Maya doesn't remeber the accident. All she remembers is Josh taking her home and then she's waking up in the hospital and her mom is sitting next to her bed, looking more worried than Maya has ever seen her. An arm and leg are bound in a cast and a few of her ribs are cracked apparently. Dad isn't here but, he's in Asia climbing mountains or something so it'll probably be a few days. She can hear the boys, her boys who are probably sitting just outside. Lucas and Zay are discussing which blunt object would be best to use for murder when Farkle cuts in, calls them idiots and says that untraceable tasteless posion would be best. Maya would laugh if it didn't feel like someone had shoved shards of glass down her throat.
When Maya wakes up again her dad is there, sitting next to her bed with an arm around mom. He's barely concealing his anger not that Maya can blame him, he's never been a fan of The Long Game". After a week she's finally allowed to have visitors. The boys come in as a group and stay with her so that her parents can go get some sleep or food or a shower. They bring her terrible movies they can all watch and make fun of together. Farkle brings books and will read to her when it's just them and Zay makes sure she never runs out of what he calls "The Good Snacks".
Riley doesn't visit and there's a part of Maya that's not surprised. She gets a nasty text from her "Best friend" one day that calls her a liar outright and blames her for the whole accident. After that Maya deletes the girl's number from her phone and decides not to tell her dad, it would just ruin his relationship with his best friends and Maya can't do that to him.
Twelve days after the accident Maya is discharged from the hospital and they go home. She's still stuck in bed or on the couch because she can't move around the apartment on her own. Its the summer before her senior year and she's trapped inside.
when she goes back to school that fall it's three months post accident. The casts are off now but, she still can't walk without crutches or support from someone because of the weakness in her damaged leg. There's also the nerve damage in her hand to deal with. It causes her to have tremors and spasms that all her doctors and therapists say is more than likely permanent. Which, would be fine except for that it's her dominate hand that's injured, the hand that she uses to draw, paint and sculpt. Its the issues in her hand that causes Maya's first outward reaction to the accident. She's sitting in class and happily working on her current painting when a random tremor causes her to paint a giant streak of red across the canvas, effectively ruining the painting. At first she doesn't realize she's crying but, then she can't stop or calm herself down. That day ends with her and dad sitting on the floor in their kitchen eating grilled cheeses.
Nine months post accident she takes her firsr unassisted steps since before the accident. Its during one of her therapy appointments. Dad is with her and maybe she secretly planned it that way. Maybe she made sure her mom was too busy so dad would have to take her. Mom has already seen her first steps anyway. One minute she's walking between the pair of parallel bars that are there to help support her and then she lets go. Dad is up so fast that she'd laugh if doing this didn't take so much of her concentration. The steps are slow and unsteady but, she makes it and walks right into his arms. Doing it saps all of her energy and her legs are burning in protest but, Dad wraps his arms around her and the way he smiles makes it all worth it.
A year post accident means its June again and they're all graduating. Farkle is off to MIT, Smakle is going to Yale with a full ride, Zay is going back to Texas for college, Maya and Lucas are both going to NYU for degrees in Art History and Veterinary Medicine respectively. The group takes a million pictures together and Maya pretends not to hear her friends exasperated "Finally" when they see Lucas kiss her.
Three years post accident Maya has her first gallery opening that her now out of state friends fly home for. Sometimes she forgets how much money Farkle 's family actually has until He shows up with Zay and Smakle the night of the event. When she asks him about it later when they're spread out in a hotel room and eating Chinese food mentions something about a private jet and "Like I would miss my first wife's big night, My".
Five years post accident Maya is having gallery shows all over New York and she quietly suspects that Lucas may be planning on proposing. Why else would her boyfriend and Dad be having dinner. They graduate and go to Europe for the summer so that she can finally see all those famous paintings in person.
Seven years post accident Maya and Lucas do get married. The boy ended up proposing around a campfire in Texas because he is a hopeless romantic but, this time when he grabbed her face he actually kissed her. Maya swears that Zay squeals when they announce their engagement to their friends. So they get married and its perfect. They have a church wedding to appease Lucas's parents because the announcement that Maya is keeping her maiden name personally and professionally does not go over well. But, she's Maya Penelope Hunter and she's not changing that for anyone.