wickerpark | Thanksgiving....[Oh the craziness]

This was the first time Ty and Ollie were hosting anything remotely family related. It had a lot to do with the fact that Ollie was back state side, and the house was finally finished. So it was natural that they were going to host both families for the Thanksgiving holiday, which a part of Ty thought was insane. However, Hadyn and Elisha came through on their end by putting everyone up at the US Grant hotel, one that the Kagan's had bought not that long ago, and left it in Ty's charge as part of easing him into the business.

All that aside, at least it meant that the evening before Thanksgiving was peaceful...ish at the house. "Are you sure we have everything?" He asked as he came around the corner and into the kitchen as he looked at Ollie. "Hadyn wants to know if they really don't need to bring anything, or if you're just saying that."

Reaching around Ollie, he picked up his beer (not caring that he wasn't supposed to be mixing the alcohol and medications). "Also, I vote for only one side or the other next time. I can't deal with multiple sisters- I really can't. Mine is difficult enough." Not that he didn't love Sarah, but she had an opinion about his habit of drinking even with his meds. It was not his favorite thing, not even close. Especially when Sarah brings Izak into it, and the two tag team him with 'disapproval'.

"Also, there is plenty of beer and wine in store room, do we need to put it in the fridge? How much does your family drink, really." He asked, when there was a knock on the door. Moving around the island he set his phone on the counter. "I'll get it, it's probably the take out." Because Ty refused to cook when they were cooking all day tomorrow.

But when he opened the door, all he could do was blink in confusion at the woman and...her daughter. "Uh, hi....can I help you?"

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"I'm just about sure of it. And I don't-- want you to get the wrong idea about it." Alena almost manages a smile, tired but genuine, as she hands the papers over properly. The top sheet is simply a birth certificate for Eliana Lowell, father unknown. "It's just... I don't know how much-- longer I'll be able to take care of her."

Below the birth certificate, if he looks, are medical records--her own, indicating quite clearly a rather advanced state of metastasis. Below a few pages of that are release forms for a paternity test.

If he doesn't turn, she'll reach quickly to turn for him. "And they say it's-- easier when kids her age go to... family, rather than foster care."

It's just there isn't a lot of family. There also aren't a lot of dogs. That's what's got Eliana peeking down so dubiously at the (admittedly rather harmless looking fluffy) creature clearly scouting for crumbs and friendship. She looks up only long enough to reach with some hesitation for a cookie. "Thank you, sir."

He took the papers, and stared. First at the words, even as her words sunk into his mind 'how much longer...' lingered in the air between them. For a moment he felt like he was eighteen, being faced with a girl he'd accidentally knocked up and they were trying to decide what to do. Back then, he would have probably begged her for an abortion and never told anyone.

She turned the pages for him, his hands didn't seem to want to work as he held on to the papers as if it were some sort of life raft set drift in the Pacific. A child her age, foster care, cancer... Ty stared at the papers for a moment, before turning it back to the medical record were, and stared at them more as if he couldn't quite fathom it.

He could feel his heart clinching, his chest tightening in a way he didn't often feel. And as his chest clinched, his heart started to race, and it felt as if someone had dropped a elephant into his lap that was slowly crushing the air out of them. Every exhale inched him closer to being unable to breathe in again. Combat had never left him nearly so paralyzed, and for a long moment he wished he were in Iran- he wished this was all some dream he was having after a mortar went off too close to where he was standing.

This can't be real, he thought, his head shaking a little bit. And while the panic began to take hold, so too did the wild irritation at Alena. The medication made the moods easier to manage, it did not stop the full brunt of the triggered mood swing. The panic heightened his awareness, he imagined, and his grip grew tighter on the papers as he stood suddenly to put space between them.

He just needed to breathe. God, he just needed air.

"Foster care?" Was all he could manage to get out, feeling trapped in a small box suddenly. If all she'd wanted was to say 'this is your kid', he thought he could deal with that. But this was more than that, wasn't it? She was dying, he thought as he looked down at the medical records in his hand. "You....How did you even find me?"

He wasn't staring into the music room. He was trying to ignore it, actually, asking Eliana quiet questions about school and her hometown. But she wasn't talkative. He couldn't blame her, really, not if her mom was as sick as she looked.

Ollie happened to glance over at the music room when Ty surged to his feet, and his eyes narrowed at the pale skin and the agitation They'd been together a while now; he could recognize the signs.

He was smiling when he turned back to look at El, though it took more effort this time. "I'll be right back," he said, standing as he rubbed Bruce on the head. "Maybe you and your mom would like to see the pool. Just give me a second."

His expression was a little more set as he knocked on the music room door. "I thought," he said as Alena and Ty swiveled to look at him, both tense in their own ways, "that you and Eliana might like to see the outside."

The sudden motion couldn't help but get Alena flinching on their side of the door--or Eliana attempting to stifle a glance back, sensitive in the quiet way children are to sudden swings of moods in adults.

The questions felt bigger than her answers for a moment, Alena couldn't help feeling. It was almost a relief to see the other man suddenly at the door.

Except that looking toward the door meant catching sight of the little girl's eyes peeking nervously around at them. That meant there couldn't be all that much holding back.

"She'll-- be fine. This really can't wait."

He wanted to shake her, he thought. To scream at her, to just...scream in general. Ty looked at Ollie, trying to keep the desperate panic in his chest from showing in his eyes as he looked at the man...and then past him. He watched as Eliana looked at them nervously. She looked so calm for a child, but there was that sadness her eyes too.

"I..." needed time to think, he thought. But he couldn't say that even as he looked at the girl. Maybe she wasn't his, but that maybe seemed like a gamble. If she was, could he really leave her to foster care just because there was a chance she wasn't? And even if she wasn't, what sort of a person would he be if he did?

But could he even, responsibly, raise a child?

"Okay," he said, licking his lips a little as he looked at Ollie and then Alena. "Okay. We'll...do the test, sign the papers." Do the right thing like he could imagine both his fathers telling him to do.

But it didn't stop the panic, or slow his racing heart.

The look Ollie gave Alena was similar to what the men under him got, when they were aboard the carrier. Not as sharp, not as severe. There was sympathy there as well. But there was also a cool, assessing expression, one that suggested she should reassess the situation.

He stepped inside and took Ty's hand. He supposed it looked like a united front, he thought; the two of them against her. That wasn't really what it was - it was just him trying to keep Ty calm, at least until Alena and Eliana were out of range. He squeezed Ty's hand as he spoke, and smiled at Alena.

"I think that covers the essentials," he said gently. "I know there are details to work out, but I think...we need a couple of minutes, all of us, before we dive into that, Ms. Lowell."

Thanksgiving....[Oh the craziness]

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