January 12th 2021

Chapter 12
Our Move Toward Community

There was no way to hide all the cars out of view, not where they lived. That didn't have to be an issue though: it could just be made part of the surprise. This part, Riley and Dylan had insisted on handling themselves. As the guests would arrive and park their cars where they would, they would be accosted by one or the other of the couple, bringing them a small pack of the balloons they'd worked to blow up and string together. The balloons would be attached at their mirrors, floating merrily and colorfully, and with each vehicle added to this line-up, the lane and the drive, and all surrounding areas where they could be parked, became a field full of the rainbow globes. They had quickly nixed the idea of going for a multitude of baby pink balloons, if for no other reason than that the mother of the day was an artist and a lover of every color her eyes could behold.

Later, Team Balloon would share their adventures in attempting to secure as many different shades as they could find. For the effort they put into it, Lucas wished they could have seen the look on Maya's face as she started to see it all in the distance, and the closer they got, too. It grasped at the part of her heart that would always be this girl, curious and alive, innocent and dreaming. Even as her siblings were taking it all in, too, marvelling at the sight, Maya was looking at him, wondering what this was all about. But then as they got nearer to the house, and the cars, and the balloons, she would be able to see the printed motifs on some of the globes, and she would understand what they were walking into. She started to laugh to herself, and Lucas grinned. She didn't even know the half of it.

"Lucas?" Nellie called from the back.

"Yeah, you can say it now," he confirmed.

"What's going on?" MJ asked.

"It's a baby shower!" Nellie revealed.

"What's that?" Haley asked now, sounding mildly concerned. Wasn't she the baby here? Sure, she was a big girl, she was five, but everyone always said she was the baby of the family, and she was not looking to have a shower.

"It's a party," Gracie told her. "For Maya, for the baby. There's gifts, and games, and all that." She would have been just about Haley's age the last time her mother had a shower, for the littlest Hunter herself, but she definitely remembered some of it. "I knew something was up," she told herself now, sounding almost disappointed that she hadn't pieced it together, and Maya and Lucas both had to resist laughing. Sherlock Hunter had been stumped.

Whether it had been the intent for them to be discovered in this way or they'd just been too eager to see their children to wait inside, the next surprise came even as Lucas was pulling the minivan into the space reserved and kept open for it. The door to the house opened, and out came Katy and Shawn. MJ was the first to spot them, and he so excitedly alerted his sisters that the sound inside was bound to be audible outside as well. It was a good thing that Lucas had gotten to pull them to a stop just in that moment, because everyone was already working to be free of seatbelts and moving to open the door in the back. Nellie was the first to burst out, and she just about pounced into her father's arms. Shawn was ready for her, and he caught her and held her close, pressing a kiss to the side of her head which felt loaded with how much he had missed her in the time since he'd last gotten to visit out here. Meanwhile, Katy found herself beckoned by Haley's habitual 'pick me up' gesture, arms lifted in request though with additional giddy vibrations in those limbs. The request was not left hanging very long at all.

"That was very sneaky of you," Maya looked back to Lucas, giving her young siblings their chance at reuniting with their parents first. Anyway, never would it be said that she wouldn't recognize Lucas' part in all this. Suddenly, a lot of things she had not picked up on before were making a whole lot of sense.

"I don't know, mostly I was worried maybe the surprise would just be too much and…" he gestured toward her, and Maya chuckled, understanding what he was getting at.

"We're all good, she's cozy," she assured him. "Unless you've got something else in there to floor me?" she wondered. Lucas gave a look like he was considering his response.

"I can neither confirm nor deny," he finally stated.

"Right, no, yeah, of course," she nodded, motioning now for him to lean toward her. When he did, she thanked him for his sneakiness with a kiss that was almost immediately interrupted by the rapping of knuckles at the window. Maya turned to find her father looking back with a smirk, Haley strapped on to him with how tightly she held on, arms around his neck, legs around his waist. She opened the door, and Shawn offered his hand to help her down. "Are we on the clock or something? I thought this was supposed to be my day," Maya joked.

"Hey, I drove all night for this hug," Shawn motioned between the two of them.

"Oh, well, in that case," she moved up and gave the wanted embrace, allowing it to last longer than anything so cursory. After a couple of seconds, Haley decided to go ahead and introduce herself in this by putting one of her arms around her big sister, too. "I'm really glad you're here," Maya told her father, the joking around now set aside. She never liked for them not to be living in the same city, whether it was now when he was in LA, or back when she'd lived in Houston, just a couple of hours away. Maybe it was everything, her and the baby, that got her feeling like this, but she couldn't help it. She wanted her father there, just like she wanted her mother… and now here she was.

"This is never going to stop being so…" Katy shook her head, smiling through misty eyes as she took in her firstborn's figure. For all the pictures, and the videos, and the calls, it could never stack up against this kind of contact between them. "How are you feeling? Everything good?" She always asked, and Maya was always happy to let her know.

"Everything's as it should be. The rest, that's just to be expected by now," she nodded. Her mother would understand that, of course, after bringing five children into the world. Still…

Maya would have been lying if she said there wasn't a part of her that got to feel so deeply nervous, the closer they came to her due date, not just about the delivery but about everything that would follow it. And right here, to have her mother with her again… She had this feeling like she'd want to grab hold of her and keep her from going away again. She needed her here, with her.

She must have been wearing those worries all over her face. Katy just smiled back at her, held to her… Maybe she was feeling that pull herself, like the thought of going back to Los Angeles was sitting uneasy in her gut as she took in her daughter's growing belly and faced the fact that she didn't have all that long left to go. It was this almost unspoken thing between them that Katy was doing and would do everything in her power to be right there with her daughter, to hold her hand, as she brought her own daughter into the world. Neither wanted to face the possibility that she wouldn't be.

Shawn and Lucas were already working to get the kids into the house, as Maya and her mother moved after them. She could see through the open door now, and through some of the windows. She couldn't make out the faces, but there were definitely people in there, and some she was starting to recognize from a figure… It was no surprise at all that the first faces she saw were what she might call 'the most eager.' Melinda Friar was there, the future grandmother looking just primed to celebrate her daughter-in-law and her granddaughter now so very close to being born. Both Maya and Lucas had been anticipating a heavy dose of her hyperactive generosity. By now, not even they could talk her out of going overboard. The only one they could count on for that was Thomas Friar.

And then Riley, oh… She'd been getting more and more in touch with her old 'baby watch' tendencies, last seen five years ago, when Topanga had been on the verge of giving birth to Hunter. A few days back, she had gone so far as to reason that, since it was Maya now who was the one having the baby and not her own mother, she could go even further. Of the two of them, who would know the levels of her own weirdness near as much as Maya would? So, if she felt the need to come and check on her when she had a gap in her schedule, or if she showed up on one of those days with the sole purpose to check, because she was sure there was this one thing that was faulty in the house, and she would not have her niece get hurt for it, well what did it matter if said niece wouldn't even be crawling or walking around for several months? So far, she hadn't shown up in the middle of the night, so they hadn't reached the bottom of the barrel just yet, huh?

After those two, well, it was a lot of the usual suspects, which by no means reduced the importance of their being here today. If anything, it served to highlight how far both Maya and Lucas had come over the years, the lives they'd touched and been touched by, all these people now so happy to come along and celebrate Marianne's arrival next month. His family and hers, co-workers from the ranch, and the school, but also from other places where they'd worked, like the bookstore and the restaurant in Houston… and the bookstore and the theater here in Austin… And friends, so many friends, former classmates who'd stood the test of time. And because their lives were all evolving, there were husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends… children… Here were Mia Babineaux, and Giulia Choi, in parents' arms. One day, Marianne would be among them. They would grow together, be friends, one had to hope.

"I was just going to hang out with my siblings today, I dressed for breakfast, for horses…" Maya pointed out to Riley at her side, before she could get caught up in the whirlwind of hugs, and kisses, and belly touches, and so many greetings. It was all she had to say, with her oldest friend at her side.

"We'll be right back!" Riley informed the room, before leading Maya toward the stairs, and the future mother chuckled, nodding to the others in a halfway apologetic gesture, before she could be guided any further out of sight and toward her room.

"Wait, no, where are we going, room's right there, hey…" Maya complained, as Riley's guiding hands, one on her shoulder, the other at her back, urged her to continue down the hall and then turning right into the bathroom. "What, do I smell like horse or something? What are you…" she turned to Riley, who was shutting the door and locking it.

"I need your help with something first."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners