May 21st 2022
Chapter 141
Our Joy For Time
She had not wanted to have to call him. In her mind, it felt easier not to let herself worry if she could just convince herself that it was not serious enough to require bringing him in and causing him any kind of worry. And really, in the end, it was not nearly as bad as it could have sounded in the beginning. It had only been a long day, and she'd briefly felt faint… Miranda had been with her, and she'd stepped in at once like a whirlwind. She got her to sit down, had the nurse come and see her. It could have been nothing or it could have been something, her being seven months pregnant and all, so from there it had been decided to take her to the hospital to make sure everything was fine with her and the baby.
There had been several of her fellow teachers there, ready to step in and drive her, but Miranda had everything under control, and so she would bring her. In all that time, there'd been the thought at the back of Maya's mind. Lucas… Everything was sort of happening fast, enough that even as she'd felt that uncertainty and denial working away, there'd never been a moment where she could stop and make the choice to actually call him. All she could think as they left the school was whether or not her baby was okay. That was all she could do. In the meantime, however, someone had taken care of alerting Lucas for her.
It was not the kind of call he ever expected to get, not the kind of call he'd ever want to get, so maybe more than anything it was the kind of call he tried to tell himself he would never get. But then he was at the ranch, seeing to a couple of their young horses, when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. It was not unknown for him to get calls from Dylan in the middle of the day, but for some reason when he saw his name this time, something in him felt unnerved. Then he answered and, for all the layers of reassurance that his childhood friend put on, it didn't change the core of his message. Something had happened, and Maya was on her way to the hospital.
He didn't even stop to tell anyone he was leaving; he just left the stables, went to his car, and took off. He found that his nerves were not so bad as the situation could have made them. He only had that singular focus: he had to get to her, fast but secure.
By the time he made it there, they had already arrived. He ran into Miranda, and she caught him up, recounting what had happened back at the school, and then the drive here, the arrival… Maya was being checked out now, but from what Miranda had seen of her before she'd gone, she seemed alright. This was maybe just a precaution.
"Hey, I didn't even get to call…" Maya breathed when she saw him, even as he was walking up to her. He embraced her, kissed the side of her face before she leaned her head back so they might share a proper, short kiss. Right then she was able to admit her previous insecurities toward calling him, just as she felt the relief of knowing that he was here with her. "How did you…" she asked as they pulled back.
"Dylan," he simply replied, his eyes sweeping over her as she sat up on the bed, as though he might have been able to discern in any way if there was anything wrong and what that something was. "Miranda told me what happened, what did they…"
"It's fine, I'm fine, baby's fine," Maya held up her hands to stop the worry train in its tracks. "Okay? Breathe, please," she asked him, in full teacher voice, like a signal that she was really, as she said, fine. He breathed. "It's my fault, or this day… I just didn't see the way things were getting. You know, you would think after the triplets, I would have known my limits, but maybe it threw off my perceptions… and then with Marianne, there was the tour, but then that was over, and I was home, and…" She was rambling, but at least he seemed to grasp that it was just her letting previous concerns drain away, nothing more.
"So, what happens now?" Lucas asked, pulling her out of her spin as his hand went to rest at her belly, moving along the curve in hopes of finding signs of motion. Maya joined him in this by laying her hand over his as she sighed.
"Well, she didn't specifically mention the words 'bed rest,' but she did feel I might need to take it easy until this one's out in the world. Between the kids at school and our kids at home, that's kind of a lot…" she pointed out with a small smile that soon found its way on to his face, too. "So… I guess I'll be starting my leave a couple of weeks earlier than I hoped. I just hope they're able to make it work, with Stella…"
"It'll be alright," Lucas promised. "There's not much to be done today…" he slowly suggested, and she understood what he was trying to say. He wanted her to leave it alone until morning, just take the rest of the day at ease. She smiled, directed his hand… There was the kick he was looking for, and now his concerns were draining away, too.
"Alright, I'll deal with it tomorrow."
Leaving the hospital, as briefly as they'd ended up being there, it felt like they'd hit pause on the world and now they were back in play mode. Miranda had driven Maya's minivan when they'd left the school, so she followed Lucas' car back to the Friar house and, once Maya was settled in, he drove the music teacher back to the school. Already by that hour it was getting to be time to think about getting Marianne and her best friend from preschool, thankfully not a green group day. Then there were the triplets, who had been left in the care of their maternal great grandparents today. As far as relaying the story to anyone in the family, Lucas was sort of glad it had been the Clutterbuckets. It wasn't as though they didn't worry for their granddaughter, because they did, but it still seemed more likely that he would be able to say what he had to say and then leave again, the better to get back to his wife. Meanwhile, when he'd picked up Marianne…
"That's Mommy's car," she declared, the moment she saw where they were headed in the parking lot of the preschool. Her statement carried an unspoken question: how come?
"Yes, well, we're on our way to pick up your sisters, so I needed the minivan. Couldn't fit all of you in my car, could I?" Lucas pointed out, trying to keep to a natural tone. He didn't want to introduce any worries in her head that might spin out of control. Better that she see Maya with her own eyes, see that she was okay, before they tried to explain anything about what had happened earlier.
Marianne accepted this… for the most part. Still, as they drove to the Hunter Hart house, and then onward to home with the triplets, she'd have this look in her eyes, like she didn't feel that everything added up properly. When they arrived at the house and they were at a full stop, motor off and everything, she didn't wait. She knew how to unbuckle herself now, and how to open the door, so she did, jumping to her feet before hurrying to the porch. Lucas watched her go, a girl on a mission, watched as she uncovered the hidden key – they'd shown her where it was – and let herself in. Even as he worked to get the rest of their small passengers out, he could practically imagine what Marianne would be up to inside. She would look around, in the living room, and in the kitchen, and then she'd go upstairs, and sooner or later she'd end up in their room to find her mother. Whether Maya would be awake or asleep, that was the part he didn't know for sure.
As he would learn, the answer was that she had been asleep, until the key had turned in the door, and then she'd started to stir. It wasn't even that she'd heard it, but Artie had, her fluffy pal who'd come and joined her for this afternoon nap. He'd sat up, and it had awakened her. By the time the steps could be heard coming from below, the dog hopped off the bed and went to investigate, causing their young visitor to reveal herself. Maya smiled, hearing her daughter's voice. She wanted to sit up, to stand, before she made it to the room, but Marianne beat her to it. She appeared in the doorway and stared back at her, surprised and not surprised to see her home like this.
"Hey, pumpkin," Maya reached out her hand, and her girl came to lie at her side at once, replacing the dog as her nap buddy. She hugged her good, and Marianne responded in kind. "Missed your face," Maya hummed, kissing the little blonde's forehead, breathing her in…
"Missed you, too," Marianne replied, reaching blindly to find her face, and finding her fingers kissed as well. "How come you're here now?" she asked.
"I was tired, came home early," Maya explained as she brushed at her daughter's hair. "You know I always say nap time is important? Even if you just want to keep playing? Mm?" she asked, eye to eye and making the five-year-old giggle.
"Miss Alma said that that's what dreams are. You get to keep playing in your head when you're asleep," she pointed out.
"That's absolutely right," Maya agreed. "So, you know, last time, with your little sisters, I managed to finish the school year before they came. But this time, the baby is coming before that happens, not in the summer, like them."
"In April," Marianne nodded.
"Yes," Maya chuckled. "But that means that, from today, I'm not going to be going to work anymore, not until after the baby. And since there'll be summer not long after that, I won't be teaching again until the next school year starts, in September. I'm going to be home."
"Yeah," Marianne nodded again, showing she was a big girl who knew what maternity leave was.
"It also means that your dad is going to be picking you up and dropping you off at preschool, like he used to before I started doing the morning part. Is that okay?"
"Uh huh!"
"I figured it would be…" Maya tried not to laugh so much. Daddy's girl, all the way… "Just means more stories for you to tell me at the end of the day. That's pretty good, too." At the mention of stories, Marianne's eyes went big. She had some good ones from today already.
What followed was a lot of one-on-one. Lucas managed to let Kacey, Remy, and Lucy in to see their mother one at a time rather than letting them all pile in. He wanted to prevent her being overwhelmed, she understood, and she didn't mind at all. As good as it was to gather them all in her arms at once whenever she could, she had long learned to appreciate moments where she could look to her daughters as individuals, more and more as they were all growing up. They seemed to enjoy it, too.
There was no ignoring how they had made it to this point today but, especially now that they had the girls there with them, it felt just as important to concentrate on what was actually happening around them, what they had. They would face the rest as it came; it was really all that they could do.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
