The end of March's madness brought our characters into a head rush of activities the moment April arrived. The true catalyst that made everyone suddenly find themselves outside of the United States was when Zoë Emerson sent out her true wedding invitations, inviting everyone (if they could afford it) to attend her wedding in Dublin, Ireland in early April where she planned to marry her naive fiancé, Eddie.
Ivy was the one to announce the news to Lucy and her family one early Sunday morning when half of the residents had yet to get up for the morning when she barged through the door and proceeded to hand out invites to Lucy who was mid coffee break, and Rosie who was still rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"Where's your brother?" Lucy only had to point to the ceiling for Ivy to rush upstairs, giving Rosie and Lucy a chance to look at the wedding invites scribbled in black sharpie on printer paper titled for the whole family.
"Can we go?" Lucy asked with sharp excitement as her eyes fell on the destination. Rosie had by this point read the invite twice down before looking at her daughter with resigned acceptance.
"Do you think we have a choice in the matter?"
Suddenly a loud crash was heard from directly above us mixed with the high pitched voice of Ivy demanding Daniel to get up and Daniel responding in the negative before another crash was heard.
Moments later, James came stepping out of his room with a scowl on his face.
"There better be a good reason as to why one of them is here, Rosie." Before his wife could answer, Lucy held up the invite to his face as he joined them at the table and she half squealed as she told him the news.
While Ivy directed the news to Daniel, Jade was quick to call Todd and ask him to be her plus one.
"Ireland? That's pretty intense," Todd muttered as he sat up out of bed with the phone balancing between his shoulder and ear as he reached for his watch.
"Yes but when is my family not intense? Tell me you'll be there."
"You're parents would not want me there, Jade. You know that." Jade scoffed at this and turned to Satine who had decided at that moment to hop on her bed.
"They will get over it. And my mother will be too drunk to notice."
"How much would a ticket be? I probably can't afford it." Jade expected this response so she was quick to grab her great-grandmother's number written on a sticky note for him.
"I have a way for you to come here free of charge and may possibly also give you a free pass around my parents. There is only one condition." Todd sat up out of bed and walked to his window, his phone now held in his hand, his mind was racing through possible conditions that the Emerson's could create for him.
"How terrible is this condition you've come up with?" Jade smiled down at her Eleonora's number wickedly.
"Terrible. But the plan is perfectly seal proof. I promise."
When spring break hit for Jade, Alice, Lucy and all the other siblings, parents were quick to have everyone's bags packed and within days everyone was flying out to Dublin, in await of what was hopefully going to be a great wedding.
Of course, within an hour of touch down, the following things happened:
1) Todd arrived in a private plane
2) Said private plane was Eleonora's and she flew alongside him and Cody and Elle's mother, Emily.
3) Elle and Cody went on to have a hissy fit about not being invited on the flight while Rob stared down a beaming Jade.
4) Eleonora threatened to disinherit them both before leaving with Todd, Jade, Lucy, the boy twins, the girl twins, Beth, Aria, Ivy and Daniel.
Cody watched as Ben and Sam waved "queen style" from the limousine window making Cody turn with a pout to his emotionally done wife who wouldn't hear his complaining about his nephews but rather whistled for a cab for the two of them to take to the hotel. Sara was in desperate need of a hot bath.
Rosie and James watched the scene with some amusement but not much, seeing as they were used to these scenes from so many years of enduring such outings. So when they saw their children enter the limousine, Rosie and James decided to find a pub and get wasted promptly.
Rob and Elle spent the first ten minutes bickering in the car about Todd being with Eleonora and how Jade went behind their back before Elle saw Rosie and James enter a bar. Elle then proceeded to race out of the car toward the bar, leaving Rob to tell the cabbie to keep driving to the hotel. He was sure his wife would find a way back home even if she was slushy drunk.
As for Eleonora, she had received a lovely call from her great granddaughter a week before the wedding with a request that she meet a serious boyfriend of Jade's and get an experienced view of this boy. Eleonora was only too pleased to meet this "Todd" and so she quickly took a plane from Seoul Korea back to Washington and had her maids make up the blue parlor for tea time with this mysterious boy.
Todd arrived to the mansion feeling way out of his element but upon meeting Eleonora and realizing her type, was quick to enter his charming ways that almost always made elderly people like him. Eleonora was no exception.
After forcing down earl grey tea and refusing a glass of brandy for he was "not yet 21", Todd saw the shift of judgement change over him and within thirty minutes of chatting, he was invited to join her to a wedding for her granddaughter that he just could not refuse.
And of course, on the plane ride over, Eleonora forced the boy to drink a glass of scotch saying, "for me the drinking age was always eighteen and even then all of us drank way before that time. I suggest you do the same." Todd was only too happy to accept a glass of alcohol that was worth more than the house his mother owned. Jade's grandmother, Emily, was sweet to him and seemed normal in comparison to the rest of the Emersons he had met so far. By the end of the plane ride he learned the reason why. She married into the family.
In the limousine, Eleonora sat next to Jade and spoke quite seriously to her about what she thought of Todd and how such a match might be looked at in her family in the future. Jade forced herself to act serious in front of her great-grandmother and was naturally shocked to hear at the end of the conversation that Eleonora would, if asked, give her blessing. Todd did not hear this though because Lucy was busy giving him crap for snuggling up to Eleonora to get over here which he responded with a snark comeback in return.
Aria was trying her best to not think of Jeremy and the beyond stupid expressions he made on his face during the first few scenes they've acted together thus far. To her surprise, Aria noticed that Jeremy was not all that bad at acting, but in fact had a natural talent for the theater when he first did a scene with her. This only seemed to infuriate Aria even more and so for the rest of the car ride, even though she told herself she would enjoy Ireland, she watched the scenery with a steamy glare.
The girl twins sat separate from each other which Beth found odd so she tried her best to get responses from both of them about this trip. She only received nods and occasionally yeses from Clary and nothing but stubborn silence from Scar. Beth made a mental note to ask her mother what has happened since she was last home.
Daniel and Ivy were sitting in-between Emily, who sat watching Ivy talk, wondering how similar her granddaughter was to her own daughter Elle. By the end of the drive, Emily felt a sense of dread come over her for thinking about how much time has past since her own daughter was that young.
As for Sam and Ben, they enjoyed waving to their uncle from the Limousine and watching his face deflate as they left him behind. They also liked not being near their parents after Todd had arrived. But talking about that made them then turn to watch Todd chat casually to Lucy who, Sam noticed, seemed completely relaxed today. Even happy.
When the limousine arrived at the hotel that Eleonora had placed to order for what everyone heard was supposed to be a full floor's worth of rooms booked for the wedding guests, the group was quick to go see if the rumors were true. Naturally it was mostly true. A full floor was dedicated to the guests of Zoë's wedding and so when the kids ran about looking at whose rooms were where, Eleonora was brought to the top floor where her room was (twice as big as the rest of the families rooms down below).
Lucy found her parents had not arrived yet when she opened her door so she went ahead in search of where everyone else was staying. Jade and her family was in the two suites next door to Lucy's family which made Ivy over the moon about because this way Daniel and her could easily sneak out though the joint door that connected each other's suite if the two families allowed it and go out drinking.
Lucy also noticed how Todd was given a room on the far opposite side of the hall and he was supposedly rooming with a guest that had arrived earlier that day. Cody and Sara were given two suites as well for their large family except their rooms were on opposite sides of the hall and bordered Todd's room. A few other rooms were open and had not yet gathered the guests they waited for so that left a sizable gap between the four groups for now.
As the day went on, Lucy watched from the hallway as more people slowly walked in. Some were strange characters that Lucy was sure you only met in the acting business. A pair of ladies in brightly colored hair extensions walked into one room, rocking eighty-styled jumpsuits and converses to match. A man with long blonde hair in fishtails accompanied by a rather plump woman in a brightly colored kimono walked into one of the rooms and the best yet, an older man who Lucy learned later was mute, came walking in with two german shepherds in tow to another room.
Just watching the people had Lucy entertained. She was sitting by herself at the far edge of the hallway enjoying a cold coke when Ben and Sam came walking back to their family suite. When the two spotted Lucy, they were quick to come over, both seeming just as bored as she was.
"Lucifer, why are you sitting by yourself while watching random people in the hallway?" Ben asked as he came to sit down next to her. Sam mirrored his brother and sat down on the other side of Lucy as his brother continued.
"Are you feeling depressed again? Do we need to ripe Jade from Todd for you? Because Sam and I can do that. We would love to do that.." Lucy snickered before leaning back against the wall to look at both of the boys sitting next to her clearly.
"Leave Jade alone you two. She's having fun right now and for the record so am I." The boys exchanged readable looks of doubt making Lucy flick both of them in the arm.
"Stop it. Really this is rather nice. I get some quiet time before the rehearsal dinner and-"
"There's no rehearsal dinner tonight," Ben cut in. Lucy frowned and so Sam explained.
"Auntie Zoë has decided to wing the wedding and not do any rehearsals because she believes it will only stress herself out more."
"And Eleonora has no problem with this?" Lucy asked. Ben shrugged but Sam was the one with the answer.
"It saves her money so she doesn't mind. Also she wasn't planning to go anyway. Something about resting before the big day tomorrow." While Lucy registered this information, Ben started to grumble while looking at his phone. Sam watching him with little humor but still asked what the problem was anyway.
"I could have brought Cici to this thing but no one told me I could so I never brought it up to her!" Sam rolled his eyes while Lucy eyed Ben with newfound amusement.
"Neither did Jade. She just decided to do it anyways. Maybe you can bring her to the next wedding you go to." Ben's spirits did not lift but rather plummeted further at the thought that he was outsmarted by his baby sister.
" When would the next wedding be? What if I'm not dating Cici anymore? It'll be years before Ivy gets married. That is, if she gets married." Sam and Lucy exchanged a neutral look before Sam came up with the great idea of encouraging Ben to call Cici and catch her up with the events. Ben was only too happy to do this, quickly getting up, he left Sam and Lucy and ventured to his family's suite in hopes of reaching his girlfriend on the phone.
" You do realize that Cici will be asleep when Ben calls her, right?" Lucy stated, eyeing Sam with a small smile as she noticed Sam's features stay the same.
"It's almost too easy to fool Ben into doing these things now a days. Especially with the whole Cici dating thing going on."
"I didn't realize they were dating. When did that start?" Sam leaned back on the wall close to Lucy with his mind counting back weeks.
"After Paris. It was a long time coming though." Sam's eyes fell back to Lucy and for a moment there was a comfortable silence between the two of them. Sam watched as Lucy's brown eyes slowly turned back to the hallway, her expression no longer showing her amusement from Ben. A question started to form in Sam's head as he continued to watch her, this time focusing on how she moved, or in this case, did not move. Her shoulders were behind her, very much a dancer thing, and her hands lay in her lap half clenched into fists causing Sam to almost subconsciously take one of her hands into his own, breaking the tension.
"Are you stressing about something again?" He asked quietly as she let him open up her hand and trance a finger over her palm.
"Nothing worth talking about now, Sam." She would have taken her hand out of his had he not strengthened his grip on hers.
"You can't stress at a wedding. It's a rule," he said, voice boarder lined amusement. This time Lucy's confusion dripped away to show a clear smile before turning in to face Sam, who sat looking down at her carefully.
"A rule? Who made such a rule?"
"Me. You've done nothing this past year but stress and I've been wanting to ask you why." Sam and Lucy's eyes locked for a moment before she broke away, a hint of a flush on her cheeks. She slipped her hand out of his and reached for her drink.
"We are not discussing my stress levels, Sam. I'm just bored right now and so my mind just wanders back to what's going on at home." Sam didn't believe her, no matter how much effort she put into her words, Sam always seemed to figure her out. Just like Jade. Lucy huffed a sigh and turned away from him, crossing her arms in front of her as she did so. Sam took these signs of her putting up walls again, also known as wanting to drop the subject. And yet, he couldn't drop it. This past year every time he had seen Lucy she had either been quiet or distant. Never in a truly good mood. Always subdued over something and it had only now sunk in as something he wanted to hear. Needed to her. Thinking back on it, it had been a while since it was just the two of them talking. At least seriously like this. The last time they really talked was with Eleonora when-.
"Is it about us?" Sam meant to ask the question with humor but even he heard his own voice give him away. Lucy turned back to face him with uncertainty.
"I-"
"Lucy!"
The two turned to find a guy, possibly in his early twenties, standing in front of the pair in converses, jeans and a fluffy hoodie that circled the boy's dirty blond hair half covered in a snow cap. His jolly grin was what really stood out to the pair however, seeing as that was one of their key memories from their time in Austria.
"Tobie?" Lucy questioned before realizing that the Austrian was truly there, standing next to Todd and Jade who stood curiously watching the scene in front of them.
Tobie walked up to the two and helped them both up off the ground before hugging each of them joyously.
"It has been some time since I've seen you both. Sam? Or Ben?" He asked turned to Sam innocently. Sam clarified with gentle direction before turning back to Lucy who was watching Tobie with a smile.
"I didn't realize you were coming Tobie. When did you get in?"
"Uh early this morning actually. I am rooming with this guy.. Todd!" He said, as if momentarily forgetting the boy's name. He turned to face Todd who looked unfazed at being mentioned. Instead he joined the conversation, bringing Jade along.
"Thought that since we have no rehearsal dinner to go to we should all just go out to eat together as a group. Maybe explore some of Dublin while we can. You guys in?" Sam and Lucy exchanged glances. Sam wanted very much to hear Lucy's answer to his earlier question but he now knew that this wasn't the time to ask. So instead he told them he would join in, only after he got his good for nothing brother off the phone with Cici. Lucy was more then happy to go. Anything to distract her from what Sam was trying to bring up.