September 12th 2022
Chapter 255
Our Gift For Family
After
Ever since she'd been born, ever since… everything… Lucas had struggled to let Aubrey go. Was it fact that he needed to keep hold of her, always, until Maya woke up? Please… Probably not, but it felt that way in some part of him. He had let her go, when someone had come to check on her, when some of the family had come to see them all… He hadn't liked it, and he'd felt like his heart rate had ramped up and wouldn't return anywhere near to normal – if there was such a thing at present time – until he held his youngest daughter again. Even she seemed to look at him when he'd lift her again, like she was relieved to see him. Was that likely, or was that in his head, his way of comforting himself, who could say? He had her… He hadn't gone far from the room either. If he could hardly bear to put the baby down, leaving his wife's side… His mind and his heart were in turmoil. On the inside, it felt like he was screaming, but on the outside, he needed to be here, present, awake, had to try to keep it together, for her sake, for their baby girl, and for everyone else…
"Lucas…"
The sound of his name made him blink, breathe in, as he looked up. It was a man's voice, and still his reflex had been to look to the bed, like it might have been her… It wasn't. It was his father, standing in the doorway, stepping slowly and quietly into the room, approaching him where he sat. He could read the concern in his face, concern just now aimed neither at Maya nor Aubrey but at him, at his son. When he saw him, it was like whatever force Lucas had to hold his exhaustion at bay would weaken and he would be reminded of how little he had slept over the past couple of days. It had been a day and a half since the birth, but before that there had been the labor, and there had been a morning and part of an afternoon… But he was here, he was holding on…
"Son, you need to sleep," Thomas shook his head.
"I'm okay, Dad," he responded with barely a beat.
"I think we both know that's not true," his father replied without reproach. "Failing that, you also need to eat. Your mother's gone to get you some food, she'll be along soon, so I wanted to let you know ahead of time." This released a slightly shaky laugh out of the tired man. "Also, they've asked me to ask you about what you wanted to do about the girls."
His heart ached immediately at the mention of them. Here he was, with his youngest, but she wasn't the only. Lucky seventh… Lucky… Please… Ever since Aubrey had been born and Maya… Ever since then, he'd been so focused on the two of them, had to be, but then he had to think of the others, had to. Ella had been here, on and off, but… Marianne, Kacey, Remy, Lucy, Mackenzie… His immediate instinct had always been to protect them, shield them, but how long could that work? Mackenzie was still very little, so how much could she understand? And the triplets, older than her but not by so much that… But Marianne… Marianne… It might have been a kindness for her to have been too young to grasp any of the reality unfurling before them, threatening to gain, but she wasn't. She knew that something was wrong with her mother. The times he'd seen her since the baby was born, she'd never lost grip of the necklace around her neck. She and Maya had swapped, just like last time, and they were supposed to swap back when… when… Please…
They hadn't been in here, none of the little girls, hadn't seen their baby sister in any way except across a screen. They'd been at the Hunter Hart house, with their great grandparents, their aunts and uncle… Their grandparents had been coming and going, and just now they weren't here either, but their message was, through Thomas Friar. They wanted to bring the girls to see Maya, and when he heard it, Lucas felt his stomach discover new lows to sink to. It made sense to him, not to let them see her this way, to wait until she regained consciousness, but they wanted the five of them to come and be with her, and Lucas knew, he knew… They wanted them to be with her, if only once, in case she never regained… if she… Please… Please…
"Tomorrow morning," Lucas spoke almost despite himself. "Tomorrow morning, if… if she hasn't come around by then," he told his father, and Thomas slowly nodded.
X
Before
"What is going on with you?" Maya asked her brother. Sam looked at her, or maybe more to the point, he met her gaze and almost just as quickly evaded it, all while presenting himself the picture of easygoing peace.
"Why do you think there's something going on with me?" he asked.
"Because I'm your big sister… I know things," she flashed him a look that made him chuckle. "I do though. And I know that you're hiding something from me. What is it?" she poked him.
"Ow!" he flinched in surprise, laughed again. She held up her finger at him, as though to say, 'don't make me use this again.' "Just wait, okay?" he held up his hands in mock surrender.
"Ah ha! Then there is something," she smirked victoriously.
"Yes, yes, you are the all knowing big sister," he sighed.
"And I only contain the two brains at the moment," she pointed to her head and to the general area of her belly. "Once I had four, and my power was unstoppable," she intoned. Almost to take her down a peg, Kacey and Remy chose this moment to accidentally run into each other and knock heads, sending them both toppling and bursting into tears. "Don't you even," Maya pointed at her brother before pulling herself to her feet and advancing toward the girls, who had already gotten back on to their feet and were now coming to hug around her legs with one arm, the other at their heads. "Hey, you're okay, it's alright, let me see…"
For the time being then, Sam's secret was left alone, but he could have no assumption that he was in the clear, not even a little. His sister would come seeking again when he least expected it… unless he got in front of her, which he did, just as everyone was coming to sit at the extended table that was to hold the collected Friars, Hunters, Calaharts, Hart-Lanes, and Clutterbuckets of Austin. He and Dora addressed the family dinner crowd to inform them that they were expecting their second child. This news was received just as it should be, with thunderous cheers. As they would reveal, they had already told both Dora's parents and Sam's, and Cara back in New York. This new baby was due to arrive in early December.
"Are you excited to be a big sister, Frankie sweetie?" Maya asked when her niece came around the table and sat on the edge of the chair at her side, presently vacated as it was.
"Uh huh," the girl nodded, though hardly with as much enthusiasm as might have been expected.
"Oh, that much, huh?" Maya asked, reaching over to the girl one month shy of five years old. Her little woodland creature of a niece turned her eyes up.
"I don't want a brother," she revealed, and Maya bit back a laugh.
"Well, you might have a sister," she reminded the girl. "And even if you didn't… What's so bad about a brother? Your dad is my little brother, and he's one of my favorite people in the whole world. I think any little brother would be so lucky to have you as their big sister." In her mind, Maya had to admit that in that moment she kind of wanted her brother to have a son, like it would have been the universe giving them a way to echo and make up for what the two of them had not had, growing up. "I'm sure it doesn't seem like it right now, but it's early. In a few months, when that baby comes, you'll see." Hopefully… She had no doubt in her mind that Francesca would come around in time. That was who she was.
"So, what do you think?" Katy asked, later on, shortly before the Friars were due to head home. Lucas was already in pre-road mode, getting ready to put the girls in the minivan. Katy had come to sit at her daughter's side, hand gravitating to her belly. Maya's due date was all of six days away, and the closer they'd get to it, the more people would be on edge, far more than the mother herself.
"All quiet, don't think you need to worry about rushing anywhere tonight. You just go on to bed whenever you're ready and sleep the night away," Maya assured her. She found herself relishing this small moment, her and her mother in this way, with the baby in her belly… It took her back again to what she and Lucas had been discussing, how this might be their last pregnancy, in which case this would be one of if not the last time that she'd get to watch her mother feel for her unborn grandchild as she did now. When her mother caught that expression in her eyes, she went ahead and explained herself.
"I felt that when we were going to have Haley. There was nothing set in stone, but… It did feel like we'd reached our limit. Even before that, when we were going to have the twins, I remember…" Katy shook her head. "I had gotten to the point where I'd figured that you would be my only ever baby, and I was fine by that, but then Shawn happened, and then your sisters happened, and then MJ, and then…" She was quiet for a moment, thinking of the baby they'd lost, after their one and only son. Maya squeezed her hand. That child, had it lived, would have been twelve years old by now, and though it had never lived, it was never forgotten.
"And then Haley," Maya set her mother back on track with a smile. Oh, how she remembered how scared they'd been, concerned that something would happen with this pregnancy again. But Haley had held on, and she'd been born, and to look at her now, it seemed almost impossible to think she would have ever been anything else.
"We never expected to get her after everything else, but we did, and by the end…" Katy's hand remained at her daughter's belly, and Maya placed her own hand over hers. In her head, she would imagine her Aubrey in there, somehow sticking her own little hand up so that their three hands, three generations together, would be joined.
Was it only a fantasy? Of course, but it was a very nice fantasy, and when she got home that night, Maya sketched it. Lucas ended up sitting next to her on the bed, looking on, and she just smiled, feeling his energy flow with hers. Looking back on it now, she almost wished she would have gotten her grandmother to join them, one more hand, one more generation, and that baby girl could hardly know how fortunate they were to all have one another. But this already was good and wonderful, and Maya couldn't wait to show it to her mother when she'd next see her. She would see, and she would understand, and she would love it. When the baby was born, oh, they just might have to get that four generation picture though. Four hands together…
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
