September 28th 2022
Chapter 271
Our Season of Rain & Stars
It seemed inevitable with them, like it had been decided that this was an integral a part of their trips, that they had at least one rainy day come to change their plans. Not that about half of their group would have much of an issue with that. Sure, it would be disappointing if they'd had anything big planned and they maybe couldn't make it work, but they tended to find a way. It was a whole other matter where the girls were involved, and so it was, on their third morning in Greece.
Leaping into this second leg of their vacation had brought on a similar mood already. They would have been content staying out in France, at their hotel, with Pierre the concierge, with their vocabulary game… But they had been enticed to change their tune there, figuring if it had worked once, it could work a second time. They liked new words and new voices? Oh, did their eldest sister have a surprise for them. They had only ever rarely heard her use her 'secret voice,' enough so that they could forget she had it… and Theo had it, too… and Nika… Even Tori had it, though she was still learning.
That was what had started them on the path of recognizing a few new things, curious and intriguing. They left their first hotel – giving Pierre a massive goodbye – and they flew off, landing in yet another completely different place from their hometown. Except this place had something to it, some familiar quality they couldn't put their fingers on at first. It took a while for them to get there, fascinated as they were by the new everything around them, and their new hotel… and new words! Oh, the game never stopped amusing them. It wasn't until dinner on the second day that things started to click for them. After a great day out in the sunlight, they'd stopped to eat.
While Marianne was so excited because she'd seen places that reminded her of that first diary cover of Nika's that she'd been so fascinated by and had reproduced to the best of her abilities, the triplets had their heads on a swivel, looking around them at the people in the restaurant like they were the pieces of a great puzzle. They would look at the people, and then back at their table, then the people… Finally, it was Lucy who tugged at her sister's sleeve and quietly spoke.
"Ella?"
"Yeah, Lucy?" she looked down at her, smiling. Oh, she'd just seemed alive in a different way ever since they'd landed here, like she'd stepped into a whole other part of herself.
"They look like you," Lucy noted, indicating some of the people around them specifically, those she felt had that certain Ella quality to them. The fact that she'd picked up on it made her sister smile again.
"Yeah, I guess they would, huh?" she agreed.
Lucy looked at her again, as did the twins behind her, who were latching on to what their triplet had said, because it was just what they'd been trying to work out. Their parents could just about see the pieces fall into place. They would look at Ella, and at their mother and father, their sisters. More and more, they were being told directly how much they looked like their parents, the twins being smaller, female versions of their father, and Lucy being like a mini Maya… They would hear how Marianne looked so much like the both of them, but also how the three of them were 'clearly her sisters' whenever someone would see them together for the first time, the same for Mackenzie, even little Aubrey… But Ella… Ella looked so different from them as to make her stand out. She looked nothing like Maya or Lucas, nothing like her little sisters, but then here…
Ella looked to their parents at first, like she was asking them permission, and they nodded, so she looked to the triplets again.
"That's because they're like me," she explained, indicating the people. "My family, my first family, they were from here, just like Theo and Nika's," she nodded to them, and the girls' heads whipped over to the siblings and back again. This was a lot of information. A first family? So, she wasn't in Mommy's belly like the rest of them? "No," Ella laughed politely. "I was at the school; I was a student in her class when we met. Tori was just a baby, about the same age as Aubrey is now actually." More head whipping, more questions, as slowly but surely, they came to realize that Ella had been adopted into their family.
Of the reasons why she'd ended up a Friar, she would be vague, but she was more than happy to give her sisters a brief rundown of her connection to the country they were now visiting. What it came down to, was that Ella's first father himself had been adopted, into the Levesque family, as a baby. He'd always known that fact, and in due time he'd become curious about his origins. Many people had already clocked him for being of Greek descent, like it was just written across his forehead. He had no information of his birth family, nor was he expected to find it, but a DNA test had confirmed it, Greek through and through. So, when he was in college, he'd decided to fly out there. He had no idea whether his own birth parents had ever been there themselves or if they'd just lived all their lives in the US. It didn't matter. He may have been separated from his roots, but they were there, and it became his greatest motivation to reforge those connections. He immersed himself in history, culture, language. This all culminated in that first trip… where he was to meet his future wife.
In time, she had moved back with him, they had married, and had two daughters, of which Ella was the second. For as long as she could remember, this was the world she had been raised in. It was also the world Theo and Nika Petrelis had been raised in. Ella – Summer – had known Theo since they were children, had known his family. They existed in the same circles, so it was inevitable. And for that, in time, Tori had come to be.
They'd left it at that, deftly steering the conversation back somewhere 'safe,' before they could get into the way her first parents had reacted, and the saga of Theo and his parents… That was all a part of the past they were most comfortable leaving where it was. Someday, she might explain it to her little sisters, but they were not quite three years old just now, and it wouldn't matter. That was alright though. Just having this piece of information had been enough to intrigue the girls and make them happier to discover this piece of their sister, to learn more words directly from her. It was a part of her, it was important, she'd said.
Now here they were, a new day starting with a big downpour, and this presented a bit of a challenge. They'd had plans that involved going out again, taking in as much of their surroundings as they could while they were here, as the pages of Nika's travel diary – and Maya's as well – filled more and more, but the weather was not helping. They might have gotten away with it if there were fewer of them, but by their number – not to mention the youth of some of their travel party – it just promised so much chaos that they decided to embrace a day of hotel living. They could make that into something fun for their girls very easily, and so they did. It might have been one of their favorite ones of the entire vacation.
The rain had finally settled down in late afternoon, and there was definitely a sense in the two younger couples among them like they would want to go out there, while both Maya and Lucas – who carried Aubrey o'clock wherever they went – felt more like seeing this quiet indoor day to its conclusion. Nika suggested that Ella and Taylor and Theo and Lea have themselves a double date night. She and the others would watch Tori. It took very little convincing from there, and soon the quartet had split off, leaving Maya, Lucas, and Nika to look after the little ones.
Tori had been here before, just two summers back, and the memories were a bit faded, but she still had that feeling of familiarity in her. It had been especially beneficial to her polishing her handle on the Greek language. With each day, it felt like she was growing more and more fluent in it. Whenever they'd go and interact with staff in the hotel, she would talk to them with the confidence of a native speaker, and she'd be so proud upon looking to her grandparents.
The time difference had been rough for the little girls to navigate, in the beginning especially, though they had been adjusting in the days since. It still made it so that they were up later than usual, though their parents would do their best to just trust their judgment, knowing their daughters and their internal clocks. They had a great evening in their room, where Nika saw to lullaby duty, sharing one from her own childhood. When all were down for the count, she went along with Maya and Lucas to sit outside. There were stars in the sky as they waited for the two couples' eventual return, faint music in the distance… It was all very peaceful, which threatened to lull the new parents to sleep right then and there if they didn't work to keep awake a bit. Luckily, Nika started them up. Not vocally, just… There was a look on her face, concern, and seeing it, Maya had to ask. Nika breathed in, out.
"I'm fine," she insisted.
"Are you sure about that?" Maya quietly asked her. Her eyes were turned up to the sky, thinking.
"I… I was thinking about… Anthony," she admitted. They might have guessed it, just by that curve in her posture, closing in on herself… Thinking about the baby boy she had given up always brought her back to that place, to when she'd given him up. No matter how much she'd known that it was the right call, it still hurt, and it probably always would, in some way or another.
"What about him?" Lucas asked.
"Just… being here, talking about our families, Ella's first father and his story… It made me wonder about him, about when he grows up and he starts to wonder…"
"Was his father also…" Maya started to ask, unsure whether she'd want to answer, but Nika nodded. And for that, somehow, the soon-to-be senior girl had placed her son in the same position as her niece's original grandfather. "You can't keep turning it over in your head. You'll only torture yourself, and for what? He's in a good place, thanks to you." Nika nodded, sniffed as she pressed the heel of her hand at her eyes. Maya moved over and bent to hug her where she sat. Nika melted right into the hold, taking the comfort as it was given.
Everyone was in bed by the time the quartet returned. At least, everyone had been until about two minutes before they came up the hall toward their rooms. Maya was up again, seeing to Aubrey who had awakened, so when she heard the sounds outside, she went and opened the door to find them all laughing the quiet laugh of tipsy people trying to stay quiet. When they spotted Maya and the baby there they straightened up at once.
"Hi…" Ella mumbled, like a teenager busted by her mother. Maya tried to squint at her but could only laugh.
"You guys had a good time?" she guessed, and they all nodded. Lea looked this close to dozing off and was leaning heavily on Theo's arm, off in her own world going by how casually she'd been nibbling at his ear right before she'd spotted her cousin-in-law/former teacher. And going by the way Ella and Taylor had been holding to one another, too, Maya could also guess what they'd been thinking about before they'd seen her.
"I should check on Tori," Ella nodded to herself, to Taylor.
"Can I also…" Theo motioned, and the two of them went in there, while Taylor got the door open so Lea could get in their rooms. He followed to make sure she'd be alright. After Theo came back from looking in on Tori, Ella emerged as well, stopping to thank her mother.
"When we get home, I think the rest of us might need to keep up the Greek lessons," Maya told her, and Ella beamed. She would happily assist.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
