Chapter 37
Generations

The door had opened to reveal Lucas on his crutches, escorting her mother and stepfather into the room, and Maya felt a swell of pride in her like she hadn't known she could feel. She felt it though, sitting up in this bed, holding her child and preparing to present him to the people who had raised her, for twenty-one years or eight, it didn't matter. They had been responsible for making her into the person she was now, much of it, and if not for them then she might not be holding this baby boy right now. It brought tears to her eyes, and she wasn't the only one shedding a few just now.

"Hi," Katy spoke quietly, for the baby's sake as much as the sleeping Riley's, no doubt. She came up to her daughter, kissing the top of her head and looking at her with a weepy smile before looking down to the bundle in her arms. She just had to take a deep breath, taken with the rise of emotions.

"Here, take him," Maya smiled, watching her mother nod to herself before reaching to carefully take up the bundle from her. The baby gave a small sound of distress for being moved, but Katy soon had him comfortable again, and soon he calmed, reassured by his grandmother's hold. Shawn stood at his wife's side now, and to see that look on him, of pure and instant love, just as he'd had upon the births of his and Katy's own children…

"Hey, little guy…" he smiled, looking on to his first grandchild like he might have been Maya's greatest creation yet.

"Oh, I think he might have your smile…" Katy declared, still enthralled with the newborn.

"Does he?" Maya asked, looking back to Lucas as he moved to stand with them and see for himself.

"If you knew how many hours I spent just looking at you when you were small like this… That's you right here, I'd put money on it," Katy declared. "You just wait, baby boy," she told him.

"Elliott," Maya spoke, drawing her parents' looks. "His name is Elliott," she smiled, watching them as the name seemed to imprint itself in them. That was their grandson's name.

"Hey there, Elliott…" Katy looked back to him, yawning, his little hands close to him. "It is so nice to meet you. Early, too, we weren't expecting you for a couple of weeks. You're as sneaky as your mom was when she came around."

"You say sneaky, I say eager to meet people," Maya lifted her chin with a confident smile.

"Yeah, okay," Katy laughed, gazing back to the baby with a look like she didn't want to let him go even as she passed him on to Shawn, lightly fixing the cap on his head once the transfer had been made.

"Okay… I know I didn't see your mom when she was this small, but I have to say I kind of see it, too. I know that smile," he bowed his head to the baby with a smile of his own. Watching Katy first and now Shawn holding their sprout, Lucas could see why Maya had wanted to wait to introduce him to them until now. He knew he would have regretted not being there, not being awake, as this encounter happened. Seeing people become so happy, so full of love, that they started to cry… that was one of the most special things in the world as far as he was concerned, and Maya's parents did not disappoint here.

"We stopped by the house on our way in this morning," Katy revealed, after Maya had told her about the night before, the delivery, the feeding…

"Did you bring it?" Maya asked at once. There had been one thing she'd wanted to pack to bring along for this day, but there wouldn't have been space enough as it was, and in the haste of their departure no one had thought to grab it, but it had been important to her to have it, for Elliott.

"In the waiting room, with the girls," Katy replied.

Two minutes later, the two new aunts were escorted into the room by their mother. They carried a bag between them, a handle to each, no fuss. The baby was now back in Lucas' arms, so that Nellie and Gracie Hunter might be lifted by their parents to sit with their big sister, say hello, and give her a 'present.' Really, the object inside the bag belonged to her, seeing as she'd made it herself. The knitted blanket may not have gotten much use on these sweltering June days to come, but here in the hospital it could at the very least be kept with Elliott. Maya had become very skilled with her needles over the past seven months, to no one's surprise, really. And after a few trial runs she had completed The Blanket as she'd seen it in her head all along. It had meant a lot to her that he should have it.

"Thank you so much for giving me this," Maya smiled, looking from one twin to the other, kneeling on either side of her.

"Where's the baby?" Nellie asked eagerly, sounding as though she'd remembered at the last second that she'd been instructed to keep her voice down.

"He's right there," Maya laughed, motioning to Lucas. He came closer to the bed as the girls turned their heads to look for him. "Here, ooh… okay…" Maya lifted up Gracie from the other side of her legs and brought her to her side so they'd both be close as Lucas brought Elliott where they could see him.

"He's little," Gracie declared.

"Yeah, thank goodness for that," Maya lifted a look to Lucas, making him smile. "He's called Elliott," she went on, and the girls happily greeted him by his name.

"Can I touch him?" Gracie whispered up to her sister.

"You can touch him, you can even hold him," Maya promised. Nellie raised her hand. "You, too, Sunny. Just one at a time, yeah?" She had seen her little sisters hold MJ when he'd been a baby, and it had been so special, but it was a whole other kind of special now, to see them hold her son. He'd been given to Gracie first, right where she sat, next to Maya, who could then make sure everything would go well and be discreet about it. They had then alternated, the baby moving from Gracie to Maya, and then from Maya to Nellie once she had come to sit where her twin had just been sitting.

As discreet as they'd managed to be, Riley had woken up to find the Hunter Harts still in the room. She'd been convinced to go on home to her parents, to have a proper sleep, maybe a shower to freshen up. Shawn would drive her, while Katy took the twins back to the waiting room. They didn't want to leave their little nephew, but they'd agreed in the end, knowing it had to be the other people's turn now.

"You need a break?" Lucas asked, once it was just them and the baby again. He was in her arms now, tentatively wrapped in the blanket her parents had retrieved, while the temperature allowed it. He looked good and snug, and she looked eternally happy for it. "I can ask them to wait a bit," he gestured in the general direction of the waiting room.

"And bring on a Melinda Riot? I'll be alright," Maya laughed. "What about you, El? Ready to meet more people?" They looked at him, waited. "I think we're good… Bring it on."

One thing was for sure, when Lucas headed out to find his parents and bring them in, they were ready. He barely had a chance to spot them that they'd spotted him, and his mother got up from her chair, followed by his father a moment later, and then his grandfather. He gave them a nod, and they were coming. The room already showed signs of them. They hadn't been here, but their gifts were, as predicted. Balloons, flowers, and a teddy bear on the oversized side…

"I'd ask if you're ready to meet him, but I think I have my answer already," Lucas teased before opening the door and limping his way in. He caught Maya's eye as he walked in, a silent sort of 'brace yourself' which only served to bring her a new smile as her future in-laws came to find her sitting there with their son.

As loud as Melinda Friar had been upon learning that she was to be a grandmother, here she was properly silenced, taken in by the sight of this small boy, the son of her own not so small boy. It was a generally accepted fact that Elliott Friar was one cute baby, though this hardly factored in the effect he had on everyone that day. He was here, and that was enough. Still, in one way or another, whenever they'd see him for the first time, it would be with some variant like…

"Oh, he is just precious…" Melinda Friar had a hand pressed to her heart, laughing eyes brimmed with tears. "Hello, sweetheart, hello," she looked to him, before he was once again offered out to one of his grandmothers. She did not have to be asked twice. Melinda picked him up, blanket and all, and she was just… happy.

Everything they had come to know of her after all these years, it all said in no uncertain terms that Melinda Friar would have had such a large family if she could. Circumstances had left it so that she only ever had the one child, biologically or otherwise, but in return she just radiated maternal energy enough that all of her son's friends had always felt at home at the Friar house. Then, of course, she'd all but adopted Farkle Minkus and Ray Choi as part of the family, one for the summers he had spent with them in previous years, and the other for having lived with them until he left for college, after his parents had kicked him out of the house upon learning that he was gay. Now this boy… their boy's boy…

"Mom, Dad, Pappy Joe," Lucas came around the bed, standing before his mother, lightly touching the baby's head. "This is Elliott… Elliott Lucas Friar," he smiled. He'd never made a secret of his intention to carry on the tradition, along with the others of now four Friar men in this room who had their father's name as their middle name. Still, to finally just say it, announce it, there was new pride in him, as there was in his mother and father and in his grandfather. "You alright?" he asked his mother, trying not to look so amused for how she just seemed to be rendered speechless for how much she felt in that moment, holding her grandson. She could only nod, and after a few minutes more she just had to sort of take a deep breath and remind herself there were others here who'd want to hold baby Elliott… and maybe the sooner she handed him over, the sooner she'd get him back.

"Would you look at this little man," Thomas Friar seemed lit from within as he received the boy into his arms. He was a natural, plain and simple, with just as much excess of parental spirit in him. Maya remembered so much how welcoming he had been of her, way back when she'd been new in time. He was nice to all of his son's friends, more than nice, but with her it was like… he knew she needed more, just as he knew that he had it in him to give her that. It was never in any way condescending, it was just… him… And now, as he held her son, Maya knew the boy would grow up to be the light in his grandfather's eyes as much as he would look up to the man, and rightly so. He and Melinda would be top of the line for babysitting, they knew. It wasn't like they'd never leave Elliott with his maternal grandparents, but they would already have three, soon four young children to look after, so why add one more too often?

On top of that, they did have their soon to be 'live in' great grandfather as an option, too. Pappy Joe was only supposed to move back into his old home, to join his grandson and his fiancée, after the baby was born. Now that this had been moved up, they would have to figure out what it would mean for Joseph Friar, but that was not going to be decided today. Today would be for meeting this great grandson of his.

"Hold on, now, let me sit first. Last thing I need is this leg to give out," he shook his head, moving to the chair where Riley had slept for the last few hours.

"Dad, your leg's fine," Thomas assured him, but Pappy Joe just shook his head and insisted. When Maya chuckled from the bed, they looked at her.

"Santa's ready to receive," she gestured to the old man in his seat, and they all laughed, seeing now what she'd seen. The sudden outburst of sound startled Elliott, who almost instantly started to wail, and oh, how it immediately pulled at the new parents' hearts.

"Give him here, Tom," Pappy Joe motioned to his son, who'd already started working to calm the boy. "Come on, right here," Pappy Joe nodded, and so Mr. Friar set the crying child in his father's arms. "You're alright, there now," he held him close, rocking him, the picture of calm, and soon the cries subsided into small noises and then all was well. Pappy Joe looked up with a smile, like 'See? Not a problem.'

"Show off," Lucas smirked. "They would get along, wouldn't they?" he turned a look to Maya, who looked like she'd had the same thought he did and was now trying not to laugh either.

"What do you mean?" Melinda asked, curious to get the joke.

"Santa and the E.L.F.," Lucas spelled it out, and off the look his mother had just now, they had a feeling that there would be several 'elf like' clothing in this boy's future holiday seasons.

The never-ending parade of families carried right along. After the Friars had finally returned the babe to his parents and gone out of the room, Lucas had once again gone to escort the next group. In this case, he brought Kermit and Abigail and the rest of Maya's siblings.

When he'd made his way over to the waiting room to get them, the four kids had already been on their feet, like they knew it was only a matter of time before they got to go see their sister and her baby and they wanted to be there as soon as possible. Abigail was still sitting, though keeping her arms around her younger son, Wyatt, to ensure that the four-year-old wouldn't shoot off like a rocket at the slightest indication that their turn had come, which soon proved to have been a prudent choice.

"Easy there, you," she'd laughed, picking up the boy even as she stood up. At her side, Kermit sat, back hunched and head bowed as though off in his own world. "What's the matter?" his wife asked, as confirmation that they could go see Maya had not raised him from his seat. Lucas could tell she was trying not to sound in any way concerned, even though her mind was clearly going the same way that Lucas' own went just now. Was something going wrong again, his illness? Three of his kids had no idea about any of what had been going on with him, and the last thing they wanted…

"I'm alright, Abby," he finally got up, and his posture said it all. It wasn't anything to do with his condition, not physically. He was just overwhelmed about being here, in this moment in his eldest child's life, something he might have missed out on if he'd kept to the path he'd foolishly followed for so long. Lucas had already seen for himself just how much it meant to him, with how he'd stayed overnight out here. All morning, he'd sat here and waited his turn, and now… When Kermit caught his eye, Lucas gave a nod and a smile. She's waiting for you.

"What's his name?" Eliza asked, the eight-year-old keeping pace alongside Lucas and his crutches.

"Maya will tell you," Lucas promised her. "Won't be long now."

"Does he have a lot of hair?" the girl continued her inquiries anyway.

"Not a lot a lot, but some, yeah," he chuckled, recalling his own curiosities on the subject. In that short time he'd spent in the room, just him and the baby and the sleeping Maya, he had pulled the small hat from Elliott's head to find a fair amount of golden hair now sticking up for the disturbance. He'd straightened them up as best he could before putting the hat back on.

"I know how to change a diaper," Eliza informed him.

"Good to know," Lucas nodded.

"Can I hold him?"

"Of course," he gave the girl a smile, which she returned, showing that smile that was so like Maya's… and now so like their son's, though he hadn't specifically smiled just yet. He could still see it. When he told Eliza about this, just before they reached the room, she looked like she was one good gust of wind from flying on the power of her giddiness.

Each group he'd brought along had the same initial reaction when they walked through the door, and this one was no exception. They came in like they were stepping on hallowed ground, quiet and unhurried, as they approached the bed where Maya waited for them, bundled babe in her arms. She was all smiles as her siblings came in ahead of their parents.

"Hey…" she spoke quietly. It was the first time she got to see them since they'd flown in the day before, and she reached out one hand to motion them forward. They didn't have to be told twice. Sam, Cara, and Eliza came to the side of the bed as a group, looking in on their brand new and very first nephew. Maya was forever sold on the notion that you would never find so eager aunts and uncles as the little ones.

"Is that him?" Eliza whispered.

"No, Lizard, they let me borrow another one," Maya joked, and for a moment her little sister looked like she believed her. "Yes, that's him," she laughed.

"He's so cute," Cara declared, looking at the boy curled against his mother like she was so happy to think he was related to her.

"I think if you don't tell her what his name is pretty soon, Eliza's going to explode," Sam informed his big sister, all the while looking as though he was trying to catch the baby's eyes and make a funny face at him. Eliza gave a nod to show she agreed on this assessment.

"Is that right?" Maya chuckled. "I'll make you a deal. You wait, not even a minute more, and you get to hold him second. Good?"

"Who's first?" Eliza asked before she would pronounce her answer. Maya smiled at her before lifting her eyes past their heads to the man just a few steps behind. "Okay," the girl finally nodded, stepping back with her siblings as their father came along. There were tears in his eyes, balanced to his smile. She had thought ahead of his arrival, scooting herself just enough over in her bed so that someone might be able to sit on that free side, letting no uninformed parties wondering why he would choose to sit before ever letting anyone put that baby boy in his hold.

Maya did this now, passing her son in his blanket over into her father's arms before wiping a few tears from her own eyes. The way he looked at him, she had a feeling Kermit was noticing just as Katy had done that their grandson had their daughter's smile. This time around, rather than to announce it to the room as before, Maya thought to lean in and whisper at her father's ear. They had come so far in the last few months, him and her, and it felt to her that he had earned this privilege. When she told him the name, he looked back at her, his smile expanding.

"That's… That's what I wanted to call you, if you'd been a boy," he revealed. She blinked.

"It is?"

"Yeah," Kermit nodded. "Never even told Katy, once we knew what you were. When we were going to have Sam, it almost came up, but it never felt like we should. Maybe this is why," he decided, looking to his grandson again. "It was always meant for you, one way or another."

"Dad," Eliza appeared again, by the bed, like her patience had been spent and now she needed to know. "What'd she say?" she whispered. Kermit looked back to his eldest, who nodded.

"She said that this little guy's name is Elliott." The news was well received all around, as the newly appointed uncles and aunts gladly said hello to baby Elliott. And then, at long last by the looks of her, Eliza had been allowed to hold him, as promised. She was particularly proud to realize after a moment that they had similar names, which clearly made it so that they were going to be even closer to one another.

They had let Wyatt go next. Much like with the twins, they'd had him sit next to his big sister on the bed before placing the baby in his four-year-old arms. He would keep looking over at Maya to be sure that he was doing okay, and she would tell him that, yes, he was doing just great. Cara had gone next, the eleven-year-old looking at her nephew like she would have given anything not to live all the way in New York when he was in Texas. Maya knew the feeling too well for having felt it about her and the others, even her other siblings when they'd only been two hours away.

"Alright, Uncle Sam," Maya had to chuckle when she said it for the first time. "Your turn." He looked so nervous in the actual hand off, which was inexplicably sweet to see, but then once he had him, he was just good. He was so happy to be here, like all the others, though at the same time Maya also felt like her eldest sibling had really needed this, to have a moment of immeasurable joy, after all that had been going on back in New York, with their father, with the illness and the secret he'd carried on his own for a time. He would be great for Elliott, she could just tell.

After Abigail had had the chance to hold the baby, the New York Harts had retreated to the waiting room again, to rejoin the others and also to give the new family a break. It was just as well, as the baby was due for another feeding, after which there'd been a check-up with Nurse Yvette.

"You're starting to look like you need a nap," Lucas spoke after the woman had gone.

"Yeah, no kidding," Maya breathed out before looking to him. "You meant the baby, didn't you?" she realized. He laughed. "Yeah, that makes sense."

"Go for it," Lucas nodded. "I've got him."

"Okay, but wake me up when they arrive, yeah?" she pointed at him. He came and sat on the edge of the bed, carefully leaning to kiss her.

"I swear," he nodded, as she reached to hold their son's hand for a moment.

"How long do you think it's going to take before we look at him and it doesn't feel like 'is he actually ours?'" she wondered aloud, smiling.

"I don't know. Still bowls me over, too," he replied, looking to see the baby now slept. "Your turn now. Enjoy it while it lasts," he 'teased,' getting a squint from her before she settled in properly and eventually dozed off.

He knew exactly who it was she needed him to wake her for, without having it spelled out. Their friends would have made it back in by now, surely, but again they would have to exercise some patience while Maya slept. And then they would have to wait just a little while longer, as three hours or so after Maya had gone to sleep, Riley had appeared, informing Lucas that they had arrived.

"Okay, I'll be right there," he told Riley, who nodded and went back to the waiting room. Lucas sort of wished he didn't have to wake her, finding she looked so peaceful, but then there was a reason she'd made him promise, wasn't there? "Maya, hey…" he spoke quietly, touching her face, her shoulder. Her face scrunched up almost at once and she opened one eye. "They're here."

"Elliott?" she mumbled.

"He's great. I just changed his diaper," he reported, which made her smirk as she pulled herself up a bit.

"How did that go?" she asked.

"Uh, carefully," he decided. She laughed. "Want me to go get them?"

"How do I look? Be honest," she first requested.

"Trick question, you're asking a guy who will literally think you're the most beautiful thing in the world, no matter what."

"You are such a cowboy, Huckleberry…" she hummed, nonetheless appreciative. "Alright, then I'm ready to receive," she told him, looking around for their son. Lucas went and got him, bringing him back to her eager arms before heading off to escort the just landed Tucson Harts. "And if you happen to see like… a whole lot of food out there… just swipe that for me, will you?"

"Will do," he laughed.

"I'm not kidding, I will put in a whole pizza right now," she gave a pointed look, which got her a kiss to the top of the head. She sighed.

"Be right back with your banquet."

"You're the actual best," she called after him as he headed out on his crutches.

He found his mother in the midst of recounting his 'spectacular' fall down the basement stairs as he arrived in the waiting room, so at least he didn't have to explain why he was hopping about on his good foot. All he had to do was lead the way for Elizabeth Hart, her daughter Luna, and her granddaughters, six-year-old Ginny and three-year-old Sadie. The girls each had something to bring to their cousin Maya, a gift bag and a stuffed elephant respectively, while their mother carried flowers. The only one who carried nothing at the moment was Maya's grandmother, who seemed already loaded enough with the emotions rumbling in her at the prospect of meeting her great grandson.

"How are they doing?" she asked Lucas as she walked alongside him with the tentatively lifted hand of someone ready to break another's fall in case it was needed.

"Great," Lucas assured her. "Maya just slept for a few hours, and E… and he took a break from being passed around from person to person, snoozed in my arms for a while before giving me my first diaper change." He'd done it before, looking after Maya's siblings, and in their pre-natal classes, but as he'd sort of expected it had felt different when it was his own child. "Now they're both waiting for you."

As Maya's grandmother and aunt had gotten to walk in and discover the newest member of their family, it really felt on the same track as Kermit's introduction to the baby to some degree. Like him, they had been out of Maya's life for most if not all of her life, and it had not been their choice, not the women's at least. Luna had ended up pushed away following her brother's departure, and Elizabeth… She had made a choice she would regret for years and years, the day she had backed her husband over her son, and her meeting her granddaughter twenty-one years later than she might have… that had been her punishment. It meant so much to the both of them now that they were able to claim their places in this new family.

"I remember when you were this small," Luna beamed, reaching to gently stroke the baby's arm as his mother happily looked on. "He's got your smile…"

"I've been hearing that, yeah," Maya nodded, turning to her grandmother. She was crying, and Maya took hold of her hand, giving it a squeeze, to which Elizabeth bowed her head, leaning to embrace her granddaughter. "This is Elliott," she introduced him. "Here, sit with me," she requested, and when her grandmother did, Maya passed her the baby.

"You made this, didn't you?" Elizabeth remarked of the blanket.

"Yeah," Maya confirmed.

"It's really beautiful," she spoke quietly, all her focus now on her great grandson. "And so are you," she told him, lightly kissing his forehead.

"We have presents!" Ginny Chen stepped up now, holding out the gift bag, while her little sister hoisted up…

"Is that an elephant?" Maya cheerfully asked, and Sadie nodded with a grin. Lucas guided the girls to come around to the other side of the bed before lifting the three-year-old up so she could extend the stuffed animal to her sister. "Does it have a name?"

"Bobo," Sadie proudly announced.

"Bobo the elephant," Maya laughed. "I love it! And he will, too," she indicated the baby in their grandmother's arms.

"Mine now!" Ginny held up the bag.

"Yours now," Maya took it from her. "Is there food in here? Because I was promised…" she looked back to Lucas.

"It's on its way," he assured her. "They didn't have a big enough table," he joked, getting a smile as Maya reached into the bag and pulled out a wooden box, carved, ornate... It was light enough to suggest it might have been empty.

"Gramma says it's so you can keep memories in it," Ginny informed her.

"It's perfect, thank you," Maya smiled at the girl and her grandmother in turn.

Lucas had left them to talk amongst themselves, going in search of Maya's 'feast.' Kermit had taken off to get the food for her, as he had done the night before, so as soon as he got back…

As he neared the waiting room, he could hear the sound of voices, of laughter… He caught one laugh in particular and it sounded familiar, but also unexpected. When he finally came to see that he had been right, he stopped in surprise and was greeted…

"Lucas, oh, come here, Papa!"

"Aunt Dot, hey!" he blinked as she came and embraced him. Of course she would be here, which meant the Hillards were likely not long to arrive. For now, she was here, with her husband Emmett and their children, who were just growing more and more every time Lucas saw them these days, which wasn't nearly as often as he would have hoped. Junior was already seventeen, which felt impossible, as much as Alex being thirteen, and then were was their sister?

He hadn't seen her until her brothers stepped aside, but there she was, fourteen-year-old Dora, looking around at all the people with casual curiosity as she'd done for as long as Lucas could remember, like it didn't matter how much she grew, she would always be his little cousin.

"Hey you," he smiled when she finally saw him and dashed in for a hug. "Did you get taller again?"

"Sometimes," she shrugged.

"Did you meet everyone?" Lucas asked her and the boys. They hadn't, so he made the introductions, from friends on to Maya's family visiting out of New York. "And that's Sam," he finished off, indicating the boy one year her junior and just now looking like he'd lost all vocal function and about half his motor skills.

"Hi," Dora smiled, waving at him, and he raised his hand in response.

Kermit soon returned, carrying a large bag in either hand, showing he had indeed answered his daughter's request. Stepping away from his cousins, Lucas went along with him.

"I can't wait to get him home," he thought out loud. They would be sticking around until the next morning, and as nice as it was to have everyone here, he really just wanted it to finally be as they'd been preparing for all this time. Him, and Maya, and their son, in their house…

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners