January 15th 2022

Chapter 15
Our Connection to the Past

Lucas Friar was always someone you could count on to pitch in for assistance. All you had to do was ask, and he'd find a way to help if he could. And if he couldn't, then he'd want to find someone who could. When this assistance was required by those who were the very closest to him, oh, well… He would drop whatever he was doing, and he would be on his way. That much was definitely true where it came to his wife and daughters, though luckily this time around the request was by no means urgent in any way.

"You're not going to try and pay for all of this, are you?" Ella challenged as they walked into the mall together. It was more of a playful, knowing joke by now, thinking back to when she'd moved out to the apartment with Phoebe and Stella. Lucas smiled.

"Don't worry, I'll stay in my lane," he told his daughter. "Not saying I won't see something and want to gift it. Maya would call that Grandpa privilege." Now, it was Ella who smiled.

"Okay, but no stuffed toys, they're taking over as it is."

"Got it. I'll keep my eyes open for anything but that."

With Tori growing as she was, the time had come for Ella to look into setting her daughter up with a bed instead of her crib, and with that came the desire to give her a proper space to reflect her making a definitive move away from infancy and into childhood. She had a whole plan, and she had a budget, and they were going to stick to it. She had always been logical and economical, ever since she'd found herself pregnant, with the prospect of being not only a teenaged mother but a sole provider to her baby girl, something for which her parents had always admired and respected her.

Before they could ever make it to the store where they were headed for 'the big pieces,' they had a few other stops to make, the better to challenge Lucas' Grandpa reflexes.

"What about a winter coat? She'll need a new one this year," he suggested.

"Already asked Mom if I could take Marianne's old one, seeing as there's a…" Ella shook her head as they walked along. Then, she stopped, abruptly enough that Lucas momentarily kept walking a few paces before he realized she'd dropped away from his side.

When he turned, he only needed to look at her face for an instant to guess what had suddenly stalled her. She was looking through a store window, and even for having never seen either one of them in person or in any other way up to this day, he knew who she'd seen as soon as his own eyes landed on them. The resemblance was staggering. Theo Petrelis, and his younger sister, Nika. Tori's father and aunt.

Was there a small part of him that felt the very first flare up of 'girl dads and the boys who hurt their baby girls' when he laid eyes on Ella's ex? Definitely. Given the time and the space, that small part could easily have taken over, but he wouldn't let it happen. That wasn't how he worked, or it wasn't how he wanted to work, and besides… For however much he would always be on Ella's side, she would be the first to insist that they, the collective of the Friar family, were not angry with the boy, not like that. Whatever feelings Ella herself may have had toward him, they were her business, and she was working on them very hard. Still… She had not seen him, not since before she'd left her home and moved to Austin a little over two years ago. That first time was bound to be a shock.

"Hey…" Lucas quietly spoke to her, moving back nearer. She blinked and looked at him. "What do you want to do?" he asked her, trying not to think how she looked so like a frightened child.

She'd been in love with this boy. For a while, she'd tried to tell herself that it had been a fancy of her age, that she'd believed she had those feelings and so she had given herself to him, and his abandonment had been the universe telling her that she'd gotten it all wrong, that it had not been love, not from her and certainly not from him. But with the passage of time, and then with the discovery that he had moved out to Austin, she'd taken a lot of time to really stop, and think, and be honest with herself, and while she could not speak for Theo's heart, she knew that her own had not been at fault. She had loved him, and she'd been let down. She'd shared all of this with her parents, in an effort to be open and to let them in. Both Lucas and Maya had been eternally grateful for this, and they supported her every step of the way.

So now, here they were, as good as on a precipice. As of yet, Ella had not spoken to Nika at school. She'd just kept on the way she'd done since the start of the year, and the freshman girl had done the same. She hadn't seen her or Theo outside of school either, not until today. It was bound to happen sooner or later, she realized it, but right now she still had the choice to walk away before either of them saw her. No one would be the wiser and she could move on. But…

"I don't have a choice, do I? Not really…" Ella asked her father.

"Of course, you do," Lucas assured her. "Whatever you decide, I'm here." The way she looked at him sometimes, the way she looked at him now, he could see how much it meant to her, that she had him to call her father, to be able to look at him and trust that he would always have her back, just as she did with Maya, as her mother. There were some subtle differences between her relationship with him and with her mother, but always it went back to unwavering safety and an abundance of love.

Right now, her eyes asked him to come with her, and so he followed her as they approached the store window. It didn't take long for one or the other of the Petrelis siblings to look up and find her there, staring back. Nika saw her, and she blinked in surprise before tapping her brother's arm. When Theo looked up, saw Ella… Oh, of course, he'd loved her, and maybe he still did underneath all the… complications. But they'd been apart these past two years, their lives had changed and in turn so had they. There was no going back as though nothing had happened, which wasn't to say they couldn't someday come around to… something… For now, all that really mattered was the start, which came with…

"Hi…" Theo spoke, after he and Nika walked out of the store and stopped in front of Ella.

"Hi," she repeated, just as quiet and awkward. After a beat, the siblings seemed to notice the man standing just behind her, and when they looked at him, Ella came to her senses, too. "This is my father, Lucas," she introduced him, going on the assumption that, as Nika had learned of her adoption, Theo would know of it, too. He did.

"Sir," Theo tipped his head in greeting, while Nika raised her hand in a small wave. As expected, once the introduction had been made, with Lucas nodding to them both, the duo's attention turned back to Ella. They didn't know what to say, none of them, for a few seconds.

"I, uh… I heard you're going to be on the quiz team," Ella managed to speak, turning to Nika. Lucas couldn't help but see this as her delaying having to speak to Theo, or even having to look at him.

"Yeah, I am," Nika replied. To Lucas, she looked flooded with relief, to find herself allowed to speak to her brother's ex-girlfriend, so much so that her eyes almost shone. He would not have been surprised to see her cry. "We've only met once so far, but… they seem nice," she told her before falling back into uncertain silence. The pull was almost too strong. This wasn't about her, not here, just now… It was about her brother and Ella… and their daughter.

"Ella, I…" he started, drawing her eyes back to him. He looked like there was still a draw in him to call her Summer, but he knew it wasn't her name anymore, so he didn't. He also looked like he'd been thinking for a long time about what he'd say to her when he saw her, just as she'd probably thought of what she'd say to him. It was strange for both of them, but they had to try. "I'm not here to force you to do anything you're not ready to, I swear, but… When you're ready, if… if you're okay with it, I… I'd really like to see her, or… or you could just tell me about her, how she's doing, or…"

Ella kept looking at him for a while, not speaking, just looking, considering. Theo looked back at her, waiting, and for what little he knew of the boy, Lucas couldn't tell whether his views were skewed by those traits he recognized of his granddaughter in him or simply by the way he lacked the ability to show anything but his true face, unmasked… But he didn't distrust him. They were too early in knowing one another for his opinions to go much further, and regardless… it was not up to him. Whatever Ella decided, he would back her up.

"I'm… I'm not there yet…" she finally spoke. "Not saying I won't, but right now, I…"

"It's okay," Theo promised at once. He hadn't come into this conversation expecting much more, or even that much, so this was good.

After a beat, Ella asked him for his phone. He pulled it from his pocket and handed it over. From where he stood, Lucas could see her send a text to her own number. They heard the tone of the notification come from her pocket, and she passed Theo back his phone before taking out her own. Now, Lucas watched her open the text and, tapping into attachments, he watched her select a couple of recent videos and a handful of photos. A few seconds later, Theo's phone had the notification, and Ella nodded to the brother and sister to have a look.

Nika came up close to her brother as he opened the text and was immediately presented with images of his daughter… her niece… Victoria Friar, their dear Tori… There she was and, as they could see, she was doing about as well as any two-year-old should be doing. A bright smile, happy eyes, and energy enough to transcend a still image. Nika smiled, showing her resemblance to the small girl, and she gripped her brother's arm. Theo… Oh, he was smiling, too, emotions bubbling up until they spilled over from his eyes. He tapped on one of the videos, and he was treated to the sight of his little girl running merrily along, either chasing or being chased by Crowley and Jax, no one could say for certain, out near the pumpkin patch behind the Friar house.

"Thank you…" he finally managed to look back up to Ella, and from where he stood, Lucas could see that she was crying, too.

"I'll… I'll send more later," she told the boy, and he nodded. Please do.

They went their separate ways after this. Considering how far they'd gotten just with this first encounter… they would call it a good day and carry on. Once they were alone, Lucas stopped Ella for a moment, asked her if she was alright.

"I… I think so, I… We need to keep going, I… I'm working later, and…"

"You and Tori are coming over for dinner, okay?" Lucas squeezed her shoulder.

"Can we spend the night?" Ella looked up. Of course, they could. She hugged him then, and he hugged her back at once. Yes, they had things to do, but they could take this moment, to collect themselves.

"You did great," Lucas assured his daughter. You got through it.

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners