March 12th 2022
Chapter 71
Our Bonds With Friends
"You can do it, Lucy! I believe in you! Go, bun-bun!"
Marianne's voice was so encouraging back across the hall that both Lucas and Maya wandered over to the nursery, thinking that maybe their lastborn girl was getting around to crawling. Both Kacey and Remy were able to do it now, if only to a point, but Lucy continued to sit by and watch whenever this would happen. When they went and found their daughters that afternoon, they discovered that… it was still the case. She just sat in her corner of the playpen, staring at her big sister with half her hand dangling from her mouth as she smiled at her. Marianne, for her part, appeared to have adopted an attitude of ultimate cheer, hoping that it would motivate the baby girl. Meanwhile, the other babies just sort of rolled and played around, oblivious to anything but some intriguing pattern here or some toy they'd gotten hold of there.
"Like this, look!" Marianne moved on to her hands and knees to demonstrate, coming closer to her sister. Lucy watched her but made no effort to move, so Marianne ended up getting all the way over to her. She let out a mildly disappointed sigh, but then she sat down, and as Lucy reached out her hand to her, she pulled her little sister into her lap. "It's okay. You'll do it later," she decided.
Maya quietly motioned for Lucas to follow her, keeping them undetected until they were back in their room and able to laugh. Some days, their firstborn was really too much, and they didn't know how they'd deserved her.
In time, the girls had to be collected from the nursery, away from their play time. It was friend dinner day, and they were due over at Zay and Nadine's, their hosts for the week. With everyone all set in the minivan and everything that they required along with them, they were off. Car rides with the four girls in the back were becoming much more of a common event for them now that the babies were getting bigger, and the routine had settled in. In turn, it allowed the parents to discover more about their girls.
They all liked when there was music, just as their big sister had done. When she'd been their age, Marianne had always looked as though she was just enjoying the melodies, understanding the moods so that she'd be happy, or energized, or sad if that was what the songs sounded like. Now they had the triplets. Kacey's whole car ride/music mood was 'motion and sound is good; stillness and silence is bad.' She'd be perfectly contented so long as they were going and there was something for her to listen to, but as soon as either of those things went away, she would start and get upset. Remy's mood was kind of similar, although she'd just respond to any and all music as an invitation to move around in her seat. And when they did stop and her twin would start to fuss, she would just be going as though she was still sort of riding the wave she'd been on before. If nothing else, it tended to calm Kacey down until such a time as they could get back on track. As for Lucy, her whole mood on car rides was curiosity. Whatever she could or couldn't see from her seat, she always looked as though she might have been lying under a starry sky and she was fascinated. And the music, oh… She'd set her little feet dangling, her hands pressed together… Car rides were her favorite.
Arriving at the Babineaux house, they received assistance from good Uncle Zay in unloading the babies. Marianne asked him if the other turtles had arrived, which could just as easily have meant Dylan and Asher and the rest of them, but from her would be understood to refer specifically to the children, her turtles. When she was told that yes, they had, she looked at once conflicted, eyes darting to the house, then to her sisters, then to her parents.
"Go on, we've got them," Maya tried not to chuckle as she nodded to her daughter and then the house. Needing no further prompt, Marianne bolted for the door and disappeared inside.
As they moved on to find their friends, Maya and Lucas could hear the babble of several small voices. There they all were, save for the smallest of their growing lot. Whenever they'd think about it, they'd end up thinking how this was true both with regards to their number and their size. Either way, it never stopped being fascinating.
Stepping into the kitchen as the last to arrive, they were met with the whole of their group, be they from Dallas, Houston, or Austin. As lively as the conversation was back in the living room, the kids had competition from their parents once they were all gathered. They sort of couldn't help it, once anyone showed up with one baby, so with three of them, well…
But now this time was different, because this time, even as they were just arriving, they already had some business they needed to attend to. They might have called it accidental business. They should not have known already, none of them. They would have found out today, in person, but then Asher had inadvertently sent a text meant for his husband and their co-parents across the street into the friends' thread, thereby letting them all in on the surprise. They had gone through the process, one last time, and they had been successful. Now, come December, the fourth of their children would be born. After Giulia being made of Chiara and Ray, Connor of Sophie and Asher, and Jae of Sophie and Ray, this little one had been made of Chiara and Asher.
They had been resting on this news for a couple of days already, but now here they were, finally, able to share in their friends' joy in person, and they did not disappoint. Here were people who had been about the greatest of friends one could ever ask for, as near to them as family, some of them for close to thirty years already. Every child they were so lucky as to then bring into their world, biologically or not, would feel as dear to them as that child's parents. And now this child… How could they not be so very excited, in general as much as for their friends especially? As odd as their entire arrangement could have sounded, back when they'd initially gone into it, they would look at their family, two fathers here, two mothers there, separated only by one street to cross, and from them… Giulia, Connor, and Jae, three sides of what would be made a square by their unborn sibling. None of them had the same two parents, but they were all connected. Their friends looked upon this family they had created as easily the greatest thing they had made of their lives, and no one who knew or got to know them could say otherwise.
"Last one, huh?" Lucas asked Chiara when he hugged her.
"Last one," Chiara nodded.
She sounded somewhere between relieved and sad to confirm it. The four of them would often come to joke over the fact that it was really entirely up to them to decide, no chances for surprise, but now that they had reached this point, Chiara gave off the impression that at least some part of her brain and heart were left to wonder if maybe they'd ever want more. To look at Sophie, Asher, and Ray, she might not have been the only one. They were still young, they had time, right? But what about the square? They were not about to go in for another round, four more pregnancies… But, as they all came to discuss the 'issue,' the best thing they could do right now was focus on this new baby on the way. Whatever they decided to do in the future would be decided when the time was right.
"Do they know?" Riley asked, tipping her head toward the living room.
"We haven't told them," Sophie shook her head even as she turned a look to her wife and the guys. They were all thinking the same as she was. "The boys have no clue, but pretty sure Jujube's on to us," she declared as her statement was backed up with three nods.
Giulia Choi was just three months shy of turning six, and she'd been blowing them away with her mind since before her third birthday. It was hardly a surprise then that she would be able to look at her parents and realize something was going on, especially for how neither she nor her brothers could have come along without steps taken, steps she would be mildly aware of. She would remember at least the last time, with Jae.
"So, what's the plan? Are you going to tell them now or wait?" Rosa wondered.
"We won't wait too long, but we do have an idea of how we'd like to tell them," Ray revealed, with an apology in his smile, as it meant keeping them all out of it for today. The friends understood completely. Asher promised to share a video once they did it, which would be more than enough.
"Hey, why don't you go see what everyone's up to back there?" Maya asked Lucas, a few minutes later. "Take your time," she added with a small grin, and he fixed her with 'suspicion.' "You heard me. Get walking, Dockleberry."
"Fine…" he replied, matching her tone, which made her fight back the urge to laugh same as he did. "Can I take her or is she in on this?" he indicated Kacey, who'd been lounging at ease in his lap. "Are you keeping secrets from me, too?" Lucas asked her and nearly had bits of facial hair torn out when her hands grabbed hold of his cheeks. "Kidding, I was kidding, let go, please?" he laughed. All it took was Maya reaching over and lightly poking the girl's cheek, and she turned her head and released her father's face.
"Here, I'll take her," Farkle offered with a smile, and Kacey was soon passed over to him. She was momentarily distressed at leaving her father's arms, but it would tend to be, with anyone in this room and the next, that she would calm back down in no time. Lucas was barely out of the room and Kacey was content to find herself in her Uncle Farkle's arms. He was one of the best out there at making faces that got her or her sisters laughing out of control.
The month of May was upon them, and of the many things it would bring, one that they needed to discuss was the day, drawing closer and closer, that would ring in both Lucas Friar's thirty-third birthday and Nicky Orlando's fourth. Oh, it did all feel as though it was coming so fast, but what could they do about it? Only a moment ago, the thought of Lucas taking out his friends' firstborn out for ice cream, to celebrate their shared birthday, had been nothing more than a sweet idea, and now it was a tradition, coming in for its fourth iteration. The more the boy grew, the more this outing would get to feel like something they both looked forward to, not just Lucas hanging out with his birthday twin. When they'd arrived earlier and he'd seen him, Nicky had rushed along, asking him if this year he could have a sundae, with fudgy bits and everything, and Lucas had promised him that yes, naturally, he could.
"Alright, ladies, gents, babies… Charlie…" Maya nodded around the room and down to the dog keeping watch over them. "What do we have?"
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
