February 1st 2023

Chapter 32
We Gather As Family

The days that followed the sleepover were easy to sail through, as though they were all so busy enjoying the ride that they couldn't see how close they were getting to Christmas with each morning that passed by. It was easy to see how that might be, at least where the Friars and their extended family were concerned. This was the first year where the Hart-Lanes were across the road from them, and it wasn't as though the elder and senior Friars, the Hunters and Clutterbuckets, the Hillard, Sullivan-Reyes, and Cassidy families, and of course the already local branches of the newly relocated family didn't make for wonderful holidays, but having Abigail, James, and Maisie in Austin… It felt like a gap closed in a circle, especially for having them there across the lane from them. After having been so far apart from one another, they still felt so thrilled months onward that they could visit one another so easily and often.

"Mommy!" Remy gasped and sat up in her bed on the night of the twenty-third, just as Maya was about to head out and swap places with Lucas for part two of the good night wishes over in the green room.

"Remy!" Maya matched her tone, making the four-year-old laugh even as she scrambled to get up and incited the other two to do the same. If she was compelled to go somewhere, they wanted to go, too, naturally. Maya let out a sigh, just barely, as she felt the likelihood of everyone being off to sleep soon slipping away, but she smiled and crouched to get at her daughters' eye level. It was hard to be anything but happy with those little faces looking back at her.

"It's Almost Christmas day when we wake up?" Remy asked, looking back over to the room's calendar. They had a whole collection of advent calendars downstairs, one of which had stickers in it, and one day at a time, they had revealed these before running them back up to their room to apply to the squares on the December page, bringing them closer and closer to the ones for Christmas and Christmas Eve before that, or Almost Christmas, as they'd gotten to call it after the girls had gotten caught up on the word 'eve' and the assumption that this referred to a person. Now there was only one more little box to open in all the calendars below, and she had just realized what it meant.

"It's almost Almost," Maya confirmed, grinning at their excited smiles. "But you have to go to sleep first," she reminded them in a whisper. That was all she needed to say, and they ran off with a squeak, so fast that they got mixed up about which bed was theirs and ran again to go where they had to go. Now that they were settled in again, they had to have good night kisses again, the old ones had clearly expired…

As excited as all the children had been, from Marianne on down to Aubrey, only the eldest of these woke up early enough the next morning to get in on the activities in the kitchen, seeing to breakfast before they got ready to receive their guests. Marianne got down the stairs and came to join her parents in the kitchen, just ahead of Ella and Taylor. She had been talking quietly to them all the way down, or so Maya and Lucas guessed by the amused looks on the engaged pair.

Ella had been so looking forward to Taylor's arrival, flying home from school for the holidays, as she should well have been. This one was special. This one was the last of these breaks before their respective graduations, before he came home for good, and they'd get married. From next year onward, there'd be no need for joyful reunions and sorrowful goodbyes. Soon, they would be on the final stretch of their time apart, her and him, her, and Tori…

"Hey, I'm going out for a bit," Wyatt appeared in the kitchen doorway, looking like he'd just thrown on some clothes in great haste. Maya, Lucas, Ella, Taylor, and Marianne all looked over from their respective breakfast tasks.

"Okay…" Maya blinked. "Are you…"

"I gotta go," he vaguely nodded before turning and hurrying out the door. When he was gone, the reactions varied. They may not have known exactly what this was about, but both Maya and Lucas could say they had some idea, but they tried not to show it. Meanwhile, the other three were obviously confused.

"What was that about?" Ella asked her mother. Maya tried to think of what to tell her, but Marianne spoke before she could.

"Something's wrong, isn't it?"

"Why do you say that?" Lucas asked, seeing the concern on her face. There was no way she wouldn't have picked up on some of it, was there?

"He's been… I don't know… not sad, but… something," she explained, with enough awareness in her that maybe she wasn't supposed to say these things, that there was a secret. It would have been so easy to tell the three of them what was going on; they would have kept it quiet. But it was not their secret to tell. As far as they knew, despite prime chances like the night of the sleepover, Wyatt had still not confided in anyone about the baby.

The rest of the kids were up and running wild around the house by the time they heard anything from Wyatt, which was a relief, as they also knew that the Hart-Lanes would be crossing the road before long, and they had not anticipated having to tell them that their son and brother had bolted out with no explanation. Not that they had any better idea of what to do with the new information they now had…

Wyatt: I'm bringing someone back. Can you add a chair?

When Abigail and James arrived, a minute after Maisie had come bursting in with bags of food and 'things,' and wintery rosy cheeks, they were informed that Wyatt was out picking up a friend he'd invited to join them for breakfast. This information was received with the kind of smirks that read as 'oh, our boy has met someone…' and that made holding their tongues that much harder for both Maya and Lucas. The situation would come out of nowhere for them, wouldn't it? But if he was really bringing her over, then it had to mean… something…

They didn't have to wonder when he would arrive. If there was ever someone on their way, all it would take would be for the girls to know about it, and they would have a steadfast watch by the window, ready to shout out…

"Uncle Wy! Uncle Wy!" Mackenzie came speeding along, Aubrey trailing behind. This brought Maisie, Marianne, and Tori hurrying back to see, too, and the triplets after them. Between that pack and the dogs, who responded to the excitement the only way they knew how, it was a messy but very warm welcome as Wyatt came in, just ahead of a girl.

He was momentarily caught up in the appearance of his nieces, all wanting to wish him a good 'Almost Christmas,' while their visitor remained quietly stood there, taking in the Friar home for the first time. Maya and Lucas had followed their speeding daughters, knowing what they were heading into when they didn't, and while they could only imagine what the girl was going through at the moment, she was in their home now, and whatever the case may be, she was welcome.

"Hey…" Wyatt paused when he noticed his parents, there behind his sister and brother-in-law. If he'd been distracted by the girls and the dogs, now he was back to whatever he had to be feeling as he made his way back, him and… "This is Alicia," he turned to the girl, and Maya and Lucas could feel him extending courage to her, a promise that things would be okay.

Finally seeing her for themselves, the Friars could see a genuine care between them, even if it was buried beneath an overwhelming concern, not unlike what they'd been seeing in Wyatt, though of course it would be different for her; she was the one finding herself suddenly expecting. Her long dark hair had been pulled into a hasty braid and, though it wasn't as though they had a strict dress code for the day, she did not have the look of someone who had left home with the aim of joining Christmas Eve festivities, least of all at the home where her… friend… and his family would be gathering. But here she was, and the nervousness radiated so profoundly from her that it could only compel people toward her.

"Hey, guys, let's go back and get breakfast on the table, yeah?" Lucas went ahead and started directing the girls toward the kitchen, the better to give the others a bit of quiet. Maya showed her appreciation for the gesture, holding his gaze as he went by. He had as much of a place in this conversation as the rest of them, but just now this had to take precedent. Marianne may not have known what this was all about, but she had caught on enough that she backed up her father, helped getting the other girls to go, the dogs, too. Ella and Taylor followed them, and so all that remained were Maya, Abigail, James, and Wyatt and Alicia. Abigail was already coming up to greet her son's friend with her warmest smile.

"It's good to meet you, Alicia," she nodded, and she might as well have been saying 'we've heard so much about you,' even though they had not known she existed in any way until a minute ago.

"Thank you, it's good to meet you, too," Alicia replied, with just a flare of concern, turning to look at Wyatt. She had agreed to come here today, and Maya could guess what the purpose of her visit would be, but now that she was in the moment, the girl looked positively terrified. It made Maya think of her mother and father, in this very same position, thirty-six years ago when they'd been expecting her and had gone to tell the Harts. It was so easy to look at Wyatt and imagine Kermit, with how similar they looked, but even looking at Alicia who looked nothing like her, she saw a young Katy, filled with that same terror.

Maybe something about the whole scene called up stories she had heard many years ago, but Maya was sure that, in the very last seconds before Wyatt and Alicia revealed that she was pregnant by him, Abigail felt that echo of time, too, and she knew. Once the words were out, there was no going back, and whatever would come next, it would be up to her, to James, whether history would repeat or not. It was a shock, no way around it, but no voices were raised. When they found their voices again, it was in the parents' eyes that they had many questions rushing to the forefront of their minds, but they had to stop, to think, before they asked any of them.

"I…" Abigail started, looking from her son to Alicia and back again.

She'd known something was going on with him, so had James, but they had clearly not known what it really was until now. The longer she went without speaking, the more the college freshmen would have time to fear what she'd say when she did speak, and this was especially so for Wyatt, so much so that it felt like every bit of him shone with his resemblance to his father, and that was all Abigail needed to see.

"Okay…" she breathed, righted herself. With one arm she collected her son, and with the other she offered the same to Alicia, who accepted the embrace and folded herself into its reassurance. She'd needed it so, so much. "You'll be okay… You'll be okay."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners