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

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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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Ollie patted Ty absently on the shoulder as he tied on an apron and picked up the pan he'd loaded down with various vegetables for the grill. "Sam'll get over herself someday soon," he said. "Maybe when she gets a new boyfriend. Lenny isn't that bad." His middle sister was probably the most down-to-earth of any of their siblings, really, as proven by the fact that she had never murdered him for shortening Lenore to Lenny.

"...We're mostly wine people, really," he added. Which had a lot to do with the fact that it was California and the coast was peppered with various vinyards - even this far south. He glanced over his shoulder, though, when Ty opened the door, and he raised a brow.

Those definitely weren't faces he knew.

There's starch in her collar.

It's all Eliana can think about, even as the door is opening and her mother's fingers are digging into her shoulder, index finger right in the tender indent where her collarbone is meant gets separated. She's not used to starch. She's not used to the itching it brings to her skin, or to the odd constriction of her scratchy tights--or to the faint buzz in the back of her mind that's making the man who opens the door sound very soft and far away.

Alena's left hand stays tight in her daughter's shoulder even as she lifts her other hand with a thin smile. It doesn't reach her eyes as well as it might--but then, they've been so hollow and quiet generally lately. "Tyler? Tyler Novak-Kagan? I don't know if you remember me. Alena Lowell."

He didn't remember her, he thought as he stared at the older woman before glancing down at her kid. They seemed...sad, he thought. Or maybe he was just reading too much into it as he pushes the door open a little more. "Uh, yeah. Yes. I'm Tyler." He said, resisting the urge to scrub a hand through his curly hair. It was like his nervous tick. "But, no. I don't remember you. I'm sorry."

Maybe he should remember, but he racked his brain and her face didn't come to mind. He wondered if he'd sold her house recently, or maybe sold her a house. Maybe she'd been a sailor on one of the cruisers that he'd taken a ride on in the Navy.

"Do....do you want to come in?" Maybe it wasn't what one was supposed to do when a stranger knocked on your door asking if you remembered them, but she looked so tired and her daughter looked so uncomfortable.

Weird, Ollie thought, but he set down the pan and untied his apron. Something was up and Alena - Ms. Lowell - looked the way his mom used to when she was going through treatment.

He smiled at the little girl, though, and got glasses out of their cupboard to pour some water. As an afterthought, he opened the cupboard with the cookies that his mom had shipped ahead, and that was Bruce's cue to come running into great room.

"Sit down," he told the dog, and was ignored as he brought water and cookies over to the table.

The movement is enough for the house to properly be seen into, of course. It means Eliana's instinctive movement to comply is stopped by her mother's tight grip on her shoulder.

The research Alena had done clearly hadn't extended to 'partner/possible husband' and 'dog.'

It's a few heartbeats before there's enough breath in the air for the woman to nod and finally release the girl's shoulder. Her fingers smooth briefly at her daughter's hair before she gives the girl a careful push. "You go sit, Ellie, all right?"

Freed, the child bobs her head, sneaking a glance up at Tyler before dropping her eyes to make a quiet beeline for the cookies.

Alena takes another beat before stepping slowly, just a bit heavily, into the house. "I have some-- things I need to talk to you about."

"Talk?" Ty asked, before shaking his head. It made since that someone would want to talk, but he was so confused as to why he could only look at her curiously. Who was she? And why did she think he should remember her? Frowning he took the glass of water from Ollie for Alena, and introduced them.

"If you want, we can talk in private." He offered, indicating just down the hall to a music room, walls covered in guitars to make Ollie happy. "I mean, I'll be honest....I'm a little confused as to whats going on."

Ollie managed to keep most of his wary curiosity out of his eyes as he shook Alena's hand and then glanced back at...Ellie, who was already Bruce's new favorite person. Only partly because of the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

"No worries," he said easily. Too long in the Pacific; he'd picked up some Aussie on his last tour. "Bruce has a sharp eye on Ellie. I'll just hang out to make sure they don't hatch a plot to steal all the cookies before dinner."

Shaking hands with Oliver's hand is easy enough. Taking a glass of water is, for the moment, not going to happen. The tremble of her fingers is largely under control with her daughter still in sight, but it's not invisible as she moves to start sorting through her purse for papers. "In-- private would be better."

And clearly isn't wholly unanticipated by the girl. Besides, most of Eliana's attention is distracted by carefully watching the little dog who's taken a clear interest in her. It isn't so much a matter of fear as an obvious case of uncertainty.

Ty nodded, holding on to the water as he glanced back at Ollie and the little girl for a moment. But he didn't let it hold him up as he escorted Alena to the music room and opened the door for her. Once she was in, he shut the door and motioned for her to sit. She seemed to need to sit.

"So..." he said, setting her water down next to her before he took a set himself across from her. "Uh, what...is it you needed to talk to me about?" He asked, privately wondering if it was going to be a lawsuit he needed to call his lawyer over. He seriously hoped not.

Ollie watched as Ty closed the door behind he and Alena, and then he turned back to Eliana. He was usually, he thought, pretty amazing with kids. His nieces and his nephew loved him, but admittedly he'd never had to deal with a clearly uncomfortable girl dealing with...well, he could only guess.

He sat down on the coffee table and selected a cookie.

"So," he said, before biting in. "Do you and your mom live close by?"

Alena has always been a direct woman, really, so once she's sorted out the papers she wants, holding them just a little tight to keep them from shaking, her eyes return to Tyler's. The hollowness doesn't--can't--leave, but it's joined by a certain quiet sense of something like pleading.

"I guess you-- don't remember me." Which doesn't sound like a point of pain so much as inconvenience, something else to be just a little exhausted by. "But you came through just about nine years ago." A brief, unconscious glance toward the door. "And it was-- just the one night, but we were-- together before you left."

Beyond the door, Eliana is stuck trying to figure out exactly what to do with her hands. They're not-necessarily-welcome guests here, after all. She's heard from friends about finding fathers, after all (and her mother's said it won't be like that, that she remembers him well enough, that he'd been sweet and gentle and that's a good sign). Actually bending to pet the dog feels wrong. So does actually taking a cookie.

Being addressed, at least, she knows what to do with. Her chin lifts just a little, like answering a question in class. "No'sir. It took four hours."

Nine years ago, he thought, was about when he had been 18. Heading to- oh. It clicked, in more of a drunken way of clicking. He remembered a one of those old fashioned photo booths. There had been a lot of pictures taken, even though her face was a blur. He couldn't remember much more than that.

And then he looked out glass door of the music room, to where Ollie and the little girl was sitting. Instinctively he wanted to say- she doesn't look like me. But was that really uncommon for a mixed race child?

"Yeah...I...think I remember that." He said, looking at the papers in her hand and then back at her. "Is....she...?"

Maybe drawn by an instinct developed over six or so years together in one way or another, Ollie looked over and met Ty's eyes as he looked over, and glanced over the papers his husband held in his hand. Things were beginning to click for him too, he thought; Eliana didn't look like Ty, but there was something around the eyes.

"That's a ways," he said. "You and your mom'll have to stay for dinner. My dad's going to come over and fry the turkey, and it's always good to have a couple of extra hands to grab the fire extinguisher when it gets away from him." There was a flicker of his too-charming smile on his lips, a little more sympathetic than it usually was. "And if you're going to help us save the yard like that, you should probably keep your strength up. Have a cookie before Bruce decides he's going to make a grab for them."

"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."

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Thanksgiving....[Oh the craziness]

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we can play around Muzy a little till she gets home

Or I could get home HA.

Or I could be really busy for a million years AHA.

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