Chapter 155
Navigating the Crossroads

"I'm sorry, I don't want to come off strange, staring at you so much, I just..." Betsy shook her head, her smile mingled with tears as she looked upon her cousin's daughter.

"It's okay, I get it," Maya promised. She wasn't that far off herself, was she? Her heart simply felt like it might burst from how it kept ramping up its beat. "I've been hearing about you for so long, I still can't wrap my head around the fact that you're here..." Now Betsy laughed, and it spread through the room, everyone feeling the moment pass like a bubble that burst and left them all feeling the effects of the two women's happiness.

New introductions were made, as Maya met Betsy's family. Betsy and Charlie hugged, the latter apologizing for her impulse again - unnecessarily - before asking about the quartet's trip into Texas. Maya and Lucas both sensed something in the way she spoke with Betsy, like she just knew that her cousin was feeling the anticipation of her upcoming reunion and Charlie was trying to tell her that everything would be alright. Luckily, she didn't have to wait long. Just as the boys were starting to get breakfast eyes again, they heard the bell. The Hunters had arrived.

Normally, all the grandparents would ring the doorbell and almost at the same time be using their keys to let themselves in. When they heard the bell but no key, there was a pause, like maybe it was NOT the Hunters. But then as Elliott and Noah bolted - the door brigade on the loose - the others out in the kitchen could hear them call 'Nana! Grandpa!' So, Maya went out to see what the hold up was.

"Did you forget your key or something?" she asked when she opened the door to find them all there, her parents, the twins, the boys... Shawn tipped his head to Katy, who was trying and failing not to look like she was nervous, which she clearly was.

"I'm hungry," Nellie piped up, not at all on the same vibe as her mother. She may have been the first to be willing to say it, but now that she'd done it, her siblings all had The Eyes, too. It motivated everyone to come into the house, where Elliott and Noah told their young aunts and uncles about the food they had helped to make.

"Yeah, you're all going to get to eat really soon, I promise, alright?" Maya told them all. "Just a couple minutes, please? Trust me... it's worth the wait," she added, her gaze moving to her mother, only slightly subtle but just enough for her to understand. All would be well.

The little Hunters were already aware of some of what was going on these days, first preparing for the arrival of their mother's cousin, and then meeting her surprise sister the night before... They didn't know much to do with their mother's childhood or adolescence, why these meetings were such a big deal, and it would likely be a few more years before they got to hear about that whole story. What mattered right now was that they were going to meet more new family, and they looked forward to it, enough so that they were slightly disappointed when they were asked to hang back in the living room for a bit as their parents moved into the kitchen.

Maya followed behind her mother, lending quiet support just as Shawn was doing. Like Lucas, she got to be present as Katy and Betsy saw one another for the first time in just over twenty-five years. Neither of them knew what to say, words trapped in throats held tight by emotion. Oh, they had meant the world to one another, once upon a time, and they had been living all these years, one with regret over not letting the other in, and the other wishing she might have done more to show her she could stay... When they took hold of one another, no words were needed. It was all there in trembling arms and tight holds and happy sobs.

After they finally pulled away, it fell to Shawn and Sasha to introduce themselves to one another, as their wives were clearly still recovering their voices.

"Not to get anyone ahead of themselves, but there's a bunch of kids back there who might actually riot if they don't eat soon. Trust me, they're intense," Shawn advised the group, and they chuckled. Yes, they had better get to it.

Bringing the little Hunters along meant introducing them to Betsy and her family. Already meeting Maya had meant a lot to her mother's cousin, but then meeting Nellie, Gracie, MJ, and Alex, too, oh... She hadn't even known about all of them, not until now.

"You know, when I was little and there was another Penelope in my class, I almost called myself Nellie, too, but I ended up going by Elizabeth instead, that's my middle name. And then I became Betsy," she told the little brunette, not yet realizing the great surprise she had given two of her cousin's daughters.

"That's my name, too!" Nellie told the woman with awe. "I thought it was just your middle name," she turned to Maya, who was now grinning, especially as she looked to Betsy. She was just on this side of floored, deeply touched to know that Katy had remembered and honored her in this way.

"Technically, you're named for both of them," Katy told Nellie with a smile before sharing the expression with her eldest. "She would have been your godmother if I hadn't..." her words trailed off, but what small regret had caught her just now soon evaporated for the way Betsy looked from her to Maya. She might have been twenty-five years late to the post, but she would gladly take it up now, ready to make up for lost time as soon as she could.

At long last, especially where the kids were concerned, breakfast was served. The table was crowded and chaotic at first, but they found their rhythm. The way they would speak, you wouldn't know that some of them had only met for the first time today or yesterday, or that some of them hadn't seen each other in over two decades. It was casual, morning chatter, the occasional memory thrown in and bringing an extra boost to the gathering. There was nothing here that demanded more of them than to enjoy themselves.

After they'd finished eating, the kids had been allowed to head out behind the house to play, leaving the parents and the baby inside to watch them and to talk among themselves. Dax and Miles Young showed themselves as very attentive to little Alex Hunter, making sure not to leave him excluded from their games. Dax especially took a shine to him, and the feeling was mutual, enough that he was never far from him throughout the day.

In the kitchen, much as they would have liked not to pull any clouds overhead, what with how well the morning had been going, there were just some things that needed to be addressed. Betsy and Charlie both knew about the sequence of events that had led to Maya tracking Betsy down. They both had a few parts of Katy's story, from her decision to leave home, to her journey to New York, and landing with her cousin, living with her...

Where they had more holes to fill in was where Kermit came along, and he and Katy got together and eventually became pregnant with Maya. They learned of what had happened with the Harts, them kicking their son out when they'd found out. Here again, that drive, that impulse came to play. With her own past with her family and what had happened with Kermit's, the solution her eighteen-year-old mind had come to was a fresh start. Just him and her and their baby. That was what they had done, and for a while, it had seemed to work... until it didn't, and Kermit left, and then it was just Katy and Maya, trying to make it on their own in New York, until the opportunity had come for them to come to Austin. Here they had started this new chapter of their lives. Maya had met and befriended Lucas, Shawn had come along into the Hart mother and daughter's lives, married Katy, and then they'd had the twins, and MJ... and then Maya had Elliott, in her second year at college...

"I wanted to reach out," Katy told her cousin. "More times than you know, but I couldn't..."

"It had been too long," Betsy guessed, and Katy nodded, feeling new tears at her eyes and looking like that teenager who'd shown up on her doorsteps all those years ago all over again. "Oh, honey..." Betsy reached for her hand, showing she had nothing to worry about as far as she was concerned.

But then there were other things to consider, werent there? Other things, and... other people. In just a few days, there was a couple who would be celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary, and though no one would dare say it aloud, there was no way they weren't all thinking about it. Now that Katy and Betsy had reunited, now that Katy and Charlie had met... was it such a big stretch to wonder if they might have it in them to set up another, much bigger reunion?

"I don't think they ever stopped looking, consciously or not," Betsy had to say it, and it felt like they had all been waiting for someone to make the first move. They couldn't ignore it; this was more than an elephant in the room, it was a whole pack of them. As ashamed as Katy could feel for having left her cousin behind, there were so many more undefined emotions in her for what had happened with her parents.

"I'll see them sometimes, when the phone rings, or they hear a doorbell, footsteps..." Charlie quietly shared, not wanting to upset her sister so much. "Like maybe one of these days, it'll be you they see, your voice they hear..." The room fell briefly silent, save for Jamie's little noises, presently in his grandfather's arms, or the kids' laughter from outside.

"I don't know if a part of me won't always just remember the way I felt back then," Katy finally spoke up, and the others listened. "It's all I have to hold on to, all I know. But... I'm not a kid anymore, I... I know what it feels like, when your daughter disappears, even for a little while..." she went on, and at this Betsy, Charlie, and Sasha all turned to Maya at once, but she brushed this off. The tale of her aborted attempt to return to New York - with Lucas and Zay at her side - was not one they needed to get into just now. "Whatever I felt then, about them, about what my life was and wasn't, I... I know I will have caused them so much pain, and I... I can't take it back, no matter how much I wish I could. Whatever they were, they were not bad people, bad parents... They didn't deserve that..."

The room fell silent again. Katy breathed deep, and both Shawn and Maya reached out a hand to take one of hers, sitting on either side of her. Katy exchanged a look with her little sister, and Charlie was crying, too. They nodded to one another, feeling of one mind on Katy's statements. None of them around this table would deny that, out from unfortunate choices and consequences made years ago, a lot of good things had come. Relationships, friendships, lives, children and grandchildren... None of these were in any way tarnished for how they had come to exist.

"What do you think she's going to do?" Lucas asked, some time later, as he followed Maya up the stairs. He didn't need to go, she could see to Jamie's diaper all on her own, but it was one way like any other to get to talk to her one on one, wasn't it?

"With the smell coming off of this boy right now, not a whole lot," Maya declared, her voice coming off as though she was trying very hard not to breathe in more than she had to. "That smile's not fooling me, tadpole, I know what you did."

It took another couple of minutes – and the disposal of the offending diaper in favor of a clean one once the baby had been cleaned, too – but Maya finally answered the question. She may have been focused on the task at hand, but she'd been well aware of what he was asking. She'd been wondering herself.

No one was going to force her to do it if she wasn't ready, but the more they discussed things, the more they had to wonder whether Katy would be up for heading out to Arkansas to see her parents for their anniversary. They were certain Katy more than any of them was weighing that question right about now. Only she would get to make the choice in the end. All they could really do was wait, maybe give some opinion if she asked for it, but only then.

"I think she could decide to go," Maya hummed, picking Jamie back up and holding him near, pressing a light kiss to the top of his head. Precious baby boy… All this talk about her mother's past had her feel like she needed to hold on to her sons more than ever. "If she does, then we need to go with her. Can't just have her go and face everyone on her own, especially after I was the one that set things in motion," she reflected. "We might need to take a few days off from…"

"Maya?" Lucas spoke and she looked up to where he was standing, looking out the window. She wasn't sure he'd heard a word she'd said, though in a matter of minutes she couldn't even remember that they'd been discussing the matter at all.

When she went up to stand with him, to see what he was looking at, she quickly saw that a taxi was parked just inside the turn ahead of their mailbox. The trunk was open, and a young man was pulling a couple of bags from inside. It wasn't the driver, no, even from here they could see him in the driver's seat. Just a few steps from the car, they could see a small blond girl, no more than three or four years old, clutching a colorful toy they couldn't have identified from where they stood, except they had seen pictures very recently, pictures of a small blond girl holding a small, toy guitar. They only had time to think 'That looks like Charlie's daughter' when the trunk closed, and they got a better look at the man. They had only had time to think 'That looks like Charlie's husband' that the remaining passengers emerged from the car. They were an older couple. The girl dashed to the woman as soon as she saw that she was out of the car, and then the man, very tall, with great mustaches, approached the young man as though offering to help carry the bags before being denied as though he'd been told that he had it handled.

"Oh…" Maya felt her knees wobble even as Lucas put his hand on her shoulder. They didn't have to speculate. That was David Olsen and little Caitlin, and those were Tanner and Angela Clutterbucket… her grandparents, Katy and Charlie's parents.

They had to act fast. No time to wonder how they'd ended up here. The more pressing matter was how to prevent everyone being blindsided. Nothing they'd seen or heard that morning so far would suggest that Betsy or Charlie had any idea that they were coming.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners