Enough To Go Around

In it for the long haul

Michael was tossing and turning in bed, he couldn't sleep. He got up and walked downstairs, maybe a glass of water will help his unexplained insomnia. When he walked downstairs he saw Teri sitting there drinking a mug of tea.

"Hey Mikey," she said softly as he grabbed a glass to get water.

"Hey," he said softly, "can't sleep." He added to her silent question of why he's up.

"Yeah, me either," she said. "Didn't want to wake your mom."

"Is everything okay?" Michael asked sitting across from her.

"Everything is fine," Teri said.

"Then why can't you sleep?" Michael said.

"I could be asking you the same questions," Teri said.

"I asked first," Michael said.

"Uh, just got a lot of grown up stuff on my mind," she answered. "What about you?" She reached across to grab his hand. "Why can't you sleep baby?"

"Uh, just got a lot of kid stuff on my mind," he gave back.

"Yeah? Like what?" Teri squeezed his hand and Michael looked back with his bottom lip between his teeth, "Come on Mikey, you can tell me."

"I don't hate Jonah," Michael said. "I know you and my mom think I do."

"You just don't treat him kindly." Teri said. "He's trying to make an effort."

"Then why doesn't he go to John Wayne?" Michael said. "Why do we have MacArthur coffee mugs and you and my mom have MacArthur swag now?"

"He need stability honey," Teri said, "and support."

"That's not fair to the rest of us though," Michael said retrieving his hand from his stepmom's.

"It's not fair to uproot him when he's thriving at MacArthur," Teri said. "It's the same distance from here to John Wayne as it it to MacArthur. Just in opposite directions." Michael shot up and started pacing the kitchen, "Mikey," she said. "Tell me what's wrong, what's really wrong."

Michael looked up to his stepmom with tears in his eyes, "I want to like him, I really do, but there's something about him that makes me feel - feel replaced."

Teri immediately jumped up and went to her stepson and gathered him in her arms and said, "You're not replaced baby, not replaced. Not at all baby, nobody can replace our Mikey."

The stepmother-stepson duo stood in the kitchen for awhile, Michael softly crying into Teri's shirt and Teri comforting him, making sure that he knew that he wasn't going to be replaced.

Then out of nowhere, Michael crooked out, "Adopt him."

"What?" Teri said grabbing his face in her hands.

"Adopt him, make him yours."

"Are - are you sure?" She asked.

"I've never been more sure about anything in my life."

- - -

Forty-five minutes later, Teri came behind Sherri to spoon her, "You okay?" Sherri asked voice thick with sleep.

"Just got a lot on my mind," Teri answered looking at the clock realizing that it was going to go off in about an hour.

Sherri turned over and then asked, "Your parents?"

When Teri and Sherri got together, Sherri's parents took it a lot better than Teri's parents did. Sherri's parents were still in their lives, where Teri's parents were not, but Teri got a call from her brother, Steve, saying that her parents wanted to talk to her and see Griffin and Bayley. Meaning either they were in LA or they wanted the three to make a trip back to Dover.