February 22nd 2024

Chapter 53
The Feeling of Memories

After day one of the break had been spent in 'intense competition,' day two had brought the Friars out to Sullivan Stables for an entirely calmer day. It was soon shown to be equally important to the kids as it was to their parents that they focus some of their intention on making sure that Mackenzie got to have some fun. How long she'd had to feel isolated from the majority of them, even if she wouldn't have seen that much more of them if she'd still been in school… The big thing there had much more to do with the fact that they got to go and she had to stay back. But now she was here, with her siblings, and her parents, and her aunts and uncles and her little cousin. Maya may not have been playing with the rest of them, as she sat with a pile of diaries, but she wasn't far, and she could watch. Once again the sled had been brought out, and Mackenzie was really starting to appreciate the thing far more than when it had enabled her to slide through the snow the previous winter.

This year, Maya had decided to do things differently with the diaries over the break. Normally, the kids would all have their diaries and they would fill a few pages over those two weeks. But then at the same time there would be some who just wouldn't have the time because of family trips, or guests, or anything like that, while others would simply forget. This time, she had collected all the diaries over the span of the final week, and she would only return them on the first day of class in January. When they did get them back, they would be expected to recount some of their break in their first assignment. She wanted them to not have to think about all that during the break, wanted them to have fun as much as possible, be with their families…

The other perk was that she got to spend more time with each diary. She'd split up the load of those eight boxes over the span of the break, so she would have a certain number to go through every day. She would take her time, looking at the sum of each student's work through the first four months of the school year, and she would leave them comments, maybe some pointers… The exercise on the whole made her really happy. She always did her best to look at everything, but for the diaries, especially as she was getting the hang of the doubled load, she didn't always feel like she'd accomplished that. Each sketchbook she returned to the boxes now, she felt, was entirely more familiar to her than it had been before, and she had new notes so far as where the students had been, where they'd gotten to, and where they could go next as the year continued.

Running across Deanne's diary, she couldn't help but pause and think about the girl. Both Maya and Lucas had been hoping for some kind of Christmas miracle, some December magic for her, where her father would up and appear when she looked more and more dejected by the day at the idea that he wouldn't be there with her. But they'd been left to look at all that they'd heard so far from Deanne's father, and they were sad to say they did not believe there was any space left for some kind of miracle. He was not going to come. They could sympathize with the fact that he was going through something major, the loss of his wife, but… well, Deanne had gone through this, too, and now she was out here, far from her father, and she'd made it to the point where she needed him… and he wasn't going to be there. There were no bad guys here, just people in pain, and they couldn't do anything to fix it for them. In the meantime, Deanne was having to watch her fellow XCs, those of them whose families had traveled out to be with them for the holidays, thinking how her father hadn't come.

"Run, Lucy, run!" Mackenzie called out with such giddiness that her big sister was all smiles as she sped off. As quiet as she was known to be, Lucy Friar was also recognized as easily the fastest runner among her sisters. Time would tell whether one or the other of her younger brothers managed to dethrone her, or even her two little sisters, but for now, she was queen. Lucas really loved to watch her go, not just for her speed but also for how much happiness she seemed to get out of going fast like that. They were already considering whether she might take up running as a sport, in school especially. She was a swimmer, had always been a swimmer, but now there was this…

This was all really about as great of a break day as they'd had in a while. Something about all of them just being together, at the ranch, playing around… Would his grandparents have ever imagined how they could all come to this point, back in the day? They had this place in their lives, they had Sullivan Stables, and some days it could feel as good as home.

He'd been focused in great part on Mackenzie in her sled, and Maya back at the B&B, looking at them while they played, but he was also aware of the others, if maybe on the passive side. Even so, after a while, it felt as though his brain had been cycling through its most recent observations and it was telling him to look at Gracie, to recall seeing these looks about her, like she was holding back, like she was being careful, like something was bugging her, some discomfort. He looked at her, so her moving just a bit like she was testing her movements, and she saw him looking.

He asked if she was alright with a look, and she responded with a look of her own. I don't know, don't worry about it. He wasn't sure if that was wise but, figuring he might as well take her cue on this, they carried on playing for a few minutes. Maybe she was trying to convince herself that there was nothing, that it was all in her head. Either way, she went along, running after her nieces, until she seemed to just… wobble about the knee. She might have fallen all the way to the ground if Lucas hadn't been just near enough to catch her and steady her.

"Woah, hey, what happened?" he asked. The others stopped and looked at them. MJ and Haley hurried closer. Nellie wasn't there with them, but knowing the twins, she might have felt… something.

"Wrong move, I think, I just…" Gracie winced. She tested her footing and her face immediately showed how quickly her pain levels had gone shooting skyward. "My leg gave out, my hip…" A fast shuffle behind them told Lucas that Maya had seen them all and had hurried out to join them. There was no need for any of them to say it. Whatever was happening, they were well aware that it had not just started from nothing. She'd been dealing with the after effects of her accident for years, and she'd always managed well enough, but this felt different, and they needed to get her checked out as soon as possible, so they made their way to the parking lot.

As they walked, Maya got a call from Nellie, and she confirmed to her little sister that they were bringing Gracie to the hospital. She told her what had happened, and here Nellie informed them that Gracie had been complaining about more frequent hip pain as of late. She had kept her sister's confidence the whole time, but now this compelled her to speak, and Gracie would not argue against it. All she had to say was that she'd figured it would go away eventually, because any pain she'd felt since she'd recovered had only ever been that. Nellie would meet them at the hospital as soon as she could get there. Before Gracie could ask her, Nellie promised that she would get Bobby to drive her, and to bring Ethan at the same time.

It had been over a decade now since that terrifying day, but none of them had forgotten it. Gracie had been eleven, walking their old dog, Una, near the house, when the dog had gotten away from her. Gracie had run after her, run into the street, and she'd been hit by a passing car that had seen her only half a heartbeat before they collided, not a chance to stop. The injuries had been significant, most of all in her hip. She'd been on crutches for a long while once she was recovered enough to use them, and she'd hated the idea that she might have to use them for the rest of her life, but that hadn't been the case. In time, she'd been able to leave them behind, and by now, aside from the occasional small flare up, you could hardly tell unless you were in a position to see the scars.

Gracie was twenty-two now, she was well on her way to finishing school, she and Ethan were doing great, and she was about to be an aunt again, twice over… Now this thing had happened and it was as though the universe was trying to slow her down, for some reason she couldn't begin to fathom. They took her into the hospital, and as short as the wait was, all things considered, it felt like an eternity. At least it made it so that Nellie and the Davis twins arrived before they could take Gracie away to run some tests. Katy and Shawn had already made it, looking like they were both overtaken by the loathsome spirit of that day, half a lifetime ago for their daughter. They would always say that, with the times they'd had to see their children brought in here, each new one was always and would always be too soon.

It would be evening by the time Gracie came back to the Friar house. Maya and Lucas had brought the kids back, with Gracie's blessing, as she didn't much care for hospitals and wouldn't have them stuck there if they didn't have to be. Maya wanted to go back, several times, and she nearly had a mutiny at the ready, with her daughters to back her up, by the time the two twin couples walked in. They were quite the picture, pregnant Nellie with Bobby by her side, and then Ethan leading the way for Gracie, back on the crutches that had been fetched back from the Hunter house.

"Hey…" Maya went up to her, hesitating briefly before she could go ahead and hug her little sister.

"Mom and Dad really wanted me to stay back with them tonight, but I really wanted to be back here," Gracie explained. With how she settled herself when she sat down on the couch, it was plain to see that, while she had likely been given painkillers, it was only doing so much for her.

"What did they say?" Lucas asked his sister-in-law. By the faces of the trio who'd brought her back, they could already tell that they were not out of the woods yet, not even close.

"They said a lot of things," Gracie frowned. She was tired, exhausted from her day, didn't want to get into details. "I knew that things could take a turn again, I just really hoped it wouldn't. They're going to have to operate on my hip again, might have to replace it, but I think they're trying not to unless they have to, I…" she shrugged, and they let it go. It had been a lot of information she had not been ready for.

"When is this happening?" Maya asked. Gracie let out a breath, resigned to this at least.

"After the holidays."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners