CHAPTER 52: WEDDING TREAT AND A QUIET THANKSGIVING

STORM ROOM – SATURDAY MORNING

BRIAN

He’s brooding.  I can feel it in the way he’s trying not to wake me up with his subtle sighing and gentle nipple play.

“Justin.”  I mumble.

“Oh, I didn’t mean…”

“It had been almost 10 days and we were dealing with a lot.  We’re great. Now stop being a twat and go back to sleep.”

He giggles softly and entwines our legs before kissing my chest.  “Thanks Stud.”

I kiss the top of his head.  “Welcome twat.”

Within a couple of minutes, his breathing has evened out and I gently untangle myself from him.  I pad to the bathroom and brush my teeth before heading downstairs to the kitchen.

“Morning!”  Emmy trills, grinning toothily at me.

“Hey.  Is Ted up?  Actually correct that are either Emily or Francine up?”

“Lounge for all three.  Ted is getting a little Kinnetic anxious.”

LOUNGE

When I get in there, Ted has a raft of papers in front of him and is flicking noisily through them.

“Morning all.”  I shake my head.  “Theodore, what are you fretting about?

“We have the Biloxi call on Monday for which I am not prepared.  Then Tuesday we have the VC with Brown Athletics and you can bet they will want us to fly up to Chicago before Thanksgiving and…”

“Ted calm down.  You realise that all three senior board members are here and I have a solution to your location problem.”

“We’re flying back to Pittsburgh?”  He groans pitifully.

“No, dumbass, we use the corner suite as our office until the New Year.  Remember the suites that we were in for the wedding that had their own offices?”

He looks so relieved, I think he might hug me!   “Don’t get moist!  Now go set up in the one that we were in and then we can do a couple of hours...but only a couple of hours.  We’ve got lunch at Yard House remember and you need to treat Blake to something nice.”  I give him a small smile.  “On us.”  I add quietly and hand him my card.

He nods and smiles before scurrying out with all his papers.

“Sorry about that Emily, Francine.  He tends to fret.”

“Don’t worry Brian.”  Emily giggles.  “It was fun to watch.  Now excuse me, I like Ted have to put in a couple of hours work so will see you later.  I can’t believe we’re booked up until the summer!  And then there’s Daphne!  It’s all go.”

She dashes out kissing Francine and squeezing my arm on the way.

“Still can’t believe we’re going to be parents in less than six weeks.”  Francine’s eyes glisten and she sniffs.  “Sorry, but you have no idea how happy you’ve made us.”

“I have a rough idea.”  I smile at her.  “Look I’m going to take some coffee up to Justin and then get on with some work.  If Cynthia comes…”

“I’ll follow you up.”  Comes her crisp tones.  “I need a rest!”  She snickers.

“Ewww!”  Francine and I cringe.

“What?  At least you’re not walking in on it from time to time!”  She retorts.

“Touché.”  I snort and head to the kitchen.

STORM ROOM

He’s flopped onto his back and Lilah and Milo have joined him.  I put the thermos mug on the side, and although I know it’s good for a few hours, I rub stomach, slowly waking him up and enjoying the feel of his sleep warmed skin.

“Huh.”  He opens one eye.

“Coffee’s here.  Going to the suite for a couple of hours of work.  Come get me when you’re ready for a shower.”

“Mmm.”   He mumbles and turns over and gets biffed by Milo for hugging him instead of my pillow.

“So you coming Lilah?”  With a chirrup, she follows me to the office.

NEW JERSEY WOMEN’S CORRECTIONAL FACILITY – SATURDAY AFTERNOON

LINDSAY

I have been pouring over whatever information I can get about Michael’s charges and to be honest, I’m slightly creeped out.  I start to wonder if there is anything of mine in there.  I’m on my way to the nurse to get my pills for my ulcer. I can’t see why I can’t have them in my cell but they are the stupid rules.

PHARMACY

I haven’t heard from Grady at all, which I am furious about.  He’s just not answering his phone and I need to know when he went bareback with his fuck buddy during the time we were together. Still can’t believe that and I must tell Lance about it.

“Peterson!  I don’t have all day!”  I’m jolted out of my thinking and enter the room and shut the door.  “Your omeprazole.  And I understand you wanted a STD test.  Why?”

I explain what happened and she seems to be a bit more sympathetic.  “Okay, we can arrange a full test for you on… Tuesday and…”

“Can I have it today?”  I beg.

“Why are you feeling any discomfort or planning on an assignation?”  She peers at me.

“No and no.  But I would rather just get it out of the way.”

“We could move it to Wednesday instead?”

“No Tuesday is fine, thank you.”

I head back to my cell thinking what a bitch Nurse Ratchet is and I will do anything to get out of here and be near my family.   Once I explain to Brian, he will help. I know he will despite what he said.

QUBE HOUSE – SATURDAY EVENING

LOUNGE

DAPHNE

“Are you seriously comparing food babies with me?”  I snicker at Brian.  “Taking out the actual babies I have in here, I would still be bigger than you.”

“She’s got a point Mr K?”  Vince grins at him.

“Look, I’ll have you know that this is only my second food baby in my life and I’m very proud of it!”  He pouts.

“My hero!”  Justin teases and gets prodded in the stomach by Brian’s foot.  “Ooof!  Don’t unless you want my lunch in your lap!”

“I can’t believe how much we ordered.”  Steve groans.  “Or the fact that we ate it all!”

“Which is why tomorrow’s fayre is going to be light.”  Zee advises rubbing her stomach.  “Anyone want peppermint tea?  Seriously those truffle fries were so good!”

Hands go up for tea.  “I’ll help!”  Jenny calls and attempts to wiggle out from under my feet.

“Oh no baby whisperer, you stay right there. They’re still digesting!  And one has hiccups, look!”

Jenny does her thing and they are calm and quiet in about 5 minutes.

“So when do the rest get here?”  Zeus asks, adjusting a dozing Cynthia.

“Tuesday night.  And remember Jenny and Gus, you need to speak to Emily and Francine before then.”  Mel tell them.

“Speak to them about what?”  I ask confused.

“Sleeping arrangements.”  Leda replies.

“Momma!”  Gus gasps, mortified.

“What?  It’s not as if you’re not doing it.  And while this is technically a Stark/Ugerstacht house, it’s still Emily and Francine’s home so show respect, yeah?”

“Yes momma.”  Gus replies and Jenny nods.

“I never thought I would be so pleased to see a mug of mint tea so much in my life.”  Brian groans gratefully, reaching for it.  “How do professional eaters do that for a living?”

“Yeah this almost shades the rarebit run burger you did Zay.”  Zeus laughs.

“Rarebit run burger?”  I look at Zee.

“I’ll do it for your shower but I think the less said about food tonight the better.”

Justin nods then whimpers.  “No more food talk or I will barf.”

PENNSYLVANIA UPSTATE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY – SUNDAY MORNING

OUTSIDE MICHAEL’S CELL

OFFICER KYRAN LOBE

It’s been a week since he got here and still he doesn’t know my name.  And he’s getting really fucked off about it.  I know I have to give it to him eventually but I want to see how long I can keep it going.  The only reason I don’t want to give him my name is because he will take the piss out of it and I won’t be able to smack him for it!

I open up his cell and he’s sitting at his desk reading the paperwork he was given.

“Morning.”

“Hmm.  What do you want?”

“It’s my duty to check that you are alive.  You are, so we’re done.  See you at lunch.”

I shut the door hard and stroll away, whistling.

MICHAEL

“Fucker!”  I mutter and then wait to make sure he doesn’t come back and revoke something.

After five minutes, I go back to reading the shit they left me but it’s boring.  I’ve seen enough courtroom dramas to know how this works.  I can’t wait to get Boy Wonder on the stand and to make him suffer, like he’s made me suffer for taking Brian away from me and poisoning his mind against me.

I chuckle when I think back to the loft burglary.  It was so easy.  I had been taking stuff for years and I saw this as an opportunity to get rid of him for good!  I just parked round the back and emptied the place.  It was a struggle to keep the smile off my face when he chucked him out and I thought well that was that.   But of course mom and Daphne had to turn his head and Brian chased after him.

When it became obvious that they had fucked before coming to meet us, I was livid!  Even worse, he gave me the keys to drive back to Pittsburgh so they could make out in the backseat!

I’m especially looking forward to talking about the prom. He’s such a delicate ickle flower about that. He will most likely crack and burst into tears like he always does when he’s angry about something.

I won’t put Brian through that though, not that he will talk about it of course. He never talks about his feelings except to tell me that he loves me and he always will.

As for the rest of the gang, I’m not going to bother with them but the other people I will be questioning are Ben, Hunter, mother, Jenny, Mel and lastly Zee. I will enjoy ripping her apart but I need to get ahold of Lindsay; I need her on my side.

Lindsay will tell the truth about everything.

QUBE HOUSE – SUNDAY LATE MORNING

SMALL LOUNGE

GUS

“Emily, Francine can we talk to you for a minute?”

“Of course, Gus, Jenny come in.”  Francine smiles at us and looks knowingly at Emily.

“Well you see we need to talk to you about Hank and Phil.”  Jenny begins, a blush creeping up her neck.

“Oh, what about them?”  Emily grins.

“Well it’s just that…um…you see…”  I stammer, wishing for once Jenny would interrupt but she’s gone silent.

“No we don’t see.”  Francine chuckles.  “But since we have things to do, and they land on Tuesday, I think we should we help you out by saying that yes it is okay for you to share your bedrooms with them.”

“Thank you!”  Jenny squeaks and we both bolt for the door.

“But!”  Emily stops us.  “Keep the noise down.  Especially you Gus.  Jenny you’re not too bad but tend to be a bit bossy.”

We back out of the room, mute with shock.

“I am not having sex here!”  Jenny whispers harshly.  “And I’m going to kill mom!”

“Me neither and dad is in so much trouble!”  I whispers back.

FRANCINE

“Think that did the trick?”

“Oh yeah!  Well it should keep them celibate until at least Sunday!”  Emily chuckles.

“You are so wicked!”  I chide her.

“Nothing to do with me this time. It was Talon’s idea!  Said it would be practice for when ours are teenagers!”

“And she looks like butter wouldn’t melt.”  I smile.  “But as Lindsay and Michael have found out, looks can be deceiving.”

“Come on let’s go make some noise of our own!”  She pulls me to my feet with a leer.

NEW JERSEY WOMEN’S CORRECTIONAL FACILITY

LINDSAY’S CELL

As much as I loathe being here, it’s good that I am on my own.  Nurse Ratchet wasn’t on duty when I made my play for an earlier appointment, claiming soreness so I got seen this morning.  She said the results would be back in a week.  As I headed back to my cell, I grabbed a newspaper to read.

“Oh my fucking God!”  I gasp.

“Peterson, what’s the problem now?  Still sore?”  The guard asks sarcastically.

“Nothing.” I glare at her.

It took a lot of tears to convince her that there was something wrong. I’m not sure what she said to the nurse before she left but she did look at me a lot less sympathetically than she did when I first went in almost doubled over.

Guard bitch heads away from my cell and I read the article again.  Grady has been arrested and charged along with Luther in that fraud.  Well that explains why he’s not been in contact with me!  Now I definitely need to get out of here just in case he tries to drag me into this!

QUBE HOUSE – EARLY AFTERNOON

KITCHEN

ZEE

For the last week or so, I’ve not been able to work away the stress my other way, which is to cook. Faal has been happy with how I’ve destressed myself though!  

“Are you sure you don’t want any help, little one?”  Mom asks. I look at her and wait.  “Okay, so I want to know what you’re cooking. It smells heavenly.  I’m your mother; I have certain rights!”  She puts her hands on her hips, channelling her inner Emmy.

“Uh-huh so you will be reciprocating on Thanksgiving then?”

“Hell no!”  She retorts before turning heel and stalking out, muttering about disrespectful daughters.

Helbert is winding his way round my ankles in the hope that he gets another tidbit. He’s definitely the kitchen cat.  And the way he and Storm have been looking at each other, I need to double check that he’s been done.  Faal has been stalling on getting them done because a certain son is still trying to persuade his husband that Toygers are the way to go.  Hunter wanted ocelots but changed his mind when we pointed out the illegality and impracticality of it ‘It’s a forest dwelling animal, you live in a fucking Brownstone with no garden.  Lydia would be ashamed of you!’ was Faal’s tart response.

So he’s trying to persuade Matt that a Fennec Fox is the way to go instead.  Cute little thing but it screams like the devil. I chuckle... I’m going to let them find that out all by themselves.

“So my dear sweet…”

“Not telling you either Ben.  But you can tell them it will be another 15 minutes.”

“Okay.  For what it’s worth, I told them it wouldn’t work.”

“Go before they send in Justin!”

I take my time setting the table; I want it to be perfect.  I’ve actually let the wine breathe this time.

“It’s been 16 minutes!”  Emmy shouts through the door.  “I can’t hold them back much longer!”

“Okay let them in!”  I call back and he’s virtually stampeded on as people get to their seats.

“Before we start, do we need to rearrange Brian and Justin?”  Carl asks.

“For the main course maybe but not the first.”  I smile.

“Which is…”  Mom hints.

“Scallop and truffle carpaccio and vegetable tempura.”  I plate up down the middle of the table and Justin is wriggling and moves closer to Brian’s chair.  When Brian rolls his eyes, I know…they’re back.

“This looks incredible my lig.  Quickly come sit, we are not starting without you.”

As they start to eat even I have to admit it is heavenly.  The scallops were boat fresh and the truffles from Tuscany work perfectly.

“Mom?”  Matt looks at me.

“Yes Matt, is there a problem?”

“Uh n-no it’s gorgeous.”

“I’m glad you think so.”  I beam at him.  One down, one to go.

“Okay kids, you guys clear.”  Carl orders.  “I am dying to know what that smell is.”

Once the table is cleared, I place a medium size soup bowl in front of each of them and then heft out the pots.

“Just come out of the oven, Justin.”  I warn.

“Twat.”  Brian mutters.

I put a pot holder on each one starting at Debs’ end, much to Justin’s chagrin.  “Okay you know the drill…lift.”

“What is that?  Okay I know it’s oxtail, but it smells different. What have you done?”  Debs peers into the dish.

“Just a little tweak here and there.”  I smile.

“Risotto?”  Faal gapes at me.  “You actually made risotto!”

“And this is cause for incredulity because?”  Steve asks.

“Because Zee can’t cook risotto without losing her temper and she’s been suspiciously quiet.”

“I will admit to practising a…”

“Oh mom!  When d-did you do this?!”  Hunter sniffs.

“Uh today, she’s been in the kitchen most of the time.”  Gus points out.

“No. You don’t understand. It’s our wedding dinner.”  Hunter gets up and comes around to give me a hug and a kiss, as does Matt.

“What?  My lig really?”

“Yeah really.  I needed to do something so 16 emails, five FaceTime sessions, 12 phone calls and one delivery from the South African emporium Oupa knows about and here we are.  And yes I have the recipes.  They are in your room.”

“Uh Justin, you might want to put some of that back.”  Matt advises.

“Why I like risotto and I love oxtail so…”

“Taste it.”  Hunter orders.  “Just the rice first.”

He puts a forkful in his mouth and grins and nods at me.  “Delicious, nice and creamy and so rich and…”

“Now with the oxtail.”  Matt laughs.

“Oh what have you done with that?  This is so rich and…ah.”  He looks at his bowl.  “Seriously Brian we need to share, I’m not kidding.”

Brian takes a spoonful and narrows his eyes at me.  “You are an evil woman who must be stopped!  Two pieces of oxtail only.  And one more scoop of risotto.”

“Everyone dig in please!”  I grin.  “It’s better hot.”

An hour later everyone is replete.  “You know what we need to do?”  Carl asks.

“Sleep for about three hours is what I’m going to do.”  Daph gets up and waddles to the door, before turning and looking at Matt.  “Don’t suppose you’re going to share the recipe?”

“No, not a chance.”  Matt grins.

“What were you going to say we should do grandpa?”  Gus asks scraping his bowl.

“The maze.  We can at least walk some of it off without going…”

“Past the first corner in Faal’s case.”  I mutter, earning a glare.

“That’s an excellent idea.  Come on!”  Mel orders.  “It can’t be that hard.”

“Take your phones.  I’ll be here when you call.”

“We won’t call.  Thank you very much!”  Leda refutes tartly.

As they troop outside, I start to load the dishwasher and laugh and tickle Fuchsia behind her ears.  “I’ll give them about 2 hours.”

Another hour after the rest of them having long given up, I go and rescue Mel and Leda.

“Not a fucking word!”  Leda snarks.

PENNSYLVANIA UPSTATE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY – WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON

MICHAEL’S CELL

I stare at the man in front of me incredulously.

“What do you mean the meeting is next week? I’m supposed to have a meeting with my attorney every week and I requested they be in attendance!  And where’s my normal guard Officer…”

“Holiday.  And as I understand it you’re representing yourself so you have an attorney meeting every day and you were told that there wouldn’t be a meeting this week, because of their schedules and Thanksgiving.”

“I don’t give a fuck about that!  I have rights and…”

“Novotny calm down.  You are getting close to a revocation.”  He warns.

“For what? Demanding what is rightfully mine?!  You need to get your ass to the…”

“Privileges have been revoked for 24 hours, effective immediately.  And, since you are being so confrontational and disruptive, you will be celebrating Thanksgiving alone in your cell.  Step out.”

“What?!  Wait I…”

“Were warned, step out now!”

I step out and watch them take away my TV and other personal effects.  “These will be returned to you in 24 hours.”

“Just give me my TV back. You can keep everything else.” I snipe sullenly.

“You might want to reconsider that since these seem to be related to your case.”

“I know everything there is to know about this farce of a case; I don’t need it.”

“Well we’ll keep it if you change your mind.  Step back in.  Goodnight.”

Fuck! Thanksgiving in my cell for most of the day!  This is all Boy Wonder’s fucking fault!  But now I know that fucker’s name.  I look forward saying hi to you Officer Holiday!

QUBE HOUSE – POST THANKSGIVING DINNER

DINING ROOM

DEL

I grin at Debs, Alice and Talon.  We have done ourselves proud.  We managed to cook for all the family and there was no arguing, just laughter and happiness.  We had turkey, chicken, duck and amazingly enough goose, though where she sourced that from I don’t know.  But Faal has already said he wants it for Christmas.

Zee is finally back to her happy self, though there is the shadow of her father hovering in her eyes and she’s still smarting over Grady disappointing her and Matt again.

Sadly, I also know deep down, she’s worrying about the punkass in Pennsylvania and the confused jezebel in Jersey.  But we Stark women are resourceful and I’ve been keeping an eye on her. I’m not quite sure what she hopes to gain by trying to testify against the idiot, apart from a reduced sentence, but as soon as I have a better idea what her game is I shall let the family know.

“Happy Thanksgiving everyone!”  I yell, raising my glass.

“Happy Thanksgiving!”  They yell back.

“Oh shit!”  Vince cries out.

“What’s up?”  Carl asks.

“It’s Daphne, her waters broke!”

Fuck! Actually... double fuck!