One Night - Night at the Museum

Eighteen: The Perfect End to a Perfect Night

A disheveled Larry paced before the lobby staircase where a group of very ashamed exhibits sat.

"I honestly don't know what happened out there tonight guys, but it was really, really weird." He turned to Teddy who was standing off to the side with Sac. "I mean, Teddy, what were you doing pointing a gun at me?"

"Forgive me, Lawrence," said the president sorrowfully. "I don't know what came over me."

"Do you even remember that?"

"Not at all."

Dexter chittered.

"Hey you're not innocent here either, Dexter. You almost ripped my face off!"

Dexter chittered again, this time it sounding a lot like laughter, and he stuck his tongue out.

"Ah give him a break, Gigantor, can't you see he feels terrible? Hell, we all do!" cried Jed.

Larry rubbed his hands over his face. "I have McPhee to face, the board to face, the chairwoman to face - I have to come up with some sort of explanation. And I was going to propose to my girlfriend tonight, but I guess that's not happening anymore." Nat wasn't present, she and Ahk had gone to inspect the tablet again.

There was silence. Everyone felt awful.

"Look, I don't even know where to begin figuring tonight out, or if it was even real. I know how much you guys love this night program, and I love it too but now we're really going to have to get things back together if we want to continue this. So first thing's first: we figure this out." With that, the unpleasant meeting drew to a close.

Both exhausted and confused, Larry and Nat returned to their Manhattan apartment. While they were getting on the elevator, Larry's cell phone rang.

He looked at it and sighed. "It's Dr. McPhee." Nat gave him a small smile and pat on the arm. He sighed again before answering the call and facing their boss.

Nat winced as she could hear the museum director yelling from the other end, Larry holding the phone away from his ear while trying to apologise.

"Listen, I promise I'll figure out what happened-" His words trailed off as they approached their apartment, where loud music could be heard from inside. "Look, I'm sorry, Dr. McPhee, I gotta go." With that Larry hung up. He and Nat exchanged a glance before heading inside...

It was total chaos in there, almost as bad as the show tonight. The apartment was full of teenagers all dancing to electronic music being played by none other than Nick. They had just walked in on a high school party taking place in their living room.

Food and cups littered the floor, and everyone was shouting while trying to talk over the music. They pushed their way through the crowd towards where Nick had set up his DJ equipment.

"Hey!" shouted Larry. Nick froze when he saw them. "Nicky! Nicky!" Larry pulled the plug for the speakers, abruptly cutting off the music, and Nat turned on the lights.

"Hey!" protested the teenagers.

"Dad, what are you doing?" Nicky cried.

"What are you doing?" Larry shot back. "It's three a.m. Party's over. Everybody out!"

Slowly, the kids began to file out the door. A couple of girls came over to Nick.

"See you tomorrow night?" one asked him.

"Probably not," said Larry.

"Probably," Nick answered, giving her a smile.

"Definitely not," said Larry. When at last, everyone was gone, he turned to his son. "Nicolas Daley, you're in so much trouble."