The Party, part two

"That was priceless.  I was about to come over and put that jerk in his
place, but it looks like you can handle yourself pretty well."

"Thank you, and you are?"

"Luke, hey why don't we get out of here and go some place else?"

"Why don't we just stay right here."  Nancy says.

"Don't take this personally," Joannie whispers to her partner, and
shoots her best glare at all the men in the room.

Luke catches the glare and it makes him tremble.  "Uh I have to go now.
Nice meeting you."  He makes a fast exit.

"Wait where are you going?  Come back!!"  Nancy starts to go after him
but is stopped by a guy even cuter.

"That girls glare didn't scare me.  Let's dance."  He says to Nancy.

Nancy dances with him.

As she's dancing, Joannie happens to see a paper lying on one of the
tables. She maneuvers herself next to Nancy. "Broadway Leathers is
having a one hour sale starting in about ten minutes. Which is more
important--guys or shopping?"

"We have to go now, bye guys."  Nancy and Joannie leave.

Later at the sale.

"Ok, so why did you mention shopping when we finally found some men?"

"Because I have my priorities straight. Men come and go, but clothing
lasts," Joannie says, pulling some leather slacks off the rack. "These
would look great on you."

Nancy goes to try them on.  "What do you think?"

Joannie give a wolf whistle.

Nancy laughs.  "Now you try on this jacket.  It would look great on
you."

"You think it's dramatic enough?" Joannie asks, but tries on the jacket
anyway.

"Looking very good."  Nancy exclaims.

"See anything else here you like?" Joannie asks, happy to see her sister
not thinking at all about the debacle back home.

Nancy's eyes go wide and then her face clouds in shock sadness, and then
anger. She promptly leaves the store before her Grandpa Wells sees her.

Joannie starts to run after her sister, but then sees why Nancy left.
She walks up to her grandfather. "You look vaguely familiar. Didn't we
used to be family?" and then leaves the store to join Nancy.

The clerk is about to go after them for the clothes they haven't paid
for yet but Paul stops her and pays for the pants and the jacket.

Currently outside:

"Of all the people to run into."  Nancy finally says something.

"Too bad it couldn't have been run over," Joannie says.

Nancy hugs her.  "Let's just go pay for our things and then get out of
here.  Either go back to the restaurant or go home."

"OK. Whatever you say m'lady. I am but your humble servant today,"
Joannie bows low. "OK, OK, so maybe not so humble..."

"What would I do without my big sister, I love you Joannie."

"Ooh, I'm going to remind you of that when you least want to hear it.
Come on, let's go pay for this stuff before they call the cops on us."

Paul had already left the clerk tells them that he already paid for the
clothes.

"It's not his money we want," Joannie says, taking off the jacket.

Nancy goes to change into the pants she was wearing and returns the
leather pants to the clerk.

"Just send the money back to the guy who gave it to you," Joannie says.

"But he didn't leave his name and address!" the clerk wails.

Joannie gives her the Wells' address. "Come on, Nancy. We're out of
here."

They leave the store.  "So where to now?"

"Anywhere you want to go. Maybe we run off to a woman's only enclave.
I'm sick of meeting up with male jerks today," Joannie complains.

"Fisherman's Wharf?"  Nancy shakes her head.  "Naah there's men there
too."

"We could go to the theater district. The men there, at least, won't act
like jerks to us."

"Ok."  They go to the theater district.

"Some parent-free vacation," Joannie mutters.

"Well at least he won't be following us or anything."

"Mr. Wells or Dad?"

"Mr. Wells.  Joannie dad is in Tahoe.  Don't worry about running into
him."

"The kind of day we've been having, you never know."

"Maybe we should just go home.  I mean we never told anyone where we
were going.  What if they panic and call Dad and Abby?"

"They wouldn't. Would they?"

"I think they would."

"Maybe we should just call them then. Or do you think that would freak
them worse, and maybe we should just try to sneak into the house?"

"Let's just sneak back into the house."

"OK, I'll drive. You talk our way out of any tickets we might get while
I'm speeding," Joannie says.

"Ok," they head home and when they get there they try to sneak into the
house."

Elizabeth sighs in relief and hugs them both.  "Where have you two
been?!  We almost called the cops!!  We almost called Dad and Abby!!"

"You didn't though, did you?" Joannie asks, a little frantic herself.

"No but we were about to."

Nancy sighs in relief.  "Well I'm glad you didn't."

"How much trouble did you think Nancy could get into with me there?"
Joannie chides Elizabeth.

"Lots."  Elizabeth replies.

"You wound me, young lady," Joannie says, and then sweeps past Elizabeth
into the house. "What happened in here?" she shouts.

"Oh my..."  Nancy says as she takes in the scenery.  "Joannie when are
Dad and Abby coming home?"

"If it's anytime this decade, we're in deep, deep trouble."

"Ok everyone now unless you're going to help clean up, out!!  Bradford's
not included you are staying and cleaning!!"  Nancy shouts.

"Is it too late for me to change my name?" Joannie calls out.

Nancy laughs.  "Yes."

"Hey, what about Sean? Can I keep him?"

"Of course but he has to help."

Joannie turns to him. "Sean?"

"Just show me to the dustpan."

Nancy smiles. ~At least Joannie has a decent guy.~  They start cleaning
and most of the party guests stay behind and help.

"Now would someone like to explain what exactly happened here? Mary, I
thought you were supposed to be in charge," Joannie says.

"Oh no you don't, you aren't going to pin this on me."  Mary says.

Nancy laughs.

"You're the one who's supposed to be in charge," Joannie says. "You're
the oldest here."

"Right, like you guys would listen to me anyway."  she defends herself.

"Of course we'll listen to you, Mary," Joannie assures her. "As long as
you're saying what we want to hear."

"Mary if we ever listened to you.  You'd call an ambulance for us."
Nancy jokes.

"Like I said before Joannie, leave me out of it.  My only concern is
Nicholas and have either one of you seen him?"  Mary says.

"I think I saw him last night with Kenny P. Landers," Joannie
volunteers.

"They're upstairs right now."  Elizabeth says.

"And you left them alone?"  Mary asks.

"Well I didn't know I had to watch their every move."

"With Kenny P; you need a swat team." Mary says.

"So now you're going to pin this one on me."  Elizabeth's face clouds
over.

"Forget the team. Kenny P you just need to swat," Joannie chimes in.

Mary laughs.

"No one can be blamed for Kenny P. Landers," Joannie says. "He's a freak
of nature, like an earthquake. Or Nancy's boyfriends."

"Thanks Joannie."  Elizabeth laughs.

"In whose room?" Joannie asks, a little panicked.

"His and Tommy's."

"You sure about that?" Joannie asks, calming down a little. "All we'd
need is for that monster to be in one of our rooms--or Dad and Abby's."

"I'm pretty sure."

"OK," Joannie says, relaxing until there's a crash from upstairs.

Nancy runs upstairs to see what happened.

Kenny P. Landers meets her on the stairway. "It's an alien invasion!" he
screams, and ducks back into the nearest bedroom.

She checks her and Elizabeth's room and goes ballistic.  "Nicholas!!"

Meanwhile Susan comes out her and Joannie's room "Hey, what's all the
racket?"

Nancy points to the disaster area that used to be she and Elizabeth's
room.

Joannie comes rushing up the steps. "Has Nicholas been in our room?" she
asks.

"No he hasn't" replies Susan "and it's a good thing because if he had
we  might of had one less brother, look at this mess."

"Yeah, really," Joannie says. "Let's get him." She looks around.
"Nicholas? Nicholas!!! Where'd he go?"

Nicholas hides under his bed.

Susan checks Nicholas and Tommy's room "Nicholas are you in here?" she
says checking the closet.

Nicholas hits something under the bed.

Nancy also enters.  "Nicholas you're going to have to come out sooner or
later."

"Nicholas we know you're hiding in here.  Come on out." says Susan.

"Hey Susan, did they ever find that monster?  You know the one that used
to live under our beds when we were little and would try to attack us if
we went under there?"  Nancy kids but uses a serious tone.

"Not yet." Susan replies kneeling on the floor by Nicholas' bed as she
lifts up the side of the bedspread and looks under the bed.  "Gotcha
Nicholas.  You come out of here right now!"

"Yeah Nicholas you have a room to clean, mine!!"  Nancy rages.

"OK."  Nicholas gives up.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do young man like for instance the
mess in Nancy and Elizabeth's room."

"I swear I didn’t do it."  he says

"Do you expect us to believe that Kenny messed it up all by himself?"
Nancy asks.

"Come on Nicholas fess up.  We know that you and Kenny P Landers were up
here." replies Susan.

"Yeah, just like the way you guys didn't mess up at the party." Nicholas
says.

"Nicholas, I wasn't here to make that mess and that doesn't give you an
Kenny an excuse."  Nancy says.

"OK, I'll go clean it up."  he says

"Thank you."

"Where is Kenny, anyway?" Joannie asks. There's a crash from Tom and
Abby's room. "Oh, no. Kenny!!!!"

Nancy runs to the master bedroom.  "We are dead, we are so dead."  She
moans.

Joannie follows her. "Maybe we could run away from home," she suggests.

"I'm all for that."  Nancy says.

"Who else is coming?" Joannie asks. "I figure with enough of a head
start Dad will never find us."

"I'll go."  Elizabeth says.

"I might as well go and join a convent." Mary sighs.

"No!!"  Nancy protests.

"Maybe you ought to, too," Joannie suggests. "Dad will never think of
looking for you there."

"That's a double no."

"That’s the idea."

"Yeah but wouldn't you miss men."

"I think I would miss being alive more."
 
 

Susan follows them "I have an even better solution.  We'll just kill
Kenny."

"Yeah,"  Nancy agrees.

"His parents would probably thank us," Joannie says.

"You're probably right." replies Susan.

Joannie walks into the room, backing Kenny up until he flops onto the
bed, hoping her sisters are behind her for reinforcement.

"You trashed my room, you trashed our parents room.  Any last
requests."  Nancy asks.

"Yeah," Kenny says, and tries to make a run for it between the Bradford
girls.

"Oh no you don't."  Nancy grabs him.  "You're going to help Nicky clean
up the two bedrooms."

Joannie picks up what used to be a lamp. "And what do we do about the
wreckage?"

"Superglue?"  Mary asks.

"That's what it's going to take to put you together after Dad and Abby
get  home," Joannie tells her.

"Joannie....." Mary says but doesn't want to fight.

"That's OK. We'll put you back together again," Joannie assures her.

"Gee...you are all heart." Mary says

"You'd know, being our resident pre-med."

"Haha" Mary says.
 
 

Jason wanders in.  "I'll help you replace whatever is broken.  You guys
helped me with damage repair when I had that wild party back in high
school."

"But they'll still know something happened," Joannie says, playing
Cassandra. "I mean, Abby notices exactly where she puts her eye shadow,"
she cringes at the memory of the last time Abby caught her messing with
things, "she'll notice anything new. And then Dad will kill us."

"And it'll be better for you if they see that you took the
responsibility to try to make things right."  He counters.

"Ha," Joannie says. "We're toast. The bookcase, now this..."

"We have to try."  Nancy suggests.

"There is no try, only fail," Joannie gloomily intones as she begins to
gather the pieces of the broken lamp. "You know, since we're already in
trouble, now would be a good time to snoop."

"I don't know Joannie."

"Oh, come on. You know you want to. Remember how we used to snoop in
Mom's stuff?"

"That's different."  Nancy leaves the room.

Joannie follows her, leaving Susan to kill Kenny. "Nancy. Nancy!" She
sighs. "OK, what did I say wrong this time?"

Nancy hugs her and kisses her on the cheek.  "You didn't do or say
anything wrong.  Go ahead I know you want to snoop around."  She
smiles.  "I don't want to it wouldn't be the same."

"Oh, come on. Of course it won't be the same, but it'll still be fun."

"Ahh what the heck."  Nancy grins and joins Joannie in snooping.

"I'll work on the dresser," Joannie tells her, "you start on the
nightstands."

"Ok."  Nancy starts checking the nightstands.

"Oh, my..." Joannie says. "Wonder if Dad knows about this yet..."

"What did you find?"  Nancy asks.

"Uh, uh--first you find something to show  me, too."

"But Joannie."  Nancy whines.

"Don't 'Joannie' me--you know Dad hides everything in his nightstand. Or
least he always used to."

Nancy shows her some Spanish flies for male consumption.  "Ok now show
me what you found."

Joannie shows her the lingerie she'd found. "If this is what she's left
home, I wonder what she took with her. If Dad has a heart attack, we'll
know why."

"Joannie I'm sure Dad can handle it."

"I hope so. I wonder what else we'll find in here. Mom always kept her
best secrets hidden out of the way, didn't she? Maybe all women do."

They keep looking and find something major.

"Wow, I don't believe this."

"What? What?" Joannie rushes over.

"Sex toys."  She shows it to Joannie.  "Now I know why they spent all
that time alone up here."

Joannie heads off to the bathroom and starts banging around.

Nancy continues to search the rest of the bedroom.

"Thank G-d," Joannie calls out from the bathroom.

"She's still using birth control I take it!!"  Nancy shouts from the
bedroom.

Joannie laughs. "You got it. Got scared there for a while--last time Dad
stocked those kind of toys in here we got Nicholas."

"Whoa."  Nancy pales.  "Hey Joannie she left them at home!!"

"Uh-oh... Nancy, we're in big trouble here."

"Very big trouble."  Nancy frets.

"And there's no way we can remind Abby. Great. Here we go again."

Nancy groans.

"Maybe they'll notice it before it's too late?" Joannie asks, but
without much hope.

"I doubt it."  Nancy says gloomingly.

"Do we warn the others, or just keep a really close eye on Abby for the
next month or so?"

"Let's just keep a close eye on Abby.  Better not to start a panic."

"The panic's already started--I'm panicked enough for the whole family,"
Joannie admits.

"Me too."  Nancy sighs.

"OK. Stay calm. We won't worry. We will, won't we?"

"Yes we will."  Nancy starts pacing.  "Joannie I don't think Dad can go
through raising another one."

"He may not have a choice, Nancy. We can all help out, for a few years
at least. And Abby's young enough to be a good mom."

"True, but still."

"Maybe with another kid or two in the house, maybe Dad will build us
another bathroom."

"There's a cheerful thought."

"Maybe she took a fresh pack with her?" Joannie says, trying to find
something to take the look of doom off her sister's face.

"Yeah that's it."

"Or maybe she's using something else, and that's just a leftover,"
Joannie adds another possibility.

"Could be."  ~Either that or we're just using wishful thinking.~

"Nothing we can do about it, anyway. Who knows--maybe it wasn't an
accident. Maybe they want another kid. We all know Dad's crazy."

"Remember how cute Nicholas was when he was a baby?"

"Hey, you were pretty cute yourself," Joannie says.

"I was?"

"Yep," Joannie say. "Not like Elizabeth. Now that was one ugly baby. All
that hair."

"Yeah, but she was adorable."  Nancy says.

"That's not what you thought when she was born."

"Only because I lost my *baby of the family* status."

"And you hated having to share your playpen," Joannie remembers. "At
least this baby won't have to share everything."

"That will be a plus, and Nicholas will love being older than someone
for a change."

"It'll be nice having a baby around," Joannie decides. "And we'll feel
like a family again."

Nancy grows worried.  "What do you mean?  Joannie are you all right?
You haven't seemed too happy since they got married."

"No, of course I've been happy," Joannie lies. "Why wouldn't I be. If
Dad's happy, I'm happy."

"Liar, now what's up?"  Nancy asks.

"Oh, I don't know," Joannie says, sitting down on her father's bed. "I
like Abby, really I do."

"Then what is it?"  Nancy asks gently.

Joannie sighs. "She's like another big sister sometimes, you know?"

"Yeah I know, and sometimes that's a bit overwhelming, but she's a great
person to have in your corner."

"No, that's not it. It's just strange. I mean, her and Dad..."

"Oh that."

"I mean, it's like not just missing Mom. It's like finding out that
Mary's got a thing for him, or one of my friends does."

"I know what you mean, I couldn't imagine any of my friends as a
stepmother."

Joannie nods. "So I never know how to act around her--do I treat her
like a friend or like the woman who's married to Dad?"
 
 

Later on, Tom is holding Abby, but she's preoccupied with her own
thoughts.

"Is anything wrong?"  He asks her.

"Hmmm?" Abby asks, refocusing. "No, nothing," she gives him a distracted
kiss.

"Abby this is me you're talking too, now what is it?"

"Just trying to figure how this happened. I didn't even know you four
months ago. What did you do, cast a spell on me?"

"I was wondering if you cast a spell on me.  If you did I don't want it
broken."

"Me? You're the one who chased after me. All I wanted when I showed up
on your doorstep was to do my job," Abby teases.

"You're the one who didn't say get lost wild man."

"Actually, I did" Abby reminds him. "But only when you weren't being
wild enough."

Tom laughs.

"Warlock."

"Where's a Warlock?"  He looks around the room.

"You, Wild Man," Abby says and kisses him. "Enchanting the fairy
princess. Have you no shame?"

"Shame?  What's that?"  He kisses her.

"Hmmm. I'm not sure," Abby says. "Maybe I don't have any, either."

Tom laughs and continues to kiss her.

Abby returns the kisses for a while, and then pushes away. "Woman does
not live by love alone, Mr. Bradford. Time to go and feed your bride."

"Hmm, what are you in the mood for?"

"Don't get me started, Tom. Food now, what I'm in the mood for later."

Tom laughs.  "Abby what I meant is what food do you want to eat?"  He
shows her the room service menu.

"Why don't we go out?" Abby suggests. "If we never leave the room, we
might as well have stayed in a hotel in Sacramento."

"Ok,"  He goes to get dressed.

Abby sits down on the bed, looking at him.

After he's finished getting dressed.  "Abby you look wonderful the way
you are but I'm sure the restaurants here have dress codes."

"I was just enjoying the show, dear," Abby says. "I'm just going to take
a quick cold shower and get dressed. Won't be long!" She grabs her stuff
and heads into the bathroom.

"Enjoying the show?"  He smiles and examines himself in the mirror.

>From inside the bathroom Abby says something that sounds suspiciously
like, "Men!"

"Would you have rather done what we did with a woman dear?"  Tom teases.

"Maybe I shouldn't knock it until I've tried it, mister!"

"Ha ha!!"

When Abby emerges, she's dressed in the suit Nancy didn't approve of.
She gives Tom a long kiss. "After all, if you can go after a boy..."

Tom laughs and returns the kiss.  "I'm never going to live that down am
I?"

"I can be bribed," Abby promises.

Tom starts kissing her again.

"Food, Tom," Abby reminds him. "Then we'll see what kind of bribes
you've got on offer."

"Ok,"  They leave for the restaurant.

While they are eating, Abby asks Tom, "You know, this almost  feels like
a date. So, tell me something about yourself I don't know."

"I think you might know just about everything already."

"I don't believe that. You're 45 years old and we only know each other
less than four months--and we haven't spent all our time talking, have
we?"

"When I was 11 I stole candy from the neighborhood store."

"Did you get caught?" Abby asks, ready to hear a good story.

"Yes, Vivian drug me back to the store and made me give it back."

Abby laughs. "I can imagine that. Her all righteous anger and you
looking adorable, all shy and kind of embarrassed."

"That's exactly how it was."  He laughs also.  "I almost wished at the
time she would have told my mother about it instead."

"But then you wouldn't have suffered enough, and Vivian enjoyed watching
you squirm, right?"

"That she did, and it cured me of thievery forever."

"Except for stealing my heart," Abby says.

Tom smiles and kisses her.  "Well you stole mine too."

"Yeah, but yours was just out there on display, begging to be taken."

"I know."

"You're just lucky I'm the one who happened to stumble in," Abby
continues to tease.

"Oh I am eh?"  He teases back.

"Oh, sure. You could have been snatched up by one of the PTA ladies, for
example. Or Thelma in Accounting--I heard she's got quite the crush on
you."

"Now that is scary."

Abby laughs. "You really lucked out, Tom Bradford."

"Yes I did."

"And you're smart enough to know it. Impressive," Abby laughs.

"Of course I am."

"And modest, too."

"Now it's your turn.  Tell me something about you that I don't know."

Abby thinks for a minute. "When I was 11, I figured out exactly what I
wanted to do when I grew up," she begins.

"And what was that?"

"The world's best barrel racer," Abby tells him.

Tom smiles.  "Now that I would have liked to see."

"Find me an old rodeo horse," Abby offers. "I tried to get the horse I
rode to work with me, but she was the most stubborn animal in
California."

"Will do."  Tom starts planning.

"I made my father take me back to that rodeo every day for as long as it
was in town," Abby continues, not noticing the look on Tom's face." I
don't know how he managed to spare the time, but he did. And then I
drove the local library crazy looking for newspapers with rodeo stories.
Finally my parents got me a subscription to some paper from Fort Worth,
Texas as a Christmas present, because they had some girl who wrote a
teen column and covered the
rodeo beat."

~Hmm I wonder if there's a rodeo in town?~

"Of course I grew up and ended up doing something a lot more practical,
but it's nice to dream, isn't it?" Abby smiles at him.

"Yes one that you shouldn't have to give up." Tom says after seeing the
smile on her face when she talked about it.

"I'm never going to be a world champion barrel racer," Abby disagrees.
"But that's OK. I've got things I never dreamed of when I was 11."

"So do I."  Tom gazes at her.

"Silly. You couldn't have dreamt of me when you were 11. My parents were
barely dreaming of me back then."

"Well maybe not you specifically.... Oh never mind."  Tom stops himself.

"What? Come on, tell me about your dream woman," Abby prompts him.

"Why does it matter? We have each other now."

"Oh, come on. Humor me. Or do I have to start guessing?" she teases.

"She was a lady in our neighborhood.  Her husband was off to war and she
was all alone.  I dreamed of being the one who helped her combat the
loneliness."

"Well, that sounds noble of you. Tell me about her."

Part three