A Few Weeks Later

"Joshua could you stop being so damn stubborn? Just sit down in the chair!" Amy Matthews pushed her son down into the chair of her Philadelphia home. She puffed her chest as she stared him down, getting frustrated with his persistence. She took the blanket behind her and draped it over his legs. "Now I know you want to help but you have to let yourself get better first."

Josh rolled his blue eyes as he started to protest. "Mom I'm fine. I just-"

"No you are not fine! You got stabbed twice and nearly burnt alive in a house fire. Now sit down!" Amy's stern, mother-like tone pushed Josh to remain still. Amy sighed and tucked the blanket under his legs. "My god you make it seem like she's halfway across the world. She's only upstairs."

"But mom-"

Amy held up her finger. "No buts. I've been pregnant before and the doctor said she needs rest and not stress, and taking care of her injured husband is not going to help. Let her sleep."

In the aftermath that was their house burning down, both Josh and Maya called the only people they knew would be able to even somewhat guide them through this- their mothers. Katy was back in California managing their entire estate, well what was left of it, and Amy was overseeing the couple's care in Philadelphia. Although Josh was appreciative of the level of care and attentiveness that his mother was putting towards him, he needed to see his wife.

Josh watched as Amy walked away from him and into the kitchen. "I'm going to go pick up your prescription from the pharmacy! And please," She poked her head back into the room. "Take it easy and let Maya get some rest."

Josh bid his mother goodbye and waited until he could hear her car leave the driveway before he popped out of his chair. He moved a little too fast and stopped to steady himself on the bottom of the stairs. "Okay, maybe she has a point," he thought to himself before he went up the stairs. Taking his time, he was careful not to move his left shoulder or put too much weight on his right leg as he moved. Making it up the stairs, he turned and entered his old room.

Opening the door slowly, he saw Maya fast asleep on the right side of his childhood bed. Quietly, he closed the door shut behind him and climbed in the bed next to her and brought the covers up over them before wrapping his good arm around her. On instinct Maya snuggled deeper into him, causing him to smile. "I wondered when you sneak up here," she mumbled in a tired voice.

"Hey," he whispered. "You're supposed to be resting."

Maya turned around in his arms and faced him. "Technically I am. I am lying here aren't I?" Josh laughed. "Besides, it's been hard falling asleep without you next to me."

Josh brushed Maya's hair behind her ear. "Well that's going to change because I don't plan on moving from this spot until further notice. Does that work for you?"

Maya smiled and leaned in to him. "That sounds perfect." She softly kissed his lips and closed her eyes, finally allowing sleep to overtake her. Soon after, Josh followed suit and snored softly as he got the best rest that he's had in weeks.

As soon as Amy left the house she knew that her son would be by his wife's side. So when she returned she was not shocked to see him missing from his chair and to find him asleep next to Maya. Looking in on the couple she smiled and closed the door softly, thanking god that they were still here today for her to witness that.

.:.

Maya sat up in bed, rubbing her tummy as she watched Josh talk to her stomach. He was so enamored with their child. Although Maya could never forget her first pregnancy and how rough it was, she was glad that this time around, crazy stalkers aside, it seemed to be going well. They never got these moments with their son so she savored every moment like this one. "Mind if I talk to Daddy for a bit?" Josh looked up from her belly and smiled at her. "How's your shoulder?"

Maya's small hand grazed over Josh's bandaged shoulder. He watched as she ran her fingers over the dressing, pulling it back slightly to see the scar. "As good as it can be I guess. The knife missed my major nerve endings but I'm not sure how well I'll be able to move it, even after physical therapy." Maya opened her mouth to ask about his leg but he cut her off. "And the leg is okay too. The amount of pressure I can put on it is questionable though."

"What about dance?"

Josh shrugged and took her hand into his, tracing the back of her hand with his thumb. "Sometimes there are other things that are more important than dance." He lifted up her shirt and placed a soft kiss on her belly.

Maya smiled as she felt his lips touch her and ran her fingers through his hair. "So what next? We have no home but at least we have options again."

"Well what do you want? We're only a few months out from the baby being born and we need to figure out exactly where it is we want to raise our family. So where's that?"

Maya let out a breath. "Well, we want to choose somewhere that feels like home, but we also need to make sure we're making money to support our family. And between my being pregnant and you barely being able to walk on your leg, I don't think dancing for our money is an option right now. I think we should be near our family. Besides, we don't know how to exactly care for a child so we're gonna need some help."

Josh nodded. "I agree. We have some money in our savings so we can figure out something. Start looking for places soon."

Maya cupped Josh's face as she got lost in his eyes. "I'm just glad it's all over," she whispered. "We get to start our lives."

"Yeah, me too." He kissed the palm of her hand. "I love you so much."

"I love you."

.:.

Downstairs, Amy entered in the house through the side door by the kitchen and set Josh's prescription on the counter. As she moved to check when he needed to start taking it, she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. Seeing the name, she held the phone up to her ear. "Hey Katy, how's everything going up there?"

Katy sighed from her end of the phone. "You know as good as it can be when your child's house burns down. Topanga is actually joining me up here today to help me sort through all this legal jargon. I can barely understand any of it. How are the kids?"

Amy chuckled. "I would hardly call them kids anymore but they look like babies to me. But um, Maya is resting and Josh made his way up there next to her so I'm sure the two of them are doing what they can to make the other feel better."

"The baby?"

"Good. It's not under too much stress but the doctor ordered Maya to rest so that is what I've been forcing her to do."

"Good. That's our grandbaby in there and we need to make sure that baby is brought into this world as stress free as possible."

Amy nodded. "Agreed." Katy sighed again on the other line and Amy frowned. "I feel like there's something else you're not telling me. Is everything alright Katy?" The other end of the line got quiet as Amy heard Katy shuffling in the background. "Katy?"

"I don't want to scare you or worry you but I mainly don't want to scare them but when I visited the scene and spoke to the police about what happened, they told me they never found a body. No remnants, no traces of anything."

Amy froze in the kitchen as she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. She recognized the hobbling and instantly knew it was Josh. "Josh is coming downstairs. I'll call you later."

Amy quickly hung up the phone and replaced the worry that started to overtake her with her normal demeanor as Josh walked in to see her pouring him a glass of water with two pills sitting on the counter. "I know, I know. You're going to yell at me for bothering Maya but I am married you know. You were there after all." Josh sat down at the kitchen table and pointed to the two pills. "I take it these are for me."

Amy set down the glass of water on the table. "Yup. Drink up. You have another dose in four hours. These should help with your pain though." She watched as Josh took the two pills and thought quickly as she needed to get back on the phone with Katy as soon as possible. She just needed to get her son out of her hair for long enough. "You know what," she began. "I may have been doing a bit too much when it came to you being upstairs with Maya. I think it may good for you to be up there with her." Josh's eyes lit up. "Really, I mean it. It may even help you heal faster or something. I swore I heard Oprah talk about something like that before."

Josh reached for his mother's hand and kissed it. "So sweet of you Mom. Good to know I have your blessing despite the fact that I was going to do it anyway. Now if you'll excuse me," he stood. "I have to go be with my wife and baby girl."

Amy grabbed his wrist, stopping him before he could move further. "Wait. Girl?"

Josh smiled and nodded his head. "Yeah it's a girl. After everything that happened we decided to find out before the baby was born. I'm going to have a daughter mom."

Amy watched painfully as Josh returned upstairs and swiftly grabbed her phone and dialed Katy's number. "Katy it's me. Now I need you to be absolutely sure of everything you're about to tell me because it looks like our grandchild is going to be a girl and-" she held her hand over her heart. "I- we have to keep her and our babies safe."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, a storm began to brew. It was like the aftermaths of a natural disaster were on the precipice of occurring. Blissfully unaware, Maya and Josh carried on, ignorant to the one thing that could stop their happily ever after. As Katy did her best to search and search for the one thing that seemed to be continuously trying to ruin her daughter's life, she was unaware of the fact that he was in the shadows hiding. He was waiting for the right moment to finally get what he'd been after all along. He just had to wait. Wait for everything to fall in place.

Then he'd get his girl and their baby.

Surprise! It's not over haha. I lied just a tiny bit last chapter. I had to make it feel like it was all over to give them a moment of relief. I'll update soon but I'm traveling again so it may be a while. See you guys soon!