Chapter 134
For the Children

"Mommy, there's a big wall!" Elliott cried out as he looked through the kitchen window. Noah ran over to look, too, before Maya ever had a chance to get up and go there herself.

"Wow…" the smaller boy exclaimed in awe.

"Yeah, big wall," Maya nodded. "It's going to be there for a few months, and it's very important that you don't go play with it, alright? Both of you?" she looked down, a hand to either one of her sons' heads. They turned four blue eyes up to her at once.

"Why?" Noah asked. That was the big question lately, for everything.

"Remember we told you how we were going to build a house for Pappy Joe out there?" she asked. They did. "Right, well, they're starting to build it now, so they put the wall right there to make sure no one would go in and maybe get hurt. Like two little brothers," she squinted at them.

"I'm the big brother," Elliott instantly pointed at himself.

"Me, too," Noah declared, reaching his hand up to his mother's growing belly.

"Sorry, I should have said small in this case," Maya laughed. "There's going to be a lot of things in there, things that could get you hurt, and we don't want that, right?" They shook their heads. "Good, so…"

"I want to see the house!" Elliott pleaded.

"Me, too!" Noah raised his hands.

"They're just starting, there's not much to see…" Maya tried to tell them, but they just kept staring at her. "Alright, come with me. Come, come," she guided them out of the kitchen.

Up the stairs they went, and then after getting the attic trap down, she helped them up the stairs. Oh, they loved going in the attic. Once they were there, Maya blocked the path to the stairs with the attic gate Lucas had built them. As soon as they'd reached the floor, Elliott and Noah had started running around the wide space, chasing each other and laughing, completely forgetting why they'd come here in the first place.

"Look, out there," Maya went to the window looking out the back of the house and the boys ran over to join her. From here, they could see what lay on the other side of the wall.

As she'd told them, there really wasn't much to see as of yet. Mostly they had started digging, and they couldn't even say that it looked like the outline of the house or anything, but either way the work had started. It would be months, and Maya especially was not looking forward to 'construction sounds' being added to her list of late pregnancy grievances along with the summer heat creeping closer to them, but when it was all finished, oh, it would be so worth it. Pappy Joe would have his house, him and Patty, too. It had been decided now that she would come and spend her weekends out in Austin with them for the remainder of the semester while she taught. This had meant replacing Pappy Joe's single bed for a larger one, and it had been really kind of sweet to watch him deal with the prospect. He hadn't shared a bed with anyone since his Susannah had passed away many years ago and he had likely never imagined he would do so again in his lifetime, until Patty Robinson came into the picture.

"Look! Daddy!" Noah pointed, his little finger prodding at the window.

"Yeah, there he is, making sure your great grandfather doesn't get hurt, because he doesn't understand why the big wall is there," Maya spoke sweetly, even as she shook her head to herself. Sure, he was curious, and he wanted to see for himself how things were going, but he knew as well as they did that he had never been so solid as before after his fall down the stairs, and a terrain like that… Maya could see Lucas, fighting an inner battle between wanting to leave his grandfather be and trying to take his arm for support even if he'd complain that it was unnecessary. He could be so stubborn sometimes.

"Can we go?" Elliott asked. Yeah, saw that coming, thanks guys.

"Not right now, sprout, but later, definitely. For now, you can stand up here and watch. It's really the better spot to see it all happen, if you ask me. Plus, that means you get to be up here a lot more," she impressed with wide eyes and a tip of the head as they looked at her. It did the trick.

Almost like he could sense them watching, Lucas stopped where he stood and turned his head up toward the attic window. There they were, his wife, their boys, waving – and hopping, in Elliott and Noah's case – at him. He turned back as he heard Pappy Joe's great laugh and found that he'd spotted them, too.

"Look at them, front row seats to the big show," he declared. Lucas chuckled. Finally, he was able to convince his grandfather to step back through the safety gate and start back for the house. They were to stop and clean under their shoes properly before they went back in, by the demands of having grown up under Melinda Friar's roof, or living under Maya's now, really, who was to say. "How's it going with Dylan and all of them?" Lucas sighed. How was it going? A lot of the same, wasn't it?

It had been just over a week now since the stormy, blacked out sleepover, since the night Dylan had discovered that his mother was still in Austin, that she was apparently married to an old friend of his father's, and that they had two children, one of them being Maya's young friend, Phoebe. So much of what they were able to know, to discover, had to come from other things they knew, and what conclusions they were able to reach from there. Phoebe's presence in Austin and her name had filled in some of the blanks, and then her age… She would have had to have been born not long after her mother, Dylan's mother, had left home and abandoned her husband and two sons, which suggested… Jocelyn Orlando had been having an affair, with Peter Munroe. She'd gotten pregnant, and in the end had decided to leave Christopher, Kyle, and Dylan Orlando and start a new life with this other man and their baby.

No one knew but those six of them who'd been in the kitchen that night. They hadn't told Dylan's family, and as for Phoebe's… There was one unwavering rule as they'd proceeded from that night, Dylan's rule: they had to handle all of this with great care, keeping whatever shrapnel that would come from it from striking Phoebe or her little brother in any way. From Maya's previous conversations with Phoebe they knew that his name was Taylor, and he was in the fourth grade. Neither he nor his big sister would have any idea about what their parents had done years ago, before either one of them was born, and it wasn't their fault. They were as much at risk if not more to be affected by the revelation.

And for all that, Dylan was stuck, because no matter how they'd come about, they were his siblings, and he wanted to know them. He wouldn't get to do that though, not without getting in touch with his mother somehow, so until he knew how to do that, there was nothing he could do about stepping into the role of big brother. Riley and Rosa both had been doing everything they could to support him through all this. From what they'd told Maya and Lucas, he was very much struggling with the revelation, as much as he tried to keep a brave face.

"Right… We need to go," Lucas breathed as he looked at the time. "You're going to be okay out here, right?" he turned back to his grandfather.

"Are you suggesting I'm going to take those little guys out there?" Pappy Joe with a smirk as he pointed back to the barrier.

"I'm suggesting it might cross your mind if they ask it real cute," Lucas countered.

"I can't even resent that," he admitted. "Don't worry, Patty is on her way back from visiting her son, she's bringing back Molly, and the five of us are going to be just fine and staying away from that gate. You get out there and bring us back some good news."

"We'll try."

They were hoping, Maya and him, that today's appointment might let them know whether they were gearing up for baby boy number three or baby girl number one. All opinions in their friends and families' circles were very much divided, and both Maya and Lucas were sure there was some money waiting to be exchanged, depending on who was right or not.

"Maybe we should get in on that," Maya laughed as they neared the clinic and discussed what they knew of the wagers.

Shawn and Katy were in the boy camp, as were MJ and Alex. The twins wanted a girl, and they would be of the same mind as Thomas and Melinda, although the latter seemed to be playing for both sides of the coin. Riley, Zay, Chiara, Ray, and Willow said girl, but Dylan, Rosa, Sophie, Asher, and Lion said boy. Pappy Joe and Patty were both of a mind that it would be a boy again, and then as for the little big brothers, well, they still hadn't asked them. Soon, they'd get to tell them what they were getting – hopefully – and they were fairly certain that either answer would be merrily received.

"I don't know, I have a feeling we both have the same answer," Lucas smiled at her.

"Yeah, probably," Maya agreed with a slow nod. It was the answer that boiled down to 'we would be over the moon to finally have a girl, but this tadpole has felt like a boy from the start, whether or not that's just because it's what we've had both times before.' "We never know, right?"

"Right," he reached over and clasped her hand as they came to a stop. She held his gaze, squeezed his hand back. Here we go.

All they were after in actively finding out this time was that feeling they got, whenever they crossed a milestone like that with their unborn children. The first heartbeat, the pictures, the movements and the kicks, and this today, finding out whether they were having a boy or a girl… Each new step felt like another piece added to the puzzle, to bring their child closer to feeling real, until the day it would be placed in their arms. Once they got this piece, well… They could finally start thinking about names.

"You alright there?" Lucas asked as they sat in the waiting room. He was pretty sure what that jittery state was about, but he had to ask.

"Oh, I think you know," she turned her head toward him. She really had to pee, but she couldn't go. He slowly considered this for a moment. She needed a distraction.

"Do you think they know? Phoebe's parents? That she and Dylan have met?" It wasn't ideal, but if he was looking for something that would take over her mind while they waited for their turn… Maya let out a sigh, hand slowly gliding along the curve of her belly.

She could almost see it, Phoebe being so happy to tell her father how she'd run into that player from the old basketball team, the one he'd pointed out to her, Dylan. Knowing what they knew now, it opened a new interpretation of that moment, years ago. Possibly, Peter Munroe had been looking at the boy on the court, his friend's son, his wife's son, thinking about… all of that. And maybe he'd only pointed him out to Phoebe because she'd caught him staring.

She barely knew the family, any of them, but she'd made a fast connection to Phoebe, and… and… Well, she was a mother, too. No pathway in her mind seemed capable of finding itself anywhere that might explain how Dylan and Phoebe's mother could have walked away from her sons. In her mind, she saw two little boys, and they were supposed to be Kyle and Dylan, but all she saw were Elliott and Noah. How could she ever…

Yes, she had her father's perspective in her mind, she knew that sometimes these things happened, and they weren't right, and the parent knew it, and they regretted it, but there had been… circumstances… In the end, she and her father had mended their relationship, and she cherished that short time they had together before he passed. Maybe… Maybe this was the first step toward Dylan getting to do the same with his mother. Or, maybe it wasn't, maybe they couldn't fix that break, and it wouldn't be any of those kids' fault, it…

Did she blame their mother unjustly? Was she being harsher in her mind because she didn't understand how a mother could ever leave her children? Once upon a time, she'd been afraid that she might have it in her to flee, like she had some gene in her that would send her flying, but she would never… ever… She probably thought that, too. It wasn't like she'd been walking around in life, planning to abandon one family in favor of another, but… Why? Why? No matter what she did, she couldn't seem to understand. She couldn't intervene, it wasn't her place, but she did worry so much. For Dylan, for Phoebe…

"I don't know…" she finally answered Lucas' question. "When Phoebe's father came to pick up the cake, I… Part of me wanted to say something," she admitted. "I didn't, but… he was right there, and it would have been easy. But he was so thankful, for everything we did, keeping Phoebe overnight, and then the cake… We talked about pottery."

"Pottery?" Lucas asked.

"His wife makes it," Maya explained. "She sells what she makes, teaches people, too. He said that she'd started to make something, for the baby, to say thanks, and also that if I ever wanted to learn to do it myself, she'd be glad to teach me."

"Are you going to?" Lucas wondered.

"Thought about it," Maya shrugged. "In a way, it would just be something I'd like to learn, you know me and new medium. But then I know some of it comes from just needing to see who this woman is, trying to understand, and that wouldn't be right. If I step into her house, if I sit and let her show me what she knows, then I have to tell her the truth, tell her that I'm friends with her son, and I know who she is to him, who he and Phoebe are to one another. I can't lie. Sooner or later, it would come out, and people would get hurt. And I don't think I can introduce myself in there and say anything, not so long as Dylan is keeping away."

"Yeah…" Lucas agreed. "I keep wondering if they'd made some connection already, once they heard your name, if they heard mine, too. She'd remember, wouldn't she? How I was Dylan's friend, and then my mother and her being friends, too… Maybe she figured we could have lost contact over the years…" There was nothing they could do about it here or now. Maya just sighed, rest her head at his shoulder.

If nothing else, the discussion had helped them pass the time. Just half a minute later, they were called in and the appointment could begin. Before long, they were in the room, and there on the screen was their little tadpole. Everything was looking just as it should, development on track with where it needed to be at this point. For a while, they weren't sure whether they would get to find out what they'd hoped to find out today, as the baby was turned in a position that kept them from seeing what they needed to see.

"Come on, don't be shy, tadpole…" Maya breathed.

Whether by this light coaxing or just by chance, they saw a look on the woman's face and knew she'd seen what she needed to see, so they looked back to the screen together. That little jolt it gave them, just to know… Oh, it really never got old, did it? Now, they couldn't wait to tell everyone. The only disappointment any of them would feel would be in the money some of them were about to have to hand over.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners