"Those are some incredible pictures," Paige said. "And she's going to be in the Netherlands until Christmas, you said?"
"Until December fifteenth," Linda replied. "She wouldn't miss Christmas at home for the worl…" she trailed off. "I mean, she's just on vacation. It's different when it's for work."
Paige smiled. "I know. I appreciate it, though."
Linda shook her head. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry." Paige would be lying if she said she wasn't just a little bit jealous that Linda's mother was going to be home for Christmas when Walter would be anywhere else in the world but Los Angeles, but she would be a terrible person if she was upset at Linda for being glad that she'd have her mom with her. Paige knew they were incredibly close. If her father was still alive, she'd be looking forward to the holidays with him just as much. "I do love seeing those pictures. I've been all over the world with Team Scorpion, but there isn't exactly a lot of time for sight – seeing. That would be such a cool experience to be able to have."
"I know, right?" Linda said. "I'm envious of her. She said that maybe one day when I'm not so bogged down by work – her words – the two of us could go." She gave a little laugh. "Bogged down by work. That's a joke. What she really means to say is what I do pays barely enough for me to get by and so I can't afford to miss any of it. She's just putting it in a nice, encouraging way because that's what parents do."
"That's a big part of the job," Paige admitted, "but as a parent, I've found that it's not all that difficult. Because people have so much potential, it's easy, when you love them, to want to help foster that potential into something great."
"Easy for you to say. You've got a kid that's going places. I'm a mess."
"No you aren't."
"You don't have to Mom me, Paige," Linda said with a laugh. "I'm three years older than you."
"I'm not," Paige insisted, "I'm just saying, I struggled for a while, and I felt like a mess a lot of that time. It's easy to get down on yourself. I was probably depressed for a while there. But a good support system can make such a huge difference, and I know you've got one in your mom, and you've got one in me, too." She smiled. "I'm really glad we became friends."
Linda smiled. "Me too."
"Good. And you know, I really appreciate all the Thanksgiving help. The team, they're great, but they aren't the best at planning things like this. I know Allie would help, but for some reason that feels weird to me. Like it'd be planning with my mom, and…and that's not something I ever did with my mom. I just feel like it would be awkward."
"Well, I'm completely down to help make this a wonderful Thanksgiving," Linda said. "I found this great recipe for vegetarian stuffing that I can bring with the pie."
Paige froze. "Bring?"
"Now I know most of the team eats meet, but Allie doesn't, right? This is delicious and it would give her more options, for sure. It always sucks to be the only person with a dietary restriction at a big family event."
"Oh…" Paige nodded, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. "Yeah. Yeah, that's a good idea."
Linda looked at her with a confused expression that suddenly turned to horror. "Oh gosh, oh my gosh, I'm s – s – sorry," she stammered, wiping her hands on her jeans. "I didn't mean…I didn't…I wasn't…or, uh, I shouldn't have expected that I'd be invited."
Paige felt horrible. She'd been asking for recipe ideas and had even accepted Linda's offer to make pumpkin pie. Why wouldn't the older woman assume that she was going to be spending Thanksgiving at the garage? Especially since her mother was out of the country? And who was Paige to take advantage of a friend like that, even without realizing it?
"I'm sorry," Linda said again. "I'm…I'm so embarrassed, I always do this, I…maybe, you know what, I think maybe I should go…"
Thankfully, working with Scorpion for years had taught her how to think fast, and this was one of the easiest problems that she'd ever had to solve. "Linda," she said, trying to look confused as she reached a hand up to prevent the woman from leaving. "You are invited. I just hadn't put much thought into vegetarian options for Allie, so I'm glad you brought that up."
Linda looked at her, biting her lip anxiously. Paige stood up. "Linda, I swear. I'm sorry I got a funny look on my face there. I've just been so preoccupied with my usual Thanksgiving recipes that, like of course!" She bumped her forehead with the heel of her hand. "More food items without meat! Duh!"
Linda sat back down. "I'm sorry. For getting all flustered, I mean. I'm so horrible with social interaction. Maybe that's why I suck at my job. I can fake it for a while but then I just…" She looked away. "I'm sorry. You're going through all this stuff and I'm just here lamenting myself."
Paige giggled.
Linda looked back at her and frowned. "What?"
"I'm sorry, that just…you saying you were lamenting yourself reminded me of college when I failed a math test. I came into the room and my roommate asked how the test had gone, and I said terrible, and I was just going to go into the shower and loathe myself. And she got this uncomfortable look on her face and told me that that was too much information."
Linda's eyes grew wide and she pressed her lips together. It was clear that she was trying not to laugh.
Paige grinned. "I am dead serious."
Linda put her hand over her mouth. "Oh my God."
"So, you know," Paige said, "please don't lament yourself in my condo."
"Do you guys have any special Thanksgiving traditions?"
Ralph shook his head. "I mean, we do the whole family dinner thing, which obviously has gotten bigger since we fell in with Team Scorpion. But it's not like Halloween, where we have anything going on that is different from everyone else."
Daniel's fingers flew over his iPad. "My family does something weird."
"Oh yeah?"
Daniel nodded as he typed his response. "Yeah. Do you want to hear about it?"
"Always."
Daniel smiled, holding up a finger to ask Ralph to wait a moment. Ralph nodded.
Daniel and the other kids in the level of school expected for their age still had one day of school left before Thanksgiving break. Ralph did not have any Tuesday afternoon classes this semester, and his Wednesday class was cancelled, so he was already off. But he knew his mom would be working hard on meal planning, and he also knew that she wouldn't let him help until Thursday, so he walked the four blocks between his college and the middle school after his class to have lunch outside with Daniel.
"Okay," came the voice from the iPad. "My family thinks that Thanksgiving is Christmas. In a way. Like you know how religious people tell the story of Jesus' birth every Christmas? Every year at Thanksgiving my family reads the story of the pilgrims and the Native Americans. People play certain characters and everything, just like the play they do in churches for Christmas."
"Is it accurate?" Ralph asked. "Like, does the story continue on to talk about how feasts of thanksgiving were held every time there was a massacre of Native Americans until the 1860s when Abraham Lincoln just decided instead of feasting every time we killed them it was easier to just set a day aside each year?"
Daniel stared at him. "Holy shit," came from the iPad.
"Daniel!" Warned a lunch lady from a few tables away.
Daniel smirked at Ralph, his pointer finger tapping a few times. "Oops."