A/N: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!

November 18th 2020

Chapter 323
Their Growth in Encores

Day 6, Saturday. Concert – Austin Night 2

It had been a long time since TXNY had given shows on three consecutive nights, and after the second of these they could easily have been given a pass for taking a lazy morning. Instead, they were up, and dressed, packed, fed, and giving goodbyes and great thanks to their friends for hosting them all by nine that morning. They were going back to Austin for their next and final show in this whirlwind mini tour. They were going home, to husbands, to a fiancé, and a girlfriend, and a baby daughter. Sleep was less important.

Where their drive into Houston had been near silent, moonlit, this one was under an agreeable sunlight and it was full of song. They could not have found more homebound conditions.

It was a no-brainer that their first stop would bring Nadine back to her husband and their baby girl. Everyone was to be left at home to refresh and regroup before heading back to the Hex for their final rehearsal before the evening's performance.

"You're going to let me get the car to a stop before you jump out, right?" Maya asked as they approached the house.

"Yes, yes," Nadine promised, her tone suggesting she'd be especially agreeable to this if she'd just hurry up about it.

Nadine was true to her word, waiting until Maya had parked before getting out and heading to the door. Maya jumped out, too, collecting Nadine's bags and following after her. By the absence of his car, she knew Lucas was already gone off to the bookstore for the day, meaning her reunion would have to wait a while longer… unless she made a stop on the way…

Bringing the bags inside, she found mother and daughter had been happily reunited, with Nadine almost dancing as she held Mia. The little one was bright eyed and content as she looked back at her, and whether or not her three-month-old brain could understand her mother had been gone and was now back, the way she looked back at her… Oh, that was love alright.

Dropping off Riley, Rosa, and Kayla, Maya was now had to decide: bookstore or home. Oh, she wanted to see Lucas so bad, even if just for a couple minutes, but who was she kidding? After being apart for the last few days, that part of her heart that turned into a lovesick teenager without him was going to rebel and make leaving him again feel impossible, and then she'd probably stick around the store for a while, and then it'd be lunch time so of course they'd go eat, and then… Yeah, she had to go home.

"This is Lucas, how can I…"

"Hi, I'm looking for this book, it's called 'All the Best Husbands Are Cowboys,' you wouldn't happen to have it in stock, would you?" Maya asked in a solid drawl.

"I don't know, let me have a look," he laughed. Alright, so the whole reason he didn't have his cell on him was to prevent personal calls, but this didn't count, right? He was being a good salesperson, doing his job. "Are you near the store now?"

"Could be considered that way, yes, but getting more distant every second. I just got the others back home, I'm doing the same now."

"So you won't be in the vicinity today," Lucas continued.

"We really need to cut that game short, because you're really good at it and I haven't seen you in four days," Maya pointed out, grinning to herself. "Anyway, yeah. I wanted to go, I really did, but that would not have gone well, throwing us off schedule when we're so close to the finish line."

"That might be the best choice though," he told her.

"How do you figure?"

"Every time I see you on a stage, it's like everything you see, everything you feel, it all comes out twice as strong, like fuel… And if you miss me that much, then what's it going to do for your performance when you see me out there?" After a few seconds' silence… "You're smiling now, aren't you?"

"Big time."

"Good. Too bad about that book though, I don't see it anywhere," he played up again, making her laugh.

"The real thing's better anyway."

Husband or none, driving up the lane toward home definitely made her feel plenty, as did spotting familiar faces running around outside the house, playing catch with the dogs. When she gave a honk, Sam and Dora looked up, while the dogs barked excitedly. They'd been trained not to run after the cars, which was good, especially when they were this jumpy.

"Make a hole, come on," Maya looked out the window when, once the minivan had stopped, the dogs had rushed the door. "Yeah, I missed you, too, but move," she laughed, while Sam and Dora came up, scooping two dogs each and allowing her to get out from the driver's seat. Sam put down Crowley and Trix before moving to embrace his older sister, herself already reaching for him. "Hey, you, I know you," she smiled, squeezing tight. "Did you have a good few days?" she asked, pulling back, and he had to shyly avert his eyes, so at least on this he was and would continue to be her Sammy.

"Yeah, you know," he scratched at the back of his neck.

"Yes, yes, I do," she nodded at him, knowing it'd get him to look up at her again, almost pleading for her not to go there. "Hey, Dora," she turned a smile to Lucas' cousin. "He wasn't too much trouble, was he?" she asked, moving to hug her, too, after she'd set down Archer and Lou.

"No more than usual," Dora promised. At least she was catching on to the reasoning of her teasing meaning all was well between them. "We came back to get the dogs from the farm, figured you'd be home soon."

"Thanks for that," Maya nodded, crouching to let the dogs greet her to their hearts' content.

Giving no more than brief attention to that feeling of being back home, back in her room, her own bathroom, after being away, Maya went and brought her bags inside before heading to the shower. She had hours still until the show, so for the time being she only dressed for the day, detangling her hair but then letting it to dry as she headed out of the house and into the Hex. It was a toss-up really as to what she'd missed the most, between the attic and the studio, but right now this day was still about the music and if she went up to the attic, well it would not be unlike what would happen if she went to the bookstore to see Lucas. She'd be up to her elbows in paints or pencils when the others came back, and they couldn't have that.

"One thing at a time," she muttered to herself, sinking into her chair and opening up her laptop to get started.

Even though she would not be leaving for months still, that morning at breakfast, Kayla had stated that tonight would be her last show. The way she saw it, they would not have a better send off than this past week, and she wanted to leave things on that high. As sudden as it felt for the rest of them, they understood her all too well, and they respected her choice.

Now that they knew this though, there was that much more need for them to make this the show, one to go down in history, in TXNY history at least. Maya had asked permission to flush their intended song list and create a new one, which they would rehearse today, until the show that night. They all agreed. Now, she was here, with her laptop, with her catalogue of all their songs, so many of them over the years. She looked through them, from the very beginning, pre-dating Kayla's being in the band, up to the very most recent, the ones they had been debuting here and in Houston. She wanted to find the ones with their very best drum solos, their very best drum beats, the better for Kayla to show them what she could do. Once she had those, they could build the new list around them.

They arrived, one by one, and the list came together very easily, as Maya had hoped. In some ways, it almost felt like it was too easy, too fast. This was the last time they'd do this, the five of them, so shouldn't it take longer so they'd be able to enjoy themselves longer? Seven years… They'd been going long enough now, they were already halfway in each other's thoughts when they worked on things like this together. Whatever they did next, whether they brought on a new fifth or not, they were going to need a time, to stay the four of them together, to adjust to Kayla's absence before they could think about any new person.

When they finished the rehearsal, they just sat and stood there for a minute, silence falling over the Hex once more, and looking at each other… Oh, there were tears, just a bit, here and there, and eventually someone had to do something, to pull them back from the edge, or else they'd be useless that night. It was Kayla herself who did what had to be done, sniffing back, wiping at her eyes. She took up her drumsticks again, and she put down a beat. Rosa picked it up, and Riley joined her, and Maya, and Nadine, and then they were just doing what they did, all of them together.

They went back into the house for dinner, and then they had to change for the show and head out to get to the venue. There was no putting into words the feelings, the knowledge that this was their last show with Kayla, but there was no space for sadness here, no. That was behind them. Whatever was left had to be kept to themselves, on the inside, and it couldn't be left to come and disrupt the show.

"I don't think we'll be able to take a picture out there," Nadine declared as they approached, and she didn't have to worry that the others wouldn't know why. The audience had already started to arrive, the line stretching out along the street. It was not the first time that they'd seen something like this, knowing it was for them, but… yeah, it was still pretty awesome.

"Hey, there's Missy," Riley pointed out the window, and Maya barely managed to see her as she drove them by, but that brief look alone had allowed her to catch a few other faces she knew in that line, faces she hadn't seen in a week, and finding them here… It reminded her of what Lucas had told her earlier, about her stage 'fuel.' A part of her would probably think it weird to have some of her students out there. It wasn't as though she was usually meek and mild-mannered, but they had definitely never seen her in this way before, some of them maybe, if they'd been to any of their shows before…

Taking the other door into the building, TXNY headed backstage, going through the last steps before the show started, especially factoring in the changes they had made to their songs list. They hadn't hidden the reasons for it, and at least this made everyone there very understanding.

"What are you doing?" Rosa asked, coming up behind Maya as she took a peek out the curtains to check that they hadn't started letting people in yet before scurrying back on to the stage and fixing something to mic stand. When she stood back, Rosa could see the pocket watch now dangling down the front of the stand, the cover open and well in view.

"Personal touch," Maya smiled, hurrying back out of view and pulling her along. "No tossing that thing around tonight, whoever goes up there, yeah?"

"When have we ever?" Nadine laughed, sneaking a look out to see what she'd done and then ducking back out.

"They're coming in?" Riley asked, and Nadine nodded. Minutes later, Kayla went and snuck a look, too, turning back to her bandmates.

"Band hug?"

"Big one," Maya replied, and they huddled up together, just about forehead to forehead times five even as they were being announced and the audience cheered. Time to go.

There were too many people by now to really find anyone unless she knew where to look for them, so even though she knew she'd seen several of her students outside, she never spotted them in the audience. She did however find Lucas, almost so front and center that everyone else might have been superfluous. Oh, she smiled with her whole face, her whole body right about then, and she tipped her head as though to say 'oh, hey' all casual like, when her expression was anything but that. He was a giant smile, too, and he nodded to the mic stand, showing that he'd spotted the watch. She gave him a good raised eyebrow, moving into place and soon greeting the audience, giving for the last time the discreet cue she'd been giving to Kayla for seven years, signalling her to start playing, to kick them off. And for the last time, she did just that.

If they'd wanted an electric performance, a memorable one, they gave it and then some. Very few people in the building knew that this was Kayla's TXNY swan song, and if they had it might have given the night a different vibe, but that wasn't what they wanted. They just wanted to give the best of themselves and let their audience enjoy that. By the end, as they had their last look of everyone out there before leaving the stage, they were confident enough to say they had done what they'd set out to do, for the audience and for themselves, too. They were exhausted, still flooded with adrenaline, sweaty, but oh they needed another band hug, to hold to one another and give this night one more moment to exist before they'd leave here and go their separate ways, back to their everyday lives, knowing they'd never have this again. They felt just a tiny bit silly for not wanting to let go, but then what else would they expect?

"I believe this belongs to you," Maya found her smile again as she found Lucas on her way out. She offered out the pocket watch, taken back from the mic stand on her way off the stage. He took it, kept hold of her hand even as she leaned in to kiss him, and after four days apart, and the show's energy still coursing through her, oh how she let him know how much she'd missed him…

"Kinda liked seeing it out there," Lucas told her, arms around her waist, smiling as she was.

"Good, then I might have to do it again next time…"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners