Welcome Home: Lights, Cameras, Action!

Ch.17: Coming Together

Wally returned downstairs, however, he felt a little nervous as he heard the excitement from his living room. There was a lot of talking and laughing between everyone. He didn't want it to be a big deal that he was joining them either, just casual. As a man with attention constantly on him, he could be quite shy.

After adjusting his robe he took a breath and slowly descended the steps. As he did his friends came into view with a small argument about what Christmas movie to put on the TV.

Then he began to notice all of the decor on his walls. A large tree was put up right next to his window. It was as if Santa came in and thrown up in his living room.

"I said Rudolf," Barnaby argued.

"And I said Elf," Eddie argued back.

"We're not even going to watch them anyway. We're opening gifts." Frank rolled his eyes and crossed his arms leaning back in the chair.

"Are you NUTS? Eddie CLEARLY knows what he's talking about!" Julie jumped in.

"Thank you!" Eddie called out.

Wally crossed his arms watching it unfold until he felt a light nudge on his arm. He looked to his side to see Daisy holding a cup of coffee in her hands.

"I know it's a bit late for coffee," She offered the cup to him.

"Listen, it's never too late for coffee, I need it after ... all of this." He looked around the room.

"You don't like it?"

"No! No — I mean — yes — Yes, I like it. I'm just kind of — blown away..."

"Yeah," She looked at her friends arguing over movies. "They said you don't see family, so, I brought the family to you."

He nodded taking a sip of his coffee. The warmth matched with the cold weather just felt — relaxing to him.

"Come on," She nudged him again, "I need to go stop this before Julie gets physical. Turns out she's very passionate about the Elf movie."

As she began to walk Wally followed her behind making himself comfortable on the edge of the couch keeping to himself.

Daisy however approached the situation swiftly. She waited for the perfect opportunity and snatched the remote from Barnaby.

"No, movies!" She flipped the channel to a Christmas station, "We're doing gifts."

OoOoOoOoO

The entire day was filled with games, presents, songs, movies, food, and fun. No one cared for the time or how long they were there, just enjoying each other and the spiked eggnog.

As the day began to wind down everyone was situated in the living room in front of Wally's TV. Snow fell slowly outside the window as the city lit up causing a glow from under the white blanket. The stars all found comfortable places to relax as the home was only lit up by the lights from the tree and the television.

Daisy, however, was the most tired as she had prepared all most all of the events as well as doing the most running around. She sat on the couch with a blanket around her, eyes growing heavy as she silently watched the movie with the rest of them.

Wally seemingly came from nowhere sitting down next to her.

"Where were you?" She yawned scooting over to give him space.

"I never had the chance to clean up my paint studio," He whispered. "I wanted to do it quick before my paintbrushes dried out."

"I hope you're not upset about the surprise arrival."