Chapter Two-Hundred
When Brian, Riley and her family, Kevin, Jerald, Detective’s Stabler and Benson, and AJ had gone to the grocery store Detective Tutuola stayed behind to add more protection to Ashley and Jackie. They hurried and got everything that Jackie had requested Brian and Kevin asking Josh, Elenore and Chloe to fetch things for them as they went to make things faster. AJ even asked Laila to help wanting to include the two-year-old in on everything they did. By the time the shopping was done AJ had managed to buy all three of them lollipops, despite both Brian and Kevin’s protest. His excuse being that it was Thanksgiving. When they were done shopping they left the store and placed the bags in the van and then each of them scooped up a child and they decided they would walk to the parade, as it was only right around the corner. When they got there they could see the crowd of Kentucky already starting to gather around. Kevin kept hold of Elenore absolutely refusing to put her down and Brian was being just as paranoid with Josh. AJ, Riley, nor the Detectives could blame them.
“Kevy, I wants down! I wants to move closer” Elenore protested, squirming some in Kevin’s arms.
“Ellie, I told you no. If I see even a hint of a tantrum, we’ll go back to the Littrell’s without watching the parade.” He told her firmly. Elenore’s lower lip stuck out in a pout.
“Buts Kevy…”
“Ellie I mean it.”
“Kevin I know you’re scared, but it doesn’t mean you need to take it out on her. Why can’t you just explain to her why she can’t get down?” AJ jumped in before the little girl got her feelings hurt, knowing from experience that Kevin only gets moody when he is scared or because of lack of sleep. Or…sometimes just because Nick pissed him off.
“I don’t think I need to remind her what happened at the last parade we were at.”
“Okay, but you don’t need to ruin her fun just because you’re still beating yourself up over the situation. She’s five years old.” Kevin opened his mouth to protest when suddenly Riley gently took Elenore from Kevin and Josh from Brian and she gently pushed her way through the crowd so that she was in front and she knelt down with the two Donald Duck lovers standing in front of her.
“AJ bring Laila for me – Chloe too.” AJ scooped Chloe up into his arms and he brought them to the front. Riley took them and Detective Benson went up there to stay with them giving AJ the opportunity to go back to Kevin who was watching his little girl warily. He trusts the people who have her, but he doesn’t trust anyone else around them. Anybody could be working for Sean. Anybody could be standing there watching them. Waiting for the right opportunity to snatch her. When he got back to Brian and Kevin he stood between them and wrapped an arm around both of them.
“They’re fine. We’re not going to let anything happen to them this time, I promise.” He reassured, and he hugged both of them. “You have to let this go. You have to forgive yourselves. Nothing is going to happen at this parade.”
“You can’t make that promise,” Brian insisted.
“Yes I can.”
“How can you say that?”
“Because we’re more prepared this time. We learn from our mistakes. We’re not going to take our eyes off of them. Detective Benson is up there with them, Detective Stabler is here scanning the crowds, and things are much different this time.” Kevin shook his head and Jerald wrapped his arms around him for a hug.
“Come on little brother…forgive yourself. It’s okay…”
“I can’t.”
“You can. If you truly let yourself.” Kevin didn’t get a chance to reply, for they could hear the music down the street telling them that the parade is starting. Elenore squealed with excitement and jumped up and down as she stood in front of Riley who had her finger slipped through her belt loop so she couldn’t run from her. Josh stood closer to Detective Benson. Though very grateful he was that Riley had rescued him and Elenore from having to stand back where they were, he is still a little wary of her. Jerald wrapped an arm around Kevin and steered him toward the front so that they could be near Elenore and watch the excited look on her face at the sight of the world’s greatest duck. AJ followed dragging Brian a long though he didn’t have to drag much as he was more then willing to be closer to his son. Soon enough the people in costume, and the band players made their way in view of them. The kids ooh’d and awed at all of the exciting things. They saw some people dressed in costume, band players, people juggling things and dancing, balloon characters such as Scooby Doo, a turkey, Bart Simpson, Sponge Bob, and much to Laila’s delight, even Barney! They saw Kermit the frog, Super Grover, and Josh got excited over the sight of a balloon of Charlie Brown trying to kick the football. When a balloon of Donald Duck came into sight Elenore squealed some and she looked up at Brian questioningly and a little worried. Brian recognizing the look at once squeezed her shoulder gently as he had sat down next to Riley.
“The real one is coming honey I promise.” He reassured.
“Yeah, they usually save him for towards the end because most of the crowd loves him best.” Jerald added while winking at her. They sat and watched the band members go by playing their instruments, and the pretty floats, and the many balloon characters that they almost always recognized, until the parade was nearly almost over and finally Donald Duck came. Elenore began jumping up and down squealing and pointing.
“JOSHY LOOKS!!! IT’S DONALD, IT’S DONALD!!!” she turned to Kevin. “KEVY! LOOKS!” Kevin smiled at her.
“I see him baby, I see,” he told her. Josh didn’t say a word, he just stood there staring at his favorite cartoon character in awe as he waited anxiously a long side Elenore for him to come closer. They noticed he was throwing out candy and stuffed Donald Ducks to all of the kids in the crowd who had suddenly moved toward the front. Riley laughed.
“I see why he is the favorite now.” After awhile when the duck was finally nearing closer to them Josh who just couldn’t control himself darted out toward the unsuspecting Duck.
“JOSHUA!” Brian called out to him in surprise but Josh ignored his father and just kept running.
“DONALD!!!” He exclaimed and Donald Duck made a show of throwing his arms out in excitement and bending down some as the little boy came flying into them and he enveloped him in a hug. Elenore squealed and ran out there too. Despite Riley’s hold on her belt loop. Nothing and no one could keep her away from the ill-tempered duck. Donald Duck hugged her too and patted each kid on the back and Riley who had brought her camera was smart enough to pull it out and take pictures. Kevin and Brian glanced at their brother and AJ slightly red in the face though smiling in amusement. Jerald laughed.
“What can I say? Kids will be kids.” When Donald Duck had finished hugging Elenore and Josh, he noticed that each of them were already holding stuffed Donald Ducks that they had gotten from their field trip to Disney World, so instead he handed over two t-shirts that he had autographed and a bag of candy. Elenore and Josh gaped at them in surprise as if they were the greatest treasures they have ever received.
“Now come back you two,” Detective Benson called out to them in amusement. “Let him get on with his parade.” Josh and Elenore obeyed and hurried back to Detective Benson and Riley and when they turned around each of them waved to the duck with big smiles on their faces, Josh close to tears of joy and they waved. Donald Duck waved back cheerfully and continued to walk on, throwing candy out to the crowd, and stuffed Ducks, and signed t-shirts, and waving to the crowd as he went.
“The other kids are going to be so jealous. There is no way they aren’t going to find out now,” Brian pointed out.
“We can tell them we didn’t know there was going to be a parade…that we came across it while we were walking through town,” Jerald suggested.
“Good plan,” Kevin agreed with his brother. Josh pushed himself gently between Riley and Detective Benson to Brian and he hugged his father’s leg still overcome with emotion from meeting his hero. He met him before at Disney World, but it was just different. Brian scooped him up into his arms and hugged him with a small smile on his face. Elenore went to Kevin too and he gathered her in his arms and hugged her for two reasons. One, because he is grateful this parade didn’t turn out disasters like he feared, and two because she too had met one of her heroes.
~*~*~*~*~
Meanwhile, in Max’s hotel room, Sean and Trevor were still alone as Max was still gone. The two of them were sitting side by side on the one bed, Trevor sitting with Max’s laptop in his lap and Sean was watching the Thanksgiving Parade on television. When he had seen his daughter and Josh run up to the Donald Duck, it infuriated him that she was happy. It infuriated him that she was on live television, and it infuriated him that his wife gave her away without his permission. His stupid wife that he can’t stand these days. The anger he felt the day he discovered his punching bag was gone, it took everything in him not to turn on her instead. He doesn’t know why he keeps her around. All she does is sleep around anyway. And when she’s not, she is there nagging at him for not buying her diamonds. He fell out of love with her a very long time ago. He doesn’t even remember the last time he kissed her or hugged her close to him and meant it. If she disappeared off the face of the earth, he could careless. He would divorce her and make her leave if she didn’t know too damned much. He would never kill her though. He did once upon a time, love her after all. Sean sat there glaring at the TV for a long time until Trevor placed his hand on his shoulder.
“If you keep staring at that, you’re going to burn a hole through it.”
“Good. Then at least I would have destroyed something.” Trevor rolled his eyes and stole the remote from him and he turned the TV off.
“Hey!”
“You’re supposed to be controlling your temper, and that’s not helping.” Sean scowled and crossed his arms over his chest.
“What are you doing on that stupid thing anyway?”
“Researching Aaron Carter for you.” Sean nodded and he leaned in closer to Trevor so he could look too.
“Are there any pictures of him with his twin?”
“Yeah,” Trevor answered and he clicked on a link. After a few seconds a popup opened revealing a recent picture of the twins. “There aren’t very many though that aren’t baby pics. Apparently not too many people know he has a twin.” Sean stared at the picture thoughtfully.
“He shouldn’t be too hard to manipulate.”
“It depends on how close he is with his brother really...and from what I’ve learned from working with Nick, he is pretty close.” Sean sat there thinking for a few moments about Trevor’s disguised job as a doctor in Ramsey. The disguise was so perfect…it helped so much that he had some knowledge in the medical field. He wasn’t always a criminal. He had been planning on becoming a doctor when he was in high school. He wanted to be just like his father…but then his father died and in his grief over the loss he had turned to doing drugs with Sean who he had known since he was in kindergarten. Sean’s past however, is a lot different. He had grown up in a trailer park and was abused by his own father and abandoned by his mother who had run off when he was just a kid. Bitter by his mother’s neglect and his father’s beatings he did all of the wrong things, hung out with all of the wrong people. Trevor was his only real good friend who tried his very hardest to take care of him and guide him in the right path. But in the end, Sean ended up taking him down with him when he lost his father. And Trevor went down willingly, as he had lost all hope. But sometimes Sean notices that the good in Trevor never really left him. It’s still in him, but very faint. He is still always trying to take care of him…and he loves it. He complains a lot about it, but deep down inside he knows he would be a mess if Trevor weren’t there by his side being his better half. Noticing Sean had gone very quiet; Trevor looked up from the laptop and at him.
“What’s on your mind?”
“You know Ramsey inside and out, right?” Trevor nodded curiously.
“So…if you were asked to draw a descriptive map of everything inside the building, you could do it?”
“Mhm.”
“Could you even tell me which room belongs to who? Every single room in the building?”
“I think so. But I’ve been gone for awhile, I have no idea who’s been adopted and who’s still there.” Sean looked intrigued.
“Why do you want me to draw you the building?”
“It’s just something that’s good to know…” Trevor considered this for a coupe of moments and then nodded.
“I’ll get right on it,” He told him, and he got up and went to retrieve his notebook from his backpack. When he got it out he went and lay on the opposite bed as Sean.
~*~*~*~*~
Later on that day in Florida, Doctor Johnson, his brother Brandon, and Jennifer had been very busy all day. Doctor Johnson with both tasks of being a Doctor, and a headmaster of an Orphanage full of kids. He ran back and fourth from one side of the building to another, doing everything he could to get the Cafeteria ready for the Thanksgiving Feast, and also checking up on Annabelle, who much to his grief hasn’t woken up from her coma yet. The guilt of not being able to save Annabelle, nor his sister in the past clouded his conscious all day but he swore to himself that he would be strong for the kids and his brother on Thanksgiving. While the three of them were in the cafeteria setting it up so that instead of round tables, there were now a bunch of very long rectangular tables. They set them all up so that they were pushed together and made four rows of tables and Brandon had gotten right to work on placing long brown, yellow, and orange construction paper on the tables trying to set the holiday mood. Also, with his artistic skills, he had even made turkeys out of pinecones and placed them on the tables for decoration. Jennifer thought it was cute and helped him out while Doctor Johnson did the silverware. Brandon who had caught his brother stealing glances at Jennifer every now and then, and Jennifer doing the same when he wasn’t looking, went up to him and whispered quietly so that only he could hear him.
“When are you going to ask her out? She’s been waiting you know…”
“I haven’t had the time. I’ve been busy.”
“Not always…I think most of the time you’ve just been chicken.” Doctor Johnson scowled at him.
“Can you give me a break here? I’m a doctor, a headmaster of an orphanage, it’s Thanksgiving, and I’m losing my mind. I don’t have time to date, I thought I told you that.”
“You promised me you would make time. You’re leading her on Steve…one minute you act interested in her, and the next you completely ignore her. It’s beginning to really upset her.”
“Well it’s going to have to wait until after the holiday when Brooke comes back.”
“But—“ Doctor Johnson gave him a hard look. “Fine…” Brandon sighed.
“Why don’t you go in the kitchen and see if the cooks need any help?” Brandon turned and walked toward the kitchen begrudgingly doing what his brother told him to do. Doctor Johnson looked over at Jennifer who was sitting at a table putting candy corn in little bags. He looked down at his watch and saw that it was nearly lunchtime. He stood there thinking for a few moments as he rearranged silverware and then he put the forks in his hand down and he went over to Jennifer. She looked up at him.
“It’s nearly lunch time,” she told him. Jennifer nodded.
“Where are the kids eating lunch since the cafeteria is closed until dinner?” She asked quietly.
“Outside. I have some caregivers setting up picnic space out there and I’ve ordered pizza for them so the cooks could concentrate entirely on dinner.”
“Oh…that works.” Doctor Johnson nodded. He stood there quietly, his hands in his pockets and shuffling his foot on the ground nervously. After a few moments he finally spoke.
“Do you want to go get some lunch with me? Just the two of us?” Jennifer looked up at him in surprise.
“Really?” Doctor Johnson nodded and held his hand out to her.
“But what about all of this?”
“Brandon will know what to do.”
“But—“
“—Come on…we could use a break.” Jennifer considered this for a few moments. She’s been dying for him to ask her out for a very long time now. She has to take advantage of it. It may not happen ever again if she doesn’t and then she would deeply regret it. She took his hand and allowed him to help her up.
“Where are we going?”
“Wherever you want.”
“Mexican food sounds really good…”
“Do you like Serannos?”
“I love it.”
“Then it’s settled, we go there.” He smiled and he led her out of the cafeteria. Brandon who had come out of the kitchen to ask his brother a question had witnessed the whole thing and smiled with satisfaction. Knowing exactly what to do like Doctor Johnson knew he would, he walked out of the cafeteria and went to go recruit helpers to take Doctor Johnson and Trevor’s place in setting up for the Thanksgiving feast.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Here's the next chapter.
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