Chapter 47
Brothers and Sisters

The whole way from the gate, to baggage claim, into the car, and off to summer camp, Maya had barely managed to get a word in, as Sam, Cara, Eliza, and Wyatt all spoke excitedly to one another. The first two would talk about their flight, and what the house had looked like before they'd left – nearly empty, stacks of boxes all along the living room walls – while the younger two would talk about camp, and their room, and their new friends, and the baby… There had been a couple instances when one or the other had almost tripped and mentioned the cake before they'd either caught themselves or been stopped by the other. Maya didn't mind her being ignored in that instant. They were all just so happy to be back together again, and Maya was happy for them, too.

They might have stopped and had lunch, all of them together, except Eliza and Wyatt were headed off to camp for the rest of the day, and neither of them wanted to miss the picnic lunch and movie combo, which was one of their favorite parts about the camp. Sam and Cara would be attending, too, but only starting on the next day, to give them the chance to settle in and relax after their departure from New York that morning. Anyway, they needed to get back to the house, so Elliott could eat, too. So, they would pick up something on the way back and eat at home.

"Hey, guys, hey!" Maya called out over the noisy mess of the backseat, eventually getting her siblings' attention. "If you look ahead, you will find that we have reached our destination," she informed them, in her best tour guide voice.

Climbing out of the car, the five Hart siblings headed off to where they might drop off the last two. They were very eager to make sure they weren't late, and to their relief they discovered they were right on time. The kids were in the process of grabbing their food and finding a space to sit before the movie started.

"Eliza!" a girl called out, drawing the girl's attention. The others turned to find a pair of girls her age, waving back at her from the lunch line. Eliza turned to Maya.

"Go, I'll see you tonight," she indicated the pair, and Eliza took off at once, only to veer back and return to hug her eldest sister and the two who'd just arrived.

"Can my friends come for a sleepover this weekend?" she asked Maya, who took out of her phone and handed it to her sister.

"Go and get them to put their parents' numbers in? I'll call and see what we can do, okay?" And Eliza was off again, a girl on a mission. In the meantime, Wyatt had spotted his new friend, and he tapped his sister's arm to indicate him. "You want to go?" she guessed, and he nodded. "Alright, go on," Maya smiled, seeing how giddy he was, running to his friend. "And then there were three," she turned to Sam and Cara, ushering them back out.

Their lunch was picked up from the diner and then it was back off to the house on the lane. The drive from the camp and onward could have felt like a lot of repetition, as they'd ended up talking a lot about the move, and the flight, even though the others had already talked about it all with their younger siblings. Instead, listening to them, you would think they'd never told these stories before with how animated they were, and if Maya hadn't already been so glad to have them here at last, this would have gotten her there. It was like she needed to remind herself… they were here to stay.

They arrived at the house, where Sam and Cara decided to have their lunch outside, with Pappy Joe, while Maya took Elliott upstairs. By the time she returned, they had finished eating and Sam and Cara were back on story mode, telling Pappy Joe about their trip over while he sat there, the best audience they could ask for.

"Got yours on the warmer back there," Pappy Joe told Maya, who let out a very thankful sigh and went to get her lunch.

"Is Elliott sleeping?" Cara asked as she returned and sat with them.

"Yeah, he does that a lot," Maya told her. "Definitely my favorite out of his repeat activities, less noise, less stink…" Cara's face scrunched up while Sam laughed.

"I can't wait to see him," Cara finally declared.

"Yeah? I had no idea," Maya teased.

Cara got her wish a couple of hours later. By then, with lunch behind all of them and Pappy Joe off on his daily walk, Maya had taken her siblings through the house and then up to their temporary room, where they could go about unpacking the belongings they'd brought with them for their stay here. Neither of them seemed to mind that they were a bit crammed in, four of them in this one room. Then again, this might have been the closest thing they had to a normal looking room after leaving their slowly boxed up old home, so the closeness wouldn't have been so bad as a trade-off.

They were just finishing up in the small room when they caught the sound of the crying baby coming from the room across the hall. Cara turned to her sister at once, her eyes round with pleas.

"Let me just get him to turn off the sirens first, yeah?" Maya suggested, leading her brother and sister into the other room. Elliott's cries had evolved from 'I'm awake, where is everyone?' to 'hey, big people, seriously, where are you all?' volumes. "Alright, alright, take it easy," Maya hushed her son, lifting him out of his crib and holding him near, "Everything's fine, I'm right here…" she assured him, humming along.

Sam and Cara came to get a look at their nephew, teaming up for a bit of 'how about this face, will that cheer you up?' clowning. Eventually, after Cara had switched to singing, smacking her brother's arm until he'd join in, Elliott had stopped crying and she'd been allowed to hold him.

"That wasn't bad, you know?" Maya turned to Sam, locking her arms around him with a smirk. He just shrugged. "I'm serious," Maya insisted.

"I don't sing," he insisted right back.

"Just because you don't, doesn't mean you can't," Maya pointed out. "I swear I'm not concocting some plan to turn us into a family band or anything. I'm not even imagining costumes right now. I'm not even picturing you in a nice button-up… suspenders…"

"Sto-op!" Sam protested weakly, making his sister laugh and hug him tighter as she planted a kiss atop his head. His protest fizzed out. Playfulness aside, he was very happy to be here with his sister, his nephew… When Cara finally agreed to pass Elliott over, he showed an ease with the baby, honed in from years of big brother status with his younger siblings. This was different though. This was his nephew, and as excited as all of them were over the very idea of being aunts and uncles, Maya could just see how much Sam looked forward to being a presence in this little one's life as he grew up. For his part, Elliott looked very comfortable with both his aunt and uncle here today.

"Wow…" Cara exclaimed, finally getting a proper look at the mini mural tree with its colorful leaves. Sam looked at it, too, the fellow artist. They'd both seen pictures of it, but it really didn't capture what it was like in person, standing 'under' the tree.

A couple days after Eliza and Wyatt had arrived, the crib had been pulled away from the corner of the room. Maya's young siblings had looked upon the various color options and selected one each to have spread over their open palms and fingers before setting them to the wall, in what space they chose. Wyatt had wanted to be at the very top, so Lucas had lifted him on to his shoulders, holding him very carefully as he pressed his hand down as much as he could before lifting it away and looking upon his lime green imprint with a satisfied smile. Maya had then gone up, finishing out his leaf with her brushes and adding his name, just as she did the same for Eliza's turquoise hand, lower and nearer to her own.

Now it was Sam and Cara's turn. She'd asked if they wanted to do it, seeing as they'd already finished unpacking. Part of her was mostly just trying to minimize the chances of their ending up looking in the fridge and seeing the cake, but also she had been looking forward to having the last of her siblings' hands printed to the tree. They were just as anxious to get it done, so the crib was once again pulled back. Cara chose a bubble gum pink color for her handprint, while Sam chose a bold red. It was sort of fascinating to see how their two colors resembled one another, just as Eliza and Wyatt's had done, the two pairs distinct.

"Wyatt's hand is so small," Cara declared, looking at her little brother's leaf way at the top. Maya and Lucas would joke that he stuck out like a little bird poking out from over the highest branch and its leaves, which really suited him.

"You think that's small, look there," Maya smiled, moving up to point at the tree's 'trunk.' She and Lucas had set their own 'leaves' at the lowest, so nearest to where the crib top would land. Set just below and hidden, while the crib was in its place, was a handprint which hadn't been transformed into a leaf. The only thing added was Maya's finely traced lettering. Elliott, and just below, 31 May '23. Rather than to try and put paint on the baby's hand, Maya had taken the prints of his hand and foot they had from when he'd been born and she had reproduced it, in perfect dimensions. In a few years' time, there could be more tiny hands there with their son's, and they looked forward to it.

Sam printed his hand, and Cara printed hers after him, the two side by side.

"Wait, wait, high five," Sam laughed, when Cara had been about to go and wipe her hand clean. She grinned now, and they pressed their hands together, pulling them back to look at the resulting mix.

"It's not a big difference," Cara declared. "But I like it." They looked at each other now, unsure what to do with this.

"Here," Maya found one of her sketchbooks and opened it to a blank page. Sam and Cara printed what they could of their pink and red hands. Maya wrote their names and the date while they finally went to clean up. With the two new leaves completed, the crib was returned to its place, and the three siblings stood back to take in the finished result. "That's much better," Maya nodded.

"Mom and Dad need to put theirs when they come," Cara smiled.

"What colors do you think they'll use?" Maya asked her.

"Mom will want orange," her little sister declared after a moment to think. Sam agreed. "And Dad…"

"Purple," Sam chimed in, and both his sisters felt it was right. Maya was happy at the thought that she actually knew this. "What happens if you guys move?" Sam asked now, looking back at the tree.

"That is so not in the cards," Maya told him.

"Yeah, but if you do…"

"But we're not, okay?" Maya nudged his shoulder, so he left it alone. The question may have come up before, mostly in the back of Maya's mind, but it felt like opening up a whole thing that didn't need opening, so as best as she could she would try not to think about it.

Between lunch, and unpacking, and painting leaves to the mural tree, they had nearly passed through the whole of the afternoon and the time until the others would return from camp. Sam and Cara wanted to go and play outside, see what was around the house, so Elliott was set in his sling and Maya led her siblings out on their exploration.

They were still outside, where Cara had been demonstrating her ability to do cartwheels and a few flips from gymnastics class, when Maya spotted a familiar car coming up the lane and smiled.

"Incoming!" she pointed, and Cara just managed not to faceplant as she tripped mid-flip and turned to look where her sister had pointed. "Careful," Maya laughed apologetically.

"Who is it?" Sam asked, not recognizing the car.

"Lucas' aunt," Maya told him. "Two of her kids go to the camp, too, so she drives Eliza and Wyatt back in the afternoon. You met them at the hospital when Elliott was born, didn't you?" The way her younger brother's face followed the widening of his eyes, she guessed he did remember them. In particular, he remembered one of them. Lucas had told her all about how Sam's first encounter with his cousin Dora had gone, in the hospital waiting room. She hadn't even thought about all that until just now when Sam's whole demeanor had gone and shifted into something halfway between panic and anticipation. "Come on," Maya smirked, leading her brother to where Cara was already jogging to meet up with the car and its passengers.

The car's back door opened and Eliza hopped out, her little brother right behind her, and Lucas' cousin after him, giving Wyatt a hand to hold as he came down. As she emerged fully, the fourteen-year-old spotted Cara first and waved at her, before seeing Maya with the baby and Sam at her side. She waved at him, too, and Maya bit back a laugh, seeing his hand raise somewhat dazedly.

"I love your bracelets!" Cara exclaimed, seeing the many friendship bracelets fastened at each the older girl's wrists. There had to be seven to ten on each side, in a multitude of colors and patterns.

"Thanks," Dora smiled, turning her wrists about, looking at the woven strings.

"Did you make them?" Cara stepped up to get a closer look.

"These ones," Dora showed her left arm. "The others came from some of the others at camp," she went on, showing the right arm now. "I can show you how if you want." At this, Cara turned back to her sister.

"Can they stay?" she asked Maya, who swore she heard her brother gulp.

"Uh, well, that'd be fine by me, depends if they can though," she explained, looking to Dot Cassidy as she'd also stepped out. Sitting in the front passenger seat, thirteen-year-old Alex Cassidy hadn't come out with the others, though he'd crawled across and into the driver's seat, where he could look out the open window and wave to his cousin's fiancée.

"I don't see why not," Dot told Maya with a smile. "I'll call Emmett and have him come with Junior." At this, Cara turned back to Dora with a grin, and the older girl scooped her along by the hand and led her off toward the house. Eliza ran after them, and Wyatt after her. Meanwhile, Alex finally had to come out of the car, and he walked over to Sam to reintroduce himself. They were the same age, sure, but with Sam being grades ahead in school, it almost felt like they weren't. Still, they walked together as Alex asked about flying on a plane without his parents there and how that had gone.

Lucas returned from work no more than an hour after the Cassidys had started to arrive, the Emmetts, senior and junior, having arrived twenty minutes before him. Emmett Sr. was presently holding the baby and telling Maya about the first time he'd held baby Lucas. When they spotted him, both Sam and Cara came over and greeted their future brother-in-law, seeing him for the first time since they'd landed in Texas that morning.

"Lucas, look!" Cara showed him the bracelet on her arm, in pink and yellow and blue and white. It was not brand new of this day, instead having left Dora's left wrist. "She gave it to me! And I'm making one now," she pointed to the safety pin stuck just at the cuff of her shorts, from which the partially woven strings dangled.

"Looks great," he declared with a nod, chuckling as she hurried back to where Dora was helping Eliza with her own bracelet. "Hey, Sam," Lucas tapped the boy's shoulder as he approached. "No bracelet for you?" he asked.

"N-No, that's okay," Sam shrugged, scratching at the back of his head. "I already know how."

"Well that's great, go for it then," Lucas told him, and Sam managed to shake his head in a way that felt both emphatic and discreet. "Hey, Dora, Sam here says he knows how to make those, too," Lucas called to his cousin. Sam looked like his eyes would burst from his head.

"I have more string!" Dora replied with a smile.

"You'll thank me later," Lucas whispered to Sam. "Go on."

"But I…" he protested, whispering back.

"But you what?" Lucas challenged him to finish the sentence. Sam couldn't do it, but it didn't mean that the overall sentiment wasn't right there on his face, or that he wouldn't know Lucas would be able to see it and understand it. "It's just bracelets, bud."

So, Sam went and sat across from Dora, selecting colors when showed him the bundles in the pencil case where she carried those, and the small scissors and the safety pins she'd need. There were also small strips of paper that looked to be pattern instructions for various designs. She was all set. Sam picked out the things he needed and went about starting his own. When Dora smiled, clearly happy that he'd joined them, Sam looked like he almost forgot what he was supposed to be doing for a few seconds there.

The bracelet making had to be put on halt a little while later, as dinner would be served. By then, Sam, Dora, Cara, Eliza, and Alex all had half-made bracelets dangling from one pant leg or another, though in Dora's case it was already a second, both of hers being 'commissions' requested by fellow campers. Her nimble fingers worked fast, and to look at what she created, you could see why she was in demand as she was. She'd already promised to make one for Eliza after her second one, and the eight-year-old looked like she could barely contain herself for the wait. Lucas suspected Sam would have made a similar request if he didn't get so tongue-tied around the Cassidy girl.

"Is it now?" Wyatt whispered to his sister after bolting from his chair to follow her, when they had finished dinner and she'd gone to check on the baby. She didn't need to ask what he was going on about. He wanted to know if they could bring out the cake.

"Right after I come down, okay?" Maya promised with a smile, continuing up the steps.

"Diaper time?" Wyatt inquired. He was back on the clock as her helper after all.

"Maybe," Maya laughed, motioning for him to catch up and follow.

The cake was brought out a few minutes later. Sam and Cara were instructed to shut their eyes, which they did, though to maintain the surprise a little while longer – the surprise that it was made for the two of them specifically – all the guests had to do the same, including Eliza and Wyatt. When they were all told they could look again, there were noises of surprise all around, everyone reacting to the reveal, none more than the newly arrived siblings. They especially loved the little figures made to look like them, sitting atop the whole thing, along with those of their newly reunited younger brother and sister.

"Today was so good!" Cara quietly declared as she climbed into bed next to her little sister later that evening. Normally, she and Sam were allowed to stay up an hour more than their younger siblings, but they had started their day in New York, and between the trip and all the activity that had followed, they were more than happy to turn in early.

"Yeah?" Maya asked her, trying not to look too much like the relieved older sister/guardian.

"We got to do so much," Cara nodded, settling down next to the already halfway snoozing Eliza. In the other bed, Wyatt was already down for the count, while Sam looked like he was trying to pass himself off as already dozing off, though they could see him absently turning the string bracelet around his wrist. "I'm really glad we're here now," Cara told her older sister. It made Maya smile and reach down to embrace her.

"We're right across the hall if you need anything, okay?"

"Okay," Cara nodded, pulling back and settling in. Eliza turned toward her and huddled close.

Maya said goodnight to her siblings, shutting the light as she stepped out and shut the door most of the way. Heading out across the hall, she did the same for the door to hers and Lucas' bedroom, where he stood by the window, looking out, with their son in his arms.

"According to Cara, today was a big success," Maya reported, smiling. Lucas turned to look at her as she came up toward him, looking on to the sleeping babe he held.

"It really was," Lucas agreed. If his own feelings on the matter weren't enough, he could see it on her face, too, and on her brothers and sisters' faces as he'd said goodnight to them earlier. It left the young parents with an outlook they would carry through in days, and weeks, and years to come. Today was great, tomorrow would be better.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners