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

A/N2: Three days behind...

September 2nd 2023

Chapter 245
We Look at the Time

Mackenzie Friar was turning five years old on a Monday this year. This had allowed for some plans to unfold on her actual birthday, but as for the rest… As Sunday morning came along, the house still sound asleep save for two, Maya and Lucas established their plan of action via sign language and sealed it all with a kiss. She went and checked on the baby while he walked silently out of their room and up the hall to the green room where three of their daughters slept. There might have been a chance that he would end up having to work around an extra small body sleeping next to the birthday girl, but then everyone in that room knew what was about to happen except for Mackenzie herself, so everyone was in their own bed.

"Hey… Macadamia…" he whispered near her ear, and she immediately swung her arm out. If he hadn't been smacked in the head like this before, he wouldn't have known to duck, but he did, so he was untouched. The important part had been achieved, as he soon found a pair of sleepy blue eyes blinking at him. "Guess where we're going today?" he asked her. She was not awake enough to understand what was happening at first, and her half-open gaze was too funny for him not to laugh. "It's ice cream day," he told her, and a few blinks later, she sat up and started to scramble out of bed. "Hey, hey, hold your horses there, we're not going until later," he told her, catching her around her middle before she could walk right out, in her PJs, on the promise of ice cream. She gave him a puzzled look. "I probably should have told you later, huh?" he brushed at her hair.

"Ice cream day," she mumbled, and that was as good a way as any for her to assure him he'd made the right call.

It didn't take very long for Mackenzie to wake up all the way, and once she got there, she went right past the edge into super activity. She could barely sit still at the breakfast table, all through the meal, and she had to be reminded that they wouldn't go for a while longer, so she didn't need to save space in her belly by leaving things on her plate. She didn't need much more convincing than that, and her breakfast disappeared in no time.

Marianne suggested a turn at the hoop after breakfast, the better to give her little sister something to do until it was time to go. Lucy very nearly got clipped by the ball when Mackenzie turned, hearing that it was time to go, saved only by her big sister and her reflexes. The almost birthday girl felt bad enough that she wanted to bring her big sister along with them, but Lucy promised that she was fine, so off Lucas and Mackenzie went for their birthday ice cream.

All Lucas had to do was ask what ice cream she would pick, and Mackenzie barely stopped for breath all through the ride to the ice cream shop. She had obviously put some thought into what she'd get on this special trip, but hadn't gotten so far as to figure out an actual choice just yet. She was apparently sure that she wanted to pile on several different things, different flavors, different toppings, but there were so many choices…

"Daddy, I don't know…" she frowned when she stood before the counter with its array of different colors, different flavors…

"It's okay, you take your time," he told her. "Just remember, there's going to be next year, too, and the year after that, and the others ones after that one, so you don't have to do it all this year." That helped a lot, and they were soon sitting together with their selections. They both knew that she could demolish her cup in a very short time, but her face was set in the determination of not wanting to go too fast, not this time. It might have been the first time that it properly sank in, that she was mere hours from being five whole years old. She was growing up right before their eyes, their funny little macaroni…

Back home, Maya was thinking much the same thing, this not so much for the benefit of having their growing girl before her, but by looking at a banner. Each of the girls had one, stored safely away until the day would come for their party, and then it would be hung up, but not before it had been given its 'update.' It was not unlike the wedding anniversary song every year. Whatever new doodle was added on to it from one year to the next, it would speak of what that past year had brought into the life of the one whose birthday it was. Now, Maya was finding herself having added a fifth doodle on to Mackenzie's banner, and looking at it and the other four, it was hard not to look at them all and feel the passage of time.

"Mom, can we put it up now?" Kacey asked, and Maya looked up to find five young daughters staring back at her expectantly.

"Uh, yeah, yeah, of course," she nodded as she stood up. "Here, pumpkin, grab one end for me?"

"Got it," Marianne took the left string and moved to the side. The 'banner hooks' were a permanent fixture on their walls. There were six of those, naturally, as they'd needed to install four more, to hang all three mid-August banners, so they got to alternate the placement of the banners from one year to the next.

"Aubrey, careful with the glitter balls, okay?" Remy told her little sister. Just a month shy of her own birthday, where she would have a fourth doodle added to her banner – a ballerina – Aubrey looked down to the box she held in her arms before looking back at her big sister like she was just remembering what had happened with Remy and the last 'glitter balls,' back in January. It made her giggle.

Mackenzie was in a very happy place as she and her father drove back home, so much so that she didn't understand that the ice cream trip had served the double purpose of getting her out of the house, allowing decorations to go up and guests to arrive for her birthday party. When she did see it all as they approached, oh, she could have burst from giddy joy. Shawn Hunter had the fortune of being the very first person she saw, and so she sprang for his arms, which were ready as ever to receive her.

Not unlike a couple of her sisters in the past, she was not so clear on how one could have their birthday party when it wasn't actually their birthday yet, but she got over it quickly enough. There was her family all around, parents, siblings, great and grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, two nieces, and her friends, whether from preschool, green group, or gymnastics, or sometimes a bit of two or all three of those… It was a great, and crowded, and very hectic day, and she couldn't have been happier to have had it. When people finally started to depart, she was a bit sad, and she had big 'I'm trying not to cry' eyes, but there would always be someone there to cheer her up again, so the down beat never lasted very long before it shot right back up again. She had a wonderful time, and that was all that mattered.

It all came down to a bedtime story crowded with storytellers, as everyone in the house was clearly determined to be involved in this, to be there for Mackenzie at this threshold between her 'party birthday' and her 'real birthday.' The best way they seemed to know how to do this was via family stories, and those needed a picture. Marianne was really the one to turn to when it came to finding just the right one for this occasion, and she knew just what she had to do. She went a bit outside what they might have expected for this however, in that she didn't exactly bring them back a photograph, yet it did feel like the image of a moment in time, and wasn't that what a picture was?

"A sketchbook?" Lucy asked, when they saw Marianne return to the green room, brandishing the book. She smiled brightly and nodded before looking at her mother for a bit of confirmation that she didn't mind her doing this. Maya smiled back and waved for her to come along and show them what she'd picked out. Marianne came and opened the book out to the page she had selected, holding a drawing that had been reunited to a sketchbook after being pulled from one, the better to hang on a wall.

The Friar girls reacted with oohs and aahs that made both their parents bite back a laugh. Somehow they had been certain that at some point, over the years, they would have seen this image already but, if they had, then they must have forgotten. More likely, they hadn't actually shown them the drawing before, and they'd just imagined that they had. If that was so, then it was a good thing that Marianne had dug it out for them. It was one of their favorite memories, both of theirs, and the same going for their friends as they were portrayed here, six kids laid out in the grass together, looking to the sky…

Was it their express intention to fill their birthday girl's dreams with tales of adventures for a group of young friends? Maybe not directly so, no, but they felt certain that they'd done so as they'd gotten her and her sisters to settle down for the night, and then in the morning, when their shiny new five-year-old came bounding into their room to climb on their bed and announce that it was her birthday, they had a strong feeling that they'd done just that.

"It's my birthday, Daddy!" she nearly pounced on Lucas, which made him laugh as he caught her, while Maya had been very quick to grab her camera to commemorate the scene.

"Is it?" Lucas asked, with great dramatic tone.

"Yes!" Mackenzie cheered.

"Is it?" he asked again, just the same, and she giggled and nodded. "Alright!" he nodded back, and he hugged her close, making her laughter echo out from his hold. "Hey, guess what, it's her birthday," he told Maya, reaching out one hand to grab her phone, the better to flip the camera on her.

"Yeah, would you believe it, I remember it very, very well," she smirked, thinking of a time where their Macaw would be old enough to understand what she meant, and maybe roll her eyes at her parents for it. They weren't sure just yet if they would prefer for their girls to be embarrassed by them as teenagers, or for them to be just as silly as they could be. There was no wrong answer for them.

There had been a lot of big, big squeezy hugs when the girls were dropped off at school that morning, this especially when it came to leaving Mackenzie and Aubrey at the preschool. How could they want to be anywhere else but together on a day like this? They could not, they would not, so much so that Lucas thwarted a bit of a coup, an attempt by his daughters not to leave their birthday sister behind and instead to stay with her at preschool all day. This nearly got him to break the surprise that he and the girls had worked out together, which was still funny to him, because of course they wouldn't be able to help themselves. Eventually, everyone did end up going to their respective schools and classes, and the day got to begin in earnest.

Mackenzie loved preschool, and she loved being in Miss Alma's class, like all but one of her older sisters had been, like her little sister was and, she knew, her little brother would be someday. That didn't change the fact that, when she saw that her father was back, and he was the bearer of the mythically beloved preschool birthday cake tray. It had been very important to Lucas that she know right away what he was there for, and he knew that she got the message, as she came hurrying over and he had to be careful for her not to knock the tray from his hands. When he got to put it down, he followed this up by reaching over and hoisting her up in his arms. He would not say it this way to her, but he couldn't help being happy whenever he got to hold her like this, for many reasons, of course, but on a personal note, for the one reason of his attack and what his body had been put through. If he could not hold his children in this way…

But he could do so, very much, and once he put her down, he confirmed that he'd be spending the rest of the day with her, right there in Miss Alma's class, and oh, was she ever excited. She and Aubrey both went about showing him their favorite things in the room, and he was amused to see that some of those things they loved, whether they realized it or not, had been things that their older sisters had loved, too, at their ages.

And when they'd all go home again, without the 'warning' of decorations, Mackenzie Friar would be surprised with a birthday dinner, just the household this time – and the Munroe Friars, naturally – in honor of her proper, actual, realer than real fifth birthday. As much as the previous day had been big and crowded and all over the place, this was just for them, and it made the birthday girl very, very happy.

"Hey, I thought you were asleep," Maya whispered when she felt a little hand touch hers and she opened her eyes to find her new five-year-old standing there in the dark of night. "Something wake you up?" she asked, propping herself up on her elbow. Mackenzie shook her head. "No? What was it then?" She responded by tapping the space on the mattress next to her mother. "Right, I see, yes. Not too old for that yet, huh?" Mackenzie shook her head even more. "You're right, how silly would that be. Come on," she told her, even as she nudged for the sleeping Lucas to move back, which he did, allowing for her to move back, too, and create space for their macaroon to lie down by her side, guarded from falling by both her mother's arm and her father's. Now she could sleep her way into the best new day she could ask for.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners