The Family Project

Chapter 9

Maya

After dinner we headed back home and put the kids to bed. It was a pretty uneventful night. Lucas and Farkle came with our food, Missy said something about Lucas that didn't make sense, then we found out that we only needed to be there for 30 minutes and that the dinner only had to involve two families and not three. Long story short, it was a terrible night.

It's 9:30 right now and Tori fell asleep at 8 while Xavier fell asleep at around 9. We would have left earlier but Missy wouldn't shut up! It's never felt so good to be home though. After Lucas came back with the food Tori has was clinging onto him for the rest of the night so Xavier stayed with me. Now we're home and putting the kids to bed and Xavier has a death grip on my top while he sleeps. I slowly detach his hand from my shirt and lay him down to change him. I decide to get his paw patrol pajamas because the dogs are just so cute! While I'm changing him Lucas comes in with a cocky look on his face.

"So guess who just got a sleeping child ready for bed under five minutes. This guy!" He whisper shouts. I can't help but laugh at him.

"Why is everything a competition to you? I swear it's like we have three kids." I laugh as he comes closer.

"Oh come on, it makes everything easier when it's a competition."

"Yeah, I guess your right." I smile and shake my head. I finally get Xavier dressed and I pull the covers up to his chin and put some stuffed animals around him. Lucas and I both kiss him on the forehead and make our way out of the room. I go over to Tori's room and tuck her in with a kiss on the forehead as well before heading to my own room to get ready for bed.

"So we have to be at school tomorrow so we need to wake up earlier than usual to make sure the kids are up. That means when I wake you up you can't just go back to sleep." Lucas says while he gets his clothes ready to change into.

"What do you mean? I always wake up on time." I tell him with an innocent smile.

"Yeah, okay. I think you should wake Xavier tomorrow just to get a taste of what your like in the mornings." He jokes as I stick my tongue out at him.

"Whatever." I say while heading into the bathroom for a shower.

___

At 3am I wake up to a scream coming from one of our kids rooms. I quickly look over to Lucas before we both make our way out of the room. Lucas checks Tori's room first while I go to Xavier's room.

I walked into the room and what I see breaks my heart. Xavier is scooted back all the way to the corner of his bed with tears just running down his face as he held the teddy bear we gave him with shaky hands. It is the most heart. Breaking site that I have ever seen.

"Oh, baby, it's okay." I soothe as I walk towards his bed slowly. Lucas then comes into the room and stands by the door, wanting to do something but I knew that he didn't want to scare Xavier anymore than he already was. "It's okay, I'm here. Do you want to cuddle? It's okay, your safe." I say as I kneel down at the edge of his bed so he doesn't feel trapped by my height. He slowly starts to move his face away from his knees as he looks at me with broken eyes and tears streaming down his face. He then looks up to Lucas who is still at the door waiting to see if he will do anything.

He still looks petrified but I'm not really sure what else to do other than wait for him to come to me. "No twubble?" He asks in a broken and small voice.

"What baby? No, your not in trouble. You didn't do anything wrong. Why would you think that?" I ask as he looks between Lucas and I, who finally moved to be crouched down beside me, and then mumbled something.

"What is it bud?" Lucas tries.

Xavier just shakes his head, refusing to say anything else, and tucks his face into his knees again. What makes him think he would get in trouble? Then I notice the wet patch on his pajama pants.

"Awe baby, did you have an accident? It's okay. It was an accident, your not in trouble." I try to soothe as his shaking starts to calm down. "Come here, we can get you all cleaned up then Daddy will change your sheets and we can all just cuddle in mine in daddy's room. Does that sound good?" I asked as I held out my hand for him to take. It took him a couple of seconds before he started to slowly crawl towards me, allowing me to pick him up and set him on my hip.

"Come on, no need to cry anymore. We can take a nice bath then we can cuddle. Does that sound okay?" I question as he lays his head on my shoulder. All he does is nod his head then continues to sniffle as he calms down.

I give Lucas a small smile before I take him into our bathroom and start the water while I strip him from his soiled clothes. Every time I look at him I can't help but notice how small and skinny he is. I'm starting to wonder if they even fed him at the orphanage, I bet you could count every bone on his body. That reminds me, we still have to read over his and Tori's files too.

"Do you wanna talk about anything baby?" I ask as he sniffs once again while I lower him into the tub.

" 'm big boy." he says as he rubs his eyes.

"I know you are sweetheart, your mama and daddy's big boy. But your also my baby, and so is Tori." I say to make him feel better. "Did you have a bad dream?" I ask as he just shrugs. "Baby, I can't help you unless you talk to me. It's okay to have accidents but I need to know so we can help prevent it from happening again." Xavier looks up at me and nods his head before bursting into tears again. "Hey, it's okay, your okay. So was it a nightmare then?" I ask as he just nods his head again while he rubs his eyes. "Do you wanna talk about it?" I try, but he just shakes his head and sniffles.

"Okay, well are you ready to get out then?" I ask after I finish washing him. He nods and puts his arms up so I lift him up and dry him off. After he's dry I drape a towel around him and take him to his room to change.

I quickly change him before heading back into our room and put him in the middle of the bed and under the covers. A couple minutes later Lucas comes in with a sippy cup full of milk and Xavier's teddy bear.

"I figured he would want something to help him get back to sleep." Lucas says as he hands Xavier the cup. Xavier immediately starts drinking it while he cuddles into my side and closes his eyes. A couple of minutes later he stops drinking and the sippy cup slowly starts to fall from his hand. Lucas takes the cup and sets it on his night stand before getting comfy again.

"Hey Maya?" Lucas starts, "Do you think we need to get pull-ups or something for him? I don't want him to be scared of getting hurt again just because he had an accident."

"Yeah, I think that's a good idea. Maybe we can go tomorrow after we all have lunch. We should also read their files too." I say, leaning my head more towards Lucas as he wraps his arm around both me and Xavier.

"Yeah, we can do that tomorrow. You did great today, by the way." He continues as I look up to him.

"Thanks." I smile, "You did too."

___

So, did you like this chapter? Do you like them focusing in the kids more or do you think there needs to be more Lucaya moments?

What do you think the nightmare was about?

Do you think the kids will be okay at the daycare tomorrow?

If you have any suggestions or questions I'd love to hear them! Have a great day!