May 8th 2020

Chapter 129
Their Cheers of Surprise

"Power's out," Maya mumbled, turning around and burrowing herself closer to Lucas in order to gather some extra warmth against the chill in the air. "Snowing…" He opened one eye and the other, lifting his head just enough to see out the window. The absolute stillness in the room convinced him enough that there was no electricity. As to the snow, it was nothing of blizzard proportion, likely wouldn't stick on the ground very much if at all… There had been the whistle of strong winds when he'd gotten up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night though, which could account for the outage.

"Good thing it's my day off then, huh?" Lucas stated, wrapping her up in his arms and pulling the covers up some more, enabling her cocoon of warmth. She laughed and nodded. It was settled then, they weren't going anywhere. Except… "Do you hear that?" Lucas asked, a few moments later.

"Hear what?" Maya asked, in a tone that plainly stated she was merely humoring him and really just wanted to stay where she was, as they were, and she would not support any endeavor that sought to bring them anywhere else than right where they were. Even Lucas found his focus pulled back to her for a moment, his short bride curled up to him in such a sweetly personal way. How could he ever want to disturb this state either? He wouldn't, except he thought he'd heard a knock from below, and now he heard it again.

"Someone's at the door," he told her.

"Don't want any," Maya declared, having decided perhaps that this was a door-to-door salesperson. At the third knock, she sighed and looked up at him. "Fine…"

Lucas was the first out of bed and headed down the stairs, never minding the chill and his bare feet. He reached the door and opened it to find the knocker with his fist raised to knock again, only to signal for him to not say a word.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Maya was holding her ground with staying with the warmth, determined that Lucas would soon return and they could keep on doing absolutely nothing except keep cozy until the power returned. Hearing the door shut downstairs, and steps coming up the stairs soon after, she smirked to herself, opening up the covers in wait to swallow him back up.

The one who leapt at the invitation however was not her soon-to-be husband, but rather a much shorter, blonder and entirely more female person, lovingly referred to as…

"Lizard?" Maya gasped, unexpectedly finding herself met with her little sister, who burst out with giggles and reached to hug her big sister and was happily received. "What are you doing here? Hi…" Maya laughed along, caring not one bit that the eleven-year-old carried a bit of the outdoor chill on her.

"It's a Christmas surprise!" Eliza informed her. "I know we already had our sister sleepover this year, but we weren't sure if we'd get to have one next year, so…" At this, as though her presence alone wouldn't have heralded the obvious, Maya tossed back the covers, yelping a bit at the change in temperature before sticking her feet in the jingling slippers, tossing on a robe, and beating a mad tinkling symphony as she hurried out of the room, her little sister on her heels, all the way down the stairs so she might come to find the purposefully quiet bunch standing in the middle of the living room, waiting for their appointed messenger to bring Maya back and discover them. As soon as she found them there though, of course, the vow of silence was no longer necessary, not that it would have lasted anyway.

"You were supposed to be back in two days," Maya yanked Sam into her arms before he could go and pull any jokes like 'alright, I'll go back and wait then.' Maybe it was all the drama they'd been going through before he went off to Tucson, but now that he was back she was feeling especially emotional at getting him back. The way he hugged her back, she imagined he felt the same way.

"I was, but you know how they get when they want something," Sam told her, tipping his head to the little sisters.

"You can't say no?" Maya laughed to herself, giving one last good squeeze before she let him go. There were plenty more for her to greet.

Later, Lucas would get to tell her about how he'd opened the door to find Sam there, about to knock again. He'd been so surprised to see him, too, though when Sam had motioned to stay quiet he had done as told. He could just see the rest of the group coming out of the rented vehicle, the rest of the Hart-Lanes as well as Cecilia and Dora, who had been in Arizona with them over the last few days.

"Why didn't you use your key?" Lucas had asked his brother, even as he pulled him into a hug.

"Why didn't you answer the door?" Sam asked in return, just as happy to see him.

"The power's out," Lucas answered him.

"I wanted to surprise you," Sam did as well. Eliza had come up to the porch now, with that eager smile so like her sister's. This had given Lucas an idea, and a moment later he was helping the girl out of her coat and boots and sending her on a mission to retrieve her sister. She didn't have to be convinced into mischief.

As Eliza had gone upstairs, the rest of the group had come into the house, all of them instructed to remain quiet but also to hurry before Maya came along. It was a miracle that the dogs hadn't given up the game, with all these people showing up at once. Here was Wyatt, here was Cara, here were Teddy and Emma. Dora came sprinting into her cousin's arms with an electric smile, and Cecilia took a beat to look up at the snow falling from the sky before joining them. James came along, carrying a number of bags that seemed unmanageable alone, though he insisted on shouldering the load when Abigail offered to help. She simply chuckled and moved along toward the house to greet Lucas, who was already slipping on his boots to go and help.

"Did we wake you?" Abigail asked.

"Five minutes less and you might have," Lucas revealed.

They all barely had the time to get inside the house, boots and coats and bags handled, before a jingling of bells sounded Maya's speedy approach. Lucas had barely had the time to process all this, but now, to see the look of overwhelming and happy surprise on her face… Christmas was just a few days away, but this felt like the holiday was kicking off early, and more power to it. After she'd hugged Sam, Wyatt was a boy-shaped rocket, excited to see his big sister and received with equal amounts from her. Every time they saw him again, it was like he'd changed and grown again, from the one-year-old in arms when they'd first met him, to the seven-year-old with his very own spaceship back in Tucson.

After the cacophony of the arrival had calmed down a bit, Maya and Lucas were able to stop and assess where to go from here. They had just woken up, they were still in their PJs, they had not eaten, there was no power, and they suddenly had eight people in the house with them, four more on the way, from what they heard, as Luna was reportedly on her way along with her daughters and her mother, once she got through an errand she'd gone on to after leaving the airport.

It had originally been intended that Sam and the girls would return to Texas in two days, at the same time that the Hart-Lanes took off for Louisiana. Maya and Lucas would still have gotten to see them all, though not until after Christmas, as they would be making this stopover in Austin before returning home to Tucson, the better to ring in the New Year together. That had all been good and fine, until the girls had started to talk about the idea of not seeing Maya until after Christmas just did not sit well with them.

What if they had another sister sleepover, a Sleepster as they called it? They had a contract, and it didn't say anything about their only being able to use it once a year, did it? And Cara and Eliza had a photo album they had put together the previous fall, with the pictures they had gotten printed, and the year at the top and everything. They wanted to give it Maya for her to keep, and add to it whenever they had a new Sleepster, and wouldn't it make the best Christmas present? Well, this part they only told Lucas, in confidence, for now anyway…

There was no telling whether this endless diatribe had been presented with the intention of cranking up the guilt and making their parents alter their plans, or simply as the overly dramatic distress of a couple of girls who missed their sister. Either way, it had worked, and the surprise was crafted more or less overnight. A flight was booked, hotel as well, and as bags were packed, a call was put in to Katy, the better to ensure that things would be planned out for all co-signatories of the sleepover contract.

"How are you doing?" Maya asked Abigail, when she finally got to hug her stepmother. It was the first time they had gotten to see one another in person since the news had come about this new baby, of course, which made this hold feel like it was a long time coming. Already, a month later, there was a change to her, and she was starting to show. She'd already been three months along by the time she and James finally felt at ease to tell the kids. The first few weeks after they'd found out had not been easy, and there had been some concern that the pregnancy would not reach the end they yearned for. But all was looking better now, and the newest member of the Hart-Lane family would be making his or her debut in mid to late May.

"Better now that I'm on solid ground," Abigail told her stepdaughter with a laugh. "And that I'm here with you," she went on, which made Maya reach over and hug her a second time. "I need to hear all about that concert, I still can't believe you got to sing with Ree Forster, in front of all those people."

She had gotten to see the video, of course, just like everyone else in the family, and Abigail had revealed herself for being an old time Ree fan just like Katy and Melinda, which now put an image in Maya's head of the three of them sitting together and talking about the singer like they were in their late teens and early twenties all over again. And then Luna, oh she would be there, too…

Maya recalled one old video, one of the ones her father had sent her on that thumb drive. She had been three years old, and her then fifteen-year-old aunt and twenty-one-year-old mother were standing there with her, in the old apartment's living room, singing along to one of Ree's songs that was playing on the radio. They were sort of shimmying along, looking at her, as she did her best to move and sing like them. Thinking about it now, she knew Ree would get a kick out of it… It would have to wait. First, she had to see about Sleepster 2026 number two.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners