Dear Lucas,

I know that you're mad at me. I can hear you pacing the hallway upstairs and I know that you only get this restless when something is really bothering you. You should know that it bothers me, too. We've been together long enough that your emotions feel like my own.

"Riley Mathews and Lucas Friar are pleased to announce the birth of their son, Mathew Blake Friar, and daughter, Summer Nicole Friar, on August 7," Farkle paused in his reading to look up at Riley.

"What?" Riley questioned.

"Nothing, did Maya take the family picture?" Farkle questioned, his face unreadable.

"Yeah, I thought it was nice. Do you think it's too much?" Riley pressed, holding up the print-out of the cards that they were getting ready to mail.

"No, you guys look nice together. You guys fit," Farkle admitted, pursing his lips.

"I appreciate your input," Riley admitted, getting up from the kitchen table that was staying with the carriage house. It was strange seeing Farkle's and Zay's things dominating the space that had once been hers. They'd hung a sheet down the middle, to give them each their own section, but strangely it seemed to be working out.

"I'll help you get your things out to the car," Zay suggested, from where he had been experimenting with something gooey in the kitchen. It was the strangest shade of purple, which actually made Riley want to try it. She figured she should probably get out before she gave in to temptation.

"Thanks, Lucas was going to come help, but he's finishing up the paperwork to take over Jack's practice," Riley explained, tucking the card into her pocket.

"The kids with him?" Zay questioned, as he grabbed one of the two remaining boxes and followed Riley out to her car. Farkle made no move to follow them and Riley knew that there was something wrong, but didn't know how hard to push.

"With Maya, actually, she's heading back to New York with Josh and Noah in the morning," Riley explained, popping the trunk and stepping aside as Zay loaded her things in the back.

"It's been nice havin' all of us together again," Zay commented, leaning against the back of her car as he turned to talk to her.

"Yeah, it has," Riley agreed, noticing the food stains that covered the front of Zay's shirt.

"Listen, Sugar, you know I love you, but I think it might be good to give Farkle some space," Zay suggested, his voice taking on a rare tone of seriousness.

"How much space?" Riley asked, knowing that he was right.

"How much space did you need when Lucas was with Maya?" Zay returned and she nodded once.

"You're a good friend, Zay," Riley sighed, pulling him into a hug.

"For what it's worth, I'm glad that you and Lucas ended up together," he offered.

"I appreciate that. I'll see you around?"

"That's a pretty safe bet," Zay promised, waving as she made her way to the driver's seat of the car.

It was Lydia's last day at the practice before she needed to get back to LA, so Riley stopped at the bakery to pick up a custom cake that she had ordered the week before. She was supposed to be meeting Lucas for a late lunch to celebrate his new practice and she kept glancing at the clock to try and keep track of the time.

She dialed his number, as she got out of the car and moved towards the front door.

"Hey, Riles," Lucas answered and an automatic smile pulled across her face.

"Hi," Riley returned, fondly, "Doctor Friar."

"It feels surreal, doesn't it?" Lucas asked.

"It does. So, I need to stop at the practice and say goodbye to Lydia. Can I meet you in an hour?" Riley suggested, pushing their initial meeting time back.

"I'll grab the food," Lucas agreed.

"Thanks, I love you."

"I love you, too," he returned before she ended the call.

"What's with the goat?" Riley questioned, as she pulled the door open and nearly dropped the cake.

"It was sent here this morning," Jennifer informed Riley, "Lydia said she would take care of it."

"How many goats did Blake need?" Riley asked, setting the cake on the reception desk.

"This isn't a new goat," Lydia replied, coming out of Roy's office, "Apparently dorm rooms and goats, don't mix."

"Hailey took the goat to New York with her?" Riley questioned, groaning as she leaned her head against the counter.

"I didn't ask for all of the details, I feel it's best to maintain plausible deniability in these situations," Lydia shrugged, pausing to pet the goat.

"So, what are we supposed to do with it, now?" Jennifer spoke up, looking uncertain about the farm animal.

"Well, Hailey has requested that Chelsea be given to Farkle to watch for the time being. Apparently the two of them had a bond and Hailey thinks that they need each other," Lydia explained, standing up.

"They named her Chelsea?" Riley questioned, looking at the goat with newfound interest.

"I'll drop her off at the carriage house when I head home," Lydia assured them, "Is that for me?"

"Yeah, we're going to miss you," Riley said, pulling off the lid of the cake.

"Let me go wash my hands and we can cut it," Lydia suggested, disappearing into one of the exam rooms.

"You're not a big fan of livestock?" Riley questioned.

"I'm a city girl," Jennifer offered, "This is my first time being anywhere like this."

"There's a learning curve," Riley laughed, "Where are you from?"

"My family moved around a lot when I was a kid. My father was the lead guitarist in a band and when he decided to step back from that, he managed my sister, Olivia's, career. She has an incredible voice and she acts," Jennifer explained.

"Are you musically inclined?" Riley asked, sensing that she had hit a sensitive subject and trying to deviate from it.

"Not like Olivia, I played piano for a while, but I gave it up when I was in college. I figured, I would focus on a career that was a little more stable," Jennifer said, looking uncomfortable.

"My best friend's an artist and I could never compete," Riley offered, wondering what was taking Lydia so long.

"I don't mean to sound bitter, I love my family and I'm proud of everything that Olivia's accomplished. We're just a little estranged at the moment," Jennifer shrugged it off.

"Roy, get out here for cake," Lydia's voice called as she returned to the main reception area, keeping Riley from trying to form any kind of answer.

"I thought we were trying to be healthy," Roy complained, leaving his office and joining them at the front desk.

"It's okay to cheat every once in a while," Lydia informed him, using the paper plates and silverware that she had grabbed from the back room.

"I actually have to get going, but it's been wonderful having you here," Riley pulled Lydia into a hug.

"You take care of those beautiful babies," Lydia returned and if Riley hadn't been facing Jennifer she wouldn't have noticed the way the other woman tensed.

"I will, thank you for everything," Riley smiled, pulling away and grabbing her keys out of her pocket.

Lucas had given her the address of the clinic where he would be working out of. Most of his clients would require house calls, but he insisted that he still needed a physical work location. Riley texted Maya to check in on her children before she made her way to the address that Lucas had given her. She'd been spoiled with having family around and she wasn't sure what she was going to do when everyone had to get back to work. There was a daycare on main street, but she wasn't ready to trust her children with people she hadn't known most of her life, yet.

She pulled into the parking lot and had to admit that it was a nice location. Lucas had more parking then what she had at the practice and the building didn't look as old. Riley slowly got out of the car and smiled as she saw that Lucas's name had been painted on the front door.

"You're early," Lucas informed her, as she opened the door and walked in.

"I'm trying to lose the baby weight and I needed to get out before temptation became too much," Riley informed him, taking in how handsome he looked in his lab coat. He had several bags of food sitting on his reception desk and he was leaning against the edge as he took everything in.

"You look fine, Riles," Lucas assured her as she closed the distance and took up position next to him.

"I still don't fit into any of my clothes and Maya looks like she never had a baby in the first place," Riley pointed out.

"You were carrying two babies, Maya only had to carry one," Lucas reminded her, grabbing the bags of food and gesturing for her to follow him.

"I know, I would just like to look like me again," Riley sighed.

"You still look like you to me. You're even more beautiful than the day that I met you," Lucas assured her, pausing outside of a door as he kissed her.

"You're right, I was pretty when I met you," Riley snorted as they pulled away.

"And I was a stupid teenage boy, who said and did plenty of things that he now regrets," Lucas offered and Riley let out a laugh, "Will you wait outside for a minute?"

"Why?" Riley asked, folding her arms.

"I just need a minute to make sure that everything is ready," Lucas said, easing the door open just enough that he could slip in without her seeing anything.

"You know this is just lunch, right?" Riley called through the door.

"It's not just lunch, it's the first time we've been alone together since we had the twins and it's probably the last time for a while," Lucas called back.

Riley tapped her foot as she waited and several minutes later he pulled the door open. The room was definitely a storage room, but Lucas had shoved a number of boxes against the walls, so that he could make room for a blanket. Black drapes covered the windows and glowing orbs that hung from the ceiling were the only things giving the room light. Their food was spread out across the floor and even though it was simple, the effort left Riley speechless.

"You know; we could have actually had a picnic outside," Riley laughed, as they finished eating and Lucas cleared their food.

"We could have, but unfortunately the stars wouldn't cooperate," Lucas said and Riley gave him a puzzled look, "Lay down with me for a minute."

Riley turned and stretched out next to him, staring up at the ceiling, and the orbs of light took on an entirely different meaning as she realized that he had set up an entire solar system. The same plastic stars that had lined the ceiling of the carriage house, were arranged above their head and it took Riley several minutes to realize that they spelled out, "Riley and Lucas."

"It's beautiful," Riley breathed, tears filling her eyes as she thought of the effort that he must have gone to in trying to set everything up.

"I know this is forever ago, but do you remember my essay on evolution?" Lucas asked and Riley searched through her memories.

"You said that it didn't rule out, 'A guiding hand that has your best interest at heart,'" Riley replied, wondering what he was getting at.

"I don't believe in chance. I believe that everything has a purpose and I believe that there was a reason you fell into my lap on the subway. I believe that there was a reason that we were both even in the same subway car that day. You changed my life, Riley, you helped me to want to be a better person then who I was. I wouldn't be who I am today if you weren't a part of my life."

"I'm a better person when I'm with you, too. I feel safe being myself around you," Riley said, when he didn't continue.

"I know that the universe has taken us on a crazy journey, but we're finally here. There's still plenty of obstacles, but none of them are going to keep me from spending the rest of my life with you. Riley Mathews, you're it for me, and I love you more than I ever thought it was humanly possible to love someone. Will you do me the honor of spending a lifetime with me and becoming my wife?"

Riley looked over at him and found that he was holding a ring between the two of them. It was gold with a single, round, ruby in the center and a web of diamonds surrounding it and spreading down the band. And somehow, she instinctively knew why he had chosen it.

"It's Pluto," Riley said, tears running down her face.

"If there's one thing that I believe in more than everything else; it's you and me," he said, sitting up.

"Lucas," Riley groaned, as a thousand emotions filtered through her. She wanted to say yes and she wanted to feel like this was the right thing to do, but somehow she just didn't, "I love you."

"But?" Lucas asked and she forced herself to look at the hurt that was covering his face.

"But I'm not ready. I just got used to being a mother, we bought a house, and we're still trying to adjust to living together. This is too much, too soon," Riley explained, sitting up so that they were facing each other.

"We can have a long engagement, Riles, I'm not looking to set a date right now," Lucas informed her, the frustration in his voice making her want to just give in.

"Farkle is my best friend, he's one of my oldest friends and I can't do this to him," Riley stated, folding her arms. Zay had reminded her of the pain of seeing Lucas and Maya together, just that morning and it suddenly felt fresh in her heart. She couldn't put Farkle through what she had been through.

"Farkle knows that I'm proposing to you," Lucas offered.

"We're living together, we have the twins together, you know how much I care about you. Why do we have to change things?"

Lucas looked away from her and Riley felt her heart shattering into a million pieces. It didn't help that her phone chose that moment to ring.

"You should answer it," Lucas suggested, getting up from the floor.

"No, I'm not going to," Riley replied, following after him, "We're not done."

"That sounded pretty final, Riley," Lucas informed her as she ignored the call and shoved her phone back into her pocket.

"It wasn't final, it was me saying that I need some time to process everything," Riley insisted, trying to make him understand. Her phone went off again and she watched as a dozen emotions flashed across his face.

"Answer it," Lucas said, his voice going quiet.

Tears ran down her face as she answered the phone and held it up to her ear, "Hello?"

"Doctor Mathews, it's Jennifer. I think something might be wrong, can you meet me at the practice?"

"Yeah," Riley looked at Lucas, feeling pulled between her job and her future, "I'll be right there."

"I'll see you at home," Lucas looked at the ground, refusing to meet her gaze.

"Will you be there?" Riley questioned, scared of the answer.

"I'm really mad at you; irrationally mad at you, but, Riley, I'm not going anywhere," he assured her.

"I'm sorry," Riley said, wishing that he could feel how much she meant those words.

"I love you," Lucas looked up at her, "Go save lives."

She nodded once and left the building, leaving half of herself behind.

Lucas,

You told me a lot of things that you believe in and I love that I believe most of those same things, but, Lucas, there's something else that I believe in: timing. I believe that you're my future and that we will get a lifetime together, but our timing is off.

She barely remembered the drive from Lucas's practice to her own. It probably wasn't her safest driving, considering she could barely see through the tears that were openly running down her face. She parked outside and wiped furiously at the tears as she tried to get ahold of herself. She needed to go in and be professional.

It took her several minutes to get herself under control and she blotted at her smeared makeup with a napkin that she found in the center console. Her eyes were still red and puffy, but there wasn't much else she could do, so she climbed out of the car and prepared herself to handle whatever emergency came next.

When she entered, Jennifer was pacing frantically across the room. Riley could see the worry that was etched in her face, along with a dozen other emotions that Riley couldn't quite put a name to. Seeing someone else in need was enough to force her own problems from her mind and she found her doctor-mode slamming into place.

"What's wrong?" Riley asked, keeping her voice calm.

"I'm pregnant," Jennifer admitted, tears filling her eyes, as she stopped to look at Riley, "Or at least I was. Almost seven weeks and I just started bleeding."

"Spotting is normal, it doesn't always mean anything," Riley assured her, trying not to get caught up in how similar this situation, suddenly, felt to her own miscarriage.

"You don't understand; I had doubts about this pregnancy. I wasn't excited to be pregnant, I hoped that it would go away," Jennifer rambled, "My parents were so disappointed in me for getting pregnant."

"Jennifer," Riley stopped her, closing the distance between them and grabbing the younger girl's arms, "We don't know that anything is wrong. I need you to take a deep breath and stop panicking."

"I don't have anyone, I don't know what to do," Jennifer said, collapsing into Riley's arms and Riley patted her back.

"We're going to get you into an exam room and I'll do an ultrasound. If there's something wrong, we'll find out," Riley reassured her, keeping her voice even.

"And if there is?" Jennifer asked, her face going pale.

"You have me," Riley promised, guiding her into an exam room and turning on the lights.

Jennifer hesitantly sat down on the exam table as Riley turned on the machines and grabbed the gel. Jennifer pulled her shirt up enough that Riley had access to her stomach and Riley found herself praying that nothing was wrong.

"Do you see anything?" Jennifer asked, as Riley moved the wand around her stomach.

"Not yet, but the baby is still pretty small," Riley replied, continuing her search. It was strange finding herself in the same position that Lydia had all those years ago.

"What?" Jennifer questioned when Riley closed her eyes and sucked in a breath.

Riley turned up the sound on the machine and a heartbeat echoed through the room, "That's your baby."

"The baby's fine?" Jennifer questioned, looking at Riley as though she expected Riley to tell her it was a joke.

"Your baby looks and sounds completely healthy. We'll keep an eye on the bleeding, but I think you're fine," Riley said, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you," Jennifer laughed, pulling Riley into a hug.

"I'm going to give you a towel to clean yourself off and then you can meet me out in the reception area," Riley instructed, when she had pulled away.

"Okay," Jennifer agreed, as Riley left the room and closed the door.

Riley sunk into the chair at the reception desk as she tried to wrap her mind around what had just happened.

She found herself looking at the photos that lined Jennifer's desk. They were a recent addition and Riley hadn't been in the office enough to look at them closely. There was a family picture at what looked like Jennifer's graduation, along with a headshot that was signed and framed. There was something incredibly familiar about the girl in the picture and Riley had to blink several times to make sure that it wasn't a signed picture of Maya. They had the same blue eyes and the same long, blonde hair.

"Is that your family?" Riley asked, when Jennifer had left the exam room.

"Yeah, those are my parents and that's my sister, Olivia," Jennifer said, grabbing the photo so that Riley could see it.

"What's your father's name?" Riley asked, as she took in the man in the picture. His hair was a lot shorter then what it had been the only time that Riley had met Kermit and he was wearing a suit, which was one of the reasons that she hadn't automatically picked up on the uncanny resemblance.

"Kermit, Kermit Barlow," she replied.

Lucas,

You're one of the few people in this world who I feel like I can tell anything to and I, actually, have a lot to tell you at the moment. I know that you're mad, but I don't know what to do and….

Riley left the car door open as she raced towards the carriage house and pounded on the door. She could hear the television on and what sounded like a blender, but she continued to hit the door.

"Who's chasing you?" Zay demanded, as he opened the door in an apron.

"Maya has a half-sister," Riley gasped, trying to catch her breath and come up with the words to say.

"Is Katy pregnant?" Farkle asked, from where he appeared over Zay's shoulder.

"It's Kermit's daughter. Jennifer is Maya's half-sister," Riley informed them, her hand covering her mouth as she said the words for the first time.

Dear Lucas,

I hope you're paying attention because you told me all about physics, but I want to tell you about hypothermia. Hypothermia starts out as nothing. Your body temperature drops a couple of degrees, you become confused, and tired. Your body starts to devote its energy to the core functions. Without treatment, your brain will stop functioning, your heart will slow down, and eventually you'll die. That's how it felt when you were with Maya, that's how it felt when I lost our baby.

Having the twins and being with you these last few months helped me to finally feel like I was alive again. Like I was finally starting to get warm and regain feeling in the parts of me that I thought were going to be numb forever. I'm getting there, Lucas. I'm forgiving you (and me) for the mistakes that we've made over the years that we've been a part of each other's lives and I'm healing, but I'm just not there, yet.

We can step around the issue and pretend that it isn't there, but I don't believe that Farkle's feelings towards me are entirely platonic. He's your best friend and he's mine, too, and I want him to be a part of our lives. I don't want him to run across the country trying to get away from the feeling of slowly freezing to death. So, I want to give him some time and space to heal before we force anything else on him.

I'm going to say yes. I believe in Pluto, but more than that, I believe in you. I trust you with my heart and I know that there's never going to be anyone else that I want to grow old with, as badly as I want that with you. So, I guess, I'm just asking you to wait and to believe a little longer that the stars are going to align for us. After all, our names are written in them.

Lucas, we defy all the laws of physics and of gravity, but, now, I'm asking you to put the Law of Timing to the test. I'm asking you to have patience and to know that I'm not going anywhere, either. I love you.

Always Yours,

Riley

Riley looked at the final draft of her letter, gathering the discarded ones and tossing them into the garbage. She could still hear Lucas pacing upstairs and Maya and Josh had been asleep by the time she had gotten home. They had an early flight the next morning and she still hadn't figured out how or even if she should break the news to Maya.

Riley moved towards the stairs, her letter clutched in her hands. She stopped outside of the nursery where Maya had put the twins to sleep. They were tiny and perfect and they were hers.

And, somehow, she knew that everything was going to work out. She had hope.

A huge thanks to everyone who's stuck with me through this story. Your support and encouragement were a huge part of how I managed a 203 word-document page story in a little over a month. I have a feeling that some of you are going to be annoyed with my ending, but as hard as I tried to make Riley accept that proposal, she just wouldn't do it. This is not the end, I have a sequel planned and mostly plotted out, it will be called, "Laws of Timing," and pick up shortly after this one. As a side note, I would love to hear what you would like to see happen in the sequel(there will be multiple engagements and weddings.)

I'm not sure when the sequel will be up because I'm pulling from some of the things that happen in, "Heat Stroke," with Maya and her relationship with her father and I don't want to give anything away. Heat Stroke will probably be around ten chapters, no more than fifteen. I'm also considering setting up the formatting a little bit differently for, "Laws of Timing," and setting up each chapter or couple of chapters like an episode and jumping between points of view. Let me know what you think.

Some of you noticed that each chapter is named after a song and I just wanted to list the songs and artists here because I know that there are multiple songs that have some of the same names:

Stone Cold-Demi Lovato

Still Here-Digital Daggers

Beating Heart-Ellie Goulding

Never Forget You-Zara Larsson

Don't Let Me Down-Chainsmokers

Lay Your Head Down-Peter Bradley Adams

Who Knew-Pink

Sound of Your Heart-Shawn Hook

Things we lost in the Fire-Bastille

Riverside-Agnes Obel

House of Memories-Panic at the Disco

Letters from the Sky-Civil Twilight

I Wouldn't Mind-He is We

Before the Worst-The Script

Enough to Let Me Go-Switchfoot

Far Away-Nickelback

Somebody to Die For-Hurts

Afire Love-Ed Sheeran

It's All Over But The Crying-Garbage

Stand By You-Rachel Platten

One Call Away-Charlie Puth

Between Us-Peter Bradley Adams

You For Me-Terra Naomi

In My Veins-Andrew Belle

See You Again(without the rap)-Charlie Puth

All Our Lives-Andrew McMahon

Adventure of a Lifetime-Coldplay

Thanks again to everyone who has read, reviewed, favorited, etc. You guys really are amazing! Last chance to review for this story!