A/N: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!

March 25th 2023

Chapter 84
We Shine As A Family

More often than not, the Friars only made it out to Arkansas once a year, twice if they pulled it off. They went for New Year's, as often as they could, and then if they could they would go in the summer. They sometimes managed to put in an extra trip, for a birthday or some other special occasion, and everyone was always as happy to see them come as they were for getting to go. For Maya and her extended family, they still remembered a time, not so long ago, when they didn't have any of that, so they now cherished the fact that they did.

The last time they had gone by mid summer this year was at the turn into 2038. That time, for obvious and very understandable reasons, Wyatt had stayed back in Texas while the rest of them went on without him. There'd been some disappointment on both parts, especially seeing how much he had been looking forward to going out there, and all they could do about it was say that he would hopefully go with them the next time they went. Now, that time had finally come. The Friars were headed to Arkansas, and Wyatt and Finn were going with them.

"Mom, I thought you said we were only going to be out there for three nights," Marianne appeared in her parents' bedroom doorway, having dragged her feet under the weight of a couple of giggling hangers-on. Mackenzie and Aubrey had their arms locked around her ankles, forcing her to also be careful so neither one of them hit a wall or each other's head as they went.

"Hey, come on, up, up," Maya laughed, approaching the girls. They looked up at her but still hung on to their sister until their mother held out a hand to both of them and they finally let go and rolled off to rise. "And yeah, we are, three nights, why?"

"But Wyatt's got so many things packed, I..." Marianne started to explain, and it was all her mother needed to hear.

"Okay, I've got this. Will you go see how your dad's doing? What about your things, and the little monkeys?" she looked down to the girls now stuck to her side. They just laughed quietly into her legs.

"I'm all done," Marianne reported to no surprise. "Guys, come on, let's go find the others!" And off they went, leaving their mother to head upstairs.

As the information from her firstborn predicted, Maya came upon her little brother in the process of packing for a four-day/three-night trip and looking like he was heading out for twice or three times as long... with more than three quarters of the items clearly belonging to his infant son. All of it was stacked in the open art area, which left his nearby room looking notably neat... and emptied of its usual furnishings.

"You know, I'd wonder what got into you, but then I remember what it was like, the first time we went away with Annie when she was a baby. So, believe me, I understand the impulse, yeah? But I'm going to point out something to you and you'll thank me later. You don't need to pack for any and all possibilities, everything that could go wrong or right... I'm not even sure how you managed to put some of those things in there..." she turned back to look at the pile. "Can I help you pull this back a little?"

"I just... I don't know, I..." Wyatt frowned to himself. He currently held the baby in his arms, little Finneas giving off clear signs of discomfort which his father was now attempting to soothe away. "I don't want him to be missing something and..."

"He doesn't need as many things as you might think. Right now, he's got you and that seems to be all he needs, see?" Maya smiled and nodded down to her nephew. Wyatt looked at him, too, leaned to kiss his head and rubbed his back.

He had lost a lot of those big 'what do I do?' eyes that he had right after Finn was born, he knew what he was doing on the whole. He also had the big stress and sleeplessness that settled in with a few weeks of fatherhood in him. This short trip was going to be his biggest challenge yet, so really the overpacking was not a surprise.

With Maya's assistance, Wyatt and Finn's bags were brought down to the essentials, and then they were good to go. For the sake of the not yet two-month-old baby, they went the way of driving instead of flying to get themselves to Arkansas and back, which worked for everyone in that minivan. The Hunters and Clutterbuckets were flying, so they'd make it there before the rest of them, but in the meantime, the rest of them were going to have a road trip and hope that no one had the time to get too bored or cranky. That was what their scheduled leg-stretching breaks were for.

This convergence on Katy's hometown was about much more than checking in with the family there. A lot of things had been happening for several of them near and far, making it so that a reunion felt necessary, for all of them to stop and take a moment. They had Katy with the spinoff, and Haley and her new role, and they had Maya's musical and the awards. There was the loss of Great-Grandma Katherine, lately of Dallas, and Tanner's little sister out in Australia seeking to move back Stateside after a health problem, which in turn motivated him and Angela to sell their home to Georgie and her husband Toph. It wasn't as though they had lived in it in the years since they had moved to Texas. It sat there, unoccupied most of the year as though they didn't know that they would more than likely spend the remainder of their lives in Austin. Georgie and Toph were flying back over this coming weekend, so part of the visit/reunion was to be about packing up Tanner and Angela and unpacking the new arrivals. Their belongings had already made the journey.

And the surprises were not over. They were on what would be their last stop before arriving – barring any unforeseen needs – when Maya's phone rang.

"Hey, MJ, what's up, is everything..."

"Yeah, yeah, we're fine," he quickly told her, like he wanted to get that out of the way and jump to the reason he'd called her. "Did you know what's going on with Betsy?" he asked quietly, and she could imagine him huddled in a corner, checking over his shoulder to make sure no one was within earshot.

"Something's going on with Betsy?" Maya frowned, which answered his question.

"She and Sasha are getting a divorce," MJ whispered, causing his sister's expression to reverse into shock.

"What? Are you sure?"

"Oh, yeah," MJ promised. "She wouldn't say it at first, said she had to stay back because of problems with the store, but then this morning she just came right out and said it. She didn't say what happened, and some of the others tried to get her to say, but Mom shut that down immediately," he went on, sounding very proud of their mother for that, which Maya was as well. "Anyway, I wanted to give you a heads-up before you got here, so... yeah..."

"Alright, thank you, we'll see you soon."

The minivan had gotten very quiet without her picking up on it, but she definitely felt everyone's eyes on the back of her head now. They'd been about to take off again when her phone had rung, and Lucas had waited before she was done to start driving again, but now...

"What's wrong with Betsy?" Marianne called up. They all loved their grandmother's cousin, whether or not they knew the whole history of where she fit in their family's tale.

Maya opened her mouth to say that it was nothing, but she had to stop and think about it, looking to Lucas briefly, signing in her lap the essential facts. He was naturally as surprised as she'd been, but now he also understood the predicament they were in. What would they tell the girls? They loved Sasha, too. They didn't all need to have the details, especially as some of them would not know what it all meant, but they'd have to be told something if the goal was to try and make things easier for Betsy once they got there. From what little MJ had shared, Maya could guess her mother's cousin was very upset, and for good reason.

"Uh... Sasha couldn't make it out here, so it's going to be just Betsy," Maya explained.

That wasn't going to be enough, but they couldn't imagine themselves explaining what divorce was to their younger girls, not without seriously delaying their arrival out to their destination. Marianne knew what it was, had friends and classmates, like June, whose parents were divorced, and though they gave her no more details than the others, they had a feeling she'd at least suspect something close to the truth by the time they got to the house.

Everyone was very happy to be out of their seats by the time they arrived, so much so that several of them tried to aid their own exits before their parents could get to them. They'd had about enough of it, which made getting them to stop harder than they would have hoped. By the time they were helped out, they looked like they found it all to be a great big game.

"Hey, hey, Friars!" a voice got their attention, sending the girls into a further frenzy and making it harder to see to the ones still not released from their seats.

"Hey, how about you bring that energy out here before they twist themselves in tighter!" Maya called to her father, and Shawn gladly obliged, jogging over to greet his granddaughters on their feet and get to the ones straining to reach him.

"Big trip, huh?" he moved in, and Maya could have rolled her eyes for how Kacey, Mackenzie, and Aubrey instantly calmed down, big smiles on for their Grandpa. "Let's get you out of there, yeah? Did you see the new sign out there?" he asked them.

"Yeah, they sure don't wait around, do they?" Lucas chuckled, recalling the bemused look on Maya's face when she'd seen the addition at the town line, praising her Tony success, she who was a daughter and a granddaughter of their own people.

"I heard there's a committee," Shawn teased. "Finger on the pulse, that's them."

"Hey," Maya quietly spoke to him once the girls had moved ahead, out of immediate earshot. "I heard about Betsy and Sasha. How's she doing?"

"She says she doesn't want to talk about it, but she ends up saying a lot more than she thinks she is. Whole thing's a mess. I don't know if it's a good thing or not that their boys are off in college by now, not in the middle of it... Both, maybe."

"Yeah..." Maya sighed. "I hate to ask, but what am I walking into here?" Shawn scratched at his beard, uneasy.

"Betsy found out Sasha's been seeing someone else. Sasha didn't deny it. She's the one who asked for the divorce."

"Damn..." Maya bowed her head. "Okay... Thanks."

Right about then, she was kind of glad to have several small blondes, all of them very excited to see their grandmother's cousin. They all hurried to her, cuteness and smiles cranked on high, and Betsy bent to greet them, laughed, and hugged one girl and the next. If any of them stood out in this, it would be Kacey, who showed remarkable forethought and patience, waiting until all the others had gone before taking her turn, the better to keep on clinging to the woman. Betsy was more than happy to indulge her. She held the small girl like a distressed child might her favorite teddy bear.

It took some time, in the midst of being reunited with everyone and catching up on how everything was going with the move, with seeing to her grandparents' things to be driven back with them to Austin, for Maya to get a moment with Betsy to talk.

"For the record, I was not ignoring you, or trying not to talk to you about... all of this," she sighed.

"Now, why would I think that?" Maya raised a curious brow.

"Oh, do you want me to say it?" Betsy nodded, smirking.

"Kind of do," Maya smirked back, and she got a laugh out of her. Betsy hugged her arm around her.

"Your mother has always been my favorite family member, but you come a very, very close second. And it's not just because you're so much like her."

"Oh, please, she's way more dramatic," Maya shook her head, and they laughed. When this started to wind down, Maya caught her eye. "How are you doing?"

"Well, you caught me at a good time, you know... Much less random crying in the day, fewer urges to break things, to scream..." Betsy hummed.

"I'm so sorry, Bets..."

"Don't worry about it, really, I... I'll get over it... I think... Upside is you and I might get to see a lot more of each other soon."

"What?" Maya blinked.

"Oh, well, about as soon as I left home to come here, I knew I really couldn't see myself going back. Briefly considered moving back here, which really tells you how desperate I was to get away from out there," Betsy shook her head. "But your mom... your mom..." she smiled despite herself, "The second I told her that, she had the answer all figured out."

"She told you to come to Austin with us," Maya guessed.

"Might have offered me your sisters' room as soon as they head to your place," Betsy nodded. Maya was still stunned.

"Wait, are you?"

"Going to take your sisters' room? Probably not, no. But I'm getting to think that maybe Texas could be a good idea. Start over, new place, new city... Bit of a haircut, what do you think?" she reached to feel around her head.

"Maybe wait a bit on that one, don't get too hasty, you know?"

"Good point," Betsy agreed. They looked at each other. "So? Texas?"

"You'd look great in some boots," Maya offered, and Betsy laughed, a good, full laugh, and she hugged her again.

"You bet I do." She breathed, sat back against the couch. "So, tell me something, anything. Driving out here with all the kids, school holidays, new year coming, anything."

"Well..." Maya thought, then, "Oh, well, after we get back home, I'll be getting the cheerleaders together when I can, hopefully get a head start before September."

"Stick it to that principal of yours?" Betsy guessed.

"So much," Maya was not shy to say, and the older woman looked proud. "You were a cheerleader, weren't you?"

"Oh, nothing like these days, please, that was so long ago," Betsy chuckled. For being into her fifties by now, she really didn't look anywhere near it.

"I don't know, to hear my mother tell it, you could still show those kids a thing or... two..." She paused.

"What?" Betsy asked. Maya grinned. "What?"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners