Chapter 24 24: Rain
Los Angeles almost never rained.
Which was exactly why the entire city seemed unprepared when it finally did.
Traffic slowed to a crawl.
People drove like they were escaping a natural disaster.
And the Dunphy house lost power for twenty minutes during the evening because the electrical panel was affected by the rain."
Gael sat at the kitchen counter with Haley leaning against him, eating cereal directly from the box.
Outside, rain tapped steadily against the windows while the house glowed softly under candles and backup lamps Claire had dug out from somewhere upstairs.
Honestly, the atmosphere felt strangely nice.
Warm light.
Soft conversation.
The sound of rain wrapping around the house.
Everything moved more slowly tonight.
"This feels like camping." Haley said.
Alex looked up from the couch immediately.
"You've never camped."
"I spiritually understand camping."
"Ewww, that sentence physically hurt me," Alex replied in her sassy way
Gael smiled faintly into his coffee.
The power outage had somehow trapped almost the entire family together tonight:
Haley,
Alex,
Luke,
Phil,
Claire,
and Gael.
Which meant the evening had gradually devolved into board games, arguments, and Phil attempting ghost stories badly.
"Okay," Phil announced dramatically from the living room. "True story. A man once bought a condominium…"
Luke groaned loudly.
"That's not horror."
"You haven't heard HOA fees yet."
Claire walked into the kitchen carrying more candles while muttering something about insurance rates.
She looked more relaxed than usual tonight.
Less tightly organized.
Less rushed.
Probably because the storm forced everyone to stop doing things for once.
Gael then went to check the panel to see if he could do something before the electrician came to check it. When he realised it was just that the main circuit breaker was activated due to moisture passing through the enclosure. He just dried the panel before switching it back on.
The lights flickered once.
Then steadied.
"You know," she said while setting candles on the counter, "you're becoming like the man of the house now that nobody even questions it anymore."
Haley immediately pointed at her mother.
"See?"
Claire blinked once.
"What?"
"You like him."
"I like that he knows how electricity works," Claire corrected immediately.
"That's basically attachment for this family," Alex muttered from the couch.
Gael nearly laughed while Claire looked mildly offended.
"Oh my God. I meant he's useful."
"Still attachment," Haley replied.
Phil pointed proudly from the living room.
"That's how your mother got me."
Claire stared at him.
"You electrocuted yourself fixing a blender."
"And yet here we are."
The room dissolved into overlapping laughter again.
Honestly, the thing about this family was how quickly every conversation became chaos.
Luke suddenly ran into the kitchen.
"The Wi-Fi died again!"
Phil stood immediately.
"I shall descend into the darkness."
"You're going to the garage," Claire corrected.
"Every hero has a cave."
Gael laughed quietly as Phil disappeared down the hallway carrying a flashlight like a man entering battle.
The rain outside grew heavier.
For a while, everyone settled into smaller conversations again:
Luke playing cards badly,
Alex correcting him aggressively,
Haley curled beside Gael beneath a blanket while watching tv.
"You always show up when stuff goes wrong." Haley murmured quietly against his shoulder.
Gael smiled faintly while absently tracing slow circles against her knee beneath the blanket.
The intimacy between them had become almost invisible now.
Claire noticed that too from across the room while sipping wine quietly.
How comfortable the silence between them had become.
Real relationship thing.
That was the part Claire found herself trusting him more every week.
Then thunder cracked loudly outside.
Luke yelped.
Phil shouted something heroic from the garage.
And Haley startled hard enough that cereal nearly flew everywhere.
Gael caught the bowl instinctively before it hit the floor.
Haley blinked at him.
"…Okay, maybe you are secretly Spiderman."
"That's the only logical explanation," Alex agreed.
"Finally," Phil yelled from the hallway as he got back from the garage.
Another flash of lightning briefly illuminated the room.
For one quiet moment, everybody stopped talking to watch the rain against the windows.
The house felt different during storms.
Smaller somehow.
Closer.
noise.
Warmth.
Familiar chaos.
Then his eyes briefly met Claire's from across the room.
She smiled faintly over the rim of her wine glass before looking back toward the rain.
Simple moment.
But somehow, sitting there surrounded by family noise—
Gael found himself wishing the storm would last a little longer.