"Don't people travel to somewhere else other than Jersey for the holidays? Don't people have families?" I groaned as I leaned against the open doorway into the kitchen during one of the very few lulls in activity at Reta's recently.

"I think people come to Jersey to see their families is more our case then the leaving for somewhere else," Sam supplied, up to his elbows in dirty dishes that never seemed to diminish.

"Ugh," I groaned as I sank onto a bar stool at the end of the bar closest to me. I could no longer feel my feet, my legs were stiff as boards, my body pretty much ran on autopilot these past few days. I shuddered to think of what Thanksgiving itself was going to look like tomorrow. I had started the work day two weeks ago under my naive belief that nobody would be in the diner on the coming holiday. Reta, Sam and Ernie had been trying their very best to convince me otherwise, to lessen the damage when I saw the reality or so said Ernie. But alas my naivety didn't want to listen to the voices of experience and I was now groaning as I learned my lesson.

It had been just about two weeks since I had last seen the guys, well seen seen at least. They had come in for breakfast as usual when their days allowed it and even popped in randomly here and there when they could. But I had been right when I told Gerard that I wouldn't be hanging out or seeing any of them till after Thanksgiving. I mean I saw them when they came into eat but half the time I wasn't even waiting their table, though Reta tried to make sure I did when it was possible, and perish the thought of leaning on a counter and talking to them for a minute or two. I fumbled in my white apron for my lighter, hoping to snag a second to myself so I could sit on my steps out back and at least grab a drag or two of my long abandoned cigarette.

"Hey Reta..."

"Go grab a smoke break while you can hun," Reta called out over her shoulder as she simultaneously scrubbed down the bar counters and made new coffee. The woman was a machine! A gloriously well oiled machine that could balance the world on one hand and pour fresh hot coffee with the other.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially since I saw people walking down the sidewalk outside the diner and not the few of which looked like our regulars, I popped out the back entrance into my stairwell. Huh, "our" regulars. I had been here at Reta's for what was starting to feel like forever even though it had not even been a year yet, though soon I would be hitting my year mark. But even in that short time Jersey, this diner and these people had become my home. A place where saying "our" felt right. Grinning to myself I sat on the third step and lit my half cigarette that had been sitting there all day since the morning before we opened. Lighting my reason for sanity I pulled out my journal that was always in my white apron when I was at work, right next to my receipt book.

"The world is a precarious balance of come and go, of hello's and hot coffee poured. Strong shoulders, sturdy hands and quick smiles keep the world on it's axis. Jersey is a balancing act and I have become one of it's counterweights. It is speaking to me through it's chorus of holiday rushes."

Finishing my journal entry, too tired to attach a photo reference or even a photo idea I closed my journal and slipped it into my apron. Realizing my cigarette was done a I ashed it into my butt container before putting it out completely, ready to go back out into the craziness of the day. As I stood something white caught my eye, bending back down I stuck my hand behind my butt container and pulled out the white. It was a piece of notebook paper that looked to have been hastily torn out of a sketchbook. Unfolding it I smiled down at the page in front of me. It was a quick pencil sketch of me, just a bust of sorts but you could tell I was wearing my work uniform. It was of me smiling and pouring coffee for some anonymous customer who was only crudely sketched as the back of shoulders and head in a booth. There was only one person who I knew here who had that much talent with a pencil no matter how short a time frame to draw it, let alone who was foolish enough to waste the talent on my image. Smiling even more and feeling a pep in my step I tucked Gerard's drawing into my apron, inside the cover of my journal to protect it.
-xXx-
"I told you guys I wasn't going to be able to see you for Thanksgiving," I sighed into the phone.

"But, but, but. . . What are you going to do for food?" Frankie asked, sounding truly convinced I wasn't going to be getting fed tomorrow.

"I'll eat something from the diner when I get the chance. You know Reta, she may not be able to give me the time off but she'll make sure I eat if nothing else!" I grinned as I explained the facts of life to Frankie, wouldn't want him storming the castle during the holiday to make sure I was eating!

"But what about turkey? And mashed potatoes? Or candied carrots, cranberry sauce, gravy and green beans? Or those funny moon shaped pieces of bread?" Frankie asked, sounding near hysteric.

"You mean crescent rolls? And I'm sure Reta is going to be having a Thanksgiving style special tomorrow for those customers coming in to eat. So I'll eat that it will be the exact same thing!" I replied as I folded my laundry on the coffee table. Benefits of living alone; no one cares where you fold your laundry.

"Ughck," I heard Frankie scoff on the other end at my explanation.

"Frankie put an adult on," I teased as I stacked my finished laundry, not really feeling the urge to put it away. Could have been that I was bone tired and that it was super late. Course that was the explanation I was using for everything these past few days. For the state of my loft apartment above Reta's, for the state of my hair, for the tiny stack of unwashed dishes and the recycling I had yet to take out amongst other such things. But as explanations went it was the gods honest truth, I really was exhausted.

"I hear you called for an adult?" I heard a familiar voice speak on the other line.

I couldn't help but grin. He might not mean anything to me in the romantic sense but I was in love with that man's words. With his words, with his brain, and maybe just a tad jealous of his artistic talent. And part of that infatuation included his voice, and as tired as I was it was more then a welcome sound.

"Hey Gerard. And yes, I did indeed call for an adult," I sighed as I stretched out on my couch, clean laundry be damned!

"What did you need?" Gerard asked, and I could almost hear him curling up on the couch in the den at his place.

"Could you please explain to Frankie about tomorrow and how I can't make it to Thanksgiving not because I don't want to be there but because my staying in Jersey depends on my keeping a job. And that my job is working here at Reta's? And that I will in fact get fed!" I sighed as I closed my eyes and draped a spare arm across them.

"I think I can manage that. As long as you promise me something," Gerard chuckled on his end of the phone.

"And what exactly is that?" I asked, lifting an eyebrow at his question even though he couldn't see the look I was giving him.

"Get some rest at some point," was Gerard's simple and short reply.

"Ha! As soon as my shifts, and yes that is plural, are over. And as soon as my laundry is put away, my dishes done, my recycling done and everything else done as well! Then, then I'll rest my dearest rock star. And only then," I answered as I simultaneously made a mental check list of everything that needed to be done in my apartment and what could be put off another day or two.

"Well as long as it happens at some point is all I ask in return! Wouldn't want you falling dead on us would we?" Gerard asked cheekily, I could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Well I," I started to reply but stopped when I heard an ear piercing shriek on Gerard's end of the phone.

"Ohmygod, ohmygod, oh my god! Jay Bird can't be dead! Oh no, no, no! Not this close to the holidays!" I heard sobbed with the best theatrical dramatics anyone could wish for. Though I did take my cell away from my ear to check my connection as it sounded as if the theatrical bout had cut in and out as I listened.

"Frankie stop shaking me and give my freaking arm back you little asshat! She's not freaking dead! Go mismatch Mikey's socks or something!" I heard Gerard growl on the other and end and finally figured out why it had sounded like our conversation had been cutting in and out.

"You're evil," I chuckled into the phone.

"I do what is necessary," Gerard sighed.

"I'm going to go to bed hun and you best go check your own sock drawer in case Frankie decides to get vindictive on your ass," I chuckled as I picked myself up off my couch and started towards my bedroom.

"Oh shit I never thought of that! Thanks you! Night Jay Bird!" Gerard rushed out on his end of the phone.

"Night Gerard," I replied before hanging up my phone and falling into my unmade bed too tired to bother about pajamas.
-xXx-
"Sam, don't these people have somewhere else to go? It's Thanksgiving for crying out loud!" I groaned as I brought my bused dishes back to Sam at the sinks. Poor guy never seemed to leave them recently! Course since he did help us bus tables out front and do other things for Ernie I knew that he did. But it seemed like at some point soon he was going to turn into a prune!

"Most of these people don't necessarily have families to see, close by or otherwise. So they get their Thanksgiving here with us, and with some of the regulars we're as much family to them as anyone of blood. Some people even bring their families here as you well saw earlier! And I know for a fact that our regular Steven comes here for Thanksgiving dinner because his wife is a horrible cook but always insists on cooking regardless. So he eats here first before going home so as not to starve," Sam replied with a wink as he took my dirty dishes and sunked them into his tub full of hot sudsy water.

"He doesn't!" I gasped, shocked right up to the roots of my hair.

"He most certainly does too. Everyone who comes in here on Thanksgiving knows it, poor bastard!" Sam grinned at me as he went back to fervently scrubbing.

Rolling my eyes I went back out to the diner to see if anyone needed refills or other such things. As I grabbed a new pot of fresh brewed coffee I looked up as the door opened and chimed the entrance of another customer.

"We're here, we're here, we're here Reta!" sang a familiar voice and I stood in shock as my group of friends, Sharon included, poured into the diner. My mouth most definitely hung open because I only closed it when I tasted the cold of the outdoors on my tongue.

"Here you guys go, and thank you once again for helping out this year!" Reta beamed as she handed Frankie a huge brown paper bag that looked full to the brim. Of what I couldn't tell. But she handed every other one of my friends a large parcel, some of which were silver turkey pans bulging at the top and covered with additional tin foil.

"Hey Jay Bird," Bob said slowly with a huge grin as he turned away from the counter, balancing more then one large package in his large capable hands and strong arms. I stood in shock still, completely confused as to what was going on.

"Hey sexy, careful with that pretty mouth of yours wide open or someone might get the wrong idea," Mikey offered with a sly smirk and wink as he turned away from the counter with his own load of, well whatever it was.

"Oh you pig," I scoffed as I lashed out at him with my table wiping rag but felt a blush come to my cheeks regardless. I looked around to make sure no one had heard his comment only to see Gerard roll his eyes as he too stepped away with a load of packages. I looked down at the counter as Ray and Sharon took the remainder of the packages and then head towards the door.

"Happy Thanksgiving everyone!" Frankie called out in song to the whole of Reta's diner.

A chorus of replies followed my friends out the door, which Gerard held open with his foot so everyone else could leave with their leaden arms. He left last but not before he gave me a wink. As the door chimed closed I turned around to face Reta, a confused look on my face.

"Oh I always have those kids bring down a Thanksgiving dinner to the Haven, our local shelter, every year. I can't be there myself on account of how busy we are but I sure as heck can send the food down," Reta answered as if reading my mind.

"But Reta, I never took you for. . . for a uh, Christian," I stumbled out pathetically at a loss for words.

"Oh I'm not religious by any means. I go about my day to day minding my own P's and Q's and making sure everything is dusted. But come the holidays I make sure everyone out there has something regardless of their place in life. I don't particularly think someone needs a religion to help out one's fellow man when they can," Reta replied with a nod of her head. And then with a snap of her constant chewing gum she turned and went back to serving her customers here in her diner.

"Well huh," was all I could manage as I took my coffee pot and went to make my very own rounds.

Notes

Poor Frankie worrying that Jay won't get to eat Thanksgiving dinner!
And darn those moon shaped pieces of bread hahaha!!!