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

December 9th 2022

Chapter 343
Our Family in Days

It was Friday. The 'big celebration' would happen the next day, but today was the big day, and they couldn't let it go by unnoted. Today, Mackenzie Friar was two years old, as hard as it could be for her mother and father to believe it. They woke up as they would, on a weekday, and started going about the routine of getting things started before the girls woke up. Oh, they were pros at it by now, though they knew that with one child in first grade, three in preschool, and two still being looked after by their grandparents, they still had levels to gain on in the years to come. That was of no concern for today. Today was dear funny little Macaroni's day, and they had to start it right. For now, that meant getting a start on breakfast, and seeing to the dogs, too. They would alternate, most days, only needing to exchange a look to decide who would do what. This morning, Lucas got started on breakfast, while Maya would join him after seeing what the 'pup-ulation' of the house was up to. That was a creation of Marianne's, and she was very proud of it, so it was gaining use in the family.

After a couple of months among them, Liberty and Yankee were settling in very well into the household, enough that they could generally look as though they'd always been around. The longer they had been there, their personalities had become more familiar, too. They were very similar to one another, especially as to their most noted qualities: they were clingy. Oh, they were the first ones to come up when one of their new humans came along, or was found sitting somewhere, especially on the couch. If someone attempted to move them, they would turn pitiful eyes up as though begging that they be allowed to stay. For that, they were also very affectionate, and there was no doubt whatsoever that they loved their family.

"Hey, good morning," Maya smiled when she came to find the dogs and the two Italian Greyhounds came to her at once, ahead of the others.

Some of the dogs, especially those who'd been there longer, could be known to find their way up into their rooms in the night, the girls' rooms in particular, guarding the little Friars as they slept, and sometimes they'd still be there in the morning. The rest of the time, they'd have made their way back to rejoin their canine friends. Today, she was missing Jax and Artie down here, to no surprise. They'd caught on, knew that today was a special day for one of their girls, and they knew which one. Maya and Lucas had already spotted them sleeping at the foot of Mackenzie's bed.

"Come on, up you go. No, you can do it, come on," Maya encouraged the puppies. It had been very easy for them to convince people to carry them up and down stairs at first, but it wasn't as though they couldn't do it themselves, and they were trying not to encourage the habit anymore. The way the dogs responded, it almost seemed a betrayal, but then all Maya had to do was go up the stairs as though to leave them there, and sooner or later they'd come hurrying along. "Hey, look at that, good job," she smiled and reached down to pet them both when they'd made it out of the basement.

The dogs' bowls were all seen to as needed, which settled the five down here, and now Maya was able to join Lucas in whatever breakfast prep task remained. They weren't sure at what point it had become this way, but this was one of the parts of their days that they appreciated the most. In some shape or form, they could say that they'd always had it, even before they'd started having children, being that they'd always been morning people together, but this was something else. They had this bit of quiet together, with the early morning sky visible through the windows. They didn't have to say a word, and they were good together. Of course, sooner or later, the silence would be broken, and all it would take would be one sound for them to pause and look up…

"And we're off," Lucas whispered, making Maya laugh.

"Listen," she told him, and they did. One floor above, they could hear several young voices, singing Happy Birthday. They were all awake, the six of them, and they were all in the green room together.

Leaving nothing that could burn… or get snatched up by hungry and curious dogs… they made their way up the stairs and down the hall. The birthday song had run its course, and now it looked like they'd turned their attention to trying to get Aubrey to walk on her own. Marianne was sitting on her knees right behind her, ready to catch her if she fell back – which was happening regularly – while the triplets tried to encourage her forward. Lucy was at the heart of this trio, the twins on either side of her, as she tried to encourage her buddy. Meanwhile, birthday girl Mackenzie was standing next to her little sister and taking exaggerated steps, like she was trying to demonstrate. Mostly, she was just making the nearly eleven-month-old girl giggle, while the two dogs looked stuck between wanting to guard Aubrey and wondering what on Earth Mackenzie was doing.

"What, you're all having a party without us?" Lucas inquired of the room, and it was as good as calling all eyes on him and on Maya, as both the girls and the dogs had their own version of 'oh, you're here!' excitement burst out of them.

"Wait, Mack first," Marianne encouraged her little sisters, picking up the baby at the same time. "It's her birthday," she reminded the triplets, and they all nodded. Yes, of course. Mackenzie didn't have to be told twice. She was already speeding up to her parents, where she was scooped up by her father for a giant hug.

"Hey, Mackerel, how old are you now?" he asked her, and she held up two fingers, just like they'd shown her. "What?" Lucas gasped 'dramatically.' "No way. Show me again?" he asked, and Mackenzie showed the two fingers. "I can't believe it!" Lucas continued, which had Mackenzie nodding firmly with a laugh.

"True, Daddy!" she told him.

"Oh, well, if you're sure," he slowly nodded.

"Sure," Mackenzie repeated.

"You know what I'm sure of? Your dad's a dork," Maya informed the girl now tipping toward her for some morning kisses, too.

"Hey!" Lucas mock complained.

"Don't worry, that's a good thing," she told them both, now holding the two-year-old. "Happy birthday, Macaroon," she told her, brushing at her hair. "Did you sleep alright?" Mackenzie nodded. "Good dreams?" Another nod. "Any you remember?"

As complicated as it could sometimes be to keep up with her and her ever developing vocabulary, it seemed that she'd dreamed something to do with a giant dog, big like a house, and it was very silly but also kind of like a superhero… possibly not a dog, the more she went on about it… By the end, it was a dinosaur. Mackenzie had been getting to love those lately, which may or may not have been reflected in a lot of the birthday presents she would receive in the next couple of days.

"You know, she's lucky to have a big sister who feeds her stories every day, gets her imagination going like that," Maya told Marianne as she drove her to school after dropping off the triplets. It made the seven-year-old so happy to hear it.

"Mommy?" Marianne asked. They were walking from the parking lot now, hand in hand.

"Yeah, pumpkin?"

"Are you going to have another baby?" She was no stranger to kids' 'out of the blue' questions, but this one definitely caught her by surprise.

"Why, do I look like I am?" she asked with a smirk, looking down at herself. She always figured she was doing pretty well for herself, after four pregnancies and six babies, three of them at once.

"No," Marianne promised. "I just wondered…"

"I know what you meant," Maya promised, kissing the top of her daughter's head.

"It's just Samantha's mom had a baby, and Tristan's mom is having one, too, and… I was wondering," she shrugged.

"I get it," Maya told her.

She thought for a moment before answering. At all times, if they felt that they could, they would try and be honest with their girls, not holding their age against them, but this still felt like something they needed to be careful about. She didn't want to get her thinking about last year more than she had to, so bringing up the fact that it had made her and Lucas hesitant about having more children, to the point where he'd seen to it that they wouldn't…

"You want more siblings? You don't think there's a lot of you already?" Maya asked with a smirk, so she would know she was joking around with her. Marianne smiled, shook her head. "Not too many, huh…" Maya considered this. "Right, well, here's how it is. Your dad and I aren't saying we wouldn't," she started, making sure that the 'but' was already implied, so Marianne wouldn't get ahead of herself. "But then the last couple of times… they didn't happen at the most… expected times. They were very close together, you know?" Yes, she did. "So, if we were to have another baby, which there's no guarantee we will, it would be nice if we had a couple of years at least since the last one. Do you understand?"

"Yeah," Marianne promised, and they went on walking. After a few seconds, Maya could hear her laughing quietly to herself, so she looked over to her.

"What's so funny?" she asked, and Marianne looked back up to her.

"The other day, after blue group, June's mom came to get her, and we told her about Tristan's mom. Harper asked about how the baby got made." Maya blinked, surprised. It didn't take much to guess that the girls had gotten an answer of some sort, and Marianne found it funny.

"I see…" she slowly replied. "Is that why you wanted to know about if I was going to…" Her daughter didn't reply, but she didn't have to. It was all there in her eyes, a spark of mischief, even as what she had been told and the full reality of it would still have enough of a gap in between that she didn't fully understand. "Can you promise me something? Don't go talking about all that at school, okay?"

"Why?" Marianne asked.

"Some people wouldn't like it if you did, that's all. Please?"

"Okay, I promise, Mommy."

"Thanks, baby girl."

She couldn't just keep that to herself, and she called Lucas to tell him about her conversation with their firstborn daughter. His reaction was much like her own, shocked but also amused. They also kind of had to wonder. They couldn't possibly have hit that milestone just yet with her. She wasn't even eight yet, they weren't about to go and have the talk with her, were they? Still, they now knew to consider how best to approach any further questions and curiosities she might have.

It remained in their heads throughout the day, like something to make them chuckle every once in a while. At the ranch, Lucas shared it with Juliet, as they had their daily meeting. And in the afternoon, when she brought the little sisters to the school to see their mother, Maya told her mother-in-law about it while watching the birthday girl spy on a squirrel perched on the bench across from them. She called those 'tree dinos,' and who were they to argue with the two-year-old?

"Alright, Macrocosm, I'll see you in a little bit, okay?" Maya told the small blonde as she held her, at the end of her long break. Mackenzie protested. She wanted to stay with her mother. "It's only for a little while, okay? And you get to go with Granny Mel some more," she turned back for her to see the tall blonde, who gave her the best grandmotherly smile, sitting there with Aubrey in her lap. Mackenzie didn't look opposed to this, but she was also holding tight to her mother, cheek to cheek. "Hey, I miss you, too, okay? I promise, when I get home, we can continue this, okay? But you have to go with Granny right now."

She wasn't happy to go, and she started to cry, but there was nothing to be done for it. Maya did bring her daughters into class every once in a while, but it couldn't be a regular thing. Mackenzie was not big enough to understand all that just yet, so all they could do was trust that her grandmother would manage to bring her around, calm her down and make her happy again, even as she couldn't realize how it made her mother ache to hear her crying as they parted ways. Even after there was no way she could still be hearing her, it felt like she did.

Last period and detention went about as fast as it could be expected to, the actual time never changing but the experience of it playing on her perception. Today, she hoped it would feel rapid. It came down somewhere in the middle, but the important part was that, finally, she could leave the school and make for home. When she got there, she saw that she was the last to make it, as Lucas had already collected their daughters and brought them home, along with their granddaughter, which told her that their big girl would soon be on her way if she wasn't already.

"Mama!" Mackenzie was a speeding arrow as soon as she saw her, so much so that she barely managed to get out of the minivan and catch her before she could go and run into the door.

"Hey, hey, you're feeling better, huh?" Maya smiled, taking the hug that the toddler gave her, like she'd memorized where they'd left things off, the better to resume at that point. "What did it take? Did Granny give you chocolate?" she smiled.

"Ice cream!" she pronounced.

"Yeah, that'll do it," Maya laughed, kissed her cheek. "Oh, I think there's some left," she intoned, kissing her some more like she might be able to collect it. Mackenzie was bursting with giggles all throughout, and it only made her mother want to keep going, so she did, until the birthday girl wanted to be put back on the ground. Off she went, to big sister Marianne, and from her neck the new locket swung merrily. She had received it that morning at breakfast, and according to both her grandmother and her father, she'd been enamored with it all day. She'd seen the others with their lockets, and now she had her very own!

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners