| 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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| 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. |
| LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY |
| Part 14 - Cutting It Down To The Wire |
| Grand Central Station would be considered uncrowded and calm compared to his mother’s house today. But Michael was playing traffic cop and switchboard operator for this melee, and there was no option for failure on this mission. It was the day before the big event, and there was no time for anything to go wrong. The problem was…not only were things going wrong, it seemed like everything was going wrong at the same time. The first stumbling block came in the form of Greg and his brood missing their first flight when Niko’s baby decided it would be a good time to projectile vomit on half the family. Thankfully they made it onto the next flight, after changing into some of the clothes from their carry-on bags. Laundry would be their first priority upon reaching the house. With Bethie well versed in their antics, he put her in charge of sorting the Sanders Clan out. The next problem surfaced when Brian called to tell him that someone in reservations had screwed up some of the rooms at the Rampart. Michael was just not ready for that to happen. He was only able to breathe again when Brian called back two hours later saying it was all taken care of, and he was even able to scrounge up a suite at the last minute. It really paid to have a casino manager in the family. Then he got a call from Lilli asking him who misspelled her father’s name on the cake. She was standing in the bakery making the final inspection on the cake when she discovered the problem. Michael was about to come unglued when Lilli let him off the hook and said she caught it before they put anything on the cake. He was absolutely going to pay her back for that one. So, when Max called to tell him he was arriving late that night instead of in time for dinner, he was just about ready to scream. Max had a last minute problem at the lab and Amanda was stuck at an appointment or something and had not been able to get everything packed in time, so Max just moved their flight back. As Michael was going through his itinerary, trying to figure out who was going to be able to pick them up from McCarran, Max told him that Jimmy was going to grab them on his way home and not to worry about it. Yeah, right, like that’s gonna happen. He was busy shifting the schedule around when his phone rang. “Michael, captain on the ship of fools.” His flip answer was rewarded with a deep laugh on the other end. “Oh hey, I wasn’t expecting your call for another seven hours, did you catch-” He was stopped dead in his tracks by the voice on his phone. “What do you mean, ‘the flight got cancelled?’” All the blood drained out of his face as the person on the other end of the line explained the situation. “No Way! That’ s totally gonna screw up the whole damn thing!” He was screaming into the phone before he realized the whole house would be able to hear him and he quickly ducked out into the garage. “Seriously, man, this is totally jacked up. Are you sure there isn’t another flight-… No, I understand… What’s the earliest you can get out, then?” He started going through his itinerary again as the times were relayed to him. “And what about the connecting flight? ... Oh yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s not like there’s a shortage of flights into Vegas from pretty much anywhere… Yeah, I know, you can’t control the weather or anything, but this is the third flight you’ve missed and we’ve reached critical mass here.” He did a quick search on the connecting flights and realized that there was only one that would get him into Vegas before the party. And it was the one flight on the schedule that was on time the least. “Okay, look, we’re gonna have to get creative here. Let me talk to Brian and see what we can do to get you to the casino in time. Just whatever you do, pray, chant, do a dance, blow real freaking hard to clear the clouds, whatever… DO NOT MISS THIS FLIGHT!” The laughter coming through the phone was awkward and he knew that they were both aware of how critical it was. “Yeah, I know, and I’ll do everything I can to get you there. All right. Well, good luck…you’re gonna need it.” Just as he hung up the phone the garage door began to open and he found his mother’s car waiting on the other side. He backed up and waved her into the garage with a slightly nervous smile. The stress was beginning to get to him and he suddenly had a lot of respect for what Brian did for a living. He simply could not imagine setting up these kinds of events on a daily basis, and Lindsey’s husband probably had four or five of them every single day. As his mother stepped out of the car she asked, “Needed to yell at someone?” She nodded to the phone in his hand and smiled. Slipping the phone into his pocket, he chuckled and took a step forward to help her. “Something like that. How’d it go at the state’s attorney?” “The Sheriff is still an enormous jackass.” His mother rolled her eyes to show her disdain for the man, “But he’s a jackass in a cage now. No more special visits according to the AG.” “I know Lilli’ll be happy to hear that. I think she was afraid of killing the both of them if they came at her again.” Stephanie pointed at some bags in the back seat and Michael went to retrieve them. “That makes two of us. But it’s all settled now, and I got two extra vacation days out of this nonsense. Since I’ve been spending so damn much of my vacation time dealing this crap, the AG told the county coroner to add them back.” She took the first bag away from him, and he reluctantly allowed it, grabbing up the rest himself. “Well, while you’ve been dealing with the jackasses, I’ve been dealing with the Keystone Catering and Reservations Cops.” He bumped the car door closed with his hip and started walking to the house. “Lilli caught a misspelling issue at the bakery before it was too late, and Brian had some trouble with the rooms, but it’s all settled now.” She grabbed the door and held it open for him to get through when she asked, “And the suite?” Michael stopped cold and asked, “How’d you know about that?” Stephanie rolled her eyes and walked past him, “Oh please, like you can really keep something like that from me.” “Well, I was doing a pretty good job… Who spoiled it?” Michael shook his head in disbelief and continued into the kitchen. “The military intelligence specialist and the son of one.” His mother always had an amazing knack for finding out about practically anything. And it would appear that she still had it. “Foiled by the damn U.S. Air Force!” He was still shaking his head as he dropped the bags on the island. “What did the Air Force ever do to you?” Geoffrey walked into the kitchen and peered over the top of the bags. “You!” Geoffrey looked up with a guilty expression and went back and forth between Michael and his mother. “What’s the Air Force got to do with me? I won’t even fly a kite.” Geoffrey held up his hands in a mock gesture of surrender. “You told my mother about the suite?” Michael gave him a coldly accusatory glare. “No, I didn’t… What suite?” Geoffrey was completely confused. “Then what did you tell her?” Now Michael was confused. Stephanie only shrugged, leaving Geoffrey to sort things out on his own. “Well, the only conversation I remember having with her, without you, was when you got a secure ship to shore call and she thought it was for me, and…” He turned to Michael and winced, “I’m sorry… I thought she knew when she handed me the phone and… Sorry.” Geoffrey’s head hung in shame, Michael realized that his mother apparently missed her real calling; as an interrogator. “I give up, Mom… From now on, no more secrets. I promise.” Michael’s head was also hung in shame as he began to remove the groceries from the bag. Stephanie took the eggs from him and turned to open the fridge when she said, “Well, if that’s the case, then you should ask your Pop about the old townhouse.” Michael and Geoffrey both froze with her statement. “I think the tenant is moving out at the end of the month.” The smile on her face as she turned around proved to the both of them that they were not as skilled at subterfuge as they once believed. Looking at each other for a clue about what to do next, Michael just shook his head and let it go. “Mom, I swear, I just didn’t want to say anything until we knew for sure.” “Knew what?” Thomas walked into the kitchen and kissed his wife on the cheek before heading for the grocery bags. “Oh, the boys were just about to tell me why they’re moving to Vegas.” Stephanie took the milk her husband handed to her and turned again for the fridge. “Damn… I guess I owe you twenty, then?” Thomas handed her several bags of vegetables as they met again. “Why?” Geoffrey asked. Thomas winked and nudged his son when he said, “I figured you’d wait until we took you to the airport Monday before you finally spilled the beans. Your Mom bet me you’d slip up before the party.” Thomas folded up one of the bags and laid it on the counter before pulling the next one open. “And if you want something familiar, the tenants are moving out of the old townhouse at the end of the month. Otherwise, I can give you the name of our management company agent, and she can find you something better for you.” Geoffrey recovered quickly from the shock and went to work on the other groceries as he answered, “Well, I have some restrictions on my housing allowance, and since we’re still paying for the condo in Georgetown, I have to keep things within a certain budget.” “I’m pretty sure my CFO would be willing to work something very equitable out for you boys. Probably something on the order of Saturday dinners for the duration of the lease.” Thomas winked at Geoffrey as he took the boxes of pasta from him. “I couldn’t let you do something like that. It wouldn’t be right and-” “Geoffrey, I understand what you’re trying to say, but you need to understand that it isn’t important to either of us.” Stephanie laid a hand on his arm and looked into his eyes. “You just tell the management agent what your allowance is and she’ll agree to it for the lease. Okay?” Geoffrey recognized when he had lost a battle and the better part of his valor told him to accept her terms. He nodded, “Yes, Ma’am.” Stephanie gave him a gentle thwack on the end of his nose and whispered, “And that’s your one for today.” |
| Michael spent the better part of the afternoon and most of dinner fielding phone calls and coordinating airport transport. Thankfully for everyone, Geoffrey had been able to take the whole day away from his job to help out. Stephanie enjoyed seeing the two interact and work off of each other. It made her very happy to know that her son had finally found someone to not only care about him, but also for him. In a lot of ways, she recognized many of the dynamics present in her relationship with Thomas in her son’s relationship. She was not about to mention this to Michael, but the careful looks she had gotten from her husband since their arrival told her that she was not alone in that conclusion. Greg and his brood had managed to finally get in, and just in time for dinner. Kirsten and Niko’s wife Tally immediately dumped a double load of laundry into the washer after their airport adventures, but they were there and everything was fine. Tally was upstairs feeding the baby. The girls and Greggers were busy cleaning up the kitchen and making a sensational racket doing it. Greg and Brian were giving Geoffrey the full breakdown on his rental car. Thomas slipped out to go check on a patient, and she was sitting in her solarium straining to listen to the crickets her uncle had recently turned loose in there to combat some other pest on her flowers. “There you are, Mom.” Michael held open the vertical flaps that trapped the solarium’s moisture inside as several women preceded him into her sanctuary. “What’s the big idea trying to get a little time to yourself? You think you’re special?” Cath was the first to call her on the disappearing act. “Yeah, well, you were all drinking coffee and I’m not allowed after noon. Apparently I keep someone else up too late if I have any caffeine past noon.” Kirsten and Lindsey both laughed at her answer as they all took seats around the little table. Kirsten gestured around the solarium and gushed, “I always forget just how beautiful it is out here. I can’t get over how well this whole thing turned out.” Lindsey smiled and touched Michael’s arm when she said, “The boys really outdid themselves on this one.” Michael leaned over and hugged his mother around the shoulders with his head right next to hers, “When you’ve got a Mom like this, you kind of have to go big, if you aren’t going home.” Stephanie leaned her head into his and answered, “At least not for a long time.” Michael let go and sat down on the other side of his mother. “Yeah, yeah… Keep rubbing it in, why don’t you.” Catherine shook her head. “Don’t tease your mother like that, kid. She’s just really happy to have you so close again.” She waited until Michael blushed a little before she came in for the kill, “And where she can keep an eye on you.” Lindsey winked at him and added, “And where you can’t get lost in the jungle again.” Kirsten laughed at the joke. “I never get tired of hearing that story.” Michael pouted just a little and crossed his arms over his chest, “I was not lost… I was just late getting to the checkpoint…by a few days.” “Because you were lost.” Lilli walked into the solarium wearing her scrubs and smacked Michael in the back of the head. “That was one case where you really couldn’t navigate your way out of a wet paper bag.” “Look who’s talking, Miss I can confuse the GPS system in my car.” Michael stood up from the last seat and offered it to his cousin. “No thanks, Lancelot, I just stopped by to get the boss to sign a report.” Lilli handed Stephanie the paperwork and a pen. As Stephanie looked through the report Lilli asked, “So, has my idiot brother made it in yet?” “Ah, Jimmy left twenty minutes ago to pick them up at McCarran. I think they’re staying with him and Emily tonight, at least.” Michael relayed the facts as he knew them. “Actually, Mom said they got a suite. With two wound up kids, and with Emily pregnant, Amanda didn’t want to create too much of a disturbance.” Stephanie held the report up and Lilli snatched the pen up from the table before liberating the report from her fingers. “And with that, I bid you all, good night. I’ve got at least ten hours of stiffs to get through before I can go home again.” As she walked out Stephanie called over her shoulder, “Bring in the on-call guy if it gets any worse.” “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Lilli hollered back as she disappeared into the house. Stephanie shook her head. “She’s not gonna call him.” “More than likely,” Catherine added. “And she’ll probably work late without telling anyone, too.” She winked at Michael when she delivered her final blow, “I can’t imagine where she gets that.” With a comical waggle of her brow, Stephanie said, “Gotta be her mother.” After they all finished laughing at the joke, Kirsten spoke up and asked the all important question, “So, can we get a sneak peek at this gargantuan project you’ve been working on?” Stephanie rolled her eyes and sighed, “You mean the project that I still need to finish?” Catherine was shocked to hear that. “What do you mean it’s not finished?” Stephanie stood up and crossed the room to the cabinet in the back. “Well, there were a couple of pages I just hadn’ t gotten around to yet, and with everything going on, they kept being put on the back burner.” She pulled a banker’s box from the cabinet and tried to carry it over to the table. Quickly getting up and rushing to Stephanie’s side, Lindsey took the box from her. “Here, let me get that. You know you aren’t supposed to carry anything heavy, old woman.” Rolling her eyes, Stephanie allowed the younger woman to take the box. “It’s not heavy, and who are you calling old?” “The tall chick with the gray in her hair and all those grandkids running around.” Lindsey stuck her tongue out to punctuate her reply, which drew a quiet round of giggles from everyone else. She then reached around and smacked Michael in the back of the head, “And why didn’t you stop her?” “Ow.” He rubbed at the back of his head. “Because I knew it wasn’t heavy, since I was the one who put it there last time.” “Quit picking on, Mikey. He gets enough brain damage from Lilli.” Stephanie pulled out a couple of loose pages and laid them out on the table in front of everyone. “Now, here’s the wedding page and this is the page I did of the two of them. I just need to get them in the book with the rest.” |
| “Oh my gosh, Steph.” Kirsten’s hand flew to her mouth with her exclamation, “These are gorgeous.” Catherine smirked a little and pointed at the photo of Sara and Gil at the bottom of the page. “I absolutely love that picture of them. Even if it isn’t current, that’s how I always think of them now.” “Yeah, Jimmy’s been trying to get them to sit for another one ever since, but Uncle Gil is very resistant.” Stephanie shook her head. “How in the world did you get that picture of them laying down?” Lindsey pointed out the photo on the left. “That would be my fault, I think.” The deep baritone coming from the doorway instantly got everyone’s attention. “Max!” Stephanie jumped to her feet to meet the young man with big hug. “Where’d you come from?” He turned and pointed over his shoulder, “Jimmy’s car in the driveway.” His quip earned him a slap on the arm. “Sorry, couldn’t resist.” He glanced over at the table to see the picture in question. “Is that the one I took up at the cabin one summer?” “One and the same. I thought your Dad was gonna skin you alive.” Stephanie shook her head at the man grinning before her. “Yeah, swiped Jimmy’s new camera and crawled into the room guerilla style, then I quick snapped the camera before they knew what happened.” Max recounted the afternoon with a glint in his eye. “But ask him what happened after that.” Stephanie nodded at Michael behind her. “I spent the next two days in solitary, for conduct unbecoming, and being a general sneak. Mom said if I ever did anything like that again, she’d send me to live with Aunt Cath for the summer.” Max winked at his cousin as he finished his tale. “Excuse me?” Catherine’s eyebrow was practically on top of her head. “Oh, hey, Aunt Cath. Didn’t see you…” Max nodded playfully at Catherine. “So, what are you doing here tonight?” Stephanie finally asked. “Well, we missed dinner…” he held up a reinforced envelope. “But I didn’t want to wait to give you this.” “Oh thank God! She got it done?” Stephanie took the envelope and kissed Max on the cheek. “Yeah, got it done last night and sealed it up. Mandy didn’t want to take any chances with the Chaos Kids, so I carried it in my computer case.” Max checked his watch as Stephanie started to peek inside the envelope. “So, if everything’s good, I gotta get back to the car before the kids decide to beat Uncle Jimmy over the head with something.” “Oh, yeah, sure, sweetie.” Stephanie set the envelope down and gave him another hug. “Where are you staying tonight?” “Um, well, with Em hitting the tired and battered stage, Mandy and I didn’t want to put any more pressure on them. And Mom and Dad just aren’t prepared for the full-time Tomminator. So, Mandy had Brian find us a room in that place out by Mom and Dad’s. It’s a suite, so we can put the kids down and still be able to breathe without waking them up. Plus, I am sort of working through this trip.” “What’s up?” Catherine asked. “Um, I’ve got this huge grant proposal I have to finish writing and it has to be submitted on Tuesday. Otherwise, my research will come to a screeching halt. And that’s just not cool, even in physics.” Max winked at his cousin again with his joke. “Mom…” Michael got up from his seat and walked to his cousin. “I’ll walk Max out so I can get the game plan sorted out with Jimmy. You get back to showing off your scrapbook stuff.” And in a flash they were out the door, leaving Stephanie with her female guests. Shaking her head, she returned to the box as Lindsey asked, “He’s up to something, isn’t he?” Catherine chuffed at her daughter’s question, “When isn’t he?” Her remark sent the room into a fit of laughter. When they returned to themselves, they began to inspect the pages again. “Oh my God! Stephanie, where’d you get this picture of me and Greg?” |
| “You mean…your wedding photo?” Stephanie asked with a raised eyebrow. “If you could call it that. Oh wow! I mean, really, I didn’t even remember we’d gotten any pictures taken.” Kirsten was still pouring over the small snapshot when her oldest daughter walked into the solarium. “What’re looking at, Mom?” Birget quickly moved in behind her mother’s chair. “Oh My God! Is that you and Dad?” Kirsten shook her head as she reached up to hold the hand Birget laid on her shoulder. “I’m afraid so, kid.” “What on earth are you wearing?” “Your Dad got an invitation to some fashion line launch, and they dressed us, too. It was really kind of silly.” Kirsten was giggling at the memories coming back to her with the photo. “Birget, honey, you know your Mom and Dad never did anything traditionally, and that included getting married.” Stephanie offered her own synopsis of the Sanders’ unlikely union. “That’s when you got married?!” Birget was floored by the revelation. “Actually, that’s the guy who witnessed it. So, you’re looking at the whole wedding party.” Kirsten shook her head in embarrassment at the admission. “No Way! Seriously?” “I’m afraid so… Which is why there will not be any kind of passing down of a wedding dress for us, kid. I blew out those leather pants years ago, but I think the scarf is in a box somewhere if you want that.” Kirsten laughed at the ridiculousness of the whole notion. “Thanks, but no thanks, Mom. I’m wearing a dress if I ever bother getting married.” Birget looked over the rest of the page and found something of interest. “Where was that one taken, Aunt Cath?” Catherine put her glasses on with the question and looked for the picture in question. “Oh wow.” The emotion in her voice was evident upon seeing the picture of her and Warrick on their wedding day. “Well, that was taken at the Stratosphere, right after we signed the marriage license.” She turned to her daughter and asked, “You took that one, didn’t you, Linds?” “Yup, sure did.” Lindsey’s face also betrayed the emotion seeing that image brought out. “One of the best days of my life, and the sign of the end.” Stephanie was confused and asked, “What end?” Lindsey smiled big to keep back the tears, “That was the day he stopped just being ‘Rick, and became my Dad.” It was Catherine’s turn to fight back the tears when Lindsey went on to explain. “He was always a good friend, even before he and Mom got together, finally. But it was different once they were married. It ended all the questions I had, and ended any confusion for me. It was like I knew he really wasn’t going anywhere after that, and all that stuff he was always doing for me meant a lot more. Most people just end up with kids, but I knew he was there because he wanted to be. And that made him my Dad.” Kirsten gave Catherine a chance to recover when she spoke up. “I always wondered how all that worked out, but I guess I just never thought to ask. Sounds like you had a pretty special relationship, Lindsey.” “Yeah, we did.” She smiled and winked at her mother before saying, “When I was pregnant the first time, he made me promise there wouldn’t be anymore duplicate names. He said it was confusing enough in this family. Brian is Scottish, so I had been looking through a book on Gaelic names when I came across the name Duncan and I knew it was perfect.” Birget was the first to ask the question, “Why’s that? “Well, in Gaelic it loosely means ‘dark warrior,’ but the literal translation is ‘brown fighter.’” Lindsey’s face showed the same devilish grin she had the day she told her parents what her son’s name was. “When translated means…Lindsey has interpreted the law in her own way for a long time.” Stephanie slipped in with her own jibe. Catherine, having finally recovered her wits, added, “The kid was born to be a lawyer.” Seeing the need to change the topic of conversation, Lindsey asked, “So, what did Max bring in, anyway?” “Oh!” Stephanie exclaimed as she looked around the table for the envelope again. “Amanda put together a page of the grandchildren. ‘Grampa’s Little Devils.’” Michael walked back into the room just as Stephanie realized the envelope was missing. “Michael, did you see where I put that envelope Max dropped off?” “Oh yeah, I took it with me.” Michael tried to play it off as best he could. “Why on earth would you do that?” Catherine was quick to pick up on that one. “Um, well, Max didn’t have all the pictures Amanda wanted to use, and I found them in my stash, so I told her I’d finish it up for her.” The suspicious faces he found around the table forced him to work fast in order to convince them he was sincere. “Max didn’t realize it wasn’t done. Amanda and I were talking about it, and he didn’t know. And, I put it in the office so I can finish up both pages tonight.” Lindsey shook her head in disgust. “I still say you’re up to something.” Michael leaned down and kissed his former babysitter’s head before he said, “Since the day I was born.” |
