March 1st 2023

Chapter 60
We Marvel For Them

Maya woke up on the morning of her little sister's wedding to the sound of singing from above. It wasn't loud, but then maybe credit went to her well trained mom ears. Either way, she heard it and, as she came fully out of sleep and listened, she recognized the voice and smiled. She climbed out of bed, causing the still sleeping Lucas to turn over and resettle, and made her way out to the steps to the second floor.

It was a voice full of nerves that sang to the morning, though it still sounded very nice, all things considered. There was no music to accompany the singing, which was just as well, as there were stops and starts and frustrated curses to intercut the lyrics. Reaching the top of the stairs, she found Wyatt pacing the floor in the hall between his room and the one across, stopping at the guest room at the end before turning back toward the open art area. This was when he finally discovered his audience, causing him to stop before Maya motioned for him to go on. He hesitated, but she hummed the air to guide him and he started again.

She did her best to encourage him until he was able to get through the whole thing without stopping. The further he was able to sustain it, the more confident he grew and, once he finished it, he let out a breath.

"I wanted to make up for the engagement party," he explained. Maya had figured as much. It was so strange to think it had not been so very long ago. It had been the day he'd learned he was going to be a father, the day Maya and Lucas had learned it, too. Now that baby was due to be born in roughly two months, which felt just as impossible.

"First dance?" Maya guessed and Wyatt nodded. "Sounds perfect. She'll love it."

"I don't know how you and Cara do it. I feel like I'm going to be sick and there's not a bunch of people watching yet."

"You'll be fine, okay? Just remember who you're doing it for when you're up there. Forget everyone else. Everyone. Even me," she suggested, which made him smile. "I know, sounded weird to me, too."

"Because you're unforgettable?" Wyatt teased.

"You bet I am, little brother."

It wasn't so long ago that Wyatt's room had been their bride of the day's room. Then again, where Maya was concerned, it wasn't so long ago that the bride had been a five-year-old curiously staring into a screen as she met her unknown older sister for the first time. It wasn't so long ago that she was a young girl who'd lost her voice even as she'd lost her father. Her little Lizard had gotten that voice back, she'd grown, and grown… Now she was a young woman about to be married. She was working with her sister and fellow recent college graduate, Emma, to start a business that would put their degrees and their love of clothing and fashion to as good a use as they'd ever want them to be.

Eliza was now the third of her siblings to be wed, and as emotional as it had made her to see both Sam and Cara take these steps, she was sure this one would hit the hardest yet. She was definitely going to cry. Lucas had been joking that he would hide stocks of tissues on all of their small daughters, so she wouldn't run out. It might not have been a joke.

Back in their room, Lucas had a wake-up call that didn't so much involve distant music but the press of a trio of small girls climbing over him and giving precious little notice of where their hands, feet, and knees connected and nearly connected.

"Daddy, wake up!" Remy commanded, having claimed the spot nearer his face, the better to paw at his eyes, trying to open them herself.

"Awake, awake, trying to hold on to my eyes," he was careful to pull his face out of her grasp before opening his eyes to take in her face, staring back at him from inches away while her sisters had him pinned, climbing nearer. "Hmm," he could only find his smile, seeing them all. "Good morning, kit," he lightly poked her cheek and she pounced, hugging her arms around his neck. "Hey…" he hugged her back.

"Daddy, can we put the dresses now?" Kacey asked, coming up to kneel next to him even as Lucy plopped her head down somewhere near his heart. Lately, she had found unexplainable comfort in sticking her ear where she could listen to the thump-thump of people's heartbeats, so they would let her at it whenever they could. Many times, she had fallen asleep that way.

"Not yet, but almost, alright?" Lucas told the eldest of the triplets. "We need to eat first." For once, that didn't seem like enough of an excuse to them. The promise of breakfast usually overrode every other wish, just not this one. It went to show how enamored they were with their dresses for the day, he guessed.

They waited after all, though it wasn't as though they had much of a choice. The whole meal was an exercise in patience, as most of the girls tried at least once to get up from their chairs and return upstairs to find their dresses before being called back to finish their plates first. It was a lot of back and forth, but they finally got through it, and then everyone dashed upstairs as soon as their hands and their faces were cleared of anything that might leave stains. It was time to get dressed, get their hair done… Marianne had once been determined in how she didn't care for nail polish on her, even if she would let them put it on her sometimes, if the occasion felt right.

Nowadays, she had definitely come around to the appeal of colorful nails, which they suspected might have come via her love and appreciation for her uncle MJ and his always colorful, sometimes sparkly hands. The same went for all of the triplets, so naturally it also went for the little sisters. That was how, after the dresses had been put on and the hair had been done, MJ Hunter arrived at his sister's house and turned it into a junior nail salon, painting each of his young nieces' nails, from Marianne down to Aubrey. Lucy made sure to convey to her buddy how she had to be careful not to touch anything or she would ruin the polish while it was still wet. Several times, they would hear Lucy go 'Aubrey, no!' before carefully taking her little sister's hands. They could tell that Aubrey saw all of this as a game, so she'd reach for things on purpose, knowing what Lucy would do. She'd laugh and squeal whenever she'd be admonished.

"Are you guys good here?" Maya came down the stairs, Wyatt right behind her.

"Yeah, we'll meet you there, go, go," Lucas nodded.

"Love you," Maya quickly came and kissed him, did the same with all the girls and her youngest brother busy in manicure land with Marianne, and finally headed out with Wyatt.

The occasions were rare, especially as the years accumulated since James Lane and his children had become part of their family, where the distinction between Harts and Lanes was still observed, but today would be one of those times, if for a single purpose. When Maya and Wyatt arrived, they were barely ahead of Sam and Cara, so the four of them were able to go seeking their sister the bride for their very important task to be performed. This would enable them for the first time to take in the sight of Elizabeth Anne Hart-Lane in full bride mode, dress, and all. It took their breath away… for about two seconds, after which they realized that she was crying, and they moved into the room proper.

"Hey, what's wrong? What happened?" Sam asked, coming around to crouch by his little sister where she sat. She blinked, surprised, seeing them all for the first time.

"What? No, nothing's wrong, it's the opposite of wrong," she insisted, laughter breaking through to prove it. "You all did this before, didn't you just get really emotional about it?" she challenged her older siblings, who all looked to each other. Both Maya and Cara shrugged and tipped their heads; guilty as charged. The three sisters turned to their brother. Sam looked from one to the other of them like he wasn't sure why they were looking at him, but finally he admitted he had done so even before he'd seen Dora coming down the aisle. "There, see? You just caught me at it, give me a minute, I'll be good."

"Well, I don't know about that," Maya pressed her lips together before turning to Wyatt, signalling for him to step forward and do his thing… his first thing, before any singing was involved. Wyatt stepped forward, reached into the inner pocket of his jacket, retrieving an envelope.

As soon as she saw it, Eliza gasped, covered her mouth with her hand, as a new wave of tears rose in her. She knew these envelopes, knew what they contained. This one was hers, hers on this one day that could never have happened, for all they had known when it had been written. But it was there now… Words from Kermit Hart to the youngest of his daughters, on the day of her wedding. Wyatt had asked his siblings if he could be the one to give it to her, and there had been no debate. They all would have felt that it needed to be him anyway if he hadn't asked to do it himself.

Eliza didn't wait until later to open the envelope. Her siblings were around her and she wanted them there when she read what their father had said in his letter. It was impossible to wonder what it would have been like, writing to the grown woman she would be at the time when she would only ever have been nine years old, so far from who she'd be by the time she'd read those words. It didn't matter. Eliza read the words, and once again she cried, this time with brothers and sisters there to fold around her at once, carrying in each of them the presence of their late father, as best they could.

By now, there was no reason to keep away the rest of their siblings and only ever reasons to bring them in. Teddy and Emma came, knowing the parent-shaped hole Eliza would be feeling on this day. Maya knew, from James, that they had their own cache of letters somewhere from their late mother, waiting to be passed on. The only one of them who could not understand what she was going through was Maisie. The ten-year-old was aware of the long and sad tale of how their family, and she with them, had gotten to exist at all, but beyond that… She saw her sister's sadness mixed with joy and didn't know what to do with it. But Eliza saw her, and her smile was everything as she reached out for her. Maisie came and hugged her where she sat.

"Your dress is so pretty."

"Thanks, I'm really glad you like it," Eliza dabbed at her tears with the tissue that Cara had handed her.

"Ben is going to love it," Maisie predicted in total confidence, which made her siblings laugh. They thought the exact same thing. "I saw him before, out there," she went on. "He looks really good, too." Eliza opened her mouth to say something, closed it and shook her head to herself, making all but Maisie fall anywhere in one of two camps, biting back a smirk or trying to rein in a snort as they guessed that… whatever she'd been about to say… was nothing she would say to her baby sister.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners