Chapter 129
The Hands of Fate

As strongly as the morning sickness had come swinging in at first, it had eventually come to be relatively what Maya had come to expect in previous times. And by now, twelve weeks in, she was starting to see another downturn, with a couple of mornings of what she would refer to as 'unrealized nausea.' She might be queasy a while, but nothing ever came of it. This morning was one of those mornings, and with any luck, it was a sign that soon she wouldn't even get any nausea at all.

"Good?" Lucas asked as he watched her lying there, just sort of… waiting.

"I think so," she replied in a matching sort of voice, like she was tiptoeing around a bubbling volcano. "Do you know what I'm thinking?"

"Somewhere down in the kitchen, there is a lot of fresh pasta waiting to be eaten?" he teased.

"Tell you what, if there was some kind of breakfast pasta, I would be all over that… but that might be cravings talking," she turned a smile to him that could have lit up the whole house. Lucas knew that smile, he loved that smile. It was the one she'd have right when things were starting to level out in the pregnancy and she was feeling good, and excited.

"I will bring you whatever you like," he vowed, his hand trailing to her belly. Her own hand moved to rest on top of his, holding it where it lay.

"I wish we could just stay here all day, just like this, you, me, the boys…" she hummed. He didn't even have to say a word for her to know his heart was right in the same place as hers. He only pressed a kiss to the side of her head and set his forehead just so. Maybe they couldn't stay there all day, but they could enjoy what few minutes of peace they had until life – and their children beyond the belly – came calling.

Only that morning it wasn't the young who came to interrupt their slow waking. There was a light knock at their door a couple minutes later, followed by Pappy Joe's voice, asking if he could come in. When they said yes, he opened the door and stood just inside. He had his tablet in hand, glasses pushed on top of his head. It instantly called up the idea that he was either reading his morning paper or doing some of his games. As they soon learned, it had been the former.

"I just thought you should see this, I don't know if this is anybody that, well…" His tone was inevitably worrisome, but then once they saw the article, they could see why.

"Eloise Forbes…" Lucas read the name, even though the picture had been enough to call it up to his and Maya's minds. She was friends with Sophie, they'd gone through the academy together, they were officers together… and now she was dead. She'd been killed the night before, in the midst of an undercover operation.

Maya picked up her phone at once, called up the house in Houston. It was early morning, yes, but she had zero doubt that everyone would be up over there, up and dealing with this news. Chiara picked up the phone, and her voice confirmed as much before she passed the call to her wife. Sophie sounded so different than she'd done just last night, when she'd been here with the rest of them, celebrating Pappy Joe's engagement. She sounded numb, shaken up.

"That could have been me out there…" she breathed.

"But it wasn't," Maya told her, wishing she could be right there with her.

"No, b-but… it almost was," Sophie told her.

"What do you mean?"

"They called, last night, looking for me, wanting me to come in for something, they wouldn't go into details but once I told them I was in Austin, I guess it would have taken too long to get me back, so… so they asked Eloise…" Her voice choked on the name, and she was quiet for a while, possibly trying to keep from crying or be heard crying. When she came back, she sounded like she'd taken a deep breath to pull herself together again. "I'm going out to see her family in a little while, I don't know… I don't know what to say to them, I feel like it's… I…"

"Sophie, it is not your fault," Maya closed her eyes. "Look, I…" she looked to Lucas. He nodded. "We'll get out there to see you and…"

"No, no, it's okay," Sophie sniffed. "Really, I appreciate it… so much. But I need to be doing things today, with the family, and then the rest of us… I'll come down to see you soon anyway, to talk about the house. Please, if you want to do anything for me today, just be out there in Austin and make it count. You've got a wedding to plan, you know?"

"Alright," Maya breathed out. There was no point arguing. "We'll do that."

"And kiss those boys for me?"

"Cuddles and everything," she vowed.

When they hung up, Maya relayed the other side of the conversation, every part of it, from Sophie's guilt to her requests for the day. Lucas took this in, and he took it to heart. He looked to his grandfather, and now Pappy Joe knew he was in for it, but he didn't turn away. Sophie was his partner in this house project, and he'd come to care deeply for her, like one more grandchild. He would plunge headlong into these plans, for her sake as much as his own.

First things first, they needed to get the boys up and start on breakfast. If either Elliott or Noah wondered why their father came into the room and collected them, blankets and all, from Noah's bed where they'd both been lying awake, before carrying them across the hall and depositing them at their mother's side, they didn't argue. They saw her and they moved closer to her, where she closed her arms around them and held them close for a while, kissing one squishy cheek and then another. It was a very good way to start their morning, and it did their mother more good than they'd ever realize.

From there, they were just going to have to get through most of the day as though nothing had happened. That meant school for both Maya and Lucas. They might have found cause to excuse themselves an absence today if it was about going to stand by a very close friend in a time of crisis, but now… They would have to go through business as usual until the evening. Luckily, neither one of them was working on that night, so they could come straight home. Breakfast thus became about figuring out exactly what that evening would look like. Doing all this in the vicinity of a pair of curious toddlers could be tricky, but then their parents and their great grandfather were all well trained in multi-tasking around them, and in discussing things right in front of them without either one catching on. Just how long that power would continue to function was anyone's guess, but they wouldn't think about that while they didn't have to.

What they would think about was dinner, right here, tonight if they could. In attendance, if they were available, would be Thomas and Melinda Friar, and then Patty Robinson, of course, as well as her son Ian, his wife Anita, and their daughter Molly. Thomas and Ian had never met before, though they were both aware of the other's parent. Now they would find themselves for the first time in all of their decades-long lives having a brother. If Ian Robinson had been hearing about Joseph Friar in any way resembling the way Thomas Friar had been hearing about the professor, then surely the news would not only be halfway expected, but it would be received with great welcoming arms.

"Last time I saw Molly, she was nine years old," Lucas reflected, as they waited while Pappy Joe called his new fiancée to see if she and her son and his family would be available. Lucas' parents were hardly a question, so they would ask them once the others were secured. "Now she's gotta be… like, fifteen…" Lucas blinked, as he did the math. Maya nodded to confirm. It had been so funny to realize that she'd been one of Lucas' campers, when he'd been a counselor one summer. Small connections like these were never far away, it seemed. They followed them everywhere and made their world feel so big and so small all at once. They kind of liked it that way.

"She goes to a private school, uniforms and all, otherwise I might have had her with my eighth graders these days," Maya added.

The Robinsons were on board for dinner that night, so the call was put out to the Friars, and as expected they were also happy to confirm. So, the next phase of the plan was dinner. This was easy, what with all the food Chiara had prepared for them just the night before. Thinking about that, about Sophie, threatened to take them back down to that feeling like they only wanted to drive off to Houston at once, but they veered right back around into upholding their 'mission.' Here they had all this great food, prepared with skill and love, and they would use it to ring in this great occasion, bringing two families together.

Maya was sure Sophie would forgive them cheating just a tiny bit, as she texted Chiara and asked to be kept up to date on how her wife was doing as the day went on. Chiara herself seemed only too glad to confide in her, and Maya could imagine why. As much as Sophie felt guilty because she may or may not have been meant to be out there the night before instead of Eloise, Chiara felt guilty, too, for being relieved that she wasn't. Because she hadn't been out there, someone else had been, and that someone had been their friend. And now she was gone. When Maya told her about the dinner they would be having, serving the food she'd prepared, Chiara sounded as though she couldn't have asked for better use of it.

It was only as Maya and Lucas returned home that afternoon, after he'd picked her up, all the better to get themselves, the boys, and the dinner ready, that a thought came to Lucas. He thought of Molly Robinson. You wouldn't know it by looking at her now, with her great snowy mane, but Patty had once had a full hair of vibrant red hair. She'd passed this on to her son, though his had started to lose some luster and would become more and more like his mother's at present time. And Ian had passed it on to his daughter, as he recalled from the nine-year-old camper. He distinctly remembered her and Sophie – who had also been a counselor – holding their ponytails together one day to find how their hair was just about the exact same shade.

So now, on this day when they were looking to focus on happiness and life instead of thinking of how badly they wanted to be with their grieving friend, here would come this girl who would possibly bear a striking resemblance to the Sophie they'd first met in high school. It didn't mean that this would definitely cause a reaction in Maya, but then remembering how her emotions had a way of fluctuating unpredictably in the midst of past pregnancies… He decided to play the cautious husband card and share this realization with her, hoping if nothing else that it would lessen the impact.

"Come on, I'm not that bad, am I?" Maya smiled at him.

"Remember how you were after Zay and Nadine broke up for a little while?" Lucas challenged, and even now thinking about it, knowing very well that they had made up a long time ago and were now happily married and possibly looking to start a family, the memory sent the ripple of heightened sadness through her.

"Okay… well… now I've been warned… and I'll be ready…" she slowly replied, nodding along. "And if I'm not, well, I've got my Huckleberry husband."

"You really do."

"You know, it could be frustrating, how you always think of everything," Maya pointed out, even as she folded herself into his arms. They closed around her with no need of thought or effort.

The more they grew, the connection between the Friar brothers never ceased to impress itself on their parents and anybody who got to see them together for any amount of time. It was best known by their family, naturally, who knew just much of a couple of funny little boys it made them. They were almost three and two years old respectively, which made it so that Elliott and Noah could cooperate more and more. Toddlers or no, it was never more apparent how clever they were getting when there was food being prepared in the kitchen.

Of course, they were toddlers, little ones at that, so their plans sometimes fell victim to their only having so many skills at their disposal. That night it led to a spill, some sauce lost, and a need for a change of wardrobe nearly across the board. Pappy Joe was spared, while the only victim in Lucas' case was his shirt. Maya couldn't even pretend as though she didn't take great pleasure in demanding that he surrendered it. She would bring him a fresh one as soon as possible, of course, after she dealt with the boys' clothes and her own, but in the meantime…

"I'll be right up to help as soon as I take care of this here," Lucas assured his wife as he indicated the floor and the counter.

"It's alright, I got it covered. You're a very busy man," Maya insisted, still grinning, before she lead the boys out of the kitchen. "Alright, let's be careful about where we step, yeah? Take your time, you're not dripping, but we never know. Up, up," she guided Elliott and Noah up the stairs after opening the gate for them. She had to be quick. The dogs had gotten the scent of sauce on them, and they looked like they wanted to come and clean them off themselves. "No, hey, get your own snacks," she told the pair of them before advancing. "Don't touch the walls, or the ramp, I've got you," she promised, holding one each of her sons' saucy hands.

Into the bathroom they went without incident, where her dress and the boys' outfits were dropped in a heap along with Lucas' shirt.

"Okay, up you go, just sit still, please?" Maya asked as she lifted first Elliott and then Noah to sit on the counter before grabbing a washcloth. "Do you guys remember the kitchen rules?" she asked as she went about washing hands, and arms, and any other place where sauce had managed to splatter. The boys nodded. She'd made a song out of it and everything, but sometimes she wondered if they just thought it was a catchy tune and they didn't actually understand what she was getting at. "And did you do like the rules say?"

"No," both boys replied slowly.

"Well, at least you know that," she sighed. She inspected one head of blond hair and then another, in case the sauce had ended up there as well. They thought that part was funny, and she just had to smile. "So, are you going to do that again?" she asked.

"No," they said again.

"Right, we'll see about that," Maya told herself, washing her own hands before setting the boys back on their feet. She needed to tend to herself, too, and she wasn't about to leave them on the counter any longer than they had to be.

As she was cleaning off her neck and finding, to her relief, that she didn't seem to have any in her hair either, Maya felt first one small hand and then another, coming to touch at her belly. She looked down to find her curious sons, there in their underthings and shoes. They knew very well that this was where their new sibling was at the moment. At the end of each week on their counting calendar they would take a picture of Mommy's belly, to see how it had gotten bigger. Whenever she'd lift up her shirt, it would be like their hands were magnetically attracted to feel for it. They were not unlike their father in that respect. Now here she stood, in her underthings and shoes, so up came those little hands.

"Alright, time to go get dressed before everyone gets here… again," Maya smiled, leading them out of the bathroom and toward their room.

Of course, the soiled clothes had been her favorite outfits for the two of them, and now those were no longer available, so she had to think quick about substitutes. She made quick work of getting them ready, then slipped on a new dress, grabbed a shirt for Lucas, and called for Pappy Joe to come and meet her halfway along the stairs to get Elliott, Noah, and the shirt, while she went up to gather the clothes and clean the bathroom.

They all finished just in time for the arrival of their guests, which started with Thomas and Melinda, as the Robinsons would all arrive together once Patty made it into Austin. There had been a brief thought of not telling either side that the other half would be there, as a surprise, but that could have blown the actual, much bigger surprise of the news, so they all just probably saw it as a meeting of the two families, seeing as Pappy Joe and Patty were already very close.

When the Robinsons did arrive, it was a lot of introductions, and reunions, and introductions that felt like reunions, with how they'd already heard so much about this person or that one. Molly Robinson – who did indeed give off instant teenaged Sophie Zvolensky vibes and not just for her hair – remembered her old camp counselor very well, or at least she did as soon as she saw him, like the memories had been unlocked and his face and his voice had been the key.

Until the moment came for the big news to be shared, both Maya and Lucas were doing their best not to give anything away, which was easier said than done when they were seeing Patty for the first time since they'd heard about it, and the reflex was to talk to her extensively. It also didn't help that Pappy Joe was barely hanging on, having to wait. They barely made it to the point where they all sat around the table – with its extensions in place – before the newly engaged couple made their announcement.

The reactions ran anywhere from shock to excitement – once the shock had worn off – as they confirmed that it was very true. Pappy Joe settled the matter in showing what he'd been up to today, while his grandson and his wife were at school. He'd gone and purchased a ring, which he now presented to his Patricia, with apologies that he couldn't take a knee. He settled for sitting on a chair in front of her, and she took it more than enough, eyes misty and shining. From there, the dinner's conversation was set, with talks of the wedding – and the promise that it would be very small, present company at the most – and of the house that was to be built.

Ian Robinson and his wife and daughter were most happy to find that Patty would be living in Austin with them. She wasn't getting any younger, and they always worried that something would happen, and they'd be two hours away. Now, they'd be no more than a twenty-minute drive apart. Both Ian and Thomas received the news of their respective parent's wedding to the other's with the air of a couple of sons who'd long believed the bride and groom would do well to have one another to grow older with. That they got new family in the process, well, that was even better.

At the end of the night, with the months to come looking busier and busier by the minute, Maya and Lucas retreated to their room, eager to turn in for some sleep. Now that they were back here, on their own, the memory of the morning was harder to keep at bay. All of this had started with terrible news, and a phone call, and so many worries… One way or another, they'd have to go and see their friends in Houston, they just had to. They cared too much to stay away, and Sophie and Chiara both would know it.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners