January 11th 2023

Chapter 11
We Expand On A Cub

The forecast had been so that they had taken measures and cancelled the after school program for that day. For all the parents it was seen as the only reasonable thing to do, but for the kids who had been looking forward to it…

Lucas saw this for himself as he did pick-ups and collected four pouting daughters and one pouting Winnie, all of them 'defiantly' wearing red and green bandannas in 'protest.' They could only see as well as anyone how bad the wind and the rain were getting, could hear the rumble of thunder and lightning approaching. Just getting to the minivan was a wet mess, but that didn't make them any less surly at the thought of not going to the ranch. It put a thought in Lucas' mind, though just in that moment it was best to stow it away and see to getting everyone home. Maya was collecting the little ones from the Hunter-Hart house, where they'd been seen to by their great grandparents, so they could talk it over…

"It's too loud, Daddy!" Lucy called with a trembling voice, ducking low in her seat. Her little hands could not cover both her ears and her eyes, so she'd tugged her bandanna over her eyes and pressed her hands on either side of her head.

"I know, bun, that's just the storm. We're almost home, okay?" Lucas called back, spotting Winnie in the rear view mirror, pulling down her own bandanna, like Lucy had gone and given her the great solution to save her peace of mind. She feared the storm, too, and it didn't matter that she was in the second grade and not in preschool anymore like the four-year-old.

Lucas had always been a careful driver, enough so that he would never feel overly concerned or nervous behind the wheel, not even at all. He'd been shaken in that faith, once, after his accident with Maya, and yet as bad as that had been, he didn't think that he'd known so present of a fear at driving as the one that had taken him over from the moment when he'd started driving with one and then several of his daughters as passengers. His skills weren't affected so much as his ability to shut out the thought that something could and would go wrong. When that feeling was held up against a storm like this one… He would be very happy when they got home.

"I want Mommy," Kacey called from the back, and Lucy definitely heard that from under her hands, because she nodded in agreement.

"Me, too," Remy frowned. Lucas doubted this came from a place of unease and stress so much as her hating their current predicament and thinking, like her sisters, that being with their mother again would do them a world of good.

"We're almost home," Marianne jumped in. "It's okay."

She was right, on every count, of course. When they pulled up to the house, the door was opened even as Lucas climbed out of the driver's seat and got the back open. Marianne and Winnie jumped out, both looking like every instinct except one was telling them to run to the house, out of the rain. However, the 'one' instinct leftover was telling them to hang back, to help get the triplets inside, so they stayed. Lucas made quick work of getting one, and two, and then three girls down. Marianne got hold of Remy's hand and ran with her, while Kacey teamed up with Winnie to do the same. Lucas carried Lucy in his arms outright, shielding her as best he could as they followed the others into the shelter of warmth and dryness that was the house. Once the girls got there though, it wasn't any of that they cared about so much as…

"Mommy!" they cried out, one over the other and the next as they crowded around Maya. They didn't consider much of the fact that they were drenched from the rain, but then neither did she as she returned their clinging embrace.

"Hey, welcome back!" Maya beamed before leaning to kiss one small blonde and then another. Marianne fell in for her own hug, too, and so did Winnie. It didn't matter that this wasn't her mother, not when her best friend's mother always treated her as good as if she were one of her daughters. And right now, seeing as her actual mother wasn't around and she felt the need for maternal affection… "I think we all need to get changed, huh? What do you think?"

She'd just arrived, barely had the little sisters settled in by the time she'd come down to receive the rest of them. From there, it was not long at all before the storm did what they'd all imagined it would do sooner or later and robbed them of power. The house suddenly fell to darkness, not total darkness because the sun had yet to set outright, but even then, with the dark clouds obscuring the sky, it might as well have been pitch black. Maya and Lucas had always done their best to help their girls not be afraid of the dark, but there was something about the total stillness of the house, the lack of sounds that came from anything except humans, and dogs, and the storm outside, that brought dread to skyrocket. Several of the children started to scream, and shout, and then they had to be calmed again, which was easier said than done with several of them.

The parents knew that sometimes the best thing they could do at a time like this was to separate everyone down from a group. If they all stayed in a heap like this, all they would do would be to allow their frightened girls to feed off one another's fears; they weren't going to get anywhere if they did that. Best that they break things down, then everyone could find their peace and move along. Marianne recruited Lucy so that the two of them, with Winnie, could go and see to their buddies, their little sisters, Aubrey, and Mackenzie. Lucy still cried, sniffled, but she also nodded because, yes, they needed to do that. Meanwhile, Maya turned to Remy so she might come and be brave with her, to see about finding what lights they had for situations like these. And Lucas… Lucas took Kacey with him so they might go and reassure the dogs, who would be that much more distressed at a time like this.

It was difficult not to look at their younger daughters and compare their actions and development against that of those who had come before them. Lately, they were looking to the triplets, with four years in them, and they would think of Marianne, when she had been four. It wasn't so long ago, and yet it did feel so far removed from them at times. But then they would look at the triplets, and one of them would do something, and suddenly memories would rise out. Lucas felt some of that today as he watched Kacey with the dogs.

Oh, they were all of them wonderful with the pups, had all grown up with them all around the house, but they were their own people, so they would have their own ways of dealing with them. Of the three, Lucas would say that Kacey reminded him most of the way Marianne was with the dogs. Lucy was always the gentlest with them, as she would be, while Remy would always be looking to run around and play with them, but Kacey was, as ever, the happy medium between her 'womb mates.'

"It's okay, it's okay," she told the dogs when they found the bunch, crowded around one of the corner windows. Some were looking out, trying to get a better view of what was going on outside while others had zero interest in that and instead tried to make themselves small. All of them were agitated though, and seeing Kacey and Lucas, they all seemed to think 'oh, good, you're here, this is madness.' "Oh, you're okay," Kacey crouched and knelt and put her arms around the cowering dogs, even as the others moved to Lucas. He leaned to pet them, all the while smiling as he watched his daughter.

He started to think about his idea again. He hadn't had the chance to discuss it with Maya yet, and he wouldn't bring it up with Kacey herself just yet either, but he did consider... The plan was to see about getting the girls in some other activities, in sports maybe, if they were up for it, preferably the indoor kind so they'd have a fighting chance of maintaining these activities despite some weatherly inconveniences.

With Kacey, he was almost certain he knew what she would want to do, too. Lucas and Maya in particular would make sure to note whenever any of the triplets started to show some distinct interest in something, distinct in that she would differ from her fellow triplets to stand as the most singularly invested. And with Kacey, that singular fascination, of late, was figure skating.

It had started the previous winter, after the great snowfall of late December that had kept them from heading to Arkansas. The family had come to them once weather permitted it, and among the things they had done together they had spent some wonderful hours at the rink up the road from their house. Maya's cousins had showed what they could of their faded skills from when they had done figure skating, and they had just seen how Kacey's eyes had glimmered for seeing them out there, like they had opened a door to her. She'd seen some routines on television, sure, but suddenly to see actual live people doing it, people she knew? It was a revelation.

After that, she'd started asking to see more, and so many of them had gone digging for things to send her. Now that she'd seen it in person, the videos had taken on a whole other meaning to her. She had her favorites, and she would watch those over and over... and over... and over... She would try and do jumps like them, which was not so easy on bare feet or normal shoes, and she would stretch out her arms, and pose... She would see sparkly clothes that reminded her of the skaters' outfits, and she would get all giddy, which was reflected in some additions to her wardrobe.

Did this mean that she would grow up to be an Olympic superstar? Maybe not. Maybe she'd try the sport on for size and eventually decide it wasn't for her. Either way, it'd be up to her, all the way. Would they imagine some grand success for her though? Oh, wholeheartedly. She was their little cub and they saw only the best for her.

"They're not so scared now, are they?" Lucas asked, smiling. Kacey smiled back at him with that very same smile, and as ever it left his heart swelling with love and pride for her.

"I can make them feel better, Daddy," she declared.

"I'm sure you can. You do it for me all the time," he told her as he reached out to brush a bit of her still drying hair out of her face.

"Let's go, doggies, don't be scared. Come, come, I can give you treats!" Oh, that did it. The dogs sped off along with her and Lucas followed. Left to her own devices, he wouldn't put it past her to feed them enough for a week. All they'd have to do was look particularly needy and there'd be no stopping her. And if she turned one of those looks to her parents, they'd find it very difficult to tell her no.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners