June 4th 2023

Chapter 155
We Could Figure It Out

The countdown to the premiere of Annie Annie was in the single digits now, and that could only mean one thing for the Friar house. Every last one of them would be living and breathing the musical until that day came, and all through its run, until it finally came to an end, at which point they'd have to move into the next phase: dealing with a mopey Marianne as she put aside her redheaded alter ego. They would cross that bridge when they got to it. In the meantime, they kind of enjoyed the chaotic nature of her excitement.

They heard her singing all the songs, as they'd done back in Les Mis days, assigning some room or another of their house to one of the different locations in the show, using some of their belongings in the place of props from the theater. If any of those got moved from where she expected to find them, she'd stop, find it, put it where it was supposed to be, and started all over again.

"Mom, I can't find it," she came stomping over to her mother. They'd heard her stop in the middle of Easy Street, and for the last several minutes she'd been like a storm, sweeping from room to room.

"We'll look for it tonight, okay? They're going to be here soon and we have a lot of things to do," Maya told her. She looked like she wanted to protest, like nothing would feel right if she didn't find her prop and run through the number. It was no use pointing out that she wasn't even in that one in the actual show. It was part of her process, and they respected that.

"Okay..." Marianne sighed. She WAS so looking forward to this day. They were going to shop and then help, with Ella and Taylor, to prepare the nursery for their baby.

Tori was with Theo that weekend, and after some debate she had decided to wait and be surprised by the completed transformation rather than be part of it. The group was split in two, and as they walked through the mall, keeping an eye on the triplets in their triangle formation, Ella told her mother how she was concerned that Tori might have started to consider her unborn younger sibling and think that she wasn't as excited about being a big sister as she'd been in the beginning.

"What makes you say that?" Maya asked, surprised at this bit of information. Everything she'd seen of her granddaughter over the past few months said the opposite.

"She used to want to be so involved, about every little thing. But the last few weeks, I don't know... She'll give us a 'oh, it's okay' and won't get involved. She won't talk about the things she used to say she'd do with the baby. I don't want her to feel bad, I want to know if she's upset about something, but... she won't."

"Ella!"

Their conversation was cut off as Remy came skittering over to her big sister with an excited smile. In all their talk, Maya and Ella had not noticed how the triplets had stopped and shifted to approach a store window, planting their faces and hands up to see as close as they could get. Maya called for the other two to step away from the window, as though the damage hadn't been done with three sets of handprints… and foreheads… and tips of noses… She went over to try and discreetly wipe them all away, even as she could hear Remy behind her, telling Ella about the stuffed toy she'd seen in there and how she thought the baby should have it. She could see them in the reflection on the glass, how Remy hugged her arms around her sister's middle, pressing her face lightly at her belly like she could consult the unborn babe for their input. All of Ella's little sisters were so eager to meet their new little niece or nephew, all of them in their own way. Remy's was to act as though she and the baby were already the best of friends, partners in mischief. For all they knew, she had it all figured out far better than any of them did.

Kacey's way was to ask a lot of questions. Oh, she already knew about babies, because she was so far from being one herself anymore, just as her fellow triplets were. They were all going to be six years old in just a few months. They had two little sisters, and they may not have as many memories of them when they'd been babies than someone like Marianne would, especially as far as Mackenzie was involved, but they remembered things from when Aubrey had been new, and if that wasn't enough, well now they had Finneas living with them, and they definitely remembered what it had been like with him as a newborn. It was going to be different with Ella's baby. This was their sister's baby, and that made them aunts, as they were to Tori, even if she was older than them. It was going to be different this time…

Without either of them needing to say it aloud, Maya had a strong feeling that her eldest had the same thought she did, a thought of what might have been at the heart of Tori's new reticence toward the baby. They couldn't help thinking about the differences between when she'd come into the world and how it would be with her new brother or sister. Oh, but it didn't take anything away from how important she was, to her mother and stepfather, to her entire family… In many ways, she had brought them all together to begin with. They were never going to forget that.

"You want to go look over there?" Maya asked the triplets, and they very much wanted it, yes. They took off together, while Maya looped her arm with their big sister's and moved by her side to follow them, pressing comfort to her in the process. They would sort this out.

"Ella?" Lucy doubled back to approach her sister while the twins looked here, there, and everywhere. Ella got her smile together.

"Yeah, bun?" she asked, which made Lucy smile. She wanted to whisper something to her sister, which was easier said than done, but she pulled it off, and whatever she said, it made Ella smile again, brighter still than before. She pulled her little sister into her arms. That was Lucy's way; she brought comfort and peace, always.

X

With one group in one direction, the other was elsewhere, doing their own part of the work. They counted Marianne, Mackenzie, and Aubrey, alongside Lucas and Taylor. There was no worrying that the little sisters would wander off, not with Marianne on the case, though they were always fun to watch as they navigated the world. For Lucas, this day was a lot of things, and watching his girls was one of them, but right now it was also about spending more one-on-one time with his son-in-law.

It wasn't as though he never got to hang out with Taylor. He'd done so long before he'd been his daughter's husband, fiancé, boyfriend, anything, back when he'd only been his old friend's recently discovered half-brother. But now so much had changed, and maybe most of all this was thanks to this new life about to come into the world, part him, part Ella, and even if neither of them shared his or Maya's blood, as far as they were concerned, it forever bonded him to them. The more he got to spend time with him like this, the more he could say that he couldn't possibly have anyone better for a son-in-law… and he had so many opportunities down the line to find out how true this could be.

"Daddy, which one?" Mackenzie called back, as both she and Aubrey turned to show the items they held in their arms. They were the same thing, though the designs were very different, enough that it highlighted how none of them knew for sure what this room was supposed to look like. They weren't looking to make it all pink or all blue, and it wasn't by any means necessary for them to know which way they were headed, but there was no denying that it was nagging at all of their minds.

"I… can't really say," Lucas had to tell his girls, turning a look to Taylor, who gave them an equally apologetic look. "We don't know if the baby is a boy, or a girl, as far as we know…" The girls looked disappointed, or possibly just baffled. What were they supposed to do now? How would they know what to get for the new baby?

"Hey, it's okay," Taylor stepped up and crouched before the two girls. "If you like it, then we should consider it, yeah? And then when we'll see it, or use it, then we won't forget who picked it out for us," he offered them both a hand, palm out, and it was as hilarious and sweet as one would expect. Mackenzie dropped the thing she was holding – it was not breakable, so all was well – and high fived her brother-in-law. Aubrey, for her part, didn't let go, but she did press in one arm to secure the thing before taking a step forward and frowning like she was aiming to make sure she'd high five Taylor the right way. It was this close to her having her tongue sticking out and everything. "There, see? It's all good," Taylor grinned at them before turning to look at his other sister-in-law in the group.

Marianne had a very telltale look on her face here, a look that said that she was trying very hard not to show it, but there was something on her mind, something massive, and context clues aimed her father's guesses well. He believed Taylor when he said that he didn't know whether he was about to have a son or daughter, but he also knew his firstborn's face a whole lot better than she realized, and he believed that she knew the secret, or she believed that she knew with this much certainty. He could say that, but he knew better than to try and get it out of her. For one, she had her mother's fortitude in this, and for another, he still wanted to respect his eldest's decision to keep the answer a secret until the baby was born.

It didn't stop him, later that day, when they'd gone back to Ella and Taylor's home and started doing some of the work in the nursery, from sharing this assumption with Maya and with the future parents. They were all as surprised as the next. Ella and Taylor did not know what they were having, so they didn't see how Marianne possibly could. All she would have to go on would be the pictures and videos from Ella's ultrasounds, and at her age, what was she supposed to see that they wouldn't?

They finally went out to find her, and she looked at them, confused at the sight of all four of them in front of her. What was going on?

"Do you know?" Ella asked her little sister, and it was already telling that Marianne looked at once like she knew what her big sister was asking. She opened her mouth to speak, but the four of them all spoke over one another to tell her not to. She startled, as did the other girls, but then she smiled. She got up and went to find a piece of paper, a pen, and a stapler. She scribbled something on the paper, folded it over once, and twice, and then she stapled it shut before handing it over to Taylor.

"You hold on to that. Then when the baby's born, you open it and… you tell me if I'm right."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners