Chapter Eleven
It was finally Christmas day and Lucy had to get up fairly early to get things ready so she could deliver presents and food to the Delfino's. Lucy grabbed some bags to carry the food in and then the presents to bring them over after placing her mother's, sister's, and niece's presents under the tree and quietly left the house with everything in tow. She first placed the presents down on the porch as quietly as she could and then the food in the containers. Once she was finished setting things up, Lucy rang the doorbell and ran as fast as she could, barely making it home on time before Susan had opened the door. "Oh Lucy left the meal, good..." Susan said as she brought the food inside, just as she was about to shut the door she saw three presents sitting on the porch as well, tall and thin. She took them inside and they were much heavier than they looked.
There was a note that said "Merry Christmas, I didn't want to bother you guys so you could have family time by yourselves, but I wanted to bring your gifts with the food. Have a good day. -Lucy". There were three of these gifts, one for her, one for Mike, and one for MJ. She didn't have one for Adele because just met her and that wouldn't have been enough time to get anything done. Susan wondered what they were and was tempted to open them when Mike came downstairs. Susan quickly put them under the tree and kissed her husband. "Who was that?" Mike asked her. "Oh ummm no one...some kid playing a prank." Susan lied. Mike wasn't sure he bought that, but Susan had put the food away to make sure he wasn't suspicious. It was sweet that Lucy didn't want to bother them, but she felt bad for her, because Lucy didn't think she was family, but instead some illegitimate child that didn't belong.
Once Lucy got home she decided to prepare breakfast for everyone, she didn't really have anything else to do, and it kept her busy. Lucy grabbed her phone and earbuds, placing them inside her ears and turned on her music so that she could cook. She was making french toast, bacon, eggs, sausage, and hash browns. Lucy continued to cook by herself when Dylan came downstairs, smelling the food. "Mom what's smells so good?" Dylan asked as she saw Lucy's back turned. "Mom?" Dylan asked her as she tapped her shoulder. Lucy turned around and jumped. She paused her music and took out her earbuds. "Oh Lucy! Sorry I thought you were mom. Though I should have known better, you're a bit too short to be mom." Dylan said to her. "Oh, that's alright, is there something you need?" Lucy asked Dylan.
"I just wanted to see what smelled so good, you're making breakfast for everyone?" Dylan asked her. "Yeah of course, I had to get up early to discretely deliver the Mrs. Delfino the Christmas dinner she asked for so her mother-in-law would get off of her back." Lucy said with a slight giggle. "Oh okay." Dylan said. "Breakfast will be done in like ten minutes." Lucy told her before putting her earbuds back in and turning on her music again, humming to herself softly. Katherine woke up about ten minutes later and came downstairs. "Oh Lulu, you made breakfast. It smells amazing." Katherine said to her. "Good morning mom." Lucy said as she took out her earbuds and turned off her music. "What are you doing up so early?" Katherine asked her. "Oh well I had to deliver Christmas dinner to Mrs. Delfino for later. So I thought I would make breakfast too." Lucy said to her as her mother kissed her cheek.
"Do you need any help?" Katherine asked her. "No, actually breakfast is ready." Lucy told her as she took everything to the table. "I'll go wake Lila." Dylan said to her before going back upstairs. "Did you drop off your father's gift while you were there?" Katherine asked. "Yeah, I dropped off the gifts, I don't want to disturb them so I ran the doorbell and ran like I did back when I was on the track team." Lucy said with a laugh. "What do you mean you don't want to disturb them?" Katherine asked as she sat down with her coffee. "Well, they should have family time like we are. I don't want to intrude. So if he comes over will you answer the door for me please while I go upstairs for a while?" Lucy asked her sincerely. "You don't want to see your father?" Katherine asked her. Lucy shook her head. "No, he shouldn't be reminded that I exist today...I'm not really part of their family, I'm just...well you know...anyway I'd prefer to only spend time with you guys today." Lucy said as she tried to stop the tears from flowing.
"Besides, I know Mrs. Delfino is only pretending being nice to me...and so is MJ...so I'd rather not see any of them if you don't mind." Lucy said as she wiped the tears away. "Oh Lulu..." Katherine said as she stood up and hugged her daughter. "If you don't want to see them I won't make you. I'll just say you went for a walk alright?" Katherine suggested. "Thank you mom, that would be perfect, also not a lie either, Will invited me over to his house to open presents later, they said we can all come." Lucy told her. "Alright, when we're finished here we will get ready to go and stay over there for a while." Katherine told her as she hugged her once more.
Everyone sat down for breakfast and ate their food. Afterwards they cleaned up and went to open presents. Lucy handed everyone their presents and sat on the couch, waiting for them to open them. Dylan and Lila both got pictures of them together drawn in different positions. "Wow, these are amazing. Thank you Lucy." Dylan said. "Yeah thanks." Lila added. Katherine was quiet after opening hers, tears started to flow down her cheeks as she examined the picture. It was almost identical to the one Lucy had hanging up in her room, but it was improved and this time in color. "You hate it...don't you?" Lucy asked her quietly. "I'm sorry...I shouldn't have..." Lucy said before going upstairs to her room. Midna was busy chewing on the bone that Lucy got her for Christmas.
"Mom, what's wrong?" Dylan asked her. "Nothing..." she said as she showed Dylan the portrait. "I need to go talk to Lulu." Katherine said as she went upstairs and knocked on her daughter's door. "Lulu...I didn't mean to upset you." Katherine said outside of the door, but Lucy didn't answer. "Please, can I come in?" she added with another knock. Inside she heard Lucy crying. Lucy had worked so hard on the drawing because she knew her mother liked the original, but she was obviously wrong. Lucy didn't say anything, but Katherine came in anyway. "Lulu..." Katherine said to her as she sat on the bed next to her. "Lulu, I don't hate it. Not at all. In fact I love it, I was crying happy tears I promise. Thank you Lulu, it means a lot to me." Katherine said honestly.
"Y-You do?" Lucy asked as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "Of course I do. It's beautiful." Katherine told her. "Thank you." Lucy said as she hugged her tightly. "Come on, you still have to open your presents." Katherine said as she took her downstairs. Dylan had gotten Lucy an eShop card for her Switch, as had Lila. Katherine handed Lucy a small box. Lucy opened it and inside saw a locket that looked just like her mother's. "I...I can't accept this...it means so much to you." Lucy told her as she handed it back to her. "I still have mine Lulu, this one is yours." she said to Lucy as she handed it back to her. "Open it." Katherine told her. Lucy opened the locket and on one side had a picture of Katherine holding her as a baby, and on the other side it had a picture of her and Lucy currently. "Do you like it?" Katherine asked her. "I love it." she said as she hugged her tightly once more. Katherine hugged her back and kissed the top of her head. Lucy put the locket around her neck and smiled.
Her mother had gotten her other gifts as well after finding out what kinds of things that Lucy liked. She had looked at her Switch and PS4 games and purchased her games she thought she would like, all of them good. Lucy thanked her, but her favorite gift was the locket because it meant something to her. It was the most precious thing she owned and loved it more than any other object she had in her possession. Her mother got dressed and put on the same locket that day, they were pretty much identical, but Lucy's name was engraved on hers. Once they had cleaned up and put away their gifts Katherine and Lucy made their way to Will's house since Dylan and Lila said they were going to go out for a drive. Lucy had Will's gift, which was a Quest 2 as well as his parent's gifts in her arms. His father was getting a gift card to an electronics store and his mother was getting a bath bomb set.
Once they arrived they knocked on the door. "Rachel! No Lucy right? How have you been? And you must be Lucy's mother. Come on in." the woman said. Lucy and Katherine stepped inside and they smiled at the woman. "I'm Vicki Brown, you know Will, and this is my husband Dean." Vicki said to her. "Hello my name is Katherine Mayfair, and you know Lulu." she said as she put her arm around Lucy. "Where's your husband? Will told me about Lucy's father, I'm surprised you didn't bring him." Vicki said to Katherine. "My husband? Oh Mike...we aren't married...we were going to be, but he dumped me for his ex." Katherine said with a bit of anger in her voice.
"He's with his family, I don't want to intrude so I'm hoping you can let us stay here for a while so I can avoid him." Lucy asked. "Anything for you Lucy." Vicki said to her. "Thank you." she said. "Oh before I forget I got you guys something." Lucy said as she handed out the gifts. "Can we open them?" Will asked as he came in the room. "Of course." Lucy said to him with a smile. They each opened their gifts and thanked Lucy. "No way Lucy! You got me a Quest 2?" he asked her. "Yeah, you said you wanted one." she replied. "Oh thank you dear, now we do have some gifts for both of you." Vicki said. She got Lucy quite the haul because she had always treated Lucy like her own child. Katherine got a lovely set of candles. "Oh thank you, that is very generous." she replied. "Wow, thank you guys so much." Lucy said as she opened her gifts, she got some more games that she wanted, a few cute stuffed animals, and some art supplies she was running low on.
"Why don't you and Will go play with your virtual reality things, I wanna talk to your mom for a while Lucy." Vicki said. "Oh, alright." Lucy said as she left the room with Will. Katherine and and Vicki chatted some where Katherine learned more about Lucy and how she had met them. Lucy had been afraid of her son at first, but when Will prevented Marina from hitting her she started to trust him. "Katherine right? Do you know of any good plumbers around here? Our sink is spraying everywhere, something just broke on it and it's an emergency." Dean asked. Katherine stewed in this before answering. "Yes I do, but you'll have to give us at least time to get home and go somewhere before you call him." she said reluctantly. "Lucy's father is a plumber, he lives across the street." Katherine said to him.
"And it will be great for Lulu because as I said she doesn't want to see him today so this should keep him distracted." Katherine told Dean. "Alright fair enough. He's not a bad guy is he? I'm just wondering why she wouldn't want to see him." Dean asked. "Oh no, he's wonderful, but as I said before Lulu doesn't want to intrude on their family holiday." she said to him, not getting into it. Katherine left to go get Lucy and they said their goodbyes. Lucy and Katherine went home and they too decided to go on a drive and spend time with each other in order to avoid Mike.
Once everyone had woken up they all opened presents, but Susan had decided to hide the presents from Lucy. Susan didn't want to admit that Lucy had come over and cooked the food, she figured she would give them to the family eventually. Suddenly there was a knock on their front door. Mike got up to answer it and found it was the new neighbors, or at least the one. "Are you Mike Delfino?" the man asked. "Yeah, you must be one of our new neighbors." Mike said to him. "Yeah, I've got a bit of an emergency, the sink broke and it was flooding our entire house. We got a recommendation from one of the neighbors." he said. "I was going to drop off my daughter's gift, but I suppose I can do it afterwards." Mike said. He told Susan and MJ that he was going to go as Dean had promised to pay him quadruple his normal rate. They were upset, but understood.
Once Mike had finished he grabbed his gift to Lucy and then walked over to Katherine's, but didn't see her car. He knocked on the door, but there was no answer. He waited for a few minutes, but eventually returned home. "What's wrong?" Susan asked after seeing the look on her husband's face. "No one was home, where could they have gone? Nothing's open on Christmas day except for maybe a few restaurants." Mike said. He had made something special for Lucy too. Mike tried several times throughout the day, but they still hadn't come home. Mike opened the closet door to see three presents wrapped up. "Susan! Can you come here please?" he called out. Susan came over to the closet. "Yeah?" Susan asked. Mike opened the closet door and got out the presents that were hidden behind coats in the closet.
"Why did you lie to me?" Mike asked her. "What are you talking about?" Susan asked nervously. "You told me when I asked who was at the door this morning that it was some kids pulling a prank. But it was Lucy wasn't it?" Mike asked her. Susan had this guilty look on her face. "And then you hid the presents that she got for us. I can't believe you would do that." Mike said to her angrily. "Us?" she asked. "Yeah, she got one for you, me, and MJ. If you had bothered to look at the labels you would have seen that." Mike told her. "Okay, but before you get mad at me, can I just say something? Yes she came by, but she only left everything on the porch and wasn't there when I opened it...I was going to give you the gift...eventually." she said to him.
"She also left this note." Susan said as she handed him the note. Mike read it and sighed. "So she's avoiding me...avoiding us." Mike said. "She doesn't think she belongs." he added. Mike opened the present and saw a picture of him, Susan and MJ, not knowing that Julie was part of that family. Each of the pictures were the same exact thing. None of them had her in them, she didn't want to be part of the picture, she knew she didn't belong. That was when Lucy decided not to have a relationship with him anymore. She thought it was better off if they just stayed apart so that she wouldn't intrude on their happy little family. And she wouldn't, from now on she was going to stay as far away as possible from the Delfino's and make sure she didn't intrude.