June 10th 2020

Chapter 162
Their Choice of Future

"I was doing rounds yesterday and there was this girl, she'd just surgery earlier and she was just coming around. She opened her eyes and saw me there… She thought she was hallucinating, kept going on about how she knew she couldn't handle the drugs. Took me about ten minutes to get her to sit still and let me look at her," Nadine recounted as she helped Lucas chop vegetables. She'd shown up ahead of time, as she and Zay were to join their friends for dinner that evening. Maya wasn't home yet, neither was Sam, while Zay was just getting off work and would shortly be on his way.

"Does it happen a lot?" Lucas asked, smirking.

He had definitely had more than his share of encounters, as he and Maya would be out and about. People would come up to his fiancée, sometimes like they couldn't quite believe that they were seeing her, right there in person, sometimes showing that this was not their first encounter with her. He was seeing more and more of an uptick in requests for pictures, and autographs… Maya was always humble about it, humble and really just surprised, like she could hardly believe anyone should want this from her. Each one of those instances, it felt to Lucas as though she would take a beat, to keep herself situated, to know that she was and always would be Maya Hart, born in New York, grown in Austin, still the daughter, the sister, the friend, soon the wife, soon the teacher… and then also the singer and songwriter.

"Not really," Nadine shrugged. "Me on a stage and me at the hospital, not the same look, you know?" she gestured to her face.

"Yeah," Lucas laughed.

This dinner had been set the day before, when she'd called the house and asked if she and Zay might come over. She wanted to go so far as to bring everything over, or treat them to take out, or go to a restaurant, but Maya had told her just to come and they would take care of the rest. Lucas suspected she was here now, helping, as her way to put at least some small contribution to the effort.

The whole thing was presented like a simple dinner between friends, but both Maya and Lucas were convinced that there was more to it, and with everything over the last few months, there was only one reason they could think of as to what their friends were coming over to discuss. After losing two already, if they had managed to get pregnant again, they probably would try not to say anything until some time had passed, wouldn't they? Standing next to his friend at the counter, Lucas caught himself more than once either trying to see if maybe something in her had changed, if she was showing… She looked the same though, and he really had to stop before she got the wrong idea.

She looked happier than she'd done for a while, that he definitely saw. Much as she'd been able to get along without giving so much of herself away after those losses, it was impossible not to see a layer of sadness just underneath the surface. It was gone now, or… maybe not gone, but stored away somewhere deeper, not forgotten but also not anywhere that would pain her so easily. Instead, there was a new resolve about her, and he had known her long enough to know her path had been reset. She had a plan.

Sam had soon arrived along with Cecilia. His semester was already good and done by now, enabling him to surprise his girlfriend and pick her up from school.

"There's girls at my school who are planning to do Shirt Day," Cecilia informed Lucas and Nadine. "They'll have to wear them under their uniforms, so they're keeping it quiet in case a teacher overhears and checks all of us. I told them they couldn't do that, so long as our uniforms were all intact and no one could see. It's up to us. And it's the last week of class anyway."

"What's Shirt Day?" Lucas wondered, and Nadine laughed.

"I saw about that earlier, I kind of can't wait to see it."

"The day the anniversary album drops, someone suggested we should all be out there wearing our TXNY10 shirts," Cecilia explained with a smile. The new design had been out for a few weeks now, in anticipation for everything leading up to the official/unofficial day. If they were to put that day on the very anniversary of the band's inception, it would have had to be in August, but the girls had made the collective choice to be contented by 'summer, ten years on.' Proceeds from the shirt's sales, as inspired by Ramona's idea, were to go to the children's hospital.

"There's a lot of fans in Austin alone, so we'll be able to spot each other," Sam carried on. "But everywhere else, too."

"Alright, sign me up," Lucas nodded.

"We've all got so many shirts from the last decade, we could wear a different one every day for a few weeks," Nadine added with a laugh.

"Game on," Lucas gave her a look, knowing it would appeal to her competitive streak. She met this look with just this spirit, and she set her knife down so they might shake on it.

By some chance, Zay had arrived just seconds ahead of Maya. As they all caught up with one another's days, caught up on the plans for Shirt Day and Lucas and Nadine's daily challenge, the hosts were plainly aware of an energy between their guests. They had something to say, and they were trying to figure out when to say it.

"You know you're being way too obvious right now, yeah?" Maya finally had to say.

"It's not me, it's him!" Nadine pointed to her husband, who gave a face like 'oh, sure, throw me under the bus, I see how it is' and made her laugh. "I'm sorry but it is though," Nadine insisted.

"No, hey, that's fair," Zay finally had to agree.

"Well?" Lucas asked, looking from one to the other. "What's going on?"

"Right, well," Nadine started, looking to Zay. "We talked everything over for… a long time. We've been thinking for so long about having kids, about making children that would be part me and part him, and we tried that, and you know how it ended up. We could keep trying, but I just… I can't go through that again, it's too much," she shook her head, the hidden layer flashing through for a moment. She let out a sigh. "So, we're just not going to. And once we made that decision, it all became much clearer. We want kids, we want a family… They don't have to come from the two of us for that to happen. We wouldn't love them any less. They would be ours and that would be enough."

To look at the two of them now, that return of joy in them became suddenly refreshed with context. They had been stalled in their attempts and desires to become parents, but now they were moving forward, starting over from the point where the excitement and the hope in them was new, unmarred.

Maya's immediate reaction had been to turn to her friend and bandmate and hug her, and Nadine responded in kind.

"Any kid out there would be so lucky," Maya declared, and Nadine softly laughed, hugging her tighter even as she smiled to see her husband and his best friend just sort of clapping shoulders for a moment before deciding to go for the full hug, too. She tapped Maya's hand so she'd be able to turn her head and look, too.

By the time they were all sitting around the table, Sam and Cecilia having rejoined them, the news had quickly been revealed to only be one half of the reason why Zay and Nadine had sought to join their friends for dinner.

"So far, it's a lot of talking to people, and paperwork, and research," Zay shared with a nod.

"You should talk to my uncles," Lucas suggested, thinking at once of his mother's brother, Mike, and his husband, Keith, who had adopted all three of their daughters. "They'll be more than happy to give answer any questions you might have."

"That'd be great, yeah," Zay nodded, smiling like he was remembering old days, when the two of them were kids and they'd go get their school supplies in the fall. Michael Sullivan worked at the store back then, and he would happily escort his nephew and his friend around, ensuring they'd get everything they needed, in the colors and patterns they wanted them, too, whether they had them in stock or not. He had moved on from there in his career now, but Lucas knew the tradition had been revived once Lea, Lara, and Lydia had started school.

"There's something else we need," Nadine chimed in now. "We were hoping you both would be able to write out a reference, a letter, about who we are and how we would be as parents, basically."

"Absolutely," Maya nodded at once.

"When do you need them?" Lucas came in right on her heels.

"Can I do one, too?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, if he mentions he's a big ol' genius, that'll help," Maya teased her brother, all the while giving him big 'proud sister' eyes.

The rest of the dinner had gone by in such a lifted mood, it could have seemed as though Zay and Nadine had come to announced they were already becoming parents, all systems go. When they started toward their car to leave, they stood for a minute in wait with their friends, as Sam was saying goodnight to Cecilia. She would be catching a ride home with them.

"Have you told your parents yet?" Lucas asked Zay and Nadine.

"A few days ago, yeah," Zay nodded. "I really thought mine were going to freak out."

"That's your reaction to everything," Lucas pointed out, smirking at the look Zay gave him.

"Fair, I guess," he finally had to confess. "Anyway, they're pretty excited. My mom is probably reading everything she can get her hands on right now, to try and make it happen.

"She's going to write a novel, not a letter," Nadine smiled. She'd always had a solid relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Babineaux, and becoming their daughter-in-law had only improved on this.

"In that fancy penmanship," Zay mimed a fine hand, making them laugh.

"How about yours?" Maya asked Nadine.

"I think deep down they'll always be a bit disappointed that we didn't have one by ourselves, and I can't blame them for that, I wanted it, too. But they get it, and they're just eager to become grandparents."

After they were gone, Maya and Lucas stayed on the porch for a while, looking to the darkening sky as they sat shoulder to shoulder.

"Is it weird to think about how them and Maeve might have been the solution to each other's problems if it wasn't for Carter stepping up?" Maya slowly asked.

"No, I get what you mean," Lucas assured her.

"I almost…" Maya started again, but hesitated.

"Almost what?" Lucas asked, looking at her.

"I wouldn't have said anything, not without talking to you first, but even then, it wouldn't have been possible, with everything else, and you and me…" she trailed off, and she didn't have to finish her sentence for him to understand. She would have offered to be their surrogate, if it would have meant they could have this baby that was half Zay and half Nadine… "This is better, I think. There are already kids out there who need people like them."

"They'll find each other," Lucas agreed, wrapping his arms around her and pressing a kiss to the side of her face.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners