Shauna's POV
"They're getting married!" I squealed to Maya and Riley. I was so excited. My biological father was getting married to my best friends mom! This was the best thing ever! "I'll believe it when I see it." Maya stated.
"Maya Penelope Hunter!" "No, still Maya Hart." Maya responded. "Once Uncle Shawn marries your mother, it's like we're gonna be related." Riley gushed, "We're already like sisters, and then we're gonna be like cousins! That... that's less. What happened?"
"Yeah Maya! We're going to be step-sisters," I told her, "Isn't that amazing?"
"Riley, Shauna, you know how I feel about hope, okay? Please don't get my hopes up for this wedding." "Hope is not for suckers anymore, Maya." "Hope has finally come around to be for you." Riley and I said. "Well, I'd like to believe that, but you turned me back into me, and me knows better."
"Hey, happily ever after is happening, so get your fairytale butt out of the dungeon and into the sunlight." Riley commanded and I just laughed.
A knock sounded on the door and Shawn walked in, "Hi, girls." He greeted us. "The wedding's off. I knew it... I mean 'hi..."
"She's scared." I explained when I saw Shawn's confused face
Maya turned to Cory, "You're his best friend, Matthews. You know he ain't going through with it." "Maya, we are planning the wedding." Shawn insisted.
"We want you to help. This is happening." "Prove it."
Maya's mom walked in. "Katy!" Shawn greeted her with a kiss. "Hey. What's up, Kiddo?" Katy asked, when she noticed Maya's concerned face.
"Maya's scared that the wedding's gonna come apart like... come apart like... What is something that has come apart?" Riley asked. "All of their previous relationships."
"Maya, Shawn and I are blessed to have found each other." Her mom assured her, "No one's going anywhere." "How can you be sure?"
"Come on, Maya. Your mom and I are perfect for each other." Shawn said, and I smiled, "I've always known how to get out of anything, Maya. The only thing that holds me here is her."
"Ah-hem." I coughed, getting Shawn and Katy's attention. "Oh other than you guys too." He joked.
"Something good is happening for me?" Maya wondered.
"We got a wedding to plan, Maya." Shawn said, "You gonna be a part of it?"
*****
We were sitting in Topanga's and Maya was worrying again. "Why would someone who had something go so unbelievably wrong want to do it all over again?" "She loves Shawn." I told her. "She loved my father." "Well, Shawn isn't like your father."
"What if my father wasn't like my father until he met my mother? What if my mother has some sort of, like, nut gene that in combination with any man at all makes him go from 'I do' to 'What I do?' "Well, I think that the hope is that Shawn is not just any man at all." I said.
"I want him in my life forever." Maya admitted, "And my experience is that getting married kills that real good." "Well, that's not what happens in my experience." I said, referring to my Mom and step-dad.
"Maya, as your friend, I want you to have more." Riley added.
"You heard her. she has a lovely life now, and you know what the difference is between this time and last time?" "What?" "I'm here to stop anything that could change that." Maya announced and rushed out of Topnaga's.
Shawn's POV
Maya came into the Matthews' apartment and slammed the door behind her. A knock sounded at the door.
"Who is it?" "Riley Matthews. And Shauna!"
"I'm doing this myself, okay? I don't need your stupid optimism. I only want reality." Maya insisted.
I chuckled to myself.
"Well, the reality is you forgot to bolt the door!" Riley exclaimed as she entered the room, "Ya-chow! Keys!" "Ya-chow! Let me see! Yeah." Maya grabbed the keys and dead bolted the door again, as she pushed Riley and Shauna out. "Well, now I'm stuck good." Riley whimpered.
Maya turned to me abruptly. "Why do you want to marry my mother?" "'Cause I love her, Maya." "Words. Those are just words."
I sighed, "Yeah, they are. But I don't say those words a lot, all right?" She nodded, "I was never even sure what they meant. And now I am. They're the best words I got. So, they're important. I want you to understand them."
Before she could respond to my heart-felt explanation, Riley screamed and came into the room somehow, "Maya, please don't ruin this for yourself!" "Why won't you let yourself deserve something?" Shauna asked.
Maya slammed the door on their faces again and turned back to me, "Continue."
"I already asked you for your blessing, and you gave it." I told her. "That's why words aren't enough." She started to explain, "Look, I feel different. I feel scared..." "Of what?" I asked, genuinely concerned. "Of why this needs to happen at all. You like my mother, she likes you. Everyone's happy, so what's the reason that anything else needs to happen?"
She sighed and looked at me with fear in her eyes, "Bad things happen to us..." "They do." I agreed. I couldn't deny that. "So what if life doesn't know that this is happening yet and what if life figures out that we're involved? That's when something bad happens." She whispered the last part.
I noticed Shauna and Riley had finally found a way in. "What if she's right?" Shauna asked me.
"She's wrong." Riley declared. "Why?" "Because I want her to be wrong."
"Why get life involved with a big ceremony?" Maya questioned me. "Because your mother and I want to invite life to this ceremony, Maya." I explained, "We want life to change us for the better."
"Promise me this will work." I shook my head, wishing I could provide a better answer, "No, I can't. I can promise that I want it to. I can promise that you're a big part of that." I said motioning to my two daughters, "Ask me why."
"Why?" Shana and Maya both asked. "'Cause I never want to let you down."
"Maya, what are you doin'?" Katy asked and she and Topanga entered the room.
"I know you like me. I like you too." Maya told me, "Thanks for everything you've ever done for me because it's perfect. I want it to stay perfect. I don't want it to not be perfect, so game over. Thanks for playing." She said, as if she had the authority to stop the wedding.
"Hey, kid, let me stop you right there." A certain firmness slipping into my voice. "This wedding ain't about you." I told her. "What?" "This wedding is about your mother and I. I'm marrying her because I love her."
Katy hugged me and smiled, "Hey, thanks." "Anytime. You're gonna hear it a lot."
I turned to the two girls, "And guess what else? We respect your tragedies, Maya. We do. We've had our own. But we're taking a leap of faith here. You wanna jump with us?" I asked her and also Shauna, though the latter didn't need much convincing.
"Prove you're ready." Maya commanded. "What, right now?" I asked in fake disbelief, "I can't do that. How could I possibly do that?" I turned around and started walking then looked at Maya with a smirk on my face, "Hey, Maya, We jumpin' or what?"
I led the group up to the roof and started to converse with my beautiful fiancée, "So what do you wanna do tonight? Dinner, movie... get married?" I aksed as we arrived at a simply set up wedding scene. "Well, isn't this reckless and spontaneous of you, Shawn Patrick Hunter." Katy giggled. "That's me."
Maya POV
"Oh, my gosh." Shauna exclaimed when she realized what was happening, "He really loves her." "She really loves him." We both said.
"Shawn?" I hesitantly approached him and my mom, "Uh, it would... it would be okay if, like, some of this had a little bit to do with me." "Then it does." Shawn smiled.
No POV (3rd person)
"We are gathered here today to witness the joining of two souls: Shawn Patrick Hunter and Katy Grace... Cleeterbooskay." The minister announced to the beautiful couple. The minister was George Feeny
"It's Clutterbucket." The bride told him. "Yes, I know. I'm just trying to give you some dignity. Now I believe you two have written your own vows?"
The bride smiled, and read her vows. Then the groom nodded and began to say his own. "I promise I will walk with you no matter where it leads." "As long as you're next to me... this is our road." The two finished together.
"Do you, Katy Grace, take Shawn Patrick—" "Wait a minute!" The bride's daughter cut in, "Before this happens... I'm with you. I'm jumping with you." "Thanks, Kiddo." The groom answered. The girl smiled. "Proceed."
"...To have and to hold until death do you part?" The minister continued his routine.
"Yes. Yes, I do no matter what happens." The bride announced.
"And do you, Shawn Patrick, take Katy Grace to have and to hold until death do you part?" "I do."
"Then I pronounce you man and wife. You... you may..." The newly-weds embraced with passion before the minister could finish, "Yeah... okay."
Shauna's POV
We were back in the bay window now, and the three of us were smiling like idiots.
"Wait, is Shawn my father now?" Maya wondered. "Not officially. He would have to adopt you first." I told her. "Get on it." "I'm all over it." Riley and I assured her.
Shawn and Katy came into the room and Maya nervously stood up. "Um, am I your daughter now?" She asked, worriedly and hopefully all at the same time. "Well, it's how I'd like to think of you. If it's okay." Shawn said. "That is the most okay thing that's ever happened to me." Maya announced and we all hugged before they left for their honeymoon.
Maya and I were sisters! Yayyyyy!