Recap: "Lucas we're high school sweethearts, look what happened to my parents," Maya said, trying to grab his hand but he pulled it away.
"So you're leading me on. You meant it when we broke up and not when we got back together almost three months ago?"
"Of course I meant it. It's just…"
Lucas' POV~ March 27th
"... you'll find someone better one day and then I'll be the last thing you want around. So when that day happens we should have a plan set up," she said.
I pursed my lips and shook my head sadly. For five years I had treated this girl like my queen and then broke up with her because It thought her being with someone else would make her happy. I love this girl, I've told her that before and having a baby with her only made me love her more. "Maya, don't be brash, there's no one better in the world than you. I want you and if I didn't you wouldn't be here now," I told her.
"But what about Riley, you can take her out to Texas and start a brand new life with eight kids and horses. Or Missy, she's so thin and pretty. Then there's Kiara or Josie, they're older and your charm could definitely win them over," Maya said in the start of a ramble.
"Maya, I want you and only you. I want to walk into family even with you on my arm and Holden in yours. I want to give Holden a sibling, I want play football in the park on Sundays and watch movies on the couch with pizza on Fridays. I want everything for us that you want. I'm not going to find someone else, Maya, I want to marry you one day," I said, using my hand to raise her chin and make her look me in the eye. Her eyes were glistening with tears and my fingers were tingling where our skin was touching. Her eyes made my stomach do somersaults and for the first time since we got back together I found myself thinking about us in the future.
"You promise you won't find someone better?" she asked me.
"I promise, it's you and me for the long run. And Holden," I told her. She nodded and leaned into kiss my lips. I smiled into the kiss and pulled her onto my lap.
/||\\/||\\/||\\
"Where are you applying to college?" I asked Maya one day while we were sitting in the kitchen peeling potatoes for Mama.
"I think I'm going to go online. Maybe FAU or Berkley. I want to be a teacher," she responded, tossing a peeled potato into the pot of water and starting on the next one. She shifted and I could tell her back was starting to hurt her. At thirty weeks she was getting a little more uncomfortable everyday.
"Why online?"
"So I can stay home with Holden while you go to the campus, work a job and hopefully get a vet internship. Then when you come home I can run some of my paintings, hopefully, to the gallery to be hung and sold," she said, never looking away from her potato.
"You've really thought about thought about this," I replied.
She hummed in agreement. "Especially since sleep is coming more and more and more scarcely."
"You should go try and nap, I'll finish the potatoes," I offered.
She looked over her shoulder at the clock on the wall. "Actually I'm going to go get ready to meet my mom for coffee or tea. Giving her another second chance."
"Do you want me to drive you?" The thought of her driving alone in the city scared me, it always has. She may be fierce but I've always worried about her.
"Sure I should be ready soon," she said and set off towards the stairs.
A few minutes later she came back down the stairs in a pink, long-sleeved romper with small hearts on it and pulled on her jean jacket ny the door. "Ready to go?" she asked me, smiling and wrapping her hair up into a messy bun that she secured with a giant clip that I nicknamed 'The Claw', it was a nickname Maya hated and in our normal fashion that's why it stuck.
"Yeah. Yeah let me dry my hands and grab the keys, go wait in the car," I said, wiping my hands on my jeans and walking towards the doorway. I mused about how Maya really did look like a capital B now, but she got furious when I said that outloud once so I kept that thought to myself.
I met her in the car and drove her over to her Mom's apartment where Maya said they would decide where to go from there.
/||\\/||\\/||\\
I was laying on my bed on my laptop alternating between looking at apartments, jobs, engagement rings and vets with open internships. I was looking at an affordable engagement rings that I thought Maya would like when Mama shouted up the stars.
"Lucas your phone is ringin'," She yelled.
"I'm coming," I said, groaning and heading towards the stairs. When I got down the stairs my phone had gone to voicemail but I noticed it was from Maya and redialed. She picked up.
"Hey, Other One, what's up?" I asked, nonchalantly heading back upstairs.
"Lucas, this is Katy. There was an accident, Maya wants you here before the C-section," she said but I had already tossed the phone down racing to put shoes on and grab Maya and Holden's hospital bag that we had just packed yesterday. I doubled back to grab my phone and wallet and took off down the stairs and towards the door.
"I have to get to the hospital Mama, call me if you need anything," I called out to her as I jogged out the door and down to the car. I fumbled with the keys while I was trying to start the car. I was jittery with nerves and couldn't get my breathing to even out.
I drove as fast as I could, driving through narrow alleys and backstreets trying to get to the hospital before they started the C-section. I pulled sloppily into a parking spot on the top floor of the parking garage and ran in a full sprint down the spiraling stories and to the front of the hospital. I skidded to the stop in front of the visitor pass desk.
"Lucas Friar, here to see Maya Hart," I said through gasps for breath.
"Ok, sir, please take a number and a seat we'll be with you shortly," the woman at the desk said.
"Ma'am, with all due respect you don't understand. My girlfriend was in a car accident and they're going to start her C-section any minute. I have to be there when the baby is born," I said, trying not to raise my voice.
The desk lady looked behind her back. "I need you ID and the answer for her security question."
I pulled my ID out of my wallet and slid it over to her. She asked me what Maya hated being called and I answered 'Capital B, princess and baby' one of which was correct. She handed me a visitor pass and my ID back and I ran off for the stairs trying to find Maya's room.
I ran in as they were wheeling her bed towards the door. "Maya," I breathed out. She looked so small in the bed, her hair plastered to her head and a bloody wound with stitches on her exposed stomach. "Sir, can I have a minute with her?" i asked the doctor.
He looked confused but nodded. I walked to her and took her hand in mine. "You're strong, Shortstack. You've got this in the bag, I love you," I mumbled into her hand and then nodded to her doctor who continued wheeling her away.
I sat in the waiting room, well stood pacing the entire procedure until the doctor came into announce that everything went fine and she would be awake in her room with in the next half hour.
/||\\/||\\/||\\
I was sitting in one of those plastic covered doctors office chairs when they wheeled Maya back into her room. She looked drowsy and probably a little delirious but she was smiling. The two nurses pushing the bed left and then only the doctor and another nurse holding a baby -oh my god, my baby- where left in the room with Maya and I.
"You must be Lucas, I am Doctor Green. I performed the C-section since Doctor Gilly couldn't get here in such short notice. Maya did fantastic in the operating room, Holden is doing pretty well considering being born so early. You guys have about ten minutes with the baby, then Caroline over here will come back and take Holden for his first bath and testing. A hour later she'll be back for his hearing test nad if everything looks good you guys should be out of here in four day," the middle-aged doctor said. He gestured to the nurse who walked forward and handed Maya our son.
Her eyes lit up and she started smiling even wider than before. The baby fit right against her like a puzzle piece and she used one of her hands to trace the curve of his face with her finger.
I snapped a picture on my phone of her looking at the baby with such a loving gaze I've only ever seen a few times. She looked stunning in the picture and real life even if she had blood on her gown and stomach and her hair was stuck to her face in weird angles and shapes. "Maya, look up," I said. When she did I snapped another picture that showed the happiest moment of my life.
"C'mere Ranger Rick, we have to count fingers and toes now," she said in a low voice. I walked over to her side and sat next to her on the bed. Ten toes and ten fingers. A perfect baby. "Go to Daddy, Holden. He's going to protect you and I for forever," she said quietly to the baby and handed him over to me.
He was so warm and small, that my heart melted in my chest. "We made this," I said to Maya and she nodded and swatted a few tears from her eyes.
A/N: Was this dramatic enough for everyone? Somehow there's still more...