Chapter 24
Full of Surprises

Maya and Lucas had both known it would be rough once they'd be gearing up for finals, even as they approached a move out of the city and into a home they were still working to prepare, all the while getting closer and closer to the birth of their first child and the ceremony that would make them husband and wife… They'd known, and yet now that it was all starting to fall into place, it started to feel like maybe they'd had absolutely no idea what they were getting themselves into.

Her professors already informed that she would be absent on that day, Maya awoke on Wednesday morning with the thought that she could get some studying done while she waited for her mother to arrive… Or she could see if there was anything she could get packed off for the move… Maybe she could check in on her wedding dress, even if she had no hope whatsoever of getting it to fit her for the time being…

"Do you have to go to the bathroom?" Lucas asked. She turned her head to look at him.

"What?" After a moment, she blinked and shook her head. "It's not that… Okay, maybe it's also that, be right back," she got to her feet and walked as fast as she could manage and left the room. A few minutes went by and then she was back, just sort of standing in the middle of the room with a searching look. "I need something to do until my mother comes to pick me up for my appointment with Dr. Wilkes," she finally explained.

"It's not until this afternoon, you've got time," he reminded her, a small look of disappointment on his face. Maya looked back at him and, remembering he wanted to but couldn't accompany her, she let out a breath. The whole reason her mother was coming up from Austin was because Lucas couldn't be there today. Not only did it land in a class where his professor would not tolerate his being absent, not for this, but he had a test, too, so he really couldn't tempt fate.

"I know," she sighed, moving over to the bed and sitting in the space next to him. He half crawled his way forward, until his head more or less rested over her belly, while his arms were around her for additional support. She smiled, supporting herself with one hand while the other went burying its fingers in his hair. For a little while they just stayed like this in silence, with him listening for their sprout while she found a moment's peace in having him close to her this way.

After he'd gone, along with their roommates, Maya had spent no more than a minute in the near complete silence of the house before she'd gone to put on music. She had an hour or so to kill before her mother was expected to arrive, and she'd spent it by looking through her notes, and her books, before assembling a solid review plan she could then break into a schedule. These days, schedules and proper time management were becoming so essential, not just toward getting things done but also just putting things into enough of a perspective that she didn't feel so overwhelmed.

Finally, there'd been the doorbell, and she was preceded down the stairs by the dogs, who ran off barking at once. They were stood at the door, still giving off their call like 'attention, person, we know you're there.' When Maya finally reached them, they circled her feet as though they'd be the one to reveal to her that someone was on the other side of the door.

"Look, see, I'm here, calm down," she told them as she got the door open. Her mother walked in and now the dogs were all over her, recognizing her for being one of their people. "To be fair, I get pretty excited when you come over, too," Maya smiled as Katy moved to embrace her.

"Good," her mother laughed.

They went off to lunch at the Nook before they'd set off toward the hospital clinic where Maya would see Dr. Wilkes. As they sat and chatted about this thing and that, Maya couldn't help but think about Ainsley. Ever since she'd run into her, the two of them rekindling a friendship once based in their going to the same school and now shifting into their shared experience of motherhood, she hadn't stopped thinking about her. They'd had the brief chat at the pool on Saturday, then they'd met up at the park on Sunday, talked some more, and Maya had invited Ainsley and her son over for dinner. Since then, they had been texting back and forth, every day.

Maya would think about how the other girl's situation was so different from her own but at the same time almost familiar for how it resembled her own parents' situation at the time of her birth. She thought about how easily it could all have gone the same way for her without a lot of ifs. If she didn't have parents who were as understanding as they were loving, not to mention generous. If she'd been just a couple years younger. If Pappy Joe hadn't left them his house. If she didn't have the friends and the support system that she had around her. If she didn't have a partner like Lucas… She had never been so aware of how fortunate she was, and now that it was so clear to her she wanted to acknowledge it as best she could, didn't want to take it for granted.

"You're sure your doctor will take me on?" Maya asked her mother as they pulled into the hospital's parking lot. She was still nervous about seeing Dr. Wilkes today, telling her about the fact that they'd forgotten to mention the very important part about her and Lucas being back in Austin by the time she had the baby. She felt so irresponsible whenever she thought about it, and she knew it was just one slip up compared to months of doing so much good, but still… Now all she wanted was to get this taken care of and move on.

"I already called her office. The receptionist knows me very well and she is expecting your call to fix your first appointment. Once you've seen Wilkes here, you'll need to see about getting your file over to the clinic in Austin."

"Okay, yeah, I can do that," Maya took a breath.

X

Deep down, Lucas understood his professor's stipulations, wanting him to uphold his presence in class regardless of how much he wanted to be at that appointment. It wasn't as though he was the one growing a human inside his body, he didn't need to be there specifically, he just wanted to, because… well, why wouldn't he want to? His education was important, maybe now more than ever, and unless the baby somehow went and came very, very early, he would not be exempted from attending class, whether or not he had a test. He understood it. He respected it. He still hated every minute of it.

So when he handed in his booklet and walked out of the room, pulling his silenced phone from his bag to find four missed calls and several texts from Maya, he almost tripped over his feet as he hurried down the hall while directly calling her cell.

"I'm fine, baby's fine," was her greeting, no hellos preceding, as she could well guess what he'd be needing to hear. It pushed some amount of calm back into him, yes, but if she'd been so pressed to reach him while she knew he wouldn't be able to look at his phone…

"But?" he asked.

"Can you come and meet us right now?" she asked, unnecessarily hesitant but at the same time… scared?

"Yeah, where are you?" He was already jogging through the halls toward the parking exit.

"Still at the hospital… Down in the ER." Her voice was so strange and small right there, and as though she'd read his mind, she reiterated… "Me and the sprout, we're really okay, I swear, it's… it's my mom."

Save for the fact that, this time around, he was already in Houston when he'd gotten the call, the whole thing felt all too familiar, and when he'd reached the ER and found Maya, the look on her face showed how much she'd felt it, too.

"I really need my parents to stop ending up in here…" she'd breathed upon feeling his arms close around her. She hadn't specified the cause of this trip over from the clinic, on the other side of the hospital. When he'd asked what was going on, all she'd said was that she'd tell him once he arrived, which was as good as her saying 'please just get here as soon as possible.' Now that he was here, he needed her to tell him what was going on with Katy.

They had gone and seen Dr. Wilkes, as was the plan, and they'd told her about the move, the transfer to Dr. Tanaka… As worried as she'd been about telling her, Maya stated how, compared to what had happened next, it had been a breeze.

While they'd moved on to the actual exam, Maya's mother had excused herself to go to the bathroom. Everything had been going fine, the baby was doing great, growing right as he should… Dr. Wilkes was running through her usual questions when a nurse had burst into the room, calling for the doctor's assistance, a situation in the bathroom. As to the two women had rushed off, Maya had gone as quick as she could to get up and follow them. She knew, she just knew. The bathroom… Something was wrong with her mother.

By the time she'd gotten herself over there, Dr. Wilkes was on the phone with someone, asking for a gurney. Some of the other patients, regulars Maya was getting to know pretty well, were standing near the bathroom door, and all she could see was the nurse who'd bust in earlier, crouching and holding someone's hand, and she already knew it would be her mother's hand. Finally, she'd come to stand in the doorway and she'd seen her there, sitting on the floor…

"Did she fall?" Lucas asked. Maya looked just shy of traumatized.

"Not exactly, she just sort of… sat there," she gestured. Looking at him, seeing the still confused look on his face, she went on. "She's pregnant." Lucas' eyes went just a bit wide. "But it's… she's not…" Her chin was quivering, she couldn't say it. Lucas squeezed her hand.

"Did she lose it?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know. They rushed her over here, but I haven't heard…"

If he needed a reason why she'd so desperately tried to reach him before, why she'd wanted him there with her in this moment, he could see it well enough here. On the surface, it was easy to see why her finding herself in the ER with one of her parents for the second time in under five months would be traumatizing, especially right now with the surge of just everything happening in her body with this pregnancy, and now this time especially with it having to do with someone else's being pregnant, and the thought of a miscarriage. But then underneath all that, it was her mother, the woman who'd been her entire world for so long, having something potentially so heartbreaking happening to her… It was so much, and she was getting no answers.

Finally, someone appeared, and it was Dr. Wilkes. Maya stood from her chair, and Lucas did as well, never letting go of her hand. He could practically feel her heart beating out of her chest.

"Is she okay?" she asked the doctor in a trembling voice. "Did she…"

"Your mother is resting now, and she will need to continue this way for some time. She was lucky. If she hadn't been right here, with you, we might have been too late to do anything." It took Maya and Lucas both a few seconds to understand what Dr. Wilkes was telling them. It didn't feel like they could dare to hope.

"W-Wait, so she… she didn't… the baby…" Maya finally assembled the words. The doctor nodded.

"We will continue to monitor her, to ensure it stays that way, but yes," she gave her patient a smile, pulling a piece of paper from her coat pocket and handing it over. "I thought you might like to see for yourself."

It reminded them both so much of that first ultrasound, how small their sprout had been at the time… and now here was this little thing, narrowly rescued. Maya had burst into tears, out of sheer relief, and Lucas had hugged her again, letting her ride out the emotion.

When they'd finally been able to go and see her, they found Katy laid out on the gurney they'd had brought for her down in the clinic, in a semi-seated position, with such a dazed look on her face. She was still processing everything she had experienced and learned on this day. As she saw Maya coming toward her though, she held out her arm at once, receiving her eldest daughter into a hug that was as reassuring for one as it was for the other.

"How are you feeling?" Maya asked, still not entirely recovered from the rollercoaster of emotions even if it was taking a definite upswing since they'd spoken to Dr. Wilkes.

"I don't even know," Katy told her. "One second I was just here for you, like back-up, and now here I am, and there's…" she looked down at herself, and there was the shock all over again. "I mean, I'd started to suspect I might be, I've done this three times already, it's less of a surprise when the symptoms start kicking in, easier to say 'oh, well, here we go again.' But I didn't know for sure, and I was going to look into it this week. And now…"

And now, even though she, like Maya, had been assured that she had not lost the child growing inside her… She had very nearly lost it, and could still lose it, and there might not be another fortunate save. It was all too normal then that she would need time to pull herself together again.

"Look…" Maya held out the photo Dr. Wilkes had given her. She put it in her mother's hand, like tangible proof, and Katy smiled, sniffling back a few tears.

"I saw it, on the screen…" Her finger kept touching the photo, the small thing that was to be her fifth child, the fourth with… "Shawn," she said his name as she thought it. Maya sat up.

"Did you call him?" Lucas asked her.

"There was no time, it all happened so fast, and then I just…" Maya shook her head. And like last time, when Kermit had passed out on their front step and Lucas had been in Austin at the time, she'd been afraid of dropping a bombshell that might send someone out on the road with a bit too much urgency to feel in any way safe. Only this time it was Shawn who needed to come over, and this time… it was so much more of a personal thing.

"I'll take care of it," Lucas touched his fiancée's shoulder. "You stay with your mother," he tipped his head to Katy, who mouthed a silent thank you.

He'd gone all the way out of the ER before pulling out his phone, and even then it had taken him a few moments to figure out what he was supposed to do, who he should be calling. Finally, he did what he always did when he was overwhelmed and in need of a specific kind of assistance. He called home.

"Hello," his father answered the phone as though he'd just grabbed it when he'd heard it ring, in the middle of doing something else.

"Dad, it's me," Lucas replied. His father's voice changed at once, grew focused.

"What's wrong?"

He laid out the story as briefly but accurately as he could, about Maya's appointment, Katy being with her, and everything that happened after that, right down to the very important fact that Katy had not lost her baby, and she was currently being looked after, further ensuring that she would continue on this track. Tom Friar would need to know this when he went and got Shawn Hunter.

"I'm leaving right now. I'll let you know when we're on the road."

After they'd hung up, Lucas had quickly sent off a message on the house thread and then returned into the hospital to find Maya and her mother. At this point, his whole mission became to look after the two of them… four of them… and get hold of what either of them might need.

Maya was still trying to make sense of everything that had happened today, but now she was also getting to think about what this revelation would mean for the future. She and Lucas were still going to be here in Houston for about a month, and as if they didn't have enough to think about, they could now add 'Will Katy be okay? Will the baby be okay?' to the list, and that distance between them would go and feel as enormous as ever. One more reason why they were moving back to Austin, right?

Her mother was pregnant again, that… that was the part she was still processing, and how could it not feel strange to think about it? Sure, her son would have two aunts who were just under four years older than him, and an uncle who was not even two years older than him, and that was odd, sure, but already a given from the moment those sticks had revealed that Maya and Lucas were expecting a child, all the way back on Halloween night.

And now… Now her son might well have an aunt or uncle who would be somewhere about five months younger than him, if her math was correct. She'd considered the possibility, all those months ago, but even then, it had been more of a silly thought than anything she believed would actually happen. It would be more of a weird idea than anything else, she realized that. The part that really struck her as the most bizarre was the fact that, right now, and for several weeks after this moment… and before it, too, unbeknownst to any of them… she and her mother would be pregnant at the same time.

The first people to show up, by virtue of proximity, ended up being their roommates. Riley, Dylan, Sophie, and Chiara all came hurrying along, all of them looking as dumbstruck as Lucas had done when she'd first told him about what had happened. Their friends did also know the part they'd heard from the doctor though, so their surprise looked tinted with some level of 'are we happy, should we congratulate, or are we only sort of hopeful while also preparing for the worst?' Katy thanked them for coming, and after speaking with her for a few minutes they'd gone to sit in the waiting room, so not to crowd her or Maya and Lucas.

Finally, a couple of hours later, Shawn Hunter came barrelling through the ER in search of his wife and daughter, with said daughter's future father-in-law in tow. He hadn't so much stopped as he'd slowed and moved right to Katy's bedside to embrace her, and ask her all the questions which must have been rotating through his head as he stared at the road representing the distance between them, probably thinking how it took much too long to disappear. Katy answered each one with the patience that came with seeing the one you loved absolutely losing their mind out of worry, out of that very same love, and having the power to bring them reassurance. She'd ended by passing the printed image into his hand, much as Maya had passed it into hers earlier.

Maya would tease her father whenever she saw him cry, but this time around, she said nothing. She had shed some of those relieved tears herself not long ago.

When he'd gone on to be told about the exact timeline of events, everything that led to his now being in possession of proof of this not-so-lost child, he finally broke from his daze enough to now find Maya, standing by. He moved to hug her, and for a few moments neither of them said anything or did anything except to hold one another. There were many things that united them in life, many parts of their lives that seemed almost mirrored. Loving Katy Hart with all their hearts was one of them.

"Where are the others?" Maya asked her father as they pulled apart.

"They're spending the night with Melinda," Tom Friar piped in from where he stood, effectively telling his son that he would stick around for the time being, more or less putting himself in the same position as Lucas had done earlier: at the disposal of whatever needs the Hunter Harts might have had, including any rides between Houston and Austin. Lucas and Maya may not have been getting married until September, but the Hunter Harts and the Friars had been family for a long time already.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners