A/N: [November 21st 2024]

November 21st 2023

Chapter 325
We Live in Harmony

It didn't often happen that the stars would align and make it so that their usual roster would be entirely unavailable to go and pick up the girls from their schools in the afternoon, but this turned out to be one of them. Maya was stuck at school, Lucas at the ranch, the grandparents were occupied, the aunts and uncles were in class… most of them at least. One of them was available, and she jumped at the chance of picking up her nieces and their guest and bringing them home. Haley went, along with Rafa, and together they got Marianne, Shonagh, the triplets, and the little sisters back to the Friar house. They all took the bus together, which Lucas learned – once he got home to find them all playing outside – had been a great adventure in so many ways.

"There was a girl with a dog, Daddy!" Mackenzie told him. "We didn't pet her, because she was working," she went on, with a smart little nod that made her father chuckle. "There was her name, on her scarf," she pointed around her neck. "It said 'Millie!' She was so cute, and she looked like a Millie, too," she nodded, and now Lucas could just feel where this was going, likely on a trip to the shelter to see if they might find themselves a new furry friend, as though they weren't already home to several dogs… and two birds.

"You all had fun with your Aunt Haley, huh?" he smiled at the girls, and they launched into new stories, confirming that they had absolutely had the best of time together. Maybe they could make it into something they did every now and then. Haley didn't look like she would mind at all. She would occasionally call herself an involuntary youngest sibling. She would have loved so much to have little brothers or sisters, so her many nieces and one nephew would do the trick.

In this moment, Lucas couldn't help but notice that, in all of this, he had been one daughter short. There were five of them here, and Shonagh along with them, but then Marianne was nowhere to be found. Haley looked very much like her sister, and her mother, too, when she looked at him and realized he was wondering where his firstborn had gotten off to. She walked up closer to him, close like she wanted to speak to him in confidence, so he bowed his head to hear her quiet voice.

"She was fine when we got here and went inside for a bit, but when we came out here, she looked a bit upset, not sure about what," she explained.

"Where's she go?" Lucas asked, but even as he asked the question, he had a feeling that he knew, and Haley's expression told him that he'd guessed correctly. While his sister-in-law and would-be cousin kept watching the others, Lucas went around the house, toward the Hex.

Maybe his little sheriff had guessed exactly the sequence of events, or she'd been waiting for him to get there. Either way, the door was unlocked, practically left open for him, so let himself in and found her sitting in one of the big chair, sunk low, with her tablet in her hands and a faraway look as she tipped her foot this way and that to make the chair turn the same way.

"Hey there," he closed the door and went to sit in the chair opposite her, waiting for a moment and then imitating her whole stance as best he could. Seeing it, Marianne looked like a part of her wanted to be amused, but there was still something on her mind, and it had too much power over her to be overridden, even by Dad antics. "What's the matter?" he finally asked.

"You know how, sometimes, something can just… make you want to be happy, but all you can be is sad? Very sad?" she asked him.

"I do," he sat up again. "What's got you like that?"

"Haru wanted to get into this special sort of… movie camp over the summer, and he did it. He got in, and he's really excited about going, and I am, too, for him… I-I think… but mostly I'm also just…"

"Very sad?" Lucas guessed. "That he's not going to be here this summer." Marianne shook her head. "Pumpkin, I'm sorry. I know it means so much to you when he comes and stays in Austin."

"He's old enough now to do the ranch summer camp, too. He could have stayed at the bed and breakfast… But he's going to miss it all, and we won't all get to go camping, and…" The upset was rising in her, threatening to spill.

"How about you?" Lucas asked. "Would you want to go to a camp like that?" Marianne looked at him, puzzled.

"The movie camp?" she asked.

"The movie camp, or any other special camp like it," Lucas specified. "It's really all up to you. I know that we have these traditions, with the ranch, and the campers, the camping trip, all of that, but… that doesn't mean you have to do it all the time. You can try out something different, something for yourself. Trust me, traditions are nice, routine can be nice, too, but it can also keep you in one place when there could be so many other things that you'd be missing out on, things you would love. If you wanted to stick to the ranch thing, I would support you, completely, and so would your mom. But if you decided to do the other thing instead, we would be right behind you, too."

Marianne considered this now, sniffed back the almost tears that had been threatening to spill. She wasn't going to make any kind of decision on this just now, but she would consider it truthfully, she promised, and that was good enough.

"Do you want me to leave you in here a bit longer?"

"I kind of wanted to practice," Marianne admitted, looking back to where the guitars hung in the booth. "But I don't have to…"

"How about you show me what you can do, and I'll show you what I can do," Lucas smiled before heading in to pick out what he knew to be Marianne's favorite guitar for when she practiced and also the one that he tended to play. Seeing the smile on his daughter's face as he came back toward her, it was everything. Everyone was telling him nowadays that he was getting closer and closer to entering 'those dreaded teenaged years' with his firstborn, but he looked at this girl before him, and he didn't see how she was ever going to be anything but this with him, with her mother… And if they ever got just a bit embarrassing, well… that came with the title, didn't it?

For a little while, until Maya finally came home, they played together. Marianne would show what she'd been calling her 'practice favorites' lately, and he would pretend as though he hadn't known it from the number of times he'd heard her hum lyrics, or tapping out beats on any surface that leant itself to a proper beat… He saw how happy she was when he played what she'd shown him, and he could have stayed with her for hours on end.

When they had put the guitars away and left the studio, Lucas revealed how he had been looking through applications for next year's XCs, and this got Marianne curious again, with just a hint of a frown. It couldn't be helped, could it? Talking about the next group also meant that the current group would be headed home before they knew it, and this year more than ever, it had become personal, thanks to Shonagh living with them. She had already stated how strange it would feel for them to put the room back as it had been, to put away the extra bed and the other things they'd put in for her to live comfortably among them. Maybe someday they would host another XC, but it probably wasn't going to be for a few years.

"Did you pick them? The new campers?" Marianne asked.

"We're not receiving any other applications, so we'll be looking at everyone… We're getting there," Lucas told her with a confident nod.

"Are you having two and two like this year?"

"Yeah, two and two," he nodded again. "As soon as we know who's coming, I'll let you know, okay?"

"Okay," Marianne sighed. She would have wanted so much to find out who they all were now, would have maybe felt better at the thought of whatever would come next.

The years they had already had this program going were a constant exercise in learning, in adjusting as they went. The cheating scandal had been a big one of those, and now this year, with the unexpected arrival of the younger Gabriel in the place of his older brother… They were also expanding every once in a while, trying new things… This year, not only had they had their first international campers, but they'd had their youngest, too, in Shonagh. Their quartet had been spread out over three different schools, which was trickier than it might seem in some situations, but not so much that they regretted it. If anything, the fact that they were doing so well was all the encouragement they needed to keep this going, to try another year or two in this way. There was no telling yet how they might further expand after that, but Lucas had some ideas, and he looked forward to putting them into play.

"One of them might be in your school, that sounds like a safe bet," Lucas could tell her at least, and she was thrilled. It didn't say much, not even if they'd be in the same grade or not, the same class, but it was proximity, and could she ever work with that. She was, as ever, the best little ambassador to Sullivan Stables in the world.

He was as curious as Marianne was for those spots to be filled, he had to say. Every year, the kids that would join them would have something in common, sure, what with it all being centered on the ranch, but then they would bring their own experiences, too, their own points of view, and that would make it that much more worth while to have them all around. Now, this year, with Shonagh and Gabriel, they had this whole other perspective, too. They had come from that much further, and as much as their experiences translated and crossed borders, some of them were uniquely tuned to the fact that they had come from Ireland, from Brazil… The international candidates for the next year came from many countries around the world, and he saw so much curiosity and interest in all of them that he just wished he could bring them all out to spend the year in Austin with them. He would have to remind himself that this was not feasible, at least not this year or in several years ahead. Maybe the next change they'd have to consider would be a way to see to it that those kids who didn't get picked at least got to have some piece of the experience, whatever it might turn out to be.

What was for sure for Lucas here was that, if he was looking for someone to brainstorm with, someone who would be as motivated as him to see this done, he would only have to turn to his firstborn. Marianne would still be bummed out about not seeing Haru over the summer, but she'd be thinking about her own camp prospects, and he wanted her to give it a genuine thought, whether or not it would leave him and Maya both with their own bit of separation sadness.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners