A/N: [July 2nd 2024]


September 17th 2023

Chapter 260
We Breathe In Discovery

It had been a few days since Stella's wedding, and yet Maya still felt like part of her had never left. Part of her existed and would continue to exist in the instant where this thought had clicked into place in her mind until… she couldn't even say when. She hadn't talked about it to anyone, not even Lucas, she couldn't. It all felt like too much, felt like… what if she was wrong? She knew what it would sound like, especially with how invested she'd been in finding out who Ezra's parents had been before they'd left him on her doorstep. She didn't want to take any steps until she'd had more time to consider it, to feel confident in the knowledge that it was actually possible.

Right about now, she wasn't even sure she even believed herself. What if she'd imagined it? She'd been tired, and dealing with the girls being sick… She'd looked at her son in that instant and had she really seen what she'd thought she'd seen? She kept looking at him now and she wasn't sure what she'd actually seen back there. Did he actually look like Agnes at all? But she'd been flighty, hadn't she? The moment she could, she had handed him back, and she'd made as quick of an exit as she could manage afterward, like being close to him too long was too hard and she couldn't keep a straight face. If she couldn't spot that resemblance so clearly anymore, that part at least she felt very confident about… right? Except she still didn't feel able to bring it up with anyone else, so maybe it really was all in her head.

As things stood now, she absolutely had too much on her mind to give the thought much more of her focus. She had to give the main part of her attention on to something that was about to happen, not something that might have happened. In just two days, they were heading off on their family vacation, her and Lucas and the kids, Ella and Taylor and theirs along for the ride, which meant packing, and airports, and getting all those kids through a flight to and from their destination.

The rest of the house didn't have something to distract them, which was fortunate for them, she supposed. Everyone was looking forward to going away, especially for how it would feel so strange to the kids. Being in the snow… in summer. They hadn't seen a lot of that in their lifetime, certainly not anywhere that felt like proper, heavy snow winter. It would feel like they left one world and landed on another. The girls were a constant source of questions, to their parents, to their aunts and uncle, to their grandparents across the road, and just about every adult they met, familiar or otherwise. They couldn't wait to go.

Before they would go, Lucas and Maya both needed to check in on a few things, and that was their mission that morning, once the kids had been dropped off for their last day of camp before the trip. Lucas was headed to the ranch to look in on the animals, of course, before handing them off to Bishop's care, but he also wanted to look in on his campers. To hear it out of Cristina, those of them who had attended last year were still very active, yes, but less so likely to get into 'trouble,' innocent as it had been… mostly. He'd been seeing that for himself whenever he was at the ranch, but of course she was there much more than he was, as she lived on the property and looked after them when they woke in the morning and at night before they turned in and went to sleep. The new campers were settling in well, and the group as a whole was having a great summer so far. They would be more than alright while he was away, nothing to worry about.

The sentiment followed through around the ranch. The archive was in the middle of going through a load of new documents and items that had recently been delivered, and they would be tending to this and their current inventory through the rest of the summer. The dance studio was really starting to find its footing again – Britt insisted on the pun because she felt that it would have gotten a laugh out of Donna – and they were all set to tackle 'wedding season' the way that their former event coordinator would have done it. Already the ceremonies were keeping the property in a constant state of flowering that made it feel like spring instead of summer.

With the human side looked after, Lucas moved on to the animal side. His first stop was at the retreat, which presently hosted a trio of what Bishop called 'les grand-mères,' because they reminded him of a pack of grannies, sitting together, taking walks together… He treated them like queens, and they seemed to be grasping that they were in good hands. He left them to his assistant now, the better to follow Lucas to the stables, so they could look in on the horses and discuss what needed discussing for the time he'd be away.

"Look at you, already giving me the cold shoulder, huh?" Lucas shook his head and smiled to himself as one of the horses turned away from him upon arrival. He was their eldest resident as far as how long any of the horses had been residing in their stables, and his character had fully come to embrace this sort of grumpy old man attitude. "I'll only be gone for a little while and then I'll be back, alright?" The horse, Barley, was not impressed. "I know that I was gone for a long time after I got hurt, but it won't be like that, okay? Come on… please?"

Barley wouldn't go and flip the script all at once, no, but he would slowly turn back around and allow Lucas to approach him. By the time he'd leave him behind, the horse would give off a look as though he might have wished him a good trip, and Lucas smiled.

On her side, Maya could count on her two stops being a lot more straightforward. She stopped in to check on the squad, as their soon to be sophomore, junior, and senior members from the previous year were in full practice mode, meeting as regularly as they could to stay on top of things ahead of fall and the return to school, which also included looking after hopefuls who aimed to try out when they'd get the chance. Maya tried not to intervene here, not wanting to sway anything. This part was fully in the hands of their senior cheerleaders, and they were doing very well all around.

"Hey!" Haley waved and called loudly as soon as she spotted her big sister/teacher/coach, and Maya gave her a look that made her lower her hand and try to play off the gesture at the same time before jogging over. "Sorry, you were trying to do your whole sneaky look thing and I blew your cover."

"Yeah, well, you get one pass," Maya squinted at her before looking off at the group, now working through one of their old routines. She smiled when she saw Madelyn among them, though she couldn't help but ask. "How's she doing?"

"Who, Madelyn? Oh, she's great," Haley promised. "We've been practicing, me and her, for as long as she could, you know, after the baby and everything. I think it'll be good for her, don't you?"

"Yeah, I hope so," Maya replied honestly. "I'll see you later with the others?"

"I'll be there!" Haley nodded before jogging back to the rest of the squad.

While Stella was on her honeymoon, Maya might have taken over advising the three ongoing members of the Critically Bookish quiz team in their own bit of summer warm-ups, but with her trip coming up, Cory Matthews had graciously offered to look after them, returning to his advising role for the time when both she and Stella would be out of the country. Today at least, she met up with the trio of Susan, Kinsey, and new captain Kip at Nando's Diner.

The three of them had already become very strong together, didn't have a choice, once their previous captain had gone and stepped aside for maternity leave. Kip had already been left to act as captain for the team, and he and the girls had developed their rhythm as a trio enough that they were almost unsure about bringing on a new freshman to close up their ranks. They would, of course, but it would still feel weird to them to have to have a new person at first.

When she came to find the remaining trio of her own Born Curious, her little sister was there, as promised, as was Max McAllister, with her son and daughter asleep in their stroller, but as to their soon to be new captain…

"Where's Agnes?" Maya asked, trying not to look as though she felt she knew exactly where Agnes was or, more to the point, why she wasn't there.

"Uh, she wrote to say she might not make it today and to go on without her," Max explained.

"I see," Maya nodded. Much as she had not read the room properly earlier, here Haley frowned as she observed her big sister, and this looked too much like their mother for Maya not to know she was noticing there was something bothering her. "Well, maybe she'll join us in a bit, yeah?" she sat down with the pair. "Where would you like to start?"

She was glad to know that Max, too, would be back among them after her time away. It would be difficult for her to be away from the twins, but it was just too important for her to continue her studies. She hadn't been sure for a while, had seen so many benefits to just trying and make money to provide for her children, but now she was here, and the future felt wide open.

Looking at her now, Maya's thoughts were taken right back to Agnes though. If she was right about her, then it put a lot of the previous year under a new light. She would have been pregnant more or less on a same track as her quiz teammate had been, if with a single baby instead of twins. She would have given birth and been right back to school as though she hadn't just gone through this life changing experience… Where would she have even… Had she been alone? Was the father with her? He had to be, didn't he? She couldn't have managed to bring Ezra to the door like that and run…

"Hey…" Lucas greeted her when got home, and she hesitated for a moment when she saw him. "It's okay," he told her, and she let out a breath. He could always read her like that, couldn't he? "It is okay, yeah?"

"It is," she nodded. He came up to her and embraced her, and she leaned to him. There were so many ways in which she loved this man, too many to count, but this way he had of recognizing when things were on her mind and giving her this space to exist in it without having to talk right away… She would share it all with him in time, but she wasn't there yet, and that was fine. He was by her side regardless. "We should really try and finish packing as much as possible tonight, huh?" she sighed against his chest, and his laugh vibrated through her, soothed her in ways she could not express into words.

"We probably should."

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners