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

October 14th 2020

Chapter 288
Their Celebration of Life

Though they had not in fact danced the night away once the newlyweds and their guests had cleared out after the reception, Lucas and Maya had seen to it that they enjoyed a brief time swaying under the lights in the tent. The only music they had to accompany them came in the form of crickets, and the wind, and the occasional humming out of one or the other of them. In the end, when the length and activity of the day finally became more of a factor than any desire to keep going, they had retreated to the house. Packing in their pop-up reception hall could wait until morning.

They couldn't say for sure how long they slept. Even if they had fallen asleep the moment they had laid their heads to theirs pillows – which was highly likely – they had not seen the time when they'd gone. Maybe for that, they had forgotten to make sure whether or not they had turned off the alarm they'd set themselves for the morning of the wedding. And in the morning after the wedding, they discovered that they had not turned off the alarm at all.

"No, no way, not doing it," Maya grumbled, while Lucas stretched to grab his phone and turn off the offending sound. Once he did so, he settled back down, only to find a head of blond curls come to thump at his chest, and one arm drape itself around his waist before deciding instead to bend at the elbow, so its hand may grasp to his shoulder. "No sunlight, no deal," Maya yawned, then gave a satisfied hum as Lucas closed his arms around her and bent his head to kiss those curls.

"Go back to sleep," he whispered, she made a noise like 'uh huh' which sounded as though she was already halfway there. A few more seconds and she would reach the other half, while he dragged trails along her back, the better to keep her there until she was properly asleep again.

He had silenced his phone, but in the dim light of those early hours, a phone screen lighting up was hard to miss. It was like a beacon activated, its sole purpose being to be noticed, and though his eyes protested the burst of light, Lucas reached out his hand and did his best to see what it was without disturbing his sleeping wife.

Barely awake as he was, it was reflex more than realization which made him answer the call from Asher.

"Hello?" he whispered. In his sleepy head, his voice sounded so, so loud.

Rare were those calls that came in the night, or the early morning hours in this case, which did not work like a boost of wakefulness, for good or bad. Being told that a close friend and former roommate had gone into labor and was about to have a baby absolutely fell on the side of good.

"Yeah, no, don't even think about it. We'll be there as soon as we can," Lucas told Asher. On the phone, his friend's voice sounded so alert, wired, and it reminded him of when they were kids.

By some chance, rather than to have to drive two hours back home to Houston the night before, the quartet had decided to spend the night in Austin, the guys at the Garcias' and the girls at Diana Zvolensky's house. As it turned out, Chiara had felt the first of what would eventually be confirmed as genuine contractions while they'd still been at the reception. She hadn't mentioned a word of it to Sophie or the guys, figuring it would not be The Big One and would eventually stop. She and Sophie had gone to Mrs. Zvolensky's, and they had gone to bed. Sophie had soon fallen asleep, while Chiara just could not get there. Instead, she would count in her mind, and she would breathe… The moment she became certain of what was going on, she'd awakened Sophie, who had jumped into action, always prepared. Now they were on their way to the hospital, and the call was going out. No one would be expected to get out of bed so early, especially after a long night like they'd had. They could just wait until later that morning and come in on their own time.

They could, but who would they be kidding? No, they would be there as soon as they could.

"Maya," Lucas shook her, about as forcefully as he would allow himself, knowing he had to wake her up but also wishing he didn't. She grumbled. "Maya, wake up," he shook again.

"Why?"

"We have to go. Chiara is having the baby." A pause, then a quiet voice.

"Jujube?"

"Yeah, she's coming," Lucas chuckled.

And that was all the prompt she needed. Without a word, she rolled and set her feet on the ground, rising, yawning, and stretching all in one go. There was a brief debate on whether to wake Sam as they quickly got dressed to head out. In the end, they decided that as much as they wanted to let him sleep on, he would have wished for them to bring him once he found out about Chiara and the baby. So, Maya went ahead and woke him, while Lucas hurried down to make sure the dogs had all they needed, at the same time getting coffee and some food together for the ride to the hospital. Twenty minutes after they got the call, they were on the road.

They pulled up into the parking lot at the same time as another car they recognized, and as they all got out of their respective vehicles and merged on their way toward the building, Maya embraced her newly wedded friend.

"You're going to miss your flight," she pointed out.

"We'll take another one. I already reached out to the hotel, and the airline, it's not a big deal," Riley insisted. "This is more important. We would have hated to miss it," she smiled, looking back to Dylan, who walked with a bounce in his step at the prospect of meeting his best friend's little girl.

Reaching the waiting room, they came upon Zay and Nadine already waiting, along with some nervous but eager future grandparents sitting and standing in wait. Mr. and Mrs. Garcia and Mrs. Zvolensky were talking amongst themselves, feeling like larger than life representations of their roles. If they broke it down in such terms, not one of them would be biologically related to the child about to be born, while the grandparents who were, Chiara and Ray's parents, were either about to board a flight out of Italy or were sound asleep, unaware of any such child. It would never be said that the presence or absence of blood would make any of them any less of a real family though, and so the Garcias and Diana Zvolensky would count themselves as doubly the parents they were, for Ray, and more than ever for Chiara off bringing one Giulia Lucia Choi into the world.

"You know, I had a feeling this would happen," Zay declared as they all sat around, drinking coffee like they were feeding logs on to a weak fire on a frigid winter's night. As it turned out, all the excitement in the world could only go so far.

"You did not," Lucas challenged.

"Did, too," Zay insisted. Nadine cleared her throat. "Alright, maybe she suspected it first, but either way, we're here, aren't we?"

"Yes, we are," Nadine tapped his knee with a smile, and Zay pressed a kiss to the side of her face.

"You hungry?" he asked her, and she shook her head with a grateful look.

"I took what I could once the gift shop opened," Sam reported as he rejoined the group, carrying what felt like sufficient stuffed animals and flowers to celebrate quintuplets rather than just the one baby. His bounty was quickly distributed among the group, who had given him the money to fulfill this task when he'd requested it. This then led to a very comical, if fueled by an imbalance of sleep and caffeine, conversation on which animal was the cutest in its stuffed form. Either way, it kept them all entertained until the moment when a very tired but happy looking Asher was spotted striding down the hall in their direction. His jolt had not been generated by coffee, not one drop.

"Is it over? Is she here?" Dylan asked, even as Asher realized that both he and Riley were here, instead of on a plane taking them off to their honeymoon.

"She is…" he confirmed, his hand flying to his heart, like the thing would not stop beating so fiercely for the joy it felt. "We have a daughter," he nodded, new tears meeting his smile, as his best friend got to be the first to catch him in a massive, congratulatory hug.

For a few minutes, it was hard to say where one hug ended and another began, voices piling over one another as questions were asked. Asher was still too overwhelmed to answer any one of them, and besides he couldn't stay long. He wanted to get back to his husband, to their friends and fellow new parents, to their precious girl. They let him go, feeling a weight lifted even as they prepared for the anticipation bubbling in their chests, waiting to meet the newborn.

By the time this became possible, more had arrived in the waiting room, including Farkle and Isadora, who had left the kids with Shawn and Katy, and Rosa – who had left her phone silenced and slept hard through the night before getting the message – along with Jenna. Then, there were the elder Friars, both of them eager to meet Giulia. They were all still catching up with the others when Ray came to get a few of them for the first visit. He was greeted with a giant hug from his mother-in-law, holding his face in her hands as she congratulated him and asked him about the baby.

"She's doing great, both her and Chiara," he nodded, looking like he'd been so sure he'd be able to keep his emotions together and now had to admit defeat, as he was swept along by the arrival of this small human. "She's smaller than we thought she'd be, but all within where she should be," he went on to explain. "And she's got so much hair already," he laughed, remembering.

The grandparents had been the first to go, understandably, but in due time everyone would get their chance to go in and say hello.

When Maya, Lucas, and Sam got their turn, they walked into the room Chiara awake and sitting up in her bed, looking on with a smile as Sophie slowly walked the length of room while holding the bundled babe and humming under her breath. Like the guys, she had that glow about her of exhaustion challenged by joy. She was already clearly so in love with her little daughter, and it was hard to disturb this moment between the two of them by announcing their presence. But then she reached one end of the room and turned about, only to lift her head and see.

"Good morning," she greeted them quietly. Chiara turned her head now and smiled along at seeing the three of them standing there.

"See, I was just about to say the same thing," Maya told Sophie, even as she stopped over at the bed to greet the one of all the new parents that morning who had actually had some birthing to do. Sophie and the guys had already readily declared her queen of the day. "Didn't exactly go according to plan, huh?" Maya asked.

"We had the bag packed, back at our house. We packed and repacked it so many times, so we could take it when the time came. We did consider bringing it with us to the wedding, but we thought it might be…" she let the sentence trailed off, as there really was no point anymore, now that the baby had been born, bag or no bag, birth plan or none. "She is only hours old, but she already has a mind of her own," Chiara stated, already sounding every bit the proud mother.

"With all of you as parents, are we really surprised?" Lucas pointed out, making them laugh.

"Like we could want anything or anyone else," Sophie replied, approaching and placing the baby back in Chiara's arms, where they all might see her.

As promised, the newborn's head was covered in fine, raven hair, in amounts rivalling all other newborns they had ever seen. Oh, but those eyes, blinking and staring… No wonder they couldn't tear their own gazes off of her.

"Hey, Jujube…" Maya could find no limit to her smile. "You have no idea how happy I am to meet you on this side of your mamma's belly. You probably don't remember me, but that's okay. We have plenty of time to make up for that.

They would go home soon after this, the better to get some proper sleep and return again to see the new family later on, before they made the trip back home to Houston. Already, the guys were going to have to drive back there and to Austin again, to go and get the seat, which had naturally not been installed in either of their respective cars, just to bring Giulia out with them.

"Good… afternoon," Sam sleepily waved to his sister and brother-in-law when they arrived home and he started up the stairs.

"You, too," Lucas watched him go before turning in search of his wife, only to find her mid-plop down to the couch. "What are you doing?" he asked, amused.

"Upstairs' too far," she protested, pulling a cushion and hugging it as she planted her head to it. "This is good."

"What about me?" he asked, with only halfway mock-pity. Maya forced one of her eyes open even as she tapped the couch cushions in invitation. "I will crush you," he warned with a smile as he went to join her.

"I can take it," she insisted. Even so, it didn't take long before they wriggled their way along until they were both on their sides, once again adopting their favored spooned position. "That's perfect, stay just like that," Maya tapped his hands, joined around her waist.

"Yeah, okay," he yawned. He'd been fine to drive, and really he'd made sure, but now that they were here, lying together, it was as though all the energy had been sapped out of him. That wasn't so bad. Now to fall asleep, holding his wife in his arms, he couldn't imagine a better conclusion to this unexpected half of a day. Right before he fell asleep, he could swear he heard Maya mumbled a wish of happy birthday to her sweet Jujube.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners