Chapter 11
Something New

They had stayed at the house well into the morning of January 1st 2023. They'd remained outside past the end of the fireworks display, until the fire had been getting lower. Once Lucas had put it out properly, they'd walked back up to the house, each with an arm around the other, as he also carried her guitar case. They had gone up to the master bedroom and climbed on to the blankets they'd laid over the bed, bundling themselves up against the chill. They had slept right through the night, waking to a peaceful morning sun. When they had finally convinced themselves to get out of bed, they'd made their way down the stairs.

Along with blankets and clothes and other supplies, they had also packed all necessary materials to make breakfast. Not trusting to the appliances, they had gone back and lit the fire again. Maya had gone walking about while he went about preparing their meal. She wanted to take in the land that would be theirs. Lucas was about to call her back when he spotted her walking almost speedily back toward him. Her arms appeared to be closed over something she'd bundled in her jacket.

"Found this one just wandering around," she told him, and as he walked over, he saw a small dog, a Jack Russell Terrier by the looks of her, maybe one or two years old, nuzzled up against her. "She doesn't have a collar, but she doesn't look like she hasn't been eating. Don't think she's hurt either, no idea how long she's been on her own. Maybe she belongs to someone in the area?" She was certainly energetic. Lucas smiled as she went sniffing at his hand, pressing her head into his palm.

"We can drive around on the way out," he suggested.

"Oh, good, we get to introduce ourselves to the neighbors," Maya grinned. "And you get to have breakfast with us," she pulled the dog from her jacket and set her on the ground. Immediately, she started to run around and bark, though she didn't wander away from the two humans. She would trail after Maya like she was her mother.

The search for the mystery dog's owners had taken longer than expected, though mostly because every house they stopped at would usually follow a pattern. The people there would recognize Lucas at once for a Friar and Joe's grandson. They'd find out about how he and his wife to be were looking to move in to the old house somewhere in late May or early June, right around the time their son or daughter would be born. They'd already be insisting that the two of them come in and have something to eat or drink, and when they'd find out about the dog they would want and set something down for her, too. Maya and Lucas couldn't refuse, so they would go in, spending a half hour or so at every house. None of them were missing a dog, not until the last one.

They knew it was the right place when they spotted a young girl, nine or ten, sitting out front and looking red in the face like she'd been crying hard. Soon as they'd gotten close, the dog had started to fret, and bark. The girl had heard this and looked around until she'd seen the car. Her face had opened right up and she'd come running down the road, stopping as the car did. Maya had climbed out and set the pup on the ground. She took off like an arrow, right into the girl's waiting arms.

"Coraline! You found her!" she cried, hugging the dog who now looked content with licking her face off. "She got scared last night because of the fireworks. She ran and it was dark and I couldn't find her. Dad said I had to wait until morning to go looking."

"I like the name," Maya beamed. "The movie or the book?" The girl nodded happily as she replied that she loved both. "I'm Maya, that's Lucas," she pointed to him as he raised his hand in greeting. "We're going to be living back up the road in a few months."

"The ghost house?" the girl asked, almost reverently.

"No ghosts there, just a lot of dust," Lucas assured her. "And that's all gone now. Are you the Sandersons' granddaughter by any chance?"

"Yeah! My name's Missy… Well, Melissa, but everyone calls me Missy," she explained, in a tone that sounded more like 'that's the name I prefer, don't forget.'

"Well, happy new year, Missy… and Coraline," Maya smiled. "We should see each other around, especially after we move in over the summer."

Little Missy had waved them off after they'd gotten back in the car and started back up the road, and they'd returned the gesture. They were now significantly later than they had planned to return home, which in no way sounded like a good idea with a gaggle of future grandparents already fretting after you. Maya had called both her mother and his, explaining to them both that they were on their way, after a small delay which had nothing to do with the baby.

The rest of their day had gone about as well as any New Year's Day could hope to go, and it had ended with the two of them back to spending the night at the Hunter Hart house. If they had believed that this action would keep them from having to deal with Melinda Friar first thing in the morning on Dress Day, they would come to realize they had been sorely mistaken.

They had been enjoying these opportunities to sleep in later than usual, whether or not they actually took those and only slept until their usual early time. Today, they had managed to sleep in, both of them. Their return had not meant a renewed 'barrier' made of Maya's little sisters. Shawn had convinced them to sleep up in their room the night before, leaving the visiting couple to resume their usually preferred spooning.

When Maya had opened her eyes, the first thing she had noticed was the sound of voices, somewhere outside her room. Turning her eyes up to the alarm clock, she could see it was just after nine. As she lay there in the quiet room, she could just make out the voices. Her mother, her father… and the Friars. Lucas' parents were in the kitchen, bright and early… ready to go shopping.

"Oh, boy…" she breathed. The dogs sleeping in the corner of the room were all staring at her. Ghost, Queen, Tuck… She missed their little fuzzy faces so much sometimes. When Tuck came up to the side of the bed and set his head just on to the mattress, next to her hand, she smirked and set to petting him. "You are such a nerd," she quietly chuckled.

"No wonder he's named after me," Lucas' voice sounded from behind her.

"Your parents are here," she informed him.

"I know, I thought I was dreaming them and then I realized I was awake."

"Today's going to be so weird… Also, if I come back later and I'm a bit overly sarcastic, just don't take it personally, okay?" she sighed.

"Look, just because I can't be there in person, doesn't mean I have to leave you alone with them. You can still write to me and I won't see your dress, whichever one you choose. Besides, just remember that as crazy loud as she can get sometimes, she can tone it down if you really need her to."

"I'll keep that in mind," she nodded before turning over to look at him. "I really wish you could be there today. I mean… pretty much the only reason you're not is because we're both sort of… adhering to this superstition about seeing the bride before the wedding, and it doesn't really mean anything if you don't believe. Except… more than the superstition, I just know how you get when you don't know what's coming, and I want that. I want to see the look on your face when you see me, at the end of that aisle, walking toward you, in my dress. It won't be the same if you've seen it before."

"Fair enough," he agreed. "I could wear a scarf over my eyes," he suggested after a beat.

"I know you would do it, too, but it's alright. I can handle your mother… and mine… and besides, Riley and Sophie a…"

She was interrupted as they heard a knock at the door, followed by the sound of Katy Hart's voice. She had been hearing their voices, so she figured they were awake.

"We should get there as soon as possible, it'll give us more time to look around." Maya stared mutely at Lucas, alerts in her eyes. He smiled, kissing her lightly. You'll be fine.

The store wasn't small, although compared to the store they knew from the television show, it was hard to decide if they could call it big. Maya didn't dare mention aloud that Sophie had volunteered to use 'Air Zvolensky' and fly her back to New York, to actually go to that store. No, they would get her dress here. She felt confident that she would find something great.

The saleswoman had looked across the group as they came in and, when she'd learned which one was the bride with whom she had an appointment, her gaze had zeroed in almost immediately on her small bump.

"When are you due?" she asked, not exactly in the sort of cheerfully curious way she constantly heard, though not harshly either.

"June… 11th."

"And the wedding?"

"September 3rd."

"Alright," the woman nodded. "Please, follow me."

Stepping through the store, she'd felt as though she could barely concentrate, her eyes drawn every which way, stimulated by the sight of so many dresses, varying in styles, in shades, and – she knew – in price. She had a budget, one she had deeply considered before coming in. She knew there were some within the group who was accompanying her today who would practically insist on garnishing that budget, bumping it up far above her own means. Every instinct in her said not to take it, but she knew better than to think that they would back down. The best she could hope for was that they could meet somewhere in the middle. She didn't want to spend a fortune on a dress she would only wear for a few hours. Maybe it was that she was about to have a baby to provide for, while eventually going back to school, but she was suddenly very aware of what money they did or didn't have to spare. All these years she'd had to watch her mother work so hard to provide for her suddenly felt much more real.

Her entourage today consisted of both her parents and Lucas' parents, Mr. & Mrs. Matthews, Riley, Sophie, Chiara, Franny, Kayla, and Nadine. It was a lot, and more than that she knew that more people meant more opinions left to split off in different directions, but they were here with her now and she couldn't imagine them not being there.

"Don't go wandering off all over the place, please?" she'd asked them. "Just stay here, let me look by myself? Just at first," she'd amended, seeing they were about to argue. Finally, they'd all agreed to stay where they were, while she followed the saleswoman.

Melinda Friar wasn't the only one who'd done her research. Maya had been casually looking ever since Christmas Eve, first online, then getting her hands on every last bridal magazine she could find once the stores were open again. She had a fair idea of what would or wouldn't look good on her, what would suit her figure and her height. She had no way of predicting what her body would look like after the baby was born, how long it would take her to lose the weight, but she knew it would all eventually come together for her, once the dresses were on her instead of in pictures.

She had told everything she had figured out for herself to the saleswoman, who seemed to approve of her choices. She brought her to a few different racks, pulling out one dress and then another. She had this sort of 'frail but distinguished' look about her, but wow could she carry an arm load of dresses. She'd brought Maya to a changing room, where she'd stripped down to her underwear before being helped into the first dress.

Maya hadn't known exactly what it would feel like to look at herself in a dress like this for the first time. The fact that her emotions were a bit off the rails these days didn't exactly help either. Part of her kind of hoped she would hate the first dress, that she'd have a strong enough reaction to be able to say 'there, I will not lose it.'

But that first dress had been beautiful already on the rack, and on her it felt kind of wonderful. She'd needed to take a moment and turn her face away, take a deep breath, and another, before she could look at herself again.

"Does this look like something you'd like to share with your people out there?" the saleswoman asked.

"I just need a minute," Maya told her, taking a couple extra deep breaths. She knew that, usually, when a bride would see herself in a dress and she started to cry, it was a pretty safe bet that she would leave with that dress, that it was the one. Unfortunately for her, Maya knew she couldn't trust that reflex, not now. That was why she needed her family, her friends. That didn't mean she wanted to skew the results by going out there with tears in her eyes. When she'd finally gotten a hold of herself, she had left the dressing room and gone to show the others.

As impactful as this moment had been for her, she knew it would run into a few of those out there waiting for her like an eighteen-wheeler loaded with bricks.

Her mother had gotten one look at her and she'd covered her mouth with her hand, unable to hold back the waves of feelings she was experiencing, seeing her baby girl stand before her, a young woman about to be married, about to become a mother herself... Her father had gone into immediate tear-control mode, even as his face seemed intent on splitting and smiling. Lucas' mother looked absolutely gob smacked, her hand clasping her husband's arm at once. His father, meanwhile, looked at his future daughter-in-law much in the way he'd done for years, ever since it had become clear that she would one day be part of the family, making her as good as the daughter he'd never had. Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, who'd had a similar affection for her from the day she'd crawled through their daughter's window, whether they knew it or not, looked much the same. Riley was just grinning, and it was kind of perfect.

"Right, be honest, just… not too honest, okay? I break easily these days."

She watched now as they all sort of took a moment to consciously tone down their initial reactions and actually look at her in that first dress, which was potentially the most nerve-wracking thing so far today. They were all looking at her, like really looking at her, and she could only stand there.

"Could really use some words," she incited them. "You know, before I actually have the baby and all…"

"It's… nice," her father finally offered. To anyone else it might have sounded like he didn't like it at all but didn't want to disappoint her, but she knew him enough to know that unless she came out here wearing something truly ugly or distasteful – which was not her intention – then he would like everything she showed him, because even though she was the only one of his children he was not related to by blood, she had been the first person he had the privilege to call his daughter, and that made her special all on its own. She raised her eyebrow at him and he apologized quietly.

"Anyone else?"

"It's only the first one we've seen," Melinda told her, sounding like she expected Maya to try on no less than fifty… or a hundred. "We need to be able to compare this one to the others."

"How about she puts on another, and we look at that one, and we can say which one we liked best of the two," Nadine offered. "And then whichever one wins out gets pitted against the third, and so on…" Maya tilted her head at her. "Unless, of course, you find the one you want for sure, and then we'll all be with you," she added with a smile.

"I can work with that," Maya declared, looking around to her people. There seemed to be some hesitation, some of them maybe wanting to have more say in the matter, but finally they all agreed. "Great, then I'll be back," she carefully came down from the small platform and returned to the dressing room.

The second dress she was made to try never made it out of the dressing room. Maya had taken one look at herself and knew it had been a total miss.

"Okay, we have to hurry and get me in the next one or they'll know we skipped one and they'll want to see it anyway," she looked to the saleswoman, who seemed to be coming around to her way of thinking. She showed once again that she was a pro at her job, helping Maya out of the second and into the third-heretofore-known-as-second dress in record time. By the time they'd leave the store, Maya would be pretty certain the saleswoman, Selene, may have been her idol.

Dress "two" had been good enough to show everyone, though it soon found itself in a heated match with dress one. Suddenly, everyone was very opinionated, and Maya was briefly speechless, listening to the back and forth between the supporters for dress one and dress two. When it came down that her twelve landed in a six-to-six split, it came down to her – finally – to cast the deciding vote. She looked at herself in the mirror once again. If she was honest with herself, she hadn't had as strong of a reaction to this one as to the first. She'd liked it enough to show it, but she still remembered how the first one had felt. Was it just that it had been the first, or could she actually have found her dress on the first try?

Okay, maybe not, but it definitely won out for her over this one, so she cast her vote for number one and the cycle started again, with her and Selene doing their thing in the dressing room. The first couple ones had been a bit overwhelming for more than one reason. She had never worn a dress she couldn't just slip on by herself. By the fourth – no, the 'third,' – the novelty had started to wear off and she could concentrate a bit more.

"Woah…" she breathed as she looked at herself in the mirror. Now she was sure that the last one had not been meant to stay, because this one was getting her heart going again.

"We're showing this one, are we?" Selene asked with a knowing smirk.

"In a minute," Maya nodded. "I just need to…"

"I'll be right outside if you need me."

Maya watched the woman step out and shut the door before turning to look at herself again. Her bump was playing its 'tiny but mighty' card, and of course it didn't close as it would when it would be fitted to her post-baby body, whatever that was, but… but… She could see his face in the back of her mind. Lucas… She saw him, and she imagined him seeing her, and… Was this it? Had she actually found it? Had she…

She dared herself to look at the price tag and blinked. She'd told Selene her budget, had even bumped it about five hundred to give her some cushion. This one went a thousand over her cushion. She might have picked up the wrong one, or maybe she'd misheard, or…

When she stepped out to show her next dress, it wasn't number 'three.' That one was still in the dressing room, but when the saleswoman had come back in, Maya had asked her to help her out of it. Selene had looked surprised, but only briefly, and then she'd helped make the switch.

What followed was an hour of dress after dress, and a continuing battle as each new dress faced off against the one who'd previously won, sometimes taking over the top spot, other times failing to make enough impact to become anything other than the next one eliminated.

Maya hated every minute of it.

It wasn't that the dresses weren't beautiful. Most of them were genuinely stunning, and they looked it on her, made her friends and family react in a constant flow of awe. But… they weren't the dress. Specifically, they weren't that dress, the one still in the changing room. She had dreaded from the start that something like this would happen, that she'd get attached to a dress she wasn't supposed to, that it would ruin any other dress' chance of grabbing her attention in the same way. It would be a dive deep into a never ending vortex of indecision and then she'd either have to settle for the next best thing and be miserable for it, or she'd have to leave empty-handed today and try again, probably in Houston, after they'd gone home.

In that hour, she had gone through the load brought in by Selene, and then had gone about trying on the dresses that the others had finally been 'allowed' to go and find and get her to wear. She did her best to look a bit more interested here, unable to disappoint them too much. By the time she'd gotten through the last of them though, as she sat back in the changing room in nothing but her underwear and the robe Selene had given her to wear while she considered things, she just couldn't do it anymore, couldn't try on one more dress. She sat there, alone, absently running her hand over her belly as though she tried to remind herself she wasn't alone, and she wished he was here with her… Lucas… She reached out for her phone, sticking out of her coat pocket.

Maya: :(

Lucas: That bad? Was it my mother?

Maya: No, she's actually been great.

Lucas: So what's the problem?

Maya: I made THAT mistake.

Lucas: How much?

Already 'talking' to him made her feel better, just a bit. She appreciated in particular that he understood exactly what had happened.

Maya: Somewhere between 'uh oh' and 'holy crap.'

Lucas: How many dresses did you try on?

Maya: I lost count after twelve, maybe twenty…

Lucas: Which one was it?

Maya: If anyone asks it was the third. Between you and me it was the fourth.

Lucas: So you tried on maybe sixteen other dresses and none of them worked?

Maya: I looked like a fluff ball in one.

Lucas: How fluffy was it?

Maya: Like a giant's powder puff.

She laughed, breathing out. She waited for his next reply, all the while looking to the holy crap dress hanging across the room. All she kept thinking was 'why did you have to be so pretty?'

She was still waiting for a reply when there was a knock at the door. Selene had to be wondering what was taking her so long, and she really didn't know what she was going to tell her.

"Barely met the woman and I don't want to let her down…" she muttered to herself.

"Maya?" She blinked, head turning back to the door.

"Mr. Friar?" she stood up and moved to stand by the door, pressing her hand to it like she needed to make sure he wouldn't come in and see the sorry state she was in. "What are you doing back here?"

"Well, you've been back here for a while now, and we were wondering if everything was alright." She hesitated. "Maya, if you are getting overwhelmed, you don't have to make a choice today."

"I know that…" she spoke quietly, looking back to the dress hanging near her.

"Or maybe, and this is what I'm thinking, you did make a choice, but you won't let yourself go through with it." She felt like a gaping fish, looking for words, but the silence spoke for her. "How much do you need?" Mr. Friar asked. She sighed, but she told him. Including the 'cushion,' it was more than what she was putting into it, not even including alterations and any other fees… "Okay, so here's what's going to happen. Melinda and I will put in… five hundred. Your parents will do the same. The Matthews have asked to put something in as well if they could. They'll be good for the same. How are we looking so far? Do we have a deal? Oh, and my father is happy to pick up any extra." He paused. "You still there?"

"Yeah…" she replied, her voice warbled with tears.

"You got any tissues in there?"

"Yeah," she laughed through her tears. "C-can you find Selene?"

"I'm here," the woman's voice sounded from outside the door, and Maya took a breath.

"Mr. Friar, go back with the others, please? I'll be out in a minute."

She felt almost shy about putting it back on, like she still felt deep down that she shouldn't, or maybe the opposite, like for as much as it meant to her when she'd first put it on, now it meant that much more because of the generosity of others. They might not have seen it that way. They would just have called it love, for her, for Lucas. But she wanted to do right by them.

"Selene, do you have all the other stuff, you know, the accessories and…"

"You just breathe now, Miss Hart, and let me do my job," Selene gave her a small smile.

So, she breathed, and she let her do her job, closing her eyes when she was told to close them and waiting… waiting… If this was the show right now, she thought, there would be that song starting up in the background, like 'here's the big moment.'

Maya still felt as though her heart was going a mile a minute as she carefully made her way from the changing room to where the others waited for her. There was a small moment where she feared maybe she would have gone through all this fuss and then they would see the dress and tell her she was mad. She squashed that thought as soon as it formed itself though. She may have been shaky with her emotions these days, but under all that she was still Maya Hart, and she could do confidence.

When they saw her, she doubted it was the work of her confidence alone that had their faces fill with awe the way they did. She could have ticked them off a list, like dominoes, as one by one they felt that swell of emotions, tears rising out of them… If she couldn't feel her wild beating heart she could have thought it was some fever dream.

Katy Hart and Melinda Friar both stood at the same time, but as they paused and looked to one another, Melinda smiled and signaled for her to go ahead. Katy approached her daughter, taking her hand to help her off the platform before hugging her close.

"Thank you," Maya whispered at her ear.

"I would have done it for you even if we'd never come here, do you understand me, baby girl?" Katy whispered back.

"Yeah…" Maya sniffled, nodding.

Given her chance now, Melinda Friar had come forward, beaming from ear to ear as she pressed her hands to either side of her future daughter-in-law's face, touching her forehead lightly to hers for a second before looking back at her. For being known as the one with so much to say she almost had too much to say, right now she was actually speechless, and it touched Maya more than anything she could have said. She always wondered why people got so emotional over this moment, but right now she thought maybe it was just… a giant step toward the leap to come, the midway point between a past that ran the length of hers and Lucas' lives, and a future that would outlast them all.

Tom Friar came up to her now, and he had that knowing smirk about him that always reminded her of Lucas, so she had to wonder…

"He texted you, didn't he?"

"Would you believe me if I told you I didn't see his message until after I spoke to you?" he asked, hugging her before stepping back to get another look at her.

"I guess we'll never know," she smiled, even more so as she saw her father stepping up toward her. His eyes were red, just a bit, like he'd either gotten too little of sleep or too much of drink, or in this case an expected number of tears. "You okay there? You need a minute?" she teased him, grinning.

"I'm going to need about eight months," he replied, taking hold of her.

"I'll give you eight months and a day, and then I'm coming for you again."

By the time they left the store, Maya was wiped. She slept on the ride home, waking up just as they were pulling up to the house. Walking in, she found Lucas sitting on the couch, MJ asleep across his lap. The twins sat on the ground, eyes glued to the television as they watched a little curly redheaded girl sing about Tomorrow. As her mother carefully picked up the sleeping boy and carried him up to his room, Maya went and sat on the couch with her fiancé. Eight months and a day, she thought, as she dozed off. We can make it.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners