February 13th 2024

Chapter 44
The Trouble With Bones

"We need to do something about this…" Maya hummed as she sat propped up on the couch, looking through her last few diaries for the week. Lucas looked back at her from where he had been fixing up the advent calendars that had been left in the middle of the living room after the day's boxes had been opened. Sometimes he would check to make sure none of the future boxes had been pulled and emptied in advance.

"About… the diary? Is it that bad?" he joked.

"What? No," she laughed, rolling her eyes. "But it did make me think about Ezra not having a room yet. He's two, and he's still with us. And the clock is kind of ticking before the… new tenant comes along," she drummed her fingers over her belly and held up three fingers. Just three months to go before their baby boy was due.

"We really let that one get away from us," Lucas admitted as he came and sat with her. She nodded and he matched her. "How about after the holidays are over and the house is back to…"

"Not being all magical?" she offered, her tone stressing how little she looked forward to that. It made him smile. He was not going to ask her if part of her displeasure had to do with her imminent fortieth birthday.

"Yeah," he nodded, getting back to the room situation. "We'll sort it all out, with whatever plans I'm sure you'll already be drawing up before Christmas…"

"You know me very well," she happily confirmed.

"Then he'll have his room, and this guy will have his crib ready and waiting," he set his hand over her belly, and she covered it with her own. "I don't know what you'll think, but I had an idea for a name…"

Before he could carry on, the front door was opened to reveal an out of breath Lucy. The girls had gone out to play while their brother had his nap. It wasn't always this way, but something about the holiday cheer made it harder to have them in the house and make sure that Ezra wouldn't be pulled out of his rest by some crashing sound, or the shouting and singing and laughing of his big sisters. So, if they wanted to play outside, they were welcome to do so. They knew the rules, knew the furthest they could go, and they always did as much. But here, now, the look on Lucy's face told them at once that something was up and it wasn't good.

"Hey, bun, what's the matter?" Lucas moved toward her even as Maya worked to stand.

"Mack got hurt, Annie says her leg's bad!" Lucy told them, unable to stand still like she was just waiting to start running again. "They stayed with her, she said to come get you," she explained.

Lucas and Maya looked to one another. They always wanted to think of themselves as knowing how to respond with clear heads if anything happened to any of their kids, and just now they wouldn't know exactly what was going on until they got out there, so they tried to hold on to that. But they had to go and find Mackenzie.

He asked Lucy where the others were, and she told him exactly, so he took off running, while Maya kept her from going after him, no matter how much she wanted to. Lucas ran, and he ran, and if there were ever days where the old injuries from his attack flared up, he didn't feel any of it today. All that mattered was finding his girls. They had not gone too far, they were right where they were supposed to be. But they were all there, a pack of blond heads near the ground, as Remy sat behind Mackenzie, and Marianne sat near her feet, and Kacey held Aubrey, who had started crying uncontrollably out of fear from knowing her older sister was hurt.

"Daddy!" she sniffled when she saw him first. The others all started to speak, saying that they were running around, with a ball, and Mackenzie was running, and something had broken under her feet, and she'd fallen, and rolled, and then there was a rock… It was a whole mess, and what it came down to was that her leg looked like it might be broken.

"I… didn't… mean… to… I wanted… to-to… the ball…" Mackenzie told him, and seeing the confusion and the pain in her little face, he knew he couldn't freak out.

"I know, Mackerel. You'll be alright, let's just get you…"

A honk behind them made them whip around and look, and there was the family's minivan, stopping at the road, with Maya at the wheel. She'd gone after him, Lucy and Ezra in the back, and her eyes wild with concern fixed on the six-year-old now huddled in her father's arms. He looked like he'd never been so afraid to hold one of their children, afraid of causing her any more pain.

"Everyone, let's go, come on!" she called, and the girls came rushing over while Lucas followed with Mackenzie. Marianne got in the front passenger seat so that her father could be in the back with Mackenzie, and as soon as everyone was seated and buckled in, they were off on their way to the hospital.

They must have been a sight, all of them hurrying into the emergency room, but right in that moment, they almost counted on it. The sooner they were noticed, the sooner someone would be able to take care of Mackenzie. Marianne was given her father's phone and the task of looking after her sisters and brother while she called her grandparents. To join them while the rest of them went off together. To say that the next little while was a bit of a blur was very much the least they could say. Mackenzie's leg was broken, as they'd guessed. They would put it right again, but the whole time Maya and Lucas were both focused on Mackenzie herself, not so much her leg, though they did look back to see what was happening now and again.

They knew she was scared, and she had every right to be, but the sooner they could help calm her down, the better it would be for her. The way she held onto their hands, her own little fingers feeling almost smaller than usual under the circumstances, it was hard not to feel exactly how scared she was, but they hoped she could feel all the strength they were passing on to her. She would be alright. They would be with her, and she would be alright.

Sitting on the hospital bed when they'd finished wrapping the cast on her leg, she stared at it without a word. She had her arms gathered up to herself like she didn't know what to do with her hands and she stared at the cast, then at her other leg sitting bare under her hospital gown. It had not been left untouched, but nothing was broken there, it just looked smaller than usual in comparison with the one in the cast.

"Hey…" Maya lifted her hand from where it sat on her daughter's shoulder to go and brush at the hair around her face. She sat next to her, arm around her shoulders, while Lucas was sitting in a chair on the other side, leaning forward to be closer to her. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm tired," Mackenzie mumbled.

"Yeah, you've had a big day," Maya told her, kissing her forehead.

"I don't want that," Mackenzie kept staring at her leg, her brows all bunched up in a frown.

"It's no fun, we know," Lucas promised. "We've been there, and we weren't even as little as you are. You'll… you'll get used to it, after a while. And then when your leg is better, they'll take it off."

"I don't want to get used to it," Mackenzie shook her head. "I don't want it, I don't want it!"

"Hey, hey, take a big breath, please?" Maya looked at her. "You can always tell us if you're uncomfortable, or if you're scared, and we'll do whatever we can to help you through this."

"Mommy…" Mackenzie shook her head.

"Hey…" Maya pressed her forehead to hers. "I'm right here. We're both right here. You'll be okay. It'll be just the three… well, four of us…" she looked down to her belly. "Just the four of us until you're ready, and then the others are waiting to see you. They'll be there for you, too."

As soon as Mackenzie had said she wanted to see her siblings and Lucas went to get them, they were on their way. Ezra had fallen asleep, so he was left with his grandparents while Marianne, Kacey, Remy, Lucy, and Aubrey went to find their sister. They'd had time to calm down since Mackenzie's injury, especially as they'd been assured that everything would be alright. They had also been told that she was upset - better than to have to share her fears - about having to have the cast on for how long she'd have it, and that was really all that they needed to know. She needed their own brand of cheering up, the kind only they could all provide one another.

They had to hand it to Aubrey, even if she only reacted honestly to seeing her older sister sitting there with their mother. She was so happy, and she ran around the bed and climbed on to sit with her mostly by herself. She struggled, but Mackenzie automatically reached out her hands to help her until she could get on the mattress and hug her. Mackenzie hugged her back like she hadn't realized until that moment how much she needed her. Maya got up from where she'd been sitting, and in no time the other four girls had come along to pile around their sister, a much calmer huddle than the one Lucas had found back when he'd run out there earlier. It might all be back to normal now, not with the weeks ahead of them to think about, but it was as close as it was going to get.

By the time they all got home, they were all exhausted. Going to the hospital for a happy occasion, as the many births they had attended on the waiting side could show, could be just fine. But for something like this, they could all but feel the energy drain from them. They were never so happy to see home again. Lucas carried Mackenzie into the house, there to be greeted by the waiting party of Maya's siblings. Clearly, they had been kept up to date on the entire situation, and they welcomed their niece with big hugs and materials at the ready.

"Alright, Mack Attack, what do you think? Do you want to make it holly jolly Christmas on your blank canvas here, or do you have anything else in mind?" MJ asked, adopting his best 'pensive artist' face, the one he swore his sister/former teacher was not an imitation of her in any way. Whatever it was, it had the desired effect of making her laugh, the first one they'd had since the accident.

"Christmas," she declared, and that was all MJ and the others needed to hear. The rest of the evening would be spent decorating her cast to fit the holidays. Space was left, of course, for people to write on it if they wanted to, but already it went a long way to help Mackenzie feel better about her unfortunate new accessory. It was helped even more when Marianne pointed out that it was sort of like they'd put tattoos on her, and Mackenzie had immediately looked to her parents, thinking of the birds, the portraits, her mother's flowers… As soon as they could take it off, the cast would be gone. But until then… Maybe she wouldn't mind having something that reminded her of them… for the time she had to.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners