Chapter 139
Chapters For Life

"Can I come in?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

"Well, you closed the door, so I assumed you didn't want me to see until you were ready or something."

"This isn't a date, and we already got married, so you're clear, come on in."

As he opened the door, Lucas detected the slightest edge of frustration in his wife's voice, and he soon understood why when he saw her. There she stood, framed in her mirror, wearing her graduation gown over her dress for the day. He'd seen that dress on her just a few minutes ago, before he'd gone over to the boys' room to make sure that they were not doing anything that would get their outfits dirty, and she looked breathtaking in it. She was coming along through this third pregnancy and her figure was evolving to follow along with the growth of their unborn son, an evolution which her dress highlighted in the very best way.

The gown, on the other hand, had no subtleties whatsoever, and while he would be his usual supportive self, he could understand why she would be displeased by the image.

"How upset would they be if I kept it open?" Maya asked him. "This is fine, isn't it?" she opened the gown, gave him a few poses.

"I mean, I like it," he nodded. She squinted at him.

"It's not fair, with you looking like that…" she gestured over at him with a sigh.

"Oh, this? No, that's just for your benefit," he promised, approaching to put his arms around her waist, peppering her face with small kisses which slowly but surely got her smiling and finally laughing again. "Anyway, you're missing your cap. Can't knock the outfit until it's complete."

"Yeah, unfortunately, I can't find it anymore. Do you know where…" she started to ask, but he held up a finger and took her hand, guiding her out of their room and across the hall.

In their room and entirely oblivious to their parents, Elliott and Noah Friar, in their finest little suits, were absently dancing about, their mother and father's respective caps on their heads, sending the tassels jumping this way and that with each movement and sounding very entertained for the effort. When Lucas cleared his throat, they turned around, their grins growing.

"You look pretty, Mommy," Elliott declared. Noah nodded his agreement, sending the oversized cap falling from his curly head. Lucas bit back the urge to laugh, and so did Maya, as she turned a squint in his direction.

"You told him to say that, didn't you?" she challenged.

"I really didn't," Lucas vowed, hand in the air. Maya still squinted at him, but she smiled over to the boys.

"Well, if you like it, then I like it," she told them. "Can I have my hat back, please?"

The caps were surrendered, just as the doorbell rang from below. They didn't know who it would be exactly, but they had it on good authority that it would be some grandparents or others, maybe aunts and uncles, too. Either way, it would be people they wanted to see, so Elliott and Noah dashed for the top of the stairs, which were barred off.

"I'll go, you finish up here," Patty Robinson came from the room down the hall, pausing to smile at her soon-to-be grandson and squeeze her former student's arm before guiding the little boys down the stairs.

"Come here, I have something for you," Lucas motioned back toward their room, and Maya followed him. When they were inside, he went to his nightstand and pulled a wrapped box from the drawer. "I know we said no presents, and this isn't one, technically, even if it's… wrapped like a present, just… You'll see," he nodded.

"Okay…" Maya replied, both curious and suspicious. She tore the paper away somewhere between neatly and chaotically, according to him. Inside was a plain, cube-shaped cardboard box. When she pulled the top open and pulled away a layer of colorful tissue paper, she fell away from suspicion in favor of curious delight. "Oh…" she laughed, as she pulled out the very small graduation cap, all of it identical to their own, from colors to the year on the tassel.

"I mean, he's been to class with you… the last few months of it at least. He'll definitely be there for the graduation, so…" Lucas reasoned, before laughing as she perched the small cap atop her bump.

"Now that's what this outfit was missing," Maya nodded.

"Nailed it," he agreed. Realistically, it couldn't happen, sure, and she placed the small cap over by the window, near the painted tree with all its leaves of handprints and names. But she looked on the whole a lot less concerned about the way the gown fit her, so there was that at least.

"Do you get that feeling, too? Like… How did we actually make it here already?" Maya asked him. "One second ago, we were just going through college, in Houston, figuring ourselves out? And then… that Halloween party…"

"Four tests," he nodded.

"And then we had Elliott, and we came here, and we adjusted our plans, and then Noah happened, and we needed… a whole new plan… and that was really scary…" she breathed out, remembering.

Lucas could only agree. He had not forgotten any of it, everything she'd fought through, looking to her future, and then… losing her father… But she'd powered through, they both had, and somehow, they'd ended up here, about to graduate, both of them together, one year later than planned and not quite where they'd first aimed to be, but all things considered…

"Now we're here, with this guy…" Maya looked down to her growing belly, stuck between them as he held her.

"This guy," Lucas agreed with a smile. September couldn't come soon enough.

"I think this is the first time where… even if we don't know exactly what's going to happen, now that we're through with school… It's not making me feel all anxious and just…" she gestured to indicate a frightened heart trying to beat out of her chest. She felt like they were in a good place, full of optimism. He felt it, too.

"Mommy! Daddy! Come down!" Elliott's voice reached them, his giddy summons reminding them that this day would be as much for them as it would be for their families… and now they were arriving.

As they walked down the stairs, finding Thomas, Melinda, Katy, Shawn, and Abigail all at the ready, several of them with cameras to capture 'the reveal' of the graduates in their caps and gowns, they were left to reflect some more on their… unexpected detour. They doubted that any of their parents would have envisioned them gaining their college diplomas as they did, aged twenty-five and twenty-four, married, with two children and a third on the way. But they'd made it, and that was really what mattered. If anything, they were prouder now than ever.

It was their journey, all of them together, and while not every last one of their family members and friends could be in attendance for the ceremony itself – not if the other graduates were to have any supporters there with them, they still had a sizable 'cheering section,' as Shawn would call it. However many of them were there as Lucas and Maya took the stage – one after the other, thanks to her having taken his name – both of them would say without a doubt that they most easily picked out the high little voices of their baby boys. Elliott and Noah would be sitting in the laps of either one of their grandfathers, and as their parents would later be told, they'd inquired several times over whether Mommy and Daddy would be going soon. When they'd gotten to the 'F' segment, the boys had been told 'soon,' but still to make it to 'Fr' had taken a while more.

Then it had been their father, and Thomas and Shawn had needed to keep a good hold of their grandsons, the better to prevent them tumbling down the next row of seats ahead of them for how they stretched up and started to call after their dad. They did so again when their mother came up, waving the flowers they were waiting to give her when they'd be reunited.

When Lucas had gone up there and he'd caught on to the sound of those squeaky cheers, he'd felt his heart swell with so much happiness… Whatever plan he'd had growing up, whatever goal he had set aside now in favor of working with his father, he had no regrets. He looked at those little boys, and he thought about their unborn brother, and he imagined himself being in school for several years still, studying, doing his residency… He could probably have done it, yes, but at what cost to his family? When it came right down to it, his old goal didn't mean anywhere near as much as making sure that his wife and their children all had a good life together. He had been so fortunate to have this other chance, just there. He was going to be working with his father now, very soon, and it was not a consolation prize. He looked forward to the work that they would accomplish side by side, just as he looked forward to coming home at the end of the day and seeing his sons grow up.

After he'd done his part and walked to the other end of the stage, Lucas waited there and watched as Maya was called and she walked out. The cheers had not stopped, only lowered so that they might hear her name, and then they'd resumed just as loudly, the collected guests knowing this was their entire 'moment,' the reason they'd come out here in the first place. Lucas and Maya had been weaving their way along with their fellow graduates, waiting to be called up, and of the small details of this day, Lucas knew that they would fondly remember how Maya had gone, holding on to his waist the whole way, like this was some sort of line dance. Would he mention the last thing she did before he walked out on stage when they recounted the story? Probably not, so their guests would just have to make up their own reasons why he'd seemed to be trying not to laugh when they'd seen him go. It was likely just as much to 'blame' for the smirk Maya barely managed to hide when she went up, like she fully expected him to recall that small incident as soon as she left the stage, and they were reunited. For now, what really went through her head would have to be the fact that she was standing there at all.

Had her career plans changed all that much? Not really. She'd first set out to teach in high school, and now she'd changed her mind, aimed to root herself in a middle school art class. She was fully aware of the fact that she didn't have the job yet, only the means to be hired for it, and even so, there was the whole pregnancy and imminent delivery, right around the time when the new school year would begin. Wherever she would find herself, whether it would be her old school or not, it wouldn't be until the fall of the following year. Until then, she'd be looking after the baby, still working at the art store, in all likelihood, and maybe it would take longer for her to actually get hired as a teacher… It could have frightened her, to wonder how long it would take for her to get that job, but it didn't… not even a little. She would have been certain that it'd be the other way around. After everything she'd gone through to even get her degree, surely… Instead, there was this feeling in her like… You made it. Not too long ago, that felt so impossible, and now here you are. So, why should the next part be any more impossible?

"Hello, fellow graduate," Maya beamed as she rejoined Lucas and took the hand he offered her.

"If it isn't the prettiest graduate of the day…" he replied, making her snort.

"I am ditching this gown as soon as I can, you know that, right?"

The day's festivities soon shifted back to the house on the lane, where their first set of guests was joined by those who hadn't been able to attend the ceremony itself. The party spread out across the land surrounding the front of the house. They would have been in the back, if not for the whole construction site aesthetic as Pappy Joe and Patty's little house was being built. No one complained. It was a sunny, breezy June day, and everyone was in a great mood.

It was a few hours later, as the party had dwindled down to only friends and immediate families and they were all just sitting around, talking, considering what they might do for dinner, when they were joined by a pair of completely unexpected new guests.

"Maya, isn't that your little clumsy friend?" Pappy Joe turned to his grandson's wife, the first to have spotted the duo rolling down the road on their bicycles and then slowing to a stop just at the mailbox and looking toward the group sitting on the front lawn.

At this description, Maya knew exactly who he was referring to, as did Lucas, and Dylan, and Riley… They all turned at once to see that it was indeed her, Phoebe Munroe. And just by the soon-to-be eighth grader's side, standing astride his own bicycle, was a boy of about ten or eleven. Even from a distance, it was impossible to see him and not notice how much he resembled a younger Dylan at that age. This would be Taylor Munroe, Phoebe's younger brother and thus…

"What…" Dylan blinked, his voice fading in just one syllable.

No one really knew about this whole situation outside of that very small circle who'd been directly involved in the discovery. Those who saw the girl and boy now with no warning were just as perplexed, if not more so. A lot of them started to ask questions, all of them boiling down to 'what's going on?' Unfortunately for them, all those who could really be in the position to answer were already on their feet and walking out to meet the new arrivals.

"Phoebe? What's the matter? Are you okay?" Maya asked, the first of them to reach the siblings despite her slow pace, as Lucas remained just one step behind, while Riley followed Dylan, who clearly needed to be there but didn't know how to be there, not unless… Did they know? Going by the looks on their faces, the way the two kids looked right at him… Yes… They knew. He was their brother, half…

"He wanted to see you," Phoebe addressed Dylan before looking back to Maya and Lucas. "I figured you could tell us how to find him, I didn't think you'd all be…" She looked back to the guests where they sat, still staring over at them. "Maybe we should go, I should have…" she shook her head.

She was clearly rattled, like she'd jumped on this easy action, leading her brother out to this house with the goal of tracking down their brand-new big brother, because it was easier than to stay at home and cope with the new information she'd been given. But now that they were here… All the information was falling back into her active mind, and it was a lot, too much… Meanwhile, her little brother was silent, stone still, unable to look away from Dylan.

"Do your parents know you're here?" Lucas asked. Phoebe shook her head.

"Let's go inside the house, okay? I'll call them," Maya motioned for the kids to follow. Phoebe hesitated. "This will go a lot better if they're not stuck wondering where you are," she explained, hoping to telegraph as much sympathy and kindness as possible.

After a moment, Phoebe relented. She turned to her little brother, who finally blinked and looked back at her. He clearly relied on her very much. When she climbed off her bike and started walking with it, he did the same. Both bicycles were left next to the porch, and Maya and Dylan went inside with the Munroe siblings, while Lucas and Riley stayed behind, explaining the situation as best they could. There was no point tiptoeing around the truth at this point. Seeing very well that this would spell the end of their gathering, many of them moved to leave, placing their goodbyes to be delivered by Lucas and Riley for their respective significant others, with apologies and promises that they'd talk more later. The only ones who stayed were Pappy Joe and Patty, who decided to take Elliott and Noah up the road to Sanderson Farm, Thomas and Melinda, who had of course known Jocelyn Orlando back in the day, and Asher and Ray, so that the former could stand by his best friend.

Inside the house, Maya had stepped aside to call the Munroe house. As she did so, she could see into the living room, where Dylan stood crouched before the couch, where Phoebe and Taylor sat together. She couldn't hear what was being said between them, and honestly she didn't see how it was her place to hear. From what she could see though, she would guess that Dylan was trying to make sure that the two of them were okay, as he knew that this would all have been a great shock to them. They might not have understood absolutely everything, but they weren't so young that they wouldn't have had the basics handled. No matter how it all stacked up, what it came down to was the same. Their world had been turned upside down. It would never be the same again.

"Your parents are on their way," Maya finally walked up, speaking as unobtrusively as she could. She looked to the Munroe kids, to Dylan… That statement would have different repercussions on all of them. For some, it would be seeing these pillars of their entire lives under a new light, and for the other… a reunion after fifteen years apart… and yet, all three of them felt so, so very small.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners