September 26th 2022

Chapter 269
Our Season of Travels & Flights

It was very possible that anyone who saw them go through the airport would believe they'd needed an entire separate van just for their luggage, and frankly neither Maya nor Lucas could say they were completely wrong. Flying off for three weeks, with two adults, five children between six and one, and a baby, they had done their best to keep 'necessities' to a minimum, but they could only do so much. Add on top of that Ella and Tori and their baggage, and the same for Taylor, and Lea, and Theo, and Nika… They had set out originally to go, just the two of them and their daughters, but then Ella was not a little girl. She had her own, and that had all trickled on to those extra four members of the vacation party. They didn't mind. At this point, they could wholly embrace 'the more the merrier.'

"I don't think it's going to close…" Maya breathed, glaring at the suitcase on her bed like perhaps the power of New York Maya would convince it to allow passage to the zipper around its edges. "Got any space left anywhere?" Lucas peered around their room, which had taken on the look of a baggage depot, each item tagged with its own color, to help them identify what belonged to which of their travelers.

"I know you don't want to add one more thing, but I'm not sure that…" Lucas shook his head.

"No, we can do this, we just need to think… Annie, get in here, please?" she called out, summoning a rush of footsteps from up the hall.

"Here!"

"Good, come push on this for me, please?" she pointed to the suitcase, and Marianne gladly climbed on to the bed, tackling the object, which made her laugh. "Okay, let's try this," Maya chuckled along as she reached for the zipper where it had stopped. Slowly but surely, it passed and reached the end. Marianne sat back, happy for their success, and Maya double high fived her. "Thanks for the help, Sheriff," she beamed, and was treated with the tip of an invisible hat from her daughter. It made her laugh, moving to hug her. "Now, hold on, if you've got the hat…" she felt at the air above Marianne's head. "You, Huckleberry, come here," she reached out her hand, and he submitted himself with a smirk. She felt above his head. "No, it's there…" she hummed. "Someone went to the invisible hat store, huh? Was it hard to find?" she slowly nodded with a pointed look that made Marianne giggle. "Also, where's mine?" she gestured at her head, making Marianne laugh harder. Once she had gone back to her sisters, Lucas turned to Maya and their packing 'woes.'

"You know we're bound to come back with some souvenirs, right?" he pointed out, and they looked at their luggage.

"Forget invisible hats, we need a magic bottomless trunk…"

They weren't leaving for two days yet, but they needed to get this packing under control today. Tomorrow would be Haley's birthday party, the littlest Hunter turning twelve this year, and the day after that, they would be flying off, all fourteen of them, for the next three weeks. It wasn't the first family vacation they'd taken since they'd become parents, but it was without a doubt the most involved trip they had yet to take. Under different circumstances they might have gone for a week, maybe two at the very top, but with everything that had happened over the past year, it felt more than ever like this was just what they all needed, sufficient time to disconnect from everything except them and their family.

Just a few days ago, Maya and Lucas had gone into the Hex together, where they'd recorded their anniversary song. After nine years of marriage, they now had just as many songs, ten, actually, counting the one that had been born of their honeymoon. Each one was a reflection of the year it followed, the highs, the lows… This last year's song had been a difficult one for Maya to write. It should have been all about the wonderful things… They'd had another baby girl, and she was a wonderful little being already, not two months old… But how were they supposed to pretend like something massive hadn't happened that very same day? They had to find the proper middle, where they acknowledged that dark cloud but didn't let it expand and rob all the light that had also been part of their skies. What had come out of it was a song she was really proud of, as was Lucas. It was really one of those that resonated so deeply with them, and they always loved when those came along.

"Do you think you'll ever release them?" Lucas had asked, after they'd finished recording. It was a genuine question, born of admiration for her work, and it made her smile. He wanted the world to get to hear what he heard, thought they should.

"Maybe someday I'll change my mind, but no," she'd told him. "They're ours, they're for us, and for our girls…" He'd nodded, understanding. He kind of felt that way, too.

They'd split the trip into three legs, roughly a week in each location. They would make a return to Paris, land of their honeymoon, they would go to Greece, for Ella and Tori and the Petrelis siblings, and they would finish in a 'mystery location.' That was how they had marketed it to the kids, not yet telling them that they would make their way to Australia, there to get to spend some time, among other things, with Maya's aunt and uncle, Georgie and Toph, and with Franny Santos and her family. They could already imagine how the surprise would be received.

Haley's party the next day was by far the strangest transition from one year to the next. Her eleventh birthday party had been about what one would expect, by her age, and her involvement… But then this year, with the movie and everything that had come of it, with Thanksgiving and the parade, and interviews on local news and the likes, her twelfth was suddenly full to bursting, to the point where they weren't entirely sure that all the kids that showed up went to Haley's school. It had not gone well, was just too much, and she'd ended the day so upset that Maya had felt bad to leave her. Katy and Shawn assured their eldest that they'd have things handled, that she should go and enjoy her vacation, not letting this stay on her mind. For everyone's sake, she would do her best, but she would hope to get updates.

The thing about having six small children to see through bedtime and then a pre-flight morning was that it went a long way in putting any and all things that weren't involved with that out of one's mind. So, much as she would want to comfort her little sister, Maya instead turned her attention to seeing that everyone was set and ready to go for their flight to Paris. When they went to bed, the bags were all downstairs, waiting to be loaded for departure the next morning. The house would be seen to by Eliza and Emma, so the dogs didn't have to be brought anywhere while they were gone. Everyone went to bed on time, and even though they were still very much on Aubrey o'clock as far as sleep went, they made it to the next morning, as they had to get everyone up and prepared to leave, feeling no worse than they did on most days with an infant.

"We're going on a plane!" Kacey chanted as they drove off.

"Yeah, we are, cub," Lucas smirked.

"We're going on a plane!" she repeated again, barely a minute later.

"You've been on one before, do you remember?" Maya looked in the rear view mirror. She did not.

Kacey proclaimed and reminded them that they were going on a plane several times before they made it to the airport. By the end of it, Maya was red in the face from laughing, and it was a miracle of concentration that Lucas hadn't lost it either, especially with how the other triplets had taken up the chant, too. Whenever they would do it, Mackenzie would squeal and throw her hands up, and Marianne would laugh. Aubrey would just sort of blink, almost startled, but she didn't cry. Possibly, she had gotten used to the noise of car rides with all her sisters by now.

"Alright, once we're on the plane, we have to try and use our quiet voices as much as possible, alright? Not whispering, just normal, okay? That means no shouting, no matter how excited we are," Lucas told the girls when they had reached the parking lot and they were being helped down from the minivan. Could they guarantee that they would remember this in the hours they'd spend on that plane? Not exactly. But they would do their very best.

They had six adults and a teenager, six children and a baby. This made it easy then to buddy everyone up, so each child would be seen to. Maya would have Aubrey, and Lucas would have Mackenzie, the better for them to swap if need be. Ella had Tori, and Taylor was chosen by Marianne herself, which her parents suspected jokingly was so that she could 'inspect' the young man now that he was her big sister's boyfriend. It didn't matter that she'd known him all her life; this was different, they all said so. Theo got Kacey, Lea got Remy, and Nika got Lucy, which all seemed very much like kind matched to kind. It all made the flight go by at a relatively peaceful rhythm. Movies certainly helped, and snacks, and an attendant who would clearly win the 'best with kids' award. By the end, the triplets almost cried for having to leave him.

But then they got off the plane, and they were in a great new airport which replaced all those disappointed little faces with wide-eyed awe. Remy thought for a moment that it had to be a museum, but then there were too many people and too much sound for it to be that, clearly.

"Alright, come on, we have to go get our things," Maya guided them along to return to their buddies. They weren't about to lose anyone out here. "Trust me, you're going to love it."

All their bags were present and accounted for, none of them damaged in any way, which they took as yet one more sign today that they were going to have a great three weeks ahead of them. Did they believe they would jinx themselves if they said that out loud? Not necessarily, but just to be on the safe side, they kept it to themselves anyway.

"Mommy, Daddy, they're talking in your secret voice!" Lucy called over as she walked along holding Nika's hand. It took a moment for Maya and Lucas to figure out what she meant, but then… ah, yes, they were speaking French. Sign language was not something they could use around their girls if they expected to say things without their knowing what it meant, but the language they had learned in high school certainly was. The fact that Lucy could recognize it for what it was when she heard it here was fascinating and made them wonder what a week surrounded by people who spoke that language would mean for her and for the others.

"I think we're going to need to learn another language soon," Lucas joked in a whisper, and Maya laughed. "Might be a good activity," he shrugged. He had a point there. "Got any preferences, Teach?"

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners