A/N: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!


July 15th 2022

Chapter 196
Our Signs for History

Though they had gone to bed in their usual spoon position and made it to morning still curled up together that way, Lucas woke up on this day and felt an instant need to be looking at his wife's face. He wouldn't have believed that this day had come, and yet there was no denying it. The date had been imprinted in his head as much as hers. Twenty years… Twenty years ago on this very day, a thirteen-year-old Maya Hart had walked into her new middle school after moving to Austin with her mother, and in the administrative office she had met a fourteen-year-old Lucas Friar. Neither one of those kids had known just how deeply their lives would become intertwined, but now…

Soon after the thought of how he wished to see her face came into his mind, he started to work at coaxing the sleeping one at his side into turning. It wasn't difficult, not when he'd long come to know how she worked. He could very delicately touch her here… and there… and then she would just squirm and flip herself over before burrowing right against him as though to demand he hold her. He very gladly obliged, closed his arms around her and kissed her forehead once, twice, before peering down at her sleeping face. Just like this, it was impossible for him not to see Marianne in her features… and Lucy… and even if they really looked so much more like him, he still saw plenty of Kacey and Remy… and Mackenzie… All these wonderful little daughters they'd been so lucky as to bring into the world and their family. Twenty years…

Oh, how it was on her mind, too, when Maya woke up. The first thing she did get to think was just about how she was very comfortable, not one of those mornings where you might be sort of disoriented at first, no. She woke up, and she felt like she could just stay right as she was forever. She had a vague memory of turning… not too long ago… All she knew for certain was that she was in her husband's arms, ear not quite over his heart but near enough that she could hear its steady beat. And all the while, she could only picture herself and him, sitting side by side… If she lifted her eyes to the wall, there was an old drawing, framed, showing that exact moment in time. And for all the memories she had of the time between then and now, still, the number 'twenty' felt impossible.

"Good morning," she turned her eyes up now to the man who held her, and it was one of those times where it felt as though one smile fed another, which was then fed right back, and on, and on…

"Good morning to you, too," he told her even as she stretched up to kiss him. His arms, already around her, served now to help keep her lifted as she was, so this kiss might linger, and increase, and… the baby started to cry. The kiss was paused almost all at once, lips together, then retracting, as Maya turned her head back and Lucas looked past her. Was there cause to suggest leaving Mackenzie be, letting her cry without hurrying to her every time? Sure, but they knew her cries enough by now to have a good idea when there was need for prompt intervention.

"See, she just wants to be involved," Maya joked, and Lucas laughed before offering himself to 'take the call.' She moved aside and he got up from the bed, walked over to the crib to pick up their youngest, nearly five months old already. They were off now, a special day but also just a regular one, too, so she went to see how the rest of their girls were doing.

This morning, the triplets were all in their own beds still when Maya went to see them, but she'd venture to guess that they had been awake for a little while already. They were all standing up on their mattresses and there appeared to be a 'battle' happening, with the three beds standing for great big ships at sea or… something… It wasn't entirely clear, but what mattered was that, for Kacey, Lucy, and Remy, it was very real, and they were having fun.

"Did we get invaded by pirates? Is that it?" Maya wondered aloud as the two-year-old trio climbed down from their beds and scurried over to her. "Who's helping with breakfast this morning?" she asked, and all three raised their hands. "I could make the 'you are your father's daughters' joke, but it would be too easy," Maya told herself. The triplets just kept looking at her. "Okay, let's go."

By the time Lucas had Mackenzie's diaper seen to, restoring peace in the land of Mack Attack, Maya had taken the triplets downstairs and Marianne had made her way over from her room to assist her father with her little sister. It would be just over a month now before the big day came and their first and last born daughters became roommates, and Marianne was clearly just as anxious for the day to come as she'd been when she'd first made the request.

"Alright, I think she's good to go," Lucas pulled the baby back into his arms. "Quality check?" he teased, and Marianne giggled through her scrunched up face as she shook her head. "No? You don't want to sniff her and see if I did a good job?"

"No, I trust you, Daddy," she tapped his arm, an echo of her mother if there ever was one.

"Well, so long as you trust me," Lucas guided her out of the room and toward the stairs. "You know what today is, yeah?" he asked her. She nodded.

"You met Mommy… twenty years ago," she told him, showing both of her hands, fingers out, once, and then a second time, to show that she knew how many that was. "That's so much," she added, sounding impressed.

"It kind of is, huh?" Lucas agreed, keeping pace with her down the stairs. "Almost as long as Ella's been alive," he added, as the best point of reference he could give her. She hadn't even considered it that way, and once he said it, she had to pause for a moment in the stairs, so suddenly that his reflexes were all that stood between him and the baby and a collision.

"That's even more than I thought!" Marianne proclaimed, which made him laugh.

"I live to amaze you, pumpkin," he told her as they continued down to the kitchen. There, Marianne shared that same mind-blowing reflection with her mother, and Maya laughed just as Lucas had done.

"Yeah, imagine that. We were only about the same age as your uncle MJ," Maya told the five-year-old, who was struck with yet another moment of pure wonder. Sure, she'd seen pictures, even videos, of the two of them back then, but something about comparing them to her uncle, who she knew very well in real life…

All this talk and general good feeling that was happening, right there in their kitchen, getting ready for breakfast, could have felt like a very stark contrast to what Maya would face when she went in to school that day if this had been last week. But the new school year was now three weeks in, and even though it wasn't a complete turnaround, compared to the way things had been before… maybe this was as good as it was going to get, where the whole Jenny situation was concerned.

She'd come back to class on Tuesday morning. By then, her face still showed some sign of what had been done to her, and one of her hands was still wrapped up, two of her fingers splintered together, but she walked at a relatively steady pace, and she didn't want to spend another day cooped up at home, so she'd returned. From what Maya knew, Jenny's friends had been keeping her up to speed about everything that had been happening at school since that Thursday morning when Ronnie and his friend had forced her down to the school basement. They had played a great part in allowing Jenny to feel confident about returning to class. Her parents would have gladly kept her home longer, and they would have been up to any way of accommodating her, if it would keep her safe, but she wanted to go back, she did. Ronnie was gone, and the mood was shifting… It was important to her to get out there; it had kind of been the whole point about her deciding to make her transition, no? She wanted to live as herself. She wouldn't be doing that if she hid all the time.

It wasn't difficult to see that things were changing, even before classes had started on that first Tuesday back. Knowing that she would be returning that day, Maya had been out there, in front of the school, waiting for Mrs. Marshall's car to pull up. It was her, and Nika, and Maggie and Lara, and Kelsey and Ava… Olivia arrived with Jenny that morning, as she often would from then on, the neighbors travelling together. And after she'd gotten out of the car, and started walking toward the building, there had been the other students. Oh, there had definitely been some kids who would see Jenny before that day and whisper to one another, but this was the opposite. They would see her, strangers though they were, and they would wave to her in greeting, smile at her. Welcome back. It was the best thing, right there with the friends that were waiting to escort her in, to help Jenny release some of that leftover stress she might have had about being here again. It got even better when she saw her locker door.

Speeches and letters and warnings were only going to do so much. Did the overt actions against Jenny stop? So far, they had. There was no guarantee that it would stay that way, nor could they go and presume that everyone would suddenly have flipped the thoughts in their minds. They didn't expect that much, and they weren't going to chase it. Right now, the more important part was about allowing Jenny Marshall to attend high school and be what she was: a seventeen-year-old girl, looking to learn and eventually graduate, go on to college…

The strangest part, as the next few days had gone by, for Maya at least, had been to just… accept it, to not go around constantly fearing the worst would come. They were going to move forward, all of them. She would continue to be there for Jenny, in whatever way she was needed, but she'd also be thinking about all those other kids in her classes, the ones on their final year, the ones making their way up, and the ones just starting…

One of the things she'd done, in an effort to sort of… acknowledge this turning of a page… was to concentrate in locking down a new member for Born Curious and reconnect the team as it had always stood, a family to one another and a network across the school. And do we ever need them these days… She'd given it a lot of thought, as she always did, but even then, with this year's candidates, it really did feel as though she needed to give it some extra thought. Could she find someone that would fit her usual rule, selecting a student that would get as much out of being in the team as they would provide, quiz ability wise, but go beyond it, too? This year, she just felt that they needed a particular kind of spirit, a spirit of unity. The start of the year had really rattled so many of them at the school, whether they were in the eleventh grade or not, and they needed to just… breathe, and exhale.

Every time she thought about it, her mind went back to the same place. Maia Bennett, Maia with an i. Was it pure coincidence that she and Ash had been in the basement that day, in time to become aware – whether they realized it or not – of the wounded Jenny's presence? Completely. But even so, the entire incident had brought Maya to look at Lucas' teammate's daughter and think that here was someone who would set the quiz team on their way to a great year, a great tenure. And when she couldn't see herself being any further convinced otherwise, she'd made the pitch. There was no doubt that Maia Bennett had the academic prowess to be an asset to the team. She'd presented her as candidate to Ava, Nika, and Rolly, and when they had agreed, Maya had asked them if they minded her making the pitch. She knew Maia outside of school, as she did her brothers, and her mother, and her grandfather… It felt right. Captain Ava had agreed, though on the condition that the rest of them would get to be right there when she talked to her.

They ended up being right outside the room, casually hanging around. When Maia had heard it all and said yes, the other three immediately came into the room, introduced themselves, and swept her off somewhere so they could all talk. Just like that, it was all said and done. The next time she went to school in the morning, Maya now expected to find the quartet of Born Curious occupying her classroom before the start of first period, as was their habit. She kind of couldn't wait. She had the new t-shirt made, and there would be a new jacket before long…

With this step reached, Maya couldn't help but start and think about other fall time events at the school, and the next one she knew was coming was one that reintroduced a quirk in her gut. Basketball tryouts. There had been no talk as of yet, no change in the plans where Jenny was concerned. No one had brought up whether or not she would try and go for the girls' team. They simply waited and left it up to her to make a choice… or no choice… After everything that had happened in the first two weeks of school, they would more than understand if she didn't want to change her mind and give tryouts a shot, but if she did, if she changed her mind and went for it… Oh, they would be there in force, backing her up.

"Twenty years…" Maya hummed to herself. To this day, she wondered sometimes what it could have been like, if she'd never come to Texas, and usually it would tie back to her own life, and Lucas' life, and what they would have been like, but… It was so many other people, too, she knew, so many other people whose lives had been touched because their paths had crossed. They were as finely twined with her as anyone else now, no undoing it, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners