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

August 26th 2020

Chapter 239
Their Record of Family

There was really nothing like long-time friends to keep them going from feeling their growth to wondering how on Earth they were not kids anymore. And as direct hits went, watching their friends become husband and wives went just several clicks below watching them become mothers and fathers. For Maya and Riley both, to look at their dear Farkle friend on that screen, calmly wrangling his barely awake two-year-old daughter as she moved to sit next to him, all the while keeping his newborn child cradled in one arm… It all felt like someone was playing tricks on their eyes. Surely, they were all still ten years old and running around New York together. How could he already be a father of two?

"The baby!" Ada kept stating, as she'd stretch to look or point at the sleeping babe in her father's arm. They'd seen so many videos lately, where she would do the same thing, only pointing to her mother's belly. She had been made to understand that her little sibling was in there, and eventually would be out in the world where she could see it, and by the looks of it she had handled the transition very well.

"She makes a valid point," Rosa declared, caught up in trying to get a better look at the small bundle just as the others on the Austin lake shore were. Eventually, Farkle's father had come into frame and scooped up his small granddaughter, much to her displeasure. Farkle could be seen looking after her as the retreating cries suggested she had been taken out of the room, the better to let her father talk with his friends.

"Sorry about that," Farkle finally turned to look at the screen. They had all been up all night, but where the rest of them had been playing music, or basketball, or sitting around on the couch with a movie, he had been standing by his wife as she gave birth, and his exhaustion easily toppled theirs. Still, it could not vanquish his happiness in that moment. He looked to the baby in his arms, and his smile was endless. "She just woke up, and…"

"No, hey, don't worry about it," Lucas insisted. "How did it go?"

"It was slow going in the beginning, we thought we were going to be at this for hours still," Farkle breathed, recalling. "But then it all started picking up, and next thing we knew, here he was," he looked back to the screen, just barely, his gaze held entirely by his newborn son.

Even as the group on the other side of the call was sent buzzing for that small tidbit of information, Farkle moved up closer to what they guessed had to be his laptop, turning so that they might see the baby better. It didn't matter in that moment who had won or lost the pool. All that mattered was that sleeping little guy. Not one of them remembered or cared how tired they were anymore, though it could easily account for the amount of happy tears on several of their faces.

"Tell me he's not called Cupid or Valentine or anything," Maya chuckled, brushing at her eyes to nudge away some tears getting in the way.

"Isadora made me promise I wouldn't let her do that if the drugs got to her," Farkle promised.

"Does that mean he does have a name?" Riley asked.

"He does," Farkle smiled. "He is going to be Albert Isaac Minkus," he introduced the boy to his many aunts and uncles far away, who all appreciated how Farkle and Isadora had followed up their choice of scientist namesakes for their son as they had done for their daughter. "We've been calling him Bertie," Farkle added, gaining more noises out of the viewing side. "Isadora wasn't sure about it at first, but she came around to it pretty quick. She might change her mind later on, but he's very much Bertie to me."

"Bertie Minkus, I love it already," Maya beamed. "We're going to come out to New York to see this kid as soon as we can," she promised.

"I can't wait," Farkle nodded to her. "I can't believe you guys are still up, what time is it out there?"

"Coming on six," Nadine replied, the first to get a look at her watch.

"There's really not much I can say, but I really appreciate that you all waited up for us," Farkle breathed out, the emotions of the night deeply set in him.

"We would have been out there at the hospital with you two if we could," Lucas reminded him.

"Thank you," Farkle nodded. "All of you, thank you very much."

"You let Isadora know we'll call her tonight, okay?" Maya told him. "How's she doing?"

"Sleeping now. She made me swear not to go too far with him, so we're just out here," he looked to the side, which they imagined was where the new mother was, sleeping in her bed. "She was more worried this time around, not that she needed to be, everything was textbook the whole way, the pregnancy, the birth, and now he's here and he's perfect."

There was little more for them to go on after this, so they'd said their goodbyes, right after getting a look at baby Bertie waking up and giving them a taste of his lungs' capacity, which woke his mother and sent his father to quickly finish his own goodbye and thanks before ending the call.

"Wow, it's morning…" Zay yawned as the group started back for the house. He wasn't the only one suddenly fighting sleep again. Much as some of them had gotten a bit of a nap in earlier, every single one of those ten who'd waited out the birth of Bertie Minkus was left feeling as though the exhaustion had now truly and properly set in, as they no longer had to wait. Now, they were facing what was bound to be a very groggy Valentine's Day.

Their plans as to the rewards and 'punishments' of the baby pool may have fallen through, but it was more than worth it in the end, as they walked back through the kitchen door to find Sam waiting with breakfast. He was the only one of them to have gotten a relatively full night's sleep, as he had a test in one of his classes today and both Maya and Lucas had insisted on his going to bed. When he had gotten up and found the house empty, he had managed to piece together where they might have gone, even as he took it upon himself to fire up the waffle maker.

The meal was a mix of silences – as they all worked to get through their food quickly enough before they had to go – and bursts of conversation, as they shared their brief 'meeting' with the newest member of the Minkus family. Food soon gave way to a very quick refreshing, with clothes borrowed here and there. Finally, Sam had borrowed the minivan and played chauffeur to half the group, while Ramona had come along to do the same with the other half, the better to prevent any of them from getting behind the wheel when they all looked one good blink away from dozing off.

"I know it's not like a reward system or anything, but sometimes I really feel like I need to buy him something…" Maya hummed, as she and Lucas rode in the back of Ramona's car, on their way to the high school. She had her head on husband's shoulder, which very much felt as though she was playing with fire if her intention was to stay awake. Possibly to counteract this, Lucas kept prodding her palm with his finger.

"Who, Sam?" he asked, and she nodded. "What'd you have in mind?"

"I don't know, just something that says… You're a really good little brother and an even better human being… Not sure what the price range is on that, what do you think?"

He smiled, looking over at her. He always sort of admired how she'd grown to reach this point in her life where she'd gone from having barely enough growing up, to leading a comfortable life, to now having more than enough for herself, for their family, and being both financially responsible and eager to treat others, be they family, friend, or stranger when she knew she had the ability to do it. And right here, where Sam was concerned, where he would never demand or require any physical token of their gratitude, she really only wanted to treat him anyway, like something less invasive than a three-hour-long hug and more permanent.

"Well… he may have mentioned something to me the other day…" Lucas revealed, right before lifting his hand to his mouth as he stifled a yawn.

"He did?" Maya sat up, curious now. "What did he say?"

"Just that he had been thinking about tattoos for a while, and since he's turning eighteen this year, he would like to finally get one, but he doesn't think it would make sense for him to spend his money on it, when he is starting to think about his last year of school coming up, and what he'll do after that…" Lucas relayed, trusting that this information had not reached him in confidence and was thus free to be shared.

"That… that is a good place to start," Maya slowly nodded, smiling with intrigue.

Arriving at the school, Maya thanked Ramona, wished the others a good day, wished the same to Lucas with a bonus kiss, and walked off toward the building. This was going to be a good day. Actually, it would continue to be a good day, because really how could they top the introduction of that sweet boy back in New York? Alright, fine, they were all going to be exhausted the whole time, but at the very least that would make everything fifty percent funnier, wouldn't it?

The chime of her phone a few seconds later brought the treat of a photo able to lift any tired eye open. It showed Farkle, holding Ada in his lap, even as he helped her hold on to her baby brother. She looked positively thrilled, while young Bertie was staring back up at her with what curiosity he could muster, having been alive for all of three hours, tops.

"Don't start crying now, what are you doing?" Maya muttered to herself, taking a deep breath – and one more smiling look at the picture – before sliding her phone back in her pocket.

Thankfully, she found something to hold her focus elsewhere, as she came up to find a curious mix waiting on the old bench. There were freshmen Stella and Phoebe – as was generally to be expected – sitting next to senior Milena.

"Hey, good morning, all of you," Maya approached them, just barely getting the words out before her hand shot up to cover a yawn.

"Are you okay, Mrs. Friar?" Stella asked.

"Oh, yeah, no, it's fine, didn't sleep last night," Maya explained. The way they were all sitting together, it didn't feel like coincidence. There was no one else around, all the other benches were free, which begged the question. Rather than ask it, she mostly pointed from Milena to the freshmen and back.

"She lives up the street from me," Phoebe happily filled in the blanks. "Sometimes we're on the same bus."

"I've never seen you here this early before," Maya turned to Milena.

"Didn't sleep much either," Milena shrugged. "Figured I'd just come in early." To Maya, that sounded a lot more like 'I need to talk, and I don't want the rest of the class to be around.'

"That's good, you can help me set up the class, make sure I don't just keel over… or eat all the chocolate before the day even starts," she held up her bag. Milena got up at once and after waving to the others, she and her teacher headed into the school. "Friends of mine had a baby this morning, back in New York," Maya told the girl, as a way of breaking the silence hanging in between. "The rest of us out here, we stayed up at my house, waited for news. Had the rest of the band, Riley Matthews, and…"

"August told you what happened, sophomore year?" Milena cut in, just as they were walking into the art room. Maya looked at her a moment, seeing the nervous look in her eyes, before shutting the door again, so it was just them.

"He did," Maya confirmed, watching her carefully now, not so much that she'd get the wrong impression, but still… "He told me about those guys, what they wanted from him, what they did to him and how you stopped it." Milena looked down a moment, looking up again with a sigh.

"One of them, Finn, we were dating at the time," she revealed. "I thought he was a good guy, I mean… he was a junior, and sure I was a sophomore, but if I hadn't skipped a grade I would have been a freshman… Back then I thought I was so lucky that this older guy liked me, now I can't believe how dumb I was… A-anyway, that's not important," she shook her head.

"Not so sure about that," Maya gave her a sympathetic look. There were plenty more questions popping up in her head now, but it didn't feel like the time to ask them. She needed to let Milena say what she wanted to say.

"I knew what they wanted August to do. I told Finn it wasn't right, told him he shouldn't get August in trouble like that, that I'd help him and Jay study if I had to… That really made him angry."

"Milena, did he…" Maya stepped up.

"No… No, never," she shook her head. "Pretty sure he was just scared Tony would come at him if he did," she added, rolling her eyes. "But he told me what he'd do to August if he didn't come through. And I was just… I should have just told someone, should have just told Tony, but I didn't want August to get caught in the middle, so I… I-I helped him… He told you how he took the answers for them, but it was the both of us, Mrs. Friar. I helped him do it, and now he's trying to cover for me, to protect me. And it's eating me up inside, because he's taking all the punishment when it should be me, too… Maybe just me… If I'd been smarter about it, if I'd told instead of letting it happen… I didn't want him to get hurt, but he did, didn't he? It's my fault…"

"Hey, no, hey, come here," Maya pulled the crying girl into a hug, closing her eyes. Here she thought she'd had any idea what today would be. Suddenly, she could hardly feel the exhaustion anymore, and Bertie Minkus was so far away. Life went on, right here in front of her.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners