A/N: As always, thank you guys so much for your feedback! I love it so much!

Most of this chapter is the Maya/Josh reveal, as I promised. Hope it doesn't disappoint.

One Week Later

Riley walked down the hallway of the small church just as fast as her heels would allow her. Due to how panicked Maya had sounded on the phone, she was understandably anxious to see what was going on.

When she made it to the girls' bathroom, she found that Maya had finally changed into her blue bridesmaid's dress, but was now staring at herself in the full-length mirror and looking as if she had seen a ghost.

"Maya, what is it?" Riley asked, approaching her friend with concern.

"The baby," Maya lamented as she turned around.

Riley's eyes widened. "What's wrong with it? Do we need to get you to the hospital? What am I talking about? Of course we need to get you to the hospital!" She started to try and help Maya out of the room, before the blonde groaned and pulled back.

"No! Nothing's wrong with the baby. You don't see this?" Maya questioned, motioning emphatically to what looked like the first hint of a baby bump. "How can this be happening today?"

Riley let out a relieved sigh. "Okay, first of all, I can barely see what you're talking about. Second, just about everyone here already knows about the baby anyway. And third, I feel sure you're going to be just as beautiful no matter how pregnant you are."

Maya hated how comments like that always seemed to make her cry now.

"These stupid hormones! I don't even have time to redo my makeup!" she complained as she wiped carefully at her eyes.

"No, you don't," Riley agreed, pushing the blonde towards the door. "But they made the mascara waterproof for a reason. Trust me, peaches. You look fine."

As they entered back into the hall, they encountered Lucas, Smackle, and Farkle.

"Wow," Lucas breathed, slightly in awe of how stunning his girlfriend looked.

"You look great, Maya," Farkle smiled.

Riley crossed her arms, satisfied. "See? Didn't I tell you? Now, let's go find your mom and get her married."

And that was exactly what they did.

The wedding was perfect. Shawn and Katy had chosen to write their own vows, instead of reciting the typical recycled ones. These vows were so beautiful and heartfelt that just about everyone in the church pews was reaching for some tissues during the ceremony. Maya didn't have that option, so the tears ran freely down her cheeks as she watched from her position at her mom's side. Luckily, she was too happy to mind.

The reception was held in an adjoining building that was only separated from the church by a breezeway. After Shawn and Katy had made their way over there, Maya was first in line to congratulate the newlyweds.

"Does this mean I get to call you dad now?" she asked, hopefully, as she hugged Shawn.

He smiled. "Sweetie, if that's what you want, I would love it."

"Good. Me too." She turned to Katy and hugged her as well. "Mom, I think you might be the prettiest bride I've ever seen."

The older blonde laughed. "I don't know about that, but you certainly make the prettiest maid of honor I've ever seen. You did wonderful, you know. I don't know what you were worrying about."

Maya smiled and then walked away to clear room for others to offer their congratulations. She sat down at the corner table where Riley was sitting and snacking on one of the finger sandwiches.

"Where is everybody else?" she wondered.

"Farkle and Smackle had to leave, but they wanted me to tell you how happy they are for you and what a great maid of honor you were. And Lucas…" Riley nodded over to the other side of the room. "He is over there having a friendly debate with my Uncle Josh over whether the Cowboys or the Eagles will win the East this year."

Maya looked at the two of them and frowned. "Should we take a picture? We might not see them that civil with each other ever again."

Riley shook her head. "As long as they're both a part of your life, they'll have to figure out how to deal with each other."

"I don't know. You see how hard of a time Lucas has been having with Zay. All those bad feelings are just gonna transfer over to Josh."

"But Josh isn't his best friend. That makes a difference," Riley said, choosing to be optimistic for Maya's sake. "Besides, we have a little while longer before you have to worry about either of them. Right now, how about you just tell me how it feels to have a new dad?"

Maya couldn't help but smile. She'd thought of Shawn as her dad for a while now, but it was a little different now that he was officially married to her mom. It was permanent.

"I feel really lucky," she finally answered, glancing over at him and Katy.

"You are lucky," Riley assured her. "They love you. So do a lot of other people. Whatever happens from today on, we're gonna help you through it."

Maya nodded. She then looked back at Lucas and Josh and took a shaky breath.

The building in which the wedding reception was being held had an entertainment room upstairs. It was nothing fancy really, just a place for the church's teens and young adults to hang out. The only real 'entertainment' was a TV and a pool table. However, it offered privacy, which was exactly what Maya needed.

Riley led Josh up there while Maya said goodbye to Lucas, who was leaving. The reception had all but ended at that point. Afterwards, she went to join Josh and Riley, with the anxiety and, oddly enough, comfort of knowing that there was no backing out this time.

When she walked into the room, Josh and Riley both stood up and approached her.

"Maya, what is my niece talking about?" Josh asked, giving Riley a quick glance. "What's so important that we can't talk about downstairs? Is this the same thing you were wanting to tell me the other day?"

"I'll just leave you guys alone," Riley said, heading for the door. Maya briefly considered begging her to stay, but she ultimately knew that this was a conversation that she and Josh needed to have by themselves.

After Riley left the room, Maya looked back at him. "I have to warn you. Once I tell you this, you will freak out. You'll probably get mad. And there's a good chance that you will resent me for a long, long time. If not the rest of your life."

Josh followed her as she went to sit down, and he took the seat beside her.

"I'm sure it isn't that bad," he said, calmly. "Besides, nothing you could tell me would make me resent you. So let's hear it. What's going on?"

She started to speak, but then she paused for a second to think it over.

Just do it. Tell him.

She took a deep breath and looked into his eyes. "You remember that night at the park a few months ago? You'd just broken up with Kaylie. Which I knew that would happen eventually because she was such a…never mind, that's a different subject. Anyway, you were upset, and you'd been drinking. A lot. Then you ran into me. And I was upset too, because I had just seen Lucas with Riley. I thought it was something that it wasn't. We ended up kissing. You remember that, right?"

Josh nodded, but he was more than a little surprised that Maya wanted to dredge that night up again. He only remembered bits and pieces of it, just enough to know that he'd been the textbook definition of self-destructive.

"Why would you want to bring that up?" he wondered.

Maya sighed. "Because you don't know everything that happened that night. You don't know what happened after you kissed me."

She watched as his expression became more worried.

"What do I not know?" Josh asked, slowly.

Maya closed her eyes for a brief moment and then looked back at him.

"We slept together."

All the color immediately started to drain from his face. He had that look where part of you thinks you must have misheard, and the other part knows that you only wish you had misheard.

"What?" he finally choked out.

"I know I should've told you before," Maya said, quickly. "But it was obviously a one-time thing, and I just didn't see the point in freaking you out for no reason. I thought you'd be better off not knowing."

Josh stared at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. "No, no, no. This has to be some kind of a joke. And, Maya, it's not a funny one."

"Do I look like I'm joking, Josh? We had sex that night. That's not even up for debate. It was stupid and a really bad idea, but I can promise you—it happened," she said, finishing quietly.

His first instinct was to continue to deny it. He knew that he'd been messed up that night, but he just couldn't see himself crossing that line—not with Maya. She was his niece's best friend, practically a part of the family! And that wasn't even mentioning her age or the fact that she had a boyfriend. She might as well have had a flashing neon sign over her head that said, "Off limits!" He really wanted to believe that he wouldn't have gone there.

But he wasn't naïve either. As gorgeous as Maya was, she'd be hard for most guys to resist when they were sober. He'd been far from it. Besides, she didn't have any reason to lie about this. And even if she did, all it took was one look at her to know that she was telling the truth. This happened. They made a huge mistake.

"Oh my God," Josh breathed. He stood up and began to pace around the room for a few seconds, letting it sink in. Then he finally looked back at her. "This happened months ago. You didn't tell me then. Why are you telling me now?"

She stood up and slowly made her way over to him.

"I didn't have a choice," she admitted. "If you didn't know this part of the story, the rest of it wouldn't have made any sense."

"The rest of it? You mean there's more?"

"Yeah," Maya sighed. "Josh...that's the night I got pregnant. This baby that I'm having? It's yours."

Those words hit in a way that felt like a thousand bricks being dropped on top of him at once.

"But—But that's not possible!" Josh protested, his voice shaking. "You've been saying that Zay's the father from the beginning! And now suddenly I'm the father? Do you even know? How soon can we get a DNA test?"

She could see the sheer panic written all over his face, and unfortunately, she had the feeling that it was only going to get worse.

"I can give you a hundred DNA tests if you want," she said. "I don't need them though. Because nothing ever happened between me and Zay. When Lucas assumed Zay was the father, I got him to go along with it until I could find a way to tell you. I don't know…I thought if I had more time, maybe I could get you to the point where you didn't hate the idea of having a kid. Because I didn't want to ruin your life! But I've always known you were the father. You're the only person who could be."

Maya's desperate attempt to explain herself rendered Josh absolutely speechless. His mind was racing to such a degree that he felt dizzy and had to grasp onto the edge of the pool table for support. He couldn't believe this—not any of it.

Yet, there were a lot of things that made more sense now. Why Maya was always asking him these 'hypothetical' baby-related questions. Why Zay had insisted upon him being the one with Maya at her ultrasound. All the times that it seemed like she was trying to tell him something, but couldn't force out the words. It was all right there.

But he didn't have the slightest idea of what he was supposed to do now. No matter how you looked at the situation, he was completely and utterly screwed.

"Think you could say something?" Maya asked, nervously.

Josh released his grip on the pool table and looked at her. "I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe we slept together. I can't believe I got you pregnant. I can't believe you have been lying to me about it this whole time..."

"I didn't technically lie," she pointed out. "I let you keep thinking something that wasn't true. And if I thought for a second that you would want this baby, I wouldn't have gone through all the trouble. Believe me. But I was right, wasn't I? I can see it all over your face."

"The shock?"

"The horror," Maya said, trying to hide her disappointment. "I get it. You like your life. You don't want a kid to come in and mess it up."

Josh shook his head. "It isn't like that. I'm sure I'll want kids someday."

"Just not right now."

"Maya, I'm not ready for a kid right now," he admitted. "Have you really thought about what it's going to be like? We're looking at eighteen years—longer than you've been alive. I'm still in school. You're still in school. Neither of us has any way to support a baby. Don't you think it would be better off with people who could?"

She crossed her arms. "It was the same situation when you thought Zay was the father. You didn't think I should give the baby up then."

"It wasn't any of my business then," he countered.

"You mean it wasn't your problem then," Maya corrected him. "And it doesn't have to be your problem now. You don't have to be involved if you don't want to be."

Josh stared at her for a moment. "Do you honestly think I would do that? Walk away and leave you to take care of this kid on your own? Really?"

"I don't know what to think, Josh! You've known that it's yours for all of two minutes, and you're already trying to talk me into getting rid of it!"

"That's not what I'm doing! I'm just trying to be realistic here! Can you imagine us trying to raise a baby right now? It would be one issue after another that we don't know how to deal with. I don't want to make a mess out of my kid's life, Maya!"

"You think I do?" she asked, throwing her hands up. "But there are no guarantees that some adoptive parents would do any better than we would! And I'm not going to wake up every day knowing that someone else is raising my kid. It's not happening. This baby is staying with me."

He let out a frustrated sigh. "This isn't only your decision!"

"How is me keeping my child not my decision?" she demanded. "You can do whatever you want. But my mind's made up. I promised I'd tell you, and I did. You just let me know when you decide whether you want to be this baby's dad or not."

With that, Maya left the room, shutting the door on her way out.

And Josh finally broke down.