A/N: [November 7th 2024]

November 7th 2023

Chapter 311
We Wake the Stories From Their Past

It was a special time, always, when one of the horses at the ranch was about to be born, and it was coming fast now. Lucas and his team had been keeping a close watch on the mother over the many months of her pregnancy, and now the end was approaching. He had been coming in to check on her daily, a few times, and there was no doubt in his mind now that they were looking at a day at the most. For that, the ranch was on high alert, as some would call it, waiting for the moment where the foal would come into the world. Lucas for his part had been concerned about the state of the mother, which had not necessarily been critical, but... He could just feel it at this point, on top of what tests and check-ups had been telling him. When her time came, they would have to hope that everything would go smoothly, all the while preparing themselves in the event that they would not. They would do everything they could so that things went well for both the mother and her young.

Lately, his days at the ranch would all begin out in the stables with the horse, him and Sylvie both. There had been some talk for a while of transferring their expecting patient off a facility beyond Sullivan Stables, but Sylvie had just about pleaded for him not to do it, to let them continue to care for her. This might have been influenced by a personal connection to the horse, seeing as Sylvie had been right there from the moment of the horse's birth, the first where she'd been present, but more than that, she trusted in their abilities, and she was of a mind that, at this point, they would gain nothing from bringing her out of her environment. They could actually make things worse, and Lucas agreed with this enough that he'd agreed to keep her here, with them. If they needed more help, they would bring people in, and that was that. As the days trickled past, Lucas and Sylvie were at the forefront of the effort, and though they still kept reality in their hearts, accepting the odds of a bad outcome, they kept on fighting.

After he had seen to his usual morning routine, Lucas made his way back to the stable just outside the clinic, the one where they'd bring any of the horses whenever they needed particular care. There, he found their future mother, and he went to greet her again, encouraging voice on hand to approach her. The way she responded to him, as any of the horses would once they'd settled in and got to know him, it felt as though she might have been one of his kids, snuggling up close when they were sick. The vibe here was much as it would be there. They didn't want him to go away, and neither did the horse. So, he would stay.

He sat where he could be seen, notebook and pen at the ready, and he went on writing. He didn't always go the way of pen and paper, as it was obviously not as efficient in the end, but he'd been finding that it made him feel more connected to what he was trying to do, to what he was trying to say. He felt very certain that someday, when this new story would be completed, when it was (maybe) out in the world, he would be able to look back on one passage or another and remember sitting in that stable, on a quiet January morning, writing it out, occasionally looking up to see how the horse was doing… He also knew that if Maya ever walked in on him in one of these writing sessions, she'd sooner or later end up wanting to immortalize it, be it in a photo, or pencil, pen, marker, paint… just as easily as she'd insist on him dropping a few bills into the Huckleberry Jar on principle.

All… aesthetics aside, he was finding more and more of a love for what he was accomplishing in his writing. The quality of his work was not what he was focusing on here, much more what was going through his mind, the more he was delving into this story he was piecing together. All of it was coming from his grandfather's story, from Simon Sullivan, and then of course from Simon's wife and his grandmother, Marianne Sullivan, from their daughter, who'd been his own mother… But taking so deep a dive into his family history on one side had gone on to have this added side effect of making him think about the other one just as much. It made him think about the line that had given him and his children their surname, one that had felt particularly tethering for him throughout his life through the thread of his name, and his middle name, the tradition through the generations…

It also made him think about his grandmother Susannah and her line, too. Truth be told, he had never known much about that side of his family. It wasn't that he didn't know anything or anyone about them, but looking at it from the perspective of a grown man, instead of the child he'd still been when she'd passed away, he definitely knew a lot less than he would have loved to know. He could ask his grandfather, and he would probably have learned a load of things, and yet he never got around to it. The more he thought about it now, the more he regretted the things he didn't know. He had loved his grandmother so dearly, had mourned her when she'd passed, and he still thought about her, just… not enough… never enough. One day, he would need to remedy this.

When that day came, he knew exactly who he would turn to for help. He would go to his firstborn, his pumpkin. More and more as she had explored this fascination of hers, Sheriff Annie had evolved into Detective Annie. She was becoming so good at finding patterns, at digging out clues, finding answers… He had seen her do it as he'd gotten further and further into his writing. Aside from Maya and Ella, she was the only person who had read any of what he'd done so far, though it hadn't been done on purpose in the beginning. She'd simply gotten hold of it because she was so curious about it, and from there he had allowed her to carry on.

After she'd started this, she'd turned around and started digging up new information, things he had never known and might never have known about the Sullivan family, as far back as it went, in Austin and beyond. For sure, she'd had some help from her biggest fan over at the archive. Carson would greet her arrival every time she came to explore the upper floor like he'd been joined by his most kindred of spirits. If she didn't know how to find something, he would do his best to help her, sitting with her as the two of them would work through this 'problem' together.

Lucas hoped she knew how much it meant to him that she would work through this with him, that she would contribute the way she did. Did she see it as being a lot? Not at all, and maybe it really wasn't all that much, no, but to him it felt immense to have these memories with her, from this time as fleeting as any in his children's lives. One day she wouldn't be a child anymore… and that day was coming closer and closer all the time.

It had felt like it was bound to happen, like as soon as he would go and leave the stables, his expecting patient would take a turn, enough that his departures had been feeling more and more difficult, but it had yet to manifest, and so he'd always ended up leaving, but this day, in some way, he knew that it would be different, that this would be the day, and in the end he was proven correct. He'd started to leave, but then he'd started back, barely turned on his heel, and then there was one of the other doctors for the ranch coming out and calling out to him. It was happening, the foal was on its way, and things were already not looking well. Lucas started to walk again before any of this had been said. He texted Maya to let her know not to wait for him for dinner and into the stables he went. As time would progress, more and more of the medical staff would find its way back here to help in what way they could. This mattered to every last one of them.

Sylvie would be right there by Lucas' side when the delivery would be achieved, helping him to bring her forth, a fretting little thing, best of all a thriving little thing. Several of the others focused on seeing to her, while the others focused on her mother. They would praise her for what she had accomplished, passing on to her all the love and care they could, even as they were left to know deep down where this would end. Their fears were coming true. The mother would not survive the night, and there was nothing for them to do about it except to be there with her. Lucas was never so proud of his staff as he was on this night, and this went for those of them who were non-medical as for the ones who were inside the stables with him. He would get to realize in time that they had all been gathering outside, the news spreading quickly. The horses were as much a part of the Sullivan Stables family as they were, and one of them was leaving them that night. They stayed and they stood by until she'd gone.

In the end, it was just Lucas, Sylvie, and the newborn. His assistant had already committed to spending the night out here, to keep watch over the foal, and he knew there was no point suggesting otherwise. Sylvie's husband Pawel would be there with her, too, and she wanted Lucas to be able to return home to his family. Neither one of the younger couple had said a word of it, suggesting it was still early days for them, but Lucas was just about certain that Sylvie and Pawel were at long last expecting their first baby. If that was so, then the events of this night were only going to hit that much harder.

He wasn't left unaffected either, not by a long shot. The little one didn't have a name yet, but she was a sweet one. Looking after her, he couldn't help but feel that fatherly protection he'd cultivated over the last decade and some. She was far from being a baby, it was not the same, but from where he was standing, wasn't it just similar enough that he would feel terrible at the notion that she no longer had her mother?

"What are we going to name you, huh?" Lucas asked her, signing along and looking to Sylvie for her input. She was looking on, smiling at the scene, bittersweet.

"It's too early. We need to know who she is first," she informed him.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," he hummed, then smiled again. "You know what though, I know my girls will have a million ideas," he informed the young horse. As prepared as they had been made for this eventuality, he knew that they would be crushed by the news, the pain only lessened by the knowledge that there was this new little one waiting to know them, to be named…

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners