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

June 24th 2023

Chapter 175
We Swim Into August

There was no need to wonder when the thought would get hold of their minds. It would all be right there in how they acted when they'd be in a store, or even at home. Just the day before, Lucas had spotted Remy in the kitchen, standing high on her toes – not because she needed to but because she liked to – and lifting up the July calendar page, sneaking a look at the page for August. There were several squares marked with events both big and small, like there were on all the pages before any month even started. With a family as large as theirs, they kind of didn't have a choice, did they?

Of all the events that could have interested her on that page, and there were several, her finger would go and press its small print on the box marked 18. It had been decorated, corner to corner, top to bottom, left to right, with a festive scene, a bear, a cat, and a rabbit, dancing and jumping around, birthday crowns on their heads and holding balloons in the shape of the number 6. This one square would become a family joke, between Maya and Lucas especially, as their daughters did not yet know of any meaning associated to a triplicated number six.

They would be six years old, the three little butts, in just under three weeks, and did they ever know it. They all had different ways of existing in this bubble of excitement, always keeping true to who they were, and their parents loved that about them, but now that it was clear that they were thinking about it, the question could no longer be put off. They had to figure out what the three of them wanted to do for their big day. They knew enough to guess that there would be both advantages and disadvantages in sharing their birthday with two others, and they wanted to honor both of those perspectives, always.

When they brought up the question over dinner, it was another battle over a straight face as they watched the answer work its way over the trio's faces, and be tossed from one pair of blue eyes to another, and a third… It wasn't as though they hadn't been consulted in the past, but this really felt like the first time where they got to have a genuine input, and they wanted to do it right. It became distracting enough that they had to be reminded to keep eating before their food went cold. For some of them that wouldn't be so much of a dealbreaker, but a couple of them would lose all interest in their plate the moment its contents dropped to a certain temperature. They had to be promised that they could get back to them with their answer before they'd continue eating in earnest, and still the thought would work at their minds.

This went on through dessert and the post-dinner routine, all the way until they were put to bed. By then, Lucas had been presented with three pieces of paper, each topped by the triplets' self-written names. The rest had been done in their big sister's more practiced hand. When he went to locate the scribe in question, he was informed by his wife that she had asked to go to the studio until her bedtime, which had been extended for the summer. That was bound to come a lot faster than she ever realized, so when the time was approaching quick, he went down the path behind the house and up to the Hex door. The light was on outside, letting him know that there was recording happening. He gave it another minute, then another, and finally pressed the button by the door, alerting Marianne to his presence. The light came off, and he opened the door.

There was no music of any kind playing as he walked in and, coupled with the look on his daughter's face, Lucas went ahead and guessed that she was working on something important but – as yet – private.

"Hey, last call for bedtime, okay?" he told her, nodding back toward the house. She looked disappointed at the speed of time – as she would – but went ahead and closed up everything inside the studio, just as her mother had taught her. Lucas watched her, smiling discreetly to himself as he did. She had the ease of habit, in that space, but all he could see was this mini version of his wife, and it made him so happy every time he saw her being this way. When she turned to head out with him and caught the look on his face, she blinked, curious. "Let's go," he simply smiled and held out his hand to her.

"Dad?" Marianne asked after she'd followed, walking hand in hand with him at such a slow pace to show she wanted the very short distance to take as long as it reasonably could, not for dread but the exact opposite. She only wanted to stay out here, with her father, for as long as she could.

"Yeah, pumpkin?" he asked, humoring her just a bit.

"You know how we have our stories every month?"

"The picture stories? Yes, I'm familiar," he chuckled. "Next one is coming up, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Marianne nodded. "But I don't think we should have them anymore." He stopped walking all at once, unable to hide his surprise. He didn't expect how much that would catch him off guard or how it could sort of sting… "I think you should tell them to the others," Marianne went on now, and after a beat… His feelings realigned themselves, and as he understood what she wanted, it made him smile.

"You want me to tell the triplets the picture stories," he guessed, and Marianne nodded. "Just them?" he asked, and the way her hesitation showed… He wanted to hug her. She didn't want to lose the stories either.

"Mack and Aubrey, they're too little still, it wouldn't be the same, you know?" she reasoned aloud to him, and he nodded, matching her tone. Yes, obviously. She smiled. "I took out a few that I thought they'd like to hear about first," she informed him, and he laughed. Of course, she had. "Do you want to see?"

"What do you think?" he asked, bending to look at her eye to eye.

Her hand slipped right out of his as she hurried up ahead and got into the house. Lucas took his time in following her, hearing her dash up the stairs. He knew she'd come back down, so he waited in the living room, and she came barreling back down, holding a tin box that had once held chocolates. She'd covered the thing over with so many stickers that you really had to have known about the box and its former purpose in order to identify it. She opened it before her father and he smiled at once, presented with her collection of recommended stories, an early birthday gift to all three of them.

If Marianne had a good idea of what she wanted for her sisters' sixth birthday, the girls themselves still were no closer by the next morning. It was either that or, just as likely, they had completely forgotten, because they were already too aware of what they had to look forward to on this day. Today was piano day, their scheduled lesson day, all of them together, and while for the triplets and even the little sisters now that meant getting to sit with Miss Annie – the lovingly teasing nickname she'd been granted as her sisters' music teacher by her Grandpa Shawn – she would still be guided along by her teacher, and that all of their eldest sister.

Ella was all of days away from giving birth now, they could say 'you wouldn't know it by looking at her' as much as 'you can definitely tell my looking at her.' The latter came from the fact that she was without a doubt ready to pop, while the former spoke to her overall attitude, being so near to delivery. She was still riding that wave of 'planned adult pregnancy versus unplanned teenage pregnancy,' and now that she was this close to the end… Was she exhausted? Sure. Was she so, so uncomfortable physically? Absolutely. Was she just hoping and wishing for this all to be over? Not for a second. This all felt, to her, like a reconciliation between Summer and the sun.

One day, Lucas imagined, he would show this soon to be born grandchild the picture he took that morning, of their aunts all crowded around their mother, so heavily pregnant with them, with eager hands seeking to say hello. There'd even be another picture of the moment when they had said hello back with a kick, which Lucy had felt the nearest. Her surprise was everything.

The bench could not host the seven of them all at once, but that wouldn't stop them from packing together as best they could. Aubrey got to sit in Lucy's lap, and Mackenzie in Marianne's, while Kacey and Remy stuck to each other's side like they might as well have been a single person together. Some actual practicing and learning would for sure happen eventually, but just now this felt more like an open mic, or requests… Ella would play something, and her sisters would keep their hands to themselves, watching her, and then Marianne would do something, too, playing around the obstacle that was the four-year-old in her lap. Mackenzie would be remarkably docile for this, all things considered, only responding as soon as her big sister would be done.

This would go on for a while, especially if any of the others got in on it somehow, whether it was with Taylor coming in to amuse his wife by singing along to what any of them was playing and doing his act of trying to remember the words but getting them wrong half the time. It was a game he played with Tori all the time, all the better to make her giggle.

Later on, after Maya had gone off shopping with the Munroe-Friars and the triplets, Lucas went seeking those of the girls who'd stayed behind. He easily tracked down Aubrey, playing her little cousin and her uncle, which left Lucas two daughters short of a set. He was directed once again to the Hex, so he took the path out the back door and to the studio. The light was not on this time, but he opened the door quietly nonetheless. Here he came upon his girls, both of them in the booth. Mackenzie sat on one of the stools, one of her mother's guitars sitting in her hold and looking so very, very large for it, while her big sister stood behind her and appeared to be trying to demonstrate how to play the instrument.

As before, at the piano, Lucas saw a focus in his funny macaroni's eyes. She did okay at the piano, like all her sisters, but if they were honest, they'd say she was not as drawn to it as the rest of them. Maybe this was why; maybe this was the thing she was supposed to be playing. He would have thought her too young, but now that she was sitting there with the thing… maybe it actually worked. It kind of suited her. Another picture, another story… he thought. He gave himself away for it, but he motioned for them to carry on and he watched, smiled at how excited Mackenzie clearly was. It was maybe the first thing he'd ever seen her be passionate about in any way, and it was kind of remarkable for it. Here he was, contemplating his second, third, and fourth born, all about to turn six and growing up fast, and there was his Mackerel, compelled to learn something like this…

"I swear, sometimes, it's like we trip the speed controls," Maya hummed, later, when they discussed their respective afternoons. She was looking at his pictures from the Hex, her heart brimming with maternal pride as she was enthralled by the images of their girls and the guitar. "Out there today, with Ella, I'd look at her and think 'she only just told us about this baby…' And then I'd think that, and I'd think 'no, but I only met her, with her first baby…'" Lucas sympathized with this feeling a whole lot as he held his wife in his arms. "We ran into the mamas out there," she shared, just remembering.

"Yeah?" Lucas asked. "How are they doing?"

"They were shopping for clothes, for when they get back to school and they just, you know," she mimed a growing belly before herself, a gesture that seemed to mold itself memories of her own past pregnancies. "Madelyn's definitely showing now, and Max is getting past the hiding point, too. Marie's still got some time…" They didn't have to say it, there was always that thought of 'I'm glad they have each other' right alongside 'this is all happening so fast for them.' "They all looked a bit lost. Ella and I helped them as best we could. She really felt for them, and she had a lot to say. Taylor and I took the girls to the shoe store to give them some space. By the time she came back, she said that she'd volunteered to take them to any doctors' appointments if they needed someone like her."

"She would do that," Lucas smiled, thinking of their eldest.

"Yeah, she would," Maya sighed. He kissed the side of her head for comfort. She couldn't help but worry about them all, could she? It wouldn't be her if she didn't…

"It'll be good to go back, won't it?" Lucas asked her.

"It will, it always is," she declared, even as he knew that her mind would have gone to that Davenport place. "We'll make the most of this one," she vowed, and he smiled. No matter what, nothing was going to get in the way of what her career meant to her, and he loved her that much more for it. "I think they figured out what they want for their birthday," Maya went on, a welcome subject change. He'd sort of guessed as much when he'd seen the triplets return, though none of them had said a word about it.

"Any idea what it is? Will we get a noise complaint?" he asked, and she snorted.

"Like any of our neighbors wouldn't be right here already," she pointed out. "No, I think we'll be fine with that one, although I'm starting to see how triple birthday parties are going to be as messy as any of our parties get," she stated. He'd figured as much already, but then if either one of them hadn't embraced the mess after all these years with their girls, then they hadn't been paying attention, had they? They had this handled, and they couldn't wait for August Girls season… maybe an August Boy, too…

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners