A/N: Sorry for the delay, computer issues :)

February 9th 2020

Chapter 40
Their Holidays With Cheer

Lucas was awakened on Christmas Eve. He'd been dreaming, he was almost sure of it, and then all of a sudden he was awake, just a bit disoriented, and looking up into his fiancée's face as she stared down at him. She had her hand over his mouth and held a finger to her lips. Quiet. When he nodded, she pulled her hand away and smiled, leaning in to kiss him before motioning for him to follow, indicating their attic buddy, who was truly sleeping this time around.

He followed her, out of the attic, down the stairs, and with boots and coats on they had stepped out on to the porch. The morning air was brisk, but they'd seen worse.

"Something wrong?" Lucas asked.

"What? No, why would something be wrong?" she shook her head.

"Sneaking…" he pointed around them, bracing against a passing chill.

"I just thought… This might not be our 'first married Christmas' like Zay and Nadine, but it is our first one living out here, and well, all my family being here, it's not like we can really take a moment to really acknowledge it. Not once they all wake up anyway. So… we're here…" she indicated the house with a smile, which he already mirrored.

"Ho ho ho," he pulled her into his arms.

"Oh, yes, that's better, warm me up," she hummed, burrowing herself as close as she could.

"You know, I was right here the first time I remember seeing snow?"

"I didn't know, please tell me," Maya told him.

"You just want me to keep holding you, don't you?"

"Half the reasoning, now tell the story."

"Okay," he laughed. "Well, I must have been like… four? My parents were out of town so I was staying here over the weekend, which was more than fine, I mean I loved being here, with Pappy Joe and Granny Susannah. I was upstairs in their room… our room, now… I woke up from my nap, and I got out of the bed, went to the window. I'd always do that, so I could see if my parents' car was out there, because that would usually mean I had to go, and sometimes I'd just go and hide somewhere because I didn't want to leave my grandparents' house." Maya chuckled. "Hey…"

"Sorry, sorry, go on."

"Anyway… They weren't going to be there that day, of course, but it was habit. And when I went up there, I just saw… snow in the sky, and on the ground… I thought I was still dreaming. I tried to open the window, so I could touch it, but I couldn't manage it. I almost got it, but then my grandmother came hurrying in, telling me not to play with it, that I could have fallen through and broken my neck…"

"Sensible woman, I like her."

"Oh, you would have loved her… and she would have loved you, too," Lucas smiled. "Anyway, she took me downstairs, got me dressed up, the coat, the hat and scarf, mittens, boots, everything, and the whole time she just had this smile on her face and I thought… whatever's about to happen here, it's something special, important. Once she brought me outside, I thought it had to be actual magic."

"Little Lucas sounds like such a dork…" she smirked up at him.

"He really was," Lucas nodded.

"Good. Thank you for the story."

"Plenty more where that came from."

Their moment to themselves was interrupted by a knock at the window behind them. They turned to find a mass of small faces staring back at them. Eliza, Wyatt, Ginny, Sadie, and Emma all stood in a huddle, waving at them.

"And we're off," Maya looked back to Lucas. He quickly kissed the side of her face and they headed back into the house.

It did get to feel like they had been sitting at the top of a hill, sitting on a luge about to carry them down at breakneck speed, off into whatever horizon they could only just vaguely make out ahead of them. Theirs was not a peaceful holiday, nor was it ever expected to be. They did not lack for friends or family, and they were always aware of this, and thankful for it, but now… Something about the holidays, about having them all… mostly all… in one place at about the same time, made it all that much more notable, like all those separate pockets of feelings, activated at one time in their hearts made it feel like they had superpowers, like they could fly…

With the added presence of the Tucson Harts, Maya and Lucas had been left to figure out how exactly they would juggle that group, and their friends, and his family, and her family… It had come down to having their friends come over on Christmas Eve, and then going over to the Hunter Hart house on Christmas Day, where they would be joined by the Friars, the Hillards, and the Cassidys, along with the Tucson Harts, who would also be along for the ride on the 24th. It was shaping up to be a rehash of their mega movie night, only taken to the next level, with the addition of Maya's visiting relatives.

"Alright, boys and girls, gather around, gather around," James was holding court in the kitchen just after lunch, as the guests were expected to arrive before long. His audience was made up his kids, and Abigail's, and Luna's, and with the flourish of his voice not one of them knew to look anywhere except right back at him. He was mesmerizing. "Over here we have enough cookies to make jolly ol' Saint Nick even jollier, until he can ho-ho-ho his way into next year!" The kids laughed excitedly. "But do you know what, tasty as they are – and believe me, I've had one or two," he held up seven fingers, to more giggles, "I bet they'll be even tastier after you junior artists take a crack at them, so you go on now, you've got icing, you've got sprinkles, you have… no, no, not these," he grabbed a bag of jujubes and casually stuck them under his arm like they were never there. "Alright, are we all set now?" The children informed him – loudly – that they were ready. "Then let's get decorating!"

"Dad…" Emma Lane pointed to her father, or more precisely to the bag under his arm.

"Yes, lovely?" James innocently asked. Emma gave him a look and he stepped back like he'd been knocked down. "Ooh, I know that look… Fine, fine, alright, you caught me," he put the jujubes back on the table. "You owe me a cookie," he pointed to his daughter, who turned and had a laugh with best friend Eliza.

Watching the whole scene unfold nearby, Maya couldn't help being amused by the whole thing, but also to see Abigail as she watched, too. After everything the family had had to deal with, losing Kermit as they did, Maya would look at her stepmother, and she would see how happy she was with James in her life, how she had embraced Teddy and Emma like they were her own, as much as James had done the same with Wyatt, and Eliza and Cara, and Sam, too, off in Texas as he was. It might have been so easy to hold on to this thought like this new family dynamic might somehow diminish what their losses had meant for them, but what they had instead was… all of this. They were just good for each other, they fit…

The first to arrive were the ever growing Obi family. Lion had come up to the door first with daughter Zola, and the two-and-a-half-year-old was a ball of eagerness at the sight of her godmother, just as Maya scooped her up for monster kisses. Then came Willow, with one-year-old son Sekani perched in one arm, her belly well defined beneath her coat where the third and last – as far as they knew – was happily swimming along. They made quite the picture, all of them together, the little family getting to feel not so little anymore.

"I swear it's like the last three years have felt like you've been pregnant all the time," Maya hugged her former bandmate.

"You're telling me," Willow laughed.

After they had arrived, it turned into a parade of doorbells, and hugs, and coats, and boots… They'd planned ahead for this, but still every time a new pair of feet relinquished its snowy covers it really felt like it wouldn't stop. Wyatt had elected himself as being in charge of coats, so that every time the doorbell would ring he would abandon his cookie decorating, wipe his hands in haste, and dash over to the door, collecting one, or two, or however many coats, and carrying them as carefully as he could over to where Sam might help him hang them up.

"Slow down, you're all red in the face," Lucas laughed, when the boy was 'summoned' again to get Rebecca and Jax' coats when he'd just finished bringing Sam the previous batch, which had been passed to him by Sophie, Chiara, Asher, and Ray.

"I'm okay," Wyatt insisted, turning to their newest guests with expectant arms.

"Better hand them over, he means business," Sophie smirked before moving toward Lucas. "Where's Maya, I've got… a thing…" she held up a bag, which he guessed must have been the gift she'd been asked to pick up, for their coat master presently within earshot.

"Attic, I think. For reasons," he nodded, which fell in that same line of maintaining 'magic' secrets.

"Thought she might be," Sophie nodded, taking off toward the stairs.

As predicted, Maya was in the attic, though she'd shut the trap door, the steps retracted along with it, the better not to have any short-statured young people sneak in and discover that 'Santa' was really 'Mom, Dad, Big Sis, Whoever.' When she heard what sounded like someone trying to open the door, she paused, mid-wrapping.

"Hello?" she called.

"Rapunzel, let down your hair!" a familiar voice called back, and she grinned before moving to open the door.

"Watch your head," she warned, and the steps slid into place. "Also, my hair was never that long," she teased, as Sophie came up and into the attic, the better to be hugged tight. "Hey, merry merry Eve to you, Zvolensky."

"Merry merry Eve, Hart," Sophie laughed. "Here," she held up the bag, and Maya snatched it up, looking through the open door to ensure no small brothers were roaming about.

"Thank you so much, he's going to love it."

"Happy to help," Sophie nodded. "So, what's the status on the… 'crisis?'" she asked, moving to get a look through the front window.

"It's only funny if you're not living in the middle of it," Maya shook her head.

"Apparently," Sophie turned back to her. "Well?" Maya sighed.

"Well, it's friend day, so they should be coming along anytime soon if they didn't show up since I came up here."

"I didn't see anyone down there," Sophie shook her head. "I'm sure it'll be fine though, right?"

"Seeing as my brother can't make heads or tails of his own feelings anymore, and I don't see him saying or doing anything until he's figured it out… I don't know. Christmas can make people do things they would never usually do. I blame all those movies, and the greeting card truck they rode in on." Sophie bit back a chuckle, looking back out again.

"Car," she declared.

"Is that official police talk?" Maya teased.

"Sure. Seeing a girl, roughly fifteen years of age, bottle red hair, one crutch…"

"That'll be Cecilia," Maya moved to have a look.

"Ah, the unexpected plot twist," Sophie smiled.

"Do not make me kick you out of this attic."

"I just might kick myself out, so I can go see how it all goes downstairs."

"On second thought, please stay. I have so much wrapping to do, and I've missed you… so much… Christmas is hard, you know?"

"Whatever you say," Sophie laughed. "Here to serve." Maya smiled, looping her arms with one of hers.

"Well thank you, Officer Zvolensky."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners