May 2nd 2021

Chapter 122
Our Surprises For Dinner

It had turned out to be a good thing that Sam and Dora couldn't make it the night before, as Lucas would still have been off working and missed dinner. He was still working half the time when it'd be time to eat, if an unplanned delay didn't keep him away, and back when it had been that he was in school and he'd come home a little later, it wouldn't be so much of an issue. Maya and Sam at the time would gladly wait to eat until he could be there and then they'd share the meal together. But now there was Marianne, and she was only a year old. If they kept her waiting, it wouldn't do her any good, so she had to eat when she had to eat. Lucas was fine by it, and he would usually have eaten by the time he did get home. On those days, they had taken to at least put aside some time where they could sit together, the three of them, and Granny Lizzie and Cara, too, if they were available.

Today was not one of those days. Today, when Maya drove up, his car was already there, and when she walked through the door, there he was, sitting up on the couch. Marianne was standing up on her feet, about an arm's length away. Crowley was also sitting by, watching her with sharp focus. Every new stage she'd cross, taking her closer to walking, would have Marianne's mother and father in awe. They'd seen plenty of small children go and start crawling, and stand on their feet with and without help, pull themselves up, attempt first steps and fall, and steps without falling… but it was their daughter now, which made the whole thing become suddenly a thousand times more astounding.

The first time she'd pulled herself up on her feet, they hadn't been there. Granny Lizzie had been watching her, and there'd been no way for her to record it for them, so she could only tell them about it later. That was alright, they told themselves. They caught it the next time, and it was no less impressive to them. More and more, they'd been encouraging her toward walking, whenever they got the chance. Were they the slightest bit intent on seeing it happen when they were with her? They were, yes, but how could they not? This was their baby girl, their first child. They'd never experienced this before.

Marianne didn't appear to be in any hurry to go anywhere. She liked to stand now, possibly for the new vantage point it afforded her, who was to say? But after that, no matter how much they tried to convince her to try moving toward them, she'd just stare at them. She'd smile, as she did now, when Lucas called her name and asked her to come toward him, or she'd laugh, as she also ended up doing now. But other than that, she'd just remain right where she was and keep standing, until she was either picked up or sat back down again.

"Okay, alright," Lucas finally sighed. He reached out and scooped her up, brought her into his lap, where she turned about and sat up until she could burrow herself against him, knowing he'd close his arms around her like a cocoon. It was one of her favorite things to do, and oh was her dad ever willing to comply. Maya loved it, too. She had a picture of them, just like this, and she saw it whenever her phone lit up. Lucas would be looking down to their daughter, the picture of love, as Marianne would look up to her father like he was just about the greatest thing her little eyes had seen in all she'd seen thus far, and nothing had any chance to dislodge him from that spot.

"Can I get in on that next?" Maya quietly asked as she approached.

"You'll get your turn," Lucas promised, smirking as he turned his head up and found her.

"I better," she smiled back and leaned to kiss him, brushing her hand at his growing beard. It was the first time he'd really let it grow in since Marianne was born, and it was one of their favorite things to watch her curiously discover. She knew it was her father, even as this thing was growing over his face. She'd still prod at him, the way she so often did, but then she'd get the surprise of prickliness and she'd look simply fascinated. "Getting your time in before Uncle Sam steals her away?"

"You know it," he laughed now, more so as Marianne 'emerged' from his arms, finally roused by the sound of her mother's voice.

"It's alright there, pumpkin, you stay with your dad a while, yeah?" Maya moved around to give that beloved little blonde several kisses to get her fill until later. As she moved upstairs to freshen up, she knew the cocoon had closed up around her again, as she heard a new roll of laughter, from father and daughter both.

She'd just finished and was on her way down with her computer to look through her basic plan for comics day before Sam and Dora arrived when the doorbell rang. The dogs scampered to life, and Lucas moved to answer the door, Marianne perched in one arm. One squeal out of her, and she was off into her uncle's arms in an instant.

"You know, you give me that look every time I see you now, like you're about to ask if she walked yet. You think I wouldn't have told you if she did?" Maya asked her brother.

"Wasn't even suggesting it," Sam shook his head innocently, even as his eyes still asked it.

"Not yet, no," Maya indulged him, and he looked back to Marianne satisfied. He really hoped to be there to see it, too, didn't he?

Looking at them together now, Maya couldn't stop thinking about their father. The more Sam grew, the more his resemblance to Kermit got stronger. And now, at twenty, they couldn't unsee it anymore. Part of her suspected Marianne played some small part in this. All it had taken had been for her to consider how Sam looked like him, and Marianne looked like her, and how when she'd been that small, he'd been that young, and then when she'd see them together, suddenly… It would be like seeing herself and her father together, an echo from all those videos. She wasn't even the only one to see it.

They still had some time before dinner would be ready, so Maya and Sam – and Marianne – sat to discuss comics day. He'd brought plenty of materials, as promised, as well as ideas on what they could do, what they might discuss. He was so motivated about the whole thing and getting to do this alongside his sister only made it better.

"You could have been a great teacher, too, you know?" Maya declared with a proud big sister smile.

"I don't know if I have the patience like you do. And grading…" he made a face.

"Selling yourself short, how dare you?" Maya raised her chin at him. Sam held up his hands in surrender/apology as he laughed. He knew better than to talk down about 'her little brother,' even if he happened to be the brother in question. "You can always get your fix by coming in for one of these sessions once in a while."

"I wouldn't say no to that," Sam admitted.

"You all heard him, right? That's a contract," Maya looked around to the other side of the kitchen, where Granny Lizzie had recruited the cousins into finishing everything with her. Cara was at the university library with her friends for a very late and mind numbing study session.

"You're stuck now, Sammy," Lucas teased him.

"Only if I don't want to be there, and I do," Sam countered, even as his phone gave a chime. When he looked at it, he frowned.

"What's up?" Maya asked.

"I have to go in later, they're short-handed," he told her, even as he looked over to Dora. "I have to go after dinner, just for a few hours."

"I'll stick around here until you're done, I think, then you can pick me up again," Dora suggested, turning to her cousin and his wife to make sure it was okay, as though she ever needed to ask.

"Maybe she'll get her to walk," Maya grinned, and Sam gave his best affronted look. It didn't last very long once he looked down and caught his niece's smile.

"The ground is your friend," he whispered at her.

They were always so happy to have the two of them here on any occasion. Sometimes it was hard to believe that Sam's four years living with them had come and gone, already over a year behind them now. He'd come to them, fifteen years old and starting college, and he'd been in many ways the first child they'd been responsible for, even if they would never say it aloud, especially with him there to contest his being referred to as a child. He had been a minor though, and with the two of them freshly out of college, freshly engaged, there was nothing for them to do but their very best, even as they figured out how to go. When they saw him now, five years later… Yeah, it was just a bit parental, the way they felt for him. They were getting to feel it for Cara now, to some extent, even if she'd come to them older than Sam had done.

Over dinner, the conversation hopped back from one person to another. Elizabeth spoke about what she'd done with Marianne, Dora spoke of her classes, and Sam explained what he was working on lately. Maya, naturally, told them all about Miranda Ortiz and the rebirth of the drama department. Lucas was just as surprised to hear of it, and he pointed out to Maya how she and Riley and Nadine had once wished they could have done a musical. Maya looked at him like she didn't remember that at all, but then it came back to her. It had been right around when TXNY had started. Lucas went on to talk about how Walt's horses were settling in at the ranch, and also at Sanderson Farm. Since Halloween, Phoebe had dropped in a few more times, following Missy home after school, so she could go visit Andromeda and Orion. They'd been of great comfort to her on that complicated night.

Sam had known about the secret from the beginning, of course. He'd still been living with them the night Maya had come home from parent night with that big shock. They'd been keeping him updated in what way they could since then. On Halloween night, he'd been right out there with the rest of them, searching for Phoebe, and when she'd been found, safe and sound, he'd been happy to hear how she and Dylan had been allowed to meet, to know each other as brother and sister. He was very familiar with how it could be wonderful and awkward all at once, coming into the life of a grown older sibling, just as he was the testament of how those years apart didn't have to hold nearly as much power as the ability to make up for lost time.

After dinner was through, he had to go before dessert was served, though his grandmother assured him he could have it when he swung back around to pick up Dora. He kissed his girlfriend goodbye, hugged his niece goodnight, thanked his grandmother for the meal and his sister and brother-in-law for receiving him, and off he went.

"So," Maya turned to Dora. "Movie?"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners