A/N: Thank you so, so much for all the kind reviews! I'm so glad you all like the story so far and I've ultimately decided that I'll be updating every Thursday and Sunday unless a conflict arises. This chapter is a bit long and mainly focuses on Shawn and Katy Hart. Thanks for reading!

Warning: Mentions of teen pregnancy and a few spoilers for Girl Meets Master Plan, (nothing too big though.)

Disclaimer: Boy Meets World and Girl Meets World are the property of Michael Jacobs and April Kelly. I own nothing.

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Shawn Hunter wasn't exactly responsible.

He had lived between the lines for most of his childhood, with a dad that was barely around and a mom who 'forgot' where she lived more than once, Shawn didn't grow up quite as well as his best friend, Cory Matthews, did. He got through it though with a lot of help from other people, and that's why he was like he was.

He was far from okay and always would be. There was no way to go back and change the way he lived and make things better off for himself now. Even though he wouldn't admit it, he did have some problems. It wasn't exactly normal to ditch your best friend the day his first child was born and not see him again for nearly 13 years. Evidently, he was not a very good uncle.

When he was about 19, Shawn's father died of a heart attack. He cracked, he couldn't take it anymore and broke down. It didn't take long for him to get out of there either, taking the trailer he grew up in and leaving town during his freshman year of college. He came back though, that was the difference between then and now. He came back because he that things weren't that bad yet. Cory and Topanga were only engaged and he could still hang around without being the awkward third wheel. Even though all their friends knew the couple was rushing into marriage, Shawn didn't do anything to stop it. He didn't say a word of his disbelief in the relationship to Cory who had always been so sure that he would marry his practically lifelong girlfriend and live happily ever after.

But, the couple got through it. Every fight, every bump in the road that had the rest of their friends holding their breath, just waiting for the two to split. Shawn had that tiny bit of hope left for them and somehow knew that if he had their relationship around him, he'd figure out his own life pretty soon. They were inspirational to him in a way and he always believed that they would go the distance. That's why he felt that familiar pang of happiness as he arrived at Cory's apartment building at 5 in the morning. Traveling around the country in a trailer for most of the months and living off of fast food and truck stop snacks wasn't exactly the way he imagined himself living when he was 19.. But, he was making a living for himself and he was doing something he always though he would be.

He hadn't bothered to let the Matthews know he was dropping by, due to his assignment for the weekend being in Jersey he figured now was a better time than any other to pop in for a visit. It had nothing to do with the fact that Riley's best friend, Maya's, birthday was today. The year prior, he had been introduced to his niece's best friend for the first time and just like everyone else, he saw himself in the kid. He knew better though, he knew a lot better than to get invested in the kid's life then just up and leave the next day. She didn't need that. So, he distanced himself for, her every time he visited even though she was basically always at the Matthew's. She was an okay girl, Maya just didn't need someone like Shawn in her life.

"Cory! You awake? I'm coming up!" Shawn called happily into the speak box, rubbing his gloved hands together. Everything was cold and it was extremely dark outside for five in the morning. He loved winter despite all the extra work he got stuck with. He knew at least Topanga would be awake, preparing for work. She was a successful lawyer, she turned out like everyone knew she would. Topanga was like that, she knew what she was doing.

Cory and Topanga had always been his safe haven. Not just the friendship that Shawn and Cory shared, but the relationship and everlasting love between Cory and Topanga. The two had been in love since day one and Shawn knew their relationship was the only stable thing in his life while growing up. So, whenever the two broke up, Shawn wouldn't have anyone to turn to/ It was the worst in the trio's senior year of high school when Cory was courted by a girl from a ski lodge and 'accidentally' kissed her. Even though he had a girlfriend at the time who he was sure he loved at least a little bit, he was still torn up when Cory messed up and he and Topanga split for almost fifty days. He and a depressed Cory had tried drinking a few weeks after the breakup which failed miserably and that was when he realized his friend's relationship and codependence on each other was the only thing that kept him sane.

He didn't exactly mind leaving that cold, December day 14 years ago. He knew that the couple could make it through anything, even the daunting task of caring for a newborn baby while still in school. Eric stated for a few months to support them, but pretty soon he found his own calling and left to go start his own life back in Philadelphia. Although he would deny it, Shawn was the one still acting like a teenager. He had no job, no place to live, and still hadn't graduated from college. He picked up writing again when he went to live with his half-brother, Jack, and his fiancée, one of his roommates from college. Jack and Rachel got married a few years after being engaged and getting out of the Peace Corps. Shawn, expecting to see Cory and Topanga at the wedding, was disappointed when they didn't show and left Jack pretty soon after the wedding. His older brother didn't need him around, he was married and something about that was just wrong.

He took the trailer that he had lived in for half his life from the storage vault where he and Jack put it after their father died and started applying for every job that came up. He had always been interested in writing and photography and refused to do pretty much anything else, landing him with his current job as a travel writer. It didn't pay much, but it covered what he needed, and Shawn Hunter didn't need that much.

The only thing he needed was missing from his life and it was unknown when he would find her again.

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"Hart! Table 7 check than we're closing, your turn to lock up!"

The gruff call from the Nighthawk diner's owner, Steve, startled Katy as she carried some dirty plates into the small kitchen area of the diner and placed them in the sink where the seedy, teenage bus-boy was cleaning up. She sauntered over to table 7, picking up the check and her measly 2-dollar tip. At 17 years old, Katy Hart had no idea her life would end up like this. At 18, she got too drunk at a party one night and she woke up the next morning next to Sam Hart, linebacker of their high school's football team and somehow, she knew what had happened before any tests had to be taken.

She knew how stupid it was of her to not use protection, how stupid it was to drink too much, how stupid it was of her to go upstairs with Sam. She wanted to scream, cry, kick something, but something held her back. That something was Sam.

He didn't run like any other high school boy would've. He stated by her side even after they graduated and she had the baby in the middle of Sam's freshman year of college. The couple had moved to New York after graduation. NYU was one of the colleges Sam got accepted into not just because of his athleticism and he decided that that was the college he wanted to go to. He was the one who came up with the name Maya.

It was her Maya's birthday and Katy was working. Nighthawk only stayed open until about 2 AM but they kept her there longer most nights. She needed it, she needed the extra money she got for locking up the place. She had herself and a daughter to support and that's the way it had been since that day 14 years ago in the hospital with Sam holding her hand and cooing to the bundle of pink blankets in her arms. He always said he would never leave her, he oved her too much.

That lasted long.

She usually finished up at the diner at around 2:45 but it was a long way home and Katy hoped Maya was asleep and that her little girl wasn't up, calling for her mom like she had when Katy first got the job a month after Sam left almost 6 years ago.

"Mama, it's only until I get on my feet. She needs someone there when I'm working. It's dangerous." Katy had explained to her mother the year Maya turned eight. She was working way too much to be there all the time for her daughter and having her at the diner was getting too hard. Eight year olds were hard to take care of on their own, let alone watch and keep interested while you're working a ten hour shift. Her mother agreed to stay at their apartment for a few months to watch her granddaughter, something Katy didn't really like but she knew it had to be done. Her mother had never been very supportive of her and Sam keeping Maya and the day Sam left only strengthened her opinion. It hurt Katy knowing that the woman that Maya had dubbed Grammy when she was younger spent more time around her little girl than she did but, she kept working.

As Katy boarded the subway early that January morning, she glanced down at her watch and noticed just how late it was. 3:38. Maya had turned 14 five minutes ago and she wasn't there for her. Just like she wasn't there for her when she turned 13, 12, 11, or any year before that. Her little girl's voice rang through her mind and she felt a sharp pang in her chest.

"It's better for both of us when you go off on your imaginary auditions and chase my imaginary father."

Guilt. She knew it, she knew she was never there for her daughter. Not since the dreaded fifth grade play when she snuck in forty minutes late and made an embarrassment of both herself and her daughter. She noticed the Matthews were there though, supporting their daughter. Riley Matthews was Maya's best friend and Katy could not ask God for a better person. Riley was sweet, caring, and just the person Maya needed in her life. Her parents were even better people and they had Maya over at their place more times than Katy could remember. She was basically over there every day and she was even there last year for bother her birthday and Christmas. As was a man named Shawn Hunter,

She had been introduced to Shawn last year when he came to the diner sprouting something about being there for her daughter and not working all the time. It really made her blood boil and she exposed the real reason she hadn't taken the off. She was saving up to buy a locked, a really nice one that she knew would be perfect for Maya. White gold monogrammed with an M on the front. Shawn Hunter was a good man though, he cared about people just like Riley did and although older than Katy, she did admit he wasn't bad looking.

The air was brisk as she exited the subway, having trouble run up the slippery steps onto the sidewalk in her annoying waitress heels. She wrapped her tan trench coat even tighter around herself and brushed a lock of her light blonde hair from her face. East Harlem was a dangerous neighborhood and not the ideal place to be at 3 in the morning.

Her apartment wasn't much better at keeping out the cold and she realized upon arriving that is was half as cold inside her living room compared to outside. She noticed Maya's door ajar and prayed that she was asleep, not up, getting disappointed over how her mom had messed up. Again.

She was at ease when she pushed open Maya's door the slightest bit and noticed the heavy rise and fall of her chest as she slept. Her pet ferret, Ginger, was asleep on her bookshelf. She was hardly a pet, just a ferret that Maya bought from some guy on the subway one day and brought home. After reprimanding her daughter for buying something from some random guy on an underground form of transportation, she allowed Maya to keep the animal as long as it didn't chew up anything. She wasn't surprised to come home after a week of having Ginger and notice on of her mismatched couch pillows completely torn to shreds. She said nothing though, still letting Maya keep her beloved pet.

Katy sighed, flicking on the dim kitchen light and grabbing a bottle of cheap wine from the fridge. She poured herself more than usual and sat down on the couch, her eyes resting on the one photograph she kept around of her and Sam for Maya. When she was 12, Sam had reached out to Maya. Invited her over to visit him in Phoenix. Katy remembered her face lighting up when she received the letter than dropping quickly when she read about his new family. She threw out the letter and neither of them had heard from Sam except for the little child support he coughed up every month. She had imagined herself many times coming out to Arizona and really sticking it to Sam for leaving, but it was always just a fantasy.

Maya always believed she was the one who had drove Sam away and too busy to think about it, Katy didn't correct her. She knew she was bad at her job, being a mother was something she was never cut out for but it was the way her life was meant to be. Maya deserved better, she deserved people like the Matthews, so it wasn't fair for Maya to be stuck with someone like her.

Running away was the never the answer, but in her case she always convinced herself it could be.

A/N: Whew! That a bit long and boring, sorry about that, still not a lot of dialogue but there will be next Thursday! I tried to write Katy the best I could but I don't think I did so well… Whatever! I hope you all had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year! Next chapter will be up on Thursday, January 1st, 2015!