A/N: Hey hey! As I've explained in my new year's story, life got very life-y over the past year with work, which set me back a long way as far as writing. As far as this story, instead of trying to 'catch up' my delay, I figured it would be a lot easier (and a lot less stressful) to just jump back in on the week to week, starting today. So, on we go!

January 7th 2025

Chapter 229
What Life Will Give

Music had always remained for her, had always been so important to her life, even before she'd gone and formed a band with her friends. TXNY had been a great little period in her life, and when she'd set it aside, it had been the right call for where her life was at. She'd stayed that way for a while, though she could always feel the wave pulling back in, splashing at her toes. She still wrote, now and then, she'd performed at some open mic nights, but for all that the most significant thing she'd done was help her daughter with the theme she'd started creating, for the series she and Lucas made together. As of late, that was really all she'd done, and it was not hard to understand why, not with losing their chick, and all that it had done to her. In the back of her mind there was still this thought of wanting very much to get back to where she'd been for a while, doing those shows, just a song or two here and there, just so she could show herself that she had not forgotten this part of herself, would not forget.

What had finally gotten her back there was the children. Ava had gone and unearthed some videos of her back in the height of her TXNY days and had shown them to her little brothers. It wasn't as though they didn't know that she used to do this with her friends, with their aunts, but right there, it really felt as though it hadn't hit them all before, not like this. Since that day, they'd been boundlessly curious, following her around every so often, asking questions about what she'd done, what it was all like, and, maybe most importantly, why she'd stopped. There were too many things she could have said there, and it wasn't as though she believed them incapable of understanding at least some of them, but it really felt as though opening that door just a crack would be as good as letting it swing wide open, and she didn't want that. The best she could tell them was a partial truth, which was simply that there was already so much on her plate, and the right opportunity didn't feel within reach.

Among the many questions they had asked, they had been made to recall – those who were old enough to do so – that she used to perform out at Chubbie's, that they had seen her there, even if they had sort of forgotten before. But now the next time that they all ended up out at the restaurant, Elliott and Noah set off with this scheme they had pieced together in haste, this plan which very simply boiled down to 'let's get Mommy to sing up there again.' While they were busy seeing to Jamie and the twins – with the tadpole knowing just what he had to do and how to get his little brothers in on it thanks to their big sister – neither Maya nor Lucas noticed the two boys sneaking off, the better to track down whoever was in charge of 'the talent,' an expression they had picked up from their Grandpa Shawn. When their parents did realize they were gone and where they'd gone off to, they had already found the person that they were looking for and were going on and on about how their mother was such a good singer. As Maya had already performed many times on their stage, this was known, and as soon as she came along to retrieve her sons, a conversation began, and by the time they all went back to their table, she had committed herself to the next open mic night.

What she had not foreseen, what none of them could have foreseen, was just who would be in that audience on the night where she took the stage again for the first time. There were several people they knew would be there, of course, Lucas and all the kids, both their parents, her siblings, their grandparents, a lot of friends, all eager to support her and cheer her on… Even some of her students had found their way out to Chubbie's after someone had heard that she'd be there, which had been the funniest thing for her, mostly for how stunned they were to see their teacher up there.

Unbeknownst to them all however was that, on this evening, someone had found their way into Chubbie's for a casual dinner and got to watch her perform, purely by chance. She was in Austin for a performance of her own, in a much larger venue, and would not pass up a stop at Chubbie's when she had the chance, as she did whenever she was in the area. She'd been sitting there, enjoying her meal, when Maya had stepped into the spotlight, picked up her guitar, and started her first song. At no time did she announce herself in any way, but she listened, and she watched.

Two days later, Maya was packing up her things at the end of the day, in her classroom, when her attention was drawn to a rise of voices out in the hall. It gave off immediate excitement/incredulity, and she only had time to wonder what it was all about before the answer appeared in her doorway, and she almost lost her footing in surprise. Before her stood a face she had only ever seen on a screen or on paper. Soon she would hear a voice she had long lauded as easily one of her favorite voices in the world, and that voice would say her name.

"Hey, Maya, I wasn't sure if I'd make it in time before you left. Not sure what I would have done if I had missed you, seeing as I'm hitting the road in a few hours, and there was no chance I could do that without getting to meet you first. I'm Clara Kinney," she extended her hand, and Maya just… laughed. That could have been a really bad first impression, standing across from someone freely recognized as a star, world known, but instead she laughed along with her, she got where that laughter was coming from. She didn't need to introduce herself, but at the same time, what would it have said if she didn't, right?

"What… uh… I mean… You're here, I… How are you here, how do you… know my name, I…" she blinked, shook her head. Couldn't she just express herself and not sound like her brain was seconds away from dribbling down her ears?"

"Yes, well, about that…"

X

Lucas wouldn't know exactly what was going on until after Maya came home. It would have made its way out into chatter in the neighborhood that Clara Kinney had been spotted visiting a local school, but somehow it wouldn't have occurred to him that this could have been his wife's school, the middle school where she worked, and even less so that the whole purpose for her being at that school would have been so she could speak to Maya. But then she came home, and there was something so massive bubbling beneath the surface of her face that she couldn't keep it together, couldn't just wait. She had been hurrying for home, in desperate need to speak with him. And just like that, the whole encounter spilled out, from how the superstar had seen her set at Chubbie's, how she'd been impressed enough to look into her and then to track her down, all this with the purpose of making her an offer.

"She wants to help and get me out there, she wants to… to… launch me, as a singer, I…" she breathed, and there was disbelief in her voice, as there would be, but the kind of disbelief – he hoped – born solely out of the fact that it was wild, and so very improbable that anything like this should happen, and that it was happening to her… It showed Lucas a few things whether his wife realized it or not, chief among them the fact that she might actually want this, that she might want it enough to go for it, only to end up stuck, because she had so many reasons to hold her back, all the things that she had worked so hard for, devoted herself to, over the past near decade of their lives…

"Say yes," Lucas told her, and the expression on her face was one of such shock and surprise but also the very glimmer of possibility she had been willing herself to bury. She started shaking her head, barely, subconsciously, still clinging to the belief that it was the correct and responsible thing to do as a wife and mother to six, as someone with a still burgeoning career as a teacher, one she'd strived for and so proudly achieved. "Whatever she said to you, it sparked something, it's all over your face right now," he pointed at her, and she pushed his hand away with not a shred of sincerity, only trying to hide the smile that betrayed her. "Say yes," he whispered once, then said it again when she looked ready to argue the point again. "Say yes." She chuckled, tipped her forehead against his. "Do I need to say it again?" he asked.

"Maybe," she mumbled. "Just to see what you'll try next to get through to me," she admitted, and he laughed.

"I can come up with a few things… just for fun…"

"Oh, I know you can," she smirked, and he kissed her lightly. After a moment, they both sat back up as she sighed, ran a hand through her hair and sat with her thoughts. "I know that… if I didn't see this through… I'd be stuck thinking about it, wondering what could have been, for the rest of my life, but… the kids…"

"Will be fine," he promised her. "Most of them, if they knew about this, would hate to think that you didn't go either, and you know it."

"I do," she snickered, knowing roughly how that conversation would go without giving it much thought. "But they're kids… And it might all sound fun at first, but then once it actually happens…"

"They'll miss you. We all will. But they'll be okay. We will figure this out," Lucas held her hands. "We've worked our way through a lot of things in our years together, haven't we? This will just be one more thing to work through, and it'll be a great new chapter. I know it will."

"You're psychic now?" she smiled.

"Just optimistic… and in love with my amazingly talented wife," he declared, earning himself a look that screamed 'oh you tall Huckleberry of a man…' "So, what happens now?"

"She wants me to meet with her people down in LA," Maya replied, and he couldn't help but feel as she did at the very thought of her going out there, to meet with people in the industry, to be shown as someone they might be interested in working with… It all seemed like something that wouldn't possibly be happening anywhere near them, despite the fact that he and their daughter had their own local television show.

"Now?"

"In a few days, once the school year's out," Maya told him, and he nodded. That made sense, yes. "But I don't have to…"

"In a few days," he cut in, exuding all the confidence that he could in order to pass it over to her. She smiled, nodded. Whatever would come of it, she was going to try, and they were going to make it work, him and her and the kids… They'd have to tell them all about it in the morning, or else none of them would get to sleep…

X

'A few days' had passed, five of them specifically, and Maya had flown off to California. She would be away for a week or so, depending on how things went, and this fact had been harder to swallow for the kids once the novelty of their mother's news had passed, as they had figured it would, but this had been precisely where Lucas had been getting ready to slip in and do his part, and so he did. He and the kids would have a great time while Maya was away, and he sold it to them that way, suggesting the things that they would do over that week. It really was a harder sell the younger the kids got, so it was a good thing that he had the older ones there by his side to join in the effort, giving Maya as few reasons as possible to start and doubt whether or not she should board that plane. By the time her departure day did roll around, she had a great big party of smiling faces to see her off, confirming that it really would not have been easy for her to go, regardless of how the kids felt. The important part was that she did go, and so Lucas and the kids kicked off their week without her.

Camp hadn't started yet, and it was still uncertain whether those of them who could would attend, now that their summer had been tossed up in the air. Whatever happened later on, right now, their formula for early summer was working, and that was all Lucas needed to focus on as they awaited Maya's return.

"Hi, guys!" Maya's smile was like the sun shining out of his computer screen, and it was a wonder he managed to keep hold of the twins as he held them, sat in his lap at his office desk, but they grew agitated as they saw their mother's face and squealed.

"Mammy!" Simon waved his little hands even as he and his twin attempted to get themselves as close to her image as they could.

"Mama, hi! Hi!" Jackson just barely stopped himself from faceplanting against the keyboard.

"Are you two having fun hanging out with Daddy and Pappy Tom?" Maya asked, doing her very best to keep her smile going, but Lucas could most certainly see the fact that she missed them so much, that she could have tried to reach through that screen, too, even if she for sure knew it would get them no nearer to her.

"They made a dent in the scrap paper box earlier. Dad had them 'drawing,'" Lucas shared, the air quotes evident in his voice. Maya beamed at this revelation. "He took his time and wrote their names on each one to remember who did what, stamped the date on…"

"It's really good to know you're going to be just like him someday," Maya teased with a smile.

He wanted so much to hear how her day was going, as though they hadn't just spoken a couple of hours before, but what he wanted more than that was to give her the thing she needed, the thing that allowed her to carry on while she was away from him, from their daughter and sons. He wanted to tell her about how their day was going, so he did. With the twins, it was simple enough. Anything they would see or experience nowadays was either met with the wonder of discovery or the discomforts of one thing or another, as silly as it could sometimes be. That morning, at the ranch, they had both been utterly fascinated over one of the trainers' boots, and had sort of sat squatted at her feet, looking, prodding, while she so patiently stood by, careful not to move and accidentally step on any tiny fingers. Lucas had pictures of this, and he sent them to her, with many thanks in return.

When they had been at the ranch, one of the biggest highlights – other than the boot inspection – had been to see the way Elliott went about lending a hand wherever he went. Nothing made him happier these days than to be here, to learn new things and to do something in the stables, or at the clinic, in the offices, in the kitchens, even out at the dance studio with Donna Devereaux… If he or his siblings went near that building, they'd have a rough time getting away once the dance teacher and event coordinator got her hands on them, but then they all loved her as she loved them, so the 'blame' went both ways. There may have been a whole 'welcome home' number in the works for when Maya returned, but he wasn't about to tell her about that, was he?

The Olsen kids had been out there, too, Caitlin tagging alongside her cousin Elliott in his tasks while little brother Harry was out playing with their cousin Jamie and their young friend Hazel Yasuda. Much as Lucas would expect his tadpole boy to end up in the ranch's kitchens while they were out there, instead, his favorite spot to play was under the large tree most famously standing as the site for event pictures, and weddings… The three of them all looked like they had designs for climbing the thing someday, much as they would all try and discourage this, but mostly they would chase each other around the tree in a mad game of tag. The tree was wide enough and they were small enough that there would be a lot of stopping and running the other way just to surprise their targets, and they would fill the area with constant giggles as they went on.

Meanwhile, Noah was playing with his new young friend, Jonah Killian, both of them being looked after by the latter's big sister. Agnes Killian wasn't such a big kid herself, but she displayed enough of a maturity that they would easily put their trust in her. Lucas had heard this out of the kids' parents, and the more he got to see it in action, the easier it was to see why that was. Noah, his bee boy, was known to buzz wildly about, so much so that he would end up a repeat visitor to the bathroom for a bandage of some kind, and his new pal could be of the same type, from what they'd seen. Luckily, in both their cases, they had a big sister on the case to keep them from ending up there… a lot of the time. What was funniest to their parents was to see how much the boys both responded even more to the counsel of the other's sister more than their own… which said a lot, because they both loved their respective sisters very much.

As for Noah's big sister, she was having a very good summer already, and had she been in the office with her father and littlest brothers, she would have had difficulty not dominating the call with her mother, so eager to tell her about every part of her morning. Already, she was caught up in the idea that their show could be broadcast to every corner of her home state before very long, but then she also had her girlfriend, the two of them with the whole of summer wide open ahead of them. They had all these plans coming together of what they wanted to do, and it was really something that both Lucas and Maya were so happy to see evolve, especially thinking of the journey that their Sweetpea had undertaken since before she'd gone and become a part of their family.

"She wanted to ask you something earlier, can't remember it now," Lucas shook his head, thinking. "Something she and Kelsey read about and they wanted you to check it out while you're out there."

"Yeah, Ava texted me about it, I'm already on the case," Maya assured with a smirk.

"How many more days before you're back with us?" Lucas smiled back. He missed her so deeply, and she would be able to read it from his face just fine.

"Three sleeps," she vowed.

Once she did get to start and fill him in to what had been going on since her last 'update,' what Lucas got most of all was the clear confirmation that she was having a good time out in LA, and that things were going well.

"I'm going to have to talk to the school, figure out a plan for next year," she went on now, and Lucas sat up, relieved of the shimmying pair on his knees now that his father had returned from picking up lunch for himself and his son and grandsons.

"Yeah?"

"I don't want to be gone too much, or too long, but I'm going to be going on more of these trips, the way things are shaping up…"

"Well…" Lucas breathed, not looking forward to being parted from her again but also genuinely so happy for her, so ready to back her up. "We'll figure it out as we go along, yeah?"

"Yeah," Maya smiled, and this smile expressed how much she wished that she could be holding him now. He felt the same way.

"We've got summer now though," he went on. "We could all just go together, the eight of us." She nodded, beaming.

"Sounds even better."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners