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

December 16th 2022

Chapter 350
Our Cheers For Life

One year ago, when she'd woken up on that morning, Maya had known that it would be the day when her Lucky girl would be born. She'd had a feeling, and she'd only had to wait a few hours before that feeling had been proven correct. Aubrey Juliet Friar had been born, the 28th of May 2036, and for precious few seconds there had been space for that day to be made wonderful for her arrival. But then… But then…

It could not be the girl's fault, and it wasn't, not even a little, but like it or not, that day had not been the wonder it had been meant to be. Instead, it had very rapidly descended into nightmares. Something had gone wrong with Maya, and for a stretch of time that had felt interminable for as long as it had lasted, there had been a possibility that she wouldn't recover, that Aubrey and all the sisters she had yet to meet would have to go on and grow up without their mother.

That was not how it had gone. To everyone's relief, Maya had recovered, and she'd come home, and life had gone on… It had taken a regrettable few weeks before they realized that, in all of this, they had never really gotten to stop and celebrate that here they'd been gifted with this new little sweetheart. Everyone had gotten to meet her, to express their love for her, but her birthday… her birth day… had been stolen away from them and from her. And for that, they had promised to one another that they'd make up for all of it the next time the 28th of May rolled around. That one, and the one after that, and all the ones after those. From here on out, it was going to be a great day, every single year.

There had been the tiniest bit of protesting out of the green room when Maya and Lucas had let Marianne and Mackenzie know that they planned to keep Aubrey with them for that night. The two of them had wanted to have their baby sister in their room, like always, so they could wish her a happy birthday when she woke up. Marianne had been easier to convince, to understand why it was important for them, which had gone a long way to get Mackenzie on board, too, though that had required an invitation from her big sister, happily given, to come and bunk with her for the night.

Aubrey was already asleep by the time they brought her out to rest between them in their own bed. She couldn't see, on the eve of her first birthday, how her parents looked upon her with so much… awe, and love… A whole year, and all they could think was 'already.' The months had chased one another to bring them here, it seemed. To think that they had had this little smiling girl in their life for an entire year… She was even smiling now, as she slept, and Maya and Lucas went to sleep themselves, wondering what it was that their Lucky girl was dreaming about to have her smiling this way.

Lucas was first to wake… of him and Maya. As his eyes started to open, he could just feel movement, hear light noise, all of it telling him that the birthday girl was wide awake. He opened his eyes properly now, and there she was, sitting up and attempting to climb up toward the headboard of the bed, hand stretched out. It was the carvings in the wood. They fascinated her, as they had done all her sisters before her, though Aubrey of all of them felt as though she'd been most intrigued of all by them. Now, without her ever noticing, Lucas kept an eye on her in the event that she should drop back and need catching… or came close to kick her unsuspecting, sleeping mother. Finally, he had to reveal his wakefulness.

"Here, hold on," he whispered as he sat up and pulled his pillow away. Aubrey made a surprised noise, but then she saw that the way was clear, and she crawled up closer, sitting back on her legs and reaching out to feel at the carvings. "What's got your eye, huh?" he asked her, poking her little foot, which made her flip around to face him. He played innocent, and the carvings were forgotten as Aubrey approached him at a quick crawl. Lucas caught her up, and as much as he'd meant to allow Maya to sleep on, there was no chance of it, not with how Aubrey squealed and laughed. "Hey, hey, look who's awake," he whispered to Aubrey, kissing the side of her head before turning her around, the better to see…

"Mama…" Aubrey wiggled until she was put back on the bed and able to move into Maya's waiting arms.

"Ooh, I got you now," she hummed, hugging her baby girl, and feeling pulled fully out of sleep and into the waking world by the sensation of her daughter burrowing herself close to her. "It's your birthday, did you know that?" Maya asked her, as Lucas settled back down next to her and watched them, snapped a picture… Whether Aubrey understood that it was her birthday or not, she smiled up to her mother, and that was good enough of an answer.

That day, the day she'd been born and what had nearly happened, it was growing further and further into the past, and many of them were able to stop thinking about it like it was still an active thing, but for others, none more than Maya and Lucas, it still found ways of sneaking up on them when they least suspected it, and today they had definitely suspected it. Lucas was left thinking of how he might be, a year on from losing the love of his life, and Maya… She couldn't stop thinking about all the things she would have missed, and how Lucas and all of their girls would have had a much different kind of…

"Hey, bun…" Maya blinked, spotting Lucy in the doorway. "Did you want to come say hi to Aubrey?" she asked. Lucy nodded, stepping up to the bed. Lucas reached back and pulled her up, settling her in the middle of the bed. Even before she landed, Aubrey had spotted her coming, and she was moving to get free, so she might crawl to her big sister, her buddy. This made Lucy smile and sit to receive her.

"Happy birthday, Aubrey," she told her as she held her, and brushed at her hair like she'd had done to her and seen done to her sisters. Aubrey looked content enough that she might have fallen asleep again, except that she was soon surrounded by many more big sisters, eager to wish her a happy birthday and sing to her.

It would have been preferable to all of them, they were certain, if today had been Saturday or Sunday and they could just stay home and take things easy as they wanted it, but it wasn't. It was Thursday, so that meant school, and work… Exceptionally, Lucas would be bringing both Mackenzie and Aubrey with him to the ranch for the day. Maya might have liked to bring them to school with her, too, but it definitely felt like they'd have more fun hanging around the property. Anyway, Lucas eventually did what they all did, whoever was watching the little girls, and he brought them to the bench for Maya's extended afternoon break.

"What do we have here? Is that Dino-Mack?" Maya gasped and laughed when she spotted the two-year-old dashing toward her, face colorfully rendered in a painted 'mask.' She responded to the question with a big 'roar,' and her mother made a face as though it shocked her.

Behind her, carried by her father, the birthday girl looked like a rainbow had draped itself on her face, and a sparkly one at that. Intrigued, Maya looked to Lucas, who revealed that Britt O'Connell was a pretty good kids' face painter. She had seen videos online and become intrigued enough to start and learn to do it herself. Today had provided her with two very eager test subjects.

"Okay, now I'm jealous, I wish I got to be all sparkly like you two," Maya told the girls. Aubrey couldn't see her own face, though she seemed very aware that there was something on her face. She kept scrunching her eyes, and moving her mouth, lifting her cheeks, to test it out. Judging by the few spots Maya saw, she'd been feeling at it with her fingers, too. The evidence was on those fingers, and a bit over her clothes.

"I'm sure Britt would be happy to come and do yours another time," Lucas smirked.

"Only if she does you, too," Maya challenged, and he tipped his head to her, even as he could guess that Maya would have loads of ideas of her own for what he should be turned into.

The dinosaur and the rainbow were soon admired by Phoebe when she arrived along with her son. The eight-month-old Myles did not take well to the transformation of his young friends. He couldn't recognize them, and they were – going by the way he wailed and clung to his mother – kind of scary. He calmed down after a while, though he definitely stayed quietly and safely in his mother's arms the entire time that they were there.

"Oh, I've got to bring you two in so they can see you…" Maya still couldn't get enough of their painted faces, unlike Myles Russell.

When the penultimate class let out, they used those precious minutes while everyone was moving from one class to another to go and surprise a few people. They found MJ, who was thrilled at the sight of his nieces and their colorful faces, most of all at the birthday girl, who he looked ready to take with him into his last class of the day. He finally relinquished her, but only as he accompanied Maya, Lucas, and Mackenzie and they found the twins. Nellie and Gracie spotted them and immediately came hurrying toward them. Gracie had the privilege of scooping up Aubrey, and she looked like she wouldn't be above turning the pleading little sister eyes to her older sister/teacher, to convince her to let the girls stick around in class, just for this one period.

Maya was tempted, how could she not be, but it would be better off for them to go on with their father, especially as they would soon be picking up their sisters from school, so off they went, while Maya wondered what materials she might have to mess around do some face painting of her own. At home, she was fully stocked, but not so much here. Ah, well, in due time…

Lucas did take the girls on for afternoon pick-ups, and it was as good and chaotic as ever. By now, with the youngest among them a whole year old, they worried less about the noise level in the car bringing anyone to burst into loud, screeching tears. This was good, because the moment they had all six of those girls together in any car, chaos was exactly what they had. There was music, some singing, some shouting… Today, they picked up the triplets and they were all of them instantly fascinated by the little sisters' painted faces, so much so that Lucas had trouble getting them to sit down so he could get them buckled in. The best he could do was promise them that the paint would still be there when they got home, so they could wait until then.

"Oh, wow!" Marianne laughed when she saw them.

"Rawr!" Mackenzie replied, hands like claws. Aubrey squeaked and looked at her, covering her eyes with her hands, which soon came away a bit colorful.

"Where did they do that?" Marianne asked her father as she climbed into her seat.

"At the ranch. Britt painted them," Lucas told her, never missing a beat as he went on. "She can do all of you, I called and asked her to come over, so she should be there once we get back to the house."

The former XC made him hold to his word, waiting for them on the front step, and by the time Maya came home after detention watch, she found the results of the college freshman's work. True to their nicknames, 'cub' Kacey was a little bear, 'kit' Remy was a kitten, and 'bun' Lucy was a sweet rabbit. Marianne had seriously debated between her own 'signature elements,' considering a pumpkin, a swan, a turtle… In the end, she decided she wanted to be turned into some kind of alien fairy, and so that was what she became. Mackenzie and Aubrey got a couple of touch-ups, especially the one-year-old, whose colors had been brought to run or fade in places. For all that, Maya's arrival was made most wonderful by the hilarity that was Lucas, his face painted like a dragon.

"I'm just imagining what this would have looked like if you had more of a beard right now…" she told him, managed to, in the middle of her overpowering giggles.

"You're lucky I don't actually breathe fire," he teased, which made her laugh harder. He smiled, put his arms around her waist. He couldn't get enough of her laugh. That had always been true, but then this past year… Always, his thoughts went back to a dreadful world, without that laugh…

"Now I have to figure out what I'm supposed to be turned into…" Maya stated.

"You're trying to tell me you haven't been thinking about it all of last period and on your way home?" Lucas challenged.

"No, well, I didn't say that. I have ideas, just… way too many… I might need help deciding…"

"As always, all you have to do is ask," he tipped his invisible hat to her. She snickered.

"Dragon with a hat…"

She became a butterfly. It was her daughters' will, and how could she say no to them here? They loved the result, all of them, especially their little birthday girl.

"Oh, you like it, huh?" Maya asked with a great big smile. If she wasn't careful around those curious hands, her butterfly wouldn't be long for this world, but she almost didn't mind, not for Aubrey. Today was her own very wonderful day, made wonderful by her presence. "Happy, happy birthday," Maya whispered, kissing the top of the rainbow.

In time, the day's festivities were forced to end, and all the faces needed to be returned to their regular tones, much to some strong opposition from several of the girls. Finally – back as themselves – everyone went to sleep, and Maya and Lucas could turn in, once again free to spoon. The way Lucas held to her, Maya imagined that he was still thinking of last year, or that he wanted to end the night much closer to her than this… Possibly the two were both true at the same time. She turned to face him, and his hand came to cradle the back of her head, his eyes staring into hers. They didn't have to say anything with words. It was all right there in their eyes. She leaned up, and he kissed her softly.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners