Chapter 22
Learning to Breathe

"Do you see it?" Maya asked, looking to the screen as she tried to position herself in some way so that the camera would manage to capture the movement of her belly as she felt the baby moving within her. She could see it very well, and it was so captivating for her to consider her small boy of a sprout in there as she could actually watch her skin move, but then whether that movement translated to what her father would see on his computer screen, back in New York…

"I do, I see it, right there," Kermit pointed with an awed sort of smile. "He's active."

"You have no idea," she chuckled as she moved to sit again. "Sometimes it feels like he might actually burst out."

"Like Alien," he smirked.

"Why does everybody say that?" she cringed.

"Sorry, sorry," he held up a hand in apology, and she smiled. As disturbing as the image he'd conjured in her mind could be, it also came in the middle of their latest call, and all she could think was that it had all been getting more and more anticipated. She didn't know what she'd been expecting, when she'd agreed to have these weekly calls. Did she tell herself that it would all go horribly and she'd just end up telling herself 'there, see, I was right to keep him away' or something?

Instead, what she was getting to feel, beyond her wildest dreams, was that this whole 'probation' thing she had him on might now be getting to a point where they could take a few more chances. And she was about to take a real big one.

"I know I didn't come on my due date when I was born, what about Sam and the others?"

"Oh, well Sam was actually born right on the day we were expecting him, smack in the middle of it. We used to joke around and call him the Bullseye Kid," Kermit revealed, making her laugh. "Now, Cara, she came twelve days late," he went on, and Maya felt immediate sympathy for Abigail. "You know Abby, she's one of the most calm and collected people I've ever met, but those last days she was just beside herself, trying anything to get her to come."

"What finally did it?" Maya asked, but just as soon, "On second thought, maybe don't tell me."

"Okay," Kermit nodded. "After that… Eliza came a whole six weeks early," he told her, and she hated that she had a list of potential problems rolling through her head automatically, from all she'd read and watched in the last months. "She was… so small, I'd be scared to even touch her, but then they'd put her on my chest and we'd sit there, me and her," he recalled, touching his chest where she would have been with a smile. "Then Wyatt, he came four days early. After the girls, with one very late and one so very early, we didn't know what to expect with him, but he hung in there until near enough to the date that the rest didn't matter."

"Right," Maya breathed, considering all this. What it really boiled down to, she guessed, was that there really was no telling. They had a due date, sure, but odds were that wouldn't end up being her son's birthday. It made planning some things a bit more complicated, especially one thing.

"Why'd you want to know?" her father asked, like he'd sensed her question was only half asked at this point.

"I have a friend, her mother's this business woman who has to travel a lot for her work, she's got a lot of money and a lot of access to planes," she started, and she could see her father wasn't sure where this was going. "So, if on the day that I go into labor, when it's the real deal and the baby's coming, I were to ask her to set up a flight, for six passengers out of New York to fly to Austin…" She looked at him as he processed this, as he got to understand what she was getting at.

"Six…" he repeated, and she nodded. "That's… the kids, and Abigail, and… and me?"

"I… I'd like that, I mean… if you all could be there," she told him, feeling as though they were both holding their breath at the same time. Kermit responded at first with a nod, looking as though it was all he could do for now, or else he'd cry. Finally though, he pulled himself together.

"You just give me a call, tell me where that plane is, and I'll get us there." That was the gamble, right there. She had asked, he had promised. Now she had to wait and see if he would keep it.

Her conversation with her father left her with a lot to think about, beyond the invitation she'd handed him. As to her involving Sophie and her mother's access to planes, there had never been any sort of concern. Later that day, when she'd asked Sophie about it, she'd been saying yes almost before Maya had the chance to finish her question. But after that there was something else, something she hadn't even considered up to now, and she was sort of upset at herself for not even considering it.

All this time, they had been working toward getting things ready for them after the birth as far as the house, and Lucas' transfer. He'd started looking for jobs, too. Jobs, two of them, plus school, plus her and the baby… As much as she hated the thought of him wearing himself too thin, she couldn't pretend like it wouldn't be necessary, if they intended to support themselves and their son on their own as much as possible. They'd been preparing for all that, and then they'd been doing everything to ensure their boy would be born healthy, and that they would know how to care for him. They'd taken a first-aid course, and they had other pre-natal classes still to attend, and over at the house, in the midst of the work he and the others had been doing, Lucas had integrated child proofing into all the rooms they worked on.

All this work, all this preparation, and something had completely escaped them. All their people were here, in Houston. The friends they'd made in those classes they'd already attended were here, as would the people they'd meet in their next classes. It wasn't as though they'd stop talking to them once they moved back to Austin, but they would be two hours apart, and she wouldn't have that circle they'd sort of grown to appreciate.

"Then let's find a class out there," Lucas simply told her when she mentioned this to him.

"What, on the weekends while you're working at the house? It has to be both of us," she pointed out.

"If it's in on the weekend, I will go with you instead of going to the house," he shook his head. "If it's on a weeknight, we'll just go. You wanted to take those classes at the pool, let's see about the classes they have back in Austin."

"That's so much driving though…" she hesitated, even though the prospect was one she already felt would make sense.

"You call it driving, I call it spending time with you and making sure we get what we need," he shrugged. It made her smile. "Okay? It's not a problem," he promised, moving up to her until he could kiss her.

"Okay," she breathed and nodded. "But that's not the only thing. What about Dr. Wilkes?" He opened his mouth to reply, but then he closed it again, realizing what she meant. He almost did a perfect 'smack your hand to your forehead out of sudden and complete understanding that you messed up.'

All this time, they had been going to Dr. Wilkes, and it was sort of understood that she'd be the one delivering their baby boy. Except on the day their son was born, unless he came remarkably ahead of time – which they did not want – then Dr. Wilkes would be here, in Houston… while they were back living in Austin.

"I didn't even…" he finally spoke. "We must have talked about moving back home at some point in an appointment, right?"

"Not really, no," Maya shook her head.

They kind of loved Dr. Wilkes. She'd always been so good to them, especially in winding back whatever thought was presently worrying them when Maya alone or Maya and Lucas went in to her office for one appointment or another. As good as she was though, she would still be miles away when their baby would be born, which would mean they'd need to find someone else.

"I'll have to tell her when I see her next week." This would be one of those appointments where, due to conflicting schedules and availability, Lucas wouldn't be able to go with her, and much as it never made him happy to have to miss any of those checks, this one only made him feel worse. They'd forgotten something important, and he should have been there with her when they dealt with it. Seeing his face, Maya had sort of guessed this concern playing at the back of his mind. She had a quick fix for this. "I'll call my mom, see if she wants to come along, make an afternoon of it."

On Friday afternoon, after both of them had finished classes for the day, they'd gotten in the car and started off for Austin. After a weekend off which had quickly turned into less of a relaxing thing than they would have liked, he could have taken another week off, but then all this talk about the things they had miscalculated, coupled with the fact that Maya was coming to cross into her thirtieth week, it only heightened the knowledge that they were running out of 'before' time. They were moving in a little over five weeks, and much as he intended to make a big push once that happened, he didn't want to rely on that and end up trying to bite off more than he could chew. His father had told him, on one of their past weekends at the house, that it wouldn't be a good idea anyway if he went and exhausted himself out just before he ended up with a newborn to look after.

Besides, this weekend was not one they could skip, and on the whole they wouldn't even be getting to do that much work on the house. There were other plans. They were supposed to look in on the venue for the wedding, they had to see about invitations… and he had job interviews. He'd managed to line up three on Saturday and four on Sunday. He hoped that, from all of this, he would be able to lock down everything he needed, but if he didn't then he'd have to keep at it the next week. As it was, he was barely managing to put in any time at the bookstore or the clinic, and if it wasn't that he had very understanding bosses on both sides, he would have lost those jobs a long time ago.

As for Maya, Isabel had worked it out with her so she'd get paid leave even though she wasn't going back to work for her, but even so, between the two of them, they weren't pulling in that much, which left them trying not to draw so much attention to it that their families would feel the need to step in again, but at the same time they really needed to stay on top of things, which meant he had to find work in Austin.

"I could write songs!" Maya declared out of the blue while they were driving.

"You do write songs," he pointed out, not sure whether she was getting specifically forgetful or if he just wasn't getting what she meant.

"No, I mean for other people," she explained.

"Oh…" he blinked. That actually made a whole lot more sense. And it might have been a pretty good idea. "You could try and sell some of your art, too, couldn't you?"

"Yeah, yeah!" she tapped his arm and grinned like 'good thinking!' He smiled back at her. He always liked seeing her in a good mood, but this was even more than a good mood, it was a plan, it was inspiration, and that was where she shined the brightest. "I can start now, and I can do some more after the baby's born while I'm at home with him, and…" She trailed off in thought and he looked at her again.

"What's up?" he asked.

"I just went down a sort of thought hole about when I'll have to go back to school, and work, and I'll have to leave him. He's not even born and I'm already developing 'issues,' great…" she groaned. Lucas was caught between finding her cute and not wanting her to worry herself too much, but then she shook her head sat back up. "Not there yet, not gonna start with that," she declared. "I need… Can you get my bag?" she asked, once traffic had forced them to slow to a stop.

"Yeah," he reached into the back and got the bag,

"Get the green notebook there, with the pen clipped in the ring, it's all I need." He pulled it from her bag, set the bag back down, and handed the notebook and pen over, just in time to move forward again. For a while, she wrote and wrote. It looked to him more like a list than anything else, but she looked satisfied with it, and that was all that mattered.

Whenever they'd be back in Austin for the weekend, it would usually start with dinner on Friday, either at her parents' house or his, but no matter which house they were at, both families would always be in attendance. It was without contest their favorite part of those visits, enough that they were already aiming to keep the practice going once they'd moved into their house. Once that happened, maybe they'd get to play hosts on every third Friday.

This week, they were eating at the Friar house. They were greeted as ever by the eager future grandparents along with their future roommate/great grandfather to their son. Pappy Joe was very clearly looking forward to his relocation. He would move in the day after Maya and Lucas drove in from Houston with the last of their belongings. From what they saw on this Friday upon arriving at the house, he was already set to go. He'd packed up most of his room, save for the things he'd still absolutely need. He also had some boxes in the basement he'd have to bring over, but those had stayed there ever since he'd moved in untouched. Both Maya and Lucas could tell he was looking forward to unpacking these the most. They contained a lot of memories.

"How's everything going with you two?" Tom Friar asked his future daughter-in-law, indicating her and that prominent roundness of hers.

"Trust me, you really don't want to hear about what I'm dealing with these days, symptom wise," Maya bit back a laugh. "But I can tell you all about him," she nodded, pointing to her belly with both index fingers. "He is enjoying the Resort Hotel Maya… Swimming laps, hitting the gym, bit of trampoline… Just good times all around."

"Is that so?" Tom chuckled.

"It's alright though. As far as I'm concerned, he can keep on enjoying the place for another couple months and I'll be happy to host him."

When Melinda Friar came along to greet them, she hugged her son and asked how he was before moving on to his future wife, embracing her before pulling back to get a look at her and starting in with questions about how she was doing, how the baby was doing, all the while showing absolutely no shyness about reaching to touch her belly, hoping perhaps to feel some movement from her grandson. Maya had long needed to reconcile herself with allowing certain people 'freedom of the belly.' Unlike strangers and passing acquaintances, in their case it was more than warranted. All future grandparents and aunts and uncles and close friends had this freedom, true, but 'Granny Mel' absolutely took the most advantage of it. At least Maya had Lucas there to spot when she needed to be cut off by being given something new to think or talk about.

The Hunter Harts were not far behind in arriving for dinner, which made for more congestion in the Friars' front hallway, as the Houston pair were greeted by a couple more of the future grandparents, but also the soon to be Aunt Nellie and Aunt Gracie, and of course the very young Uncle MJ. The twins had the benefit of being quick and small, and they used it to reach their older sister first, two pairs of small hands reaching up and planting themselves where they could.

"Hey…" Maya laughed, reaching a hand to each of their heads as they looked up at her with clear eyes and happy smiles. "Not worried anymore?" she looked to Gracie, who had yet to get entirely used to the feeling of the baby moving. Maya still got a smile, recalling how she'd just yelped and backed away the first time she'd felt a kick. Her sister shook her head.

"Mommy says it means that the baby likes us."

"Yeah, he does!" Maya assured her. "You're going to be super aunts," she promised with a touch of drama, which appeared to please both of the soon-to-be four-year-olds.

"He doesn't kick now," Nellie informed her, sounding a bit disappointed.

"I think he's sleeping," Maya explained. "Don't worry, he'll do it later, just wait and I'll let you know, okay?" They nodded, and she was finally able to greet her parents and her little brother. He was one and a half, their MJ, or near enough to it, which was just beyond her… At some point while she'd been talking to her sisters, he had ended up in Lucas' arms. She wasn't surprised at this, and she gave him a look that said as much. MJ, with that blond hair and those blue eyes, looking so much like his mother and like his big sister, had not taken long to settle in his mind like a prelude to their own child, already months ago, when their sprout had still been a secret to his future grandparents.

"You know you're making it kind of hard for me to call you 'kid' anymore," Shawn declared as he came to greet her, with that wistful sort of dad look in his eyes.

"Please keep doing it forever," she told him. If he only knew how good it felt sometimes, throughout these months, to be embraced as someone's child, even as she was preparing to become someone's mother. When she found herself turning to her mother, she got some more of that, and she appreciated every second of it. "We're still good for Wednesday, right?"

"I will be there, I'll pick you up from school," Katy promised. "Haven't done that in a long time."

When the subject had come up, over dinner, that Maya and Lucas were looking to find some prenatal classes and maybe some water aerobics, Katy had quickly jumped in with suggestions, for places to go as much as for places to avoid, and she offered to take her around a couple places the following morning, an offer which Maya took at once.

The next morning, Maya woke up to no Lucas at her side but three eager dogs staring back at her from her bedside. It always cheered her up beyond measure to be reunited with Ghost, and Queen, and Tuck, and she reached out her hand, which signalled them to come nearer. Pulling herself in a seated position, with her feet reaching the ground, the dogs huddled around her and she petted each one in turn. She was still at this when Lucas returned, she discovered, from having taken a shower.

"Well, good morning to you, too," she had to tease him with a smirk. He walked over, leaning over the dogs to kiss her and raining droplets of water on her and the dogs, who either took offense for it or did just as Trix and Lou did back home.

"Help me pick a shirt?" Lucas asked, moving to the dresser. They both had some of their clothes at all times in both his old room at his parents' house and her old room, here at hers.

"A shirt that says 'please hire me, I'm about to have one more mouth to feed?'" Maya guessed, still casually petting the dogs. "Where are you interviewing today?"

"Uh, a bookstore, an office, and a pet store," he listed off.

"All good things," she nodded. He held up two shirts. She made an innocent face. "I need to see them on you."

"You have seen them on me," he pointed out. She shrugged.

"I forgot… Pregnancy brain, you know," she smiled.

After a brief fashion show, the outfit was selected, Lucas finished getting dressed, and once Maya was ready, too, they went off to have breakfast with the family before he had to head on his first interview. Shortly after he'd gone, Maya left with her mother to go and check out the places she had to show her. She guessed if there was one upside to the fact that they needed to do this now all of a sudden was that she got to do these things with her mother. Even though they had gotten to see each other over the last few months, and she'd been able to call her for anything, it had still felt as though what she was missing all along was the chance to experience some of the things that were happening to her with her mother by her side.

"Once you've seen your doctor back in Houston, I'll see about getting you in with Dr. Tanaka. She delivered Nellie, Gracie and MJ, and she is wonderful," Katy told her as they walked out of the building where Maya had just signed herself and Lucas up for four consecutive Friday evening prenatal classes. It would mean starting their family dinners a bit later than usual, but everyone would understand and it wouldn't mean another trip into Austin every week.

"I remember her, she was really nice," Maya replied, feeling a small release of stress at the thought of passing from Dr. Wilkes to someone who wasn't a complete stranger.

When they reached the indoor pool, Maya was reaching for the door when she spotted someone moving to exit from the other side, and in the pause they both took before figuring out who would go first… they recognized each other.

"Ainsley!" Maya smiled, looking to her former classmate but also to the toddler in her arms, who looked about a year old.

"Maya, hey!" Ainsley smiled back, approaching her even as her gaze couldn't help travelling down to her belly. The two of them hugged briefly before making introductions.

"This is my mother, Katy," Maya told Ainsley. "Mom, this is Ainsley Ellis. She graduated with me and the others."

"Thought that might be it," Katy nodded, holding out her hand to shake, which was made just a bit complicated for Ainsley, between the boy lightly dozing in one arm, and the large bag hanging from her other shoulder, but they managed.

"And this little guy is my son. His name is Cameron," she declared with a proud smile.

"He looks just like you," Maya beamed. "I…" she started to ask, some quick math happening in her head. Her former classmate understood this soon enough, so she filled in the blanks.

"Found out I was pregnant a couple months after prom, so that changed a few things," she explained with a nod. Maya remembered Ainsley was supposed to go to school in New York. "But that's alright, we're making things work, me and him." She didn't elaborate, but Maya took from this statement the likelihood that she was raising the boy on her own. If he'd been conceived at prom, Maya remembered who Ainsley's date had been and… well, truth be told, she couldn't say she was surprised he'd bail on her. "Cam turned one last February. Day after Valentine's, go figure. And now you," she nodded to Maya's belly, detaching them from the subject of her own baby story. "Are you and Lucas Friar still…"

"Still, very," Maya confirmed with a nod and a smile, tugging the chain with her engagement ring from under her shirt.

"Wow, that did not come from one of my counters," Ainsley admired the ring. "I work at the mall, jewelry section," she explained. "Anyway, congratulations!" she hugged Maya again. "When are you due?"

"June," Maya replied, smiling internally as she still just heard Melinda Friar calling him her Junebug. "Boy, too," she added, which made Ainsley smile once more.

"We should get together sometime," she went on, like a grand idea had come to her. "Anything I can do to help, or… Wait, aren't you guys out in Houston now?" she recalled.

"We were, but we're transferring back in a few weeks, so we can be closer to our families again," Maya told her. This made Ainsley reach into her pocket, pulling out her phone and briefly scrolling through her contacts. She showed it to Maya. "Yup, still good," she nodded. "Yours?"

"Hasn't changed either. Call me anytime."

"You, too," Maya told her, beaming.

After Ainsley had headed off with her son, Maya watched her go. The two of them had been standing there, talking to one another, and she couldn't actually see her own face as the conversation had gone on, but she had a feeling the two were similar. They were both in need of a circle of friends, of mothers like them. And now they had found one another, which was a start.

When Lucas returned from his interviews that afternoon, he looked somewhere between anxious and motivated. Maya asked how it had gone.

"I don't know, good, I think, but… You know when you look at the person that's giving the interview and you just can't say if they like you or not? That was me, on all three of those. I think I did well, but I'm not going to know for sure until they call me back… if they call me back…" He sat next to her, sparing a moment to greet the sprout before turning back to look at her. "What about you, how did it go today?"

"Good," she nodded. "We've got our classes, Friday nights, managed to get in on one that starts next week. Mom said she'd try and get me in with her doctor after we see Wilkes on Wednesday. Then we went to the pool and guess who we ran into." He had nothing. "Ainsley Ellis."

"Oh, how's she doing?" he asked, recalling their former classmate. He'd known her since they were both very young, having been in classes with her older sister, Allison, until he'd repeated the seventh grade and found himself trailing another Ellis girl.

"She has a one-year-old son named Cameron." He blinked, surprised. "She didn't say, but my money's on Brian Connelly." Lucas' face scrunched in dislike. "Yeah, I don't think he's in the picture anymore. Anyway, we didn't exactly exchange numbers because we already had them in our phones from high school times, but we're going to try and keep in touch. She's living back here now, so once you and I move into the house…" she smiled.

"Definitely," he agreed.

"Also, signed up for the water aerobics class, Saturday and Sunday mornings," she revealed with even more pride. They didn't even have to make any extra trips into the city, they were going to be here anyway. "The woman I talked to said that once I started to go I'd be able to pick up on some things I could do back in Houston throughout the week, to keep things going, and then here, too, after the move."

"I love seeing you like this," he told her, holding out his arm until she scooted herself nearer.

"It doesn't suck," she agreed. "You're going to crush those interviews tomorrow. What do you have for those?"

"Another bookstore, animal shelter, vet clinic, and the museum," he listed off. The last one, he knew, would make her smile. She kept referring to it as 'the return of the blazer.'

"You need to practice, you have to be rusty after two years."

"Who says I have to be rusty?" he asked, in mock affront.

"Me, I just said it," she looked up at him, stuck her tongue out.

"I'll take that challenge. Loser gets a foot massage," he declared, making her sit up again, while he moved to aim this speech at her belly. For the next two hours or so, she sat there on the bed, while he laid on his stomach and spoke at their son, telling him all about an exhibit he couldn't even see in such a way that he might as well have been looking right at it. All the while, Maya would smile, or chuckle, at once impressed that he really did remember it, and also amused at the exaggerated voice he provided for their sprout. When he was done, he looked back at her and she pressed her hands together in a bit of golf clapping.

"I take back everything I said," she bowed her head. "But I did lose, so…" she wiggled her toes.

"I will humbly accept victory," he gave a slight bow before moving to sit at the foot of the bed and pulling her right foot into his hands.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners