The drive to Midvale was smooth, with little traffic and a sleeping Zack the whole way up. Alex kept the radio on low, humming the words to the Bare Naked Ladies disc. When they pulled into the driveway, Eliza was waiting on the porch.
"Alex, Maggie it is so great to see you both." Eliza said walking towards them and giving them hugs.
Maggie woke Zack up and carried him into the house while Eliza grabbed the bags and Alex crutched in. Alex hated that she couldn't be more useful but she only had one more week to go with the crutches.
"Zack can sleep in Kara's room." Eliza said going up stairs to drop the bags off.
Maggie put Zack on the couch, "four days of vacation, no NCPD or DEO to hound us. Sounds like a crazy dream to me."
"It would be a better vacation if I didn't have to lug these things around with me," Alex said as she referenced to her crutches.
"Babe, I know this has been hard on you but we finally have some time to be a family without interruptions. We may even get time to ourselves so lets be grateful that we have this opportunity. We don't know when it will come around again."
Alex hung her head, "your right I'm sorry." Zack sat up rubbing his eyes.
"Morning sunshine," Alex said ruffling Zack's hair.
"We here?" He asks.
"Yup." Zack jumped off the couch and began exploring the house. He looked at the pictures, the cabinets, through the windows until he got to the sliding glass doors.
"Water" Zack jumped up in excited.
Maggie and Alex followed close behind, "yeah sweetie that's the ocean."
"Can we swim?" Zack asked.
"Maybe tomorrow but not today."
"Okay. Lunch time yet?"
Eliza walks in with an assortment of sandwiches, "alright we have peanut butter and jelly, peanut butter and banana. For Maggie I have a Mediterranean with veggies. I have fruit salad as well as veggies with hummus. For Alex I have a bag of your favorite bbq chips."
Alex grabbed the chips as fast as she could and smirked at Maggie. Eliza laughed.
"What Maggie doesn't let me buy these at home." Alex said with a smile as she opened the bag and stuffed a couple chips in her mouth."
Zack giggled, "mommy's funny." Alex pouted.
"So Maggie, Alex have do you guys have anything planned?" Eliza asks.
Alex responds, "not really. Because this was so last minute I didn't think to plan anything. Zack has not stopped talking about the captain underpants movie so I was thinking you may want to bring him."
Eliza raises her eyebrows than looks to Zack, "Yeah the movies!"
"I think Zack answered, I would love to. Zack lets go look up times while your moms clean up after lunch."
"Thank you for lunch grandma."
As Maggie and Alex cleaned up Maggie asked, "so I was thinking before dinner maybe we could go for a walk on the beach, so Zack could get use to it before going into the water. How does that sound to you."
"I think it's a great idea. Especially since we could watch the sunset. Hey maybe we could take out my dad's telescope one night. I haven't stargazed in ages."
"We can ask your mom where she put it and get it ready. Maybe Zack might be interested."
"I doubt a 4 year old could stay entertained by stars. My dad and I started when I was nine." Alex thought for a second, "Hey mags, I want to show you something." Alex said grabbing Maggie's hand and heading for the basement. Once they got to the bottom of the stairs, they went into what was her dad's workshop.
Maggie was confused, "Alex I've seen your basement before."
Alex smirked, "true but you haven't seen all of it." Alex walked over to the bookshelf and pulled on a book, causing the whole bookcase to slide, revealing a secret room. Alex looked over to Maggie who froze, stunned at what she just saw. Alex grabbed Maggie's hand and pulled her in the room and closed the door. Maggie walked around looking with awe.
"After Kara came to live with us, my parents were so focused on teaching her how to be human that they ignored me. I felt so jealous, my mom never noticed but my dad did. So as an apology he created the room, which is lined with lead that only he and I knew about. We would have scientific Saturdays, where we would do an experiment or learn a new constellation and find it later that night with the telescope." Alex picked up a gadget that was on the workbench, "he helped me win the state science fair the year before he disappeared. Then when he was gone, I would come here. I don't know if my mom ever noticed but she was hurting so bad and Kara still had so much to learn." Alex took a deep breath, "so after Kara and my mom would go to bed, I would come down here and cry. Sometimes if my mom and Kara went to the store or somewhere I would come here and sleep." Alex had tears flowing down her face as she recited the memory.
Maggie hugged Alex from behind, "I am so amazed at how strong you were back then and how strong you are now. And the room is like every kids dream. I mean who wouldn't want a secret room in their house."
Alex laughed, "It's pretty cool isn't it."
"Yea you big nerd." Maggie kisses Alex's neck.
"Don't start something you can't finish Mags," Alex says leaning into Maggie's touch.
"Just wait until tomorrow when we have the house to ourselves." Maggie whispers in Alex's ear as a shuttles travels down Alex's spine.
"Okay enough, we need to go back upstairs before they being to wonder where we are and you know it takes forever for me to get up stairs."
"Okay slow poke." Maggie said as they left the room to go upstairs.
NEXT CHAPTER: More of Midvale.