DISCLAIMER: I do not own these.
A/N: Guys second semester has been insane. Apologies for not updating in five months! Hoping the next few weeks and into summer will be easier.
As always, some lines from the movie/show.
They walked in silence through the hotel and up to Piper's room. Her mother's eerie silence was concerning. She couldn't tell if this was a good thing or a bad thing. She felt bad about snapping at her earlier, but it wasn't like what she'd said was untrue. It was crap not knowing her father, and somehow the knowledge that there were three possibilities was worse. She wanted a clear cut answer.
Josh's claimed seemed strongest due to his great-aunt. She didn't know a ton about her. She remembered going to the mainland with her mom when she was very little, three or four probably, and reading stories and coloring with a very old woman. She did a report for a social studies course on year on her name, going through the etymology, popularity, and such on all three aspects. That was when she'd learned anything about her namesake.
She wouldn't mind Josh as her father. He loved to sail as much as she did and she could imagine just setting off around the Mediterranean with him and Connor, no cares or worries. They would play guitar together and she could teach him about the constellations. If he's an architect he could probably draw, too, and he and her mom could do a big mural together around the side of the hotel, like her mom had been talking about doing for years. Maybe all she needed was a second set of hands to get it done.
But she could imagine all of them as her father. Lucas would do everything in his power to get her to perform music outside of her bedroom and stand in the back of every gig beaming at her, eyes welling up with tears because he was so unbelievably proud of her. He would be the one to sit and have late night talks about anything and everything with her, next to a fire, drinking hot cocoa. He was the type of dad she knew she could always turn to for advice. They would go to football matches together and he would make embarrassing jokes that she pretended to hate but secretly found hilarious. She would have brothers she would learn to love and challenge and take care of, who would goof off with Connor and set pranks that would annoy the hell out of her mother.
Farkle would convince her to get an education, to actually go to college somewhere and fall in love with something, whether it was music or history of chemistry. They would watch movies together and she would throw popcorn at him when he spoiled things too early, like her mom mentioned him doing in her diary. He would play trivia games with her and yeah, she would probably lose every time, but she would also have so much fun getting to know him.
Her mom sent her to shower pretty much as soon as they entered the room and she did so without much of a fight. It concerned Piper a bit that her mom had not yet tried to convince her to open up about what was running through her head, or what she had said earlier that morning. She supposed she should be grateful for it. Instead, though, it felt more like a ticking time bomb.
She and her mom had barely talked about her father since Piper was eight. They fought; she can't even remember what about anymore. Probably grades or chores or something equally insignificant. It ended with her screaming, "I hate you! I want my daddy!" She ran to her room and cried. Her grandmother came in and calmed her down and she and her mom made up, but she woke up to pee in the middle of the night and overheard her mom crying to her grandmother about it.
She made the decision that night that she wouldn't talk about her dad around her mom. Whatever happened was clearly bad and she didn't want to give her mom any reason to stress, between the slowly declining hotel guests and her grandmother's illness, which had taken a sharp turn at the time. Making such a decision didn't make life any easier. That included checking herself on any comments like she'd said today.
Thanks to the distraction of a racing mind, she nicked herself shaving and groaned loudly. She finished the last couple strokes then shut the water off. She found herself staring at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, trying to find her father in her face. All she could see was her mother.
Her mother, who had stood at her side through her first swim, her first sail, her first heartbreak. Who had attached every horrible art project to the fridge of the small kitchenette in the suite they once shared. Who had sung her to sleep, kissed her cuts, walked her to school, made her breakfast. Her mom had done it all for her. Had sacrificed a life for her.
Could she herself ever do that, when the time came? She would have Connor by her side, God knows where they would live or what they would be doing. She'd always imagined raising her children here, running the hotel after her mother finally decided to screw it all and go paint for all eternity. She couldn't say with confidence that life is what she wanted, but it was all she knew. This island, her mom, Connor.
Piper left the bathroom and let her mom tend to her. She applied a Band-Aid and kissed it better, and Piper felt ten again. They argued over hair and make-up and jewelry and even underwear but before she knew it, she was staring at her reflection again, her mom standing behind her, playing with her hair.
"I'm sorry, Mom," she said. Her mom looked at her in the mirror.
"For what?"
"What I said, earlier. I know that I sounded ungrateful for everything you've done for me and I'm not. I- I'm sorry."
"My dad wasn't around either. He went for a walk when I was six and never came back. I found out he had a new family, and I blamed my mom at first. I was ten and she worked two jobs and late nights and I always assumed she pushed him away. It wasn't until I was much older that I realized that it wasn't her who did it and it wasn't her that I blamed for him leaving; it was me. I did talk with him once and he told me he wasn't ready for me at the time, but neither was my mom and she did it. She stayed. We can talk about your father if you want, but you need to know that I raised you alone and unaware of him because I didn't want you to feel like I felt. I was angry for eighteen years, Piper. I couldn't let you feel the same, so I hid him. And I hope I didn't make you angry the way I was."
"No, you didn't make me angry," she said, wiping at a tear.
"There's a lot we should talk about; I know. But we have to get going or we'll be late." Piper nodded and her mom kissed her forehead.
"I'm so proud of you, baby." She turned around so she was facing her mom, noticing that she, too, was on the verge of tears.
"Will you give me away?" Piper asked, fiddling with her hands. Her mom swallowed, then she ran her hands down her daughter's arms.
"Of course," she said, her voice coming out thicker than Piper was sure she meant it to.
Without warning, Piper spun around and threw her arms around her. Her mom returned the embrace, kissing her shoulder.
"I love you, Mom," Piper whispered.
"I love you, too, baby."
Piper and Connor loved the church on the hill, so even though it was a hike, that was where the wedding was going to occur. Maya followed Piper down the path to the hill, her heart hammering in her chest. She wasn't sure if she was ready yet to talk with Piper like she promised. She wouldn't be able to tell her until after the honeymoon, and she couldn't not tell her that they had been on the island. Plus, what would she say? That she didn't actually know who the father was because she'd been a bit of a- well, slut?
"Maya, we need to talk about whose giving Piper away," came out of nowhere, and suddenly Lucas was standing in front of her. She hadn't even realized she'd fallen behind.
"That would be me," she retorted, and pushed past him. Her heart was picking up speed again. Why did he still have this effect on her, twenty-one years later?
"But what about her dad?" He was right behind her, practically breathing in her ear, but she pushed herself to keep walking.
"Her dad isn't here."
"It's what she wants. She told me she wants her father here. What if her father wants that too?"
She spun to look at him. How had he figured it out? Well, actually, it wasn't all that hard to figure out if you didn't know about Josh and Farkle. Piper was hers and was twenty; it didn't take a genius to figure out she'd gotten pregnant that summer, but still. And he appeared to be talking to Piper behind her back, too, which was another can of worms she didn't want to deal with.
"Lucas, I'm not doing this right now. I can't hear this right now, okay?"
"Maya, listen to me. This is about us-"
"Shut up! I'm not able to do this right now, okay?"
"Maya, please."
"You left, Lucas, you left for that beautiful woman in the photo, you left for the life that had been hand-picked for you. You don't get to walk back in and demand a post-mortem because you don't get one. You won, okay?"
"Won?"
"I don't know what brought you back here, Lucas, some sort of midlife crisis or twist of cruelty, but you left. You have no idea the hell you put me through because I loved you so much and sometimes I think I still do, which is insane of me! I'm a different person because of you. And I need you to accept that and I need you to leave."
She turned and walked the rest of the way up to the church, not daring to wonder if he had followed her, not daring to think about what she'd said about still being in love with him. She had to make it through this wedding without falling apart, because after all the shit they'd been through, Piper deserved that.
Piper was waiting at the top of the hill and they walked in together. She pressed a kiss to her daughter's cheek as she joined Smarkle and Riley on the sidelines. She watched Piper take Connor's hand and watched him squeeze it. If anything had happened there, it seemed alright, for now. She just hoped it actually was and they weren't pretending.
"Thank you to everyone for joining us here today to celebrate Connor Walsh and Piper Hart. Thank you for your friendship, and thank you to Maya, who represents your family." She had to. She couldn't lie to Piper about it, not when she'd seen Farkle as she walked in.
"And," she said as she stood, facing the congregation but only focused on Piper, "To Piper's father." There was a mumble through the crowd and Piper furiously flipped up her veil. She turned to face her. "I have to tell you: he's here."
"I know. I invited him."
"You couldn't have. I don't know which one it is." People gasped. Looking into the guilty eyes of her daughter, the realization crashed over her. "Oh my God; that's why they're all here!" She looked out into the crowd and noticed that Lucas, Josh, and Farkle had all stood and were all staring at each other in confusion.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please forgive me!"
"Can you forgive me? From hiding it from you?"
"Of course I can! You're my mom and I love you," Piper said and she hugged her, pulling her close. Maya pulled away and smiled at her, taking her seat. Riley ran her hand down Maya's arm.
"Wait, so Piper could be mine, but she could be Josh's or Farkle's?" Lucas said, making his way up the aisle.
"Yes, and you have no one to blame but yourself. You were engaged!" Maya said, standing back up so they stood on either side of Connor and Piper.
"Yeah! You just left my mom and went home to get married!" Piper added.
"I had to because I was engaged, but I went and I told Missy that I couldn't marry her and then I came right back!" Lucas yelled. Maya froze, staring at him in shock, trying to find the words.
"Why didn't you call?" she finally said. She could see twenty years of heartbreak melt into that beautiful, perfect face, and she wanted to scream that he wasn't allowed to do things like that because she could feel herself knocking down that fragile dam she'd constructed in her head, letting herself fall for him all over again.
"Because I was crazy enough to think that when I got back, you would be waiting for me. Instead I was told you were off with some other guy." Josh and Farkle both developed sudden interests in the stone walls of the church. "Missy called me an idiot and married me to prove it."
"Can I just jump in for a second?" Farkle said, pushing his way through the crowd and up to the front. "I- I'm okay with having a third of Piper. I never even expected that much of a child. I'm- I'm asexual. If you don't know what it is you can Google it but I just- I never expected to find someone who could see past that and adopt children or something so. I'm okay with a third. All I ever wanted was for you to be happy, Maya, and Piper, I want to give you that, too."
"We could find out, if you want," Lucas said to Piper, "But I'm with Farkle. Being a third of your dad is fine with me."
"Me, too. I'll take a third!" Josh yelled, walking towards them. Maya's heart swelled. None of them cared. They had all fallen in love with Piper immediately, just like she had. She sat back down, content with that, and watched the three men preen themselves from their place behind the happy couple.
"Dearly beloved-"
"Look, okay, I have no clue which one of you is my dad," Piper said, spinning around to face them, "But I don't mind. I know what I want. Connor, let's not get married." Maya sat up in her seat as Connor's face, calm through all of the baby daddy drama, dropped. "You never wanted this, anyway. Let's just go see the world and live our lives!"
"I love you," he said, pulling her in to kiss her. There were cheers, but soon the two were retreating farther down the aisle to talk with Farkle, Josh, and Lucas.
"Maya, is the wedding cancelled?" the poor priest asked her. She laughed.
"I really don't know."
"Well, why waste a perfectly good wedding?" Lucas said, and he turned to her and shrugged. "How about it, Shortstack? You and me, like it was meant to be?" Riley and Piper turned to her wearing identical looks of glee, but she kept her eyes firmly trained on Lucas.
"I'm not a bigamist," she chose to say, watching him. His eyes twinkled.
"Neither am I. I'm a divorced man who's been in love with you for twenty-one years. C'mon, Maya. You wanna tangle with me?"
She saw it all. Every moment they spent together. Every stupid joke, every tender moment, every tear she shed as she let him in farther than she'd ever let anyone else. This was the only man she'd ever seen a real future with, and here he was, ready to embark on that journey with her. It had been a long twenty-one years. She knew they weren't the same people. But love grows.
"I do. God, I do," she said, and suddenly he was holding her and they were kissing and she was crying but God, it felt so good to be held by him again, to relish in the feeling of being his again.
She could remain in his arms forever and she couldn't wait to do just that.
A/N: Yay! One last chapter to tie everything together. Hopefully it won't be another five months from now…
Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!
