Welcome Home

[Leah Bennet]

The cupboards were emptied, the walls laid bare, the entire house stripped of every last furnishing that had made it a home. Leah Bennet couldn’t tell if it was her unsettled daughter inside of her or the overwhelming desolation of what had once been home that made her stomach turn squeamishly inside of her. Perhaps it was just the former, maybe it was the latter too. But change, as Leah had come to painstakingly realise over the past few years, was bittersweet. They said that there was always a light at the end of the tunnel but for the Finch family, that tunnel had been one hell of a long and treacherous journey. Exactly what marked its beginning and its end was an ambiguous call to make. It could have started at the birth of Bondi as a home for her and her brother over a decade ago, it could have started before they were even born in the satanic makings of one Marcus Finch. But of this much she was certain, there was not a time darker in their lives than that which had followed the accident that had taken the life of her best friend, the girl intended to be her sister-in-law. Alexis. Almost as if her unborn child had detected the name, her name, as it had jolted through her mother’s thoughts, she kicked about in the womb as if to say “That’s me, I’m here!” The thirty year old smiled, entertained by the thought for a brief moment as she rubbed a soothing hand over her swollen stomach and whispered softly to her baby, “I know sweetie, I know.”

Despite the tragedies that had befallen them all, Leah had managed to find her light and she held it as close and as tightly to her as possible. Having seen the heartbreak Izaak had gone through had only caused her to grip a hold of her love just that much tighter. She and Fletcher had finally wed last Spring and now were expecting this beautiful baby she was already five months pregnant with. Fletcher had been her rock, her shoulder to lean on through everything and for somebody who hadn’t fallen in love until her mid twenties, Leah could confidently say that her husband had been well worth the wait. The hand that was not rested lovingly upon her daughter grazed carefully along the walls as the expectant mother padded through the hall. A whole palm dissolved to three fingers and soon enough there was just her index finger left, tracing each intricate detail of her first home as if to soak in every lingering memory. Leaning against a door frame, she allowed her eyelids to flicker shut and noticed that it still smelled the same way it had when she and Izaak had first moved in over a decade ago – of the ocean breeze and coconut oil. It still had an air of independence about it too, a gawky, bold independence too rash now for a woman of her age to exert. She had been nineteen and pregnant with Jay, sickeningly afraid but overwhelmingly excited all the same. If she reached back far enough she could even remember Izaak bursting through the front door, a surfboard under one lanky arm and a goofy smile stretched right across his boyish face. The splutter of an engine from the moving van outside caused Leah’s eyes to shoot open but she suddenly felt as if she was still lost in a daydream of memories. Because there was a spitting image of younger Izaak, rearing through the door with a surfboard tucked beneath his arm. “Mum, are we ready to go?” But through the knot in her throat, Leah could not answer her son. Tears began to well in her bright blue eyes and cloud her vision. Damn these pregnancy hormones. But blame it as she might on her pregnancy, Leah knew deep down that the realisation of the time that had flown by would have gotten her teary anyway. “Mum? Are you okay?” Jay stared awkwardly at his mother, unsure as to whether or not he should comfort her because it wasn’t an uncommon sight to see her crying anymore. “Yep,” She hiccupped. “I’m fine baby, all ready to go.” Hastily she brushed the tears from her face despite the ones that streamed afresh down her cheeks and guided her son out of the front door. With a poor attempt at stifling a sob, Leah took one last longing look into the empty house and then locked the door behind her.

But as one door closes, another opens and as Leah turned to face her ruggedly handsome husband in the drive a smile so bright shone through her glassy tears that trembled down her flushed face. Her arms reached out for him, for that tall torso so familiar and comforting, and she buried her teary face into his chest. “Ugh, this is so silly.” She mumbled and hugged him as close as her baby bump would allow. “I really am excited, I promise.”

 

[Fletcher Bennet]

Love at first site was a fairy tale, it was not something that was real or this was what Fletcher Bennet had believed until he met Leah. He had been very wrong and admitted so during his proposal to the blonde Finch and now they were wed and having their first child and Fletcher was almost embarrassed at how incorrect he had actually been. However, as he packed up the moving van his embarrassment was not playing in his mind, instead it was his excitement and nervousness in how Leah and Jay both react to the change of scenery. The man cared very much about both of them and hoped that they would appreciate it. They needed another room for their daughter and the house that Leah had raised Jay and herself in was simply not enough to welcome Alexis into. Fletcher was hardly an expert on children but he had helped his mother with his little sisters when he could and he had known that they needed a lot of things and unless Jay was willing to wake up every few hours when she would need to be fed, another room was a necessity. The small family was not moving far because a child Jay's age could not live the way Fletcher had since he was eighteen years old. Moving around and not knowing anyone long enough to remember their names was not the life for a child, especially a boy who would be entering a world that was so distant to him soon enough.

However, Fletcher knew that his wife, Leah, would be emotional at the change because every bit of her life, with him and without him, had been there so he let her have her moment alone while he talked to Jay about his new bedroom and what he wanted in it. Although Fletcher accepted the way Leah lived her life and adopted it around her and Jay, he had to admit that painting all four bedrooms and unpacking would be much easier and faster with a flick of his wand. This, as much as he wished it, would not be the way things were to happen so he sighed at the thought of it all. With the game coming up in Spain this weekend and moving, Fletcher had a full plate so he checked his watch and asked Jay, "Why don't you go make sure you have everything and then check on your mother?" The boy had taken his instruction and Fletcher turned on the engine of the van that had been rented for this move.

Leaving the key in the ignition, Fletcher slammed the driver's door closed and walked on the pavement towards the house that was once their's and smiled to himself. The memories he had with Leah and Jay there were not all great but it had been home. This was just a different part of their lives together so he couldn't help but be happy to take this step forward. When the man saw his wife exit the house with Jay, Fletcher stepped closer to her and wrapped her arms around her carefully. The tears had been expected so he just kissed the top of her head and said, "It's okay, Leah. I understand." Fletcher rubbed her back with an open palm carefully and affectionately. The house that had once been a home to the Bennet/Finch family was no longer that and he understood why she felt sad and like she was going to let all the memories of taking Jay home from the hospital here or their first night together and finally coming home as man and wife. "We're doing this for a reason, remember that," he said sagely before he pulled back and placed a hand on his wife's stomach, to let her know that the little girl was the reason for this change. The Bennet family was growing and he knew that it was bittersweet for Leah, so he kissed her gently and smiled as their lips parted. As sad as Leah might be from the move now, Fletcher knew that she would be happy in their new house when it became a home. When he leaned in to give his wife a peck on the lips, he heard an annoyed sigh come from behind them. Fletcher chuckled to see Jay cringing as he looked upon them and he took his wife's hand in his, stroking her knuckles with the pad of his thumb as he lead her towards Jay. "Ready to go, Jay?" he asked the blonde haired child, but also asking Leah this silently as he squeezed her hand with his.

Since Fletcher had moved out of his parent's house he had never actually had a home, it was only apartments and hotels which he left soon after arriving and he was simply excited that there would now be a place he could call his home with his wife, their son and soon their baby girl, Alexis. He wondered often if his daughter would be like the woman who was supposed to be his in-law like she was a reincarnation of his wife's best friend or if she would have her own personality but as he looked into Leah's bright blue eyes, through the glassiness, he was confident that either way she would be happy, healthy and all theirs. Looking to the boy who had become his son, he knew that he would also be a great big brother to the little girl and was extremely excited to get into the new house so their new life could start.


sorry this stunk. my muse is garbage lately.​