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

December 23rd 2020

Chapter 358
Their Plans For Breathing

"So, how did it go today?" Lucas asked.

He'd only just come home from the university, where he'd stuck around and studied with his friends and classmates after their first final was over. The whole way home, all he could think about was being back with his wife, so he might make up for how much he had missed her all day, all the while hearing how her big reveals had gone. When he'd come through the door, he'd found her laid out on the couch, touching up at her mural sketch. It gave him the instant impression that it had either gone badly or that it had left her with conflicting thoughts, one or the other leading her to turn to her pencils to clear her head.

"Hey…" Maya looked up, smiling at the sight of him like she'd been eager for his return, too. She sat up, crossing her legs beneath herself while he came and sat next to her. "It was good," she nodded now, though the way where one would look down at the same time, immediately giving the impression that it wasn't so simple. Lucas tapped her knee and she looked up. "Some took it harder than others, I guess," she told him.

"You knew they would though," he tried to reassure her.

"I know, yeah," she sighed, sweeping her hair around her shoulder, behind her ears, before letting her hands land in her lap. "It didn't make it any better to see."

"I'm going to earn myself a Huckleberry for this one…" Lucas started, catching her small smile. "But you know they wouldn't be upset about this if it wasn't for you." Maya squinted at him.

"I get what you're saying, but I don't think you stuck the landing there. No Huckleberry yet," she shook her head.

"Okay, okay, let me try again," he laughed. "You've made an impression on them, you've become a part of their lives, one they care about. It's normal that they wouldn't like the idea of you going away for that long." Maya took a breath now, pressing a finger to the corner of her eye where she felt a tear making to escape. "Better?" Lucas asked, and she replied by nodding and moving to tip her head at his shoulder.

"Thanks… Huckleberry Senior," she added after a beat.

"What are you suggesting?" Lucas laughed.

"Oh, you know that gene has to be real strong, look at your dad, look at your grandfather. Add in my half that's Arkansas Clutterbucket and you get…"

"Hucklebucket?" Lucas grinned, knowing there'd be no resisting the giggles coming over her. If she'd needed a boost from the small funk brought on by her students' disappointments, this was as good as it would get. "I think that means it'll stick?" he asked her as she sat up again, letting the wave of laughter recede.

"I don't see how we can ever top that," she nodded, still smiling as she tapped her fingers above her belly button. "Don't worry in there, we won't embarrass you in front of the other babies… probably."

"I… I think I want to know," Lucas stated after a moment of just watching her. Maya looked at him. They had their next appointment in a little over a week. They'd been told the last time how they could possibly find out whether they were having a boy or a girl at the next check-up. They hadn't decided yet, the option left hanging, but now…

"What made you decide?" Maya asked.

"I don't know, I think I just figure that the next few months are going to be kind of hectic, with the tour, us being all over the place all the time, and… I kind of like the idea of having a clearer image of our kid in my head. We can wait if you want us to wait," he added. They had at least decided that if one of them knew, they would both know, no sense in either one of them having to hold it in secret by themselves.

"No, we should find out," Maya nodded at him. "We don't have to tell anyone, it can just be our thing… If we do that though, we can't let them know that we know or they'll try to get it out of us."

"My mom?" he guessed, smiling.

"Well, I wasn't going to point fingers here," Maya quietly replied. "How about you, how did it go today, all of it, the test and… You did tell them, yeah?"

"The test went well," Lucas tipped his head, knowing he didn't need to go into details beyond that, especially when only courtesy had kept her from jumping straight to the thing she'd been most curious about. "And yes, I told them about the baby," he went on, and she immediately had a face that said to tell her everything.

He couldn't exactly review for anything while he'd been driving up to school, but he had at least used the time in order to try and come up with some way of revealing his impending fatherhood to his friends and classmates in some clever way. In the end, maybe because he was having trouble chasing thoughts of his finals completely out of his head for the space of that ride, he hadn't come up with anything. So, he decided he'd just go ahead and tell them. It didn't take long for him to come to the conclusion that the words worked very well on their own.

"Well, Bishop squeezed me so hard he almost broke a rib or two," he counted off and Maya stifled a snort. "Ramona wouldn't stop smiling, and at one point the invigilator got on her case like maybe she was trying to cheat."

"Clearly didn't know her," Maya declared, showing affront on Ramona's behalf.

"By the way, she said she'd call tonight," Lucas nodded.

He wouldn't mention how the question of the tour had come up in the whole conversation. Yes, as far as his friends were concerned it had been more out of curiosity than disapproval. But if he did mention it then she'd think about her parents and his, too, and their ongoing issues with the fact that she was still going to do the tour with Ree. They hadn't really had the chance to return to the subject with them in the two days since they'd even told them about the baby. Deep down, they felt that in time their parents would come around to accept the idea, even if a part of them would continue to have uncertainties. Until that happened though, if it happened, then there would be this awkward beat between them. It was the last thing they could want, now of all times, as they were meant to collectively bask in the existence of Baby Friar, there within its mother's belly.

If this hadn't been bad enough, then they'd had the realization that while Lucas and Maya were out here in Austin this fall, welcoming their son or daughter, her parents would be off in Los Angeles, as Katy would be filming for her role on Heal Thyself.

It wasn't as though she would be the first new parent going through those growing pains somewhere far from her mother and father. It wasn't even as though she'd have no support. She and Lucas would have the elder Friars, and they'd have the Clutterbuckets… But it wouldn't mean nearly the same as it would mean to have Katy and Shawn there with her, would it? The strange part was in how long it had taken them to genuinely piece it together. Of course, they had known even before they'd known they were expecting about Los Angeles and how her parents would be going there, but even after the day with the tests, it was like the two facts had continued to exist independently from one another. And then, at long last, the pieces had been brought to connect.

Her parents were going to be away, out in California, they wouldn't be here in Texas with her for… so much of Lucas and her baby's early days. Being there to help her figure her way around feedings and diapers and sleeps, she didn't care about that nearly as much, but to be there, to be an active part of her child's life… That was something she couldn't let go, and she couldn't even really say a word about it. If she did say something, then she might put doubts in her mother's head about going to Los Angeles, and despite everything… No, Maya didn't want to do that to her. There was no way of coming out of this with a win. They would have to make the most of what they had.

"Back to studying tonight?" Maya asked Lucas and he nodded. "Something riveting?" she wondered.

"Oh, yeah, a real page turner," Lucas chuckled, the sound soon turned to a yawn.

"Or not," she reached over and ran her fingers through the hair at the back of his head.

"That's not going to put me to sleep at all," he smiled even as he leaned into the touch.

"You could also say that I'm working to open up your mind, to let more knowledge in there."

"Who would I be to question the great educator?" Lucas wondered.

"Some unfortunate person," Maya stretched up to kiss him before getting up. "I'll get started with dinner before Sam comes back and gets any bright ideas about making the kitchen table into his personal study area."

They were all so close to the end now, just a few more finals each and then it'd be graduation… One step closer… Whenever he thought about it all, about working at Sullivan Stables with Dr. Alvarez, about learning from him… The way he spoke these days, Lucas was getting the impression that he would remain with the ranch up to the point when Marianne Sullivan's grandson had advanced to being able to hold his position, and then he would step away. He'd been thinking about it more and more ever since his wife had been sick, and with Lucas being who he was, Dr. Alvarez really felt there could not have been anyone better to look after those horses.

Meanwhile, there was a curiosity as to what Sam would do, graduating college at eighteen as he would. He had projects, he'd always said so, and they could believe it, but he'd always be so private it all. No matter it was that he planned to do, he couldn't have imagined that they would make fun of him for it, or that they'd try and get him to reconsider. He was a smart guy, clearly, and whatever he chose to do with his life… it would be the right thing, if for no one else but himself, and that would be what mattered.

"I think I know what he wants to do," Maya had told Lucas once, a few weeks back.

"You do?" he'd asked, curious at once.

"Well, maybe not exactly exactly," she'd specified. "I just see him sort of… giving a real try at making something happen with his art, his comic, and if that doesn't pan out, then he's got something else he'll decide to do instead. I don't know what, but I think he does."

Lucas had liked this idea. It really felt like Sam. And the more he'd look at his brother, the majority of his free time spent working away at something to do with his comic. He'd shown both Lucas and Maya some of the completed pages, and if they hadn't seen him working at them the way he did, they could have easily believed he'd pulled those from a book somewhere. He had a style all of his own, and it was truly beautiful, captivating. If he could make it work, then he'd really have something. And if it didn't work, then… well, he'd still have it, but then no one else would know and they'd be the poorer for it.

"So he called you, huh?" Maya smiled when she answered her father's call and he mentioned knowing she'd told Cory about the baby.

"Called? He showed up at the house," Shawn informed her. "Barely had time to open the door and then he was hugging me and calling me Grandpa. I think he tried to pick me up."

"He didn't hurt himself, did he?" she asked, cringing at the thought even as she just had the urge to smile.

"Probably would have if I didn't get him off the idea."

"Good," Maya laughed.

"So it's all out there now, huh?"

"Mostly, yeah," she confirmed. "Still got a few to go, I'm waiting for Lucas to take a study break so we can make a few phone calls."

"By the way, I want it on record the Grandpa thing's not official yet. The only one who gets to decide what to call me is the kid," Shawn informed her, and it was a real shame he couldn't see the smile on her face.

"How's that going to work exactly?"

"We'll get to it when we get to it."

On the subject of grandfathers, and eventual great-grandparents, they had a few of those to get to, more than they would have imagined themselves having. They had Pappy Joe and Patty, though as they were only in Houston the plan was already to go up and see them the following weekend. Then there was Elizabeth Hart in Tucson, her as well as Abigail, James, and the whole Hart-Lane family. There'd been no choice there and they would do the reveal over a Skype call. The same would be said of Tanner and Angela Clutterbucket in Arkansas, with the aid of their younger daughter. For having been out of their daughter and granddaughter's lives for so many years, it already meant so much that they'd get to step in and help look after their grandchildren when Katy and Shawn would go to Los Angeles, but now on top of this, to watch their great-grandchild come along, the first of its kind… It was both honor and privilege.

"Hey, guys!" Maya beamed as she and Lucas sat huddled around her laptop screen, so they might be seen by the quartet on the other side of their call. Looking to Farkle with three-and-a-half-year-old Ada on his knees, and Isadora next to him with the year-old Bertie on hers, it could not have made them more emotional than they already were in revealing that they were expecting a first child of their own.

Isadora's immediate response had been full of questions as to how Maya's pregnancy was going, of suggestions for books and websites, of important things for her to consider that a lot of books might not mention. This was the most Isadora of congratulations they could receive, and they accepted it gladly. And then Farkle… Oh, it took him and Maya back to that day, four years past now, when he had been able to speak to this one of his oldest friends at long last about his parenthood and how he felt at the thought of it all. They could just look at each other, and it would also remind Maya of when she'd told Riley. Those two had just seen her through every iteration of who she'd been, and she couldn't wait for them to see her through this next one.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners