March 30th 2021

Chapter 89
Our Summer of Fields

"Looks like it's just you and me today, pumpkin, huh? Just you and your dad," Lucas smiled as he looked to Marianne. He held her in his arms, facing outward with her back to his chest, as they stood outside the house after seeing Maya off for the day. She was headed to the school for a meeting. The new year was getting closer, and her return meant getting caught up on certain things, from current students to those on their way in. This left Lucas on his own with the baby today, as Cara had gone to spend a couple weeks in Tucson with the family back there, and she'd taken both her brother and grandmother along with her.

This was good, better than good. Lucas so rarely got to have opportunities like this, and when he got to change that… Marianne was still all of eight and a half months old at this point, so their activities could be considered limited, but then he didn't need to be doing anything too wild or over the top. If he just got to spend time with his daughter, to know that she was happy and content, and to see that growing curiosity in her eyes, then he was great.

"Do you know what we need to do?" Lucas asked Marianne as he lifted and turned her back around so that she could see him. The smile came bursting across her face, lit up her blue eyes, and it all reverberated back on to his own face. "Let's go see the rest of the pumpkin family, yeah?"

That was their big joke, his and Maya's. Their great pumpkin patch had plenty of the actual things, but then they had one more, a pumpkin in the shape of a girl. Lucas had it on good authority that sometime this fall Maya would want to take photos of Marianne sitting among the fruits of their harvest.

"Call it a bunch of pumpkins," she'd said, when she'd actually drawn something like it.

He walked around with Marianne now, and he had to laugh when he saw her start to lift her arm and point, again and again, and he understood what she was doing. They had taken her out here plenty of times by now, and every time either he or Maya would start pointing out the pumpkins to her, the ones on the ground. They would tell her what 'batch' they were from, as they continued to carry over the original names that they'd given those first ones they'd grown. Now, Marianne was doing it, too, whether she knew it or not.

"That's good, yes," Lucas nodded as she went on pointing and he kissed the side of her head.

He walked with her a while, taking in the progress of the current crop as much as he enjoyed seeing how Marianne felt entirely satisfied the entire time. She didn't fall asleep or start to cry once. When they finally started back toward the house, it was just getting to be her lunch time. Lucas' phone rang and he balanced Marianne in one arm before pulling it from his pocket.

They needed him at the ranch. It wasn't unexpected on weekends for him to essentially be on call, ready to go out there if he was needed. It wasn't Saturday or Sunday now, though he wasn't working either. They'd been slowly but surely adjusting things as he prepared to start his residency in the fall, and today he'd just been home. The last year had really been a gift, to get to be at Sullivan Stables in what capacity he could at this point, as those months leading to and following Marianne's birth had meant so much. It wasn't as though he'd suddenly be absent all the time, no, but there would definitely be a different dynamic going. If he'd already been on this last stretch at the same time, balancing work, and research, and everything else he'd have to do out there with the demands of caring for a newborn baby, it would have been too much.

"Looks like you and I are going to go on a little trip," Lucas sighed, looking back down to Marianne. For a moment, he'd been disappointed at this change of plans, but then he saw her face as she stared back at him, and he smiled. "It'll be fine," he brushed at her hair. "You like being at the ranch with me, don't you? We can go see how Chance is doing. But first… lunch."

With the meal behind them, Lucas settled the baby in her car seat and started them on their way to Sullivan Stables. Marianne fell asleep on the way, as he noticed after they'd gone through the archway. Lucas took her from the car and considered his options. He wouldn't be able to keep her with him, and he might have left her with the Sandersons or the Oswalds on the way in, but this was supposed to be their day, and he wanted to minimize the separation as much as possible. He didn't worry about finding a pair of willing hands to look after her though, not here. The only real question now would be about who came along and volunteered first.

"This is a nice surprise," Juliet's voice reached him before he got around to notice her walking toward them. Oh, how happy Marianne instantly became at the sight of her. She reached out and was gladly taken in the woman's arms. Juliet would joke that it was her hat that did it.

"Are you busy right now, I…" Lucas pointed off in the direction of the stables.

"No, no, please, go on, I'm going to march myself around with your firstborn, don't mind us," Juliet tapped his arm before walking on with Marianne.

Lucas went and found Doctor Alvarez. Manny had that whole 'sorry to call you in' look, but at the same time he was very glad to see Lucas. By now, both of them could recognize how well they worked together. The older man really cared about the ranch, about the horses most of all, enough that the idea of one day leaving, of no longer being there to look after them, would fill him with certain anxiety. He had confessed to Lucas, as opinions had of course changed by now, that he'd had doubts in the beginning, when Juliet had told him about how Marianne Sullivan had put that clause in her will about her grandson. Who would he be? Would he be any good? Would he be the right person to take his place?

But now he knew, and all his worries had gone away. Lucas would take his place, and Lucas would look after the horses with the same love and devotion he did. From there, the future looked brightened, lifted, whether he'd be there to see it or not.

It was almost two hours before Lucas was able to leave the clinic and go in search of where Juliet had ended up with Marianne. He was pointed back toward the house, and that was where he found them, on the porch swing, where they were joined by Donna Devereaux. The dance teacher held Marianne now. She had her lifted until she might set her little feet down, turning the woman's knees into her own personal dance floor. She couldn't dance, of course, couldn't even walk, but then Donna would sing and move her around as though she could, and Marianne would laugh. Lucas made sure to get a video of this to show Maya before he could come up and join the trio.

"As soon as she can stand on those feet of hers, you bring her to me," Donna requested with a great smile as she passed Marianne back to her father.

"I don't argue with La Devereaux," he put on his best French accent, harkening back to what they would call her, decades ago, whenever she stepped on to the dance floor.

"Going home?" Juliet asked, as amused as Donna was touched.

"Not yet, no," Lucas replied. "Figured we're here now, might as well take her around for a while."

"Well, Carson's back at the archive, you wanted to talk to him, right?"

"Oh, yeah, thanks," Lucas nodded before waving at them, the better to incite Marianne to imitate him. "Bye bye," he spoke, looking at her and waving at the two women. Juliet and Donna waved back with him. Marianne didn't exactly get what they were trying to do and chose to grab at her father's face instead. "Close enough."

By now, John Carson was like an unofficial employee of the Simon Sullivan Archives. He would come around, almost daily, and spend the hours sitting downstairs, upstairs, walking around… He'd tell visitors about some thing or another they were wondering about, and overall be a great asset to the functioning of the archives. To Lucas, it felt as though the benefits were mutual. Being here, it brought something into the old man's life that felt so needed. It helped him to thrive, and Lucas loved to see it. Many evenings, he'd given him a ride back to the residence where he lived, instead of letting him take the bus. It put him in touch with many more stories of his grandparents and the early days of the ranch.

"Hello there, sweetheart!" he greeted Marianne's arrival with a wide smile, shook her little hand in his. Marianne, in return, responded to him as she did a friend, smiling back with energy.

"How is it today? Busy?" Lucas asked.

"Some students upstairs, others walking about," Carson reported, looking back around. At the information desk, Missy Sanderson was with a visitor, but she'd definitely spotted the Friars and was now only waiting for a chance to come and say hello.

When she did get to come over, she confirmed that she had everything under control, and so Lucas asked Mr. Carson if he'd like to go for a walk around the land of Sullivan Stables. They soon took off, the two of them and Marianne. As they went, Lucas would think about how Maya sometimes pointed out the way he had of observing his surroundings when he was out here. So many people who worked here had done so for a long time, but for all that none of them had been here as long as Lucas had done, none of them carried memories of the place that were practically formative.

Then he would look to Carson, and the impression he was left with was that here was someone who had been formed by this ranch, too. He'd been all of seventeen or eighteen when he'd first come to work here, in the early days of the ranch, and the way he spoke about it… He was who he was today because of Sullivan Stables, because of Simon and Marianne Sullivan.

As they walked, Lucas told him about his idea, about putting together all the stories, his and others', about the ranch. It wasn't that he'd forgotten about it up to now, but there'd never really been the time to actually commit to it, and as he found himself thinking more and more about his upcoming residency, he would think that much more about the project. How much time would he have to dedicate to it once he added all of that into his schedule? He had the rest of summer ahead of him though… He could get a whole lot done in that time, couldn't he?

He watched as John Carson considered his idea, and he worried for an instant that the man would be against it, wouldn't want his stories to be put anywhere for people to see. It wasn't as though he had nothing without him, but then his stories had been the inspiration for him to even do it all in the first place. So, when the man finally gave a sign of his being on board, Lucas felt relieved. More than that, Carson told him he would get him the information for others he might speak to, people he was still in touch with and especially those who no longer resided in Austin or Texas, who Lucas might not have known about. Just like that, he had himself a partner.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners