December 8th 2020

Chapter 343
Their Secret in the Morning

She'd been having a good dream… Maybe. The impression was all she had left, as she'd barely started to wake up when she started to feel it coming, same as she'd done morning after morning. The attic was still very quiet, and from the color of the sky overhead, Maya could tell the sun had just started to rise. Everyone was still asleep, which could either be good or bad, depending on her ability to get out of here as soon as possible. What were the odds that she could make it to the basement bathroom in time?

Holding tight to what willpower she had, Maya stood from her sleeping bag. She did not give too much mind to the aches of her 'princess and the pea' night on the floor, instead approaching the trap door on quiet bare feet. She leaned to open it but immediately changed her mind and stood back up, taking a deep breath. She couldn't do it, not without triggering… She tried again and came back with the same result. She was losing time, the longer this took…

She looked back to where the others slept, weighing her options and… Hold on…

"Cara… Cara, I know you're awake…" she spoke, her voice coming as much as it could even as her throat played gatekeeper with the contents of her stomach.

"How do you do th…" Cara sighed, sitting up. As she did, she got a look at her sister's face and frowned. "You look like you're going to be s…"

"Definitely am, so I need you to open the door," Maya waved her over with urgency. Cara got up and hurried over, crouching and lowering the stairs.

"Are you going to be…" she turned back to Maya, concerned.

"I need… a favor… Won't get to the… basement, so you… you create… a diversion, yeah? I go down, and… and you make a lot of noise."

"But…" Cara looked to the sleeping dozen. Maya grabbed her hand and Cara turned back.

"Morning sickness… Morning…" Maya spoke with all the quiet emphasis she could muster, knowingly reaching her hand up to cover her sister's for a beat as her eyes went wide. "Secret… Make noise," she pleaded, feeling her face had to be growing a very weird color by now, holding back just barely.

Cara nodded, and that was all Maya needed. She went down the steps, heading to the end of the hallway and into the bathroom. Just as she shut the door, she heard her little sister's voice from above, singing loudly, which in turn made for a mess of surprised voices as the others woke, startled. Maya didn't catch much of those.

The distraction did its job well enough that, by the time someone came and knocked on the bathroom door because they had to go, Maya had collected herself and was able to step out of the room, covering any lingering feelings under the guise of being barely awake. Everyone was also pretty rattled by their noisy wake-up call that they didn't pay so much attention to her that they could have picked up on anything. So, Maya went down to the kitchen, starting off the day with momentary peace, the others still upstairs. She started the coffee machine, checked the dogs' bowls. Lou came and stood on her back legs, staring up at her, and Maya picked her up, scratched her gladly. If that was as bad as it got for today, then the rest would be pretty good…

"I thought you were still up there," Cara's voice took her from the moment. Maya turned to find her sister there, questions spilling from bright blue eyes and a giddy smile. Without a word, she went and opened the kitchen door, motioning for her to follow. She set Lou down, watched her run around, tail wagging, nose sniffing at the ground here and there… "Who else knows?" Cara asked. Maya sighed, thinking.

"Lucas, Sam, Ree, the vice-principal at the school, and now you," she counted off. And one of my students, sort of…

Cara hesitated, looking back at the house a moment before resolving to express her desire to hug her older sister by simply standing shoulder to shoulder with her, squeezing her hand and quietly squealing. Maya laughed, tipping her head to rest against hers.

"Are you sure you still want to come and live with us this fall? By November, there'll be a crying infant in the house."

"I don't mind, I have experience with those. I don't really remember much from when Eliza was born, a bit more with Wyatt. But definitely loads with Maisie. Anyway, it's not like I didn't know you guys would have a kid sooner or later. This is going be so great," she declared, with another wave of giddiness.

"Yeah, I really think it will be," Maya smiled, feeling a few tears rising now and letting them come before wiping them away.

"Is it really bad? In the morning? Mom said how after me and Sam she almost told Dad she didn't want any other kids because of how bad it got her," Cara recounted.

"Oh, well, that explains a couple things," Maya muttered to herself.

"What?" Cara asked.

"Nothing, never mind," Maya shook her head. "And… Let's just say I'll be glad when that part's over. The rest I can handle, but this…"

"Right…" Cara shuddered at the thought. After a beat, recalling what Maya had said before, she asked about her mention of November.

"November 16th," Maya nodded. "That's the due date."

"Okay… the sixteenth," Cara repeated to herself. She looked so happy, eager, and Maya really appreciated seeing it just now. She was even more anxious for her little sister to join them for good. "How's this going to work with the tour?"

"Still doing it," Maya told her. "We'll have to do a few adjustments here and there as the weeks go by and I get bigger, but it'll be just fine."

"You know, it's going to be a lot, all that traveling, and those shows… You might need help with some stuff…" Cara pointed out. Dora and Gracie may have had award winning poker faces, but Cara did not.

"I'll have Lucas," Maya assured her.

"No, yeah, sure," Cara agreed. "But what if you need help, and you're in some ladies' room in… Germany or something… He won't be able to go in there with you. He could cause some kind of international incident, and that's just not good for anyone's career, people are very quick to make up their minds…"

"Your brain just goes at lightspeed, doesn't it?" Maya laughed. Cara shrugged innocently. "Look, I get what you're saying, I… I'll consider it, okay?"

If she gave her immediate honest answer, of course she would like to have her sister there with her on the tour, going from country to country, especially as she'd be going through a very important chunk of this pregnancy being away from her home and the majority of her family. They were all supposed to fly out to see her at some point, but that would only go so far, wouldn't it? To have one more person, if no more…

"Thank you, thank you," Cara gave a barely contained hop. "What about like… check-ups and all that? Aren't you going to need a lot of those?"

"Ree is working that out right now. There'll be a doctor following the tour team as we go," Maya explained. "Look, we should put all that aside for now, yeah? Today is supposed to be about you, and the other tour… the campus tour," she intoned, smiling.

"I can't help it if I have a lot of questions, this is huge." Maya smirked.

"Actually, it's a fig."

They'd had to go back into the house, recalling Lou from her explorations, when Cecilia came and called them in to breakfast. Several of them had gotten to work in preparing it, all the while wondering where the two of them had gotten off to.

Maya was mildly concerned whether or not Cara would be able to keep the secret. It wasn't that she wasn't able to do it, but this was a pretty big one, and she was clearly so, so happy about it. All through the meal and as everyone got ready to either go back to their day-to-day or to go off on the campus tour, Maya could see the edges of a smile gaining on her little sister's face, even as she tried to pull it back in. It was only by the mercy of the 'trick' she'd pulled on everyone up in the attic earlier that the smile was misinterpreted as her still finding it all so very funny, unlike the others.

Four people knew now, outside of herself and Lucas. Really, they had all been born out of necessity, for her job, and the tour, and proximity, and then… well, an immediate need of assistance… Alright, I'll really consider it, Cara… Even so, Maya couldn't pretend like she wasn't so happy to have gotten to tell Sam and Cara especially so far. She wanted to tell the rest of her family, too, and Lucas' family, wanted to tell all their friends. Hell, she wouldn't have minded telling totally random strangers on the street sometimes. But her family… Her brother and sister had been so beyond excited at the news, and she knew theirs would be very alike to the others once they actually knew. She really just wanted to get to share in this feeling with all of them instead of having to keep it so close to herself.

"Hey, your brother is on his way to pick you up," Maya went to find Desi after getting off the phone with the girl's grandmother. She'd finished getting ready and now sat with her violin case open before her on the coffee table, the instrument in her grasp as her fingers moved without making contact as she silently practiced. She stopped and turned now and moved to put it away. "How long have you been playing?"

"Since I was four," Desi replied, putting the instrument back in its place. When she closed the case, Maya spotted a name written on the side, finely traced in what might have been a gold marker. Some of it had faded away but it was still legible as Monica Joy Hayes. She pointed it out and Desi pressed at the loopy M with her finger. "It was my mom's before, when she was growing up. She gave it to me, the first time she went away. We have the same middle name, you know? Monica Joy, Desiree Joy."

"She must love to hear you play," Maya smiled, and Desi nodded back to her, smiling, too. Thinking about Desi, and Khalil, and their parents so far away, for so long, it was a good thing that the doorbell rang when it did or her emotions might have gotten the best of her.

"Morning, Mrs. Friar," Khalil tipped his head even as his little sister dashed through the open door to hug him. "Hey, Bitty," he looked down to her with a smile. "Need a hand?"

"No, I can do it," Desi hurried back into the house, and Khalil gave a nod that said 'of course, my mistake.'

"I learned that one yesterday," Maya chuckled.

"Thank you so much for having her over. I know it meant a lot to her to come," Khalil told her.

"Well, we loved having her here with us," Maya assured him.

"I saw a horse!" Desi returned, her bags balanced in her arms.

"She saw a horse," Maya confirmed. "See you on Monday, Mr. Russell. Bye, Desiree Joy," she smiled, seeing the grin this got her from the girl as she and her brother walked off to their grandfather's car. Even as they were driving off, Dora and Cecilia came and said their goodbyes, heading off in turn. Katy and/or Shawn would be along soon for the twins and Haley, and soon it would be time for the campus tour with Cara and the family.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners