April 3rd 2021

Chapter 93
Our Turn to Legacy

That very night, the young Friars were expected to dinner at Juliet's house up at Sullivan Stables, where they would also be joined by Thomas and Melinda, and by Michael Sullivan and his husband and daughters. The way they'd been hearing about it, both Juliet and the elder Friars had been looking to have this dinner, in honor of Lucas' coming start of residency. They could have done both, but it would have felt just a bit repetitive. Lucas and Maya were surprised to find that Juliet had won out in playing host that night, what with Melinda having been in the running as well, but then it turned out that they had all decided it this way for a specific reason.

In this case, they chose to have this dinner, marking this last big step in Lucas' long way up the education ladder, in the place which had essentially pointed him to the ladder. This was where he had come, as a child, where he'd spent time with his grandparents and eventually declared how he wanted to be a veterinarian. Marianne Sullivan may not have been here anymore, may not have gotten to see him get to this point, but they would be in her old house, in her dining room, and in many ways she would be present.

The five boxes were now decorated – even the supplies box, as Stella insisted for a full set – and loaded up with their personalized loads of diaries, coupled to gold markers. They had been returned to the cart up in Maya and Lucas' room, where they would remain until the first day of class. This year would not require her to have the boxes picked up and dropped off by some friend or colleague or another, which was more than fine by her. She didn't mind the transporting by herself, and part of her had hated to have to ask people to do this for her, even if they had all done it gladly and would do it again if she needed them to do it.

As it was just about time for them to go anyway once the diaries had been handled, they would drop Stella off at home on their way to the ranch. The soon-to-be senior was more than happy to hang out with Lucas and the baby while Maya dashed upstairs to get changed. They weren't going in at peak formal wear, but any dinner with Melinda Friar would not feel right to attend in a tank top and shorts.

"Alright, we are good to go," she came bounding down the steps after her swift changing act. Lucas was checking through the baby bag, while Stella stood in front of the television with Marianne in her arms. She was looking at the large painting hung behind it with great artistic interest. She turned around now, at the sound of her teacher's voice, and moved toward the door like one who'd just been waiting to get going. She didn't want to hold them up.

After they dropped her off, Maya felt just the tiniest bit relieved, which was not a sentiment she had ever associated or ever wanted to associate with Stella… or any of her students for that matter. She wasn't even surprised when Lucas called her on it. He would pick it up, wouldn't he?

"I slipped up before, when I saw Taylor's name on my list, I had a… reaction. I brushed it off, changed the subject, but it's not the first time she's picked up on this… I think it's like the third… or the fourth. Part of me trusts that she wouldn't say anything, not to anyone, especially Phoebe. It's not who she is, but… At what point does it stop being trust and start being just… benefitting from circumstances?"

He didn't know what to say, and she didn't want him to try. There was no point. There was no point at which this would stop being a terrible situation, a problem. It was just this ball of dread living in all their guts, and even though it was none of their faults, not Maya, or Lucas, or Dylan, the Munroe kids… Jo… Jocelyn… This is on her.

"It won't stay this way," Lucas declared after several beats of silence.

"I know… I'm afraid it's going to get worse."

It was like background noise, this constant, unavoidable buzzing of dread they'd been carrying for over a year now, and lately it only got to sound louder, until they felt it got harder not to think about it. Every new hit was like an extra notch on the volume.

Right now, this just wasn't what they were supposed to be thinking about, and much as it felt every time like a failure in them to let it carry on, they had to change the subject, had to get back into 'family dinner/small party' mode.

"If she wasn't made for summer dresses…" Melinda Friar shook her head with a beaming smile when she got a look of her granddaughter.

Marianne was in her arms in no time, and to look at her now, it seemed clear that there was no other place she'd rather be, for the next little while at least. Lucas had seen this bond between his daughter and his mother, for about as long as Marianne had been with them. He'd seen them as something on the wavelength of soulmates, on a familial scale at least, and this was still very true. His mother still went and radiated this feeling of peace when she was around the nearly ten-month-old girl, and his daughter was the same with her.

"Your uncles will be here soon, there was a small delay," Melinda told her son and daughter-in-law, with a wave of the hand that was either 'he didn't specify' or 'I am otherwise occupied with this little pumpkin,' possibly both.

The small delay, they found out, revolved around the cast wrapped and hardened over fifteen-year-old Lea's lower right leg and foot and the crutches she now used to hop her way into the house, surrounded by a pair of hovering little sisters and both of her worried and fretting fathers.

Everyone was quick to inquire as to how this had happened and if she was okay. Lea did not seem so concerned over the fact that she'd been hurt. If anything, she looked more frustrated over what this would mean for the next however many weeks it took before she could get the cast off. As she told it, she'd been at the theater that afternoon, for a Stage Ready session, and there'd been an incident with a dance class and some equipment and a clumsy attendee. The result had been a trip to the ER and everything else which they could now see.

"You call this a small delay, Michael?" Melinda asked her brother, before seeming to stop and take a breath and remember that he would have been so worried for his girl. "Lea, sweetheart, how are you feeling? Is it painful?"

"It's not that bad, really," Lea promised her aunt, following this with a look to her fathers as though she hoped that this latest iteration of the statement would be the one that finally convinced them that this was the truth. "I'm more worried about having to sleep with this thing on. And I'm starting high school in a couple weeks, and the first impression they'll have of me is 'girl on crutches.'"

"Doesn't have to be a bad thing, you know? Sympathy," Lucas told his young cousin, hoping to sound encouraging.

"Yeah, you can find someone cute to carry your bag, you've got your way in right there," Maya added, earning a few chuckles. Michael and Keith looked at her before turning to their daughter. They might not have been as amused as everyone else at the prospect of their first child dating. Lea at the very least looked intrigued.

"I'm going to miss all this stuff at the theater though. It's like the best part of my week," she sighed now, and Maya was at least glad to hear that the program she'd helped to start was still occupying as big of a place in her cousin/student's heart as it had done over the last few years.

She was barely involved with the program anymore, truth be told, and she did miss it, but at the same time she knew that it was in good hands and that it was all for the best. Someday, maybe, she'd become more involved again, who knew? This fall at least, she'd get to interact with them more than she'd done in a long time, as she regained her position at the Fall Festival's preparation.

"You can still go. You didn't break your voice, did you? And the dancing, well, you sit nearby, and you watch, soak it in, you know? When you're all better, you show them what you got," Maya told Lea, which made her smile as she tried to work around her crutches so she could hug her.

"I can't wait until you're one of my teachers."

"I can't wait until you're one of my students," Maya echoed, keeping up the hug while also making sure not to have her lose balance. "If you need anything out there while this is going on, you let me know, alright? Unless you don't want people to know we're family."

"Are you kidding? My cousin's a big deal, and I'm Crutch Girl," Lea joked.

"Okay, just don't go over the top, alright?" Maya laughed.

"I promise," Lea told her sincerely.

It was unclear whether they should count this turn of events as being helpful, but it definitely chased away any thoughts of the Dylan-Phoebe-Taylor conundrum out of Maya and Lucas' minds. Instead, they got to sit around the dinner table with everyone, enjoying this food prepared by both their host and would-be host. Melinda maintained that, even though there had been a lot of changes in the near two decades since Juliet had lived here, it still felt as though she never stood so at ease as she did, cooking in her mother's old kitchen.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Lucas looked up from where he sat, on the front steps outside the house, later on. They'd finished dinner by now, though there was still some activity and discussion in the kitchen. He'd stepped outside with Marianne to help her settle down and sleep before they all started for home again. She'd dozed off by now, good and proper, as he looked to see her curled up in his arms. At the sound of the voice, he looked up and found his father lowering himself to sit on the porch swing.

"I don't think that a day can go by, with me being here, where I won't think about Grandma at least once. I guess right now, with the dinner, everyone here for me, I think about her a lot more. I think about her, and about him… Grandpa Simon… and Grandpa Jax, too, but… I know how Jax would have reacted, to know I was going to work here, as a vet. But the more I find out about him, and think about him, I wonder how Simon would have felt. I'm sure he would have been happy, but it's more than that. You and I can be happy about the same thing and we won't react the same way. More and more, I guess, I really wish I could have known him. Then I think about Mom, and no matter how much I might have wanted to know him, I'd settle for not knowing a thing if it meant she got to have more of him."

"Everything I've heard about him so far, it gives me the impression like… Mel got his energy, which is… That's a lot to consider, isn't it?" Thomas joked, and Lucas laughed. "I just think he would be so proud, to know that his grandson would care so much about seeing this place keep growing." Lucas thought about this, and he could see it, too. They would never know the answer for sure, but all the same he saw no point in letting himself spin around in circles. His grandfather would have been very proud, and that they could count as certainty. It was enough.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners