March 3rd 2023

Chapter 62
We Marvel At Time

"Where are we going?" Haley asked, completely baffled.

It was a fair question. She had just been yanked off the dance floor, where she'd been hopping around with Sadie and Ginny Chen, so glad as she was to see Luna's daughters again after what felt like an eternity. Nellie and Gracie were the ones to go and collect her though, and it had seemed important, so she'd gone. Now she'd been led to a spot near the exit to find Maya, Cara, Emma, and Maisie waiting together, so she'd asked the obvious question. The only issue there was…

"We're going somewhere?" Maisie asked, just as surprised.

"Wait, you don't know?" Haley asked. There among the siblings – by blood, by marriage, or one shared half-sister – the two of them were the youngest, and now that they lived in the same city, it had translated into their becoming close friends despite the three years between them.

"No, they pulled me out here, too, and they said we had to wait for you," Maisie explained. Now they turned to their older sisters, seeking answers.

"Hey, this is bride's orders, alright, we don't question it," Maya held up her hands as Cara and Emma chuckled and nodded.

"But the party's almost over," Gracie pointed out.

"Yeah, isn't this where the happy couple goes off and…" Nellie gestured vaguely, immediately getting looks and a few snorts from the older sisters, especially as Maisie stared blankly at her for a moment before giving a look that distinctively read like 'wait, you don't mean…' and then childish disgust.

"That's absolutely right," Cara told her, catching her baby sister in a hug.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" they suddenly heard Eliza's voice and looked up to see her speeding up to them, holding her skirts up so not to trip on her wedding dress. There was no time to argue, it seemed, as everyone immediately moved out of the building with her, getting nearly across the parking lot before they stopped and came to their senses.

"Wait, what are we doing?" Emma asked. "We're not… Are you running, or…" she turned to Eliza, her voice coming off like 'listen, I'll back you up if you are, but what's up?'

"What? No, no, I told Ben I was doing this, it's cool," Eliza waved off the idea as completely ridiculous.

"And what's 'this,' exactly? Because we have no idea," Gracie pointed out.

"I just wanted to have this thing, just us sisters, before the two of us go on our trip," Eliza explained, humming, and smiling.

"This couldn't happen a bit more… casually?" Nellie gestured at all of their dresses, Eliza's in particular.

"No, are you kidding? The dresses are the best part!" Eliza maintained. "Come on, I want ice cream."

There was no arguing with her on that. It didn't matter that they'd not too long ago had cake, and a few other desserts. The bride wanted ice cream, so the bride got ice cream… preferably not all over her dress.

Admittedly, they had to make quite the sight, all of them emerging from the Friars' minivan when they reached the ice cream place, and then walking into the shop… Eliza sat among them, looking like a queen surrounded by her subjects, there in her dress. She was still just bubbling with happiness, looking back on everything that had happened that day, most of all the fact that she and Ben were now married. As they sat eating their ice cream, her sisters reflected on their experience of the day, especially how happy both Eliza and Ben looked through the entire thing. More than once, Eliza looked like she hadn't completely beat the rush of happy tears she'd been experiencing before, but then the sweetest thing about it would be Ben, seeing this and wanting immediately to help his new wife by covering for her while she 'let the feelings out.' Their favorite had been him standing very tall in front of her, reaching his arms behind himself to hug her even as she had her arms around his waist. They were fooling no one, but he'd have that smile on him…

"Okay, on second thought, maybe this wasn't such a good idea," Eliza frowned after setting down her spoon, sundae consumed.

"You didn't drop any on yourself, did you?" Emma asked, looking ready to go into fabric saving mode as soon as needed.

"No, no," Eliza inspected herself and the several napkins they'd put to work to keep her protected, which had them all laughing and taking pictures while the ice cream was being prepared and brought over. "Not worried about ice cream getting on there right now…" Eliza went on, and the tone in her voice was enough to suggest exactly what she was picturing instead.

"Too much dessert?" Maya sympathetically asked.

"Too much a lot of things," Eliza admitted. "But it's not just that, I've sort of been feeling off all day, and I mostly wrote it off as jitters, you know?"

"Mostly…" Cara repeated, speaking the group's concerns. Eliza seemed to hesitate for a moment, to contemplate.

"Well…" her voice stretched on, bracing for a reaction she saw as inevitable even as she tried to tell herself she was exaggerating, surely…

"Oh, I know! I know!" Maisie blurted out, sitting up excitedly.

"You do?" Haley and the twins asked.

"You do?" Eliza asked, and Maisie looked very proud and self-assured as she nodded. The rest of the sisters looked between the pair of them, waiting to see which one would say the answer first, assuming that Maisie was actually correct in her assumption. "I mean I don't even know, it was just this thought I had, for like a minute, hours ago, and… okay, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since then, but I'm not actually sure, I mean what are the odds that there'd be two of us off on our honeymoons while…"

If she actually finished the sentence, none of them heard it, as there was an outburst of shock and surprise, the rest of the ice cream shop's customers and employees looking over at the strange gathering, when they understood what she'd been getting at. The loudest was Maisie, because it was just what she'd predicted: her big sister was (as yet unconfirmed but more than likely) expecting a baby. As for the rest of them around the table, once the news had hit them, they all folded in at once to both check on the queasy Eliza and pre-emptively celebrate. They could at the very least tell that, proven or not, she was happy at the prospect of a child, and having all of her sisters there like this was a surprisingly good way to soothe her upset stomach.

As soon as the shock had worn off, the plan became clear: they needed to know. It had been a long and emotional day already – and a couple of them were just on the edge of tipsy – but taking their formal party down to buy a pregnancy test or two was absolutely the one logical thing for them to do at this time. They could only imagine what the people who saw them walk into the store thought. In the moment, they were girls and women on a mission. For many of them, it was a brand new experience to stand and look at the various boxes of tests, so they were curious, asking questions. Then there were those of them – Maya and Cara – who had gone through this part in the past. With Cara, it was really only the second time, with Manny, as she'd found out about Felix in a hospital on her honeymoon, but Maya had a good and long history with these tests, as far back as fifteen and a half years, Halloween night… She could easily counsel her little sister on that aspect, which was good, because Eliza may have gotten the nausea under control earlier, but momentarily as she stood before the boxes, she briefly wavered.

"You okay?" Nellie asked, brandishing the water they'd bought before leaving the ice cream shop.

"Yeah, I just…" Eliza blinked.

"You do want…" Cara asked.

"I do," Eliza turned to her. "I really do. I'm just thinking… Dad's letter, and… I don't think I've missed him as much as I did today in a long time, and now this…" They understood that feeling very well, whether or not they'd lot a parent, and whether or not the parent they had lost had been Kermit. "That'll be all five of us, if I'm…" she turned to Maya and Cara and they both nodded. There was still no telling what would happen with Wyatt and Alicia's baby, but it would still be Kermit's five sons and daughters, all of them parents, and like how weddings had a way of making them think of him so much, not unlike his birthday or fathers' day would, pregnancies and births would be right up there.

"What are you going to do if it's positive?" Haley asked. They all looked at her. "There's gotta be a bunch of people still at the reception, right?" she explained. "Are you going to tell them tonight? What about Ben?"

"Okay, one thing at a time, yeah?" Maya put a hand on her little sister's shoulder. "Let's see if there's anything to tell first, huh? Here, these two should do. My treat."

"It's okay, I can…" Eliza tried to take the boxes from her.

"Again, with what money?" Maya challenged. They'd already gone through this back at the ice cream shop.

"I'm paying you back."

"You can try."

The general… external hilarity of their detour continued as Eliza took the boxes and went into the nearest bathroom they could access while the rest of them stood and sat around, waiting for her to come out again. A few of them had texts and missed calls to respond to, people back at the reception wondering where they were and whether they'd be back soon. They were as vague but truthful as they could be. They would likely be back soon, but as to where they were, well… It was a sister secret.

"Okay…" Eliza finally emerged, and everyone either stood or approached. "Think I did this right…"

"It'd be pretty hard to get it wrong, I think," Cara assured her. Maya nodded in agreement. "Just got to wait now, yeah?" The bride may not have had money on her, but she had a pocket watch, secreted into her dress, something borrowed (lent) by her brother-in-law. It was in her hand now, the chain wrapped around and grasped firmly.

"Can we just get going?" she asked, showing the bag she carried, dangling from her other wrist. "I want to get back to Ben so we can look together." Maisie made a disappointed noise, to which Eliza smirked. "I'll tell you what it says, too, I promise." That was good enough.

The group made the trek back to the reception hall, finding several people big and small who were really glad to have them back. They still wanted to know about where the sisters had gone, but they mostly just watched as Eliza and Ben were reunited and disappeared together.

"What's going on?" Lucas asked Maya. She gave him a look, held up a finger. Hold on.

Several seconds later, they heard an outburst of joy, and while most of the people left in the hall had no idea what it was about, the sisters knew: they were going to be aunts again, and they were so happy for the newlyweds, finding one another and hugging to celebrate the close of their adventure. If either of the future parents had considered keeping the news to themselves for a while, it soon felt impossible, so they just went ahead and told those who were still around. It was a pretty memorable close to the night, which was really all they could have asked for.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners