December 2nd 2022
Chapter 186
Sunny
Lucas had spent the night on the couch again. By the time they'd brought Ava back to the house, they'd known that when bedtime would roll around, as much as she had gotten used to her room at the Friar house, Ava would have trouble sleeping. It had been a day on par with the one where her mother had left, worse still, so if she needed to be close to someone to get to sleep, then she would be able to walk right across the hall and climb up on to the bed with Maya. When he went up to check in the morning, he found them both asleep there, Ava holding to Maya's arm resting over her.
They'd debated how to handle this day now that their circumstances had changed. They were expected by the returning Hart-Bretts to help with the move, but they also had to think about Ava, about what she'd just been through and what would be best for her. Would it be better if she stayed here?
It came down to her. Before they could even decide to approach her with the question, it turned out that she'd heard them. She wanted to go with them, to help with the move. She was sure, so they followed her lead. Moving day was on.
The way they had planned it, they were going to meet the moving company at the Hart house, where they would watch over the loading of the truck, going around after the rooms were emptied and sweeping and cleaning as needed. Maya and Lucas split their attention between making sure the boys would not end up where they shouldn't or do anything they shouldn't... and watching Ava. She was responsible for a lot of that cleaning they did, and it had all the markings of being something for her to do to distract her mind, so they let her be.
By the time they would be done there and the truck would reach the Brett house, the newly united family would have arrived from their flight home, ready to receive the truck. They ended up coming along right behind the movers and Friars. There had been a brief issue with their luggage, but it had been sorted, so now here they were, ready to get things going.
The six siblings were quick to hurry over and greet their big sister and her family, caught between wanting to talk about their trip - which had been amazing, going off their excited voices - and wanting to go and see to their belongings and unpacking in their new rooms...
"We can do both at the same time," Maya reasoned with a laugh as she felt a hug here and a belly touch there. That was good enough, so off they went, the Hart-Bretts, the Friar boys, and Ava, with Sam being the voice of reason to ensure that they wouldn't get in the way of the movers.
"Everything went okay at the house?" Abigail asked when she and Stephen came to greet Maya and Lucas.
"Yeah, all good," Maya promised her stepparents. After hugs came and went with quick words on the honeymoon family trip, the last question before they could turn to the unloading truck was one the newlyweds couldn't help but notice.
"How are things with Ava?" Stephen asked. The fact that she was with them, except for the wedding when she had specifically asked to come, generally translated to 'home was not possible last night.'
"Long story, save it for later," Maya had to cut it short for now. "But it was a rough one, so if she's quiet, just..."
"I understand," Abigail told her, and Stephen nodded to echo her.
"She wants to help today, so any task you can give her..." Lucas added, and they nodded once more.
The unloading did not take too long, seeing as it was for the most part boxes and a few pieces of furniture, mostly belonging to Sam, Cara, Eliza, and Wyatt. They would be there, along with Daphne and Stevie, whenever a new stack of boxes arrived, to see whose name was written on them and quickly take them upstairs to the room where they belonged. It was very hard not to jump right away into unpacking and wait until the movers had gone, but as soon as they were given the go ahead, oh, they were off.
By dinner time, there wasn't a box left in sight in the bedrooms, or on the ground floor. Anything that was going to stay packed and stored away had made it to the basement, or the garage... It was done. Now it was time for pizza.
It was wonderful to see how well they had all melded together, Harts and Bretts... Once upon a time, it had been little more than a funny idea to try and fix the two single parents up, and then it had been a clumsy start, and then reduced to nothing... But to see them now, maybe everything had happened exactly when it needed to happen to bring them to this point where they could be this new family together. They had already coexisted for a week, on their trip, but hotel living was one thing and this was going to be the start of their new life, one week of it before school resumed for most of them while Sam started the very next morning. If today was any indication, they would do very well.
"How was it today?" Lucas asked Ava that night as he stopped in for good nights at bedtime.
"Good," she replied.
"Yeah?" Lucas smiled, and she nodded. "Glad to hear it."
"Lucas?" she asked after a moment, a tentative look in her eyes as she held to Matilda the bear. He came and crouched by her bed. "Am I going home tomorrow?"
"I think so, unless your dad needs us to wait another..."
"Can I just stay again?" she cut in, and he hesitated. "You can say something, say you have to go somewhere and... and I asked to go with you." Lucas turned his head, sensing that Maya had approached. She stood in the doorway.
"Ava, if you want to stay, you just say so, okay?" Lucas turned back to her. She hesitated, played with the bear's left ear. It was more worn than the right, and they could see why now. "What happened yesterday, it was a lot," he stated. "You're not ready to go back?" Ava shook her head. "Okay."
"But I..." Ava started, paused, then restarted. "If I don't go back, he's going to think I don't want to be with him... What if he goes and gets more..."
"It's not on you if he does," Lucas assured her. "Okay? It's not your fault, it's never your fault." She didn't look fully convinced, but she nodded. "What if I go and check on him tomorrow?"
The compromise worked. Ava would stay one more night before going back home. After that, the next few days became a mix of several incoming events in need of preparing. Back to school was a great convergence of those plans.
Maya was starting her second year as a teacher, for however long she'd get to teach before she went on leave. The Hart-Brett kids were going back, but four of them had changed address and all six had a hyphenated change to be reflected, too. Noah Friar was still at preschool, while Elliott Friar was going on to kindergarten. And Ava was starting the fifth grade, not knowing yet that her school had been advised of her temporary relocation.
But first, she's got a birthday to celebrate... and one more difficult day to face.
Involved as they were in the planning of this birthday, both Maya and Lucas had been made to realize that Ava didn't actually have a lot of friends… if any. That lapse in awareness was all on them though, wasn't it? For as long as they had known her, they had seen her as a very friendly kid who was bound to have people she was close with, but that wasn't so at all. They started to piece that together when they opened the discussion with her about whether she wanted a party with her friends from school. She'd had this look like she wanted to say yes but then just as quickly tried to cover her way into saying she wasn't sure it would be a good idea. What about her father, right?
Well, she wasn't wrong about that. Having the party at her house could have led to some awkwardness she would have trouble recovering from in the long run. What about if they had the party at the Friars' then? Or at Sullivan Stables? They could make both options work for her. Now there had been no deflecting the offer. Those were both great options and she knew it. So, she had tiptoed her way around it but all it had boiled down to was… the truth. The kids at school didn't hang out with her. Some of them would tease her, and the others either had their own thing or they looked at her like she'd been marked by the mean kids, so they wanted nothing to do with her for fear of having the same thing happen to them. Ava insisted that she didn't mind, that she usually liked to do her own thing anyway, but when it came to her birthday and any party with kids her age…
"Alright, forget them then," Lucas had told her, giving a look like he would pass on any and all strength of his that he could give her. "We can still have a party, if you want it. You and your dad, Maya and I, the boys, Pappy Joe and Patty… the dogs," he'd added, and it had made her laugh. "My parents would like to be there, too, I'm sure. My dad still talks about his favorite office assistant."
"Gotta add mine, Hunters and Hart-Bretts," Maya had chimed in, adding her own smile. "They all love you, too, just how you are. All those people together, that's starting to be a good group, yeah?"
To see the excitement as it grew in the girl, excitement for her own birthday… There was no turning back now. So, the party was planned, little by little, and finally the day arrived. As of today, Ava Nash was eleven years old. In a little while, she would be at the Friar house for her party, but she would start the day back home with her father. As she woke up, Maya lay quietly in bed and felt… She didn't know what this feeling was in her, or how to explain it, only that… that…
"I wish she was here right now…" she finally said aloud. She hadn't said it with any expectations of Lucas being awake, hearing her, but then she felt his arm around her shift, drawing her nearer, and she knew not only that he was awake but also that he was on the same track as she was. Ava had become so dearly important to them both, and on this morning, knowing that it was her birthday, they wished she could be here with them. They wished they could do as they would with their boys, on those mornings when they woke up to their birthdays, seeing them first thing and wishing them a happy birthday, with big hugs and then breakfast, and… everything. They would just have to wait until later… when she arrived.
When she did arrive, there was an air… to her, to her father… and they realized he'd told her. Ava knew that her father would soon be heading to rehab, to try and get things under control. She knew that she'd be staying with the Friars for a while. By all accounts she seemed to be handling it very well, about as well as any kid might do, finding out that the one parent they had left to them would be gone for a while without knowing exactly how long that 'while' would be. The one thing that saved it was knowing where she would be in that time. If she was going to be anywhere else than home with her father, it was a relief to know that somewhere would be at this place that also felt like home, that was home. Lucas and Maya had long told her to consider it that, as far as they were concerned.
"Happy birthday…" Maya beamed when Ava came dashing up and hugged her. She kissed the top of the curly head and smiled back into clear eyes when they looked up at her. "Are you okay?" she asked very quietly. Ava nodded. "Good," Maya breathed. "Everyone will be here soon, yeah?"
For having known her anywhere from weeks to less than half a year, everyone who showed up that day did so for the same reason: because it was Ava's birthday and they cared about her, so they wanted to mark the day. It could have been a completely different day, after all she'd been through this year, just these past few months, with her mother leaving, and everything to do with her father's situation, but it never got to that, not here, today…
"So, I had another present for you for today, but I think I'll give it to you tomorrow, is that alright?" Lucas asked Ava, at the end of the day, when she was getting ready to go home with her father. A lot of the things she'd received today had been stowed away in the nursery/her room, figuring there was no point transporting them back and forth just yet.
"Sure," Ava told him. "Are you going to come and get me?"
"If that's what you want, of course," he told her, and she nodded. "Just give me a call when you're ready, and I'll be on my way." Ava looped her arms around his waist and hugged him, and he returned the gesture. "I'll see you tomorrow."
That was how they'd worked it out. One more night between the two Nash, one more morning, and then she would head to the Friar house while her father went on his way. She'd have a day to settle in before she went on and started school. Knowing she would be coming for as long as she might end up being with them, they'd had to consider what she would need, both from her own room back home and then as far as how they'd set things up for her in the nursery. They'd realized that the odds were strongly on the side of Ava still being with them when the twins would be born, but then the cribs would be in their room across the hall, so she wouldn't have to worry about that. If she was still here by the time when they usually shifted their boys into the nursery, well, they'd cross that bridge when they came to it.
Whatever anyone could feel about that next morning, nervousness, hope, apprehension… There were three people who were bouncing off the walls with excitement, and their names were Elliott, Noah, and Jamie Friar. As far as they knew, Ava's life was not one of burdens, of complicated truths, pain, fear… It just so happened that, once in a while, she would come and stay with them, and they loved it when she did, every time. And now? Now, as they had been informed, she would be coming to the house to stay, not just for a day or two but for many, many days, so many that they didn't actually know when she would be leaving again. They couldn't have asked for anything better.
"Don't go crowding on her, please?" Maya asked the boys as she found them back at the window, looking for their father's car. They looked back at her, six innocent blue eyes intent on lowering her defenses. "I mean it," she told them, even as her mouth quirked into a smile and betrayed her.
"Okay, Mommy," Elliott promised, and his little brothers echoed him.
"Mommy, pool?" Jamie asked right after.
"You want to get your pool filled up?" Maya asked back, and he nodded. "We can do that after Ava gets here, maybe after she's unpacked, we'll see. Does that work?" The boy, days short of two, looked to his big brothers and, off their nods, turned to his mother and nodded. "Done, deal," she offered her hand, and he tapped it.
Ava had called to let Lucas know she was ready to be picked up about an hour after breakfast. As he'd promised, he went ahead and drove to her house. When he arrived, he found a couple of large suitcases, a school bag, a gym bag, and the usual box to carry the Violet and Klaus plants. There was also another gym bag nearby, this one he quickly guessed belonging to Bill, what he planned to take with him. The house would sit empty from this day until who knew when. They had the key, sure, and they would use it if happened that Ava needed something she hadn't brought along, but that was about it. They'd dealt with the food in the fridge, freezer, and pantry, and everything would be fine while they were gone.
It was admittedly a strange thought, to leave their house like that, so already dealing with the imminent separation, Lucas could understand the quiet air radiating from Ava when he arrived. She was ready to go but also not. The long goodbyes had been said before he arrived, but it didn't mean that, once her belongings had been loaded into the car, she didn't run right back to hug her father. She clung to him as tight as she could, and Bill bent to hug her just as fiercely, whispering at her ear and holding her with an equal reluctance at letting her go. Lucas stayed back, waited, tried not to look at them so they could have their moment. He only knew that they had let go when he felt Ava's hand tap at his arm. He looked down and she was there, cheeks wet from crying. Lucas reached through the open car window and grabbed the tissue box, offered it to her. He looked around, but Bill was already gone, walking away from the house with the bag slung over his shoulder.
"I don't know what you feel like doing today," Lucas told Ava as they drove on toward home. "If you just feel like taking it easy, and quiet, just give me or Maya a signal, okay? We'll make sure the boys don't bother you."
"They don't bother me," Ava replied, and Lucas felt sort of relieved to hear her talk.
"They're really excited that you're coming, you know?" he smiled.
"Yeah, they told me yesterday," she confided, and Lucas nodded.
The boys were able to come out and help with Ava's things as best they could. Elliott got the school bag, Noah the gym bag, and Jamie was presented with Matilda the bear. While Ava brought up her plants in their box, Lucas brought up the rear with the two suitcases. They'd barely reached the room when Jamie brought up the pool again, and Ava decided to unpack later. Splashing around on this end of summer day sounded like the best way to make a start. She found her swimsuit and got changed while the boys flew off to their room to do the same.
After a while of enjoying the pool, and then playing outside, they had lunch. The afternoon was spent watching a movie before the Hunters came over and outdoor play resumed. It was only after dinner, when the guests had left and it was bath time for the brothers, that Ava went ahead and unpacked her things with Maya's help. The plants returned to their favored spot, where Ava declared they seemed to enjoy sitting, and so did the bear. They had set her up with a desk and a bookshelf, received through friends who were more than happy to part with them so the room could be aided in feeling more like it was hers.
"I still owe you this," Lucas came along, after the boys had been passed into Maya's hands for PJs and hair care, with a box. He'd stuck a blue bow on the side, but it was clearly a normal cardboard box from a delivery they'd received. The top was gone, and when he brought it down to her eye level, Ava saw that it contained the very beginnings of a brand-new plant. When she saw it, Ava beamed at once.
"Sunny…" she spoke the name, as she'd told him it would be.
"I was very careful about getting the kind you'd said. I think the guy at the store was a bit tired of me at the end," he confessed, and Ava laughed. She picked up the pot out of the box and brought it to sit next to the other, larger two. She stepped back, nodded. Yes, that was good.
"Thank you," she went and hugged him, and Lucas hugged her back.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
