Chapter 43
Those Days of Summer

Much as it still had her insides in unexpected levels of turmoil to be away from home, from the baby, Maya was excited. Two of her siblings were on their way, would be arriving soon, and they wouldn't be going away again. They would be living with her and Lucas for a little over a month, and then they'd be moving into their new house. Ten minutes by car, not much more by bus… Even though they knew the house, had seen it, even though they were all aware of all the steps being taken with the move out of New York, there had still been that barrier, that layer that kept the whole thing from feeling completely and truly real. But now… Now a tear had started to appear in that barrier, and it was cracking wider and wider open by the minute. This was real.

"Do you know what they'll say when they come through that gate?" Lucas asked, pulling her back out of her thoughts.

"'Hey, how come you didn't bring the baby?'" she guessed, making him chuckle.

"Something like that, yeah," he nodded. "Makes sense that we didn't bring him though, right?"

"No, yeah, absolutely," Maya agreed at once, looking around. "All those people running around, impatient, stressed… Plus, the noise… And if we had to change his diaper, or clean him, it would just be a nightmare. He's better off waiting at home with Pappy Joe so he won't be all cranky and wound up when his aunt and uncle arrive."

"Well, it shouldn't be long now," Lucas pointed to the arrivals board.

Eliza and Wyatt Hart were escorted along off the plane. They were holding hands and all the while looking all around in search of their people. Maya was sure if they hadn't spotted her and Lucas when they did, Wyatt would have resorted to calling out her name to reach her a second later. Luckily, sight had been established, and it was four happy faces looking to one another as they moved to meet up.

"Maya!" Wyatt sped off to lock his arms around his big sister,

"Hey, you," she hugged him back, kissed the top of his head before opening out one arm so Eliza would join them, which she did, at once. "So glad you're here," Maya kissed her sister as well, those small arms around her feeling like the great rendering of that barrier. They were here, they were home.

"Where's the baby?" Eliza asked, making her sister laugh and Lucas with her, too.

A lot of their belongings would be coming along with their parents next month, but until then Eliza and Wyatt had been sent along with what they would both need and want to have with them in Austin while they were staying with their big sister and her family. With the both of them now, it meant that they would soon be making their way out of the airport with very nearly too many bags and people for them to fit in the one car. When they had finally, just barely gotten it all settled, Maya and Lucas had shared a look. It really was just as well that they hadn't brought Elliott along, him or his seat.

"Are we going to sleep with the baby?" Eliza asked as they made their way back home.

"Uh, well, you'll be sleeping in his room, but he's still sleeping in our room," Maya explained, indicating herself and Lucas. "You'll be just across the hall though, okay?" she promised, turning to look at them both.

She had a good feeling about what they'd be wondering right about now. All the times they'd been sleeping in the same house, anywhere, these two had done much as her twin sisters had been doing in the same situation. They would often come and climb into bed with her, burrow their way between Lucas and her. Were they still allowed to do it? No matter what, they were about to spend a very long time away from their parents, they were in the middle of a long-distance move…

"We'll figure it all out, alright?"

"I want to see the house!" Wyatt demanded.

"Which house? Your new house?" Lucas asked, and the boy nodded. Lucas looked to Maya as discreetly as he could. It was her call. Did they have time for a detour? She let out a breath, tipping her head just a fraction. Go for it. "Alright, well we can drive past it on the way, sound good?"

As they'd been getting closer to the house, Eliza and Wyatt had gotten into something like a chant, wondering how close they were getting. It had their sister and her fiancé laughing, even as they pointed to the house with the 'sold' sign out front. They slowed to a stop, where the kids crowded at the window to get a look.

"Which one's my window?" Eliza wondered.

"Actually, should be that one there, do you see it?" Maya asked, pointing. "Second from the left. And Wyatt's is the next one there."

Finally, they were on their way back to the lane, and Lucas could just see Maya was equally invested in seeing how long it would actually take to drive from this house to theirs as she was in just getting back there, to be with Elliott again.

He would be tempted to think to himself how there was no comparing what he felt when he was away from the baby, not against what she had to feel, but then he knew that if he even suggested that his missing their son when he was away from him somehow mattered less than when it was her… She would call him an idiot, the way you did when what you were really saying was 'I love you, don't be silly.' She would tell him that of course it mattered, of course it did.

He'd barely even gotten to start working at his new Austin jobs after the move. Just a couple of days and then boom, or… splash… Out came Elliott, and then he had to count on his new bosses being very understanding and let him go on time off, much sooner than any of them had expected him to need it. But he'd gotten all the time he could reasonably ask for, and so he had to just go back. He had two jobs, and he'd returned to them one after the other. For now, he worked only Monday through Friday, and if he could continue that way he would. He wanted to hold on to those weekends, to spend time with Maya and Elliott more than just mornings and evenings, provided he wasn't working at either the bookstore or the pet store.

To make matters even more difficult than they had felt, Elliott had been particularly clingy the morning of his first day back at work. Lucas had taken him once he'd been fed, wanting to spend as much time with him as possible before he had to go, and his son had just held to him… His head was good and nestled at his father's chest, his little hand grasping to his nice, clean work shirt. He didn't even spit up or anything, he just held on, and Lucas knew both he and Maya might sometimes have put too much stock in how much their infant son did or didn't understand what was going on around him, but that morning it was sort of hard not to believe he knew his daddy was going away for most of the day and he did not want it to happen.

"I wish I could bring you with me, I do, okay?" Lucas would tell him, lightly rocking him as he paced the floor. "A real crowd pleaser, that's what you'd be. But I gotta go, and you get to stay with your mom, and your great pappy…" Even with those selling points, Elliott remained fervent in making Lucas feel something like guilt at the thought of leaving him for the day. He would hold, and hold, and if his daddy tried to pull him away, set him back in his crib, he would start to fuss, and cry…

"The kid knows what he wants, you gotta hand him that," Pappy Joe had come along in the end, to take Elliott. "Here, hand him over, I'll weather that storm."

So, he'd handed him to his grandfather, touching the babe's head when he started to cry in earnest before making his way down the stairs. Maya was there, finishing up a lunch for him to take along. It was their old standard, what could have been a corny joke but turned back into what it needed to be in the end, just a genuine caring gesture.

"You got this," she told him, putting her arms around his neck. "It won't be so bad once you get going, okay?" He didn't know if he believed that just now, but he trusted her enough to know he'd come around to it in the end. "If it helps, hold on to the fact that, later today, I'm off for a fitting at the wedding dress store, to see how we're doing post baby," she smiled. That certainly did it, as far as getting a smile back on his face. They were getting married in just over two months… They may have been neck deep in baby things these days, but no one was forgetting about the wedding either, especially him and her.

"It does help, yeah," he'd nodded.

"Just keep your fingers crossed that it's not too much of a train wreck?" she sighed, and he kissed her, passing on what encouragement he could back on to her.

Getting into the car had helped some, to get him going, but then the world seemed hell bent on making him miss them both, Elliott and Maya, on that first day. Much as he tried to focus on his work, his clients, to give them all the care and attention he could, sooner or later there would be something to make him think about them and he'd have to start all over again. It could be the most obvious thing, like a client pushing a stroller with a baby into the store, or the most subtle – to the point of feeling like he was reaching – detail. He'd spotted a brand of dog food that showed a small child holding a puppy and he'd almost lost it and called home to check on Elliott. Still, somehow, he made it through.

When he'd finally gotten to drive home at the end of the day, he'd pulled up to the house to find a welcoming party waiting for him on the porch. There was his grandfather, snoozing along, while Maya sat at his side, looking on to Elliott in his seat, kept next to her. The dogs were there as well, peacefully keeping guard of their small human, though they'd gotten up when his car had approached. Lucas didn't know that he'd let go of Elliott for a good couple of hours after he'd picked him up that evening.

They were treated to much the same welcoming party that day, save for Maya who was of course in the car with him this time around, as they brought the Hart kids home. There was Pappy Joe, sat much as they'd left him, with Elliott in his arms, while the dogs sat on the ground next to him. Maya had been so amused to see how Trix and Lou's habits had changed since the baby was born. They still eagerly greeted people when they came along, but they didn't shoot off like rockets so easily, not when Elliott was nearby. Their allegiances appeared to have shifted right on to him and wanting to see to his needs. When he would start to cry, the dogs would soon be underfoot, not even barking and making him even more distressed, just keeping nearby and looking on, maybe waiting to see if they could do anything to help.

This time around, they came down the porch steps and stood in eager wait as the car stopped and the people emerged. They recognized the children, and they went on toward them as Eliza and Wyatt came dashing to greet the dogs. Wyatt remained focused on Lou for a time, holding the giddy dog, while Eliza had finally gone up to find the baby, already returned to his mother.

Maya had done her best not to come off in any way desperate as she'd gotten out of the car and moved up to find her son. Still, when Pappy Joe had handed him over and she'd found him peacefully sleeping, no sign of any distress in him whatsoever, Maya had felt as though she'd been holding her breath since they'd gone and now… now she could breathe again. It had been so difficult for her to be away from him, and they had only been gone a couple of hours. What would it be like the next time? What would it be like when she went back to work, to school…

"Everything go alright?" she asked Pappy Joe.

"Oh, yeah, finger's healing nicely," he replied with ease, flexing his fingers for show. "Can bend it and everything. That boy of yours got himself a mighty grip." Maya smiled, kissing the top of Elliott's head.

"This your way of telling me I need to stop stressing so much?"

"I will never tell you or him how to feel about being away from your children," Pappy Joe assured her, and she understood where this was coming from, much as it pained them both in their own way. "Well hello there, Miss Eliza," he tipped his head and smiled to the girl as she came forward. It made her smile, whenever he called her that, so naturally he called her that every chance he got.

"Hi," she waved to him. Approaching her sister, she turned that smile on to her little nephew. "He's sleeping?" she asked in a whisper. Maya could easily read this as 'so I can't hold him right now, right?'

"Yeah, he is," Maya told her. "So you need to be careful, okay?" she nodded to the seat next to Pappy Joe, and Eliza sat there at once to receive the baby. If the small blonde was in any way tired out from her day of travels, she didn't look it as she sat there, humming gently to ensure that Elliott wouldn't wake from his nap.

"He's bigger than last time," she remarked.

"Yeah, that's sort of how it works with babies," Maya nodded, looking on.

"After we move into the new house, can I babysit him?" Eliza asked with confidence. It made Pappy Joe chuckle.

"Well…" Maya slowly started, looking to the eight-year-old. "When you were back in New York with your parents, if they went out, would they leave you alone at the house sometimes?"

"No…" Eliza instantly deflated, her ideas of responsibility taken away.

"You wouldn't be left alone with a one-month-old baby anyway," Maya told her, seeking to comfort her. "I'm his mom and sometimes I feel like I don't know what to do either. But now you're going to be here, remember? You're going to be minutes away from us all the time. So in a couple of years, when we do need someone to watch him, it'll be Aunt Eliza to the rescue, right?" The smile made a swift return.

"Yeah," she nodded, promising. "What about if Cara wants to do it, too? She's older than me."

"Well, you asked first," Pappy Joe chimed in.

"Yeah, I asked first!" Eliza grasped on to that.

"How about we wait and see how everyone feels about this when the time comes," Maya told her, and this appeared to satisfy the matter for now. This was just as well, as up came Uncle Wyatt, who'd finally let go of Lou and stepped up to get a look at the baby. Like his sister he quickly noticed that Elliott was asleep, and his demeanor instantly shifted into 'must not wake!' mode. Still, he came up and watched him, smiling happily for being here at last.

He would get his turn to hold his nephew in time. In the meantime, Lucas had seen to unloading the car and getting everything into the house, up the stairs, and into the temporary guest room, where they would be able to unpack and settle in once they had gotten past the novelty of being with the baby. Once that happened, they would want nothing more than to go into the house and to see their room. Soon enough, he would be proven correct.

"We got to see everything in the store and pick the ones we wanted," Eliza told him and Maya and Pappy Joe as the now six residents made their way up toward the nursery.

"I know," Maya smiled at her, Elliott back in her arms once more. He'd woken up just before they came inside, and she knew it wouldn't be long before she had to go and feed him, but then the unpacking would be happening by then and they wouldn't even notice her sneaking off for some peace and quiet. "Wait until you see it all put together," she told her siblings, turning a smirk to Lucas and Pappy Joe, who knew how long everyone had debated about the placement of the beds and night stands, the dresser, the small storage cabinet… And once they'd gotten all that done, everyone was so beat that it came down to Maya and Lucas to break out the bedding sets they'd also shipped out here and put those final personalizing touches, establishing these were indeed Eliza and Wyatt's beds.

"Spider-man!" Wyatt bolted for his own bed, near the window, just as he liked it. From what they'd been hearing, he had been going on and on about his new sheets and how he couldn't wait to sleep in them.

Eliza was equally fascinated over her own bedspread. She had recently developed a love and fascination for turtles, and so when the time had come for her to select her new sheets, the choice had been easy. Maya and Lucas had been hearing all about how, once they were all settled in to the new house, Kermit and Abigail had promised her that she could have her very own pet turtle. Anticipating a barrage of questions aimed at him, being the future animal doctor that he was, Lucas had been casually reading up on all things turtles. It was genuinely fun for him, too, with or without the playful teasing he got from Maya over his old Ninja Turtle days.

"What do you think?" Lucas asked their young guests.

"Can you help me find my lamp?" Eliza asked, while Wyatt was already trying to tug one of his bags closer to his bed so he might open it. And that was that. They were satisfied, and now they just wanted to put their belongings in their temporary room.

"Back in a little bit?" Maya whispered to Lucas, indicating Elliott. He nodded, and as she moved back into their room and shut the door, he joined Pappy Joe in helping the kids unpack.

It had just mattered to everyone for them to just get the kids picked up and settled in, so they had sent a quick message off to Kermit and Abigail to let them know they had safely picked up the kids back at the airport, waiting until later to go ahead and give them a call. When Maya returned to the room across the hall after having both fed and changed Elliott, Operation Unpack was just about done already. The room had gone and shifted from being the nursery, to their temporary guest room, to now being decidedly Eliza and Wyatt's room, just as it should be.

"Wow…" she expressed her reaction and got two big smiles in return. "That happened quick."

"There's drawers under here!" Wyatt went and showed her, sounding impressed like he hadn't realized this when he'd picked it out in the store and now found it to be the greatest invention in the world.

"I know!" Maya matched him on giddiness. "What'd you put in there?" The four-year-old shrugged.

"Stuff."

"Right," Maya chuckled.

"Where's the baby?" Eliza asked.

"He is napping… hopefully… Now, you guys want to come downstairs so we can the others back in New York?" They did, they very much did, and they showed it by taking off at a run. "Walking! We're walking!" she called after them before turning to Lucas and Pappy Joe. "We've been parents for just a month now, I know, but that just came off so… mom-like," she declared.

Pappy Joe stayed upstairs, which Maya and Lucas both knew would mean he would be checking in on Elliott from time to time, like a human baby monitor. Meanwhile, the two of them went down and joined the kids who waited for them in the living room. The laptop was installed on the coffee table, and the four of them bunched up in front of it, Maya and Lucas on the couch and Eliza and Wyatt on the ground between them and the table. The call was put in, and soon a similar looking image appeared on the screen, with Kermit and Abigail on their couch and Sam and Cara on the ground.

"Mommy, we saw the house!" Wyatt declared in greeting. "I saw my Spider-man bed and there's drawers!"

"I held the baby!" Eliza chimed in. "And I get to babysit him when I'm older."

"Hey guys," Maya chuckled as she waved to the rest of the family.

For a good long while both Maya and Lucas mostly kept quiet, leaving the floor to their new lodgers so they could share the tale of their flight from New York to Austin, just the two of them together… and then their arrival at the airport… and the drive to the new house… and to this house… and seeing the baby… and their room… and unpacking… After a while, they had left the kids to keep on talking and headed into the kitchen to get dinner started.

"They're excited to be here," Lucas declared, as though there was any doubt. Maya laughed.

"Are they? I couldn't tell," she joked.

Soon they were both of them stood side by side at the counter, chopping vegetables, preparing meat… Something about the whole process had always been an easy road into getting lost in thought, it almost went without saying. But then since they both knew it, sooner or later they could just tell they were both thinking about something, and they'd get curious. So it would turn into a bit of 'you tell me yours, I'll tell you mine' game. They liked their game. It usually started with one of them going, as Lucas did this time:

"Wanna go first?"

"Uh… Maybe you go first this time," she told him with a small smile.

"Right, well…" he breathed out, hesitating for a moment. They didn't keep anything from one another, nothing, good news, bad news, concerns… Still, he never liked feeling like he was potentially creating problems where there were none. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay, with earlier, when we left for the airport.

"Ah," she nodded, and he guessed she'd expected this to be what he'd say. "Have to admit, I figured it'd be hard to go, but I didn't know how difficult it would get."

"Yeah," Lucas agreed.

"It was like being asked to leave a part of myself behind and I couldn't function without it," she explained. "So basically he's screwed for having a social life away from us, huh?" Lucas laughed. "Suddenly it feels like our parents make so much more sense."

"So much more," he echoed.

"I think it'll take a few more times for me to really… get used to it…"

"How many's a few?"

"He should be good for pre-school," she smiled back at him and he smiled as well, leaning to kiss the side of her face.

"So, what's your thing?" Lucas asked after a few seconds of quiet chopping had fallen in like a border between topics. Maya didn't reply right away, though he could see a smirk blooming over her face. "Come on, I told you mine, now it's your turn," he reminded her.

"Yeah, well…" she trailed on, turning her head to peer into the living room, making sure that her siblings were still busy on their call. "Mine's just a bit more of… touchy…" she explained, holding now like she'd thought of something else and gotten a laugh out of it.

"Okay?" he gave an intrigued smile. "How so?"

"Well…" she trailed again, nudging a pile of carrot dices aside and carrying on with her chopping. "You know that talk we had a while back, before Elliott was even born, about… you and me and how… we were going to have to put some things on pause for a little while, for obvious… recovery reasons?"

She watched him as he took in the words, didn't seem to understand what she was going on about. Then his eyes widened in a sort of 'Oh!' moment of realization, and he gave the living room a check just as she'd done before.

"Yeah… Yeah, I remember," he spoke quietly, making her bite back a laugh.

"Right, well, I was just thinking about how it might be coming around that time."

"Now?" he blinked.

"No, not now," she squinted at him, all the while still with that sort of under layer of a smile. "Not tonight either, I mean they just got here and you just know one of them is going to come into our room, if not both of them. Besides, I think we still need to wait like… a couple of weeks at least, for me, and for us figuring out things with those two," Maya nodded back to the living room.

"Absolutely, yeah," he agreed at once.

"But, I mean… At least now you know where we stand."

"Touchy…" he repeated what she'd told him earlier, causing them both to break into discreet chuckles. "Got it now."

"You might get it later, too," she gave him a look, and he turned to look at her again. "Hey, just because we can't do everything yet, doesn't mean we can't do anything," she whispered.

"You make an excellent point," he breathed.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners