Chapter 56
Moving around the kitchen almost noiselessly Kelly was quietly humming a melody that somehow got stuck in her head. Thea woke up shortly after 5 am and made her way into their bed promptly falling asleep once she was with her parents. It wasn't the case for Kelly thought as the sleep just kept avoiding her and she finally gave up about 15 minutes ago making her way downstairs to start on breakfast. It was still early and the rest of the house was quiet as everyone else was asleep or so she thought. As she was moving from the kitchen island to the stove she saw a glimpse of a person standing in a doorway that made her gasp in surprise and stand still.
"Sorry, I did not mean to scare you." Cindy Walsh said apologetically entering the kitchen.
"I was not expecting anyone to be up at this hour. I thought you and Jim were still asleep." Kelly said, setting the bowl with pancake batter next to the stove.
"Jim still is, but I just kept tossing and turning in bed and instead of waking him up decided to come downstairs and start on the breakfast."
Kelly smiled softly. "I beat you to it this time; I couldn't sleep this morning." She was definitely not an early bird.
"Nerves?" Cindy asked taking a place at the breakfast aisle.
"Not really." Kelly wrinkled her forehead. "To be honest I'm surprised how calm I feel about the adoption lately, there is a lot of respect and emotions are high, but there are no real nerves, not even after meeting Lucas." She smiled softly.
"Respect is a good approach to the whole situation." Cindy replied taking a place at the breakfast aisle as Kelly was seemingly fully in charge of everything related to the breakfast.
"Yes, I guess so." Kelly agreed silence setting in between the two women before she spoke again. "I wish it was all a little bit easier tough."
"Welcoming a child into family is never easy and it does not matter how the child comes, it always changes everything." Cindy said carefully.
"Yes." Kelly said hesitantly, not sure how to explain what she has been feeling for quite a while. "Having Thea changed our lives completely, but no matter what would happen there was a safety net of our family and friends behind. Now with Lucas, we are on our own and don't get me wrong I'm in no way doubting our abilities to handle the situation, but sometimes the missing safety net scares me especially when we are stepping into the unknown."
"I know that feeling, when we were expecting Brandon and Brenda we were on our own and the uncertainty of everything was overwhelming at times, but once they were there it was suddenly all gone. You're maternal and survival instincts will kick in and you'll be fine." Cindy smiled.
"Well I sure hope it will be gone soon." Kelly let out a sigh. "Just, please don't say anything to Brandon. I don't want him to worry over this. He loves his job here and we can handle this even if we are in San Francisco."
"Don't worry; what we discussed will stay between us." Cindy assured her.
"Thank you." Kelly mouthed.
"Do you think you could use some help with the breakfast?" Cindy asked.
"Sure, there are two men to feed and one picky eater." Kelly smiled.
"Where are the times when she would eat anything at any time?" Cindy shook her head picking up an apron and tying it around her waist.
"Long gone, I guess the terrible twos are catching up with us way quicker than we would have wished for. I swear she's been eating the same thing for breakfast for weeks." Kelly let out a sigh.
"That's just another phase that will pass." Cindy assured her.
Hours later with Jim and Cindy gone for the conference and Thea taking her nap the house was as quiet as in the early morning. Brandon has been resting on one end of the sofa going through the channels in TV,looking for something remotely entertaining to watch while Kelly was curled up on the other end of the sofa with an open book next to her that she had yet to start reading.
Failing to find anything to watch among the hundreds of channels Brandon turned the TV off, setting the remote control on the table. His eyes meeting with Kelly's who took this as an opportunity for the talk she has been putting off while he was otherwise entertained. "You're tense today." She stated the obvious.
"I bet you know why." Brandon rolled his eyes returning to his previous position.
"No, not really, is it Lucas again?" She questioned him closing the book and setting it on the table.
"No, Kel, it isn't Lucas. I heard you this the morning." He said finally.
"You heard me this the morning?" Kelly raised her brows not sure what was on his mind.
"Yes, telling my mom that you wish we return home."
"First of all, I never said that, second of all eavesdropping is not nice." She crossed her arms in front of her body.
"I agree on the second one, but shouldn't that have been a discussion between the two of us instead of you and my mother?" He asked her, saying out loud what was bothering him the most.
"Yes, if there was a reason to have any discussion of that kind. All I said was that I wished it was easier, that we had our families around helping us out when we grow our family from three to four. I'm sure it's something that crossed your mind as well in the past days. Do I doubt our ability to handle this on our own? Absolutely not. Do I think right now is a good time to even discuss moving back home let alone proceed with it? Not at all." She looked at him sternly.
Brandon rubbed his face; he was so disappointed with himself after the meeting with Lucas yesterday that he took something that he would normally not even bat an eye over as a huge offense. "I'm sorry, Kel."
Moving forward without a word Kelly wrapped her arms around him, the two of them sitting there in silence in each other's arms for minutes.
"Jenna was not joking when she said it's going to be an emotional rollercoaster." Brandon smiled softly repeating his own words from the previous day.
"No." Kelly agreed, her fingers playing with his hair.
"I can tell the higher ups I want to return to LA."
"Brandon, don't even start this." Kelly leaned away from him slightly. "You love your job here and we can handle this."
"Wouldn't it be easier if we could call your or my mom whenever we would need help with our kids? Or if you could head out to the park or beach with Donna and Brenda and their kids during the day?" He questioned her.
"Yes, it would. The question is, do I want to trade that for an unhappy husband who had to let go off his dream because we felt scared that we can't handle adding another child into our family?" Kelly raised her brows.
"Kel, I will be fine." Brandon said quickly, but the skeptic look on Kelly's face assured him that he was not going to fool her, no matter how hard he tried. "Okay, I would regret it." He admitted finally.
"See and this is the reason why I casually mentioned it to your mother instead of having this life changing conversation with you." She chuckled.
"Am I really this easy to read for you?" Brandon grinned.
"Mhm." Kelly confirmed kissing him quickly. "But that's a good thing Brandon, saves us a lot of time that we would have spent with useless conversations."
Brandon laughed loudly before wrapping his arms around her tightly again. "I don't know what I did to deserve you, but I better keep doing it." He joked kissing her hastily, the weight of his body pushing her on her back, their hands running wild as the two of them were making out on the sofa.
"Damn it, she's up already." Kelly breathed out disappointed when they could clearly hear Thea talking through the baby monitor.
"It's only going to be worse with two kids in the house." Brandon chuckled, picking up his shirt that somehow found its place on the floor and pulling it over his head.
"Don't scare me." Kelly mumbled sitting up lazily and straightening her clothes.
"I'm going to take her." Brandon said quickly disappearing from the room and moving upstairs.
"Daddy!" Thea's face lit up as soon as she spotted him in the doorway. Stretching her arms towards him she waited until he picked her up from the bed. It was a funny twist that she had no problem getting in and out of her bed during the night or in the morning, but after her nap always waited until someone will come and pick her up.
"Did you have a good nap, Lil T?" Brandon asked carrying her to the changing table.
Thea nodded in reply, before she leaned away from him pointing to her bed. "Teddy!" She babbled.
"Oh right, we forgot Mr. Teddy bear." Chuckling softly Brandon returned back to her bed picking him up for her. "Now that I have both of you we can go and change your diaper right?" He asked the little one not expecting any answer.
"My brother?" Thea asked patting her teddy bear who was lying next to her while Brandon was changing her diaper.
"Yes, you are going to meet your brother on Monday." Brandon smiled, they tried to prepare Thea for the changes ahead, but it was yet to be seen how understanding a not even two year old could be.
"Now?" Thea asked narrowing her eyes on her father.
"Not now, Thea. Now we will go downstairs and find your mommy and go out to the playground before grandma and grandpa return. Tomorrow we will take grandma and grandpa to the airport, and then you will go to sleep and meet your brother when you wake up the next day." Brandon narrated.
Thea looked at him not sure what to make out of his words. "Brother." She concluded finally happily patting her teddy bear.
"Right, you'll have a brother." Brandon grinned putting her pants on, he threw the dirty diaper into the bin before he picked her up and headed downstairs.
"Mommy! Me hungry!" Thea announced as soon as she spotted her mother.
"Oh, I bet you are. You haven't touched your lunch." Kelly chuckled taking the re-heated food out of microwave as Brandon sat Thea in her highchair.
Placing the bowl with chicken and rice and her spoon in front of the little one ended just as she expected it would. Thea pushed the bowl away Brandon catching it in the very last moment before it ended on the kitchen floor.
"It was worth the try." Kelly mumbled quietly rolling her eyes mentally as she headed to the fridge taking out vanilla Greek yogurt and blueberries, one of the few things that she knew Thea would eat for sure.
"I wonder where she gets her stubborn streak from." Brandon grinned setting the bowl with chicken and rice on the counter, watching his daughter who was smiling happily in her highchair once the chicken and rice were gone.
"No idea." Kelly mumbled, giving him a wink. "But I swear she lives on yogurt and blueberries these days." She sighed placing another bowl in front of Thea who dug right into her food.
"Let's be happy she eats at least something." Brandon concluded feeding himself the leftover chicken and rice. "You want some?" He asked Kelly who was looking at him.
"No, thanks." She shook her head smiling. "So what's the plan for the afternoon?"
"I thought we could head out to the park before my parents return."
"Sounds good, some of us need to burn some excess energy." Kelly agreed watching their daughter.
"Exactly." Brandon grinned placing the empty bowl in dishwasher, the sound of ringing phone interrupting their conversation. "I'll take it."
Kelly nodded her head turning her attention to Thea and secretly hoping it was not the newspaper. They deserved an uninterrupted weekend together as family. She was not really paying attention to the call or Brandon's words before she heard "I'll talk to my wife and call you back immediately."
Brandon put the receiver back in its place his heart racing, turning around he was met with his wife's questioning eyes.
"When I was changing Thea's diaper upstairs she mentioned Lucas and seeing him today, and as you like to say what Thea wants, Thea gets. After this call it seems your words are going to come true again." Brandon said attempting to turn the news he had to deliver to Kelly into a joke.
"What's going on Brandon?" Kelly asked feeling the excitement and fear grow at the same time.
"The Roberts' can't foster Lucas any longer, some family emergency. Jenna thought that instead of temporarily placing him into another foster family he could go directly to us."
"When?"
"If we say yes, she'll bring him over in two-three hours."
"Oh my God." Kelly mumbled sitting down in a chair as she felt her head spinning. She felt Brandon's hands on her knees a moment later as he kneeled in front of her.
"We can do this Kelly." He said soothingly.
"I know, it's just so sudden, I thought we still have time, we have nothing ready for him." Kelly looked up at Brandon.
"Yes, we have. He can sleep in Thea's old crib tonight and tomorrow we can head out and get his own bed and furniture for his room and instead of heading to the park right now we can go out and grab some basic clothes for him before she'll bring him over, the rest can wait." Brandon narrated.
"Yes, yes, you're right." Kelly breathed in and out before focusing her eyes on her husband and nodding her head.
"Good." He leaned in kissing her quickly. "I'll call her back and let her know she can bring him over."
"Yes." Kelly confirmed, her eyes following her husband who was by the phone almost immediately dialing Jenna's number. Just a few hours left until they'll be a family of four, the excitement prevailed.
