A/N: APRIL 9TH - Hey, guys, so we had a big storm up here on Wednesday the 5th, most people in the area lost power for the last few days, I got mine back yesterday but didn't get my internet back until today, so I couldn't post anything. Going to get the last few days' chapters posted ASAP!
A/N2: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!
April 8th 2023
Chapter 98
We Change Our Ways
"I am either going to bed or getting a drink…" Nadine sighed as she trailed in along with the rest of the group into the Friar house.
"No drink for me, but is there ice cream?" Rosa asked.
The day had been long and busy for all of them as they'd worked alongside everyone else helping to prepare for the fall festival, so much so that it had eaten away into more of their sleepover time than they'd anticipated. They were done with it now, at least until morning, and they had been satisfied with what they'd gotten done, but now… now they were ready to relax, packing into the house on the lane and finding not one child, not even little Finneas, who was spending the night at his grandparents' across the road along with his father.
"Whose diary is this?" Dylan asked when he spotted the book on the kitchen table. "There's no name on it."
"Yeah, it's Rafa's. I have to prep it, figured I'd drop it off for him tomorrow, then he might get to do his cover. It's short notice but seeing as he's coming in a week late…" Maya explained as she opened the freezer door and went digging for ice cream which she was almost sure none of the girls had discovered yet.
It wasn't that he hadn't wanted to take art with her, he had, but there'd been some mix up with his schedule, and it had taken all week before it had finally been fixed, something that Maya tried not to blame on interference from Sandra Davenport but couldn't help believing. Whatever it had been, finally, it had been dealt with, and so he would join the ranks of her post-lunch newbies.
"Did you tell Haley?" Riley asked her best friend, and Maya chuckled.
"Why, she's not coming up until next year," she pointed out.
"You know why," Lucas smirked at her, and Maya could have rolled her eyes.
Everyone had it in mind that her little sister had a crush on Lucas' would-be cousin. Was it completely impossible? No, not at all, and they had been hanging out now and again, mostly when they were both at the ranch, but it felt a lot more like friendship for the time being.
"Wouldn't have put it past her to march into that school if she knew," Sophie teased, getting a shake of the head and a smile from her wife.
"I think they could be sweet together," Morgan stated, and she got several nods of approval around the room.
"When did this turn into a teenage dating service?" Maya looked at her friends around the room.
"When was it not?" Asher countered, and that got several laughs.
"Well, it's not the same, it's my sister," Maya reminded him, but she wasn't really helping herself there. "Anyway, ice cream…" she brought her finds to the table.
"And drinks," Lucas followed behind her, kissing the side of her head on the way.
"Nice mix," Jenna tipped her head, though everyone was already reaching in for what they wanted, also voicing other requests that would be filled as best their hosts could.
It was easier – just a bit – this time around for them not to jump and want to check in on the kids as often as they'd done the first time around, this maybe for the simple reason that they'd done it before, and so they knew that all should be fine. It didn't quell the impulses completely, no, and nothing could do that, but at least it didn't all end in counting up scores and handing out 'penalties.' Instead, after all taking a collective bedtime check-in call as they'd done the last time, they brought their loot from the kitchen and out behind the house for a bit of a moonlight hangout by the pumpkin patch.
"Man, I remember when we used to come out here when we were kids," Zay declared, looking around to Lucas, and Dylan, and Asher. The three men nodded in happy reminiscence. "Pappy Joe felt like… like a giant." The guys weren't alone in snorting as they listened to him. "But your Nana, she was one great lady."
"Yeah, she was," Lucas hummed, thinking of her. Susannah Friar… She'd been gone now for so long that he could have been forgiven for not remembering her so well, but he remembered everything about her, or so it felt a lot of the time. Maybe it was that he lived in the house where she'd lived, the house where he'd known her. It didn't matter how many years had gone by, how the house had been changed, first by him and his renovations and then by the family growing and living in it; to him she was still around. "Maybe Marianne's ghost thing is rubbing off on me. Sometimes I imagine her there, looking out for us." It was just how he felt the ranch had its own guardian angels in Simon and Marianne Sullivan, in Jax Murphy… And Melinda Friar… She had no domain; she was with him wherever he went.
"I can see that," Asher decided, and he and the others of the 'original turtles' exchanged knowing looks. They would all be so fortunate as to have Susannah Friar looking out for them.
Even as they bowed out for the night, the better to go and rest up for another day of festival prep, their brief detour into memories of their childhood in connection with this house stayed with them. Going up the stairs, Lucas would do as his daughters did, passing a good night to his mother's picture just as he would a good morning, but here he took a moment to stop at a picture of his grandparents, too, of a young Joseph and Susannah. They've got something of you, too, Nana, my girls… They would have loved you so much. I wish you were here. I think you would have known just what to tell them. You always knew with me.
X
They had a second week of school under their belts now, all of them, which meant that on that Friday evening, instead of being taken to the ranch after they got picked up, the Friar girls and their parents were bound for the opening of the fall festival, out in the park. They'd all been counting down the days until this moment, and at last it was here. When he had dropped them off, Lucas had been given the very familiar demand that he be there as soon as possible in order to get them there, and he was not about to let them down. He would be there, and they would be at the park before they knew it…
"Dad, we need to go home first," Marianne told him as soon as he arrived to get her.
"We're going to the park," Remy shook her head.
"I know, but we need to go back home first, just for a minute," Marianne looked at her before turning to their father again. "Please? It's really important, I promise." Lucy looked convinced at this, and she put in her vote to do as Marianne asked. If she promised, then it had to be like she said.
The twins didn't want to go home, they wanted to go to the park now, and they looked ready to start and cry if they didn't go. Lucas wasn't sure what to do about this. His gut said not to deny Marianne in this, but he also didn't imagine things going well if the twins had to take this detour. Maya was picking up the little sisters, one from her sister's and the other from preschool, but he wasn't about to leave one or two of their daughters here to wait for her while he left with the rest. Thankfully, he had a backup: he had Zay. He would take the twins to the park, while Lucas went home with Marianne and Lucy, who insisted on coming along. It might have been one of the first if not the first time where she appeared to side with someone other than her fellow triplets on something like this, and he wanted to see this as a good sign and not as more trouble, so he did.
At least, Marianne had meant it when she'd said it would only be a minute. As soon as they'd pulled to a stop, she was out of the minivan and running up into the house. Lucy barely had time to try and get herself free to follow her before Marianne came running back.
"Okay, we can go now," she declared, out of breath. Lucy reached out like she wanted to feel her big sister's heartbeat, and Marianne took hold of her hand between their seats. "I'm okay, bun-bun," she nodded and smiled, and Lucy matched her. "Let's get to the park."
"Let's go, Daddy!" Lucy looked ahead, and her determination made him brighten, they both did. This… This could be a good day.
So many people had insisted on telling them that this was nothing, that their daughters weren't going to stay mad with each other forever, that they'd just forget and move on. It had never felt that way to them, and if this had been them in their place, would they have thought that it was nothing, too? They had to put this behind them, but it wasn't going to happen if the girls didn't make it happen for themselves, and maybe Marianne finally had something. They had always believed she'd be the one to make it happen.
"Hey, there you are, I was about to call…" Maya greeted the trio's arrival. "Zay said you had to go home?" she asked Lucas and the girls. Lucy had already rushed to hug her and been caught up by her. "Hi," Maya laughed as she gave as good as she got.
"I had to," Marianne volunteered, then, "Where are Kacey and Remy? And Mack and Aubrey?"
"Zay took them to the face paint tent," Maya pointed, and Marianne hurried off, so she moved to follow after her, Lucy in her arms, as Lucas fell in step with her. "What's up with…" Maya asked him.
"Honestly, I'm not completely sure, except she went in and came back quick, so whatever she needed to get, assuming she got something, it fits in her pocket." Lucy was getting very clingy here, burrowing her head in her mother's neck, which to Maya felt a whole lot like 'I know this, but I don't want you to know that I know this, because I'm not supposed to know this.
"Hey… Hey, hey, bunny girl, what's going on in here, huh?" Maya asked, lightly prodding behind the five-year-old's ear, which made her yelp and lift her head, guarding from further tickles. "What did your sister get from the house, do you know?" Lucy hesitated, looking around before turning to her mother again and nodding. "What was it?"
"A picture."
They all had their ways of communicating, different ways for different situations, and because of her stories with her father, that was one of Marianne's ways, one of those she preferred. And now it had mattered very much for her to retrieve one picture and take it over to her young sisters. When they caught up, Lucas, Maya, and Lucy found that, while Mackenzie and Aubrey were giggling at the sight of their uncle Zay getting his face painted to look like a lion, nearby Kacey and Remy – painted like a bee and a cat respectively – sat in the grass along with their big sister, who was showing them the picture she'd needed to get back from the house.
They could guess she was telling them a story that related to that picture, and even without knowing the picture or what memory would go with it, they could see that it meant a great deal to Marianne. And though their features were slightly hidden when underneath the paint, the twins were listening to her, which in and of itself was something lately. As she went on, first Kacey and then Remy got up on their knees, the better to approach and look at the picture from up close. Marianne just kept telling her story, and they kept listening, and whatever she said that ended the story… it made the twins look up at her, and then the picture again, and each other, and then it had them laughing, big rolling giggles that they shared with their big sister. Now, Lucy wanted to get down from her mother's arms and she was put back on her feet, so she ran to her sisters. They saw her coming, and they all got up, pointing out how one of the painters was open. Soon, the four of them were in there, talking about what Marianne and Lucy would get done up as, joining the bee and cat of the twins, Mackenzie's blue bird, and Aubrey's dog.
"Why do I feel like I need to hold my breath right now? That's it?" Maya blinked.
"Looks that way?" Lucas shook his head, just as baffled. Oh, they were so glad, they were, but this whole mess had just gone on long enough that they had trouble believing it.
"Okay, well, let's just wait and see what happens, I guess?"
Whatever they experienced of the first hour or so of the festival was only really from their daughters' perspectives, as they kept on watching them play together, run around together, eat together, like nothing had been going on over the last few weeks. It was almost too much for them to take in, but in the best way possible.
It would all lead to what had always been meant to be the highlight of the opening night for them, but only better. They had several musical acts taking the festival stage that night, and while neither TXNY nor the Hexes were playing that night – they were going to be performing on the final night of the festival – they had several local artists going up there, one of them an eight-year-old known to those who had taken in one of her many performances as Young Cosette in the Silvan Hughes Theater's production of Les Mis.
Making it better though, when Marianne Friar went up on stage – a jolly green turtle – she was accompanied by a bee, a cat, a butterfly, a bird, and a dog. They knew her chosen song as well as she did, and when she'd look at them, they would sing along with her. Whether they took piano lessons with her or not, they followed her directions very well, so it all only sounded like the tiniest bit of a wobbly harmony. The audience ate it up, none more than their parents and their whole extended family in attendance. They had not sounded so united in far too long, but they did now, and it was beautiful.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
