Chapter 51
Day One of Forever

"Easy, easy…" Maya laughed as she was lifted up into Lucas' arms and the layers of her skirt shifted like an expanding flower with her legs sticking out of it.

"I have never dropped you before, have I? What kind of thing would that be, for my first act as your husband to be to let you fall on the ground?" The smile on her face was brighter than all the sparkle on her dress. She was dead tired by now, but she felt so good that her exhaustion presented a lot like drunkenness, despite the fact that she had not had one drop of alcohol all night. And now he'd said husband and she was in a giggly mood all over again.

"It's not even our house, I could have walked," she reminded him, fishing in his jacket pocket until she found the key card and reached down to tap at the square over the handle before pushing it open.

"We have one night out here," he reminded back.

"Mini moon," she nodded.

"So, yeah, I am carrying you in," Lucas declared as he did so, closing the door behind them with his foot. When he set her down again, she turned right back into his arms so that she might kiss him the way she'd been meaning to kiss him all night.

"I guess that would be my first act as your wife," she laughed, tapping at his chest before spinning off and finally kicking off her shoes. "Ow, ow…" she groaned in relief before getting a look down at her feet. Before the reception had even started she'd asked Riley to go and find her some bandages to apply where she knew those pretty pretty shoes were going to attempt to murder her feet for wanting to dance through the night.

"All good?" Lucas asked, slipping his jacket off and hanging it on a nearby chair.

"Oh, you know, it's all good and fine so long as the shoes stay on, but the second they come off you discover you've been in denial all night." She sat on the edge of the bed, lifting her feet off the ground and flexing her toes. "I don't want to take my dress off," she confessed with a mock pout. "It's too nice for me never to wear it again."

"You can wear it any day as far as I'm concerned," Lucas looked at her, sitting there in tired contentment. He had been seeing her in that dress for hours now, and still after all that time she continued to take his breath away. He didn't know what it was about seeing the woman you loved in a dress like this, but oh had he ever felt it, from the moment he'd first seen her come along, holding to both Shawn's arm and Kermit's.

She couldn't have worn her father's guitar pick today, as she instead wore a necklace lent to her by his mother as her something borrowed. When he'd arrived at his parents' house the night before – after having been forced away from his home, his then fiancée, and their son – he'd gone to hang his suit for the next day and found the chain in a box tucked in his front pocket.

In case you miss me the note had said, with a small self-portrait of Maya with her tongue stuck out at him, because of course he'd miss her. Flipping the note over, he found another message. PS, I miss you already, you better write!

He'd done so, even as he propped up her note in the open box with the pendant, on his night stand. They had texted back and forth until he'd been forced to tell her good night and put the phone away by his pre-marital warden Melinda. He had no idea how long it took him to finally fall asleep, but he could guess he'd tossed and turned and looked at the box and the note about two dozen times. If it wasn't enough that he was getting married in less than a day, which was enough to make anyone have trouble sleeping, he was also away from both Maya and their baby boy. Sure, he'd left his recorded story for Elliott, but it still wasn't the same as to be there, holding him, watching for Maya's attempts at looking as though she slept…

Finally he must have fallen asleep though, because morning had arrived, and with it a tornado of activity, which eventually brought him to the church. This had in turn reunited him with his son, as best man and godfather Zay had gone and retrieved the boy from Shawn and brought him over. Lucas was just so happy to see him again that it took a couple seconds for him to even notice the clothes on his dapper babe. If that wasn't enough, to see the look on Elliott's face as he was handed over into his father's arms… It was worth a night away… two nights away, including this one, which the baby was spending in his Uncle Zay and Aunt Nadine's room, one hotel floor down. They'd volunteered.

Once Elliott had been brought along, it hadn't been long before everyone else came into place, and with the rise of music, she'd come along.

He'd recorded the story of the first time ever he'd seen Maya back in middle school, for Elliott, and now, when he saw her coming, it was that same feeling, bloomed and bloomed with years, and living, and loving, and a small blue-eyed boy. It was all that had been and what was yet to come, and he couldn't wait for it to begin.

As they'd stood there, looking to one another, not a dry eye to either of them, he could just see Maya looking past him from time to time, to Elliott over in Zay's arms, and seeing this he would find his own curiosities be put to rest. When the moment had come for them to say their vows, it was only him, and her, and the words, the promise they made, as though it wasn't already their intent and their goal. And all of a sudden, there it was… They were husband and wife. There was little need of prompt for Lucas to kiss his bride. If it wasn't for their having already gone through the birth of their first child, they would have said it was the most surreal moment of their young lives thus far.

"Is it bad that I'm hungry right now? Like I could really go for… I don't know…" Maya trailed off, trying to figure out what she yearned for. In response, Lucas held up a finger with a knowing smile and went over to the small refrigerator next to the mini bar, where he had stashed a few things after checking them in earlier. When Maya saw the boxes, she gasped and sat up straighter. "When… How…"

"I know you want to wear your dress as long as you can, but maybe it'd be safer if you…" She was way ahead of him, already moving to stand.

"I'm going to regret this," she winced before setting her feet on the ground and rising. "Unzip me?"

"You know, I can lift you right out of there," he joked as he went and helped her.

"See, you're kidding, but my feet are a nightmare right now, so don't think I won't take you up on that," Maya declared before carefully stepping out of her dress, which was then just as carefully hung up and covered.

With a hotel robe slipped on and tied off, the bed felt like even more of a draw for sleep, and it might have been, if not for the presence of the food and the tiniest bit of a spectacle, as she munched and watched Lucas finish with his own change of clothes. At the same time, in this moment of the two of them just joking around with one another, her thoughts drifted.

"I should call to see how they're doing down there with Elliott," she looked around for where she'd left her phone.

"We left their room not even ten minutes ago," Lucas reminded. "He's fine."

"He's never spent the night with neither one of us nearby if he cries…" Maya shook her head. All of a sudden, the thought of their boy and how they had completely stopped thinking about him for a while there… "I know, I know, I shouldn't feel guilty about us having a night off, especially this night, but I kind of do."

"Honestly, I do, too," Lucas admitted, plopping down on the bed with her. Maya offered him the box she'd opened and he took one of the cookies. "Ever since he came along, it's like I've always got the one ear tuned to him."

"Radio ELF," Maya smiled.

"All those little noises he makes, it's just there, when we're getting to sleep. Last night, in my old room by myself, oh… I missed that sound. I would have done anything for him to start and cry so I'd have a reason to go over and pick him up. Instead I had to lie there, and I couldn't fall asleep, not with him there in his crib and you in my arms."

"One of those things will be fixed," Maya smiled.

"And I know he's going to be okay down there, that he is safe with them and he knows them well, but at the same time it still feels like he would be so much better here with us. That is how we're supposed to feel, isn't it? We love him so much that it feels wrong to be away from him. That's me, every day when I go to work, to school. I think we have earned ourselves one night of selfishness."

"So… so many jokes running through my head right now," Maya chuckled.

"Yeah?" he laughed back. Maya nodded. "Please, tell me every last one."

"Alright, set me up," Maya requested, resettling and taking up another cookie. Lucas sat up, getting into the 'scene.' She snickered. "What's that face, what's that?" she waved her hand at him and he dodged, laughing along.

"It's my… acting face." This only made her laugh harder.

"Don't quit your day job," she shook her head, leaned in to kiss him. He responded in kind, pulling her nearer into his arms. She was the same person she had been last night when he'd looked back at her standing on that porch, the same person he'd watched come up the aisle on the arms of her fathers, the mother of his son, and still… Still, now she was his wife… He had a wife… and to hold her this way, kissing her and feeling as though every inch of his body begged to never let her go… "How about it? Think we can be a bit selfish tonight?" he breathed, reuniting their lips once and again, and again, like the links in a chain.

"You know what, I really think you're starting to convince me," Maya spoke softly, as devoted to this chain of theirs as he was. "I just need to deal with…" she reached to undo her hair, shaking it loose with open contentment. "… this," she breathed. "And these," she removed her necklace, and her earrings, each item dutifully received along with the hair things by – she could not get tired of thinking it – her husband, who set them safely on the night stand, with the boxes of cookies. "Bracelet…" she went on, handing it over. "Not these," Maya smiled, looking to the rings on her finger, the one he'd presented her with, the day he'd proposed, and the one he'd joined to it just hours ago, upon his vows. "I know I'll have to take them off from time to time, but right now the words 'off my cold, dead hand' come to mind."

"Not the image I'd like to think about," Lucas smiled nonetheless.

"Yes, well, the feeling goes both ways," she took up his hand, inspecting the ring on his finger. "This conversation just took a serious swerve on to Unpleasant Thoughts Street, let's just cruise right back to where we were, yeah?"

"And where was that?" he inquired, leaning up to her once more, giving a couple casual tugs at her robe's sash.

"Let's call it… Marital Selfishness Road," her eyes sparked, and they were on their way.

Sleep was not hard to come by when all was said and done. The day had been long and eventful, starting with an early wake up call, and the frenzy of preparation, only to be followed by the wedding and the reception, the many dances with family, and friends, and each other, and finally brought to an end with one last surge of activity… They could have slept well into the morning, lost in a cloud of body warmth and hotel sheets.

For all that, Maya woke with the sunrise, orange light bathing the room in a glow. The room was so silent, save for the steady breath at her side. The whole of the previous day could have felt like the most vivid dream, but no… It had truly happened, she had married the man she loved, and now they were here, in this beautiful hotel room, paid for by their parents so they might have at least this short beat away from home until their 'real' honeymoon in a few months' time. It wasn't as though it wouldn't have felt real if they'd gone back to their house, but she was really happy that they got to wake up in this place this morning. It all just felt like a dream, right down to the light catching on the diamonds on her finger.

"I had a really nice dream…" Lucas mumbled at her back, and Maya smiled, turning around in his arms so she might see his face. "No, wait, not a dream," he 'corrected,' which only made her laugh as they both moved in for a kiss which soon expanded into a whole lot more. They might as well enjoy their time within the mini moon bubble for as long as they could, right?

"Reasonably, how long can we stay here, just you and me in this bed?" Maya hummed, her ear pressed over Lucas' heart sometime later. One arm wrapped around her as his hand lay over hers, Lucas knew exactly what feeling was inhabiting her now, conjuring up this question.

"Well, everyone else is home, and Zay and Nadine did offer to keep Elliott until lunch time…" Lucas reminded her. When Maya gave a low whimper, he looked down at her.

"See, now, you said his name and it got me all… mom-y," she gestured to herself.

"Hate to admit it, but yeah… I'm right there, too." She pulled herself up just a bit, enough as to bring herself nose to nose with him, and there was no mistaking what was on her mind now. "One more selfish act for the road?" he asked, making her grin.

"We did just get married," she pointed out as he kissed her.

There was absolutely no chance of their showing up at Zay and Nadine's room to find that they had slept in, not with an infant to look after. It wasn't so much that they happily relinquished the temporary responsibility, but one look at them suggested that Elliott had had one of his more operatic nights and kept them both incapable of sleep. Now that the boy's parents would take him back, they would be free to collapse on to the fine hotel mattress and pass out until checkout.

As sorry as they were that their friends had had such a bad night of it, it was hard to receive their son and feel anything but absolute gladness and joy. They had missed him so very much, and the way he clung to his mother, there was no denying that the feeling was mutual.

"We missed you a whole lot, too, yes, we did," Maya whispered, rocking the baby in her arms as they walked back toward the elevator. Lucas walked in step with her, staying well within Elliott's line of sight. As much as they had earned their night to themselves, they had no regrets whatsoever over the relief they felt, now that they had their boy back. By tonight, they would be back home, and then their lives would carry on, changed but also the same, also exactly what they had built together. They were ready for anything and everything that would come next.

"So, what are we going to do about the real honeymoon?" Lucas wondered as they sat up in their hotel bed again, now with Elliott back where he belonged. "I don't see us leaving him behind for however long we'll be gone."

"I'm sure we can convince someone to tag along and watch him? Maybe?"

"If we do, then we really need to decide before any of our parents get any ideas," he told her, which made her laugh. Resting in his father's arms, Elliott Friar smiled at the sight of his mother's happy face.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners