Chapter 157
The Lost & the New

Rather than to go through the house and out again, the reunited party was guided to walk along the side of the house toward the back. What had been a sort of faded echo of noise from out front slowly grew into something more and more recognizable as the many voices of playing children, squealing, laughing, shouting… Already it painted a picture in the minds of the older couple as they went, not knowing just what they would be brought to find but undoubtedly feeling great tremors of anticipation. Finally, they arrived and stopped to take it in.

Near the back door, Pappy Joe and Patty looked on at the mess of Young, Hunter, and Friar children. Dax Young had Alex Hunter held on to his back, as secure as could be, much to the boy's delight. His twin, Miles, had evidently been called upon to do the same for Elliott Friar, so when little brother Noah also wanted to get a go at a race, Nellie Hunter had taken up the challenge. She may have been smaller than her new cousins, but she more than held her own. Of course, this left Gracie and MJ, which was not going to be the easiest match by far, but the seven-year-old looked determined to take on her five-year-old brother, and they may not have been the fastest, but they were still a formidable team. The four pairs were presently racing one another around the yard, following no particular course, which only led to chaos… and so much laughter.

Quietly, as they remained at their point of observation, either unseen or presently invisible to the giddy bunch, Katy took up the task of telling her parents about all of them. They would already know about the Young twins, as both Katy and Maya had been happy to hear that Betsy had been able to reconnect with her family over the years, but then all the others...

"The two girls are ours," Katy explained, indicating herself and Shawn. "Penelope there, and Grace there… They turned seven last August. Nellie is definitely the more… outgoing of the two," she explained, with a small smile to suggest her parents would know exactly what qualities she had sought to encompass in that one word. "Gracie is much more quiet, but so observant, too," she went on, and to look at her go, was it any wonder she was making this race work? "After them, there on Gracie's back, the first of our two boys, Matthew Jonathan Hunter… MJ… He turned five just last month. He loves stars… might end up being one someday. And there, with Dax, is our youngest, Alexander, turned three in November…"

Out with his riding partner, little Alex was hooping and hollering with the best of them, like he was having such a wonderful time, feeling the wind on his face and the way Dax would zip this way and that, leading the aimless race.

"We nearly lost him, early on in the pregnancy, but he pulled through, little fighter," Katy shared with a proud smile. "You should know, when you'll go and see him, he'll want to feel your face right away. He's blind," she revealed, here showing a glint of protectiveness. She loved him just as he was, and no one would ever make him feel lesser than.

To the new grandparents, it couldn't help but be a shock to hear it at first, but they looked on to the boy, to all four of these new grandchildren, and they were just so happy to get to know them… They would take them just as they were, one and all.

"I take it those two are yours?" Angela turned to Maya and Lucas, and they both nodded and smiled.

"Elliott there is three, and Noah is two," Maya indicated one and the other. "They came one right after the other, so Elliott was just about four weeks shy of a year old when Noah was born. Neither one was planned, not at that time, both of us in college and all, but we made it work… a lot thanks to them," she smiled, looking to her parents and to Lucas' grandparents off where they stood.

"May we…" Angela asked her daughter and granddaughter and their respective husbands, indicating the children. They could, absolutely, so they were led from their 'hiding' and into the open. In no time, the race was brought to a halt, Elliott, Noah, and MJ soon returning to their feet, the better for them to move along with curiosity. More strangers! Alex didn't want the race to stop or to leave Dax' shoulders, as he didn't know what was going on yet, so for now he was allowed to stay right where he was.

"Hi!" Nellie was the first to speak, and oh, if she didn't light up all their faces for it, like the sunny girl she was. At her side, Gracie was looking at the couple, and she might not have been able to see much of the man's face under his beard, but she looked at the woman, and she looked at her mother, and then the woman again… Now she looked at the pair together, man and woman, and she gasped. "What?" Nellie turned to her twin, and Gracie leaned to whisper at her ear. Nellie's eyes went wide, and she looked at the couple again as though for the first time. "Mom, they're your Mom and Dad?" she asked, looking to Katy, who chuckled and nodded.

How many of them had imagined a moment like this for years, and it was not going at all the way they had imagined it would… It was all going remarkably well, which would either suggest that they'd been missing out all this time… or things would take a turn later on. They were not going to let it go the latter route, not if they could help it. There were likely going to be some difficult discussions ahead of them, but… they would face them when they came.

"That means… Wow!" MJ blinked, looking up at the couple, and right then it didn't matter that he had never known them up to this point. He'd never really had grandparents, and he'd always wanted them, and now here they were. That was good enough for him and he sprang forward to throw his arms around them both, or at least their legs as he could reach them. Startled as they were, the Clutterbuckets met this introduction to their first grandson with gladness. Tanner swept up the small boy, much to his delight. "I like your hair," MJ declared, which they took to be directed much more at what coverage there was on his grandfather's face as there was on his head.

"Thank you very much," Tanner tipped his head, his slow, deep voice showing plenty of affection in those few words. "I hear you like stars."

"I do!" MJ replied, with the glee of a child meeting a well-informed Santa. "I got them on my socks," he tried to show his foot, which was not so easy at the moment.

"Tell you what, you can show them to me inside the house, alright?" Tanner suggested, to his grandson's approval.

At this point, it really felt as though they needed to move all this back inside rather than have all of them out here. It wasn't freezing, but it wasn't exactly warm either. So, they went back inside, settling around the living room. Betsy and Sasha commandeered the kitchen, the better to get coffee, tea, and juice for everyone, and pulled their boys in to assist them, much as they wanted to 'spy' on the scene with the four generations brought together that day.

"More grandparents?" Elliott was asking his father, showing he and his little brother had both been left perplexed by the scene outside.

"They're Mommy's grandparents," Lucas explained. "That means that they're your great grandparents, just like Pappy Joe and Patty, and Granny Lizzie…"

"Oh…" Elliott and Noah spoke as one, looking from their father over to the couple. Angela was holding their baby brother just now, while Tanner was fulfilling his promise to get a look at MJ's starry socks. They hurried on over to the couch now, to join in on the meeting. They wasted no time in giving their great grandmother and great grandfather 'the essentials,' from nicknames, to how they were Jamie's big brothers, if they didn't already know.

In the meantime, even as she kept a close eye on this encounter, so devoid of any of their 'family drama' because her boys and her siblings simply didn't know about any of it, Maya was equally aware of another, quieter conversation happening a little way away from the couch. Shawn had Alex in his arms, and he was talking to his youngest in such a way that Maya knew what it was about without ever being near enough to hear the words. He was explaining to him about the new people who had arrived, who they were, in whatever way he was able to describe them. It was something he would do with him, whenever they went to a new place or met new people, and to see the way Alex would just quietly listen to their father as he went on, it was easy to see how much he appreciated these moments with him. Here, learning of his grandparents' arrival, he seemed at once excited and nervous, going by the way he kept his face pressed into Shawn's neck.

He would stay there until he was ready, while his nephews and his brother and sisters talked, and their visitors talked back… Finally, Shawn was able to bring him forward, setting him on his feet where he'd be able to find his way to the couch. He knew his big sister's home as well as his own. Still, while one hand would trail along the coffee table, the other would be out in front of him, seeking, until it landed on the couch cushion, and then… contact… A knee, and a hand sitting on top of it. He took hold of this one with both of his own and looked up expectantly.

"Hello, Alex," Angela smiled as she looked to her grandson. "I'm your grandmother, your mother's mother," she told him, and he nodded. Yes, he knew this. "Your cousin has taken to calling me Grangie. You can, too," she told him. The name made his face lift into amusement even as he released his hand so that he might reach up. Angela leaned forward, submitting herself to his curious exploration. As she'd been told, he had been wanting to do this with anyone he knew, anyone he met lately. More often than not, this went off fine, though some people did not feel so eager to have a toddler grab at their faces. Alex' hands were not forceful though, not at all. They traveled over his grandmother's features, and it was to wonder what was going through his mind as he felt the shape of her smile, the arch of her nose… When he was finished, he looked happy at what he'd found.

Onward the boy went now, aware of this other person next to his grandmother. Tanner extended his hand to where it could be found, and Alex reacted to the larger palm, and fingers… This skin was much rougher to the touch, compared to Angela's more delicate one.

"Is it alright if I pick you up and sit you on my knee?" Tanner asked, and Alex nodded, so he was lifted and brought as promised. He was much more reserved than his wife, enough so that he now wasn't sure how to begin. "Do you know who I am?" he asked, and again Alex nodded.

"You're Grandpa?" he guessed.

"That's right," Tanner replied. Alex raised his hands. "Now, you be careful, alright? It's going to be prickly under those fingers of yours," he revealed before Alex could get a hold of… Oh, this was intriguing. He reacted at once, not startled by prickliness but excited. Sure, faces were good. But faces with hair on them were special. He would often feel around at his father's beard, and his mustache, and those would be great. Then there was Pappy Joe, and his facial hair would be completely different. But his new grandfather… There was so much of it! There was enough that it seemed to take him a very long time to navigate it all. Tanner sat in complete patience and surrender.

To watch them there together, Maya was sort of mystified; many of them were. She'd grown up on stories of her grandfather from her mother's childhood and adolescence, up until she'd left, and the picture those had formed could only be made of what had been on hand. Now, ever since Charlie had come along, they'd been getting updates to these stories, until the old picture and the new picture were hard to reconcile. It wasn't until now, seeing her grandfather and her brother together that Maya could see. Whatever her grandfather had been like back in the day, there was no doubt that it had been enough to send her mother running, but he wasn't that man anymore. The one he had become showed so much care for his grandchildren and great grandsons… Looking to the side, she could see her mother look on as well, and she was getting to see the same thing Maya saw. Her eyes looked bright with barely contained tears.

Eventually, the children wanted to play some more, and they ended up down in the basement, now joined by Caitlin Olsen. Alex almost didn't want to go, not when it meant leaving the new people, but he was promised that they would still be here whenever he returned. Until then, he had his three new cousins along with him, and that was pretty good, too. Of course, once they were all gone and it was down to the adults and Jamie, there was a definite drop of sound. No one knew what to say next. It wasn't as though they weren't all thinking about everything that had happened to even bring them together in this room today. Katy in particular looked as though she'd lost all ability to speak as she looked upon her mother and father. The last time she'd seen them, they'd been so much younger, had looked almost like completely different people. In a way, they were different people now, weren't they? The last image she had of them were the parents who had led her to leave. These were the parents who'd lived without her, worrying for her. And still, she couldn't think of what to say.

"You don't have to say anything," Angela looked at her daughter like she'd read her mind. "What happened then… It was not on you, we…"

"But I made the decision," Katy shook her head.

"And maybe it was the right one, at the time," Angela replied, sorrow in her voice as she admitted the thing both she and her husband had been living with all this time. "We… We couldn't give you what you needed. You went and found it."

"Mom…" Katy slowly shook her head. "It was on me… Maybe it was on all of us, but I wasn't… blameless, alright? I was a kid, I… I didn't always think things through the way I should have. Everything worked out for me in the end, sure. I made a home, a family, but it took a long time to get to all of this. And in the meantime, I… I hurt you. I was so angry back then that I didn't even think about what it would mean for you both. But I should have… and I'm sorry." They both had eyes like they wanted to tell her she didn't have to apologize, but she shook her head. "I'm really sorry," she stated once more, and finally they accepted this.

"How long can you stay in Austin?" Maya spoke, as silence trailed on. "With… your anniversary," she added. It was only days away now, and again it raised a question. The Clutterbuckets looked to their eldest daughter now, likely wondering the same thing.

"I… I don't know if I'm ready for all that," Katy admitted. Today, the last few days… It had all been so much.

"You don't have to come," Angela promised, though they knew it would have meant a lot to her to have her around.

"Maybe you could all come after the anniversary," Charlie suggested. "Then it'll just be us."

"That… I'd like that," Katy nodded. Her parents agreed, too. It was settled. "What about now, you're here, I… I'd like you to stay, if you can, however long…"

"Whatever you want," Tanner told his daughter. They would stay, the Olsens with the Friars, the Youngs at their hotel, and the Clutterbuckets with the Hunters, until the day before the party back in Arkansas. After that… they'd figure things out, as a family.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners