A/N: Alright, this is the last chapter! It is finished. I am toying with a suggestion made by a reviewer, I don't remember who it was that suggested it (or if it was a guest reviewer), I'd have to go back and look, but someone suggested that I write a collection of moments from the "off screen" time between Someday and this story. And I'm thinking about doing just that as a collection of one shots or the like. We'll see what happens. Either way, this is done and I'm so glad I got it finished. Enjoy the final chapter! R&R! Thanks! ~Mac

Disclaimer: I don't own GMW.

Ten

The sun was up and it was mocking Maya from where it peeked around her blinds. The day had started without her and made no attempts to slow down and wait for her. As much as she wanted to burrow herself deeper into her bed and laze the day away, time was slipping away from her. Maya let out a soft grumble and closed her eyes against the offending sunlight. She was one second away from dragging a blanket over her head and curling into a ball when a strong arm wrapped around her and tugged her back into place against the warm, solid body beside her. A lazy smile found a home on her lips as she breathed in and settled.

"The sun woke me up," Maya murmured into his chest. "Fix it, Huckleberry."

His laugh was a rumble beneath her cheek. "If I could turn off the sun for you, Maya, I would."

Maya groaned again, only this time it segwayed into a breathy laugh. "No," she whined, "It's too early for sugar that sweet."

"It's easily already after noon."

"But I just woke up, hence early," Maya said.

Lucas mumbled something that may or may not have been intended to be words before a silence fell over them again. For a moment, Maya thought he might have fallen back to sleep and she was content to do the same. Then Lucas shifted again, curling their bodies together. His nose nuzzled against her cheek and his mouth settled near her ear. He was very much awake and she waited for his next move. He was waiting too, she didn't know what had him stalled.

"When are your Mom and Shawn getting back?" Lucas asked, his voice carrying that lovely gravelly quality of early morning even if it was afternoon.

"Not til this evening," Maya answered. When Lucas didn't respond right away, she added, "Why?"

"Hmm," Lucas breathed out softly and answered, "I was wondering how long I can get away with staying just like this."

"I think we've got some time to spare," Maya said.

"I'm going to miss this," Lucas dipped his head to pepper kisses along Maya's jaw. "I like spending every night with you and waking up beside you every morning. I don't want this week to end."

"You know I love that too, right?" Maya asked, her breath faltered under the trail of Lucas's mouth.

Lucas smiled against her skin. "It wouldn't hurt to hear you say it."

Because part of their agreement was that they share everything, Maya decided that she would say it. She had spent most of their relationship under the assumption that Lucas knew her so well that she didn't need to say everything she was thinking. He already knew without her saying a word. It had allowed her to take for granted how easy Lucas made things for her. It was time for her to make it easy for him. That mean making sure that he never again had any doubts when it came to her. She would follow his lead and speak plain.

"I don't know what could make me happier than to be able to have this every single day," Maya said.

Lucas stopped in his path down her neck and she issued a small murmur of disappointment. He moved so that he was able to look at her face to face. Part of Maya wished he would go back to what he had been doing before, but she also knew that what was about to pass between them was equally—actually more, definitely more, but she liked the other version for obvious reasons too—important.

"Is that so?" Lucas meant to keep it playful, but something in his tone betrayed how much rested upon what she said next.

"Yes," Maya said. "I would choose you and this over every other alternative every day, maybe fore the rest of my life," She rested her forehead against Lucas's and smiled. "Actually, I take that back." Lucas started to frown, but Maya leaned in to kiss it away before it could fully form. "I would definitely choose this for the rest of my life."

Lucas lingered with their lips hovering just a breath apart and his eyes closed tight. "What happened to 'it's too early for sugar that sweet?'"

"I don't think it's ever too early for me to tell you exactly what you mean to me," Maya said. "I should take every chance I get to show you just how much of me and my life belongs to you. I've been stingy on that account for too long."

"Maya—"

"Nope, no arguing with me before coffee," Maya cut off any excuses Lucas might have been about to make for her. "You know I'm right anyway, Huckleberry. So just accept that I'm going to steal a little of your thunder and shower you with a little more of my love from now on."

"You know I love you just the way you are," Lucas said. "I never needed you to change a thing."

"I do know that," Maya said, "but I needed me to change. Just a little so that all of me, head and heart, body and soul were on the same page." She framed his face in her hands and let her thumbs stroke over his cheeks before her fingers crawled back to card through his hair. Lucas closed his eyes against the sensations her light touches created and issued a soft sigh. Maya smiled and let out a brief breathy laugh. "I don't think you have any complaints about the results."

"No," Lucas agreed. "No complaints here."

"Good," Maya said and kissed him. Before she could pull back to continue the conversation, Lucas locked his arms around her and turned her light kiss into something quite more.

They were a tangle of limbs and hands when they finally came up for air. Lucas was sprawled out on her bed, his head fallen limp back against her pillows, and Maya was half curled on top of him. Her whole body seemed to lift with the rise and fall of his chest as he fought to catch his breath. They were a mess, a beautiful mess. Hair tangled and wild, sprouting in all different directions. Arms and legs at uncomfortable angles to accommodate each other's bodies, to keep the connections between each other on every available surface in their reach. Blankets tangled impossibly around them only as a last attempt at modesty. There was little conventionally perfect about any of it—but still, there it was, perfect. Laughter wanted to bubble up out of Maya uncontrollably over how happy all of this made her, so she didn't fight it. She let it free, and soon Lucas had joined in. Their eyes met and something passed between them. Maybe they were both thinking the same thing, that this was it, but Maya said it first and she found that very important.

"We should live together," Maya said.

Lucas stopped laughing, but he was smiling that smile which was a thousand times better. "You think?"

"Yes," Maya nodded, "Not right this second, obviously, there are so many things we need to think about—logistically, financially—and everything, but yes. That's a step we can take, soon, maybe. Maybe in a couple years, or less, or more—it doesn't matter which—but instead of a dorm, or my parents' apartment, we could have a place that was ours. And my mom and Shawn are going to need the space anyway. They haven't said anything, but they both want another kid. And I just think," Maya took in a deep breath and continued right on. "I want to fall asleep to you and wake up to you and come home to you and wait up for you and...we're young, but this is it, you know? It's our toothbrushes next to each other in the bathroom, it's you setting my alarm for me, it's me wearing your jacket home, it's your picking up my shoes when I leave them in a mess all over the apartment. Before you, those were things I never would have thought to ever want, but I want them. And I want them someday soon. Don't you?"

Lucas looked at her for a long moment. It was a little unnerving for him to be so quiet and calm while her whole body was buzzing with excitement over all the things she was finally able to put into words and share with him. She started to pull back, but then his smile widened.

"I want bare walls to fill with our memories. I want to fight with you over paint colors even though I will always intend to let the artist in you decide. I want to tease you about how I always have to check the mail because you always forget," Lucas said and Maya listened with a matching smile on her face. "I want to do our laundry together, things that are mine and things that are yours all mixed together, folded into the same drawers, and sharing closet space. I want to fill our kitchen with food and come home to you eating a whole bag of chips because there was nothing to eat."

Maya laughed. "I do that."

Lucas stroked a hand up her back and Maya pressed closer to him. "I want to share everything with you, Maya. My space, my home, my life. I can say that now without freaking you out, right?"

"Yes," Maya nodded.

"Good, because I also have something for you," Lucas said.

Maya hesitated, unsure of what he could possibly have for her. She thought she might have been supposed to ask what it was, but she couldn't get the words right on her tongue.

"You're not going to ask what it is?" Lucas raised an eyebrow. "Are you freaking out a little? It's okay if you are, you just have to tell me."

"No, I'm okay," Maya whispered, because she was pretty certain her voice would have cracked at a higher volume.

"Alright," Lucas said, watching her closely. "It's in your drawer."

"In my—how?" Maya asked, already sliding over him to reach the nightstand drawer he had indicated.

Maya looked in that drawer all the time. There was nothing out of place that she wouldn't have noticed. She rustled around with the one hand that reached without moving far enough to look at what she was doing. He had to be playing some kind of trick on her because as she searched around with one hand all she found was the usual junk she kept in there. She rolled her eyes as she told him so.

"There's nothing in her, Huckleberry. I don't know what kind of game you think you're play—" Maya's hand closed around something that was decidedly not the usual junk and her voice broke off mid word. "—oh."

"I hid it in there when you were in the shower last night. It was a little conspicuous where I'd been carrying it in my pocket."

Maya slowly drew back her arm until she could get her eyes on the box clutched in her hand. Her eyes widened as she looked back and forth between it and Lucas, over and over.

"Don't freak out," Lucas said. He started to shift upwards to sit. With his arms around her, he kept Maya with him, ending with her curled in his lap. She barely registered the change in position over the dozen or so voices screaming in her head. What Lucas had to say did little to calm them down. "It's not what you think. Not exactly. I wouldn't do what you're thinking like this. I think you know that. I think you know me better than that. Open it."

Maya obeyed and popped open the box. She squeaked out, "ring."

"Yes," Lucas nodded and with gentle hands he took the box that contained a delicate ring from her and pulled the ring out of it. He held the ring between them, his eyes on her even as her eyes were on it. "It's a promise ring. I've had it for awhile. It was supposed to be an anniversary gift, but I hesitated, because we hadn't talked much about the future in concrete terms yet. After what happened when we finally did, I'm actually glad I saved it."

"Lucas," Maya murmured, unable to stop staring at the small band that he held so gently between his fingers.

"This is a promise," Lucas said. "A promise that my love for you is only going to grow, a promise that I believe we have a hundred more somedays to look forward to, a promise that my life will always be intertwined with yours, and a promise that one day, I'll be down on one knee to give you a different ring." He tilted his head to get his eyes on hers and Maya had to blink him into focus. It was only then that she realized he had brought tears to her eyes. "Maya Hart, do you accept my promise?"

"I do," Maya said and, realizing how she had phrased it, laughed through the few stray tears that had fallen. That's what she was doing when Lucas took her hand in his and slid the ring onto her finger. She stretched out her hand to test the weight of it there and then looked back at Lucas. "I want to make the same promise to you, Lucas Friar. At least the first few parts. I think I'll leave the actual proposal part to you. I wouldn't want to take that away from you Huckleberry."

Lucas laughed, but let it fade away until it was just the two of them in the quiet again. "I love you, Maya."

Maya nodded a few quick times before wrapping her arms around him. "I love you too, Lucas."

Lucas gathered her up and then they were kissing again. Maya was very aware of the new accessory on her finger even as she lost herself in his arms. A few days ago, she had come very close to losing him, and maybe it wasn't as close as it had seemed in the moment, but any proximity to a life without Lucas was far more dangerously close than she ever wanted to be. To get from there to where she was now, with a promise ring of her finger—physical proof that they both had their eye on that future they had envisioned for themselves—was breathtaking. There was nothing greater than the feeling building inside her. Fairy tales had nothing on Lucas and Maya. And, she wouldn't be Maya Hart if she didn't think, a little smugly and probably only half seriously, that maybe, neither did the famous Cory and Topanga. Either way, Maya had been right about one thing: they were at their best when they were on the path that no on expected for them. Because no one would have expected this for them, least of all Maya herself. Except for maybe Lucas, and that was why Maya put all her faith in him. He never steered her wrong. How could he with that lovely Huckleberry heart of his?

Maya was about ready to pull Lucas back under the covers when she was distracted by a sound she thought she might have imagined. She pulled back a little, half frowning. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Lucas asked against the corner of her mouth.

Maya strained her ears, but heard nothing more. She made to kiss him again. She was dipping back into the hazy pleasure that accompanied such kisses when she heard more. She couldn't put an explanation to the sounds before the truth of the situation revealed itself through a clear pair of voices traveling through her propped open door.

"Maya? We're home."

Maya was jolted right back to reality and her wide, panicked eyes met a matching expression in Lucas's. She mouthed to him, "clothes!" before they bolted apart. Maya tried to gauge where her mom and Shawn were in the apartment by the reach of their voices and the sounds of them interacting with their surroundings. She had already shrugged into a shirt by the time the front door shut. She tugged on pants and lunged for the brush on her dresser to the sound of suitcases rolling across hardwood and keys hitting a dish. Lucas was still hopping into his shoes while Maya worked furiously to put her hair into an acceptable state. The voices were getting closer when Maya threw for him to work on his own bedhead. She kicked the clothes she had shed the previous night out of sight under her bed and turned back to catch the brush Lucas returned to her.

"Maya, honey, are you here?"

Maya pointed vigorously at Lucas's overnight bag sitting at the foot of her bed and Lucas dove fore it to shove it out of sight too. As he straightened, Maya gave him and herself and her room a last once over and judged it as good as it was going to get. She grabbed Lucas by the shirt collar and tugged him, stumbling, out into the hall just as Katy and Shawn came to a stop, a few steps from her bedroom door.

"Hey," Maya drew out the word as if it were suddenly spelled with a thousand e's. She swallowed thickly. "You're home early. How was the honeymoon? Was it amazing? Tell us everything."

Shawn eyed Lucas and Lucas gulped visibly. Katy flashed her daughter a knowing look. Maya braced herself for what came next. Shawn glanced between Lucas and Maya, mulling over some decision he was making for himself.

"I'm going to assume," Shaw finally said, "that you just got here, and like the rest of your, for reasons entirely unknown, prefer to come in through the window."

Lucas cleared his throat. "What other explanation could there be, sir?"

"Good answer," Shawn said.

Maya shuffled closer to Lucas, took his hand with a soft squeeze, and whispered to him. "Clearly, the honeymoon was even better than amazing."

Katy smiled and laughed lightly. "You'd be correct, baby girl. Still want us to tell you everything?"

Maya clutched Lucas's hand tightly. "Did my mom just wink at me?"

"She did," Lucas nodded.

Katy's eyes trailed down to the entwined hands and specifically to the newest addition to her daughter's. "I think maybe we all have some stories to tell. Long ones that require a lot of details and explanations."

"I think we have time for that. Don't we, Lucas?" Maya looked up at him. He flashed her his smile and one grew on her face in response. "We've got all the time in the world."

Shawn wrapped an arm around Katy's shoulders and drew her in close as they momentarily lost Maya's attention to Lucas. "He didn't just come in through the window, did he?"

"No, he did not," Katy said.

"He's here to stay, isn't he?" Shawn sighed.

"God, I hope so," Katy replied. "Look at how happy he makes her. We know a little something about what that means."

"Yeah, we do," Shawn agreed. Then he let a mock serious look cover his face—although he probably thought it was a serious serious look, his wife saw right through it for what it really was. "Doesn't mean I have to like it."

Katy shook her head, but smiled contentedly anyway. When she spoke, it was mostly to herself, like a reminder, or a prayer, or just hope. "Light from the dark, indeed."

"Huh?" Maya finally turned back to them. "Did you say something?"

"Not a word, baby girl," Katy replied. "Why don't Shawn and I get settled and then the four of us could go out for a nice lunch. What do you say?"

"Perfect," Maya smiled.

"Wonderful," Katy brought her hands together and led the way for her and Shawn to their room.

"I've got my eye on you, Friar," Shawn grumbled as he moved past them.

Lucas grimaced, but stayed appropriately silent until Shawn was out of sight. "Well, that could have gone worse."

Maya took her first real good look at Lucas and had to slap a hand over her mouth to stifle the burst of laughter that immediately threatened to fall out. She managed to say, without noticeably squawking. "Yeah, it could have."

"What?" Lucas frowned. He spoke low so as not to be overheard or draw attention back to them. "What is it?"

Maya reached up and tugged on the exposed tag at the back of his collar. "Your shirt is inside out."

"Do you think they noticed?" Lucas questioned as he reached around for the tag himself and then twisted his shirt until he could get a look at some of the seams sticking out from the edges of his sleeves, just to be sure.

"Do I think they noticed? My mom, who had eyes on the promise ring in a fraction of a second? Or Shawn, who has a thing about attention to detail?" Maya said. "Yes, they noticed. Definitely."

"And I'm not dead," Lucas said.

Maya laughed and patted Lucas on the chest. "Guess we got lucky this time then, didn't we?"

Lucas cleared his throat. "For the record, I've always thought we were lucky."

"Me too," Maya agreed. "Now go fix your shirt before Shawn decides that he isn't going to let this slide. I have to do something about my hair before we go."

"Right, right," Lucas nodded. He turned to head back into Maya's room.

"And Lucas?" Maya said, catching him before he was through the doorway. "To be continued on that other thing, okay?"

Lucas smiled. "Always."

Maya smiled back. "I like the sound of that."

"Happy to oblige, ma'am," Lucas said and tipped his imaginary hat.

With a laugh stealing her breath, Maya waved Lucas away. "Go on, Huckleberry. I'll be waiting."

Lucas flashed her one last smile before he disappeared into her room. That one smile alone, despite how many times she had been lucky enough to see it in the span of five years, never ceased to turn her insides into a gooey mess. Her younger self never would have imagined she was capable of such sentimental emotion, but here she was with it practically her normal state of being. Little Maya would have laughed at the idea of a casual lunch with her mom, her wonderful stepfather, and her great love, but this was her life now. So much had changed during those years, that it was a comfort to know that, moving forward, there were certain things that were never going to change. Maya was finally ready to do exactly that: move forward. From the faintest spark of hope had grown this wildfire of faith and optimism. She wasn't going to see it snuffed out ever again. It was time to see where it took her next.

"Okay, love in my heart," Maya whispered to herself. "Lead the way."

-fin-