A/N: Chapter 9 is here!
An hour later, it was already quite late, so Shawn went down to Topanga's to pick up Maya.
"Come on, Maya," Shawn said, coming through the door. "It's time to go home."
Shawn couldn't help but smile hugely as he said that.
"Bye, guys. I have to go home. To my real home," Maya told her friends quickly, jumping up.
Each of her friends gave her a quick hug, and then Maya and Shawn left the café.
"Can we stop so I can say goodnight to Cory and Topanga?" Maya asked Shawn as they walked down the patio.
"Sure," Shawn agreed. He understood how special it was to have people that looked after you.
They went quickly to the apartment, where Maya gave Cory and Topanga a tight hug and thanked them for the years that they had taken care of her.
The couple hugged Maya back and wished her and Shawn well, and then Maya and Shawn went upstairs to their own apartment.
Maya got ready for bed, and Shawn looked in on her before she went to sleep.
"You comfy?" Shawn asked affectionately.
"Yup," said Maya. "Thanks for everything, Shawn. Good night."
"Good night, sweetie," Shawn said gently, then left the room, closing the door behind him.
The next day, after school was out, Maya heard a knock on the apartment door. She opened it to see two familiar people standing in the doorway.
"Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Matthews," Maya said shyly.
"Hi, Maya," Amy stooped down to give Maya a hug. "We heard about the new living arrangement, so we came up to see you and Shawn. How is everything?"
"It's going great," Maya said happily.
"Good. When Shawn came to live with us when he was a kid, there were some problems, which is why he went to live with Jon. We're glad that's not happening for you."
"No, not at all. I love it here," Maya said comfortably.
"Good, we're glad to hear it," Alan said, in his deep, fatherly voice.
Upon hearing voices in the apartment, Shawn came out of his office/room, then stopped short when he saw Amy and Alan standing in the doorway.
"Shawn," Amy said warmly, going toward Shawn with her arms outstretched.
"Amy, Alan," Shawn exclaimed happily, "I'm so glad you're here."
"It's good to be here, Shawn," Amy said as she hugged Shawn gently.
Alan pulled Shawn into a quick and rough fatherly hug when Amy had let go. Then the three adults went into the other room to talk after telling Maya to go downstairs to the Matthews' apartment. Alan and Amy gave Shawn parenting tips, and other advice that could help them during this time, as they still had to get used to living together. Shawn was sure that this advice would help them out.
Maya strolled into the Matthews' apartment. Shawn, Amy, and Alan had told her to come down here, so there she was. Cory was sitting on the couch reading a book, and looked up when he heard her walk in.
"Hi, Cory. By the way, your parents are upstairs in our apartment."
"I know, Maya," Cory said in his usual gentle voice. "Thanks for telling me, though. How's the living arrangement going?"
"Still going great. I hope it stays that way."
"I hope so, too. But somehow, I think it's going to be fine."
Maya suddenly gave Cory a spontaneous hug. Cory laughed and hugged her back.
"Don't ask me to explain what that was for," Maya said as they parted, "because I don't think I could explain it."
Cory smiled. "Alright. Riley's in her room if you want to hang out with her."
"Ok, thanks. See you later."
Maya ran off down the hall to Riley's room.
The two girls sat and talked for a long time on the bay window.
"So," Riley said, gearing up for the question that she had been wanting to ask Maya for the last two days. "Do you have hope now?" Riley's own eyes shone with hope that the answer would be 'yes'.
Maya smiled broadly. "Yes! Yes! Yes, I have hope, and I love the feeling! I never want to be without it again!"
Riley smiled and hugged her friend tightly for a long moment.
Suddenly Cory called to Maya. "Maya, come here, please."
Maya quickly stood and left the room, with a smile at her best friend.
Cory had the phone to his ear in the kitchen with a worried look on his face. He took the phone away from his ear when he saw Maya and said, "It's your mother."
Maya was suddenly scared and she took in a quick, deep breath. Cory handed the phone to her and put an arm protectively around her as she slowly put the phone to her ear. "Mom?"
"Hi, Maya. I just wanted to know what's going on. You're living with Shawn?"
"Yup."
"Great. I'm coming back, and Shawn said I could also live in the apartment. Is that okay with you?"
"Yeah, that's great, but, Mom, you're coming back so soon. Why did you leave in the first place?"
"Maya, in life we have choices. I made a bad choice. I tried to live with an old boyfriend of mine, but it didn't work out. So I'm hoping you can forgive me and we can go back to the way we were. I've missed you terribly. There were just a few days that I was very confused about my life and I decided to leave, which I know now was a bad choice."
"I forgive you, Mom," Maya said, her voice breaking a little. "I love you. I'll see you soon."
"See you soon, Maya. I love you very much."
Maya hung up the phone and burst into tears. The tears were neither happy nor sad, maybe they were just relief. Cory hugged her close. "Is your mom coming back?"
"Yes, and I'm so happy."
"Good. It'll be good for your mother to be back here, where she belongs. She'll also live in Shawn's apartment?"
Maya nodded. "There's enough room for three. Besides, I'm still hoping that Shawn and my mom will get married. It's pretty unlikely now, but still."
Cory nodded understandingly. "You should probably go and talk to Shawn now about this step, even though he already knows that your mom's moving in."
Maya nodded and rushed out the door and up the stairs to her apartment. She saw Shawn sitting on their couch and immediately ran to him. He hugged her close and said, "I guess you heard from your mom."
"Yeah. She called the apartment. I'm so glad she's coming back. But are you okay that she'll be living with us?"
"Yeah, as long as you're good with it."
"I'm happy about it. But tell me the truth, Shawn. Do you still love my mother? Because if you do, I want you to take it somewhere."
"Yes, Maya. I still love your mother very much. And I'm hoping she still does too, and wants to take it somewhere, like you said. I've missed her."
"I think she missed you too. It sounded like that on the phone."
"Really? On the phone with me, it sounded like all she wanted to do was come back to you."
"It's probably both."
"You're probably right."
