August 11th 2020

Chapter 224
Their Blaze of Joy

"Look, look," Maya stepped up next to Lucas and nodded over to the couch. Lucas turned to look and saw at once what she'd wanted him to see. His father had been sitting there for a while, talking with Hank Hillard and Dot Cassidy, when he had been accosted by a curious three-year-old. Haley Hunter, in her Christmas best, had gone up to the man with the strange hands with the teetering hesitation of a child before hoisting herself up on to the couch next to him, where she now inspected Thomas Friar's bandaged hands like she really didn't understand what was wrong with them. Meanwhile, Lucas' father gave the dutiful explanation of a man putting his grandfatherly affections where he could.

"We are going to have so many eager grandparents on our hands," Lucas smiled, which made Maya bury her laughter into his arm.

Up until the previous week, their Christmas plans had not been exactly what they were today. Maya and Lucas were going to be making the rounds with some people on the twenty-fourth, and others would be dropping over at their house on the twenty-fifth, and that would be a fairly small gathering, no larger than most dinners where they had the Hunters and the Friars. Sam was going to be in Tucson, bringing his wishes and some presents over to the rest of his siblings and to his parents on behalf of the younger Friars. And then the fire had happened, and after spending a couple of days where they were uncertain they would even have the holiday in any way, they had flipped this thought on its head, and instead went for what was easily their largest family gathering yet. So many people had either changed their plans or simply carried their party over into this one, until it was all of them, celebrating together.

Part of them had worried just a bit that this would end up being too much for Lucas' parents, that they would have been better off with a small gathering, with less activity and noise. Now that they were here though, they saw that this was exactly as it should have been, that it was better to let them mingle and have this big party than to have ended up closing away into this bubble of a reminder of their current situation.

"Hey, sorry we're late, we had to make a detour, we accidentally left these at home and we had to turn back because we weren't going to get anything else today and they would have been lost after sitting on the counter all day… or the dogs would have gotten into them… Anyway, here we are," Sophie nodded to the large pastry box in her hand with a smile. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," Lucas smiled back and hugged her, moving to repeat this with Chiara, and Asher, and Ray. "You left your two together or you got another one?" he asked, pointing to the girls and the guys, on the mention of the plural 'dogs.'

"Oh, no, we left them together at the house," Chiara clarified. "It never feels right to leave them both on their own, better that they have each other."

"So, how's it going with your new roommates?" Asher asked, as the girls carried off the pastries into the kitchen, doing – as they knew they should – as though they were at home.

"Really well, I mean, all things considered," Lucas stole a look to his parents. His father had just been joined by his mother on the couch, where she now had little Haley on her lap. The girl looked poised to fall asleep in her arms, and Melinda was more than happy to let it happen, rocking her gently and brushing at her golden hair.

Lucas thought about when he and Maya had started imagining what the next several weeks might be like. Sure, right now, they had the holidays, and that made for a scenario they were all familiar with, being at home either when they lived there or visited from Houston. There was no forgetting the actual reason for their cohabitation, especially with Lucas' father and his hands, but once they had known that the house could be fixed but wouldn't, not until after the turn of the new year, then they had more or less given themselves permission to brush all of that to the side. They were just here, and it was Christmas.

This morning, they had awakened to find the presents already under the tree had been joined by several more, which Shawn and Katy had gone to retrieve from the other house and snuck in on their last visit. With the way Melinda would fuss over them as they were passed on to either Lucas or Maya, they had a feeling that she had felt some urge to add to the pile, for everything they'd done, only to have been stopped by her husband's pointing out that this would not have been necessary.

Once the holiday were over, it would all be so different, they knew. Lucas would be starting back at school again, and Maya would be back teaching at her school. Thomas Friar would be seeing to some of his clients, only those who needed him enough that they couldn't reschedule and give him time to recuperate. If possible, they would have these meetings over the phone, or on Skype, and if they needed to meet in person then his clients would travel out to the house on the lane. Other times, he would be going to the house, as they figured out what to do with the repairs.

And then Melinda, well… She wasn't working, except when she stepped in to assist her husband with his clients, but she had plenty of other engagements around the city, always. She did not know what boredom was. The problem was that, with her current situation, they fully expected her to decide she found it easier to stay at the house, and from there they could just imagine they would come home at night and found she had cleaned one room or another from top to bottom, possibly rearranged the kitchen or the bathroom in a more 'efficient' way…

"Is it just going to come off like I don't want her to touch our stuff if I say we have to make sure she keeps going out instead of staying here all by herself?" Maya had wondered, a couple of nights ago.

"Well, is that something you're thinking about?" Lucas had asked back, smirking at the look of her, all anxious and innocent.

"I…" she'd started to reply, only to be stalled, unsure of what to say.

"Believe it or not, she does have some self-control," he'd promised. "If you don't want her to do it, just tell her."

"But if I do tell her, she'll know that I assumed she would," Maya had countered.

"You're going to have to decide, one way or the other."

For the time being, she'd said nothing, though every time Lucas would see his mother grabbing something from a cupboard or drawer and have a look that could be remotely interpreted as 'actually, if you put these over there instead,' he would steal a look over to Maya, who'd just try and get him to stop.

"I kind of feel bad that you guys didn't get to have your first Christmas at your house," Maya told Riley as they sat out on the porch. Riley had found her best friend and requested a breather from the packed house, so they'd grabbed a couple of drinks and snuck their way out, sitting on the front steps.

"We had Christmas Eve," Riley pointed out with a shrug. "We just made it like it was today. My parents and my brothers were there, and Dylan's parents, his brother and his wife… We got to meet their daughter for the first time, she's so cute," she raved, pulling out her phone to show pictures of little Brittany Orlando.

"Stop it, she looks like a doll," Maya breathed, her face locked in a smile at the sight of the girl who had been born just four days ago. "Aww, look at Hunter being a good…" she paused, as Riley had swiped to a picture of her three-year-old brother holding the baby, under the supervision of her Uncle Dylan. "I guess eventually they'll be cousins?"

"Yeah," Riley nodded. "Eventually," she added, and Maya wasn't sure if she'd touched on something she shouldn't have. Riley and Dylan had been dating for five years now, they had bought a house together. They weren't married, not even engaged, and even though everyone seemed to look at this fact like a sealed eventuality, maybe Riley was starting to wonder why it hadn't happened yet.

"Hey, hey, come on," Maya pulled her closer, slinging her arm around her friend's shoulders. "If you ask me, a guy like Dylan, I'm sure he's just waiting, to give you your own moment. I mean, look at what this year has been. Lucas and I got married, Asher and Ray got married…"

"I know, I… You're right, I'm just being weird," Riley breathed, setting her head to her best friend's shoulder.

"It'd be weirder if you didn't," Maya smiled, tipping her head to rest against hers. Later that night, when she'd tell Lucas about this conversation, she would come to discover just how much she had nailed this prediction.

"Got room for one more?" They both looked back to find Nadine's face swimming overhead.

"What kind of question is that?" Maya 'scoffed' at her as she came to sit next to her.

"Are you okay?" Riley asked, leaning to look past Maya.

"I'm fine, it's nothing, I just… I started to think about last year, around this time and then I didn't want Zay to have to see me and wonder if we should go…"

Last year… Last year, on New Year's Eve, Nadine and Zay had believed they were pregnant. Later on, as it turned out, they had discovered that they were, and they hadn't had the time to consider very long whether or not to tell their friends and families before they'd gone and lost it. Now she was remembering that moment, possibly that last genuine moment of hope, before they'd gone and started on their rocky year of ups and downs, landing them to this moment, still waiting on something to turn it all around for them.

Both Maya and Riley extended out their drinks, offering them for Nadine if she wanted either… or both… but she waved them off graciously and they left it at that, enjoying the quiet and the air for a little while. The three of them were finally getting up to return to the party when they found Thomas Friar attempting to open the door. Eventually, Riley and Nadine went back inside, while Maya stayed out with her father-in-law, resuming her seat on the steps after helping him to sit next to her. He took a deep breath of December air, let it out.

"All good?" Maya smiled at him.

"Very much," Thomas assured her, smiling back. "I couldn't have imagined a better Christmas," he told her, then, leaning in to whisper, "Don't tell Mel."

"Your secret and mine," Maya chuckled.

"Alright, it might have been just… a little better," he looked to his hands. "But other than that… and the house… Nothing more. I have really missed spending the holidays out here. When Mel and I were dating, I would take her to the rink up there," he pointed up the road. "You should see her on skates."

"Well, there's still time," Maya pointed out. "We should all go sometime, in the next few days… Maybe no skates for you, but it'd still be fun, wouldn't it?" Thomas Friar considered this, and the smile on his face said plenty.

"I think we call that a plan."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners