Planning Is Everything
A/N: Written for pbhiatus_fic challenge #9. Was supposed to be a drabble, is really 3 1/2 drabbles.
Plans are nothing; planning is everything.
~Dwight D. Eisenhower
It isn’t the first time Michael has planned something so elaborate on Lincoln’s behalf.
There was the time their mother had been moved from County General to Mercy because of patient overload, and so a 9-year-old Michael had mapped out the train transfers they’d have to take to get there when Linc got home from school.
There was Linc’s 20th birthday party, when a 16-year-old Michael was still living with Foster parents even though logically he should have been living with Linc. But he’d thrown the party and tried not to think of how much better life would be if he could be with his brother everyday.
There was the time a 25-year-old Michael got Linc a job with a construction company that his engineering firm did business with, but Linc got fired two weeks after they hired him for habitual tardiness.
Then there was the time a 32-year-old Michael held up a bank, got thrown in jail and then broke his brother out of prison.
But this, the surprise birthday party the year Lincoln turns 40, beats all of that. Michael somehow coordinates with his wife, with Lincoln’s wife, and the 4.5 little children they have between them, and gets him to an undisclosed location in the Panamanian town they’ve been living in for almost four years. As Michael brings Lincoln through the doors of the little cantina, they see LJ, who made a trip back from the States, happily missing a week’s worth of college attendance to celebrate with his father and the rest of their family.
Lincoln is startled by the sudden appearance of his oldest child, but then suspiciously looks around, noticing all the friends they’ve acquired through their Dive Shop, and of course the Mommy-Baby outings Sara and Jane organized so they would have adults to talk to on a more regular basis.
“You son of a bitch,” Lincoln mutters out the side of his mouth as people crowd around the brothers to shake hands and hug enthusiastically. “You said you weren’t planning a surprise party.”
Michael just shrugs, grinning. “I lied,” he chirps cheerily.
Plans are nothing; planning is everything.
~Dwight D. Eisenhower
It isn’t the first time Michael has planned something so elaborate on Lincoln’s behalf.
There was the time their mother had been moved from County General to Mercy because of patient overload, and so a 9-year-old Michael had mapped out the train transfers they’d have to take to get there when Linc got home from school.
There was Linc’s 20th birthday party, when a 16-year-old Michael was still living with Foster parents even though logically he should have been living with Linc. But he’d thrown the party and tried not to think of how much better life would be if he could be with his brother everyday.
There was the time a 25-year-old Michael got Linc a job with a construction company that his engineering firm did business with, but Linc got fired two weeks after they hired him for habitual tardiness.
Then there was the time a 32-year-old Michael held up a bank, got thrown in jail and then broke his brother out of prison.
But this, the surprise birthday party the year Lincoln turns 40, beats all of that. Michael somehow coordinates with his wife, with Lincoln’s wife, and the 4.5 little children they have between them, and gets him to an undisclosed location in the Panamanian town they’ve been living in for almost four years. As Michael brings Lincoln through the doors of the little cantina, they see LJ, who made a trip back from the States, happily missing a week’s worth of college attendance to celebrate with his father and the rest of their family.
Lincoln is startled by the sudden appearance of his oldest child, but then suspiciously looks around, noticing all the friends they’ve acquired through their Dive Shop, and of course the Mommy-Baby outings Sara and Jane organized so they would have adults to talk to on a more regular basis.
“You son of a bitch,” Lincoln mutters out the side of his mouth as people crowd around the brothers to shake hands and hug enthusiastically. “You said you weren’t planning a surprise party.”
Michael just shrugs, grinning. “I lied,” he chirps cheerily.