Previously on 'Our Little Relapses'
The boys came home and brought supper with them. We decided that we would eat in the living room for a casual and comfortable dinner tonight. We talked about out trip and our days, then about our plans for in the morning. I'm honestly excited for getting my hair done, it's been far too long.
"Well I talked with my mother this afternoon." Ezra started as he swallowed a bite of his food. "Her and Wesley are coming in tomorrow afternoon for the party. I'm taking off at lunch time tomorrow so I should be here when they get here. Mom is excited to see how you're doing, Aria. Last time she was here you were having to deal with the sepsis again." he informed me.
I feel like we are on good terms with his mother right now with as much as she's been helping us financially. "Okay, that sounds great." I gave my approval. It isn't like I can just say no I don't want to see her after everything that she has done for us. I couldn't be more thankful for how much she has helped us financially.
After lunch Ezra helped me into the recliner so that I could rest for a little while, but I was told that I wasn't allowed to go to sleep since his family would be here any time and Alison has already said that she is going to take me off to get me ready before too long. So I get only a few minutes to rest for the rest of the day. I sure hope that they have some caffeine for me. I guess it's good that Spencer and Alison left to get things ready for the party for a little while.
The door bell rang after a few minutes of me breaking the rules and taking a little nap, so Ezra jumped out of his seat to go answer it knowing that it should be his family on the other side of the door. I blinked my eyes open and rubbed the sleep out of them. I listened to Ezra open the door, "Hey guys! Come on in, Aria's in the living room right in here." he greeted them and directed them in my direction so he can show off how much I've improved since the last time they saw me.
Dianne and Wesley walked in, so I sat up the best that I could and smiled up at them, "Hey." I greeted them, still not fully awake.
Ezra came on in behind them, "Go ahead and take a seat, make yourself at home." he told them as he took a seat on the arm rest of my recliner. He looks happy to see his family, but it's obvious that he has no clue on what he is supposed to say to them.
Dianne smiled at me, "Aria, I have got to say that you look so much better now then the last time I saw you. It's good to see you back home and out of that hospital bed. How are you doing?" she asked getting the conversation started for us.
I smiled back at her. "I doing okay. I'm still getting over everything and I'm still learning how to live with having noodles for legs. Getting around in that wheelchair isn't the easiest thing in the world either." I answered truthfully. There is no point in saying that everything is perfect and I'm getting along wonderfully.
She nodded her head, "I can't imagine that being easy, and this house is not set up for a handicapped person either." she said as she eyeballed the stairs, and well the entire house.
Ezra nodded his head, "Well we're saving and working on being able to renovate it to be easier on Aria, and Mike and Hanna too. We're going to work on getting an elevator put in and a ramp for the front steps, then I'm not quite sure on what we're going to do for the kitchen, but we're going to do something or other to where she will be able to cook." he informed his mother of our plans in the renovation of the house.
I can see something working in my mother-in-law's head right now, she is planning something. I don't think that she's going to say anything at the moment, but I'm sure that it will come before they go back home tomorrow. "How are Hanna and Mike doing?" she asked in response, but her mind is elsewhere at the moment.
"They're just in the nursery with the kids, I'll call them in. Mike- Han, can you come in here for a minute!" he called them so that his mother could see them. "So Wes, what have you been up to?" he asked as we waited for Hanna and Mike to make their way in here, probably with the babies.
He shrugged, "Nothing much, I'm getting ready to go backpacking across Europe for the summer with a few of my friends." he informed his big brother. I could tell that he was trying not to over play the fact that he's getting to go on a big trip because he knows that we are going to be stuck here for a while.
Mike and Hanna came in, Mike carrying Tiffany and Hanna holding Atticus's hand as he toddled his way in. "Did you need something?" Hanna asked as she sat down on the coffee table facing us with Mike standing behind her.
Ezra motioned to his family, "I don't think you got a proper introduction when they were here last, so mom, Wes, this is Hanna and Mike. Hanna, Mike this is my mother Dianne and my brother Wesley." he introduced them.
Dianne's eyes lit up when she saw Atticus, "This must be Atticus, the handsome grandchild I've heard so much about." she said with a twinkle in her eyes. Wow, I never really thought about Dianne being Atticus's grandmother, I've always thought of her just as Ezra's mother and my mother-in-law. It's kind of a weird thought.
Hanna smiled, "Yeah, this is our little Atti, do you want to hold him?" she offered as she straightened the curls on my son's head.
She opened her arms out for Atticus, "I would love to hold him. I can't believe that this is the first time I'm getting to meet my grand baby. When I was here a few months back there was so much going on with everyone I really didn't get a chance to come and see him." she said as she hugged my baby and studies every aspect of his face. "I also wish I could have made it for his birth but I was in Mexico when he was born. Oh well, I'm getting to meet him now, and let me tell you he looks exactly like Ezra when he was a baby." she smiled as she made faces at him to make him smile.
I snuggled into Ezra, "He is exactly like him too, he loves it when we read to him, he gets so concentrated on things that there is no getting his attention, it is so cute how much he is like his daddy." I informed her giving a little information on my son.
Mike laughed, "You know that you fit that description too Ar. You and Ezra were, like, made for each other." he commented as he passed Tiffany to Ezra and eased his way into the kitchen for a mid afternoon snack.
"Back away from the kitchen. bud, save your appetite for the party. We're having a pretty big meal while we're there. I agree with you though, I don't think I could have done any better then our Aria right here." he informed me as he planted a quick peck on my lips.
Mike rolled his eyes at us, "Come on, it's just a snack. Aria?" he asked looking to me to save him, I guess he's hungry.
I raised up my hands, "Don't look at me, I know nothing about this party tonight to know whether or not you need to save your appetite. Let's make a compromise, you can have a banana to tide you over until later instead of your normal mid afternoon snack that I would consider another meal... Maybe two." I told him trying to go with what my husband already told him and what would make him happy.
He rolled his eyes at me, "Fine, but if I starve between now and then it's your fault." he said with an annoyed tone. I don't think he has ever used this tone with me, it's a tone that he would normally use with a parent. I guess he is finally starting to see me as an authority figure. This makes me extremely happy and sad at the same time. Happy that he has finally accepted me as his guardian, sad because that completely changes our relationship.
I raised my eyebrows at him as he stomped to the kitchen. "Excuse me, come back here." I ordered him with with the you're in trouble tone that parents tend to use. Dang, I feel a little old now that I'm parenting my teenage brother.
He came back with an even more annoyed look on his face, "What?" he asked with some major attitude. I know that part of this could be from the brain damage that they weren't able to fix, they told us that after he recovered from surgery. He has good days, and he has bad days. My best guess is today is one of his bad days.
I could feel the parenting come naturally off of my tongue, "You don't use that tone with me. I told you that you could have a banana, that should be good enough of a snack to get you by until dinner time. There is no need for you to use that tone with me." I scolded him for his rudeness and bad manners in the presents of company.
Mike crossed his arms over his chest, "Well I wanted to have a sandwich! A stupid banana isn't going to cover it!" he complained. I almost expected him to throw himself on the floor like a baby and start screaming, but he stayed standing with his face turning redder by the second. Is he breathing? He looks as if he could pass out.
Ezra passed Tiffany to Hanna and stood up to face Mike. "You will not talk to your sister that way. She was being nice to you, now I know that you didn't sleep all that great last night, so I want you to go up to your room and take a nap. If you aren't in a better mood when you wake up then you're going to stay at home tonight." Ezra disciplined Mike. When Mike doesn't get enough sleep, he gets pretty cranky, so Ezra knew to send him up for a nap.
He got a smug look on his face, "You can't do that, I'm not supposed to be home by myself, remember? Brain damage that could cause seizures or something like that happen at any random moment." he fought back.
Did he just say that he wasn't allowed to be home on his own at the possibility of a seizure? I couldn't have heard him correctly, my hearing must have failed me because this is the first that I'm hearing about that. "What did you just say? I don't think I could have heard you right. Did you just say that you're at risk for seizures? I know that you had one with in surgery and that you were at risk immediately after, but that is the only thing I have heard on the matter." I asked in bewilderment.
They both went quiet and refused to make eye contact with me. This made me mad, "Someone say something, why wasn't I informed of this? I think this is something that I should have been told about." I said letting my anger become obvious in my voice.
Ezra finally looked at me, "We learned that at his last follow up. Mike requested that we not tell you because you had just gotten home and he didn't want to take away from any of the excitement of the two of you being able to come home after months of being in the hospital." he explained letting the guilt leak into his voice.
I took a deep breath, I'm not sure how to think about this. "Mike, we've talked about this. We agreed that it would be best for both of us to never keep things from each other." I said letting him see how hurt I am that yet again he doesn't feel like he could talk to me.
He sighed, "It's not that I don't feel like I could trust you, but I just didn't want to think about it myself. Okay? I'm sorry I broke our promise, but if you really want to know everything then I guess you should know that they think within the next year I'm going to loose my ability to process information and I'll develop short term memory loss. I'm never going to be able to get a job, or go to college, or anything like that. So I'm sorry if I didn't want to admit that to myself by telling you." he said with tears running down his face.
My heart broke as I listened to him. "Oh my goodness, Mike... You aren't alone though, we're all here for you every day, Hanna, Alison, and I are going to be here everyday with you. You are not alone. I have an understanding of what you're going through and we can go through it together." I told him as tears ran down my face.
He nodded his head through his tears, "Okay. I think I'm going to go upstairs and take that nap now, I'm not hungry anymore." he said as he turned to walk up the stairs.
Now that we've given our guests a show I took a second to wipe my tears before looking back at everyone. Alison, Spencer, and Hanna's mother are standing there, I guess they came in while we were at it with Mike. "It's time to start getting ready, Ar." Ali told both me and Ezra quietly.
Ezra nodded his head and scooped me out of the recliner and into my wheelchair. Spencer pushed me to the bedroom followed by Alison, Hanna who has given Tiffany back the Ezra, and her mother so that we could all get ready together.
When we got in there and closed the door Ashley sat down on the bed in front of me, "I know that this is hard and that you're upset that he kept things from you, but remember that this had nothing to do with you. He didn't want to admit it to himself, and he loves you enough that he felt that if you knew that would make everything set in stone and final. He wasn't ready to admit it just yet. So, keeping that in mind, don't think about that right now and have some fun. You deserve it. Mike isn't going anywhere he'll be with us for a long time yet." she told me then gave me a hug as she stood up.
I soaked in her words before taking a deep breath, "You're right. I deserve to have some fun, so I'll forget about it tonight." I replied as Alison started working on my makeup and Spencer touching up my hair from this morning.
A/N I know, I know- It's need 5 days since I've updated! I apologize for how long that it's taken. I've had orientation for starting college and have been extremely busy with all of that. Today was my first day of classes, it went very well! I'm not sure how regular my updating is going to be from here on out- but I promise that I will try to update as much as possible!
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Love you guys! XOXO ~ TotalCowGirl