what was i made for, walker

042. birthday

"Okay, I'm just saying, this is a prime time fall weekend." August states.

"For another Scooter party?" Bonham questions.

"Lake house party." August corrects. "Senior year. Seriously, Ben, back me up here, man."

"No, you're not pulling me into this one again." Ben says.

"See, now, there's some good thinking right there." Bonham says, pointing to the man.

"Traitor." August calls Ben, the man laughing.

"Oh, God forbid you should spend the weekend on a party bus eating steak and mashed potatoes. Whatever will you do?" Abilene bites. The three at the counter share looks. "You know? Now hush up. It's your father's birthday, and Geri wants to surprise him with all of us being there at Grand Lonestar."

"Yeah. Spending eight hours on the road to go see my father shovel down a full steak meal so much he's sweating and at least one person's gonna  be puking. That's my idea of a great weekend." Janie remarks.

"It will be." Abilene promises.

"You guys aren't even letting me bring Nutmeg." Janie pouts.

"The car will be full enough." Abilene states.

"Nobody appreciates her enough." Janie heavily sighs, frowning.

"And for those of age, I have whipped up a birthday bottle of limoncello." Bonham states, walking in and holding a bottle.

"Really? Another one?" Ben asks. "You kept at it." He laughs. "Lucky us."

Liam puts his hand on Ben's shoulder as he walks in.

"Oh!" Abilene exclaims at her son's appearance. "Look at you! I haven't seen you wear that purple tie since--"

"The campaign commercial?" August cuts in.

"That's right. You ran for D.A." Ben says. 

"Mm-hmm." Liam nods.

"Is it ever weird thinking about how hundreds of thousands of people voted for you once?" Ben asks.

"Only when I think about it. Which is not this morning." Liam says.

"Yes." Ben nods.

"Right. So, what did Detective Parra say on the phone?" Abilene asks.

"Uh, new development in the break in at Geri's." Liam says. "Wants to see Stella and me in person. That's it."

"Maybe this is the end?" Abilene asks.

"Don't know. It's an ongoing investigation with nothing to report and then... this." Liam says. "I mean, it could be the end or it could be a new lead. Let's just hope for Stella's sake it's the former." Liam kisses Ben on the head.

"Will you help her get out of that cocoon?" Abilene asks.

"Yeah, I..." Liam trails off.

"And the bus leaves at 5:00." Abilene states.

"Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah." Liam leaves.

"5:00!" Bonham yells after him.

+++

"Okay, we need a plan B. He's still free tonight, he just can't go out of town." Geri says, walking into the kitchen.

"Well, you know, there's got to be something in this freezer." Bonham says, going over and looking through the freezer. "Uh, let me see here, we got, uh-- yeah, yeah, yeah." He takes a package of meat out. "Ooh, yeah. Look at this, we got a... no, that's a pork butt. Dang." He puts it back and shuts the freezer. "Never mind."