| Any comments, suggestions or questions can be directed to the author. Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope you found something that you could enjoy. Disclaimer: I do not own anything in relation to C.S.I., Alliance Atlantic, CBS, William Petersen, Jorja Fox or any other characters contained herein... I just like playing with them now and then while stretching my writing muscles. And if you think there's any money to be gained by suing me, you're in for a horrible disappointment. |
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| LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY |
| Part 4 - S is for Saturdays |
| Early mornings had been her refuge for a long time. The house was quiet, the kids were still asleep, and Thomas was usually in surgery by the time she woke up. She would wake and head straight for the kitchen to start the coffee, still dressed in her pajamas. The first cup of coffee and a good portion of the newspaper would be enjoyed before she even thought about getting ready for the day. Now that her children were grown, and mostly moved away, it became her piece of solitude before becoming immersed in the evils of the Las Vegas underworld. However, on Saturdays, it was her time to plan. Saturdays meant family, and not just her little brood either. No, the whole crazy mixed up bunch would descend upon a single spot and spend the afternoon together; laughing, talking, playing and loving. Those Saturdays were the source for many of the family’s fondest memories, and some of their most infamous stories. Once they learned that she was pregnant with Danny, she and Thomas knew that their quaint little townhouse nestled perfectly between the hospital and the lab was no longer going to hold their growing family. When they started the search for their new house Stephanie had only two requests; that there would be room for several more children, and that it was setup to keep the Saturday tradition going for many, many years to come. And just as he had done since the moment they met, Thomas was ready to do whatever it took help her achieve those dreams. From the moment he took her out to see the house in Summerlin, she knew that it was perfect. The little nursery room right off from the master suite on the main level, the enormous open kitchen with the long breakfast bar island, the high-ceilinged library, the spacious family room in the basement, the four bedrooms upstairs with the special split suite room for the twins, and the cozy guest suite in the basement all made her heart sing with the work her devoted husband had gone through to find that house. However, it was the great room and the deck that made the whole thing an absolutely perfect choice for their growing family. She could see the happy evenings sharing company with her uncle and his family, she could picture her mother finally making the permanent move to stay with them, she could hear all the children running up and down the stairs in a frenzy, she could imagine sitting in the library reading to her grandchildren, and she knew that they would spend the rest of their lives in that house. They put in the bid that very same day and were packing the moving van within a month. Her only regret since they had come to live there was in the fact that they failed to fill the house as much as she had wanted. As she sat down at the dining room table and sipped from her coffee mug, she felt a small chill crawl up her spine for the loss her family endured. Less than a year after Daniel was born she suffered the first in a string of miscarriages. Their hopes for a house filled to the brim with children seemed to have come to an end. After several years of struggling to overcome the failed pregnancies, she and Thomas came to terms with the fact that they had been blessed with four beautiful sons and they would simply enjoy those blessings. At first, when she started missing periods she was not concerned, because she had never been on a normal cycle. When she missed the third one, she shared with her mother the concern that she might have started menopause early, but her mother, ever the optimist, insisted she not self-diagnose and to see the doctor. As the doctor congratulated her on not only being pregnant, but for also having made it past the critical twelve week mark she actually passed out. She woke up in the emergency room, hooked up to all of the monitors and surrounded by several very worried faces. Slightly confused about what was going on, she looked to her husband for information, but then she heard the fetal heart monitor. Thomas immediately started asking how she was, but by that point she could not hear anything except that glorious, fast and steady heart beat. Thankfully, her mother understood what was going on and explained what was happening to everyone. They kept her overnight, just to be on the safe side, given her history, but she and Thomas stayed up the entire night listening to that wondrous sound. It was a fairly uneventful pregnancy, but for the first time in her life, Stephanie was willing to do whatever the doctors told her in order to insure a safe delivery. In many ways it was more intense than her first pregnancy, because she had the hopes of seven years of heartache riding on the outcome. Just as they had with the other pregnancies, they never allowed the doctor to determine the sex prior to the birth. They enjoyed the surprise, and they knew that they would be thrilled with whatever they had. She knew that if anyone could handle having five boys, it was she and Thomas. However, when the doctor handed her the baby and congratulated them on a beautiful little girl, Thomas practically squealed like one. For a great many years, Stephanie had kept in the back of her mind the only name she ever wanted for the daughter she longed for, and when she was finally in her arms she knew why. Her little face concentrated into a single expression, and with barely five minutes of lifetime under her belt Mary Elizabeth O’Halleran smiled up at her mother. After the nurses cleaned her up and brought the baby back to be with her parents, Stephanie became convinced that there was no other choice for the little girl’s name. She was soft, and sweet, and her eyes were already trying to scan the room, taking in everything she possibly could with that same little grin plastered on her face. From the moment she was born, Bethie was the living embodiment of the two most important women in her mother’s life; Elizabeth MacInnerney and Mary Grissom. She reached over and found one of her favorite pictures of her youngest child. |
| They were supposed to go sailing that day, but a sudden storm had come up in the night and completely waterlogged the sloop. It seemed that her oldest brothers had forgotten to replace the cover after taking the boat out the day before, and the downpour completely flooded it. Bethie was more than a little upset at her sailing lesson being destroyed because “the stupid boys” had been careless. After making the arrangements to salvage the nearly sunken sloop, Stephanie went to console her daughter’s wounded soul. She found her crouched by the shore, sobbing into her knees. It was heartbreaking and touching all at the same time. Before she went to Bethie’s side, Stephanie snapped a quick picture. That photo has sat on her desk ever since, because it was the one picture that showed all the sides of her miracle child. She was strong, independent, driven and capable, but she was also sensitive and kind-hearted, feeling everything all at once, and never afraid to show any of it. As she looked around the table, she was happy with the progress she had made with her little project. When Sara approached her with the idea for her uncle’s big birthday celebration, she was not entirely sure of what she had gotten herself into at the time. The searching, the digging through old boxes, the scanning, the cropping, the themes, the papers, the embellishments, the layouts and the countless permutations she had to weed her way through in order to create a decent page. She had listened to others go on and on about the scrapbooking they did, and Stephanie had always considered it to be a silly use of time, as well as wondering why they were complaining so much about the effort it took to do. She no longer held that same belief, and now had the utmost respect for anyone attempting to do this more than once in their lives. This was going to be her one and only scrapbook project in her life, and she was going to hold it over Sara’s head for the rest of their lives. Stephanie started to pick up the photos and place them back into the carefully labeled boxes. She needed to get everything cleaned up before the masses descended that afternoon. As she put the lid back on the box of vacation photos, she stood up to refill her coffee mug. When she turned for the kitchen, she nearly jumped out of her own skin. “HOLY S-” She clutched at her chest and barely kept from dropping her mug when she caught sight of the bristle haired, muscular young man standing in the doorway. “Ah… Sorry, ma’am. I was just looking for the coffee I smelled.” Geoffrey stood uneasily in the doorway to the dining room, shifting from one foot to the other, his hands clasped behind his back, almost as though he were standing at parade rest. Heaving a big sigh, Stephanie worked to regain her composure as she walked toward the obviously nervous young man. “I didn’t mean to scream like that. It’s just that I’m not used to anyone else being awake this time of day.” He nodded his understanding and continued to shift in position while she approached him. Stephanie put a hand on his arm as she passed and offered, “Go ahead and have a seat… I’ll be right back.” She came back into the room a few minutes later carrying a tray with the coffee pot, two mugs, and a plate of muffins. Stephanie found the very polite young man standing by the table as he looked at one of the completed scrapbook pages. She cleared her throat and he was instantly standing at attention. “Sorry, ma’am… I was just admiring the work.” “Thank you.” Stephanie brought the tray forward and Geoffrey stepped up to relieve her of the burden. “That’s very sweet, but I promise, I’m perfectly okay carrying a tray.” “Sorry, ma’am. I jus- “Okay, I feel like I’ve just stepped into a bad fifties television show. Can we find another word besides ‘ma’am?’ And stop apologizing, Geoffrey, there’s been no crime committed.” She moved passed him and tried to kick the chair out with her foot, but the extremely polite young man quickly pulled the chair away from the table and waited for her to sit. “Thank you very much.” “I’m afraid it’s an unbreakable habit, Dr. O’Halleran.” He carefully pushed her chair in and pulled out the one beside her when she nodded in its direction. “I’ve spent my entire adult life either in uniform or working to protect those that do, Ma’am. It ends up infecting your brain with protocol.” Stephanie shook her head at his next choice in names. “Okay, let’s solve this quick.” She poured coffee into the two mugs. “You have three choices for what you can call me… And those would be Stephanie, Steph, or-” “Mom.” James walked in with his own mug and held it out for his mother to keep pouring. “There are no other options, Geoff.” He smiled and kissed his mother’s temple before he reached out to snag a muffin playfully. “Many have tried, and they’ve all failed. If there’s one thing you can say about her, it’s that Momma is the single most stubborn woman on the face of the planet.” James seemed to think about that statement and simultaneously he and his mother both said, “Well, maybe the second most stubborn.” They laughed, knowing who they both considered the most stubborn. As he started to drink his coffee, James noticed the completed pages on the table. “I see you’ve been making some progress with Aunt Sara’s little project?” She pulled out the two completed pages at her son’s mention of the scrapbook project. “I have to admit…I didn’t really want to do it when she brought it up, but it’s actually been a lot of fun.” Setting the muffin down and brushing off his hand on his shorts, James took one of the pages from his mother. “Yeah, Em’s always telling me how much fun she has doing it, but I just figured it was more about getting together with all those other girls to do it.” “I don’t know about that, since I’m usually working on my own. And it’s not like I’d do this all the time, but going through all these old pictures has been a real treat.” Stephanie pushed the other page over to Geoffrey. “You might find something interesting on that one.” The young man carefully looked over the page and tried to see why Stephanie would be sending it his way. “Looks like this family really likes the beach.” Laughing, James added, “You don’t know the half of it, man… It seems to be hereditary, too. I can’t get my kids out of the water when we’re in San Diego.” James leaned into his mother saying, “And poor Max has a toddler surf bum running around his place. Amanda says the little bugger turns anything flat into a surfing opportunity. Including her ironing board, and one of the experiments in Max’s lab.” “I know all about that one. Sara called me in tears after she talked to Amanda. The two of us laughed for a good thirty minutes.” Stephanie shook her head as the smile spread over her face. “It was even worse when she sent us the pictures later that day. He was wearing his ‘Grandma’s Little Angel’ shirt at the time!” When James and his mother calmed down from their laughter, they looked to see Geoffrey staring intently at the page in his hands. “See something good?” |
| “Well, that’s quite a shot of Michael surfing. I knew he surfed, but I haven’t gotten a chance to witness it yet. Where’s the picture from?” He pointed to the picture of Michael in a tight crouch under a tall wave. “Ah, that looks like my last trip to Hawaii, when I was shooting for the science in motion piece. Isn’t it?” James looked to his mother for confirmation. “Yeah, as I recall, Mikey had just finished his masters in pharmacological botany, and tagged along before he left for the Amazon to start his entomology doctorate.” She pointed at the picture in the far corner and said, “But this is probably one of my favorites from Hawaii.” James peered over the other man’s shoulder to get a better look at the picture with the boys and the infamous Uncle Daniel. “Oh wow! Is that Uncle Daniel?!” Stephanie tried to explain to Geoffrey the significance of that picture. “We went to Hawaii for two reasons. First, because we’re obviously a bunch of sand and surf junkies, but also because their Aunt Sara’s brother Daniel lived there. He’d been stationed at Pearl when he was in the Navy and he just couldn’t bring himself to leave the islands afterwards.” Thomas came into the dining room at that point and picked up the story. “He asked the whole family to come down for a visit that year. So, we packed up all the kids, and spent two weeks on the islands, doing everything under the sun. Daniel spent a lot of time with the kids, showing them everything he could think of, and spoiling them absolutely rotten. In that picture, he told the boys if they could beat him to the marker, they’d take a trip to the shape shop the next day to get new boards. I thought for sure your mother and Sara were going to come uncorked on the poor guy, but Uncle Gil intervened and told them to let him do what made him happy.” Stephanie shook her head and leaned back into her husband’s touch as he came to stand behind her. “What Uncle Gil didn’t tell us, until we got back to the states, was that Daniel was sick. He hadn’t known before we left for Hawaii, but he figured it out while we were there. Daniel made him swear that he wouldn’t spill the beans until later.” She sighed, Thomas squeezed her shoulders a little and she continued, “Daniel died the week after we were there. According to his lawyer, he’d been living on borrowed time for over a year, but he didn’t want to worry anyone. He made all of his own arrangements, left most of his liquid assets to an island wildlife sanctuary, divvied up his personal items to Lilli and Max, and placed the beach house into a trust in the names of the Grissom and O’Halleran families and their descendants.” Thomas picked up the story when his wife began to falter. “Danny was the one that figured out the best way to handle the house. He said that we should loan it out to the Make A Wish Foundation, so they could have a place for other families to experience Hawaii the way Uncle Daniel always said it should be done.” Looking up into her husband’s caring face, Stephanie added. “Danny and Sara’s brother had a very special relationship, even more than sharing a name. So, they always tended to think along the same train, too.” “So, he’s named after her brother?” Geoffrey appeared genuinely interested in the family history. It was James’ turn to get in on the storytelling. “Yeah, Aunt Sara was pretty young when she went into foster care, and Daniel was already in the Navy, so they’d lost touch when she was just a kid. I guess he saw an advertisement for a seminar or something that Aunt Sara was doing in Honolulu and recognized her right off.” He gave his parents a wink and added, “Apparently, Aunt Sara still hasn’t ever changed much, since I swear the woman looks the same as she did when I was a kid, and Uncle Daniel said the only difference he could see was that she was a foot taller and smiled a lot more.” They all shared a laugh at James’ description of his favorite aunt. “Anyway, the first time he’d left the island since the Navy was when he came to Vegas to meet the whole family. Mom was about to pop with Danny, so she wasn’t getting around a whole lot.” He gave his mother a goofy look to punctuate his joke. “What my not-so-polite son is trying to say is, I was enormous when I had Danny. The fact that he weighed ten and a half pounds when he was born might have played into that equation though.” Stephanie gave her son a disapproving glare that lasted all of two seconds before dissolving into a grin. “Right… So, when Uncle Daniel first met Mom, he was a goner! He used to say that Mom needed to be at least fifteen years younger, so that he might’ve had a chance to steal her away from Pop. And Mike would always tell him that he was too short for her.” His comment brought another round of laughter. “Anyway, Uncle Daniel and Mom spent a lot of time talking and stuff, since she was on maternity leave at the time. And I guess Mom was fidgeting really bad one day, so Uncle Daniel asked her what was up. Mom, having already had two pregnancies under her belt, figured it was just that she was at eight months, and nothing was comfortable.” “What you should know is that Daniel was a medic on his patrol ship. So, he had been given some basic medical training, in addition to his other skills on the boat,” Thomas interjected the piece of information. “Right, so he puts a hand on Mom’s stomach, and could feel the little muscle contractions that my mother was apparently numb to by that point. And he tells Mom, ‘I think we should get in the car and take a drive.’ Mom, totally not registering what he’s talking about, thinks he wants to go get something to eat. And he stops her from rattling off restaurants with ‘I think we’ll both be eating from the hospital cafeteria for a few days.’” James’ face took on an impish glint as he spoke. “It was immediately after he said that, that I felt the first BIG contraction. Twenty minutes later…we had Danny…in the family room.” Geoffrey’s face showed every ounce of his surprise, and they all laughed. “Thomas got there in the ambulance right after Daniel and I got the baby wrapped up as we waited for them to take us to the hospital.” He leaned down to kiss the top of his wife’s head as she continued, “We decided…that any man able to help in that kind of capacity without skipping a beat deserved to have the kid named after him. And for the rest of his life, he and Danny always seemed to be in perfect sync with each other. I’m even a little inclined to believe that Daniel came into our lives at that point for a reason, and it certainly connected him to the family in a way that never could have happened otherwise.” Geoffrey smiled a little to himself and nodded his head to the side. “‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’” When he saw the strange looks on their faces, he tried to explain himself. “Sorry… I’m just a washed up Marine, so my own words rarely work as well as those of others for things like this, so I have a bad habit of using quotes. I was just saying, we can’t always make sense of it, and sometimes you just have to take it on faith, these strange things that happen in our lives.” Michael chose that moment to sleepily amble into the dining room. He looked around the room at the contented faces of his family and grinned. He put a hand on Geoffrey’s shoulder and said, “And you were sure you wouldn’t fit in around here.” The man relaxed with the gesture as he realized the looks he received from Michael’s family were a genuine welcome for him. As Michael continued past them all and made his way into the kitchen he called back, “Hey Mom…you still have any coffee left?” Stephanie hollered into the kitchen after her son, “I started another pot, and it should be ready shortl-…” Her explanation was halted by the beeping emanating from the coffee maker. “Sweet! Thanks, Mom.” Before they had a chance to continue their discussion, the sounds of rummaging leaked out from the kitchen. “Hey, Mom…are you using these mushrooms for anything?” They all looked at each other, surprised by the odd non-sequitor. “Or these spring onions and the cheese curds?” When she tried to answer, he hung out of the doorway leading to the kitchen and explained. “If you’re not using them today, can I make an omelet?” Shaking her head at the rapid-fire series of questions, Stephanie attempted to make sense of the jumbled mess. “Mushrooms, leftover from dinner last night… I’ve got plenty of onions, and the cheese curds are there because your brother’s been addicted to them since he took that fishing trip to Wisconsin last year.” “Awesome!” Michael quickly disappeared into the kitchen once more, but resumed talking from the next room. “Anybody else want an omelet?” James followed his brother into the kitchen saying, “Only if you leave the cayenne out of mine… That stuff wreaks havoc on my stomach.” Thomas shook his head as he too walked into the kitchen to chase after his boys. “No cheese for mine… Your mother seems to think I need to cut the fat out my diet.” The last thing she heard as the door finally closed on them was her two sons taunting their father about the recent appearance of his spare tire. Sipping from her coffee mug, Stephanie shook her head a little at the exchange. However, her laughter would return when Geoffrey leaned forward with a conspiratorial air and asked, “Has he always done his thinking with his stomach?” Struggling to keep from spraying her coffee across the table, Stephanie finally squeaked out, “Unfortunately…yes.” “Whenever he’s in town, I have to add another mile to my daily run just to keep up.” Geoffrey’s confession intrigued her, but he continued before she had the opportunity to question him about it. “Because I still work with the military, the only way to gain immediate respect from some of these guys is to keep up with the lifestyle.” “How long were you in the Marines, Geoff?” Michael poked his head into the room and corrected his mother. “It’s Geoffrey, Mom. He’s not big on nicknames.” He looked over his mother and asked, “Did you want an omelet? I can do an egg white one for you, since Mom keeps those in the fridge.” “No thanks… I’m good with a muffin.” He gestured at the plate of muffins on the tray in front of him and Michael’s mother. “Your loss…” Michael turned his attention to his mother and asked, “What about you, Momma?” Stephanie patted her midsection and answered, “I think my metabolism is finally slowing down, so I’m just sticking with the muffin today.” Shaking his head, Michael started back into the kitchen saying, “What’s that mean…you’ve progressed from teenaged eating machine to a college freshman garbage masher?” Stephanie and Geoffrey laughed at his exclamation, but he continued from inside the kitchen. “Five kids and in her fifties before she gets her Freshman Ten!” Unable to resist the temptation, Geoffrey called into the kitchen after him. “Like you have room to talk… The Human Garbage Disposal!” Sitting back in her chair with a devious smirk on her face, Stephanie nodded her head and offered, “Touché!” Geoffrey’s cheeks colored slightly at her remark, but she picked up her coffee mug again and raised it in his direction. “You’re gonna fit in around here just fine.” He shrugged off her compliment and turned away from looking at her directly when he quietly said, “I sure hope so.” He was grateful when she let the comment slip by without any obvious notice. The fact was that he was still incredibly nervous about meeting the whole family. After the dinner with Michael’s parents, Geoffrey finally understood why he had been so peculiar about keeping the majority of personal life outside of the domain of his family. Michael held his family on the highest of pedestals, and he never wanted to cheapen their existence by throwing recreational relationships in their faces. He knew that his family was unorthodox, but that they were also incredibly close, and Michael felt that it would be irresponsible of him to introduce people into their lives that he knew would not be around for the long haul. However, that realization also heaped another layer of anxiety to his visit. Originally, they planned to attend the family retreat to the mountain cabin together, but an emergency assignment with the Pacific Fleet changed those plans. When Geoffrey learned that he would be able to get stateside before Michael returned to their home in D.C., he immediately put in for the ship-to-shore call from his floating assignment, which gave him several days to contemplate the hell he had just brought on himself. Michael’s parents and younger brother had been incredibly gracious and welcoming to him on his arrival, and despite the obligatory grilling he received at the hands of his mother, Geoffrey felt genuinely accepted by his partner’ s enigmatic family. He had heard all of the stories from Michael, and from Nick and R.J., but Geoffrey knew in his heart that none of it would prepare him for the reality of the thing. He was right. Looking through the various beach themed pages, Geoffrey felt a swell of anxiety forming again. |
| He saw the picture of Patrick about to enter the water, and it reminded him that he had yet to meet the Michael’s double. Geoffrey knew from Nick’s description that Michael and Patrick were far more than just brothers. He also knew from the numerous phone calls he had over heard during the course of their relationship that they were incredibly close. They were good friends, and big fans of one another, and in the end, Geoffrey knew that his twin brother’s opinion of him could be a very real stumbling block in their relationship. Stephanie leaned over and gazed at the page he had in front of him. “That one in the bottom left corner…” She waited for him to find the black and white image of the women in front of the surf. “That was when I knew Jimmy was going to be an amazing photographer.” With their attention fixed on the image, she sighed with the memory. “It’s a fantastic image… Who’s all in the picture?” She snapped back into the present and began to recite the names, pointing at each back, from left to right. “That would be me, and that’s Michael’s Aunt Sara. Next to her is our friend Greg’s wife, Kirsten. That is the wife of my assistant chief coroner, Sandi Phillips. And the last two are Michael’s cousin Lilli, and Greg’s oldest daughter Birget.” “Wow… So, are you like the tallest woman in this family?” Stephanie chortled at his question. “Sorry, but you’re a lot taller than most any woman I’ve ever met.” “No, you’re right… I am exceptionally ta-” She was interrupted by the boisterous entrance of yet another family member, “Practically an Amazon! Huh, Mom?” Patrick strode confidently into the dining room and leaned down to place a kiss on his mother’s head. “I don’t know if I’d go that far, Paddy.” She reached up to his hand as it rested on her shoulder. “But close enough.” Stephanie turned to gaze upon her son, and found that he was dressed in only his running shorts and a tank top. “Good grief… You didn’t run over here, did you?” Patrick laughed at his mother’s question and squeezed her shoulders. “In fact…I did.” He let go of her shoulders and squeezed the excess flesh at his sides when he proclaimed, “The wife told me she was going to have get me bigger pants if I didn’t stop adding on to the foundation here. So, I started running again. Never should have stopped, really, but the midgets drain a lot of the energy I used to use for running.” The pointed look she gave him forced Patrick to surrender. “Oh stop… It’s less than a mile from my house to yours, if I take the park. And it’s only eighty degrees out there this time of morning.” His mother only nodded suspiciously at Patrick’s answer. “Okay, and maybe Mike might’ve called me this morning to see if I wanted to swing by and go running with his visitor.” Geoffrey blushed at the lengths Michael had gone to in order to introduce him to his brother. But more than that, he was deeply impressed by his mother’s interrogation techniques. “Wow… I think my boss might want to talk to you about that little maneuver. You didn’t have to say a word, and barely even looked at him.” “You think that’s bad…you should meet Bethie.” A young man with a mop of curly red hair came shuffling into the dining room, and pushed Patrick away from his mother with a strategic shove. Daniel leaned down and softly kissed his mother’s cheek before making his way through the room. “She’ll call Mom from L.A. to tell her when she’s thinking about doing something wrong, just to let her know she almost got in trouble.” Everyone chuckled at Daniel’s drowsily delivered joke, but Stephanie was mildly annoyed by his rude entrance and exit through the dining room. She called after him, “Daniel Carter O’Halleran, you were taught better manners than that! Get back here and introduce yourself.” From the distance of the stairs, she heard her youngest son holler back, “We already met in the bathroom last night.” Stephanie nearly spat out her coffee with the offhand comment. “Excuse me?!” “Too tired… Mikey can explain…” His voice became softer as he continued his path to his room. “I’m gonna crash out for a couple hours before the munchkin invasion begins.” Geoffrey was still trying to come up with a decent explanation for his meeting the youngest male of the house when Michael poked his head in from the kitchen. “Leave Danny alone, Mom… He got home from the ER and ran into Geoffrey when he got tired of waiting for me to get out of the shower in our room.” He winked at his twin brother when his mirror started smirking at him. “And then the little worm got paged again, so he had to turn back around. Barely had enough time to change his drawers before he was back out to the hospital. It was a brief, but memorable meeting for everyone involved. If you hadn’t been sleeping we’d have invited you to the party.” There seemed to be an unending stream of people through the O’Halleran house, and Geoffrey began to get to the distinct impression that it was not an unfamiliar phenomenon with this family. Before he had a chance to finish processing that thought, Michael spoke to him from the kitchen, “You better get changed for that run…” As he began to holler, Patrick leaned forward and was about to take a muffin from the tray. “Before lard butt over there changes his mind and starts grazing on the muffins.” Patrick froze in place, his mouth open as he was about to bite into the heavy breakfast item. Geoffrey simply could not resist joining in on the fun. “Busted!” Thomas and James came into the dining room as Patrick tried to recover his dignity. Shaking his head, Thomas patted the newest member of the family on the shoulder as he took the chair beside his wife. “Welcome to the madness, son.” James quietly took his seat on the other side of the table and added, “Mayhem and Chaos will be here later,” as he started into his breakfast. As he excused himself to quickly change into some running shorts and a gym shirt, Geoffrey felt something foreign to him throughout most of his life. The welcome and love found only in one place; home. |
| The continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline as the family gets ready for a big event. The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album" scrapbook) GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc. *Rated PG for Most Everyone. |