September 10th 2022

Chapter 253
Our Gift For Connection

After

Aubrey Juliet Friar was a quiet baby. She wasn't so small as to be concerning, probably was no smaller than her sisters had been when they were born, and yet for how her father held her, she might have been frail, breakable. Lucas held his seventh daughter close against his chest, keeping her nestled there so she might feel as safe and warm as she was with him. She had been sleeping there in his arms for a time, but now he could see her tiny hand move, even tinier fingers stretching. He slipped his own finger underneath them, that he might catch her hand, allow her to hold on. She had been born with an already generous amount of blond hair, all things considered, and Lucas lightly kissed that golden crown as he sat with her.

"You know, it was my birthday not too long ago, too," he quietly told his baby daughter. "You and I, we get to have our birthdays almost at the same time. Mine is at the same time as Nicky Orlando. You haven't met him yet, but I think you'll like him. We have this thing that we do, every year. We go get ice cream together on our birthday. Yours and mine aren't on the same day, but I tell you what, I will take you out for a birthday ice cream, how does that sound, huh?"

She could hardly be expected to respond, but in his mind, theirs was a done deal. Of course, now that he'd made this vow for her, he knew he would have to consider something similar with his older daughters, or else they might feel slighted; he couldn't let that happen.

He looked up from the baby. Aubrey Juliet Friar was a day old, inching toward a day and a half, and she had not been out of his sight for a minute. If she had, if he'd slept, then he wasn't aware of it. As far as he knew, it had all been an endless stream of minutes since the moments following her birth, when she had been placed in his arms. And that was as it should be, that was how it would have to be, for so long as strength remained in his body.

When he looked to his wife, lying on the bed across from him in the hospital room, he couldn't help but be plunged back into the day before, when he had been passed his baby girl, when he had been asked to step back even as the noise and the activity had made the barely born child's first cries expand like living panic. Something was wrong, and she didn't need to have lived very long to understand that. Now she was a day old… A day old, and her mother… her mother…

You have to open your eyes…

Maya… You need to wake up…

Our lucky girl is here…

Maya…

Please…

X

Before

Maybe because she'd been home through it all, maybe because they'd all been anticipating the end of the month so much, the month of May this year felt as though it had just flown by, until they found themselves here, on this morning… They were just days away from the baby's due date, but just now, hers was not the birthday they were thinking about. Today was her father's day, his and a certain small boy who had just turned six. And for once, it wasn't a weekday. It was a Sunday, and that opened up so many opportunities.

"Uncle Lucas, can I have ice cream for breakfast?" Nicky had asked when they'd discussed their plans. It used to be that Lucas would simply collect him and take him to get their ice cream when the time came, but of course he wasn't so little anymore, and more importantly he had enough agency now that Lucas wouldn't just take him and make all the decisions. It would be as much Nicky's choice as his own, or at least that was what he told the boy. He had no delusions, as though he wouldn't just do whatever the boy wanted and be happy with it. Of course, now… He guessed that some restrictions might not be entirely unreasonable.

"I don't think the shop's open that early, bud," he'd told him, carrying on from there, until Nicky agreed it would make much more sense to wait until later. In the end, as he learned when the two of them got together, it had all worked out in his favor. While his previous birthday had begun with him 'digging for treasure' in his cake when he wasn't supposed to, this one had begun with his father making some – small – milkshakes for them and Riley and the girls, to enjoy with their breakfast. These were a great success, enough so that they would become a birthday tradition in the Orlando household.

Later on, just after lunch time, Lucas prepared to head out and collect his birthday buddy. He came very close to a toddler catastrophe in the process, as it slipped out that he was going out for ice cream. The triplets' little ears had almost literally perked up at the sound of the words, and they'd looked expectantly to their father. They were going for ice cream? They loved ice cream! Try as he might to explain to them that they had misheard him, they kept looking at him with a growing unease, like 'why won't you take us for ice cream, Daddy?' Lucy had that face she got when she was about to cry, and that nearly broke every bit of his resolve. Would Nicky mind very much if he brought the three of them? It was their thing, always had been…

It had been up to Maya to save the day, as she'd swooped in, with that belly full of 'nearly there' baby out ahead of her. She'd swiftly redirected the girls' attention, expertly restaging the conversation. They would have ice cream, once their father came back. It was a special kind that he had to go and get, and they were going to eat it out on the porch. She went to the trouble, in a stage whisper, to suggest that it was mostly an excuse to get him out of the house while the rest of them got the house ready for his birthday. Oh, well, now, that was a completely different situation, wasn't it? It was a wonder that the three small girls didn't pool their strength together, the better to push him out the door.

When he arrived at the Orlando house, he found that Dylan and Riley were having a similar issue with their girls. They'd had their breakfast milkshakes, so it might have been fine, but then their brother was going out with their uncle? Emily and Megan loved their Uncle Lucas, so why couldn't they go, too? They told him as much when he arrived and they came running over to him, both of them very much small copies of their mother, with a splash of their father's mischief. Lucas reminded them that they would all see each other again very soon, with the double party, and dinner… That was true, and they recognized it, so even though they were still upset at not getting to go, they accepted their father's invitation to play back at the house while Lucas and Nicky left together.

Every year it was the same, wasn't it? Every year, he would suddenly stop and be stunned to see how fast it was all happening, time, and it would all come balanced on the fact that Nicholas Orlando had aged another year, that they were on their way to yet another of their birthday ice cream sessions. This was the sixth already. No longer did it feel like he had to remind the boy that they had done this every year. Nowadays, Nicky knew this was coming. He remembered the last time, and he looked forward to the next.

"So, what's it going to be this year?" Lucas asked the boy, and he had eyes that said he knew exactly what he wanted. It made Lucas chuckle. He'd grown up with that look, on one of his best friends' face. It usually made for a great day.

By the time they'd gone back to the Orlando house – for the first part of the party, with all of Nicky's young friends roaming about – they'd had their ice cream, and they'd taken another trip to the comic book store, where Peter the non Spider-Man treated them to their birthday freebies. In Lucas' case, of course, it was a freebie he passed directly on to Marianne, the better to add to her growing collection. There had also been sufficient time for both the Friar and Orlando girls to get fully over their earlier lamentations. Lucas had brought back the promised 'special ice cream' and Emily and Megan had had a great time with their father, even if it had ended up with the two girls playing doctor to the 'ouchie' on their father's elbow.

The remainder of the afternoon was, as expected, a chaotic mess of small children running around the Orlandos' backyard but, seeing as it was the very kind of chaos that they were all used to by now, it was just as they could have wanted it to be. In time, the children went on home – save for those belonging to the family and extended turtle group – and some more of Lucas' friends not yet in attendance came around to join the festivities. By the time they went home, with a minivan full of partied-out little girls, Lucas was looking forward to a bit of birthday peace and quiet with his wife. With their daughters changed into their PJs and settled in their beds and crib, Lucas and Maya curled up on the couch for a movie. Whether they would make it to the end or just doze off halfway through, there was no telling, but it wouldn't stop them from finding out.

"I think she's enjoying a light swim tonight," Maya reported with a calm laugh as she watched him bow his ear to her belly. "With that splash echo, you know… indoor pool…"

"Yeah…" Lucas laughed, too. He enjoyed the visual, their little Aubrey practicing her backstroke. "You could be a pro by the time your Uncle Keith starts teaching you how to swim. You'll tell him 'that's alright, Uncle, I'm a great swimmer. I'm going to be in the Olympics someday.'" This made Maya laugh even more, enough to disrupt Aubrey's evening time swim. Lucas felt her moving, and his hand followed her progress before he turned his head and pressed a kiss where he'd felt her. Maya smiled at him, brushed at his hair, and he turned his eyes to her.

"I don't think I've been this aware up to now how… this could be the last time we're this close to a delivery day," she stated. Lucas understood; like it or not, he'd been thinking about it, too. They hadn't closed the door on having more, but at this point it did feel like the door was halfway shut, waiting for the slightest nudge until it would click into place, never to be opened again.

"Then we're going to enjoy it, for however long we've got until she's not in there anymore," he promised, and she nodded. "Want to start that enjoyment with me rubbing your feet?" he offered, and she breathed out with the anticipation of relief.

"Please…" she nodded, and he chuckled before sitting up, repositioning himself for the task as selected. "I want to say I feel bad about making you do this on your birthday, but…"

"Hey, it's my birthday, I get to do what I want, and it includes pregnant wife foot rubs… I also enjoy pregnant wife back rubs, too," he smirked, and she laughed.

"Well, who am I to stand in the way of you enjoying yourself, Birthday Man?"

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners