August 9th 2020

Chapter 222
Their Blaze of Home Life

When he woke up the next morning, Lucas caught a scent in the air and it pulled him back in time. It was the smell of some of his mother's holiday breakfast favorites, coming up from below. He opened his eyes, and for a moment he had to stop and think back to the night before, to remember… The fire… the hospital… His parents had spent the night in the basement, and now his mother was in the kitchen? He knew it would be in her instincts to do this, but he wanted her to know she was a guest here, and she deserved to take things easy and let them treat her, after everything that had happened yesterday.

Carefully pulling himself away to let Maya keep sleeping, her first day off from work, he walked out of the room and made his way down the stairs. As he neared the kitchen, he could hear a voice. Sam was in there, too, which made sense. He was always the first one up, made breakfast most days. With Maya's earlier wake-up time for work, they'd come to realize he always woke up extra early like this, the better to get some quiet studying in, before the sun had a chance to rise. He was on break now, but he still did it. The question now was which of the two, Melinda or Sam, had made it to the kitchen, first.

He could only hear Sam, but he was definitely speaking to his silenced mother, as she told him what to do next for the recipe, with the aid of her paper and pen. Lucas could just see them, even as they didn't notice him. His mother appeared to be wearing some more of the Sanderson women's clothing, something for the day. She almost didn't look like herself, between the borrowed clothing and the way her hair lay flatter than usual. But she was here, working on breakfast, her favorite meal of the day, and with Sam's aid, she was going around with renewed ease. Later, they'd have to get back into that bubble of the aftermath from the fire, but for now she was good, and he left her that way, undisturbed, as he climbed back up to his room.

"I woke up and you weren't there," his wife's sleepy voice greeted him.

"I was only gone a minute," Lucas promised, climbing back into bed even as Maya moved to burrow her way into his arms. "I was trying to let you sleep in," he added, laying a kiss to the top of her head as he rubbed her back.

"Very sweet of you, Huckleberry, but considering everything that… Do I smell…"

"Mom's cinnamon buns? You do," Lucas confirmed, warmed by the smile it earned him. A moment later though, Maya had the same reaction as he'd had before.

"But she's not…"

"You would have to wake up very early to get in the way of Melinda Friar making breakfast. When we'd go on vacation, and we'd be in a hotel, she would have this look in her eyes like she had half a mind to sneak into the hotel kitchens and show them 'how it's done,'" he recalled.

"I really need to see that," Maya laughed. "Maybe we could all go on a trip next summer, your family and mine… ours… Something nice for our first married anniversary."

"I like the sound of that," Lucas nodded, and Maya nodded with a grin.

Lying there for a few quiet seconds, it started to dawn on them how this might well me their mornings for several weeks, maybe more. They still had no idea what the extent of the damages would be, and what it would mean for a timeline of getting his parents back into their own home. It wasn't as though they didn't want them around, far from it, but it would definitely change a lot of things. There wasn't even a question to be asked, they would host the elder Friars for as long as was necessary and happily so. It would be interesting, and that was really the least they could say.

"We should really tell them about the waiting soon," Maya decided. Lucas looked at her. "I'm sorry, I love your mom, and I want her to recuperate, but that doesn't mean it won't drive me nuts once she gets back to her 'casual hinting.'"

"Yeah… yeah, that's gonna be hard to dodge," Lucas had to chuckle. "So, we'll tell her."

"Not this morning," Maya clarified. "Just… in a couple days or something."

"Fair," he agreed.

"Anyway, it'll be hard enough to 'get in the mood' with your parents downstairs the whole time," she whispered. Lucas bit back a laugh and kissed her.

Once they were up and changed out of their PJs, they headed down to the kitchen, knowing better than to wait for Melinda to come up and knock at their door. They sort of felt bad for the change, as it left one of their party to stand out. Thomas had also come up from the basement, and while Sam had also poached some of Lucas' day clothes for him to wear, he could not change on his own, and so for the time being he sat at the table, looking even stranger than his wife, with checkered shorts and a university t-shirt. It did show more of the extent of his injuries, as they could see now how high the bandages did or didn't go. It also revealed an as yet unmentioned third bandage on his left calf, which came to explain the barely noticeable shift in his walk they had seen the night before.

"You know, in all this time, I don't think I've really noticed just how nice you made this kitchen when you fixed up the place," Thomas told his son in greeting. "It looks bigger than I remember."

"Sometimes I remember that you grew up here, and I kind of love it," Maya told her father-in-law as she sat in the chair next to his after getting coffee for the both of them. She motioned to his cup, fixed with the milk and sugar she knew he took, and with a sigh he nodded. He didn't like being helped to eat or drink, but then he didn't have much of a choice.

"Thank you," he spoke, once he'd swallowed his first sip. "I really love this house, too," he told her. "When Dad moved in with us, part of me hated the thought that he might sell it. Then when he told me he wanted to hold on to it, to pass it to Lucas, I was relieved. Now, it gets to stay in the family, with you two," he smiled, and Maya could just see him hold back the natural follow up to this statement. Just because his wife was extremely vocal when it came to her desire for grandchildren, it did not mean that Thomas Friar himself was not looking forward to the day when he'd have them, too.

"Hey," Maya whispered to her father-in-law, motioning for him to lean in. "Next year, alright?" she told him, holding a finger to her lips and signalling Melinda with her eyes as a way to say 'let's keep this between us.' Thomas considered this, and it went to show how she'd been right, that he had been thinking about it, as he understood what she was telling him. It could have been a disappointing statement, but really it was the opposite, and it made him smile and nod, waving his hand between the two of them. They had a deal. "Now, I gave you a pass last night because a lot of things happened. Talk to me, how bad is it?" she asked, looking to his arms. "And what happened to your leg?"

As they spoke, Lucas had joined Sam in playing helper to his mother. He hadn't noticed when he'd come down and seen them before, but soon he realized how his mother was keeping well away from the oven and wasn't actually doing all that much, mostly directing Sam and now him, too, to do what had to be done. She was scared, much as she tried to hide it. It got him wondering now if she had gotten much sleep. She was here now, making the most of her circumstances, trying to treat this day like it was any other day, but it just wasn't. It was the day after her kitchen had burned down, and possibly more of the house damaged, and she and her husband had landed in the ER and now their son's guest room. The fire most of all was still with her, and now it was a struggle for her to do one of the things she normally loved doing the most. But she was here anyway.

"Hey, Mom?" Lucas looked at her, while Sam pulled the tray from the oven. She looked at him, raised her eyebrows. Yes? It was still the weirdest part of all, the fact that she wasn't speaking. Melinda Friar's voice was normally nothing short of a character all its own. "We were going to head to the grocery store later today, to make a run for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day. I don't know if you…" She responded by tapping his shoulder and nodding. She wanted to go, too. "Good," he smiled. "It'll be our first Christmas morning waking up in the same house in a while," he stated, and this possibly brightened her face most of all. "Should we call Pappy Joe?" Lucas asked quietly. His mother reached for her pad and pen.

I told Thomas to let him know what happened. He wants to wait until he knows more about the house. We also need to go there today.

Lucas had read from over her shoulder as she wrote, finding still something of a tremor in her hand but less than last night. After a beat, she added…

Maybe I might go with Maya and Sam to the grocery store. You could go to the house with your father.

She looked at him when she had finished writing, and he understood this, too. She wasn't ready to go and see the damages. As much as she wanted to stand by Thomas through all of it, she just couldn't bring herself to go.

"I think that's a great idea," Lucas told his mother, and she nodded, agreed.

Soon, breakfast was served. Melinda took over assisting duties from Maya, which more than once led Thomas to receive one bite only once he'd gotten his wife to agree to take one of her own, too, and not just to fuss over him. She would promise, and do as he'd asked, before the cycle started all over again. Lucas, Maya, and Sam all did their best to mind their own plates, without calling to attention Mr. Friar's need to swallow his pride. Lucas told the siblings about the plan he and his mother had come up with, and they were on board.

They had barely finished breakfast when the Sandersons came up from their farm, as had been promised the day before. Missy, her parents, and her grandparents sat in the kitchen along with the Friars, elder and younger, and Sam. They must have been up very early, collecting some things they thought Thomas and Melinda might need, while they could not go into their home. It was all received with extreme gratitude and humility. It did them so much good to receive this visit, to sit with these people who'd once been Thomas' neighbors, back when he'd lived here as a boy. Their families had never been very far apart, and now it continued, in some ways, with Maya teaching Missy up at the high school. And really, on this day so near to Christmas, this presence returned some holiday cheer to the couple, following their ordeal… It told them, as other small things here and there had done, that they would be alright.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners