A/N: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!
(and quite by chance, the numbers matched up, 161 and 161, ha!)


June 10th 2022

Chapter 161
Our Love of the Future

After an additional night in the hospital, Mackenzie Friar and her mother were able to go home. The first day of the baby's life was spent just as one would hope it would go, held in many a pair of arms, by people who had awaited her arrival and now showed how happy they were that she was alive in the world. She got to meet all of her grandparents and make them cry happy tears on and off throughout their time with her. She met the rest of her aunts and uncles, each as thrilled to find her as the last.

"We told everyone at school how you had the baby last night," Nellie excitedly let her big sister know while her twin got her turn at holding their niece. "We only had to go find the quiz team before classes started and then they got the word out. "Wait until you see the diaries this weekend," she grinned, making Maya laugh. If she'd hoped to make her look forward to that, she'd done very well.

The 'usuals', the extended Turtle group for the most part, managed to come and meet the new member of their friends' family. The only ones who couldn't make it, because of the drive on a weekday, were Farkle and Isadora and the kids, but they would be there on Saturday. In the meantime, they'd sent flowers and enough balloons to make it feel as though they were there in spirit.

Had they been allowed Marianne and the triplets would have spent the night at the hospital with their mother and baby sister. They didn't want to leave. Marianne especially had vague memories of when Maya had been in the hospital the last time she'd become a big sister, and she remembered how she had needed to recover, how she couldn't pick her up... Maya promised her that it wouldn't be like that this time. It would just be the one night and then everyone was coming home. She might need a few days, but after that she'd be good.

"I need you to help your dad and look after the others, can you do that?" Maya asked her daughter as she held her, sitting up with her on the bed. "He doesn't want to go anywhere either, so he's going to need you." That was all she needed to know. She might not have gone around calling herself Sheriff Annie so much anymore, but she maintained the attitude behind it, always. Her mother needed her help, and she could do this.

"Okay, Mommy," she finally said, and Maya kissed the top of her head. "But we come back tomorrow, right?"

"First thing in the morning," Maya told her, holding her gaze. "I'm going to miss you all, too," she reminded her. Marianne's response was to pull the chain around her neck, working her little fingers at the clasp until she got it to release. The chain with the star dangling and swaying was brought around Maya's neck - once she bowed her head to help it - and fastened again before being straightened up. Marianne tapped the star where it rested over her mother's nightgown, satisfied. For her part, Maya felt a rumble of emotions.

You are your father's daughter. He's got his watch, you have your star, and me...

"Here, can you take mine?" she asked, pointing at the chain she wore, with her father's guitar pick. Marianne reached out again and got to work, transferring the chain from her mother's neck to her own. Maya watched as she held the pick in her hands, poked at the engraved fingerprints as she so often did. "Now you're with me and I'm with you, yeah? We'll trade again when I get home."

The deal was kept, all of it. After a strange night with the family split between home and hospital, Lucas got the girls together and brought them to find their mother and their new sister once again. The Hart-Lanes would meet them at the house after checking out of their hotel. They needed to pack up and didn't want to lose what precious time they had left before their flight home that afternoon. Much as they would have wanted to stay, they needed to get back to Tucson. Until then, they got to be at the house by the time the young Friars returned with the baby.

Just driving home with her had felt sort of... momentous. More often than not they would not have all six of their daughters with them on family drives, only all of them but Ella, but even she would understand what they meant if they mentioned driving with the other five for the first time. It was already something just to get everyone in their respective seats, from Marianne, to Remy, Kacey, and Lucy, and then to Mackenzie, who'd remained in Maya's arms until all the others had been taken care of. There was no telling how they would all manage, if someone would start to cry and then get others going... They'd gotten pretty good at navigating this with the triplets, but the baby changed everything, and now all bets could be off.

All in all, it actually went pretty well. Mackenzie was asleep when they left the hospital, and she stayed this way for about half the ride. Meanwhile, her big sisters were playing one of their usual car games, never disturbing the baby enough that she'd wake. What actually did wake her in the end was the sudden blast of a firetruck siren passing by; she wasn't alone in being distressed by the noise. Marianne tried to help, but there were so many of them and they were all stuck in their seats... Eventually, Lucas had to pull over and stop so he and Maya could go and do damage control. It took a few minutes, but they finally continued on their way home and arrived there without further incident.

The Hart-Lanes were there waiting for them outside the house when they pulled up, and there could not have been a better time. The triplets and Marianne got to run around and play with their aunt and uncle and their grandparents out on the lawn while their father carried the baby and saw her and their mother into the house.

"I know it was still yesterday when we left here, but in my head, it feels like two days ago?" Maya pondered as they slowly mounted the stairs.

"I was here last night, and I'm still all messed up with the days," Lucas replied, showing he was right there with her. He knew what she meant. "But the two of you are here now, so that'll fix all that soon, won't it, Mack?" he quietly asked of the baby as they reached the top of the stairs. She'd woken up as he'd pulled her seat from the minivan and had since been quietly sitting there, blinking, bending, and unbending her fingers... "What do you think of that? Mack? Or Kenzie?" he asked of the baby herself, as though she'd look at him and pronounce herself on any potential nicknames and diminutives.

"Maybe we should wait a bit and see what sticks," Maya suggested with a laugh. Already, from the previous day and their morning so far, she had a feeling like a lot of people in their lives were going to be granting their daughter their own nicknames. The winner, as far as she was concerned, was Shawn, who had taken to calling his granddaughter Fleetwood...

Whatever she would end up being called, what mattered most now was that she was home, soon resting in the new crib and taking it on for a first home nap.

"Looks like it works," Lucas joked. Maya smiled. "What about you? If you want to lie down a bit, I..."

"I'm going to stop you right there, Huckleberry, I barely slept last night, between checking on her, and feeding her, and just being out there, not here..." she hummed, touching the golden star still dangling from her neck and waiting to be swapped with the guitar pick around Marianne's. "Wake me up when she needs me?"

"Will do," he promised. They took a moment, with Lucas pulling her into his arms and Maya gladly resting her head to his chest, as they looked to their sleeping daughter. The sixth… Each of them felt as improbable as the one before, and they never wanted it to feel any other way.

Maya was not long to wait before she fell asleep. Being back in her own bed - and the exhaustion - worked as well as it would be expected to. With the monitor in hand, Lucas returned downstairs to find the others. Apart from a few breaks where she had to wake to feed the baby and herself, and when she had to say her goodbyes to the departing Hart-Lanes, Maya was allowed (convinced) to take as much of the needed rest as she could.

In mid-afternoon, as their guests had left and Marianne and the triplets had all been put down for a nap of their own, Lucas had momentary status as the only one awake in a house full of sleeping daughters and a sleeping wife… until he suddenly found himself 'summoned' into action by fussing noises on the monitor. Tiptoeing into the room, he got hold of Mackenzie and brought her out to the hall.

"Hey now, Tiny... That's you, huh? It's a lot more fun to have these talks, with you and me like this, isn't it? Yeah..." he whispered as he carefully sat at the bottom of the steps heading to the second floor. She may have been all of a day and a half old, but she would hear his voice, and... she seemed to recognize him, or at least to show she could be comforted by the sound. That was all Lucas needed to know. He would speak to her like this for as long as she needed him to, so she could go back to sleep. Then he would sit there, and hold her, and just carry on being in awe of her, his new baby girl...

The stillness was broken by the faintest of sounds, a sensation. His phone had vibrated in his pocket with a new message. Carefully, he pulled it into view to see...

Ella: I'm outside, coming in with my key.

Lucas: Be right down.

In all the activity of the day, he'd forgotten how she'd told them that she'd try and come again today. She had only one class on Wednesday afternoons, but it had already been set to be canceled this week, so it was an ideal time to come for a visit, to see how everyone was doing with the baby coming home.

She brightened at the sight of her new little sister, and soon Mackenzie had been passed into her arms, not disturbed from her sleep in the slightest. They sat down on the couch, Ella and the baby and Lucas next to them, and for a minute or so they didn't make a sound, any of them, save maybe for Mackenzie's steady sleeping breath, which bordered on hypnotic, especially to her father. Maybe he needed to sleep, too.

"I've been thinking about the ranch, the project for the empty space, where the old stable..." Ella explained, letting the rest of the words be recognized unspoken. He knew what she meant. The reclamation of the ground where a burning stable had claimed the life of Simon Sullivan. It was meant to be their thing, wasn't it? Him and her, father and daughter, vet and future vet, partners.

"Yeah?" Lucas asked, eager to hear what she had to say.

"I've just been thinking about everything you've been doing for the ranch since you got there. I know the archive wasn't exactly your idea, but it was your project, with you and Mom. But then there's the horses you've brought to Sanderson Farm, and the summer camp, the after school program, the exchange campers... Then there's the book, the ranch stories, and Nana's show... You've helped it grow, always in a way that feels right to its history, you know? Things that were important to you, but also things that the first Marianne and your grandfathers would have been happy about."

He'd never really thought about it that way, but... yeah, she had a point.

"So, I tried to think of what we could do that would fit into that line of thought," Ella went on, paused, and Lucas thought she'd done so for dramatic effect but then he looked down and saw as she'd done that Mackenzie had woken up again. She looked perfectly contented, so they didn't do anything to change that.

Ella had to think for a moment before she could remember where she'd stopped and what she'd meant to say next. Finally, it came to her.

"I remembered how this all started, with Thor digging up the box, and then I thought about him, and Sweetie, and then that made me think of Honey Bee and her siblings. It's been so great to see them all get better, after the situations they all came from, and I know looking after dogs like that means so much to you, so why couldn't we do that? Help look after recovering dogs, so they can get better before being adopted. In a space like Sullivan Stables, all that land to run around in... We could build them a home on that lot. It'd mean bringing on a few people to look after them, I know, and it'll be a while before I get there, but... I could do that, once I'm done with school, or at least once Tori and I are back in Austin in a couple years..."

Lucas hadn't said a word, just sat there and listened to her. He didn't need to speak. He just liked listening to her, seeing how passionate she was about her idea but also feeling like she'd touched exactly on what they'd needed to do. It was perfect...

"What?" she asked, after she'd finished her proposal and noticed that he was just looking at her.

"I'm just listening, I..." he shook his head, at a loss for words but smiling. "I would like you to be there with me when Juliet hears about this, I want you to be the one to tell her. It's your idea, and I support it, one hundred percent."

Now she was the one beaming, and Lucas couldn't help thinking how good it was that she'd been the one to find the idea. It would be a great contribution to the ranch, and she would get to see it put into practice, get to see something she had put into the world, something to show she was making her life just as she wanted to make it.

"Your mother is going to love this..."

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners