Chapter 20
A Birth in Turquoise

Saturday, April 8th 2023

The date had been marked on her calendar for weeks, and the closer they'd gotten to it… She didn't know that she'd ever looked forward so little and so much to the same day. Today was her last day working at Isabel's restaurant.

They'd set that date together, and those last few shifts had been making her feel more and more like any longer would have been too much. She'd still be going to school, yes, but she'd only be going to school, no longer combining it with regular nights at the restaurant and the occasional weekend day. After following Lucas back to Austin every weekend for a while, she'd started skipping those and staying in Houston. Much as she loved being out there with him, and seeing her family, she was needed here, too. This weekend, they were both home. He wanted the chance to pick her up from the restaurant for the last time, and she wanted him to take a weekend off.

They were making great strides on the house, or Lucas was, him and whoever would be helping him from weekend to weekend. After putting in weekend after weekend, their Spring Break Sprint had really started to make the house feel like it tipped over the edge, gone from being 'Pappy Joe's old house' into their future home. Only a few more weeks left, and then they'd be on their way.

They had now started looking through everything of theirs in the Houston house, figuring out what they'd be bringing, leaving, and throwing away. Some boxes had been brought on their weekend trips. Back at their parents' houses, they had gone through those other things they had left behind two years ago, when they'd moved out, those things they'd known they wanted to hold on to but couldn't reasonably bring into this house they would share. Now… Now they were headed home, their home, and it was time fill their world back in.

One more shift… In her body, she was ready. Twenty-eight weeks in, she was spending most of her nights at the restaurant on the stool at the front desk, and even then she couldn't wait to be done, to be home. The last couple of nights, she had walked in with a headache. She hadn't been sleeping too well, so that was no wonder. Lucas had been her salvation on that front, as on… well, all the fronts. She could tease him about how light of a sleeper he had become since she'd become pregnant, but then she would wake up, frustratingly uncomfortable, and within seconds he'd be awake, too, asking her what she needed him to get for her or do for her.

"Knock me out, that'd be great, then I could sleep…"

"I… could read to you. Phone book sound fun?"

"Do we even have one of those?"

"I could read you the dictionary then…"

"Ooh, educational, go for it."

Her body was ready to be done at the restaurant. Her heart, on the other hand… It wasn't like she'd go on leave, have the baby, and come back a few months after that. They were leaving Houston, she wasn't coming back here except maybe as a visitor, a diner. She'd be leaving Leona, and Lion, and Fidelio, and Isabel, and all the others. She loved working here, loved the people and just the atmosphere of the restaurant. They were leaving for a good reason, and they'd known it would be hard, walking away from these parts of their lives, their jobs, their school, their home. But now that it was happening…

"Alright, Sprout, last turn on the floor," she breathed out as she approached the restaurant. Just a few months ago, she'd been standing out here, her head feeling so big from this brand new knowledge that she had a baby growing inside her, pleading with smallest of small things to keep her steady through the night. There had been some close calls, but they'd made it, hadn't they? She owed him a trip to Disney someday.

Walking in, each co-worker she met would stop and come to hug her, and she'd remind them she wasn't leaving until after her shift, but then with the way she was feeling about this being the last day, maybe she could do with a double dose of hugs.

"Hold on there, Mama," Fidelio called from the kitchen when he saw her passing by on her way to the break room. He called out to Isabel, who'd been working at a stovetop. She called in someone to replace her and continue before jogging to reach her soon to be former employee.

"I'm not late, am I?" Maya asked. These days, she could get so distracted at times, she may well have been.

"Oh, no, no, not at all," Isabel assured her as she escorted her along toward the back. "I just wanted to make sure and get a proper chance for this, and I have a feeling that once the night is out all you'll want is to get out of here, so…" She opened the door to the break room, and when she stepped aside Maya was able to see, sitting on the table where she'd had any number of dinners over the last couple years, a basket spilling over with baby things, toys, and clothes and the lies, but also other things she would guess were specifically for her. "Everyone put in their own thing, there's a stack of cards in the bottom there somewhere. That bag there, that one's mine," Isabel whispered.

So, that was how she started her last shift, trying to look like she hadn't been crying with gratitude and also a bit of sadness over all these people here. The night hadn't been in any way special, there hadn't been any big spills, or particularly memorable events in the dining room, and then it had just ended. Truth be told, that was almost worst than if there had been special moments. Instead, she just got to be in the moment, here, and then… it was over.

Lucas arrived to pick her up and he found her sitting as ever on the leather bench. This time though, there was the great basket at her feet, and she was eating her way through a box of Isabel's buns, her choice of a goodbye treat. She held it up to him and he smiled, taking a bun and sitting next to her.

"Long night?" he asked, kissing the top of her head before biting into his bun.

"Not even," Maya sighed. "Think that'll fit in the car?" she pointed to the basket.

"I'll get it in there," he promised. She sighed, tipping her head to rest at his shoulder.

"I'm going to miss brunch tomorrow," she complained.

"We could come to brunch, to eat, not serve," he suggested.

"I don't think that'd be a good idea. If I just come back the next day, it'll be like I never left, and then I'll have to start again."

"Fair enough. I could make you brunch," he gave a counter offer, and even without seeing her face he knew she was smiling. They had a deal.

The basket was packed into the back of the car, with great difficulty and care, as Maya would keep on warning Lucas if it looked like he might crush or drop anything. They drove off and made great time on the return, except for the fact that Maya had gone and fallen asleep at some point and, knowing how much difficulty she'd had sleeping the last few nights, he didn't dare to wake her. Months ago, he wouldn't have given it much thought, he would have picked her up and carried her into the house, up to their room, and put her into bed, but now, well… She'd been the easiest thing for him to lift and carry around back then. Now… Alright, she was heavy. More than that, he didn't want to run the risk that he might drop her and hurt her and the baby.

Lucas: Maya's sleeping, staying in the car for a while.

Dylan: You hungry?

Lucas: That's alright, I've got buns.

Half a minute later, Dylan was out of the house and walking toward the car. Lucas quickly locked the doors and shut the windows. When Dylan lifted his hand to knock on the window, Lucas held up one hand and pointed to the sleeping Maya with the other. Don't you wake her. Dylan spelled out in signs. B-U-N-S before pressing his hands together in the internationally understood 'please.' Lucas shook his head, pointed to Maya again. They're hers. Dylan pointed at him. Why could he have some and not him? Lucas just tipped his head, and with a frustrated sigh, Dylan stomped back to the house. Lucas checked to make sure that Maya was still sleeping before settling into his seat, browsing through his phone and picking out a bun from the box.

"Lucas, wake up," a whisper startled him awake, and he almost smacked the horn on the steering wheel as he realized where he was. Looking to the right, Maya was staring back at him, smirking. The clock on the dashboard informed him it was just after three in the morning. He wasn't sure when he'd dozed off, but now here they were. "We should probably head inside before a cop shows up and wonders why we're in here in the middle of the night."

"Yeah, okay," he replied, still half asleep.

"Hey," she motioned for him to lean in, which he did, enabling her to kiss him. "Thanks."

"Anytime."

The basket was not the easiest to manage when half asleep, but he got it out of the car and carried it inside, where Maya convinced him to just leave it in the living room rather than up the stairs in the dark. They made it to their room, where Maya sat on the edge of the bed and then laid back with a sigh.

"I know I'll be more comfortable if I change, but…" she gestured lazily in a distinct 'don't want to' expression. When he didn't respond, she turned her head and found him holding something, standing next to his desk. "What's that?" she asked. He turned around and she saw it was an envelope. By the look on his face, she'd guess he hadn't seen it until now. "I'm not getting up from here, what is it?" He turned it around so she could see. Even in the moonlight, she recognized the logo in the corner. It was from the university, not here in Houston but back in Austin, where he'd applied to carry on his studies after they relocated. "Come here," she gestured, as she willed herself to sit up again and he came to sit with her, helping her before looking back to the unopened envelope. "Are you opening it?"

"I kind of have to. Just not sure I should do it now, what if it's not…"

"First off, if you don't open it you won't be able to sleep anyway. Second, I have enough faith for all of us, just open the thing already," she smiled, seeing the almost sheepish look on his face.

X

Sunday, April 9th 2023

Lucas awoke – in bed this time – to the oddly light sensation of something raining on his face, while someone was making muted cheering noises. He opened his eyes and immediately sputtered as he discovered he was being showered with tiny, tiny pieces of paper from the hands of a laughing Maya. He sat up, dislodging a clump of the confetti like papers, which he realized just by the texture had to have once been a couple pages out of the sketchbook she kept in her nightstand drawer 'just in case,' which she'd ripped and ripped to create the confetti. She had used the few colored pencils also in that drawer to add a splash of color to the paper before ripping it, for 'further festive purposes.'

"Woke up early?" he asked her.

"Had to pee, what are the odds," she nodded, tossing the last of her confetti in his face with a happy grin. Seeing her in this serenely happy demeanor, he couldn't do anything but smile back.

"What are we celebrating?"

"You got in," Maya shrugged to his desk, where the open letter still sat.

"What happened to you having all the faith in me?"

"It was rewarded, now I get to celebrate," she shrugged again, like it was absolutely obvious and why wasn't he seeing it. He kept staring. "I… couldn't get back to sleep, so an idea happened," she finally added.

"Right," Lucas smiled. "Thanks," he told her, while she scooped up some of the fallen confetti and let it rain over his head again. He grabbed some of these himself now and let them fall over her head, making her laugh before he could lean in and kiss her. As it carried on, leading her to lie back against her pillows, they both had to work around the growing obstacle between them. There had been more than a few awkward moments for it over the past few months, but they worked around it after a while. "So, what do you want to do this morning?" he asked with a smile, as the kiss trailed off. "We're both here today, neither of us is working…"

"… you got into college again," she jumped in with the same enumerating tone. He laughed. "Again, why is my being happy for you a cause for ridicule?"

"It's not," he promised, brushing hair from her face. "It's actually sweet."

"This kid you put in me is making me feel all kinds of domestic," she whispered as he leaned in to kiss her again.

"Is he?" he whispered back and she nodded as their lips met.

First order of this celebration, as chosen by him, 'the celebrated,' was that he would make them breakfast and they would eat up in their room, in their bed. Once he'd gotten back up the stairs with the tray, he had discovered that Maya had been joined here by the dogs. Trix and Lou were curled up on either side of her like a pair of fluffy, warm cushions, though he'd actually call them a couple of growling guards. Nowadays, if he so much as tried to reach for Maya, feeling at her belly when the baby moved for instance, while the two of them were around… He'd sooner end up with bite marks than anything else.

"Great," he sighed, which made Maya laugh.

"Sorry, they just showed up, and what am I going to do, say no? Just leave them some food outside the room and shut the door."

After some coaxing – a lot of coaxing – the dogs left the bed and went trotting out the door, following Lucas' offering. Once they were in the clear, he hurried back and closed the door. It earned him some whining from out in the hall, but it was either that or a cold breakfast.

"You know, I really thought I would be more… up," Maya struggled to find the right word. "Like, I see other pregnant women going around, as far along as I am, sometimes more, and they're just dancing around like it's nothing. Meanwhile, I'm here and… ugh…" she gestured at herself, laid out here.

"You'll have more time now," he reminded her, "That might be good for you, help you get more energy again."

"Oh, so I can't use that time to just take way more naps?" He laughed, moving to lie closer to her, lacing his fingers with hers.

"Way more naps sounds good," he agreed. "Can I join?" Before she could answer, they both looked up at the sound of the doorbell from downstairs.

"Alas, interrupted," Maya sighed. "The others are all gone?"

"Afraid so," Lucas quickly kissed her knuckles before climbing off the bed. As soon as he opened the door, the dogs came hurrying back in, resuming their belly guard.

Lucas hurried down, the bell sounding a second time before he reached the door and pulled it open to find…

"Willow, hey," he smiled. "What are you doing here? I mean shouldn't you be taking it easy right now? Here…" he reached out to take the bags she had in both hands. "What's all this?"

"Right, well, I was at home, trying to get the nursery set up, and I started sorting through everything. Some stuff I had too much of, so I thought you guys could use them."

"Wow, yeah, thanks," Lucas nodded, looking into the bags.

"You'll probably get more at the baby shower, now that I think about it but…"

"Spares are good?" he suggested, and Willow smiled, accepting this as solid reasoning.

"Speaking of which, have you figured out a date for that? Riley mentioned you wanted to make it a sur… Hey!" she looked past him, and Lucas turned to find Maya making her way down the stairs.

"Errands, really?" Maya asked her friend and bandmate.

"What, I wasn't about to let you spend that first day off on your own," Willow smiled as they went to hug. The further they got into their pregnancies, they had been getting a kick out of 'bumping' into one another. It wouldn't be long now that Maya would be flying solo on that.

"Oh, step this way," Maya swept out her arm to indicate the couch. They went and sat side by side before Lucas brought over Willow's bags.

"Can I get you something?" he asked them both.

"Ooh, this is the best game," Maya tapped Willow's arm. "He'll get anything, go on, ask," she grinned, looking up to Lucas.

"Oh, you know, there's these cookies I've been meaning to have you try," Willow looked to Maya with a smile, turning to Lucas now and echoing his fiancée's innocently mischievous look. The two of them sitting there, hands locked over their bellies, were like an impassable front.

"Where are these cookies?" he asked.

Once he was gone, Maya and Willow started going through the bags together, discussing the items Willow had brought over, and some of the things she'd kept back at the apartment. Way back on Halloween, when she'd found out she was pregnant, Maya had been sort of relieved to think of the fact that Willow was having a baby, too, that the two of them could go on this journey together, with one of them just further up ahead that the other could sort of learn from her. And now they were here, with Willow due any day…

There had been a few false alarms over the past week. Each time, they'd gotten a call from Lion to let them know, on Willow's request. The first time, they'd actually gotten in the car and started driving to the hospital, only when they'd arrived they had quickly discovered that Willow and Lion's daughter would not be born that day after all. On the second false start, much as Maya had wanted to get out there, Lucas had suggested that this time around they wait and see if it was for real, which quickly proved to be wise. On the third time, two days ago, they'd both received the news with the intent to sit and wait, which was again wise, as it turned out to be another false alarm.

Even though Zola the second had not really come at any of those times, both Maya and Lucas had been filled with a tense sort of feeling every time. Was it really any wonder though, when they themselves were only weeks away from welcoming their son? Now that Willow was almost there, everything was starting to get sort of… more real than ever.

"I can't wait to get to start on the nursery walls," Maya sighed, sitting back and looking at one of the items from Willow's bags, a navy blue onesie covered in tiny yellow stars and crescent moons. It looked so small…

"You have the whole thing designed already, don't you?" Willow chuckled.

"Look who you're talking to, of course I do," Maya looked at her. "You want to see?"

She got up and climbed up back to her room, realizing when she got there that she was still carrying the starry onesie. She smiled again, looking at it, draping it over her belly. Right now, she couldn't wait to see it on Alexander…

"Still not feeling it, Sprout, what are we going to do?" she whispered down to the onesie on her bump. "Can't call you Sprout all your life, can I?"

Leaving the small piece of clothing on the bed to show Lucas later, she took up her baby sketchbook and, because the whole thing still bugged her, the book of names, too. She carried them both back down the hall and started down the stairs. She'd just reached the landing when she got a look at Willow, just sort of hunched forward on the couch, shoulders moving like she was breathing hard…

"Willow?" she asked, moving down the next few steps. "You alright?"

"I-I don't know," Willow's voice trembled just a bit. "I don't know what's real or not anymore."

"Hey, hey, hey, it's okay, I've got you," Maya hurried as best she could down the rest of the way, putting the books down and moving around to sit by her friend, taking hold of her hand. "What do you want me to do? Should I call Lion?" He'd be at the restaurant right now, in the middle of Sunday Brunch.

"He said it would be today," Willow breathed. "This morning, when we woke up. Looked at me with that sure smile of his and said today was her day, Zola's day. I told him I hoped he was right, because I was tired of false alarms…"

"Does anything feel different than the other times? I don't know, more like 'oh, hey, there's a human coming out of me' and all that?" Maya asked. She was suddenly very aware that they'd sent Lucas off on some stupid cookie run and now it was just the two of them, and she wasn't sure she could drive, which wouldn't be a problem, because both cars were not here… Lucas… False alarm or not, the best she could do was to get him back here, just in case. "Alright, keep breathing like that, you're doing great, I'm just going to-ow! Easy!" she cried out, when Willow squeezed her hand real hard.

"Sorry!" Willow breathed, "I just… uh…" They both looked down at once.

"Well… Good news is I'm pretty sure that doesn't happen when you're not actually about to give birth," Maya blinked. She still had to call Lucas, but right now she was thinking it might be a good idea if she got them on the road as soon as possible.

"Who are you calling?" Willow asked.

"First, cab. Second, Lucas. I'll tell him to swing over to Isabel's and pick up Lion," Maya told her as she pulled her phone from her pocket.

"I don't have my bag, it's back home, it's got everything…" Willow sniffled nervously.

"That's alright, don't worry about it, we'll figure something out, okay?"

X

Lucas had just made it to the bakery Willow had sent him to, picking up the all-important cookies. He pulled one from the box as he walked back to his car and… Okay, yeah, it might have been worth the trip after all. When his phone rang, he stopped mid-bite. Damn, she has a sixth sense for this…

"I only took one," he promised as he answered.

What he heard first was someone shouting in pain, and he almost spilled the cookies until he heard another voice, Maya's voice, instructing the other to breathe.

"Maya?" he called.

"Hey, so, change of plans."

Lucas thought for sure he would have been more nervous than this, as he drove as fast as he could without speeding, on his way to Isabel's restaurant. Sure, it wasn't his baby that was about to be born, but with Maya's due date inching its way closer and closer he was sort of thinking about it all the time, and now it was happening for their friends, they were on their way to the hospital, Maya and Willow, while he was tasked with getting Lion and bringing him there. He kept hearing Maya shouting for Willow to breathe, when he'd answered the phone, and right now he was heeding her advice, whether it was meant for him or not.

He reached the restaurant and parked as fast and as neatly as he could before hopping out of his car and hurrying through the door.

"Hello, welcome to…" the girl at the counter started to tell him before he cut her off.

"Hey, sorry, I just need to talk to Lion over there, it's an emergency." The girl's eyes went wide, like she understood what this was about. She waved him through, and Lucas nodded to her in thanks before moving to find his friend. He'd been here, just the night before, picking up Maya from her last shift, and somehow he'd assumed it would be the last time in a long while that he'd be seeing the inside of this building.

"Lucas?" Leona spotted him. "Is everything…"

"Where's Lion?" he asked.

"Kitchen, I think," Leona led him out until they both spotted the guy, tall as ever. He turned around and, when he spotted Lucas, he straightened up at once. He turned to look into the kitchen area and Lucas just made out his telling someone that he had to go. Soon, the two future fathers were hurrying back out of the restaurant and to Lucas' car.

"Is she okay? Where…" Lion asked.

"She came over to the house, wanted to bring some things to Maya. Then they sent me out for cookies, and Maya called to say Willow had gone into labor and they were taking a cab to the hospital."

They were both of them tense as Lucas drove on. Lion tried to reach Willow, but no one picked up her phone. He called Maya next, who told him they'd arrived at the hospital and they were settling Willow in. Lion mentioned her bag, and Lucas could just see indecision in his face, between wanting to fix that and make a stop at the apartment, or just going on straight to the hospital so he could be by her side as soon as possible. In the end, they went with option two, though when he called his brother to tell him what was happening, Lion asked if he might stop by the place and get Willow's bag.

They finally reached the hospital, where they found Maya waiting. She pointed the way for Lion, who disappeared like an arrow in flight, before turning to Lucas and being swept into a hug.

"This was supposed to be our calm day off, right?" she asked him. He kissed the top of her head, taking his first good, deep breath, since he'd been breathing in the sugary treats at the bakery.

"You doing okay?" he asked.

"It's weird, you know, you see people having babies a few times and it's one thing, but then you see someone go into labor when you're about to do the same, and all of a sudden it's something completely new. Should we have a bag ready?"

"I'm going to pretend like I'm knocking on wood right now, we still have some time to go," he shook his head. The thought of their boy being born this early was not one he wanted to entertain.

"Yeah, we do," she hummed.

The next several hours became all about the long wait for Zola Aileen Obi to be born. Maya and Lucas had set about getting the words out to their friends, and said word was received and returned in a deluge of well wishes and promises that they were either on their way or would be there as soon as possible or as soon as they got off work. Little by little, the group of visitors grew, and grew, and most if not all of them seemed to have gotten on the same wavelength when they'd gone seeking presents to bring the mother to be. Her room was soon overtaken with a multitude of turquoise-colored stuffed animals, candies and other treats… Lion's young sisters had even bought turquoise nail polish in the gift shop, which was soon applied to everyone's nails, as a symbol of their wait on Zola the second.

"It'll be us soon," Lucas spoke at one time, because it did feel like they had to acknowledge it, not just in thought. As he said this, Maya was in the midst of coating his nails in turquoise, insisting that this was her relaxing Sunday dream. She looked at him now, and he could see the nerves she'd been trying to push down, just there again on the surface. "You'll do amazing," he promised her.

"It's not just that part that's freaking me out," she admitted, looking back to his hand, planted on her bump like it was a table for her to work off of.

"What is then?" he asked. She wouldn't look up at him to reply, and after a few seconds he sort of knew. She was worried about the part that came after, the one where she had this child's mother.

To him, this sounded ridiculous. They may still have been in college, may have been reaching this part of their lives earlier than they had intended, but this in no way made him believe she was any less capable of being the perfect mother to their son. He had come into their life as such a surprise, yes, but almost as soon as they'd known for sure that he was growing inside her, it was like something had changed in her, he'd seen it. They'd still been rightly terrified of the changes coming into their lives, but at the same time she had been ready for this. Their baby had been so very, very little, and she had loved him, and she had done everything in her power to ensure he would come into the world healthy and aware of this love. He never doubted for one second that she would continue to display this for all the days of their lives.

He couldn't tell her this, not in this specific way. No matter what he thought of her showing doubts toward her capabilities, he couldn't dismiss them so easily when she clearly felt them deeply. All he could do was to try and dislodge them, completely or more likely just enough for her to dislodge them herself.

Before he could do anything about this, they were joined my Willow's grandparents, who had been as good as parents to her for most of her life. While they had been without news for some time, Willow's grandmother, Aileen Regan, had been able to find out more. She had returned to them some time after, with two pieces of information.

The first was that Zola the second was officially among them, and she was doing well. Lucas had looked to Maya at this, sensing a breath of relief rattle through her. That relief was sent rattling in the opposite direction though when Mrs. Regan informed them that there had been some complications during the delivery, where Willow was concerned. For a beat, Lucas didn't think Maya was breathing anymore. Even when they were assured that Willow had pulled through, and that she was now resting, she still looked thrown off-balance.

They were told to go on home for the night, that there was no point staying for the time being. As the others had slowly started to clear out, Lucas told them to go on ahead, that he and Maya would take his car in a few minutes. He looked back to his fiancée, sitting there, rubbing her belly with those turquoise-nailed hands, breathing deep, reassuring herself. She looked up at him, and she looked scared again. He sat with her, showed her his own turquoise nails. It made her laugh despite herself.

"Zola's here," he reminded her. "Willow is okay."

"Zola's here," she repeated. "Willow is okay."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners