February 10th 2020

Chapter 41
Their Holidays With Warmth

It felt like they'd barely gotten to sleep when they woke again on the following morning… Christmas… After all the kids had gone off to bed, leaving only Abigail, James, Luna, Elizabeth, Maya, Lucas, and – for a time – Sam to carry on with their 'merry merry Eve.' There had been a movie on, and then there'd been some last minute gift wrapping, and a bit of cooking and baking ahead of the following day, and then finally they had gone off to bed.

As the hosts of this visiting party, Maya and Lucas had volunteered themselves to get up in the middle of the night and get the presents under the tree, which had led to their spending a little while sitting on the couch together, where they could take in this moment in time. The house was quiet, and still, creaking ever so slightly, as houses did. There was the slight chill of winter on the air, the muted sound of wind from outside. It hadn't snowed in a couple of days, but there was still plenty on the ground, and they found it easy enough to imagine as though it was flowing through the air at this instant. Her family was upstairs, sleeping, and they were here, looking on to their tree – a noisy mess of decorations they would never trade away, thanks to the helping hands of young helpers both local and visiting – with its burst of colorfully wrapped presents. And they were here, him and her… It could have felt too good to be true, except they were not sleeping, and they knew it.

In the end, they had gone to sleep, right there on the couch, with Lucas' legs stretched out ahead of him while Maya's were curled up on the couch with her as she leaned to him and he held her. They woke up when some of the little kids came rushing down to see whether the still very real Santa had come by, even though they were far from home. They had left a sampling of their self-decorated cookies for their holiday visitor, with not one but two glasses of milk, on account of there being so many cookies to get through.

While the kids were distracted by the presents, barely noticing the pair on the couch who were now awakening, Maya looked up to Lucas and bit back a smile, discreetly wiping away traces of milk and a lone sprinkle left on his face. He made a face like 'oops, nearly busted.'

Their plan for the day had been made upon a single, non-negotiable request from Maya's young Hunter siblings. They wanted to open presents with her. So, it was agreed that everyone here at the house would wake up, and they would open those presents that were here, and then they would get dressed and head to the Hunter Hart house, for those presents and then a much earned breakfast. The Friars – all branches expected for the day – would be expected to arrive sometime before lunch.

"You made it just in time to save yourselves from Hurricane Nellie," Shawn greeted them, after embracing his eldest and wishing her a merry Christmas.

"What happened?" Maya asked. Shawn looked past her and Lucas, to the kids still coming out of the cars.

"She came downstairs in the middle of the night, hoping to sneak a look at you-know-who, but what she found instead was…"

"You-really-know-who-and-you-call-him-Dad?" Maya guessed.

"Bingo," Shawn sighed, giving her a look when he saw she was trying not to laugh.

"Sorry, sorry," Maya held up her hand in apology. "How's she doing now?"

"Well, Katy tried to explain it to her, but she kept backpedalling, like she wanted to tell the truth but not to have her stop believing."

"Sounds about right," Maya nodded.

"Then Gracie got in there, told her she'd known for a couple years."

"How'd that go?" Lucas asked.

"Better than I thought it would," Shawn declared. "She's okay now. She's excited about making sure the littler ones don't find out."

They got to see this for themselves, as everyone came along into the house and eventually ended up in the living room for Presents, Round 2. Nellie had ended up sitting on the ground with her twin, her big sister, and Lucas. Perched on top of Maya's crossed legs, she would look on excitedly whenever anyone would open one of their presents and, kid or not, she would intone some variation on 'I wonder what Santa brought you.'

"Okay, okay, take it down a notch there," Maya locked her arms around her, laughing.

There were some presents still under the tree when they'd finally gone into the kitchen for breakfast around the lengthened table. They were to be handed on to their guests yet to arrive. They started to arrive and, just like the day before, Wyatt Hart was on hand to gather up their coats, though he didn't have to go at it alone here, as he found himself joined by his new partner in coat checking, the even smaller MJ Hunter. More than once, the boy could be heard shouting 'I can't see! I can't see!' from beneath the cover of one coat or another, before his 'elder' directed him.

"I'm going to bust out this video when they're about fifteen or sixteen, it's going to be hilarious," Maya told Lucas, showing him her phone and the recording of her brothers weaving along with the many coats of the Cassidys, who'd just arrived.

If Dora generally looked like a woodland creature, on Christmas she looked like she'd just flown down from the North Pole after finishing a successful toy season with Santa Claus.

"Look what they're wearing," she whispered to her cousin with a sparkling grin, nodding back to her brothers. Junior and Alex were wearing matching ugly sweaters and looking entirely awkward about it. "They lost a bet with Dad."

"And you…" Lucas chuckled.

"Oh, I won," Dora shrugged, like it was obvious she would have, making her cousin laugh even harder. "Where's Sam?" she asked now, looking around the room.

"Uh…" Lucas looked, too. He'd been there a minute ago, but now he was nowhere to be found. "Not sure. You go ahead and get those under the tree," he indicated her bag. "I'll go and find him for you."

Following his hunch, he made his way into the basement, once upon a time Maya's room, when she'd surrendered her old one to become the twins' nursery. The place didn't look much the way it did back then anymore, but you could still sort of conjure it up in your mind if you'd been here enough times, which he had, and Sam as well. He was sitting in the corner, next to an old bookcase Maya had left behind, which now held boxes of diapers, toilet paper, and any other items Katy and Shawn needed loads of to attend to any one of the kids.

"This is going to be another one of those talks, isn't it?" Sam looked up at him.

"One of those?" Lucas asked.

"The ones where they have piano playing in the back on those family shows, where the kid's in turmoil and the parent or the older sibling comes and says what they need to hear?"

"And on Christmas, too," Lucas shrugged, sitting with him.

"Jackpot," Sam looked back down. He had a box in his hands, wrapped, topped with a bow…

"Is that for…" Lucas already knew the answer, his brother's posture said it all.

"I bought it for her… before I moved out here," he revealed. "It's not like I was expecting anything for it, but she told me about it a while back, and I saw it, so I got it for her, wasn't sure when I'd give it to her. If I give it to her now, she might think… I don't know what she'll think, but it could come off the wrong way, you know?"

"One of these days I'll tell you about all the twists and turns your sister and I went through. It's probably not what you need to hear about right now. The point is yes, I know, and that place just sucks." He'd been doing better, realigning himself to the reality that he would need to carry those feelings in silence, that Dora would only be his friend, but this didn't come without the occasional flare up, and Lucas expected this was precisely why Sam had been upstairs one second and gone the next. And then there was the Cecilia of it all, which had only made for more wrinkles for Sam to try and smooth down.

"Can you tell me what's in there?" Lucas tapped the box with his finger. When Sam told him, he laughed. "I remember that show. She used to greet people at the door by holding up the box set like 'I want to watch this, please make it work,'" Lucas mimed, making Sam smile. "If you really want her to have it, I can give it to her. I can say 'hey, remember when…' Nothing weird about it, just one cousin being nice to another." Sam considered this for a moment.

"Then what would I give her?"

"We can switch a couple labels around, you give her what Maya and I got her."

"I…" Sam hesitated, shook his head. "No, I can't do that. I'll just… I'll tell her I forgot her gift at the house, and… I'll get her something else."

"Or, I could do what your sister would do. Ready?" Lucas nodded, snatching the box out of Sam's hand.

"Hey, wait…" Sam tried to get it back, but Lucas was quick to get on his feet.

"You are a good friend, Sam. And good friends get each other some thoughtful gifts. Doesn't mean they want anything more than to make their friends happy, okay? Just give it to her. And if you try and chicken out, I will make you give it to her."

"You wouldn't," Sam blinked.

"Okay, fine, I wouldn't. But you know who would?" He did know. He sighed.

"Fine…"

Lucas didn't have to call in reinforcements. The present found its way under the tree, and in due time it was unwrapped by its intended recipient. The smile that came over Dora's face when she saw what was inside may have been the most bittersweet thing Sam Hart had ever experienced in his young life, but he focused on the sweet. His friend was happy.

By the time they were all home again, with their visitors still around, it almost didn't feel like the holiday knew how to come to an end. The kids were allowed to stay up past their bedtime, 'because it's Christmas,' but mostly because most of them were a good closed eye away from falling asleep, and one by one the little warriors fell and were carried off to their beds. The last standing were the eldest two of Maya's siblings along with Teddy Lane. Sam and Cara appeared to have made up since their fight, the brother and sister sitting huddled together as they all watched a movie together.

Lucas and Maya were the last ones standing at the end of the night, seeing their guests off upstairs before picking up a few things.

"Hey, you know what?" Maya turned to him as she closed the refrigerator door. Lucas turned to her.

"What?"

"I think I forgot one of your presents…" she intoned.

"You didn't," he played along. "But what could it be? What could you give me that I don't already have?" he wondered, approaching her.

"The gift that keeps on giving?" she suggested.

"Oh, yeah, that's a good one," he agreed, making her laugh as he kissed her. "Hey… Merry Christmas…"

"It's after midnight," she pointed out.

"I won't tell if you don't," he promised, and she kissed him again.

"Alright, then, merry Christmas to you, too."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners