Chapter 141
Paving the Way

It would have been all too easy for both Maya and Lucas to head off on their family vacation and bring their friend's situation with them. It had been a few weeks since they'd graduated, a few weeks since Dylan and the Munroe kids had met, knowing that they were siblings, half siblings, by their mother. As much as they wanted to help, they understood that this was a delicate situation, enough so that they needed to stay mindful of how much or how little they involved themselves. They left it up to Dylan and Phoebe to share it with them if they wanted and needed to, and as of yet they had not done so. There had been some impression that things were happening, yes, but it had not yet reached them, only...

The day before they took off for Florida, Dylan came to see them. He had a few things he was lending them for the trip, and also... well, he wanted to see the RV. And though he hadn't said anything outright, there had been a feeling about the way he carried himself, a look about his face, like he wanted to talk about something but then decided against it. They were leaving for a week, them and their boys, and he didn't want to burden them. They might have told him to say it anyway, that he could talk to them anytime, but he would have insisted, so they'd left it alone.

And now they were home again. Well, specifically, because the RV was still theirs for a couple more days, they were just outside their home. Elliott and Noah were not eager to leave their temporary home behind just yet, especially now that it was just parked and they were not prevented from just running about and playing as they wanted. And when they were told that it was nap time, they made a beeline for the big bed they had shared for the last week.

"How long do you think we'd have to set money aside before we could get one of these to keep?" Maya wondered as she sat down in the living area with a hum of relief. Lucas came and sat with her, smiling momentarily as he reached over to her belly, a quick hello to their tadpole.

"Just like this one?" he wondered, looking around. "Might take a few years, especially with the boys, and..."

"Seven tall sons?" she guessed, and he chuckled. "Yeah, RV's are nice, but we have a family to grow, huh? I'd definitely put having them ahead of getting one of these, as nice as it is."

"There's nothing stopping us from earning it, slowly. Then, one day..." he trailed off, and his next thought was likely the same as the one she had. The more of them there'd be, they might need a bigger RV...

"You know what you need to do while we still have this one?" Maya turned her head to look at him. "Turtle sleepover," she smirked. "Just you, Zay, Asher, and Dylan..." The last name felt like it came in bold font. Yeah... They had to think about that.

"Sounds like a good idea."

Lucas soon put out the call to the guys, and the responses came very quickly. They were in, all three. They would have dropped just about everything if they'd had plans. The one small alteration to 'the plan' had to do with the attendees. There would have been no way for them to go and have this sleepover, in the RV, just outside the Friar house, without allowing the little boys to join their father and their uncles. So, it would be the six of them, while Maya had Pappy Joe and Patty to keep her company.

"You did not..." Lucas laughed when he saw Zay climb out of his car.

"What, is this a RV night or not?" Zay asked with his arms stretched out and a grin on his face as he looked down at his clothes, which were in fact his PJ's.

When they'd been kids, with the Garcias' RV as their 'headquarters,' it had become their custom to show up in the most appropriate fashion already... at least when they'd been smaller. As they'd grown, Lucas, Asher, and Dylan had all evolved into at least keeping their sleepwear under their regular clothes. But not Zay. He'd continued to show up in his colorful best, for as long as Asher's family had kept the vehicle. And he had revived the tradition now.

"You need to go get changed," Zay pointed at him. "Where are the little dudes, we need to get them ready, too."

"They're in the house with the pets. They wanted to bring them into the RV, but we explained that we couldn't do that." Actually they had come up with the most plausible excuse they could, in order to convince them, applying to their toddler logic.

So, Lucas went to change, under penalty of constant teasing from Zay and prodding from his sons once they were informed of The Rules. As it turned out, he was the only one who had not thought to revive the old ways, as Asher and Dylan soon arrived together, both dressed for the occasion.

Zay and Asher were sent on ahead, in the capable hands of two tiny tour guides to get settled in outside, while Lucas asked Dylan to help him gather a few things. It was a thinly veiled excuse, but no one pointed it out and instead followed it. Once it was just the two of them, the veil fell away.

"How's it going?" Lucas slowly asked. Dylan let out a breath, leaving his friend to think that things were very bad for a moment. But his face didn't look sad, not entirely. There was something lighter about it, almost hopeful.

"Actually, it's going pretty good," he revealed, and Lucas smiled.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah... It's not perfect, definitely not, there's still things that need time, you know?" Yes, of course. "But all things considered... I think all of us imagined something way worse, so exceeding expectations wasn't hard." He paused for a moment, like he was reliving some of it in his head. "I talked to her," he revealed, and Lucas didn't have to ask who he meant. "Actually we've been talking... Every few days, I've been calling her. She only got up the courage to call me a few days ago."

"That's great, man," Lucas nodded. He could see plainly how happy this made him. For all the pain he'd carried over the years, since she'd left, he'd gotten to a place where he was able to try and mend fences with her, or at least start to set the pieces in place.

"Kyle's had a rougher time at it," Dylan revealed, and Lucas was not surprised. Jocelyn/Jo's firstborn had become responsible for his little brother when she'd left, just as shouldered some of the things their father couldn't do while he was coping with his wife's abandonment. "He's been holding on to a lot, all these years. When he finally agreed to go and see her, he didn't say a word the first time. Then the second time he said... well, all the words. He let her have it, all of it, but I think she expected it, and... she kind of had to take it. They're trying to move forward, both of them, you know? That's up to them. And my dad, well, you know how he is. He heard her out, and he sort of considered where they were at today instead of focusing on the past. He's happy now, and so is she, and that's all that matters. He and Peter Munroe have been hanging out again."

"Wow..." Lucas reacted, though knowing Dylan's father as he did, it sort of made sense. "And Phoebe and her brother..." he asked, and here all trace of conflict and difficulty fell away to show pure Dylan smile energy.

"They're great... I don't know how it is that they're so like us, Kyle and me, I mean, Taylor, you saw him..." He had, yes, the day the two of them had shown up at the house. It was almost freaky the way he looked like Dylan at that age. "They both play ball, too, which I guess goes back to their father, same as me and mine. Taylor, he's already so good at his age, he's going to be one of the best the moment he joins a team, you just wait. And Phoebe, well, she's a bit all over the place out there, and it took me back to when I started playing," he chuckled. "Kyle was the one to help me fix that and he's been doing the same with her. As rough as it's been with him and Jo, he cares about her and Taylor the same way I do." As a big brother, no matter the family drama.

Lucas would relay the tale to Maya the next day, once he and the boys came back from 'headquarters,' and she would be as relieved to hear it all as he had been. She had Dylan to think about, naturally, but there was Phoebe, too, who had been taking up a place in their lives over the past few months. From what they were told, it seemed clear now that the Munroe family was as good as a part of their lives from here on out, and they would be welcomed into it as they should.

After their week away, and the boys' sleepover, it felt good to be back in the house, back in their day-to-day. Once the little boys had been allowed a 'farewell,' the RV had been sent on its way, and even as summer wasn't over, it felt as though everyone was starting to consider the fall, the future… The third Friar boy would be with them in less than two months, right around the time when the first of them would be starting up preschool. They'd already talked about this with both of them, and the reactions went about as they'd been expected to go.

Elliott was curious at the thought of going out there, though he was sort of apprehensive at the notion. More than anything, Maya and Lucas were thinking that his apprehension was born out of the fact that Noah hated the thought. At first, he'd assumed that if his big brother would get to go, then so would he. They'd explained that he would go, just not right away, not until next year. That just wasn't good enough for him, no way, he wanted to be with Elliott. Trusting in the fact that the brotherhood could run strong in both directions, Lucas had pointed out that he would be needed at home, that he would have a very important job, to help Mommy with his baby brother. It didn't stop the waterworks neat and dry, but it opened the way enough so that, in time, he accepted his task and the fact that Elliott would be off to school. They'd have so much to tell each other when the days would be over, and that'd be great, too.

After the boys, there were the parents, and they'd have plenty on their hands, too, beyond their new bouncing boy. Lucas was done working at the bookstore now, much as he would have enjoyed working there still. Instead, he would be breaking in his brand-new degree, starting officially with his father in a matter of days. The way they saw it, he would have just the time he needed to get properly settled in before the baby was born in September. He'd been putting in hours there already, while he was in school, but now rather than acting as something like an assistant or an intern to his father, he would in every way be his partner. The first months would see him finding his legs in that new capacity, but he felt himself completely up to the task.

As for Maya… Well, she still had her job at the art store down at the mall, and she planned to work a few more weeks before starting her leave, unless the tadpole had any other ideas with regards to her schedule. She would return to that job when the time was right, unless a different opportunity came up, where she could put her new degree to use. She doubted that she'd have herself a teaching post at any point in the school year that would begin in the fall, but it was very much her goal to have one for the year after this one. She was thinking of maybe seeing about substituting until she found her place, if she could make it happen, that, or maybe… the baking club.

The idea had been put into her head, back when she'd done her field work, and she hadn't forgotten it, just stored it away. There hadn't been much point of considering it before now, had there? She was still in school, and then there was the baby coming… But she really wanted to look into getting the project off the ground as soon as possible. And she'd have the cake business to consider, too, another outlet for her until she could be what she'd worked to become: Mrs. Friar, art teacher.

Everywhere they looked, the future looked bright. As summer progressed, so did the small house that was being constructed behind their own. It was just about done, which meant that they would soon see the landscape outside, and then the decorating inside, before the happy couple could move in properly. And then… then there'd be the wedding, bringing Joseph Friar and Patty Robinson together as husband and wife. That would happen once the house was ready, leading several family members on both sides of the union to playfully tease them about whether or not the groom would carry his bride over the threshold of their new home. Some of them possibly made these jokes in less than genuine tones, those of them on Pappy Joe's side, as they recalled the fall he'd taken down the stairs a few years back. Yes, he was very much recovered, as much as he would ever be, but what if he couldn't manage it? Patty Robinson may have had the dimensions of a delicate bird, but that only gave them visions of both the beloved grandparents getting hurt. Well, they had weeks to either talk them out of it or find some creative workaround.

"I told Elliott where I was going today, and that turned into telling him about when I was trying on some dresses and he was still in my belly," Maya told Lucas as she finished getting ready.

Before she ever turned around, she knew that he'd have that great Huckleberry smile on him as he recalled the day when they'd become husband and wife. He was also aware of how she'd had to contend with a growing baby bump, not to mention a budget and some helping hands, allowing her to get the dress she'd fallen for. Whenever they'd recall the day, he would still get this look in his eyes, like he could be an old man and he would still know what his heart had felt, to see her come down the aisle.

"He wanted to see it on me, but… yeah…" she gestured at herself, which got another look out of Lucas, this one going more along the lines 'I don't see any problems here.' She snorted. "Let's just imagine that for a second, huh? Wouldn't close in a million years, might not even make it around…" she approached him, miming with her hands.

"Sorry, I got distracted for a second… imagining," he pointed about his head.

"Uh-huh," she smiled as he put his arms around her, bringing him just about face-to-belly, which was on the whole his preferred place to be right now. "Maybe in a few months. Won't even tell you when, I'll just show up in my dress… Yeah," she slowly nodded, seeing his reaction. "I like this plan…"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners