June 28th 2021

Chapter 179
Our Wind of Family

The very same night, just hours after Lea gave her first workshop at the theater, Lucas got a call from his uncle Michael. Christa, the baby's mother, had gone into labor. Under the circumstances, they weren't about to have a whole load of people sticking around the hospital, waiting to meet the baby. Michael and Keith could possibly have left the girls at home, with sixteen-year-old Lea to watch over her fourteen and twelve-year-old sisters, but with all the anticipation and the nerves they'd be dealing with, they'd be better off having people around. And when the time would come, someone would have to drive them to the hospital to meet their new sibling. Melinda and Thomas would already be out there, to support the former's brother and brother-in-law, so the fathers-to-be had turned to their nephew and his wife.

Lucas had gone to pick up Lea, Lara, and Lydia and he'd brought them back to the house. They arrived to find a still wide awake Marianne refusing to go to sleep, no matter how much her mother tried to talk her into it. And once she saw the girls, it only got harder. The trio teamed up at once and eventually Marianne was down for the count. It was a good distraction as they waited and hoped for news from their fathers, but then it was getting late, and now Maya and Lucas had to be the ones to get their cousins to go to sleep.

In the morning, after finding Maya already awake and playing with Marianne on her side of the bed, Lucas reached for his phone and found a message waiting from Michael Sullivan, with a photo attached. Leyton Jackson Sullivan-Reyes. Born at 3:17 this morning. 7lbs 10oz, 19in. In the photo, Michael and Keith sat together, exhausted but wide awake for the bundled newborn in Keith's arms. The boy appeared to be asleep, his tiny hand looking almost joined with a finger from each of his fathers, like they had all put their hands in the middle and were about to make a rallying cry.

Lucas showed it to Maya and she and Marianne both looked at the screen. Maya was soon smiling, while Marianne pointed eagerly.

"Baby!" she announced excitedly.

"Yeah, that's your new cousin," Maya kissed her head. Like with the sisters sleeping below, it was easier to just call them that than to add a first or second or a once removed. "You get to meet him soon."

"Baby," Marianne smiled, reaching to take the phone from Lucas. He let her have it and he swore she was making faces like she'd seen people do around her cousin Francesca, like the newborn was right there with her.

"You want to help me show it to the girls?" Lucas asked her. She looked up at him and nodded. "Alright, hold on to that," he pointed to the phone before picking her up. Maya grabbed her phone and followed. If she could capture this moment for Michael and Keith…

They'd set the girls up down in the living room, with Lara and Lydia taking the couch and their big sister settling herself down on the floor with her sleeping bag on a cushioned mat. Lucas and Maya could both guess that they had been up much later than they were supposed to, talking about their new sibling or whatever else was going through their minds, so that they hadn't fallen asleep until well into the night, leaving them to sleep in as they now did. They might have decided to leave them like this for a while more, but Lucas had already put Marianne back on her feet, and she made a run for it, her father's phone in hand. She went to Lea on the floor and started tapping at her arm. She started coming around, not fast enough for Marianne, clearly, as she then turned and did the same to the other two on the couch.

"Hey, what…" Lea was the first to speak, so Marianne turned to her again and presented her with the phone. Lea frowned, still not entirely awake or certain about what the toddler was doing.

"Is it morning?" Lydia yawned.

"What's that?" Lara asked.

In a moment, the three girls were huddled around the phone, where they got a first glimpse of their new baby brother. They all looked so happy that Marianne responded by hopping about with her hands in the air so she could join in on the cheer.

Everyone wanted to get to the hospital as soon as possible, so they got dressed and left, deciding they would pick up breakfast from the cafeteria. Maya would go down there with Marianne and bring back enough for the two of them and Lucas and his cousins, the better for the rest of them to go find Michael and Keith and their son. They found the little guy was awake now, and as his big sisters gathered around him, it was as good as a binding contract. If anyone would ever dare try and hurt him, they'd have to go through Lea, Lara, and Lydia first… possibly his cousin Marianne, too. She always loved seeing babies, but when they were part of her family on either side, she'd get even more excited and just a bit protective. It made her parents eager to see her as a big sister herself.

All of a sudden, the party which was to take place in a few days at the ranch was no longer a celebration in anticipation of this baby. Now, it would be a celebration of him, welcoming him to the family. It meant a bit of a change in the decorations, but that was no sweat. A lot could be done in days, especially when the boy's sisters were on hand to assist. Lea had her workshops at the theater every day, but as soon as she was done, she would be on a bus, headed to Sullivan Stables.

From what Lucas had been hearing out of his uncles, either in person or on the phone, everything was going great with baby Leyton. Oh, they were all having to cope with a lack of sleep, and diapers, and feedings, all of it, but they were managing very well. It didn't hurt that they had three grown helpers ready and eager to look after the baby, too, whereas the last time they'd brought a new child into their home, they had a trio of small girls to look after along with the infant.

Michael and Keith's extended families and friends gathered at Sullivan Stables on the day of the party, all to welcome Leyton, but maybe also to help his dads get past those lingering fears. It was perfectly understandable that they would worry, with what had happened after they'd brought home baby Levi. To their knowledge, Christa would not change her mind and return for Leyton, but then they'd thought the same thing of Levi's mother, too, back in the day. They'd brought that boy into their hearts as well as their home, and then they'd had to give him back and deal with the hole he left behind.

And now they had another boy, and it felt like a challenge from the universe that he sort of looked like the other boy. Michael and Keith had not forgotten him. They still had pictures and videos somewhere, even if they rarely could bring themselves to look at them, but all they had to do to remember him was to think of him, and Leyton… Maybe they were just projecting on to him, but he did remind them so much of Levi. They would never put any pressure on him as though he was replacing his would-be brother. They couldn't go and use that name again, not when it belonged to that boy while he had been theirs.

All those worries about potentially losing him had not at any moment prevented Michael and Keith from coming to love their baby boy and call him their son. There was no part of them that was capable of withholding a single thing from the little sweetheart. From the moment he'd come along, they'd gone from a family of five to a family of six.

And for all that, the party ran the risk of triggering some kind of 'are we celebrating too fast?' response. So, they went and made it the liveliest and most memorable day they could possibly make it. Leyton Sullivan-Reyes was too young to realize it yet, but he'd come into a family who would love him in this great exuberant way for all the days of his life.

"Hey, pumpkin, you want to sit with the baby?" Lucas called to his daughter, which got him her undivided attention at once. She loved being with the little guy and like with her cousin Francesca, she would start to cry when it would come time to leave him.

Just now, she had been getting a lot of amused faces looking at her and the Sullivan-Reyes girls. Lea had been determined to show her young cousin a short bit of a dance, and Lara and Lydia had ended up jumping in, all the better to get the toddler to imitate them. It would quickly go off the rails, with Marianne making up her own wiggly and hoppy moves to go with the music coming through the speakers nearby, but that would be plenty entertaining in and of itself, to her parents and grandparents – and Donna Devereaux – especially.

"Oh, you see, the girl is a natural," Donna would declare. No mention of the fact that she was not yet two years old would be heard. As far as she was concerned, the woman would make it her mission to turn the Friar girl into a dancer.

Right now, Donna's little prodigy went and let herself be lifted on to a bench by her mother, while Lucas, who held his baby cousin, came up and sat on her other side. Marianne held out her arms and looked at her father. 'See, I know what to do,' it said. As true as this generally was, they would naturally keep a very close watch once they set Leyton in her arms.

"Hi, baby," she spoke softly. She kissed the side of his face, and for a split second they thought he might start to cry, but then he settled back down.

The pictures they got back from that day were all great, but the one they got of that moment there, with the two of them sitting on either side of their daughter holding her little cousin… Oh, they were thinking about it more and more. Maya had wanted to wait a bit after Marianne was born, wanted to have a whole year back with her students if not more before she ended up pregnant again and having to go on maternity leave another time, but the more time went by, they would think about how they were coming along, and how they had always envisioned themselves with a big family, so… shouldn't they get a move on?

It wasn't going to happen now, it just made things complicated with the school year, but maybe in a few months' time? Maybe?

"What do you think? This is good, yeah?" Lucas whispered and waved Maya over that night back at home. He was standing just outside the nursery, while Maya had been back in their room. She joined him to see what he was looking at. Sitting on the floor, Marianne had her crocheted peapod held in her arms, just as she might do if she were holding a baby. Maya bit back a laugh, not wanting to disrupt the scene in any way. She was still so small, but she was growing more and more into her own person, and what they got to see of it was as precious as it was wonderful.

"I think so, yeah… She's got their faces turned up, see? She knows what she's doing."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners