Hi guys!

How are you doing?

I hope you had a good back to class! (Well, our last school semester has started here. Thank Goodness, the winter is ending in a few days !)

Hi, Guest! Give me a chance, if you ever read my stuff you don't have to worry.

Hi, Crimson and Chrome 42. Thank you so much!

Did anyone watch Now or Never - Halsey music video? I accidentally watched it these days and I really need to know what happens next!

Tiramisuspice is not updating today :(

"Don't get me wrong" PLEASE be updated Like I'm dying, I need more!

Lucas had accepted a half of a sandwich that Maya had made for dinner. Lucas's friends had left them a few minutes ago because they had to take care of their kids who they had been left with their grandparents so they could come over and support their friend going through this difficult time in his' life. Since Topanga and Cory were not good company for the kids at moment, Maya had decided to take care of them. She had given Charlotte and Matheo a shower, fed them, left each one in their beds and read to them leaving a kiss goodnight before closing the doors.

Maya found Lucas in his bed wrapped in the covers. He turned to the door when he noticed the light in the room and when he recognized her, Lucas lifted the covers silent asking for her to join him in that huge bed. Maya pulled the blankets over her body being welcomed by his arms around her. They were in silent, one looking at each other for a couple minutes.

"How are you feeling?"

Lucas asked his friend and Maya realized that he was the only person who had asked her how she feels about everything that was happening. Her mom had put her arms around her older daughter and let Maya cry for a couple hours before they took her to the airport so Maya and Corpanga could take the plane to San Francisco. Shawn had kissed her forehead and said that everything would be ok, she just gives it a time. Cory and Topanga barely talked to her because of the huge pain they are feeling, it was Auggie who had called her asking her to accompany her parents to San Francisco and he hadn't dared to say anything about what had happened.

"I'll be ok ... Someday. You?"

"I can't believe she's not coming back. It's like I'm in a nightmare and I really wanna wake up. I wanna wake up hearing her humming around the house in that flowery dress she likes so much..."

Lucas grows silent and took a deep breath trying to keep fresh tears from rolling down his face.

"She loves you!"

Maya said caressing his face.

"I know. In her way, she loves me."

Lucas turned to the ceiling and stared straight up at it for a while. Maya watched his face, the last time she'd seen him was seventy-two hours ago when he'd called to talk about a dress he was thinking on taking to Charlotte since he could not get in touch with Riley then He had decided to ask the opinion of her godmother who knew everything her friend liked. He had aged a lot in those last hours, that glow he had was gone, fatigue was on his face and Maya wondered if he had ever get some sleep in the last hours.

"Thank you for being here Maya!"

"I would never leave you alone!"

They were silent for a few minutes, Lucas took a deep breath and said:

"My mom called to tell us she already bought the tickets for us tomorrow night."

" Are you going to stay in your parents' house?"

"She said she got some extra mattresses for us."

"If you need, I have an extra room."

"Thank you, Maya!"

"You didn't get some sleep, did you?"

"No, I couldn't sleep on this huge bed alone."

He turned to her, they grow silent for a few minutes again and then Lucas began to remember their memories when they are teenagers and they both laughed, they cried together for a couple hours until the silence returned to the room. Maya felt Lucas's arms on her as he held her, his face hidden by the waves of her blond hair and his breath on her nape showing that he had finally fallen asleep.

He woke up with the sunlight lazily lightening his room, Lucas turned sleepily to the other side, his arms searching for the other body who was lying next to him, but there was nothing there. Lucas opened his eyes to confirm the lack of the blonde's presence at his side. Maya had probably got up or left him as soon as he had slept. The urge to get out of bed was none, but even so, Lucas forced himself to get up and get dressed. Lucas was coming down the stairs toward the kitchen when something caught his attention. A noise, a low noise sounded down the stairs and with each step he takes that sound grew louder. That voice, that voice so familiar to him hummed merrily in the kitchen. Lucas couldn't believe what his ears were hearing, he stopped at the kitchen door and saw her leaning in the oven taking a cookie sheet out of it, she was wearing her blue dress with several pink flowers giving her an appearance of a delicate doll.

"Good morning, sleepyhead!"

She said amused without looking at him, Lucas was pale seeing her there, alive, her perfume fighting the scent of cookies that she had just baked.

"Riley?"

He said confused

"What's it? Have you never seen me, Cowboy?" She said playfully, crossing her arms, Lucas ran and hugged her tightly distributing kisses all over Riley's face which made her laugh and place her hand on his chest stopping him from kissing her lips "Okay cowboy, enough!"

They don't kiss, he doesn't remember the last time he had kissed her, maybe it was when Matheo was born and he caught her off guard. He felt her warm, he could touch her, so Riley was fine and everything was just a nightmare.

"I'm so glad you're here!"

Riley smiled.

"Me too! I even made cookies from my great-grandmother's book, did you hear me? From my great-grandmother's book, because I know that kids love them." She turned to the cookie sheets. "And Maya likes them, too."

"She's coming, isn't she?"

Riley laughed.

"You've seen her before you slept, silly!"

She rolled her eyes and Lucas looked at her confused without understanding nothing.

"I'm so glad she's here, and I want you to take care of her, are you hear me? I don't want her to suffer for Josh, no more! I love him, but I love Maya more and we both know he's not the right guy for Maya."

Lucas agreed. One of the things Riley regretted was that she had made Josh go out with her best friend. Maya never knew that, but Riley had almost forced Josh to ask her on a date, and the problem was that he had enjoyed going out with his niece's friend. They were cute and she loved the silly way Maya behaved when she was around him, but he didn't want anything serious with Maya and never wanted to. Lucas never liked this idea, he even tried to get this nonsense out of his girlfriend's head, but who could get something out of Riley's head? If love was in the air and she was happy with Lucas after that weekend with her classmates, why couldn't Maya be happy with Josh? She had only realized that things went from bad to worse when she found her best friend crying in her bedroom.

"Well, I think everything is done!"

"I heard that Farkle's coming to San Francisco and I thought about calling him to have dinner here."

He watched Riley's smile wither and she turned to the cookie sheets in an attempt to hide her emotions.

Farkle Minkus, the inseparable friend who in recent years has become something like a distant acquaintance. Lucas couldn't ignore all the signs that something had happened between them. It all started in the senior in high school when the two got even closer, they went to parties, movies, ice cream shops, restaurants, parks alone and everyone pretended not to know about that. They were even chosen as the best couple of the year, but they denied being one couple and everybody pretended to believe in them.

If Lucas could guess it, he'd say they'd been together for about three years, until a big fight they had and Farkle had returned to his apartment earlier, canceling plans of spent his college vacations with their friends, and a couple months later he let the friends know that he was going marry Sophia, a friend he was sharing his apartment with. Farkle had brought her with him to New York because she was from there and he wanted his friends to meet her and for the first time Lucas saw Riley not being friendly with someone. Sophia was a nice person, but Riley was not willing to meet her and then a few days later Maya and Lucas met in front of the building where the girls were living together at that time and they heard an argument come from their apartment. Maya opened the door and within seconds after that, they saw an annoyed Farkle slamming the door of Riley's bedroom, whisper an apology and leave the apartment.

After that day, they drifted away for a while, Lucas knew they tried to make it up a couple times, but in the end, there was always a misunderstanding that Riley refused to talk about and Farkle as well. Then came the inevitable engagement in the senior year of college, then marriage and Riley refused to take part in both. As soon as she heard about the engagement Riley had decided to go to her grandparents' home in Philadelphia for a weekend and when she came back Riley told them that Farkle was going to be a dad, something none of them knew.

After those days, there have been few times that friends met again. Lucas was even surprised that Riley asked him to ask Farkle if he would like to be Matheo's godfather. Lucas understood Farkle's absence because he was going through difficult times in recent years. His newly built family was destroyed on a Friday night due to the crash of a helicopter. Lucas remembers that night very well, there were the two couples in the room and the mood between the couple next to him was not one of the best. Maya and Josh had argued a few minutes ago and apparently, they were over, Maya was sitting next to Lucas and Riley while Josh was on the other couch alone, he stood there for a few minutes until getting up and leaving without saying goodbye to Maya. Riley started switching channels for something to watch, but she stops on a news channel so she could answer her mom text, then a breaking news came, the sound of the song lasted a few seconds until the reporter came up with an Image of a helicopter in the top corner of the screen, the reporter was saying something about the crash have occurred at an hour ago at a farm in a small town upstate.

Riley was going to switch channels when the name Minkus sounded through the tv speakers, they all turned to the TV and the image of wreckage and flames shared the screen with the reporter, the images of Sophia and Farkle appeared on the screen when the reporter talked about the possible victims, since the Minkus family was expected in a property ten minutes from that region. Riley stared straight up at the TV not believing what her ears were hearing, Maya turned to him incredulously hoping he could say it was all a misunderstanding. Lucas heard the sound of the control hitting the ground and Riley stood up promptly with her phone in hand, probably dialing Farkle's number, she walked back and forth saying no as the two of them watched her, not knowing what to do.

Apparently, her calls were going straight to the voicemail because after ten attempts Riley stared at the phone in her hand, her body shivering as a wave of crying hit her body, Lucas stood up to support his girlfriend, holding her in his arms when her legs collapsed. He had never seen her so desperate, Maya grabs her own phone trying to contact Farkle, but nothing, the call still going straight to Farkle's voicemail and when she said it, Lucas felt his girlfriend's body fall on him.

"Oh, is he coming?"

She said, her voice in a distant tone while Riley's hands wiggling uselessly on the cookie sheets. Then she puts the biggest smile on her face and turned to him.

"I still don't know if he's really coming to San Francisco."

"You three could go to the park and do boy things. I'm glad he'll be able to spend time with Matheo, it's been months since the last time he came to visit him."

"You could join us this time."

Riley lowered her face pretending to look at something on the floor just to avoid looking at him.

"I can't!"

"Why not? Why don't you ever want to be with both of us?"

He wanted to know that answer in the past few years, he deserved to know it, but he knew he wouldn't have her answer as soon as she bit her lower lip, lowered her head and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

"Because it's your men's time and I don't wanna disturb you three"

"That's not the answer I'm expecting, Riley" he was frustrated by the lack of communication that had had been instituted in their marriage in the last few years "would you tell me..."

"Lucas!" He heard her sad voice interrupt him. "I can't. I'm not here anymore if I may call it here. Do you understand what I mean by here? Or rather, I'm no longer alive, Lucas!"

He laughed at the brunette who looked at him upset.

"Are you done?"

She said crossing her arms, Lucas laughed even more what made him got a death stare from Riley.

"If you're dead, then why am I seeing you stand right here? Why can I feel you?"

She approached him.

"Because it's all here," she said pointing at his forehead "in your head."

Lucas laughed.

"Stop it, Riley! It isn't funny!"

"Maybe if I had listened to you we wouldn't be like this, but unfortunately this is the reality, Lucas. You will have to go on without me from now on."

He looked at her seriously and from the patient expression she had on her face, Lucas knew Riley was telling him the truth. He felt a pain in his chest and his eyes announced that inevitable tears were on their way. Riley notices the change in her husband's mood and approached to him, she cupped his face with her hands.

"Please, don't cry!"

She said in a tearful voice leaving a kiss on his cheek and Lucas pulled her by her waist and hugged her tight. He could feel her tears on his shirt and the way her body was shaking as she tried miserably to control herself. Riley pushed him away after a few minutes.

"I need you! We need you, Riley!"

"I can't do anything, Lucas. Unfortunately, it wasn't in the universe's plans that I stayed with you for over sixty years. Unfortunately, I won't be able to see Charlotte and Matheo grow up; I won't be able to hear Matheo's first sentences; I won't be able to take them to the first day at school; I won't be able to make their lunches; I won't be able to throw Charlotte's sweet sixteen party and see her in her fancy princess dress, I will not see the first teenager dramas, I won't be able to see their first crush; I won't be able to see their first dates; Their first boyfriends and girlfriends; I won't be able to hear the complaints about not having anything to wear even if the closet is full of clothes; I will not be there to help heal their broken hearts, I won't be able to see them take their license, I won't be able to take them to college and make them feel ashamed because their mom is crying in the hallways; I won't be able to go to their weddings, I won't see my grandchildren, among thousands of other things that I won't be able to be there and it hurts. But I know you won't be alone, you have my parents, yours, our friends and Maya so I know you will be fine."

"It's not the same, Riley!"

"I know! Lucas, do you remember that I had some little boxes that I asked you not to touch them?"

"Yeah, on the chest of drawers."

"Well, one of them is yours and the other is for Maya. I left some things for you, but I'm asking you for don't open or see things that don't belong to you unless the person who owns it authorizes you to do it."

"Okay, I promise I won't touch them."

"You can open yours, but you can't read what's there for you. You can only read what's there in seven days. And I ask you to actually deliver Maya's box in seven months. Could you do this?"

"Whatever you want!"

"The first thing you'll find when you open your box is a letter to Farkle, and I'd like you to give it to him as soon as possible, and again don't read it."

"why?"

"It's personal, Lucas. Please don't read that! I will be very disappointed if you betray my trust in you like that."

"I won't read that!"

Riley wiped her tears and smiled.

"I'm gonna take a look at the kids." She left a kiss on his cheek, Riley placed some cookies on a plate. "See you later!"

She said smiling, Riley practically ran towards the bedrooms happy to see her kids again.

Lucas felt the warmth of her body beside him, he wide opens his eyes and saw the confusion of blond waves in front of him. Maya was still there with him asleep, Lucas lifted his body to see her better and found Matheo resting in her arms like one of those perfect family ads that always appear on television. Matheo's fingers held Maya's blond waves as he always did to his mother when he wanted to sleep because it calms him down.

He needed to be strong for his kids, no matter how much it hurts he has two children to raise by himself, two innocent human beings deprived of their mom's presence and starting from now the two are his unique and exclusive priority. It's time to forget Lucas Friar and be just Charlotte's and Matheo Matthews Friar's dad.

Thank you for stopping by!

Have a great weekend!

Don't forget to leave reviews.

Me + Reviews = :) Next Chapter

See you!

XOXO

...One thing I love more than being with you...