"Who the hell approved the distribution of candy corn to small children on Halloween?" Shawn asked, flicking one of the candies through his fingers like a paper football.
"Stop wasting them, Shawn!" Gus responded, swatting his hands away and popping more in his mouth. They sat on a park bench eating leftover candy from Lily's Halloween stash. Juliet had finally convinced Marlowe to let Shawn and Gus take Lily trick-or-treating for Halloween after the incident at the hospital.
"They promise they won't do it again," she had said to Marlowe, shooting the boys a look that they knew there was no room for silly business. "Because if they do, they will have to deal with me."
Lily dressed as Princess Elsa, Shawn as Princess Anna, and Gus as Olaf.
"Shawn, I'm not dressing up as a snowman."
"Please, Gus," Lily asked, pushing on Shawn's hands to hold up a comically large carrot nose and a white jacket. "I love Olaf. He likes warm hugs!"
She ran to him to give his legs a hug and looked up at him with her bottom lip sticking out. Her eyes crinkled at the corners with satisfaction when he took the carrot out of Shawn's hand, refusing to make eye contact with either of them.
"You both realize this is ridiculous, right?" He pulled the nose over his head and it flopped down, covering his mouth.
"You look great, buddy," Shawn said, crouching down to give Lily a fist bump.
"Whatttt," she said, drawing out the sound like Shawn had taught her to do.
"I hate both of you right now," Gus said as Lily erupted into another fit of giggles. "Just so we're clear."
"This is the life," Gus said, leaning back on the park bench and giving an exaggerated wave in Lily's direction. She waved back and went back to the hole she was digging with her playground friends.
"This?" Shawn asked in disbelief, "Sitting at a park watching Lassiter's child get Lyme disease at a park? This is the life?"
"She's not going to get Lyme disease, Shawn. You get Lyme disease from ticks. In fact-"
"I can't do this with you right now."
"Fine. I'm just saying, I could see myself living this life."
"She's not even your kid!"
"You just don't understand."
"You have a problem," Shawn said, snatching another candy corn from the bag and flicking it at Gus's ear. "I know you had a thing for Lassie's sister, but your children had better have your velvety chocolate forehead and most importantly look nothing like Lassiter."
"You know that Selene and I are going to have chocolatey goodness babies and you're gonna love them."
"Yeah okay," Shawn started to say as Gus's phone began rapping loudly.
"Dude, we are in public," Shawn said, "You have got to change that ringtone!"
"Absolutely not," Gus said, fumbling to pull his phone out of his pocket. "This is a playa's phone, and it needs a playa's ringtone."
"A playa's phone?" Shawn said, amused. "Does Selene know it's a playa's phone?"
"You know damn well she does. She's the one who made it her ringtone. She loves a playa."
Shawn just rolled his eyes as Gus walked away to talk to Selene. He was happy for his best friend. There was something about that girl- she was completely insane, kind of like Mira but somehow crazier? And yet they fit perfectly together. Gus had found his other half. They talked about their weird space things and running away to live on Mars together and raise a family.
He was proud of him. He deserved someone good for him. And this time, Shawn didn't even have to trick her into falling in love with him. He hadn't even known it was happening. Gus had snuck away on a "pharmaceutical retreat" that turned out to be some space conference and met her without any help from him. He was impressed- and only a little freaked out when she moved to Santa Barbara to be with him after meeting him all of one time.
"That was Selene," Gus said, jogging back over to Shawn, "She wants to go buy a candy store or something. I've got to go help her."
"A candy store?"
"Or a horse. I don't know. We just have to go,"
"She's crazy," Shawn said waving over Lily, "C'mon Lil' Lassie! Time to go!"
A very sandy, and somehow wet Lily ran over.
"She is not getting in my car looking like that," Gus said, turning up his nose.
"It's fine," Shawn responded, leaning over to brush her off. She'll sit on a towel.
"Yeah Guster," Lily said, shaking her body to get the sand off of her dress. "I'll sit on a towel."
Loading up Lily into the Blueberry and making sure no sand touched the floor of the company car proved to be more difficult than Shawn had expected.
"I'll get you a car wash," Shawn said when he finally fell into the passenger seat next to Gus.
"That's not how you wash the inside of a car."
"Fine. Then we'll go through with the doors opened."
"Car wash! Car wash!" Lily chanted from her car seat that now lived in the blueberry.
"Not today," Shawn said when Gus shot him a look. "We're going home now. Maybe Auntie Julie will make us some mac and cheese for dinner tonight!"
"Mac and cheese!" Lily exclaimed, easily distracted.
Gus wasted no time kicking them out of the car when they pulled into the driveway of Shawn and Juliet's house.
"Have fun buying a horse!" Lily yelled to the back of the blueberry as it sped away.
"Shawn!" Juliet said, rushing down the hallway when Shawn and Lily walked in. "Oh, hi Lily!" Juliet said, scooping Lily into a hug.
"Hi, Auntie Julie!" She said, "will you make us mac and cheese? Spencer said you would make us mac and cheese for dinner."
"His name is Shawn," Juliet said, "I have told you and your daddy that many times." But she was smiling.
"Spencer! Spencer! Spencer!"
Shawn looked closer at Juliet's face as she walked Lily down the hall to their office-turned-Lily's room. Her cheeks were a little red and puffy. When she put Lily down, she smoothed her shirt carefully and clasped her hands together quickly.
"Can you play in your room for a minute while I talk to Shawn?" Juliet asked Lily. She ignored the question and went to play with Juliet's old stuffed animals that she had pulled out for Lily when she had started spending the night more often.
"Are you okay?" Shawn asked, letting Juliet pull him into their bedroom. She left him sitting on the bed and walked into the bathroom.
"I have no idea," Juliet said, trying to suppress a smile, "but I did just do this."
She held out a white stick with a little window on one side and two pink lines in the window. One was definitely lighter, but there were also definitely two of them.
"Is that yours?" Shawn whispered, looking at her in shock.
She just shrugged and let him pull her into his arms. He kissed her on her temple and put his hand over her stomach. He felt lightning in his hand when he touched her little belly. There was no bump, but he could feel it in his heart. There was a baby in there. Their baby was in there.
"Now you can't tell anyone yet," Juliet said. "I can't deal with anyone else knowing right now."
"Of course," Shawn said, understanding crinkling in his eyes. The only thing that had been harder than telling people that Juliet had cancer was telling them that she was no longer pregnant. With a cancer diagnosis, there is hope. A chance to fight and recover. Hope that she could make it through this and move on. But when a pregnancy ends, there is no hope. Just grief in the shape of a baby they would never get to meet.
It had broken them, for a while. They didn't know what to say to each other. After spending months talking about baby names and how they would decorate the baby's room and all the adventures they would go on once their baby was born, they were suddenly left with no one to plan for and nothing to say.
"I can't believe it," Juliet said, letting her face fall into her hands and leaning over onto Shawn's shoulder. "What if-"
Shawn cut her off before she could start. He pulled her reddening face off of her hands and looked deeply into his favorite blue eyes.
"No what if's," he said shortly. "We have enough what ifs with Lassiter right now. I don't need any more with you. We got this. We are going to have a baby."
The weight of the words filled the room and a mutual prayer silently floated between them.
Please. Please let us meet this baby.