Okie doke :) Here's the next chapter of this story!

Thank you for the sweet reviews to this story :) I'm glad you enjoyed the first chapter! Hopefully the story can be enjoyable for you as it continues! :D

Disclaimer: It's a good thing I don't own GMW because these poor characters would be put through the ringer...

Lucas stared outside his office window, lost in thought as he chewed on the end of his ball-point pen. He was supposed to finish out writing the post appointment notes on the file in front of him but his mind was the farthest thing from Tina's pregnant cat Pearl.

They were on Maya.

And Maya's crazy proposal.

She wanted a kid. With him as the sperm donor.

She wanted him to be the other half of her child.

Maya wanted him to donate sperm so she could have a baby.

There was just so much crazy in that request he wasn't even able to figure out where to start thinking.

"Lucas."

And not to mention the fact that she wanted this to be impersonal. But there was no way the situation could be impersonal for him. Not if Maya was going to be the one having the kid.

"Lucas!"

And then there was the fact that Maya had made it clear that she didn't want just anyone's sperm. She wanted his specifically. And if he didn't accept her proposal, Maya would give up completely. How could she even begin to think her no pressure comment would lighten the weight? It made it worse! She had left him completely responsible for her future with a child.

A sharp object poked him right in between his eyebrows, and he cursed under his breath, jumping in his chair and dropping his pen on his desk with a clatter.

"Dammit, Emma. What are you doing?" Lucas glowered at his intern in annoyance when he saw that she had poked him with the sharp edge of her pencil.

Emma rolled her eyes, pulling her arm back and settling back into the seat on the other side of his desk.

"Your brows were so furrowed I thought my pencil could get stuck in the crack."

Lucas narrowed his eyes at her.

Emma had been his intern since she'd graduated high school about four years ago. She'd started out as a meek and uncertain intern but years of working with him had made her somewhat cocky, and she had no qualms annoying him and poking fun at him. He missed the old, demure Emma Weathersbee before college (and Ava Morgenstern) got to her and she became Miss Snark.

"I've been calling your name for like ten minutes now." she said in exasperation.

"I highly doubt it's been that long seeing as how we've been in this office only seven."

"Whatever. The point is that you've been spacing out for a while." Emma set her pencil down on the table and closed the file she was reading over. "And I came here to get experience, but if my boss isn't doing any of his work or teaching me, then where does that leave me? So let's get whatever is distracting you out of the way. Come on. Out with it, Lucas."

He stared at her, debating whether he should tell her or not. He wasn't sure how much of it was really her business, but she was a woman. Maybe she'd be able to help shed some light on how he should respond to this. And hell, Lucas had no idea where to even start. He needed help.

"I uh… it's my friend. She asked me to father her child earlier today."

"Eww. I don't want to know about that." Emma said. "Like, I had my suspicions that women threw themselves at you for your highly coveted, beautiful green eyed, tall, tanned, chiseled jaw, great bone structured, gorgeous—"

"Are you done?" He gave her a dry look.

"—athletic, muscular, honest, intelligent, gentlemanly, Prince Charming, Mr. Perfect sperm and all." She grinned. "But eww. That's still well beyond my payroll to know about."

"Not like that." He clarified, closing Pearl's file with a sigh. "She meant sperm donor. And she said I'm the only option or she's not having a baby at all."

"Oh." Emma frowned, "Wow. That's a pretty intense request. Does she just want your tadpoles, or is she asking for a relationship too?"

"Just the sperm." Lucas said, "She said she plans to raise the baby on her own, without my help or intervention. But the thing is, I see her too often for that kind of arrangement to even be remotely feasible. I don't even know what to think. I don't even know where to start. I'm still kind of in shock."

"Well…" Emma said pensively, "Start with the outcome. If you say yes and decide to let her go through with her plan, think about what would happen to the baby. That kid is going to grow up with an absentee father, always wondering who you are and why you didn't want to stick around for them. And the worst part will be that you'll be right in the city and uninvolved in their life. Case in point: they'll have a lot of questions. Especially when they're at that adolescent stage of trying to figure out their identity. And if they should happen to meet you by some chance, which is inevitable when they track you down, there will always be some resentment towards you. Do you really want them to go through that kind of life?"

"No." Lucas frowned, "And neither would she. She grew up with an absentee father and half a mom. She says it never bothered her, but I know it's something that contributed to her mistrust and jaded outlook on life."

"So maybe the whole 'father isn't involved' plan isn't the best…" Emma pointed out, "And you know? From what you just said, it sounds like she just really wants someone in her life that will need her and will love her unconditionally because she never really received that kind of love and attention from her own parents. It seems like she came to the conclusion that a baby was what she needed to fill that void. You need to make sure that she's doing this for the right reasons."

"I think you might be right about her motivations deep down. I'll ask her." Lucas said, running a hand through his hair in exasperation. "But I don't want to be an absent father. Because no matter how uninvolved I might be, nothing will change the fact that I'll be the father. And I'll always be paternally responsible for them. I can't just not be involved. Because I know I'll have a strong emotional bond to the child if I do this. I'll love any child of mine, regardless of how they came to exist."

Especially a child of his born from Maya.

"Well then that brings up a whole other set of questions and situations to think about." Emma said, a sympathetic look on her face at his plight, "So let's pretend you do give her your male tears and you're in your baby's life. Think about the day-to-day. Look at it this way. Your friend intends to raise the baby as a single woman, even if you still will be involved. By the way, is she a looker? Which friend of yours is this?"

"Maya."

Emma's brows furrowed as she tried to match the face with the name, chewing on the corner of her lower lip as she ran through his list of friends in her mind. She looked at him in surprise after a few seconds.

"The tiny blonde with the dreamy blue eyes?"

"Yeah."

"As in the tiny blonde with the dreamy blue eyes that you told me you proposed to and got rejected by?"

"Yeah."

"And she wants you to donate your sperm so she can have your kid?"

"Yupp."

"That is so messed up."

"I know…"

"Although…" She stretched out the word, her brown eyes twinkling excitedly, "You guys could have a gorgeous kid together. Think about the genes your kid could inherit! Seriously though. You two could make a stunning kid."

"Do you always obsess about couples and what their kids would look like?"

"What? It's a perfectly fine hobby."

"You need to find a new hobby." He said, giving her a blank look. "And you're supposed to be helping me figure out whether to accept it or not."

Emma cleared her throat. "Right. So there's always a possibility of Maya meeting and dating someone. What I was saying was what happens if she meets someone who ends up filling the paternal position in her relationship? What if her lover doesn't want you around anymore? I can only imagine the guy will feel intimidated by your presence, especially if he's trying to connect with and form a relationship with Maya's child. Your continued presence could easily hinder that process and if the kid doesn't like step-daddy over real daddy then that puts the guy's relationship with Maya in jeopardy. No woman would stick with a guy who their kid doesn't like."

"Maya's not really interested in dating other people. She doesn't trust them. And she made it clear that she's not interested in marriage in the least."

"Right. Clearly." Emma snorted. "I mean, who the hell turns down a marriage proposal from Lucas Friar and his magical sperm anyway?"

She sheepishly lifted her hands with an apologetic grin when Lucas shot her an irritated glare.

"Sorry, I had to make the joke!"

"Can we move on?"

"Okay, so what if you meet a woman." Emma continued. "How would she feel about the fact that you have a child in the city with another woman who you are helping to raise? And if you happen to meet someone you want to spend the rest of your life with, how would she feel about having to share you between any children you might have together and your child with Maya?"

Lucas stared at the desk with a frown.

"That won't be an issue for me." He said quietly.

"What do you…" Her eyes widened. "Wait! Do you still want to marry Maya?!"

He remained silent, staring at the scuffs and pencil marks adorning the top of his office desk.

Of course he still wanted to marry Maya. Nothing had changed since they'd broken up.

After all, it was Maya who hadn't wanted to marry him.

She'd told him she felt things between them were too serious, and she didn't want to end up with a marriage that would crumble like her parents' did. Despite giving up and accepting the fact that she would never love him as much as he loved her, he'd never gotten over his feelings for her. Hell, he'd already decided in college years ago that she was the one he wanted to marry. It was why he had proposed to her after they'd been dating for several years. It was also why when she'd said no, his heart had been ripped to pieces.

And that had been the reason why he hadn't been able to talk to her for so many years after the terrible fight that had ensued. Even now, sometimes he still had his reservations, but she seemed like she was over it, so he tried not to let it show on his face.

"Wow! This is even more dramatic than I thought. Does she know you still have feelings for her even after all these years?"

"No. She thinks things have ended on both ends."

"So then isn't this your dream come true? You can have children with her!"

"This isn't exactly the way I envisioned having children with Maya though."

No. He envisioned them living in a quaint apartment with their kids and sharing peaceful and quiet evenings (or not so quiet depending on their mood). He had envisioned them growing old together watching as their children grew and their children's children grew.

"But I figured it out! Your conflict isn't because you don't want to father a child. You want to have children with Maya. You just don't want her to distance herself from you after she has your child!" Emma exclaimed, squealing excitedly. "I bet deep down you're ecstatic that she asked you out of any other guy. You are such an adorable little boy!"

He gave her a look. "I'm seven years older than you, Emma."

"So what? When it comes to love, you sir, are a hot mess."

Lucas groaned, slumping in his chair and resting his chin on his desk. "So what do I do? If I say yes, I'll want to stick around for the kid, and Maya will probably want to distance herself. If I say no, Maya has no kid, and she'll still probably want to distance herself. Either way, I'm screwed."

"Have you considered telling her how you feel first?"

"What? Maya wouldn't want that burden. She doesn't feel the same way anymore, and if she knows I'm still interested, she won't consider me as a donor at all."

"You sure about that?" Emma's brows furrowed.

"About what?"

"About her feelings, Lucas." She stated, "Have you thought about the fact that maybe she only considered you out of all other close male friends she has because she only wants children with you? For someone apparently so desperate to have a kid, she sure seems like she's giving up too easily by saying she won't have any kids at all if you say no. You told me that she rejected your proposal for marriage, but that doesn't mean she didn't want a future with you with children."

Lucas frowned. "Wait, what?"

"Marriage and having children are mutually exclusive events." Emma said, leaning her elbows on his desk and regarding him seriously, "You can want to marry someone but not have kids. Just like you can want children with someone, but not want to marry them. Maybe that's what she wanted."

And Lucas' eyes widened in surprise, his jaw slackening at her words. He had never thought of it that way before. What if Emma was right? What if that was the case with Maya?

And Lucas suddenly felt an inkling of hope build up in his chest. Hope and a determination to set things straight between them once and for all. He'd been hiding how he felt for long enough. Maya slipped through his fingers five years ago, and he let her go. And for five years he'd been pretending to himself and to her that he had no feelings.

"You're right." He finally responded, "I do need to tell her how I feel. And I'm going to accept her proposal tomorrow. But not on her terms. I need to make one thing clear to her: I'm not going to father a child with her and step away like it means nothing. If she wants me to father her child, then we're going to do this right."

"Good for you, Lulu." Emma grinned, leaning over and ruffling his hair.

He gave her a raised brow. "Lulu?"

"It's cute!" She teased, a playful smile on her face, "You're like the clueless younger brother I never had."

"I'm older than you." He repeated for the probably billionth time that day alone, though he knew it was ineffective.

"Older, younger, it doesn't matter. A clueless brother is a clueless brother."

"I give up." He rolled his eyes good naturedly and flipped Pearl's file back open, intending to finish up. "In any case, get the file for my appointment in twenty minutes."

"Roger that."

Emma checked his appointment schedule quickly and then pushed her feet off his desk, allowing her rolling chair to surge backwards towards the file cabinet behind her. She spun around and snapped it open, shuffling quickly through the patient files before grabbing the right one and rolling herself back to his desk. Years ago, Lucas' file cabinets hadn't been in any kind of order, and he'd scrambled to find files seconds before appointments, but thanks to Emma, she'd organized everything and managed to create the perfect system for quick retrieval.

"Alright. It's go time. You need to get your mind off of cute blondes having your baby and focus on your appointment." Emma flipped through the file and skimmed some of the details. "Quiz time. Who's Donut?"

"A purebred honey coloured Pomeranian in rehab. His owner's name is Ravina Aguillon. We released Donut from our ICU about a month and a half ago after having surgery for a fracture in his back right leg from jumping down from a three story balcony."

"And the reason for his visit?"

"He's receiving an x-ray today so we can see where he is in his healing process and to determine if the ligament damage has subsided. Any further deliberations in his treatment will depend on whether his recovery is on schedule."

Emma whistled low. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Your life is always crazy, yet I've never seen you stumble in work. How do you keep focus so well?"

"It's a gift." Lucas said with a smirk, finishing off Pearl's file and sliding it across the desk to Emma. She tossed him Donut's in return. "Review my post appointment notes and file it please. I'll see you in the examination room."

"I'll get right on it, Boss."

Lucas stood up and left his office, heading to go prep the room for the appointment.

So he was going to be a father.

Now the only thing was how Maya would take what he had to say on the matter.