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


August 5th 2022

Chapter 217
Our Dreams For Quiet

As the evening came to a close, their guests departing bit by bit, both Maya and Lucas at some point wondered what would happen with the Emma and Eliza of it all. All day long, since Emma had come back home with her friends, there had been the unspoken tension of… whatever it was that was going on between the two sisters. No one brought it up, everyone was still having a good time, but there was always this… thing… unspoken and inevitably worrying them. How could they not be worried about those two being at odds?

So, what would happen when everyone left? Would Emma return to Issa and Landry's, count herself as a guest who needed to depart… from her own home? For a moment, they really thought she was about to do it. But then she accompanied her friends to the door, and they said their goodbyes, and Issa and Landry left, while Emma remained. Okay, so there's that much…

"I'm going to shower and head to bed," Emma looked to the rest of them – Maya, Lucas, Marianne, Ella, and Eliza – after the door had shut.

"Already? It's still early…" Maya pointed out. It wasn't exactly early; Marianne's still being up was a special exception. But it was hardly bedtime for the rest of them.

"I know, but I have things to do in the morning and I want to get an early start," Emma explained. Before she could head up the stairs, Marianne bolted from the couch, where she sat, and over to hug her aunt before she went. Emma smiled and returned the gesture, peppering her with kisses on her cheek, making the six-year-old beam as she giggled. Then she disappeared off up the stairs, and it was down to the five of them.

"I need to make a call, I'll be back, not sure how long it'll take," Eliza got up before they had the chance to say anything. When she started putting on her shoes, they took this to mean that she would make this call out on the front porch.

"It's kind of chilly out there…" Maya pointed out.

"I'll be fine," Eliza grabbed her jacket from where it hung and threw it over her shoulders, giving her older sister a tip of the head. See? All good.

After she shut the door, the four in the living room were quiet for a few seconds, unsure what to do with themselves. Marianne may not have pieced it together, but her parents and sister had a good idea of it. With Emma retreating upstairs, Eliza would have been left there and feeling a bit cornered for questions, so she had removed herself from the situation. They had a feeling the call could take as long as it took before they went to bed. As for Emma… She had stayed, but she needed to be alone, so she had found herself an out.

"Can we watch Haley again?" Marianne broke the silence, and her parents and sister tried not to look too much as though they were jumping on this way that she'd given them of breaking the awkward beat.

They put on the recording of the parade, found the point where the performance happened, and then they watched Haley Hunter do her thing, looking magical all the while. Even though she sat the whole time – in her sister's lap no less, with Ella's arms looped around her – they could see how she followed her aunt's motions, like she might have been doing the number with her. After they'd watched the number – three whole times – they clicked their way around the recording to watch some of the other parts that Marianne had liked, or the ones that this one or that one might have missed because they had to go to the bathroom, or check on something in the kitchen… They made it all the way to Santa, and then it was just about time for Marianne to clock out for the night.

"You know, pretty soon the fairies will be coming by," Maya pointed out to her after she'd gotten off her sister's knees and climbed across the couch to get to her mother. Marianne laughed quietly at this, though immediately it didn't feel like a giddy laugh but a knowing one, a 'I know something you don't know I know' one. "What's up?" Maya asked, giving her shoulder a light shake as she held her close.

"The fairies aren't going to come," Marianne shook her head. Her parents looked at her, unsure what to say. But Marianne just sat up on her knees, the better to lean in closer and whisper. "I figured it out," she nodded confidently. "It's you."

"What do you mean?" Lucas asked, not spinning an immediate denial but leaving space for her to explain just what she believed so that they could respond in consequence without saying too much.

"You're the ones who decorate the house when we're asleep," she continued in that same conspiratorial tone. This suggested at least that she was trying to keep it secret between them, away from the little girls.

"Are we?" Maya asked, and Marianne nodded. "How do you figure?" Oh, she had been waiting to tell this story.

"I was playing hide and seek with Grandpa and MJ and Haley and Nellie and Gracie once and I went into the basement, and I saw the boxes with the decorations in them."

"Huh..." Lucas pondered. Ella snickered, and Marianne looked back at her before turning to their parents again.

"How do you know the fairies didn't just ask us to keep those here? You know, there's a lot of it, and it's heavy for those little fairies, even with magic," Maya suggested. Marianne gave her parents a look that was so pure attitude that they couldn't help but smirk. They were not going to fool her, no way. "Alright, fine, you caught us, we're busted. Take us away, Sheriff," she extended her arms, wrists together before her daughter. "Impersonation of magical creatures... What's the sentence?"

"I want to do it, too," Marianne declared with a new smile. Maya let her arms down, smiled back at her.

"You want to be a fairy with us?" she asked, and Marianne heartily nodded. "That's going to be past your bedtime," Maya reasoned.

"It's past my bedtime right now," Marianne pointed out.

"She got you there," Ella smiled.

"Think I won't ground you?" Maya teased, and Ella laughed.

"Please, Mommy pleeeaase?" Marianne clambered up to embrace her mother, practically laying over her where she sat, the better to also extend over to Lucas. "Please, Daddy?"

"Oh, look at his face, he's going down," Maya teased. It wasn't as though he said yes to her all the time, for anything. But this right here, despite the bit of mock hesitation they were performing, this was an easy sell, and they liked to see their girl's interest in participating in the tradition.

"Welcome to the fairy crew, Fairy Annie," he tipped his head to kiss the top of hers and she beamed. "What about Winnie and the others? The sleepover..."

"Oh..." Marianne sat back up, grown serious now. He was right, that was an issue. What were they going to do? "I can't tell them about the fairies," she shook her head. "They don't know. They don't even know about Santa."

Once again, the masks of cluelessness came along. This was new... Did that mean...

"Santa?" Ella asked. Marianne looked to her, to their mother, their father...

"He's pretend, too," she whispered and nodded. Again, they could not pronounce themselves yet, just in case.

"What makes you say that?" Lucas asked.

"Was it Adam Gray again?" Maya asked, like she was ready to go toe to toe with the six-year-old boy... or at least his mother.

"Pappy Tom said you worked in Santa's Village before. But you're not elves. And it's at the mall, it's not the North Pole. It's everywhere. It's pretend," she explained, and as sound as her logic was, it was still kind of startling to see it come from her, to see wisdom rise out of her. Their little pumpkin...

"Suppose it was pretend... Does that make you upset?" Lucas asked. Marianne shook her head. "It doesn't?"

"No. Why?" she asked, confused.

"Well, it's just that... It's kind of a big thing to realize, isn't it? That this thing you thought was real, that everyone, including us, told you was real... is make believe?" Maya slowly asked.

"Nana does make believe all the time, on TV," Marianne shrugged. "And I love that."

"Yeah, you do," Maya snuggled her close, maybe in an effort not to let her emotions show. Her big little girl... figuring things out so elegantly...

"And it makes people happy," Marianne went on. She loved that more than anything, her tone said.

"It still makes us happy, and we've known for a long time," Lucas suggested, and Marianne nodded. Exactly. "So, no sleepover then?"

"Can they come but not that night?" Marianne asked. She was never going to say no to a sleepover with her friends.

"I think we can make that work," Maya promised. "And now, Miss Fairy, you really do have to get ready for bed."

"Okay..." Marianne sighed.

"Here, I'll go with you," Ella got up. As ever, she would not miss a chance to spend some extra time with her little sister when she was around. Marianne felt the same way, so up the two of them went, leaving their parents alone to the couch.

"She's still on the phone?" Maya wondered, looking to the front door, the porch light shining through. Lucas got up and went to have a quick look without intruding before he returned to the couch.

"Looks that way."

"I have to admit, for a bit there I thought she might just be sitting outside, waiting for the coast to be clear," Maya sighed. She leaned her head to his shoulder, and Lucas kept his arm around her, exuding the quiet peace she had needed after a long day.

"Kind of thought it, too," he admitted, and she hummed. That kind of made her feel better... a little. "Who do you think she's talking to?"

They barely had to consider it, didn't they? Who would Eliza call, out of the blue, if she needed to talk to someone but the family was just too close to it?

"Ben," they both said it at the same time. No doubt to it.

"Should we be expecting an extra seat at breakfast tomorrow?" Lucas wondered aloud, and Maya playfully tapped him on the arm.

It really seemed as though they were surrounded by oblivious pairs, each one as deluded as the last about what was right in front of them. From what they had seen, Eliza and Ben may have been one of the most clueless pairs. It wasn't even as though Ben had been a constant presence at their house or anywhere that they could have seen him in town so far as his connection to Eliza was concerned.

But two Christmas mornings in a row had started with the discovery of those two having spent the night together, and both instances had revealed plenty. The first time, Maya still remembered Eliza's regret after he left, that she had allowed their night together to happen. It wasn't that she hadn't wanted to be with him, far from it. She had just moved faster than intended, and then she'd been afraid that it would ruin everything. Clearly, it hadn't, or they would not have had their second Christmas morning with her dear Jewish friend. That time, it had been even clearer how much he meant to her... how much she meant to him.

Whatever had or hadn't come of that day, the two of them had remained as friends up to now, very dear, and very close friends. Whether that friendship continued to include the occasional... encounter... they couldn't say, but then Christmas was just about a month away, so... would they have a three-for-three? Whether they did or not, for their sake, they would continue to have each other... in whatever way they could.

"Maybe if we stay in here long enough, they'll sort things out. That'll be one thing at least," Lucas suggested. Maya smiled.

"If you ask me, she's forgotten us completely by now," she tipped her head back to look at him.

"Good for her," he agreed. "It was pretty good today, wasn't it?" The big reveal...

"Yeah, it was, wasn't it?" Maya hummed. "Lucky's big debut," she intoned, setting her hand over the small swell of her belly.

It never stopped being a thrill, a good skip of the heart, to watch that start grow, expand, knowing that day by day this new little one was getting closer to being in the world. Right now, there was no telling who this one would be in any way except that, like their big sisters, they would be a bit of them both brought into one... and they would cherish them, love them, even more than they already did, knowing no more than these very basic facts.

There had been all the questions they'd expected to be asked once the news was out. When was the baby due - late May, after Lucas' birthday - and how was Maya doing so far - better now that the morning sickness had subsided... Marianne had been very happy to take the floor and tell everyone about how she'd found out she was going to be a big sister again. Maybe less expected was another big question: was this it? Would this be their last baby? Six of those born to them along with Ella... It was valid, but there was no answer. It was really too soon to tell what they would feel like after this one came along. So, the only answer they could give for now was 'Maybe yes, maybe no.'

"Come on, she can figure out that we're gone whenever she finishes talking to him," Maya eventually got up, pulling Lucas by the hand so he would rise with her, which he did.

"We should get a motion detecting light for the porch, to know if we get any visitors that we're not aware of," Lucas half joked as he went with her, which made her laugh.

"We're not trying to scare the boy off," she pointed out. "Eliza's grown, it's all up to her... Not that I'm suggesting anything too drastic when our girls are older."

"So, I shouldn't get a guard dog trained to chase off teenage boys?" he casually asked.

"And what if it's teenage girls who come calling?" Maya turned to look at him on the steps.

"Then... the more the merrier," he confidently nodded, and she laughed.

"Had a feeling you might say that."

"I'm just going to trust that they will have excellent taste in whatever person catches their eye."

"Better. Much better."

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners