September 18th 2022
Chapter 261
Our Hope For the Future
It had never felt so strange and so wonderful all at once to get to put her children to bed, to go and curl up in her own bed with her husband and fall asleep together. Her whole internal clock still felt like it was out of balance, between the time she'd been unconscious and then the rest of her stay at the hospital, and she'd been feeling it especially once they left there and started for home. It reminded her of the 'coming home from vacation' feeling, except not so relaxed. How could she have relaxed anyway, huh? Oh, she was supposed to, and if that was everyone's feeling after a normal delivery, then it was never so true as this time around. It was worse than when she'd come home after having the triplets. They were all over her, and she knew very well that it came from a place where they were just so happy that she was alive at all, so… what could she even say or do, right?
But then bedtime rolled around for their little ones, and no power in the universe would stop her from helping each one of them into her PJs after Lucas saw them through bath time – save for Aubrey – and see to their hair, and tuck them into bed with this doll or that plush… She did story time – two whole ones in either room, plus a couple of lullabies… The way they looked at her, it was clear to Maya that it meant a lot to them, too, to have her there doing all this, and she could only gladly indulge them. It could not in any way be quantified or put into words how much she'd needed to do this.
"How many of them do you think will end up over here by morning?" Lucas asked her when it came time for them to follow suit. Her smile felt so utterly bittersweet, thinking of the implications of the question, that he almost felt bad for asking it, but she just went on smiling, did so with renewed energy.
"There will be seven of us in this bed by sunrise, count on it," she nodded. "Only one who won't be, well, she's already in the room… Aren't you, Lucky," she padded over to the crib to look in on her. Aubrey slept as peacefully as any days-old babe could hope to, under the twirling protection of her wooden birds. It still brought a smile and the tremor of happy tears in her chest to see it, to recognize Dora's carving skill, to recognize her students and former students' hands in the painting of them… She still needed to hear the story of how they had all come together in the first place in order to do this.
When they finally lay down in their bed, side by side, and she felt his arm come around her, Maya pressed her hand over his, clasped on, and she felt him squeeze back. He curled up nearer, pressed a tender kiss to the flowers at her shoulder like he'd wanted just this simple gesture back for so long. She turned her head around at this, that he might kiss her lips this time, and she do the same to his.
"Sweet dreams, husband," she smiled at him, and the smile he returned her… He would not have had this sweet of dreams since the last time they'd been here together.
The prediction was shown to be correct, across the board. Barely an hour had gone by since they'd gone to bed that Lucas woke, feeling movement on the bed. He just had time to open his eyes and then move back to make space that there was Lucy. She curled up to him and he held her, brushed at her back to help her get back to sleep. He didn't even get that far though that along came Kacey and Remy, holding hands as they went, which got this close to becoming a catastrophe as they clearly had their eyes barely open and nearly missed the door frame both out of their room and into their parents'. They thankfully made it without incident, and up they came, same as their triplet had done. This time, Maya woke as well, and she went ahead and turned over so she, too, could embrace the girls as they came up.
They'd all managed to get back to sleep for a while before Aubrey woke crying, needing to be fed, and then they were all awake, including the girls in the green room. This was Mackenzie's first night where the baby in the house wasn't her, and she woke up crying as well. Marianne had already gotten up and helped her from her crib and into her arms by the time Lucas made it down to check on her.
"They're in the big bed, aren't they?" Marianne asked her father, and he chuckled, nodding, as he brushed at the back of the one-year-old's head.
"You two care to join us?" he looked to Marianne now. The look on her face suggested that she'd wanted it all along but had restrained from going for several reasons. But if she was offered the option…
It was a crowded mess, having all of them there together, but they didn't mind, not in the slightest. It was the best night they had in a while, even if it was interrupted more than once for Aubrey to be seen to. She would wake, and Lucas would go to look in on her, lift her up in his arms and turn to find several iterations of either his eyes or Maya's staring back at him. Look at you, Lucky. You've got all these big sisters looking out for you already.
Come morning, Lucas decided that what they most needed in this instance was a breakfast worthy of the family's being back together at home. It felt a bit early to go and pack everyone in the minivan and actually go to Ma Maggie's, but there was nothing stopping him going out and bringing an order home from their favorite breakfast place. After making sure he had everyone's orders figured out, he made the call and was on his way. In the meantime, the girls didn't look too interested in playing around. All they really wanted to do seemed to boil down to 'be near Mommy' and 'look at the baby.' So, they stayed in their parents' room with Maya.
Standing there now, in the morning light, her attention was caught by Lucas' desk. Next to it, there sat the fifth diary box, the spare materials box, all by itself, and it made her think of those other four boxes, which would be back at school. She would have missed one rotation of the diary pick-ups by now, understandably. Of course, now that she was home… Would she have had it in her to go through all of those today? Even if she wanted to, really wanted to, honestly… no. She was going to need a few more days to really get back into that mindset, and she knew no one would fault her for it. Still…
The school year was nearing its end. She'd been home for part of that tail end, but she'd really missed the last several days, and it felt like she'd had her eyes covered, been spun around, and was now expected to find her away again. She thought about Bobby Davis, who she'd been meant to start tutoring right about now. She still wanted to help him, but frankly she just wasn't there yet, and in the meantime the clock was ticking for him. So, she finally made up her mind and called Cory, meaning to try and ask him to fill in for her, at least for a little while and then maybe she'd be able to do as she'd said she would. But then when she got to speak to him, she discovered the matter had already been handled. Nellie. She'd reached out to dear Uncle Cory, and of course he wouldn't say no, to her or to Bobby.
After they hung up, she sat on the edge of the bed and let out a breath. She'd had all these plans for the end of this school year, and now it was like she'd forgotten all of it or fallen desperately behind without meaning to. For one who was always on top of her game, juggling a seemingly unreasonable number of tasks, she was finding herself… aimless. She was home, she had her girls, and Lucas, and everything else felt sort of beyond her reach.
"Mommy?" She blinked, noticed Marianne, standing a few steps from her, that full Friar worry brow going strong. "Do you need to sleep more? I can watch them," she indicated her little sisters.
"No, it's okay," Maya promised, shaking her head before reaching out her hand, that Marianne might come nearer. She did so, and Maya was able to close her arms around her waist. "Hey, we still need to swap these back," she remarked, pointing to her own necklace around her daughter's neck, and the reverse around her own. Marianne looked uncertain. Could they really? "We're home, aren't we?" Maya smiled reassuringly, and Marianne could not argue this, so she busied herself at performing the swap, small fingers delicately unclasping and clasping again, passing one chain and the other from one neck to the other. "What do you want to do today?" she asked her as she watched her work, keeping her attention split between her and the others behind her. Marianne shrugged. "No idea?" Maya asked, imitating her. It wrested one small smile from the girl.
"I don't know. We don't have to do anything. I just like… being here, with you."
"Yeah, you and me both," Maya agreed, moving her hands to cup her girl's face. "What if we turn the whole living room into a fort big enough for all of us… and the television?"
"Yeah," Marianne nodded at once, intrigued. "Can we do that?"
"Look who you're talking to," Maya brushed off the notion that they could even fail.
By the time Lucas returned with bags of Ma Maggie's containers, everyone had moved down to the living room, which was in a state of transformation. There was not even an ounce of wondering what this was about or how they'd gotten there. He would help them complete the construction… after they paused to go and eat.
It wasn't their first meal back home, now with Aubrey among them. That honor had gone to lunch, the previous day, and then dinner… But this was their first breakfast, and it was their favorite meal of the day, and Maya was back, and Aubrey had arrived… It was just what they'd wanted for so long. They ate, and then the fort was completed, and all day long, they stayed there, watching movies, only exiting for lunch – and finally retrieving the dogs from the Sandersons' – and bathroom breaks, and snacks, and then dinner, before finally being at their second bedtime already. With the kids in bed, and Emma and Eliza busy elsewhere, Lucas and Maya returned to the fort, joined there by a few of their dogs who had so missed their Maya, for one more movie, a lowercase date long overdue.
Here, Maya expressed her earlier feelings, about what she knew she needed to do, and what she struggled to actually accomplish. Lucas listened, considered.
"Just give it time," he suggested, about the only thing he could suggest.
"I'm going to run out of it sooner or later if I don't…"
"Fine, then just wait a day or two, see how it goes. It's the end of the school year. Knowing you, with everything that's happened already, and what's coming up, the end of classes, the prom, graduation…"
"I hope… I know you're right," she breathed, leaned to him, and he held her. "Give it time…"
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
