January 3rd 2022

Chapter 3
Our Life With the World

Did he really want to go out there today? Honestly, not so much... Maybe a little, but not enough that he wouldn't have much preferred to stay home, with Maya and the babies. Still... He knew she had a point, and he did need to check in.

Doctor Alvarez had resumed his old post, temporarily, while he was away. They could have had someone else, and they would have been perfectly capable of keeping things running smoothly. But having Manny there, Lucas would be, had been reassured, enough so that he didn't have to think for a second about the ranch while he was looking after Maya and the girls. And that was why Manny had come. He would stay as long as he needed him to, and he had help.

From the front, he could look into the backseat and see Marianne. She was excited to go to the ranch with him. She'd been a trooper, these last two weeks, staying with her grandparents. At no time had she shown signs of going off the rails, of pitching a fit and demanding to see her parents. She was with them a lot of the time, and when she had to leave, she would give them big hugs and kisses and she would be fine. Despite all that, they were all home now, and the way she swung her legs along and sang to herself, Lucas knew that she understood in her heart and mind. All was well, and normal life was starting again... if slightly altered by her baby sisters' arrival.

For all that, knowing he needed to go and see the ranch, that he would spend that hour as they had 'negotiated' it, he almost changed his mind. He could take Marianne somewhere else... get some ice cream or something, and they could start on their way back, take it slow but not too slow... Maya would be asleep, she wouldn't have to know...

Oh, she'd know... And she'd call him on it. Ah, well, they were already here, and the way Marianne cheered when she realized it, he doubted he could have gotten away with turning around and changing their plans.

"Hello, hello!" Juliet exclaimed with a laugh when she saw them coming. Marianne took off at a run the moment she saw her good friend, and she went all the way until she could hug around her legs. Juliet went ahead and pulled her up, giving her a hug almost as big as she got. "Now what are you two doing out here today?"

"Going to see the horses," Marianne informed her. "Mommy said so. One hour."

"One hour?" Juliet laughed again before turning to Lucas.

"Caught that, huh?" he chuckled, reaching over to poke his daughter on the cheek, which got her giggling. Lucas went ahead and explained their arrival home, and Maya's suggestion... and her 'challenge.'

"Well, you're in luck. We have some new friends to introduce to you," Juliet told Marianne, who gasped with glee at the revelation.

"Since when?" Lucas asked, inevitably drawn into business mode. If they had new horses, he needed to know about it.

"Oh, about ten days ago."

"How many?"

"Four. Come on, I'll show you." He gave her a look. "One hour, I understand."

If he wanted to make this visit brief but generally focused, the better not to keep him looking at his watch, meeting new horses would do the trick. Just getting to the stables where they would find these new residents took a few minutes, as they ran into this person or that one, all of them eager to catch up, to hear how the girls were doing... If they'd run into Donna or Carson, Lucas doubted they could have even reached the new arrivals by the end of his hour.

"They're right in here," Juliet indicated to the Friars. Lucas always noted his daughter's careful nature, how she knew to comport herself around the animals... It was one of those things that got his paternal pride going, always.

"What's their names?" Marianne asked.

"Well, they didn't have any when they came to us, or if they did no one knew, so we've been getting to know them, so we could figure out what they should be called. We've got Polka, and Caramel... We haven't made up our minds on the last two. One of them, we're thinking something like Stomper, or Thunder… The last one, well, we still have no idea. Maybe you can help us, huh?"

"Turtle!" Marianne offered at once.

"Why don't we go and see what you think once you've met them?" Juliet laughed. She guided her colleague's little daughter by the hand, and off they went to find the new arrivals.

Lucas didn't know more than what had been told to Marianne, which was that some of them had names, and some didn't, specifically that they hadn't even had names when they'd first come upon them. That already suggested a few things that left him concerned, and once he met the animals, he could see why. It never ceased to strike him, the way some human beings could treat others, whether human or animal. In his career so far, and through the many years of his education, he'd both read about and witnessed the aftermath of said treatment, had done his best to fix it when he'd been allowed to. It would be effective sometimes, as Honey Bee and her little siblings could show, but there were also those who had been too far gone, and those he didn't forget either.

He had seen his share of mistreated horses, and for how his work would be strongly concentrated on this animal's care in particular, his training had reflected as much. Right from the first glance, he could begin to build up a list in his head, before anyone briefed him on what had been found and done in the time since they'd arrived. He suspected that Juliet had needed to make a quick decision, when she'd spotted him and Marianne approaching, that she hadn't wanted to tell him about the quartet, knowing it would consume his attention when he really couldn't stick around. But seeing as it was all too likely that they'd end up discovering them anyway, that she couldn't have stopped them ending up here, she'd chosen to cut right to the chase.

They didn't look particularly spooked, traumatized, or likely to lash out. When Juliet brought Marianne nearer, they responded with open curiosity, didn't shy away from the child's hand. Instead, they felt its gentleness, and they looked calmer. For as long as they would be in the stables that day, the four horses would watch the small blonde with her springy pumpkins, approach her when she'd look back at them… Lucas watched her the whole time, even as Manny came along and started telling him about their new residents. He recorded a few short videos, as much because it was a reflex in him to immortalize these small instances of his growing daughter as that he wanted to be able to have this reference of the new animals. He wasn't back full time, not yet, and once he was back at the house his priority would continue to be Maya, the girls… But he would want to be kept updated on the horses' condition and progress while he was away. If he ever had downtime, where he was able to provide an input, he would want to do that.

"How about it? Did you guys settle on the names?" Lucas smiled, pulling Marianne up to sit on his knee when she came running back to him.

"That's Thunder," she pointed to one of them.

"Great name," he agreed, kissing the side of her head. "And the last one? Is it Turtle?" he wondered. She laughed and nodded. "He doesn't look like a turtle, does he?" Lucas pointed out, giving her his 'masterful' impression of a turtle extending and retracting his head, guaranteeing him another dose of that tinkling laughter. The more she grew, the more he swore she sounded just like her mother, when they'd first met. It was that same laugh…

"Juliet said he likes the water the most," Marianne explained.

"Ah, well, in that case, Turtle it is," Lucas agreed. "Are you ready to go home?"

"I want to stay," she shook her head, indicating the horses.

"Don't you want to go see the babies? And Mommy? And Ella and the others?" he asked and, oh, now that he mentioned it, she did want that. But she also clearly liked being here, wanted to be with Polka, and Caramel, and Thunder and Turtle. "We'll come back another day, I promise. And if I can't take you, then someone else will, yeah?"

"Okay," Marianne relented.

"Want to go say bye for now?" he suggested, and she was off to wish each horse a good day. It hadn't been exactly an hour just yet but by the time they managed to get back to the parking lot… It was close enough.

"Daddy?" Marianne asked as they went along. He had her sitting on his shoulders, and she was holding on good and tight.

"Yes, pumpkin?"

"When is another day?" He turned his eyes up to her. "I want to go again."

"I know you do, and you will. You know what Mommy and I say about promises, right?"

"Promise is promise and promise means yes," Marianne recalled.

"That's it," he smiled. "Right now, it might be a little hard to figure out what tomorrow is going to look like, or the day after that, so we can't say for sure, but I won't forget, okay?"

"Okay."

"Anyway, you'll be starting pre-school soon, yeah? That's exciting?" Oh, it absolutely was. Marianne Friar was Ready with a capital R. She wanted to start school, the sooner the better. "Right, well, once that happens, you'll have to go there, and you might not be able to come here except on the days when you're not going there."

"I want to come here all the time," she informed him, and his smile just grew.

"You do, huh?" he asked. She nodded. The pumpkins wiggled. "Yeah, I know that feeling," he told her, thinking of a fated day when he'd made a declaration to his grandmother, his baby girl's namesake.

He'd made a vow to one Marianne, and whether or not he'd just received one from another, it was too early to tell. But if he had… If it came to be that someday Lucas' daughter decided she wanted to follow in his footsteps… Nothing would please him more than to tell her about this day, this moment. When you know, you know.

"What do you think, should we go and pick up something for Mommy on the way home?" Lucas inquired of his travelling companion. Marianne was on board with this plan. "What should we get her?"

"Fries!" she decided.

"Just fries? Nothing else?" Lucas bit back the urge to laugh. Of the many things his Hucklebucket of a girl championed, like the color green, and turtles, lately it was just potatoes… Any dish with them, she was a big fan, much to her Granny Mel's delight. She would make it her mission to attempt any and all recipes she could find to please her grandbaby. She hadn't struck out once yet. "Well, coming from you, I'm sure your mom will know it came with love," Lucas smirked. "One stop to Nando's, coming up. Let's try and make it quick though, alright? Deal?" he asked, knowing how much she loved being there and seeing the man. The feeling was so very much reciprocated.

"Promise," Marianne patted his forehead. Promise means yes.

"Going to text your big sister first. Hopefully Mommy did her part and she's sleeping right now…"

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners