His father comes in and out of consciousness. They say there's fluid build up in his lungs; "This is not uncommon," they assure him each time they swing into the room. Lucas doesn't want to hear the phrase again. The only comfort he has as he watches his father's vitals dip every few hours is that Maya asked the doctor to put her operation off until tomorrow afternoon. Half a day won't make a huge difference for Maya and Puf.

Connor sends hourly updates to help relieve the pain of his father just lying in a bed hooked up to wires. They aren't even the ones that he needs to beat the cancer. These aren't for radiation or chemotherapy. These aren't simple heart monitors. All of the machines whir in the background as they track every detail of his father's health.

Just as Lucas starts to doze off he hears his father coughing. It keeps going so he stands; "Dad?"

"Lucas?" He gurgles between his fits. He repeats it as he regains some level of control; "Lucas?"

"I'm here. Let me get a water for you." Without a second thought he's at the sink in the bathroom with a paper cup. Filling it halfway seems safe, so once the water is done dripping he carefully returns to his father's side.

"Where is Maya?" Of course he would ask that question. Lucas pushes the cup to his lips. It is forceful but he wants his dad to clear his throat with some liquid. Aside from the moisture, it will give him some cool relief from the scratchiness he's likely to feel after coughing so hard.

While his father drinks he explains that Maya is at another hospital waiting for a cesarean. Pain is evident on his face, but not because of his own medical woes. The hurt is for Maya, for the baby, for Lucas. He shakes his head at his father sternly; "We are waiting for your doctor to call for a transfer. Right now they are waiting for the MRI results. Your doctor requested it be done before he gets here. He is on his way right now. There was a family reunion out of town this weekend."

Les nods plainly. Only a moment after that a nurse enters the room to do her routine checks. Pulse, heart rate, pain level, verify medications and to offer assistance with the bathroom. Everything is stable at this time, virtually no change from the last check; "This is good."

Her voice is sincere but her face is not nearly as comforting. Les comments that she's not as welcoming as Maya. Then he says he wishes Maya were here so he could talk to her. Lucas suggests calling her at the hospital but he turns it down. He doesn't want to risk waking her if she's sleeping.

"After tomorrow you won't have a full night of sleep for a couple of years. You won't sleep alone either." Even though the thought is daunting, and perhaps exaggerated, but his eyes are glistening with undiluted joy. Lucas has to be confident that his father is going to pull through this episode. If he believes this is nothing serious, nothing that can destroy what is left of his father, then he can share that mental might with his father. Spiritual healing, right? Lucas have to believe that being confident is going to help cure his father…

…Of this…

…Of the cancer…

They settle back into their places easily, Les slipping in and out of sleep again. Sometimes he makes a remark about being hungry or thirsty. He drifts away almost as soon as the words have passed his drying lips. Two more checks come and go before his oncologist comes in to pull Lucas aside. The thudding of his boots against the floor match the beating of his heart.

"Lucas, how's your wife?" For a brief second he is pulled away from his fear for his father. Happiness washes away from of his nerves at the truth of Maya being his wife. His own Mrs. Friar. Smiling through the deepening worry, he shares that Maya is due for a cesarean in just nine hours.

The common comments about his obvious excitement come out as generic as one might expect. All of the chit chat is a rouse, Lucas figures, for whatever he's about to say to him; "As you know, Lester had an MRI scheduled for next week anyway, so I ordered the treating staff to get one while he is here." His father was complaining of migraines for a few weeks now, so Maya told the doctor. He said he would check it out just to be sure.

Lucas nods along. The doctor pulls out a couple of large images from the envelope he's been holding. One image is on the bottom and the other is soon pressing against the white wall of the hospital hallway. Immediately Lucas can tell there's something wrong.

He's even able to identify it; "Why is there as mass on the left side of his brain?"

The doctor turns his body directly to Lucas; "In some instances cancer spreads during treatment. I am recommending a biopsy to be sure. Until we have those results, I'm afraid we have to keep him here." For months, months, Lucas Friar has had moment after moment where time is altered. The movement and passage of it changes almost deliberately to destroy his optimism.

Lucas doesn't notice anyone passing him or walking into his father's room. Part of him wants to go into the room but the larger part of him needs this time alone. He needs to process it. He needs to understand how the cancer has spread.

Crippling from this development, Lucas sinks nearly into the tile. Once tears threaten his eyes he pulls his phone out to call Connor with an update on Lester. He answers on a delay, but it is simply because he's been nodding off; "Yello?"

"I have bad news, buddy." Lucas begins.

xxxXXXxxx

Maya wakes up with a jar when the lights of the room are flicking on without any explanation. Connor is standing in the corner with his hands in his pockets, nervously pacing; "Good morning, Maya!" the nurse nearly shouts. It's nearly noon, but she doesn't plan on arguing semantics on this matter.

She sits up with ease, but she is sleepy; "Good morning," she mumbles. Everyone gets to work immediately. During their set up for the operation they explain what she can expect before, during, and after. They even ask if she would like to watch her son's birth on screen. Maya's eyes shift with hope to Connor; "Is Lucas coming?"

A deep breath tells her that there's something she doesn't know, a call in the night that has changed the plans; "I don't know," he sputters while shaking his head. Everyone in the room stops, all eyes turning to Connor. Now that he's on the spot he knows he has to explain; "Lester's cancer spread to his brain."

He stutters non-words while walking up to her bed, "I haven't heard from Lucas for a few hours now. Lester delegated that he wants comfort care only."

Hands reach out to Maya to comfort her, to calm her, and maybe to keep her in her place but she's been preparing for this news for months. Lucas always said that thinking and planning for the worst only guarantees it. Nature versus nurture, she decides; this is why she always kept one foot on the outside of this entire situation. Things could get better, but she knew in her heart that they could always get worse too.

"I'm so sorry," the nurse begins, "Is there anything we can do to help?"

Maya takes several deep breaths, like Connor, as she decides how she needs to proceed. Emotions cannot cloud her judgments now. Life is going to move on past this point, and the way this experience gets remembered is completely in her control. As Lucas heals, as Connor heals, as she heals, and as Puf grows – it is going to be vital that this birth is a positive memory.

"Can I be moved to Lester's hospital?" Instantly everyone shakes their heads. Nobody wants to delay the cesarean any longer. The transfer would be easy, but the availability would be changing. So she points at Connor, "We need to video chat this birth then, that's the only way we can include Lucas."

Connor agrees silently. Maya never thought he would actually decline. Even though it has never come up in conversation, she recalls with clarity the waitress that said Connor clearly had a romantic inclination towards her. Even though there was never a plan for her to use this information, or even acknowledge it with him, when she conceived the idea it was only a viable option because she knows this to be possible.

But a part of her had to believe it to be true, too.

There's a brief conversation about the best way to do this, and so the doctor orders for an administrator's laptop to be present in the operation room – coordinated with Saints so that Lucas and Lester are able to watch from their location. Nobody argues, nobody complains, and Lucas accepts these terms because they are the only ones available.

Once the arrangements are confirmed, the staff leaves to finish their preparations. Connor sits next to Maya with tears threatening to escape from his eyes, biological and emotional defiance at the ready. The room has beeps, buzzes, and hissing from the equipment surrounding the two of them. This is as unromantic a setting as any, so Maya decides to confront Connor before going into the delivery room.

"The long game is just another form of wishful thinking, Connor." Maya remarks, using the exact words of the waitress. They are her words, too. When she accepted that Joshua Matthews was never hers to love, well, she was at peace with the fact that there is no real version of the long game where everyone wins. The only way to play the game is by not playing it at all.

Connor's eyes bulge but his breathing doesn't hitch. After a second he lets out a chuckle that sounds amused; "I do love you but I knew there was nothing here for me. I love you because you're great, because you're my family, because you're exactly the kind of girl everyone should love."

Maya smiles, "Well thank you."

"My other friends tried telling me to steal you away when you broke it off with Lucas. They don't seem to realize that I have a pretty low-key relationship with the receptionist in my building." Connor laughs it off carefully, "We've been on a few dates but there is a very strict dating policy at the office, in which you cannot date anyone on the payroll - at all."

Of course he is, Maya thinks, of course he is dating someone else.

She completely misread his expression at the restaurant that day.

"Nora, my girlfriend, is trying to move into a management position. An opening at an accounting firm popped up and she interviewed yesterday." He goes on to say that she was expecting a call back today. The company is rushing to fill the position before the current manager moves to Canada in one week. He is hopeful and that makes Maya happy.

He finishes what he's saying with a concrete statement, "There was never a long game." Feeling obligated to explain, she does. Connor spends much of the story trying not to burst into laughter. He jokes that she should have known better, and she jokes that he's stupid if he never considered it from another perspective. In the end, they know that it really never mattered.

In the minutes that tick away until they come to cart Maya off to the operation room, Connor fills Maya in on his girlfriend. Nora was born in Texas but moved to South America for three years after graduating. The only reason she came home is because her parents were divorcing and she wanted to make sure her mom was okay. The divorce was sort of messy, considering they had two houses and various sizable investments.

When Nora came back, she had to work several odd jobs and eventually went to the same college that Lucas was attending for an associates in Office Administration. She found out about the reception position while filling out paperwork for cost of living withdrawals on her loans; "I was there that day to give the listing to their career placement representative. She overheard me and drove immediately the office. The position was hers before I returned for my afternoon appointments."

He describes Nora as ambitious and discreet. She has to be to work at a mental healthcare center, but she is just naturally this way. Connor seems very excited talking about her. Years ago the love of his life was killed in Chicago. It was everyone's belief that Connor would stop looking for someone else. Emmaline was a huge part of his life.

Hopefully, Nora will fill in the cracks left behind on him. Maya cannot think of anyone more deserving of such love and bliss; "We'll have to go on a double date after all this hospital business comes to an end." She is careful with her words, sure not to imply that anything good or bad will happen. It will simply happen however it does and it will eventually come to an end. Ambiguous, in this scenario, is best.

xxxXXXxxx

They start streaming Maya's birth while she's getting the epidural. He should be thrilled but Lucas doesn't feel a fluttering in his chest or a churning in his stomach. Beside him, his father is sitting up and eating ice cream. He rolls his eyes; "You couldn't eat something more substantial?"

"Nope." He grumbles.

"And you couldn't pretend to care just a little bit?" His tone is reflective of his bitterness since Lester's decision for comfort care only. When someone chooses this type of medical treatment, basically they're saying that they'll die when it's time to die. Comfort care is just enough to keep him out of pain, as one might guess.

When Lucas first asked about this choice, he had not known the full extent of the conversation Lester had with his doctors. Supposedly, while Lucas was in the hallway they explained more clearly what was happening with his body. Firstly, he developed the pulmonary edema, the fluid in his lungs, due to the tumors in his brain. Secondly, they wanted to biopsy his brain to determine conclusively that the large mass in his brain is malignant. So thirdly, the biopsy would come with a whole mess of possible terrors. Les decided that there was nothing more that needed to be done. His medical staff did not argue with him, apparently. It is this part that still causes him much distress.

"I am sorry that this how we have to spend my last few days, Lucas. I wish you understood that if we did any more treatments I would be in worse shape than I already am." Lecturing him even on his deathbed? Lucas shakes his head and crosses his arms in rebellion. If he creates a blockade then perhaps his dad will change his mind; maybe he'll want to live long enough to see Puf walking and talking. Maybe it is wishful thinking, but he has to hope for something.

On the screen Connor is standing next to Maya, pointing over the curtain, assuring her that the laptop is set up. Not long ago he may have harbored concerns that Connor was after Maya's heart in the fallout, but Connor is honorable. Lucas shames himself for being worried about such a thing at all in the first place. There are people in the world whom would give anything for a friend as loyal and kind as him. And Lucas has two – Connor and Zay. Not a person in the world is luckier than Lucas Friar.

And yet, nobody is as unlucky as Lucas Friar.

"What was the name you decided on?" His attention redirecting, Lucas steps closer to the laptop to see more clearly. As he does this he raises his voice to share the name of his son, who will enter the world within minutes. Something happens that he doesn't see, something he doesn't even hear. Without warning his father falls completely silent. Lucas hears a rattling of the spoon on the table, but he thinks it is only Les setting down the silverware.

When he hears the beeping he realizes that something more is happening. Just as he spins there's medical staff swarming through the door. How could his father be fine one moment and then falling apart the next? In a rush to get his father stable again, Lucas is rushed from the room. Tears stream down his face.

He doesn't know whether to call out for his father or to call out for his wife.

A/N: I have about 75% of the next chapter written but I'm not sure how I feel about it because there are so many side characters that I'm trying to bring in, and I as I write a short scene with Lucas and his mother I'm just - nope. I lost a lot of steam when I took a three day break (due to social obligations and family emergencies). As such - I don't plan to remove the hiatus status. Even though I've posted several chapters since readjusting the summary and title, I know that it's still going to be a struggle balancing time to get this story completely done. I'm hoping that I'll have this finished within 4 more chapters, but I'd be willing to go all the way out to 20 chapters to ensure that as many loose ends are tied up as possible.

I did a sequel for this because there was a high demand for it, and many Tumblr users had contacted me directly about it. So I thought I'd challenge myself and roll with it - since 'And Then There Was Us' is my most reviewed story, and my third highest traffic piece. I don't know whether it is a success because the traction for this has been much slower and the readers less vocal about the content. Time will tell, won't it?

Thanks for being here - thanks for reading - thanks for simply being. You're great.

XOXO -ab