Chapter 72
Halt and Take Heart

They had turned the calendar page just the day before. March… Their baby Bee was due in just about two months, which bordered on the impossible. A moment ago, he'd been so small as to barely register. Now, he was a moving, kicking little being growing inside Maya's belly. Every day that went by was a day less they had to wait before he was here with them, in their arms, and they just couldn't wait for that moment to come.

"Lucas, wake up!"

Lucas woke, barely. He was sitting up before he even processed the fact that he was awake. Once he did, it was just a matter of taking in his surroundings. The most obvious part of this was that Maya wasn't at his side or in the room at all. Without a word, he got up, padding across from their room into the nursery's doorway, so he might confirm that Elliott slept on, which he did. After this…

"Back here," his wife's voice directed him to the bathroom. Whether the credit went to his being a fairly heavy sleeper, or to Lucas himself having a fine enough ear as to catch the call from further away, Pappy Joe also slept on, back in his room.

Looking into the bathroom, he found Maya sitting on the toilet, with what could only be described as a 'finally, there you are' kind of look. The sheepish smile only helped add all this up for him.

"Can't get up?"

"If you laugh," she pointed at him. He probably wouldn't have, but then the challenge was enough to trigger a chuckle as he went up to her. "I've been sitting her for like ten minutes. I didn't want to wake anyone up, but…"

"I live to lift," Lucas promised.

"That is…" Maya 'gasped.'

"Our little secret, don't worry," he told her, leaning to help her up.

They both realized at the same time that this wasn't just a matter of 'I am heavily pregnant and have mobility issues.' The moment she started to rise, she seized up in his arms.

"Woah, hey, what's the matter?" Lucas asked, wanting to look at her face but unable to do so without letting her go, which seemed like a horrible idea in that moment.

"I-I don't know, I… I can't, put me back down, don't…" her voice trembled, and he did as she asked. Once she was down, he went and turned on the lights, bringing them from the minimal brightness so he might get a better look at the situation. As was to be expected, her hands were locked to her belly, all her concerns centered squarely on the baby and less so on herself. Lucas came and crouched in front of her.

"Is it…" he asked, trying to remain the voice of calm as he could just see her on the edge of spiraling. A part of him was very much having a spiral of its own, but he kept it as far away from his voice as he could.

"I don't know, I don't know," she shook her head, and he could hear the tears rising in her. "Lucas…" she breathed, looking into his eyes.

"How bad is it? Do you think it'll pass or…" Or do we need to go to the hospital? He almost couldn't make himself say it. Control or no, he was walking a fine line between calm and chaos, and the deeper he went, the finer it got.

"I've been trying to get up for ten minutes, and nothing's changed. I barely managed to get my underwear up on my own. I… I don't want to be 'jump to conclusions' chick, I just… I don't know what this is, and I'm…" Whatever she was, the word stayed lodged in her throat, blocked with a gasp of pain.

"Okay, we're going," Lucas declared, deciding for the both of them. Maya only nodded. He had to stand for a moment, to figure out what they were supposed to do. It was the middle of the night, and night or day, the first thing had to be expediency. Bringing Elliott with them would have slowed them down too much, and lucky for them, they didn't even have to worry about that part. Walking back through the hall and into his grandfather's room, Lucas quickly woke him up and told him he'd have to watch over the baby before getting back to Maya. "I'm going to lift you as carefully as I can, okay?"

"Yeah," she nodded, the only part of her that moved save for the rise and fall of her breath, which told plainly that she was anything but calm. She could not, no matter how hard she tried.

"What's going on here?" Pappy Joe appeared now, as Lucas got one arm around his wife's back, the other under her knees, as she locked her arms around his neck.

"Not sure," Lucas told his grandfather, lifting Maya, who barely contained the travelling pain of her displacement. "Can you spot me going down the stairs?"

"Sure, sure, of course," Pappy Joe moved ahead of them.

"Elliott…" Maya breathed.

"He's sleeping, he's good, Pappy Joe will look after him," Lucas promised her, moving as fast as he could without challenging his support. It wasn't so much the weight of her that was the problem, so much as his fear for what was at stake if he dropped her. Right now, he just wanted to be through with the going down the stairs part.

One by one, they made it, and Pappy Joe went ahead of them all the way to the car, where Lucas set Maya in the passenger seat and hurried to the driver's once he had gone back in to quickly grab what they'd need. He was possibly going on adrenaline now. Could this be the day their boy was born? He was early, so early… Or what if… No. No, he couldn't think like that, especially when his wife would already be in that headspace. He had to get her to someone who would tell them what was going on, that was what he had to do.

The drive to the hospital felt like a blur, mostly. They were aware of little more than silence and headlights on dark roads, and then they were pulling up to the ER. To Lucas, it felt in that moment as though the reality of that building brought him skidding over the edge, and the next few minutes felt just as confused as the drive, as he did all he could to tip back on the side of focus. He knew that he managed to get Maya into a wheelchair and through the doors, that someone had directed them somewhere… Next thing they knew, she was up on a bed, and people came along to examine her. Lucas was never so far as to be unable to reach her hand if she wanted him to hold hers, which she did, whenever possible.

When the doctor came around again, with a line of questioning about what was going on in Maya's life lately, looking much less like someone who felt the need to jump to action, Lucas started to feel the ground return beneath his feet, just a little. Maybe this wasn't any of the things their minds had been so eager to suggest. Maybe it was the thing they would have realized, if not for the immediacy of the moment back at the house.

What was going on in her life? If that wasn't a loaded question… She was on the tail end of this second pregnancy, all the while looking after Elliott, nine months old already. And all the while, Kermit was getting worse. It was probably just as well that they had gone to New York when they did, that they had Elliott's 'first birthday' party when they did. For the past week, Kermit had grown considerably weaker, enough so that he couldn't walk around on his own anymore. Abigail had recruited a few of them to help set him up back upstairs, in their bed. He'd been on the couch downstairs for months now, his discomforts preventing them from sleeping side by side. Cara had made them move her bed into her parents' room, so her mother could stay with her father, while she bunked with her little sister. It was just as well, with the way Eliza would cling to her. Wyatt did the same with Sam.

Just a couple days ago, when she'd been to visit them, Maya had gone up and sat with her father. To see him as he was now, to see the change in him, the weakening in him… It was like he had become this other person, like a part of her father had already gone away. Sooner or later, and it really felt like it would be sooner, he'd be going to the hospital, and he wouldn't return. He had made it clear, that day, that he didn't want to die at home. He didn't want it to happen there, didn't want it to leave a mark to continue to traumatize his children with this memory. They had set themselves some rules, so they would know when it was time to pack it in and take him there, and every day since then felt as though they were existing to wait on a phone call.

The baby was fine. Maya was fine, overall, too. What had happened that night was a collision of stress, and emotions, and her body just sort of ringing the warning bells again, as they had done back in December. The doctor deeply sympathized for her situation, knowing that any recommendation for resting would be challenged by the things that could still reach her even when she lay perfectly still. She gave her all that she could in that moment, keeping her around until her actual doctor could come around and speak with her to give her more ways to handle the weeks and months to come.

"Hey…" Lucas came up and sat on the edge of the bed when it was just him and Maya, hugging her as he felt her relief was about to come flooding out of her. Relief… They could barely call it that, could they? She held on to him for a while, and he made no attempt to pull away until she indicated she wanted to. Once she did though… Once he was able to see her face again, it was like his own floodgates had burst open to pull him under at long last now that he didn't need to be brave anymore. He didn't feel brave, as he bowed his head to lay it at her belly for a beat and couldn't make himself move away. He felt the terror he had kept masked over the last couple of hours, like a boulder sitting on his heart. Seconds later, he could feel Maya's hand at the back of his neck, fingers grazing through his hair. Breathe.

By the time they were able to leave the hospital and start for home again, it was coming on mid to late morning. Perhaps through no other power than sheer exhaustion, Maya had slept through most of the ride, waking just as they were pulling up to the house.

"What's with… Oh, no… No, no…" she sighed, after she saw the two cars already sitting out front and knowing who they belonged to.

"I didn't call them," Lucas assured her.

"No, I know," she promised, as they could both see the door to their house pulled open to reveal his parents and hers, all bunched up together in wait. They had called Pappy Joe, of course, keeping him updated all the way, from promises that Maya and the baby were okay, to alerting him that they were coming home, so the parents and grandparents would be aware of this. It did not prevent them from showing concern, did it?

She wasn't unhappy to see them, never would be, but did she want them to be all over her in that moment? No, not even a little. All she wanted right now was to get some rest, see her son, and just put the whole morning behind her. She couldn't blame them all for wanting to show up, to make sure she was okay, and so there was no way around setting her own plans aside.

"How are you doing, mobility wise?" Lucas turned to her as he turned the key and shut the car down.

"Between you and me, knees feel a bit shaky. Just stay close, okay? Don't need them all rushing to carry me or anything."

"Right behind you," he vowed, and she smiled, the first time in hours, leaning to kiss him.

Lucas got out of the car, waving to the parents standing by the door as he walked around to find Maya already coming up from her side. As promised, he stood himself in ideal position to offer support if it was needed and only then. He could feel the occasional dip back as she'd walk to the porch, but she never faltered.

"Welcome home, sweetheart," Melinda Friar was the first to speak up, as she had been expected to be. She had the face of someone who had been stressing all morning, and the flour patches on her clothes to suggest she'd been managing this stress by baking in her son and daughter-in-law's kitchen. Katy stepped up and extended her hand as Maya started up the three steps on to the porch, and she knew better than to refuse it. She kind of needed it. When she got to the top, she let herself be folded into her mother's arms, let herself be warmed and reassured by that hold.

"Where's Elliott?" she asked.

"Inside, with Pappy Joe," Katy replied. "He's been a bit cranky."

This was all the motivation Maya and Lucas both could need to move into the house proper. When they did, they found that the couch had been set in anticipation of their return, with pillows stacked and a blanket at the ready, just waiting for Maya to settle in. Pappy Joe sat in the armchair, Elliott in his lap, looking like Santa Claus in rehearsals. He stood up to walk toward the couch as Maya sat down, which was not a minute too soon, for how happily agitated the boy became the moment he spotted his parents.

"Hey, we missed you, too, bud," Lucas promised his son as he received him, kissed his cheek and held him for a few moments before he could pass him into Maya's arms. He knew she needed this right now, and he'd never keep her waiting for his own sake.

"This was not our best morning, was it?" Maya's cheerful voice could not match the tearful joy on her face, to have her baby boy back with her, not a worry left to him now that they were back. Her own worries were not so easy to chase away, but oh, to see that face, that goofy little smile of his… How easier it became to set them aside, if only for a moment, and just breathe.

Much as Pappy Joe must have told what part of the story he could tell, the Friars and Hunters wanted to know the whole of it, from how it had started to, most importantly, how it had ended. Lucas could tell Maya was a bit uneasy in sharing some of it, for how she gave truths but not necessarily whole ones. She needed to keep some control, not to be relegated to the daughter, the kid, who had to be looked after, when she sat here, a wife and mother of nearly two, who looked after so many of them, and did so much every day without need of assistance. He saw it, knew it, felt it and respected it.

When he left them all to go on talking, to go ahead and get Elliott's lunch ready, he didn't know how long it had been since he'd come into the kitchen when his father appeared at his side, didn't know how long he'd just been stood there, staring at the colorful spoon dipping into the soft food. He didn't know what it was about being here, in that moment, with his father looking at him the way he did, but it just felt like he'd been holding his breath, and now he was compelled to let it out. His shoulders sagged under him, and he bowed his head, and when he felt his father's hand at his back, it dislodged a rattle of a quiet sob from him.

He could count on one hand the moments in his life when he had been severely terrified. One had been when Pappy Joe had fallen down the stairs. One was when he'd woken up in the hospital after the car accident and not knowing where Maya was or if she was okay. And then there was today, when for a couple agonizing hours he had thought they might lose their unborn son.

Each incident was different, but this one just felt like nothing before. This distress had come at them like a head-on collision they could see coming from miles away. In one corner, Maya, and the baby, and Elliott, and him. In the other corner, Kermit's worsening health, Kermit's impending death, and all the grief it carried with it. They'd had some glancing blows already, showing in the exhaustion, the excess of care and worry which had forced her to retreat to bed for a time. Now, with these latest developments in her father's condition, Lucas could just see how Maya's mind would constantly be pulled back to him, her mind and her heart, too. She would be pulled one way and the other, between what was needed of her and what she was made to feel.

And what could he do for her? No matter what he did, he could not stop that collision. They were magnetically pulled to one another, no way to veer off to a new course. Kermit Hart would die. They didn't know when, except for how all the signs pointed to 'soon.' And his new grandson would be brought into the world, in just about two months' time. Tonight, everything that had happened with Maya, it was like a vision of what was to come. He could not take this burden from her, could just barely shoulder any of its weight for her, with her. She would be the one, the focal point of that collision. It would only get worse, and he… he wasn't ready.

"Dad, what am I supposed to do?" Lucas turned his head to look at him.

Thomas Friar stared back at his son, and Lucas noticed for the first time how much Elliott was starting to remind him of his father. That look in his eyes though, Elliott had not lived nearly long enough yet to carry so much in a look.

"I wish there was something I could tell you, some magic words that would make it all better, but you and I both know there's no such thing," Thomas told him. "All I can tell you is… I believe that if there is one person who can help her in the months to come, it'll be you. You might not know it ahead of time, but you will know, when the time comes. You've always done it up to now, and you've never let that girl down, not once. You're not about to start now, are you?"

"No," Lucas shook his head.

"It won't make it easier. This will be one of the most difficult times in both your lives, but you will get through it, you two together, with Elliott, with the baby, with all of us. You've got us, no matter what you need, day or night."

"Yeah… I see that," Lucas let out a breath, turning to face his father, to look out into the living room, where Shawn was helping to settle Maya on the couch, fixing pillows before reaching to unfold the blanket and drape it over her legs.

The parents hadn't stuck around too long. Much as they'd all wanted to see for themselves that Maya was alright, they knew she'd be better off being left to rest, and that with Lucas and Pappy Joe to look after her she would be able to do just that. They'd barely left that she was already fast asleep on the couch. Pappy Joe, at Lucas' insistence that he had things handled, had also gone upstairs to get some rest. This left Elliott. Lucas took him outside along with the dogs. Trix and Lou would have gladly remained at Maya's feet, guarding one of their precious boys, but they could be convinced to follow the other.

Lucas sat on the porch boards, Elliott in his lap, enabling the boy and the dogs to interact with one another. Inside the house, he could have left him to crawl, which usually involved him chasing the dogs around as fast as his little hands and legs could take him. They usually didn't go too fast, like they knew exactly what was going on and didn't want to leave the baby behind. Lucas, Maya, Pappy Joe, they'd always be keeping an eye on these chases, though there had never come a time when Trix and Lou had let their boy come to any harm. Trix was very good about that especially.

When Maya woke again, the house was quiet, and she couldn't say exactly how long she'd slept. There was just this very strong impression left in her as though she'd just come through a fog which had swallowed up everything since she'd gone to bed the night before. She remembered everything between then and now, but that part… that part…

Looking down, she took a breath, running her hand over the curve of her belly. She could feel the baby moving. It was what had woken her up, and she was eternally grateful for it. She could just lie here for minutes and hours, in communion with her Bee. But then he or she wasn't all she had to think about. Wherever the future big brother was, he had seemingly left his best bunny friend in his mother's care, as she found Opie tucked under her other arm. She lifted him up into her line of sight with a small smile, brushing at his fluffy ears.

"I was so sure he'd want to take it back, but he just left it with you." Lifting her head, she spotted Lucas as he came from the kitchen.

"What time is it?" Maya asked, blinking.

"Almost five," Lucas reported. Maya moved to sit. "Elliott's upstairs," he told her, knowing it would be the first thing she wanted to know. He came and sat with her, lifting her legs and setting them back over his lap once he'd taken his seat. "Dinner will be ready in about an hour, are you hungry?"

"Getting there," Maya nodded. Her lunch felt both recent and so far away by now.

For a few moments, they just sat there in silence, looking to one another. Maya lay back against the cushions with a hum, as Lucas reached over to set his hand at her belly, which made her smile and cover his hand with her own. The smile wasn't so easy to keep upright, and she knew he could see it.

"I… I just don't want to let them down," she told him.

"Who?" Lucas quietly asked, turning his hand over so he might squeeze hers.

"This one here," she looked down at herself, her belly, before turning her eyes to the ceiling, "And Elliott. Whatever's coming next… I'm scared it'll break me, and I won't know how to put myself back together again," she confessed, squeezing her eyes shut a moment as she tried to stall a tear making its way out from the corner of her left eye.

"Scared, too," he confided. "Terrified, actually. Guess it's a good thing there's two of us," he nodded. "And that one there," he lifted his eyes to the ceiling. "And this one here," he lightly tapped her belly with their joined hands. It strengthened her smile, just enough. "And so many others around us," he reminded her, recalling his father's words. "Somehow… We'll get there… Whatever 'there' looks like."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners