Of Princes and Princesses

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: We're getting close to the end and in this chapter we get to a little bit of what Lyla and Louis plan to do about the situation, so isn't that exciting? As always don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys next week!

34.

It was official.

They had 100% missed their plane. Tickets were non-refundable so they weren't going to get their money back but Kate said she was going to make some calls about getting moved to a different flight once they knew what was going on.

Louis was still figuring everything out and Marshall wasn't about to just leave him alone. Especially since he was pretty sure his baby bro was just in shock over the whole situation.

Marshall and Kate had mostly been hanging back so they weren't in the way, but both were eavesdropping on the conversation that was going on between Louis and Lyla, and Lyla and Evan, or August, and Lyla and Mr. Jeffries, Evan/August's case worker.

This story was long and convoluted but here was what they had learned.

Lyla and Louis' one night resulted in Evan. Lyla was hit by a car while she was pregnant, and her father put him up for adoption without telling her, and then told Lyla that he had died. Lyla quit music and basically lost all meaning in her life, eventually moving in with the friend who had encouraged her to go to the party where she had met Louis.

However, earlier that year her dad had had a health scare and admitted what he had done prompting Lyla to come back to New York to look for Evan.

Evan, who had been looking and waiting for his parents his whole life, had gone off in search of them. Coming to the city where he planned to follow the music. But he was a runaway so he met unsavory characters before almost getting arrested and sent back to his boys' home. He ran away from that situation too, found a church that took him in and they took him to Julliard once they realized that he had an exceptional talent for music.

Louis admitted that he hadn't ever stopped dreaming of Lyla, that he had stayed away because he thought she didn't want him. And while originally, he had only been looking for her, a child changed things. So, if she thought he was getting rid of him now they had another thing coming.

Then Lyla asked what they were to do.

She had come all the way to New York to get her son back, she wasn't about to leave now.

Mr. Jeffries had said that they had options, paperwork to fill out, judges to see. And of course, while the road to getting Evan back would probably be quite smooth, he couldn't give him back right at that second.

There was so much to do first.

"And who are they?" Mr. Jeffries asked nodding his head to Marshall and Kate.

"Oh, that's my brother and his girlfriend, they're here with me," Louis said and just like that Kate was no longer by Marshall's side and instead inserting herself in the conversation.

"My name is Kate," she said. "I'm so very glad to meet you."

She was looking right at Lyla as she said it. The woman, who was as quiet and graceful as he remembered, took in Kate's punk rock look of the evening and quickly assumed that like Marshall, she was as wild and uncouth as he. And not the princess that she truly was.

"It's nice to meet you," she said taking Kate's extended hand.

"Might as well get to know each other now since we're practically going to be family."

"Kate," Louis growled and she shot a glance to him.

"Well it's true," she said. She then held out a hand that Marshall took immediately. He then her pull him to her side. "And this is Marshall, he's Louis brother, and I'm suspecting your soon to be brother in law!"

"Katie!" Louis cried which earned him a light cuffing from Marshall.

"No one calls her Katie but me," he reminded him with a terrible growl.

Any burgeoning argument was halted the second Lyla said: "I remember you."

She was pointing a Marshall and suddenly his Kate was smiling widely up at him, but Marshall could only think of one place that Lyla would remember him from.

"She remembers you," Kate said excitedly not knowing that this was going to end badly. Marshall tried to signal Lyla to keep it to herself but she either didn't get the signal or didn't care.

"Yes, he uncorked a whole bottle of champagne on us, took a picture of us and then he and his buddies jeered at me while I walked away."

Kate blinked her eyes as she took that in and then turned to Marshall with wide eyes of absolute shock.

Marshall faltered. "I… I hadni… we were… I was… it was… I didni have yah yet… it was my wild years… I was an asshole… yew knew that… I…"

Kate turned away from him immediately. "He won't be doing that again," she assured her. "He's quite grown up now and not as… wild."

"It's true."

"So, just to confirm, not married, right?" she asked Lyla. "This is very important… cause I don't see a ring or another man hovering around."

"No, I'm not married…" she said carefully glancing at Louis who was glaring at the two of them.

Kate, however, clapped her hands excitedly. "Oh wonderful! This is absolutely wonderful! He's been looking for you. Did you know that? He's been…"

Louis went a pale color and turned to his brother absolutely horrified. "Marsh…"

"Yeah I got her," Marshall said picking her up and turning her away from the two of them. "You're freaking her out, Katie."

"Oh I'm sorry!" she cried over his shoulder, but she was largely ignored.

"I think we should give them some space," Marshall whispered. "Maybe we should get a hotel room for the night."

"My boss is going to kill me, but yeah, I'll put a call in to near-by hotels and see what we can get. Maybe see if Louis is going to stay with us, but definitely encourage him to stay with Lyla."

She pulled out her phone and went to make the call as requested, and Marshall went to ask his brother what was going to happen at least for the night.

He decided to stay with Lyla. Which worked out fine for Marshall, who wanted the hotel room alone to play dirty guitarist and even dirtier groupie with his perfect girlfriend.

-AR-AR-AR-AR-

The following morning Marshall and Kate met Lyla and Louis and Lyla's rented apartment for brunch. And for the first little bit there was nothing but small talk, but when Lyla wouldn't stop looking at Kate's repeat outfit Kate decided she needed to defend herself.

"I'm sorry for the outfit, it's all I got. I usually have more normal clothes but they had a gig last night and it was my first gig and I wanted to show support… it's silly. Anyway, I was supposed to go home last night," she said to Lyla who just smiled politely, a little embarrassed that she was caught staring.

Marshall didn't think her outfit was silly at all, in fact he really enjoyed taking it off of her last night. He was certain he put a few more rips into that ripped band tee she was sporting.

"I'm serious you two have to figure this out today, cause I have to leave tonight and I am not missing this."

Lyla laughed but Louis sighed.

"She's uh… she's serious…"

Lyla stopped laughing and glanced at Kate who was smiling at her. "Yep, totally serious. We figure this out today, no other option."

"Marsh!" Louis growled and instinctively Kate gripped the table so Marshall couldn't pick her up and cart her away, like he'd do that again after last night. Where would he cart her off to anyway? It was a regular sized apartment, and it wasn't like he was going to leave just cause she was asking questions that were upsetting Louis.

"Sorry, you're on your own."

"So… do you guys know what's going to happen. I know this is a little sudden but Lyla looks like a girl with a plan."

At that Lyla did laugh, a proper light and tinkling princess laugh. "Yes. I did have a plan, and Louis and I did have a small talk about it last night."

"Right, so what's going on."

"We're staying here," Louis said and Marshall tried to not look surprised.

"Evan's got a full ride to Julliard you see, they're calling him a prodigy and he loves music, so if he'd like to stay to finish his degree, which we would like to encourage him to do, we're going to stay here."

"And if he doesn't you guys will move back to San Francisco?"

"Yes," Louis said. "Though we have a feeling he'll be wanting to stay here."

"Makes sense," Kate said but Marshall didn't like it. He didn't want his brother to be away from him again. Not when he had just got his baby bro back.

"And what about you two?"

"Dating," Louis said, making a big show of threading his fingers through Lyla's. "For now."

Lyla blushed, the pink dancing across her cheeks, as she lowered her eyes from the table, clearly very please to have Louis back in her life.

"Well I think that's wonderful," Kate said clapping her hands. "Congrats you two, you guys have managed to figure yourselves out in record time. I mean seriously. I'm very impressed."

Marshall turned to his girlfriend, wondering if that was a dig at him. Because it took him so long to tell her that he loved her, and to give her that label. Right so he moved slowly but considering this was the first relationship he put his heart and soul in he did a very good job at it. He had been ready for kids before her too, so maybe he should throw that in her face.

He didn't of course, because that would be rude, but he really, really wanted to.

"Oh, and we spoke to Mr. Jeffries, he'll be dropping off Evan today. So we're going to do his room up."

At that Kate squealed. "Shopping!"

Both Louis and Marshall winched but Lyla shared Kate's giant grin. Wonderful the girls would go shopping and Marshall and Louis would be in charge of building the bed and any other furniture they purchased for the little tyke.

-AR-AR-AR-AR-

With a lot of work, everything was ready for Evan for when he was brought to the apartment.

The boy, was a lot like Lyla in the way he was quiet and demure like her. But he had all of the Connelly looks.

He took in all of their faces carefully before saying hello to them.

Mr. Jeffries told them softly that Evan was a shy and quiet boy and just like that Kate was crying and heading straight for the boy.

"Oh you poor little boy," she said as she pulled him into a hug. Even from where Marshall was standing, he could see that Evan was uncomfortable but he turned a wide-eyed look onto Louis and instantaneously the protective dad instincts kicked in.

"Marsh," he growled already moving for Kate but Marshall beat him to it. He had to, because if Louis put hands on Kate the two of them would have a physical altercation. Marshall would embarrass his brother and Kate would be mad and he didn't want that.

"I got her," he said picking her up and pulling her away. "Sorry kid, she's a hugger."

Evan had a sort of watery smile on his face. Not a sad one but a happy one. "That's okay."

As soon as they were away the two prospective parents approached their kid. It was clear that they were all nervous about this, only because no one really knew one another.

Lyla cleared her throat. "Uh… Evan… or do you wanna go by August?"

"No, Evan's fine," he said softly.

Louis was up to the plate next. "Right… uh… me and your uncle Marsh got your room ready, do you wanna see if it's all okay for you while we sort some grown up stuff out?"

Evan clearly wanted to but he glanced to each face and didn't agree until Lyla said: "It's alright, you can go."

Once Lyla and Louis were busy with the paperwork that Mr. Jeffries had for them to sign Marshall turned to Kate.

"You have gotta stop doing that," he hissed. "What the hell is the matter with you?"

"I unno, I'm just excited is all. Our family is getting bigger and everything worked out for them after all."

"Do you feel like we haveni worked out or something?"

"No, it has nothing to do with us," she said with a scoff. "Come on Marshall, how often do you get to see someone's happily ever after unfold in front of you. I feel like I'm watching a Disney movie."

Well that was true she had him there.

Once they were finished signing the paperwork it was clear that Marshall and Kate would have to leave. So Kate went to talk to Lyla and Louis pulled Marshall aside.

"There's one more ting Marsh," Louis said. "I talked tae my boss about my moving out here, and he's got a place for me here to take, but it'll leave my place open back in San Fran."

"Yeah, okay?"

"I talked yah up to him, he's willing tae give yah a shot. I'm gonna give yew his number and yur gonna set up the interview, alright?"

Marshall found himself chuckling in surprise. "Really? He know about my record?"

"Yeah I told him. He's willing tae over look it."

This was a dream come true.

Marshall thanked him profusely and then both men glanced to where Kate and Lyla were engaged in a very long hug. A hug that Kate was probably forcing onto Lyla, but the other woman didn't look all that upset about it.

Louis turned back to his older brother and once again a look of worry crossed his face. Just like when they were younger and Louis wanted Marshall to help him, or protect him. He had missed being the older brother, and having that look pinned on him reminded him of that.

"Uh… yull come and visit, right?"

"Course, and yew guys will all come visit us, too right?"

"Yeah course," Louis said, though it was clear he didn't want his brother to leave either. "He uh… he'll graduate next year if he stays on track," Louis added. "Maybe we'll move to San Fran after, huh?"

"I'd love that."

Louis nodded and then abruptly hugged Marshall who hugged his younger brother back. He was clearly very nervous, so much more than he usually was. Marshall's big brother instincts kicked in immediately.

"You're gonni be okay, you know?" he whispered. "You're already a better dah then ours."

"I mean, kind of hard not to be," Louis said with a shaky grin.

There might have been more to share if Kate hadn't come over to hug Louis. This left Marshall with Lyla, who he was pretty sure didn't like him much.

"I'm… uh… sorry for my first impression," he whispered to Lyla who pulled him in for a hug. "I'll uh… endeavor to be better in the future."

"You already are," she said as she planted a kiss to his cheek.

It might have bit a bitter sweet ending, where the new family said good-bye to their extended family members who were going back to a different city. But that wasn't the full ending.

More like a hiatus. Until they could all be together again.