A/N: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!

January 28th 2023

Chapter 28
We Jump Into the Unknown

"Wyatt's not back yet?" Maya asked as she worked alongside Abigail, James, Teddy, Emma, Sam, and Dora. Several of the kids had wanted to help and had done so at first, only to get pulled into playtime among cousins. Now they were running in and out and around the kitchen of the Hart-Lane house, squealing and laughing as they chased each other.

"I didn't see him," Lucas shrugged. The bag of groceries he'd gone out to pick up was soon yanked out of his hands by one of his brothers in law, the better for its contents to be put to use. "Where'd you send him?"

"An errand from the Landaus," Abigail answered him. She still had that tremulous smile to her, the one she'd gained when she had learned of her Eliza's engagement. It wasn't as though she'd be the first of her children to get married, but knowing Abigail, there was no doubt that she'd get that kind of flutter in her stomach whenever Wyatt or Teddy or Emma or her baby Maisie did the same, if they ever took that leap, too.

"Well, everyone is back there, waiting to rehearse with him," Maya sighed, then chuckled. She couldn't help it. The thought of him wanting to take the stage… But then it was his sister's engagement party, Eliza's party. Being the two youngest for a while, they'd always had a special bond, not unlike what Sam and Cara had.

"Then he'll be back soon," James nodded confidently.

It would be a big day for a lot of people. It would be one for Eliza and Ben, naturally, even if they didn't know about the party yet. It would be one for their families, excited as they were for the young couple. It would be one for Wyatt, making his 'big stage debut,' and for this reason, too, if under different circumstances, it would be Ash Bell's, too.

They could not celebrate Eliza's engagement and not have her sisters' bands there to entertain the couple and their guests. And while Rosa was not only willing and able but insisting to perform with TXNY for the occasion, it had been hard not to look at this party like the perfect low stakes means to get Ash out there, performing with them, and dipping in with We Are Sisters, too. Maya hadn't even needed to suggest it. About as soon as they'd all started talking about performing at the party and how Ash would be there with TXNY, they'd all wanted the sophomore to join them, too. If that was all it took to give Ash a permanent place in the long run…

They'd been keeping it quiet at school, not hiding, just not being too loud about it anywhere that Principal Davenport could hear. Oh, they weren't doing anything wrong and, though they now lived with their father, Ash was an emancipated minor, so they could do what they wanted, including being in a band with their art teacher if they wanted to, but it did feel to Maya and Ash both like the woman would find a way to argue about it. So, for now, they didn't make too much of a fuss.

Looking out the kitchen window though, Maya could see the rest of them out there, preparing, TXNY, We Are Sisters, and their new substitute. Ash had not yet had a chance to join them at practice, though no one had been worried about their being prepared for the party. Everything that Maya had known of them over the years said that they'd have worked on it, made sure to show up… stage ready. For all that, they were nervous. Maya could tell. Their girlfriend was on hand, serving as something of a stagehand, but primarily Maia Bennett was there as moral support. Just now, she sat on the edge of the stage borrowed from the ranch, sat next to Ash as she had her arm around their shoulders and their head at her shoulder. All would go well, she believed it, and they should, too.

When Wyatt finally arrived with the things he'd been sent for, it so happened that Lucas was there to greet him. He was about to mention how everyone was reconvening to the yard and that the bands were waiting for him, but the look in the young man's eyes stalled his voice, giving Wyatt time to speak first.

"I, uh… I need to go back to the house and get ready, alright?" he motioned back to the door and turned to go, still with that sort of haunted air to him.

"Wyatt, what's the matter?" Lucas asked, but he didn't stop. He just went on out of his parents' house without a word.

Lucas debated briefly on what to do. He could go get Maya, could go get any one of Wyatt's other siblings or his parents, but he was just as compelled to hold his tongue so long as he didn't know what was going on. So, he went and delivered the bags to the yard and said that Wyatt was getting ready, and he needed to go back for something.

By the time Lucas walked into the house, if Wyatt had been doing what he'd said he was doing, he surely should have been in the shower, but he wasn't. Actually, he wasn't doing much of anything. He was in his room, sitting on his bed, sort of jittery, fidgety, like he was trying desperately to pull himself together but couldn't do it. There was something rocking inside his head, keeping him unsteady. He didn't even notice when Lucas appeared in his doorway.

"Wyatt… hey…" he approached, finding his mind's eye taken with memories of this boy when he'd been little more than a babe in arms.

Nowadays he looked very much like his older brother, Sam, like their father, and so he shared those same traits with Maya that they did, too, some now found in the Friar sisters. Since he'd come to live with them, Lucas had been seeing it more and more and, just now, those features flashed so much distress that he was drawn further to action.

"Wyatt?"

He touched his shoulder and he flinched, looked up. He sat there blinking for a moment until he seemed to remember where he was. And then he realized who was there, and he couldn't even speak. Whatever he thought about all of a sudden felt too real, so much that he started hyperventilating. Lucas was startled at this, too, and he moved to try and help him, for all the good it did at first.

"Can you walk? Let's go back downstairs, okay?"

"No…" Wyatt managed to say, then, "The party…"

"You're not in any state right now, okay? Come on…"

Wyatt walked, and Lucas supported him, feeling all the while like his knees could buckle out from under him at any second. Maybe for that, he didn't notice they weren't alone in the house until he heard Maya call out her brother's name. In the next moment, she was hurrying up to help them down.

"How did you…" Lucas started to ask.

"You were weird back there," Maya replied, eyes still on her brother.

"Gut feeling, figures."

"What happened? Wyatt?"

"Panic attack, looked like," Lucas told her. "Still not sure what caused it." They had made it down from the second floor, but Wyatt seemed to be losing what drive had gotten him there, so they ended up all three of them sat on the floor, between one flight of stairs and the next. Quiet fell over them, and before he could sink back into his head, Maya clasped her little brother's hand, squeezed it. "I can get him some water," Lucas told Maya. She nodded, and he moved to rise. Wyatt seemed to wake again at this.

"No, w-wait…" he told his brother-in-law, begging in a voice that broke like he might have been going through puberty all over again.

"Yeah, sure," Lucas assured him. "I'm right here, we both are. Whatever's going on…"

"I… Please don't tell anyone, not… not yet, or…"

"We won't, we promise," Maya told him. There was so much ache in her eyes, ache for her brother and… whatever was going on with him. "Can you tell us?"

It took a minute or so for him to get started. The words were there, but it was like his head was too big and they were trapped. He didn't know how to let them out. It took time and the presence of these two with him.

"When I… When I was out there earlier, right when I was done, I ran into someone, a girl from school. I'd seen her around, but I hadn't talked to her much since this party I went to, at the start of the semester. That's where I met her, and… and we just… I…" Words failed him again, and he ran a hand through his hair, joined it to its fidgeting twin in his lap. "We slept together. It was my first time – my only time – and it was hers, too, so she said, she… she…" He'd started off like he wanted to get it out as soon as possible, rip the bandage off, but he lost steam, even as his sister and her husband were bombarded with information… and a hypothesis for what this could all be headed for…

"Wyatt…"

"Today, when I ran into her, she told me that she's… she's pregnant… and that it happened with me, that I'm… we're…" His breath tried to escape him again, and Maya embraced him, stopped its flight so it might remain contained in him and soothe his distressed mind.

There was nothing for any of them to say or do for a minute or two as the potential ramifications came to light, began to take shape around them. Over her brother's head as she held him, Maya locked eyes with Lucas. She was stunned, beyond any words she could have tried to say, and he was right there with her. This was her kid brother, but their union had made him his, too, and today they were not only forced to look at him as less of a child as they'd always known him but to consider what this would all mean for the future, Wyatt's future, and this young woman, and... a baby... They were all of eighteen, the both of them, they guessed, and to Maya especially it conjured up very vivid images. Her mother and her father, hers, and Wyatt's father, had been that age when they'd had her and... Oh, it would never be the way it had gone for them, if this baby happened, but it was impossible not to think of history repeating, father and son so alike in looks and now... now...

"There's nothing we can do about this today, okay?" Maya finally spoke, figuring that someone needed to break the silence, needed to say this. Lucas nodded while Wyatt looked at her. "I get your not wanting anyone to know right now, but whether they do or not, there's still the party. If you decide not to go, we'll get it, but they'll definitely want to know why, and that might end up..." They might find out, and he realized that. "And if you still come..."

"I will... I-I have to..." Wyatt told her, like he'd just thought of their sister, her big day, and tried to grab hold of it to steady him again. There was no forgetting the... the other thing, but it was like Maya had said. There was nothing to be done for it, not today. Whatever happened next, this day wasn't going to be ruined.

"Are you sure about this?" Lucas asked. Could he get out there and pretend like all was well? There was no way, none at all, and if Wyatt couldn't see it, then they could. He wanted to go, that was fine, but the rest...

"Tell them you got stage fright," Maya suggested even as she had the idea. Wyatt remembered again, this time that he'd been meant to sing for his sister and her fiancé, and he looked ready to protest. "You'll be upset about letting her down, I know, but that's exactly why it has to be the reason. Right now, it's the best thing you've got other than... the truth," she held his gaze. Wyatt looked at her, tried to refuse, but she was right, and plus... The truth... His head bowed under the weight of it once more, and Maya renewed her hold on him, kissed the top of his head. "We'll get through this, I promise," she whispered. "We've got you."

They barely had time to make it back across while Wyatt was finally allowed to get ready, the better to lay the groundwork for the cover story, before Eliza and Ben arrived and the surprise was sprung. Maya and Lucas both regretted that Wyatt didn't get to see it in person, only later, on video, but it was still so sweet, how happy the couple was to find them there, families, friends, all to celebrate their future union.

"Where's Wyatt?" Eliza asked, when she noticed his absence in the midst of greeting all her siblings.

"Running late, but he'll be here," Maya promised, trying not to look like a part of her worried he wouldn't show at all.

He did come, and he followed the story, telling his newly engaged sister what he had planned to do and apologizing for his failing. She did not hold it against him at all. She thanked him for the intention with a hug, and only the febrility of the moment could have kept her from catching the tremor in him as he held her, too.

There was no telling whether anyone did see through Wyatt's pretence or if they believed the story as the true reason for his quiet and distracted demeanor all through the afternoon, evening, and night, as the party stretched on. He did talk to people, vaguely, but most of all he chose to turn his attention to entertaining his young nieces and nephews where he could, dancing with them when the bands were playing especially. He could do that at least and let himself forget... if for today.

In the meantime, there was the music, performances in turn by TXNY and We Are Sisters, sometimes both at once. Among both of these lineups, standing like a dark but vibrant presence, was Ash Bell. Maya and some others had heard them sing in recent times, the better to assist musical cast members like Angel Ríos, but to hear them today, taking center stage as much as harmonizing, it was truly the unleashing of a long dormant talent, the very one their mother had sought to exploit until Ash had preferred to bury it down instead. To see them standing there, it felt like watching someone healing before their very eyes, shaking off a weight carried for so long that they'd forgotten what it was like to be without it and now... now they were soaring.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners