August 8th 2023
Chapter 220
We Try And Show It All
It had never felt all that strange to him to watch them all go and stay home with the baby. Maybe it just reminded him of the days when he'd been out here, recovering after his attack, which wasn't exactly the same, but still... He'd been left to witness a lot of strange responses from people over his being on leave with Ezra while Maya worked. He'd have people looking at him like some kind of hero - which was truly ridiculous to him - or like some victim of his circumstances, as though he hadn't chosen this gladly.
None of those opinions affected him on the day to day. His mornings with his son were a gift, one he would have gladly received with any and all of his daughters. It was in being at home like this that he was also given a spare gift of sorts, with his girls. Knowing that he was not going anywhere, he had spare time to dedicate to them in their morning routine. He would think of different breakfast surprises for them, ideas he would have had time to put together the day before. He'd join them in the very complicated task of deciding what to wear and help get them dressed where needed. He left the hair to Maya, not because he couldn't do any of it but because he knew it meant a lot to them and to Maya as well. Once they were all done though, the last stretch of time was spent with everyone saying their goodbyes to the ones who wouldn't follow them, especially their baby brother.
"You're loving this so much, are you sure you'll be able to go back?" Maya asked with a teasing smile, more than once in the time since he'd started his leave, and each time all he could do was smile back and nod, because of course he would go back, but part of him wouldn't have been upset to switch gears either, to keep doing this.
Every weekday it would be them, the Friar Boys, as Maya had once called them, immediately causing the girls to think this was the funniest thing ever and calling them that, too, always with the same voice their mother had used – or as close of an approximation as they could achieve – which guaranteed at least a few giggles. Most days, it would be him and Ezra, off to see what the new day would bring them. The other days, it would be Lucas, Ezra, and Finneas.
Wyatt had a whole host of available – and eager – babysitters on hand to see to his son when he was at school or at work. And then Ezra had come along, a new baby in the house. As fascinated as the girls were with the one who'd come to be recognized as their baby brother, Finneas Hart-Lane didn't sit unaffected, far from it. The eighteen-month-old was all giggles and squeals when Ezra was around, and even though they were cousins and not brothers, Finn might have seen Ezra as the latter. That could well lead to a split none of them was willing to make when the time would come that Wyatt would leave his sister's home and take his son with him, but they couldn't worry about that too much now. They weren't about to try and direct those boys away from one another to protect them later. Instead, they were leaning into it. Lucas was home with Ezra? Great, then Finneas could spend his days with them, too.
As they did at least a few times every week, whether it was two of them or three, they soon set off toward the ranch. The ride was not so different from the ones he'd grown accustomed to with his daughters, but it was impossible not to feel that there was something different when it was him and the two boys. Ezra was just over a month old, so he hadn't crossed so many milestones as to feel so unique from any other baby his age, so maybe it had a lot more to do with the match up to Finn than anything else. He was just what someone might imagine when they thought of a boy his age, which had less to do with a typical eighteen-month-old boy and everything to do with imagining. If Ezra was their fairy boy, Finneas was a boy out of a storybook. His sense of adventure, his expressiveness… Lucas had seen several little sketches pop up in Maya's drawings over the last several months depicting her nephew like he belonged in one of the books he so cherished at bedtime.
This became very easy to notice once they got to the ranch and they could set off onto the property proper. Lucas would have Ezra strapped to his front, as he found it a lot easier to not only get around but also keep hold of Finneas' hand as he loved to be walking around, always, the better to say hello to everyone he saw. To see his excitement, one could not have deciphered which of the people he greeted were familiar to him and which were complete strangers. The fact that they were at Sullivan Stables, where most of the people did know him or at least his Uncle Luke, this went over even more splendidly than usual. They knew to expect their young visitors by now, and it got to feel as though everyone was up on their toes every morning, waiting for the moment where they'd get their turn.
"Hi! Hi! Hi!" Finn would wave his free hand up, his voice coming out a lot stronger than one would guess from hearing it. Maybe his energy just worked that way… or it helped that he might be coming along soon. As soon as anyone would come into view, it would be hard for Lucas to keep a hold on his small hand, but unless there was a genuine reason to hold him back somehow, he didn't exactly try very hard to keep him from running off on his little legs. He just had to stop sometimes and imagine what it would be like once Ezra was able to run around with him, too. Those cousins would be unstoppable, he was sure of it, and he could only smile when he thought about it.
As they went around together though, he would also find himself thinking about the things that bound them beyond their ending up as cousins. He was constantly thinking of Ezra and his situation, naturally, thinking about how his birth parents had gone and left him the way they'd done, brave considerations or none. And in a similar turn, as he now got to spend more time than ever with him, he was left to think about Finneas, about how his mother had run out on him, leaving his father to fend for the both of them on his own with no warning at all. There were threads between them of what could have been if one or the other had been put in a different situation, one closer to the other's. It wasn't so big of a stretch by that point.
Neither of them was old enough to really understand where they stood, but sooner or later they would go and piece it together. Sometimes it did feel like Finneas was getting to figure it out, like he was looking around and getting to notice that some things were missing, or not the same… It would be so easy for him not to understand the boundaries, not to grasp so much of where he fit in the Friar house, not to catch the difference between aunt and uncle and parent, or cousins versus siblings… But he definitely knew his father was his father, his parent, his favorite person ever. They could always see it, and it was different from everyone else, including his aunt and uncle. And Wyatt was certain that he was starting to get confused as to why he didn't have another person, the way his cousins did. They never wanted to confuse him, or mislead him. Thinking about it these days, he got to wonder about Ezra, as he'd grow up and get to spot the ways in which he was different from his sisters and his parents. He was still so little, it wouldn't matter for a while what they decided to tell him and when, but still…
Even though he was on leave and committed to it, every so often he would find his way back to his office for a little while. He would look into what was going on while he'd been away, maybe make some notes and pass them on… A lot of the time though it was mostly an excuse to have a quiet place to stop for a while. He would get Ezra settled in for a nap, a diaper change, a feeding, and the same would go for Finneas when he'd be with them, too. They'd stop in the kitchens before ending up here, so there would be a snack for Finn to enjoy, sitting where he might have the best view of the ranch beyond.
When he'd stop by his office, Lucas would go and have a look to see what was going on the girls' 'corner.' They had a spot in his office, and they would all gather and play there often, whether or not he was around, too. That happened a lot in the month and some since Ezra had joined them and he'd positioned himself to tend to him, and so when he'd stop by his office again there would be signs that the girls had been in their corner, things left behind… He wasn't snooping, exactly, but knowing his daughters, he did make sure that nothing had been left there that shouldn't have been left there, or that might be missed by their owners.
What he found that day made him smile as soon as he figured out what it was. Several pieces of paper, snagged from the box he kept handy for them to use, with mostly Marianne's handwriting over them, all showing what could only be the girls' various plans – or bits of potential plans – for their mother's upcoming birthday. Party things, gift things, cake things… They must have worked on it a few times here, like they'd made it the official location of their secret plans. He almost felt bad for intruding, but then whether they realized it yet or not, he would have to get involved sooner or later, so it might as well be sooner, right?
He had to wait, once they were all home that evening, for them to have a moment on their own, without the 'birthday mom' hanging around. Ezra provided this for them without knowing, as of course after a day away, Maya would want to make up for their having been apart. After she'd taken him upstairs, Lucas looked to the girls and gave them a silent signal. They were intrigued at once, of course, especially when he produced their 'very secret notes.' They scrambled up like they wanted to hurry and hide them before their mother came back and saw.
They didn't have to worry around him, so they quickly relaxed, allowing their father to explain how he'd come by their plans. And now that he knew, well, the only thing left to do was for all of them to join forces. Some of them looked uncertain, possibly wanted only to keep working on this by themselves, without any help from any other adult than their big sister, but Marianne looked like she thought it was a good thing, so they'd just follow her lead.
"You won't tell, will you, Daddy?" Lucy asked.
"I would never. I promise, okay?" he told her and the others. They smiled and nodded, all of them. "Now, if you ask me, and it's entirely up to you if you do, but if you ask me, what we need right now is a code word…"
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
