Episode 1009: Hey Santa

“She hasn’t come around the last few days? With the holiday looming?” Xavier figured Lucy would have shared something that monumental with him already, but maybe she’d needed some time to process it first.

“Nope. I haven’t seen her except for that one night that feels like a million years ago now. I guess it’s good. I guess it means she’s good and happy if she isn’t running around looking for answers.”

“I remember when I worked with her adoptive mom a little for publicity,” Xavier offered, not for the first time. “She’s a nice lady.”

“She is. I don’t doubt she’s a good mom to her.” Lucy fanned tears from her eyes. She tried to smile through it. “See, this it was being nostalgic for something will get you. Be careful with this Ava stuff, will you please? One of us doing the blue Christmas thing is enough.”

“I know maybe this is a tough one but I thought I’d ask,” Hope said, curled up in the window seat in her bedroom and gazing up at a star in the sky, the star she and her dad had designated as this year’s Christmas star.

It was a tradition she’d done with her dad since she’d been really little, looking up at the sky, making Christmas wishes. She was pretty sure it was a well-meaning scam on her dad’s part, his way of finding out what she most wanted so he could deliver happiness on Christmas morning, but if there was a chance that that it really did work for more than material things, she had to give it a try.

“Um, I know I asked for some stuff a few days ago with my dad, and it’s not like I’m not thankful for those fun pretty things, I know I’m a lucky girl and maybe even a little spoiled, but if it’s okay, could I maybe ask for one more thing? Could you maybe help me figure out how to get to know my birth mom and dad without my actual parents feeling hurt by it and thinking I want to exchange them or something when I really, really don’t. I just, it’s a lot to know I have these other people… that I don’t know. I don’t want to be their daughter, I’m already somebody’s daughter. I just would kind of like to know them better, to maybe know me better, if that makes sense?”

It didn’t make sense to Curran as he lingered outside her bedroom having accidentally overheard her when he’d been walking down the hallway. Hope sounded certain that she wasn’t in the market for another set of parents, so why run the risk of inviting them in?

Episode 1010: One Child