January 10th 2022

Chapter 10
Our Leap Into Independence

"Are you sure you don't want me to…"

"Mom, we'll be alright," Maya insisted. "It's only a couple of hours. I can look after my own daughters by myself for that long."

"Oh, I know, I wasn't suggesting… You know, I can't help worrying, if something were to…"

"They'll probably be asleep until it's time to feed them, and I can handle the rotation all by myself just fine, then they'll be sleeping again by the time you get here, okay? Go to your meeting, then we can talk about premiere night when you get here."

"Alright, alright, I'll go, just… Oh, I really need to…" Katy trailed off, like she'd just gotten a look at the clock.

"Go, I'll keep you updated if anything cute happens," Maya smiled to herself, more so as she heard a hint of her mother's chuckling to herself.

"Love you, baby girl."

"Love you, too."

"Kiss the girls for me?"

"Consider it done."

Maya let out a breath after she'd hung up. Slipping her phone back into her pocket, she quietly walked back down the hall and into the nursery. She'd moved away to answer the call as soon as she'd felt the vibration, not wanting to wake anyone. Lucas had only just left a few minutes prior, and she was expecting her mother as company and 'back-up' for the afternoon, only to learn she had an unexpected meeting to attend, series business. She was not only the star of the show; she was one of their executive producers, something Katy herself still had trouble believing. Where Maya was concerned, just now, it was as she'd told her mother. She could look after her daughters on her own, for two hours, for four, whatever was needed… At least, she hoped that she could do it.

She wasn't doubting her capabilities as a mother, far from that, but she couldn't exactly pretend as though she was unaware of the added… difficulties… of looking after three infants, not yet a month old and born early at that, while she herself was still meant to be taking things easy. Sure, she was a lot stronger now than she'd been after the triplets' delivery, but she'd be the first to admit how she continued to feel the effects of the whole procedure. She would continue to show extreme care in how much or how little she did for as long as they wanted her to, even a little longer, if it meant that she was as close to 'back to normal' as she could expect to be.

If anything was going to get in her way these days, other than the ongoing discomforts, it would be the exhaustion of spotty sleeping schedules, her own as much as the babies'. Yes, she was able to make up for a lot of that thanks to the support both she and Lucas had on hand, whether it was her sisters or the rotating roster of grandparents and aunts and uncles, who were all too happy to play babysitter while she went to lie down for an hour or two. It didn't always work. As much as she'd improved as far as accepting the help and not being constantly on 'Mom alert' when she had the chance to rest, sometimes it was just stronger than her. She would hear them crying, and her feet would itch to hit the ground and carry her to their side.

"What's going on here, huh?" Maya whispered, when she looked into one crib and found its occupant was awake and looking somewhere on the edge between 'I'm just moving these limbs around, seeing what I can do with them' and 'I'm rearing up to pitch a fit, Mother.' "What's the matter, kit?" she carefully lifted Remy into her arms and went about trying to ease her back to sleep. Going by the full-body yawn that she gave after half a minute, they were headed in the right direction. "I did promise your grandmother some cuteness updates, but it'd be hard to balance the camera right now, huh?" Maya whispered, smiling. "We'll just keep this one between you and me, okay? I don't even want to take a single hand away right now. It's just gonna be you and me, huh?"

Whether or not she needed to mark this as a victory or just a fact of simple competency, Remy went back to sleep. Maya really didn't feel the need to put her back down. She had her, and she would gladly keep her just like this until it was time to get on with their next feeding. Very early on, they had worked out a system, essentially staggering the babies' feedings, allowing Maya to give each of them their own time, one on one. Each one had her own schedule, and they kept to it. So far, it was actually working perfectly, so they would carry on that way until growth and development demanded change.

She hadn't forgotten about what her mother had said. She doubted she could have set any of it aside. She may not have been worried about her being able to look after the three of them on her own for two or so hours, but what if something did happen? She still didn't go around with more than one in her arms at a time, and what if they needed to leave the house in a hurry?

"Thanks, Mom…" she sighed under her breath and looked to Remy in her arms, to Kacey and Lucy in their respective cribs. "Okay. Okay," she nodded to herself. She grabbed the monitor and stuck it in her pocket before walking out of the nursery.

After a cautious climb down the steps, Maya brought Remy over to the bassinet in the living room. Even as she put her down, Artie lifted his head from where he'd been resting, on Granny Lizzie's old, favored seat.

"Mind watching her for me a minute?" Maya smiled at him. The dog hopped down from the recliner and walked over to her, looking into the bassinet before lying down in front of it. "Thanks," Maya reached down and gave his head a pat. The dog gladly received the gesture.

Back up the stairs Maya went, into the nursery. What now, do I flip a coin? She looked from one crib to the other. Would she someday find that the qualities and temperaments she had conjured up in her head did not properly match her little daughters? Maybe. For now, they helped her navigate these early days, and in her head, she looked to Kacey as the firstborn and thus The Big Sister within the unit. For this, Maya considered that she would want Littlest Sister Lucy to go next, ahead of her. So, Maya scooped her up.

Her instincts actually felt very right. All she had to do was to look at her little bun-bun of a Lucy just now. Was it that she remained, even as she grew the way she was meant to grow, the evident smallest among the triplets? Or was it simply that she was naturally sweet, and cuddly, even now? It hadn't been hard to decide to keep her for last in the feeding schedule, as they'd soon understood she needed to stay longer with her mother after she was done. Maya had been more than fine with this. Sooner or later, she would fall asleep in her arms. Everyone's needs were met, always. Lucy's were just… more, a little bit. Maybe, knowing that, she should have expected her miscalculation in taking her down second.

"Hey, it's alright, go back to sleep," Maya told her as they reached the bottom of the stairs and Lucy woke and started to fuss. She calmed again, maybe understanding that she was in her mother's arms. She settled, and so Maya moved to put her down with Remy, who still slept, under Artie and now Squeak and Honey Bee's watch, too. As soon as she started to put her down… Lucy woke again, and she started to cry. "No, no, it's okay," Maya pulled her back up again, rocked her gently.

After a few of these attempts came and went without success, Maya finally stopped trying, for a few minutes at least. If she let her go properly back to sleep, then she could set her down…

From the monitor in her pocket, Kacey started to cry. Maya looked up, perfectly able to hear her up there without the monitor. She quickly looked down again. Remy? Sleeping, but possibly starting to wake. Lucy… Eyes open, face scrunching…

"Okay…" Maya breathed.

She climbed back up the stairs as quickly but carefully as she could, Lucy still nestled in one arm. She returned to the nursery, coming up to Kacey's crib and reaching in at once, giving what comfort she could with one hand and the hum of her voice, hoping to get both Kacey and Lucy to stop crying. The last thing she needed was… Remy

"We need to work together, yeah?" Maya told the girls. She could keep it together, and she would, she was. What were her options? They'd get nowhere if she didn't act.

She put Lucy down at Kacey's side, let the two of them acclimate to their proximity, until it hopefully did what it was meant to do. Maya and Lucas both knew how much power there could be in contact with those they loved the most, but the triplets had them beat there. When they were together, it was like magic, not always, but more often than not. And today was thankfully one for the majority. Their nearness to one another started them back down from their crying. Now, she could leave them together, long enough to return below.

"I know, I'm sorry, kit, so sorry. You're okay, you're good," Maya picked up the crying Remy, who became good and curled up against her, still loud in her distress.

Maya paced the floor with her, sang to her, until she finally started to calm down, making her mother feel some calm of her own. As much as she was able to keep it together, there would be this immediate feeling, once it was all over, that on the inside she'd been this close to losing it, too, even if she'd handled everything just fine.

"Right, well, we find ourselves in something of a pickle, don't we?" she looked down to Remy, her little hand gripping at her mother's collar. "Should we try that again, or are we just going back up to the nursery?"

It was very tempting to simply bring Remy back up and put her with her sisters until Katy showed up, but… no, she wouldn't do that. She put Remy back down, went upstairs again. This time, she took Kacey and made swift work of joining her to her twin before going up and retrieving Lucy again. If nothing else, she'd gone up and down the stairs several times, so… exercise… not too much of it.

"There… And now it's almost time for you to eat, huh?" Maya declared, letting out a tired breath as she looked down to the trio in the bassinet, sleeping away. When the doorbell rang, she almost jumped out of her skin, looking down… No, they still slept, good.

Taking a near run at the door to see who had nearly woken them again, she pulled it open and opened her mouth to speak, only to smack her hand over it to keep from making a noise of surprise. A moment later, she was putting her arms around one of her former students.

"I had no idea you were coming back around this way! How long are you staying?" Maya asked, in an excited whisper.

"Depends how you look at it," Stella Buckley beamed, equally quiet and equally eager to embrace her former teacher. "François and I are coming to Austin to stay."

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners