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

December 2nd 2020

Chapter 337
Their Story of Surprise

By some miracle, they made it to Friday night without any incident. No one found out anything they weren't supposed to find out. No one even had a clue, except Khalil Russell. And if anyone else who had been aware of the incident had been going around wondering if two plus two equalled baby, they would have had nothing come to pass whatsoever to suggest they were right, so this might have led some or all of them to decide they might have been wrong.

Maya had been absolutely vigilant about not putting herself in any position which could lead to her running into those same problems she'd had a few days before. She was getting to figure some things out a bit more now, establishing the things which had the potential to wreak havoc on her digestive system. At this point, the most she'd had to deal with was those waves of fatigue, but now that she knew their cause, it became almost… bearable? She could deal with being a bit more tired for the sake of this child slowly growing along.

Even though no one officially knew about the pregnancy, it did not mean that no one had come close to the truth. Sooner or later, Maya had known that the story would reach Morgan, and as soon as it did…

"Why didn't tell me you were sick on Wednesday?" she came sweeping into the art room that morning.

"Not the kind of story one likes to share," Maya brushed this off as best she could, playing it cool. "Less risk of giving some 'Show and Tell,'" she added, pushing down the urge to smile, recalling her texts with Lucas the previous morning.

"Alright, that's fine, I guess. But how are you doing?" Morgan asked, being the considerate friend that she was.

"Oh, I'm all good now," Maya assured her. "Lunch really didn't go down well."

"Oh…" Morgan nodded, then, "Cafeteria?"

"No, leftovers from home. Must have gone bad and I didn't pick up on it until it was too late."

Later, she was joined over another Friday lunch by the girls of Born Curious. They all arrived together, and it wasn't long that she understood only Rochelle had known about the incident… right up until Rochelle had told them about it, possibly right there in the hallway as they were coming along if not earlier. They all had various levels of concerned faces on them, none more than Stella, and Maya felt for her shy bird so much that she almost blurted out something along the lines of 'it's cool, really, it's because I'm having a baby.' For realizing she hadn't gotten to say those words to anyone just yet, she really almost did tell them, but then she and Lucas were both of one mind about waiting. They may not have been superstitious, but where their baby was concerned, they might have set their chances on being cautious, especially in the next few weeks.

Instead, she allowed them to ask the questions, the better for her to roll out her story of bad leftovers. It was hard to say whether they all believed her or not, but then they moved on to discussing their upcoming match, the first one against the Think Tank which would be more than a friendly face off. They'd had five of those by now, and the standings went 3 for Born Curious and 2 for the Think Tank on wins. As far as they were all concerned, this one was as good as going for double points, in which case the boys had a chance of claiming the top spot, doubly so.

Really, the close calls had barely registered for how easy they had been to put aside. And once the lie had been put out there, maybe it would manage to spread, too, like an antidote to the other story. The hard part was to keep her mouth shut around friends and especially family, and on this Lucas was right there with her. They'd both spoken to their parents at some point or another in the last two days, and to be sitting there, holding their status as future grandparents hidden from them… It was like walking around holding their breath, until finally, finally, they'd be on their own and they'd be able to take in that much needed air of openness.

At least she'd been able to tell one person, and it had felt good, even if it had been done more out of necessity than anything else. Maya had been turning it all over in her head over the last couple of days, and finally she'd made up her mind. She couldn't put it off. She'd sat there, trying to recall how big Isadora or Willow had been when they'd been about sixteen to eighteen weeks along, which was what she figured she'd be when the tour started. When this had not helped, she'd looked through pictures on her phone, hoping she might find something to help her visualize things. After that, she'd put in the call.

"Do you know what? I was just thinking about you earlier," Ree told her after she'd answered.

"Maybe you have premonitions," Maya joked, even as she moved to shut the classroom door.

"Maybe," Ree laughed. "Assuming you called for more than my great powers of mind, what can I do for you?"

"Say you had to make some… adjustments… to a few things, for the tour. Just how many people would have to know the specifics of it?" Maya asked, moving back toward her desk though she never sat, instead pacing along the front of the room as she and Ree spoke.

"It would depend on what, I suppose, and I feel like such a princess for saying this, but by now I would say I have gotten to a point in my career where the 'why' of certain things no longer matters. They'll do it if I ask it. I will need to know the why of it however." Oh, there it was, the little flutter of anticipation, the thrill. She turned on her heel now, the better not to face the door when she said it.

"The why of it would be that I'm pregnant."

She had to quickly pull her phone away from her ear as Ree responded to this with a very loud cheer. Maya laughed, doing her best to keep her side of it contained. She was sure people would have heard Ree from out in the hall if she'd had the door open still. When the sound died down, she brought the phone back to her ear.

"Oh, Maya, sweetheart, that is wonderful! Oh, wonderful, wonderful! Congratulations!"

"Thanks," she beamed, breathing deep. "Only known two days," she added.

"Two days?" Ree echoed, sounding surprised.

"You're the only other person to know other than Lucas and I right now," Maya went on. Well, you and one of my students who was very good to me. "Under normal circumstances, we would have waited to tell anyone except maybe my brother who lives with us, but we figured that, with the tour coming up so soon, if there was anything that needed to be done ahead of time…"

"Yes, yes, of course," Ree spoke, sounding like she might have been nodding to herself, bringing herself back from the land of giddiness and on to the business side. "Ah, well, I don't suppose you'll know how far along you are now just yet."

"Best I can tell, eight to ten weeks?" Maya replied.

"Right, and then… Oh, things will be moving along, won't they? As far as costumes are concerned, we will have to go at it by where you're at as the tour is about to start, and once we have that, we can plan ahead. There's little we can do about that now."

"No, I guess not," Maya looked down at herself. There was nothing to see there, not even a little.

"As for the rest, I should be able to work things out and implement the changes, put on my princess crown and whatnot," Ree chuckled.

"Must have some sparkle to it," Maya smirked.

"Polish it every Sunday, just in case," Ree replied. "I really am so very happy for the two of you."

"I can tell. We're pretty high up there ourselves."

"Now, when the coast is clear and it's not so secret anymore, do let me know, for the tour, yes, but also for me," she laughed, which Maya took to mean there were some gifts destined to land on her doorstep in the future.

After they'd hung up, Maya had needed to park herself by the window for a while, the better to rein her smile back in before anyone could see her again. She hadn't expected this to leave her feeling so happy as it did. She'd known it would be great, yes, but what she really took away from getting to the end of that conversation was that she couldn't see herself waiting until her brother figured things out on his own. She didn't want a slip up from herself or Lucas, or the tea box being found, or her discovering the 'wonders' of morning sickness – which she had not had as of yet – to be the thing that told Sam that she and Lucas were having this baby. She wanted it to come from them. So, she texted Lucas.

Maya: Can we tell Sam tonight?

Lucas: Are you sure? You don't want him to guess anymore?

Maya: Completely sure.

Lucas: Ok then. What's the plan?

Their attempt at a plan had come in bits and pieces throughout the afternoon, whenever one or the other or both of them would not be giving or sitting in a class. The more the hours went by, the more they found that their ideas were veering into something all too outlandish and hard to pull off, impossible. If they could just manage to pull it back down to something back in the beginning, maybe it would be something they could use again?

Lucas: I think I got it. Do you have time to draw something?

Maya: How big are we talking?

Of course, of course, there'd been a major accident on the road, some way further along which went and kept Lucas stuck in traffic on his way back from university. This meant that Maya would be home, and then Sam would come home, and there'd be no Lucas yet, and she'd already hidden the…

"Hey, Maya." She looked up from where she sat, on the couch, when Sam came in.

"You know, after a week of 'Hey, Mrs. Friar,' it kind of feels nice to get my name back," she joked. "Actually, no, that's a lie. I love it when they say that," she smiled.

"I believe it," Sam gave an amused look before moving to head up the stairs. At this, Maya sat up straighter.

"Where are you going?" she asked, and he stopped, turned.

"My room," he held up his bag to show he was bringing it there.

"Come here," she waved him over. He pointed up the stairs. "It can wait," she shrugged, waving him over again, insisting. He sighed, finally coming back down. "Sit, sit," she smiled.

"What is this?" he asked.

"You are way too suspicious, you know that? You just assume this is about you."

"Isn't it?" Sam frowned, confused.

"I was just trying to come up with what to do for dinner tonight. I'm not saying we do the same stuff all the time, we don't, but Lucas is stuck in traffic right now, so I was trying to think about what would be sort of the ideal 'hey, your car finally moved and now you're home' meal. Seeing as you're the best cook of the three of us, I had to ask you first." Stick close to the truth, that was always the best way to go.

If nothing else, by the time Lucas finally arrived, just a bit more exhausted than intended but still more than ready for the small reveal, Maya and Sam had come up with a solid plan for dinner. They were missing a few ingredients, but Sam felt confident enough to come up with agreeable substitutions from what they had in the house.

"Or we could always order in," Maya shrugged, making her brother stare at her, looking so utterly baffled and a tiny bit annoyed.

"But we…"

"I don't know, it'll take a while, and I'm hungry now…" she went on.

Sam sighed, bordering on a grunt on the end, and he got up from the couch, grabbing his bag once again before taking the stairs two at a time. As he went, Maya turned to look at Lucas, even as he looked at her.

"Did you do it?" he signed, and she nodded, grinning as she stood and they went up the stairs. Sam was much further up ahead by now, so they'd barely started up that they heard a sudden cry of surprise, almost like something had popped up out of nowhere when he'd opened his bedroom door.

"Hurry!" Maya whispered, and she and Lucas dashed on, up the stairs and down the hall, even as Sam popped back out of his room. If his face had looked royally annoyed less than a minute ago, now he had such a huge smile on his face, mixed with a splash of shock and uncertainty, like he might have misinterpreted what he saw. But then to see his sister and brother-in-law standing just past the attic stairs, smiling as they did, he knew he'd gotten it right the first time.

"Yeah?" he asked, walking over to them.

"Yeah," Maya laughed, nodding, and then he was hugging her. After a few seconds, he'd moved from her to Lucas, hugging him just as well, clapping his back. "You realize what you're congratulating him for, right?" Maya asked, a smirk on her face, especially as Sam pulled back and looked at her.

"Why? Why?"

"Okay, but I had to, it's so easy to make you squirm," Maya laughed. "And funny," she whispered. He let out a breath. He couldn't even be mad, and now he hugged her again.

All she could think about as he held her was how much there was a part of him, among others of course, that had wanted to stay in Austin instead of going somewhere else after he graduated from college because he knew it wouldn't be long that his sister and brother-in-law would go and become parents, and when that happened he wanted to be nearby, the better to see his niece or nephew grow. That was why, when he'd opened his door, a large banner had come unfurling in front of him, featuring a rendering of the well-known 'Uncle Sam' figure bearing a strong resemblance to him and giving thumbs up and a smile.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners