The thunderstorm wakes Lucas up. When he sits up in bed he finds that Maya is already gone from the room but that isn't what captures his attention. No, instead it is the stack of boxes in one corner of the room and the laundry basket in the other filled with brand new baby clothes. His heart races as he begins wondering who did all this shopping with her; did anyone do this shopping with her?

Someone had to help her carry this stuff upstairs. There's a crib, a playpen, a basinet, and a swing. Someone had to have known about this…

Lucas cannot find it in himself to be angry, though. Last night he was so upset about being left out of Maya's life that when he woke today he made a promise. Nothing else is happening to Lucas – Lucas is making things happen.

There are times that people remember their movement as faster than the speed of light – a moment where they felt so pumped full of adrenaline that they felt superhuman. Lucas swears as he flies down the stairs that this hour – this minute – will be that memory for him. He cannot make it to Maya fast enough.

And she's exactly where he expects her to be this early, before Les crawls from bed to shower for the day. She is rocking in the swing with her headphones in and her thermos with raspberry tea. Maya told him recently that she's been craving raspberry tea for weeks, even before her appetite grew.

"Maya!" He shouts, even though he knows he doesn't have to – maybe it's the storm that has him feeling like he needs to yell? Maya pulls her headphones out with a look on her face that warns him not to wake his father too early. He needs all the rest he can get right now, and his schedule is befitting of his circumstances. Lucas doesn't care so much about it even if he should.

As soon as she puts her feet on the wood of the porch he moves closer, and closer, and closer until he can kneel down and look her square in the eyes; "What did you come down to shout about this early in the morning?"

"Maya…" He trails, only just becoming aware of the nervousness in the back of his mind. All people feel this way, right? Lucas shakes his head and laughs the question out, the only way he really ever was going to with his best friend; "I want to marry you. Do you want to marry me?"

Maya lurches forward with confusion thick in her brows; "I mean, there was never a plan to not marry you."

And he trusts that there wasn't when she says this, which gives him to confidence to make his proposal quite clear; "Will you marry me today?"

This takes her by surprise.

"You mean today today?" Maya gets each word and syllable out clearly, but not without a shakiness to her tone. A shred of doubt must be welling in her gut, but she softens her expression when she sees that Lucas is very serious.

And he assures her verbally just to be certain; "We can drive into town right now, get to the courthouse as soon as it opens. We can have a dinner with the family next week when dad only has two appointments, and you can move back here full-time. We can get you on the insurance plan before the baby is born…"

Maya halts him with a soft kiss…

…That turns into a deeper kiss…

…which turns in Lucas picking her up…and carrying her into the house…

And well, these things generally only go one way. Lucas wasn't planning for it, but he was craving that high level of intimacy with Maya again. Also, considering she is obviously accepting his proposal, it is the happiest moment of his life.

At least for now.

His heart was beating with the possibility of new 'happiest moment of his life' stories to come.

Getting married at a courthouse is somehow exactly what she was expecting, and also nothing at all what she thinking it would be. In her heart, Maya always suspected she wouldn't have a fancy ceremony. Growing up poorer than dirt, getting her basic needs from her best friend's family, and then having to take care of herself at sixteen years young – Maya was never expecting anything brilliant from her life. She was destined to be only slightly better than her mother.

At least that's what she thought.

Years ago, she never would have believed that Lucas would eventually break things off with Riley. She never would have believed she would choose to be a mother. There's so much about her life that is so different than what she was expecting. And yet, nothing feels more right than standing next to Lucas Friar, almost six months pregnant, with nothing but struggle ahead of her. Life is really special in that way.

"Do you Maya Hart…" She hears, and repeats, and waits.

And she waits,

And she waits,

And she waits,

Until those words are spoken – "You may kiss the bride."

Of course, this wasn't mandatory for the judge to say – but he's an old friend of a friend who knows about Lester Friar's situation – the cancer, the failing ranch, and Lucas having to move back home. He looked almost as smug and pleased as Les would have, were he here. Thankfully the clerk also knows Les and was willing to take some pictures with Maya's phone.

After that everything is less romantic. Copies of papers, filling out forms, and making calls on the way back to the ranch – in the pouring rain – but that's just part of life. Maya didn't care about the fact that none of this was perfect for a storybook. All she cared about is that even if things aren't exactly where she wanted them to be with Lucas again – something just felt right about it. In her heart she knew there was absolutely no other option.

Whether it is five months from now, five years from now, five decades from now – she was always going to end up marrying Lucas Friar. There was never going to be another ending for her. Lucas obviously felt the same way. That's why they're sitting in the truck with a form officially making her Mrs. Maya Friar.

Once they park as close to the house as possible, Lucas insists on carrying Maya through the door per tradition. She laughs about it, and asks him to not, but he scoops her out of the truck regardless and whisks her into the house. Once inside they're both laughing so hard they collapse on the floor.

"I was wondering where you two went." Les grumbles over their joy. Lucas is the one that gets up first, Maya still getting used to the tiny bump on the front of her body. Once she joins the men standing a bit further up the hallway she lets Lucas deliver the news.

"I had to take care of something right away this morning. It couldn't wait." Lucas' eyes are stuck on Maya. She shifts her gaze from father to son to the floor, sneaking glances at the future grandchild of the family, and then back again. When his father doesn't speak that is when Lucas reveals what they've done; "Had to run to the courthouse."

Maya lifts her hand, revealing the ring that Lucas had given her on Christmas Eve. Before they left Maya pulled it out and handed it over to Lucas. It was just a final layer of confirmation that she was ready for this step. Les gets the cutest grin on his face and leans in to hug Maya before his own son. She doesn't mind and Lucas doesn't seem to care either.

With a level head, he's the Lucas that she fell in love with years ago.

And even when he is a little off balance, well, she loves him just the same. After all, she still waited for him to figure himself out while she faced the struggles of being single and pregnant. Even with Zay helping out, he wasn't much of a roomie. They are rarely ever home at the same time, and when they are - Zay is generally asking Maya what chores he can do to keep himself busy.

Zay will be ecstatic to hear that Maya and Lucas worked things out. Her only worry is that he will go back to New York the first chance he got, leaving Lucas with just Connor again. That wouldn't be a problem, though, but she really likes how playful Lucas gets when Zay is around.

"What a happy surprise!" Les sighs when he finally starts scooting back to the kitchen, "But I can't be too happy without my breakfast. I was craving some fried ham…"

Business as usual, Maya smiles, but now it is legitimately family business.

Maya and Lucas are sitting in bed while Les takes his afternoon nap with everything half unpackaged around the room. Each of them has their phone out with their relationship status pulled up. With their arms linked they agree to submit the status change together. Maya starts counting, "One, two…"

Lucas steals a kiss right before she says, "Three."

As soon as the change has been submitted they shut their phones off. Inevitably there will be hundreds of comments, notifications, and digital stickers coming their way. Even though their problems haven't been very public, everyone knew, they way everyone seems to know everything. The world works in such odd ways. Today all Lucas and Maya want to focus on is putting this room together. It is much bigger so this is where they'll be staying with the baby, they decided this morning over breakfast, and this is where they'll bond by setting up a nursery corner and converting Lucas' old room to a playroom.

That was his idea, too, which impressed Maya immediately. It is hard listening to her share all the things she's been doing without him, but she insists it wasn't as inde[endent as he thinks. She explains that Les has been leaving the baby magazines around the house to see if he was interested in any furniture in particular; "It was never at the forefront of my mind but Les knew exactly how to keep you involved without you knowing."

Sure enough, the crib is one that he had commented on when he saw it circled on a flier over a month ago. He was impressed attached changing station and the correlating storage. Even now he is happy thinking about late nights where he'll have to change a few diapers, but he won't have to travel to a different station or room. No, it'll be right there; "That is exactly why I liked it too."

As for clothes, each outfit is a perfect blend of Lucas and Maya's personalities. Some of the outfits say "Future Rancher" and "Future Cowboy." Others say "I'm not Messy, I'm and Artist" and "Mommy's Masterpiece." There are some that his dad clearly picked out with pictures of the Dallas Cowboys logo and some with just a picture of a cow.

One thing that Lucas notices is that most everything decorative for the baby is orange. Maya's favorite color has always been green as far as he knew. He inquires about this detail and she grins as innocently as one would expect given the answer she provides; "It's your dad's favorite color."

For a moment, Lucas forgets about the doom of change looming over his head. Hearing the simple reality of Maya's color choice is humbling. In every way imaginable, she's made it a point to make everyone a part of this baby's life. It gets Lucas curious, how else did she incorporate the people that she loves?

For Riley she's framed a purple cat painting from middle school, as well as a purple cat stuffed animal to sit in the crib with the baby; "Fortunately purple and orange compliment each other," Maya jokes.

For Farkle there's a series of Baby Einstein books sitting in her closet, ready to the be the first in the library she's building to honor Smackle – who made Maya promise to give her child every opportunity to learn and grow into the face of another technological revolution. It was a little intense, but Maya portrays Smackle's passion with glistening perfection.

For Josh Matthews she has a tee that reads: "I love my Uncle Josh" on the front. Lucas feels a pang in his chest from the years he watched her head-over-heels for him. It has been a long time since she'd so much as flirted with him in the comments of one of her pictures, but Lucas knows he can let it go. Josh has been with someone happily for years and Maya is married to him now. There's no way she'll ever be a Matthews. So he gives her a thumbs-up and lets her continue on and on with all the honors.

Some of the items are just silly things to remember her job at the hospital, Lucas' college experience, New York, and the apartment they used to share. She has an outfit with a cancer awareness ribbon on the bottom of pants – for Les. His mother's presence is in the playroom with a pretend garden, since she's super health conscious. Zay is honored with a toy as well – a 'My First Turntable' set that won't be used for years. Of course, Lucas knows it's the thought that counts. Besides, he doesn't see Zay leaving that business anytime soon.

The most touching of all, though, is Connor's token. The items are still wrapped in plastic from ordering online, but it is clear exactly what Maya was intending to do; "I haven't talked about it with anyone yet but I was banking on you agreeing with this decision…"

"Absolutely." Lucas breathes. Connor has always been there for Maya, he's always been there for Lucas, and he knows that Connor will always be there for their son; "He is going to breakdown when we ask."

"I mean, I am kind of hoping he will be overjoyed but I am not aiming for full mental breakdown. That does not sound very becoming of a psychologist…" Maya remarks with soft sarcasm. Lucas grabs her by the belt loop of her shorts and brings her to his lap on the bed. Even though they've not accomplished anything for nearly an hour, Lucas thinks everything can wait just a few more minutes.

"I love you, Mrs. Friar."

"And I love you, Mr. Hart."

A/N: I have the next chapter written. I'm hoping to edit and post that chapter tomorrow. I've had this week off of work so I've been able to get a lot done, but I don't know confidently after the next chapter when I'll have an update for you. I have a lot of work I need to do for work that will probably take the majority of the day Friday to accomplish - and then I work with a friend on an online writing class Friday night. Saturday I may be able to swing another chapter to edge closer to the end of this fanfiction. I want to have it completed by the end of the month because it's been looming over me, insulting my inability to maintain a writing schedule.

I'll try me best but I'm super busy the rest of this week and it's not going to get easier from here to find writing time. I'll do my best to post and finish this story out for anyone still reading. Your readership, as always, is greatly appreciated.