Generations: The Long Game

Leave the Light On

Reece arrived well after Winter, but just in time for them to descend the stairs. He thought Winter looked fairly well, so he guessed his sister hadn't taken her bat to him. That was certainly a good sign. He knew it couldn't have been easy for either of them to navigate what they were going through and he was glad to see that, at least now, they were showing each other some grace.

"Where is Marjorie?"

"In the lounge with the children," Autumn replied. Just as he was about to turn to got to her Autumn spoke again. "And thank you, big brother." Reece was shocked and turned back with his mouth gaping open. "Close your mouth, Reece, it was just a thank you." With that she pulled her leg back and kicked him squarely in the shin. "There's our Aut!"

He turned to get Marjorie because as it turned out they had another fire to put out today. He had received a call from Mia on his way over, and she had been very vague about what she needed but asked if they could come out to the house for a bit.

As Marjorie gathered up Emery's things, he let Autumn know they would be back for her car later or tomorrow depending on what time they got back.

Marjorie was stood at the door waiting for him with Emery on her hip. As soon as he saw Reece he began to wriggle around making it hard for her to keep him in her arms. "Reece, I think your son missed you." She smiled as he took the boy and kissed her softly on the lips.

"Let's go, gorgeous. With, Mia, I have no idea what we are walking into." He also wasn't looking forward to telling her what had just gone down with there mutual little sister. They were both aware that Aut could take care of herself, but it didn't stop either of them from wanting to protect her. He knew Mia especially felt protective because of how much hurt she had caused Autumn, but more so because they never knew they truly were sisters.

When they were younger Mia's mother did the best she could for Mia, but she was left bitter after it was assumed that Max left. Mia spent much of her free time at theirs and often behaved like an older sister to Aut back then. After the prom they lost that and each other.

He knew they had spent much of the last year and a half trying to mend what was broken between them. He had even witnessed some very unusual vulnerable moments between the two. It didn't hurt that for one reason or another they all had agreed to go to therapy and for the most part the three of them still continued to work with their therapist.

Even through there twenty some odd year relationship Mia had always been like a best friend to him. They hurt each other a lot during that time, but there were good times as well and he clung to them when he first found out what his father had done. He held on to the good times and his knowledge of her to try to bridge the gap. Especially after she and Char started dating, because Marjorie had been so full of hatred for the woman she thought she knew. He struggled to allow himself to be open with Marjorie about that side of Mia. He had always felt guilty for allowing her to hate Mia for as long as she did on partial information.

Marjorie pulled him from his thoughts. "My love, you've missed the turn. Are you okay? You haven't said a word since we left your sister's."

"I'm fine, gorgeous. Just got lost in thought about how the three of us have come so far. We were never carefree kids, but we had each other. When we lost that, I hoped we would get it back. I never dreamed we could be in each other's lives like we are now or that we would be raising children that could grow up together." He placed his hand on her already growing bump.

As they pulled in the drive, they both stilled themselves. Mia being vague could be a good thing or a bad thing.