A/N: One day behind...

A/N2: The new chapter of "We Three Hearts" is now available!

July 29th 2023

Chapter 210
We Open Our Hearts

After the freshmen would clear out of the art room, Maya would do a quick pick-up of what might have been left behind… or a not so quick pick-up if there had been a big spill or a mess. Depending on the situation, she might leave things off for nearer to last period with juniors, where she would also do the set-up for their class before they started to arrive. And in between, well… She didn't have her younger daughters being brought in for a visit anymore, but she did have her eldest, with her youngest…

"Maya, Maya, Maya, wait up!" a voice cut through the busy hallway and made her stop to turn. You had to hand it to Haley, she was sufficiently spatially aware as to weave in and out and reach her big sister in record time.

"Woah, hey, you didn't forget anything in there, I already…" Maya chuckled when her little sister stopped in front of her, like a rush of wind.

"Madelyn… baby… go time," Haley managed to tell her, struggling not so much for a lack of breath but for an excess of thoughts.

Maya knew what her little sister wanted in coming to tell her. She knew, and she wanted it, too. How could she not? Her very first instinct was to run out and drive to the hospital, to be on hand if her student or her family needed anything. But she also knew that this was as unreasonable for her to do so as it was for Haley to do the same, so for all she knew of her sister's desires and how it would be a very stressful few hours for her, she had to tell her to get back to class, this on the promise that as soon as last bell was out, all she had to do was meet her in the parking lot and they would go. Haley wasn't happy – she was never going to be – but she finally agreed. They both had a very agonizing sort of afternoon but, finally, last period let out. To no surprise, Maya found her little sister already leaning against her passenger door when she stepped into the faculty lot. They were about to pull out into the street when Haley spotted the other girls hurrying out as fast as they could go. Of course, Marie and Max had to go.

They must have been quite a sight, the two very pregnant teenagers especially, as they arrived at the hospital. Maya had experienced something like this in the past, for sure, when a friend or sibling went and had a baby when she herself was about to as well, and the reaction was the same here, people accosting them at every turn, looking to help. It got to the point that, the moment anyone would look at them, Haley would stare at them and insist that everything was fine, that these babies were just fine right where they were for the time being.

They finally came to find Madelyn's room. Even before they made it to the door, they could hear her voice from within. They didn't need to be able to make the words out to get what was going on. Madelyn definitely had not had the baby yet, and she was having anything but a good day. The mounting of pain, and exhaustion, and – admittedly – fear was getting to a point where, as well intentioned as they were, her parents were making things worse for her. She needed them to stop, either that or leave the room outright, which was going as well as one would expect. Catching all this, Haley hurried ahead of the rest of them and disappeared into the room.

The Carters came out into the hall a few seconds later, and as frazzled and overwhelmed as they were, they didn't look overly upset at being ejected. They were concerned for their daughter, as they should be, but they also understood that she was going through something massive, and they were big enough as people to know when to step aside. They weren't what their daughter needed just now.

Had they not been in the hall at that time, it might have been that much more confusing for Maya and the girls standing there to look on as they were joined by an unexpected pair. August and Milena Matthews were walking in their direction, at a hurried pace that matched their own, the pace of those who wanted nothing so much as to arrive in time for this birth. Neither Maya nor the other Mamas knew why they were there, and Marie and Max didn't even know who they were, but it took next to no effort to understand why they might be there and what for. It just came out of nowhere, enough that Maya doubted even Haley knew about it. They were here, the two of them, for Madelyn's baby.

They had clearly met the Carters before, from the way Madelyn's parents reacted to their coming. They were still having to adjust to the idea of their daughter's child ending up in another family, another home than their own, but they also looked contented with the people who would become the soon to be born babe's parents.

While Haley remained in her best friend's room with her, the others went and sat together, the better to have the story out in full. Marie and Max were surprised to hear that August was their teacher's son, though once they knew there was no way that they wouldn't catch on to some similarities between the two of them. This was something absolutely not lost on Madelyn, thanks to Haley. Madelyn had expressed very early on in her pregnancy that, while she would carry her child to term and give birth, she had no desire to become a mother, not now, and maybe not ever. How was she supposed to know what her future would hold, at her age?

Either way, the thought had been there all along. And after a while, Haley had this thought. She thought of her friend Hunter, of his family, who were really as good as hers as far as she was concerned. And she thought of Hunter's big brother and his wife, who were foster parents and adoptive parents, too. She hadn't immediately put out the idea of August and Milena taking in Madelyn's baby, but she had worked up to it, once she knew that her friend would be ready to at least discuss what would happen after she had her baby. In the beginning, as much as she seemed to know what she wanted, she also hadn't quite made it to setting anything at all in motion.

But finally, she had made it, and this had led to her being put in contact with the young Matthews couple. They had been surprised, too, at first, but then the more they'd gotten to speak with Madelyn, they had all gotten to feel like they had been right there, all of them, at the right time. Now, Madelyn's unborn child had an abundance of family waiting for the moment of his birth, whether he'd ever know it or not.

It became very clear that they wouldn't see Haley again until after the birth, that she would stay with Madelyn and help her through her labor. Maya felt very much like she should have been there to back her little sister up, and their parents felt the same, as they came to join the waiting party. There was this feeling for sure that, if anyone would be able to sit through the ordeal and be the hand that Madelyn needed, it would be Haley, but if both girls' ages had ever felt starkly obvious, this was for sure the biggest one yet. There was a lot of that talk going around when looking at the likes of Marie Nilsson and Max McAllister, too, but then Madelyn Carter… For Maya's part, and Lucas as well, once he arrived, too, it likely didn't help that she had known her as long as she had, which was not that long in the grand scheme of things, but right here… She could still see her as a child, and she felt that way, too.

"Oh…" Max spoke up after a while, and everyone turned to her with the same thought etched in their eyes. They had assumed that she'd felt something, that they could have had two Mamas giving birth that day instead of one. She reassured them with a quick shake of the head that it wasn't that, and she pointed down the hall for them to look.

When they did, they were treated to a sight they would likely remember all their lives. Haley Hunter, she of the porcelain face, looking both tired and wide awake as she walked toward them with a bundle in her arms. She had for sure been crying, but now she was just in shocked awe as she advanced. Confirming Maya's earlier thought, she spotted August and Milena, and her eyes said that, even though she had absolutely been informed now, she hadn't known until this day that her best friend had actually picked them to be her baby's parents. She just came up to the group as they stood up and waited for her to reach them, focused again on the babe in her arms. This right here, this was as young as she'd ever looked in this. She was finding it difficult to think about handing off the child.

"She… she asked me to bring him to you," she told August and Milena. They nodded, looking down at the newborn with tears welling up in their eyes. At the same time, they showed immense reverence toward the Carters, leaving it up to them to come up and see their grandson, if briefly. They would be given all the time they needed, and they would likely have taken so, so much more, but in the knowledge that there was to be an end to this, maybe they decided that it would be easier not to draw it out for too long.

They would have gone back to see to their daughter by the time Cory and Topanga brought their grandsons to meet their baby brother. Grandsons… It seemed like only yesterday when they had adopted Toby, and now they had done the same with Mason, their older foster son. Now, the nine-year-old had the five-year-old Toby for a little brother, and this newborn boy for another. He still struggled at times with knowing where he fit in, but that day, with the five of them brought together, it really felt like the easiest thing to know. He fit in with them, with his Mom, his Dad, and his brothers, not one of them sharing blood with any of the others but in every way a family. Looking on, the others heard them discussing the all important question of what this boy would be called. It was really the first time that Milena and August would get the privilege of naming one of their children. The two they had now had come with theirs attached to them, but Madelyn had no desire to pick one for her son, and so it was up to them.

"Did you see him?" Madelyn asked when Maya went in to see her. She was sitting up in her bed, looking about the way she was bound to look after the day she'd had, but also kind of relieved… unburdened. She'd done her part, and it wasn't as though she would bounce back immediately, as though nothing had happened, but she would not feel guilty for carrying on with her life.

"I did," Maya smiled at her.

"He's pretty cute, isn't he?" Madelyn gave an optimistic smile.

"Yes, very," Maya chuckled. The girl's smile wavered for a moment. "He looked perfect. He's doing great," she promised.

"I know…" Madelyn nodded. She still looked like there were too many thoughts in her head just then, and whatever the other ones were, the one she shared was a question that had obviously been stuck in her mind all along. "Did they say what they were going to name him? Did they decide?" She got a nod, and she looked like she wouldn't rest until she knew, so Maya filled in the all important blank.

"Adam, after Milena's grandfather," she told her. Madelyn sat there a moment, looking like she was rolling the name around in her mind, tying it to the image she had of her son.

"It's a good name," she decided.

"It suits him," Maya agreed, coming up to the bed. "Have you slept at all since…"

"No," Madelyn told her. "I keep trying, but I can't. Where's Haley?"

"She'll be back soon," Maya told her.

"Okay… Okay…"

By the time Haley did return to the room, Maya had aided in her best friend's finding a path toward dozing off, so the sisters stepped out, the better to leave her to it. This was the first time they were on their own, and at once Haley put her arms around her sister's neck, so Maya pulled her near.

"I can't believe you did that as much as you did," Haley stated, and Maya couldn't help but chuckle.

"Three times, yeah," she had to confirm. She wasn't even going to imagine what it might have been like to have the triplets as she'd done the others.

"That was so…"

"I know," Maya agreed. "I've been on both sides. It's a lot no matter where you are."

"I don't know if I could…" Haley breathed.

"Maybe you will, maybe you won't. You've got time to figure it out, okay?"

"Yeah… I'm going to stay here tonight, as long as they'll let me. I already told the Carters I'd stay with Madelyn at their house as much as possible, too," Haley went on. She would probably have stayed with her and not gone to school if she could, but that was never going to happen. This, at least, would be something that she could do.

When they left the hospital, hand in hand, both Maya and Lucas had enough of a similar look to them that they didn't have to ask what the other was thinking. They kept weaving in and out of the subject, as they had done, it felt, for a couple of years already, and it really got to feel as though, if they didn't make something happen soon, they would have to go and put a cross on the entire matter. That wouldn't be such a bad thing, wouldn't it? They had so much to be grateful for already.

"You know, I've been hearing… sounds," Lucas reported. Maya stared at him, squinted.

"Sounds? What sounds?"

"Teeny tiny fairy feet," he told her, and she snorted. Yes, December was right around the corner, wasn't it?

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners