Shawn was enjoying watching his wife grow. Once she stopped throwing up every morning, her food cravings went crazy. Shawn often found himself doing midnight runs for pickles and ice cream. Not long after that, she started to say she could feel movement. Eagerly, Shawn placed his hand on her belly, but it wasn't for another month or so until he felt the fluttering. He loved talking to her belly, no matter how stupid it made him look, and Katy didn't seem to mind.

"Topanga said Cory did the same thing with Riley," Katy told Shawn with a laugh.

"Why does that not surprise me," Shawn chuckled back.

Rather than find out the sex of the baby, they decided to wait till it was born. Shawn finally got to buy stuff at the baby store which he quite enjoyed. He also bought yellow paint for the nursery walls, with two small cans of accent colours, one blue and one pink. He didn't plan on painting the accent colours until after the baby was born.

"But you still want a girl," Katy was saying from where she sat in the new rocking chair surrounded by painting tarps.

"Yes," Shawn replied, turning to make sure she hadn't gotten up. Now in her third trimester, Katy was far less comfortable standing than before.

"But I've already raised a daughter," Katy whined.

"Exactly," Shawn said, turning back to painting the wall in front of him. "We know we can raise a girl, but a boy would be new territory."

"Where's your adventurous spirit?" Katy laughed.

"It's still in shock," Shawn chuckled back.

"Are you sure I can't help?" Katy sighed a few moments later.

"Yes," Shawn said. "Just sit and relax."

"I'm pregnant, not ill," Katy sighed. "I want to paint my son's bedroom."

"Your daughter's bedroom will be painted just fine without you," Shawn replied as he ran the roller up and down the wall, leaving yellow paint behind.

Just then they heard the front door open and Maya's voice call out.

"We're in here," Katy replied. Footsteps approached then she appeared in the doorway.

"Oh, painting," Maya said. "I'll go get Riley." And she disappeared again.

"Linked at the hip those two," Shawn laughed. "At least this new kid will like us more than Riley."

"Don't be bitter," Katy told him sternly with a smile. "It's not a good colour on you."

Moments later, Maya was back with Riley and they were both already dressed in painting clothes, looking excited. Shawn handed them each a paint brush and assigned them a section of wall.

"There's another girl in class whose mom is having a baby soon," Riley was saying as she used her brush strokes all wrong. Shawn was going to have to go over those again later.

"It isn't so unheard of then, huh," Shawn smiled.

"I know now my jealousy didn't make any sense," Maya confessed.

"If all human emotions made sense, the world would be a much simpler place," Shawn chuckled. He'd known how Maya had felt when she'd found out, but was glad she'd found the courage to put it into words.

"You can't control what emotions you have," Katy smiled told her daughter. "Only how you react to them."

"And I reacted badly," Maya sighed.

"I handled it badly as well," Shawn added. "Let's call it even."

"Okay," Maya smiled.

Suddenly Shawn felt something wet flick onto his face, and turned to see Maya holding the paintbrush like a weapon. With his free hand, Shawn touched his face and saw yellow paint on his fingertips.

"Oh, it's on," Shawn laughed, brandishing his roller.

Within moments there wasn't a single paint free person left in the room, and everyone was laughing so hard they forgot to breath. When the dust settled, the walls too had enjoyed quite an interesting paint job.

"I like it," Katy grinned. "It's so organic."

"Too organic," Shawn replied, looking at the paint splattered walls.

"It looks like the art room did after we had that paint fight," Maya commented. "But all in yellow."

"Paint fight," Shawn said absently trying to think. "You were covered in paint when I proposed to your mom. Is that what you were doing?"

"Yep!" Maya grinned.

"I say we keep it," Riley agreed with Katy.

"Me too!" Maya's agreeing with Riley surprised no one.

"Fine," Shawn sighed. "I can see I'm out voted, but if the baby doesn't like it-"

"Oh hush," Katy laughed. "The baby won't care."

For the second time in Shawn's life everything changed at one specific day, but this time it was his day, not Cory's. On May 10th 2018 at 11am, Shawn's son was born. As he gazed down at the helpless infant in his hands, Shawn felt such awe he couldn't describe. The baby was only 6.5 lbs 3 oz, and yet he was the biggest thing in the world. Shawn's life was forever changed the day Ryan Hunter was born. Shawn hadn't realized it until the instant he'd held his son in his arms, just how much his arrival would affect him. He was so small, so helpless, and so beautiful. Twenty inches of tiny pink human, and his world was thrown upside down.

Turning to gaze at his mother, Shawn saw understanding in her eyes. Looking up to see Ryan's sister, Shawn saw the exact same look in Maya's eyes. They were a family. A bigger family than before, but still the same one, and he loved these three people more than anyone else in the world.

Katy went back to work right away, and Shawn found himself more often than not, at home with his son. Since his work was more by contract than anything else, it was easier for him to get time off. Every morning Maya went to school, and Katy left for work at Topanga's. It was just little Ryan and him all day long, and Shawn was surprised how much he loved it.

His life came to revolve around his son's physical needs. Was Ryan hungry? Did he need changing? Was he tired? Bored? Cold? Warm? Shawn quickly came to feel like a robot need filler. He didn't mind though. Every time Ryan preferred his attention over anyone else's, a small part of him glowed with pride.

"My own son hates me," Katy scoffed.

"No, he loves you," Shawn cooed to the infant in his arms. "Don't you, you adorable little bundle of adorableness." Ryan giggled, reaching up his little hands to pat at his father's face.

"Okay then watch this," Katy said, reaching forward to scoop her son from Shawn's arms. Within moments Ryan was crying, reaching his little arms towards Shawn.

"And like magic," Katy placed Ryan back in Shawn's arms, and instantly the crying stopped.

"He's just playing favourites," Shawn explained, rocking Ryan absently as he talked. "That doesn't mean he hates you."

"Ungrateful little child," Katy glared at him. "Nine months of carrying you around, ten hours of labour, and this is the thanks I get!"

Shawn laughed. He knew she didn't mean it, and the look on her face was priceless.

Shawn was baby proofing the house because Ryan had recently decided crawling was all the rage. It amazed him how many dangerous things could be found three feet off the ground. Before he'd had a toddler to worry about, Shawn had never once given the items that lived two feet off the ground a moment's thought.

"Huh dad?"

Shawn looked up. Maya was towering over him crouched on the ground.

"Yeah," Shawn said, trying to stand up, and banging his head on a table he hadn't realized he'd been under in the process.

"Ouch," Shawn groaned as he turned to his daughter. "What's up?"

"I'm going out," Maya said. "I won't be home for dinner."

Shawn sighed. Maya was in university now. It was quite amazing to see how she'd grown into such an incredible woman, even if he missed the little girl she'd once been. At times, Shawn hardly recognized her as the same scared little girl who wanted nothing else but a family. There was too much confidence in her, too mature emotional intelligence.

"I know you're all grown up now, and I have no right to know, but dare I ask where you are going?"

"On a date," Maya said awkwardly.

"Do I know this boy?" Shawn asked his eyes narrowed. Nowhere in his mind was there a boy in this world that was good enough for his Maya.

"Ah yeah actually, you do," Maya said. "You've known him longer than me."

Shawn had to really think about that for a minute. Finally he asked, "Josh?"

"Yeah," Maya smiled. "We ran into each other in the halls at school."

"I guess three years age difference at university isn't quite as much of a deterrent as it was in high school, huh?" Shawn smiled.

"The long game," Maya smiled as if this answered everything.

"I don't care if he's Cory's little brother," Shawn told his daughter. "If he so much as blinks wrong I'll-"

"Save the overly protective talks for Ryan," Maya laughed.

Shawn chuckled. "He hardly needs talks so much as blocks. I can't let him crawl around freely until all the outlets are plugged up, and the cords off the floor. I feel like all I do is block his path."

With a slight smile, Shawn reached forward to pull Maya in for a hug. "Have a good time, sweetheart," Shawn whispered into her ear. "But not too good a time."

Maya laughed, pulled out of the hug, and kissed his cheek.

"Thanks, dad," Maya smiled at him.

"And remember," Shawn called after her. "No matter what you've done, or how late it is, you can always call me for help."

"Love you too dad," Maya's giggling voice called back to him in a condescending way. Shawn sighed.

"They grow up so fast don't they?" Katy's voice came from behind him.

"Too fast," Shawn whined. He turned to face his wife. "Am I old?"

"No," she replied automatically.

"Then how come my daughter, and the baby that once held my finger through the glove of his incubator are going on a date?"

"Because you're old," Katy giggled at him.

"Oh thanks," Shawn said sarcastically rolling his eyes. "I feel so much better now."

"Always here to help," Katy smiled, leaning forward to kiss his cheek.

Since I wrote them at once, the next chapter (aka Epilogue) is going up literally seconds after this one so no sneak peek.