Chapter 31
Before We Say Goodbye

As they walked along through the halls, headed to the parking lot exit, hand in hand… Lucas could feel Maya walked slowly, but he didn't fear this having anything to do with her feeling weak or troubled. This was the last time they would walk through this place as students. She wanted to enjoy the moment, didn't want to just leave, and he was right there with her. They might not have gotten to do the full four years here, only two, but they had been two great years, even if the majority of one of them had been spent in 'prego land.' If not for their circumstances, they would have wanted nothing more than to still be here, to come back in the fall for their third year, to stay with their roommates, still living in Houston.

"Ready to go?" Lucas asked as the exit loomed ahead of them. Maya sighed, looking at him and giving the impression that she didn't want to let herself look back. If she looked, she might let her emotions get the best of her.

"Yeah, we better get going," she finally nodded.

"You sure?"

"I'm very sure. If we stay here much longer, I'll have to go to the bathroom and then it's just going to be a whole thing…" she explained. Lucas smiled now. She was messing with him, sort of. Either way, she was good to go, so they walked out and started for the car. They'd just gone through the door when he heard her give a low groan.

"What's up?" Lucas asked, his way of asking if she was okay without using the undesired 'are you okay' words.

"I've been in that building for almost half a day, with the AC. Took one step out the door and I just… this heat is just crushing me," she explained. The groan was repeated.

"Want me to bring the car closer?" he asked with a sympathetic smile.

"No, it's okay, I'll make it," Maya breathed. "Let's just… go," she gestured to the car off in the distance. "Tell me the truth, is it really that hot, or is it just me and… all this?" her arm swept back in to indicate her belly.

"Oh, it's hot," he promised. She looked up at him, giving him a squinty sort of 'be real with me' look. "I mean… I'm comfortable," he admitted, "But I've always been that way." That much she couldn't fault him. He was usually the one to go 'what, it's not so bad' whenever any of them would complain that it was too hot or cold. It annoyed some of them to no end, and he had been doing his best not to say anything like that, not to her, when he knew she was experiencing the absolute opposite right now.

They carried on toward the car. When they arrived, Lucas hurried to get the door open, start the car, and then start the AC. It had been cooking out here all day, and if Maya thought it was bad outside, this would be worse by a mile.

"Maya!" a voice called out as they were standing there, waiting to get into the car. They turned to find Professor Robinson was making her way across the lot, as fast as her legs would carry her. "I was hoping I hadn't missed you," she breathed as she reached them.

"You alright?" Maya asked, offering her hand for support in case she needed it. The professor may have been spry for her age, but there were limits.

"One of these days, I'm going to start spending my summers in cooler climates," she huffed, making her student – former student – and her fiancé chuckle. "I was so focused on everything else earlier, I forgot to give you this," the professor held up a large gift bag, smiling.

"Professor, I…" Maya started to say, but the woman shook her head.

"Not anymore," she reminded her, which only Maya feel a sudden rattling of emotions. "And I won't have any 'you didn't have to do that' or anything like that. Think of it as a going away sort of thing. Only seems a fair trade, when I'm losing what might have been one of my better TAs." Now that caught Maya so off guard that there was no stalling those tears, and heat or no, when Patty Robinson pulled her into an embrace, she didn't resist.

"You, uh… Would you like to come over for dinner tonight?" Maya asked when they pulled back.

"It would be my pleasure," Patty declared. "I have a few things left to do here, but I will meet you there, say around six thirty?"

"Perfect," Maya nodded. "And thank you," she held up the bag, which had somehow found its way into her hand. After they'd watched the professor start back toward the building, they finally got into the car, which had cooled down considerably in the time they'd been standing outside, talking. Maya breathed in the cool air, attempting to wave some of it up to her face at the same time.

While she was enjoying the effect of the AC for a bit, Lucas managed to end off a quick text to Riley, back at the house, informing her they would have one more guest. He hadn't said anything when Maya had invited the professor; he couldn't. Beyond the fact that it would have felt in poor taste to say 'you can't come to dinner because our friends are throwing a surprise going away party,' he knew that Maya would want Patty Robinson to be there, just like Patty Robinson would love a party as much as a sit down dinner, even if the vast majority of the guest list consisted of college students.

"You okay there?" he asked Maya as they took off from the university. She turned her head to him. "Just about the professor and what she gave you, and what she said…"

"About being a TA?" Maya asked, and he nodded. "It's not like I wanted it, or… I should say it's not like I thought about it a lot this year, with us getting ready to leave and all. I did sort of start to wonder about it though, near the end," she admitted. "And now that I know, I just…" It only drove home the point that they were going away, and that everything she'd worked toward over the past two years would now have to be put on pause, for who knew how long, and by the time she would start going to school again she would have very little of the advancement she'd made since she'd started college to back her up. It would be a terrifying concept to anyone, baby or no baby. "At least I know that… I would have been…" she told him, looking down at herself with an inward thought to their boy. She didn't want him to absorb any kind of feeling like she would ever want any of that more than she'd want him. He may have been a baby, not even born at that, but that didn't change how she felt about wanting to protect him.

Lucas wasn't sure what to anticipate for this party and how Maya would react to the surprise. As he'd been sitting in wait of his third and last test starting earlier, he'd been taken with this image of the two of them walking through the door, their guests springing the surprise, and then Maya just going right into labor. He'd had to tell himself, over and over, that she would in all likelihood suspect that something would be happening, either tonight or tomorrow, and so she would be able to brace herself. He still felt the urge to tell her, but he resisted as best he could.

They got to the house, and Maya held up her hand in a signal he took to mean she wanted another few seconds of the air before they opened the car doors and let the heat touch her again. It would only be for the space of the time it would take her to get out of the car and walk to the house, where she would be kept cool once again, but it was still one of the most unpleasant feelings she had to deal with at the moment, so he wasn't about to argue.

"Okay, let's go," she finally sighed, opening the door and groaning a moment later.

Lucas grabbed the gift bag and joined Maya as they walked up to the house. They were about two steps from the door when she turned to briefly look at him, and right there he knew she had indeed figured them out and she'd just now looked at him for some confirmation. No shock, no sudden water breakage. They reached the door, and it was opened for them before any key could be pulled out. Riley greeted them with a great smile, stepping aside to reveal the group spread out across the living room, and now spilling out of the kitchen.

As prepared as she may have been, as far as the actual surprise was concerned, Maya wasn't prepared for all of it. Sure, she knew there was a party, and she knew that a lot of their friends would be there. But to see them now, all of them, knowing they'd come for her and for Lucas as they prepared to leave Houston, the emotions were not long in getting the best of her. All their friends, everyone who'd come into their lives over the past two years and made any sort of impression, they were here. Friends, classmates, co-workers, and from the day Hank Hillard had come into their lives, family, too. He was there, along with his wife and their children. The rest of the families, his parents and hers, would still be in Austin, they imagined, waiting to have their own sort of party, welcoming their son and daughter back among them.

"When did you figure it out?" Lucas asked Maya, when they'd both gone upstairs to freshen up a bit for the party, after a day full of finals.

"Please, I would have known even if everyone wasn't so obvious about it with the sneaking around and the whispering," Maya chuckled. "There was no 'figuring it out,' I just figured they're all great friends, we're going away… Of course they were going to throw a party. And we did miss the chance to celebrate your birthday," she reminded him with a smile. He laughed.

"Alright, that's fair," he told her as she went toward the closet, nodding and carefully reaching to pull her t-shirt over her head. Before she could, she groaned. "Hey?"

"Just my back," she told him. "Can you just…" she pointed to where it hurt and he came forward to rub at the spot in question. "It's those damned chairs in class, you know?"

"You won't have to deal with those anymore," he smiled, moving his hand to where she now told him to go.

"Yeah, all done with that for a while now…" she breathed, bowing her head, hands joined under her belly as she'd do, like she was holding their sprout.

"Only for now," he reminded.

"Yeah…"

She didn't have to say a thing for him to know that whole part of her future still left her wondering. How could it not? It was easy for both of them to say she would stay with the baby for some time, after which she'd go back to school, a new school, and carry on to finish her degree, but they didn't really know, did they? What if by the time she got to that part she didn't go back, for one reason or another, good or bad? Sure, she was ready for whatever change or sacrifice she had to make, but for now it was all hidden in the unknown, and that was the thing that caused them trouble, caused her to have that question rolling through her head more often than she'd care to admit.

"How's your back?" Lucas asked.

"As good as it's going to get for now," Maya declared, looking over at him. "Thank you," she told him. He leaned in for one slow kiss.

"We're going to have a good time tonight, yeah?"

"I'm counting on it," she nodded. "No pressure." He laughed.

They'd returned downstairs a few minutes later. They were still making the rounds, chatting with everyone, by the time Patty Robinson arrived for what she'd assumed to be a simple dinner and discovered to be a going away/birthday party.

"Well, now I feel underprepared," she told Maya and Lucas with an amused laugh when she found them. "And I know your birthday is in January," she looked to Maya before turning to Lucas. "So, that would make you the birthday boy, wouldn't it?"

"Yesterday," Lucas nodded.

"Happy belated birthday then," she hugged him without ceremony, leaving him momentarily surprised while Maya just hid her smile beneath her hand.

"Thank you, ma'am."

"I know your mama raised you well, but you will leave the 'ma'am' and call me Patty, won't you?"

"Pretty sure he'll short-circuit if he tries that," Maya joked. Lucas could barely muster fake reproach over that, so he just laughed and gave her his best sort of robot impression, mechanically reaching to tip an invisible cowboy hat.

Even though all the guests had been told they didn't need to bring gifts, it had soon been discovered that every last one of them – even the roommates who'd instigated that rule – had brought something. The coffee table was stacked with wrapped boxes and gift bags, some of them for both Maya and Lucas and others just for Lucas, for his birthday. All this meant was that they'd have even more to pack up for the move, but neither one of them could really refuse, and neither of them wanted to. They were deeply touched, and as always deeply thankful to everyone who'd come and brought them something.

"If they did all this for us, I can't even imagine what it'll be like when it's your baby shower," Lucas told Maya, later that night, as they settled into bed.

"Well, they're going to have to get up very, very early to outdo your mother, I'm guessing," Maya laughed. On that, she definitely had a point. He wouldn't have been surprised if she already had the guest room stacked with baby things, just waiting to give them to Maya and him.

"What are you doing tomorrow?" he asked her, turning off the light and lying down on his side, facing her.

"I don't have a job anymore, I don't go to school anymore, and our baby is still on the inside part of his journey," she tapped her fingers to her belly. "That means nothing is expected of me from anyone right now, and I am going to take that time… so much… I'm going to sit downstairs, on the couch, I'm going to watch some television, catch up on my shows…" He opened his mouth to speak and she cut him off. "Not the ones we watch together," she promised, making him smile.

"It's a good plan," he agreed.

"Yeah," she whispered as he leaned forward and kissed her. The next day would be their last full one out here. It had all happened so fast, from Halloween to this…

Lucas woke up early the next morning, enough so that Maya still slept when he did. He had time enough not to rush, and he could have stayed there a while longer, but he had a thought, and his only option to see it through meant that he had to get up. So, he moved to rise, taking a moment to kiss but not wake Maya, who merely moved in her sleep, resettling to her pillow with a smile.

It was their last full day here, as they had both somehow brought up a few times over the last week, and with that in mind, all he'd wanted to do today was to get himself to the store, park his car, and just walk around the area for a while. He did feel bad, just a bit, that Maya couldn't be here and do this with him, but it was her who'd inspired him, wasn't it? So, he would just go ahead and do this in her honor.

Eventually, he would circle back toward the store, having picked up coffee or tea for himself and the rest of the staff working Coleman's Books that hot pre-summer morning in Houston. The drinks felt almost overkill in the span of his walk from the coffee place to the bookstore, but once he'd be inside, with the AC that sometimes bordered on 'are you THAT anxious for Christmas?' they would be fine.

He arrived to find both Rosa and her mother had gotten in by now, so he greeted them with their tea and coffee respectively.

"No chance it got cold on the way, huh?" Rosa nonetheless accepted the cup with a grateful bow of the head.

"Thank you very much," Tracy Coleman told him, giving him a sort of sad shake of the head/smile combo. "Won't be the same without you here. I haven't even had the heart to start interviewing people to replace you..."

"Do it or I'm going on strike!" called Rosa from the counter, getting a small laugh out of Lucas. Tracy gave her daughter a look before tapping Lucas on the arm and going off to her office. He walked over to join her, setting down the tray with his and Pete's cups and leaning over the counter.

"Hey, so we were going to do this later, but we won't be here for your graduation..." he started, only to be cut off by Rosa saying that she understood. They'd have a newborn babe to look after by then. "Anyway..." Lucas carried on. "We were... We are, or... I guess the others are now... They want, and we still want, Maya and me, for you to come and live at the house when you start college in the fall." Rosa's eyes went wide, jaw went slack, shocked at once, long enough to add one more thing. "When we moved in, we got our room because it was the biggest and we were the only couple, so maybe it should go to the either of Dylan and Riley or Sophie and Chiara, but... We want you to have it, Maya and me, if you'll have it."

Rosa still had that dumbfounded look on her face, until Lucas waved a hand in her face, and she blinked. A moment later, she was coming around the counter and leaping into a hug, which made Lucas laugh as he hugged her back.

"So, that's a yes?"

"Definitely a yes, that's... oh..." she paused, standing back.

"What?" Lucas asked.

"No, it's nothing, it's just... Well, I have to tell my mom about moving out now..."

"You'll be like two minutes away," he reminded her.

"Good point, good point, yeah," she slowly nodded. A moment later, her grin was back, and she returned to stand behind the counter, looking as bouncy as he'd ever seen her.

The day began in this merry way, and it continued on all throughout the day. Lucas never really saw any day working at Coleman's being bad. If anything, he had good days and he had great days. Today was a great day. He saw several of his regulars, who all lamented his departure and wished him well on the baby, asking that he send pictures back to the store so they could see the little guy. Lucas promised they only had to consult Rosa and she would hook them up. He helped with some displays, and he restocked shelves, which was a very specific sort of thing he liked to do... The hours didn't feel like hours. It wasn't until near the end that he noticed the time and realized the store was soon to close, which meant his day and his time working here were coming to an end.

"Hey, guess what?" Rosa told Lucas as they stood at the counter, twenty minutes before closing.

"What?"

"So, me and Riley and Kayla and Willow, we've been talking with Lily Weaver, you know?"

"The girl in Maya's class, who wanted her to write songs for her group last fall, yeah, I remember," Lucas nodded. Maya had felt so bad about not being able to come through for them at the time, but with their finding out about the baby, and everything they'd had to do at the time, she didn't feel able to really accomplish what Lily and her friends needed from her. They'd understood, and Maya had told them that, in due time, she would help them out.

"Right, yeah, so, ever since Maya told us she was leaving the band for good, I've been thinking about what we're going to do without her. I know we all say we're each as important as the next one, Maya before any of us, but she was our headliner, and we're going to take a hit when she's gone. But I know she wants us to keep going, and we want that, too. So, the way I figured, we needed to give a big push, bring in someone or... some more than one... to show that we still have something worth paying attention to."

"So you're bringing in Lily Weaver?" Lucas guessed.

"And Catriona and Victoria King," Rosa nodded.

"Woah... All of them?"

"Yup."

"So there'll be seven of you? They play instruments?"

"There will, and they don't... not yet... The plan is we'll take summer to hook them up with lessons at Mr and Mrs Regan's store, work up some songs, then in the fall, the big unveiling... TXNY 3.0, now with a whole lotta Aussie," she announced with a big, proud smile, which tipped down halfway a moment later. "I don't know how to tell Maya."

"Why? I mean it's what she wants, she'll be thrilled, especially with those three she wanted to help."

"I know that, but like... She might think she's okay with it, and then when she realizes that we already found new people..."

"Rosa... Tell her," Lucas smiled. She let out a breath, finally nodding.

"Hey, so, I'm really happy for you guys, and that baby boy is going to have the best parents ever, who will do everything for him to have a great life... I'm still going to miss you like hell," she huffed, giving him an awkward smile.

"We're moving to Austin, not Mars," he chuckled, even though her words had meant so much more to him than he could say.

"No, I get that, but I meant here especially," she gestured around the store. "You being here, I finally started actually liking my job. I had the decorating part, with the windows and the tables and all that, but it was all just perks, you know? It made up for feeling stuck with a future I didn't want. You came, and you became my friend, and now I'm good here. Maybe I won't be once you're gone..."

"You'll do great," he smiled. "Whoever your mom gets to replace me, you can make them into someone good to have around, too."

"Well... They won't be no Lucas Friar," she told him with a dramatic roll of the eyes worthy of her former bandmate. Lucas laughed, and he gave her a hug.

"I'm going to miss you, too."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners