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

March 3rd 2024

Chapter 63
The Magic of Beginnings

Every year as they would head into the month of December, there would be so many questions, so many plans, and it could get overwhelming to the point where they would worry about forgetting some things… But regardless of what did or didn't happen, they could never say that they got to the other side of the last month of the year with the feeling that they had 'failed' their holiday month. It may not look completely how they'd expected it to look in the beginning, but they were always happy, and that was the important part.

For sure, this year's December had been a challenge onto itself, and when the yearly talk of what they would do about the week between Christmas and New Year's came around, they faced the usual question: Would they go to Arkansas to see Katy's family or not? For a while, they had gone just about every year, no questions asked, but they had hit a few speed bumps in recent times, and this year, with all that had been happening, and with the baby… They were both sure that the other would decide to skip it, to stay in Austin, but instead they came to realize that they both wanted the same thing. They wanted to go, so they would.

The fact that they wouldn't start to pack until the day they left, being the twenty-sixth of December and would be driving hours on end, through the night and into the morning of the twenty-seventh before they reached their destination was as silly to those who heard them say it as it was to their merry band of travelers, but it made sense to them. For one thing, with the gifts that they would receive - from Santa and any other givers - they would most likely end up having to unpack certain items and replace them with something that had just been received… Plus, they all had so much to do, and they didn't want to take time away from all that… And the packing frenzy was strangely kind of fun. It sent them off on their trip with a great giddiness they would carry on to the road, especially in the first several hours before they settled into the rhythm of being on their way.

No one was left behind in the packing effort, and Mackenzie was so happy with her part, as she got to practice her clothing folding skills. She may have been six, a few months off from seven, but give her a task, especially one with a repeated pattern, and she was good to go. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good. When they had finished everything, and the minivan had been loaded up with all suitcases, bags, and miscellaneous items, they were off. There would be more than just their one vehicle making the trip from Texas to Arkansas, and for this year's trip, they would embrace the spirit of their December games, pitting each vehicle against one another like teams.

The closer they would get to their destination, especially in the quiet that accompanied having all the kids asleep, the thing that would be on their minds the most would be to consider everything they would bring with them as they went to meet the extended Clutterbucket family. There would be the concerned side, with Mackenzie's broken leg, and Gracie's hip problems resurfacing, the upcoming surgery… But then there would be happier prospects, too, as sisters Maya and Nellie were tailing one another with their pregnancies, both their boys expected in the spring… There could not be happier news for them to carry with them into this holiday reunion, and no one would be blamed for choosing to focus on this more than anything else.

When they arrived, the Friars would be directing themselves as they tended to do, over to Katy's little sister's house, where they would be hosted by Charlie and David Olsen and their children. It wasn't as though they only ever saw each other at this time of year, but the visits could be few and far in between,so to see the recently eighteen-year-old Caitlin and her fourteen-year-old brother Harry… It was a reminder each time of just how much time had passed since the estranged family had been reunited.

The Hunters would travel out more often than the Friars. It wasn't as though they didn't want to go out there any time the others did, but it just wasn't as doable for them to head out with all the kids, everything it would entail… But that was alright, truly. Maya was so happy for her mother, happy to see how glad it made her every time she got to go back to the place where she'd grown up, to the place that had once felt and looked completely different to her. She got to spend time with her family, to reconnect with those she'd loved and find new perspectives on a lot of those she'd once struggled to associate with. Most of all, she got to know her baby sister, the one she hadn't known even existed until she'd made the trip out for her parents' wedding anniversary almost fifteen years ago now.

Katy and Charlie had not known one another until then, had not impressed themselves upon one another, had not been able to, until the day they'd finally met. But that was years ago now, and it really showed. They had grown as sisters together now for enough years that the version of themselves that now existed simply could not be what it was without that sisterly bond that had developed between them. When they had lost their father, they'd had each other, and there were no words for what that meant to them. Charlie had a loving connection with each of her nieces and her nephew, special to each one as they were, just as Caitlin and Harry were always very happy to ring in the arrival of their Aunt Katy.

Their trip to Arkansas was not unlike any old trip away from home in its ability to help them disconnect from the day to day and focus on what was right in front of them, but this one here had the power of memory attached to it, didn't it? And how could it not? They were returning, year to year, to this same place, these same people, especially to this particular time of the year… So much time separated one visit from the next, but it did have a feeling about it, a feeling like connective tissue. To Maya and Lucas, that connection existed in so many memories of their younger children, of course, but it held so very much of their story with their big girl, too.

This was the place where they'd known she would even become their daughter, where they'd planted the seeds for her adoption. And as time had passed, as she came with them and so did others, the groundwork was laid out for her to become Mrs. Taylor Munroe, for the two of them and Tori to become a family, in time adding Sunny, and then Melly to the picture, too… Bringing them out here, they got to see them become a part of it, too. Like the younger Friars, from Marianne on down, the Munroe girls had no memory of a time when this had not been something that their families did. They had always known this area, had always counted it as part of them. They looked forward to being there, or at least Tori did, among the Munroe-Friars, so far. Sunny was too young to remember from year to year, but maybe this would be the year where that started to change for her. As for her baby sister, Miss Melly was very much that, so this was her first visit, but it held great promise.

As soon as they would arrive in Arkansas, it would always feel as though someone had gone and hit the fast forward button. The days passed them by in the blink of an eye. A lot of it went down to this feeling of anticipation in them. Those who were old enough to remember the last visit, and the one before that, and many more before those, would arrive with a list of things they wanted to see and do at the back of their minds, and it would consume the next few days. That was fine by them though, wasn't it? They were happy to be there, with the people that surrounded them… This year was naturally affected by how much and how little some of them were able to do, but they certainly did what they could to compensate there. Mackenzie was particularly pleased with her means of transportation whenever they'd go walking from one place to another. She had her little sled back home, and here she ended up on another sled, but this one was old, worn with love. It had been built by Tanner Clutterbucket for his younger daughter, one of those efforts he'd put in, after his eldest had run away, in an effort to recognize his faults and ensure he would not repeat them. Now it got to carry his great granddaughter around his home town, and it made her happy every time they helped to sit her in it. It might have gotten to carry one of his granddaughters once in a while, but neither Maya nor the Hunter twins would ever dare it, especially if it meant keeping Mackenzie from enjoying it.

Now they had woken up on the morning of the 31st, the last day of the year, and as easy as it would be to sink into a feeling of disappointment, thinking of how much closer they were to leaving for home again, all they wanted to do was focus on the fun they'd been having and continue to have as much of it as they could. The Friars had carried on their holiday games tradition all the way to Arkansas, and they had looked at these days with their extended family as the perfect setup for a final round, their biggest matches yet, with actual prizes. This had required a round of shopping, which Maya and her Hunter siblings had undertaken together, just the five of them.

They'd made quite the picture, between Gracie on her crutches and Maya and Nellie with their bellies leading the way, but the thing that had mattered the most for them was to come up with whatever they could think of, from gift cards, to candy and chocolate, or small toys… They all had such a great time together, and it wasn't until afterward that they thought about how improbable it would have once been, to have the five of them shopping in their mother's hometown.

One of the Friar girls' favorite things about being there was the fact that it enabled them to visit their great aunt's music store. They ended up out there once a day without ever really planning to, like their feet would carry them on over to the Olsens' store, following a winding path they had not noticed until they actually walked up the front steps and heard the jingle over the door.

They had instruments back home, they had a whole studio just behind their house, and when they'd be here, they would get this look of familiarity, of home, and their parents would only have to stand by and watch them as they took it all in. They watched the girls as they looked at this instrument and that one, while Caitlin or her father David told them about it. The eldest of the two Olsen kids was well on her way to carrying on the family tradition. Her grandfather had built one of Maya's favorite guitars, and her father had skills in instrument repair that brought people seeking his work from miles and miles away, while she looked to be dipping her toes in both ponds, like she hadn't decided where she would dive in. Whatever she chose, they would be lucky to have her.

As day turned to evening, the visitors joined the locals for the big party that would take them to the countdown to midnight and the start of the new year. Lucas and Maya sat on a bench together, taking in the image of their children and grandchildren, all around them. Hardest not to see was MJ, who had taken up the ropes of the old sled and was now jogging along, pulling his young niece and spilling her giggles for all to hear like so many jingling bells. But they could also see the triplets dashing from one thing to another, holding on to each other's hands as they went and stopping to stare in awe. They saw Marianne carrying her little brother in one arm even as she guided Aubrey along, making sure she didn't get lost along the way… They saw Ella holding Sunny and dancing in place with her, while Taylor held the sleeping Melly and spun Tori around, to her great delight…

"So, this totally counts as his first New Year's Eve out here, yeah?" Maya pondered as her hand gently traveled the curve of her belly. Lucas smiled; it did count. It counted very much, to both of them. The minutes were flying away from them. The year would be over before they knew it, and they had not forgotten the promise they'd made to each other about their unborn son. Of course, now that they had made it to this point, they actually had to come up with an answer, didn't they? "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I don't even have a list," she admitted, and he laughed. "I don't know what it is. Maybe after so many girls, I just stopped thinking we'd ever have a boy, and now…"

"Does that make me having an idea easier or harder? I don't want us to pick a name just because we can't think of anything else," Lucas explained. She smiled.

"You say that, but all it says to me is maybe one name is all we need. If it's the right one…"

"I guess I've just been thinking about the past a lot, while we're thinking about the future, our future, with him… And then I thought about how… something came to us this year, just as we're getting ready to have him, something that reminded me of people who meant so much, to me, to the family. That's always been so important to us, hasn't it?"

"It has," she agreed, smiling, even as the kids were hurrying back to them, ahead of the countdown. He didn't even have to say the rest out loud. She knew what he was referring to, and when she imagined the name as belonging to their baby boy… it made her smile that much more. Yes, she could see it, and it was just as she'd said it would be. When it came down to it, that one name was all they needed. This fall had belonged to many things, but over at Sullivan Stables, it had belonged to the horses they had brought along, out of Colby Creek ranch…

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners