Secret (Dance Moms Fic)

Chapter 20: Birthday Train Watching

At Abby's apartment, it was June 17 and that was a special day as it was Ryan's 12th birthday and at midnight, Ryan was asleep in his bed and he felt a tapping on his shoulder. He opened his eyes and saw that Abby was standing over him smiling.

"Happy 12th birthday, sweetheart." Abby fondly told her son, leaning down and giving him a hug, then she kissed him on the top of his head.

"Thanks, mom." Ryan responded as he hugged his mother back. "This is the first birthday i'll spend with you since we reunited and that's really special."

"It sure is." Abby agreed. "Later, i'm going to take you on the train to Woodside in Queens so we can watch some trains and Paige'll come with us, we'll meet her, Chloe and Gianna at Penn Station to catch the 12:59 train to Huntington after we ride the 1 train from the 59th Street-Columbus Circle Station as Christi and Kelly."

"Sounds great."

"Great to know, i'll let you get some sleep."

"All righty."

Abby exited her son's bedroom as Ryan went back to sleep and around 9:00 am, Ryan woke up and headed to the bathroom where he brushed his teeth, took a shower before putting on a New York Yankees T-Shirt, Trackpants and Slide-On Sandals before heading to the kitchen where Abby, Maryen and Broadway Baby were at as breakfast was on the table.

"Happy Birthday, Ry." Maryen told her grandson, giving him a hug.

"Thanks, grandma." Ryan stated as Broadway Baby barked as to say 'Happy Birthday' to him.

"Broadway Baby says Happy Birthday." Abby said.

"I can tell."

After having breakfast, Ryan watched some TV and he got birthday messages and around 11:57, Abby and Ryan took the elevator down to the lobby before exiting the building and 3 minutes later, they arrived at the 59th Street-Columbus Circle Subway Entrance before heading downstairs and paying the fare and around 12:02, the 1 Train aka Broadway-7 Avenue Local with R62A cars arrived at the station.

10 minutes later, the train arrived at the 34th Street-Penn Station and the Millers came up the stairs and were now in Penn Station, one of the most busiest train stations in the country and it serves Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road (aka LIRR), NJ Transit, Port Authority Trans-Hudson (aka PATH) and New York City Subway trains and also, it's underneath Madison Square Garden, an arena that's known as the World's Most Famous Arena because of its rich history of events that took place there and the previous three Madison Square Garden's and the arena is home of the NBA's Knicks and the NHL's Rangers. They were in the LIRR concourse and approached ticketing where Chloe, Paige and Gianna were standing.

"Hey, everybody." Abby greeted.

"There's Miss Abby and Ryan!" Paige pointed out as the three approached the Millers.

"Happy Birthday, Ry!" Chloe, Paige and Gianna told the now 12 year old before giving him a hug.

"Thanks." Ryan said.

"No problem." Paige stated.

"Just to let yo know, after we got our tickets to ride the train, i got you two tickets as well as the train leaves at 12:17." Gianna informed, handing Abby and Ryan their tickets.

"Thanks, Gia." Ryan told her.

"You're welcome." Gianna commented as Ryan looked at his watch. "It's now 12:14 and the train leaves in 3 minutes."

"Let's catch the train."

Abby, Ryan, Gianna, Chloe and Paige all headed downstairs to Track 15 where a M3 train was sitting, they boarded the train and the inside ha red and blue seats and sat down as Paige sat next to Ryan.

"Why di the lights go out?" Chloe asked

"Chloe, from what i was told by a conductor once, the M3 train cars don't have a battery backup for the lighting systems. And when they traverse the gaps in the 3rd rail and traversing switches, the lights go out for about 5 seconds." Ryan explained as the train lights came back on.

"Wow." Paige stated. "Interesting fact."

"That's definitely interesting."

"Also, the M7 cars have a battery backup for the lighting systems, so even if they traverse the gaps in the 3rd rail, the lights stay on." Abby added.

At 12:29, the train was seen at the Woodside station, located in a New York Borough called Queens arriving at the train station with the same name and the trains that stop there are the Babylon, Far Rockaway, Port Jefferson and Port Washington branch trains as Oyster Bay and Montauk trains bypass the station on the through tracks in the center as the northern tracks have the Port Washington branch and the southern tracks have the Babylon, Far Rockaway, and Port Washington branch trains and on weekday peak periods, the West Hempstead and Hempstead branch trains stop there an in addition, there was a subway station where the 7 Flushing Local and Express subway trains stop above the LIRR station. As the train came to a stop, Abby, Ryan, Gianna, Chloe and Paige got off and were on the center platform.

"We're finally here." Ryan stated.

"That we are." Abby said to her son and seconds later, the train left the station on it's way to Port Washington and a few minutes later, a train that had C3 bilevels and a DM30AC engine on the southern center track went past the station heading to Penn Station as Ryan took a photo with his camera.

"That was a fast train." Paige commented.

"It was." Chloe added.

A Far Rockaway train with M7 arrived at the station with the engineer sounding the horn for Ryan, Chloe and Paige after they waved before he also wave back.

"Ryan, one day, i'll take you to either a Mets or a Yankees game and for Mets games at Mets-Willets Point, the Port Washington LIRR and the 7 Flushing Local and Express trains stop as their stations are connected with an overpass to the stadium and for Yankees games at Yankee Stadium, the Metro-North's Hudson Line and the 4 Lexington Avenue Express subway has stations there." Abby told her son.

"That's really cool." Ryan stated.

"It is." Gianna agreed.

Abby, Ryan, Gianna, Chloe and Paige all continued watching trains and Ryan even got some horn salutes from the engineers an around 4:30, they caught a train back to the city and in Times Square, they headed back to Abby's apartment and there, there was a birthday party for Ryan as the other girls, moms, their families and other dancers were there and they had a fantastic time.