Good Things Come

by Mattiewilda

Sequel to Where You Least Expect It. Angela and Eric continue to navigate their relationship and their lives as new parents while Shawn works to rid himself of his past baggage as his wedding approaches. Jack and Rachel strive to build their family and Cory and Topanga try to find the beauty in imperfection.

5. Chapter 5

I am so sorry for the wait. Life has been hectic lately, though mostly for good reasons. I recently adopted a dog and she has severely cut into the time I've had to edit chapters. Luckily she's pretty smart and her training is coming along and she's acclimating quite nicely, so I'm slowly starting to get back into my routine. I hope to have no more month long delays.

This chapter is mostly lighthearted since the previous one was on the more emotional side. More characters are involved as well.

Thanks for all your reviews. I'm terribly behind in commenting on them, but I plan to get to those soon as well. Thank you for your continued patience. :-)

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"Georgia, no," Eric said, chuckling at his daughter's attempts to eat. "You can't eat it by pushing the food through your face. It has to go in your mouth, silly." He gave into his laughter when she shoved an avocado covered hand into her mouth. "I guess we'll be watching you around the guacamole and chips until you have a few more teeth, huh? Wait until mama finds out."

"Finds out what?" Angela came further into the kitchen. She had been observing from just outside the doorway. Nothing made her happier than watching the two of them. She had something important to discuss with Eric, but it could wait a while longer. "Oh, my goodness," she exclaimed. "What the heck happened?" Her baby was green.

"Georgia loves avocados."

"I'll say. What's the orange stuff in her eyebrows...and eyelashes?"

"I gave her what was left of the steamed carrots- still a fan."

"Good, the more foods she likes the better." She and Eric had decided to try the baby-led weaning technique when it came to slowly introducing Georgia to solid foods instead of purees via jarred food. She loved using her hands and putting things in her mouth, it seemed only natural to let her attempt to feed herself. It was messier and they did get some odd looks from the grandparents, but it worked for them for now. If it stopped working they'd try something else. "It looks like she's made her very first face mask." Angela lightly rubbed a couple fingers over a clean patch on Georgia's head. "Good girl, baby. Avocado is very good for the skin. In a few days we'll try sweet potatoes and you can make a mask with them, too. They're also good for moisturizing your hair…whenever you grow some. Mama can teach you about all that when you're older."

"Most of her time has been spent trying to shove the food into her face."

She snapped a few pictures with her phone. "These can be the daily shots to text friends and family. Speaking of family, I talked to Aunt Trish this morning before I came down and I've been thinking it might be a good idea if I-"

Georgia slapped her hands on her high chair tray and let out a string of high-pitched, happy squeals. Eric looked down and realized how much food he was wearing. "Uh-oh, didn't think I was going to need a bib, too."

Angela stood back a safe distance from the spatter zone. "I'll buy us some smocks. I see you helped yourself to one of my hair scarves."

"Do you mind? I didn't want to get food in my hair since I have to go to work later."

"You didn't touch the silk ones, so it's fine."

"That's not a mistake I'll make twice."

"I wasn't that bad."

"If you say so, right, Georgia?" His reply was more baby giggles and slapping of her tray, which sent food directly into his eye. "Ah!"

"Maybe we should add goggles to our list of safety equipment to wear. Dining with her is like being front row at Blue Man Group," Angela responded, fighting back laughter as she handed him a damp towel.

"You do it. I'm blinded."

"It's just mushed carrots. They're good for your eyes, actually."

"For my eyes, yes, in my eyes…please," he whined and held up the towel to her.

She rolled her eyes at how dramatic he was being. "You do realize you're making the baby look more mature than you at the moment, right? You know- the six month old sitting over there wearing nothing but her breakfast and a diaper?"

"I can live with that. I'll look at it as my way of boosting her self-esteem." He winced when Angela ran the cloth over his eyes. "Careful. I need to look pretty on TV for my job."

"Silly me, here I thought your job depended on your knowledge of the weather and the ability to deliver the information."

"How many uggos do you see on TV- even on the news?"

"Okay," she relented, "you win. Pretty helps in your job."

"I win? Cool."

"When do you lose? We don't have disagreements where there's a winner or loser. We discuss things and compromise as needed. I didn't realize there was a scorecard involved."

"It was just a joke." Eric took the towel away from his eyes but held onto her hands. "What were you saying a few minutes ago about talking to your aunt?"

"It can wait. We should get her cleaned up."

"You sure?"

Angela nodded. "It'll be easier when she's napping." She turned her focus back to Georgia, who now had her head down and was rubbing her face along the tray of her high chair. "Really, kid? Where did you learn these table manners?"

"If I remember correctly, your baby pictures showed you wearing bowls of oatmeal on your head. She probably got it from you."

"I think she's spending too much time watching Thor rub his face on things."

"This is a job for the tub, not the wipes. As soon as she…well, the both of us are clean I'll show you the belated Valentine's presents I got you guys."

"Is that what that box on the couch is?"

"Yep, they finally came."

"They? You didn't go overboard, did you?"

"No- at least I don't think so."

Angela had no idea what that meant, so she decided to stick to their current predicament. "Let me get a few more pictures first. Blackmail for when she's older and a teenaged pain in the butt."

"Very evil," he noted with a grin. "I like it."

/

/

"You have Trish's phone number, right?"

Amy looked up from the grocery list and stared at her husband with a blank look on her face. She hadn't even heard him come in from taking Josh to school. "Angela's aunt?"

"Do we know another Trish?"

"I don't know. I'm sure we must...or at least another Patricia anyway." She found her phone to search for the number. "Why do you need to get a hold of her?"

"Because Alvin started a new round of cancer treatments this week and I wanted to see how he was doing."

"Oh, no, that's too bad. How did you find out?"

"Angela came by the store last night. She seemed pretty rattled by the whole thing so we talked for a while and I drove her and Georgia home." He shook his head. "Our granddaughter is growing too fast. And can you believe Angela ran all the way to the store from hers' and Eric's house? That's eight and a half miles. That is how distracted she was. She just put Georgia in the stroller and started to run- lost all sense of everything. I'm just glad she ended up close to the store when she snapped out of her runner's trance, I think is what she called it when Georgia woke up crying to be fed."

"Angela could've come here if she needed to talk."

"I don't think she realized she needed to talk," Alan pointed out. "Besides, it would've been a few miles further for her to run."

"Oh…right."

It was impossible to miss the weirdness in her tone and the odd look on her face. "What's wrong?"

"Huh? Wrong?" Amy went back to her grocery list. "Nothing's wrong. I'm just making a list for the store. Are we still good with milk? Josh inhales everything so quickly these days. I swear it takes me back to Eric and Cory's younger years. It's a miracle they left any food for the rest of us."

"I grabbed two gallons on my way home last night." He finished preparing his coffee and joined his wife at the table. "Come on, what's wrong? You're acting like you're upset Angela came to talk to me."

"No, I'm not upset, but…I'm here, too. Why does she always go to you? It seems whenever there is an issue with her dad she talks to you."

"Before I say anything, is it even going to be worth pointing out how hypocritical it sounds for you to be saying this after what you said to me about Eric coming to you about needing help with Georgia?"

"It may not end well for you."

"Okay, then I will leave it at this: I am a father. Angela needed insights about fathers. You get her when she needs help with the mom and baby stuff, but when it comes to the deep, dark, personal dad issues? That's my area. You can't help her there."

"But I want to."

"I know, but there are some things you're just never going to get. And I don't mean in a mom vs. dad, man vs. woman thing. I mean in the same way that I hope Eric never understands these issues."

She put her hand on his arm. "He won't. None of the kids will." It wasn't often Alan talked about his issues with his father- not that he was talking about them now- but she knew it would forever bother him that they were never able to fix things before he died. The man had impossible expectations that no one person could ever live up to. It was those same impossible expectations held by his father that set the tone for Alan being so easy on Eric. It was only when he was a little further along into parenting that he was able to be stricter and enforce rules. "Alan, you are an excellent father."

He leaned his head against his wife's shoulder. "Yeah, well…the fact remains that Angela has been dealing with parental trauma for most of her life. Our issues may be different, but I can see where she's coming from a hell of a lot easier than you can."

"Maybe, but I can still act as a fairly respectable sounding board."

"I'm not arguing with you there, but Angela's got Eric to be her sounding board."

"Lumping me in with him," she teased in a tone that was both sarcastic and sympathetic.

"Hey, you soundboard people are very important. You keep us people with issues from losing our damned minds."

"You do realize you just implied Eric was the saner person in his and Angela's relationship, don't you?"

"I never said it was a perfect analogy, but they do tend to balance each other out. He always seems to reel in his crazy and let her be the out of control one when needed."

"They do manage to find that balance most of the time." Amy sighed and reached for her phone. "I'll get Trish's number for you and I promise I'll wait for Angela to say something. I won't ask."

"That would probably be best."

/

/

"It's just…I don't know." Topanga blew out an exasperated breath. Normally she didn't have this much trouble putting her feelings into words, but right now she was struggling to pinpoint what was bothering her.

"It's okay, Topanga," Dr. Kelly encouraged. "Take your time. We still have most of our hour left. Cory can talk for a while." She turned to her other patient. "Cory, how have things been going?"

He shrugged. "Fine."

"Just fine?"

"Pretty much. Nothing's gone terribly wrong, but there hasn't been anything super exciting either. We finally unpacked at the townhouse. That was driving Topanga nuts, I know."

"How are you both coping with the commute? I know that was one concern about moving."

"It's not too bad for me. And Topanga leaves after the worst of the rush is over, right?" When she didn't answer he looked over at his wife and saw that she was staring into space and chewing on her bottom lip. Something was on her mind. "Topanga?"

"Malaise!"

Cory and the doctor glanced at each other. "What?"

"Topanga, honey, what are you talking about? I didn't study for this test."

"No, that's what I'm feeling," she exclaimed, relieved to have found a word to match her mood. "Malaise, melancholy, stuck in the doldrums-"

"Now it sounds like you're spouting off Jeopardy categories." He patted her knee. "Okay, okay, we get it. No need to prove you actually read that thesaurus on the bookcase in your office."

"All right, Topanga, why do you feel- as you put it- stuck in the doldrums?"

"We're not doing anything."

"Can you elaborate?"

"Everyone else is doing stuff. Shawn and Naomi are getting married in three months so obviously all of their spare time is going towards last minute planning and we are helping in any way we can. Eric and Angela have a kid and building their family. Our friends Jack and Rachel in Texas are fostering and hoping to adopt four siblings. Cory sister is away at college and doing all kinds of exciting stuff. One of my coworkers…no, not just coworker, she's a friend, but she is moving to Ireland because it's always been her dream."

"Really, who?"

"Susanne."

"Oh, I know you're going to miss her." Cory knew Topanga and Susanne had grown close over the years. The woman had mentored her as she climbed the ladder at the firm.

"Susie just decided that life is short. Go for it."

"That's insane. You can't just uproot your family and responsibilities to flitter off to wherever."

"She's divorced and her youngest started college. There's nothing keeping her in New York anymore."

"So…what are you saying? You want to move to Ireland?"

"No, but I want us to do something! We're just existing and living our day to day lives. Don't get me wrong, that's great and I love you, but when I look around and see everyone doing all this stuff…"

"You start to feel kind of how I felt these past few years? Stuck in a rut and standing still?"

She nodded. "I'm sorry, Cory."

"That's okay. We'll come up with a list of things we want to do together. And don't forget we're planning a vacation after Shawn and Naomi's wedding."

"Time out," Dr. Kelly called, giving the traditional signal for a timeout request in sports. "Do you honestly think there's something wrong with the two of you right now?"

"Isn't there?"

"Topanga, you said it yourself. You're living your lives. Yes, maybe it's not exciting and glamorous, but who promised you that every day would be?"

"Well-"

"But we just-"

"I'm going to ask you both something and I want you to be completely honest with me and each other."

The couple looked at each other. It always made them nervous when the doctor phrased things that way. It usually meant they wouldn't like the question. "Okay," they answered in unison.

"Are you happy?"

Cory was the first to answer. "Yes. Don't get me wrong, things aren't perfect and there's still a lot of work we need to do, but compared to where we were last year, both in terms of our living situation and our relationship? Yes, I'm happy…no, thrilled."

"Don't overdo it, sweetie. She's a doctor. She'll see right through you."

"Okay, mark my official answer as: really happy," he corrected.

"Topanga?"

"Yes, of course I'm happy, but more than anything I'm proud. We clawed our way out of the hole we dug ourselves in. I think a lot of people in our situation would've given up, but we didn't." She reached for Cory's hand. "We couldn't. We're Cory and Topanga. We go together like…like…"

"Like Cory and Shawn!"

Topanga threw her hands up. "Not quite where I was going, but thank you for giving Dr. Kelly a preview of what we may be discussing in the future."

The doctor chuckled. "I'll get to my point before we drift too far off track. What I was going to say is that anyone can put on a smiling face and be happy and in love in the big moments. That's easy when there's an emotional high involved. Where you are right now- that's when it gets real. Most of your life is the time spent in between the big moments where you are doing nothing but going about your day to day lives. That's when you show what you're really made of. Are there going to be periods where it's boring and monotonous? Of course, but that's true for anybody.

"You two are coming down from an emotional high in reclaiming your marriage and also buying your home. After the series of lows you experienced prior to that I can understand your fear of monotony and a few late nights at work leading to the lows, but that doesn't have to be the case."

"What do we do to stop worrying?"

"If I told you that then it wouldn't be your homework for next week, would it?"

/

/

"Do you like it?"

"This is the best gift you've ever given me…after Georgia of course," Angela added, glancing at the baby who was now sound asleep in her arms. She leaned her head back against the recliner and sighed, letting the chair massager work its magic. "Seriously, it's perfect. Thank you."

"You're welcome. I had no idea what to get you since you've nixed jewelry, but I know on Georgia's crazy hungry days your back gets all knotted up if you sit for too long feeding her."

"Now you've made it so I may never want to get out of this chair again."

"It works even more since you tried to be a marathon runner."

"I still can't believe I did that," she grumbled with a shake of her head, "so stupid."

"People have done crazier things when they were upset." Eric sat down on the floor in front of the chair. "Speaking of things that may upset you- not that I'm trying to- but you mentioned earlier that you talked to Trish?"

Her gaze once again fell to the baby and she took a deep breath. "Yeah."

"What about?"

"First of all, if this is going to be a problem, please let me know, because I hate the thought of not only being separated again from Georgia so soon, but also leaving you. And it's not fair of me to put all of her care on you for days at a time and-"

"Did you get another job offer you're interested in? Angela, you know I'm always going to support you working. If I can't take more time off, maybe we can work something out with my parents."

"No, no, nothing like that. It's my dad. I want to go see him this weekend." She was surprised when Eric stood up and carefully took Georgia from her arms and deposited her into her crib before returning. Then he pulled her out of the chair and sat down before pulling her back down to sit in his lap. "What are you doing?"

"This seems like a conversation that's going to end with you needing a hug."

She wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his chest. "You sure you didn't just want to get in on this massager?"

"It's a plus," he said, holding her tight. "Why do you think you'd need to leave us alone? We can go with you."

"Dad's immune system is compromised with the treatments so interacting with a baby might not be a good thing for him right now. As it is I may have to wear a mask around him since I'm with Georgia so much and who knows what germs people on planes carry."

"Are you sure you don't want us to come with anyway and just hang out in a hotel? This way you're not alone."

"Part of me is saying yes, that I need you with me, but it's just the weekend. I was thinking of flying out late Friday night or early Saturday after you're done with the late news and then come back Sunday night. It wouldn't be worth putting Georgia through all that traveling and two plane rides for just a weekend."

"I can ask my parents to watch her and I'll go with you."

She covered his hand with her own and squeezed it tight. "As much as I appreciate that offer I don't think Georgia is ready to be away from the both of us longer than one night. Especially when she's teething, clingy, and grumpy. She needs at least one of us to be here with her."

"I don't want you dealing with all this alone, but if you're sure that's what you want-"

"I'm not sure about anything anymore." She closed her eyes and tucked her head under his chin. "Actually, I take that back. I'm sure about you and us, about Georgia...our family- everything that happens within these four walls- that I'm sure about. That I believe in. It's everything else that makes me want to hunker down with those Y2K, end of days rations and just never leave the safety of you and this house again."

"What do you think I've been telling you all this time? It's nuts out there."

"You're right, this is the only place that makes sense."

"Cool, I get to be right twice today." He caught her look. "Still joking."

"Really, because that's the second time you've said it."

"It's nice hearing I'm right every once in a while. Not just from you, from anyone. It beats people telling me I'm crazy."

"But I thought you liked the crazy. You embrace it when people say it."

"That depends on who says it. Some people use crazy as code for stupid."

"Who? Give me names."

He kissed her cheek. "It doesn't happen much anymore, but well…I've heard it enough times over the years to know the difference between crazy fun and crazy stupid."

"And when I call you crazy or goofy you know that I don't-"

"Please," he scoffed, "I know you mean it in the good, fun way. Now let's get back to my awesome presents. Don't you want to see what else I got Georgia?"

"It wasn't just the sensory ball?"

"Nope, I just took that out first because she'll have fun with it. The rest of it is for our entertainment."

"You see, you say things like that and I have no clue where you're coming from."

"And that's where the good crazy comes in. It keeps you on your toes." Eric grabbed the box he'd placed on the floor beside the chair. "It's nothing big, but they're cute and I had more fun picking out baby clothes than I ever thought possible."

"You bought her clothes?"

"I figure this is the only time I'll be able to buy a girl clothes and not risk completely screwing it up. Don't get too excited, though. I didn't go nuts with full outfits, just funny onesies and T-shirts. I already know what they say, so you can take them out." He really just wanted to see her reaction to each one.

Angela dug into the box and took the onesie on top. "When the zombies come, I'm so tripping you," she read aloud. "Nice."

"We've got to put those crawling skills to use."

"Don't look at me. It was the cat."

"It will come in handy the next time we try to figure out where the smell is coming from."

The next couple of shirts were also cat related. All made her laugh. "Let's see," she said, coming to the next one. "I can't pants today." She looked at him. "Aw, just like daddy."

"If you can't walk around the house in your underwear, where can you?"

"I have the best mama in the world," Angela read, speaking softly.

"You can't argue facts."

She leaned forward for a kiss. "Thank you. Okay, onto the next one before I turn into a weepy, emotional mess. Seriously? This won't make the tears go away." She held up the next in the pile. It read: Daddy's Greatest Blessing.

"Don't be jealous. It's a tie for first between the two of you."

"That's okay. I'm willing to share the title with her."

"Go on, there should be two more."

"Wow, you did have fun picking out baby clothes."

"It's not my fault there's so many funny ones out there."

Angela held up the next shirt and stared at him, mouth agape. "You didn't."

"Tell me it's not true. I dare you."

"We can't parade our daughter around Philadelphia wearing a shirt that says: I am the product of a foxy couple."

"Why not? We're very attractive people. Put us against any other couple and we will kick ass."

"We just can't."

"Not good enough. Come on, you know it's cute. Look, there's even little foxes on it."

"Okay, fine, but if anyone asks I'm so telling them you bought it."

"You won't have to. I'll be bragging," he stated with a smile. "Go on. There's one more."

"Now I'm afraid."

Eric held up the final onesie. "I think it suits her. Don't you?"

"Sleep is for losers. How sweet. You found her personal anthem."

/

/

"Oh, my god, Shawn, just pick one!"

"I said I'll be happy with whatever you decide. It's your choice."

Naomi fought the urge to throw at pillow at his head. For the past two weeks she'd been trying to get her fiancé to sit down and select a photo for their Save the Date cards which had to be out by the end of the week. Instead of helping, Shawn kept trying to deflect the responsibility to her. "You're a photographer. You mean to tell me that you have absolutely no opinion about the photo that is chosen?"

He shrugged, not understanding why she was getting so upset. "Not really."

She stared at him for several long moments before picking up his tablet. "Okay then."

Shawn felt the hairs on the back of his neck go up. Her tone was positively icy and meant only bad things for him. "What are you doing?"

"There's a picture of us from Nina's birthday party a few months ago that would be absolutely perfect."

He reached for the tablet, only to have her yank it back. "Not the one with the My Little Pony face paint."

"Well, seeing as you don't care what picture I pick- why not?"

"How about because we look like two escaped circus freaks?"

"So maybe you care a little?"

"I can't send pictures of me covered in My Little Pony to the trailer park." Shawn wasn't inviting very many people from the Hunter side- Uncle Mike and his kids were pretty much it aside from Jack- but the pictures were still going to get around. He'd never hear the end of it. "You know that."

"Then help me pick…or else you may be sorry."

"Sorry? Sorry how? I don't know what that means."

"I invited Cory and Topanga to come over after work for dinner tonight to help us choose. I told Cory you just haven't been feeling the wedding spirit lately." Naomi had to fight to keep the smile off her face for that last bit of information.

"Why the hell would you do a thing like that?! You know when he gets into the zone Cory can be worse than any bridezilla." He paced around their small living room. "Now I'm going to have to listen to him tell me about the wonder and romance of weddings."

"Because that would be so terrible?"

"I didn't mean it like that. I just-" He took a deep breath. "This is happening very fast."

"We're coming up on our sixth anniversary in April- just over one month away for you. This wedding is not fast."

"That's not what I'm talking about. It seems like just the other day we still had ten months to plan and now it's down to three."

"I know. There's still a million things to do. I got the crane count today and we're only at 657. We need 1001 by the wedding day."

He knew the 1001 paper cranes was one tradition Naomi wanted to have at the wedding. She went from keeping a monthly crane count from friends and family making them to several times a week. "It'll get done," he said, sitting beside her on the couch.

"I still need to make Nina's flower girl dress."

"Buy one. Make it easier on yourself."

"I can't. She's looking forward to helping me make it. Besides, we've already worked out a design. I can't bear the thought of letting her down."

Shawn wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "You looked at her with those eyes- that was your first mistake. Nina can get anyone to do anything with those eyes."

"She knows it, too."

"So the cranes, the flower girl dress, not to mention your grandma can't seem to get that we're not wearing kimonos…me being an ass about this picture is only adding to your wedding stress, is it?"

"You're not helping."

"Sorry."

"Just tell me why. Why are you being so stubborn?"

"I'm not having second thoughts, so don't even worry about that." Shawn didn't feel comforted when she relaxed against him. That meant she had been concerned. "Like I said, it hit me how fast the date is coming."

"And not sending out the save the dates would slow the calendar?"

"It sounds stupid when you say it like that."

"Well…"

He pouted. "Hey. And there is one other reason, a reason that may make you want to hit me."

"What?"

"Most of the pictures you were giving me to choose from are too posed. If I were to pick a picture, it would be more natural and candid."

"You couldn't have said that two weeks ago?" She looked up at him in triumph when the buzzer went off. "Lucky for you, Cory is here so you guys can sort through all our candid shots."

"But…but…"

"Bet you wish you would've spoken up two weeks ago, huh?"