Beginning, Previous Section, Section XXVIII, Next Section
Posted on Monday, 4 August 2003
Jenna was still dazed after Chazz's proposal to do much good for the women's bowling team. At the same time, Chazz was so relieved that she'd said yes that he was bowling the best game he'd ever had. By the ninth frame, the women had conceded and paid for the next round of drinks.
"We need to celebrate," Rachel said as she returned from the bar, showing off the technique she'd used to carry several drinks back when she'd been a waitress. "No offense because I know this was where you two had your first date and everything, but this isn't exactly the sort of place where we should be celebrating your engagement."
"Why not?" Chazz asked. "It was good enough for a proposal, wasn't it?"
"This wasn't where they had their first date," Elisabeth said at the same time.
"Yes, it was," Jenna told her. "Don't you remember? It was the night you told us you were pregnant."
"You considered that a date?"
"What's wrong with that?" Chazz asked, his voice starting to raise.
"Okay, okay, calm down, you guys. If Jenna and Chazz consider it a date, then it was a date," Darcy said. "And I'm sure Rachel meant no disrespect when she suggested we go somewhere else to celebrate the engagement. She was just thinking..." He frowned. "I give up. Rachel, what were you thinking?"
Rachel glanced at her watch. "Only a few minutes past eight. I was thinking that Sean and I could treat you to dinner at TGI Friday's," she said. "I'm starving and I've been craving food from there all night, so I figured we might as well all go."
"Excuse me?" Sean muttered before taking a hefty drink from his beer.
"TGI Friday's sounds great," Elisabeth said eagerly, not having realized until then how hungry she was. Lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory had been several hours earlier. "Is he treating all of us?"
"Sure, why not?" Rachel smiled. "That is, if you all want to go."
"We're in," Chazz said. "At least, I'm in. I haven't been to Friday's in forever. Jenna?"
Jenna nodded. "Sounds fine to me."
"What are you, nuts?" Sean asked Rachel. "Have you ever seen Chazz eat? The boy could put us into bankruptcy if you let him, and that's not including whatever he'll have to drink. Besides, he's so high on life right now that all you'd have to give him to be happy is a moldy crust of bread and a glass of well water."
"In other words, he wants you to treat us to dinner at Planet Earth Pizza," Charlie said.
"That wouldn't be a bad idea. I know a guy who can get you a great discount."
Rachel gave him a pleading look that had Elisabeth smiling in admiration. Sean lasted about half a minute before he caved and said, "Okay, okay, we'll treat Chazz and Jenna to dinner at TGI Friday's. The rest of you will have to come up with the money on your own."
"That's only if you want to join us," Rachel was quick to add. She looked at Elisabeth. "I know you've been looking forward to having an evening alone with Darcy without Grace, so if you two want to skip out, that's fine."
Elisabeth glanced over at Darcy. Rachel was right----the two of them needed some time together without interference from wedding plans, her frustrating job, and their demanding infant daughter. They'd planned for that time to be tonight after they were done bowling. But now Chazz and Jenna were engaged and everyone wanted to go out and celebrate. Sure, Elisabeth could say that they'd skip out tonight and take them out another night, but it wouldn't be the same.
"We've got plenty of time to have a celebration dinner for you guys and still have some alone time for ourselves," Darcy answered before Elisabeth could decide.
"Are you sure?" Jenna asked, looking at Elisabeth. "I know this has been a crazy time for both of you and..."
"You don't really think we'd skip out on something as important as this, do you?" Darcy smiled and put an arm around Elisabeth. "It wasn't so long ago that we were where you guys are. Come to think of it, Sean, you didn't offer to take us out for dinner when we got engaged, so here's your big chance to make up for that."
"Wait a minute! I wasn't around when you two got engaged. How was I supposed to treat you to dinner when you were in Decatur and I was here in Effingham?"
"You could've given me some money before we left," Darcy said. "Don't you know everything, or was I misled in that as well?"
"Oh, I know everything. I just make it look like I don't so people don't take advantage of my massive brain power."
"Not to mention his massive ego," Rachel added. "Come on, let's go before your head won't fit out the front door. I'm about to faint from hunger."
"Don't tell me you're going to use that as an excuse for your miserable bowling scores," Sean said. "It doesn't quite work that way, dear, because we know better." Before she could protest, he kissed her. Once they'd parted, he looked over at Charlie and Jack. "What about the two of you? Are you guys joining us or are you going to spend some time alone?"
"I wouldn't mind going to Friday's," she said. "Jack?"
Jack thought for a moment. "I told Alice that I would try to be home by nine because she has to be at work early tomorrow morning. Charlie, give me my cell phone, would you?"
Charlie opened her purse and pulled it out. Jack took the phone, dialed a number, and put the phone to his ear. He waited for a minute before frowning.
"What's wrong?" Darcy asked.
"The line's busy. Alice must be calling a friend or using the computer or something. I'll try again later." He turned the phone off and gave it back to Charlie, who stuck it back in her purse. "I'm ready to go if you guys are."
The TGI Friday's in Effingham was right next door to the K-Bowl, so within minutes the eight of them were seated and ordering drinks.
"It seems hard for me to believe that it's almost been a year since I came here," Darcy said while looking at his menu. "It doesn't seem like a year, or almost a year. I guess I didn't show up until May, but I'd been through several times before I actually moved here."
"What were you doing a year ago?" Charlie asked. "I don't think you ever told us."
"I'm sure I have at some point. I was my aunt's lapdog. She gave me a job and told me what to do. She wouldn't let me do anything on my own without looking over my shoulder to tell me I was doing it wrong. The blame for any mistake I made could be laid at the doorstep of my rebellious mother or my shiftless father. You know, that sort of thing." The drinks arrived then, and to Elisabeth's mind, it was a good thing that Darcy had decided to stick with soda instead of something alcoholic.
After everyone had ordered their dinner, Darcy asked, "So, what about the rest of you? Everyone's up to date about what I was doing. What were you guys doing at this time last year?"
"Getting pregnant," Elisabeth answered with a grin. "Getting dumped. Getting demoted. And that, in six words, sums up a year ago to me. And I could've used fewer words than that if I'd wanted to."
"Our lives were relatively boring next to yours," Charlie said. "That's why I asked what you were doing a year ago. All of us could give you the same answer to what we were doing a year ago, because we weren't doing anything interesting."
"I'm sure your lives aren't boring," Darcy said. "I hear some of the stories you tell and the fun you've had and I'm envious. My life might seem interesting to you, but you have no idea of how much more interesting you guys' lives are to me. At least your job is fun on occasion. Mine never was."
"What stories do they tell where they're having fun at work?" Sean asked. "Dammit, I try to make sure no one has fun at my store and this is what happens."
"It usually happens when you're gone. Elisabeth and Bubba don't hold the same influence over us that you do," Charlie said. "Sometimes, just for a second or two, we actually feel a little bit of happiness that we can savor for months afterwards."
"Most of our fun work stories are from the staff parties, anyway, or from things Chazz does while at work."
"Oh, here we go," Chazz grumbled. "Why do these trips down memory lane always wind up being a catalogue of all the things I've done?"
"Because you're a part of our fondest and funniest memories," Charlie replied sweetly. "Look at this way. When we remember these things, we always think of you in a good light. We could bring up how you were acting like a butthead last August, but that's not fun so we try to forget it."
"Not that we succeed," Darcy said.
"Well, couldn't we tell stories about someone else? Let's tell Gossip Sister stories," Chazz suggested.
"Nah, that wouldn't be any fun. Besides, this is your night, your proposal, your engagement celebration dinner. We should tell stories about you," Charlie said.
"Do you remember when J.P. first got his cell phone and he would always say, 'You got me' whenever he got a call?" Jenna remembered this with a smile. "And one day, Chazz was sitting in the break room when the phone rang and J.P. was out on a delivery, so Chazz picks up the phone and answers it like J.P. always did and wound up talking to J.P.'s girlfriend for ten minutes."
"She never had a clue that she wasn't talking to J.P.," Elisabeth said.
"How did he manage to convince her that he was her boyfriend for so long?" Darcy asked, looking over at Chazz.
"Come on, you know J.P. You know the types of girls he dates. How hard do you think it would've been? But this girlfriend was a talker. She never shut up no matter how hard you tried to get her to," Chazz said. "She just talked and talked and talked, and finally, when I heard J.P. walk in the door, I tossed the phone over to him and told him who it was."
"J.P. threatened to throw Chazz into the freezer because Chazz didn't come get him," Elisabeth said. "Then I had to threaten to throw J.P. in the freezer because he wouldn't get off the phone with her. Finally, I had to yank the cell phone out of his hands and turn it off so he'd get back to work."
"I did wonder why he didn't just have his cell phone with him if he was out," Darcy said.
Charlie frowned. "Because he nearly hit a kid, that's why. He was on the cell phone, not watching where he was going, and driving recklessly through town----although he didn't need a cell phone to do that. He's lucky the kid moved in time. Why Walter didn't fire him is beyond me."
"Walter didn't do a lot of things he should've," Elisabeth said. "That's why we're so happy we have Sean, even if he doesn't let us have any fun."
"I remember the time Jenna dropped two glasses of water on the same table twice," Rachel said, smiling. "Ice water."
Jenna turned red. "I don't remember that. When did I supposedly do this?" she asked.
"Two and a half years ago, and I know this because I was the one you dropped them on."
"No, you weren't!" Jenna howled amidst the laughter. "I remember who I dropped those on, and it wasn't you."
"I remember who it was, too," Charlie said. "It was one of your exes and his new girlfriend. The guy was a real jerk, and the girlfriend wasn't much better, so they did deserve it. But still, once could be considered an accident. Twice was deliberate."
"It was a busy night, the dining room was crowded, and I didn't mean to do it," Jenna said stubbornly.
"Sure you didn't," Chazz said.
"I didn't. The water wasn't meant for their table, it was meant for a table in the back, a ladies' bowling league. I was trying to squeeze between the table with my ex and the salad bar and lost control of my tray."
"Twice?" Sean asked.
"It was a narrow space I was trying to get through."
"And if you weren't a twig, that story might be believable," Elisabeth said. "But you had plenty of room to get through."
"How would you know? You weren't there that night, and you remember what Scott was like. He took up as much space as possible, just like guys tend to do. He left me almost no space to get through. But I do remember who I dropped them on, Rachel, and it wasn't you unless you were about thirty pounds heavier with red hair and single two years ago."
"No, but I was part of the bowling league waiting for the drinks in the back."
"But you said she dropped them on you, not that you were just waiting for them," Darcy said.
"I know, but if I hadn't claimed to have been the one she dropped them on, she would've denied it ever happened, wouldn't she?"
"This sounds like the story of how I ended up in the mud at a Bon Jovi concert back in 1993," Charlie said. "To this day, I insist that my friend Shannon pushed me into the mud."
"What does she say?" Jack asked.
"That she pulled me into the mud, which is what she did, but it sounds more evil to say she pushed me."
"What were you doing in mud at a Bon Jovi concert?" Rachel asked.
"It was at Riverport Amphitheater on the grass, and it was raining. Hell, when wasn't it raining that summer? We were lucky because a week or so later, they were canceling concerts because of the flood," Charlie said. "It was fun, but I still wound up covered in mud."
"Poor baby," Jenna teased. "Look at it this way. Mud's good for your skin."
"I think my problems were beyond the help of a mud pack or two," Charlie said.
"Those days are finally over, right?" Chazz asked. "I mean, you're done with this problem and you're fine and all that?"
"I'm in remission, if that's what you're asking. Whether or not I'll ever be 'done' with this problem is another matter. I'll have to see a dermatologist at least once a year for the rest of my life." Charlie took a drink of her amaretto sour.
"Better that than the alternative," Darcy said. "You don't want it coming back."
"Oh, I'm not complaining. Just stating fact. It feels weird to consider myself a cancer survivor, though. It doesn't seem like...like I suffered enough."
"You've seen too many TV movies of the week," Sean said.
"Maybe so, but I'm standing by my beliefs. It's weird, okay? Thought why that should surprise me when everything about what I had was weird, I don't know." She shrugged. "Weren't we talking about Chazz and Jenna? We could tell the story about the time Jenna taped Chazz's mouth shut so he would quit singing."
"I don't remember this," Elisabeth said.
"It was one of your days off," Sean told her. "And I remember it well because I had to work that day. The boy would not shut up no matter how many times I threatened him. He was walking around the store singing...what were you singing?"
"'Lord, it's hard to be humble/when you're perfect in every way,'" Chazz sang, off-key. "I never did learn the name of that song, but I heard it on the radio and thought it was the right song to describe me."
"Sure it was," Jenna said sarcastically. "I was still working at Planet Earth Pizza then, and after about the fiftieth time he sang that, I was ready to kill him. I settled for the less lethal alternative."
"Now, when she says she taped my mouth shut, she's not being accurate. She didn't do that exactly. She stuffed a roll of gauze into my mouth and used an entire roll of surgical tape to keep it in place. I'm lucky I didn't choke."
"It wasn't a big roll of gauze," Sean said. "Just big enough to keep you from singing or speaking for a few minutes. It was blissful."
"But I wasn't to be deterred," Chazz said gleefully. "I started humming to get back at them."
"The humming was better than the singing," Jenna said. "And you hummed something other than 'Lord, it's hard to be humble.' What did you start humming?"
"I think he was going for a variation of 'Kyle's Mom' from South Park," Charlie said.
"I remember now," Chazz said before laughing. "Once Charlie figured out what I was humming, she started singing the words. It wasn't until Sean threatened to have Jenna gag her that she stopped."
"Which was two minutes after I started singing," Charlie added. "I knew when it was time to stop ticking off the boss, unlike some people I could mention....Chazz."
"I stopped eventually, didn't I?"
"Only after being threatened with a write-up if you didn't," Sean said. "And even then, I had to threaten you twice."
"I figured the first time was just for laughs," Chazz said defensively.
"What about the time that Jenna and Chazz got caught making out in the Planet Earth Pizza parking lot," Charlie said with a grin. "According to my inside source at the police department, it got pretty hot and heavy on the hood of Chazz's car, and the car wasn't even running."
Jenna blushed but Chazz looked more pleased than anything. "You have a good source," he said. "Your dear, darling little brat of a sister give you the horny details?"
"Shut up, Chazz," Jenna muttered. "I'm sure we don't need for that story to be rehashed. It's not like we were having sex or anything. We were just kissing and we were...well, kind of close together."
"I distinctly remember being told you were sitting on his lap," Elisabeth said. "Both of you without shirts on."
"Okay, that's enough," Jenna said, her face now completely red. "And before anyone asks, I was wearing a bra."
"But I was working on that," Chazz said. Jenna smacked him hard in the arm. "Ow! Okay, let's change the topic."
"I only have one question before we do," Jack said. "How the hell did you two manage to ignore a cop for ten minutes? And how did he finally get your attention? By turning on the siren?"
"Does anyone else think it's a little suspicious that it took ten minutes?" Charlie asked. "I mean, really. I have a feeling you two knew he was there the moment he wanted you to know he was there. The rest of it was a free show and he said it was ten minutes to make it look good on the arrest report."
"Probably around the same time he realized that nothing was going to happen," Jenna said. "I was just telling Chazz that we should go somewhere private when we realized the policeman was there. And we weren't arrested. I mean, we were both clothed, so there really wasn't anything he could arrest us for...I don't think."
"You mean, you hope," Sean said.
"She now knows," Darcy said. "As Jenna pointed out, they weren't arrested, just warned."
"And if we're going to get into sexual histories, I feel compelled to ask my 'dear, darling little brat of a sister' if the rumors about her having sex with the slimeball in the walk-in were true."
"What?! You told me that wasn't true!" Charlie shrieked, to everyone but Elisabeth's amusement.
"I never said anything one way or the other," Elisabeth said as her face turned red. She could've killed Jenna for bringing that up. "And it's not true, anyway. Why on earth would anyone think having sex in the walk-in would be exciting?"
"You mean it's not?" Jack asked as he reached for his cell phone.
"Of course not. It's cold and the fan blows even colder air on you, and trust me, that's not a good thing when you're not wearing clothes." Elisabeth got very red as everyone laughed again, realizing too late that she'd been tricked into confessing that it was the truth. "Drop dead, all of you."
"I'll get to that just as soon as I get this call in to my house," Jack said, dialing the number. After about a minute, he frowned. "No answer again. Dammit, I wish she'd get offline."
"I'm surprised that you don't have one of those wireless internet connections," Jenna said. "We just got them at Heartland and it's been great."
"In the meantime, we at the residential homes continue to putter along without any technological assistance at all. Do you know how sick you can get of having to write out paperwork every day?" Charlie crossed her arms and glared at Jenna. "Why do we always get the short end of the stick?"
"Don't blame me. I just work there. If it were up to me, you guys would have computers. But it's not."
"Charlie, think of how long it took for us to get decent computers," Sean said. "I don't know about you, but I remember the dark days when we actually had to write out tickets by hand."
"I don't remember that," Jack said. "We've had computers for as long as I've been at Planet Earth Pizza. Granted, the computers we used to have were God-awful and they were always changing the codes on you, but they worked."
"I remember," Charlie told Sean. "Not only did we have to write the tickets out by hand, we also had to write out prices for items and in the case of carry-outs and deliveries, figure up a customer's total with tax and stuff. And if we were wrong, guess whose pockets the money came out of? The only decent thing De Bourgh Enterprises did was to get us those computers."
"Now Charlie, that's not exactly true. De Bourgh Enterprises did a few other decent things," Darcy said.
"Name one," Jenna said.
"They brought me here, for a start. I consider that damned decent of my aunt. It wasn't what she intended, but it's what happened."
"He's got a point," Elisabeth said, giving him a quick kiss on the mouth. "But that's it, Darcy. De Bourgh Enterprises never really did anything great. Even when they had a good idea, they did something to muck it all up, like the jukebox."
A collective groan rose from the table at the thought of the jukebox, even from Rachel, who'd never worked there but had been there often enough to know what they were talking about.
"It wouldn't have been so bad if they'd just let it play random selections when no one put money in," Chazz said. "That would've been okay----hell, that would've been great. But limiting the random selections to two CDs was bad enough before they stuck in the Muzak. Anything would've been better than Muzak."
"It wasn't Muzak, it was Richard something or other," Jack said moodily. "Clayterman? Cloisterman? Something like that. Whatever he called himself, he ruined Carpenters songs forever."
"You like the Carpenters?" Charlie asked.
"I used to."
"We won't go there. But as bad as that was, you remember what replaced it?"
"Michael Bolton," Elisabeth said, feeling slightly nauseous at the memory. "I still scream if I hear him on the radio to this day."
"And Elvis," Charlie added. "God, I loved Elvis's music until the Company stuck it into repeat mode on our jukebox. It's only been recently that I've started listening to him again. But the customers can be just as bad as the forced random selections. Backstreet Boys, N Sync, Britney Spears, Whitney Houston...if it's popular, they play it so many times your ears bleed."
"Whitney Houston?" Chazz asked.
"Uh-huh. 'I Will Always Love You.' I still can't stand that song, because I had to hear it fifty...million...times. People play these songs to death. It's a wonder I like anything other than classical music anymore."
"So you might get a little upset if that's the first song Elisabeth and I dance to at our wedding?" Darcy asked.
"Don't you dare."
"He's kidding, Charlie. We're not dancing to that." Elisabeth gave Darcy a well-deserved elbow to the ribs. "Quit teasing her."
"Yeah, quit teasing me." Charlie took another drink. "So, Jenna, now that you're getting married, when's the wedding? Can I be a flower girl? Are you going to get married under your mother's thumb, or are you going to break free like Lydia did?"
"We're eloping," Chazz said. "There is no way in hell I'm going to let Ruth drive Jenna crazy like she has Elisabeth. No offense, El, but after seeing you these last few months..."
"I can't say I blame you. But maybe it wouldn't be so bad for Jenna. After all, she likes you." Elisabeth smiled as she took another drink, then added, "Ma liked you best."
"No, Ma likes Liddy best. And she does love you, you know."
"I know, I know. But there's a difference between 'love' and 'like.' She may love me, but..."
"Not this again," Jenna groaned. "Not the..."
"'I don't think I've understood you since the day you were born,'" everyone at the table said in unison.
Elisabeth sighed. "I've mentioned it a couple of times, I take it."
"Oh, no," Jack said. "Just a few."
"Hundred," Chazz added.
"Or in my case, a few thousand," Darcy finished. "Don't worry. We understand and love you anyway."
"Gee, thanks." Elisabeth took a drink of her soda. "Ma will never forgive you if you do what Lydia did. Like you said, Liddy's her favorite. She can get away with eloping. I don't think Ma would forgive you quite so easily if you did."
"Especially since you'd be marrying me," Chazz said. "Let's face it, she doesn't like or love me. If we elope, she'll see it as me cheating her out of another bite at the 'mother of the bride' apple. As much as I hate to say it, I think we'll have to get married the old-fashioned way."
"Just as well. I've already got everything mapped out," Jenna told him. "I've had my day planned since I was six. I'm going to have this big frilly dress right out of Gone with the Wind with lots of lace and a huge bouquet of flowers. And my groom will be waiting for me in a lime green leisure suit..."
"You're not funny."
"I know." Jenna smiled at him. "I wasn't kidding about having my wedding day planned. I do know what I want, and I don't intend to let Ma change any of it."
"Uh-huh." Elisabeth gave her sister a skeptical look. "Do me a favor. When you're ready to kill her, give me a call. I'll help you bury the body."
Everyone laughed.
"So, Charlie, have you and Jack given any thought to getting married?" Rachel asked.
"Oh, here we go," Charlie grumbled. "Now that we're the only couple at the table who isn't married or about to be married, we're fair pickings, is that it?"
"Pretty much so," Sean said. "So how about it?"
Charlie and Jack exchanged a look. "Do you want to tell them?" she asked.
"I think you'd do a much better job of it than I would," he replied with obvious reluctance. "Go ahead."
"Well..." Charlie looked at everyone without speaking. "There's no easy way to say it."
"Charlie, stop being a drama queen and spit it out," Jenna said.
Charlie looked at Jack again. He nodded. "Okay, here goes," she said. "We're...sort of...okay, okay. We're married already."
Stunned silence met Charlie's announcement.
Darcy was the first to find his voice. "You're already married?"
Jack nodded sheepishly. "We got married back in February. We didn't want to say anything because of my mother and the whole situation with my sisters and...well, I've talked enough about that. You guys know how it is, and that's why Charlie and I needed to keep the lid on this."
"And it'll have to remain a secret for a while yet," Charlie said. "Chazz, if you think you'd have it bad with Ruth, consider how hellish my life would be if Jack's sisters find out we're married. They'll think I insisted on having his mother placed in a group home."
"They already think that, hon," Jack said. "But look at it this way. They do their best not to speak to me anymore. I can't imagine they'd want to speak to you."
"Thanks for the thought. It's a real cheerful one."
"Guys, can we get back to this little bombshell you just dropped?" Jenna asked. "You guys are actually married?"
Charlie nodded, a huge smile on her face. "Can you believe it? Just a few months ago, I didn't think I'd ever have a boyfriend. And now I have a husband."
"Wow," Elisabeth said, for lack of anything better to say.
"When did you get married? Where? Why didn't you think you could trust us? Are you going to get remarried? Don't you think you're going to get the same reaction from Jack's sisters when you tell them the two of you are married?" Rachel asked.
"Before we go through the list of answers, do you have any more questions?" Jack asked.
"No, I think that covered everything I wanted to know."
"Like I said, we got married in February. We went to Chicago...you remember when we were gone for that weekend, El? That's when we decided to do it." Jack smiled at Charlie. "I'm sorry, darling. I told you that you could tell them the story."
"Thank you. As for why we didn't tell you, it wasn't that we didn't trust you. We did. But we were also afraid that you might let something drop accidentally at work, where the Gossip Sisters could hear it and spread it around. J.P.'s sister works with one of Jack's sisters, so it wouldn't have been so hard for it to happen."
Chazz looked around the table. "Okay, why did everyone look at me while Charlie was talking?"
"Because you would've been the one to let something drop," Sean said. "You can't keep a secret to save your life."
"I can, too! Did I ever tell Rachel about the time you bet your entire paycheck on whether or not the Rams would beat the Titans in the Super Bowl? You're just lucky Mike Jones tackled Kevin Dyson a yard short of the goal line at the end."
Rachel's mouth dropped open. "You did what?" she asked, furious.
"Thanks, Chazz. Remind me to return the favor anytime you want," Sean muttered. "Weren't we talking about Charlie and Jack getting married?"
"We were," Rachel said, "but we will get back to this bet you made."
"Now you see why we were reluctant to say anything," Charlie said. "What was the next question?"
"Are you going to get remarried?" Darcy asked.
"Why? We're already married," Jack said. "We might consider renewing our vows at some point, but we don't think of ourselves as being less married because we're not having all the hoopla you and Elisabeth are going to have."
"And to answer your last question, yes, we do expect a negative reaction from Jack's sisters regardless of when we tell them. It's something we'll deal with when we get there, but like Jack said, I'm hoping they'll ignore us over this mess with their mother." Charlie gave Jack a soft kiss. "I love you, pumpkin."
"I love you, honey-bunny." Jack kissed her back. The two of them looked adoringly at each other before turning to everyone else with the same devilish gleams in their eyes.
Elisabeth gasped as she realized what was going on. "You evil little..." She tossed a straw wrapper at them and contemplated throwing her purse.
"What?" Darcy asked as Charlie and Jack burst into laughter.
"They're not married. They made the whole damn thing up. Didn't you?"
"Of course we did," Charlie said in between fits of laughter. "Next time you guys ask us a question like that, just think of how we might answer it!"
"That was just evil," Elisabeth said in disgust.
"Well, we knew you guys were going to start in on us sometime. We figured this would be the best way to get you off of our backs. Just because we're in love and thinking about moving in together doesn't mean we're going to go off and get married right away...Jack, stop laughing. We probably will get married someday, but it'll be on our own time table and not because all of our friends were getting married and giving us the look like something was wrong with our relationship because we weren't."
"Okay, we get it. That's all you had to say. You didn't have to jerk us around like that," Jenna said.
"Sure we did. Now you'll remember what happens when you pressure us about marriage," Charlie said as their dinner arrived. "Jack, stop laughing."
Jack was unable to say anything from laughing so hard, which he continued to do for five minutes.
"That was an informative evening," Darcy said as he unlocked their apartment door. "We learned all sorts of interesting things about Chazz and Jenna, what Charlie and Jack will do in order to get their friends to stop bothering them about marriage, and that you've been a little...adventurous in the past."
"Oh, don't tell me you're going to start on this jealousy kick because Jenna happened to mention an escapade from my reckless youth," Elisabeth said as she walked inside.
"It couldn't have been more than a year ago. That's recent history, not a story from your youth." Darcy grinned at her, and she realized he was teasing. "I told you guys at the start of this evening that your lives were much more interesting than mine. I have no stories of walk-ins or car hoods. My stories involve dull business deals, my aunt's harping, and intensive psychotherapy sessions where I talked about wanting to have adventures in walk-ins."
"Really?"
"Uh-huh."
"You actually told your therapist, 'I wish I was making out with a pretty girl in a refrigerator.' What did he say to that?"
"Very funny." Darcy shut the door and, with great deliberation, turned the lock.
Elisabeth looked around the apartment even though she'd been living there for three months and had been in it countless times before then. It felt strange, suddenly, to be in the apartment without Grace. The silence was unnerving, for one thing. Even though Grace spent the better part of her day sleeping, there were little sounds and signs that she was around. Tonight, there was nothing.
"It feels..."
"Weird, I know." Darcy smiled. "I can't help feeling a little guilty that we've left Grace with your mother. It almost seems like we've abandoned her."
"My mother's not that bad." Elisabeth put her arms around his neck. "She'll be fine with her. If anything, she'll come home a little more spoiled than she was before she left. As long as Grace doesn't disagree with her when she starts talking about what a stubborn daughter I am, they'll get along great."
"I don't think Grace will disagree with her. I'm sure she'll think you're a stubborn mother as soon as she's old enough."
"Well, the least she could do is start wailing when my mother gets to listing my bad points. I'd do the same for her. You know, the old 'no one calls my brat a brat but me' strategy."
"Uh-huh." Darcy lowered his head to kiss her. After a minute, they parted, only to immediately start kissing again. Elisabeth didn't realize how close she was to the door until she felt it at her back. She was startled, but only for a second. The surprise had registered just before Darcy kissed her again, making her forget everything else.
They broke apart long enough for him to pull his shirt over his head, leaving his chest bare. Elisabeth's breath caught as she looked at his bare chest. "God, you're beautiful," she murmured.
"Men aren't beautiful," he said before claiming her mouth again. She felt his hands fumbling with the buttons of her blouse.
"You are, though, and you're with me. And I don't think I'll ever understand it." She went to help him with the buttons only for him to push her hands away. He kissed her, which managed to drive away sensible thoughts like helping him with buttons.
"One of these days," he said as he managed to get the last one before letting her slip her arms out of the garment, which fell to the floor, "you're going to understand why I'm with you. Hopefully sooner than later."
"I don't think that's going to be possible." Elisabeth ran her hands through his blond hair as they kissed again. She pulled away just long enough to say, "I think you're going to have to give me a demonstration...every day...for the rest of our lives."
"Sounds like a hell of a deal to me." Darcy grasped her by the waist. "Would you care for a demonstration now?"
"What was all this before now?" she asked as she put her hands on his shoulders. "The sales pitch?"
"I guess you could call it that." He kissed her again.
"Shouldn't we...go to the bedroom to continue this further?" she asked breathlessly.
Darcy smiled. "Oh, I don't think that will be necessary."
Elisabeth smiled as well. "Feeling adventurous, Mr. Williamson?"
"I think so." He lowered his head to kiss her again, but before he could, someone knocked on the door, causing Elisabeth to gasp loudly.
"Oh, no," he hissed. "Not now."
"Maybe if we ignore it, they'll go away," she whispered. But when the person at the door knocked again, and again, Elisabeth knew they weren't fooling anyone. "The world is plotting against us, I swear to God...Who is it!"
"It's me." Charlie.
Elisabeth was about to make a sarcastic remark when Darcy shook his head. "Something's wrong, El." He bent down to pick up their discarded shirts. He slipped his back over his head and opened the door while Elisabeth hastily buttoned hers back up, not noticing that she wasn't doing it right.
Charlie was standing there, her face very pale. Elisabeth hadn't heard whatever Darcy had, but the look on Charlie's face made her stomach sink. He was right----something was wrong. "What's the matter?" Elisabeth asked, fearful that something had happened to Charlie's parents or one of her sisters.
"Uh..." Charlie sniffled and her voice was quivering. "I just got off the phone with Jack. He called from the ER."
"Oh, my God," Elisabeth whispered. "What happened to him? Did his mother..."
"No, it wasn't him. It was his mother. You remember how he couldn't get a hold of anyone at his house earlier? When he got home, he found out that she had knocked the phone off the hook and...and..."
"Is he all right? Did she hurt him?" Elisabeth imagined a faceless woman waiting for Jack to come home so she could attack him with something...a knife, a gun, a fireplace poker.
Charlie shook her head. "She was dead. She'd taken every single pill in the house and...just died."
Posted on Friday, 22 August 2003
Darcy almost immediately volunteered to drive Charlie to the hospital, because it was clear that she was in no condition to do it herself. Charlie had put up a token protest, mostly because she wasn't sure Jack wanted her to be there, but in the end she'd agreed with Darcy and Elisabeth that Jack needed her. What none of them said, but all of them knew, was that Charlie was going to need Darcy and Elisabeth to support her.
They arrived at the hospital five minutes later, just after midnight. Charlie barely waited for Darcy to stop the car before getting out and running toward the emergency room doors. She nearly tripped going up the steps from the parking lot to the entrance but righted herself in time and hurried into the building. By the time Darcy and Elisabeth caught up to her, she had come to a stop just outside the waiting room. Looking through the windows of the room, it was easy to see why.
Darcy had never met any of Jack's sisters, but he knew without a doubt that the three women huddled together crying had to be among them. He could only see the face one of them because she was hugging the other two, but she looked a great deal like Jack.
Who was nowhere to be found.
"That's Anna," Charlie said softly. "The one you can see, that's his sister Anna."
"Who are the other two? And where's Jack?" Darcy asked.
"I don't know." She turned away from the window, presumably to keep one of the three in the waiting room from seeing her. Darcy stared in for a few more seconds before deciding that it was rude to keep staring at people who were grieving. "I need to find him. If they're here, they've probably...I need to find him."
Charlie pressed a button on the wall to open the doors to the emergency room. She walked through them and to the front desk, followed by Darcy and Elisabeth. The three of them waited for a nurse to see them. Before a nurse could get to them, however, Charlie stepped away from the desk, her green eyes filling with pain and another emotion Darcy wasn't quick to pinpoint. He craned his head to see what she was seeing.
Standing by the door to a room down the hall from the front desk was a solitary figure. The man's back was to them and his head was bent, but Darcy had known Jack Middleton long enough to recognize him. From the way his shoulders were shaking, it was clear that Jack was crying. Darcy felt a stab of embarrassment that he had seen it, because it was a private moment and one he was sure Jack wouldn't appreciate him having seen.
"Aren't you going to go over there?" Elisabeth whispered.
"It's not my..." Darcy started to answer, until he realized Elisabeth was talking to Charlie. She hadn't moved an inch since spotting Jack. "Charlie? Are you all right?"
"This is all my fault," Charlie whispered, turning away from the sight of Jack. "She's dead, and I killed her."
"You didn't put the pills in her hand," Elisabeth said. "How can you say it was your fault?"
"I should've known it was coming. I'm a trained professional, for God's sake! She's threatened to do it before and she probably threatened to do it again when he told her, but I didn't do the right thing. I should've pushed for her to be hospitalized before she was moved to residential housing. And I...his sisters were right. I was the one who pushed for him to place his mother in a group home."
"But you honestly believed that Jack and his sisters couldn't care for her properly, and you were right," Darcy said.
"Sure. She killed herself, but at least I can say, 'I told you so.' That's going to be very reassuring to Jack."
"I didn't meant that the way it sounded. I meant that you had a belief about something and it was the right belief, and...oh, never mind. You're not to blame for this, Charlie. Like Elisabeth said, you didn't make her take the pills. She did that herself."
"But would she have done that if I hadn't been behind Jack's decision to put his mother in a group home? If I hadn't pushed him, and if he hadn't done it, she would still be alive. She wouldn't have taken the pills. She'd be at home right now waiting for him to get back from bowling."
"Is this what you intend to tell Jack?" Elisabeth asked. "You're going to go up to him in a second and say, 'I'm sorry I killed your mother?' You can't do that, because the minute you start saying that the reason she's dead is because of the group home thing, you're only going to make him feel even guiltier than I'm sure he already feels."
Charlie looked over at Jack again. Darcy saw that he'd now been joined by a woman just an inch or two shorter than him with dark hair. Jack had an arm around her.
"That's probably Alice," she murmured.
"She's the one who was supposed to be watching the mother while Jack was out tonight, wasn't she?" Darcy asked. Charlie nodded. "Where the hell was she when her mother was killing herself?"
"Jack didn't know. Or if he did, he didn't tell me, but she's not to blame for this. I'm sure Jack's mother would've done this no matter who was at home. No, the blame for this is on me." Charlie turned away again. "I can't let him see me. I can't go over there."
Elisabeth frowned. "What are you talking about? Of course you can."
"No, I can't. He probably won't want to see me here. Not after I killed his mother."
"Charlie, he wouldn't have called you if he was thinking that," Elisabeth said.
"He might not be thinking it now, but just wait. If he doesn't come to the conclusion on his own, I'm sure his sisters will have no trouble helping him out."
"Did you give him any sort of ultimatum?" Darcy asked. "Did you tell him to choose between you and his mother?"
"No," Charlie said in a small voice. "But I got so frustrated with her because she always managed to find a way to come between us. It was rare that she didn't call him at least three or four times during our dates. Even after he started turning off his cell phone before we'd go out, it still felt to me like she was interfering with our lives. It was a rare date when we didn't end up discussing his problems dealing with her. I listened and I never complained to him, but it's hard to have a romantic evening with a guy when half the time he's got his mind on something other than you."
"So you're saying that you got tired of him having to deal with her and so you forced him to put her in a group home," Elisabeth said in summary.
"No, I didn't. I kept encouraging him to do it, though."
"Did every conversation about his mother include your 'encouragement,' as you call it, or did you say you thought it might be a good idea whenever he'd mention that he was thinking about moving his mother to a home?" Elisabeth asked.
Charlie shrugged. "I did my best not to talk about his mother when we were together."
"In other words, this was something Jack was already leaning towards doing and you pointed out the benefits," Darcy said.
"I guess so."
"Then it's hardly your fault," Elisabeth said firmly. "Now turn yourself around, go over there, and support your boyfriend. He needs you." When Charlie hesitated, Elisabeth gave her a small shove in the right direction. "Go."
Charlie glared at Elisabeth but shuffled over to Jack, who was once again alone. She reached out a hand to touch him on the shoulder. He noticeably flinched before turning around. Darcy and Elisabeth watched from the front desk as Jack faced Charlie. He stared at her for ten long seconds before he threw his arms around Charlie, who tentatively put her arms around him.
"Thank God you're here," Jack said to Charlie, his voice cracking. "I know I told you to stay home but I'm glad you didn't listen. I don't think I can..."
"Shh. It's okay," she murmured, hugging him more firmly. "I'm here for you. I'm always here for you."
Darcy took Elisabeth's hand and started walking away from the embracing couple. He again felt as though he were intruding on Jack's privacy by being present and figured he and Elisabeth could sit in the waiting room until Charlie was ready to leave.
"Where are we going?" Elisabeth asked.
"To give them some time alone. They need it." Darcy tried to keep walking, but Elisabeth was holding her ground. "Come on, El. You got her over there. It's not necessary for you to watch over her like a mother goose to make sure she's all right."
"Jack might need us," Elisabeth said stubbornly.
Darcy shook his head. "He needs Charlie and some privacy."
"All right, all right. I'm coming." But Elisabeth apparently had stalled long enough for Charlie to tell Jack that they were there, because they heard her call out to them.
"Hey, where are you guys going?"
Darcy gave Elisabeth a dark look, which she returned in kind. They walked over to Charlie and Jack, who, as Darcy had figured he would, looked slightly embarrassed to see them.
"We were just going to wait in the waiting room until you were ready to go, Charlie," he said. "We figured Jack might not be as glad to see us as he was to see you. And that's where we'll be if you need anything."
"We're both very sorry for your loss, Jack," Elisabeth added. This time, she was the one to start walking away.
Jack seemed to struggle with something inside of himself before he said, "No. You guys can stay if you want. I figure that Charlie will tell you what happened after I tell her, anyway."
"I wouldn't betray you like that," Charlie said vehemently. "If you don't want me to tell anyone, I swear on Granny Bess's grave that I won't..."
"It's okay," Jack said quietly. "It's okay. I'm glad you guys are here. It's good to have friends around at a time like this. Besides, if you go to the waiting room, you'll have to deal with my sisters because I know that's where they are."
"There's a private room back that way where we can talk," Charlie said. "Are all of your sisters here? We only saw three of them in the waiting room and then you were with another of them."
"Abby's on her way," Jack said listlessly. "She had farther to drive than the others. Alice just went to join them in the waiting room, so unless there's another family in that room, we should have it to ourselves."
The four of them walked back toward the front desk and to a small room that was unoccupied. Inside the room were a pair of small sofas and two chairs to sit on. Elisabeth and Darcy took one of the sofas as Charlie fiddled with something just outside the room before shutting the door.
"How did you know about this room?" Darcy asked.
"It's called the consulting room. Sometimes we get a referral for a respite client from here and this is where we fill out the paperwork and other stuff. I've marked the room occupied so no one will come in." Charlie took a seat beside Jack on the other sofa and immediately took his hand in hers.
A long silence filled the room. Jack stared at his hand, entwined with Charlie's.
"She wasn't happy about going to the group home," he finally said. "I knew it, and I was almost making myself sick over it, but I was determined to do this. She kept calling me an unnatural son who didn't love his mother. She spent one minute not speaking to me and the next minute calling me every name in the book. Then she'd become meek and contrite, begging me not to send her away. But she never threatened to kill herself. Not once."
Jack took a ragged breath. "I came home and found Alice asleep on the couch. She hadn't meant to doze off, but she works an early shift at the Hampton Inn. It's why she had wanted me to come back early tonight...anyway, the moment I saw Alice sleeping, I knew something was wrong. I had tried to call the house after I dropped Charlie off and the line was still busy. I woke Alice up and asked her about Mom. Alice said that she'd been fine. She'd eaten dinner, watched the news and Wheel of Fortune, and had gone to bed around seven-thirty after she'd taken her medicine, just like she always does. I asked if her if Mom was still mad at me. Alice said that the only time I'd been mentioned was when Mom asked when I would be home. She told her that I'd promised to be home by nine.
"I asked her if she'd left the computer online. Alice said that she hadn't been online at all. I told her that I hadn't been able to get through since about eight. She said that she'd made a call to her boyfriend at seven-thirty after she'd given Mom her medicine. She said they talked all through Everybody Loves Raymond and whatever show comes on after it before she dozed off around nine. She figured she'd accidentally left the phone off the hook, so she went to check. I went to check on Mom, and I found her...I found her in bed, on her stomach. I thought for a second that she was asleep, but then I saw that the phone she had by her bed was on the floor. I ran over and felt for a pulse, but there was nothing."
"How did she get the pills?" Charlie asked.
"She must've been tonguing them for a while now. I never thought to check and make sure she was taking them. I just assumed..." Jack blinked several times, but tears fell in spite of his best efforts. "Maybe I should've known she wasn't, but I just assumed that she was angry all the time because of the group home and other things."
"Tonguing?" Elisabeth asked.
"It's when the clien...when the person pretends to take the pills but sticks them under their tongue. I've heard of it happening before," Charlie said.
"I'd give her the water and watch her swallow. I thought that was enough." Jack stared at the floor. "I hung up the phone and yelled at Alice to call an ambulance because Mom had tried to kill herself. I started CPR, but there was nothing. Then they brought her here, and...and it was too late." Jack reached for the box of Kleenex on the end table next to him. He took one out, blew his nose, then looked around for a trash can. "She was dead."
"So she took all of the pills and then took the phone off the hook so you wouldn't be able to save her in time," Elisabeth said.
Jack shook his head. "I don't think so."
"Why not?" Darcy asked.
"Because she asked Alice when I would be home, and Alice told her that I'd promised to be home by nine. Because she was on her stomach. Because the phone's receiver was on the floor and not on the table by her bed. And because when I hung up the phone, I saw three pills sitting next to an empty water bottle. She knew I'd check on her when I got home because I always did. She knew I'd see the pills and the bottle and know what she did." Jack sniffled. "She thought I would be home by nine, in time to get her to hospital where they'd save her and she'd be fine. She's dead because...because I got home two hours later than I said I would."
"Oh, no," Elisabeth murmured. "Jack, this wasn't your fault."
"Wasn't it? If I'd come home like I said I would instead of going out to eat..."
"You left her with Alice," Charlie said. "You tried to call her half a dozen times. You couldn't have known this was going to happen."
Darcy gave Charlie a hard look, reminding her that she'd said she should've known not ten minutes earlier. Charlie ignored him.
"I should've guessed. She was going along with Alice's ideas, so I should've known. She'd still be alive." Jack bowed his head. Charlie put her arms around him again, and he willingly fell into her arms. "I should've come home when I said I would."
Darcy watched the struggle on Charlie's face. He could tell how badly she wanted to say to Jack that this wasn't his fault, knowing that it was probably the worst thing she could say to him at that moment.
"I'm sorry," Charlie whispered against his ear. "I'm so sorry. Um...have you talked with your sisters yet?"
Jack nodded. "I just told them that she was dead and then Alice and I had to talk to one of the doctors. I haven't seen them since. You...you guys said you saw them?"
"Yeah," Darcy said. "They were devastated." He realized how stupid and obvious that had sounded and winced. "Well, of course they would be. How else..."
"Darling, shut up. You're babbling," Elisabeth said.
"No, I'm not. I don't babble," Darcy said indignantly.
"Yes, you were."
"You guys are going to fight now?" Charlie asked, glaring at the two of them.
Guiltily, Darcy mumbled an apology to Jack, who just shook his head and said, "Don't worry about it."
"What happens now?" Elisabeth asked.
"I...I don't really know. I don't think she had a will, so I think as her guardian I'll have to be the one to...I don't know. She might have had a will. The house is going to be sold. I was intending to sell it anyway, unless one of my sisters wants it. I sure as hell don't." Jack straightened up but kept hold of Charlie's hand. "You know, for all that I said I was tired of dealing with her, for all that I was ready to send her away...I still loved her. She was my mother."
"We know that," Charlie said. The confusion on her face gave way to realization, then anger. "They've already laid into you, haven't they? They're already blaming you for this."
"They haven't said much to me yet. Like I said, after I told them she was gone, I went to be alone. But Anna is so good at letting you know how she feels with just a look. And her look told me that she was laying the blame for this at my door. She's right." Jack looked away from all of them, his head bowed.
"No, she isn't." Charlie grasped Jack's chin and forced him to look at her. "Listen to me, Jack Middleton. Your mother killed herself. Whether you're right and this was her extreme method of attention-seeking or if she meant to do it, you have to remember that this was something she did. She'd done it before and if she'd survived this attempt, she probably would've done it again. And as for not coming home when you were supposed to...well, you're a grown man. You're allowed to have a life of your own. You couldn't have known that those two hours were going to matter."
Jack stared at her for a minute before saying, "In my head, I know you're right. It's my heart that keeps telling me that I should've known, and that I could've prevented this. And that's what I'm going to hear when I see them again."
Charlie let go of his chin, which caused him to almost immediately turn his face away from her again. Darcy thought he saw frustration appear in Charlie's eyes before she asked, "Are you afraid of facing them?"
That got Jack's attention as he frowned at Charlie. "Of course not," he said. "Why would I be afraid of facing my sisters?"
"Because they're going to tell you what you're telling yourself right now. That it's your fault. That you're to blame."
"I know." Jack leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. "I don't want to face them now is all. It's why I left them alone in the waiting room and came back this way, because I wasn't ready to speak with them. Call it the coward's way out, but I needed some time."
"It's not cowardly at all," Darcy said. "Trust me, I know all about cowardly and this isn't it."
Jack almost smiled. "Thanks, man." He sighed. "I'm just so tired right now. I'm tired from what's happened to Mom. I'm tired because I know what's ahead. I...I feel like going home and sleeping for a week."
"There's another exit to this place," Elisabeth said. "We could sneak out while your sisters weren't looking. You could crash at our place, since none of your sisters would know the number."
"That would be the coward's way out, El, but thanks anyway. No, I need to talk to them. Not for long, because any conversation that lasts more than five minutes with them ends up being a fight. But I want us to come to an agreement about what we're going to do as far as Mom goes." Jack raised his head, let go of Charlie's hand, and stood up. Charlie stood up with him and took his hand again. "I don't think you should come with me. It's not a good idea."
"I don't care," Charlie said. "I didn't think it was a good idea to talk with you because I was afraid you wouldn't want to speak to me, but I did it anyway."
"With a little help from your friends," Elisabeth pointed out.
"Why didn't you think I would want to speak to you?" Jack asked.
"It's nothing," Charlie said evasively. "It was something stupid, that's all."
"She thought you would blame her for your mother's death," Elisabeth said.
"Why would I do that? Because you supported my decision to place my mother in a group home?"
It was Charlie's turn to look away. "When I saw you standing by yourself, I started thinking of the things I'd said when you were figuring out what to do. I thought maybe I'd been too pushy in my support of a residential home and you'd blame me for it."
Jack gave her a brief kiss on the forehead. "Trust me, you weren't any more vocal in your support for a residential home setting than my sisters were in their efforts to get me to change my mind." He hesitated before asking, "Are you sure you want to come along with me? It's bound to be brutal."
"We both have to face them sometime," Charlie said. "I'm not letting you go through this alone. You shouldn't have to."
Charlie and Jack held hands as they walked toward the waiting room with Darcy and Elisabeth right behind them. It appeared that the last of the Middleton sisters had arrived, as five dark heads raised to stare at them when they walked into the room. Four of them were sitting together, with the one Darcy had been able to see earlier holding the hands of the woman he presumed to be the newcomer as she looked disheveled and was wearing a brown UPS uniform. The fifth sister was sitting a short distance away but for some reason, Darcy got the feeling that she was apart from the rest of the group.
The one whose face was familiar stood up and gave her brother a bitter look. "Well. We were wondering when you were going to bother to turn up."
"I've been here the whole time, Anna," Jack said quietly. "You know that."
"But not here."
Elisabeth opened her mouth to speak, but Darcy squeezed her hand to stop her from saying it. This wasn't her battle to fight, much though she might want to help Jack out. He sat in a chair directly across the room from the Middleton sisters, a reluctant Elisabeth taking the chair next to his.
"I needed some time to myself," he said.
Anna gave Charlie a dismissive once-over. "Which is why she's here, of course. So you can be by yourself. Or maybe you invited her to come wallow in our misery so she could do a little victory dance. This is what she's been angling for since you started going out with her."
"This is not what I wanted," Charlie said. "I would never want anyone to die."
"You wanted her in that group home so you could have my brother to yourself. You encouraged him to throw her out of her own home and into some...some hellhole because it was convenient for you. And because he agreed with you, she killed herself. She's dead because of you."
Charlie's cheeks flushed. "She is not dead because of me," she said defensively. "You can't lay the blame for this at my door."
"I can't, can I?" Anna's voice rose.
"Anna..." the latecomer said, standing up beside her sister. "We agreed that we weren't going to do this here."
"I'm sorry, Abby, but I can't believe she had the sheer gall to show up here with our mother lying dead in the morgue because of her." Anna turned to the sister who was sitting off to one side. "Alice, didn't you tell him that she wasn't welcome here?"
"I...I guess I...wasn't thinking?" The woman sounded unsure of what she was supposed to say.
"Jack called to tell me that your mother had died. He needed me here, so I came. Besides, this is a hospital. There isn't a welcome mat you can extend or pull away. I can be here if I want to be," Charlie said, keeping her voice low and controlled. Darcy had to marvel at her composure.
Anna sneered. "I seem to remember you telling us that you'd gotten a couple of college degrees. Surely you're smart enough to have realized that your presence was going to be offensive to us."
"Jack needed me," Charlie said. With her chin stuck out as it was, Darcy was surprised to see a strong resemblance to Elisabeth. "I don't care how offensive you find me. He needed me, so here I am."
"Anna, I didn't come in here to fight with you," Jack said. "I'm tired of fighting. All I'm here for is to ask you if you know of any special arrangements Mom might have wanted after her death."
"How can you be so cold?" one of the other sisters asked. "Our mother has just died, Jack, and you're standing here talking about funeral arrangements."
"Someone has to do it, April. I'm guessing that job will fall to me as her guardian." Jack looked down at the ground for a second before Charlie nudged him slightly. He made eye contact with the sister who had spoken. "She used to talk about being cremated."
"I don't remember that," the sister named Abby said quietly. "But then, she never talked much about death at all unless she was threatening to kill herself."
"She never said she wanted cremated, Jack. She used to say that she knew you'd do that to her after she died. 'I'll be dead, and that ungrateful son of mine will let the doctors harvest my internal organs before he burns the rest of me. I won't even get a decent burial,'" Anna said.
"Funny. When I moved back in with her, she used to say much the same about you. 'When I die, I want you to take care of the funeral arrangements, Jack. If you let your sisters do it, they'll probably leave my body in a dumpster.'"
Anna's eyes narrowed. "You're lying."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, you..."
"Anna," Abby murmured. "Not here. Remember?"
"If you want to have a proper funeral and burial, that's fine," Jack said. "Whatever you want is fine."
"Do you even care that she's dead?" Anna asked. "Or are you breathing a sigh of relief that the whole mess is over? She's dead so you won't have to deal with her. You won't have to worry about how she'll adjust to a group home now, because she's dead."
Jack sighed. "I could stand here and tell you how I feel about Mom's death, but it won't make any difference. You won't believe me no matter what I say, so I'm not going to bother trying."
To Darcy, Anna looked as though she was spoiling for a fight and was frustrated that Jack wouldn't give her one.
"I think Mom should have a burial," Alice said quietly. "I think that's what she would've wanted."
Abby nodded. "Alice is right. A proper funeral would be best."
"Fine. I'll make the arrangements for it," Jack said. He started to turn and walk out.
"And that's it," the other sister, whose name Darcy couldn't think of, said. "That's all. You've got her taken care of and you're ready to move on."
"What more do you want from me, Audrey?" Jack's voice remained steady but weary. "If I tell you that I'm grieving as much as the rest of you, you'll mock me and call me a hypocrite. So I don't tell you how I feel, and you call me cold and insensitive. What do you want me to say that won't start a fight?"
"You might say you're sorry," Anna said.
Jack grimaced and closed his eyes. Darcy could guess what he was thinking but hoped that Jack wouldn't apologize in spite of the guilt he was feeling. "I'm going to regret this," Jack mumbled. "Say I'm sorry for what?"
The change that came over Anna's features was almost laughable as she went from suppressed rage to glee that her brother had opened the door. She opened her mouth to speak when Jack beat her to it.
"Am I sorry that she's dead? I am. She was my mother and I loved her very much, in spite of what you think. Am I sorry that she died the way she did? Yes. Am I sorry that I was having her placed in a group home? I'm not. It was the best place for her, and despite what's happened, I still feel she would've done well there." Jack paused, tension radiating from him. "Am I sorry that I was ever born, which all of you have said is what triggered Mom's mental problems? No, I'm not."
"How typical," Anna said. "You're not sorry for anything you do."
"Yeah, I had a lot to say about being born. Maybe I should've figured out a way to abort myself in the womb so Mom would be okay," Jack said angrily.
"Our lives were fine until you came along," Anna said. "If it weren't for you, Daddy would still be with us. Mom would've been okay. She'd be alive right now. Instead, you're alive, Daddy hasn't been seen for thirty-three years, and..."
"So you'd rather have me dead? That's the way it's always been, hasn't it? You should be grateful I'm alive, Anna, because Dad would've left Mom anyway and you wouldn't have had a handy scapegoat otherwise."
"I don't recall you having a crystal ball, Jack. You don't know what might've happened, and the only reason you're saying that it would've happened anyway is so you can deflect the blame for this. You killed..."
"Stop it, Anna."
Everyone turned to look at Alice, who stood up slowly. She wrapped her arms around herself, looked down at her shoes, then said, "He didn't do anything and you know it. Mom didn't go crazy because Daddy left. She didn't go crazy after giving birth to Jack. And Jack wasn't the reason Daddy left. He left because of Mom, because of the way she was."
"How would you know this? You were only five when Daddy left," Abby said.
"Because I was there. I was there to see all the 'uncles' Mom brought to the house after Daddy went to work because she didn't care if I saw them or not. I was there the day Daddy left us. He waited until you had all gone to school before he packed his bags, but I was sick that day and had to stay home from kindergarten. He didn't know I was home. Mom screamed that he couldn't leave her because she was convinced she was having his son. Daddy asked her if she was convinced it was his son, because he knew all about the other men she slept with."
"Mom was fine before Daddy left," Audrey said stubbornly.
Alice shook her head. Tears were falling fast and her breathing was ragged. "No, she wasn't. She vowed she'd get help, that she'd stop sleeping around. Daddy said that it was too late because she'd promised this before and nothing had come of it but another baby whose parentage he couldn't be sure of. I followed Daddy outside after he had everything packed and begged him to stay. He looked down at me and then turned back to Mom and said, 'I can't stay and watch you turn our children into little miniatures of yourself.' And then he was gone and I never saw him again. Don't you see? Don't any of you see? She was always crazy. We've always ignored that because Daddy didn't get fed up until Jack."
"She wasn't crazy!" Anna snapped. "Would you stop saying she was?"
"Then how would you describe the behavior we've all put up with all of our lives? Normal? Is it normal for a woman to make her children battle for her affections?"
"Battle? What battle?"
"I'm talking about what went on every Saturday. I know you remember 'Prince or Princess for a Day.'"
"That was a game, Alice, it wasn't a battle. We had fun together and the winner got a little something special from Mom. What's wrong with that?"
"You're forgetting what happened after the game was over. Sure, the winner got a little something special from Mom. Her undivided attention for the day. The rest of us were nothing more than dirt under her feet for all she noticed."
"You're exaggerating," Anna said.
"No, I'm not. And it wasn't just the game. There was always one of us who was considered her favorite, one of us who got special treatment, until that person did something that upset her or she was depressed and found something to criticize."
"You're wrong," April said, taking a break from glaring at Elisabeth, who was glaring right back. "Mom loved us equally."
"I don't think that Mom ever truly loved anyone," Alice said sadly. "I don't think she knew how."
"Now you're talking crazy," Anna said. "Mom loved us, even if certain people didn't deserve it. I don't know why you're saying these things now, the day she's been driven to commit suicide, but I can only attribute it to your own part in what happened."
"Blame's a funny thing, isn't it? You started off by blaming me, then you shifted the blame to Jack, then you blamed the both of us, and now you're blaming Alice because she was there. I don't hear your name in there anywhere, Anna," Charlie said.
Anna took two steps toward Charlie, hands clenched in fists at her side. Elisabeth started to rise from her chair before Jack stepped between Charlie and Anna. "Charlie," Jack murmured.
"Don't hush her, Jack, she's only telling the truth," Alice said. She turned her attention back to Anna. "Aren't we all to blame, in part, for what's happened? If we'd gotten her the proper help she needed sooner than now, maybe she'd still be alive. This wouldn't have happened if she'd been in a more restrictive environment."
"Maybe if Jack had bothered to check whether or not she was taking her medication, she wouldn't have had enough to kill herself."
"I didn't check to see if she took her medicine tonight," Alice said. "I'm willing to bet you never bothered to check when you were the one taking care of her. In the residential home, they would've made sure she took it. They would've checked on her on regular intervals to make sure she was all right. They would've checked to make sure she didn't have a cache of pills. She'd be alive if we'd done the right thing."
"She just needed..."
"You can say she just needed her family to take care of her, but it wasn't working. It never worked."
"Maybe if some of us had done more than just dump her off..."
"Like you did when you decided to dump her on Jack?" Charlie asked. "How did that help her? It probably made her feel like none of her children wanted her, that the one who stayed and took care of her drew the short straw."
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Audrey asked angrily. "Bad enough that you're here now, with our mother gone, but now you're going to lecture to us about our own mother? Don't you ever presume to think you knew anything about our mother just because you've got some hot-shot degree in psychology. To you, she was just a crazy lady who needed to be locked up because she was interfering with Jack's life. To us, she was..."
"She was your mother, and she was a very sick woman. And as I said before, I didn't want her 'locked up,' as you put it, because she interfered with Jack's life. She needed more help than any of you could give her." Charlie looked around the room. "It was admirable of all of you to try, but she needed more than that."
"You don't know anything," Anna said.
"Stop it!" Alice cried. "Just stop it, all of you! Why do we always have to fight? Why can't we be like any other normal family?"
"Because Mom never got the help she needed," Abby said quietly.
Anna gasped. "Abby!"
"It's true, Anna. None of us, myself included, wanted to admit that she was sick, because she never believed there was anything wrong with her. It was as if we told ourselves, 'If Mom doesn't think she's crazy, then she's not crazy.' Maybe crazy is too strong a word to use, but she had a problem. She refused to get help for it, and this was the end result."
"I can't believe you're saying these things. What's wrong with you?" Audrey asked.
"My mother died."
"She was our mother, too, and we're not denigrating her memory," April said.
"I'm not denigrating her memory. I'm being honest," Abby said. "I'm finally being honest. It took Mom dying for me to realize how sick she was, how sick she'd always been. I thought...when she would do this before that she was going through a rough time and felt we weren't giving her enough attention."
Charlie took a step closer to Abby, although it also meant taking a step closer to Anna, who looked furious enough to punch her. "Did you think you were giving her enough attention?" she asked softly.
"I don't know. I just don't know."
"It doesn't matter what she did before tonight. The fact remains that she killed herself tonight because Jack was going to put her in a home. She felt like dying rather than face it," Anna said coldly.
"She didn't intend to die," Alice said. "I saw the set-up while Jack was giving her CPR. The pills on the night stand next to the water..."
"She wanted him to know what she'd done, to know that she'd..."
"No, Anna. She asked me when he would be coming home. She wanted to be sure he'd get home before she suffered any serious consequences. She always made sure when she did this that someone would be there to save her. It's just that this time, I...I fell asleep and Jack came home late."
"A lot of things went wrong tonight, even if none of us knew it at the time," Jack said. "But when it's all said and done, there's only one person to blame for Mom's death. It's not me, or Alice, or Charlie. It's Mom. She planned this. She hoarded her pills over the last couple of weeks and she took them. She knew the risk involved if something went wrong. She just didn't care. And now we're left behind to deal with the fallout, just like we always have."
To Darcy's surprise, Anna was silent.
"Tomorrow, I'll call...someone. Groberman, probably. And I'll make the arrangements. As for the house, I don't think there's anything I want from it except what belongs to me. If any of you would like anything, or if you want the house outright, we can come to a deal. Just let me know." Jack sighed and said, "Come on, Charlie. Let's go."
They walked out of the waiting room without another word being said to them.