January 5th 2020

Chapter 5
Their House of Returns

Abigail had agreed to let them all watch a movie before the girls had to go on to bed. The fact that her eldest child was about leave the house at fifteen to head to college out of town might have played into her loosening the rules. She sat just at Sam's side the whole time, which might have been awkward, what with Dora on the other side of him, but then Sam was unashamed to say he would miss his mother, so he wanted to be near her, too.

Anyway, his little sisters were getting in on this, too. Now and again, Eliza would go and squeeze herself between Sam and their mother, leaning against her brother's arm until he'd set it around her shoulders. When she'd get too hot, she'd go back to sit on the ground, but sooner or later she'd return. And then there was Cara, now finding herself on the precipice of being 'the oldest kid in the house' but wanting to hold on to her position as second a little while longer. She achieved this by running through that routine she and Sam had long developed, swapping whatever snack they had in hand every so often. They'd been doing it since they were little, since the days when it was just the two of them.

When the movie was done, the girls had hurried off to bed, not needing to be told twice. They wanted to make the most of the next day. Lucas took Dora upstairs, to get his cousin settled into the guest room, which left Maya to finally have a moment one on one with her brother.

"Hey…" Sam laughed when he got a big hug from his older sister.

"I owed you this one, remember?" she told him, nearly lifting him off the ground… her little Sammy not so little anymore.

Thinking of that ten-year-old boy she'd met back in that school gym… She would go back to that moment more often than she could say, the moment where so much had changed in her life, and in their lives, too. They had started as strangers, which was made eternally more awkward by the fact that they were siblings. But they hadn't grown up together, so all those bonds that came ready made with that time… They had to build it from the ground up. That would have been difficult under any circumstance, but then there was the reason why they hadn't known one another before, and the rift between their father and Maya…

Five years hardly seemed like enough time for all the things that had happened since then, but then they'd lived them and they had all the memories, the joys and the scars to prove it.

"For the house," Sam nodded, remembering this IOU on a hug.

"Yeah, for the house," Maya pulled back to look at him with a smile. "Our house," she specified, her finger looping to point at herself, at him, and vaguely upstairs to where Lucas would be. "And the dogs," she added after a beat. "You're okay about staying with my parents for a little while, yeah? Couple more weeks, that's it," she promised.

"It's fine," Sam told her. "I get it." He had to, now more than ever.

The next day, their one full day in Tucson, was to be Sam's farewell, complete with dinner out with his family, his mother and his siblings, Lucas, Dora, and Abigail's boyfriend James, with his kids, and Granny Lizzie, and Luna and her girls. The last addition had remained an uncertainty up to the very end. After he'd moved to Tucson, Sam had not been overly concerned with making friends, like he knew deep down he wouldn't be sticking around very long. But then Javi had happened, and the two of them had been growing as friends. And the closer the day had come for Sam to head to Austin, he was left to realize that Javier Cabrera might have been his best friend, just as the boy realized the same about him. The imminent separation had led to an argument, and then for a while Sam was left likely to leave Tucson without saying goodbye to one and only friend.

But then they'd all shown up at the restaurant, and there was Javi sitting in wait. He'd dressed for the occasion, even tamed his mass of curly hair into something like a ponytail. It mostly made Eliza giggle, but the intention was what mattered, to Sam especially. He introduced his friend to Maya and Lucas, and to Dora, and when Javi saw her he got this look like 'oh, so that's the girl you've been telling me about.' Sam had given him a look that said 'cool it, man.' Maya had turned to Lucas, the better to hide her laughter.

With another day on the road ahead of them, early the following morning, everyone had done their best to turn in early. Maya suspected this would be easier said than done. She and her siblings absolutely subscribed to the issue where eagerness equalled insomnia. She'd ended up going from one room to the next, spending some time with each of her brothers and sisters until they'd finally go and sleep. By the time she'd gotten back up to the attic, there was little time left for herself.

"How about it, you want to take up the napping on this ride?" Lucas asked with a smirk when the alarm set on his phone had gone and woken them both. Maya grumbled.

"Get off my ship," she pointed imperially, before 're-examining her stance' as one kiss and another was planted at her shoulder. "Alright, I guess you can stay," she finally sighed, pointing as though to say 'keep going.' Lucas was happy to oblige.

Lucas would take the first stretch of the drive, and while Maya was gladly looking forward to catching some sleep in the car, she wouldn't be doing it from the back seat, as Sam and Dora had already taken up that space, leaving her to the front passenger seat, which was just fine by her. Between the open trailer attached to the back of the car, and the trunk, and a bit of the back seat, there would have been no space anyway.

After some lengthy and sometimes repeated farewells, the quartet started on its way back to Texas. Maya had dozed off almost immediately, and Lucas had let her stay that way as they drove on and nearly up to their first stop. With the pair in the backseat locked in conversation as they were, the car was fairly quiet for the majority of those next three hours. That was fine by him. Lucas spent a lot of that time thinking things through in his head, thinking about what he needed to do before the start of his semester in the fall.

For both him and Maya this meant finding and starting work. In his case it was a lot simpler, he knew. As it was back in Houston, his primary focus had to be his studies, but work was also important, if for nothing else then for getting money they would need to get by. They weren't splitting everything seven ways anymore. It was him and Maya alone. Sam wanted to contribute, with whatever work he'd get, though neither Lucas nor Maya was looking to take too much from him. They preferred to let him boost his savings.

For Maya, it was something else, of course. She was done with school, at least the part where she was the student. She didn't have a teaching job yet, which she had sort of expected, her first year out of college, but he knew it would weigh on her mind until that changed. And in the meantime, she was looking to find her first full-time job, temporary basis or no. Finding something that would motivate her, but not so much that she wouldn't mind letting it go when she'd finally get to use her degree… For her, it would be difficult.

"What time is it?" she asked, when she finally woke again.

"Coming on ten," Lucas told her. "We're stopping to eat in a half hour or so," he estimated.

"Oh, good," she resettled in her seat, yawning. Sneaking a quick look in the rear view mirror, she kept her hands low in her lap, so no one in the back could get wise and interpret the signs she made, looking at Lucas. "How's it going back there?"

"Quiet," he replied in the same fashion. "I think we'll both be in the back when Dora takes her turn to drive."

"Fine by me. There are worse things than you and me in the back of a car," Maya declared, making Lucas laugh.

"What is it?" Sam asked from behind.

"Nothing," Maya and Lucas replied at once, which only made them laugh harder.

As expected, Sam had taken the passenger seat up front when Dora took the wheel, and so sister and cousin were relegated to the back. Maya entertained herself by sending texts to her brother in the front, in the spirit of some playful teasing over his clear infatuation with the girl sitting by his side, and watching him try to act natural the whole way.

"Maya…" he muttered when they'd stopped the second time and Dora had gone almost skipping off to get something to eat.

"Yes, Samuel?" she asked, in all innocence. Sam tried to say something in return, but he had nothing, so he gave up, which got him a side hug. "Hey, I have years to make up for on messing with my little brother, cut me some slack?" That got a smile out of him. He couldn't argue with that.

"Fine, then you're on, sis," he stared at her, trying to look 'menacing,' which only made Maya laugh and pinch his cheek.

"You're cute."

For whatever reason, for good or just for assurances that she wouldn't try anything else, when Maya got in the driver's seat for the home stretch, Sam asked if he might sit out front with his sister. She accepted, of course. Nothing would please her more.

That last stretch was the loudest and liveliest, as the radio was cranked up for purposes of singing. Almost on cue, as they rolled into Austin, they were treated with some TXNY. It was the first time Sam had actually heard his sister's music on the radio, and the look of amazement and pride on him… Maya had to pull herself together not to get weepy while she drove.

Even though they weren't moving in for good for a little while longer, their first stop was to the house, where the trailer and the car were unloaded of Sam's belongings. Everything was carried up the stairs, once they'd given him the time to get a look around the place in real life and no longer through a screen.

"There's space for you to store anything you might not have room for up there, and if there's anything you want to put around downstairs, like pictures, games, movies, books, anything, you go for it, yeah?" Maya told him as they finished bringing everything to his green room. It was looking very crowded now, but in time he would unpack and be settled in. "Welcome home, Sammy."

They drove Dora home after this, after a detour for much deserved ice cream. Then it was off to the Hunter Hart house, where the tired travelers were down for the count about as soon as their heads were met with a pillow. They had so much to do in the morning and in the days to come.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners