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Carson wasn’t quite sure when his house became the designated hang out spot for Nancy and her friends whenever they weren’t solving mysteries. It made sense, though. His house was private-no customers, no neighbors that might overhear something they shouldn’t, and was big enough to comfortably fit the five teenagers with some room to spare.
Somehow, it began to evolve from that.
Bess was the first one of Nancy’s friends that Carson “adopted”. Once he found out that she was living in a van, Carson had insisted that she stay with them for as long as she needed. They had a guest room that was hardly ever used so she didn’t have to keep sleeping on the couch in Nancy’s room. Carson didn’t even say anything when the guest room became Bess’ room and her belongings became more commonplace around the house (she was even cleaner than Nancy was). And once she was kicked out of the Marvin family, Carson made sure she knew that his offer still stood.
With Bess, naturally, came Ace. He and Bess were close friends, which was obvious by how he was almost at the house as much as Bess was. Nancy didn’t always join them-sometimes she was off solving a mystery, doing some investigative work for him, or just upstairs in her room, which was where she usually retreated to after a long day. On good days, Nancy would join them downstairs where they alternated who got to decide what show or movie to watch.
Carson was thankful for Bess and Ace. Not only were they both good kids (barring the crimes that they seemed to regularly commit), they were both shockingly good at getting Nancy to come out of her shell and to let herself relax every once in a while.
George and Nick were the surprise additions. He knew that they were Nancy’s friends, too, but they both had lives-families and businesses-to take care of. Not only that, but they were also in a relationship and that meant that there were times that they wanted to be by themselves. Still, they joined the group for game nights every few weeks (and if Carson made himself scarce during those nights to give the kids some time to just be kids , then no one had to know). Eventually, they even started joining Nancy, Ace, and Bess for movie nights as well.
It seemed only natural that it would somehow evolve to where weekly “family” dinners became a thing as well.
Every Sunday night became the unofficial “family” dinner at the Drew house.
Carson would make dinner with Bess’ help and everyone else was responsible for bringing a side or dessert; Nancy was the only one spared from having to cook anything because, despite her many talents, she was an absolutely terrible cook and wasn’t allowed to make much else besides toast.
It was after the fourth or fifth subsequent dinner that Nancy let a joke slip about how it felt like family dinner and how he felt about adopting four more teenagers as his own.
He was really the only parental figure that the kids had in their lives. Sure, George and Nick still had their mothers, but Victoria was drunk or hungover half the time and Nick’s were hundreds of miles away. Ace had his parents, too, but neither of them were aware of what the group was mixed up in half the time and it seemed like Ace preferred to keep it that way.
So, yeah , he kind of did adopt four more teenagers.
Sunday family dinners become a standing tradition in their large, chaotic family.
And Carson does have to admit that they are never boring.
Nancy is generally a closed book, especially about whatever mystery she is currently solving-mainly because she doesn’t want to worry him or have him try and stop her from investigating. Her friends do not share the same sentiments, however. It was at one of these dinners that Bess let slip that Nancy and Ace were dating. That was one particularly interesting and actually extended past Sunday as Nancy stole all of Bess’ jewelry and hid them all over the house and Claw in retaliation.
Besides the juicy secrets that are revealed, it also isn’t uncommon for someone to be arrested for doing something by Detective Tamura.
It gets to the point where Carson not only has money set aside for bail payments, but also a chart in his kitchen with all five teenagers’ names on it and a sticker for every day one of them goes without committing a crime. Whoever has the most stickers by the end of the week gets first dibs for leftovers and dessert. It was usually George or Nick who won since Nancy and Ace regularly broke into places or hacked into private records (Carson made it a point to never ask what crimes are committed) and Bess was still a reforming kleptomaniac.
It is also very rare for them to actually get through dinner without someone (i.e. Nancy and Ace) rushing off to solve a mystery or Tamura stopping by to arrest someone. After the fifth time the detective shows up to arrest someone, Carson begins to set a plate aside for him and gives him a standing invitation to join whenever and hopefully not when he needs to arrest one of Carson’s kids.
It takes him too long to put it together, but Carson eventually figures out that Tamura has come to care for the kids-particularly Nancy-and he just can never admit it out loud; he reminds Carson of Nancy in that regard of how they always seem to need some excuse or cover to do something that would reveal their true feelings to the world.
And, of course , the addition of Detective Tamura to their family dinners adds only more chaos to the already insane levels.
He and Ace do not like each other and it is obvious. Once Carson starts setting aside a plate for the detective (because he always stops by in the middle of dinner, never the beginning), he discovers this firsthand.
Ace always sneaks back into the kitchen, and behind Carson’s back, to take the detective’s plate out of the microwave and puts it in the fridge to make sure it's cold by the time that Tamura comes in. For some inexplicable reason, Ace also removes any and all bones from Tamura’s plate-if the meal has bones in it.
Carson would say something to put a stop to it, but like many things these days, he just learns to accept it for what it is.
Besides, it’s not like Tamura makes a big deal about it. He just makes bone jokes or references throughout dinner while also making vague references to giving Ace a haircut. Ace takes his comments in stride by acting completely oblivious to the missing bones in Tamura’s meal even though everyone knows it was him who did it, which just makes everyone at the table snicker as if they are all privy to an inside joke.
The entire thing is probably going to turn him prematurely grey (and possibly Ryan as well), but Carson regrets none of it. For the first time in what feels like years, the Drew house is filled with joy and laughter as people that had been brought together in the strangest ways possible enjoyed a meal and the companionship that came with being around people they cherished most.
Carson’s only wish was that Kate had been here to witness it. He knew that she would have absolutely loved it. Neither of them had come from big families themselves, so they had missed out on the big, chaotic family dinners that everyone spoke about.
Although...something tells him that she knows.
And something tells Carson that Kate would love the mismatched family that he and Nancy had created for themselves.
But Carson was definitely going to need to get a bigger table because he had a feeling that it was only the beginning.