About Time

Chapter Forty-One - Baking Madness

"Mama, when Emiwee come back?" Sophie asked Gillian.
"Tonight."
It had taken a week, but they had convinced Emily to go see Zoe for two weeks. The girl had absolutely refused a month, saying that she couldn't take that much time off school in the first place and secondly, she wasn't going anywhere until after Gillian delivered. She was taking one week off of school and getting a friend to take notes and then the second week was spring break. It was Sunday afternoon. Her plane was landing tonight.
"I miss her."
"I miss her too, baby."
So did Cal. He pretended it was fine but Gillian could tell. The last time he'd been like this had been when Emily had been going to school in Chicago.
Gillian walked around and gathered laundry. Why there were so many piles of dirty clothes, she'd never know.

Around six-thirty, Cal got home from work. Gillian had dinner ready and sitting on the table.
"Hi, love. How was your day?"
"Except for getting kicked in the bladder what seemed like every five minutes and the Braxton Hick's contractions, it was fine."
"Sorry?" Cal offered.
"It's not your fault. Actually, it partially is but I don't care so it doesn't matter."
When they were done eating, Gillian decided she wanted to make chocolate cupcakes.
She got out all the ingredients and roped Cal into helping her.
"Mix those up in a bowl." She told him.
Gillian turned back around and Cal started to measure flour. He got a tiny handful and threw it at Sophie who was sitting in a chair on the other side of the island.
She busted out laughing then stood up and grabbed two handfuls and threw them both at him.
They started throwing flour at each other. Gillian turned around to see what all the fuss was about and was greeted with two people who were nearly completely covered in white.
"What are you two doing?"
"Daddy started it!"
"Geez, Sophie. Thanks for throwing me under the bus."
"Cal, you're cleaning up this kitchen."
"Fair enough." He told her then grabbed a handful and threw it in her face. Sophie quickly followed suit.
"This means war." She warned them and then flour was flying all over the kitchen again.

Emily let herself in to her dad's house. She'd dropped her luggage off at home then headed here. She could hear laughter in the kitchen. She walked in and found three people covered head to toe in flour.
"What did I miss?"
They looked up.
"Hi, Em. How was your trip?" Cal asked his daughter.
"It was fine. I'll tell you about it later. Right now, I'd like to know why your kitchen and all three of you are covered in flour."
"We were making cupcakes and things got a little out of hand." Gillian explained.
Emily nodded.
"Okay, well, now I'm in the mood for cupcakes so we're gonna finish those and then we can continue this madness."
They quickly made the batter and put the cupcakes in the oven. Emily had insisted on making triple the recipe but none of them really cared so they just went with it. Three of the four were still covered in flour since none of them had actually bothered to clean off first.
Emily saw that one of the bowls had a little batter left. She thought and then stuck her finger in it before flicking it at the back of Gillian's head. Gillian's hand flew to the spot and when she realized what it was, she turned around.
Emily cracked up. The look on her almost-stepmother's face would've have been scary if her face hadn't been covered in white powder.
Then Cal really started something when he threw an egg at Emily. Sophie started throwing flour again and Gillian literally grabbed the tub of butter and started making balls with her hands before throwing them at the nearest target. Eggs, butter, flour, batter, cocoa powder. It was all being flung across the kitchen. It was gonna be a bitch cleaning this mess up. And Emily knew it would only get worse because she had something in mind for those extra cupcakes.
They called a time out when the cupcakes were ready. Gillian and Emily got to work on frosting while Cal took all the cupcakes out of the pans.
They let the cupcakes cool then piled on frosting.
"Don't you dare even think about throwing that leftover frosting." Gillian told them and grabbed the bowl and started eating it with a spoon.
Gillian polished off seven cupcakes, Emily four, Sophie three, Cal two.
There were still over forty left.
Emily glanced at her dad. He caught her eye and knew what she was thinking. They grabbed cupcakes and Emily counted down with her fingers and they threw their cupcakes at their targets. Cal's hit Gillian in the chest and Emily's hit Sophie's arm.
"Cal Lightman, I swear I will not marry you if you throw another thing at me!"
She was lying through her teeth and he knew it so he picked another and threw it at her face. It couldn't hurt, it was cake. Then he threw another for good measure.
Soon, it erupted from baking madness into a full-blown food fight when they ran out of cupcakes. They were raiding the pantry, fridge, cabinets, everything. They knew it would suck cleaning up but none of them really cared because they were having fun.
They eventually stopped throwing things when someone knocked on the door.
"Come in, it's unlocked!" Gillian called.
Ben Reynolds came in and took one look around and then turned around, pretending to walk out before coming back.
"I don't even wanna know."
Lightman, Foster, Emily, and Sophie were all covered in food along with the kitchen. They all had their fair share of what he thought were baking ingredients and frosting but then there was a whole cupcake turned upside down on Sophie's head, what looked like peas and carrots squished all over Emily, all kinds of spices covering Lightman, and there was more spaghetti on Foster's head than hair.
"What are you doing here this late?" Gillian asked him. It was nearly ten.
"I was in the neighborhood and decided to drop by because I saw the lights on. Sorry for interrupting."
"No, it's fine. We really need to stop. It's past Sophie's bedtime. Also, we've made a gigantic mess."
"Well, at least let me take a picture first."
Ben pulled out his phone as they all gathered in front of the island.
"That's actually a cute family photo." Ben noted when he'd snapped it. "I'll send it to you later."
They talked to Ben for about an hour then he said good night. Emily went and showered and Gillian gave Sophie a bathe before helping her brush her teeth and get in the bed while Cal showered. Then she pulled off her disgusting clothes and showered herself.
It was after midnight by the time she climbed into bed beside Cal. She curled up into his side.
"You know, you started the whole thing so you're going to have to clean it up tomorrow."
"No, I've got a plan."

Cal and Gillian walked into the office the next morning after Emily left for schoolyard dropped Sophie off at daycare and walked into the lab where Loker and Torres were talking.
"Hey, you two, I'll give you both a hundred dollar bonus on your next paycheck if you go to our house and clean up our kitchen."
Cal had checked with Gillian. They could afford it.
The pair looked at each other and Ria grabbed her car keys.
"Bye. See you later." She said and she and Eli walked out. The kitchen couldn't be that bad, could it? There were probably a few dishes in the sink and both of them were feeling lazy so they wouldn't do it.

She was wrong. Very wrong. She'd have to hear the story behind this mess later. There was food all over the floor, the stove, the cabinets, the counters, the walls, the fridge, everywhere.
Ria looked at her fiancé.
"We're getting an extra two hundred dollars for this that we can put towards our wedding." She told him.
"Right. Guess I'll find a broom." He said in return.