A/N: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!

November 25th 2021

Chapter 329
Our Music For Progress

There was plenty going on back at the house today that it was kind of perfect timing for Lucas to have his appointment up in Houston. It was equally perfect as he checked in with Ella and learned that she was neither working nor busy with any schoolwork that morning. He asked her if she wanted to come with him somewhere, because he wanted to bring her along, and she agreed at once. She made her own way out to the house, left Tori with Maya and the others, and she and Lucas took off in his car.

The two of them didn't get nearly as many opportunities to just hang out on their own as Ella did with Maya, which was natural, what with her also being her teacher. It mattered to Lucas that he got to show his adopted daughter how much he cared for her. He never wanted her to think that the whole thing, deciding to adopt her, all of it, had only been Maya's idea and he'd had no choice but to follow along. True, when she'd first brought her and Tori to stay at the house, he'd had no say in it, but it had been a choice born of his wife's innate knowledge of him and of the fact that he would back her up on the decision, that he'd feel as strongly about it as she did, which was the truth.

And then, the more she'd been in their lives, not just living in their house but being a genuine part of their unit, the more he'd started to look on her as Maya did, as a daughter. It was unexpected, for both of them, had never been part of the plan. Where Lucas was concerned, he'd tried and done his best not to just… overstep his bounds with the girl, not wanting to give the wrong impression, after everything she'd been through. What had turned the tide for them was Ella herself. She'd seen right through him, and she'd really opened the door for him, to allow them to explore their familial bond. By the time Maya had come to him on New Year's Eve and put forward the idea of adopting the girl as their own, when she'd turned eighteen just two months ago and he'd never figured it could actually be a thing for them… There'd been no question, no doubt in him. This was his daughter. She'd been in their lives for barely more than a year, but he wanted her to stay in their lives for as long as they'd have lives to share.

"So, where are we going?" Ella asked, when traffic slowed to a crawl. Lucas smiled to himself.

"We've been driving for an hour already, I'm surprised it took this long for you to ask," he teased.

"I don't know, I just figured whatever it was, you needed me to come, so I did," she shrugged. "Would it be weird if I said I like driving with you because it reminds me of when my grandfather would drive me around?" It sounded like a shy admission she'd been holding off for a long while, but it just made him laugh. "He was a lot like you as a driver, that's all. Quiet, and focused… I always felt safe, like we were going somewhere good." Lucas slowly nodded.

"I'll take that," he smiled. "What was his name?"

"Christos," Ella's face softened with memory. "He died when I was ten. His heart gave out, I was with him," she went on, the memories now twisting around her, stealing her breath just a little. "I always told myself that, if he and my grandmother had still been around, everything would have been okay. But… I'm here now, with you and Mom. They were the best people I knew, and you both remind me of them. They'd be happy to know where I ended up."

"Thank you, for telling me about them… especially today," Lucas looked at her, shared her smile.

"Why especially?" Ella asked.

"Where I'm taking you, we're going to see an old friend of ours. She's the one that did… all of our tattoos, Maya and me… Except for the flowers, those she got in Paris on our honeymoon, and… the clocks, here. But Cheyenne, she did the rest, starting with the owl and the nightingale back when Maya and I were in college. And today, she's going to be adding something to my arm. Right here," he indicated the spot with his finger. "She's going to add another swan. This one is for Marianne, you know, and that one will be for you, our newest October girl." The way Ella's face lit up… This was exactly why he'd wanted to bring her. "Your mom can't get hers right now, obviously…"

"No, I understand," Ella quickly nodded.

"But she said she would get it as soon as she could, so you can take that as a promise." There was no doubt. It was one of the very first things which Ella had come to know, one of the first things that had made her look to her hosts as family, as parents. They were honest, and when they gave their word, they followed through.

X

"Hey, how did it go? Let me see, let me see…" Maya got up from the couch and walked toward Lucas as he and Ella came through the door. Lucas held out his arm at once, presenting the new swan under its protective covering. It was not identical in its pose, but Cheyenne had done very well in making it look like it belonged with the other swan to its right, the Marianne swan. "Oh, I love it," Maya smiled, turning to Ella, who was smiling, too. "Did you have a good time?"

"Yeah, Cheyenne was really nice. She let me stand next to her and watch, told me how she got started. And then she gave me a gift," Ella revealed, looking down. When Maya followed her line of sight, she spotted some more of that protective covering wrapped around her wrist. She gasped. "When she found out I was eighteen, she asked if I'd ever thought of getting one done, and I said yeah, kind of. She said she'd be happy to do it for me if I had something in mind, no pressure, and… I had an idea, actually had been thinking about it on the ride over, after Dad told me where we were going. She drew it, and she showed it to me, and it was just what I had in mind, so she did it."

She held out her left arm now, showing the inside of her wrist so Maya could see. They were flowers, all about the size of a dime, one in the middle, surrounded by five others, the outer ring connected with a perfect circle running from one flower to the next, only the outlines but with traces of the various shades associated with the flowers.

"I got inspired by you two, with the birds," Ella explained. "This marigold's me," she pointed to the little flower in the middle. "The poppy is for Tori, the lily of the valley for Dad, the carnation for you, the other marigold for Marianne, and the daffodil…"

"Gran," Maya guessed. Ella nodded. Maya took a deep breath, her emotions bubbling over. The symbolism was not lost on her. They had surrounded her; they had protected her. They had changed her life. "It's beautiful, I love it. You love it, too, yeah?"

"So much," Ella promised.

"See, if I'd known, I would have drawn it for you," Maya couldn't help 'lamenting.' "If you ever get another one…" she looked back up at her, and Ella nodded with a promise. She'd go right to her.

"I think I might need to wear my watch over it when I'm at school… I won't get in trouble for it, will I?" Ella wondered all at once, looking at her arm.

"No one at that school will say a thing, and if they do, well, you send them to me."

"How did it go today? Are they still here?" Lucas looked around like he expected Sam or Cara to be hiding and waiting to pop out of nowhere.

"Yeah, Cara got called in to start early, so Sam drove her on the way home. The girls are upstairs, napping, so I was down here, just… taking it easy, enjoying the quiet. Who knows how long we'll have any of that, once these three are out here? It could be years," she whispered the end, which left her husband and daughter chuckling. "As for the rest…" Maya walked over to the coffee table and picked up a small stack of pages and brought them over, presenting them to the returning duo with their new ink.

From what they could see of the pages just flipping through them, there were parts added in Maya's hand, and in Sam's, and in Cara's, like they'd been passing them to each other as they worked. They'd been working in the kitchen, instead of the studio, as they had Marianne, Tori, and Francesca to keep an eye on, and it had been exactly that. One of them would have an idea, and they'd take the paper and pen, and they'd write it down, until another would have the next part, and they'd take over. One after the other, they would take over like that, until they had what Maya had now handed to Lucas and Ella.

"You guys did a lot," Lucas sounded impressed.

"Yeah, well, we had a few days to think about everything after that night when Sam came, we've been putting down ideas since then. Once we actually got together again and started sorting through the mess, we had some parts that were similar, like we all thought the same thing needed to happen, and then each of us had smaller ideas that fit in between the rest. By the time we stopped we had… all that. We still have a lot to do, but it feels like we're really getting a grip on our story, we know… more or less what it's all about, which is going to go a long way toward me actually getting to work on the songs…" Maya explained. She looked like such a giddy kid just now, and it was as funny to see as it was infectious. They couldn't wait to see this all come together either.

"What happens when you guys finish it?" Ella asked.

No one had really ever brought it up, not even Maya and her siblings. The entire project had started as an album, nothing more, and all of a sudden, not unlike Riley's suggestion that four teenage girls should start a band fifteen years prior, Sam had looked to his sisters and pointed out that they might have had the makings of a musical on their hands. They had never had their eyes on the idea of grand productions, of it even being made, but they should have, really. It had never come up, which kind of fit in with how they'd been at this for… over a year… and they were just now making some substantial progress.

"Well, the way we're going, that could take months, or a year, or a few years," Maya pointed out. "Once we're there… I don't know. We'll decide then, I guess, unless something comes up before. Do I have this idea in my head about our musical being done at the school? Maybe a little… Maybe a lot."

"What about… Broadway and all that?" Ella wondered.

"When we finish it, if it actually gets those people reaching out, I mean…" Maya tried to answer her, but she was just a bit at a loss for words, considering it. New York, where her family's story had started, where she'd been born, and Sam, and Cara… She'd be lying if the idea that their musical could ever make it there didn't thrill her just a bit. But at the same time… "If it becomes a possibility, then we'll discuss it, but not before."

Ella and Tori stayed until after dinner. Marianne was very intrigued by her father's new tattoo and her sister's, too. She wouldn't stop staring at them, tentatively reaching out her little hand like she wanted to touch them and then resisting. Finally, after dessert, Ella went about unearthing a temporary tattoo – a little frog – and applied it to her sister's arm. She made sure to point out to her that this was not a forever one, because she'd have to be her age at least to get one of those, but it would at least last a few days if she was careful. The finishing touch – because it wouldn't be the same otherwise, was the addition of some transparent wrap to create a similar protective barrier over the frog. Marianne was so very satisfied with the rest that she would spend the rest of the night – including bath time, where she kept her arm in the air always – carefully guarding her new 'tattoo.'

When Lucas returned from driving Ella and Tori back to their apartment, he found Maya sitting at his desk with the musical's notes and her laptop. She had headphones connected, and he saw that she had one of the skeleton tracks playing.

"Hey," she pulled down the headphones when she saw him. "I'm just working out an idea real quick. Want to watch something before bed?"

"Sure," he gladly agreed. She was staring at his new swan again, smiling. She couldn't wait to get her own. "You've been thinking about the Broadway thing more than you said, haven't you?" He'd guessed that she didn't want to get into it with Ella earlier, but now that it was just them… She breathed out.

"I don't know…" she told him, her voice dropping into that crisis of indecision. "If it actually happened, and I'm not saying that it would, I just… Of course, I'd want it to go down like that, but then what about us, what about them?" she asked, pointing between the two of them and the house all around, then to across the hall and down to her belly. "And the ranch, and the school… It's like anything else. Yes, of course, I want to be involved, as much as possible, but I wouldn't move us out to New York for it, temporarily or otherwise. That would never happen, you can write that down and I'll sign it. There is nothing big enough in this world to make me want to have any other life than this one here, with you, with our children, and that's… That's what I have to say, fully aware that we don't have a musical yet."

"Sounds good," Lucas came up and put his arms around her. She set her head over his heart and breathed deep.

"How did Ella do, with the needles, not too bad?" she asked after a few seconds.

"She did great," he kissed the top of her head. "You would have been proud."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners