Author's Note:

So.. this is it, folks.

I'm so glad I got to tell this story, going all the way back to Walk Me Home. It went through several changes and things that I had to cut, but I'm pretty happy with how things turned out.

Thanks to Sandy, because she kept me sane through writing this whole thing (I think it took, like a year, since that one shot that turned into Walk Me Home); and who let me write like myself but still made me better.

And to you guys for reading it!

Steadfast

Chapter Ten: In Which Everyone Is Nesting

Lucas had known Maya for over fifteen years and it still surprised him how patient she could be. Not always; she wasn't always patient about food and not always with him, but she could keep quiet and wait when it suited her.

Him? He had wanted to shout it from the rooftops as soon as they found out. But Maya said wait and so he did.

It wasn't until they were walking out of the doctor's office—an ultrasound picture clutched in his hand and with the reassurance that everything was fine—that Maya finally relented.

"Can I tell everyone now?" Lucas asked.

"Sure," Maya smiled at him. It had taken him a while to process everything but Maya felt more secure now. And happy. Now she didn't care who knew and it was fine by her if Lucas wanted to deliver the news. She would have probably sent out a mass text and called it good; she was lazy that way.

Maya waited patiently while Lucas called their parents, and then conference called all of their friends. Dropping the news and then hanging up before they were bombarded with questions. He even turned off his phone.

"Efficient!" Maya said, impressed. "Now would you mind taking me and this kid you put inside of me for some food? We're hungry."

Lucas laughed and hugged her close. "Let me guess? Paco's Tacos?"

"Always."

-.

After that, their lives became overpowered by the impending birth of their first child. No matter that it was still six months away, give or take. All of their friends and families were over the moon.

The worst by far was Riley, who kept sending Maya all type of little outfits and toys from wherever she happened to be while working for the UN. But everyone had it bad: Zay, who was pretty in control of his hours as a choreographer, often picked Maya up from work and took her to eat and hung out with her in the afternoons while Lucas and Smackle – whom Zay had started dating since Maya and Lucas' wedding, almost two years before – were busy at work.

Shawn and Katy dropped by pretty often, often bringing some groceries or food, because they wanted to make sure Maya didn't just stuff her face with Paco's Tacos until the birth.

The big surprise, however, was Farkle. He had taken to hovering and sent ridiculously expensive baby items that soon began to fill the room they were turning into the nursery. The worse of it was when Maya was near her sixth month. She and Lucas had returned home from Lamaze class to find a professional crew baby-proofing their house under Farkle's supervision.

"What's going on?" Lucas fairly yelled.

"Oh, hi. I thought I would just get this out of the way for you," Farkle said calmly.

Lucas counted to ten inside of his head and then counted to twenty. "Farkle. A word with you. In the kitchen. Now!"

"Oh boy," Zay said as he and Smackle arrived. They were all supposed to have lunch together. "I wouldn't want to be in Farkle's shoes right about now."

"Well, this has been brewing for a while." Maya said, dropping to the couch and putting her feet up. "Our nursery is full of stuff he's sent over. Lucas' fragile Texan ego feels a little insulted, like he believes Farkle thinks he can't get these things done or something."

"It's not like that," Smackle said reflectively.

"What do you mean, sweetheart?"

"Well, pregnancy and birth is one of those things you can't control; you can do everything right and something might still go wrong, you know?"

"I do, but I try not to think about it." Maya admitted, patting her bump.

"Well, that's probably all Farkle is thinking about right now. He loves you, and he loves Lucas, and he knows that if something unpredictable and bad happens to you or the baby, y'all will crumble. And he worries, but he knows there is nothing he can do… so he throws money at the situation to feel like he's doing something."

"Oh," Maya said. "I never thought of it like that." But now that Smackle had pointed it out, it made sense. That's the kind of guy Farkle was. And it was just so like Smackle that she had figured it out. "Thanks for telling me this, Isadora."

Smackle shrugged. "Farkle and I are just wired the same way. But I'm better at handling it, obviously."

"Obviously," Zay said, pulling Smackle into a hug.

..

Meanwhile in the kitchen…

"Farkle, you have to stop." Lucas said, trying to be as calm and rational as he could.

"What am I doing?" Farkle asked, truly perplexed.

"This!" Lucas pointed toward the living room and the baby proofing crew. "The slew of baby items and expensive stuff."

"I was just trying to help, gee."

"Yeah, but these are things Maya and I should be doing together. And it makes me feel like you think I can't take care of my family or something."

Farkle actually snorted at that. "Of course I know you can take care of Maya and the baby. Do you think I would have let you marry one of my girls if I thought otherwise?"

"Oh," Lucas said, surprised. "Then what is it?"

Farkle was quiet for a moment; then he leaned against the kitchen island. "I don't know what to do. I worry about her and about you if something happens to them, and I don't know what to do."

The wind went out of the sails of Lucas' anger. "Farkle, it's going to be okay. We're doing all what we're supposed to do. We're all taking care of Maya. There's no reason to believe something will go wrong. And we can't live that way."

"I know. I know I'm wrong I just…"

"Just reign it in a little, okay? Ask before you do stuff, and please no more baby things. Nothing fits in the nursery anymore and we haven't even started putting it together."

Farkle sighed. "All right." The he startled. "Oh! But I already ordered the Bugaboo pram thing that Maya wanted. The canopy is printed with a Van Gogh painting, you know?"

Lucas rolled his eyes. "Fine, you can give her that."

Farkle smiled and nodded, thinking it was a good thing Lucas had no idea how much that thing cost.

-0-

One weekend in early October, Riley was in New York for once rather than running around all over Europe. Maya decided that it was time to put the nursery together. She'd just passed the eight-month mark and they were running out of time, but she hadn't wanted to do it without Riley.

That Friday evening, Lucas and Marcus painted the baby's room in a pale blue color Maya had chosen, so that it would be dry and aired out before everyone else came in the morning. Riley and Maya sorted through all the baby paraphernalia that had accumulated and got rid of the boxes and packaging, getting everything ready to go into the drawers once the room was ready.

Then on Saturday, around ten a.m. the rest of their friends arrived. The guys applied themselves to putting the furniture together while the girls got the baby's clothes out of the dryer and folded them.

It was working out just fine… for about an hour, when the guys realized they had no idea what the diagrams said.

"You do know Smackle is three different kinds of engineer, right?" Riley said, watching from the doorway as Lucas, Marcus, Zay and Farkle struggled to make sense of the IKEA instructions they were holding.

"And she knows Swedish." Zay added thoughtfully, having looked in vain for fifteen minutes for the instructions in English. "Smackle, sugar!" He called out. "Come out here for a second!"

After that, Smackle took charge and things went a lot smoother. She even ended up teaching the guys some very interesting curse words in Swedish.

By the end of the day, everyone was tired and dusty. But the room was done, the furniture put together, the curtains hung and the daybed – right on the bay window Lucas had built into the room when they had remodeled the house – was padded with soft cushions.

"Everything is ready," Maya said, looking around after everyone else had left. "Let's hope we are."

"I don't think anyone is ever ready but we'll be fine, Maya. I promise."

-0-

The last month flew by and Maya was alternately delighted and aggravated by the whole ordeal. She was on maternity leave from work and waddling around their house without much to do but to talk with Riley over the phone and watch endless rounds of Hallmark movies that made her burst into tears even if, intellectually, she knew they weren't that good.

Lucas stayed close to the house, passing on a few cases because he knew how time consuming they would be. The hovering was driving Maya nuts, but it all was worth it when she finally put her baby in his arms.

Penelope Grace Friar, a healthy baby girl, was blonde like both her parents (though the bets were still on going as to whether her eyes would settle on blue or green).

They brought her home in early November, all bundled up though it was a warm day – for November in New York. Maya settled in with the baby in the nursery while Lucas ran out to get some last-minute baby supplies in the form of diapers and baby wipes, which ran out at a surprising rate.

"Lucas is taking to this parenting thing, isn't he?" Riley, who had accompanied them from the hospital, commented as Maya sat down in the rocking chair Shawn and Katy had given them for the nursery.

"He's a natural," Maya admitted. She smiled down at her baby who had just opened her eyes after letting out a ferocious yawn and doing a full body stretch that only babies can do.

"You're adjusting quite well, too."

"I'm terrified, but I'm so happy I don't even care."

Riley grew thoughtful. "Remember how back in high school you used to say that babies were The Worst."

"Yeah," Maya said, smiling some more.

"Do you still think so?"

"Nope." She said firmly, because she knew that her Penelope Grace Friar was The Best.

The End