"Is this everything?"
"Yeah," she muttered, feeling anxious as she glanced around at everything they had.
It didn’t look like a lot, really. She could guess, feeding four people, it wouldn’t last very long.
Emma and Chase had made a mess in the kitchen, removing food from any nook and cranny and placing it all in plain view, taking inventory of what they had. Emma was distressed, knowing all the food in the freezers was going to go off if the power didn’t return, so it would all have to go first. It would buy them a day, maybe two, but that wasn’t nearly enough. They would have to ration the food for when the shipments stopped coming, hell, they'd probably do good to start immediately, no matter the hope that the situation was somehow fixable.
Chase, as usual, noticed her distress. He was across the room and pulling her into his arms again, rubbing soothing circles around her back with his wide palms. She didn’t relax, couldn’t let herself with the situation they found themselves in, but she let him make her feel better.
"Don't worry, it'll be okay." He sighed as he pressed his face into her hair.
Emma wondered how many times she'd heard those words from him, how many more times she was going to hear them in the near future. She had to keep it together. Leaning on him when she was having a bad day with her students was one thing, but Chase would need an equal for something like this, not three dependents he never asked for. She gave him a squeeze and made herself pull back from his warmth.
He didn’t let her go, though, holding the top of her arms and shaking her a little until she glanced up at him.
"Look, later on we can go to my flat and gather some supplies from there. It won't be much, but it's something to add to the pile. I have some money there, and I can go buy some stuff, too, while the store is still selling."
It calmed her a little, knowing Chase had a plan when she wasn’t in the right head space to be thinking one up, and she smiled, relaxing.
A knock on the door interrupted their moment, and they pulled back from each other. Kellen was standing on the doorway to the kitchen, and when she looked behind her, Emma could see she'd come over with Brian and the kids, who were left behind with Janice.
"Hey, Emma. Sorry, but your grandmother let us in."
"No, its fine. What can I help you with, Kellen?"
Kellen looked around curiously at all the displayed food as she walked into the room. Emma was surprised, though wondered why she still was at this point, when the older woman hurried over to her and dragged her into a hug.
"I wanted to make sure you're all okay, and I couldn’t leave them behind."
Emma was hit again by how nice this woman was, with her husband, the man she had been sleeping with for way too long, just a room away. She couldn't think about that, though. She was pretty sure she was done with Brian, and she had bigger things to worry about currently.
"Thank you so much for your concern, Kellen. This is Chase, he's a friend of mine and a fellow teacher at the school."
Kellen showed him her megawatt smile as they shook hands, while Chase's was more polite. They'd never officially met before, though they'd seen each other plenty of times when Chase came to pick Emma up every morning for work. Then they moved back to the hallway where the older kid was running around the room curiously with Janice looking on with an indulgent expression, Brian carrying the other baby strapped to his chest. Emma didn’t even glance in his direction.
"Chase and I were actually at the scene of the plane crash, yesterday. It happened right in the middle of traffic, we were lucky enough to get away."
She didn’t mention Chase's car getting crushed, or any other detail. She could tell they were shocked at the news, but she didn’t want anyone hysterical, especially her grandmother or the kid.
"Please, why don’t you sit down? We can have coffee, if you'd like." The invite flowed from her mouth before she could think about it and remember they had no electricity.
Kellen, being the amazing woman she was, saw the look on her face and gave her a pat on the arm. "It's okay, honey. We will be fine with just water."
She nodded at the other woman, and then went to look for a pitcher and glasses.
They all retired to the living room to discuss the events of the past day. Emma took the love seat next to Chase, her grandmother took her own single seat, and the Wright family took the couch, with little Brianna, with blond curls and as beautiful as her mom at five and tanned skin like her dad, sitting between them. She moved as they talked, though, growing bored with the adult talk. She went to Emma and crawled into her lap, which made sense since Emma had babysat her a lot before. She knew the little girl was a little wary of her mother because she didn’t see her as much, though she was a daddy's girl, in love with her father like plenty other girls that laid eyes on the man. Kellen didn’t seem to mind, and Emma avoided looking at Brian.
Kellen laughed. "Can you believe Brianna is happy? At the power cut. Since she doesn’t have to go to school for now." Then she wrinkled her nose and gave an excellent pout that somehow fit her face even at her age. "Of course, this is awful for my business. I went into the salon this morning, but I couldn’t use hot water or any of my other utensils like hairdryers. I ended up having to close because there wasn’t anything for me to do there."
Emma listened to the complaints, feeling strange after yesterday. Not angry, though, she was glad for the distraction. As far as Kellen cared, her life had just hit a small blip and would be back on track in no time. Emma had some doubt, but she wouldn’t express it. Kellen wouldn’t understand—wouldn’t want to understand—and Emma couldn’t blame her.
"I'm sorry to hear that, Kellen," she said sincerely, bouncing the little girl on her knee. "I hope things will return to normal. Preferably soon."
Kellen was going to say something in answer to that, when something distracted her. Emma followed her gaze to find Merry had decided to make an appearance. She was dressed as usual, hair still wild, bags dark under her eyes. The look she leveled on them instantly soured the mood in the room. Kellen smiled, though it looked a little strained around the edges.
"Hello, dear. I haven't seen you in a while."
It made sense, considering Merry rarely left the house, her own room, and Kellen didn't come by often. Her expression barely changed as she cleared the stairs and stoop at the bottom with her arms crossed over her chest, not bothering to step farther into the living room.
"I suggest you all get used to life without luxuries," she muttered, her tone flat. "Life as you know it is over. Going on like you're going to get it back is foolish."
Though she'd wanted to be patient and understanding with her sister, she couldn't help the spike of annoyance. Even if that was true, there was no reason to say it out loud and scare a child and their aging, ailing grandmother.
"Stop it, Merry," she scolded, keeping the child close to her chest so she wouldn’t look up and see Merry as she looked, who was usually locked in her room the few times Brianna stayed over. The few times Brianna saw her, she'd run off scared. "Please stop trying to scare everyone, its rude."
Merry just scoffed and sneaked away. She went to the kitchen, but Emma didn’t feel like calling her back. She turned back to the couple in front of her with her lips pursed. They were both looking after her sister, confused.
"I apologize for her behavior. The current situation is getting to all of us, even my sister."
Emma felt another stab of irritation. Excusing her sister's behavior, being the one to apologize for it, was the last thing she wanted. But she knew if she tried to force it, her sister would just make everyone more uncomfortable. Chase cut in before the atmosphere turned awkward and she was so grateful he'd taken her up on her offer to stay with them.
"Why don’t you all stay over for dinner, since we're using up all of the freezer food?"
"Oh, but we couldn’t—"
"It's going to go bad anyway, if we can't keep it refrigerated. You're already here and we could use the company, at least. Please, say yes."
Emma watched them give in, seeing Brian give Chase a narrow eyes look, while his wife and daughter stared at him with open affection at his warm tone and equally warm, devastating smile.
