Ok guys, ready to finish?

Mike: I am.

Peter: (Nods) Me too.

Micky: Ready.

Davy: Me too.

(We open in the Montgomery House's kitchen. Emma's making pancakes for Katie, Jordan, Lauren, and the twins. Emma hands Little Mick his plate.)

Emma: Here you go, little man. Peanut Butter Pancakes with strawberry syrup.

Little Mick: Thanks, Aunt Emma!

Emma: (Pats Little Mick's head) Anytime, little man.

Bob: Good morning, ladies and kiddies! Happy New Year!

Emma: Happy New Year, gentlemen. Did you have fun at the party last night?

Bert: We always have a good time at your parties. Micky plays a great game of ping-pong.

Lauren: Thank you.

Bob: Where are they, anyway?

Emma: Still out. We were all up kind of late last night, telling stories.

(Micky and Peter emerge at this point. Peter smiles at the girls, then off-camera.)

Peter: Hi, guys! Happy New Year!

Bob: Hi, Peter. Did you have a good time at the party last night?

Peter: I had such a great time, I really don't remember most of it, besides that story we did.

Katie: You told a story and didn't invite us?

Micky: We told a story?

Emma: Yeah! Don't you remember? The car, and the bad guys, and the conveyor belt, and we had to travel from New York to LA...

Peter: It was a great story!

Emma: I don't think it came out as well as the one we did last year, but it's not bad, either.

Micky: Umm, no.

Peter: Well, I enjoyed it! It was a very well-done spoof of old-time melodrama. You don't even remember the parts you told, Micky?

Micky: I told a part?

Peter: We all told parts, Micky, just like last year's.

Emma: (As she brings Micky his food) What on Earth did you have to drink last night, Mick? You look even worse than usual after one of your huge parties. :

Micky: *scratches his head* Good question. Maybe I'm just not as used to it anymore.

Emma: You are getting older. Maybe you just can't handle it as well as you could when you were a kid.

Peter: (Shrugs) I drank like I normally do, and I feel fine.

Emma: You claim to have given that up...and you don't drink like five fish.

Peter: Micky, do you need some black coffee?

Micky: I'll take some, thanks.

(Emma pulls out mugs for Micky as Davy and Mike emerge. Mike plops down in another chair, not looking much better than Micky.)

Mike: Is my head explodin'?

Emma: Welcome to the land of the living, dear. (Pours coffee for Micky and hands the mug to him.)

Bob: Sounds like you partied pretty hard too, Mike.

Mike: (Rubs his head) Yeah.

Peter: Do you remember telling a story last night, Mike?

Mike: Vaguely. Somethin' 'bout a car race, an' Babbitt, an' we won...

Emma: You're doing better than Micky is.

Mike: Micky don't remember his own name mosta the time.

Micky: *Elbows Mike* Not funny.

Bob: I guess it wouldn't be much use asking what your favorite part of this story was, then.

Mike: The western sequence.

Emma: The garden sequence finale in Los Angeles.

Peter: Driving the car down the Mississippi, which sounds really strange, now that I think about it.

Lauren: Scaring Max out of his mind.

Mike: What was with the runnin' gag with her and Max? (Emma hands him his coffee) Thanks, darlin'.

Peter: (Chuckles) It was funny?

Emma: Anytime, Baby.

Bob: How about you, Davy? Do you remember the story?

Davy: Rescuing Daphne from the conveyor belt.

Mike: Micky, do you remember anythin' 'bout last night?

Micky: Not a stinkin' clue.

Bob: Damn, you must have had some GOOD stuff!

Bert: Why didn't you share it with us?

Micky: I don't even know what I HAD!

Emma: (Hands Micky another cup of coffee) Maybe some more of this will clear the cobwebs from your brain.

Micky: *Mutters* Thanks.

Mike: If coffee could do that, we would have given him gallons of it years ago.

Micky: *Groans* Nice.

Bob: Ok, let's leave Micky alone. When did you girls come up with this idea?

Emma: I actually came up with this one I think at the end of not last year, but the year before. I thought it would be good for NaNoWrite, but we ended up liking Lauren's "around the world" idea better, so we adapted this one for the January alt-universe story.

Mike: (Shrugs) I liked workin' with those old cars.

Emma: I came up with the idea after hearing that some of the guys really did race cars in small races in real-life. I thought it would be fun. (Shrugs) This wasn't the most organized story we ever did, but it came out pretty well.

Mike: My darlin's brilliant. She came up with some good stuff. (Downs the entire mug of coffee at once)

Emma: (Blushes) Thank you, Mike.

Peter: I liked Lauren going after Max, even if women wouldn't really wear pants like that in the Edwardian era.

Emma: It fits her character. At least I got her in the bloomers.

Lauren: Mainly because I didn't really have to wear them.

Emma: (Hands Mike his pancakes) Here you go, honey.

Mike: Thanks. (He digs in) I'm glad we watched "The Great Race." It gave us some interestin' ideas.

Emma: (Nods; to the camera) "The Great Race" inspired quite a few of the gags here. It's a 1965 comic epic-spoof of melodramas, with Tony Curtis as the good-guy car driver, Jack Lemmon as the hammy bad guy, and Natalie Wood as the suffragette reporter. Blake Edwards, best known for the "Pink Panther" movies and "Victor/Victoria," directed. Not a great movie under any circumstances, but fun if you like wild comedies with lots of slapstick and goofy comedians running around in historical costumes.

Mike: I'm glad we got to work with cars in this one. Made things a lot more fun. (Turns to Micky) Shame you don't remember. The car could turn into a boat an' ride up the Mississippi, an' it could out-run Indians and Belavarg...

Mike: It was kinda like when Urse turns into a boat, buddy...

Peter: (Nods) And we haven't used her boat mode in a while, either. Not since the incident with the pirates.

Micky: *Eyes widen* Uh, what did I say about the boat?

Mike: Basically that it can handle Mississippi River rapids and tow stranded vehicles.

Micky: Oh... *remembers the kids* crud.

Peter: You know, guys, it might not be a bad idea to upgrade the vehicles, now that we have the time.

Micky: It, uh, was gonna be a surprise. I sorta already upgraded Urse.

Mike: You did?

Peter: Is that what you were doing in the Beach Cave over the holiday week?

Micky: Yes.

Mike: What did you do?

Micky: Apparently exactly what I did in the story.

Mike: (Thoughtful) You know, Micky's right. We need to work on upgradin' some of our other stuff, too. The motorcycles really need it. (Looks at Micky) You think you n' I could start workin' on the cycles. (Smirks) Once you can think straight, of course.

Micky: Of course.

Bob: That reminds me...what's coming up next month, ladies?

Emma: We're going on vacation.

Micky: Yay!

Peter: My school is having a convention and will be closed for a lot of the President's Day Weekend, so I can join them.

Emma: Yes, next month is our vacation resort story. February is usually a fairly busy month for us, and we don't usually do a lot of writing. I doubt this will be an exception...but it should be cute, however long it is.

Peter: Valerie has everything settled. We'll leave for Coconut Island the day before Valentine's Day and stay through that weekend.

Mike: I'm so glad the Devils are in jail. We can actually have a vacation in peace.

Bob: Are they actually still in jail?

Peter: To anyone's knowledge. Nielson isn't going to let Sheila weasel her way out of this one.

Mike: Which is fine by me. It's about time they ended up in jail for good. I'm sick of their nonsense.

Emma: For once, I agree with you, Baby. The Devils have been allowed to run rampant for far too long. Even if they don't stay in jail for life, at least they'll have some time to stew in their own juices and maybe get over themselves a little.

Mike: 'Sides, they ain't the only bad guys in town anymore. I still wonder what happened to Belavarg. He just disappeared without a trace.

Emma: (Snorts) Humph. Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say.

Peter: (Shakes his head) Michael's right. He vanished too suddenly to be gone for good.

Micky: He'll be back.

Mike: (Nods) Remember what happened when Sheila disappeared after we defeated Zero? She didn't really vanish, either. She was just regroupin' and workin' on PPF. That's probably what Bela's doin', too - regroupin'.

Micky: That's the feeling I got.

Emma: I'm hoping for these stories to be a little bit darker than last year's four-parter that dispatched Stella. It's time to shake things up again.

Mike: (Grins) And you guys will be happy to know that I finally got a bite for our sheet music. We're gonna start printin' soon. (Turns to Micky) Have you been talkin' to those guys 'bout my music video ideas? 'Cause I know I've been talkin' to people.

Davy: *Sees Micky's unknowing look* Yes, we have.

Peter: Michael, that's wonderful!

Mike: Yeah. We're gonna really have our own company now. I might even have to get us a bigger office somewhere in LA.

Peter: Will we all have our own offices?

Mike: (Grins) Sure! Someday, we'll even have our own recordin' studios. We'll be able to make our own specials. (Grins at Micky) With the first-choice director.

Micky: *Grins* Really?

Mike: (Shrugs) Sure. We'll just put warnin's on not to eat before watchin' our videos.

Micky: *sighs* I can't just get a normal compliment.

Peter: (Hugs Micky) You'll be wonderful!

Micky: Thank you, Pete.

Peter: Anytime, Micky. I'm sure it'll work out great.

Bob: Peter, are you going to continue teaching?

Peter: (Nods) For now. It's not my first choice job, but I do like working with the kids.

Mike: You're great with the kids, Pete. You're real patient with them.

Katie: We like you, Uncle Peter! You showed me how to throw a baseball!

Peter: And you're very good at it too, Katie. I shouldn't wonder you'll be joining the girls' softball team soon. You too, Shelly.

Shelly: I can't wait!

Mike: You play any sports, Little Mick?

Peter: He has a pretty good fastball.

Little Mick: All of them!

Peter: Maybe you'll be on my team when you get to high school, Little Mick.

Little Mick: I hope so!

Mike: (Shrugs) I ain't never been much for sports. Only sport I played in high school was dodgin' the hall monitors.

Peter: I've always played baseball.

Emma: I played field hockey in high school. Wasn't very good at it, but I did play.

Peter: (As he finishes his pancakes) I wonder if Valerie's up yet? She and the boys are still out.

Emma: She needs her rest. She's been working so hard at Headquarters.

Mike: Dave, is Daph and Lizzie still out, too?

Davy: Yeah.

Mike: Feelin' better now, Mick?

Emma: Cobwebs clear yet?

Micky: *Shakes his head* No, not really. I think I need to go lie back down.

Emma: Go on ahead, then. We weren't going to do anything else today.

*Micky gets up, gives a half-wave, and heads out.*

Mike: (Leans back) I don't feel like goin' back to sleep. Maybe I'll work on a song or watch some TV.

Katie: (Turns to the twins) Wanna go play in the upstairs playroom? Maybe we could play a game!

Shelly: Okay!

Little Mick: Yeah.

Mike: I'll watch the TV in there with 'ya, then.

Emma: I think I'll bake a cake for the group. There's a low-fat peanut-butter cake recipe I've been wanting to try...

Peter: There should be everything you need in the pantry, Em. Just put it all away when you're done with it.

Emma: I always do. I like a neat kitchen.

Lauren: I'm gonna check on Mick.

Davy: Think I'll spend a nice quiet day with Daph and Lizzie.

Mike: I hope Mick's ok. Whatever he drank last night really kicked the shit outta him.

Peter: Micky's been awfully into all these holiday parties he's held lately. Remember what he was like at your birthday party, guys?

Mike: Yeah, and that was just last week. Lauren, how did you get him up and around for this party?

Lauren: Threats and coffee.

Emma: We're going to have to work on him. He can't be like this all the time if he's going to help Mike with company business, and I don't think they'll appreciate it on the radio, either.

Mike: You guys still doin' the radio gig?

Lauren: Me more than him. Mick's been on the construction sites a lot lately. I have a funny feeling that's what's causing his binges.

Mike: Tryin' to party off all that stress?

Lauren: Could be. He won't talk about it, though, and it's pissing me off.

Peter: I might see if I can talk to him sometime, Lauren.

Lauren: Please do, Peter. I don't think he's listening to me about it.

Emma: While the rest of us relax, I think it's time we finished this story. Mike, since you started this story, why don't you finish it?

Mike: Sure. (Turns to the camera) We here at Dream World hope all of our readers had a really happy and safe New Year's.

Peter: You can find books on antique cars and car racing in the 20th century and adventure stories about car racing online or at your local library.

Mike: See ya next month, folks!

(We fade out on everyone waving. Fade in on the end credits. "Little Red Rider" plays over scenes from the "production." The credits end with a shot of all of the families in front of the Beach Cave, including little Austin, and the words "A Raybert Production" superimposed over the shot.)