Set in the same universe as my other FNL fics, but focused more on Lyla/Jason/Noah before, during, and after The Next Videotape.

November 24th

It was Saturday morning and, like always, Lyla was making her blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Throughout all of the years of her many ups and downs, she had managed to keep this tradition up. This time though, she had turned on Spotify to play some Jack Johnson and found herself inspired to make some banana pancakes too. Humming out loud along to the music, she felt completely happy for the first time in a very long time.

"Hey there, Mrs. Buttersworth," Jason said to her, as he wheeled into the room. He smiled broadly at her, which made her stomach do that familiar little leap. She could remember first feeling that leap all the way back when they were just kids in middle school. "It smells fantastic in here."

"If I'm Mrs. Buttersworth, does that make you Mr. Buttersworth? " Lyla answered, flipping a pancake before leaning over to kiss him good morning. "Hi," she whispered as their lips parted.

"Good morning," Jason replied softly, letting his hand trail along her side. She felt another little leap as she tried to remind herself to focus on keeping the pancakes from burning. Lately, she had a hard time focusing on much of anything besides Jason Street. How had it taken her so long to get here?

She straightened up again to flip another pancake. Jason wheeled forward to open the cabinet, pulling out a bottle of Hungry Jack. "Don't I look like I could be Hungry Jay?" he asked, holding it up to his face.

Lyla groaned with a little laugh. He had the same humor as he did in middle school too. "Mrs. Buttersworth and Hungry Jay, what a pair we are!" She remembered how she went through a phase where she would cook pancakes for them in high school and refuse to eat more than one mini pancake herself. Back then, she felt too worried about what her fellow cheerleaders would think of her rather than whether she actually felt full. Jason would insist that she ate more and would dangle bits of pancake and maple syrup in front of her nose until she'd give in.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Jason fiddling with the spatula. "What are you doing?" She asked him, gesturing toward the spatula. Jason's limited hand control didn't allow him to cook much for them, even though he had tried a few times to create simple concoctions.

"Practicing my signature baking skills for my stint on the Great British Baking Show," he replied, alluding to their newest Netflix obsession. While Noah was over his friend's house yesterday, they'd ended up watching three episodes in a row. This mini Thanksgiving break had been relaxing to say the least. "I really want to impress Paul and Mary."

Lyla lifted the spatula out of his hand to flip another pancake. "You're good at a lot of things, but you'd be atrocious as a contestant on that show."

"Oh come on," he paused, adjusting his voice to the most posh British accent that he could muster. "And then I will add a little more or-eh-gah-no to that savory biscuit!" He smirked at her, proud at himself and his knack for accents. Unlike him, Lyla was hopeless at mimicking other accents no matter how much she tried.

"Want to sample a bite?" She asked him, as she pulled another hot pancake off of the griddle pan. "I won't tell Noah that you got a head start," she promised playfully. She placed the fresh pancake on a small plate that she put down on the counter next to Jason. "I was just thinking about how you used to hold pancakes in front of my nose when I'd hardly eat them back in the day. Remember that?"

"Oh, the good old cheerleader days! Those were brutal. I could hardly get you to eat anything other than salad," Jason laughed. "Not so much the case anymore!"

"Jason! Are you calling me fat?" She said, mockingly offended. Nearly every morning, she started her day with a three mile run and also took time to attend yoga twice a week. She regularly swam laps in the pool too. She felt more healthy and fit than she ever had in the past, even counting those cheerleader days.

"Of course not. Besides I'm a self-proclaimed Hungry Jay, so I can't be talking," he laughed, pinching the fat that he had on his stomach, most of which was from lack of muscle from his injury. Jason played all sorts of athletic games with Noah, which they modified to meet Jason's needs as a high-functioning quadriplegic. He also worked out daily in his own personalized gym. Lyla still felt impressed that they even had their own in-house gym in this giant house that he had designed for them. He acted so humble about it all that she often forgot he was a multi-millionaire these days from all of the athletic deals that he had commissioned.

Pulling out a small batch of bacon from the oven, Lyla arranged everything on a serving platter. "Do you want to go wake Noah up?" She asked him, glancing at the microwave clock. It was nearing ten in the morning. With all of his football and school events, Noah usually had to get up earlier on the weekend these days. Today was a rare full day off following Thanksgiving, which is why she wasn't very surprised when Jason shrugged in response. "Why don't we let him have a nice sleepy morning for once?" She agreed, sitting down in a chair of their little kitchen nook.

Jason grabbed another plate and silverware in his lap before pulling over next to her chair. He put a couple of pancakes on each of their plates. "Hey," He paused, putting his hand over hers for a moment. 'Thanks for making us this delicious breakfast. You're really amazing and I feel so lucky to have you." As silly as he could be, he never failed to create these sweet moments for her where she could feel every bit of his love. He'd stop and look at her like they were the only two people in the entire world for just a moment. He used to do it years ago too, but she thought he'd gotten even better at now, or perhaps she just had learned to appreciate it even more after all of these years.

"I love you, you know that?" Lyla said, as they kissed once again. He pulled back with a smile and took a bite of his pancake. She paused for a second, biting her tongue ever so slightly and contemplating bringing up what she'd been thinking about a lot lately. As much as she wanted to dive into her pancakes, she felt like she had to blurt this out first before she lost her courage. "I've been thinking a lot lately," she said, trailing off.

He paused his eating and looked at her thoughtfully. "Thinking about what, beautiful?"

Now or never. Taking a deep breath, she prepared herself to say the words that she'd been practicing in her head practically since he and Noah had moved to this little Atlanta suburb to be with her. She had done all of the research. She knew that it was improbable and, yet, it had happened before, so that must mean it could happen again, right?

"I know that we haven't been married very long," Lyla said. In fact, they hadn't even told many people about their marriage other than close family and a few friends. After a big wedding and a divorce from Erin, Jason had been pretty clear about his desire to get married with less fanfare. Lyla didn't mind either. She'd been engaged a few too many times without getting to the marriage part and wanted to go about their engagement without as much pressure to have the perfect gigantic wedding. The superficiality of it seemed silly to her after everything that they'd been through to get to this point.

On a Friday night at the beginning of August, they had ended up getting married at a small local church with their reverend, Noah, her parents, Bud (Buddy Jr.), Tabby, her stepfather, Tim, Tyra, Will, and Jason's parents as their only guests. Afterward, they had invited everyone over to their new house for a catered dinner, drinks, and wedding cake. At the ceremony, Jason had surprised her with a beautiful bouquet of sunflowers and lilies. Then, at the afterparty, Noah, with the help of Tabby, had pulled up a surprisingly romantic Spotify playlist over their living room speakers. She even got to have her first dance with Jason, which was perfect. She could tell he felt more comfortable dancing in his own home without a bunch of people around gawking at them. As comfortable as he'd gotten with his disability over the years, she could tell that he still had some difficulty with the staring. At home, they were all able to have a mini dance party in the living room after dinner, which only heated up after the playlist turned to pop country (Lyla's favorite).

"Lyla?" Jason asked again, putting his hand back on top of hers. "You can talk to me about anything," he reminded her gently.

Lyla nodded, as she felt her heart beat a bit faster. The sooner she could get it out, the better it would be. "I know that Noah's a teenager now, but we're still young, you know? Young, hip parents! And I don't know, Jason, I just have been thinking how much I missed out on with Noah, you know? I love him like my own and always will, but I always hoped to experience being a mother throughout all of those younger years too." She took a pause as she saw his eyes widening a little, seemingly in realization of what she was saying. "You remember when we were young, right? How excited I was to even be pregnant when the time was right?"

Jason nodded as she took a deep breath. "Lyla, I -"

Lyla cut him off, exclaiming it in full just to make sure he understood. "I want to have a baby, Jason. And I'm ready, Jason. I'm ready now."

He didn't say anything for a moment, which made her nervous. She knew there was a good chance that he wasn't interested in this too. They hadn't talked much about having more children, focusing more on raising Noah through his teenage years in all of their parenting conversations. For all she knew, he could be past this stage in his life and ready to move onto the next stage following Noah's graduation.

"Please say something," She pleaded, struggling with the anticipation of it all as she waited for him to respond.

Jason leaned forward to pull his arms around her waist. "Of course I want that with you," he said into her hair, kissing her the side of her head gently. He pulled back from her. "Remember the dream we had? The three kids and the white picket fence?" He asked her, still holding one of his arms around her.

"Yes," she said quietly, feeling slightly reassured by his response but feeling like there was more to come. "Texas Forever, minus the Riggins" she murmured.

Jason chuckled. "Oh good ole' Timmy and Texas Forever." He was looking at her in the eyes. "Well, we don't exactly have the white picket fence, but we do have a nice big brown bamboo one, and we may not live in Texas, but our love has gone from Dillon and beyond," he said softly. "I can't promise you that we'll be able to have any more children, Lyla."

Lyla squinted a little, feeling the pressure of tears building. "I knew that you might be past all of this. I get it, Jason." She tried to sound convincing even as her voice broke and a tear fell. It was her own fault for not talking about this sooner. She would have married him anyway though no matter what they had discussed before the wedding. She loved him far too much for any other future to seem like an option anymore.

Jason slid his hand across Lyla's face, wiping away the tear. "Hey, no. Didn't you hear me before? I want that with you, Lyla." He held her hand. "I'm willing to give it our all. Who knows? Maybe it'll be shockingly easy like it was with Noah." He looked away for a second as if he was composing himself. She could suddenly tell that he was also a little choked up. "I just don't know if I can, you know? I always thought that with Noah, it might have just been a bit of a once-in-a-million miracle."

"Oh honey," she said, suddenly understanding what he meant. "I understand that, Jason. That's all I want," she said, feeling herself start to grin. "I just want to try. I thought maybe we could start by even going to a fertility specialist? I read that can often be easier for men with spinal cord injuries than the old-fashioned way." Lyla understood that nothing would be guaranteed given Jason's paralysis, but felt hopeful after reading about similar fertility situations online. Advances at fertility clinics had largely increased chances for fertility for men with similar injuries to Jason. Coupled with the fact that he had been able to get Erin pregnant all of those years ago, they seemed like they could be a promising case.

He smiled at her, "Absolutely." Glancing down at their unfinished pancakes, he took another big bite. "But I was thinking," he started in between pancake bites, "Noah's probably going to be asleep for a couple more hours at this rate. He is a teen after all."

Lyla took a bite of her pancakes. "Yeah?"

"Well, I mean, the old-fashioned way did work for me once before," he said with a coy smile. "We could at least try going at it without condoms as we wait to see that fertility specialist?"

"Already? Right now?" She asked, surprised at his eagerness, but not remotely displeased.

"If you're down to head to our room and reheat the rest of these pancakes later, Mrs. Buttersworth," he said, putting his arm around her waist and pulling her onto his lap. Never had maple syrup seemed so attractive.

"You don't have to ask me twice," she said, kissing him deeply as he started wheeling them toward their bedroom. For him, she'd be Mrs. Buttersworth any day.