Work Text:
Brandy scuttled around the living room of her apartment, tidying things for about the tenth time that morning. Hearing the long anticipated knock at her front door, she hurried over to it. Opening the door, she found Bandit there with a smile on his face. Returning the smile, she looked down to see Bluey and Bingo standing on either side of him wearing backpacks.
“Hi girls!”
“Hi Aunty Brandy!” The girls chorused as they hugged her excitedly.
“Thanks a heap, Brandy,” Bandit said, looking relieved. “Sorry again for the short notice. I don’t know what we would have done if you hadn’t said you could watch the girls.”
“Of course Bandit,” Brandy said. “I’ve had surprise work calls too. And I’ve been wanting to have the girls over anyway.”
Bingo looked up at her happily. “Really?”
Smiling widely, Brandy nodded. “Of course! I had so much fun when I came to see you. Besides, I wanted you to meet-“
“Am I crazy, or is that my favorite brother-in-law I hear?” Brandy was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a male Schipperke from further inside the apartment. Spotting the girls, the dog-somewhat shorter than Brandy-smiled wide. “And you brought the niblings!”
This episode of Bluey is called Uncle.
Rolling her eyes in amusement, Brandy spoke to her nieces. “Bluey, Bingo, this is my husband, your Uncle Elliot. Babe, this is Bluey and Bingo.”
Dropping to one knee, Elliot extended a hand first to Bluey, then to Bingo. “Man, I haven’t seen you tackers since Bingo was in nappies! And Bandit! How’ve you been mate?”
Smiling, Bandit shook hands with Elliot as he stood up. “Pretty good El-nice to see you again! Sorry to cut this short, but I’ve gotta run!”
“No worries Bandit! We can catch up later. You and Chilli free tonight? We can have dinner when you come to pick up the girls!”
“Sounds great mate! See you then!” With a quick hug to each of his daughters, Bandit was off.
Brandy took the girls’ backpacks off as Elliot turned his attention to them. “You kids had brekkie yet?”
“No, Dad didn’t have time,” Bluey said.
“Well, can’t be having hungry Heelers in the house, can we?” Elliot asked with a wink, prompting giggles from both girls. Brandy smiled as she watched him lead the girls to the kitchen table. As he did, their toaster popped.
Once the girls were seated, Elliot went to the toaster, sticking in some more bread after he set the slices that had just popped on plates. Brandy sat down next to the girls, who were looking around excitedly at their new surroundings. Elliot busied himself nearby, rummaging in the fridge and working on the counter before walking to where his wife and their nieces sat.
“Cheese and jam for Bluey,” Elliot said, placing a plate in front of her. He then quickly laid a second plate in front of Bingo. “And banana and peanut butter for Bingo.”
The girls dug in eagerly, but Brandy was puzzled. Looking at Elliot, she spoke. “How did you know-“
Just then, the toaster popped again, and Elliot hurried back to it. “Hold that thought! Gotta get our brekkie now. Cinnamon toast for me, and honey for my honey!”
The girls giggled again, and Brandy shook her head in amusement. Before long, everyone was eating breakfast, and Brandy forgot about her earlier question. Afterwards, they went into the living room. Brandy and the girls sat on the couch while Elliot took a chair.
“Uncle Elliot, how come you haven’t come to see us with Aunty Brandy before?” Bluey’s question made Brandy take on a pained expression, which the girls didn’t notice. Elliot did though, and he just smiled at her and Bluey.
“Well girls, your Uncle Elliot happens to be a sailor by trade. That means I spend a lot of time working on a big ship far away from home. Even your Aunty Brandy doesn’t always get to see me in person a lot of the time. Kind of like your dad’s brother Rad, right?”
“Oh yeah!” Bingo nodded understandingly. Brandy, puzzled, looked at her husband. She barely knew anything about Bandit’s brothers. How did Elliot know what they did for work?
Before she could ask, Bingo suddenly sprang up and dug into her backpack. “Could you draw me a picture of your ship, Uncle Elliot?”
“‘Course I can, Bingo! I like drawing ships almost as much as your mum likes drawing horses!”
And so it went throughout the morning. Elliot knew the names of Bluey and Bingo’s teachers. He knew that Bingo’s best friend was named Lila, and that the girls had two neighbor friends named Lucky and Chucky. He’d heard that they’d been to the Big Peanut, and gave an ecstatic Bingo a bag of stickers he’d collected for her on his trips.
And before Brandy could even worry about Bluey feeling left out, he’d pulled out a short book on introductory French. As he gave it to Bluey, he made references to both a friend she’d made on a camping trip and some game the girls had played with Bandit. Neither Bluey nor Bingo batted an eye that an adult they’d only just met knew so much about them.But Brandy grew increasingly bewildered as the day went on.
Finally, as the girls were finishing up lunch, Brandy walked up to Elliot as he was clearing up in the kitchen. He gave her a warm smile as she approached. “Oh, honey, listen to this. The girls were telling me that their friend Mackenzie-he’s a Border Collie-“
“Babe,” Brandy said, looking him square in the eye. “How do you know all these things? Seriously, you’ve been spouting things about the girls all morning.”
With a soft smile, Elliot picked up his tablet. He made a few taps, then turned the screen to Brandy. It was his email folder, with his messages all laid out in a list. Beside the various emails were pictures, mostly snapshots of the people who had sent them.
Many of the pictures were of Brandy herself, of course. But to her astonishment, as Elliot scrolled down the list, there were other familiar faces. Most of the time it was Bandit. But every now and then she spotted Chilli’s face as well.
“We kept in touch, honey. Even while you and Chilli weren’t talking. I wasn’t trying to keep it from you or anything. It’s just that we usually exchange messages when I’m aboard ship.”
“Really? But…why?”
Elliot looked at her with the gentle kindness that had made her fall in love with him. “Because I always hoped you and your sister would start talking again. And I wanted to make sure I was ready when you did. I can’t be a very good uncle if I don’t know anything about my nieces, can I?”
Brandy felt tears in her eyes, and she smiled at him. Then she looked at the girls. Bingo was putting on a funny voice, and Bluey was fighting to contain giggles. Suddenly, Brandy felt sad.
“You probably know more about them than I do. And they’re my sister’s kids.”
Taking her hand, Elliot smiled at her again. “Well, that’s the good news, isn’t it? We can both get to know them better-together.”