A/N1: Thirteen days behind...

A/N2: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!

September 9th 2023

Chapter 252
We Unite For Her Fourth

Four years ago, she had nearly died.

It was just the truth, and it wasn't as though she forgot about it most of the time, but every once in a while she would really think about what had happened that day… and she wouldn't be the only one. Lucas had a whole other perspective of that night, of course, as he'd been wide awake, sinking into such despair in a moment that should have been so joyful, as he held his new baby girl…

Now to wake up on that anniversary, it wasn't ideal for those memories to be the first to surface, but at the same time they supposed it was right, too, that they should take a moment to acknowledge what might have been, what had actually been, and what had come of it all. They were still here, him and her, their children… They were thriving, weren't they? The two of them as a couple, their family as a whole… Today may have been the anniversary of Maya's near death experience, but it was something so much better, too. It was their lucky girl's birthday…

Barely awake as they were, Maya and Lucas both knew well what was on one another's mind, and it was as important to one as it was to the other that they should move away from under that dark cloud. Looking at one another, all the words were just there in their eyes, and when he smiled at her, she smiled back. He leaned in, pressed a kiss to the side of her face, and their foreheads came pressed together.

"Talk about something else?" Maya requested in a light whisper. "Anything else."

"Right," he agreed before stopping to think for a moment. He smiled. "School's almost out," he stated. "Looking forward to all of that, I'm sure."

"You know it," she bit back a laugh. He made a noise, something like 'I do, but tell me about it anyway.' She sighed, considered. "I mean… other than looking forward to being away from Sandra Davenport for the summer…" she started, challenging him not to laugh either in the process. "I can't help but feel like… this one's a big one," she told him, and he knew what she meant. Not only was her younger brother graduating, leaving the high school, but so was his cousin, the last of the Sullivan-Reyes girls.

It didn't seem so long ago that Lea had begun, and now Lydia was finishing… It would be years still before she could think of seeing the likes of Leyton Sullivan-Reyes roaming the halls. And then Ash Bell… She would still see them, sure, thanks to the Hexes, but it would be big, no longer having them there in the art room every day. To be sure, she wasn't the only one feeling all of this, and this in itself painted a detailed picture of what it would be like in school these days.

Their hushed tones were about much more than it being morning. Actually, they were first and foremost about the small girl asleep between them, or the recently asleep girl, as her eyes were now opening. She'd been gripped to her father, but now she was leaning back, and blinking her eyes around, looking at both her parents, who found her wakefulness as compelling as it got.

"Hey, you, good morning," Maya scooted in nearer, and Aubrey at once reached out, so she might be held by her mother. Maya pulled her close at once, brushed at her hair, peppered her face with light kisses. "Happy birthday," she added, and she wasn't thinking about the bad thing that had happened four years ago anymore, only the good, just as Lucas was doing. One of these days, they would have to tell her about the story of her birth, as she was bound to hear it from someone sooner or later, and they strongly felt that it should come from one of them.

"It's today?" Aubrey asked, and they knew that it was not her asking whether today was her birthday – she knew that it was – much more that after the wait feeling endless, the morning of her birthday had finally and truly come.

If she needed more confirmation than that which they gave her with words, with hugs and kisses, she got it as she was united with her sisters, with her aunts and uncle, and they sat to breakfast together, getting ready to launch into the day ahead of them. It could have been enough, just their usual in-house crew, but this was her birthday, and if there was ever capability for them to do so, her family would show up. In no time, there was her eldest sister and her family, there were grandparents, great grandparents, other aunts and uncles, cousins… Many of them only really got to be there long enough to say hello, to make the four-year-old's morning special, but they achieved that, so the length hardly mattered.

It had been maybe most important – for parties on either end – for Ella to be there, and so she was. Not only that but, beyond breakfast and quick visits by this family member and that friend, it was important both to Big Sister Ella and Birthday Girl Aubrey that they get to spend a significant amount of time together that morning. So, Aubrey had chosen her eldest sister as the one to see her ready for preschool that day, and Ella most honorably accepted the post.

The two of them disappeared up the stairs together, the others giving them a few minutes before doing the same, so they could look through the closet and pick out Aubrey's outfit for the day before ducking into the bathroom to get her dressed, get her hair done up… While they went up with the rest of the children, Lucas and Maya could hear the pair behind the closed bathroom door, caught a bit of singing, a bit of talking, a lot of laughing…

The result was very much to the birthday girl's liking. She was so excited to head out there now that she was a whole four-year-old, and she presented herself to her parents, who were all smiles and admired their girl's look as much as she did, if from a more nostalgic point of view. She was just so bubbly and happy, and they couldn't want her to be anything else on this day.

Soon, they were all off for the day, which for Aubrey would be spent at preschool for the next several hours. She had loved being out there just about every day she'd been there so far, but this was one day she had been looking forward to just as much as the rest and then some because she had had the chance to see time and again what it would bring her once her turn came. It was her birthday, and that meant she'd get her piece of cake, her birthday song, all of it… There'd be no keeping her back from that one, oh, there would not… except maybe for one brief reason.

"Daddy, you won't forget, will you?" Aubrey asked after her dash back to her father had been met with a swift catch and lift into his arms.

"I would never," he vowed, and she nodded, smiled… paused, frowned. "About our ice cream date," he specified, and her smile returned now that she knew he had been talking about that after all. For a moment there, she hadn't been sure. "I'll be right here when it's time for you to leave," he promised.

And he kept his promise. While Mackenzie would be picked up and taken off to do her own thing, her little sister would be off with their father to do just as the two of them had done the month before, at her own birthday. Lucas had been sure that she'd go and bolt at him as she'd done in the morning, but when he went and got her, his lucky little blonde came carrying a precious-looking bundle in her small hands. She had seen him, and that made her the tiniest bit nervous as she walked on, like she might drop the thing that she was carrying even though it looked perfectly secure to him.

"Hi, Daddy!" she beamed.

"Hey, Aubrey," he beamed back at her before crouching down. "What do you have there?" She nodded at him. "Is it for me?" She nodded and held out her hands to him. "Thank you," he told her, showing the appropriate level of care in this hand off as felt appropriate to the care that she had applied in bringing it to him. He had a good idea of what it was when he actually held it in his palm, but he contained his reaction until he had actually revealed the small piece of cake.

"Annie said how you like it, too, Daddy. Miss Alma said it was okay," Aubrey proudly nodded, and Lucas hugged his baby girl, trying not to let his eyes tear up too much, for fear that she would misinterpret his reaction as anything but the deep, deep joy that it was.

"Thank you very much, Lucky."

The week carried on after that day, carrying with it, they all felt, a great deal of the bubbly feeling that had bloomed out of Aubrey's birthday. It existed in its shiniest and liveliest form at the house, naturally, but even beyond there… Lucas felt it at the ranch, Maya felt it at the school, and the other Friars of the house felt it at their schools, just as their lodgers upstairs did in their lives beyond their sister's home. And all of it was leading them to the weekend, to the day where family and friends would gather in earnest, to wish the new four-year-old a happy birthday with more than a passing visit. It might not have been so easy to get it by her without her knowing it, now that she was getting bigger, but she was still small enough that they could pull a fast one on her, and a lot more easily than one might think.

She didn't think too much of it when the whole family got dressed up, supposedly, to go out to breakfast at Ma Maggie's. They went there a lot, and in her mind maybe it made sense for them to be dressed 'special' when they went to eat there. Except they didn't actually end up going to Ma Maggie's, no. The whole thing had been meant to be a ruse at first but, understanding that perhaps the deception would ruin the fun that was meant to follow with the surprise. So, instead, they made it part of the surprise. They brought Ma Maggie's to her and to her guests.

They would have loved to see the look on her face when all the food arrived that morning. The other girls had managed to be there, and the sauce-eyed looks on them had been everything, like they had never managed to imagine that so many pancakes could exist all at once and it took their breaths away. Aubrey was maybe not quite as aware of the magnitude of it once the food had been distributed among the guests, but as she knew that they were all here, and they were all going to have breakfast with her, all going to have Ma Maggie's with her… She could barely sit still long enough to eat her own food. It got easier once she actually stuck the first bite into her mouth. Then there was nothing quite so important as her getting to eat the next bite, and the one after that, and the one after that…

Aubrey spent plenty of time with her various grandparents and grandparents, all her aunts and uncles either by blood or friendship, but most of all she played with her friends, with her siblings, and her cousins, and that was more than fine by all on hand. They all got to see her, to watch her be her merry little self, now a year older and just enjoying life while she still got to bask in the carefree years of her childhood. They got even more of it thanks to the… intervention… of some of her aunts and uncles.

In contribution to their niece's birthday, Nellie, Gracie, and Wyatt had gotten together, recruiting MJ and Haley at first, and eventually Sam, Cara, Eliza, Emma, and Teddy, too, which got them Maisie as well, to put together something between a variety act and a bit of crowd hosting/summer camp monitor thing going with the great pack of kids in attendance that day. It was as hilarious as it could be expected to be, and it showed as much of how much Maya's siblings doted on their little nieces as their nieces adored the very ground that they all walked on. One thing was for sure at least, and it was that Aubrey would not soon forget her fourth birthday party, and that was just as it should be. The 'characters' that her aunts and uncles would embody that day would become requested now and again, and because they were all such good sports, they would often comply, the squeals and giggles they got in return being all the more reason for them to want to keep agreeing to do what they were asked to do.

As with any good thing, the party had come to an end in time. The visitors had gone on their way, leaving a lot of things to be picked up, from empty plates and cups to chairs to generous gifts and the wrappings that they had come in. For the birthday girl and her sisters, this eventually meant bedtime, and what a sad bunch they looked, having to trade in their party best. They loved PJs, loved their evening routine, but after a day like this one… They didn't want it to be over yet.

But they all got to bunch in together, the six of them girls, as the last surprise was the 'mega bed' that their parents had arranged, and once they saw that, from the ten-year-old down to the new four-year-old, they scrambled to get in and scoot in close together. There were a few shuffles here and there, this one or that one deciding they needed to be between this one or that one, and it could all have gone on for hours, but they eventually settled down. Maya and Lucas always felt so fortunate for how well their girls got along, and at a time like this, they never felt it so directly. Their bundle of sweet girls soon fell asleep, holding tightly to one another as though they could have traveled into dreamland as a group, and maybe they could. Maybe they all dreamed themselves one grand adventure that night, with Aubrey as their fearless little leader, sleeping at the heart of their sleepy huddle.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners