Chicago Fire FanFic (English)

Chapter 11

3 weeks later:

Today, the well-deserved summer vacation finally began. Kelly, Matt and Caleb spent all morning packing suitcases and bags. "Guys, who's going to pick up the little ones at the bus stop?" Stella asked from upstairs. "I can do that." Caleb yelled. "Okay, then you can walk the dogs one last time." Stella called. "Wait, what!?" Caleb asked, looking to his dad and uncle for help. "Hey, don't look at us like that. You volunteered, so you have to go through this now too." Matt said. "Hey, after that you have 2 weeks off and when we get back, everyone has to go out with the two puppies anyway, you know that." Kelly encouraged him. Caleb just rolled his eyes, got the leashes and called the dogs over. At the school bus pick-up point, he met the parents of Alex and Bennett, Benjamin and Matty's best friends. "Hey Caleb." Bennett's mom greeted. "Hey." Caleb said. "Did you get the short end of the stick today?" Alex's dad asked, laughing. "To be honest, I did it voluntarily today." Caleb said, sitting down with them at the well. "How are you?" Alex's mom asked. I've been home for the last 6 weeks and I've had some rest from all the stress." Caleb said. "Glad to hear that." Alex's mom smiled. "Yeah, and I'm looking forward to all the stress that awaits us tonight." Caleb laughed. "How so? Are you going on vacation?" Alex's dad asked. "Yes, 2 weeks to Thailand." Caleb said. "Oh nice. I'd like that too." Bennett's dad said and everyone laughed. "How about you? What are your plans for the holidays?" Caleb asked. "We're spending the summer vacation here in Chicago. David has to work and I'm going to take Bennett on some trips and I'm going to my parents' house in Springfield for a few days." Bennett's mom said. "And we're going to Paris to visit my parents next week for 3 weeks." Alex Dad said. "Oh cool. Paris is a great city. That's where I want to go, too." Caleb said. When the school bus came, the children all got off one by one. "Kayab, Matty look, Kayab is here." Benjamin said excitedly. "Kayab:" Matty called. The two ran to their big brother/cousin and hugged him. "Hey you two." Caleb said, giving them both a hug and a kiss on the head. "Matty, where have you left your sisters?" Caleb asked jokingly. "They're upstairs." Matty said, pointing to the bus. Since today was the last day of school and all students finished school at the same time, a larger bus was used. "Okay, then we'll wait." Caleb said, sitting down again. Bennett and Alex have also gotten off the bus in the meantime. "Hey Kayab." Bennett and Alex said. "Hey boys. Are you okay?" Caleb asked. The two 5-years-old nodded. Alex and Bennett and their parents said goodbye and Caleb and the boys continued to wait for Layla and Kayla. "They're coming." Matty said. "Hey Caleb." Kayla said. "Hey girls. Are you okay?" Caleb asked, hugging them both. On the way home, the little ones told what they had done on the last day of school. When they got home, Kelly was on the phone. «Hey kiddos. How was your last day?" Sylvie asked. "Well, we've been playing games all day." Matty said. "Mommy, what time are we leaving?" Benjamin asked. "Soon, go to your rooms and pack your backpacks." Stella said. "Can Kayab help us?" Benjamin asked. Stella looked at Caleb and he nodded. "Can you help us too?" the twins asked. "Ok, you know what, we do it like this. You gather everything you want to take with you and then you come to my room and we put everything in your backpacks." Caleb suggested. "Ok." the kids shouted and ran upstairs. Caleb shook his head and went upstairs as well. Caleb was packing his backpack when the little ones came into his room with piles of toys and books. "You don't want to take all that with you now?" Caleb asked. "Yes." Matty and Benjamin said. Caleb scratched the back of his head. "Ok, I suggest we go through all that stuff again because you can't take everything with you." Caleb said. Then Matt came into the room. "What happened here?" he asked and laughed. "Daddy, Kayab says we can't take all that with us." Matty said with tears in his eyes. "This time I have to agree with him. You can't fit all of that in your backpacks." Matt said, wiping his son's tears from the face. "Okay, I'll make you a suggestion. I still have a bit space in one of my bags, so you pack everything you really need, like your books and coloring books, in your backpack and the rest you can put in my bag." Caleb said. The kids agreed and packed their backpacks. After everything was packed, they went downstairs and watched TV. Kelly has meanwhile finished the phone call and also came into the living room. "Hey, who was that?" Caleb asked. "Our travel consultant, there is a last-minute change of plan." Kelly said. Caleb put the movie on pause. "What do you mean by that?" Sylvie asked. "We will have a longer stay in Zurich than initially thought. Actually, we would have flown on to Bangkok tomorrow night. But now it's the case that our plane is still in the workshop and won't be ready in time. That's why we won't fly to Bangkok until Thursday night." Kelly informed. "And where are we staying?" Stella asked. "We've already had a room reserved for us at the airport hotel. We have 3 rooms. One for us, one for you and Caleb has his own room if he wants it." Kelly said. "Yes, that's fine for me." Caleb said. "The departure time remains the same, just shifts by 24 hours." Kelly said. "Dad, can I see the FIFA World Football Museum then?" Caleb asked, carefully. "I thought you'd ask. I talked to our advisor about it and she got you a ticket for it." Kelly said. "You let me go alone?" Caleb asked in surprise. "Yes, why not. You're 14 now and old enough to move around by yourself." Kelly said. "So, what do we do in the meantime?" Matt asked. "We've thought of something for that, too. She organized tickets to the zoo for us." Kelly said. "Yay. We love zoos." the twins said. "So do we." the boys said. "Toto." Lydia said, standing in her playpen. "Yeah, you love the zoo too." Stella laughed, lifting her out of the playpen. "Good, then everything is settled for tomorrow. On Thursday we can walk around Zurich and go to the lake." Kelly said. "When is our flight to Bangkok?" Sylvie asked. "At 10:40 p.m." Kelly said. "So late." Caleb said. "You can sleep the whole flight." Matt said. "Oh yes, before I forget. There is also a small change in seating. One of us has their own seat a little further back on the plane." Kelly said. "We can take a look when we go on board." Stella said. "Mommy, can we go now?" Matty asked impatiently. "Soon. Now it's 12:30 p.m., at 2:00 p.m. Uncle Christopher comes to pick up Spiky and Filou and then takes us to the airport." Sylvie said. "Is that long?" Benjamin asked. "If we continue watching now, we'll be done 5 minutes early." Caleb said, letting the film continue to play. "Caleb, come here for a minute." Kelly said, walking into the kitchen with him. "What's up? Have I done something?" Caleb asked. "No, everything is OK. I have a surprise for you." Kelly said, pulling a small envelope out of his pocket. Caleb opened the envelope and pulled out a card. "What's that?" Caleb asked. 'Well, like I said, you're old enough to move around yourself and you've shown me enough responsibility that you can take responsibility, so I figured it's about time you got your own credit card." Kelly smiled. "Cool. Thanks Dad." Caleb said hugging Kelly. "You're welcome, but don't overdo it. It's a prepaid card and I put $1,000 on it for the first time and it's ONLY for staying in Zurich." Kelly said. "That's enough. That's about 900 Swiss francs, so I can buy enough souvenirs both in the museum shop and in the city center." Caleb said, putting the card in his wallet. The two went back into the living room and they finished watching the movie together.

Arrived at the airport, they said goodbye and went into the airport building. While the adults checked in and checked in the luggage, Caleb looked after the little ones. The trip is a very special experience for the little ones, as they have neither been to an airport nor flown. Caleb pushed Lydia around in the stroller as she was a bit restless. The twins sat on one of the benches and drew and the boys ran around. «Guys, come here. This isn't a playground." Caleb said. "But Mommy." Matty said, a little scared. "Yes, they'll be right back. Come here." Caleb said. Matty ran to him and climbed onto his lap. Caleb took him in his arms and kissed the top of his head. "Don't be scared Matty. Nothing will happen to you here. Caleb will protect you." Kayla said patting his back. Benjamin got his action figures from his backpack and played on the floor. "Hey, what's going on here?" Sylvie asked when they came back. "Matty's scared." Layla said. «Oh no, come here." Sylvie said and took her son in her arms. "You pack your things back up and we can go," Matt said. The girls packed their coloring books in their backpacks. "You too, little man." Kelly said, kneeling down next to Benjamin. "No, I want to keep playing." Benjamin protested. "You can continue playing later. We have to go to security now." Kelly said. Benjamin put his action figure in Caleb's backpack, pouting, and Kelly took his hand. After security, they went to a restaurant and had a small early dinner snack. At the gate, the little ones watched with fascination as the planes took off and landed. "Mommy, which one is our plane?" Matty asked. "It'll be a while before we see it." Sylvie said. "Where's Caleb?" Layla asked. "He went to Starbucks over there for a drink." Stella said. "Who went to get what and where?" Caleb asked, handing the change back to Kelly. Boarding began at 6:40 p.m. "Daddy, why do the others have to wait?" Benjamin asked. "Because families with small children are always allowed to board first, so that afterwards it's quick and we can take off on time." Kelly explained. "But Kayab is not small." said Benjamin. Kelly, Caleb and the ground crew laughed. "You're right about that. But since I'm family too, I'm sure they'll make an exception." Caleb said and one of the ground stewardesses nodded. Benjamin grabbed Caleb's hand and timidly walked past the stewardesses. "Come on, the others are already on board." Caleb said, picking him up and walking over to the others, who were already on board. Caleb sat in a row with Benjamin and Matty, in front of them sat Stella, Kelly and Matt and behind them sat Sylvie with Kayla and Layla. Lydia has meanwhile fallen asleep in Stella's arms. Throughout the start, Matty and Benjamin sucked on their drinking bottles while Caleb watched a movie. No sooner had they reached flight altitude than Benjamin, who was sitting by the window, tugged at Caleb's shirt. "What?" Caleb asked. "I want to sit next to you, too," Benjamin said. "You both want to sit next to me and at the same time you both want to sit by the window?" Caleb asked, frowning. The two boys nodded. "Okay, what do you think about Matty and I swapping places now? Then I'll sit in the middle and you two can sit next to me, deal?" Caleb asked. "And when can I sit by the window?" Matty asked. "You can sit by the window on the flight to Thailand." Caleb said. "Ok." Matty said, swapping places with Caleb. "Are you alright?" Sylvie asked. "Ask your junior." Caleb said while waiting in the hallway for Matty to sit back down. As soon as Caleb sat down and wanted to continue watching his film, the stewardesses came with dinner. After that, Caleb was finally able to continue watching his film in peace.