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

April 15th 2023

Chapter 105
We Move Toward the Future

It had been decided only the day before that they would hold the week's turtle dinner at the Babineaux house. They were going to have it at the Garcia-Choi house, it was their turn to host after all, but then they'd sent a text into the group chat saying they wanted to have the lunch in Austin instead and asking if someone would volunteer to host. They would still see to the meal and bring it. Zay and Nadine had been the first to get an answer in, so that was where they would all gather.

The Friar house was in pre departure mode. Aside from their activities, the turtle lunches were easily their favorite thing about the weekends. They got to see their aunts and uncles and cousins - the turtle variety - and it would always be so fun... whether or not there was reason for them to put on their masks. This made it so that waiting out either the call to head out or the arrival of their guests had the girls running around, unable to sit still.

Their parents were not in the habit of keeping them waiting longer than they had to, though sometimes this just couldn't be helped, as was the case on that morning, as they both had calls to return before they could head to the Babineaux house. Maya had to get in touch with someone from the production back in New York, to clear a few things up in a time sensitive fashion, while Lucas was doing the same with regards to the two series using Sullivan Stables as a primary shooting location. On both sides, things were going very well. Naturally, after the success at the Tony Awards, the musical was only doing better and better, and while they had only been on the air for a little over a week and two episodes, the spinoff was doing just as well as the original series had done, with the bonus of having that lead in. That did not take away from its merits all on its own. Everyone was talking about Stephanie Brett, homegrown talent, and star on the rise... almost as much as her father did in and out of his science classroom.

"So, what did they say? Is it going to work?" Lucas asked, after they'd both finished their calls and returned from their respective 'quiet corners.'

"Looks like it," Maya breathed. She sounded at once elated, relieved, and just a bit... vengeful. Her smile grew, and he chuckled. "I can't wait to see the look on her face. Might have to use her tactic, like when she tried to raffle off tickets? I don't have to run it by her anyway. Is that too much?" she couldn't help but ask after a beat.

Oh, she still really needed to get her back from ejecting Miranda and the theater class. She knew that Sandra Davenport was not only expecting but waiting on a response from her, and that was fine. She had established herself more than once as the leader of the arts side of their school, being at the heart of a trio with Morgan and Miranda that they would call the Muses between themselves, for their given subjects as much as for their shared initial. Except it wasn't just between them, it was all over the school, until it was what their colleagues saw them as, and what the students did, too. Whether those students were part of any one of their classes, it didn't matter: they knew them and they respected them. They were the Muses. And now one of them had been knocked away. If that wasn't a message…

Well, now, they were just going to have to do something about it, to not only strengthen their position but their promise to any and all who would listen that the arts at their school were something valued… and they would not go anywhere. And the most beautiful part of this – to Maya's heart and the vengeful little beast that lived in it – would be getting Sandra Davenport backed in a corner where she had to make the same vow.

"I have no doubt that you'll go as far as you need to go," Lucas declared, and Maya bit back a laugh that ended in a snort. "Too…?" he reached to his invisible hat.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that. I liked it," she slowly nodded. "I'll figure something out," she sighed, then, remembering his own call, she tapped his arm. "You, now."

"Me, now," he nodded. "The spinoff is looking good for a full pick-up." He'd expected this to make her very happy, and he was not disappointed. In all of a second, she was hugging him, and he held her just as strongly.

It would have been great news in any circumstances, especially this early on, but it couldn't help but have special meaning to him this time around, and she knew it as well as he did. There were so many thoughts of his mother weaving their way into any thoughts of the series itself, at least where their family was concerned. That was what they figured. What would it matter to anyone else, right? They hadn't known Melinda Friar, so what did it mean to them that she was gone?

Except so many people who watched the two shows had to some degree or another become versed in their origins, in the whole world that had led to their creations. They knew about Sullivan Stables just as they knew of the Sullivans who'd given it their name. And they knew, when the original dedication had come, in the first series' season finale, who Melinda Friar was, how she fit. In many ways, though they were by no means the same person, they knew that Stephanie Brett's character was sort of her equivalent, as Katy Hunter's stood as an equivalent to her mother, Marianne Sullivan.

And now she was gone, and the fans' response was one of such kindness and respect, and it had continued to be one that had Lucas, his father, his uncle... all of them deeply touched. They were out there, so no wonder the new series was thriving as well as its parent.

"What's going on and is it why we haven't left yet?" Marianne's voice interrupted them, and they looked over to the doorway, finding their eager but intrigued first born standing there with her hands almost planted at her hips. They were in enough of a happy mood that they just laughed. They told her about her father's news, and she was so happy with them that she almost – almost – forgot about what had brought her to them. It was way past time for them to go to the Babineaux house.

Luckily for her, the wait was over, and they were soon driving off, the eight of them. A new bonus for these turtle lunches and dinners lately was that the Friars could now count on all seven of their girls in attendance. It had been one thing with Ella out in Houston, whenever they'd have the gathering at either of the neighboring homes of their friends, but even then, most of the time she was busy with school or work.

That was still true now that she had graduated and moved back to Austin, but it was different, enough so that she would do everything she could to be there, along with her husband and daughter. It was a strange new reality they were left to consider, as the three of them became part of the usual roster. It made them think of a time where more and more of their children would be grown, bringing significant others along, and then children of their own... Those would make for some very big dinners from week to week, wouldn't they?

Well, they weren't there yet. Right about now, their dinners were... still pretty big, by most people's standards, with Maya and Lucas and their seven girls, granddaughter, and son-in-law, Riley and Dylan with their four children, Zay and Nadine and their trio, Sophie, Chiara, Ray, Asher, and their combined six sons and daughters, Farkle and Isadora and their pair, and Rosa and Jenna, and Morgan and Paul... That was forty people already, and they all had to be seated and fed. Each host family had developed their routine and their setup when it came to their turn to receive the turtles, and it would become a running joke for them to observe how each of them went about it. The most innovative award, if one existed, would have to go to Rosa and Jenna, whose home was as large as they both needed and wanted it to be, which was really not that big at all. Receiving thirty-eight guests bordered on ridiculous and yet they always managed to make it work.

This time around, they were in Babineaux territory, which would give them all sufficient room and then some, especially as they tended to host their dinners outside whenever they could. It would feel like a smaller version of their summer party, and they loved it very much.

On that day, it was the perfect setting for the adults to pool together and wonder together on the subject that had been at the back of their minds since they'd all been redirected there instead of heading into Houston. Their Houston and Dallas friends were still inbound, and as the others arrived at Zay and Nadine's, they fell to talking. Everyone was of a mind that this felt like news, like their friends planned to tell them something, but the fact that they had to do it in Austin instead of just receiving them at home like they were already supposed to...

Some of the friends aired great concerns that one couple or another was splitting up, or worse yet both at once. It couldn't be that they were pregnant again unless some people had crossed some lines, and anyway they had all made it very clear that they would not pull a Violet again, that they were truly done after their six. What else could it be that they couldn't say it back home?

As they would soon find out, it wasn't specifically that they couldn't have done this at home, but they had decided together that it would be infinitely funnier to plant this nugget of curiosity and let their friends squirm a bit until they could finally fill them in on what was going on. They may have hyped them up to mess with them a bit, but they hadn't hyped them up over nothing: The Zvolensky-Mantovani and Garcia-Choi families were relocating, giving up their neighboring homes in Houston in favor of a return to Austin.

They had gotten it out there as soon as possible, knowing that the kids knew and would likely spill without meaning to, and also wanting their friends' kids to get to be there when the news was unveiled. The reaction was just as they would have wanted it. Everyone was overjoyed to learn it but also just a bit surprised as to why they had made this big decision.

As it turned out, they had been thinking about it for a while, starting in the last few months before Ella and Lea left Sophie and Chiara's house and returned to Austin. They had lived with the two young women among them for four years, and in many ways they had become like daughters to them, too. They had considered what it would be like without them now, and it had made them think about the future. Asher thought of his parents, felt deeply how they were getting older, thought of how impossible it was to know how long they'd have left together after what had happened to Lucas' mother... Sophie had been in the same boat with her mother. And then Ray... He had an understandably complicated relationship with his family, although in recent years he had reconnected with some of them, enough to make him look at being nearer to them as something he yearned for.

It wasn't until the summer had been nearly over that they had really started to explore the idea in earnest. Thinking it would be something good for them was one thing, but relocating all ten of their lives would be another. For the children, the older ones in particular, it would be hard to leave the homes they had always known, and their friends, too, but there at least they could be comforted in knowing that they would be no further from them than from their fellow junior turtles all this time. It would be something else for their parents to see to their jobs, whether they could keep them and simply be further away or whether they'd need to start all over again. But they wanted to make it work, so they had been doing that, and now they were telling their friends because it was at last coming together. They were looking to make the move as soon as possible but figured it could still be a few months.

The big question now, as the children went off to play, was where the two co-families would live, but here they learned the next big news, which was that they had already figured that out. Diana Zvolensky rarely stayed at her Austin house anymore, and she was more than happy to pass it into ownership of her daughter and daughter-in-law and her grandchildren and their fathers. As the four of them explained, the plan was for them to do some work on the house, making it so that both sides of the family would have a section of the very large home that was theirs, which would also leave plenty of space to be shared between all of them. Maybe best of all, the children would have a single room rather than two across the street from one another.

"Okay, can we volunteer you guys to host these lunches from here on out?" Zay called out, making the others laugh. "We'll potluck it or something."

"Our system is good, we don't have to give it up," Riley protested weakly, making it clear that she would miss hosting if she didn't get to anymore.

"Look, we've got time to figure this out, yeah?" Maya gave her best friend a sympathetic tap on the arm just as she felt her phone vibrate ahead of its ring tone. She barely took the time to look at the screen and see who it was, but the split second was all she needed as she brought the phone to her ear and raised her other hand to call for momentary silence, which she got. Thanks to that, she got to hear what she'd hoped to hear: Ben was calling to let her know that Eliza had gone into labor. The baby was coming...

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners