Chapter 133
A Light in the Dark

I think she could be my sister.

Dylan had barely said the words, the surprised silence weighing heavy on him and his old friend, when somewhere outside they heard many strange sounds in quick succession and then… pitch black. In the very next second, and the ones after it, they heard cries of surprise from what had to be the junior bakers, and then just plain cries out of the little boys, and barks from the dogs…

Lucas pulled out his phone at once for the light, as did Dylan, and they hurried back up the stairs, their discussion momentarily forgotten. When they got there, they found a few more phone lights on. The sun wasn't down yet, but the storm clouds obscured so much of the sky that it might as well have been night. Maya was working to calm Noah, while Riley was doing the same with Elliott. Rosa and Stella were seeing to Trix and Lou, while Phoebe and Ariel appeared to be attempting to coax Whiskey and Shadow out of hiding. Pappy Joe was looking out the window.

"Oh, that doesn't look good," he shook his head. Lucas went to join him and he saw what he'd seen.

"What happened?" Maya approached with Noah very nearly plastered to her for how he held on. As adventurous as he was, storms like these were of another matter. At least so far they weren't getting much in the way of thunder or lightning.

"Tree broke over there, right where it wasn't supposed to," Pappy Joe told her. "I've been saying for years how that would happen sooner or later, now here we are. I'm afraid it doesn't look good for the power coming back anytime tonight," he turned to her with apologetic eyes. Of course, this meant no baking, no cake for Phoebe's mother.

When they rejoined the others, it was clear that the girls had figured out about their baking session. Phoebe was holding Shadow, and the cat clung to her almost like the boys did Maya and Riley, like she was frightened and wanted the reassurance of someone holding her. Right now, the girl looked understandably disappointed, almost more at herself than at the problem of the power outage.

"I should have said yesterday, so we wouldn't be so short notice. I told my dad I would take care of the cake this year… And he's not the type to just go ahead and buy one in case I mess it up."

"Look, don't worry about the cake," Maya told her. "I will make sure your mom has one for tomorrow night, even if you don't end up being able to help make it, alright? We're going to figure out exactly how you want it, and it'll get done. Okay?"

"Okay," Phoebe nodded.

"Right, now we need to call all your parents to figure out what we're going to do next. It's probably not a good idea for them to go out driving in that weather if they don't have to. You girls are welcome to wait out the storm here. You can spend the night if that's how it goes, and we'll bring you home or to school in the morning."

"Oh, a sleepover! Let's do that!" Ariel turned to Stella and Phoebe. The former had the distinct look of someone who'd never been to a sleepover in all her life, while the latter was instantly on board.

"Parents, call, go," Maya nodded at them, and they all went to do as told. "What are we going to do about dinner?" she turned to Lucas now. Riley had just passed him Elliott, who was not crying anymore but still looked all out of sorts because of the storm and the darkness.

"Doesn't look good about the chicken, but we can work something out. It'll be something to occupy them, right?" he looked to Elliott, who looked back at him. If he needed to draw any reassurance from his father, he would get it. "Scared, bud?" Lucas asked, cradling the back of his son's tipped head.

"Uh huh," Elliott admitted freely.

"That's alright, storms are scary sometimes, all that noise, and it gets all dark like that… Much bigger people than you get scared by storms all the time, and smaller ones, too. It's always okay to say it if you are. Some people won't, but that's their thing. And if there's something scary happening, then there's probably more than one person that's scared. So you just find each other, and then you can say 'I'm scared, and you're scared, but we're not alone, and we're going to get through it together.' Yeah?"

"Yeah," Elliott nodded, then. "Scared, Daddy?"

"I think I'm okay this time, actually," Lucas smiled, and then he laughed, seeing the look on his son's face. Possibly, Elliott had come to the conclusion that his presence had been the thing to help his father not be afraid. In many ways, he wasn't exactly wrong, was he? "How about we go look for more lights, you and me and Noah?" he turned to Maya, who passed him the boy with the minor difficulty of his clinging so tightly at the moment. Only when he was put down at his brother's side and Elliott took up his hand did he calm down again.

While Lucas and the boys were on a hunt for flashlights and lamps, Maya looked around. Riley, Dylan, Rosa, and Pappy Joe were in the kitchen, seeing to the aborted dinner's storage even as they tried to piece together a replacement for their sizable group. Then there were the girls, checking in with their families. One by one, she found herself talking with Paul Buckley, Nadia Su, and Peter Munroe, and she confirmed what their daughters would have already told them. They were each as thankful for Maya and Lucas' looking after them as they were sorry that their baking plans had been left to stall in this way. They would see how the rest of the night shaped up, but they agreed that it would be simpler to let the girls spend the night there at the house. As much or as little as they knew Maya at this point, they all seemed confident that their daughters would be safe with her. Plus, it would make up for the cake. So, it was settled.

For having been only sort of aware of one another, Ariel and Phoebe immediately fell into sleepover mode. They had no PJs with them, of course, but Maya gladly escorted them up to her room and gave them free pick from any of hers. For her part, Stella kept close to Maya as the others started inspecting their options. Maya could see how, despite her knowing both these girls to some degree where she felt comfortable around them, right here she felt sort of separated from them as they got to be in this way together so quickly after meeting. She wasn't like them, didn't know how to be like them, and it was forcing all her walls back up, one by one.

"Hey, hey," Maya whispered, putting her arm around Stella's shoulders. She kept this approach as gentle as she could make it, to see how she would respond to it. She didn't pull away, so Maya took it as a good sign. "You're okay here," she promised. "Just remember that I would never ever put you in a situation that asked too much of you, alright? But if you ever feel like it is, you can tell me. You don't even have to say a word, just get my attention and…" she searched for a signal, her hands sort of absently making the sign for 'stop.' Stella saw this and accepted it.

"Stella, what do you think about this one?" Phoebe turned to them and held up one of Maya's t-shirts she'd bought years back, when she and her friends had gone to Europe after high school graduation. It was one of the silly shirts she'd bought as part of her lost wager with Asher. That's what they'd become for her now, sleep shirts. A couple of them were just large or stretchy enough that she had taken to wearing them until the end of her previous pregnancies. Phoebe presently held up the shirt she'd brought back from Germany, and from what Maya could see, she and Ariel had already fished out the ones she got in Italy and France for themselves. They would match, in their own way, a unit. They both looked so excited to be doing this with her.

"I like it," Stella spoke, in her quiet tone, though Maya could hear an equally quiet smile in there, too.

"Do you want pants or shorts?" Ariel held up one of each. Stella pointed to the pants. "Great, here," she brought the two items over to her and Stella took them with a tip of the head in thanks.

They wouldn't get changed until after dinner, which by now could not come fast enough. They were all hungry and they headed back down to find out how that was going. As soon as they started down the stairs, they could see the kitchen was very bright in the middle of the growing darkness. All the lamps and flashlights they had on hand were now illuminating the room, the better to help everyone out there to work on the new meal.

"Making salad, Mommy!" Elliott informed Maya with the same energy he'd had in announcing the 'lemonade.' Riley and Rosa were chopping this and opening that, while Noah would grab small handfuls of things and toss them into the large bowl whenever they were ready to go. Elliott was doing the careful shuffling of the ingredients. It was looking pretty loaded already from what she could see.

"Looks great, sprout," Maya smiled at him. "And what are you guys doing over there?" she asked of Lucas, Pappy Joe, and Dylan. When they stepped apart a bit, she could see…

"We keep saying we need to use it," Lucas shrugged at the fondue set.

It had been a present at their wedding, from… Actually, they couldn't remember who had given it to them anymore, but either way they hadn't used it yet, just never saw the point, with how all their meals generally revolved around 'what are our babies or toddlers going to eat today?' Somehow, the set never made the cut, but here it was the solution to their trying to make a solid meal for almost a dozen people stranded together in a power outage and a storm. They were cooking something in there, keeping the flame and the oil safely away from the children.

"Not bad," Maya smiled appreciatively.

"Can we help?" Phoebe asked, and Maya was quickly aware of something strange, something that caught her attention though she couldn't explain it.

"Well, we've got things covered here, and I think they're almost done, but if you want to get plates and utensils and the rest to set the table…" Lucas was telling the girls, pointing to this cabinet and that drawer. But that wasn't it, no, it was… Dylan… When Phoebe spoke, it was like he got jolted, or struck… No matter how much he tried to contain it, he looked like he needed to box himself in or else he'd collapse into pieces. He was focusing on the fondue pot, the meat cooking in the oil, hoping maybe not to be noticed in the low light.

Lucas caught Maya's eye, noticed her staring. He just shook his head, as discreetly as possible. Not now, it said. What was she supposed to do with that?

Well, for now, all she could do was what they were all doing, helping to get dinner ready. Before long, they were all sitting around the table, with extra chairs brought in, extensions on the table. Elliott was in his father's lap, Noah in his mother's, and for having been spooked earlier, now they kind of enjoyed this strange little dinner of theirs. With the junior baker girls and the visiting friends in their midst, dinner talk quickly became 'calling back school stories,' whether they were middle school, high school, or college based. Stella, Phoebe, and Ariel all listened, a perfect captive audience.

The whole time, it was hard for Maya not to keep an eye on Dylan, just as it was for Lucas, honestly. The difference was that she didn't know anything of what was going on and he did, but regardless of their vantage point they could see very well how Dylan's mind wasn't one hundred percent with them. He was preoccupied. He hid it well, but not so well that the two of them – or Riley, or Rosa, or even Pappy Joe – wouldn't notice, so even as everyone continued on like business as unusual in their lamplit dinner, there was a definite layer of 'what is going on with him?' in the air.

Dessert was easier. They broke out ice cream, and cookies, and that was done. Phoebe showed she would do sort of mini ice cream sandwiches, twisting apart some oreos and pressing some of the ice cream in between the cookies, once she'd eaten away the filling. It was something her father had been doing with her since she was little. It added to the Dylan mystery, as he watched her do it with this look like the action was bringing back a memory to him.

By the time they'd finished eating, and they'd cleaned up after their dinner and dessert, it was nearly time to get the boys ready for bed. Normally, they would have had their baths, but it just wasn't a good idea tonight. Already, they were not looking forward to going up to their room, but then Stella took the initiative. With Ariel and Phoebe backing her up, she had a plan for getting the young brothers to feel secure and go to sleep. This would involve one of the lamps, and all the pets, so off they went. Their parents would be up shortly to wish them a good night, just as they did every time. But while the boys and girls were gone…

"Dylan, what's the matter?" Riley asked her boyfriend. They were all looking at him, and there just was no way for him not to speak up. The problem was finding just how he was supposed to explain it.

"Her last name's Munroe, isn't it?" he quietly asked, not meeting anyone's eye. It took a moment before Maya confirmed that it was, never bothering to ask who he meant. "Father's name Peter?" It was. Both confirmations seemed to leech some color from his face. "Her mother… What's her name?"

"Uh…" Maya blinked. She'd never met the woman, but she'd heard it, earlier, when she'd been on the phone with her father. "Jo, I think. Why?" He looked like he was going to cry, or throw up, or both.

"Oh my…" Riley gasped now, covering her mouth with her hand. Maya knew her too well not to be able to read that look in her eyes like it was five pages long and filled to the brim with details. Suddenly, it was calling up small bits of information in her, too, from near and far, information which, when put together, conjured up so many implications that… Phoebe…

"No… No way, you…" she mumbled.

"What is it? What's going on?" Rosa asked, completely confused.

"I can't get into it… I can't… Not here, now, she could come back, and she shouldn't… She shouldn't hear it like this… I don't even know…" Dylan kept shaking his head. They'd never seen him like this, never so distraught. "Please, can we just pretend, just for tonight?" he begged. Rosa was giving eyes like she really wanted to do as he said, but she still had no idea what this was about, not in the slightest.

Lucas, standing next to her, leaned to whisper at her ear, on the off chance that the girls might be coming down any time soon. The others watched as her face changed, listening to everything Lucas was telling her.

"Has the rain slowed down at all? Maybe we should get out of here…" Rosa stated after Lucas was done. She looked to Dylan. He and Riley had been two of her closest friends in the last few years, as they'd lived together in Houston and then ended up sharing an apartment in Austin, too. And she was part of the parent departure club with Dylan, with Maya, even if her circumstances were somewhat different. It made her sympathize with him in a different way than some of the others might.

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea," Pappy Joe spoke up. He hadn't been read in by his grandson, but he seemed to be filling the blanks pretty well on his own. "You're better off staying here, the risk…"

"There's risks here, too," Dylan told him. He looked to Riley and Rosa. Their faces answered his question well enough. "We'll be very careful. We'll let you know when we get there."

When the junior bakers would come back down the stairs a little over ten minutes later, they would proudly display their change of outfit, with the borrowed shirts and pants from Maya, and tell their hosts that the boys were asleep, together in Noah's bed.

"Where are the others?" Phoebe asked, noticing like Ariel and Stella that they were three short one trio.

"They had to go, got a call from a neighbor, something about a leak in their apartment," Maya revealed the story they'd come up with.

Pappy Joe would soon leave them, heading up to his room for an early night, which now left only Maya and Lucas along with the three middle school girls. Deciding what they would do with the rest of the evening, they were able to get a movie playing on Lucas' laptop, which they planted on the coffee table in the living room. He and Maya sat on the couch, while the girls sat on the floor in front of the table. Even as they watched the movie – with what snacks they had in the house – Maya had provided them with an extra activity. Thinking of how important it was for the three of them to bond in the best way, and how the quickest way to Stella's peace of mind was art, and a new medium at that, she put her private student in possession of her stock of nail polish as well as the tools she would need to achieve some nail art. Even as they would watch the movie, Stella would be sitting between Ariel and Phoebe, with one of their hands on the table in front of her while she turned their nails into small works of art. They were both very impressed, and when she was done with both of them, they went ahead and did hers, both taking one hand to themselves as Stella quietly watched one and the other work.

The three girls would be settled in, Ariel and Phoebe on the couch and Stella on the recliner, after which Maya and Lucas went upstairs, checked on the boys, and finally retreated into their own room. When the door closed, it felt like they'd been holding their breath for hours.

"Part of me just wants to talk about… all of that… But I know if I start now, I just won't stop, because it's just… it's just…" Maya shook her head.

"I know," Lucas assured her. He felt the same way. "Let's just not get into it now," he shook his head. "I know it's going to feel impossible, but what other choice do we have right now?" Maya opened her mouth to reply, but even just that felt like an invitation to lose control, so she closed it again and shook her head. "Come on," he indicated the bed. They climbed in under the covers, and he pulled her close, his hand sliding as ever over her belly. She pressed her hand over his, and she took a deep breath. If she could just focus on this, on him, and the baby…

By some luck, when Maya woke up, it was just before five in the morning, and the power was back. Carefully, she turned herself around and gently worked to wake Lucas up. He opened his eyes, found her smiling at him, and he smiled back.

"I need your help."

Stella was the first of the girls to wake up, and she was led to the kitchen by the sounds of activity, and by the scents… There she found her friend and art tutor in the midst of mixing up some frosting, while her husband peered into the oven to check on the cakes that were baking. Without a word, she moved up to help.

Ariel and Phoebe came along at the same time, and by then the bare cake was just going into the refrigerator to chill after having been assembled.

"Woah…" Phoebe looked and sounded amazed, taken with sudden excitement. Her mother's cake!

"Don't know if it'll be done by the time you have to leave for school, but it'll definitely be ready for tonight, so we can work out if I should drop it off or your father can pick it up…" Maya explained, smiling as she saw her reaction to the still near naked cake. In the next moment, Phoebe hurried to her and hugged her with the precise vigor of someone who wanted to hug so tightly but also remembered that the person on the receiving end had a baby in her.

"Thank you, thank you! For this and last night, it was great."

Maya hugged her back, caught in an overwhelmed smile. What were the odds, that of all the kids she could have connected with out there, on those few weeks of field work, she would end up kickstarting the events to bring them here, for Dylan to discover his unknown half-sister? Looking at her now, it was almost too obvious. She barely knew this girl, but suddenly she might as well have been family. And she never wanted her family to be harmed in any way. How would she react when she found out… whatever there was to find out?

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners