A/N: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!
November 4th 2022
Chapter 308
Our Hands to Connect
Marianne had wanted him to 'do all the beards,' and who would he be if he denied her? She wanted him to do it for her, and the triplets, and the little sisters. They'd all either never seen it or been too young to remember, so they couldn't pass up this chance for some good laughs, right?
"Okay, alright, ladies, are we all set?" Lucas asked in his best MC voice, looking around. It would have been too complicated to keep them all in the bathroom with him, especially the smallest two, so they were set up across the hall, back in Marianne and Mackenzie's room, all six girls either standing, sitting, or lying on the floor. The easiest way to have them all cheering, even if they didn't exactly know what was going on, was for Marianne to start them off, and then for the triplets to jump in, which would get Mackenzie going with them. Even Aubrey, staring at all of them, would let out a merry squeal of solidarity, and Lucy would go and sit with her, trying to get her to do it again.
He didn't know how long it took, with how he'd started off with about as long of a beard as he would grow in the 'not Santa yet' season, but for the next little while, he would go and shave it all off, bit by bit, turning it into one style or another, as comical as possible for the girls' sake. After each alteration, he would go and show them how it looked, and they would laugh. Every time he came over, the best reactions were easily those of the little sisters. Mackenzie would insist on stepping up and feeling his face where he'd last removed another bit of hair, which Lucas would submit to. As for Aubrey, she was now sitting up, propped up against Marianne who held her in her lap. She would look at her father and would have this puzzled expression on her face like she knew this was her father but also something didn't seem right. He had to imagine how it would have been if he had gone from full to zero beard. She might not have known it was him at all.
He'd be growing it up all over again before long, with how close they were getting to December, but it felt good to take a break from it all, too… and to get some laughs out of it, with his daughters, and with his wife, too. When he went down to find her and she first spotted him, Maya's eyes sparked with a flash of mischief, like she just wanted to go over there and grab his face with both hands. She might have done it, too, if she hadn't been about wrist deep into preparing dinner.
"Get over here and put your cheek against mine, please," she requested, and he laughed, walking over to do as asked. "Excellent," she hummed.
"You want to cancel now, don't you?" he teased.
"Little bit, but everything's coming together, and they'll be here in a little while… It'd be a shame, huh?"
The Days were on their way for dinner with the Friars. It was already a semi-regular thing for them, whether at this house or the other, but ever since Emma had started dating Dakota, these dinners had been happening more often. Maya loved messing with her little sister, knowing how she'd get all nervous, wanting everything to go perfectly whenever her boyfriend and his family would be coming over. Eliza would say that they should have the Days over more often, the better to keep the house this way all the time, only to get a look from her sister and brother-in-law, compelling her to then assure them both that everything was very clean the rest of the time, too, gaggle of girls aside.
Emma might have had superspeed with how fast she zoomed off at the sound of the doorbell. Even her nieces couldn't keep up with her… or the dogs either. Not that she looked like she'd been running when she opened the door to Barton, Michelle, Dakota, Roman, and Anton. With his mother at school with her on knitting club days, Maya knew that Dakota was experiencing his own bit of playful teasing over his nerves where Emma was concerned.
It was not dinner with the Days without the Friar sisters making the rounds with their guests, from Marianne wanting to show how she had been practicing those knitting skills that they'd shown her down to Aubrey, who had developed a recent fascination for glasses, which kept her in Barton's lap for a good while, staring up at him and reaching out her hands time and again.
They had just finished dessert and were winding down before their guests would head home when Maya's phone rang. It was Sam. Dora was in labor: the baby was early.
They could take a moment to figure out what they'd do, but there was definitely an impulse in them to hurry up out the door. Maya's brother, Lucas' cousin… and their future nephew… They had to go. It was getting kind of late for their daughters though. Eliza and Emma couldn't exactly stay with them here; this was their brother having a kid, too. So, the Days offered to stay with the girls, getting them off to bed and waiting for the Friars to return, as long as it took. Recognizing this as the simplest solution that would get them where they needed to be the fastest, Maya and Lucas agreed… but Marianne didn't. She wanted to go, she had to go, as far as she was concerned. She had a gift for the baby and everything. Her parents knew they were lining themselves up to potentially leave their impromptu babysitters with some cranky small children because they didn't get to go, but they agreed, and so before long it was Maya, Lucas, and Marianne, leaving the house to go and join the others at the hospital, with Eliza and Emma following right behind.
They arrived just as Cara and Mateo did. They'd left Felix with a neighbor, unsure how long they would be out here but sure enough that it would either be the middle of the night or early hours of morning by the time they returned. They were all as giddy as the next one at the prospect of meeting Baby Boy Calahart. The four sisters were still talking, figuring out who had been called and who might still need to be called when Teddy arrived. Priya was back home with Lily, for about the same reason why Felix and most of the Friar girls had been left behind, and the girl had definitely been old enough to be upset about it.
As tended to happen, the Tucson contingent of their family was either a day or two away from flying out or they were fortunate enough to arrive ahead of time. In this case, it was the former, and so they could already know that, at this very moment, back in Arizona, Abigail and James and the others were doing their best to get out here as quickly as possible. Did they have a shot of making it here before the baby was born? It was impossible to say, though it could also be suggested that a generous part of them wouldn't mind missing the birth if it meant that Dora didn't have to be in labor for longer than she needed to be. As they walked in and found her room though, they would come to posit that the Hart-Lanes just might have had a shot to get here in time if they played their cards right.
Yes, Dora was in labor, no doubt to it, but oh, it would be slow going.
Her parents were already there, Dot holding Francesca in her arms, while her brothers were on their way. They walked out so to allow the new visitors into the room without crowding it. Marianne was quick to go and hug her Uncle Sam, and he hugged her back, lifting her clean off her feet as he did and keeping her there for comical effect.
"Hello, Annie girl," he smiled at her, and she laughed. Oh, he was bubbling over with nervously excited energy at the prospect of meeting his son, and having her there, having all of them there… It was a relief as much as a joy.
"I have something for you, but you have to put me down first," Marianne informed him, so he tipped his head respectfully and did as asked. She held up a bag for him and Dora both to see, where she sat up in the bed. "Wait until we're not here, okay?" she instructed, with enough of a secretive tone for all of them to figure out why.
Marianne knew what the baby's name would be. She hadn't been meant to know already, but she had discovered it by accident and had since been sworn to secrecy. She took this responsibility very seriously, yes, but also just a bit mischievously, and she did this in a way so in tune with how her parents would do it that they could not respond in any other way than to laugh. They would respond by trying to trip her up into saying it, but only in a way that was so evident that she would know not to fall for it. If they were too obvious about it, she would almost scold them for their performance score.
"Thank you," Dora smiled as her cousin's daughter came up to her bedside. "I promise we'll wait," she told her. Marianne nodded and started to speak and sign at the same time.
"Does it hurt a lot?" she asked, her voice carrying just enough of concern to let them know what might have been on her mind; to look around, whether they'd ever bring it up or not, it was plain to see she was not the only one.
The last time the family had come together like this for the birth of a new baby was for Aubrey Friar… and they remembered how that had gone. It wasn't as though they were under the impression that the same thing – or worse – would absolutely happen to Dora, but they couldn't help but be led down the path of worry as they remembered what Maya had gone through.
"I'm doing alright," Dora assured her niece. "Your uncle is going to look after me," she added, lifting a smile to Sam, who confirmed as much to Marianne with a good nod. Did that erase everyone's fears? No, and it couldn't, but it did make them just a bit easier to bear. At this point, no one would need this more than Sam as he'd stand by his wife with memories of his sister's ordeal in his head.
"Hey… Breathe," Maya asked her brother as she hugged him. He nodded into her shoulder, and she rubbed at his back. Her little Sammy, about to be a father again… It boggled the mind. Lucas was having the same feeling about Dora being a mother again, she who had been a baby in his arms once upon a time, had been a kicking little thing inside his aunt's belly. It was always going to feel that way, no matter how many kids they had.
Soon, the long wait would begin. It would be enough that, after a few hours had gone by and things were still slow to advance, Lucas went ahead and called his parents, asked if they would be able to collect the girls from the house and look after them, relieving the Days of their babysitting duties. He didn't doubt that they would have stayed with them as long as it took, but it felt more responsible this way. They had half a mind to ask if they'd swing by and grab Marianne, as she was now sleeping soundly in her father's lap, but at this point it felt like she might as well stay. She'd want to tough it out and be there for this, and by now it felt like she had every right to get her wish.
And anyway… The longer this took, if she wasn't here, they knew it would only worry her again, make her think of her mother the last time. Right here, if she woke up and wanted to know what was happening, they could tell her. Dora's brothers – Emmett Jr. and Alex – were trading places every hour or so in being near their sister's room, the better to bring updates back to the waiting room. Every time they came back, the news was very similar. What progress there was – if there was any – came slow, but at least it was normal, and while she was growing miserable for it, Dora was doing okay.
It would be younger brother Alex, just after seven in the morning, who would have the privilege to let the waiters know that the baby had arrived, and mother and son were doing fantastic. He'd waited a good half hour before actually coming out to tell them; he'd wanted to be sure, too.
Marianne had been awake again for about that long, enough for the story among the family to become that she'd awakened just as her cousin was born. Her parents, like the others, had slept on and off throughout the night and early morning, too, though shortly before Alex came around, they'd called out for an order out of Ma Maggie's, so they were there, waiting and eating. Marianne was sitting next to Lucas now instead of in his lap, though her head was tipped to his arm even as she ate her waffle. She was sitting up and then standing as soon as the news arrived though, and she didn't have to worry about waiting long to meet the baby: Sam had requested that she and her parents be the first to come.
He was called Timothy Emmett Calahart. He'd gotten his middle name from his mother's father – and her older brother as well – but his first name had been what his parents felt to be a much more subtle piece of construction compared to the family's surname. It wasn't as though they had merged parts of other names; they'd been there already… if you knew where to look. For one, it was a tip of the hat to his mother and grandmother, both named Dorothy, even if they went by diminutives. And then knowing that he was bound to be called Timmy in his youth and possibly Tim as he grew up, it made them think of his father, who may have gone by Sam now but could not shake his Sammy days. They all got to meet him, and hold him, and it made this long night and morning of waiting completely worth it, heavy eyes and aching backs and all.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
