April 11th 2024

Chapter 102
The Night For Support

She had never gone so far as to actually take her baby boy into the soundproofed space of the Hex when he went on a crying fit at night, but this time she was considering it as she sat with him on the living room couch, talking to him, rocking him… The night had been as brief for the two of them as to feel absent. It was a big day for the girls at school in the morning, and they always needed their sleep, of course, but sometimes more than others it felt so important that they should not miss out because they were tired.

"No, I know, I know… It's alright…" she hummed as she looked at her sweet Huck. "You're right here with me, and I won't let anything happen. You can sleep now." She kissed his brow, keeping her face right there by his face, and she felt his little hand poke at her cheek. It stayed there, like it knew where it was, and it did comfort him. Maya smiled, making absolutely sure that she would not break that contact, allowing him, with some luck, to find sleep at last and stay there until morning.

"Hey…"

The touch she felt was familiar, too, and she smiled against it, basked in it a while before finally opening her eyes. When she did, though it was still dark outside, she knew that it was morning, and for what brief time they'd had, both she and Colby had slept, with him cradled in her arms as she sat on the couch. He still slept now, his hand having moved from her face to grip at her front. She felt him breathe calmly, her hand at his back.

"Good morning," Maya mumbled up to Lucas, who gave her a sympathetic smile.

"A better one than yours, huh?" he pointed out, but she just shrugged.

"Wasn't so bad," she promised. "Present company was… a little loud, sure, but won't see me complaining."

"Yeah, well, how about I jump in there and take over? You go and get some rest, I can get the girls to school and stay with the boys…"

"See, you say that now, and because you and I have been through this thing a few times now…" Maya twirled her finger up at him and he nodded in slow contemplation.

"More than a few," he agreed.

"I'm not going to do the whole 'oh, no, I'm fine' bit. Tap me out," she presented him with a fist and he bumped it before clasping it, topping it with a kiss. "Oh, I see, you're one of them Huckleberry types," she squinted at him.

"It's been known to happen," he confirmed, and the look in his eyes made it most certain that she'd been the one to bring it out of him most of all.

"Right, well, if you just come and grab this little guy," she looked to the sleeping Colby, "I'd like to grab a quick shower before everyone wakes up."

"And you'll get some sleep after we head out?" he pleaded as he took the baby. His voice did well to soothe Colby through the transition.

"Won't even have to convince me there, Doc," she hummed, slowly rising and giving Colby a small kiss on the head before heading up the stairs.

The kids had no idea how long of a night their mother had had on the whole. Maya was very good about that, about letting them all enjoy the moment together, sitting to breakfast before the girls headed out to school instead of having them crowd around their mother, too caught up in wanting to look after her to go and enjoy the day they'd looked forward to. Marianne couldn't be fooled, naturally, and neither could her aunts and uncles. They worked things out so they would get the girls off to school, allowing Lucas to stay behind with the boys while Maya headed up to bed.

"Mommy's sleepy?" Ezra looked to his father as he and Finn came up to look at Colby in his arms. The two cousins both had this look to them like it did not compute for Maya to be going to bed in the morning.

"Yeah, she didn't get much sleep last night because he stayed awake a long while," Lucas explained as he held Colby's hand. He'd woken up again now, and for how little he'd slept, he had some good, wandering eyes.

Ezra and Finn looked to each other as they received this information, and it made Lucas chuckle to watch them. Maya and Wyatt had this joke going between them that their two sons had gone and merged some of their minds, like they'd developed twin telepathy. Right now, the thought they shared was something to the effect of 'Mommy/Auntie needs our help!' They took off toward the stairs, climbing side by side and keeping pace with one another.

"Better go after them, yeah?" Lucas asked Colby, carefully dodging the batting of his little hand.

They had a canine escort as they went, which slowed Lucas down a bit, but even as they were a bit far off, in the near silence of the house - which was rare enough with how many of them lived together - he could hear the squeaky voices 'quietly' attending to his wife. Her laughter was in there, too, like a warm embrace to surround the small boys. They wanted to make her cozy and comfortable, so she could get all the sleep she needed, and she was letting them do whatever they thought was best.

When he finally walked into the room, there was Maya, propped up against several pillows on the bed. Ezra and Finn stood up on the mattress, on either side of her, adjusting those pillows, or crouching to smooth out her covers, or standing again to hug her and brush at her hair, as they imagined one needed to be helped toward some much needed rest.

"Guys, I think she's as tucked in as she's going to be," Lucas remarked, and Maya bit back a chuckle.

"Yeah, I'm getting sleepy, too," she told them, the words disappearing into an unplanned yawn, and now Lucas was the one who had to try not to laugh, to let the boys continue on their Very Important Mission. The boys had another idea blast at this, and they scrambled down from the bed, out in the hall and up to the green room. "Where'd they go?" Maya asked Lucas.

"Hold on, I think they're coming back," he reported.

The boys came rushing back, both of them holding what books they were both able to bring in their arms. They went up to their mother/aunt and showed her. What better for her to get to sleep than a bedtime story or two, even if it was a sunny morning? Sure, neither of them could read, but they settled in on either side of her, and Lucas was recruited to be their storyteller, sitting next to Ezra.

The whole exercise felt like going 'we know how this is going to end, but you boys have no idea.' In next to no time, both Ezra and Finn were stuck to Maya's sides, sound asleep as she looked on.

"He's back to sleep, too," Lucas reported, looking at Colby.

"Are you kidding me?" Maya laughed. "Was that all it took?"

"We should really finish that audiobook…"

"Oh, not today," Maya scooted down between the boys. "Do me next," she gestured toward Lucas and the books.

"What are you in the mood for? A little Daisy-Daisy, some Farmer Dale?" he inspected their collection.

"You know how I feel about Farmer Dale," she gave him a look.

"I don't think anyone should know about that one," he teased. "How about Doc Hop?" Still just a bit 'called out,' she moved to answer, then paused. "Got your favorite right here," Lucas held up one of the slim books.

"I mean, who gets to decide the 'target age,' uh? Hit me, Huckleberry."

He was more than happy to oblige, and so he started to read. At this point, she was tired enough that he could have read her the label on some product or another from her nightstand and his voice would have been all she needed, but he gave her his very best performances, voices and all, as he would do for the children. He had a good feeling that she was asleep before he made it halfway through, but he kept on going, just in case she wasn't as asleep as she could be. When it was done, with everyone asleep but him, he carefully got up and went to lay Colby in his crib before coming back over to place a kiss at both boys' heads and his wife's last of all before heading downstairs.

In their rotating roster of grandparents and great grandparents, today brought out Katy and Shawn to look in on their daughter and grandsons, with Grangie set to join them after a few errands. They were surprised to find their son-in-law waiting for them out on the porch. They might have worried if not that he looked fully calm and at ease, folding a batch of laundry. He let them know about Maya's sleepless night, which had led to his staying home with her to take over with the boys. He also told them about how story time had sent everyone down for the count, and they had a good laugh.

Lucas wasn't about to just head out now that 'relief' had arrived. He could have, but at this point he wasn't about to give up some time with Maya and the boys. He would head over to the ranch to check on things later on, but they were fine without him, and they would call him if they weren't.

They all really wanted to stop turning to that mindset, but after just those short first days with their baby Huck, there was still that impulse to stop and think of the way things were now, versus the way they'd been after Aubrey was born. Everything was great, everything was wonderful, nothing to steal their breaths away, and that was wonderful. They would embrace that fact at any chance they got. Just sitting there with his in-laws, Lucas knew they were both thinking about it, too. They were resisting the thought at the back of their minds like it wouldn't hurt to go and check on their eldest.

They stayed out there, the three of them, for a couple of hours before Lucas' phone gave a chirp and he looked at it to find a message from Maya. She was awake, and she was wondering if he was still around… Also, she was getting hungry, and Colby would be awake in no time, so she'd have to take him and leave the room if she wanted to let Ezra and Finn go on sleeping.

Grandpa Shawn was on the case, fast as ever and the first of them to head into the house. Katy and Lucas looked to each other with a laugh before he told her to go on ahead while he gathered the baskets and took them inside. Katy happily headed to find her husband and their daughter, their little grandsons… The sleepless nights and sleepy mornings had a way of throwing them off balance, struggling to remember what day or time it was, but by now they were good about going with the flow. Memories of 'last time' were one thing, but this would likely be 'the last time' they went through this together, so why wouldn't they do their best to slow down and appreciate it?

Upstairs, everyone was awake again, and while Maya had Colby in her arms, Katy and Shawn had the small boys, both of them looking like they had one foot on either side of sleep and wakefulness, and they hadn't decided where they would land just yet. They would take them out of the room, to finally find some play out beyond dreamland.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners