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

July 15th 2023

Chapter 196
We Cultivate For One & All

When Nellie and Gracie had moved out of their parents' house and joined their big sister and her family at the start of their college years, the two of them had done something very important with their nieces: they'd had a garden trade. That was what they'd called it anyway. They had transplanted something from the Hunters' garden into the Friars' and then the same in reverse. Both the families took care of one another's trade, and it was kind of their favorite thing in their own gardens. The twins and their siblings back at their old home would send each other pictures almost every day to show how their transplants were doing, often posing with it in as funny a way as they could think of each time, or tying it to whatever was going on in their lives that day. It remained to be seen just what they'd do once Nellie and Gracie graduated college, or MJ moved over… But they weren't there yet, and for now their plants were thriving in their new ground, making themselves at home, as well they should.

"Can you hold it alright?" Nellie asked Aubrey, presenting her with a pumpkin, not so big, but not so small either.

"Yeah, yeah!" Aubrey promised, reaching for the pumpkin, so Nellie carefully put it in the three-year-old's outstretched arms.

"Good! Go bring it to your dad, okay? But no running."

"Okay, Auntie!" Aubrey told her, taking off at a walk, just putting on enough speed.

Today, they were not in the Hunter garden. They were in the pumpkin patch behind the Friar house, and it was harvest day. There were a whopping ten little pumpkins already set aside for Marianne's fast-approaching birthday, but the very important part for today was both to harvest and to decorate. They had a team coming together, as they did every year now, to prepare these pumpkins, the better for them to be brought out to people around the city, the people they'd bring one to every year, and some they'd decided to add to their roster this year, just because… well, they wanted to, felt like they should. And as fascinating as it would be to watch the team do their work and transform each pumpkin, they kind of couldn't wait to go and bring them out when they were all done.

Around the kitchen table this year, Maya had several of her siblings, namely all four of her brothers, Sam, Teddy, Wyatt, and MJ, and two of her sisters, Eliza and Maisie. The others were outside for the harvest, save for Emma, who'd had to work.

"Can I do one?" Maisie asked as she stood watching Sam slice out a section of the one he was working on. Her siblings all looked over at her, making the twelve-year-old stand back up and frown at them. "I'm not little anymore, you know?" she crossed her arms before herself.

"Oh, look out, that 'teen' is coming in early," Teddy smirked, earning himself a 'glare' from his baby sister. "Ouch," he grabbed at his heart with a laugh. "Come here," he tipped his head to his pumpkin. "You can help me with Mom and Dad's." She wanted to do her own, they could see, but she wasn't going to throw away a foot in the door. So, she went and sat with her big brother and they worked together to finish the one meant for her own house. They were right across the road, of course, so she'd get to bring it right out to them, too.

As soon as they would have a couple of them ready, the delivery team would start its work, and with how giddy they were to get going, it was a small miracle that none of them were dropped or damaged in any way. Lucas would lead the way, along with Marianne, Lucy, Mackenzie, and Tori. Kacey and Remy were staying back at the house along with Aubrey until the harvest was done, and then they'd alternate with their sisters and their niece on some of the deliveries.

They could all go and bring their grandparents their pumpkin across the road at least, so when Teddy and Maisie were done, the latter of them led a parade of her six younger nieces and her older niece's daughter as she carried her work to her parents. Abigail and James might have been part of the work at the Friar house except they had been told to stay home; they couldn't well receive their gift if they weren't there to do so, right? So, they were home, and while Lucas watched from his own driveway, he could easily imagine the two of them out there, putting in a very compelling performance to show how they'd had absolutely no idea that this gift was coming, which would have the pack of girls either laugh hysterically or wonder how their grandparents could have had no idea at all. When they were done – and all confusion had been cleared up – the parade returned the way it had come, some of the girls returning to the back of the house, some queueing up to get in the minivan, and one informing her brother-in-law that she was going to do a whole pumpkin by herself, and she wouldn't hear otherwise.

"You tell 'em, Mais!" Lucas called after her, smirking.

They could easily have done their next stop on foot, too, but they took the very short drive instead, pulling on to the road only long enough to get them up to Sanderson Farm. The name stayed, because that was just what everyone knew it as, but by now there weren't only Sandersons living there but Dixons, too. Cole and Missy were at the forefront of the family business now, and maybe someday their Cam would take their place, if it was what he wanted. Just now, he was not quite four months old, so running the family farm did not feature in the slightest on his to-do list.

With the visit of the pumpkin crew at least, he became fascinated with the very first carved pumpkin he ever saw in his life, and the girls were just loving to watch him as he sat up in his mother's lap and stared with big, curious eyes at the orange thing. If they put it in his grasp, he would find out what it felt like very soon, and if they wanted it to survive until Halloween, they had best keep that from happening. For that very reason, the Dixons were also provided with a second, uncarved pumpkin.

The next leg of their deliveries would take them further out from the lane, so it called for them to crank up their very special Hallowannie playlist, created by their Annie, of course. She would keep finding new songs to add to it, and some of them would be so random that they'd have to laugh, wondering how she'd found them. It carried them all the way to the Hunter house, where they dropped off two pumpkins again, though they were both decorated this time, one for Shawn and Katy and the kids, and one for Tanner and Angela Clutterbucket.

"I helped with your one," Lucy informed her great grandfather, and Tanner swept up the small girl in his tall frame. He was absolutely getting on in years, but he continued to be so sturdy that he might have been perceived so much younger.

"You did, huh?" he asked, submitting to the brushing of her small fingers at his facial hair. She'd always loved doing so, and that wasn't changing anytime soon.

"I didn't do the cutting, but I did a picture first." When he asked if he could have it to keep, she reached into her pocket with a look of relief that she'd listened when her mother had suggested she bring it.

A similar picture had been the origin of their next pumpkins, too, which were delivered to Lucas' childhood home, one for his father and the other for his grandparents. Marianne had done this mock-up, and she'd worked on it for a few days prior to the harvest, because she'd had an idea. She wanted the two pumpkins to make a single picture together, sort of like her birthday pumpkins, but she also wanted them to be their own things, one for her grandparents, one for her great grandparents. She was very proud of the result, and, seeing how it had been recreated in the pumpkins, she hated to think that they wouldn't last forever, even if she was used to it by now. When they arrived at the house, her grandfather likely sensed this, because the first thing Thomas did after being presented with the pair was to go and find his camera, taking pictures of the artist, her sisters, and her niece, all posing with the two pumpkins. They'd be able to remember it all now.

They swung back for home after this, to pick up more pumpkins and more girls, too. There was no way they would go to their next stop without all of them there. It didn't matter that they didn't all appreciate it at the same level, they all loved to go to the comic store, to see Peter, and to look at the books, at everything he had to offer in there. The man knew their family well enough by now that he could always find at least one thing when they'd show up that he knew all the girls, from Marianne down to Aubrey, would be able to enjoy together, as the eldest of them would play narrator, reminding their parents of the days when she would draw pictures and use them like a storybook to tell them new tales of her own creation at bedtime.

"Hey, check it out," Lucas guided the girls to come and see and, when they saw, they all started talking over one another, excited as they were to see the book they recognized, now the third published by their Uncle Sam. They had copies just like it back home, in their rooms, and on the 'family shelf,' too.

For their next few stops, it was decided that they'd be better off having fewer of the girls around, even as Maya wanted to join the delivery team. So, much as it displeased them, the triplets and the little sisters were left back at the house while their mother got in with Marianne and Tori. Their first stop was the Carters' house to see Madelyn. It might not make everything better all of a sudden, but they trusted that it might make her and her family smile, and it did. Her mother placed it in the window, where people could see it and, Maya figured, where Madelyn could see it when she'd come home from school every day for however long it would stay up there.

At this point, it was anyone's guess whether she'd still be in school by the time the pumpkin went the way of composting. She still had a few weeks to go before her due date, but not so many weeks that she couldn't well go into labor before the big day came. She'd say that she was fine to carry on, and she looked it, so they let her go on, but they couldn't help but worry anyway.

The same couldn't quite be said of the Nilssons and Marie, as she had until after the holidays before her own due date would roll around, but the months were piling on, and it showed plainly on the redhead. When the Friars arrived, she sat on the couch with big sister Miley, who was tending to her aching back. She'd be home to visit any chance she got, to see to her little sister. Much as their parents were being great about the whole thing, sometimes, Maya knew, Marie felt overwhelmed at having them hover around her, and in those times the only thing that would make her feel better was to have Miley there. It wasn't always possible, but she'd do her very best.

Of the three 'Mamas,' she was the only one where Maya honestly didn't know what would happen once the baby was born. Max was keeping hers, they knew that for certain. Madelyn… No one said it, but it was as close to certain as could be that she wouldn't be raising her child. Marie… Just now, it could go either way.

"Hi!" they were greeted at the door to the McAllisters' house by Marianne's former teacher, and oh how she hurried up and hugged Miss Ingrid when she saw her. Max's mother hugged her back. She knew about the Friars' pumpkin tradition, as she'd heard about it the year before, and so when she saw them there with the carved pumpkin, she smiled. "Come on in. Natalie took the kids out, so it's just me and Max… and Max," she added with a nod up to the first floor. The Farrell boy was already a common fixture to their house before it had come to be known that their daughter was expecting.

"How's everything going with…" Maya left the end of her sentence go unspoken, after Max and Max had been called down to join their visitors.

"Been trying to get through to his parents, but they won't hear it, and personally, I don't feel like dealing with those people right now. I know she wants him to be there, to see the babies, I know he wants to be there, so no wonder they went and sent him away. I can't do anything about that, and in the meantime, I've got a sixteen-year-old, seven months into a twin pregnancy, trying to navigate becoming a mom for the first time and passing sophomore year, and all she wants is for those kids and their dad to know each other."

They saw that weight in her eyes when she and her best friend came down to see the pumpkin. She was happy for the gift, truly, but her mind was divided, and they didn't stick around longer than needed, leaving her in peace.

Their last two stops that day would be in order to present pumpkins to their exchange campers and their hosts. They brought one to the home of Noor Kaur, and when Gianna saw it, oh, was she ever excited… Alright, so she was excited most times they saw her, but still. She had been looking forward to Halloween since the very first sign that it was coming had appeared, and this gift was the best thing that she could have gotten to ring in the occasion.

And then when they stopped by Jake Bennett's home and presented their last pumpkin to his guest, he was in awe as much of the work as of the gift itself. It was a pumpkin, carved, sure, but he looked at it like he'd never gotten a gift he loved as much as this one.

"Would it be okay if I drew it in my diary?" he asked Maya. "I don't know what the next assignment is supposed to be, but…"

"You do what you want to do, alright?" Maya cut in with a smile, and Brett smiled back. "I can't wait to see it, yeah?

"Yeah," he nodded. Maybe he couldn't wait for Halloween either.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners