I am still working on my other story, Primary Colors, but I decided to do this one too because a lot of us have lamented the sparse coverage of the Pearson Family during the "lost years" between 1999 and 2016. This chapter and the next are an extended version of the 2009 Thanksgiving we saw in the "Miguel" episode. Other things I plan to cover in various degrees of detail include more on the beginning of Rebecca and Miguel's relationship, their engagement/wedding, 9/11, the 2008 election and its impact on Randall, and the end of Kevin and Sophie's first marriage. I really, really appreciate reviews and am inspired to keep writing when I know people are reading, so thank you in advance for your feedback.

About an hour after Kevin stormed out of the cabin, Beth is chasing baby Tess, who is on the cusp of learning how to walk, around the kitchen as she babbles and pulls herself up with cabinet handles, eagerly exploring the contents of the cabinets.

"Uh uh, little Mama, out of there," Beth chides as Tess starts trying to pull a ceramic dish out of one of the bottom cabinets.

Meanwhile, Rebecca and Miguel are sitting on the couch holding hands, telling Kate and Randall the story of how they reconnected and how their relationship developed over the past year. It's hard not to notice how much lighter and happier Rebecca seems than any time in the past decade.

"Miguel tried to warn me how humid Houston gets in the summer, but whew, it is humid!" Rebecca exclaims.

"I told your mom that the beginning of September was the worst time of the year to visit because of the humidity, but she insisted," he says.

"I was coming back from visiting Kevin and Kate in Los Angeles for their birthday, and I wanted to see you," Rebecca says with a smile. "I still had a great time." Miguel wraps his arm around her and smiles.

"At least now I know why you were so obsessed with finding the perfect new bathing suit when you were in LA," Kate chimes in. "Something age appropriate but not too frumpy."

"Well, I love what you picked out," Miguel says. "Although I have to disagree with your mom's assessment that she's too old to wear a bikini."

"Right, that's what I said!" Kate agrees.

Miguel whispers something in Rebecca's ear that makes her smile and blush. "Stop!" she says with a chuckle. He grins at her unapologetically. Kate and Randall exchange a look, feeling slightly awkward but glad to see their mom happy.

"Oh, Randall, you've got to see the pictures I took at the Space Center in Houston," Rebecca says excitedly. "Miguel took me on this special small group tour that gives you access to a bunch of stuff you don't get to see otherwise – we even got to sit in the seats in the control room from the Apollo missions. Here, check this out," she says, handing Randall her iPhone. But Randall is too surprised by the phone itself to even look at the pictures.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"Oh, yeah. Miguel gave me his iPhone 2 so he'd have an excuse to upgrade to the newest one, what is it, the 3GC?"

"3GS," Miguel says with a chuckle.

"Man, I'm impressed," Randall says to Miguel. "She's been adamant that she doesn't need a smart phone."

"Well I don't need it," Rebecca insists. "But it is nice being able to look at pictures on my phone," she admits.

"I still can't believe it took her until what was it, 2002 to get a cell phone at all," Miguel says with a chuckle.

"And then another year at least until she would actually remember to bring it with her and have it on if you were meeting her somewhere," Beth chimes in from the kitchen.

"Would you guys stop it?" Rebecca demands. "And for the record, it was 2001 when I got cell phones for all of us."

Miguel notices that Rebecca seems surprisingly upset by what was intended as harmless teasing. Kate and Randall exchange a knowing glance. "I'm sorry," Miguel says softly. "I shouldn't have teased you about…"

"No, no, it's not your fault," she assures him. "I just…the fact that I waited so long to get cell phones is a bit of a sensitive subject."

Before Rebecca can explain, the conversation is interrupted by a THUD, followed by an excited shout of "BO" by Tess, who is attempting to say "bowl".

Everyone runs in and discovers that Tess has knocked over the glass bowl of cranberry sauce that was sitting on the kitchen table.

"I'm sorry!" Beth says apologetically as she wrestles a sauce-stained Tess away from the mess.

"Please, don't worry about it," Rebecca says. "Keep her away from the glass. I'll clean this up. Honey, can you go to the store before it closes and get some more cranberry sauce?" she asks Miguel.

"Yeah, I can do that. Let's just hope I don't have to wrestle an old lady for the last jar," he jokes, giving Rebecca a quick kiss before heading out.

After helping Beth clean Tess up, Randall crouches down to help Rebecca clean up the broken dish, and he notices her smiling to herself. It's a stark contrast to a year earlier, when he found her crying on the floor of his house cleaning up a broken plate.

"Can we all agree that if Kevin hasn't gotten over himself and come back by the time Miguel comes back with the cranberry sauce, we'll start without him?" Beth asks as she sets up nursing Tess in the living room. "I don't know how much longer Cheerios and mommy milk are going to hold off a hungry one-year-old."

"Yeah, okay," Rebecca agrees reluctantly. "Kate, any luck getting a hold of him?"

"No. I'll try texting him again. Look, for what it's worth, he's going through a rough time right now. He was supposed to be a recurring character on Nashville, and it felt like he was finally getting his big break, but they cut his part to a three-episode arc, and as you all know he still hasn't properly dealt with Dad's death, or his divorce, which happened right around the time Miguel moved to Houston. So this probably just brings up a bunch of stuff for him."

"Oh, I should have been more sensitive," Rebecca laments. "Are the two of you okay?"

"Yeah, we're okay, Mom. We're happy for you," Kate assures her. Randall nods agreement.

"Honestly, I was just surprised before," Randall explains. "We talk almost every day and I had no idea."

"I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you so many times, but I didn't want to do it over the phone, and Miguel wanted to avoid opening that can of worms with his family until after Andy's wedding, and then I figured it would be better to tell all three of you at once, so we decided we'd wait until Thanksgiving when we were all together. I didn't mean for you to find out the way you did. We were going to ease into it after dinner, but then you showed up earlier than I expected and…I'm sorry."

"Mom, it's alright. Look at me," Randall urges. "You have nothing to apologize for, okay?"

"Okay," Rebecca agrees tentatively.

"I just got a text from Kevin. He's at Teddy's Tavern. He said to go ahead without him – he's not coming back," Kate says.

Rebecca's face falls. Seeing his mom go from happy and relaxed to fighting back tears makes Randall angry.

"Like hell he's not," Randall says, grabbing his car keys and storming out of the house.

I hope you enjoyed this first chapter. The next chapter will see Randall confront Kevin over his asinine behavior, a little more of baby Tess, and why the Pearson family's first cell phones are such a sensitive subject for Rebecca, if you haven't already figured that out. Thank you for reading, and please review if you have a minute.