Chapter 35
I Dreamed of You

Maya and Lucas only had a few days, not even a handful, under their belts as far as living in their house, but somehow it was already getting to feel different. It was more theirs now than it had been since the day Pappy Joe had put the keys in Lucas' hands two years ago. They weren't done settling in, not by a long shot, but it couldn't be denied that already the place had a new feel. They were home, and in all of two weeks…

"I know I complain sometimes about how big I've gotten…" Maya declared as they got dressed that morning. Lucas made a noise that sounded a whole lot like 'sometimes?' and a snort. "Anyway," Maya squinted at him before looking back down at herself, at her belly poking out of her half buttoned shirt. "I… I'm going to miss this… me and him together." She looked back, feeling Lucas was looking at her now.

"I am, too," he admitted. After a moment, Maya moved to the dresser, picking up her camera and bringing it over to him.

"Want to play photographer?" she asked, smiling.

He smiled back, taking the camera from her. He would help her immortalize this moment in time… any day and every day until their son was born. She had really reached new heights of beauty in the past seven months. He couldn't explain it, she'd just become something more, and his heart responded to it like magnetism. And now she stood there, posing for him, showing off that bump, and he was feeling it all over again.

"Let me see," she moved closer to see the screen as he cycled through the pictures. "Oh, you did so good, wow," she beamed, leaning her head to his arm for a moment. "This one…" she took the camera from him to get a better look. It was like the sun had moved at just the right time when he'd clicked, and it had just sort of illuminated the curve of her body in such a way… It was everything she could have hoped for.

"Where are you going?" Lucas asked when she started out toward the hall with the camera.

"I just need a print real quick, the printer's downstairs," she replied. He cleared his throat, nodding down at her. She looked at herself and moved to the bed, grabbing her pants. "I'll put them on while I wait," she held the pants up and left the room.

"We have to be at my parents' in a half hour!" he called out as a reminder.

"I'm multitasking!" she called back. "And you need to find the thingy!"

"The…" he muttered to himself, not recalling, then… "Oh, the thingy… right…" he scanned the room. "Where is it?" he asked, moving into the hall. Maya was very carefully making her way down the stairs. She stopped and turned to look at him.

"If I knew…" she shrugged.

"Right," Lucas sighed. There were only so many places, right? And in all their unpacking, if they hadn't come across it yet, then 'in a box' was a fair shot. They had some of those upstairs, downstairs… Where would it have ended up… "Basement," he finally decided, quickly finishing up with getting dressed before bolting down the stairs, pausing to watch as Maya stood by her photo printer, tugging on her pants, and then continuing toward the basement.

He wasn't even hurrying, or skipping steps, he just sort of… overshot. About four steps away from the bottom, his foot had missed one step and gone for the next, and the unexpected drop had sent him to follow his unfortunate foot. He crashed and, at once, felt something snap somewhere in his foot. He didn't cry out so much because of the pain – though there was some of that – but more for the surprise of the fall.

Either way, Maya was upstairs, buttoning up her shirt now that she had her pants on good, when she heard the sounds from below and she moved to the basement door at once.

"Lucas?" she called, looking down. He was sitting on the ground, grunting and inspecting his foot. "Are you okay?"

"I missed the step," he gestured to the stairs. "Think I broke a toe or three." She made her way down, slowly, until she reached him.

"Is it just your foot?" she asked, sitting on the bottom steps.

"Yeah, yeah," he assured her. He flexed his knee as proof.

"What do you want me to do?" She wasn't comfortable driving anymore, and with his foot he wasn't about to get into the driver's seat, especially with her in the car.

"Call around to the neighbors, I guess, see if any of them can drive us to the hospital, then my dad can get us from there," he sighed.

"Your mom's going to love that," Maya chuckled, getting back up and heading out of the basement.

"Yeah, I'll bet," Lucas shook his head. He hadn't even tried to get up just yet, because in his head he could just hear his mother's voice telling him not to move, asking if he'd hit his head, over and over… He hadn't, but she'd want to just be sure, which would take a bit more confirmation than that.

After a minute, he'd had enough of sitting there like he was in any distress when he really wasn't. He could get himself back up, one foot or two. Once he'd achieved that, hopping until he could hold on to the staircase rails, he let out a breath like 'there, I did that.'

"Did you get anyone?" Lucas called up. "Maya?"

"Mitch Sanderson… He's on his way…" he finally heard her respond. There was something odd about her voice.

"Maya…" he started to ask. Then he had the thought, but… no, not now… He looked at his foot. No, not now… "You're not…"

"Oh, I big time am, Huckleberry…" she informed him. At once he started hopping his way up the steps. "Do not break your neck, I swear to…"

"I won't, I won't," he promised, filled with new energy. He couldn't even feel pain anymore.

Climbing the last step and leaving the basement, he spotted her, in the kitchen, sitting on one of the chairs, phone still in hand.

"Stay there," she held up a finger without looking up, keeping concentrated on whatever she was trying to control, before pointing to the ground.

"Right… o-okay…" he blinked before looking back at her. "Maya…" She finally turned her head and looked at him, a bewildered little smile on her face. He smiled back. This was it… their baby boy, their sprout was on his way…

"Two strikes on your mom today, first your foot, then no Junebug," she waved to the calendar on the wall. Today was May 31st. "I love your mom, but I am not going to stay in labor until after midnight if I can help it."

"I think she'll get over it," Lucas pointed out, laughing.

"Fair enough…" Maya breathed, running her hand along the curve of her belly, again and again… Hold on, Sprout, not just yet…

When Mitch Sanderson showed up two minutes later, daughter Missy in tow, the surprise on his face was priceless. Here he'd come to help someone with a couple broken toes, and suddenly there were broken toes and a woman in labor.

Missy had been dispatched to run upstairs and get Maya's bag, her sandals, and Lucas' shoes. He wasn't even going to try and put on the right one on, but just in case… In the meantime, Mitch had helped Maya to his car, while Lucas hopped his way after them. The Sandersons hopped into the car, and they were off.

"Hey…" Maya breathed, holding out her hand. Lucas took it in his own and she squeezed. Here we go… He kissed her fingers. Here we go… "Can you call my mom?" she passed him her phone.

"Yeah… yeah…" he blinked. For a moment he had forgotten about anything or anyone outside this car. He dialled the Hunter Hart house and was answered…

"Hi, Maya!"

"Hey, Gracie, it's Lucas," he told the almost four-year-old. "Is your mommy there?"

"Upstairs," the girl replied.

"What about your daddy?"

"Yeah! Daaaaaddy!" she 'shouted,' which for Gracie was more like a normal volume. Seconds later, Shawn came on the line.

"Hello?" he answered, sounding like he had just been presented a phone with no idea who was on the other end of the call.

"Maya's gone into labor, we're on our way to the hospital," he cut to the chase.

"Are you sure? Is it really…"

"Completely sure, yeah," Lucas turned to look at his fiancée, who was squeezing his hand real hard at the moment, focusing through whatever she was feeling. Right now, it made his foot feel like nothing by comparison.

"How's she doing?" Shawn asked, sounding like he was running off somewhere. Lucas suspected he was heading upstairs to find Katy.

"So far so good, right?" Lucas looked to Maya. She just held up her thumb, lips pressed together like she didn't trust what would come out otherwise. "Yeah…"

"We'll meet you at the hospital."

After he'd hung up with Shawn, Lucas took a breath, dialling his parents' house. He had a good idea how each of his parents would react to the news, and he was hoping for his father to be the one to…

"Oh, Maya, hello, are you two on your way?" Melinda Friar asked. Lucas closed his eyes.

"Hey, Mom, it's me, I…" He didn't have to say it. Somehow, his using Maya's phone to call them could only mean one thing: her grandson was coming.

She gave out such a loud little cry that Lucas had to pull the phone from his ear, Missy Sanderson turned back in her seat, and Maya flinched.

"Mom, Mom!" Lucas called to her to get her back.

"Hand her over," Maya told him. He looked at her. She just clicked her fingers, insisting. He passed her the phone. "Melinda!"

"Sweetheart…" her future mother-in-law's voice returned, just a bit breathless. "How are you doing?"

"Oh, you know, I've been better…" Maya chuckled. Her face in no way matched with that sentiment, "Anyway, here's Lucas back, see you at the hospital." She nearly tossed the phone back, bowing her head and breathing as she did.

"Hey… So, yeah, we're on our way…"

"You're not on the phone while you're driving, are you?" his mother swung right past joy into apprehension. "Lucas Thomas Friar, don't think just because you're about to be someone's daddy that I'm going to stop being your mama…"

"No, no, I'm not, I promise. Mr. Sanderson is driving us. Say hi, Mitch?"

"Morning, Mel!" Missy's father called from the front. They had met plenty of times over the years, more so in the time when Pappy Joe lived out on the lane.

"Hi!" Missy chimed in, because she wanted to be acknowledged, too.

"And Missy's here, too," Lucas nodded. "See you at the hospital, okay?"

"Yes, okay, we're on our way," Melinda told him, back on the joy train.

"Mom, just don't buy out the florists and the balloon people, alright?" She laughed this off before hanging up. Lucas turned to Maya.

"Oh, you know she will," Maya told him, leaning into the seat. "You have to call Riley now, she'll take care of everyone else and… oh… my dad, Air Zvolensky…"

"On it, on it," Lucas got back to dialling.

The ride was mostly a blur of phone calls and breathing and pain, mixed in with just enough of that bewilderment over the realization that they were about to be parents, that they could soon be holding their baby in their arms. Then, all of a sudden, they were pulling up to the hospital, the car came to a stop, and Missy was dispatched to flag down someone and tell them they needed two wheelchairs and why.

"You need to get your foot looked at," Maya told Lucas.

"No," he shook his head. "Not leaving you."

"This could be hours. I won't be alone and…"

"Maya…"

"Do you want me to be worried for anything I don't need to be worried for right now?" she stared him down. No one was going to argue with her today.

"I'm getting back to you as fast as I can," he vowed.

"Not doubting it for a second," she nodded as he leaned in to kiss her. "Hey…" she smiled. It pulled a shuddering breath from him and he smiled back, setting his hand to her belly and putting in every ounce of good thoughts into that touch, that their boy would come with no difficulty.

"I love you, and you are amazing," Lucas nodded, making her smile even more, just as the back door was opened on her side and they found a nurse standing there with a wheelchair. There was another, not far behind. "Her first," Lucas told the woman, like it even needed saying. He watched her be wheeled off, Missy following after her, before turning to Mitch.

"I'll get back to her as soon as I'm parked."

Lucas made his way along with the second nurse toward the ER. He explained to the guy about how his fiancée was in labor and he needed to get back to her.

"Don't sweat it, I've got you," the nurse nodded, and he gave Lucas such Dylan vibes that he knew to trust his word.

Mitch Sanderson had kept his word, finding his daughter and Maya before they'd even made it into what would be her room. They gave her what privacy they could while she got changed, but also stuck close, keeping the promise made to Lucas. She had just finished and sat on the edge of the bed when her mother came sweeping into the room, Nellie in hand. Shawn was just on her heel, little MJ in one arm and Gracie's hand in his other. Maya had never been so happy to see them, and that must have been written all over her face as her mother came to her.

"My baby girl, oh…" Katy touched her face. "How are you feeling?"

"I could tell you, but I wouldn't want to traumatize those two," Maya breathed, nodding to the twins. "Or… Missy," she indicated her. Finally, the neighbors' presence seemed to highlight an absence.

"Where's Lucas?" Shawn asked.

"The, uh… He's downstairs, the ER," Maya let her mother help her to get settled in.

"The ER? Why?" Katy asked, confused.

"Fell down the basement… steps… just a few… broken toes… Dad, could you…"

"Right, got it," he told her, passing his young son to Mitch, moving to kiss Maya on the forehead, squeezing her shoulder and heading out.

"He looks like he's a second away from crying," Maya chuckled, looking back to her mother.

"Oh, that ship sailed already," Katy was glad to reveal, and Maya laughed again.

It was all happening so fast. One second they'd been at home, having an impromptu photoshoot, basking in what was to be the last couple weeks of her pregnancy, and now here they were. One second she'd been calling Mitch Sanderson to drive them to the hospital because Lucas had fallen down the stairs and the next… she'd just felt something, and then she knew. No more false alarms, this was the real deal. If she had any lingering anxieties at the prospect of being a mom, she was going to have to push them right off. He was coming, their little sprout was sprouting.

Mitch and his daughter had seen to getting the twins and MJ off somewhere else once the nurse had returned to see to Maya. The woman was still at it when the Friars arrived, Lucas' parents accompanied by Pappy Joe. By the looks of them, they had come straight here before making any stops to buy out some gift shop or another. Maya caught her mother's eye so she'd explain about the big toe conundrum while the nurse was busy with her. It would spare her some questions while she had so much more in mind than to explain where Lucas was.

"She'll get him back up here as soon as possible," Thomas Friar assured her after his wife had bolted off in search of their son. The nurse had left the room, leaving the future grandfather and great grandfather to come and say hello. "Now, I will do everything I can to make sure she doesn't fill your head with any stories of the day Lucas was born…"

"Yeah, about that…"

"What'd she say?" Tom couldn't keep from chuckling.

"Way too much about how big his head was," Maya groaned, trying to resettle and get comfortable.

"Here," her mother stepped in to help. "Better?"

"Yeah…" Maya closed her eyes, breathing deep.

Having asked to be put in charge of some thing or another that would make things easier for her, Maya had put Pappy Joe in charge of her phone. From his post in a nearby chair, he let her know that the Houston contingent was descending upon Austin, and also that her father, stepmother, and siblings were taking off from New York within the hour. On Diana Zvolensky's enabling, they would be in the air and then land in under four hours.

"Good… okay…" Maya hummed. One less thing to worry about, that was all she needed, again and again. It would be hours before most of her people would arrive, the ones who weren't in Austin. She wasn't sure how many people any one person could have visiting them, in or out of their room, but she had a feeling they'd be finding out before this day was through.

Down in the ER, Lucas was wheeled out of getting his foot x-rayed by Nurse Not-Dylan and brought face to face by the anxious faces of his mother and future father-in-law.

"Oh, Luke, what happened?" Melinda stepped up to hug him.

"I missed a step, Mom, I'm fine," he promised, waving to Shawn as best he could while his mother had him in a near choke hold. "Right?" he finally turned to the nurse when he was released.

"Just the foot," the man confirmed, and whatever hopes he might have had that the guy's 'Dylan like qualities' might mean that his mother would simply trust his word quickly went down the drain. She asked question after question, until Lucas did something he had never done, not in twenty-two years of life. He cut his mother off. "Mom, I'm fine, really! I need to get back upstairs, can we just move this along, please?" He didn't even flinch when she turned to him, and maybe that was all she needed to see.

"Yes, of course. But you stay in that wheelchair for now. Crutches can wait."

"Not arguing on that." Later, he and Maya would laugh over the sort of proud smile on Shawn's face as he'd watched this exchange.

With the confirmation that the only harm had been made to his toes, three of them broken and another dislocated, his foot had been tended to, he'd been equipped with crutches, and he'd been cleared to return to Maya.

"Mind if I drive?" Shawn asked. Lucas turned to his mother.

"Go on, I'll catch up."

Coming off the elevator, Lucas and Shawn had passed by the waiting room, spotting the Matthews family – without Riley, likely on the road from Houston now – with the Sandersons and Maya's young siblings. When his cheer turned into the room, there was Maya, pacing the floor with a distinct look on her face like she was quickly losing every mean of being comfortable. But then she spotted him and there… that was relief, a little of it at least.

"Can we have a minute? Or a lot of minutes?" she looked to her mother and father, and his father, and Pappy Joe, and the four of them headed out of the room. "Just the toes?"

"Broke, broke, broke, dislocated, mostly bruised," Lucas counted off, locking the wheels on his chair so he could get up, crutches bringing him those few paces over to her. As soon as he was within reach, Maya reached to put her arms around him, lean her head to his shoulder. He held on to her, too, best as he could, rubbing at her back. "Did your doctor come?"

"You just missed her," Maya nodded. "Everything's fine. Could be a while though. I think they're starting a pool to see if I'll have him in May or June."

"You're already over this part, huh?" Lucas guessed, trying not to laugh.

"So over it, get me in that bed, I'll push him right out."

"Well…"

"I know, I know, just humor me?"

"Yes, you're going to own the labor and delivery ward."

"Give me the crown now…"

By the time Riley Matthews burst through the elevator doors, leading the group out of Houston, she came to find her best friend was still very much in labor. And while having her there wouldn't magically speed up the process, Maya could take plenty of comfort from her presence alone.

"Tell me the good stuff?" Maya asked Lucas when it was just them again and the others had gone to the waiting room. He was holding her again, the two of them standing together, which seemed to be the only way she'd feel at peace.

"Right, the good stuff," he breathed out, thinking. "In a little while, a very little while when you really think about it, you're going to have our baby boy in your arms, crying his little lungs out, but then he'll be okay, and he'll figure that out. You've been carrying him inside you all this time, but now you'll carry him with your own two arms, and I can tell you, for having been in those arms many times, it's a pretty great place to be."

"It's like a super power, big talking…" Maya mumbled, leaned into him as she was.

"Don't tell anyone," he smiled, kissing the top of her head.

"Your secret's safe with me, Superman. Keep going."

The next arrival happened in three parts. Maya had just been visited by her doctor again, who informed her and Lucas that, while things were progressing, they were still nowhere near where they'd need to be, so she'd have to hang tight. As moods went, the one she was in after that wasn't the best. But then there'd been a short knock at the open door and there was Kermit Hart. It flipped Maya's feelings right over.

"You made it…" she cried. She was so happy to see him, and she wasn't even going to bother about whether or not this was a new thing for her. She was deep in labor, and her father had come, and she was very, very happy. And when he saw this, Kermit was crying, too.

"Wouldn't miss it," he promised, coming up to embrace her.

"Thank you…" Maya breathed.

Much as she would have wanted to see her siblings in that moment, and they wanted to see her, too, after their flight, it was mutually agreed that it might not be best for them to see her just now. Just the fact that she knew they were nearby was already wonderful. And then, as it turned out, the Hart family wasn't the whole of the manifest on that flight out of New York today.

"Can I come in?"

"Farkle!" Lucas blurted out in surprise, almost at the same time Maya did the same. He was here, Isadora was here, and Asher and Ray, and Joey and Rebecca… Like the group from Houston, they'd come in bit by bit, so not to overwhelm the room. They all were part of the second arrival. And by the time Kermit had had his go, and then their friends studying in New York, it had near perfectly line up with the arrival of the last group, on a flight of their own, down from Boston.

"Godfather, right here, hello!" Zay announced as he and Nadine appeared at the door, him with balloons and her with a teddy bear in a Celtics jersey.

For a few hours more, there was a constant rotation of friends or family members in the room, lending what relief they could, while 'the boy of the hour' continued to let himself be expected. The sun had set, the sky gone dark, when finally, just after ten, the doctor had confirmed what they had been waiting to hear all day: Maya was all labored out, now it was all about delivery. She had thought long and hard about who she wanted in the room with her besides Lucas. It could really only be one more person, and it was one or the other, wasn't it? No one would need an explanation for why it came down to her mother or her best friend of old. And if it wasn't that she didn't want to work her mother up more than she had to, with her own fragile little bun in the oven…

So, it would be Lucas on one side and Riley on the other, each of them in charge of one of her hands, and if she squeezed too hard, neither of them complained. Lucas spent the whole time whispering encouragements at her ear, his forehead pressed to the side of her head, sweat be damned. Maya had never felt so much within and outside of her body at the same time. She was told to push, and push she did, again and again, each time she was told to do it.

All the while, beneath the chorus of her fiancé, her first friend, and her doctor, she urged herself onward, too. She told herself to keep going, for him, for the sprout. I dreamed of you… I know your face and I know your heart. It's been beating inside me, beating with mine… I dreamed of you… I want to know you, little sprout… I love you, I love you… I've got you…

When he was pulled from her, it was like the pull of headphones, out of a bubble of music and into the real world again. And what she heard, what they all heard, shrill and true… It pulled at their hearts and expanded them, bigger and stronger… And then there he was, set over Maya, and suddenly she was touching him, her hand coming gently to his back. First contact…

Lucas didn't know when he'd started to cry, definitely before, but when he saw him, saw their son's face, his little arms and littler fingers, feet, toes, everything… It was a whole lot of everything, more than he could put into words.

"Hi…" he lightly caught his hand. "Hi, Elliott…"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners