August 3rd 2023

Chapter 215
We Wish to Know

On the whole, it would be fair to say that baby Ezra had a much calmer night than those who hosted him. He did wake up here and there, but he never had to wait very long before someone would be there to see to him, because they'd already be there. Maya and Lucas were particularly 'guilty' of this, waking up repeatedly to see if he was alright, which he usually was. Beyond them, the girls were seen trickling in now and again, Marianne most of all, but also the little sisters, who might have been on the lookout for any signs of magic from the fairy boy. The siblings from upstairs also poked their heads in a few times to see if anyone needed anything. They all wanted to see to it that the boy was okay.

When morning rolled around, it was as surreal an experience as they had expected it to be. There had been nothing to prepare them for suddenly having a newborn in their midst, but there he was, and there they were, falling right into the rhythm as though he had been pulled into their world like the six eager girls that quickly came flooding into their parents' room, the better to greet the fairy boy.

Already, Maya was looking to visit her Mamas as she woke up, but it was hard to stay on that train of thought very long when there was Ezra, and the girls… It reminded both Maya and Lucas of when Finneas was born, when he'd been brought back to the house to stay, except different… a little… The thing was that they knew very well what the difference was, and they didn't want to say it out loud. It was as though the moment he'd come into their house, his fate had been decided, and he had been adopted by Marianne, Kacey, Remy, Lucy, Mackenzie, and Aubrey as their sweet baby brother. They tried their best to telegraph the fact that he might only be with them for a little while without hammering it in, but then they were all so happy to look at him and hold him. Once he was awake, it was even more so. Maybe now more than ever, the thing that needed to happen was for Maya and Lucas to get to the bottom of things. So, she took off soon after breakfast.

She first made her way to the McAllister house. There, she very quickly established that Max continued to be very heavily with child… children… She had come to the point where all she wanted was to get to the end of it, to rid herself of the discomforts that came with the pregnancy, discomforts that were made that much more so by the fact that she was expecting not just one baby but two.

"Mrs. Friar? What are you doing here?" she asked, surprised but curious.

"I just… wanted to look in on you, see how you're doing," Maya told her, sitting carefully on the footrest that she was not using, presently laid out on the couch.

"I'll be better after, you know?" Max sighed even as she hugged the curve of her belly. As eager as she was for this part to be over, it hadn't all been bad for her, and she was realizing it would soon be behind her. Maya nodded sympathetically. She had not forgotten what it was like at the end, with the triplets.

She didn't flat out ask her if she knew of another girl in any of the art classes being pregnant, but she talked to her enough to confirm for herself that she had no idea. The same would quickly happen once she went over to the Nilsson house to see Marie. The senior had not had her baby either, which was good news for her, Maya reminded herself, but even so… She was slightly more suspicious about the Born Curious advisor's line of questioning, but then that was just how Marie always was.

She had been having a lot of trouble figuring out what to do, going forward, once she had her baby. She kept going back and forth as to whether she'd keep it and raise it or whether she'd give it away for adoption. Her heart kept going one way and the other, and while Maya had never been in this position, she only had to remember how she'd felt, pregnant for the first time, with Marianne, all the unknown… If on top of all of that she'd have to be faced with a choice like that… She would struggle, too. And for Marie, time was running out.

When she drove up to the Carter house, unlike the previous two, even though she knew that she would not find a pregnant girl within, she was also aware that it would have nothing to do with the baby boy left on her doorstep the previous evening. Maya had been to see her a few times since the birth of baby Adam, and on the whole, she was doing well. There had never been a question with her about whether she'd keep him or not, not really. Deep down, as she had told it, she'd always known it would end this way, and she'd had time to make peace with it. For sure, once it had actually happened, once she'd given birth and allowed August and Milena to take her son, she'd had to adjust to what she'd just experienced, but she had done that by now, more or less. It was enough that, unlike with Max and Marie, she told Madelyn about finding Ezra.

"They just left him there?" she asked, eyes wide.

"I don't think he was ever in any danger, or that they would have left him there unless they were sure that we were there and we'd find him as soon as possible…" Maya explained, even as deep down she couldn't help still feeling how reckless it all was, and how wrong it could have gone.

"And you think his mom goes to school with us," Madelyn stated.

"I don't see how she could not. It has to be someone who knew enough to think we would be able to look after him, who… well, who knew where we live, but that's…" she brushed off this notion. Plenty of students at the school came over for their Halloween games, so it wasn't hard to know.

"I wish I could help, but I have no idea," Madelyn shook her head. Maya assured her not to worry about it. They would figure something out… somehow.

Back at the house, the Friar girls and their father were having a very different Saturday morning than they had previously envisioned, but was really not a problem for any of them, not when they had the baby to look after. It had been late when they had first discovered him, and they had most of them been forced to go off to bed earlier than they would have liked, preventing them from entertaining all their curiosities toward the mystery child. But now it was daytime, all of them were rested, and they had so much time ahead of them.

Not long after Maya had left to go visit the Mamas, they had started off by taking Ezra on a tour of the house, in particular a tour of the decorations. Marianne held him throughout all of this, as her little sisters agreed that she would be best suited to do so… and it would make it so that they were able to run around and point out this thing or bring over that thing… He was asleep through parts of it – not a problem – and when he was awake he wasn't necessarily looking at anything or recognizing anything – also not a problem. The important part, to Lucas especially, was that Ezra looked at ease among the girls. He didn't fuss once. If anything, he was as relaxed as a two-day-old babe could be, clinging to Marianne as she held him.

When the tour was done, the girls asked if they could finally bring the dogs up. They had been taken down to the basement not long after Ezra had been found, the better not to let things get out of hand with him there. Lucas wasn't sure at first, maybe wanting to wait until Maya was back, but he could hear the dogs yapping at the door, like they all knew their moment was coming, so he went ahead and let them through. They were all as well behaved as ever around babies, and they met Ezra with that same careful reverence, coming forward bit by bit as Marianne sat with the baby, on the floor. The other girls all stood by, ready to pull any of the dogs back if needed, but it never came to that. Lucas recorded the moment, for Maya… for memories or posterity, no one could say just yet.

When Maya arrived, the giant group of girls, dogs, and baby had settled in for a movie. Ezra was now in Lucy's arms, and small as she was on the whole, she didn't look so little while holding the newborn. It was as sweet a moment as they could have asked for, which was as endearing as it reminded them of the potential parting in their future. They kept saying that they wouldn't think about it, but at the same time, how could they keep away forever?

"How did it go?" Lucas asked Maya as the two of them stepped back and out of earshot.

"All babies present and accounted for. Max and Marie haven't had theirs, and Madelyn's is with his family, so we're back to square one." He didn't have to ask her if she was still sure Ezra's mother was one of her students. He only had to think about it himself and he knew that it had to be true. It was the only logical conclusion, and yet it got them nowhere nearer to an answer.

"Whoever she is… whoever they both are, for all we know…" Lucas started, "They brought him to us. We can't just take that and carry on as though it's no big deal, can we? Just not bother looking for his parents and keep him as our own without any question…"

"Would be nice…" Maya hummed, looking at the girls, the sleeping baby… Six young blondes and then him. He could have stuck out, but really, he just fit in. There they'd been, trying and not succeeding to have another baby and now here was one… "This is crazy," she sighed, pinching at the bridge of her nose. Both of them were left in this place of trying not to believe, trying to keep to this chance that Ezra would eventually leave them, ignoring the fact that after less than twenty-four hours they never wanted that to happen.

"We just need to take this… day by day," Lucas declared, and Maya looked at him, smiled. He would say that. He was right, of course, but it didn't keep her from feeling as though she was setting a trap for herself at every turn.

"What happens when Monday comes around?" she asked. "Davenport is just going to love this, me telling her that I have a baby to care for all of a sudden and I need to…"

"I'll stay with him," Lucas cut in. "Things will be fine at the ranch, I can make it work," he went on with a confident shrug. Maya laughed quietly.

"It's good to be the boss, huh?"

"You should try it sometimes. You'd do great," Lucas smiled.

"What, me? Be the principal? No, I'd miss my class too much. I have some ideas about that though, but anyway… You're sure about this?" she asked, and he nodded.

"Never more sure."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners