As the car pulled over in front of their house, Riley couldn't help but to let the crutch laying on the back seats occupy more and more of her mental space, formless anxiety at being forced to use the thing blooming as Rick finally parked the car to the side, leaving her with only a vague hope that the ground wasn't utterly frosted underneath the snow.
Else this embarrassing task would turn into an embarrassing and impossible one.
With her dad getting out of the car Riley had no further way to stall for time, groaning to herself as she unbuckled the seatbelt and opened the door, only to see him already waiting there with the accursed thing.
Ma'am, your crutch.
After turning herself around in her seat and resting her feet on the snow outside, she was confronted with the device face to face, hesitantly reaching for it with her better hand and... having no real idea what to do with it afterwards, too concerned with being forced to use it to realize she didn't know what it even precisely entailed.
"Need some help sweetie?" Rick's voice was as soft and welcoming as ever, calming her down enough to let her swallow her pride and ask for assistance-
"I-I guess, I'm not sure how to even use this thing..."
He smiled softly, reaching in to gently hold the crutch and slide its top under Riley's shoulder, positioning her hand on the grip.
"Now, right leg forward and push yourself off, leaning your weight on the crutch. Take as much time as you need sweetie, I'm not going anywhere, hehe."
With a nod of affirmation Riley narrowed her eyes and took a deep breath, aching legs shifting into the correct position as she leaned forward, frosty air chilling her nerves before she took the figurative leap and lifted herself off-
And managed to stand up, legs trembling but keeping balance, refusing to falter yet again, knuckles going white as she held onto the despised accessibility device for her dear life.
She had this.
Eventually.
"You got this Riley! Get your balance, take a moment, and then one leg after another. You've already have the worst bit behind you, now just to get moving."
Just!?
She looked up at her dad incredulously at his vast underestimation of the task's difficulty, a slightly frustrated grimace fading into a slightly less frustrated one once she realized that she'd have to move one way or another.
The alternative would be the Asher family gaining a new human-shaped garden gnome to display proudly to all the neighbors.
After briefly considering and then dismissing the option of spending her life as a front porch decoration to repay the hospital debts, Riley focused once more, breathing as deeply as she could to still her shaking everything and eventually managing to reduce the unpleasant motions down to just rocking in place.
Now, lean forward, raise her foot, move it forward, set it down. Walking, the thing she's been doing for something like fifteen years now. Except this was Xtreme Walking, with glass bones and a metal stick.
Coming to your local sports channel soon.
With enough delay to make Rick open his mouth, presumably to ask if something was wrong, Riley finally made the one foot leap, the dreaded motion done in less time than it took her to exhale after all the focused breathing.
Repeat many, many times.
After the first couple steps she mostly got it under control to the point where she didn't need to stop after every individual motion, finally allowing Rick to close the car's door and lock it, inside chilled so thoroughly it will probably have grown some nice icicles by the time they have to use it again.
Still, he did not say a thing that wasn't words of pure support, staying by her side as she stumbled around the car and onto the stone path in front of the house, Riley finally hitting something close to her stride before her walking process was derailed mid-step by the sight of a rifle visible behind one of the front windows, causing her dad to have to reach over and pull her in just to keep her standing.
As she regained her balance she briefly noticed flushed Ella taking the gun away, dashing back towards the basement door, Riley's frostbitten brain processing the scene at dial-up speeds before she finally muttered out-
"W-why a gun?"
"You'd be surprised how many journalists managed to crawl their way over here looking for cheap thrills to sell after, well, it happened. Eventually Ella got so annoyed she took out this relic we originally found when renovating the house, Winchester ninety four, with that number more than likely also indicating the number of years since it was last used. Still, the sight of any gun was still enough to spook most of them off, even if it's mostly rust by mass and we don't have the ammunition for it."
Riley giggled tiredly as Rick told her the story and assisted while she stood back right up and stumbled through the remaining distance to the front door, most of her mental capacity taken up by the feat of mostly unassisted motion, with the remainder used for one final quip before Rick opened the door for her-
"Packed with paparazzishot?"
"You'd need artillery for that."
With nothing else to delay her, Riley finally took the final fateful step into her new house, not even managing to take a second one afterwards before she was suddenly pulled into a tight hug, the resulting squeak of surprise muffled by Andrew's shirt and underlying floof. Before she could even complain, three more pairs of arms of varying sizes joined in on the fun, their combined embrace completely surrounding her as their warmth filled her up, Riley's cheeks blooming into a blush at all the love, especially as everyone gathered soon boomed out-
"WELCOME HOME RILEY!"
Well, the end result was muffled through all the fabric and fur around her, but she received the message much the same, a wide smile creeping up on her face despite her best efforts as her own embrace around Andrew only deepened.
God was she glad to be back home.
The mass embrace persisted for a good while, even being added to some time in, accompanied by her mom's embarrassed, but clearly joyous laugh.
Every passing moment did wonders for just easing her in, homely warmth filling Riley inside and out, melting the frost off of her as it lifted her spirits, any tension or anxiety she might have felt easing down to nothing.
Before she could doze off in the calming warmth or have the crutch dig even harder into her shoulder, the embrace was slowly untangled with everyone letting go one by one, leaving Riley pressed into Andrew before she slowly pulled herself off of him, finally able to appreciate the scene-
"Maddy!?"
Everyone broke into giggles at Riley's adorable surprise as she noticed the big surprise pretty much immediately, most of all the copper-furred girl herself, her amused smile filling the returning daughter's tummy with butterflies.
"Told you I'd see you on Saturday!"
"G-guess I didn't expect that to mean 'as soon as I get back home'!"
"Guess you underestimated how much your parents would help in making this happen then~"
Riley's followup glance between her parents told her everything she wanted to know, with Rick giving her his best 'I'm pretending I didn't do anything but I obviously did' impression and Ella... clearly trying to do the same, but failing at the 'pretend' stage, a sweet smile spilling through despite how hard she was trying to hold it in.
Andrew was glancing between everyone in slight embarrassment while Lily was outright beaming with joy, both at her sister finally being back home and at the adorable meeting her mom arranged earlier that morning.
Timmy was...
"Where's Timmy?"
The question got loud chuckle out of Lily in particular as both parents looked around at the realization that the tyke was missing, the gathered eyes eventually focusing on her as she explained-
"Was all excited to welcome you home, then got bored when you took too long to get out of the car so he went back upstairs to finish working on his little present, don't tell him I mentioned it."
"...present?"
"You'll see, he was so proud of himself for coming up with it that he spent all morning working on it. Will take him a while and quite a bit of dad's help to wrap it up, so until then you're stuck downstairs because he's doing it in your room."
"Not like I already wasn't stuck downstairs with this hunk of junk-" Riley shook her crutch for emphasis, chuckling bitterly before feeling Rick's paw rub her shoulder a bit in reassurance, the unspoken message clear in his delivery.
"Guess that's just one more reason to chill out on the couch for now, look we even got you sustenance!" Maddy chuckled as she turned to present the table in front of the fireplace as if it was a brand new car she was selling, a truly all inclusive deal featuring a couple bottles of soda and just as many bowls filled with snacks.
Even had cup holders in form of the entirety of the table and a 4x4 drive, or rather a 2x2 drive which Riley's mathematical prowess determined to be equal to a single 4 drive, which is how many legs the table had.
A sight impressive enough to convince her to mortgage the entirety of her possessions in form of a singular crutch to afford it.
With the possessions handed off to Rick and Maddy giving her financial advice in form of an arm to hold onto while she made her way across the ground floor, Riley's purchase was soon secured in the form of her garden gnome-sized self huddling in the middle of the soft couch.
She was flanked immediately by Lily from the left and Maddy from the right, with Andrew taking his sweet time in ruffling her hair before hopping onto the seat to the right of Maddy, the resulting furry squish that much more comfortable without the metal stick stabbing into her armpit.
Soon Lily's paw was already reaching for the TV remote, Riley closing her eyes and resting her head on Maddy's shoulder as the shapeless weight of having to figure out what to do now was lifted from hers.
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Nothing wrong with brainless entertainment in a pinch.
With that credo in mind, the younger sister navigated her way through the TV's interface, the unspoken question of what to put on soon answered just as unspokenly with a shrug of Maddy's shoulders, or at least the one Riley wasn't busy snuggling into.
As the action flick started up and Maddy lifted her arm to wrap it around her by now half-asleep girlfriend everyone else started to serve themselves to the presented nutrients and their absence. The awake trio enjoying each other's presence even without the sleepyhead in the middle, but with her it all felt even sweeter, even if quieter.
At least for approximately ten minutes or so before a choir of uncountable steps cried out from the staircase, building on each other with each individual one, the oncoming roar growing louder and louder until it was capped off with a bloodchilling crescendo-
"Riley!?"
Just to be then dashed with an equally almighty-
"Shhhhh! She's asleep sweetie."
Timmy groaned in disappointment, less so at missing his big sis get home, and more at the fact he'd have to wait some more to show off the one art project he's been working on for the past couple hours, burning through his entire supply of colored paper and utterly mastering his control over his prized set of patterned safety scissors while at it.
The sawtooth ones are by far the coolest.
Ella couldn't help but giggle at how instantaneous his change in attitude was, taking a break from preparing a casserole for dinner to scritch him just a bit, the resulting soft purrs combined with the way he'd close his eyes and softly push his head into her paw melting her heart every time.
"Don't wake her up just yet, but feel free to snuggle up on the couch with everyone else, there's oughta be some free space left over there."
He was too enraptured to respond there and then, but definitely got the message, getting in as much affection as he could before his mom sent him off with a more intense ruffle of his short hair and a warm smile, boiling pasta water dragging her attention back towards the cookery at hand.
With his burning enthusiasm diffused down onto a more manageable long term anticipation, he took off towards the huddling mass in front of the TV, sight of snacks and drinks his parents normally don't let him drink too much of only sealing the deal.
The entire group was quite leaned over in their seats, or at least most of it, with Andrew being the untiltable mountain upon which drowsy looking Maddy was leaning on, upon which so-drowsy-she's-asleep Riley was leaning on, upon which not-drowsy Lily was leaning on.
Or rather leaning on Maddy's arm that was wrapped around his big sis, who continued to be resolutely unconscious.
With the realization that waiting for her to get through her nap before staying hi was probably the nicest option, Timmy soon scrambled onto the seat, soon burying his head deep into his less big sister's side, her paw soon moving to gently tease him behind his ears, the resulting bliss audible to all.
Except Riley of course. Would defeat the whole point.
As the lazy Saturday continued to roll by, with Timmy's collection of chips he'd managed to sneak out of Lily's bowl growing exponentially, the big sister herself slowly came around to once more. Of course, she took her sweet time before going forward with any drastic measures, such as opening her eyes, daring to move even an inch, or thinking too hard about anything that wasn't attempts to reconstruct the movie's plot just from the bits she overheard or pondering on how warm and soft she felt.
How safe and loved.
Granted, she was still quite tired even if sleep was proving less and less possible to acquire as the day finally crossed the threshold of noon, she still ached all over, especially underneath her cast and through her chest, there was still the looming crisis of having to ascend the stairs eventually-
But none of that mattered at that very instant. What did was the family that surrounded her, that made her feel so cared for, that made her sure they'd always be there for her whenever she needed them, and which would not let go of her, no matter what.
That made her feel truly welcome in her own home.
If Maddy did notice the handful of happy tears that rolled down Riley's cheek around that moment, she knew better than to acknowledge them.
Or rather, she did acknowledge them, but only in the way of holding her that much closer as a result, her paw reaching a bit further down to stroke her sides just a bit.
And if anyone else noticed the resulting smile that spread through the supposedly asleep girl's cheeks, they had the timeless wisdom to follow Maddy's lead.
Or more than likely they just didn't notice, with the movie in front of them entering its third act, the CGI budget that had more digits in them than Timmy could be trusted to reliably be able to count to displaying itself in full force, hooking the tyke in as it pleasantly distracted the teens.
And gave Riley leeway to orient herself ever so slightly more comfortably, occasionally sneaking in just the tiniest glance at the action unfolding in front of them.
And at Maddy to her side.
Most likely much more so of the latter than the former, but who's keeping count anyway.
Riley most definitely knew she wasn't.
As the movie drew to a close and the stockpile of junk food was being depleted, with a small bowl left over for Riley that Timmy had to repeatedly remind himself not to touch, the older siblings slowly got up to go about their own days.
Of course, neither of them even thought about getting away without getting in some more affection towards their drowsiest sis, with Andrew taking his time with his loving scritches after scrambling himself off the couch and helping Maddy with stabilizing herself after the resultant support vacuum, chalking Riley's muffled moans and ever so gentle wiggling of her head in his paw to her enjoying the sensations even in her dreams.
They definitely weren't just in her dreams, with the scritchee's emotional state best described as conflicted between pretending to be annoyed at him daring to scritch her like that at her most vulnerable and not-pretending to be annoyed at him daring to end it so soon.
Lily on the other hand went for something more tried and reliable, one paw diving behind Riley's back as she was pulled into a wildly askew embrace, the younger sister taking a long moment of just nuzzling her cheek into the older one's side before even thinking about letting go.
Never in her life has Riley ever more intensely wished she had a tail to wrap around her lil' sis than at that exact moment.
Sadly as with all good things, Lily's embrace had to have ended eventually, with the skunk tween seemingly contracting some of her sister's sleepiness afterwards, yawning loudly before leaving with a wide smile at the half-awake couple still on the couch.
And one furred goblin that wasted no time in filling in the space she left behind, scrambling up to Riley before reaching for the remote, taking a couple attempts to find the correct button before navigating his way over to the age appropriate cartoon channel, leaving Maddy in a bit of a pickle as to what to do next.
On one hand there was the play room on the second floor where they could watch or do whatever else while also being blessed with better acoustics, but on the other climbing their way over there would be an adventure of the less enjoyable kind, and, well...
"Maddy, when is Riley gonna wake up?"
Send help.
"No clue Timmy. Best to just give her time, y'know? She's being one drowsy bug right now, and honestly deserves it more than anyone else."
You don't have to pretend you're not enjoying this as much as I am Maddy.
"Okay! ...if she doesn't wake up soon, can I-"
Before he could even finish his question, Maddy answered it by sliding the bowl of snacks reserved for his big sister way out of his reach, together with one of the soda bottles.
That didn't mean he immediately got the clue, however.
"-can I have Riley's snacks?"
"No, these are for her silly. Can't you just go make yourself some toast if you're still hungry?"
His response was the closest a 'yeah' could get to just being a groan and still be recognizable as a word.
"Well, I can pause the telly for you if you really want to make some right now."
"What's a telly?"
"That ugly thing up on the wall."
"What? Where?"
It took everything Maddy had in her for her laughter to be contained in her mouth at Timmy's response and accompanying confused looks around the room, the mysterious object proving to be as elusive as ever.
If only.
Riley fared only a bit better, a strained smile spreading on her lips at the interaction, slowly cooling off with subsequent deep breaths to return to her usual inconspicuous expr-
"Riley?"
Oh no.
No matter how still she tried to pretend to be, the secret was already out, with the tyke off the couch and standing right in front of her in a matter of seconds, not willing to let go of his rightfully accidental catch.
"Riley, c'mon, I saw that!"
With her back against the back of the couch and with nowhere to go, the heroine decided to try and outwit the attacker, focusing every part of her that really wasn't asleep to come up with something on the spot, murmuring dreamily in response, keeping her face as straight as possible-
"Saw what?"
"You smilin- HEY!"
Key word being 'try'.
Her devious plot now foiled, she had no choice but to face the dire reality in front of her own eyes, manifested in the form of a very impatient four year old, looking like he was just about ready to grab her himself and drag her upstairs step by step.
In case everything else fails, try... flattery?
"You're looking good today Timmy, new haircut?"
This attempt was more successful at its purpose of derailing the kit's thought process, determined expression briefly replaced with confusion as he reached up to feel his own hair, wondering whether it was actually cut while he was asleep to the backdrop of Maddy's unconstrained cackling.
Still, it only bought Riley so much time to collect herself and sit back up to something approximating straightness, Maddy's arm forever lamenting the loss even as its owner continued to giggle like a maniac, any attempts to rein in the onslaught of slightly squeaky noises only resulting in them reigniting.
"Riley, come upstairs, I made something!" Timmy wasn't gonna take any other delays, grabbing his sister's arm before trying to drag it as much as his fortitude would let him- which is to say not very far, barely able to even tilt Riley from her sitting position before she wriggled herself free of his grip, chuckling as she justified herself-
"Alright, alright, just give me a minute, walking is a bit hard."
"Walking is hard?"
"With a crutch it sure is. Where's that thing anyway?"
After Maddy's cackling had finally subsided after as few as seventeen attempts to stop it, she was the first to evacuate the couch, reaching in to grab the dreaded instrument of medical anti-torture and pass it to Riley, the slightly younger half of their cuddly duet groaning in displeasure as she grabbed it and assumed the correct position, breathing deeply as she braced herself for another takeoff.
"What do you need it for?"
"Walking."
With the final curt response it was finally the time for her to reach upwards, arm slightly trembling as so much weight was put on it before legs took their fair share of the effort once more, leaving her standing in the narrow space between the couch and the table in front of it.
Now to scramble her way out of there.
"But why?"
"Because my legs feel like they're made of putty."
She slowly cleared the space with one careful sidestep after another, breathing a sigh of relief as Maddy was finally able to support her from the side, mentally celebrating the successful completion of one daunting trial as she desperately tried to ignore the much more intimidating one right ahead.
Timmy was seemingly content with this response, breaking off into toddler sprint as he raced up to and ascended the staircase in the time that seemed around three orders of magnitude above the realm of possibility for his sister right now.
"Come on!"
With a roll of her eyes Riley had no choice but to advance, staggering her way towards the staircase one uneven step at a time, support of Maddy by her side making it more comfortable even if the resulting speed was ultimately unaffected.
The producers of Xtreme Walking were not gonna approve of this third party interference.
One ad break later she managed to finally reach the threshold between a mere contestant and a champion, the twenty or so steps separating her from victory looking more intimidating than two thousand steps ordinarily.
Either case, gotta start with the first one first.
There was no Rick to guide her around this time, leaving her to come up with a jury rigged solution of lifting one leg up onto the next step first and using it to push herself off the previous one, as straightforward as it was elegant, inspired by the beautiful simplicity of nature in its purest form.
Almost as if she already knew it or something.
After the first step of faith the following ones were much less harrowing to face, with the only difficulty coming in how more taxing on her legs they were, the concept of potential energy seemingly having a grudge on her and her specifically.
She'd have her revenge after she finished taking a breather at the halfway point, Maddy's warm fluff refilling her with enough energy to scale the remaining distance.
One step after another, every one bringing her that much closer to her goal, every one with the weasel girl's arm wrapped behind her, wordlessly reassuring that no matter what, she won't let her fall or stumble.
While also being very warm and soft.
Riley's legs hurt like she's been running for half an hour, she had to take a while just to catch her breath afterwards and the inevitable realization she'd have to do it many, many more times while her legs got less bad didn't help, but-
She did it.
She ascended the mountain.
And would most definitely not mind some more cuddles as a reward for accomplishing the tas-
"Riley, come on!"
Timmy, no.
One dull chuckle later she forced herself to move once again, thuds of the rubber foot of the crutch against the ground muted by the soft carpet as the two lovebirds got closer and closer to Riley's room, sunlight filling the dim corridor as it poured in through the splayed open door.
The radiance of the reveal was outright blinding, especially so with Riley having forgotten to pull her curtains shut the last time she was in her room.
But the actual contents were more than worth the climb.
The banner proudly displayed its message to everyone who peeked in the room, the string it was supported on attached to the walls with a couple globs of Blu Tack. Granted, it would only work when looking from outside of the room in, individual letters were of heavily uneven sizes and the whole thing contained a typo, but...
'''
WELcOME HoME RıELY
'''
She didn't mind one bit.