September 13th 2020

Chapter 257
Their Help to Sleep

"Hey, no, hey, Haley, come back…" Lucas chased after the three-year-old as she dashed out of his grip. He'd taken on the task of getting her to bed that night, and no matter how much his tiny sister-in-law had been enchanted by going to sleep at the heart of a giant bed over the last few days, tonight she evidently loved running and being chased around even more. Add to this the dogs, who would trail about the kids whenever they were about to go down for the night and now found the idea of an evening run even more interesting, and then there really was no chance for Lucas to catch her, was there? "Not the stairs, don't go running that way, hey!" he just managed to cut through and scoop up the girl before she got there. Luckily, she only laughed on and hugged her giant of a brother.

"Again!" Haley squealed, and Lucas sighed. His heart was ramming in his chest, the fleeting idea that she might tumble down the stairs needing a little time to settle. It was a good thing they had decided to keep the attic trap shut while the kids were here. It tended to stay open, with the steps unfolded and settled in the hallway, and he just knew Haley would have run into those tonight.

"Enough adventures for you tonight, kiddo, time to go to the big big bed and get some sleep. What story do you want tonight?"

"Again!" Haley still insisted, wiggling her short legs.

"Not if you want a story," Lucas bartered, and after some consideration, Haley made her story pick. "Excellent choice, Ms. Hunter, excellent choice." She smiled, dropping her head to his shoulder and soothing that racing heart right quick. "Earned it," he breathed, kissing the top of her golden crown.

Down in the living room, Maya was brushing out Nellie's hair, as she'd asked for a braid before bed. Gracie was upstairs with MJ while she waited her turn. The only dog who hadn't been part of the Haley Brigade upstairs was here, sitting peacefully with her head in one of her young mistresses' lap, getting her own hair brushed with small fingers. Una, the Hunters' dog, was of course part of their household for the span of Katy and Shawn's absence.

"Maya?" Nellie asked, after having sat quietly so far. When she was younger still, she would be so notoriously bad at sitting without moving when anyone was washing or brushing or doing anything to her hair, even cutting it, but she'd gotten much better at it now. It had certainly helped calm her down when this inattention had nearly cost her a length of hair.

"Yeah?" Maya asked back, setting herself to parting her sister's chocolate hair into three parts to braid it.

"When are you going to have babies?" the eight-year-old asked. Maya's hands jolted, and Nellie yelped just a bit, reaching to the back of her head.

"Sorry, sorry," Maya let go of the hair for a moment, hugging her sister from behind. "Word of advice: timing is everything. Don't ask big questions like that when someone could get hurt, like you."

"I'm sorry," Nellie told her as she pulled back and reached to part the hair once again. "I just wanted to know."

"Why now?" Maya had to know, laughter floating into her voice.

"There's a girl in my class, she has a sister that's a lot older than her, too…"

"Okay, the wording, that was not necessary… I mean, go on," Maya shook her head to herself.

"Her sister is going to have a baby, and she's been going around about how she's going to be an aunt. And, well…"

"And you want to be an aunt, too," Maya guessed. Nellie looked for a moment like she meant to nod, but then thought better of it and responded instead with a 'yes.' "Right, okay, well…" Maya sighed. "You are going to be one, someday… might be a little while, like a… year, or something, but it'll happen, alright?"

"Alright," Nellie replied, with the tiniest bit of disappointment in her voice, like she would have preferred it happening much earlier than that.

"You know what though," Maya told her, when she'd fixed the elastic at the bottom of the braid and her sister could turn to face her, letting that braid flick side to side. "I can't wait for Aunt Nellie to enter the scene," she smiled, and this at least soothed some of the disappointment. Just in time, as she'd finished with one twin, the other came climbing down the stairs. "Braid time?" Maya asked her.

"No, I'm okay," Gracie told her, turning to Nellie. Without a word shared between them, the older – barely – twin hurried up the stairs, possibly to trade places with MJ watch. Braid or no, Gracie came and sat with her big sister.

"What's on your mind, Mouse?" Maya asked her, playfully giving light brush strokes at the girl's hair.

"I know what's wrong with MJ," Gracie told her. None of them, not even MJ, had really relayed the facts of the Mikey incident to the girls. All they really knew was that MJ and his best friend had gotten into an argument and now they were sort of on the outs with each other, which really upset the six-year-old Hunter boy.

"You do?" Maya set the brush down.

"Reed Winger's class is across from ours," Gracie reminded her. "Today, at recess, he followed me, and… he said things," she bowed her head.

"Hey…" Maya sighed, taking her sister's hands in hers. Gracie looked up, with those eyes so like her own. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," Gracie nodded.

"Tell me what happened?"

Evidently, big brother Reed had gotten into his own heap of trouble, when he'd told his little brother Mikey the things which the smaller boy had then turned on his friend. And while Mikey still barely understood what he'd done, Reed knew exactly what he'd said and done, knew what the word meant whether or not he knew or cared how bad it was. He believed wholeheartedly, as much as a nine-year-old boy could, that he was in the right, that he had 'warned' his little brother to stay away from the likes of MJ Hunter, even if Mikey had gone in with skewed information. Now Reed had turned on another Hunter, like the whole family was to blame for his own troubles. As she told her tale, Gracie was only getting progressively more upset, and Maya imagined she might have cried, earlier at school.

"Did you tell your teacher?" she breathed, pulling her little sister into her arms. Gracie clung to her.

"No," Gracie sniffled. Maya was thankful her sister could not see her face. If this kept going and escalated much further, she wouldn't have a choice in telling her parents what was going on. Not even a week into this and now two out of four kids had been traumatized in some way by something at school. Now, Maya was going to have to speak to a couple other teachers, one of them her friend, and possibly have another conversation with Mrs. Winger, which she was really not looking forward to.

"Is it okay if I talk to him for you? Your teacher?"

"But Reed's going to know, and then he'll be angry again," Gracie hesitated. Much as she was always the most level-headed of the Hunter kids, she'd been rattled, and now she was just a kid again, just Maya's Mouse-Mouse.

"If you just let these things happen, Gracie, they'll keep happening," Maya told her. "You have to be smart about it, so you don't get hurt, but I know you can do that. You're like the smartest kid I know. Even smarter than Sam," she whispered, which managed to dislodge a fraction of a smile out of her sister. "Hey, was MJ asleep when you came down here?" Maya asked, brushing Gracie's hair behind her ears.

"Not yet. He's waiting for his story."

"Okay. Can you and Nellie give me a few minutes with him first?" Maya asked. Gracie nodded.

"We can take care of the dogs' bowls," she looked to Una, perched on her slippers and staring up at them, tongue lolling.

So, up Maya went and down Nellie went, to join her twin as MJ was joined by the third of his four sisters. He had his storybook picked out for the night, held in his lap. It wasn't as though he couldn't read it himself at this point, but he really enjoyed hearing stories out loud, especially from people who could read faster than him.

"I taught them everything they know," Maya told her little brother as she sat on the edge of the guest bed and got a look of which book he'd selected. "And do you know who taught me?"

"Mommy?" MJ guessed.

"Yeah," Maya laughed. "The great thespian of the family," she intoned, before seeing the confused look on MJ's face. Another word he didn't know… At least this one wasn't bad. "That means that she's an actress."

"Oh…" the boy blinked.

"Hey, so, we didn't really get a chance to talk much about school today. How did that go?" Maya asked, looking over her shoulder when she heard a creak on the floor and believed one or both of the twins had come up. Instead, there stood Lucas in the doorway.

"It was okay, I guess," MJ shrugged.

"Just okay?" Lucas asked, coming closer, sitting on the ground next to the bed to join the conversation. Maya smiled down at him before looking back to her brother.

"I… I wanted to talk to Mikey, but… but he said he wasn't supposed to talk to me because I was a… a… that thing he said," MJ slowly spoke, prodding at his foot.

"You don't have to say it," Maya told him, pulling him closer.

"But why?" MJ looked up at her, down at Lucas. "What does it mean?" he asked, and his sister and brother-in-law both tried not to show themselves as tense. They'd known the moment would come, and much as they'd debated whether or not to go to him first, now here was this moment, where MJ asked the answer from them, and what were they supposed to do except give him the words he needed? It shouldn't have had to come from us, it should have been Mom and Dad…

"MJ…" Maya breathed. No matter what, this was a safe, loving space, and on the other side of it, she hoped, her little brother would be better for it, for honesty. "You know how… we love each other," she nodded down to Lucas, "And Mom and Dad love each other, and Riley and Dylan do, too, and Nadine and Zay, and… and Sophie and Chiara, and Asher and Ray, and Rosa… well, she really likes Jenna?"

"Uh huh," MJ nodded.

"That's because me, and Lucas, and all of them, we all know, in our hearts, that there are people out there, who we feel these things for, and it's a part of who we are, how we were made, and it's maybe one of the best things about us, to feel these things for someone and to know that they feel it for us, too. You're still so young, MJ, so all these things, love, not just the way I love you because you're my brother… well, it'll be a while before you really get there, which is normal, but… maybe a part of you is already figuring some of it out.

"Now, there are some people, who… Who don't understand, why some people go together who are like them, like Sophie and Chiara, like Asher and Ray. And sometimes, they'll do things, and they'll say things because of it."

"Like what Mikey said?" MJ quietly asked.

"Yeah," Maya took a breath, rattled by the way her brother was piecing things together and how upset it left him.

"But you can help him understand," Lucas spoke now, and MJ and Maya both looked to him. "If that's what you want." MJ didn't know what he wanted to do, and he wasn't going to choose tonight. That was alright. He just wanted to go to bed. It had been a lot, and he was tired. "Want us to go get the twins for your story?" Lucas asked as he stood, and Maya helped her brother get under the covers.

"Can you do it?" MJ held up his book to them. Maya took hold of it, turning a smile to Lucas.

"I'll do the voices, you narrate."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners