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

December 23rd 2021

Chapter 357
Our Support For Arrivals

They'd given themselves a goal, a target. It would either happen on its own or it would come out of their kindly assistance after one week. That way, whether it all went great, and Luna and her father started down the path of a renewed relationship, and they needed more time together, or it didn't go so well, and they needed some wiggle room to hopefully give them a second chance, they would have one more week ahead of them. Day by day, after graduation had come and gone, they waited, and they watched, but nothing happened. With their deadline reached, there'd been nothing left to do but to act. It would have to be as gentle as it would be successful… hopefully. They weren't going to lock them in a room together and demand that they talk, no. But they did have to ensure that, once they were brought together, they would be gently compelled to start speaking.

There was no way that they could be there for The Big Talk, so they wouldn't know just what had been discussed, what had been said. The only other person who would be there would be their little Sheriff, as she'd been secretly recruited to the effort, the better to help two people she loved very much and who loved her in return without knowing that she was doing it.

While this would all be going on, the rest of them would be helping Eliza and Emma finish up their packing ahead of the trip back to Austin and their official arrival as new residents to the house on the lane for the four years to follow. The girls had shared their room for several years now, so the trickiest part involved their figuring out what would go into which room when it came to objects, decorations, and everything that had previously been considered as shared. Sure, they'd be just across the hall from one another once they moved, but the choice still needed to be made, and as much as possible they wanted to make that choice here and now so they could arrive in their new rooms and just start to unpack, settle in, and finally make the big reveal to one another.

"Here I thought we didn't have any twins living in our house yet," Lucas whispered at Maya's ear. She chuckled, but she had to agree. Looking at Eliza and Emma, she could see Nellie and Gracie being just the same and, someday, their unborn girls, too.

"Hey, they're back," Dora turned back from where she'd been looking out the window. Sam, Cara, Eliza, Emma, Wyatt, Ginny, and Sadie all rushed over to try and have a look.

"Who's back?" Abigail asked, putting down a pair of pants she'd been folding.

"Grandpa Chuck and Luna and Marianne," Sam told his mother.

"All three?" Maya moved up, causing her siblings and cousins to part and clear the path to the window. Yeah, there they were. Luna had already gotten Marianne out of the car, and she was now helping her father out of the backseat.

"What do we do?" Eliza asked the others.

"Well, Luna's got the key," James reminded her, just before they heard Marianne calling in search of her parents from downstairs. Lucas went out to meet her, leaving Maya to follow at her own pace.

"Right here, pumpkin," he smiled, climbing down the steps until he could reach his daughter. Marianne responded at once by wrapping her arms around his legs.

"Hi!" she crooned, making him laugh.

"Hey," he greeted her back. He knew that face. "Did you have ice cream by any chance?" She nodded. "Mint chip?" Of course, it was green, so it was her favorite. "Want to go help your aunts to pack?" She zoomed off up the stairs at once, a little green fairy full of sugar and giddiness. Now, Lucas turned back to the other pair. "Hey…" he breathed out, trying to gauge how their afternoon had shaped up. They didn't look like they'd had a screaming match, or cried, or generally wanted nothing to do with one another. They didn't look super chipper either, but that would have been highly unlikely to begin with. "How did you…" he gestured between the two of them and up the stairs to indicate Marianne. He could just hear her talking, he guessed, to her mother, recounting her outing with her aunt and her Pawpaw.

"I need to go home and change, my shift starts in an hour, but I'll stop by again later tonight to pick up the girls, alright?" Luna told Lucas, giving him a nod as she retreated. She took a moment to look to her father with a similar tip of the head as he raised his hand with his own farewell, and then she was gone.

"Are you okay?" Lucas asked Charles. He looked briefly lost in his own head, but he finally looked to his granddaughter's husband.

"Yes, yes, I… I thought I'd take a short nap before dinner," he replied.

"Of course, yeah, uh… We'll try and be quiet," Lucas promised and followed behind the man as he went up to the guest room where he'd been sleeping for the past week.

Bringing back this news to the rest of the group, they all looked the way he did. None of them were sure what this meant for the pair. Marianne wasn't able to tell them much. When they'd put the ice cream in front of her, Luna had also put a compilation of dog videos under her eyes, so after that all she remembered were puppies and mint chip. There would be no real way for them to know what had happened until one of them opened up, and this at least would be one hundred percent up to them.

They wouldn't tell them what the discussion had been like, nor would they discuss any part of the situation between them. But over the days that followed, getting them closer to the departure for Texas, there were at least moments for the family to observe and make deductions. As far as they could see, Luna and her father were in a state of what Maya called 'we're trying, but it's a clumsy mess.' She'd gone through something similar with her father, and while they couldn't say for certain that the worst was over, that they were completely over the hurdle… At least they were making efforts, genuine ones. Right now, it was the best they could hope for.

It also meant that, while they were inching forward, they weren't ready to shake things up too much. Charles wasn't going to move in with Luna, and while Abigail and James might have taken him in, especially now that they'd have two less in their household, Charles ultimately decided to return to Austin and his small room in his granddaughter's basement. It was his show of wanting to stay close without forcing Luna's hand too far, and it was accepted all around.

So, after two weeks in Arizona, it was time to start back for Texas. They would have four vehicles between them, with Lucas and Sam's cars, the rental truck for the girls' belongings – driven by Cara and Mateo in turn, and then the car which had been a joint gift to Eliza and Emma from their parents. They might have gotten them each one, but it would have been unnecessary. Already having the one between the two of them felt like so much and they were very grateful for it. The goodbyes with their parents and their younger siblings were as difficult as they'd all known they would be, so much so that they'd all been walking around with a bit of apprehension and dread for the last couple of days. Maisie especially had held on to her big sisters so tightly that they might have taken her with them if they could. When she finally let go, she moved to her father, and he put his arms around her and rubbed her back to comfort her.

"Hey, you two alright?" Maya asked. About ten minutes after they'd all driven off like a Texas-bound caravan, she'd put in a call to Eliza. She was starting off the long drive as the passenger while Emma drove the first stretch.

"Yeah… mostly…" Eliza sniffed, the sound quality telling Maya that she'd been put on speaker so that Emma could hear her, too.

"I know it doesn't look like it now, but this is going to pass. Maisie will be fine, and so will you."

"We know, we do, it's just… Well, after Gran…" Emma explained.

Maya closed her eyes. She hadn't even considered… Maisie had never lost anyone, not until last month. Has it already been a month? She had so much support around her, and on the whole, she was fine, really, but just now some of that support had gone and left her. At her age, it was just a bit easier to explain what was happening and expect that she would understand, but it didn't mean she would take it so well that she'd have zero reaction. She'd gone through all her life with siblings who lived far, but this was the first time she was big enough to see anyone who'd been with her be relegated to the far away people. Now, it was just her and Wyatt, and she was becoming aware that it was only a matter of time before he left her, too.

"Alright, well… Try and come up with a plan. When I moved out, I tried to wait a while before having a visit, to give them time to get used to the change. It doesn't mean you have to do the same thing, but you get the point. You can help her with the transition somehow. It's summer, which helps… I'm not sure if fitting in a Sleepster will be possible before the babies, and after, well… We'll think of something after we get home."

It was the fourth time they drove between Tucson and Austin, twice one way and twice the other, in all of a month. They were getting to be very familiar with the route, though they couldn't say that it made the long drive feel that much shorter, nor did it lessen the feeling of release once they reached their destination. By the time they did get there this time around, Lucas was the only one awake in the car, with Maya, Marianne, and Charles having dozed off at some time or another over the final stretch.

The truck had pulled up ahead of the cars as they were coming on to the road, the better for it to be closest to the door. They would leave it there overnight, waiting until morning, with daylight and sleep to aid them in the unloading. After wishing their little sisters a good night, Sam and Cara climbed into the former's car with Dora, Francesca, and Mateo, and headed off to regain their own beds at last.

"How are we doing this?" Eliza asked as she and Emma turned to their brother-in-law.

"Well, if not for the babies, I might have just gone and tried to startle her awake…" Lucas shrugged.

"Don't you dare, Friar," Maya mumbled as she opened her eyes.

"Wouldn't dream of it," he smiled.

Once Charles was awakened, Eliza and Emma saw to helping him into the house and down to the basement. Meanwhile, Lucas pulled the sleeping Marianne from her seat, keeping her in one arm while offering the other for support as Maya got out of the car.

"I'm not sure I can sleep right now," she told him as they walked up to the house.

"Considering you slept through most of the trip, I can see why," Lucas nodded.

"Yeah," Maya chuckled. "The problem is that I can't just… stay up… try and do other things for a while, can I?"

"Probably not, no. Want to watch a movie?" he offered.

"You are going to fall asleep in five seconds, you've been driving all day," she shook her head with a smile.

"Maybe," he conceded. "But… we'll be on the couch, and you did say once that it was one of the places where you could sleep better than beds these days, so…"

"Oh, so that's the plan…"

"I think it is, yeah."

"Fine, we'll try it your way, but I'm going to time you."

"I love a challenge."

Maya settled on the couch, looking at what options they might have for their movie while Lucas went upstairs to put Marianne to bed. In the meantime, Eliza and Emma came back from the basement and, upon learning what they were planning to do, they quickly went to get their bags from the car – their overnight things – and then sat on the floor in front of the television.

"Hey… hey…" Maya stretched out a foot to poke her sisters in the back and they turned at once, startled. "Come closer, please?" she motioned toward them, and they scooted over before climbing on to the couch outright, dropping in at either side of their big sister. "You know how happy I am that you're here, right?" she asked, looping her arms with one each of theirs.

"We do," Emma smiled while Eliza nodded.

"You know it's going to get crazy once these three are here, right? I don't want you to think that you have to be all over Triplet Mode. You're starting college in a few weeks, and I want you guys to get to be college students, not nurses or maids."

"We will be… college students, I mean," Eliza assured her. "While also being grade-A Aunties," she added, both she and Emma laughing at the look on their sister's face.

"Just… help me pick a movie, alright?" she waved her phone around and they stuck their heads together, browsing for a winner.

They had their choice by the time Lucas came down. The girls climbed back down to the floor, and he sat next to Maya. She showed him her phone, too, though with him she didn't show movie options but a timer. He responded by covering up a yawn.

"Your butt is mine, Huckleberry," Maya signed.

"I feel like we already knew that," he signed back.

He held out longer than she'd originally estimated, a whole ten minutes, before finally dozing off with his head at his wife's shoulder. When Eliza and Emma noticed, they looked like they were debating tickling at his feet. Maya almost let them do it before finally giving them the 'I'm watching you' gesture. They played it cool and turned back to the movie. They watched the whole thing before finally conceding the night. The girls headed up to the second floor while Maya woke up her cowboy and coaxed him up to their room.

"How did I do?" he mumbled.

"Ten minutes. It was impressive."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners