March 7th 2022
Chapter 66
Our Memories of Bonds
Any Sleepster weekend came hand in hand with a lot of preparation ahead of everyone showing up, but this one definitely felt different. It would not be nearly as chaotic as when they'd had their mega sleepover up at the Zvolensky house that one time, no, but then there'd be many among them who were not of the usual Sleepster crowd, and they all needed somewhere to sleep. Up at the house, they'd done their best throughout the week to get everything ready, but between work, and the girls, the evenings were getting to feel a lot more like sitting down time than 'let's work out sleeping arrangements and figure out shopping lists.' They did as much as they could, enough that now, this morning, there was their group running errands, and another back home with the babies, preparing the spaces for their guests, while one last group was airport-bound.
"Are they here yet?" Lucas asked as they walked through the living room and met Teddy and Emma, exiting the kitchen. Sam and Cara had gone off on the airport run, driving separate vehicles, along with Dora and Mateo.
"No, but they should be here soon," Teddy replied as they continued on toward the kitchen with their bags.
Here, they came upon Nellie and Gracie Hunter. The fourteen-year-old twins appeared to be in the process of making both cookies and a mess. That tended to be their way, and as wonderful as the results generally were… well, it was a good thing that they always cleaned up after themselves. Plus, today, they were being assisted by none other than Miss Francesca Calahart. Just two months shy of three years old, Sam and Dora's girl was somehow the least messy of the bakers that morning.
"What's going on here?" Maya pondered, coming up behind them, and the toddler quickly moved to turn on her footstool. Her aunt was just as quick to get a hold of her in case she lost her balance, and she got a good hug for it. This meant some flour and potentially sticky things getting on her clothes, but really at this point Maya was too used to it to care, especially when the trade off was cuddles with her little niece.
"Making cookies," Francesca informed her.
"Cookies?" Maya sounded appropriately excited.
"Teddy said, like Granny did," the girl went on, and Maya understood exactly what they were doing.
As proficient as Granny Lizzie had been in cooking and baking, she'd never failed to point out whenever she'd made something she remembered as being a particular favorite of Kermit's. They had her recipes now, all the grandkids, and they were using these to direct their efforts in the kitchen today. They were making Kermit's favorites from his mother. She may not have been with them anymore either, but they wouldn't have forgotten to include her today of all days.
"That sounds great, can't wait to have those. I get the first one, right?" she whispered, making her niece laugh. "Or maybe I'll just eat you," she took hold of her and pretended to eat her cheek, turning the laughter into proper giggles.
The sounds of the toddler's squeals, along with the rest of their voices as they caught each other up on what they'd been doing, at the house and out shopping, had reached the first floor. Just as they'd been meaning to go and check on the triplets, they were brought down by Katy and Shawn, who'd been with them up in the nursery. If Maya and Lucas weren't already glad enough to be back with their daughters, watching them as they spotted them back and reacted so merrily as they did… Katy had only Remy to carry, while Shawn was balancing both Kacey and Lucy, but that was really just the way to go, with how the one girl on her own wiggled enough to make her grandmother adjust her hold, for fear of dropping her.
"I don't know whether this is encouraging or not, but you were the same way as a baby," Katy informed her eldest, making both Lucas and Shawn laugh along with Maya as she moved up to relieve her mother and pick up her daughter.
"Hi, kit, oh… I missed you, too," she cooed and laughed some more as she tried and failed to kiss Remy hello, as the baby was grabbing at her collar with both hands and, for lack of a better word, grappling on to her chin with a big, wet kiss of her own. "Okay, okay, that's definitely me, yep… Take it easy," she grinned, finally getting to look into her face, the one that was just so like her father's, especially in the eyes.
"All good here?" Lucas asked his father-in-law as he took Kacey from him. She was definitely not as… intense as her twin in her affections, but there really was no other way to interpret her behavior as she landed in her father's arms.
He'd have a hard time convincing her to go anywhere else for several minutes, so it was just as well that Lucy was giving off the same vibe back in her grandfather's arms. The feeling was mutual there; Shawn would hold on to her as long as necessary, needed, wanted… He had already honed his grandfatherly skills from having Marianne come into their lives, and then with Ella, too, even if the… parameters… were very different with a grown girl as she was. When the triplets were born, now, oh… Grandpa Shawn was a marvel to behold. His relationship with the trio felt very much tailored to each one as their personalities began to emerge, and as far as Lucy was concerned… She'd always been smaller, quieter, and now with how her sisters were seemingly progressing faster than her in their developmental stages… He held her with a protectiveness that was as fierce as it was encouraging. He had all the faith in the world that she would surpass all expectations, given the time.
"Oh, better than good. Ain't that right, bun?" Shawn turned from Lucas to Lucy, giving her a funny face which she attempted to imitate. Shawn smiled and turned to the others. There, see, what did I tell you? Whether he had managed to prove anything or not, the bigger takeaway was that he'd made his wife and daughter chuckle. "Little cub over there looked like she might start and crawl for a minute back there," Shawn added, indicating his granddaughter over in Lucas' arms.
"Is that right?" Lucas smiled at her. She was busy playing with his free hand, poking and pulling at fingers, prodding at palm and knuckles… Any longer and she might try to 'chomp' on one of his fingers, as she sometimes did. "Got everyone just holding their breaths, huh?" he told her, giving her the lightest jostle. She looked up at him and just smiled, unaware of how the whole family was following the 'heated race' to see whether she or Remy would crawl first. Lucy wasn't even a contender at this point, much as they would have liked her to pull ahead and surprise them all.
Ella arrived with Tori just minutes before Team Airport returned, so they were all still sort of hanging around the living room – save for the Hunter twins and Francesca back in cookie land – when the door opened, and they all started to spill in. It certainly felt that way, especially as Maisie bolted in first, on the lookout for her siblings as yet unseen. She saw Teddy first and hurried to hug him. Teddy lifted her up in no time, amazed as he and the rest of the Austin bunch all were to see how tall she was getting. She'd be seven in a month, and she was easily the tallest kid in her class at school. It only made her stand out to people who didn't know her too well. Those who did considered her sweetness much more than her height. Oh, how she'd missed her siblings, especially her sisters, who'd been at home with her until last summer, and her brother, who'd briefly returned to Tucson before coming over to Austin. For about as long as she could remember, he'd lived far away, so to have gotten him back, when he'd moved to Arizona, and then lost him again when she'd been getting to hang out with him more…
The next while was a lot of everyone talking, moving from one person to another, one little cluster here and there… Eliza and Emma were reunited with their parents, and even if it was not the first time they'd seen one another since summer, the reunions continued to be emotional on both sides. It was still brand new for all of them to be apart from one another like this, even months later. Add to it the children, the Friar girls, Tori, and Francesca here, and Maisie there, and just the ability of touching one another, holding, and hugging one another, meant ten times more.
Eventually, they shifted from arrival to settling in, which meant showing the guests where they'd be spending the next two nights. While Charles Hart was more than happy to regain his old bed in the basement, Katy and Shawn were given the second floor's guest room. Eliza gave up her room to her parents, while Emma gave hers to her aunt and uncle. It was not nearly as easy to turn the former attic floor into a field of sleeping bags, but they still had plenty of floor space so that they could set up inflatable mattresses for Sam and Dora, Cara and Mateo, the Hunter twins, the Chen sisters, Teddy, Wyatt, MJ, Haley, Maisie, Eliza and Emma… Down one floor, the babies would be in the nursery as usual, and Lucas and Maya in their room across the hall. Marianne would have her bed, though she'd be sharing it with her cousin Francesca. Ella would be set up on the floor by her sister's bed, with Tori snug at her side.
"You know who used to be this way?" Abigail asked with a laugh as she held Remy and received a similar embrace as Maya had previously received.
"Please say Sam, please say Sam…" Maya quietly chanted with a smirk that made her stepmother laugh as she brushed at the baby girl's fine blond hair.
"No, not him," Abigail shook her head before nodding toward Wyatt, who happened to look up in time to catch her singling him out. He had no idea what his mother and sister were talking about, but they had giggling faces, so he was appropriately concerned. He had never felt this much like a teenage boy to his eldest sister as he did with the look that he gave them.
"Hey, come here," Maya smirked, stretching her arms out to pull her little brother into a solid hug. He didn't resist, actually smiled because she was very good at eliciting that shift in her siblings, though he still looked mildly suspicious of the unknown conversation. "Just wanted to check in with you," Maya told him, and he understood what she meant.
She was almost certain that, in his mind, he was recalling the conversation they'd had, nearly a year ago, when they'd all been in Tucson to say goodbye to Granny Lizzie. This weekend was about their father, the man he both remembered and was too young to have really had the chance to know. The Wyatt who'd lost his father at age five was so different from the fifteen-year-old boy now standing before them. The only one who could sort of understand what he'd gone through, from a different level, was his cousin Sadie, born the same year as him.
"I couldn't sleep last night," Wyatt told her, with a shrug which suggested 'pre-travel jitters.' "I ended up going to dig for some old things of his, videos… I needed to see him, I guess. I think I need to do it more often, so I can remember him better."
"Yeah," Maya smiled and nodded. "I'll see if I have some, I can send you, too." He looked forward to anything she could give him, and he thanked her with another hug.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
