A/N: Four days behind...

September 3rd 2023

Chapter 246
We Unite With Them

The Friar kitchen was all up in activity, enough as to make it seem that they were having a much larger dinner than they actually were. Sure, there would be nineteen of them around the table, which would feel huge to a lot of households, but that was only six more than a common night's dinner these days, and anyway two of them were babies, a third was somewhere between baby and toddler… The number of diners was not what kept them going like the staff in a fully-booked restaurant who loved their jobs.

"You're going to learn how to do this, too, Ezra, you'll see," Remy told her baby brother, holding both of his hands in either of hers with a great smile. He mostly just stared at her with his goofy little smile, which was right as they'd expect from him. He was getting to know his sisters, and at five months old, oh, there was no denying how much he loved them all. The way he'd move around and squeal when they'd be near him, they could already foresee him running after them as soon as he could.

They didn't have to worry about hearing the front door when Ella arrived. She and Taylor and the girls would come along around the house, and Tori would be first at the back door, performing the 'secret knock' that she and her aunts had devised together in order to announce her arrival. This caused a mild delay in the dinner prep, as everyone shifted into welcoming mode, hugs here, kisses there, and lots and lots of excited chatter running rampant before they could manage to remember that there was a dinner to get ready, and they all had their part to play in it. With that in mind, the Munroe Friars joined their hands to the work, their youngest member being joined to her tiny uncle and her… Finneas. He was Sunny's grandmother's nephew, but as far as what it him to her… a cousin, to some degree or another… They'd settle for cousin.

"Did you guys make these?" Ella asked her sisters as they all went about their given tasks, sleeves securely rolled up, fronts covered with aprons that had been made specifically for each of them by Grangie and given at Christmas. They nodded, grinning proudly as they kept working. Aubrey did make a point of indicating which things she had made, and Ella congratulated her with a big kiss to the cheek that made the soon-to-be four-year-old hop from foot to foot and send her ponytail swinging.

"Easy, easy, Lucky," Lucas told his youngest daughter with a grin, and she nodded, getting back her big 'focus' brows before looking to Ella, inciting her to join them, which she did. They all wanted to be done as soon as possible. More to the point, they wanted to be done before their last guests arrived to join them.

Theo and Lea did not use the kitchen door as Ella and Taylor had done. They came up to the front door and rang the bell. Dinner was in the oven by now, most of the cleaning up done, and so the others were in the living room for the most part, waiting and ready to welcome them. Tori was first to the door, the better to open it for her father and his girlfriend and jump excitedly to greet them both with a hug.

Everyone was happy to see one another, to exchange what stories they hadn't already exchanged on regular phone calls and other run-ins. They never actually ran out of those, always found something they hadn't talked about yet, or something they wanted to talk about some more… With the kids there especially, it was really kind of impossible not to have something to talk about that felt like the most important thing, to the speaker first and foremost if to no one else. A lot of the stories started with some variation of 'the other day at school,' or at the ranch, or at soccer, at skating, at swim class…

Once they were all sitting to dinner, around the very crowded and extended table, the conversation managed to shift toward their adult guests. Ella spoke about how her studies were progressing, which made for several of them around the table who struggled not to burst out laughing, watching Lucas sink deep into his proud girl dad feelings as he listened to his big girl talk about following in his footsteps. Taylor shared stories of his own work, which continued to mirror that of older brother Dylan, who he continued to resemble enough for it to feel eerie at times.

They had both been basketball players, though Dylan's playing days had ended after high school, as he hadn't gone on to college until later, while Taylor gone and played very successfully through the four years he'd spent in college. He could well have kept on playing, could have ended up professional, but that wasn't what he wanted. Now, while his big brother was a gym teacher and basketball coach in high school, Taylor did the same… only in elementary school. He had started last fall and, as he coached both the boys' team and the girls', he had the pleasure and privilege of having one Marianne Friar among his girls. It was only in the mornings before class and over lunch, with the occasional games, but it was a start, and they couldn't begin to explain how happy it made them all that it got happen in this way, all of them together. Marianne could barely contain herself when she'd found out. Taylor was as good as her brother at this point after all. The only unfortunate part now was that, with her being so busy with the musical, she sometimes had to bow out of playing with her team.

As plates were being cleared ahead of dessert, there was a bit of a huddle happening between Tori and her young aunts. It had started between just her and Marianne, but naturally it could not stop there, and one by one the others had joined in, stretching as far as they could while staying in their chairs at first before eventually giving up all pretense and moving to stand closer to the older pair, where they were each welcomed in turn. The others around the table or on clearing duty would see this and chuckle at the image that this created, not laughing, no, of course not…

"Do you guys want to see something?" Marianne finally addressed their guests. Her sisters and her niece were all looking at them, too, asking the same question with their eyes, so there was really no other answer to this question except 'yes, that sounds great' and getting up to follow them.

This would take them out the kitchen door, to behind the house, where the sun had started to go down. That was not a problem so far as visibility though, no. They had barely been out of the house and into the growing darkness for a few seconds when lights began to appear, dots of them, coming on little by little and creating a field, a path of light, one that took Lea Sullivan-Reyes a few seconds, in her wonder, to realize she stood in the middle of. And when she turned around to confirm this, she found that with the children far enough ahead of them, and everyone else having stopped several steps behind them, the only other person near her was Theo Petrelis… and he had set one knee to the ground, the other bent before her.

The night had been a long time coming. Many of them believed that the only reason it hadn't happened yet was Theo, and not for any bad reason at all. If anything, it was the best of reasons, the kind that really needed to be taken out of his hands, which was more or less what happened. The whole family at large knew that Theo would have made his proposal to Lea already if not for his concerns of what it would mean for his daughter, for everyone they were connected to. When he'd ask Lea to be his wife, he would be offering himself as her husband, and part of that would mean that if her life, her career, demanded for her to be somewhere else than Austin for months on end, for years, for… forever… he would be there along with her. However long it ended up being, it wouldn't matter so much as the fact that they should not be parted. Except he'd already made a promise like that to someone else. He'd bound himself to his daughter when he had been allowed into her life, and this…

While he was refusing to break one vow by making another, people were aware, and because they loved him as much as he loved them, they wanted him to be happy. They wanted to make this work. And no one wanted this than Victoria Friar herself. So, one night, she'd addressed her mother and stepfather, addressed her grandparents as well, as they'd been at their house. She'd pointed out this unspoken situation of theirs, highlighting the fact that they were all as aware as the last about what was going on and stating where she stood. She would split her time if that was what it would take. She'd been doing it already. Sure, this would be different, but it was necessary, and they all knew it. Her willingness to go all in on this was enough for the others, for Ella most of all, to finally acknowledge that it was what needed to happen and, from there, they had presented all this to Theo. They'd essentially told him to go for it, to do what he'd been dying to do. He'd been so shocked at first, and he'd tried to say that they didn't have to do this, that he didn't want to flip their lives upside down. Ella and Tori together had convinced him, plain and simple, that for him, they would gladly navigate the world with their heads grazing the ground and their feet in the air.

His concerns had not been his alone. They had been Lea's, too. In her case, they also knew, it came down to her loving Theo so much and wanting to spend her life with him, to her loving Tori as well, loving her as more than just her best friend's child, or her boyfriend's child, but as the closest understanding she had of what it would be like to have a child of her own and loving her, wanting the best for her while also feeling such an ache at being away from her. So, when Theo stood before her, on bended knee, making his proposal to her, he did so by sharing the story that had led them here, including the contributions of those that surrounded them, those lovely people who now stood as witnesses to this moment, who had seen right through both of their denial and made him realize how silly it had been.

They were family, all of them, and they would make it work. It wouldn't be easy, but having one another would be the part that made it okay. And as far as he was concerned, if they were on board, then there was nothing keeping him back any longer. All he needed to know was whether she would be there with him, too. He was almost sure he knew the answer, they all did, because she hadn't stopped smiling for all this time, but when she did actually say yes, they could hardly contain their joy. Everyone cheered, while Theo rose to sweep his future bride into his arms. The moment she sensed her presence wouldn't be intruding, Tori hurried over to join the embrace, and they pulled her near, a triple embrace to spark the future into being.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners