Upon waking the next morning and leaving her nice warm bed with a big stretch and long yawn, Evelyn had very nearly forgotten about what had happened the previous night.
Key word being nearly.
Because as she left her room to go downstairs and make some breakfast, she was stopped when the door hit against something on the floor, stopping her in her tracks.
Just so happened that that something on the floor was Hunter, curled up asleep just outside the room, face smooshed a little against his arm which he'd been using to cushion his head from the carpet and a little red cardinal plush squished tightly in a hug.
He must have woken up in the night, Evelyn assumed, and had come and laid out here instead. Her heart ached a bit as she wondered why he hadn't just come and woken her up again? Sure, she'd been pretty exhausted and would most likely have been half asleep the whole time but if something was wrong or even if he just couldn't get back to sleep, then she would have rather he told her than slept out here all on his own!
She knelt down on the carpet — and God, why was that already becoming difficult! — and placed a gentle hand on the boy's back, rubbing up and down to wake him as carefully as she could.
After a few seconds, he shifted slightly and began rubbing his eyes with his scrunched-up fists. When he looked up at her, she could already see his eyelids starting to droop again, trying to drag him back to sleep.
"Good morning sleepyhead." She whispered with a soft smile that only brightened as she watched him lean eagerly into the hand against his back.
He lifted Flapjack up to her too so she gave the bird an affectionate pat on the head which seemed to satisfy him.
Stretching his stiff limbs from sleeping out on the floor, he climbed up into her lap to wrap his arms around her and hug her. It was times like this that Evelyn was so glad she'd decided to have a kid. In the past, she'd scoffed at the question, brushing it off with an eye roll, sure that she could never possibly want any kids, that they were too much work for her and she didn't want to live with her whole life revolving around some whiny little child. She was now very glad she'd changed her mind. She'd very happily dedicate every waking moment to loving Hunter now that he was in her life. Her son was worth it all.
She hugged him back, cradling him in her arms like a delicate trinket and rubbing her thumbs against the side of his arm. "Did you sleep out here last night?"
With slight hesitation, he gave her a small nod, burying his face even further into her shirt, trying to escape the question but Evelyn still pushed.
"Why?"
All he could offer up was a meagre shrug.
She clearly wasn't going to get very much more out of him at the moment, especially while he was still so sleepy, so she shifted her priorities to food (her favourite go-to) and scooped him up as she got to her feet.
"Let's go get some breakfast, you want some pancakes?" She offered.
He nodded, this time accompanied by a small hum, (see, pancakes could solve any problem) so she carried him down the stairs to the kitchen.
Making pancakes one-handed with a clingy six-year-old glued to her side, refusing to let go, was not the easiest task in the world but with the obligatory superpowers that came with being a mother, she somehow managed to serve them up some pancakes as well as a portion for Caleb for when he woke up.
With breakfast now sorted, she tried to sit Hunter down at the table but that only caused him to whine and cling on to her even tighter.
"Don't you want to sit?" She tried to encourage him.
He clung so tight to her shirt that his knuckles began to turn white. "I want to stay with you, Mommy." He mumbled into her shirt with an almost desperate whine.
Even with her lingering worries about his sudden clinginess along with just everything else in general, hearing him say that warmed her heart. So, she gave in and sat him down on her knee while they ate their pancakes, Evelyn adding great big dollops of syrup to each plate with silly sounds to accompany them so she could find some reassurance in the sound of her son's giggles, even if small, that she felt as if she hadn't heard in forever. She had some giggles to give herself when Hunter also tried to feed some of his pancakes to Flapjack so he wouldn't feel left out from all the fun.
The two of them, plus Flapjack, of course, spent the rest of the day together, Hunter clinging to her side almost the entire time.
It was quite the contrast to how he'd been the day before, distant and avoidant, and there was still a bit of concern lingering in regards to where this behaviour was coming from but nevertheless, she very much appreciated the quality time she was able to spend with her son while her husband was away at work.
And they actually ended up having quite the nice little day in! They cuddled up together on the couch watching whatever interesting movies they could find that were at least somewhat age appropriate along with the occasional bird documentary when requested (which was requested frequently alright).
Hunter had always been pretty disinterested in your typical kids' shows — although he did have a random fixation on the teenage mutant ninja turtles a few months ago, constantly begging his parents to put it on so he could watch the same few episodes on repeat for hours — and strangely enough, much preferred documentaries of all things. He was big into the history ones and, of course, the bird ones. The last time his best friend Luz had come over, she'd practically been forced into watching an endless list of animal documentaries the entire time. Evelyn sympathised with the poor girl but to her credit, she did get quite passionate about the snake one. She still had the broken vase to show for it.
Evelyn was pretty surprised by how compliant Hunter was to sit and watch the movies that didn't involve birds but she supposed he did squirm about a bit as he tried to get comfortable until eventually, he settled down with his head resting in her lap.
As some typical action scene played out, men in big, clunky metal suits punching at each other and yelling catchphrases, her hand drifted over to play with Hunter's hair.
And as soon as her fingers brushed through the strands of his hair, she learned that that had been a bad idea, terrible idea even, because he launched himself up, tensing up with his shoulders hiking up to his ears as if he'd been faced with a threat.
"Woah! What happened?!" Evelyn questioned, looking around frantically for whatever could have spooked him. Ultimately, she found nothing.
Hunter hesitated, staring down at her hand as if it were a viper about to strike out at him if he even dared to look away. After a few seconds, he blinked and shook his head, seemingly trying to dislodge whatever thought had come up.
"Sorry. You, um... pulled my hair." He muttered, pausing as if unsure of what he was even saying. He tucked his chin behind Flapjack by his chest, partially hiding behind the bird and pointedly avoiding looking at her eyes.
Evelyn was pretty certain she hadn't pulled his hair, she didn't think she'd felt any tugs, especially any that would cause that sort of reaction? But she wasn't sure what else could have caused him to jump up like that...
"Oh! I'm sorry baby, I didn't mean to." She apologised anyway. Even if she hadn't pulled his hair, it had been something she'd done that had caused him to react like that.
He nodded stiffly, gaze catching on her hand for the slightest moment too long before he laid back down in her lap, only this time holding onto her hand and fiddling with her rings while trying to refocus his attention back on the TV once again. She got the impression this was his way of trying to subtly ask her not to do that again so she kept her hands to herself.
In the evening, she made him some dinner (dinosaur chicken nuggets, of course, and Evelyn ended up stealing a few too just to snack on because damn they were actually pretty good). Then she took him up to bed, read to him, and finally tucked him in.
When Evelyn had been expecting and had imagined what it would be like to be a parent, reading to her kid before bed, she'd always pictured acting out scenes with princesses with pretty dresses and dragons that breathed fire and evil queens with magic mirrors, coming up with a selection of funny voices to differentiate them and get some laughs from her kid. Instead, here she was reading an encyclopedia of birds with her son who was practically buzzing with excitement over blue jays.
Parenting sure was something.
Once she'd put her kid to bed — which ended up taking just a bit longer than she'd expected with all the negotiating she'd needed to do to get him to stop clinging to her like an adorable little koala — she returned back downstairs just in time to greet Caleb at the door as he got in from work.
He gave her a quick peck on the cheek before heading upstairs to get changed out of his sawdust-covered overalls, trying his best to get as little of it on the carpet as possible.
He didn't do the best job ever but oh well, that's what the vacuum was for.
Once changed into some more comfortable clothing, he came downstairs to watch some TV and eat the dinner Evelyn had made them while they both had a chat about their days. Caleb told her all about his current carpentry projects and just how much he was enjoying his new job, grateful that she'd pushed him into finally pursuing it, and Evelyn informed him of their lazy day in, watching various things on the TV and adding a small comment about Hunter's sudden clinginess.
"He probably just missed you while we were away." Caleb shrugged, "He's never really had that experience of us being away for so long, especially for a whole week. You know how he gets about routine and such."
That was actually a pretty logical conclusion. That had been the first full week in all six years of his life that he hadn't had at least one of his parents there to coddle him, of course, he'd be a little off about the whole thing. She felt a bit silly for not thinking about that. She really had to stop catastrophising.
"Yeah, you're probably right." She sighed, taking a nice big bite of spaghetti off her fork.
Caleb gave her one of those warm smiles that never failed to warm her heart before slapping his hands on his thighs with a "Right, I'm off to bed then," In typical dad fashion. "I've got an early start tomorrow and I'm already exhausted. Gonna need all the sleep I can get."
"I'll be up in a bit, just going to read for a while," Evelyn replied.
Caleb left her a kiss on the forehead as he passed the couch and headed for the stairs, finally leaving her with some peace and quiet.
She decided to take advantage of the limited quiet time without child and husband by reading a singular chapter of her book. Yep. Motherhood sure was generous!
It was all worth it though, really, and it only actually took one chapter to tire herself out of her nervousness and into sleep anyway.
Reading had always been her go-to for unwinding after a long, busy day (and yes, a very long and busy day of watching TV on the couch).
It was just something relaxing to do that didn't require all that much brain power, simply allowing herself to become immersed in a good story.
It was peaceful.
Until Caleb's panicked shout from upstairs cut through the silence.
"Evelyn!"
She practically flung her book across the couch, it bouncing off the soft cushion where it hit and onto the floor, and she raced up the stairs to find her husband standing by her son's open door. She felt her heart sink.
"What's wrong?" She asked, a mix of the panic and running up all of those stairs making her heart race and her breath come out sharp and quick.
"He's gone!"
It took a good minute or so for her brain to catch up to her after her dash up the stairs and even longer to process the words she'd just heard. In the end, all she could say was "What?"
"Hunter! He's — He's not there, look!" He fumbled, pointing helplessly into the room.
Evelyn peeked around the doorframe, hoping for this to just be some sort of joke the two of them were playing, hoping that Hunter would just be pressed up against the wall beside the door, barely containing his giggles, ready to jump out with a 'Boo!' So they could all laugh at how much of a fright he'd given her.
Instead, there was nobody there to jump out and she found the room empty, a prominently vacant space on the bed.
They were both beginning to really freak out now.
"You definitely put him to bed, right?" Caleb questioned.
"Of course! I—I took him upstairs, read to him, then tucked him in!"
"Could he have run off somewhere?"
"Where would he have even gone though? We've been in the living room the whole evening! Surely we would have seen him if he'd gone out the door? Did you check the bathroom?"
"Yeah, I was just in there. Didn't see him."
"I don't know where else he could be then..."
They both fell into silence, wracking their brains for any sort of idea as to where their kid could possibly be.
Caleb's gaze scanned over the room one more time as if just looking hard enough would cause Hunter to magically appear right in front of them and everything would be just fine. And well, his eyes did catch on a small flash of red, just barely visible under the bed.
Curiously, he knelt down beside the bed, lifting the dangling sheets up out of the way and peaking under, squinting into the small dark space.
And he sighed with relief.
Hope bloomed in Evelyn's chest and she joined her husband in kneeling down and took a look under the bed to find Hunter curled up right at the back, fast asleep, Flapjack only just visible from the point they'd been standing at in the doorway.
With a bit of a stretch, Caleb managed to reach under the bed and gave Hunter's shoulder a few gentle little nudges in order to wake him up.
The boy pried his eyes open with a great big yawn, blinking sleepily at the two of them with a little frown painted on his face.
"Hey, kiddo," Caleb said softly, "What are you doing under here?"
Hunter took a second to process as if he hadn't even registered that he was, in fact, under the bed instead of in it. "Don't want my bed." He mumbled after a moment of consideration.
"Don't want your bed?" Caleb repeated, trying to find some sort of meaning within that statement.
Hunter just gave a sleepy nod as if he'd already explained enough.
"Why don't we get you out from under here, looks pretty uncomfortable," Caleb suggested.
Hunter stiffened pretty suddenly, looking nervously between his parents before pushing himself back even further under the bed.
Caleb's smile dropped. "Hey now, what's the matter?"
Hunter just looked scared.
"You can come on out now, baby. It's okay." Evelyn encouraged, trying not to let her smile fall like Caleb's had.
He seemed almost locked in place, conflicted with the decision of what to do to the point where all he actually could do was freeze.
Caleb tried to pull his smile back into place but it just looked more sad than anything, really. "It's okay, I'll give you a hand."
He reached under the bed, not commenting on the slight flinch from Hunter when his hand brushed against the boy's arms (neither did Evelyn, she supposed) and carefully pulled him out into the open room.
Hunter seemed almost disorientated once out from his little hideout, even swaying just slightly before Caleb steadied him with a hug.
"Why weren't you sleeping in your bed?" He asked.
"Don't want my bed," Hunter repeated yet again.
"Right, yeah. Why's that?" Caleb tried to push.
The only reply he received was Hunter hiding his face behind his dad's shoulder, fists gripping tighter to the fabric of his shirt.
Caleb sighed and turned to Evelyn for help but all she could only really offer was a wince and a sympathetic shrug.
"Would you rather come sleep in our bed?" Caleb offered to the boy in his arms.
Hunter nodded quickly this time. Much quicker than his other answers had been, in fact.
"Alrighty then," Caleb seemed to relax a bit, "Sorry for waking you up. You can get some more rest if you'd like."
Evelyn could have sworn she caught Hunter tense at that. Maybe it was just her tired eyes deceiving her? She couldn't be sure.
Caleb picked up his armful of clingy child with an exaggerated 'hyuuuuuhh' which earned him a small laugh that all three of them knew fine well was forced but none of them commented on.
Caleb carried Hunter through to their room and Evelyn followed closely behind, helping to tuck him in and watching him fall fast asleep once again just a matter of seconds after his head hit the pillow.
Then Caleb and Evelyn both climbed under the covers and cuddled up close, Caleb pulling the cord to switch the bedside lamp off and plunging the room into darkness.
After all the chaos, Evelyn left her book forgotten downstairs and instead, held her son close as she drifted to sleep.