December 21st 2021

Chapter 355
Our Support For Travels

As early as Lucas woke up that day, he was not surprised that he wasn't the first. Before ever opening his eyes, his hand had told him that the spot next to him was empty. On most days, it could have been resolved with 'oh, she's in the bathroom again,' and maybe she actually was, but unlike most days, this wouldn't be followed with her going back to bed.

Actually, she was still in the room. She was sitting at his desk chair, wearing the dress she'd selected the night before as 'adequate travel wear,' and… waiting?

"Hey…" he quietly spoke, rubbing at his eyes and looking at the clock before turning back to her. "How long have you been up?"

"Not sure… not too long. Anyway, knowing myself lately, I'll probably sleep better when we're on the road. Could use a little help with… the shoes?" Did she need to tack on an innocent face? No, of course not, he would have done it anyway. Its true purpose was to make him smile, and it was achieved. "You know, I bet he's awake down there," she reflected, as he came over and helped get her shoes on.

"I'm sure he is," Lucas concurred.

While Maya went to look in on Marianne, who would not take long to be up if she wasn't already, Lucas made his way downstairs, first confirming that their guest wasn't in the kitchen or the living room. He approached the basement door, hesitated briefly. He didn't want to intrude, but then he was fairly certain that wouldn't be the case, not on a morning like this one. So, he carefully opened the door and closed it behind himself after stepping on the landing, in case any of the dogs came scampering. He made his way down into the playroom and saw light coming from the laundry room.

They had done their best to make the place feel a bit homier and less 'bed dumped in corner for convenience.' Maya had rightly seen her grandfather as the minimalist type, able to get by with the bare minimum, just like her other grandfather. But they'd brought in some extra lighting, brighter than the dangling bulb with the cord which Lucas had left not altered when he'd fixed up the house, as a very small but very meaningful memory of his childhood, visiting Pappy Joe and the late Susannah Friar. They found him a small dresser for his belongings, his clothes… The top of said dresser was populated with a plant in a pot, surrounded with picture frames. The young Friars, the Calaharts, the Hart-Lanes and Hart-Chens… Elizabeth with baby Kermit, the photo from her purse… He had a chair nearby, where he would hang his cane in the night. Currently sitting on that chair, as it did every night, was the small stuffed bear that Marianne had given him, from her personal collection, so he would have a friend if he needed it when he slept. She had insisted, and he had thanked her and accepted. It wasn't much, but Charles was very thankful for his temporary lodgings.

This morning, he was sitting on his bed. It had been made, like it was every morning, and he was dressed, sitting with his cane, and looking very much the way he'd looked when Lucas had first seen him, outside the church in Tucson.

"Mr. Hart?" he quietly announced himself. The man looked over at him, nodded in greeting, but made no further effort to shift or rise, like only a small part of his mind had been allocated to acknowledging him, while the rest was still somewhere else, wherever it had been before his granddaughter's husband appeared.

He was going with them, to Tucson, to the girls' graduation. It wasn't Luna's long awaited call that summoned him but rather a request from one of the graduates. For all she did or didn't know of her family's history, Eliza wanted him there, wanted to get the chance to get to know him for herself. She'd been asking after him, whenever she'd be calling or writing with her siblings out in Texas, or at least with Maya. Sam and Cara had been seeing him, too, yes, but it wasn't the same. They were still just a bit uneasy around him, and that was understandable. But she wanted to know him, and wouldn't this be the perfect occasion?

That was all good and fine, and Charles Hart would wholeheartedly answer his granddaughter's summons, but there was a catch, wasn't there? What about Luna? She had not given any indications that she was ready to receive him yet, and wouldn't his showing up just like this be forcing her hand? He didn't want to risk that; Maya could see it in his eyes. She'd taken it as her responsibility then to reach out to her aunt, to explain the situation and make it clear all the while that none of them were trying to make her do anything she didn't want or wasn't ready to do. If she didn't want him there, he wouldn't go, and he would make up for it with Eliza when she came back to Austin in a couple of weeks.

Luna had been thinking about it. Actually, Eliza had confided her intention to invite her grandfather to her graduation, so she'd been aware, and it had been forcing her – in a good way – to really think about the entire matter. What it came down to was that Charles could and should absolutely come to the girls' graduation. As to whether she'd be ready to talk with her father, well… She honestly wouldn't know until he was there, might not be ready after all. Charles accepted these terms, and so he was set for this trip, two weeks in Tucson. If they wondered how he felt it would go, they only had to look at how he hadn't packed up everything, only what he'd need. A good part of him expected that he'd be back here again, that Luna would ask him to wait again, which he would do if she did ask.

Lucas wasn't sure what to say to the man just now. This wasn't the norm, not by any means. For all the ideas they'd had of who Charles Hart was as a person up to a few weeks ago, it had been good to have him around the house, in their lives. There was no debating who enjoyed having him here the most, but little pumpkins aside, Maya and Lucas were glad for him to be in their lives. This was most surprising to Maya, and Lucas understood how it would be so, naturally. He had been by his wife's side through the entire saga of her family, and he knew how unlikely it would once have felt that they should not only allow the man to come and live with them for a little while but that they would be sad to see him go. Maybe it was that he brought something back of Granny Lizzie, or Kermit, in some small way…

But then there would be those times, like here, this morning, where they would get very close to those sorts of 'danger zone' subjects, and then everyone would be at a loss for words. That was normal, wasn't it? Here they were, building something together, and it was good, but they knew that there were those areas that still needed addressing, acknowledging, and they weren't ready to shake those bare foundations. Right about now, the apprehension about how it would go out there, with Luna… It left them both silent. Lucas might have told the man how he was going through something very much like his son had done, when he'd sought to mend bridges with Maya, and how things had worked out for them, but then what would that accomplish, really? There was no guarantee that the same would happen with Charles and Luna, and even then… all the circumstances may have been similar, but they were far from the same. Bringing up Kermit would only mean potentially false hope, and more painful memories of the past.

"We should get started on breakfast, we need to leave soon," he finally informed him, and Charles nodded and followed him up the stairs.

Like the last time, the Hillards came for the puppies, while Missy Sanderson and her father came for the other dogs. They would be looking after them for the next two weeks, and they knew that they'd need to have a serious conversation about what they intended to do with the puppies, whether they would keep any of them, before they could see about getting the rest or all of them adopted into their forever homes. The longer they put it off, the more likely it was that they'd never get around to it, because they would have gotten too attached. They could not look after nine dogs all the time, not when they'd soon have three infants in their midst.

As predicted, Maya didn't take long to fall asleep once they took off. Within minutes, whether because she saw her mother doing it or because she'd been lulled by the motion, Marianne was also down for the count, mother and daughter making such an image side by side that Lucas wished he could have taken a picture. As it was, he was driving, and there was no chance of their stopping, so he'd just have to store it in his mind's album. Ella hadn't come along for this trip, so it was just the four of them this time around, the girls in the back and Lucas and Charles in the front. With the backseat off in dreamland, the car was quiet for a time, until someone had to break the silence.

"You know, it might be a good idea for you to consider staying on this side of the country, not just for an… extended visit… of undetermined length. In Texas, or in Arizona… closer to the family. I know it would make some of us very happy…" He didn't have to single out Marianne, not from the small smile he caught on the man's face as he considered this. "I don't know if you have people out in New York that you wouldn't…"

"There isn't…" Charles started to say, but he stopped and just shook his head. They were quiet again for a minute.

"Whatever happens, you know you're always welcome at our house," Lucas told him. He didn't say it out loud, but yes, he did know, and it might have made him cry if he'd been the type.

"I spent the last nine years…" he started instead, and Lucas listened, waited. "It took me some time to realize just what I had become, to realize it and to see what I had done. I kept telling myself that this wasn't me, that I hadn't been like this, and I can't for the life of me figure out what made me become the man I was. It cost me everything, and if that wasn't bad enough, it hurt others. It hurt people I should have been protecting, and others I missed out on knowing… for so long… I don't know what can be fixed, if it deserves fixing, if I deserve it…"

"But you're here," Lucas told him when his voice had failed him. "Showing up is already a lot. It's the start, and none of the rest can happen without that."

He didn't know if Luna would let him back into her life, but even if she didn't, he would accept that as what he deserved, wouldn't he? It would have been spiteful to point out how he was having to go through the same thing his son did with his daughter, knowing the story could have ended up a whole other way for all involved if not for the man that Charles Hart had become.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners