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


September 16th 2022

Chapter 259
Our Gift For Them

Before

Aubrey was left in the care of her oldest sister, back in her mother's room, while her father went to find her next oldest sister. This one was only six… and a half… but that didn't stop her from being very observant and very aware that Something Was Going On. She'd been spirited away by her grandmother for a trip down to the gift shop, like she hadn't been there already. They'd bought a big, colorful balloon, and it had been floating, tethered to her wrist ever since. Now they'd returned to the shop and wandered some more before coming out again. Marianne had left there, holding a fuzzy little lamb, yellow, with a pink bow around its neck. She was holding it with both hands, balloon bobbing from her arm, when Lucas went to find her at the end of the hallway.

As soon as she saw him, he could see that she had an urge in her to run to him, as fast as she could. But she didn't. She stayed right where she was, and she watched him approach her, like maybe there was another part of her that also wanted to run, just… not toward him but away, rather than to hear what he would have to tell her. When he reached her, standing next to her grandmother, he crouched in front of her. As tall as she was getting, this still felt like a moment to come down to her level. Now, he could see that she was breathing hard, and he imagined her young heart was beating fast, faster than if she'd gone at a great run and motivated by something entirely other than exhilaration.

"Hey, pumpkin…" he started, already finding the words difficult to come by. He had to tell her something, felt he owed her that, but all he could see before him was a little girl, and he felt just as strongly that she shouldn't have to be told something like this. Your mother might die…

"I want to see Mommy," Marianne finally demanded, not loud but still urgent, pleading.

"She's sleeping right now, okay?" Lucas slowly started, but it wasn't enough, not now, not with that thundering heart in her.

"I want Mommy," she asked again, louder.

"Marianne…" Katy put a hand to her granddaughter's shoulder. Lucas looked up at her, held up his hand. Let me.

"I want your mommy, too, okay?" he softly spoke to his daughter. "I want her to be awake right now, but she's not. This delivery was very hard on her, and she can't be awake right now. I need to stay here to watch her, and I'm probably going to have to stay overnight, so you and your little sisters are going to be staying with Nana Katy and Grandpa Shawn, okay? They'll look out for you, like they always do, just like I know you'll be there to look out for Lucy, Kacey, Remy, and Mackenzie, won't you?"

"Yeah," she slowly nodded, even though he could already see she was tearing up. Lucas put his arms around her, and she hugged him back fast and strong.

"Thank you," he whispered, kissed the side of her head. "I love you so, so much, Annie girl."

"I love you, too, Daddy."

Before she would go, she would pull the balloon from her arm, looping the string around the plush lamb's middle and offering the lot to her father. He would gladly bring them to her mother. As he stood back up, he watched as the pair walked away hand in hand together, Katy and Marianne. The girl looked back a couple of times on her way to the elevators, looked at her father… Right then and there, he could only see the Maya in her. It was shining through from every inch of her and, even in her distress, felt so alive that he struggled not to run after her again, not to keep her near him. But it was better this way. He didn't have any delusions as though she'd have an entirely better night than he would have, but she would be where she most needed to be right now… and so would he. He only wished those two places were one and the same… they usually were. For now, he made his way back to the room, where the lamb and its balloon were settled right on the table at the foot of Maya's bed. He wanted that to be the first thing she'd see when she opened her eyes again.

X

After

Whatever air of dread had existed in Maya's hospital room had now been expelled. It felt once more as it should have felt, with her just having had her new baby. Now all the flowers, and balloons, and plush animals, the cards and the art on the walls made the place feel happy, not so the offerings of worried people, reminding everyone in the room that something had gone wrong. Lucas, in his mind, looked to Maya for this healing spell. It had all changed for him as she'd sat there, up in her bed, holding their baby girl, and lightly singing her a lullaby. The sound of her voice touched everything and made it right again. It left him in this odd position where something in him wanted so to cry, and he wasn't sure if it was for joy or, again, to expel the poison of those last however many hours of fear.

Their Aubrey's first couple of days felt so removed from the world. They had not been at all what they would have hoped for them to be, for any child, but it was what it was, wasn't it? All they could tell themselves now was that she was young, very young, and she would not remember any of it. She would go on with her life, and today would almost be like a reset, like this was her birthday, day one. What did they need for a day like that? Well, they certainly had all these things that their friends and family had sent, filling the room to the point where they'd been told they couldn't take in more if they expected to get visitors in, too. And they'd had their family, their friends, coming along to see Maya and find that she was alright, to meet the baby if they hadn't already. There was only one thing missing, one very important thing, or more to the point… five very important people.

Shawn would later feel that he had to apologize, when he would discover, as the others did, the miscommunication he'd set upon at least one of his granddaughters. He'd gone and fetched the five girls from his house, bringing their great grandparents as well, as the Clutterbuckets had yet to be able to come and see their granddaughter and her baby, focused as they'd been on the other little Friars. But he hadn't told any of the girls why they were going, hadn't told them the great news. He'd figured it would be better not to draw too much attention on the 'now you can go see your mom and sister' part, so it would all feel normal to them, to the littler ones in particular.

But for that, he'd inadvertently left the eldest of these five in the dark, in a place where she'd been left to assume the very worse, that her mother was either dead or dying. This was only realized as they arrived, as they went about their planned course of action. They'd known at least that this encounter would hit differently for some of the girls and for the others, and this on top of their desire not to crowd Maya too much, even with a pack of overeager little girls who loved her as dearly as she loved them. So, like the last time she'd been up near her mother's room, Marianne was brought up first, hand in hand with her Nana Katy, and Lucas was there, in the hall, waiting for her. When he saw her though, she had the same face as she'd done the last time, if not worse, more afraid. He could sense her wild drumbeat of a heart from as far as he was, and it was enough to bring him jogging over to her.

"Hey, hey, look at me," he crouched, then knelt before her, took her hands in his. "What's the matter? You don't have to be afraid… Your mom is so looking forward to seeing you, she…" The tremor in her features then, the fearful hope, made his heart go out to her that much more. He looked up to Katy, who shook her head and shrugged, not understanding this reaction either, except… She mouthed the words, and he understood. I don't think he told her. "She's better now, okay? I promise. She's going to need to stay here for another day or two because the doctor wants to watch her and be sure a little more, but after that, she and the baby are coming home." Technically speaking, Aubrey could have been discharged by now, but with all that had happened…

Marianne's heart was soothed at last, though it would need a minute or so to properly settle. But her father would hold her hand now, and he would lead her into the room where she would find what she'd so needed for the last couple of days: her mother, sitting up in that bed, awake, her face breaking into a smile the moment she saw her… Once she saw that, Marianne bolted to the bed, stopped there, hesitant, until Maya assured her that she could climb up; she'd already scooted herself to the side enough so that she could. The girl didn't have to be told twice. She kicked off her shoes first, but then she climbed up on the bed, sitting on her knees by her mother, uncertain again. Could she hug her? Would it hurt? Maya guided her in this, pulling her into her arms, and there Marianne melted, her heart finally knowing peace.

"I've missed you so much, my pumpkin," Maya whispered before kissing her daughter's face, once, twice, and a few more times after that. Marianne drank up this affection like she had been depleted of it in the time that they had been apart. She didn't need to tell them whether she'd missed her mother or not; they could feel it radiating from her.

Katy was recording this reunion between the two of them, as she would record the meeting of this first and latest born of her daughter and son-in-law's. Lucas had gone and lifted the baby from where she'd been quietly awake and resting and brought her around the bed to where Marianne sat.

"Aubrey…" she spoke the name she herself had helped to find for her new sister, and Lucas and Maya smiled.

"That's her right there," Maya nodded. Marianne was an expert at holding babies, enough that the reflex to tell her to be careful was unnecessary. She supported her head and kept her very safe as Lucas placed her in her arms. She'd seen her before, on a video call with her father, but it paled so much in comparison to the real thing, alive and moving as she held her. "How are you doing? Are you okay?" Maya asked her. Marianne looked at her, nodded, but still there was that little something in the back of her eyes, and Maya leaned her head against hers, still holding her arm around her. "It's okay if you were scared. You don't have to hide it, not from us, okay? We can talk about it, whenever you'd like." Marianne didn't say anything, stayed focused on her sister, but she nodded, and Maya turned her head so she might kiss her daughter's forehead.

Marianne couldn't see what her father and grandmother could see, couldn't see the way her mother seemed to be witnessing, now more than ever, the effect that the last couple of days had had on her firstborn. There had been absolutely nothing for her to do about it, none of it was any of their fault, and yet here was the result, and it felt horrible.

But they had other things to think about, much better ones now, too, and they would do all they could in order to focus on those… like bringing the rest of the girls along. They couldn't reasonably bring one triplet at a time, so they brought the three of them in next. At the beginning, they hadn't really known or had space to know that something was wrong with their mother, but the longer time had gone on with this unplanned disruption, and the more they'd seen of their people looking concerned, never seeing their mother, only seeing their father on a screen… They may not have known what had happened to their mother, and nearly happened to her, but when they were reunited with their parents, there was no keeping them away. They first saw their father, coming to meet them in the hall, and they dashed to meet him. Lucas was exhausted, could not be expected to lift them all at once even though he still had it in him on regular days. They were all over him though, and they never seemed to mind not having the triple lift.

"I missed you, Daddy," Lucy declared.

"I missed you, too!" Kacey chimed in.

"I missed you, three!" Remy lifted three fingers. There was no contesting that.

"I missed you… all the numbers," Lucas promised, and that was impressive. "Now, did Grandpa tell you about when we go in there?" he asked, nodding to the room. They nodded.

"No shouting," Kacey repeated.

"No running," Lucy added.

"Inside voice," Remy whispered.

"You got it. Let's go…" he got up from his crouch and moved behind them, leading them into the room. The impulse to break all of those 'rules' was very strong when they saw their mother.

They'd seen their father on video calls, but there had been nothing of their mother since that time when they'd been spirited away by Missy Sanderson. Now she was here, and all they wanted was to be near her. Marianne was off the bed by now, holding the baby still, so one by one the triplets were lifted up to where they could embrace their mother. They didn't stop and ask if they could, just came and held on to what part they could. If Maya felt any discomfort of any kind, she bore it gladly and quietly in favor of having her little butts there with her. She'd already been teary-eyed at getting Marianne, and now with these three, her eyes were spilling over, prompting Lucy to reach up and try to wipe the tears from her mother's smiling face.

"I'm alright, bun-bun, I promise. Happy tears, all of them. That one, too," she nodded when the girl held up her finger, shining with the caught tear.

Finally, Ella came along with Mackenzie, and oh how the one-year-old had no awareness or need for the rules. She saw her mother and had cried out 'Mama!' about ten times by the time she could be deposited directly into her arms. She did not want to move from there, and she was allowed to remain, thumb stuck firmly in mouth. She remained this way even as Marianne allowed her father to lift the newborn and bring her where the other little Friars could see her. She came around, and Ella lifted her up. It had taken far longer than any of them would have hoped for, but at long last, they were here, all together, Maya, and Lucas, and all seven of their daughters. They had gotten through the worst of it, and now they faced the future together.

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners