Chapter 3: Waiting for a Fix

Predictably, Maya had insisted that it was unnecessary for Cory to take her to the Nighthawk Diner, and just as predictably, Cory had ignored her and all but forced her into coming anyway. And he'd regretted it the moment they walked in the door. Because the moment they walked in the door, he realized that Topanga had already been one step ahead of him and was sitting at the bar, covertly watching Katy move around the diner.

"You're going to get in trouble, aren't you?" Maya asked with a grin as she followed Cory's line of sight to Topanga.

"No," he snapped, guiding Maya to the table farthest from the bar before she could ask if they could just leave now.

"Face it, Matthews, your unnecessary little plan is already foiled," she declared, sliding into a seat across from him.

"No, it's not," he insisted. "We are going to sit right here and wait until your mother, not Topanga, but your mom, the waitress, comes by, and you are going to talk this out with her."

"She's obviously too busy to talk right now," Maya pointed out. "Plus, like I already told you, she and I are good – or as good as Mom and I ever get, anyway. It's fine, we're fine, there's no reason for us to be here."

"We'll see," Cory said resolutely.

Maya barely had time to roll her eyes before Katy stepped up to the table, surprise scrawled across her tired features. "Mr. Matthews. Hey, Baby Girl!"

"Hi," Maya replied with a small, unconvincing smile.

Cory announced, "She needs to talk to you."

"Is everything okay?" Katy asked, instantly concerned.

"Everything is fine," Maya said firmly, shooting Cory a withering glance.

"Well, ah," Katy looked torn as she glanced around the busy diner. "Listen, I, uh, you came at kind of a really bad time to talk. I'm sorry; do you think you could wait here until things slow down again?"

"We'd love to," Cory agreed before Maya could speak.

Katy shot both him and Maya grateful looks before she answered, "Okay. Do you want a tuna melt or something?"

Maya sighed in aggravated resignation before she said in exasperation, "Sure."

"I'll take a sweet tea," Cory said.

Katy nodded, giving him a smile like he'd just told her an inside joke before she scribbled on her order-pad and hurried away.

Cory and Maya settled in for what they knew was probably going to be a long wait, and he asked her, "Do you have any homework that needs done?"

"Nope," she answered quickly, still irritated with him.

"You have a history paper on the Civil War due at the end of the week," he reminded her absently, opening up his own briefcase and taking out a stack of papers to grade.

"The blue guys won, the other guys lost, and the slaves were freed, the end."

"That's not quite all that I wanted my class to get out of it," Cory remarked with a wry half-smirk.

"I already sit through your class," Maya snarked. "Can I please not get school during the rest of my day?"

"Okay," Cory said mildly, lapsing into silence as he decided not to poke the bear – at least not until it had some food in it.

Katy barely spared them both a glance as she dropped their orders onto the table along with a soda for Maya and darted off again. Taking a long drink, Cory again looked towards Topanga. He'd expected her to see them and coming charging over the moment she did; instead, he found her still watching Katy as she glanced every once in a while at the papers in front of her on the bar.

He did a double-take, making sure that he really recognized the look in her eye for what it was, and, yeah, he'd seen right. Interesting… Not that he could blame her. Even as wrung out as she appeared, Katy Hart made a pretty picture, and Topanga had never seen the other woman before today. Still, since Shawn's death, it was extremely rare for either Cory or Topanga to look twice at a person.

Could Katy Hart perhaps be someone worth considering as their possible third? The idea caught Cory totally off guard. He'd known since he was two years old that he and Topanga were meant to be a primary couple, but he'd never considered anyone but Shawn as a possible third. So far as Cory knew, neither had Topanga. Yet, as he watched, Topanga and Katy caught one another's gaze and exchanged a smile, and he realized that all of a sudden he really was considering it now.

It was a couple of hours before the diner calmed back down to the state that it had been in when Topanga came in. She'd finished with the contract a few minutes before, and when she was certain there was a good chance they wouldn't be interrupted, Topanga tried to catch Katy's attention again as she walked by. After all, what would it hurt to talk to her for a few minutes, get to know the mother of her daughter's best friend?

"Hey, Katy?"

Topanga wasn't sure what possessed her to reach out and brush her fingertips along the woman's elbow as she passed by, just that she did it anyway, only for Katy to turn towards her with an apologetic expression and say, "I'm sorry, my daughter's here to talk to me, and she's been here nearly as long as you have waiting for me."

"Maya?" Topanga said in surprise, craning her neck to try and spot them. She hadn't even seen the girl or Cory come in.

"Yeah," Katy answered, sounding equally surprised. "You know her?"

Topanga chuckled when she realized that the waitress didn't know who she was. "Oh, yeah, silly me. I'm Topanga Matthews – Cory Matthews' wife, Riley's mom."

"Oh!" Katy exclaimed happily. "In that case, it's nice to meet you."

"You too," Topanga smiled widely.

At the same time, Katy's smile slipped a little as she asked curiously, "You wouldn't happen to know why Maya's here, would you? Mr. Matthews said she needed to talk to me, and she didn't look very happy about it. Is she okay?"