March 30th 2020
Chapter 90
Their Summer in Recovery
It had only been a few days since Ree Forster's new single had hit the airwaves, but it still felt like no time had passed. Maya could still feel it, down to her bones, that moment when she'd heard it for the first time, and everything else that had happened in the hours afterward. She remembered standing there with her mother, as Katy had shown her the video, the credit in the description… Maya had just stood there, looking at those words, at her own name staring back at her, and she'd cried all over again.
By the time Lucas had made it back from Houston, he'd walked into a crowded house. Katy's arrival had been followed by another, and another, and many more. Shawn and the Hunter kids, Thomas and Melinda Friar, the Matthews, the Cassidys, Zay and Nadine, Riley, Dylan, Rosa, Cecilia, Kayla… They'd all heard it, either on the radio as it had come on, or after, when someone had texted and told them about it. How they'd all known that it was her song, when no one had heard even just the demo except Lucas and the girls from the band, who'd acted as… well, her band… Alright, well maybe that was her answer right there.
The last to have arrived before Lucas had been Abigail, James, and the Hart-Lane kids, and that had been just a minute or two before, which meant that the conversation was still loudly energized when the door opened and there he stood. Maya had turned and seen him and in no more than two seconds she was in his arms and several inches off the ground. It had turned into something of an impromptu party, lasting well into the evening and into the morning hours for some of them. Even after they'd all gone, Maya couldn't sleep if she'd tried. Instead, she'd finally allowed herself to go back and listen to the song again, without the distraction of her brain imploding.
It was even better than she recalled from that first listen. It suited Ree's voice so smoothly. Yes, she'd made it her own, but there was no denying that this was the song she had written. She hadn't torn it apart in any way, she'd just joined her own sound into it.
That first night, much as she'd tried not to look at it like it mattered, she'd looked to the number of views. How could she have ignored it though? Already then it had been massive. But now, days later… massive almost felt small by comparison. And then once the TXNY fans had caught wind of the fact that she was the one who'd written it… She didn't know that she'd stopped smiling in all that time.
"Maya, she mentioned you!" Sophie came speeding on her crutches when she and Lucas arrived for their visit that day. She still couldn't put weight on her foot but she'd graduated from the walker to crutches, much to her relief.
"What?" Maya blinked, not following.
"How long's it been since you looked at your phone?" Sophie shook her head like she couldn't believe her friend right now. "Is it on silent, how are you not blowing up right now?" she waved her hands at her until she'd take it from her pocket and look. Maya and Lucas both looked at the screen together, and Lucas instinctively set his hands on his fiancée's shoulders so she wouldn't tip back. That might not have been a bad idea. "I think you're going to have to adjust your notification settings unless you want your phone to keep blinking like that," Sophie grinned.
It was like she said, Ree Forster had tweeted about the song, and she'd mentioned Maya, identifying her for being the one to write it. And she hadn't stopped there.
Ree Forster followed you.
"Did I write anything really stupid lately?" Maya mumbled.
"I don't think so," Lucas promised, squeezing her shoulders but looking to Sophie, knowing she'd probably have thought the same and checked. She gave thumbs up.
By the time Chiara and the guys came to find their guests had arrived, Maya still looked like she'd taken a good knock to the head. There was a lot of talk about The Tweet, and the follow back. Asher was convinced this would be followed by a message. Ray wondered aloud if she'd ask to meet, and Maya had looked at him like 'why would you even put that idea in my head?'
Lucas was kind of glad that this all happened today. The whole reason they'd even made the drive up to Houston to visit on that one day had been… not necessarily to distract the both of them but still… It had felt like they needed to do something more than to sit at home.
Today had been meant to be their wedding day, before they'd pushed it back to the following summer.
They tried to imagine what it would have been like, if they hadn't changed the date, if this was the day. Putting aside the major surprise of all the Ree stuff, well, there was Sophie.
On the whole, putting aside the scar over her eye, and the presence of the crutches, and the trail of another scar or two visible on her arm and her leg peeking out from under a shirt or pant sleeve… Well, putting all that aside, she looked in perfect condition. Her energy was certainly up, the more mobile she got to be again, which was a tremendous help. The progress in her recovery went a long, long way in giving her the motivation to continue in that direction. She had a goal in mind, and that was all she needed. She was going to get better, she was going to get her badge back.
It didn't change the fact that she was still 'the great hopping wonder,' and every now and then – according to Chiara – she would have a tendency to wear herself out. She certainly would have done that today, at the wedding. It wouldn't have felt right to put her through that, especially as Chiara's words also left them wondering if she ever overdid it in order to tire herself into a dreamless sleep. The nightmares had been almost gone for a while, but now it felt as though it took even less to keep Sophie in a state of revolving insomnia.
As difficult as it all was for Sophie, it hadn't left Chiara untouched either. Her own troubles were not physical, no, but they were there, in her head. She spent so much time worrying for her wife, and all the ups and downs of Sophie's recovery had settled into Chiara like hyper vigilance and just a bit of helplessness. Sooner or later, something was going to have to come out of this, and it left their friends thinking it would either bring them closer together or it was going to tear them apart.
"If all goes well, I get to start putting my foot on the ground this week," Sophie told Maya, as she accompanied her up the stairs a few minutes later. "I've been told it's going to feel real weird at first."
"No marathons yet, right?" Maya joked.
"Week after that," Sophie told her with a laugh. "I sort of tried it," she admitted. "Not putting any weight on it, just let it touch the ground, you know? It's like it's not my foot anymore, I haven't used it in so long." Maya had followed her because Sophie had wanted to show her something, but now she suspected it had really just been the means to get to talk to her one on one. "I'm really sorry you're not getting married today. The weather's so nice right now, and imagine what it would have been like, all the Ree madness… We would all have been dancing to your song before the night was up," Sophie smiled, though it didn't quite manage to reach her eyes, where her regret continued to rule.
"Yeah, well, it wouldn't have been the same if you weren't up there dancing with us, okay?" Maya insisted with a nod.
"I am the best one," Sophie tried to brush it off with a burst of confidence, but it only seemed to drag her down again.
"Hey…" Maya touched her arm, but Sophie wouldn't look up, just shook her head, and Maya took this as her cue to move from a touch to hold, carefully minding the crutches as she embraced her long-time friend. "Sophie…"
"This has got to be some kind of record, spoiling not one but two huge things for you on the same day, first the wedding, now everything with Ree…" the redhead sniffled into her shoulder.
"Stop it, you're not spoiling anything," Maya told her. "Talk to me, please?"
"I just… I thought I was getting better, I thought…" Sophie shook her head as she pulled back. Her face looked like it was set on vibrate, and her hand shook, too, moving to wipe tears from her eyes.
"Is it the pain? Your leg, or…"
"Everything that happened, that night, I just… I didn't… All I had were sort of… clips, you know? Flashes… I couldn't remember all of it, everything… everything that happened to me out there." But she remembered now. Maya didn't need to say it, and neither did Sophie. She remembered, and that was why she couldn't sleep. "I know what you're going to say, and no, I haven't really told her about it. She already worries so much about me, and I don't want to add more… But I don't have much of a choice, do I?" Maya didn't know what to tell her; she was trying not to start crying, too. "I just want everything to go back to normal, I miss it, I miss looking at her and not seeing concern all over her."
"Isn't 'concern' a lot like not knowing?" Maya pointed out after a beat.
"Yeah…" Sophie breathed, nodding.
"It'll be better after, even if it has to be a bit worse first, won't it?"
"I hope so, I… I don't want to lose her…" her voice was barely audible now, and Maya hugged her again.
"Not gonna happen," she vowed, trying somehow to see over the banister and down the stairs. They'd all known this was going to have to happen sooner or later. Sophie could only mask herself with humor for so long before it all came crashing out, and right now the dam was cracking open, everything was about to come pouring out, and it couldn't just be her up here, but what was she going to do, shout?
She could just see the back of Lucas' head, where he sat on the couch. She tried waving her arm in his general direction, hoping he'd catch her on the periphery and look… There he was. He tipped his head back, looking confused, until he got the whole picture. Maya breathed, letting her fingers sign spell out Chiara's name.
Soon, the others were coming up the stairs, with Chiara at the lead. She and Maya managed to do a swap, where Maya slipped away and Chiara took her place in holding Sophie. Soon as she knew her wife was there, she wobbled on her crutches, but she held steady, Chiara held her steady. Maya stood back now, with Lucas, with Asher and Ray, the four of them unable to do anything but look on, their own feelings over the events of the last months brimming over their faces. Sophie had it in her head that she'd ruined this day for her friends, but for Maya as much as for Lucas it felt in the end that she had made this day better. It didn't matter that they hadn't gotten to have their wedding as planned, didn't matter that their giddiness over Ree had given way to crying and hugging. This day felt like a milestone in their friend's recovery, and that… that was all they could ever want to see.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
