A/N: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!

January 14th 2024

Chapter 14
The Potential For Medals

It was finally Saturday morning, the day of the competition, and the Friar house was in full activity from the start. The children were all very excited about going to the ranch, for everything they would see (and eat) and most of all for Tori's group to have their turn so they could cheer on their niece. The siblings, because they'd figured out the plan, were looking forward to having their sisters' baby news in the open. Maya was on the whole in both of these camps herself, but she was also standing in support to her little sister as she prepared to tell her boyfriend he was about to be a father, and telling her parents that she was going to be a mother…

"What if they're upset?" she asked Maya as she came sweeping into her room.

"Who, Mom and Dad?" Maya blinked. Nellie nodded. "Why would they…"

"I don't know, because… I'm twenty-two, I'm still in college…" she counted off.

"You remember how old Mom was when she had me, right?" Maya approached her sister and held her at the shoulders. Seeing the look in Nellie's eyes, she guessed this wasn't the winning argument she might have counted on, so she went on. "You're in a very different place than she was at the time. And we're all with you and Bobby. They will be, too."

Time would tell whether she'd predicted correctly, even if she was confident that she had. For now, all they could do was get everyone together and out of the house. They drove off to the ranch, the Davis twins picking up their girlfriends along with MJ for what was bound to be a very strange ride. If any of them wished they could have been in there to find out how it went, they had nothing to worry about with MJ there. He'd be right on hand for a detailed recap as soon as he got the chance.

Wyatt and Finneas rode with the Hart-Lanes, leaving the Friars to ride through the Sullivan Stables arch together, arriving first. It was really something to see the way the ranch could feel different at competition time. Yes, there would be some decorations, and there would be many more people milling about than usual, a different style of dress, semi-formal in the visitors, not to mention the competing riders… But they spent so much time here, which made it feel practically like an extension of home…

"How was it in there?" Maya asked MJ when she spied him coming along ahead of the two couples, looking like he was anxious to separate himself from them and join her.

"I couldn't say a word because I was afraid I'd give it away before she got to," MJ sighed. He hooked his arm with hers and Maya tried to bite down a laugh with middling success. "All I could think about was this thing about twins, and DNA, and twins with twins…" Off Maya's confused look, he explained further, looking relieved that he could at least tell someone. "Well, I thought about how Nellie and Gracie are identical, and so are Bobby and Ethan, so they're basically the same person at the start, yeah?"

"Uh…" Maya started, but he went on.

"But then that means that Nellie and Bobby's kid might as well be Gracie and Ethan's, too, DNA wise. And if those two had a kid, then those kids would be cousins, but siblings, too? Kind of? And that's both really weird and just… wild…" he mimed.

"Good thing you didn't talk, yeah," Maya patted his arm.

"Well, I'm watching her like a hawk at least," MJ sighed with a look back at the twins before returning his attention to his sister by his side. "And you, too. How's the nibling?"

"All good, all good, as you'd know," Maya squinted up at him.

"Hey, I have a duty, if I'm going to be these kids' favorite uncle, I have to keep an eye on the two of you," MJ declared, chest puffing up, and Maya finally had to burst out laughing.

"Well, if my vote counts, I think you're already leading the board," she told him. Her youngest brother had long surpassed her in height, and she would look at him sometimes in complete admiration for the man he was becoming. She was so happy to know that her children were getting to spend these years with him in the house, for their sake as much as her own, deprived as she'd been from growing up with him by the circumstance of their ages.

They were all around now, the ever growing branches of her family tree. The Hunters, the Hart-Lanes, and all the branches that grew from there, Calaharts, Arroyos, Landaus… And there were the Friars, hers and Lucas' bunch, then their son-in-law, and their granddaughters… It was a rare occasion when as many of them would be available and present in one place, but this was one of them, further motivating both Maya and Nellie to make this the moment to share their news. They would wait until later, not wanting this to take the day over, especially when Tori had yet to have her moment. She'd come to greet them all - and to show her riding clothes - and they'd seen her off with the rousing cheers of the whole family. She would not soon forget that they were there, and that they would be rooting for her and her horse.

"Broke out the big camera for this one, huh?" Haley told her siblings, tipping her head to their father, as though he wouldn't hear her while fiddling with the object.

"I didn't buy it to keep it in the box," Shawn told his daughter without missing a beat, though he did look up to find, as expected, that she and the others were expecting and mimicking this reply. "Alright, alright, here," he lifted the camera and snapped a few shots. They had been raised by him long enough that he could not catch them unawares. "Laugh all you want, I just got some new memories of my grateful bunch." Katy tapped him on the shoulder with a smile. "You are still my favorite subject," Shawn turned a smile to her and she kissed him.

"And that's our signal," Haley turned away, in tune with MJ and Gracie.

Maya didn't need proof that Nellie was nervous about the reveal still, as she could see her lost in her thoughts and not playing along with their siblings in messing with their parents. She took hold of her hand and gave it a light squeeze, which helped some of the anxiety to float away. Gracie looked back to her twin now and moved to sit on her other side, taking her other hand and leaning her head to her shoulder. It might have looked like she and Maya were trying to comfort Nellie, which would have drawn Katy and Shawn's attention, but they had always loved going to competitions together, and they could pass this off as just enjoying some sisterly time together as they waited for things to begin.

"The guys are coming back," Gracie reported, and Maya and Nellie both looked to where she pointed. Bobby and Ethan had gone on snack duty, because even though they'd all had breakfast not too long ago, this was all part of how things worked for them here, and they wanted to be all set before the riders began.

The Davis twins had been part of their lives now for many years, and even in the beginning there had been this sensation as though they already knew that the pair of them would be in their lives from there on out. Ethan and Gracie had started out this sweet crush thing when they were still young enough to feel more 'cute' than anything else, while Bobby and Nellie… Well, they hadn't forgotten how that one had started either, with that horse chase through the ranch leading to a rolling, drag out fight which Lucas had been left to split up. They'd been in 'detention' with him for a good long while before having their riding privileges restored.

But in all this they had become friends, and the eventuality of something more than friends, even at that time, had felt inevitable. That was what they had become, never looking back. Then, there had been the day where they had very nearly been pulled apart from one another, when Bobby had saved Nellie from being hit by a bus, only to be hit himself… They'd come away from that together, and though there were still some lasting scars, physical and otherwise, it had brought them closer than ever.

Maya moved to go and sit with Lucas and the kids, allowing the brothers to fall in on either side of her sisters as Tori's group was announced and the riders and their horses were presented. She was announced as Victoria P. Friar, the P standing for Petrelis, in honor of her birth father. Were it up to her, she would be presented with all of her parents' names next to hers, biological and step together, but that would have made her Victoria Friar Munroe Petrelis Sullivan-Reyes, or some other sequence to that effect, and they could only do so much. At her latest birthday, her tenth back in August, she'd been gifted with a necklace, the pendant engraved with their names - Ella, Taylor, Theo, Lea - around the edge, and her birth stone planted in the middle. So long as she had that, showing that they were all a part of her, they could call her whatever they wanted.

When her turn came to ride, they were all watching her, the entire gathered family. She might not come away with top honors on this day, but she did very well for herself, and she was not disappointed at all with the results. When it was all said and done, she was third, and that was better than she even foresaw. She went and showed everyone her prize, and then she was off to rejoin her horse and her riding friends.

As the family eventually moved away ended up dispersing to check out this and that around the grounds, Maya and Lucas both caught Nellie's voice as she told Bobby that she'd been wanting to show her something, and they discreetly looked over to see them walk off together, hand in hand. They exchanged looks with those few around them who were aware of what this 'something' actually was. They couldn't keep from smiling, but they did their best not to draw anyone's attention when the moment was so close.

They wouldn't actually be able to see the two of them in the moment where Nellie would tell Bobby that they were about to become parents, but when the pair returned, their smiles were easy to see, and while they might have been able to come off like they were just enjoying the day, their joy was spilling out of them in a rush. Nellie looked relieved of one nervous load, while Bobby looked like he'd received maybe the most pleasant shock of his young life. He was doing his best to contain this, to do like his girlfriend and pretend like it was a normal day until they could tell the rest of the family, but oh, it was so difficult. He had definitely cried when she'd told him.

He would have to hold it in for a few more hours, as Nellie had decided along with Maya that they would wait until dinner, which their family would all be enjoying together, at tables set up just for them behind the bed and breakfast. He had at least been informed of the fact that it wasn't just their announcement but the Friars' , too, the better not to catch him off guard later on, and as soon as he was able to do so, he took a moment to congratulate Maya and Lucas about their own spring delivery.

The meal was a crowded and noisy one, nothing out of the ordinary for the likes of them. Even as they ate, people would move around in order to join one conversation or another. They did so, always, with permissions requested and granted, something to ensure that the kids would not just hop around from place to place all the time. This continued until they'd finished the main course and were in the brief lull before dessert.

"Mom, Dad, them first, right?" Marianne appeared behind them, and both Maya and Lucas looked back at her. She didn't need to elaborate any further on what she was getting at. It had been important to her, rightly so, that her siblings should be the next to find out about their future siblings. Already knowing that some of her aunts and uncles had been told had been something that broke the plan. She knew the reason why, and her elation there was maybe the reason why she hadn't been too upset in the end, but now…

"Yeah, of course," Lucas told her even as Maya got up to start collecting the kids.

It wasn't the easiest thing to find a reason to pull them all away like that, all their daughters, and their son, as well as their son-in-law and their granddaughters, without giving anything away, but they managed it… hopefully. There was some suspicion, if any, only on the side of the ones they were escorting away. By now, after having held on to the secret for over a month, it was not outside the realm of possibility that some of them would have started guessing and simply held their tongues until such a time as it was confirmed, but for now the goal was to get everyone together that needed to be there in order to reveal that their lone boy would be a big brother come the month of March.

The reactions were mixed in intensity. Ella and Taylor were both startled and surprised before showing a pair of happy smiles. Ezra didn't look as though he understood everything, but he took the news that he would be a big brother by hopping around and repeating the words over and over until Marianne picked him up and calmed him down a bit. Aubrey was startled but then very excited at the prospect. Mackenzie asked many questions, wanting to know when the baby would come, how long they'd known, what it would be, when Maya would be home from school… The triplets looked at each other like there'd definitely been some rampant suspicions, and not everyone had been of the same opinion, leaving some scores to be settled. None of them were unhappy, though there were a couple of uncertain faces among them, like they weren't sure about the idea of yet another sibling. They would come around in the end, their parents trusted as much.

The surprises were not done, and while they managed to make it back to the group before anyone spilled a single bean, they came very close thanks to big brother Ezra. Maya and Nellie managed to make their big reveal on their own, and that was what mattered. What also mattered was the overwhelming feeling of love and support that the future mothers and future fathers with them had been granted as everyone reacted. Maya was glad to see the relief that flooded her little sister fully upon being embraced by their parents. Of course, she'd had nothing to worry about, but she'd had to see it for herself. There would be so many new memories captured by Shawn Hunter and his camera that evening, and soon a few of them would be on display around the Friar home, including the twins' room up on the second floor. The chase for spring was officially underway.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners