September 13th 2022
Chapter 256
Our Gift For Luck
After
He couldn't look at her for too long. His head had been on a regular swivel, looking to see in case she'd woken up, but it would be a brief look and no more. It wasn't that he didn't want to see her. He had previously told her how he could spend his days watching her, and he meant it. The problem just now was that if he looked at her too long… If he kept seeing her this way, unconscious, the equipment, the machines, everything that was there to make sure she was okay, it would feel like his frail resolve turned to dust. He looked at her and was confronted with the terrible idea that she could… that she might not… And he couldn't go there. He couldn't, he wouldn't… Aubrey needed him, and Maya wasn't… She would wake up… Please…
But for all that, he couldn't help himself, not all the time. Once before he'd set the baby down so he might approach the bedside. That time, he'd placed Aubrey over Maya's chest, hoping maybe that the contact would reach something in her, would bring her around, but it hadn't worked. Aubrey had fallen asleep there, and she'd looked so calm… Lucas had left her there for a good hour. This time, it was just him, and he was so tired. He crouched, kneeled, until he was just about at eye level with her. He rested his head on one arm laid at the bed's edge while his other hand lightly grasped hers.
Every part of him wanted to say that she would be okay, that they just needed to wait, but then time was moving forward, and every hour that went by without her waking felt like another level gained for the grief monster in the pit of his stomach, bringing it higher and higher and forcing him to think… to think… He could lose her. He could be losing her, right now. She'd already been sleeping for over a day… Wouldn't that mean that he'd already lost her, and all this time since had just been delaying the…
No. No. She wasn't gone. She was right here. She was alive, he could feel her pulse under his fingers, she was strong. So strong, always stronger…
"Maya, please… Open your eyes… Our lucky girl is here, lucky seventh… Aubrey… She's beautiful, she's doing so well. She needs you; the girls need you, I…" he bowed his head, had to catch his breath before he could look at her again. "I need you… Please… Open your eyes. Call me Huckleberry again… Girl Dad… Hee haw… Dockleberry… I'll take them all, I'll take one, just…" Just don't leave…
He was sinking to the mercy of the monster in his gut. He didn't want to, but he only had so much strength in him to resist it. He was so tired… He fell asleep, on his knees next to her. How long he stayed there, he couldn't say, except that someone eventually woke him up. There was a pressure somewhere, and it was bringing him around, barely. One of his parents? One of hers? A nurse? He raised his head, slowly, like he had to peel it from his arm. He blinked, rubbed at his eyes, and felt something like the remnants of his tears, preserved in the way he'd dozed off.
And he found eyes staring back at him.
For a moment, it was like his eyes functioned but not so much his brain. Then it caught up. There was no one here but them. The pressure was her, was her hand squeezing his. Her eyes were open. Her eyes were open.
"Maya?" he spoke her name like he couldn't quite believe it, like it had to be a hopeful dream. She blinked, opened her mouth to speak but paused, faintly cleared her throat, looked at him again.
"Hi…" she spoke, and the weight in him, the presence, turned from deepest night to brightest day. He breathed… His shoulders released as he lifted her hand carefully to his lips.
"Hey…" his voice shook. She was still disoriented, looked around…
"Au… Aubrey… Where…"
"She's here. She's great," he promised, nodding. He had the presence of mind to ring for a nurse as he got up from the floor to stand on his feet, to press a trembling and tearful kiss to her forehead. "We're right here with you, Maya."
X
Before
It was three days to their due date. Even as she woke on the morning of the twenty-eighth, Maya felt certain. This was the day. This would be the day that their lucky girl was born. She made the mistake right then of telling the barely awake Lucas that much and, in his mind, it registered as 'time to go.' He sprang out of bed and started to quickly get dressed, very easy as he'd kept his clothes laid out the night before for a week or so already, all so that he could cut down on his prep time if they had to leave in the night.
"Hey, time out, time out, listen to me," Maya told him and laughed when she saw his shirt halfway on. He'd paused right when she'd asked. "I said I had a feeling it would happen today; I didn't say it was happening right this second." Finally standing, she walked over to him, busied herself at pulling his shirt the rest of the way down. Oh, she'd had a very strong impulse to pull it back off instead, but where would that have gotten them right about now?
"Does this feeling happen to come with a time estimate?" he asked, and she made as though she was listening to The Feeling.
"Definitely not before breakfast, which is good, because I am starving. You know..." she gestured over herself, an innocent reminder that she was eating for two. Lucas smiled, kissed her.
"Breakfast, coming up."
As he went downstairs, Maya collected the girls. Down the hall, in the green room, she found that Mackenzie had at one time escaped the crib and had either pulled herself up or been helped up on to her sister's bed. She was now asleep, tucked close to Marianne who held on to her. She was awake, and when she saw her mother smiling at her, she smiled back.
"Breakfast soon, okay?" Maya signed, and Marianne signed back, letting her know that they would soon be there.
As Maya made her way to the triplets' room, she could hear Marianne quietly waking her little sister. Meanwhile, the nearer she got to the former nursery, she could hear Lucy, Remy, and Kacey... singing. It was just the sort of way they'd sing along to the radio in the car, hardly harmonized or even on key, but they were having fun in there, and that was all that mattered. Maya discreetly recorded them, for posterity, for Lucas, for teenage shenanigans, who knew?
In due time, everyone was downstairs and sitting to breakfast. Maya's Baby Feeling was not shared with the others, only kept between her and Lucas, and it made them smile at random, much to everyone's curiosity. This carried on all through morning, through lunch time. In the spirit of being careful, they mostly played outside. Marianne was off at school, so were Emma and Eliza. Lucas had been off work since the start of the week and was set to remain that way through mid-June, so they needed no helping grandparents to step in. That didn't stop them, nor were they unwelcome, but that morning it was just Lucas running around with Mackenzie and the triplets out back, while Maya looked on and drew.
It was shortly after lunch when The Feeling was proven correct. Maya had been through three deliveries before, and even though only two of them had involved active labor, she knew they were in it when it came. They had to get going.
Lucas called to Sanderson Farm. While they were getting everything set to go, Missy came dashing up the road to collect the four Friar girls and take them back to her house, riding in their wagon, where the triplets were led into song once more thanks to their 'conductor.' Lucas had to drive by them as they took off, and Maya waved at them as they passed. She laughed, seeing all those hands energetically waving back. Lucy blew her a kiss.
"What do you think, last long walk into the hospital?" Lucas smiled as they arrived. Maya groaned.
"Those jokes were a lot funnier without the labor. Oh, she wants out alright."
"We're nearly there," he promised.
"Okay..." she breathed. "I can get there. Let's go, Huckleberry."
Surely the call had gone out by now. Their people, as many and as far in between as they were, would be aware that the baby was coming. He could imagine Ella, way off in Houston, having to figure out whether to hit the road now or wait after class. He thought of Cara, who was supposed to fly home any day now for a bit, to see her sister, the same for the Hart-Lanes in Tucson. He thought of Marianne, in kindergarten, with no idea that she was about to be a big sister again. He liked to think that she would know, somehow. A Feeling of her own.
Everything was getting to feel familiar. The arrival, the room, settling in, getting changed, the wait, the progress... And then Maya was pushing, and there was a head, and a shoulder, and another, and then out she came, crying as she passed into the world and breathed her first breath. Aubrey Juliet Friar, born on the 28th of May 2036, just after three in the afternoon.
Those first few seconds passed by in a heart-thrilling burst of emotions as they got their first sight of their brand new baby daughter. She was here, she was here. That was all that his brain seemed to be able to sing out, and he was so caught up in that moment, the cutting of the cord, the first peek at her face scrunched up in cries but relaxing, that he didn't immediately realize that something was wrong.
He would remember turning his head to look at Maya, to share in this with her, only to blink as he caught the expression on her face, like her brain was singing out something else. Something's wrong... Something's wrong... He opened his mouth, her name half formed on his lips, but then he was not so aware as the others in the room were. They were already moving into action, and the first thing they did was lift Aubrey away and deposit her in his arms before asking him to step back. There were more people, more voices, and alarms...
He was frozen. For several seconds he couldn't move, or think... He just watched, his eyes on Maya, all the time. It wasn't until Aubrey started to cry that he blinked and came back to himself, really took in the entire scene. What was happening? What was wrong with her? Would she be alright? What... What...
He was sure that he asked them, but if he did, his voice and his words were lost. He didn't mind them not being answered, did he, not when they were helping Maya. They would help her, wouldn't they? She would be okay... wouldn't she?
The baby was crying. He cradled her in his arms, looked at her. She wasn't even clean yet, not completely. She was barely four minutes old. What was happening? He stepped out into the hall with her, absently thinking it would help her if they were away from all the sounds.
When he stepped out, he looked up... and found Katy Hunter, walking up the hall, Shawn not far behind. She had a look on her face like she knew... Something was going on with her baby girl. He could only imagine what he looked like, standing there with the newborn in his arms, but it had said it all. Maya was in trouble.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
