June 11th 2023
Chapter 162
We Must Witness Time
"Da-da! Da-da!" Finneas Hart-Lane pointed at his father, and if that made his aunt smile, watching her brother brighten at the sound of his son's little voice… It was impossible not to chuckle as she watched Wyatt move back to where his boy sat in her lap and pepper him with kisses, the better to get him laughing and squealing.
"Yes, Finny? What do you need, huh?" Wyatt asked, dropping into a crouch to be at his eye level. He took hold of his small hands, pretended as though he would eat them, which made his son squeal some more.
"You know, you were about this size when I first met you?" Maya commented, and her brother smiled. He did know, yes, and still looking at his baby boy, it didn't feel possible to him to some degree. A lot of it had to do with what was coming up for 'Finny.' In next to no time, he would have his first birthday, and it was maddening to think an entire year could have gone by since the newborn was placed into his arms, since he'd become his boy's one and only parent after his mother had left.
"Am I being delusional for thinking maybe Alicia will reach out?" Wyatt asked, and Maya turned to look at her little brother, found him looking back. They had not seen or heard from Finn's mother since the day he was born. She'd made a run for it, and that had been that. Though he hadn't tried to contact her, Wyatt had all too easily confirmed his suspicions, that she'd gone back to her hometown, carried on her life there as though she'd never been pregnant at all. He could have done something about it, but he was just not that guy and, for their son's sake as much as hers, he couldn't force her to do something she wouldn't.
"Of course not," Maya promised. "She could…" she told him, and the rest didn't need to be said aloud. She could, but she very likely wouldn't. She'd made her choice.
They were all doing fine without her by now. It had been very difficult for Wyatt, at first, even with the support that he had, but he had found his footing, and no one could deny that he had worked hard for it, putting his son's wellbeing and happiness far above his own. And to look at the bond between Finn and his Da-da!... Wyatt had been doing a wonderful job, and his son had a great life. Everything he did now was so to keep it that way. Seeing the man that he was becoming, Maya was beyond proud of her brother. Would she have wanted him to have a simpler life as he'd moved in with her and Lucas, as he'd started his college years? Of course, she had, and how could she not? He had been as small as his son was now when she'd first met him, and even though that had been a very long time ago, there were still days where she'd look at him, that tall young man who looked so much like their father, and she'd have to remind herself that this was the same tiny boy she had first seen on a computer screen, guided into view by his older siblings. She looked at him, and she thought about their father, and her mother… She thought about Madelyn, and Max… There was so much of the unknown in front of them, and there'd be no telling what lay on the other side until they got there.
"Uncle Wy!" Mackenzie's voice announced her arrival right before any of the three on the porch saw her coming toward them, her little sister right behind her, both small blondes looking like something was troubling them. Maya watched her brother pivot in his crouch before standing to approach his nieces.
"What's the matter?" he asked them both. Mackenzie and Aubrey climbed up the steps until they could reach his hands and quickly pulled for him to follow, barely preventing him from tripping down to the ground as he went.
Maya stood up with Finneas still in her arms and stepped forward to see what her daughters were up to. They only brought him so far as the big tree. They'd been playing near it up until they'd come to collect Wyatt, and she didn't see what could have happened that required his immediate intervention, except… where had their hats gotten off to? They'd each been wearing them when they'd gone out to play, their 'Annie Annie' hats that had been a gift from the theater. The cast of kids had all gotten them, and extras had been made for any siblings, or kids of their adult cast and crew. It was all of the Friar girls' favorite thing right now. Here was one of them, on the ground, and the other…
"It went in the tree!" Mackenzie pointed up, and the crumpled little look on Aubrey's face suggested whose hat was on the ground and which one was stuck in the branches… She could see it now.
"Alright, not a problem," Wyatt nodded, stepping back to inspect the tree.
"Wyatt…" Maya called to her brother, trying not to suggest he shouldn't, but also…
"I've got this, it's fine. You two stand back, okay?" he told his nieces, and they did as told, Mackenzie holding her little sister by the hand and Aubrey looking tensely on as her uncle hiked his way into the branches. Finn squealed in awe, watching his father scale his way to the hat, grab it, hold it with his teeth, and climb back down, landing with a safely distanced jump. He dusted off the hat before bringing it to his niece with a good, knightly sort of flourish. Aubrey jumped excitedly and took the hat, sticking it back on her head while Mackenzie ran to get hers.
"You know, between you and MJ, I'm not sure which of you I should be more concerned about, giving them ideas on how to break something." Wyatt smiled. "Who am I kidding, it's definitely him. Don't tell him I said that."
After the hat rescue, Wyatt really needed to get going or he would be late for work, so he went, and after guiding the little sisters to head back inside, Maya brought them and Finneas into the living room, where they were soon drawn into the very captivating world of their favorite show of the moment. She left them there to go and collect some snacks and landed herself in the middle of a very crowded kitchen table. Nellie and Gracie had settled there along with boyfriends Bobby and Ethan, the better to work on very important end of term papers. To her, it looked like enough material to write every paper they'd need to write for the entirety of their college education, and going by the very focused looks on all their faces and the intense clicking of fingers on laptop keys, they were all feeling the same way.
She was tempted to take some pictures, to show them later. She'd known them all as this double twin unit for so long now, as friends, as couples, but it definitely still got strange at times, seeing them all in the same place like this, identical twin sisters, identical twin brothers… It definitely got even weirder on those occasions when she'd walk in on one or even both of the couples in the midst of a heated make-out session, where she could only tell who was who by their haircuts… and then it got funnier, because she knew that they all found it amusing to freak people out that way.
By the time the kitchen was no longer off limits to anyone who couldn't be expected to keep quiet, which also saw the exit of the Davis twins, Lucas had returned with Marianne and the triplets, all of them looking like they'd come exactly from where they'd been, the nine-year-old at her soccer practice and the trio of five-year-olds – almost six, they'd say – at skating, swimming, and karate. Marianne was on her way to a sleepover with the rest of the Annie Annie kids that night, so she hurried up to her room to change.
"Mommy, can we have a sleepover, too?" Lucy asked, and behind her Lucas quietly conveyed how he'd told them that they'd have to wait and see what she thought. She had work to do that evening, so bringing in – they had to figure – three more kids along who would turn the place very noisy might not be what she wanted, so it had been best to consult her first.
"That sounds like fun, doesn't it, Grace?" Nellie turned to her twin, speaking with the specifically put-upon tone of someone speaking to more than one person at the same time and saying something different to each of them. In this instance, she was asking Gracie if she wanted to back her up on this plan, essentially babysitting their nieces and their friends, and she was giving her nieces the option to invite them, and she was letting her sister know that they could do this, granting her the peace and quiet that she had granted them earlier.
"You know me, I can never say no to a sleepover," Gracie smiled, in that same tone. Maya and Lucas played the most innocent that they could play, which admittedly took some effort in this instance.
The triplets were more than happy to invite their aunts to join them, leaving Nellie and Gracie to act so humbly 'surprised' by the invitation which they accepted. So, while they all went upstairs to get changed, calls were put out to Barry, Sammie, and Felicity's parents, asking if their children could come over for the night. It would be a breeze, and soon their young guests would be on their way.
It was no wonder that Maya had been thinking of her brother and his nearly two years living with them earlier. The end of the school year was upon them, and that was when reflection became as good as unavoidable, like their lives had been wedged into a cycle, renewing from year to year because of Maya's job, and now having children in school… and siblings… Thinking about what they had offered to do that night, both Maya and Lucas were left to think about the fact that it had been nearly a year since Nellie and Gracie had come to them, hungover from celebrating their nineteen-year-oldness and imminent departure from their childhood home. That might have felt like a less than auspicious start to some, but honestly it felt like nothing more than a funny story to pull out for a laugh in years and years to come.
What had been far more important than a few too many drinks had been the knowledge that Maya's little sisters would be living with them, with her most of all. The three sisters had not gotten the privilege of growing up in the same house, something they'd always lamented, and even if they knew why it had been that way, that nobody had been at fault for it, they had needed this second chance, every last one of them looking to those four years as the miracle that it was. Now they had one of those nearly under their belts, and it had gone by so fast. It had been… Well, not exactly what they would have expected, with everything that had happened to Lucas, but also Maya didn't know how she would have made it through in one piece without her little sisters by her side. She knew she wouldn't be able to keep them under her roof much longer than those four years where they'd be in college, but really, as far as she was concerned, they could stay as long as they wanted.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
