Chapter 6
Day By Day

When she woke up the next morning and saw the sun had not yet come up, she was left wondering whether her timely sprout kept to a regular schedule depending on when she usually woke up… or whether it was only a matter of her waking up, regardless of the time. For a few minutes, she just lay there, breathing in, breathing out, focusing on the feeling of Lucas' hand laid lightly over that roundness rising from her belly. She'd been staring at that hand so many mornings, it was only a matter of time before she picked up brushes and paint and canvas and set that image down forever.

She wasn't given a respite from her bathroom dash after all, but by the time Lucas had woken up and come to look in on her, she'd decided something. It was still early, it was Sunday, and even though her mother had said she'd call her today, she didn't want to have this conversation over the phone, not after how long she'd waited to have it. She was going to Austin.

"Want me to drive you? What if you're stuck in traffic and you have to…" Lucas offered.

"I'll be fine," Maya insisted. "You go to work."

The sun came up as she was driving into Austin. She spent much of the ride breathing as calmly and evenly as she could, trying to ensure that she would hold her word to Lucas, that she'd be fine. At the same time, just knowing that she was on her way to see her mother, that they would get to talk about her pregnancy, about the baby, seemed to be doing the trick, too, so she focused on that. She drove all the way to Ma Maggie's before parking out front and texting her mother.

Hart to Hart, face to face? I'm outside MM's, appetite is rising.

A few minutes went by before she got a response. Her father was taking MJ to a pediatrician's appointment and the twins to a play date with their friends. She'd been planning to call her once they were all gone, but now that she was out here, she'd find a way to get out to her as soon as possible. Maya sat waiting in the car for about fifteen minutes before she couldn't keep fidgeting in that seat anymore. She got out and went into the restaurant, already having been spotted and waved to by one of the waitresses who remembered her very well.

"Morning, sweetie, is your family coming to join you?" the waitress at the door greeted her with a smile.

"Uh, just my mom," Maya smiled back, brushing her hand through her hair, trying to act casual. "It might be a while before she comes though, so can I get a milkshake? Strawberry?"

"Sure," she smiled, starting toward the back to get her milkshake, though Maya did see her taking a look back, as though she thought she'd seen something and wanted to get a second look to either confirm or deny what she had seen or not seen.

Maya quickly went and sat in the usual booth, which was empty. She might have said 'thankfully empty,' but then it was so early, the restaurant had only just opened, and she was the first one there, so everything was open. Either way, she was still thankful. Under this table, she and Lucas had left their mark, he was here with her, even if he was back in Houston. If she was left here long enough, she had half a mind to add a mark for their sprout. Joke or not, she'd had the thought one second, and on the next she'd just smiled to herself, imagining those carvings under there, one for him, one for her, and the sprout, and then years from now, who knew how many more marks there could be?

She tried to pace herself with the milkshake once she got it. She texted Lucas, letting him know she'd made it to Austin and was waiting on her mother. When she mentioned the table and the urge to scratch for the baby, he'd replied in about the best way to guarantee she would hold off. We'll do it together, the first time we bring him or her there. We need a name to scratch.

After nearly ten minutes of spinning and twisting and biting at her straw once the tall glass was good and empty, Maya looked up just as her mother came through the door. She took a breath, rising out of the booth and moving into Katy's arms, outstretched at the ready. As good as the previous day's hugs had been, relieved from keeping her secret, this one felt even better and it was proof enough she'd done the right thing by driving out here so early.

"Sorry it took a while," her mother shook her head as they pulled away from one another.

"No, it's okay," Maya insisted. "I'm the one who changed the plan… all the plans," she breathed out. Her mother looked like she was about to cry as she smiled, and Maya had to wonder whether she'd been doing that in private since the day before, processing the news where she could? "Oh, please, no, my hormones are crazy, if you start, I won't be able to stop," she shook her head. She could do a whole series on the silly things she'd cried over in the last two weeks.

"Right, no, I've got this," Katy nodded, checking the corners of her eyes for any runaway tears. "I'm good, we're good, see?" Maya laughed, taking a deep breath. "I've got you," her mother reached out, giving her eyes the same check. "Did you eat yet?"

"Just a milkshake while I was waiting, bit of toast before I left. Starving now…"

So, they sat at the booth, putting in their orders without a look to the menus. Maya just kept thinking back to the night of hers and Lucas' fifth anniversary, just one day onward from finding out about the baby, sitting at the Nook and having no idea she could eat, should eat, wanted to eat… She was much more secure about all that now, which was more of a relief than she could say. Once the orders had been made, mother and daughter looked back to one another with matching shy smiles. It still felt so weird to actually be sitting here together, talking about all this, about her having a baby…

"I wanted to tell you… from the moment I saw the first test was positive," Maya shook her head, recalling the moment.

"The first one?" her mother smiled. "How many did you take?"

"Eight?" Maya admitted, squinting. Her mother chuckled. "I was nervous, okay? There were so many, and what if they were wrong? How many did you get when you had me?" she challenged. Katy cleared her throat.

"Not eight," she replied. At her daughter's pointed look, she admitted. "Seven."

"Ha!" Maya grinned. Her mother went on to explain that day to her, how she'd first bought one, carried it into the store bathroom, done all she had to do, and when the test had come back positive, she'd gone right back up the aisle, grabbed another, slapped it on the counter along with her money. She and the cashier had played this dance over and over, until, after the seventh, the woman had looked at the eighteen-year-old Katy and said plainly what she'd needed to be told. The result won't change even if you pee on every last one of the tests in here.

"Anyway, I get the nervous thing… Scared to death…" Katy shook her head.

"How long did it take before you weren't scared?" Maya had to ask.

"A few weeks," her mother revealed. "I didn't know if I could do it, if I could be someone's mom." Maya could see on her face that she sort of felt bad for admitting it, knowing what it suggested, but really she would never have held it against her. Certainly, now, when she was the one about to become someone's mother, she could understand that feeling.

"What changed your mind?" she asked, and all it took was the way her mother looked back at her and she knew the answer. Her father. Her father had changed her mother's mind. "Really?"

"It took a week before I actually told him I was pregnant, and he was scared, too, I mean for like two weeks he was just in another world, and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. Then, one day, it was like he'd flipped a switch, he came to me, and we talked, and by the end of it… we were all in."

Hearing the story, she could just picture it all so clearly, and what it left her with was this very strange feeling in her gut. This thought that her father, the one who'd left them, who'd shaped both their lives the way he'd done by being gone… She might actually owe him a debt of gratitude, of life? What might have happened to her if he hadn't convinced her mother? They might have given her up, they might… she might never have been born at all. And her little Junesprout…

"Hey…" her mother called her back to attention. Maya looked up. "Tell me what happened? After you bought eight pregnancy tests," she smiled, which in turn tugged a matching expression on her daughter's face.

"I mean… I didn't take them all at once, just four. And then the party was starting so we didn't get to see what they said for a few hours…" She told her mother about Halloween night, taking those first tests and then having to leave them languishing hidden in the closet until they could manage to go back up there, Lucas and her together, how she'd evaded the party a couple times, in the basement with Willow, up in hers and Lucas' room… And then, finally, they'd gone, and they'd looked, one by one, each test telling them the same thing, that they were having a baby. "And that's when I did the other four."

"Why, in case you got all the defective tests in the store?"

"That's what I said!" Maya laughed. "They were all positive, too… obviously." She remembered that feeling, when it became real, when it wasn't just a possibility anymore. She wasn't scared, she was just happy. She told her mother as much, feeling again that little bit of apprehension like her mother would be upset at her for wanting this, now, at this point in her life when she should have been working toward her future, her education. Her mother was not yet forty, and now she would be someone's grandmother…

"You and Lucas, you've gone through a whole lot of road these last few years, more than most young people your age. So, really… I can see it," Katy tipped her head to her, smiling. "I know this baby is going to come into… a really loving home," her eyes began to shine with tears, no longer able to hold them back as she reached across the table to squeeze her firstborn's hand. Maya squeezed back, her own easy tears showing themselves all at once.

"We really need to pull it together, they're going to think someone's dying," she grabbed a napkin to dab at her eyes. "And if they find out, they might say something next time Dad comes in here."

"Why did you come here instead of somewhere a little less… familiar?" Katy asked. Maya looked at her like this was a silly question.

"It's Ma Maggie's, where else would I go? Do you know how bad I've been wanting to come here lately?" she asked, tapping the menu in front of her.

"Alright, fair enough," Katy smiled, nodding along. "So, I have to ask, everything is going alright with you?"

"Nothing I didn't expect," Maya assured her, "And the doctor was really pleased with everything there was to see so far. We're on track."

"June baby," her mother recalled, and Maya nodded.

"If this keeps up, I won't be able to hide it for much longer," she admitted, going on to tell her mother about hers and Lucas' tests the day before, the hug, the shirt swap… She could tell her mother was curious to see now, though if they were trying not to have anyone figure out the truth anyplace where the news might somehow have made its way back to Shawn, or the Friars, then she couldn't just stand up and lift her shirt for all to see. "Be right back," she got up from the booth, heading for the ladies' room.

It wasn't ideal, especially having to hurry in case anyone came in, but for the time being it was all that she had. Pulling her shirt just high enough, she turned to the side, brandishing her phone with the camera on, the better to capture the progress of her eight-week growth. Really, it wasn't so out there, not yet, and maybe it was really just evident to people who knew her enough to see the difference, but sometimes she would get a look of her reflection, shirt down and all, and she could just see it. Now, with the shirt up, sideways, it wasn't so much that it was the curve alone but the curve in relation to the rest of her. Staring at herself like that, it was clear as day.

Returning to the booth a minute later, she found their plates had arrived, and her stomach seemed to give an audible demand for her to hurry up and dig in already, so that was what she did, after sitting and sliding her phone over to her mother. Katy looked to the picture taken back in the bathroom and Maya felt an odd sense of pride for the smile that spread over her mother's face as she took in the image.

"So, come on, what's going through your mind?" her mother asked, and Maya looked at her. It was one of those occasions where she would look at her, look at the woman she had become over the past eight years, and she would think about who she'd been before all that, and she would think… She wasn't the only one who'd done some growing up throughout those years. Now Katy was looking at her, seeing through their laughs and their happy tears, seeing the questions twisting through her… Maya sighed, setting her fork down.

"I don't know, it's just…" she shook her head, searching for the right words. "I know that some things will have to happen, so does Lucas, and whatever it has to be, to make sure this baby has the best life it can have, we're going to do it. We will," she swore to her mother. "I just… I don't know what those things are going to be, not yet…"

"Things like what?" her mother asked. Maya picked up a bit of food with her fingers, went chewing at it for a few beats.

"Like… moving back to Austin?" she looked back up to her mother.

"Oh…" Katy blinked, surprised. "Why?"

"Because the thought of us being out in Houston on our own instead of here, with you, and dad, and Lucas' family… It doesn't feel right. So, we have to come back… somehow."

For a while, they'd been turning that goal around in their heads, thinking about what they would have to do, what they'd need to gain… and what they stood to lose.

"There's still time," her mother told her, and Maya could do nothing else but take it to heart. She wouldn't find her answer today, certainly not without Lucas there with her, and even though they would have to have a plan before the baby came along, they could give themselves some breathing room for the time being. "Whatever you decide, if you're not sure…"

"I'll call you," Maya promised.

They'd talked on for a good while before Maya got back on the road for Houston. She drove right for the bookstore, knowing Lucas would be coming up on his lunch break, and after spending nearly five hours on the road that morning, all she wanted was go and see his face, see that smile he'd get when she showed up and he didn't expect her.

X

FOUR WEEKS LATER

Before they knew it, they were midway through December, a couple of days from heading down to Austin for the holidays. They guessed the end of the semester, with finals and projects had a way of making time fly by, more so with the whirlwind brought on by the pregnancy. But then here they were, on that morning, and even as she woke Maya felt like this might be the first time in weeks that she didn't feel nausea creeping up on her. This was good, and it was normal, she knew. She was coming up to the other end of that tunnel, but at the same time she didn't want to jinx it, so she kept on lying there… waiting.

The last month had required both her and Lucas to just keep moving forward, to focus on everything that was happening at the moment and not so much about what they would do later on. All those questions about Austin versus Houston and everything that came with that, they'd set it to the back burner, telling themselves that, when the semester would be done, when they would be able to stop and actually think it through, they would find an answer.

And now, here they were. No more classes, no more finals. No more waiting.

"Are you doing itsy bitsy spider?" Maya asked, looking down as she felt the brush of fingertips walking their way up the curve of her belly.

"Little bit," Lucas yawned. He was barely awake, but then all those mornings over the past month and a half had left them wanting to enjoy what brief time they had before this peace of theirs came to a screeching halt. She didn't tell him just yet, about feeling in no way nauseated so far, for fear she might jinx herself. "I can't wait to feel it move," he breathed, his hand brought to lay flat as she lay her own over his, clasping his fingers.

"I can't either," she smiled. After a minute or so like this, she turned on to her back and sat up a bit. They could both see it now, just enough that it left no room for doubt whether or not she was pregnant. Over the last week, she'd had no choice but to notice it was getting trickier to dress herself in any way that wouldn't put her growing belly in evidence. Sure, by now, pretty much anyone in their Houston circles was aware of the pregnancy, but the reflex remained in her to hide it, while their families continued to be in the dark.

They had seen their families in the last month, a couple of times each, and every time it had felt like walking around with something fragile in their hands, always on the verge of being cracked open. Maya was sure that, if they didn't have Katy as something like a buffer, because she already knew, they would never have succeeded, they would have slipped sooner or later. But they had held on, and Katy was still the only one who knew. They were going to get to do their big reveal. Soon, the secret would be out, and she wouldn't have to hide anymore. She was going to flaunt as much as she wanted.

"I woke up somewhere in the middle of the night, I could hear you whispering… Having deep conversations with the sprout, were you?" she inquired, smiling down at him as he turned on his side, propping himself up on his elbow.

"I couldn't sleep," he gave as his answer. "I didn't want to wake you." She might have spoken up, revealing herself to be awake, if she'd known, but then she'd just laid there, unable to do anything but to listen to him as he spoke to their son or daughter, telling their sprout about how his day had gone, pausing to insert some kind of context or other background information where he felt it might be necessary. In the end, she'd been lulled back to sleep by it. "I know it's early, for hearing, for..."

"Ears," she mimed, making him smile. "You should keep doing it," she told him. "Night or day."

"Sort of feels weird to just… talk at you," he pointed out as he sat up.

"Weirder than me talking at myself?" Maya countered. His eyebrows raised, asking. "Mostly it's like… talking to a partner, like 'come on, let's do this.' Sometimes, it's just… whatever I'm feeling, stress, or a little panicking, I've got someone to talk to, and they don't argue back a whole lot."

"Okay, but let me just give you the visual," he scooted down, lying on his stomach, up on his elbows, his face level with her growing bump. "Does this feel weird to you?" he asked the bump, waited for an answer, looked back up to her face. Maya was just all smiles, even as she felt her eyes start to sting with the promise of tears.

"Not even a little," she told him. He smiled back, crawling his way back up to her until he could kiss her. After a few seconds, he paused, pulling back to look at her.

"Are you feeling okay?" he asked, which was as good as asking 'do you feel like you're going to be sick?' It had become so much of a daily thing for them that even he was caught off guard by the lack of bathroom dashing.

"So far, so good," she bowed her head, breathed out. If they were really coming out on to the other end of that, then it seemed like they both knew… Now was the time. They needed to start and consider those big questions, not just tiptoe around them but really wade in. They couldn't go home to tell their families and not have a plan at the ready, they had to be able to show that they knew where they were headed.

"You still feel sure about Austin?" Lucas asked. Maya slowly nodded.

"But if you don't, I don't want you to…"

"I'm with you all the way, okay? Whatever you need, and if I have any… uncertainties… I will let you know," he promised. She breathed out. Lucas sat up, taking her hand.

"If we go back to Austin at the end of the next semester, we… We're not coming back, to Houston, not to stay." He didn't have to reply; it was the thing they'd both known, even though they wouldn't say it. They knew what it meant.

It was one thing to be ready to make sacrifices. It was a whole other thing to accept the loss. They loved their life here. This house, with their roommates, their jobs, their friends, their school… Some of it wouldn't be gone gone, they knew that. Their friends would still be their friends, whether they were a few minutes away or a couple of hours away. Their friends up in New York, in Boston, they were proof enough, proof but also concern. The geographical distance was enough to also force at least some… emotional distance, too. They weren't in their lives the same way, and now the same would happen with everyone else, too. They'd all be out here, and the two of them would be on their own, back in Austin.

Their jobs… Well, they'd been working before they'd moved to Houston, hadn't they? Maya had been at the diner, and Lucas at the museum. When the time had come, they'd resigned, and there'd been little more to it than that… But now, here, it was different. Tracy Coleman, Rosa and Pete, and Chef Isabel and all the staff both in the kitchen and in the dining room, they had become something so much closer, more like family, and the thought of leaving them behind was a genuine ache. The best they could tell themselves to dull it was that, sooner or later, they would have had to quit anyway. It wasn't a total fix, but it was the best they had.

It was school though, that was the biggest hang-up. They would have to go through the process to get themselves into another school, and even when they got in and started going to class again, either in the coming fall or the year after that, they would have lost something irreplaceable. Lucas had loved getting to know his uncle Hank in his capacity as a professor, and though they would still see each other, as family, the rest would be gone. And Maya… She would lose Professor Robinson, who had been such an influence to her over the past two years. There was so much more they could have done, and she knew it. And yet…

And yet, it would have to be done. For how much they would miss the parts of their Houston life they loved so much, none of it would change the fact that they knew that being close to their parents was what they needed the most, and that being close to them would be best for their baby.

"We'll make it work," Lucas vowed, holding her gaze with all the self-assurance he could muster. "You, me, and the good listener," he reached down to set his hand just over her belly button.

"That's a good sprout," Maya crooned. Lucas looked back to her, finding the smile already wavering. "I want to believe, I do, it's just… The unknown feels a lot scarier when it's not just about you and me anymore. The two of us, we've gotten this far, we can do it, but in there… That kid's brand new, and whatever happens, it's going to shape him or her…" she breathed, her own hand settling just under the belly button. "I want to get it right."

"So do I," he promised, stretching his little finger to nudge against her thumb. "More than anything."

"I do know that… it's going to be the two of us out there, looking after the baby, loving it, and each other, and I know that'll count for a lot, which is probably the reason why I only freak out a little, just…" she pressed her index and thumb nearly together. He nodded in agreement. "I just need… I need…"

"You need to be in Austin," he guessed.

"I do," she breathed.

"Then, we'll do that," he nodded. She nodded back. "I'll start looking for work out there before we go back, maybe… maybe I can get my job back at the museum."

"I've missed that blazer," she gave a weak attempt at the joke.

"I'll have to find something else, too, two something elses if the museum doesn't work out."

"Two…" she frowned, not following.

"You won't be able to get a job for a while after the baby's born," he pointed out. "And… we'll need the money." That was kind of the other big thing, wasn't it? No matter how they calculated it, they would need help there. They felt secure that their parents would want to help, and they wouldn't have much choice but to accept, but it would still feel like they should have been able to do this on their own. "At least we have somewhere to go… Even if it's just until we get on our feet." The house, his house, signed over to him by his grandfather… Their house, if they so chose to make it that.

"No, I want us to stay there," she told him, a happily determined and determinedly happy look on her face. "We should. Think about it… Sitting out there, watching our kid running around in all that space… I know, sure, I was a big city kid, New York, all of that, but even in all that, I know some part of me would have wanted nothing more than open spaces and so much running. Pappy Joe gave us that."

"I can't wait for him to find out about the baby," Lucas smiled. Maya bit back a laugh. "What are you going to call him, huh?" he moved back down to 'aim' his voice at their unborn child. "Great Pappy Joe?"

"Oh, he'll love that," Maya lost hold of that laugh now. It wouldn't be long now, they'd get to tell. For once, the butterflies in her stomach were kind enough to remain butterflies and leave her peace to enjoy the start of the day and the rest along with it.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners