November 16th 2020

Chapter 321
Their Growth in Years

Day 3, Wednesday. Appearances - Houston

Morning felt as though it had come several hours ahead of anything remotely desirable. They would all have happily slept on, if Sophie hadn't done what she'd promised them to do. She'd come along, bringing more hands-on application than the alarms on their phones ever could in getting them to both wake up and stay awake until they'd get out of bed.

"I regret everything," Maya groaned as she sat up, trying to bring some sensation to her face and pushing her hair out of the way before looking over to the other two at her side. Riley looked the most rested of them, which made sense. Nadine was already reaching for her phone, no doubt checking to see if Zay had written anything or tried to call her. Soon, she was up and heading into the hall to call home. "Is there coffee?" Maya looked up to Sophie even as she had to dodge out of the way when Riley decided the best way out of the bed was to climb over her instead of going the other way.

"And breakfast," Sophie nodded. "Chiara went across the street."

"How's she doing?" Maya asked, letting conversation motivate her into wakefulness.

"It's been better, you know? Since we went out there to visit her family… Now she's determined to just sort of get in touch with them, even if they're far away, by sharing everything with Giulia. She only speaks to her in Italian now so she'll learn the language. She's been reading her stories from when she was little, and singing songs… I think she really can't wait until she's old enough for them to make things in the kitchen together. I found her this small little kid's apron back in Italy and it was like I gave her the best thing in the world. It's big enough for Giulia to use it as a blanket right now, but Chiara's got it hanging with the others in the kitchen, waiting to be usable."

"I kind of can't wait to see that, too," Maya smiled. "Do you all know when you might start it all again?" she asked, as the thought came to her. They had said before how they wanted more than one, with the notion of creating each possible combination. Their whole parenting plan had seemed sort of wild in the beginning, but to see them now… They really made it work.

"We're thinking about it," Sophie nodded. "But I think we want to wait until after Giulia's a year old at least. It'll be up to Chiara to decide."

As much as the start of the day required heavy doses of foot dragging after the previous night's show and drive out to Houston, Maya was still the first into the minivan, waiting for the others to finish getting ready and join her. So, she called to check in with Lucas.

"What are you wearing?" she asked, smirking, when he answered. By the ambient noise, she had to guess he was in his car, headed to university, and he had her on speaker.

"I'll send you a picture later," he promised, and she could hear the smile on his lips.

"It is ridiculous how much I miss you already," Maya hummed.

"I know what you mean," Lucas assured her. "Although I wouldn't go so far as to call it ridiculous."

"No, I guess you're right on that. How was it last night? Two men and a baby…"

"It was good," Lucas laughed. "I told Zay I'd get up to look after Mia when she needed it so he could sleep."

"Woke up anyway, huh?"

"Every time," Lucas confirmed. "She calms down easy enough though. Like, it's loud… very loud… but it doesn't last long. I'd pick her up, and she'd keep crying for a little while, but then she'd stop, and she'd look at me…"

"You know you'll have to give her back in a few days, right?" Maya smiled, even as the tale sent her own feelings for a spin.

"Trying not to think about it right now," Lucas tossed back, showing he was having the same 'issue.' "What about you? The show?"

"It was pretty great, just sort of… taking the fact that it was one of our last ones with Kayla and really running with it, you know?"

"I do. I wish I could have been there."

"You will be, at the last one," she reminded him. "Hey, the others are coming. Call me tonight?"

"Will do. Love you."

"Love you, too."

The morning show went better in Houston than it had done in Austin two days before. The questions hadn't veered so much off of the band as a whole that any of them felt they needed to work to redirect. They'd shown videos of some people's covers of their songs over the years at one point, and the whole band had been happy to see bits and pieces from people they remembered. They would say their names as they remembered them. Maya was especially glad when she spotted a clip from Shae.

It had been in the cards for them, even before seeing that clip, that they would use this time in Houston to check in on Miss Shayla Blake. Sometimes, Maya would recall how heartbroken the girl had been when she'd realized that she was leaving Houston, to head back to Austin after college. She'd been so worried that it would mean they'd never see each other anymore, but Maya had promised this would not be the case, and she kept that promise. It definitely became easier once she had been introduced to Missy Sanderson, the day Maya and Lucas had gotten married. The two had become fast friends and would get together whenever they had the chance, usually with a sleepover to compensate for the distance in between.

Before they could go and visit the Blakes – especially seeing as Shae would be in school at the moment and they didn't think descending upon the place as a band – they had to head to the radio station. This time, they were scheduled over the lunch time show. The highlight here was absolutely when they'd been surprised by a call coming in from Willow. As such, once they left the station after the interview, the minivan went on its way toward the Obi house.

Willow and Lion's children had come so close to one another as to prevent their mother from ever really returning to her job after one or the other had been born. But now Zola was almost six, Sekani was four, and Liam was three, and there would be no surprise fourth baby, or any planned one either, so Willow was back working at the hospital as a nurse. Today was her day off though, and knowing that her friends and former bandmates were going to be on the radio…

"Why does it look like a tornado hit in here?" Rosa asked as they walked into the living room.

"Well, today the plan is to go through the kids' stuff and figure out what can be sent on its merry way. There's too much as it is, and they don't use a bunch of it anymore. It's been accumulating for ages and we never got around to it, you know? Anyway, I'm bringing some out for Giulia, if there's anything you want," Willow turned to Nadine, who was already scanning over the toys, and the clothes… "The rest will be donations."

So, they ended up sitting around the living room, the better for Willow to carry on with the sorting. Here, Kayla shared the news that she was moving to Europe and thus leaving the band. Upon hearing it, Willow was naturally sad at the thought of her going away, but she was as supportive and understanding as the others. Plus, she knew what it was like, to come to the point where life took them away from TXNY, far enough that it would become something in their past. Where Nadine had left because she was moving to Boston, deep down there had always been a chance she'd return to them, and she had. In Kayla's case, well… As much as they could think that one of these days she and Will would move back, they really could not put so much stake into it.

"You should come and do the Houston shows with us!" Riley blurted out at once, and the others looked at her only a moment before turning to Willow.

"Oh, no, I couldn't," she insisted.

"Why not? It's only two nights, even one," Rosa encouraged.

"I haven't been up on a stage like that in so long," Willow still shook her head. "And besides, you probably have a load of new songs I don't know…"

"I can send them to you," Maya offered. "You can listen to them while you go through all that," she gestured to the piles of kids' things. "First show isn't until tomorrow night, and I know you, you are good with taking in new material."

"I…" Willow was struggling to come up with a rebuttal on that, like the smallest thing could have tipped her over the edge. Kayla finally clinched it for them.

"It would be nice to have all of us together one last time, you and me and Rosa joined at the same time after all."

"Last one standing," Rosa signed after her, with her most 'dramatic fingers' and a sad face to boot.

"That is not fair," Willow laughed.

"Leave it to us to care enough to bait you," Nadine told her, all the while looking through a pile of baby clothes, occasionally setting a piece aside to a separate and growing pile.

The new songs were shared and, as they waited out the afternoon with their former and now temporarily reinstated bandmate, the six of them had something like an impromptu rehearsal, backed by little more than Maya's guitar, pulled from the back of the minivan. By now, the band had a separate set of instruments reserved for shows, leaving their standing set back at the Hex, and while the traveling set had already been sent ahead to the Houston venue, Maya always had her guitar with her, in the minivan.

It was really in moments like these where they felt the span of the years, of the band's existence. They had all gone through so much of growing up between the start and where they were now. High school, college… and now most of them had careers, marriages, and children coming into the picture… But they endured, always. It was a constant, and so long as people would have them, they would show up. If ever the day came when the people didn't care anymore, well… they'd still have each other, wouldn't they? So, TXNY lived.

Leaving Willow to the music and the sorting, they eventually went on their way to the Blake house. They arrived almost at the same time Shae did, coming up the street from her bus stop. They spotted her just as she saw them, and then she was running toward them, barely decelerating before throwing her arms around Maya, who laughed and just managed not to lose her balance as she hugged her back.

"Hey, kid," she smiled.

"I was going to try and see if you were at the house where you used to live, after dinner," Shae revealed.

"Beat you to it then," Rosa teased.

"Are you coming to either one of the shows out here?" Riley asked her.

"The second one, yeah," Shae confirmed.

"Good," Maya grinned, as they headed toward the house. "It just so happens that we have a proposition for you, Miss Shayla Blake…"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners