December 18th 2020

Chapter 353
Their Plans For Family

If anyone at the Hunter Hart house had any idea how much their hearts drummed with anticipation, there would have been no need for the whole song and dance of their revelation. For as much as they had loved holding the secret within that very small circle of a bare handful, they had been longing for this day to come. Their baby, still so small, invisible to them to the point where they would call upon any number of fruits and vegetables to visualize its size… It wouldn't be born for months but it was already loved by them, by the sole fact of its existence. And in the days to come, that love would expand, taking root in one heart after another.

They had both been up ridiculously early for a Saturday, but then they had opened their eyes, and they'd remembered what was happening today, and… How could anyone go back to sleep after that? Sam was up, too, though in his case because he was studying. Taking his lead, Maya had taken Lucas up to the attic after breakfast, the better to quiz him until it was time to go. Her reasoning went that he was so wired with anticipation that his brain would be firing off on all sides, the better to absorb knowledge. Neither of them could confirm or deny if this was actually a thing, but if nothing Lucas was definitely fully awake and alert, and he answered the questions to the best of his abilities.

At last, it was time to go, and so they got in the car, with everything they'd need for the day's visits. First up were Katy and Shawn and the little Hunters. Lucas had felt even from the moment that he woke up this morning that this would be a great day, and he felt a resurgence of this just from getting a look at his wife, sitting in the passenger seat. She was so excited that she simply couldn't stop smiling, and now she was just smooshing at her cheeks, trying to get them to relax again, to no avail. She was probably a minute away from trying the 'think of sad things' tactic, which could just as well end up missing the mark completely and just leave her crying for no reason.

"Just tell them that I told you a really funny joke before we got there," he suggested. Maya looked to him, not following at first. When she caught on, she laughed.

"Okay, but if I say that then you just know one to four of those kids is going to want to know what the joke was, so what's the joke?" she asked.

"Can't tell you that," Lucas tipped his head.

"Why not?"

"Not safe for children." It might not have counted as an actual joke, but at least it did part of what he'd told her it would. She laughed the rest of the way to her parents' house, imagining him going so far over the line that he couldn't repeat it.

With some chance, the weather had gone and worked in their favor, giving them a cool enough day that Maya could go in 'stealth baby' mode without making her stand out by her choice of outfit. Just to be even further on the safe side – and calling on to her mother's most maligned trope – she picked up the bag of tour shirts and followed Lucas up to the door with the thing held casually in front of herself.

She very nearly lost her 'shield' as soon as they walked into the house. MJ had been the one to let them in, and he tried to grab the bag as soon as he saw it.

"No, no, hey, you have to wait for the others," Maya laughed.

Lucas did his part in ensuring that his little brother-in-law wouldn't get another chance by taking hold of his shoulders and turning him around before walking him toward the kitchen. It was just the thing to amuse him, so MJ went with it, leaning into the hold in order to make Lucas work harder to make him go. When Lucas would 'grunt' with effort, he'd grin, looking up at him.

"Hello?" Maya called out when their arrival had yet to yield anyone else but her little brother. "Where is everyone?" she asked MJ.

"Dad's doing the laundry with Haley in the basement. Mom's with Nellie and Gracie upstairs, homework," MJ replied as they arrived in the kitchen. He almost slipped, trying to get his balance back, before getting hold of the table and stopping with an 'oof!'

"Not for long," Lucas looked up, just as Maya also heard the hurried feet, promising a rush of little Hunter girls.

"Shirts! Shirts! Come get your tour shirts!" Maya called in her best vendor voice, as one and two came from above and three from below, soon followed by their parents. She'd sort of hyped up the fact that they were getting these shirts now, thanks to Ree sending them to her ahead of the tour, not yet knowing they would be involved in this moment. But now here they were, and she had her family gathered around the table with active curiosity, all the better for her to do what she'd come here to do. "Alright, who wants to distribute?" she asked, still holding on to the bag to prevent grabby little hands from getting ahead of themselves. The kids stared at her, only the twins looking vaguely sure of what she'd asked. "Who wants to hand them out?"

Now she had four hands in the air, but in the end the twins had bowed out, and so it became that MJ and Haley would alternate pulling out the shirts. They would reach in and grab one, letting it come unfolded until they could figure out by the size or the cut just who it belonged to. Haley got the first, the smallest of them with the one man's shirt, which she was told went to her father. She quickly brought it over to him and he accepted it with thanks to both his youngest and his eldest, admiring it with pride. MJ got the next, which went to Katy. She still couldn't believe it at times. Her baby girl, on tour with the Ree Forster.

Haley pulled out one that had to be for one of the twins, but she couldn't decide which of the two. So, MJ had gotten the next one, for the other twin, and they'd let Nellie and Gracie decide.

"For MJ now!" Haley reached in, having guessed as much and reaching in to find, as predicted, another, smaller, child's size. She passed it to him, and MJ received it with a bright smile. "The one after that is for me, right?" she asked her big sister before looking to MJ. He had to give it to her, it was his turn. So, he reached in, and he got the shirt, presented it to Haley, who hugged it almost like a doll and then, just as soon, peered back inside the bag, as she tended to do, to make sure there was nothing left. They had sort of counted on that. "Another one!" she called, reaching in. "My turn!"

Maya and Lucas had only to stand back and watch all this time, waiting for The Moment. Lucas was surprisingly good at keeping them from seeing his phone, filming the whole thing. When Haley pulled out the last shirt, which was in fact a onesie, made to look like a tour shirt, which they'd made at home in the way they'd made the quiz shirts, it took a moment for any of them to understand what this was about. Shawn had looked to Katy, not as though it could have been meant for her, but even as she'd been shaking her head at him, letting him know she had no idea, they'd hit that lightbulb moment in a split second, turning back to their daughter to find her with such a cunning little smirk on her face…

"Maya?" Shawn blinked.

"Yes?" she innocently asked, waiting on an actual question.

"Are you…" Katy breathed, eyes made to scan her over, much as Shawn did.

"Oh, yeah," Maya laughed, emotion rising in her chest even as they practically bolted to get around the table and reach her.

"Is she what?" Haley asked loudly over the sound of her parents as they closed in around her big sister and held her. MJ was confused, too, looking at the onesie, but then the twins figured it out, and from there he got it, too. Of course! "Is she what?" Haley repeated, not liking how she was the only one not knowing. The twins went to her though, and they told her: their sister was going to have a baby! And they were going to be aunts, the three of them, and MJ would be an uncle! Haley forgot all her frustration right there, and now she was hopping and smiling. A baby!

Lucas would have been satisfied just standing back and waiting as his in-laws embraced Maya and went on reacting to the news with happy tears, and barely coherent words, but then Shawn had practically yanked him by the arm and brought him into the hold. So there he was, held by the future grandparents, looking to Maya there between them, across from him, and she really did seem to glow.

"How long have you…" Katy finally asked, as they'd pulled back when Maya pointed out that she was getting pretty hot from the prolonged contact.

"Uh, since April," she revealed, sweeping tears from both eyes at once, taking a breath.

"Okay, see, now there's a couple things that make a lot more sense now," Shawn laughed. "So you're like…" he looked down, even as Maya reached down and gladly allowed her shirt to rest as it was intended to instead of the way she'd adjusted it in order to hide her bump. This was a whole other reveal in itself, and as surprised as it left both Katy and Shawn, to the little Hunters it was a display they could not keep away from. They all came up with curious hands reaching to feel for the curve, knowing to varying degrees what it meant.

"When is it going to be born?" Nellie asked.

"November," Maya told her, the feel of all those small hands hitting her with a new wave of emotions. For how long they'd known about this, it might have been the first time where she realized this meant she would be very pregnant at Halloween, and on their dating anniversary. It intrigued her very much to wonder what Lucas would come up with for their anniversary, but mostly it made her start and think about what she might dress up as this year, with her belly in full force.

"What about the tour?" Katy asked, remembering now.

"Well, obviously I had to tell Ree about all this," Maya explained, almost apologetically. "We've made some adjustments, and she's bringing a doctor along with us, for check-ups and everything else. Everything will be fine," she promised.

Her parents didn't argue on this, though both Maya and Lucas were left to feel as though Katy and Shawn weren't one hundred percent on board with her going out there like this, potentially exerting herself in ways that would be harmful to both her and the baby. But then as much as she was and would always be their kid, she wasn't a kid anymore, and they had to trust that she knew what she was doing. By the time Maya and Lucas left, for the second part of their day, they imagined as many additional questions popping up where they had been as they did where they were going.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners