nowhere
to hide. Resistance is futile."

Brian laughed, 'You think so? You should meet my wife. I sort of
became a parent at 10 so it's like I've spent my whole life doing,
you know. Most of the time Kevin took the reins but there were a
few times he left her with me while he got a much needed break. It
was harder for him trying to help raise her. Then he went to Florida
when she was just four. It was just two years after their dad died
and Dani was inconsolable. She cried and cried and even I couldn't
get her too a sunshine place. Finally Ann gave in and phoned Kevin
and he flew back, scooped her up and the rest is history. He's been
her dad and her mom and that's not to dis my aunt. She's a great
lady and a wonderful mom but Dani just needed what she knew.

When I got married I thought things would be like some 50's sitcom
show. My parents' life is simple and they raised us in an old
fashioned way so I got my fair share of hidings. It wasn't until we
got the group together that I started meeting people who lived
alternatively. I have to admit the first few gave me squirms, but
then I looked past that and they are some of the best friends I have
now. Three of the couples work in our crew and when one of them
wanted to adopt I was a character witness, they got a little girl
just a few months ago and I think that kid has it all. I had to do
it for them you know? After Baylee was born I was like on a cloud.
He's been the joy of my life and anyone who wants that experience
I'm behind one hundred percent. Sorry, you probably don't care to
hear my life story. I'll shut up now.' Brian grinned.

'Maybe we should book air time and make commercials on this.
Warnings to others that it could happen to them. Wealth is no
barrier, single parents, couples, traditional homes; it's breaking
out across the nation and is evil. It must be stopped.' Dani kicked
the seat again.
Nathan checked the mirror, indicated and pulled the car in at the
side of the road. He unbuckled his seat belt and got out of the
car. Then he pushed the seat forward and leant in. "Out please,
Dani."
Brian looked at Nathan as he pulled over, there wasn't a restaurant
anywhere nearby and no rest stop either. At his words he looked over
the seat at Dani and sighed. 'Brat.'

'What? What did I do? We were just talking. Really, I wouldn't
really rent air time.'

Nathan raised his eyebrow. "I asked you not to kick the seat. Out,
please."

"No, please," Jessie cried melodramatically and threw herself across
Dani's lap, her arms outstretched. "Spare her, take me instead."

Nathan snorted. "Okay then." He took hold of her hands.

Jessie looked up at him through her lashes and pouted. "You weren't
supposed to say that."

He sighed. "All right. One last chance; Dani, give me those
boots." He crossed his arms and waited.

'Huh?' Dani looked at him and her eyes filled again. Then her lap
was full of Jessie and she was laughing and crying at the same
time. 'S...sorry. I d…didn't realise.' She tapped Jessie on the
head. 'Up?' When Jessie got off she lifted a foot and undid the
laces, her fingers shaking so badly she finally stuck her left foot
out for Nathan and put her right over the console for Brian.

Brian turned to find his face full of a biker boot and he shook his
head. 'Love the look,' he said as he unlaced the boot and set it on
the floor in front of him. Dani grinned but didn't answer her teeth
were chattering too hard for words by that time.

'I think you scared her.' Brian said to Nathan as he reached for the
other boot.

"Lovely look, but very painful." Nathan unlaced the boot that
appeared under his nose and handed it to Brian. Then he solemnly
held his hand out to Dani. "Truce? I didn't mean to scare you."

Jessie nudged Dani. "Don't bite it. He doesn't taste so good."

'They got extra leather on the s..soles. Bikes a..and all.' Dani
stammered. When Nathan held his hand out she backed away at first
until he spoke and then she lent forward and took it solemnly in
hers, 'Truce...for now.' And she winked at him.

'I think you may need vodka,' she said to Jessie. 'What?' She asked
when both adults looked at her. 'I hear it works good as a
disinfectant.'

'Uh huh.' Brian said. 'Hey anyone else hungry? Our meal was
interrupted by snark.'

Nathan frowned. "There will be no need for vodka, as this was
Jessie's one and only foray into biting people. Wasn't it,
Jessica?" Jessie nodded vigorously in response. Her stomach
rumbled again and she giggled. "Yep, I'm hungry."

Nathan looked at Brian and shrugged. "Two mouthfuls of steak and
half a dozen fries doesn't really count as a meal. I could eat.
And if everyone behaves themselves, we might even make it to
dessert."

He got back into the car and turned the key in the ignition. "Let's
see what we can find."

`Well, it may have been her one and only but what if you have some
weird thing and she gets this thing and then it spreads and the next
thing you know lots of people have the same thing and it's Night of
the Living Dead all over again.' Dani rambled.

`No more horror movies for you, young lady.' Brian said keeping his
eyes peeled for somewhere to eat.

`We'll see.' Dani quipped and Brian turned and smacked her
leg. `That's enough. Do you really get me this time? I've had enough
of your mouth for one day. Hell I've had enough for several days and
if it doesn't stop you will sit in the car.'

`That's child abuse.'
`Missing one meal is not child abuse.'
`It would be two. You didn't let me finish last time either.'
`Dessert.'
`Shutting up now.'

She looked at Jessie and giggled. `Men.'

Jessie leant over to whisper in Dani's ear. "That's what's wrong
with them; they're zombies. If I start spanking people, shoot me in
the head; that should do it."

"Jessie, how exactly do you know how to kill a zombie?" Nathan
winked at Brian.
Jessie rolled her eyes. "I guessed?" She hazarded and then quickly
changed the subject. "Oh, look, a restaurant."

Nathan pulled in to the roadside café. "Okay, here we
are. `Granny's Place'. Sounds safe enough, but I refuse to eat
anything that might involve entrails. Dani, is it safe for me to
give you your boots?"

Jessie wrinkled her nose. "Euw, gross."

`Right between the eyes.' Dani poked her there for emphasis.

Brian unbuckled and then held the door for Jessie to get out before
closing it again. `Granny's. Meatloaf here we come.'

Dani looked at Nathan, `Well, it's that or you carry me.'

Nathan looked back. "That didn't really answer my question, now did
it?" He handed her the boots and waited patiently for her to sort
out the complicated fastenings.
"Ready for meatloaf?" he asked.

"With mashed potatoes and gravy? Hey, Uncle Nathan, did you know
KFC doesn't do mashed potatoes in England? They have fries, isn't
that weird?" Jessie hooked her arm through Dani's and danced
towards the restaurant.

`You didn't really expect her to give you an answer did you? Then
she'd have to adhere to it and that would just be wrong in her
eyes.' Brian said. `God, please let all my children be boys. I think
I found a grey hair.'

`And corn on the cob and homemade bread with real butter and
Granny's best dessert Apple Betty named after her Granny.'

When they got to the door Dani reached out one hand to open it and
there was a bit of a mess while they tried to figure out how to pass
through it together. Inside was decorated with plates everywhere.
Some were chipped and others looked like they'd been glued back
together. `Yep, Granny's. Guess we seat ourselves.' Dani shook her
arm out and grabbed Jessie around the waist and danced her over to a
table and with a flourish sat her down, bowing as she did so. `Your
seat, Madam.'
She took the one next to Jessie and picked up her fork and knife and
banged them on the table. `Food! Food! Now!'

Nathan and Brian followed the girls into the restaurant. Nathan
stopped at the door and sighed. "Just the one? You're lucky." He
walked over to the table and put his hands over Dani's, pushing the
cutlery down. "We will walk right back out of this restaurant and
every other restaurant until you behave yourself, young lady."

Jessie giggled. "And that includes you too, nuisance." Nathan
growled and she pouted. Then she smiled sweetly at the motherly
waitress who was waiting by the table. "Four meatloafs. Or should
that be meatloaves? Lots of mashed potato and gravy, please. And
beans."

`I am behaving. Oh and homemade bread and real butter and corn on
the cob and may..' Brian put a hand over her mouth. `Hush. Dani's
hypoglycaemic. When her sugar bottoms out, which it looks to be the
case she gets obnoxious.' He sat down next to Jessie and lent
over, `Any more outbursts and we'll be having a talk got it?'

He sat back and shrugged his shoulders trying to work out a few
kinks. `I will need a break from my break at this rate. How much
longer until we can turn them over and get some rest?'

Jessie sat quietly and tried to look angelic. Nathan looked at her
and snorted. "Your halo has slipped, sweetie." She wrinkled her
nose in response.

The waitress brought a basket of bread and a jug of water. Jessie
buttered a piece and handed it to Dani. "Now you see, this is what
happens when you go on a steady diet of chocolate muffins." She
buttered another piece and bit into it. "Whath?" she said in
response to the two grown up glares. She tried to swallow and ended
up coughing.

"Not soon enough. I swear, I'm going to need a vacation after
this. I'm going to find a monastic retreat somewhere. Some place
totally free from teenage girls." Nathan sipped water, rubbed his
temples and wondered if he had remembered to pack any Tylenol.

Dani chewed her bread happily until the meal came. She wrinkled her
nose at the spinach and knew that Brian had something to do with it
but she was hungry enough and didn't fuss over it.

`Now that sounds peaceful. No girls, just bells at an unholy hour of
the morning.' Brian said and reached for a slice of bread himself.
When the food came he dug in and even gave half of his mashed potato
to Jessie. `Enjoy.'

Halfway through the meal he stopped and looked at them both
again, `Chocolate muffins?'

Nathan looked at Brian and then looked at Jessie. Jessie wasn't
sure she liked that look.
"Chocolate muffins?" he repeated.

"What about chocolate muffins?" Jessie asked innocently and stuck
her fork into the mound of potato. "I'm not thinking about dessert
yet, just concentrating on my dinner. Yum."

`Yum, yes, but let's hear about chocolate muffins. Is there a
problem with chocolate muffins? Because if there is we may want to
get it all out in the open, you know, clear the air, confess, own
up.' Brian took another forkful of meatloaf.

Dani concentrated on her plate and refused to look up. There was
just something about the unfolding pattern of that plate that was
very interesting, yes indeed.

"I think I would have to agree with Brian on this one. Let's hear
all about the chocolate muffins." Nathan frowned at Jessie, with
little effect, as she was finding her plate as fascinating as
Dani's. "Jessie?"

"Daddy knows already. So we don't need to bother about it."
"Your Daddy knows you ate chocolate muffins?"
"Yes?"
"So if I was to ring him up, he'd agree with that?" Nathan reached
for his cell phone.
"NO!" Jessie yelped. "I mean. Um. He knows I ate something I
shouldn't …"
"How about lots of somethings?"
"Um."
"What else, Jessie?"
Jessie sniffled and concentrated on her meal. Nathan looked at
Brian and rolled his eyes.

`Okay guys, here's the thing. We were on a holiday and when you go
on holiday you do things that you don't normally do like, say, eat a
chocolate muffin or twelve. Now you know you shouldn't because well,
the zits and the calorie thing rate pretty high and because they
mess with your breathing according to some. But you're on holiday
so, well, what the hell. And there are Starbucks everywhere and you
really really love their caramel macchiato with extra whipped cream
so you indulge. Now is it really a fair thing to get all pissie
over this? No, not really. It's over, it's done and I think best
left forgotten.' Dani returned to her plate and made a dramatic
point of taking a bite of spinach.

Brian listened with rapt attention at how she could do this sort of
thing and make it sound so plausible. `I'm going to finish my meal,
have a coffee and a very large dessert and then I'm going to let
Kevin deal with this. Yup, that's what I'm going to do.' He took a
bite and chewed it. `What in the hell possessed you two? `

Jessie looked up and blinked away tears. "Chocolate muffins,
caramel macchiatos, cola and … and chocolate doughnuts."
Nathan looked at her. "Oh, Jessie. Why?"
"Cos. Um. Well. Um."
Nathan sighed heavily.
"Because you're not supposed to, and you wanted to pay me back?"
"That's not … um … well, maybe."
"Jessica. We'll talk about this when we get home."
"At great length," Jessie sighed and wiped her tears on her sleeve.
"Yes, young lady, at great length. And then you can explain to your
Daddy why you get to eat chocolate doughnuts when he hasn't been
able to have any in the house for six years."
Jessie giggled in spite of herself. "Nuh uh."

Nathan turned to Brian. "Yep, that's the way to go. Delegate." He
grinned and signalled to the waitress.
"What pie do you have?"

`Works for me, my head hurts. I want to sleep. I want to relax. I
want to wake up with the sun shining on my face and the smell of
baking again. I'm whining.' Brian ordered the dutch crumble with ice
cream and a coffee for dessert.

Dani pushed her plate away and burped, `Excuse me.' She stretched
and stood up, `Bathroom?' she looked pointedly at Jessie.

Jessie looked at Nathan and he nodded. "Just don't head for the
border." She stood up and followed Dani.

Dani looked at him, `There's a border near here?' Then she giggled.
In the bathroom she pulled Jessie over where they wouldn't be heard
and said, `Okay the way this is going is not good. Your Dad and my
brother are going to spank us that's sort of a given but how and
when they do it we can sort of control. Shh,' she said, `now I know
that usually it's just best to get it over with but the thought of
another one right now just really makes me not very happy and when
I'm not happy nobody is so I say we appeal to their loving sides.
Your Dad does love you right?'

Jessie looked dubiously at Dani, her eyes narrowed in
suspicion. "Okay. I'll give you that it's a given that they're
going to give us a spanking," she giggled, then adopted a serious
expression. "Yes, he loves me. I'm not sure how I can appeal to
his loving side at the moment without losing a limb in a terrible
accident. So what's your plan? And please don't tell me it involves
a terrible accident."

Nathan took a large gulp of coffee and closed his eyes. "I keep
hoping this is all a dream, and I'm going to wake up to find that
the past week never happened. What do you suppose they are plotting
in there?"

`No accident. Just tell him the whole story and ask him if he would
please wait until you get home before there is any more punishment.
Tell him you need Animal for after. You're a girl and girl babies
are so much cuter than boy babies. I know if I come clean with
Kevin and then ask for him to wait a few days he will. Sometimes I
just need time, don't you? He likes to call it "the right frame of
mind" and believe me I don't think I'm there just yet. The whole
hypo thing and all. You on the other hand young lady have not used
an inhaler for what now, two days? I'm not saying use it but use
it. `

Brian looked at Nathan and grinned. `If I know Dani she's feeling a
bit guilty right about now over this. As she balances out she gets
more rational. She's probably coaching Jessie on how to get Adam to
wait a day or two before he punishes her for anything. I don't know
how it works with you guys but when she and at times Nick who is
usually a co-conspirator in these sort of things come clean with
Kevin right away and ask for a day or so to get ready he lets them.
I think his whole theory is if they have that time to think about
it, it helps. It's like cornertime without the corner.

`It's not a dream and I do feel for you. I wasn't sure when I first
heard about all of this but after getting to know you and how the
dynamics work I know you didn't really mean any of that. I can see
the love there and Nathan for what it's worth I think when this is
all in the past give us a call and we'll Jessie sit. I promise we
won't lose her.'

Jessie nodded. "That could work. I definitely need Animal. Funny,
Daddy says that too. I wonder how exactly they know what particular
frame our minds are in?"
She pouted. "I have too." Then she laughed. "Daddy made me take
them last night, and Nathan made me take them today." She hugged
Dani. "We'll be fine. Like you say, they love us." She batted her
eyelashes, "and we're just so cute. We better get back out there
before they send out search parties."

"Adam's actually pretty good at working out Jessie's mood. I would
be quite surprised if he even considered punishing her again before
we were home. But if we don't get them back to Nashville before
midnight, there's a possibility that someone is going to get
spanked."
He finished his pie, pushed the plate away and burped. "Excuse me.
Are you going to look for them, or am I?"

`Good. I feel better already,' Dani hugged her back. `Oh sure, you
take them for those two but not for me, should I be upset?' Dani
stood back and put her hands on her hips. `Yeah, they'll come
barging in here and there will be screaming women.'

Back at the table she looked at both the men,' So, you two done
already? We should be going you know. Some of us have a bedtime.'

`Yeah Kevin's like that too for the most part. He has his moments
though. There was one time when her and Nick were car jumping.' He
laughed at Nathan's puzzled expression. `Car jumping. Wait for a car
to start up and be going slow, like in a parking lot and then jump
on the bumper. Scared the hell out of us. But it was comical to see
him run out of the store yelling his head off `Don't jump!' The
driver looked back when they did it and stopped but sometimes they
didn't until they heard the commotion. It took a lot to get through
to both of them how dangerous that was. Neither of them has enough
sense to be afraid of anything.' He stopped when the girls came up
and he stood. `Yep, let's blow this joint.' He reached over and
ruffled both girls' hair.

Nathan stood up and put his arm round Jessie. She put her arms
around his waist and hugged. "Oh, no, you got fat, I can barely …."
He tickled her ear and she giggled.
"Have you two put the worlds to rights?"
"Yep, all sorted. Go. Now. Drive. Shoo, shoo."

They were soon buckled up and back on the road. The next few miles
passed quickly and quietly. Nathan looked in the mirror and smiled.
"What is it?" asked Brian. Nathan put a finger to his
lips. "Shh." Brian turned round to see the two girls fast asleep.

It was close to 10 pm when they finally arrived at the hotel.
Nathan parked the car and looked at Brian. "I suppose we should
wake them up."


Brian got out of the car and didn't shut the door all the way but
shook his head at Nathan, `Nah, when Dani sleeps she sleeps hard.'
He said and walked around the car, pulling the seat forward he
reached in and got her under the arms and lifted her out carefully.
Her head lolled on his shoulder and her feet dangled about a foot
from the ground. `She's grown and heavier now but she's still our
little girl.' He winked and hoisted her a bit higher, kicking the
door shut with a foot. The thud was fairly quiet as the car was new
and he waited for Nathan to either wake Jessie or pick her up.

Nathan swapped places with Brian and reached in to lift Jessie
out. "No, don't wanna," Jessie mumbled as he picked her up. He
shut the door with his hip and groaned dramatically. "Yeah, and
those chocolate muffins must really weigh heavy."

They squeezed themselves into the elevator and Nathan managed to
press the button for their floor. Jessie woke up enough to tighten
her grip on his neck. "Shh," he murmured.

Unlocking the bedroom door was impossible, even if he could find the
key, so he lightly kicked the bottom of the door several times.

"Good night," he called softly as Brian passed him on the way to the
other room.

Adam opened the door and Nathan grinned. "Did you lose
something? `Cos I think found it."
Adam stepped silently out of the way, and Nathan walked into the
room and gently deposited Jessie on the sofa bed that had been made
up in the corner of the room. He took off her boots and pulled the
covers over her, tucking Animal in next to her.

Finally he turned to Adam and sighed. "She's all yours, Daddy."
Adam snorted and beckoned Nathan over with a crooked finger. Nathan
obediently walked over to accept a hug. "Thank you," Adam whispered
then kissed him.

"You guys should get a room," muttered Jessie.

Nathan grinned. "I need a shower." He grabbed clean clothes and
headed for the bathroom, abandoning Adam without a backward glance.

Adam sat gingerly on the edge of the sofa bed. "I thought you were
asleep, Princess."
"I am." She buried her face in Animal's fur. "Sorry, Daddy," she
mumbled.
"I know. Back to sleep now." He leant over and kissed her
forehead.
"Animal too." She held the bear up and giggled. Adam growled at
Animal and then kissed the bear. He tucked Jessie in, hugged her
and got up to turn off the main light.
Then he walked into the bathroom, just as Nathan finished
undressing. Nathan turned away, but Adam was too quick.
"Let me see that." Nathan sighed and held out his arm. "It's not as
bad as it looks."
"I'm not sure I agree with you. Did you put anything on it?"
"I washed it pretty good." Adam raised his eyebrow. "I'm not
completely incapable, you know."
"Get in the shower, brat."
Nathan snorted. "I was trying to, but someone interrupted me."
"You might want to rethink your attitude, given your current
situation." Nathan scowled briefly then hugged his partner.
"Grump."
"I know. Give that thing a good wash."
Nathan snickered and Adam glared at him. "The bite, Nathan. I'm
going to see if I can track down a first aid kit or something."
"Oh."
Adam swatted him with some force and walked out. Nathan rubbed his
bottom ruefully and then obediently got into the shower.

Nathan took a very long shower, finally leaving the bathroom just as
Adam returned to the room. He blinked as Adam held the door open
for a short man with a black bag.
"You know, it's not really …"
"Nathan."

Nathan sat down and let the hotel doctor tut over his wound. Soon
it was cleaned and dressed and the doctor left, leaving a sample
pack of antibiotics and a script for the rest of the course. There
had been a brief debate about the need for tetanus shots, but Nathan
managed to escape that one unscathed.

Adam handed Nathan a glass of water and the first capsule. Nathan
scowled, but hurriedly swallowed it when Adam scowled back.
"Bed," said Adam, his tone abrupt.
"I was going to have a drink," Nathan objected.
"Not on antibiotics. Now, please."
Nathan sighed heavily as he clambered into bed. Adam undressed and
joined him, turning off the lights.

What followed was a silent testament to the inventiveness of parents
in close proximity to their sleeping child. And that's enough said
about that.

Brian continued on and stopped at the next door and now he faced the
same problem with the key card. Before he had time to kick though
the door opened and he gratefully deposited Dani into Kevin's
waiting arms. Going over to the table he grabbed a cup of coffee and
a sweet from the snack tray before sitting down on the sofa. 'You
think of everything.'

'It's my job.' Kevin said as he walked into the bedroom part of the
suite. There he carefully laid Dani down and began to unlace and
remove the boots. He turned a foot back and forth to get a good
look at them beforehand. 'Wicked.' He sat them on the floor and
stood looking down at his sleeping baby sister and his throat
filled. It always surprised him that he could love someone this
much. What he saw each time was the baby he tucked in night after
night and the child he worried over day after day. Sighing he got
her under the covers and then tucked Clyde in with her. He watched
as she instinctively wrapped an arm around him, pulling him close.

Back in the main part of the rooms he got a cup of coffee and sat
down next to Brian on the sofa. 'Good trip?'
'Yeah, the going was. Nathan has the same sense of direction that
you do. Uncanny. He's a good road companion. When we got there
though it was hell.'
'They fought it?'
'Not Dani so much. Nathan went to deal with Jessie `cos she was
done working, and there was a lot of screaming and yelling. And
biting. Oh, God, Kevin they were working in this sleazy little
diner and living in a fleabag motel. I went to watch Dani and some
guy grabbed her butt. I really thought she would lose it but she
carried on through the whole shift.'
'Good for her.' Kevin rested his head on the back of the sofa and
closed his eyes.
'Nathan spanked her.'
'What?' An eye popped open.
'She had it coming so calm down. She got up on the table in the
restaurant we were at and announced to the place we were not their
fathers. I really expected cops. So he grabbed her and we left. When
I got out I saw her kick him with those boots, oh, they're biker
boots by the way and he paddled her behind for it. I thought go for
it.'
'She can be such a brat.'
'Yeah, but I think her levels were screwed up too. They spent most
of the time living on chocolate muffins and Starbucks.'
They sat in family style comfort not saying anything for a long time
and then all that was heard was soft snoring as they had both fallen
asleep sitting there.