June 18th 2020

Chapter 170
Their Night With Anticipation

"Woah, hey, here it comes," Lucas approached the dog, gloved hands at the ready as the first puppy came to be expelled. Missy stretched her neck to try and see without moving from her position near Coraline's head, while Maya stood by in her self-appointed task as 'fetcher of things.' Lucas suspected she was inwardly very amused to play nurse to 'Dockleberry.' She had a towel unfolded for whenever it would be needed. For a few seconds it felt like no one was breathing, just waiting.

"Is it alive?" Missy quietly asked, when she spotted part of the newborn as it came along.

"Looks that way," he breathed now, just carefully watching that everything was coming along as it was supposed to. "There you go, there's your first." As they looked on, the little thing was just there on the blankets where its mother lay, and Coraline's head was bowed to it as she tended to her pup like she'd always known exactly what to do. When they heard it give a squeak, wriggling about as it was licked with great intent, they all had a moment of quiet reassurance. So far, so good.

"This is seriously the best pre-wedding activity ever," Maya laughed and cried at the same time. "Who needs naked dudes when you've got this little wrinkly butt right here?" she asked in sweet cajoling tones. Lucas gave her a look.

"Naked dudes, huh?" he asked, trying not to laugh.

"Please, not in front of the baby," she shook her head at him, turning her attention back to the newborn puppy.

"Or me," Missy chimed in with a look like she might be traumatized, which independently made both Maya and Lucas think of Sam.

"Well, this one looks pretty good," Lucas told Maya and Missy as he looked at the puppy still being given a good cleaning. He tried not to intervene in any way unless he had to, giving time for Coraline to do what came naturally.

"It's so cute," Missy smiled, looking to her dog like she'd never been so proud of her. The day was still young, of course, and there would be plenty more opportunities for this pride to grow as the day went on. For now, they had one very alive, very alert puppy, and they had to wait for the next one.

As the minutes had ticked by, with all the attention put on to the one puppy they presently had, they were soon joined by Kai Avelino. The boy was either a solid friend or intensely enamored with the Sanderson girl, to volunteer himself and his family to look after a dog and her as yet unnumbered puppies on their first night in the world. Either way, he arrived with the look of one wholly motivated to do whatever was needed of him.

"Look, we got one already," Missy pointed to the pup presently laid over her legs, where Coraline could look upon it. The little one, who had been shown to be female, kept the room constantly ringing with the sound of its squeaky little cries.

"Wow," Kai smiled as he knelt to get a look. Lucas turned a look to Maya, who was just barely keeping from smirking. "My mother asked me to bring you some of these," Kai turned to them a few seconds later, forcing them to relax their faces again. He held out a plastic container which appeared to be filled with small donut balls. "She'd just finished making them when I told her I was coming here, they're still a bit warm. She said to wish you good luck for tomorrow."

"I remember these," Lucas smiled at once. "Your brother used to bring some on game days," he recalled, laughing now at the look on Maya's face. Between the puppies and the fried treats, this day continued to come through for them, like her powers as The Bride did not even require her to express any desires in order to be activated. "Your sister, too," Lucas added.

"That's why she was making them. Kamani and Keilani are flying in today," Kai explained.

As they waited for Coraline to have her next puppy, Missy told Kai about the start of the dog's labor, and then the arrival of the first puppy, which he was getting a look at without touch. She also told him about what would be required of him as he looked after the whole little family overnight and through the day to come. Kai listened with great intent, taking notes on his phone. He revealed how he had already been looking things up on the internet as his uncle drove him over and dropped him off.

"You're thinking about those donuts, aren't you?" Lucas asked Maya as he kept an eye on the dog. He had a feeling the second puppy was making its way down.

"I'm still so full from breakfast, but I'm looking at the box and my mouth is just like 'give food now,'" she mimed. He laughed, but he was right there with her. "I can literally just look at them and I remember the smell, and the taste, and it's making me want to pull the cover. But the second I do that, it's game over, they will be gone inside my stomach… and yours," she soon added, seeing the mock look of 'what about me?' on his face.

"So we should really put that box somewhere else is what you're saying."

"Well, first, you might want to keep an eye on that," Maya pointed to the dog. Lucas turned to look, along with the others, as Coraline appeared to be in the process of helping the second puppy come out. As descriptive as Missy had been about the whole thing, Kai looked completely mystified by what he saw.

"That's all normal, yeah?" he asked.

"Completely, yeah," Lucas assured him, keeping an eye on both mother and baby as they were parted from one another.

"Looks smaller than the last one," Missy craned her neck to see.

"Just a bit," Lucas agreed. "But looking good so far otherwise," he added as Coraline once again set herself to look after the puppy. He might have said that it was all coming along as textbook as they could want, but even without being particularly superstitious, he preferred not to tempt fate. Things were going well, they could all see it, so he didn't need to say a word. The new puppy showed to be just as thriving as its sister and was quickly shown to be another female.

"Two zero for the girls," Maya turned a grin to Missy, who looked on to the new addition with a wide smile.

"Hey, you know what I'm realizing right now?" Lucas asked, looking to Maya after he'd looked at the clock to write down what time the second pup had been born, just to keep track. "We're almost exactly twenty-four hours away now," he revealed. Maya looked at him, then to the grandfather clock in the corner, ticking away. He was right.

"Last day," she told herself, checking that the others were occupied before sneaking a kiss happily returned. "Thank goodness for puppies and donuts we can't eat or I would be all over the place."

"You and me both," he vowed, brazenly coming in for a second kiss. A cough forced them to remember where they were, and they innocently turned back to where Missy and Kai were trying not to look at them. "Sorry about that," Lucas struggled at looking genuinely apologetic.

"It's alright, I get it," Missy told him. "You guys must be excited about tomorrow."

"Is it that obvious?" Maya asked, feeling almost bashful, as though her cheeks might have gone pink. It wasn't as though she and Lucas hadn't been basking in their nearlywed status all morning.

"I don't know, I mean you guys are always like that, not just today," Missy pointed out, increasing the temperature in Maya's cheeks. "I was just wondering, since your wedding is coming up and all."

"Very excited, yes," Lucas went ahead and answered with a nod.

If they had wanted to go into more details, they could have gone so much deeper, but it would have easily gone over the young friends' heads.

They would have been celebrating their first anniversary by now, if all things went according to plan. They hadn't, of course, and that had been their choice. Today, they were able to see just how well worth the wait it would be. On the one hand, Sophie a year ago was a whole other beast than Sophie now. Not only was she primed and ready to hit the dance floor, but her physical therapy had evolved from rehabilitating to strengthening. After having been on complete leave for just about a year, she'd been back at the precinct, on desk duty, for the last few months. It was not what she wanted, but it was start, and she had to accept it. And now… now she'd been cleared to go back, to resume the path she'd been yanked from. She'd be going back in the weeks to come, and Maya and Lucas knew that, for as nervous as she was at the prospect, her wife and her mother were both equally concerned.

The other, more unexpected blessing brought on by their having delayed the wedding by a year was the inclusion of the Clutterbuckets. Her mother's side of the family would not have been present, not a single one, if they had gotten married a year ago as intended. Or maybe they would have, who was to say? Would she, as she contemplated this day which was to bring her and Lucas into unity, have considered seeking out leaves for the branches of her family tree kept bare all these years? She didn't know, would never know now, but that wasn't the important part. The important part was that they had gotten in touch, and thanks to that they had started to build a relationship. Now there were all these people coming into Austin, some of them already here, strangers up until not very long ago. Many of them looked like her, might be recognized as her family depending on where they went. They might see people walking around, wearing shirts with her band's art on it, whether or not they knew it as such.

And tomorrow, all these people would be gathered, at Sullivan Stables, and they would be present as she and Lucas exchanged vows, and rings, and became husband and wife.

Every time the words came up, in any way, it would be like a heightened version of what it had felt like, years ago, when they had started referring to one another as boyfriend and girlfriend. To evolve now into husband and wife, it was so much bigger. The first time around, all it had taken was the two of them starting to date, and looking at each other one day like 'hey, this thing between us, it works, so let's show the world.' These new titles did say the same thing, to a point. Of course these titles came with a ceremony, and rings, and official documents, and a very large, expensive party, and so many friends and family members around them, the likes of which they weren't likely to see again.

Really, how could 'excited' encompass the feeling? How could any one word? It was something that existed only as a feeling, one only the nearlyweds could experience, and that was possibly the thing that made it most special.

"I think there's another one coming," Kai spoke up, bringing them all back to reality. The first two puppies were now resting together in Missy's lap, squeaking away, while their mother looked from them once again, turning upon herself as the third puppy neared birth.

"So what do you think?" Maya asked the group as they looked on. "Another female, or our first brother pup?"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners