xp_logs | Doug's family arriving (backdated to Friday)

Doug and Marie-Ange greet his family at the airport for their visit to New York City.

Doug had already checked his watch and the toteboards at JFK five times in the last fifteen minutes. He'd even gotten the flight information texted to his phone, so he knew that his family's flight was on schedule, it was just the nervous fidgeting that kept him checking again and again. Trying to figure out what Marie-Ange's reading had meant was definitely contributing to that. Sitting down in the 'meet and greet' area outside the security gate was clearly out of the question, as he was having a hard enough time keeping still standing up.

"If you continue to fidget, someone is going to ask you why you are so fidgety." It was one thing to be a young professional a little unhappy about a family visit, and another to be nervous to the point of pacing and fretting and Doug had reason to be the latter - but his family did not know that. Marie-Ange pulled a bottle of water from her bag, and waved it in Doug's direction. "You need to calm down. Being a ball of nerves is going to make questions."

Doug grunted irritably. On top of the fact that nervousness in an American airport tended to draw paranoid attention from 'security professionals'. The idea was laughable, but getting grilled by inept TSA agents was to be profoundly avoided. So Doug took the bottle and drank from it, doing his best to settle his breathing and calm down.

"Douglas!" cried a feminine voice, and suddenly a middle aged woman was approaching them at a rate of knots.

Behind her trailed a slightly older gentleman with peppery blonde hair who seemed in charge of the majority of the luggage, if the large wheeley cart stacked with bags was anything to go by, and two teenage girls.

Doug smothered a grimace and submitted to the requisite motherly hugging as his father and sisters caught up. He raised his eyebrows at the number of bags on the cart, he could easily count two for each of them, plus at least one extra laptop bag resting on top of the pile. "...did you guys check any bags?" he asked curiously when his mother finally released him.

"Your mother decided it was too expensive," his father answered with an affectionate smile her way. "We did a little juggling but we managed to get it all on the plane. How have you been, Son?"

Doug nodded. He had actually expected something of the sort, for a simple three-day trip, though you never could tell. Marie-Ange could have probably easily packed four bags for a trip of that length, depending on the destination. "Doing okay. Work keeps me pretty busy." He nudged Marie-Ange forward to participate in the 'greeting dance'.

"As well she should have. Paying twenty-five dollars to check a bag is absurd." Marie-Ange said. "I do not know why airlines expect anyone to pay that much for luggage. It is less expensive to mail it unless you are going to Europe or Asia." She was French, they wouldn't question that. Airline prices were a nice safe topic of conversation.

"See," Jenny said in a mock-hushed whisper and held out one hand to Katie, "Told you. Pay up."

Katie pulled a ten out of her pocket grumbling as she put it into Jenny's hand. "I despise you," this was directed towards her sister, not towards anyone else. Questioning would not be allowed, or at least would be silenced as the elder of the two girls went to flying-death-hug her older brother. "Doug!"

Doug blinked, then hugged back a bit awkwardly. The hug from his mother had been expected, the one from Katie had not. "What, have I finally graduated from 'Dougie the dorky older brother'?" he asked whimsically.

Distraction: Successful, "Oh, no, you're still really dorky," she said letting him go, "But I told Mom I'd pretend to be glad to see you," she said with a smile.

"Of course you did, love," Mary replied, enveloping Marie-Ange into a maternal hug of her own. "Marie-Ange, it's so nice to see you again, my dear. How have you been?"

Only Doug would have recognized the 'Help I am being hugged!" tone in Marie-Ange's voice. She sounded for all the world she was happy to see Doug's family. Even if only a few months ago they'd been subject to the 'when are you getting married' conversation. "I am well. Much happier now that all the snow has melted." It wasn't that Marie-Ange hated snow. It was the having three or four feet of it and being stuck in Europe and then Denver that she'd minded. "How was your flight?"

"It was lovely, wasn't it, John?" Mary replied, releasing Marie-Ange and stepping back, her gaze wandering back to her son. "We managed to get one of those Internet deals, and they even arranged for us to be sitting in the same row."

If anyone un-ironically uttered the word 'swell', Doug thought he just might vomit. Then he chided himself. It wasn't his fault that his family was extremely normal, and he...wasn't anymore. Besides, he could keep up the facade for three days. He hoped.

"So, you guys got a rental car, right?" he asked as they gathered the cart and started walking towards the terminal exit.