Supportive Family In Action

“Maddy’s allowed to have boys around!?” Sadie, Maddy’s seventeen year old younger sister asks.

“Maddy’s allowed to have that boy around.” Connor answers her while pointing at you, as they discuss in the living room the ramifications of your talk with Connor; while you, Stella, Cassie, Maddy and her fourteen and twelve year old sisters, Grace and Charlie respectively, are hanging out at the dining table eating donuts.

“None of you are dating until you’re eighteen is that understood?” Liza tells Sadie, backing up Connor.

“That’s so unfair!” Sadie shouts, while the much younger O’Brien sisters don’t seem to mind what’s happening in that conversation, as they happily chat with Stella and Cassie while munching on the donuts you all bought for them.

“What’s unfair?” Tricia asks her sarcastically, having only received this blessing a couple of years too late, and unintentionally siding with her parents as Sadie walks off to the couch and slumps in her seat in silence.

“That’s at least going to buy us a few more months before her birthday.” Liza whispers to Connor, who rubs his forehead with an obvious headache already. He’s still adjusting to this new arrangement and the new stresses of giving his girls a lot more freedom.

“You know that means she already has a boy lined up, right?” Connor asks with a sigh of defeat, as he continues to rub his temple.

“Highly doubt it, son. Where would she even meet one when you scare them off with your guns within a ten mile radius?” Mr. O’Brien jokingly asks, getting a **** stare from Connor in response, but a loud “Thank you!” from Sadie.

“You make it sound like he’s a prison warden, Richard!” Mrs. O’Brien reprimands her husband with a slap on the arm, but the comment does get a head tilt from Liza and ‘she said it, not us’ look from both Tricia and Sadie, which just gets another defeated sigh from Connor.

With every sigh and forehead rub from Connor, you just hear Maddy subtly giggling beside you, as the two of you watch the family drama unfold in your living room. Maddy doesn’t seem at all concerned about the discussion her family is having as you and her both got what you wanted. A fact made more obvious by you and her holding each other’s hands underneath your dining table. With every stressed out sigh her father gives, she squeezes your hand a bit tighter as she giggles.

“I know you’re happy, but maybe don’t giggle every time?” You whisper to her ear with a chuckle. “He might think you’re giggling because he’s miserable.” You add on, still making it sound as a joke, but hoping she hears the underlying warning in it.

“I’m sorry. I just find it kind of funny that he’s stressing out like all of this is coming at him out of nowhere, when we’ve been telling him all of this for years.” Maddy tells you.

“He may not have done it in a way most of us agree with, but having talked to him though, I can genuinely say he really just wanted the best for you girls.” You tell Maddy.

“I know~... It’s just…” Maddy tries to reason but is unable to articulate her thoughts properly.

“You wanted a tiny bit more freedom?” You ask her with a chuckle again, and Maddy smiles happily while staring at your eyes as if to say you read her mind. You squeeze her hand once more and kiss her on the forehead, as you just feel like doing so. Of course, that’s when Connor turns around.

“Hey!” He shouts while staring daggers into you.

“It was just a kiss on the forehead, Dad!” Maddy says defensively, her mood having immediately shifted.

“Show off.” Tricia remarks teasingly, but her smile says that she’s really happy for Maddy, and maybe happy for her and her sisters as a whole now that they can be more open around him.

“Young lady, I may be more lenient, but you’re really pushing it with that talk back.” Connor sternly warns her, and the ingrained discipline that Connor instilled in Maddy comes right back and she sits at attention and lets go of your hand immediately.

“Sorry, sir.” Maddy tells her dad as if she got caught by her superior officer. This reaction from Maddy immediately gets her mother into action.

“What did I tell you about going drill sergeant on our children again?” Liza reprimands Connor.

“Drill sergeants are for the army, honey.” Connor corrects her on the technicality, but with a tone that he’s sorry about the sudden outburst.

“Fine! Military Training Instructor. Semantics!” Liza corrects herself aggressively.

“I thought your Dad was in the army?” You hear Cassie ask Grace and Charlie.

“Air ****.” Grace answers her, while taking a bite of another donut. “But he’s been running a fishing and hunting store since I could remember.” Grace adds on while still chewing.

“Wait, is that why you were asking us so much about volleyball?” Stella then asks Grace jokingly. Having heard parts of their conversation, you know that Grace is just genuinely interested in the sport and has always wanted to play it, but never had the chance to due to their father not wanting them to do organized team sports.

“How is my dad having been in the Air **** connected to volleyball?” Charlie asks in confusion.

“You know… Top Gun?” Stella asks her.

“What’s Top Gun?” Charlie asks her innocently.

“Oh. Right. Nevermind.” Stella replies, remembering that they haven’t had much access to movies and tv shows after Charlie’s answer. Not to mention the fact that she’s talking to a twelve year old about a movie released in the mid-eighties. Then again, your daughter knows about it and she’s only a few years older.

“Gracie! How many of those have you eaten? We’re having dinner later at a friend’s house. You’re going to ruin your appetite.” Connor grabs Grace’s attention, who drops the half eaten donut on the table as a reflex.

“I just said you need to tone down the army training and you go and do that.” Liza reprimands him again.

“Air **** training, honey.” Connor corrects her again on the technicality, just furthering Liza’s frustration as all she probably hears is him missing the more important aspect of her complaint, raising another argument about parenting between them.

“Their family just likes arguing in our apartment, don’t they?” Stella whispers jokingly, making you and the rest of the girls chuckle, except for Grace who still feels down after being called out by her father.

Maddy pushes Grace’s plate with the half-eaten donut back towards her, and silently gives her a look that she shouldn’t worry about her Dad and just eat. Grace gives her a thankful smile and munches on her donut again.

“Speaking of that dinner, what time are you guys going there, Maddy?” Cassie asks her.

“Uncle Dante said to give him a couple of hours so his night shift crew can take care of the bodega before we go to their place.” Maddy answers.

“Cool. Tanya, Viv, and Brooke said they’re on their way home already.” Cassie informs her.

“What about Ms. Becca?” Maddy asks.

“Becca hasn’t replied yet.” Cassie answers, to Maddy’s disappointment.

“The others did say they can’t wait to see you. They said they just came from Brooke’s apartment to… Oh, right. We haven’t told you about that.” Cassie adds, before stopping herself after realizing that Maddy doesn’t know about that major news update yet.

“We’ll tell you later.” You tell her. “App stuff.” You add, whispering it in her ear so no one else could hear. Maddy just nods in understanding.

“I know I’ve only been gone a couple of days, but it still feels like I missed a lot.” Maddy tells the group guiltily.

“Don’t worry about that Maddy, we’re just glad you’re back.” You assure her.

“Yeah! You have plenty of time to catch up with what went on now that you’re back.” Cassie tells her.

“I know. I just wanted Ms. Becca to meet my family too. I’m glad the others are on their way back though. I kinda raved about them to mom when I got back home.” Maddy admits.

“Is Ms. Becca the one who treated you to that fancy restaurant when you were feeling down that one time?” Charlie asks Maddy.

“Wait, hold up, Mads. You were feeling down at the boutique?” Stella asks in both shock and concern.

“I told you there was something more to it!” Cassie tells Stella.

“No! I think my sister just mixed up the stories.” Maddy explains. “Ms. Becca was the one who treated me to the fancy restaurant, yes; but Ms. Brooke was the one who bought me ice cream when I was feeling down.” Maddy answers her sister, and clarifies the confusion of Stella and Cassie.

“I’m still so jealous you and Tricia get to stay here for the summer and go on big city adventures like the one Ms. Becca took you on.” Grace laments.

“Don’t be, sis. I’m sure you can convince mom and dad to visit us on weekends. I’m going to miss you guys too, you know.” Maddy comforts her.

“Oh! Maybe we can train you in volleyball here in the city on Saturdays. That way, you guys have a reason to go here every weekend?” Cassie suggests, to the excited reaction of the girls; except Charlie.

“Why don’t you guys go to our place instead? I don’t really like this city anyway.” Charlie counters.

“You are such a Daddy’s girl!” Grace teases her in frustration, not liking that she’s possibly going against something she’d like to do.

“What’s there to like!?” Charlie asks loudly, getting the attention of everyone, including the arguing O’Briens in the living room.

“We’ve been stuck in a car for hours to get here, only to go to that place with a bunch of billboards and weirdos that ask you for a photo but then ask to get paid for the photo which doesn’t make any sense. He wasn’t even the real Spider-Man and he asked for money! Then we go ‘shopping’ without buying anything. Then we go to Maddy’s boyfriend’s apartment to sit around and do nothing.” Charlie continues to release her pent up frustration, which gets a concerned, “Charlie.” from Tricia to try and grab her attention that she needs to stop, but Charlie doesn’t seem to hear her sister and continues on.

“These donuts aren’t even that good!” Charlie continues, grabbing her own half-eaten donut that she stopped eating a while ago, only to throw it down on her plate. This outburst now has her mom trying to get her to stop by calling her attention.

“I’d rather be at home and-and swim at our lake and run through the woods than keep coming back here just to do nothing! I don’t get why you guys keep making Dad out to be the bad guy, acting like our life back home is so miserable, and talking back to him and ganging up on him to make this place out to be so~ amazing when—” Charlie continues to rant, and it’s her father this time that grabs her attention.

“Charlotte Mackenzie O’Brien!” Connor finally shouts to finally stop Charlie who is breathing heavily from her rant, before she starts blinking and realizing that she caused a scene.

Stella looks at you and it’s almost telepathic that you immediately understand she wants to return Connor’s jab earlier about letting his kid talk then pretend to do parenting later, so you immediately give her a look to keep quiet and not make things worse.

“We obviously need to have another family discussion.” Connor admits in frustration. “And it would be rude to our host to have it here.” Connor adds, and you begin to open your mouth to say that it’s fine, but you stop yourself as Connor looks at you to not interrupt him. “Thank you for your hospitality, Craig. We’ll see ourselves out.” Connor adds, before immediately trying to move everyone out. The rest of the O’Briens say their quick goodbyes before heading out unceremoniously, leaving Maddy the only one still at the dining table.

“Madeleine.” Connor calls out to her. “Please.” Connor adds.

“I-I’ll be right back, Mr. Craig.” She tells you, squeezing your hand one last time before letting go and walking towards her father and leaving your apartment.

Once all the O’Briens have left, Stella finally breaks the silence and asks, “I thought you bought Maddy that advanced ‘Supportive’ trait? The family one? What the hell was that?”

“I’m pretty sure that was it.”