Chapter 13

Day 8 (Continued)

"Dada, can you come play in the snow with me?" Bree asked batting her eyes at her father.

"It's freezing out there," Brian replied.

"I know, but I want to make a snowman."

Brian groaned. This was Bree's new favorite thing to do.

"Pweese, Dada," Bree pleaded.

"Is your project finished for school?"

"Yes, Dada."

"Okay then, let's get you bundled up."

"Yay!" Bree squealed as she ran to the hall where her coat and boots and mittens were always kept.

Brian walked into the kitchen heading for the front hall after Bree.

"She got you, huh?" Justin laughed.

"You mean she's already been working on you?" Brian asked.

"Yep, but I resisted."

Brian let out a loud groan. "I should have known."

"Oh, go out and play with your daughter," Justin giggled. "You know you'll both have fun."

"Why don't you come too?"

"Not today. I'm in charge of hot chocolate and snacks when you come in."

"Party pooper!"

"I'll show you a party later, big guy," Justin giggled.

"Promise?" Brian asked with a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows.

"One hundred percent."

Brian smiled and went to help Bree on with her snowsuit. He had decided that would keep her warm and toasty while they were out in the snow. She didn't much like being encased in it, but if she wanted to play outside then that was the price she'd have to pay. With a happy smile on his face Brian started zipping her in.

Soon they were outside constructing a snowman. It wasn't the best type of snow for their enterprise but they managed to make a small one, mostly by patting the snow together rather than trying to roll it into balls.

Justin sat in the sun porch watching them together. It always filled his heart with love to watch his husband and their daughter play together. He wondered how Brian felt when he played like a little boy. Justin suspected Brian never had much chance to play as a child. Maybe his play with Bree would somehow help to make up for that part of his childhood that Brian had missed. Justin grabbed his sketchbook and pencil and started to work, capturing his two favorite people's adventures in the snow.

Bree insisted they put one of her scarves around the snowman's neck. Brian, of course, protested, but he had already taken that into account when he had put two scarves on her before they came outside. The snowman was soon warm and snug with his new scarf.

Bree looked around the yard. "Where's Mr. Froggie?" she asked with a frown.

"You mean the frog that I got you before Christmas?" Bree vigorously nodded her head. "We put it in the garden over there by the sun porch," Brian told her.

"But, I can't see him. He won't be able to breathe," she gasped. "We need to dig him out, Dada."

Brian shook his head, but followed her back to the path coming out of the sun porch.

"Where is he, Dada? I don't see him anywhere."

Brian knew the frog with the spinning legs was buried in one of the snowbanks they had made while digging out the day after Christmas. He tried to calculate the correct position of the frog. He knew from experience that Bree would want him to keep digging until they found it.

"I think it should be somewhere around here," Brian stated, kicking at the snow piles with the toe of his boot.

"Find him, Dada," Bree begged. "Hurry!"

Brian continued to kick at the snow knocking as much out of the way as he could. After several minutes, he was getting ready to give up when his toe came in contact with something that didn't feel like snow. He quickly used his hands to dig out enough of the frog so that it would be able to "breathe".

"There you go," Brian said proudly as the frog's head was now out of the snow.

"Why don't his legs go round?" Bree asked.

Brian sighed and kept digging the snow away from the frog. He cleaned out any snow that had frozen around the frog's legs. The legs started spinning in the soft breeze, as soon as Brian freed them.

"Yay!" Bree cried clapping her hands in her mitts. "Mr. Froggie's happy now."

"Well I'm so pleased for Mr. Froggie," Brian said sarcastically as he blew on his frozen fingers that he had pulled out of his stiff gloves. "Let's go inside and get some of that hot chocolate that Daddy promised." Brian started towards the door of the sun porch.

"Dada!" Bree called.

"What is it, Squirt?" Brian asked trying to keep his patience.

"Where are our flowers? Are they under there too?"

Brian groaned inwardly. Now she was going to ask him to dig out all their fucking flowers too. "Flowers don't breathe like people … or frogs," Brian explained. He was hoping to make a pre-emptive strike before she asked him to start digging.

Bree frowned. "Then how do they stay alive?"

"They don't exactly," Brian said patiently. "Plants hibernate, you know, like the big brown bear in one of your stories."

"Oh?" Bree studied the snow where she knew some of their flowers had been. "But when we see them, they're babies again," she stated.

"That's right," Brian agreed. "Their roots stay under the ground and the rest of the plant dies. In the spring the roots send up new shoots, just like new babies being born."

Bree smiled. "How do they know how to do that?" she asked after a few seconds.

Brian knew he was getting out of his depth in explaining this. "They just know, like Daddy knows how to take care of you and me."

"Oh!"

"Can we go in now, Squirt? My fingers have gone completely numb."

"'Kay, Dada," Bree said as she walked towards the door that Brian was opening for her. She stopped at the door and looked back at the flowerbeds covered in snow. Brian knew there would be more questions later, but he wanted to thaw his fucking fingers first.

He gave Bree a little boost on the butt to get her through the door. She giggled as she hopped forward. The hot chocolate smelled really good.

 

*****

 

It was a warm, sunny day in St. Augustine. Still feeling tired after their long drive to the space center and back, the girls decided to stick close to the Piece of Plenty. They wandered around the quaint town, finding a small café to have lunch and then taking a walking tour of the fort. Sitting on a bench that overlooked the Matanzas River, the girls rested.

"This is such a perfect day," Lindsay remarked as she held up her face toward the setting sun.

"It's been a great vacation so far. I didn't realize how much I really needed this," Mel replied.

"We both needed this, and next time we bring the kids. I don't think they're too big for Disney World. We can go to Epcot Center and back to the Space Center. Gus would love that."

"You're right....and I am truly sorry," Mel said sadly.

"For what?"

"For neglecting all of you. I seem to get caught up in everyone else's fights and missions and forget our own. I take on a new cause and then our family comes second. He never does that."

"He who?"

"Brian, of course. Lindsay, answer me honestly. When Brian was spearheading the clinic project, before we all knew what was happening, he clued in you and Gus, didn't he?"

"Yes, he wanted to protect Gus from the rumors he knew would crop up."

"I bet he would have put a stop to the whole thing if he thought Gus would have misunderstood something. Bet he had a cow when Justin got hurt."

"Yes, I believe he would have. And Brian had more than a cow; he wanted to wrap Justin up in bubble wrap for weeks after the accident."

"And that's the big difference between me and him. I talk big but when it comes down to making those decisions, he does it while I try to figure out how to have my cake and eat it too."

"Melanie, I would never ask you to make a choice. I know how important your work is. You make an impact on the lives of your clients. Many of them could lose everything if it wasn't for your counsel. But we all need balance in our lives. You can't work twenty-four hours a day nor can you play all the time. I'm just asking that you balance your career with us. We're not a family without you."

"I understand that now. But I'm going to be made a full partner..."

"So as part of the deal, you make sure you have family time written in as part of the contract."

"When did you get to be so smart?" Melanie beamed at her wife.

"Fuck a lawyer, you learn a few things," Lindsay smirked. Melanie leaned in to give Lindsay a kiss.

"Yeah," Mel whispered. They leaned against each other's shoulder as they both enjoyed the sunset.

 

*****

 

"Hey Grandpa Danny, I'm going to heat up some lasagna in the microwave," JR said as she took a small pan of her Grandma Debbie's lasagna out of the refrigerator. She carefully unwrapped the pan and placed it in the center of the microwave. Hitting the reheat button, JR then went to pour herself some milk.

"JR, don't forget to transfer the lasagna into another.....,"

Danny had begun when all of a sudden the microwave sizzled loudly, popped then began to smoke, setting off the smoke alarms. Then half the house was plunged into darkness.

"...dish. Oh shit," Danny finished his statement.

"Hey! What the fuck happened? Ow! Shit!" Gus, the normally very polite and non-user of expletives, tripped over his sneakers in the dark, banging his still slightly sore shoulder against his bedroom door when the lights went out in his room and the computer went dark.

"What's going on?" Gus said louder, as he made his way downstairs, smelled smoke and watched Danny's fast work with a small fire extinguisher.

"Houston, we have a problem," Danny mumbled as he glared at the offending and now dead appliance.

"Crap!" JR said as she sat on a nearby chair.

"I'll call Dad," Gus said as he went for the phone.

"I'll check the breaker box," Danny mumbled as he searched for a flashlight.

"I'll get the cleaning supplies," JR said as she glanced at the mess she had inadvertently made.

"I don't believe this!" Gus and JR heard coming from the general direction of the basement stairs.

"Danny?" Gus shouted from the top of the steps. He had his cell phone in his hand ready to call his own Mister Fix-it aka his Pop.

"How ancient is this house?" Danny groused.

"What?" Gus and JR said together.

"Fuses! Who still has fuses? Un-fucking-believable!"

"Maybe you should call Uncle John too, Gus." JR looked up at her big brother who nodded back. Gus hit number one in his speed dial.

"Hi, Dad?" Gus said when Brian picked up.

"What's wrong, Sonny Boy?" Brian asked from his end.

Gus rolled his eyes at JR and mouthed, 'How does he do that?' JR shrugged. "What makes you think something's wrong?"

"Gus..." Brian said sternly.

"We blew a fuse," Gus explained omitting JR's contribution in the incident.

"And..."

"Half the house is dark."

"Is it the half with the furnace and water heater?" Brian inquired.

"I'm not sure."

"Where's Danny?"

"In the basement trying to fix it."

"Tell him to wait. Don't touch anything. I'll get John."

"Okay, Pop." While Brian went to go get John's opinion, Gus told Danny to come up from the basement.

"Gus, it's Uncle John. Can I speak with Danny for a moment?" John asked as he took the phone from Brian.

"Sure, Uncle John, one second," Gus answered as he handed his cell to the flustered ex-drag queen.

The two men carried on their conversation with several on-lookers from both sides. As they were just about to finish up, Danny heard the new furnace roar to life.

"Well, that answers one question. We have heat and we have hot water," Danny said into the phone and to the kids.

"Yay!" JR proclaimed as Gus pumped the air with his fist, saying, "Yes!"

"Danny, you should be okay overnight. I'll be there bright and early with our electrician and we can do our inspection," John advised.

After a round of goodbyes, the family went about the rest of their day.

"I should have known this was going to happen," John grumbled as he handed the phone back to Brian.

"What do you mean?"

"I saw the fuse box when we replaced some of the wiring. I should have thought to replace it then," John chastised himself.

"Oh come on, big bro, even you can't know everything. You had your hands full with the furnace and water heater."

"That's no excuse! On the bright side, we still have four more days before the girls get home. I can have everything re-wired into a breaker system. Fuses! Who the fuck uses fuses? And how they bought a house with fuses is beyond me. Their realtor should be shot. Please tell me it wasn't Jennifer."

"No, big bro," Brian chuckled at his brother's supposed faux pas. "They bought that house long before Justin was a twinkle in my eye."

Hearing his name, Justin joined the brothers in their pow-wow.

"What's going on, guys?" Justin was taking a break from his sketches to throw a large roast in the oven for their dinner. Even with their combined family having dinner, there would be plenty of leftovers to make sandwiches for the kids.

"We've had another disaster at the old homestead," Brian snarked.

"What now?" Justin asked. The brothers filled in Justin on the latest snafu.

 

*****

 

"Ladies! I thought you were a figment of my imagination," Seamus quipped as the girls walked into the B & B. "Have the wee folke spirited you away on an adventure?" Seamus continued, using a bit of the blarney. Lindsay and Melanie laughed.

"We have been neglectful guests, haven't we," Lindsay said.

"Nonsense, lass, you're on vacation. What's a vacation without taking in the sights, enjoying this lovely weather and becoming reacquainted with yourselves? No, my dear woman, you're doing just what you need to do. Now, would you care to join me in a wee drop of the grape?" Seamus asked as he held up a bottle of wine.

The girls smiled, nodded then joined their host on the veranda.


 

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