Just Breathe

Chapter Thirty Five

Vanessa smiled as she shut the twins' bedroom door just slightly as she left them to their own devices, happily playing their own version of restaurant. She had missed the vibrancy the twins brought to daily routine while they had stayed at her in-laws as Lia recovered. The usual even-keeled attorney had surprised herself at the tears she shed when she picked them back up. She wasn't sure how long the peaceful energy would last, but she had left the kitchen with a timer of twenty minutes left on her roasted chicken, which would ideally leave her with just enough time to freshen up and throw on some lipstick. The household had finally calmed down a bit with Lia back in school and caught up on her finals and Vanessa and Lin wrapping up their work schedules for the end of the year. It left a few days of calm before the Christmas holiday was in full effect and led to a free night for Justin to come over for dinner.

As she walked down the hallway, smiling at all of the Christmas decorations the family had put up that past weekend, she couldn't help but roll her eyes at the conversation she was overhearing between her husband and their oldest.

"But is that actually plausible?"

"I guess. It would depend on how far the cities are,"

"Yeah, but they always complain that it takes days to get there by train. That could be the equivalent distance of Washington Heights to Miami."

"Maybe. But you also have to take train stops into account, which adding the tunnel would help to alleviate that problem."

Vanessa slowly walked into the living room, "What are you two talking about?"

"Chuggington." Both father and daughter answered simultaneously as they looked up to the face of a very perplexed Vanessa.

Lin pointed towards the television, the ending credits of the animated tale lit up the screen,
"They finally finished the Tootington Tunnel to connect Chuggington and Tootington and Lia doesn't think it's realistic to have a tunnel that long."

"Well yeah," Lia insisted, "Because all they do is bitch about how far apart they are. If it takes days for a train to get from one city to the next, you're looking at crossing state lines which would be impractical."

Vanessa and Lin mirrored the same look of displeasure towards their daughter but for very different reasons.

"Lia, you can't curse when talking about a kid's show." Lin lightly scolded, "Even I'm not that vulgar."

Vanessa pursed her lips together as she carefully crafted the response she would give, "You both realize the toddlers aren't even in the room anymore, right?"

Lin and Lia shared a quick look before shrugging their shoulders, which only emitted another eye roll from Vanessa.

"Okay," She said with a clap of her hands as she glanced at her watch, "We have around forty minutes before Justin gets here so, Lin, I need you to keep an ear out for any screaming toddlers and the oven timer for the next twenty minutes while I go change. And Lia? You might want to do the same before your boyfriend shows up."

"He's not my boyfriend," If Vanessa had known that word alone would get the clearly flustered teenager up off the couch so quickly, she would have led with that, "And please do not refer to him as if he is while he's here."

Lin followed his daughter's lead, pushing himself off of the couch, "Should we just refer to him then as boy who is not a friend? Boy acquaintance? Boy who you stay out all night with doing absolutely nothing?" He tried to remain stoic, but the smirk on his face was wide as Lia palmed her face into her hand, clearly not finding amusement at her parents' teasing.

"You both are so embarrassing," Lia groaned. She moved past her parents and headed into her bedroom over Lin and Vanessa's laughter.

Lin's arm found its way around Vanessa's waist, "Did you ever think when we were teenagers that we'd grow up to be the embarrassing parents?"