June 27th 2020

Chapter 179
Their Joy in Breathing

Lucas very casually slipped the pocket watch into his pocket, as Mr. Matthews motioned to MJ Hunter and Wyatt Hart-Lane and the boys stepped forward with the rings. There was electricity in the air, as he found himself holding his grandmother's ring and was asked if he, Lucas Thomas Friar, would take Maya Penelope Hart to be his wife. The question came from his left, but the answer could only be given forward, eye to eye with the one who'd already claimed his heart long ago, rings or no rings.

"I do," he declared, and the words held so much more than their brevity could show. Slipping the ring on her finger, joining it to the one he'd given her two years ago, he looked back up to her and received a silent indication to breathe, which made him laugh.

Looking back on the moment later on, it would be easier to see just how surreal it all was. For now, Maya reached over and took the second ring, this one offered out by Wyatt, and she had to rein in her amusement at seeing how proud both of her little brothers here were, just so proud to be involved. She nodded for them to go back where they'd been standing earlier, and they went at once, while she turned back to her very, very soon to be husband. When Mr. Matthews asked if she, Maya Penelope Hart, would take Lucas Thomas Friar to be her husband, she had to resist the urge to make her response more outwardly expressive and instead, like Lucas had done, bring all of it to exist in a brief but loaded…

"I do." Once she'd said the words, she'd just smirked in such a proudly happy way, before setting the ring on his finger and looking back up to him, her hand in his and his hand in hers. They were right there, and all that was left now was for Mr. Matthews to say his words.

"It is now with a full heart that, with the power given on to me and the request of these two standing before me, I can proclaim this man and this woman to be husband and wife. You may now kiss one another," he bowed his head to them as their faces grew unable to do anything but smile.

"Well it's about time," Lucas quietly whispered what was easily the expression in Maya's eyes, as they both stepped forward and their hands released at once, hers moving to rejoin around his neck, while his met around her waist, and in the cacophony of cheers around them, they lost all awareness of the world beyond each other and shared their first kiss as a married couple.

Standing there for those several beats they allowed themselves, after all this anticipation they'd had built up in them, it felt like a dance, like they'd been lifted off their feet, or maybe that was just her…

Maya received her bouquet back from Riley, receiving a quick but heartfelt half hug from her best friend at the same time, and then she was walking back up the aisle, hand in hand with Lucas, as the twins led the way, tossing what remained of their flowers with wild abandon and stepping aside to allow the newlyweds through, back toward the former residence of Marianne Sullivan. There was some time before they would be expected anywhere, for photos, for the reception, and right now they were overdue with a bit of peace, to just exist in this reality… After two years of engagement, they had finally crossed into this next part of their lives, into marriage. That one was going to take a moment to stop feeling like fireworks in their heads.

Lucas shut the door behind them and turned to find his wife sitting on the steps leading up to the second floor like she'd just needed to settle down for a moment, to let the world stop spinning. His wife… The thought had come so easily.

"This is so much skirt…" she reflected, attempting to straighten it all up a bit as she leaned to the riser at her back. Looking back up, she carefully scooted over, an invitation for him to join her which he accepted at once. "Well if it isn't my husband," she grinned, even more so as he responded to this by cupping her cheek and kissing her once again. He was reading her mind, as far as she was concerned. Heightened emotions or not, she couldn't help wanting to kiss him right now, again and again.

"Can't believe it finally happened," Lucas breathed, resting his forehead to hers as his hand found hers and lightly held to it.

"We have done our waiting. No more of that," she reminded him.

"No more of that," he agreed, and for a few seconds they just sat there, enjoying the quiet, the stillness. "I love your dress by the way," Lucas finally spoke, which made Maya laugh, lifting her head back up, leaning back into the step.

"Not bad, huh?" she asked, flexing her knee to make the skirt move.

"Can I get a three-sixty view?" Lucas requested, and she moved to stand at once, with a slight assist from him.

She stood back so he could get a good look at her, slowly turning around so he could see the front, the back, the sides, everything. He might not have been an expert in fashion, especially in wedding dresses, unless sitting in on some of those dress shows when Maya – and sometimes Maya and her mother – would watch them, for research, counted. But for all that, he had to say he knew enough that he would easily have assumed this dress had come from a fancy shop. Maya and the people at the theater had really gone above and beyond on this one. Either that, or the combination of the dress and the one wearing it skewed his judgment, but who was to say?

"Very not bad at all," he gave her a nod and she beamed.

"So, here's what I'm thinking, we can just go ahead and do this again every year or two, then I get to break it out again," she joked, moving back to him, where he could he put his arms around her from where he sat. "Not the whole thing with the guests and the party and all that, just you and me, like this here," she gestured between the two of them.

"That's a good plan," Lucas nodded, chuckling, before she went and leaned in for another kiss.

"And then you do all of this, too," Maya brushed at his shoulders, at his clean shaven face… "Almost forgot what this felt like without all the extra scratchy bits."

"Yeah, I think I did, too. Personally, I think I could do with being beardless for a while."

"Won't hear me complaining."

Every time silence was able to slip in and hold them in its grasp for a few seconds, it felt like they shifted from the levity of just being together and talking to this feeling in them that was just… Oh my goodness, we are married, we are really, really married… It was kind of wonderful, on the whole. Overwhelming in a good way…

"Is it weird that I really can't wait to see the videos right now?" Lucas asked.

"No, I really want to see them, too!" Maya replied, like she'd only been waiting on the chance to release that giddiness she'd been experiencing.

"We were there, I remember it, but there was just so much going on, and I was kind of…"

"Enthralled?" Maya suggested, with a sweeping gesture to herself.

"Big time enthralled," Lucas agreed. "If you drew me back there, you'd have to give me just the most cartoonish heart eyes, and then the other one here, that just beats out of my chest," he pointed to himself before closing his hold around her again as she just laughed.

"That is a good visual."

"We were so caught up in the moment, I want to see it again."

"And again, and again," Maya echoed. "Thank you for the watch, by the way."

"Something borrowed," Lucas smiled.

"I have enough of those four things, if they're supposed to be for luck, we are going to be very fortunate in this marriage," she pointed out.

"Good," he nodded, just as he remembered something. "Hey, come with me," he stood, starting up the stairs. She gave a curious noise like 'what are you up to now?' "I could go and come back, but I really don't feel like being apart from you right now… even for thirty seconds to go and come back."

"Can't argue with that logic," Maya followed. "Although if you have to go to the bathroom, I am staying in the hall," she teased.

They ended up back in what was a guest room now, though once upon a time it had been the bedroom of a teenage Melinda Sullivan. This was where Lucas had gotten dressed earlier, and from one of his bags he pulled a box, which he opened to reveal a veritable wealth of GiGi Babineaux cookies. When Maya saw these, the immediate reaction was as priceless as he'd expected it to be, though her scanning of the room puzzled him.

"What are you doing?" he asked, especially as she picked up his t-shirt from the folded pile of his morning clothes and unfolded it.

"I don't want to get crumbs on this," she indicated her dress. "But I definitely want cookies, barely had any lunch because someone said 'what if you can't close your dress if you eat too much?'"

"Was it my mom?" Lucas asked, prematurely apologetic.

"No, no, she was trying to feed me," Maya told him as she tried to arrange the t-shirt like some kind of catching bib. "When I was getting ready, I asked Riley to go grab me something, and she came back and told me how she ran into your mom and some of my mom's cousins on the way. Then I just kind of went and let myself get stuck in between, but it's fine. Right now I just need to eat something to hold me over until dinner if I don't want to pass out."

"So, trouble makers made trouble," Lucas nodded and offered out the box. Zay had given it to him earlier, saying his great grandmother had insisted on him having it, as opportunities to eat might become few and far in between, and as usual she had been right.

"Yeah," Maya rolled her eyes before biting a chunk off the first cookie she got her hands on. She looked so happy to be eating the thing, and it reminded Lucas of their walk home from the Sanderson farm, with Mrs. Avelino's donuts. How had that been less than a day ago? "So, how did it go last night, sleep alright?" Maya asked as she ate. She'd barely finished one cookie that she'd picked up a second. He soon joined her.

"About as well as I figured I would," he told her. "Took a while to actually fall asleep, but I was good until morning after that. Your evil counterpart visited me in my dreams."

"Oh, did she?" Maya smirked. She was careful as she sat on the edge of the bed, holding to her 'bib,' where a number of crumbs had already rolled. Lucas sat next to her. "Was she nice?"

"Well no, not really…"

"It's really such a shame, you know? Bad influences happen to the best of us."

"She would probably have brought you cake or something like that earlier," Lucas suggested, and Maya was newly conflicted. "What about you?"

"I got serious mattress envy, that thing should be called the defeater of sleeplessness. I mean, sure, the swimming did some of the work, but you've slept at Sophie's mom's before, you know what it's like."

"Oh, yeah," he easily agreed.

"We could get a pool someday," Maya suggested. Lucas imagined this for a moment.

"We could…" he nodded, smiling.

"I could watch you clean it…" Maya trailed on.

"There it is," his nod dipped.

"What, my husband's hot, what can I do?" she casually shrugged, throwing on a smile.

"Well, when you put it like that…"

"I do, I really do," Maya promised, leaning in to kiss him. The words easily pulled them back to the day, as though there was any chance of either of them forgetting, dressed as they were.

"I like the flowers," he pointed to the back of her head as she turned it to 'aim' at the shirt and took another bite.

"A gift from Nellie and Gracie," Maya smiled, turning her head again so he might get a better look.

"Made you cry, didn't they?"

"A lot of things made me cry today," she looked back at him. "If Rosa didn't keep insisting I drink water all morning I might have ended up dehydrated. Just fountains," she mimed at her eyes, then at his face a moment later. "Should have seen your face before…"

"I was a mess, huh?" Lucas laughed.

"Only a little," Maya assured him.

"Right," he nodded, nudging her foot. "Nice shoes. Didn't see those before."

"I wasn't trying to make you look at my feet earlier, was I?" she gave him a look, resting her head against his shoulder as she raised her foot and turned it about.

"Fair enough," he agreed, pressing a light kiss to the top of her head.

"How long do we get to stay here, just us?"

"They'll come for us at some point, I guess. There's no rush."

"Good," Maya hummed, taking another cookie. "I like this right now."

"Bride power," he whispered and she giggled.

"Bride power," she echoed. "Bride is thirsty now with all these cookies."

With the remainder of their sweet stash stowed away in a handkerchief, folded neatly and set inside the secret pocket Maya had had built into her dress, they made their way back down the stairs. The way they went, it felt like they expected someone to show up at any second and make them leave their break from the chaos of being at their own wedding. Sure, all their friends and family were here, and they were anxious to see them, to talk to them… most of them… But after what had felt like a marathon from the moment they'd gotten up this morning, just to get to the point where they stood under that tree, it was good to just get this beat on their own. They were recharging, and they were catching their breaths, and… well, they'd just gotten married, that was huge and breathtaking in and of itself.

"There's iced tea," Lucas stated.

"Water will do," Maya promised, gesturing to her dress. "Oh, that reminds me," she started to pull at something at the back.

"What are you doing?" Lucas had to ask.

"If I can just get this right, you'll see that I am…" In a moment, the train of her dress had come away, taking with it a couple inches from the front, too, and a layer of the skirt on the whole. "Reception mode activated," she informed him, taking a twirl. "Ideal for dancing and overall merriment."

"Nicely done," he chuckled, taking in the adjustment. Of course she would have thought of this. "So Sam walking you down the aisle with your father…"

"He came to see me while I was getting changed, had a letter from our father," Maya explained with a nod. She'd had to give it back to him to hold on to until after the wedding and the reception, but she remembered it well. "After I read it, I couldn't stop thinking how, if he'd still been alive, I would have wanted him there like that. And he couldn't be, so how could I pass up a solution when it was right there next to me. It felt right."

"He looked so happy to do it, too," Lucas smiled.

"He did, didn't he?" Maya breathed, recalling the look on his face as he'd gone to stand in his spot. This in turn made her think of her father, Shawn, as he had let her go and gone to sit, and even before, as they'd started on their way out. She thought of her mother, too, of Abigail and James, of Riley, Nadine, Sophie, Mr. Matthews… All those faces she had seen before the walk, on her way up… her sisters, her brothers… all those people, there for Lucas and for her… "There are so many people here," her train of thoughts moved into speech. "Are we sure we invited them all? We could have wedding crashers," she whispered.

"They would have had to get past Sophie," Lucas pointed out, which was more than fair.

"I think it will never cease to amaze me that there could be… so many." It always came back to the old days, didn't it, the days when just having her mother was something. But now she had family, so much family. They may not all have been bound to her in blood, but many of them actually were, and that was the unexpected part. All these years ago, she couldn't have imagined having both of her grandmothers in her life, and one of her grandfathers, even a great grandmother… And there were aunts and uncles, and cousins, and of course her brothers and sisters… so many of those.

"We do make friends easily," Lucas agreed. "I can tell some of them to go away if there's too many. But then my mother would scold me for my lack of manners," he added, knowing she would laugh.

"Wouldn't want that," she shook her head. "So I have seven parents now, that's… that's a lot more," she stated. "Birth, step, in-law… And you've got them, too."

"And siblings, too," Lucas nodded. They'd already been that, for a long while. It had always warmed his heart to see the way they all responded to him, saw him for who he was to their big sister and automatically made the leap. If they were hers, then that made them his, too. That had been the unofficial rule, but today it had become official. From the Hunters to every last Hart-Lane, he had gone from being an only child to the proud and happy beholder of four younger brothers and a whopping seven younger sisters, ranging from seventeen years on down to just over a month old.

"Oh, yes," Maya confirmed with a look of reminiscing in her eyes, which he took to be her thinking of the rehearsal dinner.

It had been a much smaller affair, with only those of their guests who were from Austin, or Houston, or those who had already flown in due to previous band engagements or to surprise their stepdaughter/big sister and her fiancé.

At one point, Lucas had volunteered himself to look after baby Maisie, so that her parents might have a chance to go and mingle a while. It had been in great part for the exact purpose he had given, though he would have been lying if he said it had nothing to do with the fact that, with so much talk of babies these days, with Zay and Nadine, with Maeve, and with Maya and him just sort of… not trying but not doing anything to impede either… So, yeah, there was the baby, and he'd wanted to hold her.

She'd been asleep the whole time, but that was fine. She would just sort of… he couldn't describe the sound in any other way except that it was like a light little honk. It was ridiculously adorable and would have broken any grouch.

When he'd spotted a solo Haley Hunter walking along like she was looking for someone, he'd been caught between calling out to her and helping her and also ensuring that the baby in his arms didn't wake up. He had whispered, hoping she would hear, and she had. The girl, just days shy of turning three, had come running up to him. He held a finger to his lips and she had understood it was time to stay quiet.

"Are you looking for your mom and dad?" he'd whispered and gotten a shake of the head. "No? who are you looking for then?"

"You," she'd replied, teetering on heels and toes.

"Yeah?" It had made him smile, and before he could ask why she'd been looking for him, the little blonde had run off again, returning a moment later in the arms of Cara Hart-Lane, herself accompanied by Sam, Teddy, Eliza, Emma, Wyatt, Nellie, Gracie, and MJ.

It was fascinating at times to look at all the Hunters and the Harts in the same place. They all had something of Maya in them, even if they had all only received these parts from one or the other of the birth parents they shared, but then when you put them all together, if you also knew Maya, it suddenly became difficult to distinguish them as separate families. To the kids themselves, it was always just amusing, if they were mistaken for being blood relatives. They always pretended as though they were. It was the one and only occasion where they might differentiate themselves from their Lane siblings.

"Don't wake the baby," Haley pointed to Maisie.

"We won't," Teddy promised her.

"Hey, guys," Lucas had greeted the boys and girls, clearly wondering what had brought them all to him just now. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah," Sam had replied, nodding at him as though to say 'this is a good thing, you'll see.'

"We have something for you," Nellie whispered, looking to baby Maisie almost as much as Lucas, as she ensured that the girl remained asleep.

"You do?" Lucas had asked, and both Nellie and Gracie had nodded in response, as though they'd both been the one questioned. MJ Hunter had come forth, the bearer of the wrapped box, which he held out with a bright smile that might have been brought on by the act or by the star strewn wrapping paper. "Wow, thank you so much," Lucas had told him, finding himself caught unable to do anything so long as he had the baby in his arms.

"You can open it later," Eliza told him.

"Might be better," Emma agreed.

So, he'd waited, and he'd opened it once he and Maya had gone back home. He'd unwrapped and opened the box as Maya had dashed up to grab something from the attic after she'd had an idea. She'd returned and found him looking over a stack of notes and drawings, which had been sitting on top of a wooden statuette of a man and a dog. It had been carved by Dora, he'd known, as he recognized her handiwork, and he was just about certain Sam had drawn it for her. On the underside of the base, they had found an engraving.

To our brother,
for his wedding.
07.02.2027

It had been sitting on his desk ever since, on top of the box which still held the notes and drawings, one from each of his new siblings save for Maisie. He could not look at the statuette without feeling a rush of emotion, of pride and happiness.

"Feeling better now?" Lucas asked Maya, as she set her empty glass on the kitchen island. "Not going to drop from hunger and dehydration?"

"Probably not?" she estimated, which made him laugh. "You might just want to stay close to me in case I do, Dockleberry," she hummed, moving to embrace him. He closed his arms around her, kissed her forehead.

"Sounds like reasonable medical advice."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners