August 9th 2023

Chapter 221
We Try To Be There

It wasn't hard to get back into the rhythm of work, and school, especially after the brief time off that were the holidays. Now the first week back was well underway, and it felt as though they never left. Summer wasn't exactly just around the corner all of a sudden, but the promise of spring did start to feel substantial… promising… They'd all gotten this new breath in them, propelling them onward, and they were using it for as long as they had it.

At the high school, that could be seen in everyone's clubs and teams, activities, all of them getting to feel as thrilling as at the start of the year, when it was all new. Maya saw it in her students, but also in herself, or at least others saw it in her and pointed it out to her. This was usually where she got a lot of her ideas for the back half of the school year, sometimes so much that she'd go right on and have too many and push some of them on to the following fall and the next school year.

Normally, the same could be said for Lucas and the ranch, and whether he'd just stay home or actually drive out to Sullivan Stables with Ezra, he definitely had a few ideas still rolling through his head, some of them, he was sure, inspired by the introduction of his son.

And then the girls, well, they'd be so excited to get back into their activities, going back to their schools, their classmates and teachers… That meant new stories coming home with them at the end of the day, and if there was ever anything for their parents to look forward to…

The flow of the week was put on pause briefly on Thursday morning, as everyone was getting ready for the day, when Maya's phone rang. She never liked early calls like this, too many memories of the time when they'd lost Lambert Day, but this call might have been just the thing to reverse her aversion. While they had slept along the past night, Marie Nilsson had gone into labor. That was her older sister and recent high school graduate Miley calling, at her little sister's request, to let her know. She wasn't her teacher, wasn't technically her advisor, and hadn't been her cheer coach since the year before, but she wanted her there. So that was where she'd be. It would likely mean being late for the start of classes that morning, which she could imagine going over so well with the principal, but Maya was always there when a student needed her, and she wasn't about to change that for Sandra Davenport's sake. She trusted her seniors to know what to do, and there'd be people near to help them along if need be. She was headed to the hospital.

Lucas went and did the drop-offs, which promised to involve a lot of the girls trying to convince him to leave their baby brother in one of their classes all day. Meanwhile, she got herself to the hospital, where she very quickly came to find just the people that she'd expected to find. There were Marie's parents of course, and then Miley… This wasn't the first time they saw one another since she'd graduated back in the spring, but there was still this feeling of excitement, of a return to what had come before, when Maya and the now college freshman saw one another. She looked so very much like her little sister, save for the fact that she was the shorter of the two, although in the half a year where she'd been gone, it did get to feel like she'd settled into her college days, enough that she looked the more grown of the two, more than Maya had ever seen her.

Of course, with what Marie had been going through over the past few months… The other people in the waiting room were a reminder of that for sure. There was Max McAllister, holding her nearly one-month-old son Callum in her arms, while his twin sister Daisy was being cradled in the arms of Madelyn Carter. The elder of the two girls looked just as one might imagine she would, with a few weeks of being mother to two newborns. She was so, so tired, but also so, so in love with her children. She hadn't ever imagined she would have them both in her life at this point in her life, but she did have them, and they meant the world to her. Some days were harder than others, absolutely, and she was very lucky for the support that she had, which she never missed out on acknowledging.

"Good morning," Maya smiled as she came and sat with the girls and the twins.

Looking at little Callum and Daisy, it was becoming easier already to see how much they resembled their mother. It helped that she could look at them and be fully aware that these were Max McAllister's kids, to be sure. She could look at their faces, all those small features that they had, and match them to those of their mother's by comparison. They were fraternal twins, naturally, but in such a way where they felt as identical as a brother and sister were ever going to get. If they were dressed in the same clothes, one might not be able to decide which was which. Time would tell whether this stayed the same in any way or if they would diverge as they aged. For now, they were as sweet as a pair of babies could be, and Maya soon found herself holding them both, one in either arm.

"How long have you all been here, huh?" she asked, keeping to the sweet singsong tone as she had the McAllister twins blinking up at her.

"We told Marie to let us know as soon as it started for her, and I guess she took it literally," Madelyn revealed. "We didn't see it right away though."

"I saw it while I was up with them," Max explained, looking to her son and daughter with a smile. "I didn't know what I should do. I wanted to be here, but we all agreed what we would do each time, and I didn't want to wake her," she nodded to Madelyn. "But we promised, so I called her. Then she called Miley, and she came to get all of us."

Looking at her face, Maya knew without a doubt what was rolling through Madelyn's mind as she sat there that morning, as she kept looking to the twins that her teacher held. Hers had been the first of the Mamas' babies to be born, and he was now a whole two-month-old, out there with his mom and dad, his brothers… Adam Matthews would have not the faintest idea of who she was, and much as that had been her choice and one she never regretted for a second, it was impossible for her thoughts not to slide back to the fact that she had been pregnant and that, biologically speaking, she had a son out in the world. Some days couldn't help but make her remember more than others, and this one would for sure be one of those. Both Max and Marie, from what Maya had been aware of, had been so very understanding and considerate about how to go forward as their pregnancies went forward, as Max had the twins especially… Madelyn never felt anything out of sorts around them because of it. She proved it in how caring of an 'auntie' she was to Callum and to Daisy, and she would do so again with Marie's child.

"How's Ezra?" Max asked after she ended up taking Daisy again, allowing Maya to hold Callum with both arms.

"Oh, he's doing great," Maya's face split into an easy smile, thinking of her son. "He became fascinated with Kacey's little bear, gets so upset when we take it away from where he can see it…" she shared, pulling out her phone to show them a picture from just the night before, showing just that moment of 'oh no' clicking with the baby boy. Max and Madelyn responded with sympathetic chuckles.

"Sometimes I look at him and I think I can tell, you know? Who he might look like? His bio mom, or his bio dad," Max reflected, looking at the screen. Madelyn looked as though she thought the same thing, and Maya looked from one to the other.

"Anyone come to mind in particular?" she asked, figuring that any trail would be better than none at all. The girls stared at the picture some more.

"I don't know, he's still so little, and then… I don't know," Madelyn shook her head. As much as she would hope to be put onto a clue, Maya could see that neither one of them wanted to pronounce herself if she didn't feel sure, and she had to respect that.

She was never sure herself either, and it was enough that she got to feel bad, just a bit, about her ongoing scrutiny, aimed at her students. She thought for sure that, wherever Ezra's parents were, they had to know that she was trying to spot them out, and either they were just very good at preventing their emotions from reaching their faces, or she just hadn't looked in the right place at the right time yet.

Their ponderings were interrupted as an old woman came walking up to all of them, and even if she hadn't met her before, one look would be all she'd need to know this was the Nilsson sisters' grandmother. She'd been living with her daughter and her family since her granddaughters had been twelve and eleven respectively, since her husband had passed away, and she was very close to both of them, but Marie was closest to her, enough that she'd been the one that she wanted in the delivery room with her, and so she'd gone.

And as she came to reveal to those who waited that morning, the baby that Marie had just given birth to, the baby she'd been so sure would be a boy had come wailing into the world… and was a girl. When she'd seen her, Marie had known at once what her name was meant to be. It could only be the name of the woman who'd held her hand through life long before she'd done so very literally on this day. And that was how they'd all come to meet Astrid Nilsson.

"I'm coming back to school next week," Madelyn told Maya as she walked out of the hospital with her, having offered to accompany her back to her car.

"That's what I heard," Maya nodded. "Looking forward to it or dreading?"

"Looking forward," Madelyn nodded back, smiling. "Anyway, there's no point in me staying at home anymore. I'm fine, and I don't even have a baby to look after…"

"Well, that's good. The being fine part…" Maya told her.

"I…" Madelyn started, then paused. Maya had a feeling that there was more to this than the kindness of an escort. She stopped walking and Madelyn did as well, turned to face her. "They're not going to… I mean… We're still going to be friends, right? Me and Max and Marie, now that we're not all pregnant anymore, and… well, they're moms now, and I'm not, not like they are."

"Why would you think you wouldn't be friends anymore?" Maya asked, even though she understood where she was coming from with this concern. "Maybe I'm just making assumptions here, but if you ask me… You three are in this for life. Friendships like that, they're special. Believe me, I've seen it. I think you have, too." Madelyn smiled, nodded. She knew exactly, and she couldn't wait to go back to school, to rejoin her other best friend, too.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners