Chapter 143
And Soon There You'll Be

You don't have to be a doctor to keep your word… You wanted to take care of the horses… You go and you take all this knowledge… You put some of it to use on that ranch, whatever they need… You'll still be caring for those horses, just by looking after their home…

"It's really coming down out there…" Thomas Friar spoke as he stood by one of the windows. He wasn't talking to anyone in particular, which was just as well, as the only other person in the room was lost in his thoughts. Lucas only blinked and turned to look at him a few seconds later.

"What?" he asked. His father stood at the windows of their office, staring out at the street below, the sky above, with his coffee cup in hand. He turned now and looked at his son, pointed out. Lucas recognized for the first time that it had started to rain. The showers were beating down enough so that the world beyond seemed to distort. "Oh…" he blinked and stood up to join his father and look on. I should call and check to see how Maya's doing…

"Something got you distracted back there?" Thomas asked, now that they were side by side. Lucas looked momentarily confused by the question, but finally he understood.

"Oh, it's not… I was just thinking about something a friend said once. You remember, Carmen?" he asked.

"We met at your graduation," Thomas nodded.

"That's right," Lucas confirmed.

"What did she say?"

"Well…" he hummed. He turned around, leaning on the wall next to the window. "I was talking about going back to Sullivan Stables, seeing the place again, thinking about Granny Emm," he started, and his father smiled. He had gotten along so well with his mother-in-law. In the years after his own mother had passed away especially, she had been there for her daughter's husband as though he were her son, and that had meant a great deal to him. "It got me thinking about what I was originally planning to do, what I'd said I'd do."

"You're worried she would have been disappointed?" Thomas asked, sounding like he was about to promise she would have been proud of his choice to prioritize his growing family.

"No, not at all," Lucas assured him. "But I did regret not being able to do it anymore, to some degree, I mean… It wasn't just about wanting to keep my word to her, it was something I was passionate about, so even if I don't regret my choice for a second, I can't just forget it completely. Anyway, when I told her all that, Carmen pointed out how it didn't have to stop me from helping the ranch, even if I wasn't going to be doing it the same way, that I should use this knowledge I got, use it to help in this new, other way."

"Sound advice," Thomas slowly nodded.

"And I could do that?" Lucas asked him. "I mean…" he looked around the office.

He was kind of proud of how the place had turned out. His father had given up his old office space in favor of working from home some years ago, and they could have continued that way and been fine. It was his father who'd really decided to commit to the new space. The way he saw it, they were building something together. Friar & Son. Lucas was only just starting, and this office would be something they could build around, to help him grow in the business. Who knew, maybe someday one of his sons would join in as well, maybe more than one of them, maybe a daughter, if they were ever so lucky… With all that in mind, it had been important to them to make the place not only efficient but welcoming. The last thing they wanted was for this place to feel stuffy or stifling, and they were glad to say it was anything but. Lucas particularly loved the pictures on his desk. They had been Maya's gift, naturally, because you just needed pictures of your family to look at in an office, you just had to.

"Of course, you can," Thomas Friar told his son. "Call Juliet, talk with her. Whatever you come up with, I'll back you up, and if you need any advice…" he gestured around the room. You know where to find me.

"Thanks," Lucas nodded. They stayed this way, quietly watching the rain fall outside for a few beats. He didn't know whether it was his stance, or the way his hands kept knocking into each other, but he made his father laugh, and he knew he was, just not why. "What?" he finally asked.

"Just thinking about this old client of mine. They didn't come to me, I went to them, because I was determined that I could be a great asset to them, worked out my pitch, and it was good we worked together until he retired and I don't think I would have been half as successful if I hadn't gone after him the way I did," Thomas explained. Lucas still didn't see what this had to do with him. "I worked on that pitch for about two weeks. I finished it at the hospital, looking after you while you and your mother both slept…" his father went on. Lucas reflected on this last part now… and he chuckled.

"Okay…" he nodded.

So, he was feeling the need to make something happen, same as his father had done, apparently, both of them as they waited on the birth of a son. Today was September 7th, Maya wasn't due for another three weeks, but then who knew? Elliott had been their Junebug baby right up until he'd decided to come along on the last day of May… All this month, he knew, he would be feeling this way, sort of wired and ready to run at any second, and that translated into wanting to achieve something, to turn his focus on to his grandmother's ranch and his old promise, just as his father had once channeled that same energy into a new client, by the looks of it.

"Come on, let's go and sit. We can discuss some options before you talk with Juliet," Thomas guided them back to the desk where Lucas could sit and see Maya's gifted frames.

There was one picture of the two of them and the boys, out in Florida over the summer, then one with just the boys, a sneaky shot of the two brothers sitting on the couch, Elliott's green blanket and Noah's yellow blanket all wrapped up around them as they watched a movie. He knew that this picture was taken when they'd finally sat the two of them down and let them see Star Wars for the first time, and as they could see in the captured image, they were enthralled.

So, Lucas and his father got to talking, discussing what he might want to do for the ranch. He quickly figured out that he needed this brainstorming session… might need more than one. He wanted to do something for Sullivan Stables, wanted to be involved in some way even if it wasn't as a vet, but just now he had no idea, no eureka moment for him to break down and explore straight off the jump. So, he was going to have to really stop and think about it before he did anything like talk to Juliet. In no time, his discussion with his father got to feel a lot more like reminiscing, looking to the past rather than working toward the future. That was alright though. He understood the necessity. This trip down memory lane would help to situate him back into that world he'd left behind after his grandmother's passing. It would help him figure out what his place there could be.

"I just feel like… I need to be part of it again," Lucas told his father as their discussion trailed off. "Maybe it's that the boys are growing up, and we're about to have another. It reminds me of when I was small like them, all those days I spent at Sullivan Stables, with Granny Emm, and Grandpa Jax, the horses… I missed them so much after they were gone that I stopped going, and it's maybe my biggest regret in life. Now I think of Elliott, and Noah, and… their little brother," he smiled to himself, having barely stopped himself from saying his name. "I don't just want to get back there, I want them to get to run around out at the ranch, too, just like I did."

"So, they will," Thomas promised his son. They shared a smile now, and the silence felt full of thoughts, and memories… "Let's fill those cups again," he stood, taking his old, favored cup, and Lucas' as well, heading to the coffee machine. It was hard not to see out the windows and feel a chill in the bone.

X

Later, they would have to laugh about this, especially as Maya would recall the conversation she had right when her young guests arrived.

"Hi!" Stella Buckley greeted her, both she and Phoebe Munroe squeezed together to gain the protection of a single umbrella after they'd climbed out of Mr. Buckley's car and run up the porch.

"You're very chipper today," Maya laughed, stepping back as the girl came in. Phoebe took charge of shaking the excess water from the umbrella.

"It's Labor Day!" Stella reasoned, as though it was all the explanation she had to give. Luckily, Maya knew enough to be able and fill in the blanks.

"Your first day off from school," she stated, and Stella nodded. "You didn't have to wait too long for it. You okay?" she turned to Phoebe, who'd just yelped.

"Pinched my finger in there," Phoebe explained, her words muffled as she sucked on the injured digit. "Didn't break the skin, I'll be fine," she assessed after a moment.

"Okay, well, come on, I need to shut the door," Maya chuckled. She waved off to Mr. Buckley back in his car and he returned the gesture before pulling back out on to the road and driving off. Once the door was closed, she turned and waited as the girls took care of their rain-soaked jackets and shoes. The rain was coming down hard enough that just those brief moments spent out of cover had left them both looking like they might need to wring some water from their clothes, their hair…

"Here, my dad sent this to say thanks for keeping an eye on us today," Stella held out a plastic container previously kept tucked in her arms.

"Is that what I think it is?" Maya gave a pleased gasp and Stella nodded and smiled. "I would have done it for nothing at all, but I will definitely take this, especially today," she looked out the window. The humidity was playing tricks on her today, ever since she woke up…

"It's not like we couldn't have stayed on our own," Phoebe reasoned as they made their way to the kitchen to put the Irish stew in the refrigerator. "Some of the others in our class are definitely home alone right now."

"There's a fine line in every kid's life, depends on the parents," Maya told her with a sympathetic look.

"Not that I'm complaining," Phoebe added. "If I had to be anywhere today, this is pretty good."

"Are the boys upstairs?" Stella asked just before looking down to find the dark cat hugging at her ankles. "Hey, sweet girl," she smiled and crouched to pick up Shadow. Those two loved each other so much that it almost felt criminal to keep them apart. Whenever Stella came over, Shadow would be guaranteed to appear in no more than a minute.

"Uh, no, they're at my in-laws', with their grandmother," Maya explained. "I wanted to keep them here, especially with the rain, but she insisted that it would be good for everyone. She'd get to see them, they'd get to see her, and I'd get to take it easy for a few hours." Whether she agreed with this assessment or not would remain to be seen, but so long as Elliott and Noah were happy…

"Oh, well, we…" Stella blinked. "Maybe we shouldn't have come if…"

"No, no, it's okay," Maya insisted. "You're a lot less to handle than a couple of toddlers," she pointed out with a smirk.

"My parents might not agree," Phoebe suggested, and they all had a laugh. "What do we do now?"

"You two probably don't have that much homework on a Monday, after one week of class," Maya guessed. "It's a holiday, and the way the weather's going we might be stuck in our second power outage together. I've got everything charged up in case that happens, so while we do have power… movie?"

"Can we look at your art?" Stella asked with a small, curious smile. It was the very one Maya had come to know since she'd first met the girl, and she just had to smile back.

"Well, I'd prefer not having to go up and down the stairs too much today," she admitted. "But if you can go and bring everything down here, I'd be happy to show you."

Shadow the cat was momentarily relinquished, as Stella and Phoebe scrambled up the stairs, following their host's directions to retrieve what they were after. While they went, Maya settled down at the kitchen table. She was really hoping that these feelings today would not remain for the next couple of weeks, but then wasn't that just appropriate? This pregnancy had not exactly started on smooth sailing. She'd been so sick in the beginning, so maybe she'd be feeling like a mess through the end of it.

"You know, this isn't necessary, tadpole…" she spoke down to her belly, her hand running along its curve as she tried to find a position to sit that wouldn't send up protests. "Be cool, please?"

She turned back to smiles when she heard the girls coming down the steps.

"You could have made two trips," she chuckled at the sight of the tall piles of sketchbooks they each carried.

"We're alright," Stella promised.

"Stubbed my toe when I almost lost my balance, but it was worth it," Phoebe reported. The piles were planted on the table.

"Not too bad, I hope," Maya gave a sympathetic laugh.

"Trust me, digit damage is a daily thing, I can't remember any day where it didn't happen at least three different times," the girl shrugged. When asked how many this made, with the pinched finger earlier, she held up the same hand as before, same finger.

"What happened to that one?" Stella wondered.

"Neighbor's dog got in our yard overnight… again."

With the three of them sat around the table, they began their exploration of Maya's old sketchbooks. She offered for them to make hot chocolate or tea, combatting the humid chill of the rainy day, but they graciously declined, Phoebe especially, who could foresee nothing but a spill that would destroy her sort-of teacher's work.

Maya took great pleasure in diving into the earliest of her work, establishing a connection to times when she'd been their age and younger still. As her very earliest work dated back to when she'd first moved to Texas, it also dated to when she'd first met Lucas and all those friends who had been his and soon became hers as well. It was wonderful for both girls to see. For Stella, it showed the story of a girl sort of like her, being new to a school and just a bit out of her world. And for Phoebe, it gave her glimpses into her new half-brother's youth. Before long, Maya was sharing stories of when she'd met him and the others, stories of their budding friendship. From there, the leap was barely a skip, and she started telling them about her childhood, the story of her family, broken and repaired as it became along the way. Stella and Phoebe both looked eternally grateful to be taken into this confidence. It made them all feel like more than teacher-in-training and student, and fellow bakers. They were friends, all of them. It didn't matter that one of them was ten years older than the other two.

What cemented it for them more than anything was when Stella asked what had made Maya want to become a teacher. That was an easy question for her, and she shared the answer. She wanted to be that person for kids, like other teachers had been for her, for other kids out there. It wouldn't matter if their life had been difficult or not, especially in this time of life, when things just got that much more complicated.

"You really should be the art teacher at our school, not Mrs. Cartwright," Phoebe sighed. Maya took this comment and looked between the two girls It wasn't that she'd forgotten, but with summer, and the little house, the wedding, and the end of this pregnancy, she'd sort of…

Alright, she'd forgotten. They were in eighth grade now, both of them at the middle school, which meant that Phoebe was back in the woman's class and Stella, new-to-school Stella, shy little bird Stella… Art was going to be her most anticipated subject, no doubt, and what a disappointment it would be for her to find herself with Sue Cartwright at the front of that class. She would have heard about the woman through Phoebe by now, and from the look on her face, that first week with her had been… complicated. Maya reached out, grabbing one's hand and the other's.

"Wish there was something I could do about that, but I'm not exactly… disposed… to get on her case right now," she reminded them, looking down at herself.

"It's okay. We're not letting her get to us," Phoebe promised with a firm nod which she passed to her best friend, maybe more as a reminder. We're being strong, remember? Stella nodded back, with middling success. "Anyway, we have Mrs. Brown on our side, others, too. She said we're mounting a revolution."

"Yeah, that sounds like her," Maya laughed.

"She says we won't give up until the class is in the right hands," Stella revealed, keeping her voice down as though her present art teacher could have heard her from wherever she was in the world. Clearly, Mrs. Brown had made a much better impression on the shy one. "Too bad I won't be there to see it. We'll be in high school by then."

"I'm the right hands in this scenario?" Maya guessed.

"Who else?" Phoebe asked, like it was just so obvious.

"It doesn't work like that though, does it? Even if Mrs. Cartwright were to resign, or be fired, it doesn't mean that I would be hired in her place."

"You might, if you had a lot of vocal support," Phoebe maintained, and Maya had a feeling that she'd been hanging out with Mrs. Brown a lot, becoming her first officer in this middle school art class revolution.

"Alright, but just don't get yourselves in trouble on my account, okay?" Maya couldn't hold back her smile if she tried. Stella and Phoebe stared at her. "Sort of regretting telling you about New York Maya now," she sighed. "You get what I'm saying though, yeah? Please?"

"We swear," Stella told her, though she made sure to look over at Phoebe, inciting her with a tip of the head. After a few seconds, Phoebe sighed and nodded.

"Swear," she spoke, grumbling.

"Thank you," Maya patted her hand and she winced. "Oh, sorry! Your finger, I was forgetting…"

They continued their journey through the sketchbooks until lunch time. They might have decided to order something if not for the weather. Right now, there was nothing that could sound better than cracking open that container of Irish stew from Mr. Buckley. The table was cleared of its sketchbooks, which Stella and Phoebe made sure to stack back as they'd been found before taking them upstairs. In the meantime, Maya would see to getting lunch ready.

She had been through this twice before, and still when she realized what was happening, it caught her by surprise. She had ignored the signs, chalked them up to any and all things except for the possibility that she might have been going into labor. No, she still had just under three weeks to go, it wouldn't be… today… it couldn't possibly…

The sky was brewing something dark and thundery outside. It didn't make the great big clap of thunder feel any less startling, not to Maya, not to the cats and dogs, or to the girls upstairs. Maya heard them cry out in surprise and, half a minute later, they came barreling down the stairs.

"The thunder hit a tree! It broke and…" Phoebe was saying as she and Stella reappeared in the kitchen.

"What's wrong?" Stella asked, seeing as well as the other girl did how Maya stood there, gripping to the counter.

The second clap of thunder took the electricity. And her water was breaking…

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners