December 26th 2022

Chapter 360
Our Trip Into Discovery

The idea was born of a conversation between Marianne and Taylor. Everyone was very excited about taking off for their summer vacation, the family together, but just as it had been for her since he and Ella and Tori had come to stay at the house over the break from school, to Marianne it was one more opportunity for some proper sibling bonding with her future brother-in-law. She knew that Taylor would be flying back to Indiana not long after they returned to Texas, that he would stay until Tori's birthday and then return out for his final year out there, and she wasn't the only one to hate that it had to be that way – or even the most affected by it – but it was on her mind, and her solution of course was to make the most of the time they had with him.

For Taylor's part, they knew it had been odd for him at first to be living up in the guest room the last few weeks. Oh, he was treated very well, always, as good as family, because that was what he was to them, whether he and Ella had tied the knot yet or not. Could they go so far as to say that they treated him like a son already? Well, they may not have been there yet, but it would be for the same reasons they suspected he had needed time to ease into all of this. He couldn't help but be aware that his fiancée's mother was his former teacher, his sister's teacher, and that she and Ella's father had been his brother's friends, one since middle school, the other since they were children. Also, the two of them were all of twelve or thirteen years older than him. For Ella to have developed into a place where she saw them as parents was one thing and part of her journey among them, but it couldn't help but be different for Taylor as he became grafted into this family tree.

But he was trying, or maybe more to the point, he was allowing himself more and more not to get stuck on the details that lined his path and focus instead on the path itself, which was that here was the girl he loved, and they were going to be married, and here was her family, who welcomed him with open arms and counted him as one of their own. Much of that clarity came of his growing interaction with the Friar girls, be they Ella's daughter or her little sisters. His relationship with Tori was all its own, naturally. She would be his daughter, and this was easy; she already felt that way to him.

With her sisters, the easiest part was that he had always been great with children. But that wasn't enough anymore, not in this situation, was it? This wasn't just about being good with them anymore, it was about becoming a family with them. That was part of the reason why Ella had wanted them to go and stay with her parents over the summer; it was the easiest way for the girls to bond with him, and bond they had. To no surprise, this was never so true as with Marianne, who had immediately made the leap from 'Ella will have a husband' to 'I will have a brother' when the engagement had happened. She involved him at every chance she got, and so when they had all started to discuss their summer trip, with Taylor being one of those who would be on that trip, the thought had soon been that they needed to come up with 'a thing,' an opportunity for the two of them (as brother and sister) to make a memory.

Well, it could be done easily enough, couldn't it? They were on the last days of July by the time they were about to leave, and it would be into the first days of August once they got back… and with that, it would be the start of another round of August Girls, of many birthdays in the span of about two weeks. And with birthdays, among many other things, there were presents. So why not see about finding all the August girls some presents while they were on their trip? Marianne loved it, and so the plan was set.

First things first, they had to get there, which meant flying, which meant packing. Marianne's post as a suitcase squeezer was taken over by the twins, as Kacey and Remy took great pleasure in pouncing at the loaded suitcases while their mother or father pulled the zipper. It was enough that, even if one bag in particular didn't actually need it, they would be called upon to assist anyway. They either didn't notice or didn't care, not so long as they got to do it. Lucy did not want to pounce on the bags, no. She liked to fold things. She had her folding frame before her, and a pile of things that needed to be folded next to it.

Before, they would set the shirts on to the frame for her, but now she could do it on her own, and she would not want to be helped. They would watch her, and she would pick up a shirt, lay it out on to the frame with great focus, and then flip, flip, flip, the shirt was folded, after which she would pick it up and lay it on to the finished pile for her parents to gather and add to whatever suitcase it belonged with. When they would do laundry, they could count on the fact that, if she heard the sound of the drier being done, she would come running. Otherwise, they would call out that it was folding time, and she'd turn into a racing little bunny.

"That was the last one, butts," Maya told the twins when they looked at her like 'again?' Oh, the disappointment was just pitiful… "But, hey, could you maybe help your little sisters with one thing?" She had their attention; Lucy was still folding, off in her own world. "We have to figure out what toys they'll bring along, just like you three did, yeah?" Yes, they remembered. "They might have a bit more trouble deciding."

"They're little," Kacey affirmed with a nod.

"Yeah, but not you two, huh?" Maya chuckled, seeing the pride in both of them. They were not little anymore, at least according to them. They were going to be four soon, there was a square on the next calendar pages that said so and they knew that very well. "So, can you do that for me, please?"

And they were off. They would see to Mackenzie and Aubrey, bringing the pair who had been casually watching by the hand, back down the hall to the green room. From back in their room, their parents would listen in as the pair of August girls guided their little sisters into the decision process. As far as they could tell, Remy had picked Mackenzie and Kacey had gone with Aubrey, which felt like the right call. Kacey would have much more patience for the one-year-old, who could only know so much of what was being asked of her, while Remy would have less chance of losing her shorter amount of patience with her two-year-old sister.

In the end, it was only a little messy – for the room – and they had their selections, including a few small books they would want to be read to them at night. They would be gone a week this time, one location and hopefully a good split between relaxing and sightseeing, with a slight majority edge toward relaxing, playing… Now that they were ready to go, they only had to get to bed, all of them adopting the bedtime of the youngest among them, so they could be up as early as they needed to be the following morning, when they'd be loading up the minivan and heading to the airport.

The flight was as a flight would be for them. Everyone would be buddied up and so the smaller girls would be seen to, the smallest two left to their parents. There were, as ever, a number of 'oh, not babies' stares from other passengers, but Lucas and Maya and their party had never let that get in the way, and they weren't about to start now. They knew their girls would do well overall, and any 'hiccups' they might encounter on their way would be born of external situations, like turbulence. They had a couple hiccups, but all in all, this went very well, and then they had landed.

"Mommy, I need a code," Marianne came whispering at Maya's side as they were waiting for their bags, both of them looking at the array rolling along in front of them. Maya had Aubrey in her arms and Lucas had Mackenzie, because there was no way that those two would see this display and not think 'oh, a game, let me get my tiny little hands in there.'

"What kind of code?" Maya asked, adjusting the fussing Aubrey as she looked. Ella and Taylor were fishing out their bags when they showed up.

"For…" Marianne started at normal volume again before remembering and lowering her voice again. "For the presents," she explained, signalling as discreetly as she could toward the four August girls they had with them, not too far out of earshot. Maya understood. The sheriff and her brother were going to be looking for presents out here, but she couldn't very well have the recipients of those presents aware of this. So, she needed to call on her parents to make sure that Tori and the triplets wouldn't see Taylor and her go, to keep them occupied elsewhere when the time came.

"Okay, well…" Maya thought about it a bit. "We can have a secret word, like… rutabaga," she suggested, distracting Marianne from the bags as she laughed. "Or zebra… No?" she asked as Marianne shook her head and pinched her lips together to keep from laughing more. "You could use a sign then," Maya suggested. "Then they won't hear you and think 'why is Annie talking about zebras all the time?'" This had more potential. "If you want to go really covert, you can try and sign it in mine or your dad's hand." Marianne liked this even more. She reached down and pressed the sign of the letter P into her mother's palm. "There, that works. You just do that, and we'll get everyone away from you and Taylor. Better let him know… and Ella… and your dad, of course."

The message was passed along, last of all to Taylor, who grinned as he was clued on to the code. He knew Marianne was excited about it and frankly so was he. A little spy work mixed with brother-sister fun times, on vacation? This would be great.

All bags retrieved, they left the airport and made for the hotel. Had there been fewer of them and fewer bags for it, they would have stopped to eat before they went off to check in, but this just felt impossible, so they had to go and deal with their bags before they did anything else. The girls were all hungry, which could lead to a lot of complaining and crying, but by the miracle of vacation and a brand new place they had never seen before, they were distracted enough throughout the ride to the hotel that they were able to make it there, get everything up to their rooms and, leaving the unpacking to later, head out again.

"Hey, you don't have to be on you-know-what watch the whole time, you know that, right?" Lucas quietly told Marianne as they took their seats at an outdoor table. He could see her scanning the storefronts near to the restaurant.

"I know…" Marianne told him, though it was clear that she still wanted to look.

"We can go out there after we eat, deal?" he asked, and to that she could agree, so she focused once more on her menu.

As with last year, they found themselves somewhere with a language other than their own, and it was reawakening memories in the triplets of their language game of the last trip. It became a very engrossing game for all of them. With Marianne, this year as before, there was the added factor of how she had been learning to read, and when she'd look at her menu and see the words, she would try and pronounce them. Her parents had to point out here that, just because the letters meant certain sounds in English, it wasn't going to be the case with every other language. Some of them didn't even use the same alphabet as they did. She knew this at least, from seeing things in the Babineaux house, and the Garcia-Choi house… Now, this became an added feature to her language game, which made it so that the very first place she wanted to go after they left lunch was somewhere she could find a book, something to tell her about the language and letters. If there was one thing she'd been shown, curious girl like she was, it was that any thing she wanted to learn about, she could do so… if she knew where to look.

They didn't have an exact plan of how their week would go, but arrival and departure days were all about taking it easy as much as possible, especially with as many kids as they had on hand, so after a trip to a nearby bookstore for Marianne's linguistic endeavors, it was back to the hotel for unpacking. The twins were somewhat disappointed that the reverse was not applicable as far as pouncing duties, but then discovering the room and all that it had to offer was pretty good, too. They ran around with Lucy and the little sisters, with Tori, and with Marianne, while the four 'grown-ups' took care of getting them all moved into their adjoining rooms.

"If the two of you want to go and have some time to yourselves anytime this week, you let us know, alright? We'll look after Tori," Lucas told Ella and Taylor.

"Thanks, Dad," Ella smiled at him. "And, hey, same goes to you two," she indicated him and Maya, turning to find Taylor was nodding in agreement. That was definitely more of an undertaking, but they were more than up to the task.

After a simple rest of the day spent both in their room and down at the pool, followed by an evening in, the next morning took the Friars out into the city proper. It didn't take long that a pattern set in, tried and true as it had been in the past, where they would do some sightseeing in the hours leading up to lunch, but after that they would focus on relaxing in whatever way they saw fit, whether that was going to a beach, or a park, or staying at the hotel as they did on the afternoon of day four, when it started to rain heavily. The girls didn't mind that at all. Back at home, Maya and Lucas had made a point of turning rainy days indoors, or stormy nights and power outages, into something that their daughters would not lament but cherish, and it showed here.

A few 'brave' volunteers went off to collect as many snacks and treats specific to their vacation host city as they could find and return with them, so they could try them out and see which ones they liked the best. They'd tried a few of these already, as could be seen in the way that some in their group either got very excited or wrinkled their noses here and there. They all had a great time of it and came away with a few big winners they'd be coming back to for as long as they could.

On the morning of day five, at long last, Marianne pressed the sign for the letter P into her father's palm. Up to now, she and Taylor had managed to get a hold of something for Nellie and Gracie, who would be turning eighteen just a few days after they returned to Texas, and for the very soon to be four-year-old Megan Orlando, and just the day before, for Giulia Choi, who would be turning nine this year. But so far, there had been nothing to make the 'secret present tag team' feel like they had the right thing for any of the triplets or for Tori. At least Marianne hadn't found anything. Taylor had quietly suggested a few things to her, but none of them had felt right, and it was very clearly up to her to decide, where Taylor was concerned. He took his new big brother duties very seriously, amusing his future in-laws as much as his future wife.

"Hey, guys, let's go see what's over there," Lucas started to carefully nudge the rest of the girls away from the mystery shoppers. Maya and Ella both caught on, so they helped him, allowing Marianne to go with Taylor, who held her hand to ensure that the seven-year-old wouldn't get lost in some unfamiliar place. Maya watched them go and pointed back to a nearby statue. We'll meet over here.

Marianne and Taylor made it back first. When the rest of the group headed back to the statue, there they were, sitting cross-legged and facing one another on a bench. Along with the presents – which sat in a bag in Marianne's lap – they had apparently picked up a travel-friendly game of chess. Taylor was explaining the game to Marianne, and she was listening with great intent. Maya knew, from his time in class, that he'd been a competitive player as a kid, far from world ranked but still easily one of the best players in his age group for the state of Texas. He hadn't played, not at that level, for a long time, but to look at him and his future sister, maybe he would pick it up again.

In fact, by the time he would return to Indiana, he would continue to teach Marianne and the two of them would start to play remotely. He'd tried to show Tori, but she wasn't into it so far. He hoped maybe to try again when she was a little older.

"So, did you get everyone?" Lucas discreetly asked once they'd made it back to the hotel. Marianne had been guarding that bag like her life depended on it, so clearly, they'd had some success.

"Yeah," she smiled and nodded. "We got something for all of them."

"Can I see?" Lucas asked, but there was the mischief, like a little Maya blooming out of her. "Gotta wait like everyone else, huh?" he guessed, and again she nodded. "Alright, fine, be like that," he teased. She giggled.

"I got something for you, too," Marianne went on, excitement growing. Lucas gave her a good 'gasp' face.

"You did? Can I see that one?" He could. She turned her back on him so he couldn't see into the bag, and when she turned back, she had a plain white box in her hand. She gave it to him. "Fragile?" he guessed. It was. "Then I'll be careful."

It was a snow globe, showing a few landmarks of the city they were visiting. He might have known that it would be one of these. She'd been staring at each one she spotted every single time she looked inside a gift shop, as much here as back home, or when they'd gone to New York…

"For your new office!" she beamed, and he nodded.

"It definitely has to go there," he agreed before carefully putting the globe back in its bubble wrap and box and reaching to hug his daughter. "Thanks, pumpkin."

The last of the August girls' presents soon joined those of Nellie, Gracie, Megan, and Giulia, somewhere safe and away from curious small girls. They would eventually decide to get them all packed up in a box that they shipped back to Austin, rather than submit them to the flight home. With this endeavor between the future siblings-in-law accomplished, they at least had the chess set going for them, and Marianne carried it with her any time they left the room, safe in the small bag she carried slung over her shoulder.

Ella and Taylor had their date night on their third evening, where Tori hung out with her grandparents and her aunts. On the next couple of nights, the option had been opened out to Lucas and Maya to do the same, but they had been left to decline, whether by reason of a rainy night with the girls or some upset tummies from a too big dinner. They didn't mind. It was what it was, and they'd come out on this trip to share this experience with their daughters, hadn't they?

They got talked into it in the end, on their last night before the flight home. Ella and Taylor would have things in hand, with a 'fun evening of packing' with the girls. For that, they both insisted that her parents and his future in-laws go ahead and take a night out to themselves. Possibly, Maya and Lucas had finally agreed on the sole reason that, if they didn't say yes now, they would be pestered until they gave in. That might have been a bit dramatic, and it hadn't taken so much for them to get talked into anything, but they liked to play up the whole thing, all to then take it down a notch and give genuine smiles and thanks to their valiant sitters.

"So, you know what I'm thinking right now?" Lucas asked as he and Maya walked out of the hotel, arms linked together.

"It depends, are these thoughts rated for everyone or do I need to whisper?" Maya asked back, grinning; she'd caught him by surprise, and it was so rare these days…

"No, we're good," he assured, and she gave him a slightly disappointed noise. "I was thinking," he got back on track, and she tipped her head, listening. "We had the renewal last month, and a lot of it was about including the girls this time, since we didn't have them the first time around."

"It was," she confirmed, smiling.

"So then, now we're out here, all of us. Maybe that makes this trip like… our second honeymoon, tenth anniversary edition." She snorted.

"Sounds about right… Does that mean we should go back and get everyone, or…" Maya hooked her thumb back toward the hotel.

"Oh, no, no, this night is just ours," he told her, and her brow raised with intrigue. "Hey, just because we didn't get some one-on-one time like this up to now, it doesn't mean I haven't been keeping my eyes open for possibilities, things we could do for an overseas capital D Date," he revealed. Maya's brow relaxed into delight.

"I never put it past you," she declared, then, her expression slinking back toward intrigue. "Then… I might be able to guess? Or at least to see if I can get it out of you?"

"You are welcome to try," Lucas smiled back at her.

"Oh, he's confident," Maya declared, impressed. "I like a challenge."

By the time they'd return to the hotel, they would find everything packed save for whatever they'd need in the morning. Ella and Taylor were awake, barely, and waiting for them on the couch along with seven sleeping girls, one raven haired and six in near identical shades of blond. The week had just gone by so fast, and they would be sad to leave, but they knew that sadness would evaporate the moment they were landed back in the familiar world of their hometown. And soon, Marianne and Taylor would have presents to give out.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners