A/N: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!

July 15th 2021

Chapter 196
Our Goals For Starters

All week long, there had been this feeling of bracing for the call. That was always the way whenever one of their friends was getting close to this moment, wasn't it? How they had gotten to this point, where it was a common event, they couldn't say, but here they were. The newest little Orlando was on its way, which meant that it was time to rally the troops and descend upon the hospital to await the arrival. Maya called to Granny Lizzie downstairs to let her know before turning to Marianne, still sitting on the bed clutching her sketchbook.

"Guess what, pumpkin," she whispered as she indicated for her to put it down. Marianne did so.

"Baby?" she asked with a growing smile.

"You're so smart, figured that out all on your own, huh?" Maya lifted her up in her arms and pressed a kiss to her cheek which made her laugh.

"I put my dress now?"

"It's a shirt, but yes," Maya chuckled. The shirts they'd gotten for the kids had turned out larger than anticipated, but for the purpose of the day, it was only a problem as far as length, and it wasn't so bad that they'd accidentally trip and fall on their faces. "Come on, let's go get you changed."

In no time, Marianne had her new shirt on, Maya had collected the things she wanted to bring along, and they were off in the minivan on their way to the hospital. She called Lucas as they left, confirming that he had also gotten the call and would meet her there. He promised that he would be leaving in a minute or two. There was a turn in his voice like he was preoccupied about something, but due to the fact that they would see each other in person shortly and she needed to get there as soon as possible, Maya didn't bring it up.

"Hey, there, Annie girl!" Zay held out his arms to receive the dashing toddler coming his way as she and her mother entered the waiting area. In return, Maya was left to hurry and open her arms to Mia Babineaux, as she hopped off her chair and ran over, too.

"Auntie, look at my shirt!" Mia pulled back from the hug to show her the front of her shirt.

"Looks good on you, kid," Maya declared with a solid nod.

"I want to see the baby," the girl informed her.

"Well, it's still in Auntie Riley's belly, so we're going to have to wait, alright?" When they were put down on their feet, Mia and Marianne met up and compared shirts. "Nadine's working today?" Maya asked Zay.

"Oh, she's working alright," Zay grinned. Maya blinked.

"She's going to…"

"Looks that way. I think she's out there with them now, the two of us only just got here a couple minutes ago." Nadine would help deliver Riley's baby, just as she had delivered Marianne on that Halloween night almost two years ago. This time she'd get to do it in a hospital.

The group out of Houston wouldn't get to make it until later that day, possibly not until morning, depending on how things unfolded. With their own small children and a longer drive home to consider, it would be better this way, and everyone understood. In the meantime, the next to arrive were Riley's parents and little brother Hunter. Cory and Topanga quickly disappeared off to check on their daughter, leaving the seven-year-old to join the little girls like a big brother/babysitter. After them, there were the Orlando grandparents, who had Nicky with them. He'd been dropped off there earlier that morning, while Dylan was zooming around on errands. Those had been interrupted by Riley's call and he'd hurried home to get her and bring her here.

"Kyle's on his way, he had to make a stop…" Christopher Orlando explained. In fact, his elder son arrived not two minutes later, with his wife and daughter… and his youngest brother.

"Hey!" Maya smiled when she saw Taylor Munroe. The boy looked thrilled to be here, for the birth of his new niece or nephew. After everything they'd missed in knowing one another, all four of those children of Jocelyn/Jo were just so happy to have one another and be involved together. "Did he pick you up from home?" Maya couldn't help but ask.

"No, I was at Lambert's house," Taylor revealed. He would have braved that house to get you if you'd been at home.

His sister would have the same question when she arrived, with her roommate in tow. Phoebe and Stella joined the ever growing group in the waiting area, where they were both happily welcomed. They weren't missing very many people now, but the one Maya was looking for the most was Lucas. She expected him to arrive alone. Instead, he came at the head of a puzzling group that included her parents, two of her sisters, and four strangers: a man and woman and a pair of twin boys.

Both quartets – the Hunters and, as she'd learn, the Davises – were a surprise to find here right now, for different reasons. There was a bigger and more baffling surprise as Maya first noticed that one of the boys had red scrapes on his chin and a few other signs of injury on his arms. It was so much so that for a second, she figured she'd gotten this wrong. Maybe the strangers weren't with Lucas and had only been entering the hospital at the same time. But then she looked over and got a look of her sisters, of Nellie. She was in a very similar state to the boy, right down to the curious look on her face. Actually, all nine of them walking in had a similar look about them.

"Hey…" Maya approached them all, inevitably pulled toward Nellie. "What's going on? What happened?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bring this out here, but I got the call, and we were in the middle of it, and it seemed easier this way," Lucas shook his head.

"Okay, but what…" Maya didn't mind this so much as not knowing what was going on with her little sister.

"It was my fault," Nellie immediately told her.

"No, it was mine, ma'am," the scraped up boy spoke at once. Nellie whipped her head to look at him when he said this, looking very much like she wanted to argue but didn't think it would be wise right now… Either that or she was heeding Gracie's counsel not to say anything, which was telegraphed by her taking hold of her twin's arm. What might have been funny under another circumstance was the way a similar dynamic was showing up in the boys, too, with one looking to stall any words out of the other. It awoke ideas in Maya's mind, but she wasn't about to entertain them just now.

Finally, she was told about what had happened back at Sullivan Stables that day, from the chaotic race to the drag out fight, taking her to the interrupted discussion they'd brought to the hospital. Of all things, what saved the day was Zay's stepping in and offering himself to join Lucas in sitting with the two families and discussing the situation. He'd say that the twelve-year-olds were still 'in his jurisdiction' as they were all in elementary school, even if the Davis twins went to a different school. Maya knew without either of them saying it out loud that what he really wanted to do was to give her peace of mind as she went to be with her best friend while she had her baby, and for that she was deeply thankful.

"There you are," Riley breathed when Maya walked into her room.

"Yeah, and not a minute too soon, huh?" she immediately observed as she approached the bed, standing across from Dylan, much as they'd done when Nicky was born. He'd been determined not to faint this time, but just to be on the safe side he still had a chair behind him.

"Oh, yeah, this one's not wasting any time, she's coming in hot," Nadine confirmed with a laugh which almost immediately went out as the rest of the room froze and she realized what she'd done. Nadine bowed her head and sighed, even as Dylan pressed his lips together not to laugh and Riley gave a plaintive grunt that was half labor pain and half frustration over the surprise being blown so close to the end. As 'the surprised,' Maya felt a new jolt of giddiness as she looked from Nadine to Dylan, and then to Riley.

"Girl?"

"I wouldn't know how to fib right now," Riley breathed deep.

"You told her before me?" Maya's mock indignation had no ground to stand on with the way she smiled.

"She's about to pull a human out of me," Riley argued. "Also, I may have let it slip earlier."

"You didn't tell her what her name will be, right?"

"No, but I told you."

"No, you di… Yes, you did!" Maya grinned. The memory was so old and far away, but all it took was for her to bring it up and Maya felt it return at once, good as new.

It was when Topanga was going to have August. They'd been kids, barely understanding where babies came from, but they had entertained themselves one day in imagining what they'd call their future children. Maya had given all of hers – about a dozen – the silliest names, and looking back on it, maybe the idea had been too outlandish to her, so it could only be a fantasy. And Riley… She knew what she'd said for hers, a boy and a girl. Nicholas hadn't been picked out of those old memories, but his soon-to-be-born little sister…

"Good, you hold on to tha-oh!" Riley gasped. Baby girl Orlando was indeed coming fast.

Not too far away, a discussion was happening. It was not the ideal time or setting, but then could there even be such a thing? None of them wanted to be here, to have this thing with Nellie Hunter and Bobby Davis to handle. But they did, so here they were. They'd moved away from the waiting area, for what privacy they could have, especially with the little kids hanging about. They still wanted to be close enough to be told when there was a development, which was why they hadn't gone down to the cafeteria. So, they stood near a window looking out into the city below. Nellie and Gracie sat side by side on a bench facing that window, and across from a plant, on another bench, were Bobby and Ethan. If anyone saw them all and thought to approach them, because who ever saw two sets of identical twins, side by side this way, the looks on their faces would have discouraged the attempt.

A few paces away from the benches stood Lucas, Zay, Katy and Shawn Hunter, and Jeanette and Robert Davis. Already back at the ranch the conversation had kicked off being a lot calmer than he might have expected. Maybe personal experience had colored his impressions, but Lucas had figured the parents would be arguing with one another about what 'your son did to our daughter' and vice versa. But there was none of that. He might not have known either of the Davis twins very well before today, but Maya's parents did. They'd met through Nellie and Bobby's riding lessons, being at the ranch. It wasn't to the point where they would go to one another's house for dinner or hang out outside of that setting of Sullivan Stables, but it was enough so that they would talk extensively when they'd run into each other. They both were parents of twins, all of them the same age at that, and both with a rider for a child, so they had plenty in common. Whatever the Hunters knew of Bobby and the Davises of Nellie, they showed up today not wanting to lay blame on anyone but their own child, who would be grounded, possibly 'for their natural born life.' This was helpful, especially about what they'd do moving forward.

They didn't want to take away the ranch or the horses or riding away from Nellie or Bobby. But they needed to learn from this. Would they consider 'commuting the sentence' to chores out at the stables? They would if Juliet agreed. Lucas assured them he'd see to it. He'd make sure they learned from the experience.

"Daddy! Daddy, baby!"

Lucas looked back as soon as he heard his daughter's voice. She was put back on her feet after having been carried their way by a smiling Nadine, and she sprinted first to her father but then, upon seeing who stood behind him, put on some speed and bolted for her grandmother.

"Hey there, baby pumpkin, I love your shirt," Katy laughed as she picked her up and kissed her daughter's child on the cheek.

"Gamma, baby, come see!" Marianne pointed the way she'd come from.

"Already?" Zay blinked as he went toward his wife.

"Oh, yeah," Nadine laughed. "Speedy Orlando, that's the nickname right now."

"Boy or girl?" Lucas asked. Nadine shook her head and pointed at him.

"I already blew the surprise once, you're going to have to see for yourself," she motioned back down the hall before she noticed the four parents and two sets of twins standing there. "What did I miss?"

"Never mind for now, where is everyone?" Lucas asked.

Lucas and Zay followed Nadine to Riley's room, where they found Maya standing next to the bed with the bundled newborn. Dylan was sitting next to his wife, both he and Riley with that particular brand of smile that only came after watching your child be born. By that logic, the smile on Maya's face could be called the smile that came from holding your best friend's newborn baby. When she spotted the trio walking in, she moved and passed the sleeping little one over to her father, who held her where Riley could look upon her, too.

"This the room for Speedy Orlando?" Zay spoke quietly, making the rest of them struggle to hold down laughter in the presence of the sleeping babe.

"Guys, come say hello to our Emily," Dylan looked to his old turtle friends. They could just tell by the emotion in his voice that this was the first time he'd spoken his daughter's name since he was able to see her and hold her. Lucas went around to stand at Maya's side, slipping his arm around her waist, while Zay and Nadine approached the bed as well. They all looked upon little Emily Orlando, with a surprisingly generous head of dark brown hair, and oh, she was family already, to all of them.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners