July 6th 2021

Chapter 187
Our Space For Campfires

"Do you guys remember that one time we came out here, and the two of us were in a tent with Riley," Maya pointed to herself and Nadine before indicating Lucas and Zay. "And you guys were with Farkle. But then when everyone went to bed, we did a swap?"

"The joined up sleeping bags summer, yeah, I remember," Zay grinned as he looked to his wife. Nadine just smiled and went on getting Mia dressed up again. Lucas was doing the same with Marianne, while the others were tending to the kids' soaked and sandy swimsuits.

"So very rebellious," Maya declared with her most mock serious face turned to Lucas. Mostly this got her giggles out of Marianne, who didn't know what this was about in the slightest but found her mother's face amusing nonetheless.

"Nothing happened," Lucas reminded her, giving her a nod to ask that she produce the face once more, as he'd missed it. She obliged and he chuckled.

"It could have," she shrugged innocently.

"Oh, well, it's a bit too late now… Good decade and some too late…" he pointed out. In response, Maya cleared her throat and indicated their daughter. "Fair."

They had taken the kids swimming, earlier in the day, and it had gone great, even calling up memories of another summer, where Cory Matthews' poor swimming cap had been the target of a hunt while still being on the man's head. The swim had given way to some sitting around – and some running around – on the lake shore, and eventually to dinner, and some more lounging around. When the kids had expressed a wish to go into the water again, very briefly, before bed, they were indulged, on the logic that it would get them right to sleep afterward.

"Someone's dozing off right here," Nadine whispered as she finished getting Mia's PJs on her.

"No such luck here," Lucas sighed as he looked to Marianne, all set for bed but looking wide awake. "Come on, pumpkin, not sleepy at all?" he asked as he picked her up and held her in the most sleep-inducing way he could think of.

"Where the doggies?" Marianne asked him. He was stuck, and somewhere nearby he heard Maya snort.

"They're back home, remember? You'll see them when we get back," he told her.

"Soon?" Marianne asked.

"Day after tomorrow," Lucas promised. She looked confused, naturally. This was a bit past her understanding, two months shy of her second birthday. "Two sleeps." Marianne didn't look too pleased about the one thing she could understand, which was that the dogs were nowhere near her, and she wasn't going to see any of them before she went to sleep.

"Hey, Annie girl, guess what though," Zay came to stand by his best friend and look at his goddaughter. "We're going to be sitting around the fire soon, and I think your mom is going to sing something, yeah?" he looked back around to where Maya stood.

"Well, I'd be really stuck now if I wasn't going to, huh?" Maya gave him a pointed look before smiling and nodding.

"And your mom is going to sing something!" Zay now repeated with a bit more – whispered – energy toward Marianne. Suddenly, the lack of dogs was forgotten. She loved it when her mother sang.

They could probably have left the kids in the tents, with no chance of anyone coming up or anywhere near them without one of the fourteen adults in their group noticing, but they felt better about keeping them around, in any one of their parents' arms, or anyone else of the circle who'd want to hold them.

"Anybody else hanging on?" Maya asked as the tents emptied out and everyone came to sit around the campfire. Dylan had Nicky, Chiara and Ray had Giulia and Connor, respectively. It was hard to tell who among them was still awake, who had fallen asleep, and who was somewhere in the middle.

"He never stays asleep the first time," Riley indicated her son as she lowered herself into her chair. The rest of them had been happy to pull up a log, but as close as she was to having baby number two, Dylan had packed her a more suitable seat. "He'll be awake in twenty minutes, tops," she told the others, and Dylan nodded in agreement as he sat at the end of the log next to her chair.

"Like a rock," Chiara reported of Giulia.

"This one's wide awake," Ray hummed, brushing at Connor's hair as the boy clung to him.

"Okay, bring him right around here then," Maya indicated where she sat – on Riley's other side – as Lucas had Marianne with him.

The circle filled up in no time, the campfire brought to crackle and sway peacefully in the fading daylight, darkness closing in. As far as the Friars were concerned, the world was this quiet around their house at night, too, but this was just a whole other kind of quiet, and they really felt a sense of wonder, being in this place that night, together with their daughter but also with their friends. Maya had brought her guitar, of course, the one Charlie's father-in-law had made for her, and now she brought it before herself, looked around.

"Any requests?" she asked with a smile.

Any one of them who had been on these trips over several summers would be able to recall others of these moments, with Maya singing for them. This one felt so separate from the rest though, and for obvious reasons. Here she was, singing softly, all the better to help their little children go to sleep. Connor Garcia had been the easiest to get to go down and close his eyes to eventually doze off. Nicky Orlando woke again, as predicted, though he soon got caught up in the wave of sound and drifted right back to sleep in his father's arms. The one who appeared to resist, if it could be called that, was Marianne Friar. She would just watch her mother, and her father would hear her, so quietly trying to sing along, imitating Maya without actually knowing all the words, which was both so sweet and so amazing to Lucas. He couldn't even point it out to Maya without disturbing some part of it, so all he could do was continue to sit there and hold their girl to try and get her to sleep.

After a while, maybe to lend a hand – or a voice – the others of TXNY sitting around the fire started to sing along with their bandmate. Maybe, hopefully, it would add power to the effort and help Marianne finally go to sleep. For a while, they weren't even checking, just kept on singing together whatever song came through their minds which would have been known and would keep to the mandate of 'not too loud' for the sake of the kids. When they did stop, they got a look around and were happy to confirm that all five of the children were asleep.

"Someone's giving us a round of applause in here," Riley smiled, running her hands over the curve of her near full term belly. At this, Maya reached over to feel, and Riley helped direct her hand.

"Yes, someone," Maya repeated, giving her best friend a look.

"September," Riley reminded her as usual.

"Right, September 1st, you have to tell us. Technicality win."

"That is not a thing," Riley shook her head.

"Isn't it though? I'm just surprised you haven't blurted it out by accident by now."

"I know, right?" She sounded most impressed with herself, which made Maya laugh, more so as she felt the baby move under her hand.

"So, what's the plan for tomorrow? Is there a plan?" Rosa asked, after they'd all sunk into silence for a few minutes, listening to the quiet world around them, watching the fire dance…

"This isn't really a 'plan' kind of trip, more of a 'we do what we want' trip," Asher pointed out with a smile as Ray drew his attention to their son's sleeping face. He was still tiny, but Connor was giving off major 'ungraceful sleeper' vibes.

"Actually, there is something we'd like to do tomorrow, if it's alright with all of you," Morgan spoke up, looking to her fiancé. Paul gave a nod. "We were thinking we'd like to get married, right here, tomorrow morning."

The silence around the campfire was one of a stunned kind as everyone looked to the couple. They had been engaged for some time already, though the actual wedding remained an event they couldn't even conjure up in their minds. There was no dress yet, there was no venue, no cake. There were no invitations because there was no date yet. They had been waiting, had all these ideas in their heads, and those ideas required funds they did not have. And now, all of a sudden, this…

"You guys aren't…" Riley started to ask, pointing to her belly.

"No, no," both Morgan and Paul spoke, shaking their heads.

"We were just thinking about it, talking about it, and we decided we didn't want the big ceremony," Paul told them.

"We just want to be somewhere we'll remember, with people we care about, and…" Morgan went on, indicating the place all around them. "And you can marry people, right?" she indicated Lucas. "You married your cousin and her brother," she now pointed from him to Maya.

"Yeah, but… you need to have a license, and…" Lucas sat up, checked to make sure he hadn't awakened Marianne.

"Oh, we have that," Morgan grinned.

"We said we'd talked about it, that happened weeks ago, when the camping trip dates were locked in," Paul revealed. "We just wanted it to be a surprise until now." Again, a surprised silence fell. Maya leaned over to whisper at Lucas' ear.

"Okay, now I'm really glad we didn't skip out on this weekend after all."

"Well?" Morgan asked Lucas, doing her best not to look too eager as she waited. Lucas looked at the two of them sitting there, staring back at him.

"Of course," he finally told them. "It would be an honor."

"Did you have to wait and tell us after all the kiddos were asleep so we can't celebrate?" Rosa was the first to rise and go over to congratulate her bandmate.

"Sorry," Morgan told her with a laugh. The others weren't far behind, though some slower going on the approach.

After a while more of discussion about this idea they'd kept hidden, and how they wanted to go about things in the morning, some of the group started to split off and retreat to their tents to settle in and sleep. Soon, the fire was being extinguished and the rest of them retreated until morning. It wasn't as though the wedding would take place at dawn, but either way they needed to get some rest, the better to get up and get started. As they went and said their goodnights, Maya was sure she'd overheard Rosa asking Dylan if she and Jenna could move to their tent the following night, in a tone that seemed to say, 'so Morgan and Paul can have ours to themselves.'

The wide sleeping bags in their tent, especially after the earlier reminiscing, nearly had both Maya and Lucas and Zay and Nadine laughing. The two couples settled into their respective 'beds,' each with their daughter between them. In the low moonlight, Maya and Lucas could still see each other well enough, and after joking around earlier, right here, with their Marianne between them, it was less about a memory of the past and more about a thought of the future they'd had in the past. About as long as they had been able to look at one another and say with certainty that they would someday marry, and have children, they had looked forward to the days where they would get to bring those children along on a camping trip. It would be something they nurtured, every year, whenever they'd get the chance.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners