March 6th 2022
Chapter 65
Our Memories of Strength
They had been thinking about it for a long while now. Mostly, it had become little more than a comment in passing, as one of them would think about how long it had been since their last Sleepster. It wasn't as though none of them understood why they hadn't had it in this time. The arrival of the triplets, along with the recovery and care that this demanded for both babies and mother, made the concept of bringing several other people into the house for a sleepover much too complicated. They could have come, but there would always have been this thing in the way.
Maya had once or twice suggested that the rest of them find a way to gather, maybe at the Hunter Hart house, or Sam's place, or Cara's, even reaching out to Diana Zvolensky again. But they refused. If she wasn't there, especially if she was just at home, then it wouldn't feel right. They would wait for her.
Now, here they were, and even as both Maya and Riley were making their return to the active lineup of TXNY, the subject of a new Sleepster had been brought on to the table. No sooner had it landed there however that they realized what was coming. Before long, as April rolled in, they would be marking another year since the passing of Kermit Hart. Not just another year, in fact, but the tenth. This year would mark ten years since they'd lost him.
When they'd realized this, it had felt... Oh, it was as though a boulder had gone and sunk to their guts. Had it really been that long, they would wonder, as though the evidence of those years didn't stand before their eyes. Immediately, they would think of their family, their siblings, their mother, aunt, grandfather... Ten years...
After that, they just sort of knew what they needed to do, didn't they? They would have a Sleepster, but it would be a special one. No separation this time, no girls here and boys there. And as much as they all liked to include friends who were as good as sisters and brothers all the time, this one would be solely for the extended family. The only ones who could be considered as exceptions would be the little Hunters. They may have only been blood to Maya, but about as soon as they had been brought into contact with the Harts and eventual Hart-Lanes they had simply been brothers and sisters to one another. So, they would be there. And so would the adults. Katy and Shawn, Abigail and James, Luna and Oliver, Charles Hart... They would join them, too.
Even though this would all be in the spirit of remembering Kermit, none of them were interested in making this a somber affair. It was still Sleepster. That meant, among other things, snacks.
"Can you grab those? Carefully? Without dropping…" Lucas turned his eyes up to his pumpkin, perched on his shoulders as she was.
"I'm too high, Daddy," she told him.
"Right," he crouched until she was able to take the bag from the top shelf. "Got it?"
"Uh huh!"
"Alright, hand those to your uncle," Lucas smirked as MJ hurried over and held out his hand to retrieve the chips.
"Thanks, Annie," the boy beamed and went to add the item to their basket. "I think we need another one," he looked around from Lucas to his sisters – Maya and Haley – and Eliza.
He'd call her his stepsister, same as the other little Hunters would, same as the Hart-Lanes would call them. They'd all joke about how there were 'a few more steps than people might expect,' but then how else were they supposed to describe 'my half-sister's half-siblings that are sort of my siblings now, too?' It worked for them, and it helped them all to feel that much more connected, and that was all that mattered.
"Definitely more," Eliza nodded, and so did the others. Haley pointed to one of the other flavors.
"Alright, you know what to do," Lucas turned himself and Marianne back to the shelves, and the four-year-old gladly grabbed more bags for her young uncle.
When they all turned into the next aisle and MJ and Haley bolted to inspect some candy, Marianne asked to be put back down, so Lucas lifted her off his shoulders and set her on her feet, so she could hurry over to them. MJ spotted her coming and right away extended his hand to her so she could hold on to it. That was the rule, always, when they were out in stores: stay close, hold hands if you can, and she mostly remembered without being prompted. Rule or not, she would have done it here. She was always deeply loving to her family and their friends, and she would never dream of singling any of them out, of course not. But…
Whether she realized it or not, she did have some who she sort of set in a different category. About as long as she'd lived – outside of her parents and eventually her sisters – there was her 'soulmate,' her Granny Mel, and then there was good old Uncle Sam. These were her deepest bonds, absolutely unwavering. More and more as she grew though, they could see her bond with MJ was growing, too, until it was as strong as the one that she had with the others. To see the twelve-year-old with his little niece, they knew the feelings went both ways. When they'd be together, Maya would call them the star kids, because how could she not? It had always been her brother's favorite shape, and here was her daughter, almost never leaving the house without her own star swinging around her neck. It suited them both very well.
"Hey…" Maya nudged Eliza's arm, drawing her attention back. She'd been distracted on and off ever since they'd come into the store, enough so that they'd had to call to her to make sure she wouldn't wander off from the pack a few times. Both Maya and Lucas had left it alone up to now because they had a fairly good idea about what the source of that distraction was, but it could only be ignored for so long before it had to be addressed. "Are you okay?" She knew the answer to that at least, but she still had to ask it.
"I don't know," Eliza told her, after a few beats of silence. She looked to her older sister, and in her eyes, she found just what she needed to find. She knew what was going on. She didn't have to say it. Maya felt it, too. She was thinking of their father.
Ten years… The image that came to Maya just then was that of a nine-year-old Eliza. A small blonde girl whose voice had run away with grief for weeks and months after losing her father. She remembered those eyes staring up at her… Eliza had grown so much in the past decade, both physically and in personality, in emotions… But then she'd look at her today, nineteen years old, and she'd still feel like that small, silent child, somewhere at the back of that stare.
"They're all going to be here," Maya reminded her with a small smile, and Eliza returned it with a nod. Her mother would be here soon, her stepfather, her younger brother and sister…
As incredible as it was to think that both Eliza and Emma had been living with them in Austin for more than half a year already, there would still be days where the distance from Abigail and James, from Wyatt and Maisie… It wasn't so bad as to make her want to pack up and go back to Tucson, but it was easy to tell that Eliza struggled far more than Emma did. She wasn't alone, they had her, all of them out here, and for that… she would bounce back sooner or later every time.
"Maya, hey…" Lucas quietly spoke and, even as she turned her head on its way to look at him, she saw what he'd wanted to tell her about. Coming up behind them along the aisle, not even aware of them yet, were Theo and Nika Petrelis.
It had been nearly a month already since baby Anthony had been born and taken off by his adoptive mother. Nika had been out of school for two weeks, as suggested, though for having seen her both in and out of class in the time since her return, Maya wished she could have been afforded more time. Even if she had never been qualified as someone particularly loud in the past, when held up against what she'd been lately, she might as well have been. She was just so quiet now, closed in…
There was nothing to be done for it. In spite of the fact that she remained fervently certain she'd made the right call, that she knew her baby would have the best life with Madeline… giving him up had been the hardest thing she'd ever done. And now she was back in school, having to go on as though there was such a thing as 'going back to normal.' The one time Maya had gotten her to open up, just barely, all she'd said was that she was trying, she really was. But then… Then she'd look at herself, and it would be as though her body wouldn't let her forget. She was a mother, except she wasn't.
With that thought and, no doubt, countless others, spinning through her head, what was left was a Nika who was about as lost as she'd ever been. They all wanted to help her, but there was only so much that they could do. More than them, it just had to be her, while they tried and supported her.
"Hi…" she blinked when she and her brother finally spotted them. Everyone in their group knew her, some far more than others, and they greeted her and Theo, one over the other, even as Marianne moved over to the pair and took hold of Nika's hand. The girl looked down at her, surprised at first. But she smiled at her and showed immediate and genuine happiness at seeing her. "What's that?" she inquired, indicating the package which Marianne held to herself with her other arm.
"Squishies," she held up the bag of marshmallows for Nika and Theo to see. Even if she knew that was what they were called now, she'd been calling them squishies for as long as she'd spoken, so that was just what they were and would be to her. "The big ones," she added, as though they couldn't tell.
"Those are the best ones," Theo declared, and Marianne met this statement with a big nod, because that was the absolute truth. "Those and the little, little ones." Both he and his sister could see the contents of the Friars' basket, clearly the makings for a big gathering of some kind. Under normal circumstances, this would have been the point where they invited the pair to join them, but it really did not feel as though what they needed right now, Nika especially, was to be caught up in whatever their gathering to remember Kermit would turn into. Next time, maybe…
"Hey…" Maya stopped Nika before they could all continue on their way. "I got to look at your diary last night. That was beautiful, what you did this week."
"Thanks," Nika replied, caught halfway between wanting to smile and needing to turn her gaze downward. "I'll see you on Monday," she told her as she looked up again.
"I'll be there," Maya nodded at her. She passed a quiet farewell to Theo, and she watched him and Nika move along the aisle before letting out a breath and turning back to the others. They really needed to finish up their errands and get on home. Everyone would be arriving so soon…
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
