November 4th 2022

Chapter 182
Shelter You

When Ava woke again, the first thing she saw were her plants, sitting in a box on the bakery table. She sat up, understandably surprised to find them there. Then she saw the bag, and the bear... Lucas was sitting there with her, as he'd done since Maya had returned to work in the back. The girl looked to her instructor, curiosity and questions in her eyes. He'd been sitting there, thinking of what he might tell her when she did wake up, about what would happen next. He didn't want her to be afraid.

"I went to see your father, told him you were here. Today was hard, and he's not doing too well, so we both agreed that the best thing would be if you came home with us for tonight, maybe longer if it helps. I went and got some things for you, hope you don't mind. You have a great room," he complimented.

Ava quietly fussed over her plants, but she listened to him. She wasn't fooled. She heard the words he said but also the ones he didn't say. After he'd said what he had to say, they sat in silence for a minute or so before Ava finally turned to look at Lucas.

"Thank you for bringing them," she indicated the plants before reaching for the bag. The bear was brought to sit under her arm, secured, even as she felt around and checked out what he'd brought her. She looked satisfied, and so the bag went back on the floor. The bear stayed in her arms, both of them closed around it now.

"Does your bear have a name?" Lucas asked. Ava nodded.

"Matilda... Like the book," she revealed before looking to the plants. "That's Violet, and that's Klaus," she pointed to one and the other.

"No Sunny?" Lucas asked, and it brought back her smile that he got the reference.

"I wanted to wait until these were bigger," she explained, leaving a couple beats of silence like she wanted to see if he'd get why.

"Baby plant," he finally nodded, and the smile grew. "Are they getting there?" he wondered, looking back at Violet and Klaus.

"Yeah, I want to get Sunny started this summer," she told him, and the smile dropped like she'd missed a step.

"How does it start?" Lucas asked. She looked back at him.

Until Maya was ready to leave the bakery, Ava told Lucas all about the process she'd gone through in growing her plants, what was important in their care. She also mentioned, knowing that the Friars had pets, that if anything unfortunate should happen to Violet and Klaus if either of them came in contact with them, the cats and dogs would be fine. Lucas assured her that they would do their best to see that they would survive their stay.

Finally, Ava's plants, bag, and bear all joined her as she followed the Friars home. As they made their way up the lane, approaching the house, they could see that the boys were outside, playing in front while their great grandparents sat on a pair of lawn chairs. When they saw the car coming, Pappy Joe and Patty called for the brothers to come to them until the car was parked and stopped. It didn't take long for any of them out there to notice the extra passenger in the back, even as she was looking out and seeing them, too.

Lucas got out and took the plants in their box from Ava's lap so she could get out, too. He very rarely saw her shy or unsure of herself, but she definitely looked hesitant as she stepped out and took a few steps forward. But then, Elliott...

"I know you, you're Ava," he smiled, running toward them. He recognized her from the segments with his father. As she nodded, she looked over to find the other boys came to join their big brother. She may never have met them before, but she knew about them all from Lucas' stories, especially the middle brother, him with his own head of curls.

"Ava, meet Elliott, Noah, and Jamie," Lucas tapped each boy on the head in turn. Jamie squeaked, held up his arms, so he was picked up. "Guys, Ava is going to be staying with us for tonight, maybe longer, okay?"

Okay? It was great! She was already as good as a celebrity in their house thanks to those segments, and now she was here, for real! Elliott and Noah both had questions for her, based on what they'd seen of her, while Jamie quickly got over his need to be held, because he wanted to be back down on the ground, closer to their guest.

Soon, the four kids were playing out on the lawn together. This gave Maya and Lucas a chance to catch up the senior Friars on the situation before going on to figure out what they would do, where they would put her... The nursery was unoccupied, still in the process of being turned into the twins' room, and would stay that way for a long time, so one night given over to Ava was easily done. Lucas called to Mitch Sanderson so that he'd help him bring the guest bed from the basement and into the room. Maya wanted to pull together everything she could so that their boys' old room could be suited to this ten-year-old girl, so she wouldn't feel tucked in a corner for one night. She wanted her to feel at home.

"This won't be the only time her father 'needs a night,' will it?" she asked Lucas the honest question when it was just the two of them.

"Probably not," Lucas sighed. Maya looked around again.

"Well, this should do for this time," she nodded.

"Yeah," he agreed. She looked back at him, and they smiled. What a strange long day they'd all had. They kept remembering out of nowhere what they'd learned, about the twins... their unborn sons... Remembering them now, Lucas had a different smile, a thought...

"What's that?" Maya waved an intrigued finger to his face.

"Simon, Jackson," he quietly spoke, even if any ears nearby were outside and couldn't have heard.

Maya's eyes brightened now, understanding. Here they were, expecting two babies, two boys as they had just learned, and this year of all years, when Lucas had been taking great steps to connect with his family and their history... He'd always had this thought, if they would have had a girl, to call her Marianne after his grandmother, and maybe they would get her in the future, but now... Now naming their boys after his two maternal grandfathers sounded like just the way to go. Maya heard him say those names, and she knew... Yes, that was their names. She sealed this sentiment by stepping up to kiss her husband.

"Important question though..." she started.

"Which one's Nugget and which one's Peanut?" Lucas guessed and she nodded with a laugh. They thought about it for a moment. For that matter, they couldn't even say which one would be Simon and which one would be Jackson, could they? "We've got time," he finally stated, and Maya agreed. They'd figure it out.

Setting their naming conundrum aside, they returned below just in time to see the kids come back inside. When they told Ava that they had her room ready, the boys were the first to hurry up to see. Elliott turned back and picked up the bag while Ava brought the plants.

"It's not much on short notice..." Maya told her as they all walked in. "If you need anything else, just let us know, okay?" She nodded, looked around. Finding a satisfactory spot for them, Violet and Klaus were taken from their box and settled in, while Matilda the bear went on the bed. Ava felt at the pillow, nodded to herself. She busied herself at transferring the contents of her bag to one of the empty drawers. There, unpacked. "Good?" Maya asked, and Ava nodded. "Good." They shared a smile.

"I think, under the circumstances, maybe we could order in for dinner," Lucas suggested, knowing full well that putting that suggestion out in the open, with their boys in earshot, was a point of no return. "What do you think?" he turned the choice over to Ava. "Anything you'd want in particular?"

She was unsure. She thought about it, then turned to look at the boys when she caught whispered pleas out of Noah for 'pizza… pizza…'

"Pizza," Ava told Lucas, and subtlety went out the window as Noah hopped around, soon joined by Jamie.

"You guys want to show Ava the menus?" Maya asked, and at once the boys guided their guest out of the room and toward the stairs.

Without any of them needing to say it, the plan for this night had become to make Ava happy. It cost nothing to give her this night, even if what she would return to would be a whole other thing. If they just allowed her to keep sinking, how would that help? Better to help her float back up, to be reminded that the surface was very much there. Already, she seemed content with being here, interacting with Lucas, Maya, the senior Friars, the boys… the pets… Oh, once they became aware of her, they were very intrigued by her, and none more than Sirius. Their foster turned permanent dog came upon the girl like a giant dog on a mission, as though he could sense that, of the many things she needed right now, was security and warmth, and he was going to provide as much of it as he could. Ava was just as quickly attached to him, enough that, by the time the pizza arrived, he remained right at her side throughout dinner, his head nearly in her lap, where Ava was happy to pet him and feed him what bits of her pizza could be fed to him.

This sentiment carried on after dinner, through play time, and then while she waited out the boys' bath time sitting on the couch with one of the books Lucas had brought her from home. Sirius lay on the floor, just at her feet, where he fell asleep. Maya looked on from a safe, unobtrusive distance, not wanting to disrupt this quiet moment, but Ava eventually noticed her.

"Sorry," Maya quietly spoke.

"It's okay," Ava promised, keeping her page by closing the book on her thumb. Maya came over and sat with her.

"I guess I wanted to ask you what you'd like to do, after the boys are done splashing around up there. It's up to you. If you want to just keep reading like this, you can do that. Or we can watch something, play a game, go outside…"

"Here's good," Ava told her, and Maya nodded. Ava thought for a moment. "I don't actually watch a lot of TV… or movies," she admitted.

"Don't like it?" Maya asked, and the girl shrugged.

"The only television we have is down in the basement, but my mother always said that it was too loud, or too bright, or too violent, or just… too dumb…" she explained, and it was just as well that she bowed her head as it prevented her from seeing the look that flashed across Maya's face. If she could just have a chance to give that woman a piece of her mind…

"What do you think?" she instead asked Ava.

"I don't mind…" the girl shrugged. "Let them pick something."

"Okay… We can do that," Maya nodded, not looking to push. "Just to warn you, they've been on this kick lately, if they get to choose, you'll get the pleasure of seeing a movie they've seen about ten times… in the last week or two," she whispered, and it made Ava laugh quietly. "We know it by heart, all of us, every last word. And don't get me wrong, if it makes them happy, I am going to ride along until they either get tired of it or find something else. Doesn't mean I wouldn't mind if that happened… a little quicker." Ava considered this.

"I guess I could look."

After a brief browsing session, Ava picked a movie that none of them had seen. This was just in time, too, as Lucas came along, Jamie in one arm as Elliott and Noah led the way. Soon, it was movie time. As was their norm, the boys went to sit on the floor. From where he sat, Elliott turned back and asked for Ava to come sit with them, so she did. Whether on the movie's merits or present company, she looked like she had a good time. Even as the boys started to nod off and Jamie ended up asleep in his father's arms on the couch, she was focused on the screen, properly invested.

It was bedtime before they knew it. Lucas had brought along Ava's toothbrush from her house, and so she brushed her teeth before finally heading into the room they'd prepared for her. She crawled into bed, Matilda the bear tucked in one arm.

"Are you all good here? Do you need anything else?" Lucas asked.

"I'm okay," Ava told him, then, "Thank you." Without saying it aloud, he could gather she meant 'for everything.' Even as he went to leave, Sirius came slinking past him and settled in next to the bed. Ava looked so glad to see him that Lucas never needed to ask if she was okay with him staying there.

"There's a chance he'll try and climb up there with you, just keep an eye on Matilda, yeah?" Lucas 'warned,' and the girl laughed. He wished her goodnight and went across the hall.

Now that it was their turn to get into bed, all either Maya and Lucas could think was that it had been a long and strange day. So much had happened. And it's barely starting. Lucas pulled in nearer, setting his hand at his wife's belly where it usually went. All he could think about as he fell asleep was that they were going to have two new boys by the end of the year. Simon… Jackson…

Sirius did not climb into Ava's bed, but he halfway climbed on to the one across the hall. Maya was awakened, no more than two hours later, to find his big fluffy face nudging at her arm. She blinked and, in the sight of this proof of wakefulness, Sirius stepped back, tipped his head to the floor, then shuffled back. Come.

"What's the matter?" she whispered, getting up nonetheless. Even as she did, she could just hear… sniffling… She was already all the way around the bed and heading out of the room when Lucas woke up, too, asking where she was going.

She didn't have far to go, following both the dog and the sound. Peering into the borrowed nursery, there was Ava, sitting up in bed, balled up around her bear and crying. Maya approached, carefully sat next to her.

"Hey, I'm here, okay?" she told her. "Is it okay if I come and hold you?" she asked. Ava lifted her head, and she scooted forward until Maya could hold her. "Woke up in a strange place, huh?" she guessed, even as she knew without looking that Lucas had gotten up as well and was just behind her. A moment later, he moved into her line of sight, signed into the low light. Take her into our room, I can sleep downstairs. Good? Maya gave a minimal nod, and he went. "Hey, you want to come and stay with me back in my room? Just us."

Had she needed to, Maya was almost sure that she could have managed to carry her in her arms still, but Ava followed on her own two feet, and for once Maya got to be the big spoon as she held the child and sang lightly to help her get back to sleep. She could have tried talking to her, maybe sharing the fact that she knew a thing or two about parents leaving, but it didn't feel like the right time. It was the middle of the night, and she'd had a very emotionally taxing day. Sleep was the best thing for her, and that was what she got.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners