A/N: [November 10th 2024]

November 10th 2023

Chapter 314
We Wake With Caution

Three days after Dovey's birth, after Farkle had broken the news of his and Isadora's impending divorce to Lucas and Maya, they finally heard from the other half of the couple. Farkle had told her that he'd told them, and she'd been trying to figure out what to say to them ever since. She was still processing the fact that they had come to this point, Farkle and her, and it was a lot for the both of them. But now that the secret had been put on to them, she had gotten to feel that they needed to face up to reality. And the first step in this was for them to go ahead and tell their children what was going on. They would tell their other friends, too, and it would be up to them to tell their own children, so she hoped that they would do the same with their girls. She hated to put them in that position, but Maya and Lucas insisted that it was no trouble, that they would handle it, and they hoped it would go… as well as it could ever go… with Ada and Bertie.

"No way around this one, is there?" Maya sighed, the next morning, as she and Lucas prepared breakfast. He could see how nervous she was, and he was right where she was. Necessary or not, they couldn't ignore that they were about to tell their girls something that would upset them. They would spare them if they could.

Because they couldn't, once everyone had come to sit around the table, once they had eaten their meals – because they never would have done it if they got the news before – they started the difficult task of explaining to their daughters, Shonagh, and Maya's siblings that Farkle and Isadora were splitting up. As they had expected, there was immediate shock in those who knew what it meant, while those who didn't know could at the very least understand from looking at their older sisters that something very bad was happening.

The immediate response, once the words could come to them, was all confusion and disbelief. This made absolutely no sense to them, and even knowing more of the story than they did, their parents couldn't help but agree.

"Why are they breaking up?" Kacey asked.

"What happened?" Wyatt asked his sister and brother-in-law, lifting his son into his lap when he picked up on the distress near him.

"It's complicated, Cub," Lucas answered his daughter's question.

"They don't leave each other anymore?" Lucy asked, the first of them to look so very close to breaking into tears.

"Hey, Bun-bun, that's not true, okay?" Maya reached across to her, and Lucy got up to go to her instead of taking her hand. "It's like your dad said, it's complicated. They're always… They have Ada and Bertie, you know? And it's going to be rough, but they'll still be a family, just… not all together all the time."

It wasn't the best answer, she knew, but it was all she could think to say in the moment. Even if she'd gotten to think about it longer, she wasn't sure she would have had any better once she came to it. She wished it wasn't a school day, that they could take more time with this, but they had been on the clock. The others had been telling their children, as they'd been asked to do, which meant that several of them would be seeing one another once they got to school. Everyone went up to get ready, and Lucas stayed close to the triplets' room, waiting in case any of them needed him in any way, needed to talk.

They all got ready a lot faster than they did on most days. As he sat at his desk, across the hall, they started to come along, one after the other. Lucy was first, and she put her arms around his neck, stuck to his side. Remy came next, and she squeezed her way in to sit in his lap. Kacey came last, all of a second later, flanking him on the other side.

"Hey, hey, I got you, okay? Yeah?" he told them, turning head left, front, and center, planting a kiss on one blond head, and another, and a third. "It'll be okay. Maybe not right away, no," he conceded, "But it'll get better. I promise." Promises were ironclad for them, especially coming from their parents, and that was generally all it took, but this one challenged their trust, just a bit. They knew that their father wouldn't lie to them, but they were growing up. Did they start to think, maybe, that there were some things he couldn't promise?

Maya had gone up the hall to help with the little sisters and to start with hair. The room was a lot quieter than it normally was, and it was so off-putting to her, seeing her girls and Shonagh be so quiet in the morning. It wasn't even just that they were quiet. Mackenzie and Aubrey were off in their own heads, small faces pressed in over the questions they were turning over, trying to understand this thing that they couldn't understand, didn't want to understand. Meanwhile, Shonagh never looked so aware that she was not in her own home, in her own family. She had gotten to know the Minkus family in the time since she'd been in Texas, and she cared for them, but she didn't know them the way that the Friars knew them, and she felt so very out of place.

Marianne was the most upset of all of them in that room, much as she tried not to show it, not to upset her little sisters. Maya could see her though, keeping her face turned from them, her shoulders tense. As soon as she'd finished with the others' hair, she went and sat on her firstborn's bed, bringing her into her line of sight.

"Come here…" she whispered, and Marianne took two steps toward her, until she was standing knee to knee with her. Maya put her arms around her waist. "I know this sucks, okay? I hate it as much as you do. But we got this, yeah? They're going to need us, and we'll be there. But if you need us, then we'll be there for you, too, okay?"

"I know," Marianne mumbled, reaching down to touch her mother's necklace. Even now, it remained her habit, in times of distress, and Maya let her at it so long as she could until they had to get back at getting ready to leave.

The car ride promised to be very quiet as everyone got in their seats and buckled up, bags loaded in the back. It was normal in this situation, yes, but they couldn't stand sending their girls off for a day at school and leaving them in this mood. There was little they could do, but then they had one solid option in their arsenal in a time like this. They were in the minivan, they had a radio. Lucas was driving today, so Maya set herself to finding the tunes they needed to give the girls a bit of a boost. It wasn't a 'sing at the top of your lungs' kind of morning, but looking in the rearview mirror, they could see them all. Some got around to dangling their feet to the beat, or tipping their head side to side, or nodding along… Marianne mouthed the words, hands moving against her knees like she could play the song on the piano as it played. Most important of all, there were smiles. It was the best they could give them for now.

"How's it going out there? Tell me Dovey did something cute?" Maya hummed when Lucas called her during lunch break.

"I'm with her now, I'll send pictures," he replied, and the smile was in his voice.

"Thank you."

"Things have been pretty quiet," Lucas went on, and now his voice told a different story, one that revealed how badly he kind of wished they weren't quiet. Quiet gave a lot of time for distraction, and these days that distraction would come from their friends back in Dallas.

"Yeah, here, too, sort of. We had a fire drill in first period," she told him. "You know what that means for the rest of the day."

"It's been a long while, but yeah, I remember. I especially remember one time, in senior year…" the memory was instantaneous for her, too, and she snorted.

"It was a good day though, wasn't it? If I'm not mistaken, I'm pretty sure we took that… mood… right back to your parents' house that afternoon…"

"Yeah, we did do that," he chuckled. "Right now though… What should we do about tonight?"

They had all afternoon to think about that question. From what they heard out of their friends in texts throughout the day, they were asking themselves that same question. Their kids had been dealing with the news about as well as their girls had done Maybe more than anything, there had been this feeling of helplessness, of wanting to be there for their fellow turtles. Mia and Giulia had been wanting to know if there was any way for them to have a sleepover with Ada, as they'd been closest to her the more they all grew. If not a sleepover, then they definitely wanted to go out to Dallas to see her. Their parents had been telling them they would do their best about it, but maybe it would have to wait. Ada and her brother would only just have heard about what was going on with their family, they would be facing the reality that their family situation would become very different, that they'd have to share their time with one parent and another, one home and another… but having their friends to lean on would be very important, too. They'd have to figure it out as the days went by and revealed themselves.

They ordered in for dinner that night. They got pizza, and they all settled in around the table, and everyone was incited to talk about their day, regular dinner fare. Where they were able to find a way in, Maya and Lucas went and shared family stories with the children. It was not quite the way they'd go with pictures a lot of the time, but they were practiced storytellers by now, and they kept them all invested, listening as they ate. After a while, the effect was that the girls started sharing stories, too, or asking to hear about some thing or another that their parents' stories had made them think about. Maya and Lucas were both more than happy to oblige. It kept everyone happy as they got through dinner and dessert. Even when they went up for bath time and until they got ready and headed into bed, it was a night for stories, and the flow never ceased.

"Dad, can I stay with you guys tonight?" Lucy appeared in the doorway to her parents' room several minutes after the lights had been turned down across the hall. Maya came back from the green room even as their littlest triplet made her request, and Lucy turned to her with the same question.

"Sure, you can," Maya promised, putting her arm around her. "You squeeze right in there with me, yeah?" she leaned close, forehead to forehead with a smile, and Lucy nodded. "Okay, come on."

The sleepless night was far enough behind them now, though they for sure still had some of those thoughts turning around in their heads, thinking about the Minkus family. They would be seeing them very soon, whether they knew this as fact or as an expected probability that there would be a birthday party on the horizon. It would be the strangest part so far, but they'd get through it. They would be there for their friends, all of them together.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners