"Morning." Tom says a little distracted.
"Talk any sense into the girls?" she asks.
"No not really they pointed things out to me and knocked me down a peg or two."
"Oh. Maybe I should ask them to give me lessons," Abby says. "That why you're looking so down?"
"No it's not why. Nancy was sick this morning."
"Yeah, I know. Look, don'worry about it--you thought I was and I wasn't,
right? I'll keep an eye on her and let you know if there's anything for
you to worry about. One bout of an upset stomach doesn't make you a grandfather."
"You want to worry about something, worry about the fact that this house is busting at the seams. Your cousin is leaving today, right?"
"Yes in fact he already left."
"Without saying good bye? Some manners you Bradfords have."
"Do not judge us by Marvin, he's different."
"Right."
"He is."
"Sneaking around in the middle of the night. Sneaking out first thing in the morning. Sounds like any one of the kids," Abby says. "Well, maybe except Nicholas."
Joannie goes upstairs in search of a sibling and meets Elizabeth coming out of the bathroom. "Got a minute?"
"Yeah what's up?"
"You have any idea what's up with Abby? She's been looking kind of sick lately, and Dad just told me she's not pregnant. Why else could she be acting the way she has been?"
"I don't know but she was in the bathroom with Nancy for awhile."
"Oh, that was Nancy who was sick, which is another thing--you're her roommate. Has she gotten her--well, you know--lately?"
"I don't know but she's been kind of tense and looking at the calendar a lot."
"If she is in trouble, Dad's going to kill her, you know."
"No he won't. He might yell a lot but he won't kill her."
"OK, he'll yell enough to make her wish he'd kill her."
Nancy comes back upstairs to get something. "Who's he and who's her?"
"Nothing, Nance. Soap opera," Joannie lies. "Those things are so interesting."
"Since when do you watch soaps?"
"Oh, well, you know--um, one of my professors made us start. You know, to learn what not to do when you're acting. Yeah, that's it."
"Yeah." Nancy goes to get what she wanted to get and then goes back downstairs.
The rest of the family starts coming into the kitchen.
Joannie turns to Elizabeth. "That was close."
"Yeah it was. Think she'll confide in us?"
"Does a chicken have lips?"
"Don't play with me."
"Kids," Joannie shakes her head.
"I am not a kid and at least I'm not out getting myself pregnant like some people." She goes downstairs.
Elizabeth turns around. "What?"
"Just be quiet about this, OK? And see if you can find up what's with Abby."
"What's in it for me?"
"Nancy not killing you."
"Ok, but leave me out of the thing with Abby."
"Hey, I'm not looking to make trouble. What if she's really sick?"
"If she's really sick she would have told us."
"Right," Joannie says, shaking her head, not buying it.
"Joannie why don't you let it go."
"Because if she is sick, I don't know if Dad will be able to take it. He really does love her."
"I know but I don't want to spy."
"Not spy, exactly--just keep your ears open, OK?"
"Ok." Elizabeth finally agrees.
Harry walks into the kitchen and sits down. Abby starts fussing around him, bringing him coffee, snatching the paper from Tom to give to her father.
"Hey I wasn't..." Tom stops himself and decides to let it go.
Nancy fixes herself some toast and sits down.
"Want some tea with that?" Abby asks. "Good for the stomach. Daddy, what else can I get you?"
"Whatever is for breakfast dear."
"I made your favorite," Abby says and loads up a plate for him.
"Thank you."
Abby continues to fawn over her father, playing the dutiful daughter while ignoring her husband.
Tom fends for himself and tries to keep letting it go.
"I'm going to go see what's keeping Mom," Abby says and leaves the room.
Harry opens the paper wide. "Do you always have relatives popping in and out at odd hours of the night, Thomas?" he asks from behind his (well, Tom's) paper.
"Do you always ask people rude questions." Tom asks.
Nancy nearly chokes on her toast.
Harry folds the paper slowly, deliberately, and puts it on the table. "I knew I should never have let Sandra Sue leave Pasadena." He stands up.
Abby comes back into the room. "Mom will be right down. Dad, where are you going?"
"Ask your husband," Harry says on his way out of the room.
"What was that about?" Abby asks.
"He can dish it out but he can't take it?" Tom says.
"Tom, that's my father you're talking about. Show some respect."
"I'm trying Abby, really I am."
"Very."
"Ok I'll go apologize, where's he at?"
"Just follow the sound of the grumbling."
He finds Harry and apologizes. "Sometimes I speak without thinking."
"Well, that would explain last night," Harry says. "It's not a good habit."
Meanwhile in the kitchen.
"Does anyone want my toast I have to run a few errands." Nancy says.
Joannie walks in. "Don't tell me I missed breakfast and I have to make do with leftovers."
"Just leftover toast if you want it the pancakes are fresh."
"Leftover toast or fresh pancakes..." Joannie pretends to ponder.
"Well it's there if you want it. I'll be home in a couple of hours." She leaves the house.
"What was that about?" Joannie asks.
Elizabeth shrugs.
Nancy has Brad meet her at the park.
"Brad we have to talk." She tells him.
"Shouldn't we do that somewhere more private?" he asks, putting his arms around her.
She gets out of his embrace. "Brad I'm serious. I'm late."
"Then you should have asked me to come see you after classes, not before."
She shakes her head at him. "Brad, I might be pregnant with your baby."
"What? No way. We were careful. Weren't you?"
"Of course I was but the pill isn't 100% effective."
"But it's too soon to tell. I know; my dad's a doctor, remember. If you are pregnant, it may not even be mine."
"Brad, you're the only one I've slept with in three months." Nancy says.
"That's not what Ray's saying."
Anger flashes on her face. "And you believe Ray over me?"
"Your the one with the problem, not Ray, right?" Brad shrugs.
"I wasn't the only one in the hotel room that night."
"Yeah, but you're the one who said things were taken care of."
"Oh so you think this is all my fault?"
"It's no one's fault, Nancy," Brad tries to be reasonable. "We're just trying to figure who the father is. Ray's got a real track record there, I tell you."
"You are the father. I already told you that."
"You don't even know that you're pregnant!"
"No I don't, but I'm glad I told you that I might be because now I know what you're really like." She says and walks away.
Brad shakes his head and watches her walk away. "Dad always did warn me about the Bradford girls."
"I heard that!!" She goes home, upstairs to her bedroom, and slams the door.
"Well, hello to you, too," Katherine says to the girl who breezes by her.
Having been too upset to hear her Grandma Nancy just stays in the room and tears up every love letter, every picture she ever got from Brad Maxwell.
Katherine knocks on Nancy's door.
Nancy gets rid of the debris. "Come in!!"
"Nancy, are you all right?" Katherine asks. "You seemed a little upset when you came in."
"I just found out another boyfriend is a jerk."
"Another one?" Katherine says, confused.
"I've had bad luck with men lately."
"Then you must be driving your father mad," Katherine says, from experience.
"That and making myself lose faith in the human male."
"Oh, well, there isn't much there to have faith in, is there?" Katherine smiles. "Like I was telling Sandra Sue yesterday, the trick is to find one man, stick with it, and train him. Sort of like that dog you've got."
"Sam's more understanding than a human male is."
"No, it only sethat way he can't talk back and say something stupid."
Nancy manages a laugh.
"You want to talk about it?" Katherine offers.
"Not really. I mean not now it's too soon, I'm not ready to talk about it."
"All right. If you want to talk though, I'm here. Sometimes it helps to talk to someone who doesn't live with you."
"Thanks Grandma Katherine."
"No problem. Well, I'd better go figure out something to do with Harry this evening. I have a feeling the less time he and youfather spend around each other, the better."
"You're probably right." Nancy says.
"Men."
"Exactly, hey don't tell Dad what happened. This guy is his best friend's son and I don't want to cause a fight."
"This boy is that Doctor Maxwell's son? Well, that explains it. The stories Harry didn't realize he was telling me about your father's bachelor party..."
Little do they know that a family member is eavesdropping.
"I don't know. I don't think Dr. Max would turn his back on a girlfriend who..." Nancy stops herself before going further.
"Who what?" Katherine asks.
"I might as well come clean. Look, Abby is the only one who knows. I might be pregnant."
"Have you gone to see a doctor yet?" Katherine asks, reserving judgment.
"Abby's taking me to see her doctor tomorrow so I can talk to her but it's too soon for anything else."
"How far along do you think you are?"
"A couple of weeks."
"That's still pretty early. If you are, what do you think you'd do?" Katherine asks.
"I don't know. I'd like to raise the baby but that's going to be hard with no father involved."
"Maybe not the baby's father, but I'll bet your father would have plenty to say about that."
Nancy cringes. "If I am pregnant how will I tell him? How will I tell my brothers and sisters?"
"Well, whenever Sandra Sue did something Harry wouldn't like, she simply didn't tell him--she made me do the dirty work."
"I can't put that on her."
"It's part of a mother's job," Katherine says, then stops short, wondering if she's presuming too much in assuming Sandra Sue has taken over the "mother's job."
~Mom, we're supposed to go to her grave today.~ Nancy looks at her watch. ~Good I still have a couple of hours.~ "But she's not my mother, then again she's the closest that I have to a mother right now."
~I hope she doesn't talk like that to Sandra Sue like that.~ "I suppose she is."
The eavesdropper lets out a sneeze that they couldn't hold back any longer. Nancy goes to open the door.
"How much did you hear?"
"Oh, um, nothing," Abby lies. "I was just passing through--I was, um, well...my mom--yeah, I was looking for her."
"I'm right here Sandra Sue." Katherine says.
"Oh," Abby says, not having expected to have found her mother. "It's OK. You keep on with whatever the two of you were doing. I'll come back later."
"No it's ok we're finished talking." Katherine says.
"Oh, um, OK," Abby says, trapped by her own lie
"Hey Abby didn't you tell me yesterday that you needed your mom to go shopping with you." Nancy says.
"Yeah, I did. Mom, you have time?" Abby asks. ~After the way Nancy just spoke about me, why's she giving me an easy out?~
"Sure I have time." Katherine says.
"OK. Nancy, you doing OK? Feel better yet?"
"Yeah a little." ~Oh no what if she heard me. I didn't mean it the way it came out.~
"Good. Oh, I made a few calls; we're on for tomorrow."
"Yeah we're on for tomorrow."
"Good. Oh, by the way, do you have plans for this afternoon?"
"Yes I do."
"Oh, OK. Guess I'll ask one of your sisters, then."
"They're busy too, we're all going somewhere but we'll only be an hour or so."
"Oh. Maybe I'll go with you then."
"Abby can we talk for a second?"
"You sure you have the time?" Abby asks, still a little hurt.
"I'll make the time. I think we really need to talk here."
"Oh. OK. Mom, would you excuse us?"
"Sure."
Katherine goes to get ready. While Nancy and Abby return to the bedroom.
"Abby I know you heard part of the conversation it would have been impossible not too and if what I said hurt you I'm sorry I didn't mean it the way it came out. I love you but I'm just not ready to call you mom yet it's kind of hard especially when my mother has been on my mind so much lately."
"I never asked you to call me anything but Abby."
"I know, but.. Oh never mind."
"Look, Nancy, I know--oh, forget it." She walks over towards the doorway.
"You know what?"
Abby sighs. "I know that I'm not your mother. I know I never will be. But I hope that someday you kids will be able to hear my name and the word 'mother' in the same sentence without feeling the need to point that out. Now if you'll excuse me, my mother is waiting for me."
~Easy for you to say your mom is still alive.~ "Ok, have fun."
"Yeah, you too, wherever it is you're all going."
Nancy was going to tell her but decides not to. "Thanks."
Abby leaves the room and goes in search of her mother. "Let's get out of here."
"Ok." Katherine says.
Nancy goes to find Joannie. "Let's get everyone together and let's get out of here."
"Hey, you sure about this? You look terrible."
"Have you ever noticed that it's impossible to apologize to some people around here? You know for now on I think I'll keep my mouth shut and speak only when spoken to."
"I've heard that one before. What did Elizabeth do this time?"
"Thanks." Nancy says quietly.
Joannie goes to round up her siblings, and when they're all ready, she reports back. "Come on, slowpoke, we're waiting for you."
Nancy finally manages a smile and then they all leave for the cemetery.
Abby and her mom go out to Abby's car. "So where do you want to go?" she asks Katherine.
"Anywhere is fine and you're not fooling me Sandra Sue. What's wrong?"
"You won't tell Dad?"
"Of course I won't."
"I don't think this is working."
"What? Your marriage?"
"No, that's working fine, at least when Tom's not being a chauvinistic idiot. No, I mean this family. Well, maybe the family's working, maybe it's just me who isn't."
"You heard Nancy and I talking."
"Yeah."
"Honey, I don't think she meant it the way it sounded. And it is their first Christmas without their mother here. Maybe she's having a hard time dealing with that. I'm sure that doesn't change her relationship with you. I know it's been hard on you marrying into this big family and things like this are going to happen from time to time but it will be all right and everything will work out."
"I hope so. But every time I think things are finally going right one of them just comes out and lets me know I'm only Tom's wife. Well, at least Nicholas doesn't do that. The rest of them I can sort of understand it from--after all, some of them aren't all that much younger than me, so I guess I should expect it, right?"
"I think you're more to her than just her dad's wife otherwise she wouldn't have confided in you about well you know."
"Well, obviously she confided in you, too," Abby shoots her mother's theory down.
"That's because I'm your mother; she wouldn't confide in just anyone."
"I can only think of one someone she wouldn't confide in."
"Well you know better than me, and who is that one person?"
"Tom."
"Ahh, so where does that leave you and her. You'll have to live together for a little while yet."
Abby shrugs. "I don't know."
"Maybe you should ask her. She's what 18, she's an adult now too she has to take some responsibility as far as relationships go."
"Maybe," Abby concedes. "After Christmas. I don't want to make things even worse than they are right now."
"And what if she approaches you about it?"
"Then I deal with it," Abby says.
They arrive at the place they wanted to go shopping.
Abby takes a deep breath. "What do you get eight kids who have everything?"
"Common courtesy." Katherine jokes.
"I'm a stepmother, not a miracle worker."
Katherine smiles. "Do you think Nicholas would like this?"
"You see? Even you're better at this than I am. Who am I kidding? Nancy's right," Abby mopes.
"No she's not, I'm sure even she knows that."
"Right. So that takcare of Nicholas--what do I get the rest of them?" Abby picks up a luxurious sweater. "I'll bet Nancy would like this."
"Yeah that and don't forget the lump of coal."
"But I already got Tom his present."
Katherine laughs.
Later at their mother's grave. Nancy place the flowers down that Joannie had given her the money to buy and arranges them.
"Joannie helped me buy them because I was out of money again, you know me Mom I never was any good at saving anything." She continues to talk telling her how much she loves her and misses her and that she'll never forget her. She then walks away and waits at the car for her other siblings to finish.
~Christmas sure isn't going to be the same without her. Stop it you have to get past this. Dad has a new wife now and we have a new stepmother who is a wonderful woman. Things could be worse.~
Elizabeth finishes visiting with her mom. Well really she can't handle it anymore she starts crying and goes to wait with Nancy who hugs her and tries to calm her. David stays with his brother and other sisters in case they need a shoulder to cry on.
Susan sits down by her mothers headstone and slowly runs her fingers across her mothers name and the date of her death "I can't believe you've been gone this long. So many things have happened." she says wiping a tear away, she then proceeds to briefly fill her mother in on the latest happenings in the Bradford house. She then finishes and tells her mother how much she loves and misses her. She then gets up and joins her siblings.
"How are you doing sis?" Nancy asks Susan.
"Not too good," Susan says, starting to get emotional.
Nancy hugs her.
Meanwhile, Joannie takes her turn. She stands at her mother's grave for a minute, fiddles with the flowers. "I can't do this," she says, and runs back to the car.
"Joannie." Nancy starts to go over to her, but Elizabeth stops her and goes over to her instead. She hugs Joannie.
Joannie hugs Elizabeth back and cries a little harder.
Elizabeth is soon crying also and they stay like that trying to comfort each other.
Mary puts daisies on the grave "I sure miss you. It happened, I got accepted to medical school. But you probably already know that. Merry Christmas Mom."
Tommy doesn’t say anything but puts flowers on the grave and wipes his tears.
David puts an arm around him offering his little brother all the comfort he can.
Meanwhile at home Nicholas is moping on the staircase when Abby and Katherine come in.
"Hi Nicholas, is everything all right?" Katherine asks.
Abby hides the packages behind her back, even though everything is wrapped. "Hey, Nicholas! What's up that you're hanging around on the steps?" Abby asks, her good mood restored.
"Nancy and the rest of them ask me to go do something today and I said no, but now maybe I should have went."
"If it's not too late, I can take you," Abby offers.
"Thanks but I am not sure I even want to go," Nicholas says.
"Well, if you change your mind, just let me know. In the meantime, this ice cream I've got here is starting to melt--maybe I need someone to eat a little off the top before I put it away."
"Cool." Nicholas says smiling.
After visiting their mother’s grave the rest of the kids head home. Nancy stays away for an hour or two and when she finally does get home she tries to sneak upstairs to her room so she doesn't have to talk about what happened earlier.
"Nancy can I talk to you for a minute?" Tom asks.
"Dad not now, I'm..."
"Please."
She goes into his study and he locks all the doors leading in so they don't get interrupted.
"Look I know that you and Brad didn't play pinochle when you snuck out and I trust that you took precautions."
"Dad." Nancy starts to turn beet red.
"Hey I was young once, and I also know that the precautions aren't foolproof. Is there anything that you need to talk about?"
She fidgets a little. "No."
"Well if you change your mind you can come to me. I don't care what it is no matter how major or minor."
"Thanks Dad, I'll keep that in mind." She goes upstairs to her room.
While Tom reads the story that made the front page for the fifth time that day about a neighborhood kid thinking they had no where else to turn ended it all the night before. ~I can't imagine what his parents are going through right now especially three days before Christmas.~ He shakes his head and gives the same 'You can come to me about anything’ speech to the rest of his children that day.