reversedpolarity | future!verse: A Quick Visit

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future!verse: A Quick Visit

While sorting out meeting up with Liz's parents hadn't been too much of a hassle, trying to find a time to meet his family was proving to be more difficult than it really should be. They ended up having to take a shuttle over to Scotland - a fairly quick trip, though of course not so quick as the transporters would have been - where they'd be staying with Scotty's sister for a few days before heading back to California. Of course, traveling from one side of the world to the other meant they'd had to get time zones sorted out, and in order to arrive at Scotland at a reasonable time, they'd had to leave California at a very unreasonable time.

The trip was uneventful, and when they reached their destination, the worst they'd have to contend with was a bit of jet lag. For once - miracle of miracles - it wasn't raining, and while the air was definitely cooler than in California, it wasn't half so bad as Scotty had feared it would be. And although it didn't exactly feel like home, not anymore, he realized he'd missed it more than he thought. "Well, love, this is it." Now to go find his father, who was supposed to be picking them up.

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Will thought that waking Uncle Monty up was the best idea in the history of good ideas; he bounded upstairs, and if Liz were to listen very closely, she might hear the sound of a young child suddenly taking a flying tackle, followed by some good-natured grumbling as Will goaded his uncle into getting out of bed and getting ready to come down for breakfast. Will apparently wasn't going to allow any wastes of time like changing into real clothes or getting a shower; in a few minutes, Scotty appeared in the dining room, still in pajamas, still with a bad case of bedhead, and with Will perched on his back and grinning his head off. First things first. He needed coffee.

Liz had to laugh when she saw her husband carting a munchkin into the room. He was completely foggy and half asleep, which she'd gotten used to over the years. He was not a morning person. Liz on the other hand, once she was awake, she was awake. There was just no making that stop. Kevin gurgled excitedly suddenly. Apparently Uncle Monty was a favorite among the kids. She understood the feeling.

"Morning, sunshine," she teased, knowing that this is precisely the reason that the nickname came up at all.

He managed something that might have been a 'good morning' and headed straight for the coffee pot, with Will still attached and still demanding a piggy-back ride. And since Will wasn't getting down any time soon, Scotty had to drink his coffee without even at least getting to settle down into one of the chairs around the table. At least the coffee was good and hot and fairly fresh; he felt like he was beginning to wake up a bit.

Liz was trying really hard not to fall out of her chair laughing. Poor Monty was stuck with a kid on his back and drinking coffee. "Will, if you don't let your uncle get ready for the day we'll never be able to go out today," she tempted him. This of course was met with some whining and a bit of squealing. As a five year old, he was at least suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder - meaning it all changed a second later. Liz put Kevin in his high chair and headed back upstairs to shower and get ready for the day. At least one of them needed to be awake for the day.

As soon as Will was successfully detached from his back, Scotty sank down into a chair, sighing inwardly with relief. He hadn't sure how much longer he was going to mange staying upright. While Liz wandered upstairs to get ready, he had his breakfast, which involved keeping an eye on Kevin, keeping an eye on Will, and not getting a chance to eat much of anything at all until Clara eventually made her way into the kitchen, at which point he made his escape so he could go get ready for the day.

Liz realized that maybe throwing Monty into the middle of children wasn't going to be a successful way to convince him that kids were a good idea. When he was coming upstairs, she had just stepped out of the shower. She was still getting used to the way that water on Earth felt. In space, you could take a real hot water shower, but it all felt different. It wasn't quite like what you got while on the ground.

"I didn't mean to release Will on you," she said, looking regretful.

He was still holding onto his cup of coffee, and still attempting to finish drinking it when he ran into Liz. "S'alright." He leaned in to give her a quick little kiss before straightening up to take another sip of coffee. "The lad's a handful an' a half, isn't he?" He yawned, and scrubbed a hand over his eyes, before stepping close to wrap Liz up in a one-armed hug. "M'goin' tae grab a shower." He paused, took another sip of his coffee, and then added, "I'd appreciate it if you could keep Will from lookin' for me."

It was good thing he was never much of a morning person or she'd be even more worried. She was probably stressing herself unnecessarily. It wasn't like they had kids on the way right now or that they had even discussed it. This was going to be a whole new adventure for them if they could both get going in the same direction. She wasn't entirely sure that it was going to happen. Of course, there would be days when it was harder than others.

She took the one-armed hug and let him go on to take a shower. "Promise," she added as he wandered off. Liz waited in the room, getting herself ready for the day. When she was ready, she laid back on the middle of the bed, hair fanned out all over the place in reckless curls - weather was doing crazy things to her hair - and let herself think for a while.

It was a little odd, taking a shower by himself; he'd grown incredibly used to sharing the shower with Liz. That was just what he got for trying to sleep in a bit, he supposed. He didn't linger very long in the shower, partly because it was a bit lonely without Liz and partly because he was still vaguely worried that Will was going to decide that he was taking too long and attempt barging in and dragging him out.

Once out of the shower, he dried himself off and got dressed before going to rejoin Liz in the bedroom, feeling much more awake now that he'd had a cup of coffee and a shower. "I was thinkin'," he commented, stretching a bit, "If we're takin' Will out, there's a nice little park not too far that'd be good for a picnic."

Liz was lost in her own head, so she wasn't paying any attention to Monty or ambient sounds of what was happening in the house. She sighed heavily just before he walked in. She was stretched out on her back and when he mentioned the picnic, Elizabeth simply nodded. She was spinning her wedding ring on her finger, staring at the ceiling, pretending that things were different for the better.

She had expected some sort of emotion that let her know that being back on Earth was right. Her father managed to suck an ounce of hope from her. Her mother, as wonderful as she was, was simply passive. Meeting his family had been a blessing and a curse because now she had another family she had to explain her telepathy to at some point. Sure, she kept secrets from the crew on the Enterprise - thinking about the ship made her wince - but keeping it from family wasn't something she could do. She sighed again, the only reaction she could come up with lately. Nothing felt right and she worried it meant she did something wrong.

"Liz?" He sat down on the edge of the bed, before laying down and stretching out next to her. "Love, what's wrong?" Something was wrong, surely. He hadn't been married to her for five years without learning to pick up on when things weren't quite right. Something was bothering her, which was... Well, he didn't know what could possibly be bothering her. Plans for a picnic in the park were not generally sufficient cause for laying in bed and sighing.

This wasn't exactly the best time or place for a discussion, however - not with Will running around like a mad thing and getting everywhere he shouldn't be. From downstairs came the warning, "William, don't you dare--" before Scotty and Liz were suddenly joined by their nephew, who was clearly displeased to see the both of them laying down. "Are we goin' soon?" he asked, worming his way onto the bed between his aunt and uncle.

Liz planned to explain what was wrong since there was no used in hiding things from him. He always had a way of figuring out what the problem was anyway. It took all of two seconds for him to notice the slightest change in her. It was really just too easy for him to know. By time she opened her mouth, the tell tale signs on an oncoming attack from a little child ruined her chance. WIlliam wedged himself between them and she couldn't help but laugh.

"William, if we go too early, it'll be too soon for lunch," she argued, as if reason was going to work on the child. Liz ruffled Will's hair and then poked him in the ribs, making him squirm and giggle.

"Too early for lunch, perhaps, but not too early for brunch, aye?" Scotty suggested, reaching over to tickle his nephew. Will squealed and squirmed, shouting about how tickling wasn't fair, before wriggling just far enough out of reach that neither Liz nor Scotty could get to him.

"Can we go, then?" he asked, bouncing a bit from excitement. "Please, Aunt Liz? We can have brunch, like Uncle Monty said!"

Biting his lip to keep from outright laughing at the boy, Scotty grinned at Liz, shrugging a bit. "Yes, Aunt Liz," he teased, "Can we go?" He'd just have to find out what was bothering Liz later; it was impossible to have a serious discussion with Will in the middle of everything.

With the excitement and glee going on in the room, there was no chance for her to think about what had been bothering her. She was now smiling and wrinkling her nose at her husband for perpetuating the whole thing. As if it mattered at all.

The bouncing and giggling child with his tiny Scottish accent was too cute to ignore. "Yes, yes, we can have brunch in the park," she sighed, giving in as if it was such a hassle.

Both Scotty and Will cheered - although Will quite a bit more enthusiastically than Scotty - and then Will grabbed Scotty's arm and started pulling him up, switching to pulling on Liz once Scotty was sitting up. "Slow down, lad," Scotty laughed, reaching over to gently detach the boy from Liz's arm. "All in good time, Will. We've got tae get everythin' packed up first, you know."

He held his hand out to Liz, but Will grabbed it and started pulling on him again, and he gave Liz a sort of 'well, what can I do' kind of look.

Liz just laughed, sitting up and smiling. There was nothing she could do about the strange feeling she was having about being back on Earth; not at the moment at least. It felt strange, but it felt good to be watching her husband get along so well with his nephew. She just laughed.

"We're going, we're going," she jumped up, chasing after Will and tickling him. He darted out of the room, but only moments later, he was peeking back in through the doorway. Liz pretended to run after him again, chasing him. He ran off, giggling the whole way. Liz looked back into the room and smiled, "I guess we have to go."

Scotty pushed himself up out of bed after Liz had chased Will out of the bedroom a few times, unable to keep himself from smiling and laughing just a little, though he made a mental note to ask Liz later what had been bothering her. "Aye, I guess we do," he answered, making his way to the door. He paused to wrap an arm around Liz and give her a brief kiss; with Will tearing around the house like a tornado, there wasn't much time for anything else before the boy decided they were taking too long to get ready. "Just think, the sooner we go an' have brunch, the sooner Will'll wear himself out," he said, teasing.

Liz welcomed the kiss and smiled up at him. His observation about Will tiring himself out made her laugh. "We can only hope, but I'm not holding my breath," she added playfully. She then took her husbands hand, "C'mon Uncle Monty, we've got a brunch to pack."

They found themselves in the kitchen, putting together various snacks and drinks to fit in a basket. Liz had hunted down a large picnic blanket and grabbed jackets, just in case. Will spent the entire time bouncing around the kitchen and whining about how they were taking forever. Liz tried not to laugh at him for fear that she'd only make his whining worse. It wasn't easy.

Scotty made sure the picnic basket was all tightly packed, with no danger of anything falling over or spilling, and when Liz came back with the blanket, he tucked it in on top of everything else. This apparently meant that it was time to go, at least as far as Will was concerned, and he fidgeted and bounced and generally made life difficult as Scotty tried to help him button up his coat. And then, once Will had been properly coated, the boy insisted on 'helping' Scotty into his coat, which consisted less of helping and more of just trying to jam his uncle's arms into the sleeves whatever way they'd fit.

Scotty remedied this by tickling Will until he squealed and ran to hide behind Liz, giggling and still bouncing with excitement. It didn't last long, though, and soon Will was begging Scotty to give him a ride on his back, and of course Scotty couldn't say no. So with Will on his back and the basket securely hanging from one arm, Scotty offered his free arm to Liz. "Shall we, then? It's not too far tae walk, I don't think. Should be fairly close by."

Liz laughed. She did a lot of laughing actually. There was very little time for anything else. It was mostly just a lot of laughing and trying not to laugh and then keeping on with it. Will was frighteningly high energy, which Liz had no accounted for. Once everyone was ready, Will on Monty's back and Monty holding the basket, Liz finished buttoning up her own coat and smiled. "Alright, let's go," she said, sounding mildly exhausted, but completely kidding.

The walk to the park wasn't very long, but Will got restless on his uncle's back and wanted to walk by himself. He insisted on carrying the basket at one point, which he couldn't lift. That resulted in Liz holding it up at one point while Will held the handle loosely. This was sufficient enough for him to call it 'carrying.' They arrived and Liz laid out the blanket first before taking a seat, legs stretched out in front of her, leaning back on her hands and her ankles crossed. "It's lovely out here," cold, admitted, but lovely.

He settled down onto the blanket next to Liz, feeling a sense of familiarity with this particular setting. After all, the two of them had, on occasion, had a picnic in a park on the holodeck. But while the holodeck was pleasantly climate-controlled, it was a little chilly out, especially so early in the day. Not that the temperature in any way detracted from Will's enthusiasm about being out of the house.

Scotty watched his nephew running around, smiling to himself. He'd been a bit worried, he had to admit, that he wouldn't know what to do or what to say to the boy. Actually meeting Will? He was a little surprised at how quickly the boy attached to him - not that he was complaining. "How long, do you think, until he decides it's time tae eat?" he asked, glancing over at Liz.

Liz was having very strange memories of being a kid and how much she loves kids. Having a child around was such a joyous and exciting thing for her. They were upbeat and untainted by the world. It made her feel better about the hope for the future. It was why she wanted to be a mother so bad. She needed some of that innocence in her life that she didn't get to experience.

She chuckled at Monty's question, "it depends on whether he finds something entertaining enough to make him forget that we came to eat at all." Liz tilted her head as she saw him rummaging in the grass. Will had found a worm, albeit a very cold one, but a worm nonetheless. She wrinkled her nose at Will who was smiling and showing it off from afar. Liz only let out a little 'ew' but made no attempt to tell him to drop it. As long as he didn't try and eat - and even then it wasn't that big of a deal - she didn't care. "Boys will be boys," she laughed.

Edited 2010-11-20 06:37 (UTC)

Excited by his discovery, Will decided to bring the worm over to show off, holding it out with an incredibly expectant expression. Scotty glanced at Liz again, before resigning himself to the fact that he was going to have to accept the thing, and held his hand out. Will promptly dropped the worm and rushed off to go digging around in the grass again, and Scotty discreetly deposited the worm off to one side of the blanket, just praying that Will's lack of anything resembling an attention span would be enough to keep him from asking what had happened to it.

"Aye, boys'll be boys, an'..." He trailed off, watching as Will stopped suddenly and bent down to pick something else up, holding it cupped between his hands as he tromped back in the direction of the blanket. Once again, he gave Scotty an expectant look, and this time, the 'gift' was a tiny frog.

"We have tae keep it!" Will insisted, before running off again.

Scotty glanced at Liz again, and shrugged. "I don't suppose we've got anythin' tae put a frog in, have we?"

Liz made an even more severe 'ew' face and refused to take the worm. Of course it only took minutes for him to come back with something that was obviously much more exciting. It was a tiny little frog and Liz actually 'aww'd' at this one. She liked frogs, but she didn't really want to keep one. "Will, what are you going to do with a frog?" she asked, laughing.

She turned and dug around in the basket. She had containers full of thing and then she saw there was a container that had just some crackers in it. Who really eats crackers anyway? She opened it up and dumped them on a napkin on the picnic basket. She then pulled a hair pin out of her hair - because she's resourceful and the plastic knives they had wouldn't have worked - and poked holes in the top of the plastic container. She then opened it up had him put it in there. She felt sorry for the frog, actually.

He would have helped Liz with the container, except his hands were full of frog. When she opened it up, he dropped the poor thing inside, before reaching over to grab a napkin to wipe his hands. "If he's forgotten about it by the time we're headed home, we can let the wee beastie go." He held the container up to examine the frog, and the frog stared impassively back at him, blinking once or twice.

Will, meanwhile, was hopping around apparently pretending to be a frog, although he eventually hopped back over to the blanket and flopped down, his hands rather incredibly dirty from his exploits.

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