December 8th 2022

Chapter 342
Our Family in Time

There were so many traditions, big and small, that made their family what it was. People, events, objects… There were plenty of them, and every time they came into play, it was exciting especially to the Friar sisters. And soon… soon they had what they considered to be a big one coming. In just about a week, Mackenzie Abigail Friar was turning two years old. That was pretty great on its own, but that wasn't the big thing, not according to her older sisters. It was what her being two signified to them: She was about to get her own special-day locket. That was when Marianne had gotten hers, and when Lucy, Remy, and Kacey had gotten theirs… Tori was their niece, not their sister, but she had gotten hers, too, on her second birthday. And now it was Mackenzie's turn. They'd still have to wait a little over a year for Aubrey, but until then…

Marianne would have wanted to come along, but she had soccer practice, and the weekend was kind of busy as it was, so she'd bowed out gracefully. Maya had gone with her, bringing the little sisters as well, and so it was Lucas who made his way to the mall, accompanied by the triplets. To see them go, it might have been the best day ever. They still remained clustered together wherever they went, so it was easier for Lucas to keep an eye on them, but he still ensured that he had physical contact with one of them most of the time, holding one of their hands, or setting his on one of their heads… He and Maya would joke about how they would perform very regular headcounts, even without thinking about it most of the time, but they couldn't help it. The idea of losing track of any one of them…

Any time they got to talking about any of their girls' birthdays, it felt like a confrontation with the passage of time, but now with how many of them they had, they couldn't cross one without thinking of all of them. He would stop and think about how Mackenzie was about to be two whole years old, which was wild, their surprise little Mack Attack feeling like she'd only just arrived sometimes. And when he'd think about that, he'd think about Aubrey, who would turn one at the end of next month, and… Well, he tried not to think about what else had happened that day, tried to reframe the narrative and think that his baby girl was alive and thriving as she had been this past year… and so was her mother.

He would think about these three little blondes right here with him, once so very small in his arms and now… Now they were just a few months shy of turning four years old. They amazed him more and more, every day of their lives, and now this fall they would be entering green group, even as Marianne moved to red group with the eight and nine-year-olds… She would be eight… eight! Halloween was still several months away, but… eight! Oh, how the triplets were excited to finally get their own bandannas, just like she'd done. It was putting him in the unfortunate position of having to decide whether to continue following Marianne and her friends as they graduated up or to go back down with the little ones, so he could follow the triplets.

He had a feeling he knew what Marianne would say if he asked her. She'd tell him to go back to green group, that it was the right thing to do for the triplets. She'd already been talking like she had this idea of becoming a monitor to the little ones once she aged out of yellow group. That was still five, six whole years away, but he wasn't surprised by the initiative. If anything, she already had the job as far as he was concerned. Sullivan Stables was as much her legacy as it was his, and if she wanted this to be her way into taking her place, then he would encourage her, every step of the way.

He was already doing that for his eldest, wasn't he? She was twenty-two now, and it could have felt less remarkable by comparison to those of his daughters who he'd known from before birth, with how she'd come into their lives on the cusp of seventeen, had become their daughter at eighteen, herself a mother already, but that was far from the truth. No, Lucas was in awe of their Ella, too, for completely different reasons than her little sisters, but genuinely awed, nonetheless. He knew Maya was there, too. Right now, she was in college, and she was studying to do just as he did, to be a veterinarian. He had inspired her, and it still knocked him for a loop to think about it. She was nearly three quarters of the way through her Houston years, and she'd still have a long way to go before she was all done, but he knew she would get through it.

After this next year coming up, she'd be coming back to live in Austin before kicking off her next four years of studies, and that… That he was looking forward to so much; they all were. For him and Maya and the girls, it would mean having her nearby again, and it would be that for her, too, but it would also mean being back with her daughter again, and they knew it was nearly all she could think about, that, and Taylor coming home… She was engaged, she would be married… They hadn't picked a date yet, but she'd already asked Lucas to walk her down the aisle. She hadn't needed to ask, but it meant so much to him that she'd done it anyway.

"There it is, Daddy, I see it!" Kacey pointed at the display case. Like her sisters, she was standing very close to it, stretching up on her toes to see as much as possible. The woman seemed concerned that any of those small hands might have been sticky or dirty, but Lucas knew they weren't, so he let them observe. This was very important to them, and they were so happy that they had the chance to participate.

"Yeah, that's the one. It's just like yours," he told her.

"No, it's not, there's nothing on it," Remy pointed out.

"Not yet, but there will be. There's going to be an M, for Mackenzie."

"Like Marianne?" Kacey asked, looking back at him, and nearly losing her balance. Lucas reached out to stop her falling.

"That's true. They have the same initial," he told her. "Maybe we can do something different, to tell them apart. Like a big M with a little c." The twins looked at him. They weren't following. "Trust me, it makes sense," he told them, and they accepted it. "What about you, bun, what do you think?" he turned to Lucy. She'd been quiet all this time, and he soon knew why. She was enthralled, looking at another heart-shaped locket that was much bigger than the little ones they had, than the one their sister would soon have. It was even bigger than the one their mother had. The twins noticed it now, too, and the impression was that they couldn't believe such a big locket could exist. "That one is definitely too big for her. She'll tip over," he joked, and the big locket was left alone.

In its stead, the small one was acquired, and it was soon engraved with Mc, so they would have no doubt who it belonged to. It was not lost that his wife and two of their daughters had names that started with the same two letters, unintentional as it had been.

"Auntie!" Remy blurted out, the first to spot a familiar face as they headed out of the store and into the mall again. As soon as she said it, naturally, it got her sisters searching, and they didn't have long to look. Lucas spotted his former co-worker and roommate even as she saw them. "Can we go, Daddy?" Remy asked, not even looking over her shoulder as she did. If she were a cartoon, she'd look like a car, revving to race.

"Hold hands and watch where you're going, yes, you can go," he told them, and they went, dashing the short distance that would bring them into the waiting Rosa's presence. They bunched around her, hugging around her legs, and she leaned to hug them back, one by one. They told her about why they were here, pointing to the bag as Lucas caught up to them.

"That's why I'm here, too!" Rosa told them, and Lucas always had to smirk, hearing how she spoke to children, especially his and their friends'. He remembered how she'd been back in the days when they worked at her mother's bookstore in Houston. "Not for a locket, obviously, but presents for your little sister," she told the triplets now. The little vultures immediately turned their curious eyes to the bag she held. "That's not hers, I haven't gotten those yet," Rosa told them, and they retreated, though their curiosity did not.

"What is it?" Kacey asked. Rosa hesitated.

"Well…" she started, then paused, smiling to herself, "Just a few things I figured I'd need before long. I guess you could say I'm going to be working on a present for some friends."

She held Lucas' gaze as she said this, and it only took a moment before he understood what she was alluding to. The girls were still focused on her and the bag, so the two old friends had a chance to confer with glances. It went something like…

Lucas: Wait, you're doing it? You're going to carry a baby for them?
Rosa: Looks that way.
Lucas: Not yet though?
Rosa: No, but working on it.
Lucas: Doing okay?
Rosa: Nervous, but good.
Lucas: Can I tell Maya?
Rosa: She already knows.

As she carried on with her shopping, Lucas and the girls did the same. They had a couple other things to pick up before they headed home, so they did that. All the while, he couldn't help but think about Rosa and what she was embarking on. Ever since she'd first put the offer out to Chiara, Sophie, Ray, and Asher, all they'd been able to think was that this was absolutely in her wheelhouse, to do something like this. No, she and Jenna never wanted children of their own, by any means, and not even this would be likely to change their minds. But they were both of a generous kind that fit with one another, one that would not hesitate to do something for other people, especially their friends, if it was in their power. And when the potential need had arisen, it had taken next to no time to decide. If the four of them ever decided to go through with it and try for one more child, she would be ready and willing to carry it for them. All they had to do was ask, and now it seemed that they had.

When they returned home, the triplets 'supervised' the hiding of the special locket, making sure that Mackenzie would not see it. As soon as he got the chance, Lucas mentioned to Maya that he'd run into Rosa and that she had told him about what was going on. Maya had an instant look of relief to her, the kind she'd get when she had been made to keep a secret from someone and she was finally released from that vow. It was both strange and wonderful to consider it, but what she had been thinking about most of all was the geography of it all. The Mantovani-Zvolensky and Garcia-Choi families were out in Houston, and Rosa lived and worked in Austin, with Jenna. They were only two hours apart, hardly a reason to relocate, though she knew if she were the one who was having her baby carried by someone in another city, she'd be thinking about them a lot. What was for sure now was that once it happened, if it was all successful, then Rosa would have plenty of people in Austin to look out for her, so their people in Houston could rest easy as they waited for this new child to come along. They could always count on their fellow turtles.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners