February 23rd 2023

Chapter 54
We Begin to Share

The arts and crafts corner had gotten its start, its inauguration, without him. Everyone at the ranch had insisted that they could wait to start bringing the kids up there until he was ready to come back, but he hadn't wanted that. He wanted the groups to get to start creating. His grief didn't have to take away from their fun. By the time he did start going back, it meant that the room had gained a bit of life, the materials had been used... and there were a few drawings on the wall already. Of all the things, this had somehow made him the happiest about being back.

After that, he'd felt the need to add one more new something into the program's roster of activities: field trips, maybe once a month, or every other month... He'd chosen the first one as the entire inspiration for these trips. They were going to visit the animal shelter. The kids all loved going by the dog retreat, and the stables, and their skills for animal care both in action and in mind were already being nurtured, so why not take it to the next level? It had required some level of communication with the parents, knowing very well how likely some of them would be to go in there, see a dog they liked, and fall desperately in love with them and want to take them home. Everyone was willing to deal with the situation as it unfolded.

On a chance, Lucas asked his father to come along with them. The reasoning as he told him was that they needed an extra chaperone. The one in his own head also factored an opportunity for him to approach the idea of Thomas moving in with him and Maya and the girls for a while and, whichever way that talk went, a chance that his father might be one of those making a canine connection that day. He knew that his parents hadn't gone looking for one after the last two, but this might have been just the time for Thomas to give it a shot.

It was the first time he came to the ranch in over a month, the last time being the Equestrian Ball. Today, he came along, the proud wearer of a ridiculous number of bandannas. The triplets had wanted him to have one of their green ones, and Marianne did the same with one of her reds. Tori wanted her Grand Pappy to have a blue, and after Marianne had thought of giving him a white, like the little sisters, it was only natural he should have a yellow, for the full set. He looked very happy to have them all, wound together and tied about his neck, and the kids looked to him like he must have been very special. Lucas and the girls sure thought he was.

They had a whole plan, coordinating with the shelter thanks to Tanya and Mateo. They would take the groups into the shelter in smaller groups still, while the rest of them would be outside, there for a bit of activities and knowledge, courtesy of Bishop and Carson.

"Try not to go overboard in there, please?" Lucas lightly teased Marianne when it was time for her and her friends to go in.

"Who, me?" she asked, and he laughed at the perfect echo of her mother in her face and in her voice. "Pappy Tom, come with us!" Marianne called after him, and Thomas went after her at once, taking the hand she'd held out to him. He'd already gone with the green group and the blue under such summons.

Somehow, the young Friars managed to come away from the trip with no more dogs at home than they had started out with. Tanya and Mateo had made notes of any other connections that might have been made with the other kids, which would then leave it in Lucas' hands to communicate with the families.

Thomas didn't make any particular connection himself, though for all Lucas saw and heard, he had definitely benefited from being out there that day. The animals had lifted his spirits some, and Lucas couldn't let that go without taking that next step and discussing the guest room.

He waited until they made it back to the ranch, where all the kids wanted to go to the retreat for the last little while before heading home. Bishop gladly led the way, while Lucas and his father brought up the rear.

"You know, we're always happy to have you here, Dad," Lucas told him, and Thomas nodded. His smile when it was just the two of them felt a little more honest, not so lifted for the kids' sake. He smiled, but his sadness was still right there for Lucas to see.

"This was good," Thomas agreed. They walked on for a few seconds before Lucas opened his mouth to make his pitch, only to be cut off as his father went on. "Thought you'd like to know, I've been talking with your grandparents, the last few days. They've been considering selling the Houston house and coming back Austin side."

This was brand new information, and Lucas was shocked to hear it. At the same time, it brought him unexpected relief. Pappy Joe and Patty weren't getting any younger themselves and, spry as they still were, they weren't as high up there as they used to be, which Lucas was always aware of when he thought of them driving from one city to the other. If they were in Austin, that would be great, for them, for their great granddaughters, for both of their families, including Thomas...

"Are they looking for a house?" he asked.

"No need to, I invited them to move into the house, with me," Thomas revealed matter-of-factly.

This was an even bigger surprise, and Lucas could not hide it or the ways it sent his thoughts bouncing left and right. If they went through with it, which Thomas confirmed they would as he went on, oblivious, then there'd be no need to advance the guest room plan for ever having existed in the first place. If those three came together, then he was certain that Pappy Joe and Patty would help his father pick himself up as best they could, and in return he would be there for them where they would need him.

Later at home, when he told Maya about all of this, she had a suspicious look.

"What?" Lucas asked.

"Gotta hand it to them, they're clever," she told him. He wasn't following, and she chuckled. "How much are you willing to bet this was exactly what they wanted him to do?"

Now that she said it, he couldn't believe he hadn't pieced it together earlier. This would be just something they'd do, his grandparents. He still believed everything as he'd done, so far as them getting older and the distance being an issue, but that didn't mean they'd have to think it, too, and in fact they probably wouldn't. They would think that something had to be done for Thomas, and in considering all of this, they probably would tell themselves that making this big change, taking this step, would be worth it in the end. It would be but a small sacrifice if the gains won out as much as they believed they would.

So, they would have found a way to make it so that Thomas imagined that it was his idea and not theirs. All they'd have to do would be to graciously accept, which they had. Closing out the house would take longer than the actual getting it sold part, they were certain. Patty had been fielding offers on it for years.

"I love that house..." Maya sighed, making Lucas smile.

Oh, they had been going there for years now, especially once the professor and Pappy Joe had gotten married, and on the whole, it hadn't changed all that much. Still, he knew that what she would be thinking about would have more to do with the very first times they had ever set foot in there, back when Maya had been invited by her professor for some function or another. He still remembered her overwhelming awe over everything she saw, especially the art on display. Now this would mark the end of an era.

"Great Pappy and Gran Gran are gonna be here?" Kacey asked, in awe, when the news broke out over post-bath hair care time. All three of the triplets' hair was really coming in, especially for Lucy, who always seemed to have more. There had been talk of seeing if any of them wanted it changed, cut short or just shorter, specifically whether they might want it cut differently from either of the others, but as of yet they hadn't done it, and they were confident they knew the answer on the latter question. They'd want to keep being as much the same as possible, Lucy most of all.

"Yeah, they're going to live in the house with Pappy Tom," Maya told her, smirking at the way her daughter sat so stock still. She'd been burned before on what happened when she moved too much while the comb was at play, and now she was going to make certain not to risk it. She gripped on to her mother's legs on either side of her as she sat in her lap.

"That's awesome!" Remy declared in a half whoop that turned into a yelp. She had a bit more trouble 'learning the lesson.' She looked up to Lucas and the comb and he gave her a quick kiss to the forehead, which made her smile again.

"You got that right," he told her, and she nodded. She loved that word and could be a bit too generous at assigning it, but this time was absolutely correct. The circumstances may have had some less 'awesome' origins, but they truly believed that it would grow to be something they would be deeply thankful for, even as they wished they never had to resort to it.

"Hey, you okay?" Wyatt asked his combing charge. Lucy had been sitting quietly this whole time, letting him work through her hair, not rod straight but not shifting every which way either. When she saw his hand with the comb at her side, she looked back at him, then at her parents and fellow triplets. She didn't know how to respond. She just kept sitting there, and without her having to say it, they knew what it was that had stolen her voice.

She might have been going on and on about how great the day had been, out at the shelter, the way she and her sisters had done for most of the evening, but just now all of that had been taken from her because she'd been reminded of something that wasn't there, someone… More and more, as time had gone on and they just hadn't seen her, it had really sunk in that Granny Mel was gone. And knowing her as the most sensitive of the three, it was no surprise to see that realization affect Lucy most of all.

They didn't force the subject. Wyatt used his great Uncle Wy powers to comfort her by finishing up with her hair and carrying on holding her. Lucy responded in kind by leaning in to hug him, too. In no time, the twins would leave their parents' laps and move to collect her. They would have a 'squeezed into one bed' night, and that'd be all they needed. They'd go off to sleep, talking low about all the dogs that they'd seen that day, and those would be in their dreams, as they well deserved to be, bringing joy to the small girls who so missed their grandmother.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners