March 13th 2020

Chapter 73
Their Day of Landing

There had been a brief thought of making this into a road trip, making the journey from Austin to Tucson by car instead of flying. But in the end, and for the sake of expediency, they had chosen to go for a plane ride. More time with the family was always going to win the game.

"I'm not going to ask him, because I know he's going to give me that look like I'm just messing with him when I really care, so I'm going to ask you," Maya told Cecilia as the two of them waited for the guys to rejoin them at the gate. "You two nervous about Meet the Parents round two?"

"I'm not," Cecilia smiled.

"Right," Maya nodded, understanding.

"I wasn't really worried when Sam met my dad, he's so stuck in his head a lot of the time, I'm not sure if he didn't think I said he was my friend instead of boyfriend. Either way, he probably wouldn't bat an eye about any of it unless I told him I was pregnant or something, and that's not going to be happening any time soon." Maya had a feeling that, had she had a drink in her hand, this would have had the making of a spectacular spit take. Instead, all she could do was try and play it cool, 'try' being the operative word.

"No, yeah, of course not," she spoke, feeling like her voice was shorting out on her. She was really going to have to smack Lucas again for putting that image in her head. "Anyway, Abigail is great, you'll love her. And she's already looking forward to meeting you, too."

"That's what Sam said, too," Cecilia smiled. "I just hope… I don't know…" she grew shy for a moment. "I really want her to like me," she admitted.

Unbeknownst to the girls, a very similar conversation was happening in the men's room, where Lucas and Sam were washing their hands before they could head out and rejoin Maya and Cecilia.

"What was it like when you met Maya's mom and dad?" Sam asked. Lucas hesitated, looking at the boy next to him.

"Well, I mean… When I met Katy, Maya and I barely knew each other. We were friends, that was all. And by the time the two of us started to become more, boyfriend and girlfriend and all that… well, she'd known me a while. So she wasn't so much meeting me as she was just… trading one label for another, I guess." He wasn't going to bring up how that label had become tainted at some point, after the accident. That was all so far in the past now.

"And Mr. Hunter?" Sam asked, which made Lucas smirk on reflex, thinking of how he still called him that, no matter how many times Shawn insisted that he could call him by his first name.

"Honestly? I was kind of scared of the guy at first," he admitted, which chased some of Sam's concerns from his eyes, turning it into curious amusement.

"Seriously?"

"Hey, he can be kind of intense, especially where his daughters are involved, you know? He wasn't really even her dad yet, not technically, but he was kind of that, in every other way he might have been. You know the 'you even think of hurting my little girl, there won't be a safe place to hide' kind of… No, guess you wouldn't," Lucas answered his own question, while Sam shook his head.

From what they'd heard of his first meeting with Graham Winstead, Cecilia's father, the man had been entirely welcoming when he'd met Sam for the first time. Of course, like with Maya and Lucas, Sam and Cecilia had not been dating then. But then again, it hadn't taken nearly as long for these two to shift from friends to a couple, and where anyone with working senses of any kind could have seen the turn for Maya and Lucas while they'd still been ridiculously clueless… Even someone generally attentive to their surroundings might have missed the transition, so when you threw a man like Professor Winstead into the mix… The man was the type you'd feel the need to check up on, to make sure he remembered to eat or go out for fresh air or sleep, while he was working all those long hours.

He was a master in his field, no doubt to it, but where his daughter was concerned, even he would admit he had his failings in being observant. It had already been a problem before the accident which had made him a widower solely in charge of an injured twelve-year-old in need of a lot of care. In a twisted way, Cecilia had told Sam how the weeks and months following the accident had been the most time she recalled spending in direct and undistracted contact with her father. It could have been a time she would cherish, if not for the fact that she had ben coping with the loss of her mother, and the pain of her own injuries. Eventually, things had changed again, not going back to the way they'd been exactly, no, but… But her father had found himself diving headlong back into his work, maybe because it was easier than to deal with his own loss.

"Can I tell you a secret?" Sam asked. Lucas looked at him, his eyes asking without words just how secret they were talking. What about Maya? "I wouldn't be surprised if Cecilia said something to her on her own," Sam revealed, so Lucas nodded. Go ahead. "I think she's more nervous about meeting my mom for how it'll make her feel than for whether or not Mom likes her." Lucas wasn't sure he followed. "Of course Mom's going to like her, that's not even a question. She's going to love her. And she's going to super attentive to her, the way… the way a mom would, I guess."

"Oh…" Lucas understood now. It was going to make her think about her own mother, and she didn't know how it would cause her to react.

None of them brought up the subject as they reunited and soon boarded the plane. They spent the flight more or less talking about anything but Cecilia's meeting Abigail… or anything about the previous evening and that ball of awkwardness. They'd played a bit of musical hair with the seating arrangements, as they sat two by two, one row behind the other. Maya and Lucas, Sam and Cecilia, then Maya and Sam and Lucas and Cecilia, then Sam and Lucas and Cecilia and Maya… It made the movies they'd put on in the front and back row feel like the weirdest mash up.

But then, finally, they had arrived in Tucson. It was a short flight, but long enough to make them glad to have reached the ground again.

"So, what's the plan?" Lucas asked as they were all waiting to get a hold of their luggage.

"What do you mean?" Maya asked back.

"Are we going to Abigail's, or James', or Luna's, or…" Officially, the Lanes wouldn't be moving into the Hart house until the day after the wedding, shortly before the newlyweds went on a short but earned honeymoon. Unofficially, with their house being down to boxes more and more every day, James, Teddy, and Emma had been sleeping at the Hart house for two weeks already and proving that their reconstituted little family was sailing like a dream.

"They're not doing the whole 'can't see the bride before the wedding' thing until tonight," Sam informed Lucas. "James is going to stay at Aunt Luna's. He was going to get a hotel room, but Grandma insisted." Maya snorted. There was no arguing with Elizabeth Hart on this.

"So, your house then. Got it."

"Wedding central," Maya declared, with just the slightest shared look, shared thought with Lucas over what Sam had asked them earlier. Was it going to bother them, all this wedding stuff? They wanted to say it wouldn't, but then what if it did?

The retrieved luggage was packed into their rental car, and they were off. Maya drove this time around, leading her passengers into a rousing bit of car singing, the better to lift moods and loosen nerves. By the time they arrived at Abigail's house, she was happy to find nothing but smiles. Now they just needed to hold on to those.

Sam had used his key to let them in, and the door opened to release a load of sound, voices talking over one another, laughing, running…

"Moo-oom! Cara's trying to cut my hair!" Eliza's voice screeched down from upstairs a moment before the girl came barrelling down the stairs. She nearly tripped over her feet when she noticed the group just inside the door but recovered her balance and immediately dove into her big sister's arms for the protection of her untouched hair. Cara appeared a moment later, like a girl on a mission… for damage control, with Emma following right behind.

"I wasn't going to do it!" Cara insisted on her innocence.

"She was going for the scissors, that's when I made a run for it," Eliza accused, looking back up at her other sister. Cara still denied it, leading to a bout of 'did not, did too, did not, did too' that lasted until Abigail emerged from the kitchen to put an end to it.

"Please, can we not do this right now, I… Sam!" she stopped when she spotted her son, who happily moved to embrace her. "The morning just got away from me, I thought you weren't going to arrive until later… Maya," she smiled, extending one arm to receive her stepdaughters. This came only so long as Eliza could be part of the embrace, too, as she would not let go of the protection of her oldest sister in case her middle sister got any more ideas.

"So how's your day going?" Maya joked, making the bride laugh before letting go of both Sam and her – and Eliza – before approaching the pair still standing near the door. Lucas stood by Cecilia's side, like a support beam. A moment later, remembering himself before Maya even had to nudge him, Sam dashed back to stand by his girlfriend's side to make the introduction.

"Mom, this is Cecilia, I've told you about her… m-my girlfriend," he declared, reaching for her hand to hold. He could always be counted to find himself standing on the side of her free hand, the better to hold it, and this notion seemed to give them both a boost of courage in that moment. Eliza let out half a giggle at her brother's shyness, only to have it silenced by Maya's hand finding its mark right on time.

"Oh, yes, I'm familiar," Abigail chuckled. "I don't know half of what college has been like this year, but I've heard so much about you that I feel like I already know you," she went on to tell Cecilia, who couldn't keep from smiling at this.

"Cecilia, my mother," Sam completed the introduction, as little as it was needed at this point.

"Well, I know all about how his classes have been going, so I can fill you in," Cecilia told Abigail, and whatever fears she may have had about the effects of her bonding with Sam's mother, she had quickly shown her more unshakeable colors for now, establishing herself as someone Abigail was going to enjoy getting to know.

"You go on up and get settled, the girls will show you the way, I'm afraid I need to deal with some floral fiasco. Cara, you come and help me, and no haircuts. Cecilia, you can come right back around and tell me all about what you know about what my son's been up to that he hasn't taken the time to tell his mother."

It was a miracle they all succeeded in holding their laughter until after Abigail had gone, getting a look at Sam's panicked face.

"Oh, Sammy, you're in trouble now," Maya crooned at her little brother's ear as she kept hold of the giggling Lizard in her arms.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners