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


January 14th 2022

Chapter 14
Our Leap Into Stability

There really was no way to explain the way it felt, so much of the time, whenever they'd get to see their parents interact with their kids, especially as babies. They had gotten to see so much of it back when Marianne had been born, and now that they had the triplets… Maya was getting to see it now, every day, much more than Lucas was getting to, with how one or another of the grandparents had been coming to lend her a hand at the house over the past few weeks, since they'd come home from the hospital. It was so easy for her to capture some of those moments and share them with Lucas whenever he got home. All she had to say was that she was filming the girls for him, not the girls and their grandparent of the day. Today, the 'grand of honor' was none other than Shawn Hunter.

He'd had his share of seeing after multiples, with the twins, and not even a third baby or a fourteen-year-old gap could throw Grandpa Shawn. He never really ventured into 'all three babies at once' territory, but Maya was sure he could have pulled it off if he tried. Anyway, he preferred to only hold his little granddaughters one by one. He saw it as giving each of them their due, with a good dose of Grandpa time. This translated in his being the most at ease with the hand-off Maya and Lucas had developed for feeding time. She would finish with one of the babies and pass her on over, so while she got started with the next one, he would see to the one who'd just finished. Maya would do her best to focus her attention on the daughter in her arms, but it would be near impossible not to hear her father, back across the hall with Remy, and feel like chuckling.

"How about it, kitty cat? What do you think? Your sister didn't have a lot to say when I asked her, but you and I have this thing figured out, don't we? Yeah, we can do this. See, your grandma's got this idea that I should try shaving my beard, just this one time, because none of you grandkids or your aunts and uncle ever saw me without it. I told her that there was a very good reason, and that reason was that I look great with the beard, whereas without it, well… I'm not really sure, it's been a while, but the point is it's me, alright? I told her the baby face thing would not work. Do you know what she told me? She gave me the whole 'you are fifty-three years old, you don't have a baby face anymore' argument. I know! You know what I think? I think she's trying to bait me, so I'll do it and prove her point. She's tricky, your Nana. Tricky, very tricky, and she knows I've got zero chance against her powers. You gotta help me, please? No? You just want to stay here and digest? No, hey, I get it, digestion is good, big fan. Alright, you've got this, kid."

"I think your grandpa's losing it," Maya whispered close to the top of Lucy's head, turning her attention entirely back to her. Much as it could feel like the majority of her life these days revolved around feeding three babies over and over, she knew that there would be a time where she'd lament those moments, one-on-one with Kacey, and then Remy, and finally Lucy. Remembering that, suddenly, she just wanted to stay right where she was.

Sooner or later, she would be done with this round, seeing Lucy off to Grandpa Time as she took a breath and got up from the bed, stretching her legs and walking over to look out the window. She could never intrude on Lucy's session with her grandfather. He'd be very curious to see what she had to contribute to the beard debacle.

"Well, you'll be happy to hear, everyone's asleep and cozy back there," Shawn hooked his thumb back toward the nursery when he walked into the hall to find his daughter waiting for him, leaning to the doorframe and smirking.

"You should shave," she informed him, stifling her laughter at the look of 'betrayal' he gave her. "Come on, I want to see it, too," she told him. "I can't even remember if I ever saw you without a beard."

"You did, you did," he reminded her. "I know it's been a while, but there's a reason for that." He gestured at his face, showing 'the reason.'

"Come on, it'll grow back, and until then… Well, we'll all get a laugh out of it," she shrugged.

"Remember when you were on my side? Those were good times," he squinted at her. She snorted. "Yeah, who am I kidding? You've always been on the side that made you laugh the most."

"Who wouldn't be?" Maya laughed. "Please? Mom will be here in a while, and I get to see the look on her face… It'll be the height of entertainment. I spend my days with eating, crying, pooping infants. I earned this," she whispered. He opened his mouth to give his rebuttal, but… He had nothing, and he knew it. Maya grinned, silently clapped. She had a thought, and she gasped. "Can I do it?"

When Katy arrived, it was nearly time for Shawn to head out to the schools and pick up the kids. They were all having dinner out here tonight. Maya wished she could see the look on her siblings' faces when they saw their father, and she'd made him swear to record their reaction 'under penalty of you-know-what.' Only he and she knew the nature of 'what,' and it would stay that way so long as he kept up his end. He gave his word, so that was all she needed. Until then…

"Hey, where's your dad?" Katy asked, coming up to the couch to greet her daughter and her granddaughters, as Maya sat with Kacey in her arms and Remy and Lucy in the bassinet.

"Uh, kitchen," Maya pointed back that way as she passed the baby over to her namesake, a casual maneuver which allowed her to take out her phone and start recording as though it were any other day. "Making me a snack."

It was a wonder Katy didn't miss 'the big reveal,' with how captivated she was over the baby in her arms. Any second now, Maya expected her to mention how Kacey had Lucas' eyes… her and Remy both, of course… It was the most common note they would get, whenever any of their friends and family would get to see the girls. When Katy looked back up, she was about to say something, but she stopped and let her gaze move past her daughter. The reaction was… everything Maya could have wanted. Oh, she was so glad she had it all down on video, to watch over and over and laugh, every single, hilarious time.

"She made me do it," Shawn pointed.

"Hey!" Maya frowned at him.

After putting Kacey down next to her sisters, Katy got up and moved around the couch, approaching her husband with amused, curious eyes and hands. She felt at his face, clean-shaven for the first time in forever, let her fingers wander up to the hair on his head, glorious as ever. Going by the look on her face, Maya guessed that her mother was of a mind that the beard being gone had done wonders in highlighting how well the touches of gray suited him. Maybe he needed to shave more often…

"If you're going to start making out, take it somewhere else," she informed them, guaranteeing a successful intervention.

"I should get going," Shawn looked at his watch. He took off for the schools, while Katy resumed her seat on the couch.

"So, how did it go?" Maya asked.

"Well, I'm not supposed to say…" Katy started, sounding very much like her daughter, like… just about every last one of her children… whenever they cracked the door open, waiting for someone to insist on their pushing it wide open.

"Spill," Maya demanded. Katy smiled.

"The rest of season one is in the bag, and season two is looking… pretty close to a done deal," she revealed, and Maya almost wished she was filming her now. She moved forward and embraced her mother.

It really wasn't that big of a surprise, was it? The show had only just premiered, but already it was doing remarkably well, better than any of them could have anticipated. Oh, they'd had total faith in the series, in the cast and crew and the work they were doing, but there was really no telling how audiences would respond to the story, the characters, all of it. They had not imagined that it would gain the traction it was getting, but they couldn't deny it now, could they?

Looking beyond the actual facts though, it still struck them from the other point of view, the one where it was the two of them, and Shawn, and Lucas, all the kids, the Clutterbuckets, the Matthews, the Friars… For however long they'd all been in one another's lives, they knew how far Katy had come, knew how much this turn would mean to her. With her and Maya especially, oh…

Every step they took along this journey together, it meant far more than a successful show. It was about their families, the Hunters, and the Friars, too. The whole thing had started off with Lucas, his book, the ranch, and anyone could see that Katy and Gemma McCarthy had gone out with the intention of honoring that tie to the history of Sullivan Stables. It was one of their greatest selling points how this was not only a labor of love but of legacy. All the way down to its building blocks, its DNA, that was what the show was. Anyone who lived within that world would see it, recognize it, and anyone who was on the outside looking in would be welcomed into it, for one hour every week.

And from the Friars, the show's existence and its success stretched out toward the Hunters, giving them all something more valuable than ratings. It gave them stability, and the assurance that Katy could be out there, doing the thing she had been born to do, however long it had taken for her to get there, while keeping up the household and the life she had built up and nurtured for all these years. They'd get to stay together, right here in Austin, Texas.

"I've been wondering how long I can reasonably wait before suggesting you come and guest star sometime," Katy suggested as Maya picked up Lucy, seeking to stall her waking. She almost spoiled that intent with how her mother's words made her laugh.

"I think you're looking at the wrong kid to pull in front of the camera." Even before the premiere had aired, MJ had been dropping hints heavy as boulders, not pebbles, over his wanting to act in his mother's show. It wasn't that it had gone by unheard. Katy knew he wanted it, and she wasn't opposed, not at all. If anything, she was waiting for just the right opportunity. Until then…

"Fine, a cameo… Just walk in the background somewhere…" Katy suggested.

"I am fully booked," Maya insisted with a smile, brushing gentle fingers at her lastborn girl's fine, generous, blond hair. "But I'll have my people call your people if it opens up."

"Please do," Katy pressed her hands together with a big-eyed plea and a silly smile.

"Maybe when you guys hit season two."

The little Hunters looked as though they had not stopped laughing and talking animatedly ever since their father had shown up to pick them up from school with his 'new face.' Shawn, meanwhile, looked like he was merrily accepting being roasted by his children. He looked to Maya, signalled for her to look at her phone and, when she did, she found he had fulfilled his end of the bargain.

The shaved beard was the gift that kept on giving when Lucas arrived with Marianne. The little sheriff looked like she'd been going around all day, banking on the fact that she'd be seeing her grandparents, her great grandparents, and her aunts and uncle that evening. She came dashing along, looking for her grandfather first and foremost, and when she spotted him, she hit the brakes and squeaked.

"Grandpa?" she asked, not quite certain. Shawn crouched in front of her, and she approached, reaching up her hands to feel at his face. It reminded her parents of when she'd seen her own father without his beard for the first time. Here again, it only took a brief exploration to confirm she had the right man.

"What do you think?" Shawn asked her as she stood there, giggling.

"You look pretty, Grandpa," she informed him.

"Ah, I do? Thanks, kid," he beamed. "Can I get a kiss?" he pointed to his face, and at once his granddaughter pounced.

"He looks like MJ," Haley pointed out, looking from her big brother to their father. MJ smiled when she said this, looking so very happy that Shawn may have banished facial hair for good just to highlight the resemblance between him and his boy.

There were more than enough hands going around, especially once the Clutterbuckets arrived, for the triplets to have excess amounts of affection at the ready. Maya had plenty of love for seeing her parents and grandparents with the girls, but she had a particularly soft spot for watching her siblings being the proud, loving aunts and uncle that they were. She would have been certain that Gracie would be closest with Lucy, for how they were both 'the quiet one,' but that wasn't so. She didn't favor one over the others, she couldn't, although it would often happen, whenever it came that she and Nellie would be holding Kacey and Remy, that the identical fourteen-year-olds would hold the identical infants and there would be this moment of recognition, of kinship. That would be the very reason why they didn't allow a distinction to stand. Like Maya and Lucas, they didn't want Lucy to be singled out.

"Can we have a sleepover?" Haley asked her big sister as she sat holding the smallest Friar.

"I'm not sure a Sleepster would be very fun right about now," Maya told her. She didn't want to disappoint the nine-year-old, but knowing what their nights looked like these days…

"Not everyone. It could just be us. We could help look after them," Haley reasoned, looking to her niece in her arms, the others over with her grandparents. "Just me, too, I could do it," she smiled. Maya knew, through Katy and Shawn, how Haley often lamented the fact that she was the youngest of the family these days. It was no wonder then that she'd want to play big sister with her nieces.

"If you want to do it, I have no objections," Maya smiled at her. "Just be sure you know what you're getting yourself into," she whispered. Haley beamed. She was ready, any day.

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners