Chapter 34
A View of the World

In all the weeks and months leading up to their move from Houston back to Austin, both Maya and Lucas had, at one time or another, envisioned their first morning in their own house, just the two of them, the dogs, and the sprout growing inside his mother's belly.

Lucas had imagined waking up as they had once down, big spoon and little spoon, her body curved to his and his arm around her, cradling her round belly along with her, sunlight streaming through the window, the quiet of morning in their corner of the world. He would make her breakfast, which he would bring up to her to eat in bed. They would eventually start casually opening boxes, start to unpack and make the house even more their own. The reason everyone had worked so hard before the move was so that they could have this time now, to relax and prepare themselves for the birth of their son, after which life would take on that special brand of chaos that came along with a newborn, and they would be as prepared for it as anyone could expect to be, as first time parents.

Maya's dream saw her walking peacefully through the house, bare feet acclimating themselves to the floor underneath them. She would stand outside the front door, with her bowl of cereal, and she would look out at the land beyond their house, feeling for the first time now that, for all the twists and turns brought on by the last several months and the prospects of the months and years to come with their boy, in the end they had landed in as favorable of a position as they could hope for. This was even beyond hope, wasn't it? They had this great house, and the thought of raising their sprout in this place… It only made her ponder a future where there would be more little sprouts along with their firstborn.

Their first morning in the house started just before sunrise, when Maya felt a pain that woke her up at once and briefly took her breath away.

"Lucas… Lucas, wake up," she reached back to shake his arm. He was so exhausted after the day before that he was in a much deeper sleep than usual, or else he would have bolted upright at the first sound of his name. In this case, it took him a while longer to actually hear her say his name, wake up enough to hear what she was saying. "Lucas, get dressed, now!"

Now he sat up. He still had sleep in his eyes, but he could see her sitting there, holding to her belly. She wasn't in distress, not exactly, though she was working extra hard at breathing properly.

"Wha… Is this for real?" he bolted to his feet and came around to where she sat, legs dangling over the edge of the bed.

"I don't know," she admitted, shaking her head. "Maybe… maybe it's not but… oh…" she breathed deep for a moment before continuing to speak. "The hospital's not that close, and if it is real, it'll take a while for an ambulance to get here, or…"

"O-Okay… okay… Let's go then," he looked around, remembered they hadn't unpacked yet, and just hurried to pull on his clothes from the day before. Maya just had him help get her shoes on and grab her bag, and then he helped her toward the stairs. She was still in her tank top and PJ pants, but she did not care to try and change right about now. Already, the prospect of going down the stairs was not one she was looking forward to. What if the baby just… popped out… and smashed his little head on the stairs? That was not how she wanted him to enter the world, and so she kept her legs as close together as she could, which did not help to get her down those stairs.

As soon as they'd reached the bottom, Lucas had briefly left her there to go and get the car started and closer to the door. When he came dashing back in, he found her sitting on the bottom stairs, running her hand along the curve of her belly.

"I've got the car…" he moved to help her rise, but she shook her head.

"It stopped…" she told him. "It wasn't real, it's fine…"

"Are you sure? Maybe you're just between…"

"No," Maya assured him, pulling at his hand so he'd come and sit next to her. "It was just a false alarm. No baby time." She'd already had time to come off the panic mode she'd woken into. It took him a minute or so to get to that point along with her. Once he did, he went back out to stop the car before coming back inside and shutting the door which had previously been left open. He sat with her again, getting hold of her hand.

"That was…"

"Yeah… Not exactly how I pictured this day going," she turned a weak smile toward him. He reached over and cradled her head, kissing the side of it.

"Rough start, but it's still early. The sun's just coming up, want to go see?" he pointed to the door. "It's a little cooler out there right now."

They got up, and he took her to sit out front. They watched the sun rise together, trying to chase away the last of the anxious feeling brought on by their false alarm. Now that it had happened here with him, Maya felt able to tell him about the first time she'd gone through something like this, at the university, with Professor Robinson. She told him about how badly she'd been afraid, how it had just taken her over, overriding any sort of rationality in her until she was just sitting there, trembling and clueless. It had all been so new to her at the time, so at least they had that much on their side. It hadn't been new to her anymore, not this time around. As startling as it had been, she'd been able to keep a more level head, and she'd known soon enough whether it was real or not.

Maya didn't want to go back in just yet. It was as Lucas had said, the weather was nice this morning, the breeze… well, it existed, for one, bringing relief from the heat, although the cover from the roof did that as well. She wanted to stay here and enjoy it. They needed to start unpacking, she realized that, but she didn't feel she had the energy for it right now. She wasn't hungry for breakfast yet either, nor was Lucas, so they stayed as they were, plotting out what they would do, later, as they went back inside to tackle the first of their boxes. A system was developed, to ensure that they would get the house as uncluttered as they could, as soon as possible. Lucas and the others who'd been here the day before had done some of that, and they had helped with boxes a bit, too, but those had mostly been things that anyone could place, like dishes in the kitchen. Even that, he suspected, would need to be moved around, to his and Maya's preference.

"Do you want me to reschedule with the others again?" Lucas asked, as he brought out breakfast for the two of them, an hour or so after their false alarm.

"No, I'm good, I'd like them to come," she smiled. "I should try and go to the pool, get some exercise in… You could come with me."

"For water aerobics?" he asked, and she nodded, biting back a smirk. "Yeah," he nodded firmly. "You're on." She laughed.

They'd let out the dogs after Lucas had brought their plates back inside. Trix and Lou were very eager to go and explore their new surroundings, whether or not they understood that this was what it was, that they were here for good, to stay. Maya and Lucas both kept their eyes on the pair of them, making sure that they wouldn't wander off too far.

As they were watching the two of them chase after one another, a new dog came into view, barking and running in their direction, like it was eager to say hello to these new dogs it didn't know. Instead, it moved right past them and straight toward the house, up the stairs and toward Maya, who recognized the Jack Russell Terrier in a split second, even though she hadn't seen her in five months.

"Coraline…" she beamed, as the dog came up to her, a giddy ball of fur who definitely remembered her, too. "Hey…" Maya laughed, carefully reaching to pull her up into her arms. "Did you run away again? You're not supposed to do that, remember?" she laughed, as the dog gave her some good kisses in greeting. "Yes, I'm happy to see you, too." Trix and Lou were a bit less certain about this new dog getting up there with Maya and with the little one they had so valiantly guarded all this time. Lucas, who'd recognized the dog, too, was settling them down even as he looked back to the road. With any luck, the pup hadn't so much run off as he'd just gotten ahead of her owner.

When he spotted Missy Sanderson jogging up the road, he waved his arm to get her attention and she hurried over. The ten-year-old lived further up the lane, with her parents and her grandparents. They had seen her a few times after the morning of January 1st, when Maya had found little Coraline, after she'd wandered off the night before, afraid of the New Year's Eve fireworks. They'd met several of their future neighbors before finding the house she belonged to.

"I saw you come yesterday," Missy told Lucas when she reached the house now. "I wanted to come and say hi, but my grandma said I should wait and let you settle in first." She briefly looked past Lucas, through the screen door, like she would see some sign that, yes, they had settled in, so she was allowed to come over now.

"Here," Maya smiled, patting the seat next to her. "You thirsty?" The girl nodded. Maya looked to Lucas with a 'pleading' smile.

"Lemonade sound good?" he asked Missy, who nodded once again.

"So, what are you up to today?" Maya asked their young neighbor. Having her around made Maya happy in a way she couldn't explain, although she could say it was the mother-to-be in her just… flexing her muscles. Anyway, after the way her morning had started, she wasn't opposed to having someone like Missy Sanderson around, with Coraline the dog – named after the character, book and movie. This gave her an idea.

"Nothing," Missy shrugged. "I have to go to ballet class after lunch," she frowned.

"You don't like it?" Maya guessed.

"No, I do," Missy insisted, her face a giant 'but…' Maya looked at her and waited to hear it. "The other girls don't like me."

"They don't?" Maya asked, like this just didn't seem possible. Eventually, Missy amended her statement.

"Lana and Piper don't like me."

"And the rest of the class does what they say?" Maya guessed. Missy nodded. There's always one… Sometimes there's two… "Did you tell your parents?" Another nod. "What did they say?"

"That I shouldn't pay attention to them and listen to my teacher instead. But… they won't leave me alone." As if being bullied wasn't bad enough, it was also making her not want to do something she actually loved. It made Maya so mad, and if it wasn't that she wasn't exactly in a state to do anything to help the girl today, she would so have marched into that classroom and set those little ballerina twerps in their places. It might have been then that things would turn around for Missy, and for her other classmates, who probably just didn't want to incur the wrath of 'Lana and Piper.' She still didn't know Missy all that much, but she would have wanted to help her even if she'd just met her, because who wouldn't?

"I'm sorry it has to be like that. Just keep doing what your parents said. And if it doesn't work, then talk to your teacher, okay?" Missy turned to her. "There's no shame in it," Maya assured her, as Lucas returned with lemonade for Missy and water for her. "Until then, do you think you could help me with something? It might cheer you up a bit…" The girl was intrigued at once.

There were fifty-two books in Tracy's box. It could have been seen like a sort of 'one book a week' thing, except that some of the books would only be for later, as the baby grew out of his infancy, into a toddler, a small child… The box had been brought back into the nursery, so the books hadn't been sorted yet, or put on their shelves. When Maya asked Missy if she'd like to help her do that, the girl was on board at once. For about an hour, they sort through the books, figured out how to best organize them, and then they had been put away to create a very nice display indeed…

"Can I read to him? After he's born?" Missy asked as they made their way back down the stairs.

"You know what, that would be great, yes, thank you," Maya beamed.

Missy and Coraline were sent off with a wave soon after this. Maya truly hoped that this buoyant little mood of the Sanderson girl's wouldn't be crushed by the likes of Lana and Piper.

While Maya had been seeing to the books with Missy, Lucas had been working to sort of just get everything in a position where they could then open the boxes they meant to open first, while the others would be kept out of the way. Depending on how everything else shaped up, they could then open those last boxes at their leisure.

It was easy work, heavy at times but nothing he couldn't manage. Mostly, it kept him busy, which was good. Busy meant something to focus on, and he kind of needed that right now.

If he was honest, the false alarm had rattled him more than he'd expected it might. He'd read about those, and he understood what they were and what they weren't. But then one of them had happened, and just… Seeing Maya in pain, not even a huge pain as the actual delivery was going to be, but still more than he had yet to witness, it had pulled everything into alignment. The birth was getting closer and closer now, and with it came potential… for good and for ill, too. It had been easy up to now to picture that day, imagine himself holding her hand, encouraging her, as she breathed, and she pushed, and then… then there would be the sounds of a baby's cries, and they would put the little guy on her chest, and they would welcome him, and everything would be wonderful. Maybe that was self-preservation more than anything, stopping either of them from considering the other things that could happen. The baby could be in distress, they might need to cut him out of her, something could be really wrong with him, or with Maya, or both. Something… he could lose them…

He knew that he wasn't helping any of them by sinking down that line of thought, but he couldn't help himself. He couldn't bear the thought, he…

"Hey… Missy just left, are you hungry? There's… a lot of options in the fridge and I'm feeling a bit more energetic than this morning, I can make you something." Lucas looked up from his stack of boxes. Maya stood there, smiling back at him.

"I can do it," he went over to her, looping his arms around her waist. She looked down, amused as ever by how her belly bumped into him. "I'll make us something, yeah?" Maya looked back up at him now, really looked at him, with that quiet observation of hers.

"What's the matter?" she asked, reaching up to touch his cheek. He leaned into the touch but he shook his head, didn't want to get into it. He didn't have to though. She could see it in his eyes. "That really freaked you out this morning, huh?" He let het a breath, unable to meet her eye. "Hey…" she tapped his cheek with her fingers, gave his ear a light flick.

"Ow," he complained flatly, even as he smiled.

"That's what you get for ignoring me," she 'scolded' him. "I'm okay, Lucas. We're both okay, me and the sprout." He sighed, looking at her, trying to pull in that confidence she had, to let it echo on to him, too. He just felt so helpless at the thought that anything could ever happen, to either of them.

"Can you promise me you'll stay that way?" he asked, in such a way that she'd know that they both knew the answer to this. She bowed her head now, and he lowered his until their foreheads could meet.

"Who can promise anything ever?" she spoke after a while. "The only certainty I know in this world, here and now, is that I love you, and I love him," she indicated her belly. "And that you feel the same." He absolutely did, and he said it even if he didn't need to. "I'm scared, too, you know that. There's so much out there for us to read about, hear about, and it's one thing to get informed, but… mostly it just puts ideas in your head you'd much prefer not to have."

"Yeah…" he frowned. In one of his many information deep dives, he'd ended up on a trail of so many things that could go wrong, the closer they got to her due date. He wanted to know all the signs, all the ways he could help if something went wrong. And then this morning, something had happened, even if it had turned out to be a false alarm… and he'd been useless.

"Lucas?" Maya asked after they'd trailed into silence again. He looked up at her. There was something serious in her eyes, and he didn't think he'd like what she had to say next. "I need you to let me say this once, okay? I know your instinct is to brush it off, not to get into it, but I need to say it, and I need to know that you understand, and that you'll hear me, okay?" He knew what she was going to say, and she was right, he didn't want her to say the words, because once she did, once he agreed, if he agreed, then he'd be bound to them. "Okay?" she asked again.

"Okay," he repeated, his voice barely audible. Maya took a breath, soaking up comfort and courage from the feel of his arms around her. She didn't want to say those words either, he knew. But they were important enough that they made her discomfort insignificant.

"If… If something goes wrong, when the baby comes… If it gets really bad, and… and they have to choose, between him and me…" She was staring him right in the eyes, and he could tell she was on the verge of tears. "You tell them, you make sure that they help him first, that they do everything to save our son." He was moving right now. Their sprout. Lucas could feel him, with her belly there between them. It made him start to tear up along with her. "Say it…" she insisted, her voice softer now. "Please…"

"Him first…" He said it. His voice strained against it but he said it. After he did, Maya tilted her head and kissed him. He kissed her back, holding her close. This was the certainty, right here. He loved her, he loved them both. As for the rest… He could only put his faith in hope.

"Can we pretend that tomorrow is our real first day?" Maya asked after the kiss parted. It brought a small laugh out of him, beyond all expectations. That was Maya right there, her power.

"We absolutely can."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners