Dinner is an awkward affair, with Tommy still uncomfortable about Elizabeth's date, Nicholas still smarting from Joannie's deception, and Abby and Joannie pointedly avoiding each other.
"Do we have a sick relative or something?" David asks taking in the atmosphere.
"Not that I'm aware of." Nancy says.
Mary takes in everyone's mood also. "Did someone lose a bet or something?"
"What is this, the Inquisition?" Joannie asks.
"Yes." David overemphasizes. "Yes it is."
"David." Nancy hisses.
"I'm late for rehearsal. If you'll excuse me."
"Remember after you come home...." Tom reminds her.
"Sure. As soon as I come home tonight," Joannie promises.
"Uh huh." Tom says not believing her.
Joannie doesn't answer her father.
"Have a good rehearsal."
"Thanks." ~Don't wait up for me.~
After Joannie leaves, Tom says. "I have some work to do in the study."
"I'm going to school," Abby says. "Nancy, could you give me that lift now?"
"Sure." Nancy gets ready.
Later on the way to Abby's school.
"Hey if you ever want to trade for like a day let me know." Nancy says bravely.
"Trade? You mean cars?" Abby starts to laugh. "After dinner tonight, I needed a little comedy, I guess."
"I figured you would." Nancy also laughs. "Did something happen today?"
"You bought a car."
"Besides that."
"What do you mean?" Abby tries to play dumb.
"Well Nicholas looked pretty upset, Tommy looked worried, and you and Joannie didn't look very happy either."
"Ah. Well... Have you talked to Joannie lately?"
"Yes."
"And?"
"It was mostly about my modeling and her acting."
"Oh, yes, she's certainly been acting a lot lately."
"Does this have anything to do with why Nicholas is upset?"
"I guess. She tried to make him think I was keeping something from him."
Nancy grips the steering wheel as anger takes over and tries to calm down so she can keep control of the car. "Of all the..." She takes a deep breath and lets it out. "Wait has anyone heard Joannie's side of it?"
"Your father tried to talk to her, but she claimed she was too busy. They're supposed to talk tonight."
"If she claimed she was too busy then it can't be good." There's a short pause. "Why does she have to be like that? Nicholas didn't do anything to her."
"I think Nicholas just got in her way. What I don't understand is what I ever did to her."
"Nothing, you don't think she's still out of sorts about you and Dad getting married do you?"
"That's what Elizabeth seemed to think."
"I thought that was all worked out in New York."
"I thought so, too, but it certainly doesn't seem that way."
"Are you ok?"
"Oh, sure. It's Joannie's problem, not mine, right?"
"If you say so." Nancy says not at all convinced.
"Won't do anyone any good if I get upset about it. Tom will talk to her tonight, and we can go from there."
"Good idea."
They pull up at the university. "Well, thanks for the lift. This is a good car you got yourself."
"You're welcome and thank you. Is Dad picking you up?"
"I don't think so. When I asked him to, he didn't give me an answer. I guess he'll be at home, waiting for Joannie to show up."
"What time should I pick you up then?"
"No, I'll get home on my own. I'll be late and you need your sleep or Brad will come complaining to me."
"Ok, but if you can't get a ride please call home."
"Sure. Thanks for the lift."
"No problem." Nancy says before driving away.
Tom has fallen asleep in his chair in the study waiting for Joannie to come home.
At rehearsal, Joannie tries to find someone who can put her up for the night, and when she doesn't, decides to hide out in Nicholas's play house instead.
Nicholas remembered he left his books in the playhouse and sneaks out to retrieve them.
"What are you doing here?" he asks.
"Well, it's preparation for my play. I'm supposed to be a homeless person, sleeping on the streets. You don't mind if I borrow your playhouse for the night, do you?"
"It says 'NO GIRLS ALLOWED' " Nicholas points to his sign.
"But I'm your sister."
"Why should I let you?" Still upset about earlier.
"Because you love me?"
Nicholas shakes his head and leaves
~Well, at least he didn't kick me out. As long as he doesn't tell Dad where I am...~
Tom wakes up "Joannie?"
"It's me dad." Nicholas replies.
"Nicholas, what are you doing up?"
"I had to get my books from my playhouse."
"You should be in bed."
"I'm going now." Nicholas says. "Why are you doing up?"
"Oh nothing really, waiting to make sure Joannie and Abby get home OK."
"Well Joannie is home."
"She is, where?"
"She's out in my playhouse." Nicholas tells him.
"Why is she doing out there?"
"She said something about playing a homeless person."
Tom gets out of the chair walking to the door.
"Where you going?" Nicholas asks.
"Going to rescue a homeless person." Tom mocks. "Go to bed." he says as he goes to the playhouse.
"Joannie!" Tom says as he knocks on the door of the playhouse.
Joannie considers pretending she's not there, but knows her father will just keep knocking, since apparently Nicholas snitched. "I'll be inside in a few minutes, Dad."
"I'll wait for you." Tom says as he waits by the playhouse until she comes out.
Joannie stalls as long as she can, and then comes out of the playhouse. "It's late, Dad. You must be exhausted. And isn't Abby waiting for you inside?"
"I couldn't sleep now if I wanted too." Tom says fuming. "Abby is still at school. Let's go have a chat in the study."
"Abby's at school this late? Maybe you should go and pick her up. Nancy drove here there, right?" Joannie tries a last ditch effort.
"Nancy said that Abby has another way home." Tom replies as he leads her to the study.
"Oh." Joannie decides to brave it out. "So what's on your mind, Dad?"
"I want to know why you told Nicholas that 'she hopes that Abby is saving the autographs for him.' " Tom asks.
"Because I did. What is she collecting them for if not for him?"
"They are not autographs Joannie. Besides you should have asked Abby what they were before you just assumed."
"Asked Abby? With what time. Since she's taken this leave, you can't even talk to her. She's either ironing your shirts or trying to bake something and yelling at everyone to stay out of the kitchen..."
"Did you hear her say that?" Tom wants to know. "Or is that the way you see things."
"Are you kidding? She chases after us if we so much as step foot in there. She won't even trust us to close the refrigerator doors. And oh, boy, if you actually try to talk. You'd think, with the way she goes on, her baking would be remotely edible, but..."
Tom lets her ramble on. "But what?"
"Oh, come on, Dad. You remember how Mom used to bake. Maybe we should just put ourselves out of our misery and give Abby the number of the local bakery."
"This is what this is all about isn't it? Mom isn't here."
"Of course not, Dad. I thought we got all that straightened out in New York."
"Then why are you being so hard on her? Tom asks.
"You know she's not Mom. I know she's not Mom. Problem is, no one's told her she's not Mom."
"She isn't trying to be, but she is my wife."
"Doesn't mean she has to stay home all day and pretend to be Mom. She could go to work and go to school and be your wife in her spare time."
"So what you are saying is that she shouldn't try and cook and maybe help Nicholas or the others unless its after hours?"
"No, I'm not saying that. Well, maybe she shouldn't try to cook...."
"Joannie...." Tom chides.
"She's not a housewife, Dad. At least she didn't use to be, back when she was Abby and not a Mom-clone."
"Look, I am not going to argue this point. Can't you at least give her a break. She is trying hard and I haven't heard any other complaints."
"You haven't heard any compliments either, have you?"
"You know that around this house no complaints are compliments."
"Humph. Hey, Dad--if Abby isn't collecting autographs for Nicholas, why is she getting so much mail from football players? Is it about Frank?"
"If you must know, No it isn't."
"Then what?"
"I am not sure If Abby wants me to say anything or not to anyone. So you'll have to ask her."
"Right. Thanks Dad, for that contribution to open family dialogue. I just told you--there's no talking to her."
"Contribution to open family dialogue is one thing betraying a confidence is another."
"Maybe if Abby's doing something so secret she shouldn't leave a paper trail for everyone to see."
"Don't you have classes in the morning?" Tom tells her.
"You're the one who wanted to talk, not me. If you remember, I'd already gone to bed for the night in Nicholas's playhouse when you dragged me out."
"I finish talking, so you can go back to bed."
"Fine. You've wrecked any chance of my getting into character; I'm going up to bed."
"Goodnight." Tom tells her.
"You going to bed, too, Dad? You've got to work in the morning, you know."
"Not yet, I still have some work to do."
"Maybe if Abby went back to work you wouldn't have to work so hard."
"That's enough Joannie, good-night."
"You know, I remember when we used to talk. Guess that's another of the new rules around here, huh? Good night, Dad."
Tom just fumes.
Joannie stomps up the stairs and slams her bedroom door.
When she gets out of class Abby tries to find a cab to take her home, but by that time of night they're impossible to find. She considers calling home, but decides against it. ~If Tom wanted me to get home quickly, he could have offered to pick me up. After all, the only reason I don't have my car is I wanted to make Nancy feel better and let her give me a lift here.~
An hour or so later Noah is driving home from a friends house when he sees Abby sitting on a park bench. ~Oh my G... She shouldn't be out here alone at this hour.~ He pulls over. "Hey lady you going my way?" He asks.
"Whatever way you're going I'll go. I never realized that the whole city's public transportation system seems to shut down so early."
He opens the passenger car door for her. "Is Gwendolyn in the hospital?"
"No, Nancy's ego almost was."
"What do you mean?" He asks as he drives them home.
"Well, she got this new car--she told you about that, right?--and she wanted to give everyone rides. But I didn't have time before dinner, and I had class tonight. And the only way to get the frown off her face was to suggest that she drive me to school. So there I was, after class, stuck at the university with no ride home and the world's worst transportation system definitely not at my beck and call."
~I love her but she sure can be thoughtless and immature sometimes.~ Noah thinks about Nancy. "She should have offered to pick you up in that case."
"She did," Abby defends Nancy. "I told her I'd get home on my own. I didn't want her waiting up this late and then falling asleep at work."
"Oh ok."
"And besides, I thought I'd be able to get a ride home when I asked Nancy to drive me."
"I'm surprised Mr. Bradford didn't pick you up."
"So am I. Guess he had higher priorities."
"Ouch."
"Yeah. Been that kind of a day. Speaking of which, what are you doing out this late?"
"I was visiting a friend."
"I hope for your sake it was a male friend," Abby jokes.
"It was just Elaine and her boyfriend."
"I'm surprised you didn't take Nancy with you."
"I figured that she'd be busy."
"You should have asked her. I'll bet she'd have loved to give you a ride in that car of hers."
"Yeah." He attempts a smile but isn't convinced.
"Maybe tomorrow you should come by and ask her out."
"Good idea." ~Hopefully she won't be busy as usual.~
"I know she's been busy, but I also know she misses you."
His face lights up. "She does?"
"Either that or she goes around making goo-goo eyes towards your house just to stay in practice."
Noah laughs.
They pull up in front of the Bradfords'. "Thanks for the ride. You're a real gentleman."
"No problem and thanks for the compliment."
Abby goes inside, slamming the door on her way in.
Nancy is awakened by the slam but is too exhausted to stay awaken and goes back to dreamland.
Tom is awakened from the slam and comes out of the study. "My you are late."
"I would have been even later, except there's one gentleman left in this town. Too bad he only found me after I'd already taken three buses."
"Three buses? Nancy said you had a way home. Why didn't you call me?"
"I asked you for a ride home before dinner. Twice. You didn't even answer me. I'm not so desperate that I can't get home on my own, Tom Bradford."
"I am sorry, I didn't hear you asked me."
"There's a lot you don't seem to hear lately. Or maybe you just don't choose to listen."
"Like what?"
"Just forget it. I'm too tired to fight. Speaking of fights, how did your little talk with Joannie go?"
"Not well." Tom says. He tells her about the conversation.
"So what do we do next?"
"I guess the next step is for you to try and talk to her."
"And here I thought you didn't miss covering war stories."
Tom sympathizes. "Parents rule number 1." he reminds her.
"Easy for you to say. You're not the one getting the door slammed in his face."
"I think I did earlier." Tom reminds her of the front door slam.
"Hey, have you ever tried using the buses at this time of night? Next time you're stumped for a column, you ought to. You'd slam a few doors, too."
Tom smiles. "I promise you, it'll never happen again."
"You've got that right. From now on, I take my car with me, and if I have to deal with some hurt feelings, so be it."
"Sounds like a plan, so am I forgiven or are we going to pick up this fight after we get some sleep?"
"I don't know..." Abby says. "You planning to pull out Nicholas's gun if we keep fighting?"
Tom laughs. "Are you planning on running away with David?" he jokes.
"At least it would get me out of having that talk with Joannie. Besides, David is kind of cute..."
"Ha Ha." Tom says. "Are you ready to get some sleep?"
"More than ready."
They both go upstairs and go to bed.
The next morning in Susan and Joannie's room. Sam walks in and sees that Susan is still sleeping and thinks she should be up by now so he jumps on to the bed and starts licking her face and nudging her to awaken.
When they wake, Abby tells Tom that she's going to spend the day in the library. "I'm not sure when I'll be home--if I'm not here for dinner, there are steaks in the freezer and salad vegetables in the fridge."
"You don't plan on talking to Joannie today then?" Tom asks her.
"Oh, Um, well... No," Abby admits. "I know, I know, Parents' Rule #1. But how about we try Step-parents' rule #1--leave well enough alone. She won't be living here forever, right?"
"Abby...it is affecting not only you and Joannie but the whole house."
"Look, Tom, behind all her excuses and reasons, the thing is she doesn't like me because I'm not Joan. I can't be Joan, and no amount of talking's going to change that, so what's the use?"
"So that is it then, you are just giving up?"
"What other choice do I have? Fight with her over and over? Maybe all that she wants is for me to back off."
"What if she tries and pulls another stunt like she did yesterday with Nicholas?"
"Shouldn't you be asking her that question?"
Tom sighs. "You are right, but I am so tired of having to play peacemaker."
"So don't. I didn't ask you to."
"OK, we will do it your way." Tom concedes for now.
"It's not 'my way.' I just don't know what else to do. I mean, look at us--we're arguing over her. Nicholas is still upset over yesterday. I'm not going to let her do this to us."
Meanwhile, after checking that Tom and Abby's door is still closed, Joannie sneaks downstairs for a quick breakfast.
Nancy is already down there. "Good morning."
"Hi." Joannie takes a cup of coffee. "So how's the car?"
"It's very nice. How was rehearsal?"
"Pretty good. Not long enough. I'll probably be out late tonight, doing it again."
"Ok." Nancy says and then decides to brave it out. "Everything ok?"
"Sure? What could be wrong? The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the paper's here and we have another one of Abby's cakes to get through for breakfast."
"Just checking."
"Everything OK with you?" Joannie changes the subject.
"I'm not sure."
Joannie sits down next to her sister. "What's wrong?"
"I think my modeling and studies is starting to get to Noah."
"Did he say something?"
"No, but he hardly ever comes over anymore."
"So go over to him. Ask him out on a date."
Nancy smiles. "Hey I think I will do that."
"Yeah. You're a liberated woman. Liberation isn't about staying home and cooking for a man, you know."
"It's about a man staying home and cooking for me right?"
"Nah, it's about a man taking you out. Really, I'm proud of you, working and going to school."
Nancy smiles. "Thanks Joannie."
"I mean, there's nothing worse than a woman who forgets she has a brain and chains herself to the kitchen. Like we're back in the 1870s or something..." Joannie complains.
"Not everyone marches to the beat of the same drummer."
"Well, some people claim they do..."
"Joannie are you still having trouble with the way things are now?" Nancy asks.
"What way things are now? You mean this messed up house and family?"
"Why do you think it's messed up?"
"You know as well as I do."
"Joannie I miss mom too believe me, but things aren't bad around here. Not that I think anyway." Nancy says. "You're the only one who seems to think so. I think you need to get it out of your system. This is your home and you should be comfortable here. I love you and I don't like it when something is hurting you."
"Get it out of my system? How do you suggest I do that?"
"I'll drive you somewhere where we have all the privacy in the world and you can shout and vent to your hearts content."
"Will it change anything?"
"It might make you feel better."
"It might."
"So do you wanna?"
"Oh, why not. Beats trying to eat this," Joannie says, dropping the cake onto the table with a thunk.