A/N: Please note that next week's chapter will be on FRIDAY DECEMBER 31st to line up with the end of the year. The chapters will be going up on Fridays for 2022.

Chapter 137
The Not So Terrible Twos

Noah didn't want them to cut his hair. For days, not even the promise of going to see "Mr. Tiger" at the barber's would convince him, and he loved the man with the two-toned hair who'd see to his great grandfather, and his father, and his big brother, too. He'd make him laugh and he had little chocolates in a jar from which he'd let them pick a piece. Noah didn't care. The moment they'd suggest it, he'd bolt and hide with his arms over his head.

"No!"

"I need to have some strong words with my father," Maya's smile bordered on lethal. Lucas wasn't going to get in the way of that.

It had never been intended to turn out this way, no. But then a week ago, with Noah's birthday approaching, they'd started talking about what they would do for it, between the party, and the cake… Last year, when he'd turned one, there hadn't been much discussion in the way of themes, with him still being so small. Now he was still small, yes, but comparing Noah at one and Noah coming on to two, he might as well have been a whole other person. The one thing that didn't change was his birthday. May the 4th… Star Wars day…

He hadn't seen any of those movies yet, probably wouldn't for another year or two, but by virtue of having enough people in his life who were aware of the connection between the date and the franchise, the toddler was amassing a sizable collection of toys, and books, and clothing related to all those iconic characters, and so did Elliott, naturally. They couldn't leave him out, could they?

Now, Noah's hair wasn't that long, but it was getting to the point where his curls seemed to have taken a mind of their own. And when they'd gone and taken the little Hunters and Friars to the pool, Noah had emerged from the water at one time with all his hair in his face and a new nickname. Shawn had started to call him Chewie. Noah didn't just know who that was, it was possibly his favorite character. And from that day, especially as he understood he'd gotten it because of his hair, he'd insisted on retaining the nickname from his grandfather.

And now they wanted to take away his Chewie hair! Oh, he couldn't let that happen, no way, never.

"Alright, look, I'll handle it," Shawn told his daughter when he was informed of the 'situation.' "Do the crime, do the time, right?"

"Dad…" Maya warned, and even on the phone she could associate the sound he made with the look that would appear on his face, something amounting to 'just trust me on this.' "Fine," she sighed.

So, Shawn came and collected his grandsons on Sunday morning, the third day of May, to take them to see Mr. Tiger. It all worked well enough to allow everyone else to prepare for the small party, which would bring together the many branches of the boy's family, his parents' friends and their children when they had them. No one among them was looking forward to this day as much as the birthday boy's parents. They were now reaching the point in Noah and in Elliott's lives where their sons' birthdays were going to start being more about them, not just their loved ones gathering as their parents opened their presents for them, or as they grabbed at their cake with eager hands. Oh, they were looking forward to all those parties, for one boy, and another, and one more…

"Daddy's back!" Nellie hollered out to her big sister from her post at the window, next to Gracie. The six-year-olds hopped down and hurried to the door, soon to be joined by their four-year-old brother and then just about every last kid already at the house.

"Clear me a path, will you?" Maya tapped Lucas' arm and he grinned before moving ahead of her.

"Alright, alright, come on," he went and led the way toward the door.

"Whoever doesn't step aside won't get cake," Maya 'threatened' at his back, and the kids sprang aside at once. "You're too nice for this," she teased her husband as he opened the door and she moved at his side in time to see just as he did the trio now standing on the porch.

Here was Shawn Hunter, standing with a winning smile behind his young grandsons. Whether it was the fact that one of them was a day shy of two and the other four weeks from turning three years old or their cleanly executed haircuts, but those sweet little boys of theirs had never felt so tall and grown.

"Daddy, touch here, look!" Elliott felt at the back of his head.

"Here?" Lucas picked him up and did as asked. "Nice," he showed himself appropriately impressed at the soft short hair. "With the clippers?" he asked even as he carefully brushed at the longer layers atop his head. Elliott nodded with the pride of one who'd previously been afraid of letting the buzzing object anywhere near his head but now was not scared at all anymore and wanted everyone to know.

"What do you think of birthday boy Chewie over here?" Shawn asked as he hoisted Noah up and faked out throwing him in the air before catching him, which made the boy laugh and made his mother's heart take a brief leap of its own. She couldn't even be mad, between proud Grandpa Shawn's face and his little buddy showing his shorter but still prominent and bouncing curls. He may have lost some length to his hair but he had not lost his nickname. Also, he'd gained a small bag, which he carried with the tight grip of someone who'd been handed a treasure.

"I think he looks ready for a party," Maya gave him a big smile.

"Come on, show her the shake," Shawn tapped his arm and Noah shook his head to let his curls move until he had to stop because it was making him dizzy.

"What do you have there?" Maya asked him, pointing to the bag. Noah looked down, thought for a moment, then reached inside and pulled out a small, wrapped square before offering it out to his mother. "Oh, I see," Maya spoke with an impressed tone. "From Mr. Tiger?"

"I got one, too!" Elliott showed her. "For my birthday but before," he explained as he took out one of his chocolates. "Here, Daddy," he gave it to Lucas.

"Should have sent you with them, we might have gotten a third bag," Maya joked as they finally went back into the house, the better for everyone to appreciate the new cuts. "We're going to have to hide those, or they'll be gone in ten seconds."

As wonderfully chaotic as a two-year-old's birthday could be – and it was – it was not yet Noah's birthday. That would come the following day, and it would be the most special day.

"Think they're awake out there?" Maya asked, sounding as barely awake as she was as she looked to find Lucas was already 'in conference' with their tadpole boy. His hand sat pressed to the ever-stretching skin of her belly, slipped under her t-shirt.

"Oh, definitely," Lucas smiled up at her. "I heard them laughing a few minutes back. Do you want me to go get them?"

"No, no, give them more time, this is good here, too," she nodded to him, to his hand.

"What's he up to this morning?" Lucas asked her as he looked back down, lightly drummed his fingers where they lay.

"I don't know what he's doing exactly, but keep your hand there, I've got a good feeling he might be revving up to say, 'hello, Daddy,'" Maya tipped her head with confidence.

"Yeah?" he perked up at once, his hand slipping away in the process.

"Put it back, put it back," Maya pointed.

"Sorry, did I miss it?" Lucas returned his hand.

"No, now just stay like that."

"Yes, ma'am," he smirked, especially at the look on her face. A minute went by, then two, then three. "How sure are you about…" Lucas whispered.

"Hang on, let me just…" Maya pressed her hand over his mouth, cleared her throat. She started to sing her father's lullaby, not too loud, not too soft. Lucas listened, his smile under her fingers convincing her to pull her hand away, to join it to his on her belly.

Her instincts proved to be finely tuned, as their little tadpole went and made himself felt under his father's hand. It never got old, never stopped being the most amazing thing. First contact.

"Morning, tadpole," Lucas spoke quietly to his hand, to where he'd felt it. A moment later, they could hear someone working with the doorknob out in the hall, and the shadows of little feet. "I think they heard you singing," Lucas whispered before getting up. They'd managed to open one door to get out of their room, and now they were trying to gain entrance into their parents' room. When he opened the door, there was Elliott with his hand up, Noah just behind him. "Morning, fellas."

"You're not sleeping," Elliott informed him, as good as saying that they'd heard their parents and expected them to show up in their room by then.

"Neither are you," Lucas reasoned, barely containing his smirk. Behind his big brother, Noah held up his hand, thumb and index stretched out. "Yes, you're two," Lucas confirmed, picking him up for some good hugs and kisses. "Happy, happy," he told his giggling son. Had it been one year already since Elliott had chanted the word over and over? "Hey, come here, come here," he guided the older boy toward the bed. He didn't have to nudge all that much and Elliott would dash over and work to climb up. Lucas gave him a boost, and soon was able to set Noah before Maya, who caught him up for some birthday wishes of her own.

"How many again?" she asked him, and he gladly displayed a pair of fingers. "Not possible," she 'gasped.' "You were teeny tiny in here a second ago," she insisted, poking the top of her belly.

"Two," Noah held up the fingers again with a smile full of baby teeth.

"Yeah, so is he," Lucas pointed to Elliott. "Imagine that."

"Yeah, for the next few weeks, you guys are going to be the same age," Maya informed her baffled boys as they looked to one another. "You're two, and he's two, for… twenty-seven days, and today is the first of those." Okay, they kind of loved that. "Hey, do something for me, put your little hands over here," Maya told them after pulling her shirt off her belly. She pointed, and they put their hands in at once, both of them, until there were four of them there, waiting, maybe for nothing.

"Try the singing again," Lucas suggested.

"Right, the singing," Maya imbued the words with the power he had given them before looking to Elliott and Noah, staring at her like they didn't understand what they were waiting on. "Okay, then," she cleared her throat. Out the lullaby came again, a bit louder this time, and whether drawn to act by the sounds of his mother's voice or not, the tadpole came and was felt, first under Noah's startled hand, then Elliott's, too, as Maya reached and brought it closer to where she'd felt it herself.

"Ta'pole?" Noah asked.

"The one and only," Maya whispered.

"He's saying happy birthday, big brother," Lucas added at the new two-year-old's ear, who took this in stride and hugged around the growing bump as though it would allow him to hug his baby brother.

X

The further the month of May would advance, the busier they would be. Their primary activity throughout those thirty-one days could be seen as birthdays and more birthdays, but this time around there were other things to keep them occupied. There was the ever-growing tadpole, yes, but this month in particular they were dealing with the end of the semester, the end of their last semester, their last ever finals, and soon enough their graduation. With all the delays of babies, and moving schools, and changing degrees, nothing looked the way they'd expected it to when they'd started college nearly five years ago. Married, with two and soon three children, shifting from high to middle school teacher and from veterinary education to business school… They wouldn't change any of it.

While they were not up to that graduation day yet, they continued having to study and do assignments, to work at the mall and to look after their boys. And there were those three birthdays. Noah's had come and gone, and next down the line was Lucas, who would be turning twenty-five, or 'a whole quarter of a century,' as Maya would insist on saying it with a great big grin.

It was at the first of her sessions with Stella Buckley following Noah's birthday that the plan had been instigated for her to bake and assemble her husband's cake at the Buckley house. She would work on it, with Stella's father's assistance, all the while doing her time with her friend and student exceptionally at the kitchen table. This way, the components would come together little by little, and eventually all together, to then be delivered to their house with the birthday man none the wiser.

Whether she wanted it or not, it was at these sessions that Maya would most often find herself thinking about Phoebe, and her mother, and Dylan. Days had gone by after her encounter with Jo Munroe, and then a week, and then two, and she never heard once of any indication that the woman had sat her children down and told them any part of the truth that she'd been keeping from them. She couldn't even do anything about it, could she, not without tipping her hand in any way.

Finally, there had been a day when Phoebe stopped in at the art store while Maya was working. Her mother had been with her, and the whole thing had been very casual, completely normal, because what else were they going to do with Phoebe just there. Then the girl had gone off to investigate a few items, and her mother had very discreetly dropped her façade. She'd told Maya how she and her husband had both agreed that it might be in everyone's best interest if they waited to drop their big reveal until after the end of the school year. If they told them now, it could confuse a lot of things for them and make things bad for them in ways they didn't need to be. This made sense to Maya as well, so, for now, there was nothing else to do except to keep waiting. They could do that.

"Are we still going to meet during the summer?" Stella asked as she carried the box of smaller elements for the cake over to the minivan. Her father was carrying the actual cake.

"I don't see why not," Maya smiled. "If it's okay with your parents, of course. We'll figure something out, and… oh…" she paused.

"What's wrong? Is it the baby?" Stella asked.

"What? Oh, no, no… Well, also yes… sort of… It's just that I'm due in September, as you know, and I just realized that it's going to be hard for me to keep doing this for a while once fall comes around for you and the new school year."

"Oh, that's okay," Stella replied with surprising ease.

"It is?" Maya blinked.

"Yes, because… Oh…" Now Stella was the one to look perplexed. In her case it resolved itself into something almost sad. "I was going to tell you later, but I… I forgot it would mean…"

"Tell me what?"

"I… I decided I want to go to a school, a regular one," Stella nodded.

"What?" Maya blinked. She was surprised, how could she not be? "Are you sure? I mean… When did you decide? What changed your mind?" As long as she'd known her, Stella had always talked like she intended to continue home schooling all the way, as long as she could.

"My parents and my sisters, they kept saying how I might want to go, that it would help… open things up for me, but I never really wanted that. And then I just thought… If I go now, I'm not alone, so it won't be so bad…" Stella shrugged. Maya smiled. Phoebe. She had a friend now, an ally in that brave new world. "Plus, I'd be in eighth grade, and if I don't like it, I can just switch back for high school and no one will know."

"Well, like I said, we'll figure something out, you and me. As long as you need me there, I'll be there," Maya vowed. At this, Stella set down her box so she could hug her, and Maya welcomed the gesture. This made her think back about the idea of the baking club, and she only wished she could have started it while Stella was still in middle school, but then she didn't need the club specifically, did she? She was part of the team, one of her junior bakers. "Until then, we are going to have to start thinking about Elliott's cake, too, and I might need to borrow your kitchen again."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners