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


November 18th 2022

Chapter 322
Our Shock of Drive

If the days since the return from holidays had been stressful and depressing when she was at school, it was the parts of those days and beyond that she spent out of it, with her family, that kept her balanced. She could always, always count on her daughters to cheer her up… merely by existing, and once they got past that, well, they were an inexhaustible source of silliness and love, and she might have cherished them more than ever at a time like this. Never to be outdone, they were led in these efforts by their father. Lucas was always at the top of his game, but when his wife or any of their girls needed cheering up, well… that was his time to shine. Maya cherished him more than ever, too.

Of particular effect, in the days after her birthday, Maya had Marianne's total exuberance over the start of rehearsals for the musical up at the Silvan Hughes theater. To be sure, being one of their child performers, and having a relatively small role, she would not be so involved as some of the others, but she still wanted to be there, still wanted to be able to watch and take in everything that she could. It helped then that she was her mother's daughter, and her grandmother's granddaughter for that matter. She had frequented this place and its people in a similar way as she'd done with the ranch, if to a lesser degree, all of her life, so in many ways she was counted as one of them already. Siobhan was more than happy to ensure she would be seen to. As seven-year-olds went, she was so well behaved that they could trust her to sit quietly when asked to, and she had enough of that curiosity in her that people wanted to show her how this thing worked or what that thing was for. She would always listen and show that she'd been listening.

Today, even as they were all getting ready for the auction up at Sullivan Stables, Marianne had a very important rehearsal to get to, so she'd been dropped off there earlier, while her parents saw to some errands and to getting all her little sisters ready. Lucas would eventually take the five of them out to the ranch, leaving Maya with the enviable task of collecting their young performer.

"Mommy!" her voice reached Maya before she managed to see her. She'd seen a flash of movement on the stage, and then nothing, but soon after a small figure appeared, having come around and down to the auditorium floor and then taken off at a run up the aisle. And here Maya found out what had been so special about today: Costume fittings. Marianne came running toward her in full Young Cosette glory, and she looked like she was living her least miserable life, going by the smile that took her face over, every last inch of it. "Look! Look at my costume!" she told her, as though she wasn't already looking. She spun around, as much to show every angle as to let the fabric and her hair move along with her.

"Take it easy," Maya laughed as she collected her in a quick hug. "You're all good?" she asked when she pulled back, looking her over. "Nothing's too tight or too loose, nothing hard to move in… or itchy?" she inquired, which made her daughter giggle and show the gaps in her baby teeth. The last one she'd lost had definitely started to play with how some of her words came out, and she'd been worried that it would compromise her singing or her role, but she'd been assured that either they would find a way to give her false teeth to fill the holes for her performances or they would see if it might simply lend itself to her character's innocence. "All set to go?" Maya asked. Marianne nodded. "What about…" she gestured at her. Marianne looked down, remembered her costume, and gasped before running back to get changed.

Sometimes Maya would think about her firstborn daughter at seven versus herself at seven. Their lives were so utterly different from one another, in so many ways, so much so that she couldn't see young Maya believe that she could ever have such a life, much less see any child of her own have one either. This right here, this was definitely one of those moments, and like the others before it, she took it with something between relief and hope.

Once again in the clothes she'd worn when she'd left the house, Marianne followed her mother, and they headed to the ranch. Maya might have gotten her to change instead into her clothes for the auction, but she'd accidentally sent them onward with Lucas, so she would have to change when she got there. The entire car ride was a non-stop burst of giddy recapping of how Marianne's morning had gone, and Maya didn't know that she'd smiled this much all week. When they'd get to the ranch, the first thing she'd have to do after they got out of the minivan would be to give her daughter another big hug. The entire conversation – or monologue – ran for so long that it wasn't until they were walking along in search of Lucas and the other girls that they got to figure out how Marianne wanted her hair done.

"Can you do something with braids?" she asked.

"Braids, plural?" Maya asked, and Marianne nodded, gestured at the back of her head in such a way that she might have said 'all over.' "Huh…" Maya thought for a moment. She checked her watch, considered how much time they had before the start of the auction… "I'll see what I can do. First, we need to find your clothes."

"Do the call, Mommy," Marianne suggested, and Maya pointed at her. Good thinking, pumpkin. Cupping her hand at her mouth, hoping to amplify the sound, she let out the call, knowing that wherever Lucas was – or their girls, for that matter – if he heard it, he would come seeking the caller. "There!" Marianne pointed, just as Maya saw them, too. The triplets were the first to be seen, dashing in their direction, but Lucas wasn't far behind, leading Mackenzie and Aubrey in the double stroller. They already knew that their 'funny little macaroni' would be much like big sister Remy when it came to using the stroller instead of being allowed to walk, the bigger she'd get.

"Looks like Kacey's got your things," Maya nodded to the eldest of the triplets, who brandished a bag high in one hand as she ran. Luckily, by now, she had much better control of herself and was no longer as likely as she used to be to just faceplant, running with something in her hands like that.

She reached her big sister and safely delivered her sister's outfit, after which she turned all her attention on her mother, so she might show how she looked, just as Remy and Lucy did. As a general rule, they did prefer to wear their own things, and being dressed the same on a normal day made them cranky enough that they tried not to do it. And yet there was something about special occasions that made it so that they loved being all the same, as they were now.

"Wow, look at you!" Maya gasped, as much for their benefit as her own. Lucas had already done their hair – she recognized his style of buns – and they were all set for this big day, first with a bit of looking around at all the items to be auctioned, followed by the actual bidding.

There was clearly too much going on around them to keep the three-year-old trio in one place, so they had barely reunited with their mother and sister that they spotted Donna Devereaux and ran to see her. Marianne was so looking forward to telling her father about her morning that Lucas ended up following her and her mother, along with the little sisters. She started back into the story she'd already told her mother, looking at him as much as Mackenzie and Aubrey while she spoke. The small girls were as enthralled as they could get. This continued as they went into one of the dressing rooms – usually reserved for brides and other guests of the kind – while she got changed and Maya would look up options for the big braided wonder she wanted on her head.

"Alright, it might be a good idea if we slowed down the chatterbox while I do your hair, yeah?" Maya suggested when Marianne sat down. "You're very animated when you talk and you're excited, I'm not sure where you got that from," she joked.

"Why don't I leave you to it, remove the distraction?" Lucas suggested before moving up to Marianne. "To be continued?" he asked her, and she nodded. "Excellent. Can't wait to see how this turns out," he caught up a bit of her hair, dangled it to tickle at her face, making her giggle.

"Get going, Distraction," Maya playfully shooed him off, and he went, taking their youngest two with him.

"Dada, out!" Mackenzie complained from her seat as they went out again.

"Okay, alright, but I'm carrying you around, deal?" he presented his fist at her. Her face brightened and she closed her little fist before holding it up to bump with his. She loved fist bumps. Deal struck. With that, he pulled her from the seat, keeping her balanced in one arm while he pushed Aubrey in the stroller.

The change in attitude was immediate. Up there with her father, all was well. She could see people, watch them everywhere, maybe wave and say hello… It didn't matter if she knew them or not. She would greet them, and nine times out of ten they'd greet her back. The one out of ten would baffle her and she would keep trying.

Lucas didn't realize that he'd made up his mind until he saw them. Cristina Vega's home hadn't been damaged in the storm, though she and Rafa had certainly been without power for a few days. The business where she worked though met some unfortunate human-created trouble in that time, and so they would be part of those the auction would hopefully benefit today. In the meantime, the storm may have been bad for her job, but it had brought something else unexpected for the family.

When things had gotten very bad, like anyone, Lucas and Maya had checked in with their people to see how they were doing, if they needed anything. For Lucas, one of those calls had been to Rafa and his mother. He'd heard about the power outage, and he hadn't necessarily set out to create an opportunity, except that the very next person he'd spoken to, answering their check-in call, was his uncle Michael. With how he'd just spoken to the boy who had very briefly been his cousin, he ended up telling Michael about their situation. He and Keith had been in touch with Cristina by now, even if Rafa still didn't know any of it, and so he had reached out to her, offered to host her and her son for as long as they had no power. She didn't have to tell him who they were. They could only be who they were, Lucas' uncles, one of them the son of the woman who'd founded Sullivan Stables back in the day.

Cristina had accepted the offer, but she'd also changed the terms. She believed this was as good a time as any to finally let Rafa know the truth of their family's history. From what Lucas had heard, he had taken it remarkably well. He was a wise young man… or was growing into one. He heard his mother's story, and he wasn't hurt at the thought that she'd nearly given him up, that she had given him up, if for just a week. He understood why she would have done it, and more importantly, in the end, she had come back for him.

Then to learn that he had found himself in this place that was connected to his would-be fathers, conscious as he was that he'd always felt such a connection to it, he had been excited to meet Michael and Keith, to meet, also, his would-be sisters. Lara and Lydia had been fascinated, having known the story of their almost brother since they'd been little but having no memory of him in their house. The only one of them who did remember, if only to a point, was Lea, and she had been so happy to finally see him again, to know how well he had turned out. As for Leyton, who had not been born at the time, of course, as soon as he met Rafa, he decided that the boy was his big brother. He only had sisters, and they were great, but he wished for a brother. Rafa gladly stepped into the role, and while Lea shared her time between her fathers' home and the Friars' in that week or so before going back to Houston, they all had a great time, getting to know one another.

By now, a few weeks after the storm, Cristina's business was still doing its best to keep their employees afloat, and if all went well, after the auction, they'd get to pick on all that, but at the same time… What if? He looked at the woman going around today, talking to people, existing in this space, and… he was sure she could be just who they needed, to run the Bed & Breakfast. And he looked at Rafa, who already was so attached to the place that he'd lobbied for a job after he'd aged out of yellow group… He could really love calling this place home. It was in his bones, just as it had been in Lucas' when he'd been a kid.

It hadn't been his intention to bring this up today, just like that, but next thing he knew, as though compelled by his gut feeling, he was going up to Cristina Vega and asking to speak with her. Rafa was off looking at the exhibit, chatting with Carson and Lee Beaumont, so it was just the two of them and the girls. Aubrey was fussing, so Cristina soon held her, which worked out well for the near eight-month-old girl. Lucas worked his way toward the subject, the question, before putting it out there in no uncertain terms. They were transforming Juliet's old home, his grandparents' old home, into a Bed & Breakfast, and they needed someone to run it. This someone would have to live in the house, and he wondered if she might want the job, for her and Rafa to call the ranch house home.

She was surprised, as she'd have to be, and she couldn't possibly give him an answer just like that, but he knew she wasn't disinterested. She needed to think about it. She needed to talk to Rafa, though even as she said this she knew as well as Lucas that he'd say yes before she'd finished her sentence. They both laughed at the thought.

"I'll think about it," Cristina nodded again.

"I'll get you all the information you could need. You take your time."

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners