Meeting the Family (Closed to Dan FS)

[AlwaysFaithful]

My Character:
Katherine Doyle, any nickname off of Katherine is fine, except Kathy. Most common ones are: Kat, Kate, Katie, Kit-Kat.
Age: 27
Hair: Long dark red/mahogany hair, usually worn up in a ponytail
Eyes: Pale, nearly colorless grey
She's 5'6" an athletic 120 pounds, her skin is naturally a gold dust color due to a native American background. she has a four leaf clover tattoo on her left hip, which sits right under the waist band of her pants.

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Katherine's Family
Parents: Micheal and Elizabeth Doyle
Siblings/spouses:
Hunter, his wife Abigail, who is seven months pregnant
Nick, his wife Rachel, their two children, five year old Scott and 2 year old Peter
Olivia, her wife Alexia (unless you prefer to not include a same sex couple?)
Quinn, his wife Bellah, their 4 year old daughter Alex
Athena ad her husband Zev, their two children, six year old Paul and four year old Chloe.


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For the first time in a long while, Kat had gotten off work at a reasonable hour. Now she was home, showered and dressed in a pair of basketball shorts and a Chicago PD t-shirt. Her long hair up in a messy bun. She carried a box of pizza and a couple of beers from the kitchen to the living room where her best friend, Sean was. "Did you find a movie?" Kat asked, her voice was a strange mix, it held a whisper of Irish laced with a western drawl, she had a ton of movies and had left Sean to pick one out while she had answered the door to receive the pizza from the delivery person. Setting it all on the table she dropped gracefully onto the couch. "So I got another call from my mom today." The redhead shook her head, "Once again asking if I was bringing a guy home with me." She shook her head, Kat loved her mom, but god it was getting old, the constant questions about dating, and marriage.

It was worse now that Olivia, one of Kat's sister had met and married the love of her life. It meant that Kat was the only single one left, which meant that her mom's attention was fixated solely on her. Of course her mom only wanted what was best, but sometimes she took caring a bit too far. But Kat couldn't get to frustrated. This family had been a life saver for Kat. Katherine's biological parents had abandoned her at the age of six years old, at a fire station in Montana. Unable to find her parents, only knowing Katherine's first name, she had been put into the foster system. Very quickly she'd turned into a rebel child until she was 14 when she'd been placed with the Doyle family as a last ditch effort by the system to fix her behavioral problems. And sure enough it had. They'd refused to let her push them away or to do anything that could damage her future.

So no matter how frustrating it got, she never stayed mad, how could she? But she did wish it could stop for just a little while. Unfortunately there wasn't much she could do about it, afterall, relationships really weren't her thing. She didn't do long-term relationships. She did flings, one night stands, so she didn't have hope that this battle about marriage would end any time soon.

 

[DanFS]

Sean Meehan
Age: 27
Hair: strawberry blond, cut short and swept back from his face.
Eyes: Blue/grey
He stands 6 feet tall, 180lbs, athletic, due to his love of Triathlon, and his job as an EMT keeps him fit.

His only family is his younger Sister, Natalie. She lives in Cork, Ireland, with her husband.

Sean looked up as Kat wandered back into the room with the pizza and a couple of beers, his stomach growling, as she did so, and he held up the two DVD boxes in his hands, as she dropped lightly onto the couch next to him.

“What do you think, Comedy or Action?”
He held up the remote, waving it at the screen, to emphasise his question, the very faint Irish accent barely there in his voice.
He reached over to the table, to choose one of the beers she had carried in with the pizza, and popped the top, before taking a sip.
She reached over and gently prised the remote from his fingers, before selecting the comedy, saying:
"So I got another call from my mom today." Followed by a slight pause, then "Once again asking if I was bringing a guy home with me."

“What did you tell her?” He put the beer down onto the table, and opened the box of pizza, before offering it to her, and then taking a slice for himself, watching her the whole time.

He knew that Kat felt under pressure, her Mom was always saying about her sister Olivia, now married, and Kat was the last singleton.
Sean understood Kat. They were alike as peas in a pod (as his Mother would have said), both worked weird hours, her as a SWAT Officer with Chicago PD, him as an EMT based out of one of the main City Hospitals, which one, depending on his shift pattern.

‘Regular’ life suited neither of them, they were happy, enjoying life as they found it, and trying to make a difference, and where their lives intersected, which had lately, been quite a bit - enjoying each other’s company.
Kat was a good-looking girl. Sean had kept noticing her when he was called out to incidents she had also responded to, and her striking features, plus she looked hot in the SWAT uniform, although he’d never tell her that, because he was fairly sure she’d punch him.

Kat seemed to be in a real situation. It now seemed like nearly every time her Mom called, there was an expectation she’d met someone.
He could understand it, because Kat was pretty, smart, hard-working, and brave. He’d seen that when she’d responded to a Bank Robbery, where he was tending to a security guard who’d been shot.
Fortunately, the guard had managed to fall outside the door when shot in the leg and dragged herself out of the line of fire, and Kat was the one who raced across the street to pull her to safety, so she could be treated by Sean.
That day had started a great friendship. They recognised a kindred spirit in each other and after the Security Guard had been taken to Hospital, Kat had called him, to see how she was, and then he asked her out for a beer.

Now – here they were, and Kat was stuck, big-time.
Fourth of July was coming up, and he just knew the whole of her family were going to be there, and she would go, alone, again, and her Mom would give her a hard time. Kat had worked so hard to get where she was, Sean knew that, and it seemed so….old fashioned to expect her to have marriage plans, just because she was over twenty-five years old.

As the opening credits to the movie started playing, he took a bite of his pizza, and thought about Kat’s predicament.
She was single, he was single, and they enjoyed each other’s company.
Could he lie for her for the holidays? Make her family think she’d found someone.
Would that take the pressure off?

He looked over at her again, looking cute in the Chicago PD T-shirt, shorts and her hair in a bun.
He’d not thought of her like that before – they’d been just friends.

“Kat – what if ……I pretended to be your boyfriend, just for the holidays, to make your folks back off a bit?”
He’d said it before he really thought about what the ramifications of that could be.

 

[AlwaysFaithful]

"Comedy," She said, "We get enough action in our daily life." Settling in, taking a piece of pizza when he offered the box to her. Shrugging at his question, "I told her that with my job, holding a long term relationship was nearly impossible. If I date a civilian, they end up getting pissed with the hours I work, or the fact that I often come home bruised and sometimes bloody, that I will rarely ever be home at a decent hour. And If and I date another cop, we'd never see each other, and there'd be too much risk if I dated a cop that I worked with frequently." She sighed, "Basically I told her to leave it alone." She shrugged, "I know she means well, but it's getting old."

She was taking a drink of her beer when he mentioned pretending to be her boyfriend. She nearly choked on her beer, as she started snickering. She thought he was joking, clearly he couldn't be serious. They'd been friends for a year now, having a bond that came with being first responders, with being willing to put your life on the line for others. But she hadn't ever thought of him as anything other than a friend. Turning her head she eyed him. "You're serious?" She just stared at him for a moment.

"You'd put up with my family for a week, for me?" Not that her family was bad or anything, but they were intense. The maturity level dropped majorly when you put the entire family together. Her family was crazy close, even though they were scattered across the country now, they always came together for most holidays, Christmas and the Fourth of July being the major ones. She tilted her head as she thought about Sean's idea. Could it work? Could they pretend for a whole week. Could she basically lie to her family? She didn't like that idea, but in a sense her mother had brought this on herself.

 

[DanFS]

Sean nodded when Kat told him of the conversation with her Mom, where she explained – again – that for her dating was just so difficult.
As a first responder,
He understood. It was more of a lifestyle than a job – more like being in the Army, or something, he would say, if asked.

He sympathised with her as she said how she had told her Mom that dating a civilian was out of the question, as the rigours of her job meant she came home at all hours, sometimes bloodied and bruised, and most men couldn’t handle that.

Likewise, dating a cop would be just as bad. Most likely as she said, she would be on a different shift, so they’d never see each other anyway, or if they were on the same shift, that would be too weird! Then there was the emotional cost if something went wrong on the job. No – he could see why Kat was so reluctant. Her family just wouldn’t understand.

He guessed this was why he had offered to pretend to be her boyfriend.
He knew what she had to deal with – hell; he’d even patched her up once!

He hated to see her, his best friend, stressing over something so…’normal’.
But then, they weren’t ‘normal’ people.
Who better than him to understand?

He was as surprised as she, when he offered, and more so when she nearly choked on her beer, then snickered, before almost saying:
“Yeah – nice one, you almost had me there!”
Something stopped her as her eyes widened slightly, as realisation set in – he wasn’t joking.

They had both been pretty much ignoring the movie, as the conversation had taken a major detour.
"You'd put up with my family for a week, for me?" She asked, as shocked as he’d ever seen her.
“Sure – to help my best friend out!” He grinned back at her. “Anyway, I’ve already spoken to your Brother Hunter, on the phone, when you were in the shower that time, before we went out to that party and you agreed to be my ‘Plus one’, remember? Hunter sounded cool. I’m sure I could do it – if you were real nice?”

He grinned back at her as she reached for a cushion to throw at him.
As best friends, they also shared the same sense of humour, which is how he knew to put his hand up to defend himself.

She didn’t say it but her eyes gave her away, saying “Very funny!”
But he could also tell, she was now giving the idea serious thought.

 

[AlwaysFaithful]

She laughed, "Yeah he is pretty cool, though he thought he was talking to my best friend, he'll be totally different if we're a couple." She chewed on her lower lip, seeming to be seriously thinking about it. "Do you think you could get the time off? We'd leave in a week on the 1st, and be gone for a week, coming back on the 8th." She couldn't be seriously considering this....and yet she was. then she nodded, "What the hell, Yeah alright, let's do this. I'm insane. This is insane." She shook her head, she couldn't believe that they were going to be doing this.

"We'll have to figure out a story, as much the truth as we can, seeing as I already told them about you and that we were friends." She mused, "I suppose we can just saw that after being friends for a while, something sparked and we decided to give a relationship a try recently." She suggested, tilting her head to look over at Sean. "I'm not sure you know what you've gotten yourself into." She laughed, "My family is wonderfully insane. We resort to children antics when we are back at the family farm."

She finished off her first piece of pizza and eagerly went for a second. She was athletic and appeared as if she was careful about what she ate, but in reality she wasn't, Kat would literally consume just about anything and could eat as much as a man twice her size, mostly because of her job and the amount of calories she burnt during work. She ate as she contemplated her friend, wondering if they'd be able to play this role without it disrupting their friendship. They'd have to share a bed, be close, act like a couple, hug, kiss, hold hands. Her family was not traditional or shy, they fully expected and accepted affectionate displays, it would make them suspicious if those displays didn't happen.

 

[DanFS]

As Kat was talking, thinking out loud, really – Sean nodded in agreement.
He totally understood what she was saying.
“Don’t worry about the time off – I am owed a couple weeks’ worth of overtime. I’m sure if I put in for leave, they’d let me have the time off rather than pay me!”

He and his sister and her husband were always playing jokes on each other when they were together and he was still very affectionate towards Natalie, as she was younger than him. Until she met Neil, her husband, Sean had felt so protective of her, so he knew where Kat was coming from – family wise.

“You’re right, it’s an insane idea, but look at us!
We’re both insane to do the jobs we do in the first place. I don’t like to see you stressing about this, Kat. You’re a smart, brave, beautiful, funny woman, and you deserve happiness in life!”

As soon as he had said those words, he started to blush.
It had sounded like a declaration of love, but it was how he felt. He wanted her to be happy.
As an EMT he needed empathy to help his patients. That’s all he was doing now, trying to feel what she was feeling.

“Of course – we’d have to do the things couples, do.”
Sean said, now he was thinking aloud, and had read her mind.

“This is awkward, but do you think we should practice stuff like holding hands, and sneaking quick kisses when in public? For your family’s benefit we’ll have to kiss, I mean properly kiss, when we know they’re watching, but make them think - we think we’re alone, right?”

His cheeks were burning as he held her gaze.
“Maybe we should practice kissing too, so it feels and looks more….natural?”

For the first time, he thought of her sexually.
Her hair in a messy bun, and the Chicago PD T-shirt & shorts suddenly weren’t just
casual clothing, but strangely alluring.
Sean tried to furtively gaze at her chest, trying to imagine the breast beneath.
As he raised his eyes northwards again, he thought he’d been busted…

 

[AlwaysFaithful]

Kat chuckled, "Yeah, we should practice," THen raised a brow when she caught where he was staring, "You're lucky we've just decided to try this insane plan. Otherwise I'd punch you for that." But those sort of things would be expected from her family. Not that they'd like it, but it was normal behavior. She tilted her head, "So we have like a week to get this couple thing down, of course my family won't be expecting her to be deceiving them, but they weren't stupid, they'd know if something wasn't right. "So, I work everyday this week, but it should be just the day shift, assuming things go as they should." She smirked, as if things ever went normal in her work.

But it would leave the evenings to work all this out, assuming Sean would have the time. "But we've been friends long enough, it should transfer easily. We have that part of the relationship down, knowing each other." She mused, hoping that it would all work out as it should. She took another sip of her beer, realizing she had no idea what was going on in the movie, she'd stop focusing when she'd started talking with Sean about her family. And now, with so much to think about she certainly wasn't paying attention. Finishing her piece of pizza she relaxed into the couch, watching the movie for a brief moment before turning to face Sean again, "Thanks for this. For being willing do put up with my family for me." She said.

 

[DanFS]

When Kat saw where Sean’s gaze was and she said she would have punched him under any other circumstances, Sean grinned.
“Well, Kat – I didn’t want to upset or undermine you, as you’ve always been the toughie – and that’s part of what I like about you – that you’re better at what you do than most of the guys you work with.”

“Of course I’ll help you – you’ve helped me with things too, it’s what friends do.”

He paused, trying to find the right words.
“You’re my best friend, and I don’t want to screw that up – but has any guy ever dared to tell you how attractive you are?”
He took a breath then added:
“You’re smart, strong, funny, good-hearted, and sexy, but not in an ‘in-your-face’ way that so many women try & do. I like that your beauty is more subtle than that.”

He braced for a punch or something – as he’d never spoken to her like that before, but truth be told, as his best friend, and the amount of time they spent together, she was the closest thing he had to a girlfriend.

Then, he decided to really go for it. He held his arm out, and beckoned her to him.

He smiled broadly and added:
“If we’re going to start practising - what about right now? Just start slow, with a cuddle on the couch, while we watch the movie. After all, your folks are going to expect some kind of displays of affection, aren’t they?”

Even though they had gone swimming, been each others’ ‘plus one’ at parties and done all sorts of activities together, as friends - this was different.
He’d seen Kat in all states of undress too, as she’d been getting ready to go out when he’d turn up to drive to wherever they were going, and lost count of the number of times he’d helped her zip up the back of a dress, (on the few occasions she wanted to wear one, they usually hung out together, dressed like now, or in jeans) but he’d never thought of her in ‘that way’ before now.

He held his hand out, and waited, hoping he hadn’t blown it…

 

[AlwaysFaithful]

Kat smiled, "We won't screw up our friendship. Years from now this will be a funny story we tell people." She said, then tilted her head, listening to his compliments, "Aren't you sweet?" she murmured, smiling. He held out his arms and Kat chuckled, nodding. "Yes, they'll expect affection." She slid over and snuggled into his side. Despite her tough, independent attitude, she actually liked cuddling, a lot. And was naturally a snuggler, whenever she had bed partner, she would always wake up wrapped around them.

She pressed against his side, laying her head on his shoulder. She was a bit tense at first but the longer they stayed like this, the more she relaxed, one arm eventually slid over his waist, to rest as she got more comfortable. Finally she paid attention to the movie, figuring out what was going on. Her cat came up and curled up beside the pair, purring as she slept. Kat realized that even though they had never down anything intimate or sexual, they were essentially dating already. Hell, anytime there were social events to go to, the pair naturally went together.

She'd lost count of how many times her unit thought she was dating 'that EMT guy' as they called Sean. They had regular pizza and movie nights, which seem suspiciously like dates at times. It wouldn't be unusual for one to sleep on the other's couch, if it was too late to drive home, or if they'd drank too much. It occurred to her that they might just be able to pull this off, to convince her family that they were a couple.

 

[DanFS]

He smiled back at Kat when she confirmed this wouldn’t screw up their friendship, and they’d probably find it funny, years from now.
He grinned and winked at her as she told him he was sweet, but he had meant every word – he realised he did find her very attractive.

As she snuggled into his side and rested her head on his shoulder, his smile grew wider, and he rested his hand lightly on her thigh.
The film was OK, nothing spectacular, but he just enjoyed the fact he was watching a movie with Kat, more like a couple, and not ‘just as friends’.

He hoped that convincing her family they were together would be easy, as they were on the same ‘wavelength’, on so many subjects and he loved her company.
They laughed together at several jokes in the film, both visual and verbal. It felt good to be enjoying each other’s reactions to the film.
There was a particular scene in the film, where the heroine was dressed in a bikini, and walking along a beach and waded into the shallow surf, washing up on the beach, when a young guy on a jet-ski rode past and the wake from it sprayed her as he turned back out to sea, as if he was showing off some moves to her.
The drenching seemed accidental, but they both laughed, especially when the heroine gave a rude gesture, and the next couple of her words were bleeped out, to emphasise her disgust.

Sean patted her thigh, as he said:
“Oh my God, that is so much like you!” He laughed, imagining Kat dripping, as she hurled verbal abuse at the young miscreant if she were in the heroine’s place.

Sean looked into her eyes, and told her:
“I know if we ever went on vacation and anyone did that to you, they would be SO dead!”

As the heroine turned back to Camera, it was clear to see her nipples prominently through the bikini top.
“She doesn’t look as good as you do in a swimsuit, though, Kat. Your muscle tone is better, and you move more gracefully, even if she does swing her tits and ass!”
He told her sincerely, praying suddenly she hadn’t noticed his growing erection, as he imagined her in that situation.

After a short pause, he asked her:
“Do you think when we go to see your family; there would be the chance of a trip to the beach, so I can make sure?”
She looked up at him, with a look on her face….was it a challenge?
Then she smiled, and turned back to the TV.

“Would I need a suit? My suit is years old, and probably looks like it should be in a museum. I’ll have to start looking - I’d appreciate the help, since my idea of what looks good probably doesn’t quite match up to yours, and I don’t want to mess this up!”

He shifted position, trying to get comfortable, but not wanting to dislodge her….