“Judd…I don’t know what to say.” Lil said.
Lil had been against the entire idea of a birthday party. She hadn’t celebrated a single birthday since she turned nine, for Pete’s sake. Heather, however, had insisted.
“It’s not a birthday party.” She said. “It’s an intimate get together.”
Lil supposed she should be grateful that most of the guest had declined invitations, some had sent gifts in lieu of their presence. Aurora had sent a card with a gift card. Her brother shoved two hundred dollars into a card and called it a day. Despite not being invited Madison had also sent a card, but Lil tossed it in the trash before opening it.
Neither she or Heather needed that man’s money.
However some guest did show up. Michael and Narya gave Lil a necklace with a small charm engraved in the shape of a lily. Marrina had gifted her a brightly colored seashell. Elizabeth’s gift was probably her favorite. A pair of sissors that could cut through anything. Even Lil’s impenetrable hair.
She neglected to mention that they could also be used to slice open Lil’s skin.
Lil hissed as the sissors cut open her palm. She hadn’t had anything even as small as a paper cut since high school, her nerve endings never stood a chance. She let out a string of curses as Michael grabbed her hand and chanted a spell to seal it up.
Once the blood was cleaned off the table, Elizabeth apologizing repeatedly in the process, Lil forgiving her, nerves still reeling from the shock. Judd presented his gift. Which Lil was a at a loss for words for.
“I really don’t know what to say…” She continued.
Puck had gifted Lil, a large white shirt, printed in black graphics were the words:
“How about thank you?” Judd asked as he took a swig of lemonade.
“It’s a nice shirt Judd.” Heather lied, as she moved to wipe the traces of marker Claire had smeared on the table. “Lil could you hand me that magic eraser.”
“Heather, let me take care of it.” Lil set the shirt down and stood up. She walked over to the mess and shoved Heather in her seat. “You’ve spent all morning putting together this party.”
“I need to figure out where Claire went off to.”
“I’m sure she’s fine.” Lil said as she scrubbed at the table cloth.
“You say that but the last time we left her to her own devices she was coloring on the walls.” Heather stood up from her chair and raced off.
“So…” Judd said as Lil finished scrubbing up the mess.
“So what?” Lil asked as she tossed herself into her seat.
“Do you like it?” Judd gestured to his gift.
“You guess?” Judd said. “I paid twenty five dollars for that shirt, if you don’t like it I should return it.”
“I just don’t really get it.” Lil told him. “The whole step-dad joke.”
“Well, now that Mac’s lost custody and you and Heather are a thing, you’re basically Claire’s other parent now, right?” Judd asked.
“Shouldn’t that make me her step mom?” Lil took a sip of her drink, pink lemonade with a little something extra. “Besides, I wouldn’t go that far.”
“Why not?” Judd said. “You and Heather have been dating for over two years, you’ve been living together for eight months, hell, I’m pretty sure Claire knows your own face better than Mac’s.”
“Yeah, but I doubt she see’s me as another mother.” Lil sighed.
The whole custody thing with Heather and Mac’s divorce and subsequent custody battle over Claire had been a mess. For a while it looked like Mac was going to be granted full custody, until certain aspects of his past actions as Alpha Flight’s leader had been dug up and landed him in prison.
Heather and Claire moved to Ottawa and Heather was instated as Alpha Flight’s leader. Elizabeth, Persuasion, Marrina, Narya and Judd joining her team. After being resurrected on Krakoa, Lil traveled around Canada for a while before rejoining the team.
She and Heather got closer, becoming friends and steadily becoming more than that. Lil planned to ignore it forever until Judd shouted out during a mission.
“For the love of god just kiss already!”
Lil and Heather started dating. Choosing to take things slow they went on a few dates, before Heather invited Lil to stay the night at her place. They kept this up for almost a year until Lil found herself with an eviction notice and most of her stuff already packed away in Heather’s house.
Claire was a nice kid. Like most children her age she was still figuring things out. She liked to wander around the neighborhood without telling her mother. Her artistic projects sometimes got out of hand. She got into the occasional fight at school, but she wasn’t anything like Lil was when she was that age, which was a good enough sign in itself.
“I’m not even left alone with her all that often.” Lil said.
The longest Heather had ever left Claire in Lil’s hands was two hours maximum. Claire spent that time sitting in front of the tv watching the Little Mermaid while Lil occasionally looked up from her phone making sure the girl was still there.
“Still you spend an awful lot of time with the kid.” Judd said. “Picking her up from school, feeding her, washing her.”
“Clarie’s old enough to do that herself.” Lil said. “Heather’s more of the mom than I am.”
Which was a good thing in Lil’s point of view.
As she and Heather got to know each other, Lil noticed that they had two very different childhoods.
Heather was the oldest of eight, which meant much of the parenting responsibilities that her folks couldn’t pick up fell onto her. Her home was crowded, bursting with life.
She was raised by a single mother. Although raised suggested Ms. Crawley was around. It took Lil until adulthood to realize that knowing how to pay bills by the age of seven wasn’t the flex she thought it was. She and her mother parted ways by the time Lil was sixteen and they hadn’t spoken since.
If Lil was placed in charge of a child, that kid would probably come off worse than she was (if that was even possible). It was best to hand off the parenting responsibilities to Heather and just help out where she could.
“Look who I found!” Heather came down the stairs, Claire rushing past her a piece of paper clutched in her hands.
“Hi Claire,” Lil said grabbing the back of the little girl’s shirt before she could knock her head against the chair. “What you got there?”
“I made this for you.” Claire handed her the piece of paper. “Happy birthday.”
“Thanks.” Lil said, she gently unfolded it.
It was a picture done in that crude crayon drawl style little kids are prone to do. Lil could see the house—or what was supposed to be the house. The tiny sun peeking out of the corner, shining on the green grass lawn.
Positioned against the sky where three figures. One of which was Heather her long hair a fiery orange. Another Lil who was drawn to be about the same size as the house. The third being Claire with the same orange locks as her mother just in smaller scale.
If you couldn’t tell by that the figures were also named. Pencil lead blending in with the oil of the crayons, reading: cLAire, MaMa, and…
Lil’s mouth gaped slightly at the words under her own picture.
“Do you like it?” Claire’s shiny blue eyes beamed up at Lil.
“Yes…” Lil said. “It’s amazing…”
Judd glanced over and in spite of Lil’s attempts to hide the drawing, he gave her a smirk.
“So you’re not her mother?”
Hours later, after cake had been served and their guests had gone home, Lil and Heather had begun cleaning up the kitchen.
“See, it wasn’t a total bust.” Heather said as Lil helped herself to second slice of cake.
Lil took a bite. “Not my fault your such a good cook.”
Heather smiled as she wiped an arm against her face. “Where’s Claire?” She glanced around the kitchen. “I don’t want to have to scrub the walls ontop of all this.”
“I set her in front of the tv.” Lil said. “Last I checked she’s still there.”
“Thanks.” Heather walked over to the table to grab the lemonade. She paused as she saw the napkins on the table, along with the birthday cards, tissue paper, and Claire’s drawing.
“Oh, Claire did another picture…” Heather picked it up.
Lil moved to stop her, but it was too late, she already unfolded it.
“There’s me, there’s Claire, there’s you…” Heather’s speech came to a stop as she read what her daughter wrote. “Mommy…”
“Is that what that says…” Lil tried to play it casual. “She has such messy handwriting I didn’t…”
Heather turned to Lil. “Has she called you that—Mommy—before?”
“Not that I remember.” Lil shrugged. “She handed this to me during the party—”
“Whatever.” Lil punched the cake with her fork. “I was going to bring it up to you later.”
“We both know you weren’t going to do that.”
“Yeah…” Lil sighed. “I was going to throw it in the trash while you weren’t looking.”
“I didn’t want it to be a thing.” Lil set her plate aside and made her way over to Heather.
“We talked about this,” Heather said. “When we started dating, how much of my time needs to be devoted to Claire, that I can’t just cast her aside to be with you.”
“And I would never ask that.” Lil said. “Heather, look at me, am I really the kind of person who’s cut out to be a mom.”
“Look at me,” Heather told her. “Do you think this was in any of my plans?”
“That’s different.” Lil pointed out. “You had someone to learn from.”
“Lil, being a parent isn’t something you can study for.” Heather said. “Even with my siblings, all of that was thrown out the window the moment I had Claire. It’s a totally different ball game.”
“Yes, but Heather you’re…” Lil sighed. “You’re better suited to be a mom than me.”
“You’re compassionate, your organized, prepared,” Lil said. “The only thing I’ve managed with the kid was to teach her a bunch of swears.”
“And we need to talk about that…later.”
“The point is, I’d be the worst parent in the world!” Lil insisted. “Claire doesn’t’ deserve that.”
“Clarie already has the worst parent in the world,” Heather said. “I don’t think you could ever manage to be much worse.”
“What are you talking about?” Lil asked. “You’re a great mom.”
“I was talking about Mac but thank you anyway.” Heather wrapped an arm around Lil. “Claire loves you, just as much as I do, and she’s choosing you to be her mom.”
“She has terrible taste.” Lil said.
“Mmm…I don’t think so.” Heather kissed her cheek. “Look, if you really don’t want Claire to call you Mommy, I’ll talk to her about it.”
Lil glanced at the picture in Heather’s hand. She thought about how much time and effort Claire must have put into making it for her. Perhaps the reason Clarie hadn’t called her Mommy to her face, was because she was too scared to.
Lil shook her head. “No, it’s fine.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
Heather laughed. “That’s my girl.”
She planted a kiss on Lil’s lips, Lil smiled as she wrapped her arms around Heather.
Heather leaned back. “Now about the swearing…”
Lil rolled her eyes. “Jesus Christ!”
“See this is what I’m talking about.”
