Remember WENN and it's characters are copyright AMC/Howard Meltzer Prods & Rupert Holmes. Elizabeth (Bethie) Singer, Will & Susan Sutton and any original character mentioned in this series are copyright Michele Savage. The story as well is mine.

Ok.. this initially was supposed to be the story in which Scott & Betty were married. However, in the course of writing this, Betty & I had creative differences. ;) She didn't want to be creative for me. I am going to go ahead and send out what I have written as it * does* contain some things that will impact this particular series in the future.

This takes place a month after Bethie's Day.

Call this one another vignette or a chapter if you will. :)

Hilary sat at the round table in her back yard sipping a mint julep with her neighbor and one of her dearest friends, Susan Sutton. Susan and her husband William had been the first people in the neighborhood to approach she and Jeffrey after they'd moved into their house. As a result the two couples had become close friends.

William was a general practitioner, and practiced medicine out of a small office he'd built behind his and Susan's home. It was because of the small building taking up most of the yard space that the Suttons spent a lot of summer time at the Singer's.

A small piercing scream was heard from the sandbox to the left of the table. Hilary stood quickly, having recognized the scream as that of her child. Elizabeth was playing in the sandbox with the Sutton's two children, John who was three and Diane who was just a month younger than Elizabeth herself.

She had what could only be described as a deathgrip on John's hair, and the boy was silently gripping her hair as revenge.

"Elizabeth!" Hilary sharply called as she crouched down next to the fighting pair. She grabbed the tiny hand and tried to separate the fingers from the thin black hair belonging to John Sutton.

Susan had also heard the cry and was at this moment trying to separate her son's hands from Elizabeth's hair. "Johnny, let go!"

Hilary pulled her daughter's hands away from the boy's hair with the baby screaming "no!" the entire time.

Elizabeth in final indignation turned and smacked her mother on the arm. "No! "Mama!"

Hilary sat with Elizabeth and sharply explained why she should never ever hit her mother, or for that matter anyone else.

She turned to Susan, "What happened?"

Susan turned to the still sobbing John and urged him, "Tell Mrs. Singer what happened."

"She taked my ball!" He exclaimed angrily.

"Took, dear." Hilary corrected gently.

"Took." He amended, "I taked ... took it back."

"And Elizabeth pulled your hair, so you returned the favor." Hilary deduced the rest of the argument.

"Yeah." The toddler agreed.

"Johnny," His mother bent down to reprimand him, "Elizabeth is a baby, like your sister Diane, and she doesn't know that taking your ball made you mad. So when you took it back, she didn't understand and thought you were taking it away from her. You should have explained nicely that the ball was yours. Or you could have let her play with it for a while.

"She got angry and she doesn't know that pulling hair is bad. You are a big boy so you have to be careful with her. But pulling her hair back is only teaching her that being mean is the way to get what you want."

"Okay." John grudgingly agreed.

"Now go and apologize to Elizabeth."

The now contrite boy walked to where the still lightly crying baby was seated on her mother's lap. "I sorry Elibazeth" He patted her on the leg and smiled, hoping she'd smile back.

She leaned farther into her mother's arms and hid her face. "No." She kicked out her leg to force his hand off her.

"I think Miss Elizabeth is ready for a nap. " Hilary noted and stood. "Why don't you come on in Susan, I've got some things I need to get together before Scott and Betty arrive."

Susan collected her daughter who still played quietly in the sandbox and called across the fence to her husband William, who stood with Jeff, and was contemplating a new coat of paint for his office. "Will, would you please keep an eye on Johnny. Hilary and I are going to go in and start getting this cook out more or less organized."

Jeff laughed, "With Hilary helping, I think the words you're after are 'less organized'."

Hilary had the door half shut and had heard Jeff's joking comment. She stepped back outside the door, "Jeffrey my love, if you're not careful one of these days I'm going to mistake rat poison for pepper and serve it to you ... with a smile." She finished her statement with a smile matching her comment and moved to go back into the house.

Susan laughed, "You do realize that if he ever turns up dead, you will be the prime suspect."

Hilary smiled at her friend. "Whatever gave you that idea?" she said with a wink, and shut the door.

Laughing, Susan stayed outside long enough to ensure that his father had John and then followed Hilary into the house.

Hilary had gotten a bottle out for Elizabeth and was trying to coax her into going to sleep. "I'm going to take the baby upstairs and see if she'll lay down. I'll be right back."

"Oh, sure." Susan answered, "Do you mind if I put Diane down in the other cradle?"

"No not at all. We did move it upstairs though." Hilary answered. "It's in Elizabeth's room right now. I can drag it into our bedroom so the girls won't keep each other awake."

Susan followed her friend up the stairs and soon they had both babies sleeping comfortably.

They returned to the kitchen and Hilary pulled a pitcher out to start some tea brewing.

"Oh, Hilary!" Susan remembered with a laugh. She walked to the sink and stood with her back to it, facing Hilary, "Do you remember that older couple from last Saturday's dance at the Clarion?"

Hilary thought for a moment, "The one that thought you were married to Jeff and I was married to Will?" That had been another of the things that had brought the two couples together as friends. The fact that Will and Susan also shared a significant age difference, only theirs was in reverse. Will was the older of the two.

"Yes." Susan answered, then burst into hysterical laughter, "I saw the woman today at the grocery, and she walked up to me and very sincerely told me she was so sorry that my friend had been flirting so openly with my husband."

"You're kidding?" Hilary chuckled, "What did you tell her?"

Susan stopped laughing and tried to look as serious as possible, "I told her that it was quite alright, because I'd been having an affair with my friend's husband for years." She couldn't get the entire statement out without laughing.

Hilary joined Susan in her laughter, "That poor woman."

"Hilary you should have seen her face," Susan attempted to say between the giggles, "It was like I had opened up the gates of temptation and was inviting her in."

Hilary was laughing so hard she barely heard the knock on her front door. She opened the door and in between laughs acknowledged the couple at the door. "Hello Betty. Scotty."

Scott walked in with Betty, his hand on the small of her back. "Uh, did we just miss the punchline?"

"You had to be there." Hilary said, her laughter starting to quiet.

"Here Hilary, I baked a couple of my mother's apple pies." Betty said handing one of the two still warm pies to Hilary.

"Will will love you for that, Betty." Susan mentioned catching a whiff of her husband's favorite desert.

This comment started another torrent of laughter from Hilary, "Why not, William could use another wife."

This in turn caused the chuckles in Susan to return.

"You know," Scott started, "I think I'm glad I missed this joke." He smiled at Betty who smiled back at him, equally lost.

"Did you ever set her straight?" Hilary asked Susan when she could speak again.

"Well," Susan answered her amused friend, "She rushed away from me like I had the plague, so I'm assuming she still thinks that I'm married to Jeffrey and you're having an affair with him with my approval."

Hilary put her arm around Susan and very seriously said, "Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for letting me continue my affair with Jeffrey."

By then, Betty had picked up on what had apparently happened and was laughing along.

"My pleasure, Hilary." Susan responded equally seriously, a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"Actually," Hilary smiled suggestively, "it's mine."

"Okay," Scott spoke up then, "I sense girl talk. The fellas outside?"

"Gee Scott, didn't mean to scare you away." Susan replied with a devilish grin. "Actually, they are over in our yard. I think Will is trying to bribe Jeffrey into helping him whitewash his office building."

"There's some negotiations I think I want to see." Scott said with a grin and exited out the back door.

Betty and Susan sat at the kitchen table while Hilary finished brewing the tea. She put the pot into the refrigerator to begin cooling and joined the ladies at the table.

"Well, how is married life treating you Betty?" Hilary asked as she sat

"It's been a busy week, Hilary, but I think we are settling in." Betty answered. She and Scott had returned from Elkhart only two days ago. The last two days were spent moving into their new home.

"Just make sure you train Scotty properly and you'll do just fine. " Hilary said with a wink.

Scott walked through the small chain gate that separated the two yards and acknowledged the greetings from the other two men.

He noticed the still pouting John leaning against his father's leg and crouched down to his level. "Bad day?" he said to the little boy.

"He just learned the hard way that the Booth temper is genetic." Jeff explained.

Scott grimaced and chucked the boy lightly on the shoulder, "You gotta watch those two women, John. One minute they're all sweetness and light, and the next," he slammed a fisted hand into his other hand, "BAM! You feel like you've been hit by a bus!" He nodded as a grin began to work its way onto the little boys face.

"Make that a train." Jeff interrupted elaborating grandly for his three year old audience, "A really big train."

John finally laughed and ran to play on some of his own backyard toys.

The laughter of the three men slowly died down, as the conversation moved away from little John's problem to that of the world's.

"Did you know that Jack Clifton was drafted?" Will spoke up, changing the subject to his neighbor.

"He was?" Jeff asked, surprised. "Isn't his wife pregnant again?"

"Yes, she is," the slighter black-haired Will responded, then gave a slight chuckle. "Now maybe the poor woman could raise the four-- make that five, children they have now."

"What about you?" Scott asked Will, "Have you thought about it?"

"I have thought about it," he answered, "But, I think some doctors ought to stay on the homefront too. We're needed here just as badly as there. I also think my age will be my saving grace. I'm probably too old to be accepted."

"I've thought about it too." Jeff spoke up.

Will turned and sharply interrupted, "You're not going anywhere."

"Will--"

"No, you and I have had this conversation before Jeff." The Englishman reminded, "As your doctor, there are reasons why you aren't going. As your friend I'm telling you, you have two good reasons in that house over there." He said pointing to Jeff's house.

"I've volunteered." Scott injected into the argument, stopping both men in their tracks.

"What?" Jeff asked.

"I'm leaving for basic training the first of October." Scott explained, "I'll be doing some code breaking probably."

"Scott, you just got married." Jeff strongly reminded, "What about Betty? Does she know?"

He looked to the ground, "No, I haven't told her. I'm not quite sure how to bring it up."

Jeff huffed angrily, "You might want to tell her before October first, Scott!"

"I'm going to." Scott snapped. "I was going to take her to dinner tomorrow and tell her." He finished in a calmer voice.

Susan stood at the kitchen table making hamburger patties for the grill. "How many of these you think we need, Hil?"

Hilary stopped cutting the carrot she held and added in her head, "Make ten. That should give the fellas two apiece, one each for us and Johnny. Does that sound about right Betty?" she turned to ask Betty who stood next to her fixing potato salad. "Or would Scotty eat more than that?"

"No, I think two is plenty for him. He can have side dishes with the rest of us." Betty smiled, noting Scott's habit of just eating the main course.

A faint cry could be heard from upstairs. Hilary cocked her ear to listen. "Is that yours or mine," she asked Susan.

Hilary walked into the living room where she could hear the cry become more of an indignant yell. "It's mine." She called back into the kitchen before going upstairs to retrieve Elizabeth.

Susan grinned to Betty, having heard the sharp cry. "I can't imagine which one of her parents she takes after."

Betty laughed as she folded more mustard into the potato salad.

(This is where this story stopped writing itself for me...stay tuned for the next story..)