January 10th 2024

Chapter 10
The Potential For Love

Lucas tended to go along with looking after the kids when Maya would get on diary duty. He knew that it could be a lengthy process if she couldn't concentrate and that didn't want it to take so long as to consume all of her free time with him, the kids, her siblings, life beyond work and school… Did that stop some young visitors from making their way up there? Never, and that was fine. In the end, it was something they all cherished together, and these memories would stay with them as time went on.

When Mackenzie had gone off with MJ for a library run, and then Marianne had reappeared, too, he knew that the last diaries were done, and he made his way up to find his wife. As expected, even though she had finished looking through each book, leaving a new assignment for the next two weeks, he found Maya still looking through one of the diaries, focused on her student's work. Even without seeing her face, he could imagine the proud smile she'd be wearing. He came up behind her, slow so as not to startle her, and the shift in her posture told him she'd become aware, so he slipped his arms around her. She leaned to him and he tipped his head against hers.

"Which one is this?" he asked.

"Ada Marie Minkus herself," Maya told him, closing the sketchbook so he could see the cover.

"I didn't know she could draw like that," Lucas smiled.

"I've been seeing it in class, but this is something else." Finally setting the book back into the box, she turned around to face him. He snorted, seeing the edge of tears in her eyes. "You think you're so funny," she shook her head, brow arched at him. "You should have to get your hormones all messed up, too, I'm just saying."

"I don't disagree, sign me up," he nodded.

"Uh-huh," she held up the squint for a moment more before stretching up to kiss him. He kissed her back, holding her secured on her tiptoes. The recurring joke between them was that they struggled to get time alone, being parents to all these kids… and yet here they were, having managed to have all these kids. One way or another, when they did have time to themselves, however long it lasted, they didn't let it go to waste. Today, Lucas helped get the boxes stacked up, ready to return to school the next day before sitting along with Maya.

"Imagine if it would have been like this back when we were in high school," he told her. At the idea, she grinned and started to laugh, sounding like several of their daughters as she did. "You would have been amazing at everything."

"There would have been too much, I would have wanted to do it all."

"Yeah, you would," he tipped his head to her, sealing his belief in her.

"You could have done more dance classes," she suggested. "Become my back-up dancer," her eyes flashed with the idea. He'd seen that look enough times over the years to guess a sketch was likely to materialize, pulling this image from her mind and into the world.

"I would have done the musical every year, just to be in it with you," he carried on with their hypothetical. This made her grin, imagination soaring as the idea settled in her mind.

"You know, apart from those two years when we lost the team, that's really the one thing I regret, us not having musicals back then. I would have loved to do… even just one."

"You still could, someday. Maybe not in high school, but at the Silvan, or in New York…" Lucas told her, and the thought was a thrilling one, but she couldn't see herself letting it take hold, not when she sat here, a new child growing within her and so many more already in their household. "You could," Lucas persisted, nodding as though he could read her mind. She wouldn't put it past him after all these years.

"Whether that's true or not, it definitely won't be this year," she lightly patted his chest, and he smiled. "I already hate to think about not getting to complete this first year with everyone."

"You'll be there as long as you can," he told her.

"I haven't even told them yet…" she thought aloud before shaking this away, focusing on the present instead. "How's it going with Sophia and Calvin?"

"Good, they're good. I think Calvin is finding it the hardest to be away from home, but he and Mosi are doing alright together. And Sophia and Kennedy…"

"Ash tells me they think the two of them are going on and on about how their parents would be good together," Maya smiled.

"They've been scheming at the ranch," Lucas confirmed, making her snort. "Himari and Deanne seem to be doing alright at the high school, too."

"Deanne is still struggling to open up," Maya hummed. "But Angie Anna's got her back. They're communicating, and it's starting to show in her art. When she's ready for more… we'll be there for her."

They had a much more direct line to how Himari was doing, with her staying at the Dixon house down the road. The most they got to see of her and host Amy outside of school or the ranch was when the two of them - and sometimes Julie, too - was on their regular visits up the Dixon girls' big brother and his wife and son up at Sanderson Farm. They went there, just about every day, either early before school or in the afternoon when they returned on school days, to visit the horses presently hosted on the farm. As soon as Himari had heard about how they would see to older or retired horses, or those in need of an environment better suited to their recovery, the aspiring veterinarian wanted to help, in whatever way she could, and they gladly welcomed her to do so.

"They both mentioned looking forward to the competition," Maya told him, and Lucas nodded.

"Yeah, so are Sophia and Calvin. He's been asking about it every time I've seen him since he found out it was coming up."

"You're going to have a whole lot of junior assistants," she teased him, and he laughed, but she knew that he would happily find tasks for all those who wished to pitch in.

"Tori wants to sign up for her age group," he revealed, and he loved seeing her reaction, surprise and instant pride mixed together at the thought of their eldest granddaughter competing. She'd be right there, they both would be there, cheering her on with all the energy they had been bringing from the stands since their school days.

"I'll break out the paint."

"We do love a good banner in this family," Lucas hummed.

"Yeah, we do," Maya hummed with him, and they laughed, leaning to each other once again. He reached down, setting his hand against her growing bump. She could still hide, but it was there, and he'd been feeling it day by day as they lay together every night and every morning. "I've missed this part," Maya whispered, placing her hand over his.

"I've missed it, too," he told her, and she took hold of his hand, feeling the tremor in him as the emotions coursed through, the good, the difficult, the scary… the hopeful… They had almost given up on the idea that this could work out, when they'd opened the door to trying for another child and nothing had come of it for all this time. But then it happened, and they were in this together, doing everything they could to look to a happy future rather than to look back at a narrowly escaped tragedy.

"Don't ask me how I know this, but this one feels different," she told him. He looked at her, unsure of what she meant. "When I think of this baby in there… Feels like a boy." He smiled at this, looked back to their joined hands. "I know I have this track record, six girls one after the other, and maybe this will be one more, but…"

"It could happen. We have Ezra now, and…"

"What, he Uno Reversed us?" she suggested, pulling a laugh out of him loud enough that her hand shifted up to cover his mouth as she shushed him and quietly laughed with him. "They're going to hear you down there," she reminded him. He gave a silent 'sorry' and she removed her hand.

"Do you want to find out when they can see or do you want to wait until March?" he asked her.

"Honestly, I keep going back and forth on that," she told him. "It's just curiosity, I guess."

"You have a lot of that," he nodded. "Passed a lot of it on to the girls…"

"... with plenty to spare," she grinned.

"Speaking of curiosity though…" he went on, as the notion got him thinking. "They're going to figure it out the longer we keep them waiting. And not just them. Your siblings, your parents, my dad…"

"Riley," they spoke together, laughing again.

"I know," Maya nodded. "I do. I was just telling Marianne earlier, about how we would wait for the right time, but then… I don't know, what if we keep waiting and then they end up finding out on their own. This is already so big, that it's even happening, and… it probably won't be happening again, even if we were thinking that last time."

"I know," Lucas bowed his head. As ever, though she of course would listen to any and all input that he would have, he tended to be of the mind that her word came above his own, at the end of the day. She was the one with the baby in her belly. "Can we maybe come up with something that doesn't demand too much… planning ahead? So we can just pull the cord whenever we're ready?"

"We should, yes," Maya agreed, and just seeing him about to point out they'd need Marianne for this, she smiled. She'd become part of this operation the day she'd found out about her new sibling along with her mother. "We have to tell the kids first," she held up a finger. Her one hard-set rule, and he was right there with her. "We're really going to have to figure out what we're going to do about their rooms…" Maya hummed, the new incoming reality made bigger all of a sudden by the conversation.

"We will," Lucas assured her.

"Do you realize… Nine kids? Nine…" she held up her hands, all fingers but one extended. "One grown one out living on her own with her family, but still, eight here and nine in all?"

"I think we got so used to seven for a while, and then Ezra came along, and now… Yeah…" he breathed. "I know we used to talk about how we were going to have a big family, but back then it looked like four would be big, maybe five…" The numbers had a way of making it all feel impossible, but then if they thought of their family, of Ella, and Marianne, and Kacey, Remy, and Lucy, and Mackenzie, Aubrey, and Ezra, now this baby, too… It wasn't an impossible number, it was just them, the Friars and their children…

"People are going to realize that and they're going to start asking us if we're going to go for an even ten, aren't they?" she blinked, mind far away.

"Okay, let's not go there, yeah? Let's just focus on this little guy," he pressed his hand back against her little bump, and it made her turn back to him with a smile, which he returned. "Starting to feel like a boy to me, too," he told her, and her giddy smile was everything. Right or wrong, they were already so in love with this little surprise, and they couldn't wait to meet them…


TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners