A/N: Three days behind...

September 2nd 2023

Chapter 225
A Day Among the Family

He was not keeping an eye on the two of them. Lucas trusted in Lambert Day's ability to work alongside his three-year-old son in their kitchen as much as he trusted Jamie to be careful with everything that he did. He and Maya would joke with everyone that neither one of them had been nearly as effective in getting this point across for their aspiring little chef as the many professional chefs and home cooks he had watched on television, showing as much safety etiquette as they did what happened sometimes when one handled the tools of their trade.

Lucas wasn't monitoring the pair as they worked together that afternoon, no. He just liked watching them, liked seeing the excitement and concentration in his son's face, and he got to see a lot of this whenever Jamie worked in this kitchen or another, but when he was paired up with Lambert, oh, that was when he'd be at his most focused. The scale went somewhere around how much of his little tongue would be sticking out the corner of his mouth, or how deep the furrow of his slim brows went. He got to learn a whole lot from his mother, sometimes from his father, his grandparents, but there was no wondering who his favorite teacher was, and the effect was plain to see. From one young aspiring chef to another, Jamie's skill set was growing. He was still only three, almost three and a half, so he had a lot of space to grow, but the more they got to see of him up at the counter, it didn't feel like a fleeting curiosity anymore. It looked much more like the beginning of everything.

The live cooking show was not his sole reason for being at the table, though one would say that he might have gotten a lot more done quicker if he set himself up in some other room, at his desk upstairs for one. But he'd chosen to work here, and he was doing alright despite the 'distraction.' Today, he had taken it upon himself to make the plans for an upcoming adoption drive, up at the shelter. He had been taking on more and more of a place as he'd allocated a wedge of his time over to them alongside his work at the office with his father and at the ranch with his students and the show, and this event was part of it.

He hadn't known what to expect once he went out there, once he offered himself up to become part of their team. Maybe there was a part of him that had imagined only one possible outcome for this, like he wouldn't be someone they'd be willing to take on because he'd given up on his old career plans. It was silly, but it didn't surprise him or anyone who knew him that he'd go and think like that. It hadn't lasted too long, and just like when he'd started to spend time at the ranch, it felt good to be back at the shelter again. More and more, it showed him that he could still hold on to who he'd been from the start while embracing who he'd become, as a husband and as a father.

Now here they were, planning this drive, and it was so important for him, for all of them, that it draw a lot of people out to join them. The more time he spent with the animals out at the shelter, the more it would get to feel like he was pouring in all the love that he could, to make their time among them a more pleasant one, because it was either that or he'd end up bringing them all home. As it was, they had taken on two fosters, who had since gone on to their new families, and they had just taken in another just a couple of days back. The little one was sitting at his feet while he worked, like she didn't want to go anywhere that she couldn't see him. She was warming up to the family and the pets.

Very possibly, the little one, who had been given the name of Pickles, would not end up far. When David Olsen had dropped off his daughter to play with her cousins that morning and she'd seen the pup for the first time, Caitlin had gotten that look in her eyes. Lucas knew it well, and hopefully it would be a good sign. They would have to wait and see what would happen when David and Charlie would come and collect her later on, but as she and the boys had been off playing together, the young blonde had poked her head into the kitchen more than once, to see how Pickles was doing, or to possibly coax her into joining them.

She was back at it now, her and Noah together. They were quite a pair, those two. Caitlin got along with all the Friar children, but her bond had always been the strongest with Noah, and it only continued to feel that way as they grew up together. Their parents were all given this idea that the two of them would grow up getting into trouble together, all in the attempt to have fun, to discover things… Really, it felt like none of it should be surprising to any of them, not with the lineage on them both. They were ready for it, whatever they came up with. Right now, it was just a couple of five-year-olds down on all fours, trying to convince a puppy to come and play with them. Pickles looked up at Lucas with big eyes that seemed to say 'what should I do?' He reached down and patted her head, and after a moment she walked cautiously up to the pair. Caitlin was barely containing herself, while Noah was looking like he was holding himself back from cheering too loud, so not to scare the dog.

They had just managed to pick her up and leave with her when Elliott came along with a piece of paper in hand. Lucas had been sure that he was playing with the others, but soon he guessed that he had been off on his own, and that it had to do with this paper he was carrying as though it held his entire destiny.

"Dad?" he asked as he came to stand next to where he sat.

"Yeah, Sprout?" Lucas asked, setting his pen down in an effort to show that he was listening. His eldest son was not exactly shy so much as he was growing up to be a bit more reserved than his younger brothers, and just now he seemed very aware of himself. It took a few seconds, but he looked down at his paper again and then to his father.

"I want to spend more time at the ranch," he finally declared, and Lucas was not exactly surprised, but it still pulled an unguarded smile on to his face.

Elliott saw this and looked momentarily relieved before clearing his throat and nodding as though to remind his father that he wasn't done. Lucas sat back and tipped his head for him to go on. He looked at his paper again. He was still learning to read and write, but he knew enough to get his point across, especially if he was the one reading his own writing. The rest was a work in progress and he was progressing very well at his age.

As he went on, he explained how much he loved being at the ranch, especially being with the horses. He told his father that he knew how their family had created the entire place, and that it had been Granny Mel's mom and dad who'd done it. Knowing all that, he wanted to do more out there. He reminded his father how he was very good in the stables, not just in talking to the animals but in taking care of them and everything they needed, so he figured that he could do more of that. All he needed was a ride to get there and he could do the rest.

"Can I see that?" Lucas asked, pointing to the paper, and Elliott handed it to him, all the while looking as though he was trying to keep a straight face. Lucas picked up his pen again and signed his name at the bottom. "Now you," he gave him the pen, and Elliott wrote down his name next to his. "There, done," he smiled, and his son's smile was a thing of beauty.

After Elliott had gone off with his paper, which would soon adorn the space on the wall near his bed and remain there for the next few years, Lucas briefly left the baking scene and his work at the table to go and see how everyone was doing in the living room. He wanted to check on Pickles, of course, but there were the twins, too. He always had an ear stretched out to where they'd be, one way or another, and he trusted that, but every once in a while…

The older they were getting, especially now that they could walk and run around, Lucas and Maya both could see them go about when they'd be with their big brothers, and how much they'd want to do whatever they were doing. Depending on who it was that they were emulating, the results would vary, for better or for worse.

Now thinking about Elliott and his desire to be more involved at the ranch, he got to thinking about whether any of the other boys would ever grow up to want to do the same. Jamie was more or less spoken for, unless the kitchen's call ever left him, and Noah hadn't shown any inclinations toward anything as of yet. Now Simon and Jack, obviously, were still too young to have any kind of revelation in this way, but maybe if they took after their eldest brother…

When Maya returned home from her appointment with Dr. Eisley, it was to find her husband sitting on the living room floor, surrounded and halfway buried among their sons, Cousin Caitlin, and a couple of the dogs, as they all munched on cookies that were fresh enough to smell before she'd made it through the door. Lambert sat cross-legged on the couch behind them, doing the same. As soon as the kids saw her, it was a race for all of them to get to her and offer her a cookie of her own. Was she all that hungry at the moment? Not really, but she took it anyway. While they had left him able to do so, Lucas had gotten up, and now he followed her up the stairs, while the kids went back to sit and watch their movie.

"How did it go?" Lucas asked once they had made it to their room. Maya let out a breath, sitting on the edge of the bed and allowing herself to fall back. Lucas came and sat next to her, landed as she'd done before turning onto his side.

"It was good, I mean…" she paused, considered her words. It wasn't as though she hadn't known that he would ask, and still here she was, with nothing to say. "I just sort of sat there today, in the waiting room, before my appointment, and the place looked just the way it did the last time I was there, and it made me feel like… like I shouldn't have had to go back, like it was done, behind me, behind us… It's not that I'm ashamed about needing to go, but…" The words wouldn't come again, but they didn't need to. He understood what she was getting at, as she'd known that he would, hoped that he would, and as he had done for as long as they had been together, as long as they'd been in each other's lives, really, he made her feel at peace again, made her feel that she was breathing easier. She reached over, and he leaned his face into her hand, turned it to place a kiss in her palm.

He told her that he'd take care of dinner with the kids if she wanted a bit of alone time, and she gladly accepted his offer. She knew exactly what she needed to do in that moment, to clear her mind. She moved only so far as to grab her sketchbook and pencils and returned to sit on the bed, back against pillows, one leg stretched out and the other bent to rest her sketchbook against it.

Sometimes she could just rely on this and need next to nothing more in order to right whatever had spun wrong in her mind, in her heart… She could let it all flow down to her hand, pass through whatever implement she chose and on to paper, or canvas, and she'd feel better, but this one… She could fill every page in every sketchbook she hadn't filled yet, and she would not have worked out her feelings on her Sara. She shouldn't have expected to either, but still she'd wanted so deeply to get rid of this feeling in her, whenever she remembered what could have been, and what she'd lost…

Once upon a time, she wouldn't have had the self-awareness to acknowledge what she needed and go for it, but she'd been through this dance before, after her father had passed, and so now, even though it had still been hard to make the call at first, she was glad to have gone back, or… she would be, in a little while… she hoped.

"Mama?" a voice pulled her from her work a few minutes later, and she had to hand it to her Sweetpea. The sound of her voice had power that her sketches did not. All she had to do was hear her, and she felt lighter. She set her pencil between the pages, closed the book and set it aside, just in time for her to spy that head of auburn curls looking through the open door.

"Hey, you're back!" Maya smiled, even as Ava took in the scene and grew hesitant. "Come here, come here, it's okay," she chuckled, and that was all her daughter needed to hear before she hurried over, climbed to sit next to her and burrowed herself in the open arms awaiting her. Maya closed her arms around her, pressed one kiss and another to the top of her head before pulling back enough to look down at her face. "So, how was the date?" she whispered the last word, knowing just what she'd get in return, as Ava's face reddened, negating the eyeroll she'd given at the same time.

"It wasn't a date, Mama," she sighed, though the tremor in her voice made it clear that some part of her had very much thought of her afternoon with Kelsey as something that could absolutely be construed as what most people would call a date, and the notion had made her very, very ridiculously happy before she'd eventually had to stop and try and tell herself that she was being ridiculous, that they were twelve, and everything was new, and they were definitely, definitely not girlfriends… yet.

"Well, was your not-a-date fun then?" Maya asked, and that smile, oh, that smile… She laughed, squeeze-hugged her again, and Ava squeezed right back. It wasn't as though they hadn't been doing a lot of the same things before the day Ronnie had read out her song and Kelsey had 'set the record not straight' as Ava had put it. But it was different now that they'd put their feelings on the table, and Ava knew as well as Kelsey did that it was so.

"What about you?" Ava asked, after a few moments. Maya could see her looking at the sketchbook she'd set aside. She was the only one of the children who knew where she'd gone that day, not that she felt the need to hide it from the boys, but it just felt easier this way, to not let it take over the house.

"Oh, it was good, or at least…" she tilted her head, and to her credit, Ava understood what she was getting at, and she nodded. It made Maya smile again and, when Ava asked what she was smiling about, she looked down at her, cradled her face in her hand with so much love. "You are so much like your father," Maya informed her, and Ava smiled back. She liked the sound of that, too.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners