Dinner seemed to be a huge affair. Angie had started preparing for it right after lunch, and assigning them all tasks. She had been hesitant at first to ask Lucas to help, until a nudge from Tony and a meaningful glance had persuaded her to suggest that he set the table. This had actually kept him busy for a ridiculous amount of time, as it quickly became clear that he had never set a table before in his life.

"Didn't your parents ever ask you to set the table?" she asked, wonderingly.

"No. They were never really home that much, so we rarely ate together, and when we did the staff took care of everything."

Tony looked curious. "How many staff did you have?"

Lucas looked embarrassed.

"Well, my mother wasn't very domestic, so we had a cook/housekeeper, a maid and a gardener. Oh, and of course, when I was younger we had a nanny."

Now Angie was also curious. "And they looked after you and your parents?"

"Well, no, they mainly just took care of the house. My mother traveled a lot, and of course my Dad was working on the World Power Project, so he wasn't there much. It was usually just me in the house, and I generally ate in my room, so it was pretty easy work. If you can call working for my mother easy!"

He laughed wryly at a joke that no-one else really understood, never having met her. He saw them looking at him oddly, and felt self-conscious. He didn't know why he had shared that, he usually never mentioned his family. It was something about being amongst a real family that made him see how much he'd missed.

"So that's why I don't know how to set a table," he finished lamely.

Tony grabbed some cutlery. "C'mon, Genius, let me show you how! I'm only going to do one, though, then you're on your own!"

There seemed to be a huge amount of people. Angie and Gina, Angie's sons, Richie and Eddie, Tony's parents, Nick and Marie, and the three of them. To Lucas, the noise seemed incredible. By the middle of the meal his head was starting to throb with all the shouting. Even Dagwood seemed out of his depth. The two of them sat quietly at the end of the table, finding themselves completely overwhelmed. Attempts were made to include them in the conversation, but there were so many interruptions that even then they were drowned out in the crowd.

"Hey Dagwood, how much can you press?"

"You crazy? He's a Dagger, I bet he can lift a car, maybe even a truck..."

"Dagwood, can you lift a truck?"

"Well hold on, what kind of a truck anyway?"

And the whole conversation continued without him contributing a word.

"Lucas, you really don't eat meat? Man, I would hate to not eat meat..."

"You'd hate to not eat anything, you pig!"

"Yeah, but I'd miss meat. Imagine never again being able to eat a roast..."

"Hey, did I tell you about that steak I had at Angelo's last week? You wouldn't believe it..."

Lucas sipped at his water and waited for the meal to end. Dagwood beside him was eating enthusiastically, but even before his accident his appetite had been small. Now, he was rarely hungry and eating seemed to be more of a chore than anything else. Honestly, the medications he was taking caused him to be nauseated most of the time, and everything tasted different to him. Most things just seemed to taste like nothing at all.

He had taken a small amount of everything to be polite, and even tasted most of it. It tasted... well, fine, as far as he could tell. He looked up and saw Angie watching him. He smiled insincerely and took a small bite. She smiled back at him, as if she understood. Her next words showed that she probably did.

"Looks like we've all finished," she said, completely ignoring Dagwood's heaped plate and Nick reaching for what would be his fifth helping. "Why don't you all go and sit down? Tony and I will clear the table."

Tony stood up with a groan, "After all that food, are you kidding me?"

"We can help," Lucas volunteered, gesturing to himself and Dagwood.

"No, thank you Lucas. Dagwood's still clearing his plate, and I know that Gina wanted to show you the garden."

Everyone looked surprised at this, except Gina, who looked pleased.

"What garden? It's a dead lawn with some weeds growin' in it!" protested Nick.

"Nonsense, it's very pretty out there. Take jackets, though, it's cold, and don't stay out too long, okay?" She looked meaningfully at her daughter.

"Yes Mom! Come on Lucas, let's get your jacket. Do you have a scarf? Never mind, you can borrow one of mine!"

And with that, she led him off.

As the others went to the other room, Tony approached his aunt.

"What was that about?"

"You didn't notice? He looked as green as spinach, and he kept rubbing his temples. I thought he needed some fresh air, and quickly."

"Oh. Thanks. I didn't notice, I guess. You think he's okay now?"

"I imagine the fresh air will help. Does he get that a lot?"

"Yeah. He take these pills, painkillers. The doc said they help with the pain, but they don't make him feel great. She's been trying to get him to eat more, but he says he feels sick all the time, and the food just tastes weird. That's why he's still so skinny. She even tried him on those nutrition shakes, but he just threw those straight up, and now he won't touch 'em."

Her heart twisted as she thought of him.

"Ask him if there's anything that he'd like. And we can clear away the food quicker from now on, so he doesn't have to sit there for too long. And let's try and be quieter!"

Tony grinned. "The first two may be doable, but the last? Never gonna happen!"

In the garden, a similar conversation was taking place.

"Are you okay? You look like your heads hurts, and you look a little green."

"Sorry." He apologized, feeling guilty. "It's not the food - or the company!" He explained, smiling at her. "I take pain meds, they make me feel bad most of the time. And I do have a bit of a headache, I'm sorry, I don't know why."

"It's because we're so loud all the time. We're always like this. What's it like at your house? Is it really just you most of the time?"

He nodded.

"It's the complete opposite. Sometimes it's so quiet everyone forgets I'm there and they go home and forget to leave any food for me." He smiled again. "Once, when I was five, I broke my arm trying to climb up to the cupboard to get some cookies, they'd forgotten to leave me anything for dinner. My mother was furious."

She smiled with him, but she didn't know why. It was a sad story. He suddenly seemed to realize.

"I'm sorry, I don't know why I keep talking about my family today. I haven't thought of that in years, and now I'm telling you. I'm sorry."

"You apologize a lot."

"Tony keeps saying that."

"You should listen to him." She grinned. "But only about that. The rest of the time he says some really dumb stuff."

"I heard that!"

Tony came out to join them.

"How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to hear myself insulted!" He threw a look of mock disapproval at Gina, and handed Lucas a glass of water.

"Brought you this." He looked around at the stars. "Aunt Angie was right, it's a really pretty night. You forget how much you miss this, don't you?"

Lucas sipped gratefully at the water. "Fresh air and stars. I know what you mean, it feels like it's been forever."

"Still, you should be getting back inside...feeling better?"

"Yes, thanks."

"Want to turn in for the night?"

Seeing him about to object, he continued, "No-one's going to mind, it's fine. You're bound to be a bit tired the first night here." He grinned a Gina, "We can be a lot to take in, best to take us in smaller doses at first."

"Thanks. Yes, I'd like that, I am tired. Sor..."

"Don't say it!" they chorused.

They headed back inside, and Tony signed to Dagwood to stay where he was, still happily eating. Everyone was laughing and talking, so only Angie noticed the two of them heading into Lucas' room.

Even though the room was just next door, it was surprisingly quiet. Tony picked up Lucas' bag and started to pull everything out of it.

"Tony, you're making a mess."

"Never mind, you can clean it up in the morning. Here's your toothbrush, go do what you need to. I'm going to unpack Dagwood's stuff so he doesn't wake you up later."

Lucas nodded, and returned a few minutes later.

"Okay, no arguments tonight, I'm gonna help you, okay? It's been a long day and I want to help."

Lucas bit his lip, then nodded. Truthfully, he was tired and his head hurt. Just for tonight, he would accept the help.

Tony pulled back his sheets and helped Lucas move himself over to the bed. He gave the small gasp that they both knew so well by now, and Lucas remembered.

"I need my meds."

"Sure, where are they?"

"You put them in Dagwood's bag."

Tony looked inside. "Yeah, I ran out of room in mine! Okay, let's see what we need..."

"The white ones, one of each, two of the round ones."

Tony opened up the bottles and poured out pills until he had five, and handed them to him.

"Let me get some water. You're sure you don't need the yellow ones?"

"No. They're the strong pain pills, I only need those when things get really bad."

Tony nodded. "And you don't need them tonight?"

"No, I'm just tired and have a headache, I just want to sleep."

"Okay. Hey, try and think of something you'd like to eat while you're here, okay? Aunt Angie is dying to feed you up!"

Lucas smiled as he started to drift into sleep. "Okay. You have a great family, Tony."

"Yeah, I know. Lucas..."

"Hmm?"

"Why was your mother angry when you broke your arm?"

He was pretty sure that Lucas would never have answered him if he had been conscious of what he was saying, but in the midst of drugged sleep he answered, "It was Christmas Eve and she had to leave the party to collect me from the Emergency room, she hadn't planned on coming back until the 27th...", and with that, he fell asleep, leaving Tony looking at him thoughtfully.