January 29th 2020

Chapter 29
Their Support of Days

"Look, I'm a star!" Both Maya and Lucas turned just in time to spot MJ as he practically leapt into the room, with his newly completed costume on. The boy, who was somehow just a few weeks shy of four years old already, was very motivated at the prospect of being in his pre-school's holiday play, especially as this year's Halloween had cemented his love for costumes. Katy would joke that the new costume was the only way they had managed to get their son to stop trying to put his Spider-man costume back on. Of course, now, they were going to have to see what happened next, because if he tried to wear this one to bed it wouldn't last long, definitely not long enough to make it to the play.

"Woah, what are you doing down here?" Maya 'gasped.' "Aren't you supposed to be in the sky with all the other stars?" Her little brother laughed.

"He probably just took time away from being one of those so he could pursue his ambition in life… Jumping around on a stage and singing along with a bunch of little kids," Lucas suggested, giving his best impression of a three-year-old's version of dancing, and that got Maya laughing along with MJ.

"I'm going to have nightmares about this," she whispered to Lucas while the star went shooting off to show its sparkly self around to somebody else.

"We're going to be in a play, too!" Nellie called out from where she, Gracie, and Sam were playing a board game together. The six-year-old twins loved him very much, and they had adopted him as their big brother, because they really wanted another one of those, to go along with their Lukey one…

"I used to love doing those," Sam smiled.

"They're going to dress us the same again, right?" Gracie asked. Even as they grew (and grew, and grew, did it never stop?), the Hunter twins were very much who they had always been to one another. They were much more aware of the world and of their own self than they may have been as toddlers, but they continued to be Maya's sunny sister and her Mouse Mouse respectively. By the looks on both their faces following the question though, the others guessed neither one of them was looking forward to being put in identical costumes. They didn't even like being dressed alike in normal times, only wanting it on special occasions, for which the school play apparently didn't count.

"They won't if I have anything to say about it," Shawn promised his girls, and the smiles on their faces said it all: if their daddy said he'd fix it, it was as good as fixed.

November had been tiptoeing its way along, running by them almost without their noticing. Now they were just days from December and everything was moving right along for everyone. Both Maya and Lucas had been sort of on standby, ready to step in at any time and provide relief to the boy about to experience his first semester's end, with projects and finals stacked up around him. They could hardly believe it was even coming to this already. Had he really been living out here with them for that long?

Sam wasn't showing himself to be nearly as stressed as they were assuming he might be. It was easy to say that he would have handled everything, no sweat, just because he'd finished high school and started college at the age he did, but it was still a lot, more than he had been used to, and he was only fifteen, and living away from home… They hoped he would continue to feel that way, the closer they came to finals.

Things had managed to settle, to some degree, in the whole mess which had been the introduction of Dora's boyfriend and all the feelings it had brought to the surface for Sam… and for Dora herself, too. When Lucas had told her about the conversation he'd had with his cousin, Maya had suddenly felt terrible, like in all this she had been so focused on her brother that she hadn't really considered Dora's side of it, and she loved that girl like her own cousin. The last thing she wanted, same as Lucas, was for any of those kids to get their heart broken.

They were okay now, as okay as they could hope to be. Whatever Sam and Dora continued to feel in silence, they had gotten to put it somewhere in their hearts and minds where it wouldn't affect the rest of them so much. They valued the other's friendship too much to let it rip apart because of this situation. Sam was actually getting to like Adam, who was very easy to care for, as he was the kind of person to treat any stranger like an old friend. All of a sudden they were turning into a unit, a group, the three of them, the Schmidt twins, and Cecilia. Sam's new friend had not taken long to become someone the rest of them came around to care for much as Sam had done. In time, they had even heard of Dora and her hanging out together, without Sam or Adam.

"We weren't that blind back then, were we?" Lucas had pondered to Maya one night as the two of them cleared up in the kitchen, hearing Sam and his friends laughing about something upstairs. More than one of them had offered to help, but they'd been sent off with thanks. It allowed Maya and Lucas both to entertain the 'domestic kick,' as Maya would call it.

"I don't know, I mean…" Maya paused at the sink. "You weren't particularly hard to read, giving me those eyes," she imitated him, making him laugh.

"Is that what I looked like?" he stared back.

"Our problem wasn't about knowing we liked each other," she pointed out, and on this he had to agree. They had spent months in this state where he knew that she liked him, and she knew that he liked her, but they wouldn't take that step because… because she wasn't ready, and he respected that. It had taken months, and two almost kisses, and then finally it had all changed.

"How long do you think it would have taken if it wasn't for that night, the candy wrappers…"

"I think by then it really wouldn't have taken much. Christmas, tops."

"So, what you're saying is we could have had a… Merryversary?" She laughed.

"We still could," she turned a grin to him. They could… They still needed to fix that wedding date…

November had been good to all of them. For Lucas, it had been his goal to find a way and get himself back in a clinic, or a shelter, somewhere he felt he could both help and get some practical experience. He had gotten that, working at his aunt's clinic back in Houston, and he had loved that so much. After they'd moved back out here, he had looked into potential places for him to go, but he'd also known that he needed to wait and see what his schedule would be like once he started at school, and once he found a job… And when he'd done that, between the commute to get to and from school and his three days at bookstore, he had no days off and very little time left to spare after that. Everything he had left, it was for Maya, for Sam, their families, friends… himself…

"I could disguise myself as you and take your place at the bookstore on the weekends, then you could go… What?" Maya asked, staring back at the barely hidden smirk.

"I'm not going to say it," Lucas shook his head.

"Say what?" she asked, grasping his collar. He just cleared his throat, setting his hand to the top of her head, which stopped inches below his. In response, she stretched on to her toes.

"Still not there," he 'regretfully' informed her.

"I will get stilts."

"Great. Now what about the rest?"

"Alright, fine, you've made your point," she sighed, coming back down to her feet. "Anyway… I'm sure you'll find a way to make it work."

"The semester's almost over though, which means my schedule is going to change again soon. If I make a commitment now and have to change it in a few weeks…"

"Lucas," she'd taken his collar again, this time not to make him talk but with what looked like an idea. He got her attention again, pointing to the fact that she was very close to cutting off his airway. "Sorry, I just…" she let go and straightened up his poor, ruffled collar again. "The Sandersons…"

"What about them?" he asked, and the look of disbelief on her face might as well have been on him, for how long it took him to grasp what she was saying. They had a farm, with horses, and pigs, and other animals, and maybe… maybe they could use a hand. There might not be much of a pay if any, mostly because he wouldn't feel right to take it, but it would just up the road from here, which would make it much easier for him to be able to fit into his tight schedule, regardless of the changes brought on by new semesters.

It had taken a few days for him to get up the nerve to go up and talk to Mitch Sanderson, but by the time he'd come back the deal was done. Lucas would go up there for a couple of hours every morning, and sometimes in evenings. Sometimes Maya would come along, and Sam, too, a most welcome addition as far as the whole family was concerned. It was nothing like the clinic, but that wasn't a bad thing, was it? It was something new for him to learn.

While Lucas was getting the hang of this new side job – which did pay, because Missy's grandfather, Thatcher, would not hear it otherwise – Maya was getting ready to kick off the official trial run of her Stage Ready team. They had hoped to get at least one school to agree to bring them on to assist with their holiday productions. Well, Maya had hoped it, because if they got at least one then it could mean they were on the right track, couldn't it?

They had gotten eleven schools altogether, seven in Austin and four in Houston.

Every one would get added to the large calendar on the wall in her office, and to see the dates fill in more and more, she could have thought herself in the middle of a very surreal dream. When Lucas had come in for their weekly Monday lunch date, he'd found her just standing there, looking at that calendar.

"You're not going to cry, are you?" he smiled, startling her.

"What? No… No?" she gave something between a smile and a cringe. "But… look…" she gestured at the calendar. Her first 'field day' was coming up, in the final days of November, and it was a wonder she didn't have a countdown marked in the days leading up to it, with how giddy she was getting. He suspected that the thing keeping her from doing that was the counterpart to her giddiness, which came in flares of anxiety that the whole thing would crash and burn. He knew she just needed to get through one of those sessions and she'd feel more solid on her feet, but until then… until then, all he could do was stand by her side, to give the impression of steadiness by keeping her from falling.

That evening, where they watched MJ Hunter hop around the place in his new star costume, came on the eve of that first Stage Ready session. The next morning, bright and early, Maya was to get in Sparkles with her team and make her way to Houston for the day. That was why they had come here for dinner that night after he got off work. There was no boost for her nerves like being around her family. It would mean no lunch date the next day, but they'd make up for it with stories when she came home again.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners