March 14th 2021

Chapter 73
Our Wait For Arrival

She had climbed these steps, walked these halls, for more than a decade now, as a student, as a teacher… Today she walked through the doors of the high school as a messenger, carried on hurried and happy feet in search of her former teacher, her colleague, to bring him great news. She had to say, it was one of her favorite instances of arriving at school ever, right up there with the day when she'd taught classes for the first time and the day when she was finally able to return, knowing that the ban on Lucas had been lifted. She didn't have time to waste on considering any of this for too long. She made her way to the history classroom with haste.

By the hour, she knew that they were just about to finish first period. It wouldn't give the administration much time to turn around and find a substitute, but there was nothing to be done for it. Cory was needed elsewhere, and it would be pointless to expect him to be in any way efficient by sticking around. When she arrived at the door to his classroom, she could already hear him in the midst of his lesson to what she discovered was a group of his juniors. The group included Phoebe Munroe, somewhere near the middle of the room, and when she spotted her art teacher, her surprise brought her to call her name out loud. It stalled the room, as the rest of the students looked at her. Cory looked at her, too, his sentence left unfinished. He only had to see her there, to recognize the randomness of it and know in a second…

"Maya?" he still asked. Her smile said it all and she nodded, adding a tip of the head that said, 'get moving, Matthews.' He looked baffled, with all mental awareness thrown out of alignment. He was going to be a grandfather. His daughter was having her baby today. His little Riley, his first child…

"Hey, guys," Maya stepped in the room proper now, slipping on teacher mode like she hadn't left it for a second. "Mr. Matthews here is about to be a grandpa," she explained his current state, giving the proper incentive for the room to erupt in congratulatory cheers which definitely alerted any nearby classrooms that something was going on, something really good. "I'm going to have to steal him from you. Phoebe, will you go let Vice-Principal Ríos know? Missy, keep an eye on the class until the bell rings, will you?"

Leaving her belongings, Phoebe sprinted off, proud to carry out her task. Maya watched her go. You're about to be an aunt… a little nephew… The thought could have rattled her, but she let it pass. Meanwhile, Missy moved to stand in front of the class and gave Maya a nod. She had this handled. With a mouthed 'thank you,' Maya went to grab Cory's bag before leading him into the hall. Their exit was witnessed by the teachers of those nearby classrooms, who'd come out to see what the noise was about. When Maya told them what was happening, her colleagues told her and Cory to go on ahead, that they'd handle things, calling well wishes after the future grandfather.

Cory didn't say a word until they were in the minivan and on their way to the hospital. But then he blinked, seeming to break through the initial shock. He needed to know what Maya knew. She told him what she was told, that Riley had gone into labor at home, and Topanga had been with her, so she was taking her to the hospital, would likely be there already by now. She told him how Dylan would be on his way, too, and Lucas as well, and now the two of them. The word had no doubt made the rounds by now, though she didn't know who would get to show up and when.

"The boys… Auggie, Hunter…" he blinked.

"Grangie will pick Hunter up at the end of the day when she gets MJ and the girls," Maya reported. "August, I don't know, but I'm assuming Topanga will have called him. He'll be there as soon as he can," she reminded Cory, and he nodded. Of course, August would be there. He was so looking forward to being an uncle.

The time probably helped as far as getting them to the hospital without running into any traffic delays. Maya dropped Cory off so he could go on ahead and find his wife and daughter and went to park the minivan. By the time she walked into the hospital herself and got up to the right floor, she was pleased to find that the first known face she spotted was her husband's.

"So… about this dinner tonight," Maya gave Lucas a vaguely apologetic smile.

"You know I love hospital food," he shrugged.

"You're so weird," she squinted at him as she stretched up to kiss him. He kept his arms around her as she came back down to stand on her feet properly. Now that she was here, it all felt that much more real and she was just… beyond excited. He wasn't far behind on that, going by his smile. "Did you see Mr. Matthews?"

"Oh, yeah, ran by here two minutes ago," Lucas hooked his thumb over his shoulder. "Don't think he recognized me, he was a bit…"

"Preoccupied?" Maya guessed.

"That would be the kind way to put it," he shrugged. They had a pretty good idea what the inside of his head must have looked like right now, for having experienced making their parents into grandparents, and for… well, knowing the man as long as they'd done.

"Did you see them? Riley? Topanga?"

"Not yet, I just got here like five minutes ago, I was calling your mom and dad like you asked."

"Oh, good," she perked up. If there was any way for at least Shawn to be here for his friend at the birth of his grandson, like Cory had been for Shawn's granddaughter… "What'd they say?"

"Your mom can't make it, early call tomorrow. Your dad is getting here as fast as he can," Lucas reported. "Also checked on August, he has one more class today, so unless this baby comes out before that… he'll be here."

"Look at you, on the case. Starting off twenty-nine with a lot of wins," she tapped his arm and looked down the hall. She'd just spotted Dylan out of the corner of her eye, and when she actually looked up, she found that he was tipping out from a doorway and waving them over.

All these past months, ever since the news had come out that Riley was pregnant, Dylan had been walking around like the excitement was building up in him day by day. By now, the guy was practically flying, waiting to meet his son.

"Hi!" he greeted his friends, and both Lucas and Maya had to laugh at how his voice squeaked.

"Remember what I've been telling you? The breathing?" Lucas asked his old friend. "You need to start that…" Maya pitched in with a demonstration.

"Yeah… Yeah…" Dylan nodded, like 'of course.' After a beat, he took a solid breath, let it out, took another.

"Good, keep doing that," Maya clasped his shoulders. "How's it going in there?" Dylan got hold of her shoulders now, startling her as he leaned in and whispered.

"You need to get them out of here. Please?" he asked. Maya blinked, looked back to Lucas. They both tipped their heads to look past Dylan.

In the hospital room, they could see Riley was now on a bed, in a gown. Around her, both Topanga and Cory looked to be in the process of settling her in, with pillows and various furnishings from her bag, all the while checking on her condition. Riley was giving giant 'I'm being nice here but also I am in pain and this is not helping' eyes.

"Riiiight…" Lucas tried not to go a bit wide-eyed himself. "Yeah, I don't know…" he looked to Maya. This looked way more her thing. He and Dylan were clearly clueless, but she had idea eyes.

"You two catch them and take them to the waiting room," she told them, tacking on a look to Lucas which said, 'don't let them get away.' He tipped his invisible hat, and they were on.

It wasn't so hard, was it? She had the perfect card in hand: this was her oldest friend, her first sister, and she was about to have a baby. Asking if they could have a moment just the two of them, it wasn't that big of a reach. It was all a matter of doing it the right way, and she had over twenty years of practice. The trick was flipping Topanga first, and then there'd be two of them to get Cory next. A minute after Maya walked into the room, the future grandparents walked out, joining Lucas and Dylan in the hall before being led out of sight.

"Thank you…" Riley breathed from the bed. Maya grinned before moving over to embrace her.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, pulling back, and sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Comes and goes right now," Riley looked down, her hand high on her belly, her thumb stroking protectively as she considered her soon to be born son.

"Well, look, I don't want you to worry about anything else than this guy right here, okay? Everything will be taken care of out there."

"I'm not worried…" Riley smiled, and Maya felt her emotions take a spin. Riley wasn't worried because she was there. "Hugging again?"

"Hugging again," Maya nodded and followed through with a new hold. There were tears in her eyes when she pulled back, and she brushed them away. "So, what's the plan for when it's go time? You want one of them back here, both…" she asked, giving an uncertain look which made Riley laugh.

"No, I already worked it out with them, they're going to stay in the waiting room. We all agreed it would be better that way."

"How'd you pull that one off?" Maya asked with a laugh of surprise.

"I'm a therapist, I can get by most times. You know, when I'm not on the verge of pushing a human out of my body," Riley nodded.

"That's fair," Maya agreed, impressed. "So, just you and Dylan then."

"No," Riley clasped her hand and Maya's smile expanded. Had she hoped to get to be there with her? Of course, absolutely. But then she'd figured that Riley would have her parents there with her and she didn't want to make her think she had to do anything other than what she wanted.

"Guess it's a good thing Lucas is good with the organizing, too, huh?" Maya pointed out, as she realized she wouldn't be out there to do anything now that she had this new role to play. At her words though, Riley's eyes widened. "What's up? Contraction?" Maya asked.

"No, no, I just realized it's Lucas' birthday today, I…" she pointed toward the door like she wanted to apologize to him all of a sudden for ruining his big day.

"And now it'll be Nicky's, too," Maya brought her back around. "It'll be fun, they'll get to share, like MJ and Ada do. We can do combo parties, it'll be hilarious. One grown man and one little, the decoration crossing alone is going to be amazing."

"Sometimes I think you're just trying to distract me with words, you know that?" Riley breathed.

"I can neither confirm nor deny," Maya assured her, just as the mother to be made a face which felt like a flashback even when she'd never seen her own face doing it when she'd been in labor. "Okay, hey, you've got this. Keep breathing, alright? I'm right here."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners