November 27th 2020

Chapter 332
Their Story of Life

"Well… Call me crazy, but I'll let you have two of my very good pens, if you're willing to toss that into the mix," Maya spoke, her 'serious' tone barely holding together as she stared up to Lucas at the top of the stairs. All her face wanted to do was smile. He has no idea…

"You are most generous. Where are they exactly?"

"Uh… Attic, second drawer… first?" she tried to picture the inside of those drawers. It was not a pretty picture. "I kind of need to clean up in there."

"I'll find them." Yeah, that was probably the best course of action. She'd reorganize everything this weekend, that was going to be the plan. She went to head into the kitchen, then doubled back to call out.

"The ones in the box! Haven't started those."

As soon as she walked into the kitchen, it felt like her heart had felt guarded enough that it could finally beat with the anticipation she had been feeling, knowing what she'd get to tell him that night. She'd barely had time to process any of it, to figure out where to go from there, when she'd heard the dogs bark, telling her they had spotted someone coming to the house, a very particular someone… and she was still holding the tests. At least she'd had the presence of mind to go and hide them… in the attic… in her desk, the drawer…

Oh…

She hurried back out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

"Wait, no, that's not where they are!" she called, almost leaping on to the steps pulled down from the attic…

"Found them!" Lucas called back. He expected she'd be downstairs still, instead of coming up, just on to the attic floor, to see him, standing by the desk, looking into the open drawer, the third one, with the pens and their box in his hands.

He'd seen them… He knows.

"No, no, no…" Maya gave something near to a whimper, suddenly so disappointed, even as Lucas turned to find her there. "I-I was going to do a whole thing, you know, the big sort of 'surprise!' thing," she mimed, finding her hands were unable to just stand still at her sides. "Like, what were the odds that of all the things you might need, of all the places you would have…" she sighed, gesticulating along. "Can't get a do-over on something like that, I…"

"Maya…" he spoke her name, slow, almost dumbfounded. She stopped all at once.

"Yeah?" she blinked, looking at him, seeing him in the midst of this moment for the first time. He looked like he had forgotten how to breathe, forgotten to do a whole lot of things, as it all settled in his mind. He looked back into the open drawer.

Two tests. One had a plus sign, the other simply read 'pregnant.' After the initial shock, this seemed to knock a new breath into his lungs, and then he looked back to his wife and his feet remembered walking, remembered hurry, and suddenly she was in his arms, as he was in hers. He couldn't stand still. His arms would be draped around her shoulders, hands at her back, but then one would come and cradle her head as he'd lean to kiss the crown of her golden hair, before returning to sit about her waist, and then he just sort of lifted her off her feet as she held to him, the brush of her hair against his face making him discover he'd started crying. He laughed, finally setting her on to her feet again and pulling back to see her face.

For having had so little time to go from finding out herself that she, that they were having a baby, to then decide in the very moment she realized that he was arriving home to come up with some scheme to give him the best possible surprise baby reveal, Maya wasn't that far behind him as far as taking in information and feelings. And then, because in all the jumble that was her mind, much like those drawers, she'd accidentally led him right to where she'd gone and hidden those tests, she'd ruined her surprise, she'd been crushed, just a bit.

But to look at him as he'd hurried and taken her in his arms, to feel the way he held her, embraced her, kissed her, lifted her up… She'd wanted to give him a big surprise, hadn't she? This wasn't the one she'd had in mind, no, but there was no doubting that Lucas was properly surprised at the news that he was about to be a father. So, really, what had she failed on?

"Surprise…" she quietly spoke, smiling. There were tears on his face, and she was sure there were some on hers, too. He laughed, coming another step back toward clear thinking, and he leaned to kiss her lips, holding her close once more, as she responded in kind. "You're shaking," she chuckled.

"I'm sorry, I'm not…" he shook his head, trying to come up with the words.

"Hey, this is new to me, too," she reminded him.

"No, you're right, I…" he looked to the open drawer again, back to her. "How long have you…"

"Officially, about half an hour," Maya revealed.

"That's… Okay, wait, let's just go downstairs, yeah?" Lucas blinked, and she had to feel for the guy, still standing there and looking like his brain had imploded.

"Yeah, come on," she went and led him to the steps heading out of the attic.

They could still have gone out to dinner… It would have been a celebration now, not just a dinner. But then maybe for that reason, erring on the side of caution, not shouting anything from any rooftops just yet, and so that they could just stop, and sit, and talk, they'd ordered in.

"Wait, maybe there's things in there you're not supposed to eat," Lucas stared at the phone, just after he'd hung up.

"Can you just come over here and sit?" Maya laughed, his sort of hyper undercurrent being as amusing as it was hard to follow.

"I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm being so… erratic, I mean this is…" he came and sat next to her on the couch.

"I have never seen you like this. It's kind of cute, actually," Maya stated.

Lucas took a breath. He had to relax, had to focus again. He looked at her sitting there, and there were so many questions in his head. Two tests couldn't lie, right? And anyway, it wouldn't be possible for those things to say they'd found the thing that proved she was pregnant if she actually wasn't, would it? So those questions could be pushed aside, unnecessary. Now he wondered things like 'how far along is she?' and 'when is she due?' and they were only the beginning. They had been trying to make this happen for months, and in all that time they had somehow never done anything that would get them started once they reached this point. They'd have to read up…

"How are you feeling? Are you… okay? I mean…" he asked.

"I'm good, yeah," she promised, smiling. "Honestly, it took me a while to even decide to get those tests. Wasn't until today that I finally just had to go for it."

"What happened?" Lucas wondered aloud.

"Let's just say it was a big day for undesirable stains," Maya frowned. "And if you don't want an encore, you won't go digging for details on that," she waved her hand toward him.

"Got it," he nodded and gave a sympathetic look. "At school?" he asked. She gave him a look. "No details," he held up his hands. She sighed.

"Yes, at school," she confirmed, drawing the line on recalling the incident any further. "I promise, I will tell you the whole thing, but can we wait until after dinner? And after I have time to digest?"

"Absolutely," he smiled, reaching for her hand. She upped this by scooting over to lean at his shoulder, so he draped his arm around hers. In those few moments of peace, it did just feel like all of a sudden the shock had washed away and they were moving into the next stage of… everything. They would both remember it, for years to come.

When the doorbell rang, Maya bolted up to go and answer. Whatever 'incident' had happened earlier, clearly she was over it and now she was just starving.

"Does anyone else know?" Lucas thought to ask as they settled down at the kitchen table.

"I didn't get to talk to anyone between the tests and then you coming home," she reminded him.

"No, I know, but…" he stalled, not wanting to bring up the school thing, especially not while they were about to eat, but then how was he able to sidestep it when it tied directly back to his question. "Back when you just suspected," he finally asked, and she understood.

"Oh… Yeah… Not for sure, but enough to suspect," she told him. "Now," she indicated the food, as good as pleading for him not to say anything that might keep her and this food from interacting.

"I hear you," he promised, and he tried to think of what to do, to make himself have a conversation with her that didn't involve the thing he was dying to hear about. "What do we do about Sam? Guessing we won't be telling people yet, but he lives here, he's going to know, isn't he?"

"Oh…" Maya hummed. In all this, she'd sort of forgotten that part, hadn't she? "I think… Maybe we don't tell him yet, not until we don't have a choice."

"Okay," Lucas nodded.

"Or we just let him figure it out. He's so good at that," she smirked, making him laugh.

"It'll either be him or Gracie," he teased, and now she was laughing, too.

"Let's just try and stump Sherlock Hunter, alright?"

"Deal," he agreed, even as another wrinkle came to him.

"What?" she asked, seeing it at once.

"What about Ree? The tour… You might have to tell her sooner than later. We leave with her in… eight? Nine weeks? And you're going to…" he nodded down to her, and she saw what he was getting at.

How long had she been joking how they were going to have to let out her clothes for the shows, before she'd ever known for sure that there'd be reason to? But now here they were, and it wasn't just going to be about costumes, would it? There'd be other things they'd need to do, to adjust. She could only guess at when this baby had started and how many weeks would have gone by once the tour started and by the time it ended and she and Lucas were back home. This wasn't even touching at fall and the new school year. For now, it was just the tour…

"I'll think about it," she nodded. She wanted to tell their families first, of course, but telling Ree was about obligations, while their families… The time had to be right. "I think I need to start making a list, there's too much…" she admitted, chuckling, especially for seeing how he nodded in total agreement.

Somehow, they'd gotten through dinner while avoiding anything potentially disruptive to an untrustworthy stomach, before settling in front of the television for some digestion. Quite possibly, Lucas was working through a list of pregnancy books he was aware of from the store, all the while thinking of a way for either of them to keep this baby a secret when most of the employees at the store knew Maya as his wife, and all of them definitely knew him…

"Okay," Maya sat up all of a sudden, and he looked at her, blinking. "Do you want me to tell you or what?" she gave him a look. Yes, he absolutely wanted to know, every detail, right down to what had gone down at school that day.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners