Chapter 16 - Black and Carnation Pink

Saturday, September 17th, 2005, 1206 - 172 hours, 54 minutes.

"Blah!" Ellie squirmed as she unstuck herself from the car seat.

"What?" JC signalled as he turned into the pick-up bay at the airport.

"Just this heat...blah. I'm sticking to the seat." She undid her seat belt and opened the door, a flush of humid air filling the car. "Everything about this heat is gross." She got out of the car and smoothed down her rose pink tank top and white gym shorts, greeting JC's parents. "Hey! I hope you guys aren't suffering too hard in this heat?"

"Hi." Karen took Ellie in for a hug. "Of course not, Orlando's just as bad."

She helped them put their luggage in the trunk and get in the iron grey rental sedan, Karen leaning forward in the front to kiss her son.

"I hope your parents didn't see too much damage done in the storm?" Roy inquired from the front seat. "We didn't get that much, but we know folks who got quite a bit."

"Nah, we didn't get that much up here in Baton Rouge," Ellie replied from the backseat, next to Karen. "Just some high winds, few branches here and there. Mom said it mostly just spooked the horses."

"Oh, OK. What's this about ‘royal tea?'"

"It's just how my mama prefers to do her business. There's a little French style cafe near our church that does tea service. You know, tea pots and cucumber sandwiches, that kind of thing. She likes to go there for formal luncheons. It's just her way of welcoming you for your stay."

"Are we still doing dinner tonight?"

"Well, considering what my granny's cooking up, I hope so. Mama just wants a little quiet time with you before you get bombarded by the whole family."

John and Emily greeted them as the four of them walked up to the cafe. "Hi, I hope your flight wasn't that bad." Emily drew Karen in for a polite hug. "John can't stand flying."

John gave Roy a knowing pat on the arm. "Well, maybe if you once were nearly shot down over the Gulf of Tonkin, you wouldn't feel so keen to leave the ground either."

Roy grunted in response.

"Man of few words, eh? Nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with that at all."

"Damn it!" Karen bent down and pick up her dropped purse.

John followed suit. "Let me get that for you...Ow!"

"Oh! Sorry!" Karen apologised as she straightened herself, John holding his hands over his nose.

"I'm not bleeding, am I?"

Emily examined her husband's hand and nose. "Not right now."

"Great, tea and a shoulder to the face." John laughed.

"Are you sure he's OK?"

"I'm a big boy, I'll deal. Anyway, it's a story to tell the grandkids one day."

The six of them sat around one of the larger tables near the centre of the pink and white trimmed tea room, the circular table dressed with a white tablecloth and delicate china. Ellie answered a text message as Emily and Karen perused the menu, Roy developing incredible fascination with his watch face. John smiled awkwardly across the table at JC as JC nervously shook his left leg.

"So, Ellie, does your boss mind you spending the week down here?" John tugged at the sleeves of his red checked shirt.

"No. There's a up and coming Neo-grunge band playing in town early next week. I have to interview them."

"Oh...OK." John awkwardly shifted in his seat.

"Um...Where did the name ‘Ellie' come from? Josh tells me that Ellie doesn't like to be called ‘Lizzie?'" Karen asked as she folded her menu up.

"You want to tell that one, John?" Emily laughed as she placed her napkin on her lap.

"I was rather sweet on Elly-May Clampett back in the Sixties."

"You're quite sweet on her now!"

"She was a sweet character."

"She was blonde with big boobs!" Emily composed herself. "...Sorry, breasts."

"Anyway, for some reason we started calling her Ellie when she was a baby, and the name stuck. She's never liked Lizzie."

"That's nice. Isn't Donna Douglas from Baton Rouge?"

"Who?"

A thin lady with greying blonde hair twisted up in a beehive interjected herself into the conversation; she adjusted the purse on her wrist and tugged at the hem of her pink cardigan. She was the vision of Southern gentry. "Would you mind introducing me to your new friends, Miss Emily?"

"Oh...OK. Lucy, this is Karen and Roy Chasez. Their son Joshua is engaged to Miss Elizabeth."

"Congratulations, your son could not have made a finer choice. I remember begging my first born, Miles, to ask for Miss Elizabeth's hand. I was so happy when she accepted. Unfortunately, she was called up north and Miles's heart was stolen by another."

"Yeah," John grumbled, "that's what happened."

Ellie painted on an insincere smile. "Thank you, Miss Lucy. I've heard that congratulations is in order for you, too. I can't imagine your joy whilst you await the arrival of your first grandchild."

Lucy took a handkerchief out of her purse, dabbed her nose and crumbled it up into a ball. "Yes, a granddaughter named Miley by the looks of it. " She flared out her nostrils in disgust. "Not that I would expect anything less from a Clements. Nevertheless, it will bring a certain...country charm to the Henderson line. Tell me, I do believe Chasez is French, is it not? Are your folk from Le Hexagon or are they from Acadia? My maiden name, Dubois, is Creole."

John butted in as Lucy placed her cold, bony hand on Karen's shoulder. "Josh here told me it was Mellon-nite, that's German I believe?"

"Uh...Swiss actually," Roy corrected him, even though he caught on to what John was trying to do. "Me folk's from Sweden. That's why Josh has such blue eyes."

Lucy pursued her lips. "Well, isn't that grand? I really must get going. It was a pleasure getting to meet all of you. Au revoir."

Her heels clacked out of the cafe as John muttered, "Old bitch," underneath his breath.

Saturday, September 17th, 2005. 2128 - 164 hours, 32 minutes.

The nine of them, Ellie, Emily, James, JC, Jean, John, Karen, Rosemary and Roy, sat around the Argyle's kitchen table playing baccarat, telling each other small details about each other and short family stories. "We saw Lucy Henderson at the tearoom this afternoon," Emily casually stated as she ordered her cards.

"Ugh, what did she want?" Jean grunted.

"Just poking her nose where it doesn't belong again, Mama," John grumbled as he took a sip of beer, "like she always does..."

"If you don't mind me asking"-Karen took a sip of wine-"how high up in the society ladder is she?"

"Pretty far up, she only really bothers with senators' wives." Ellie finished sharpening the scoring pencil, catching JC trying to peek at her cards. "Hey! No peeking!"

"I'm not peeking!"

"You are so!"

"If you two keep on with this, I'll deal you out of another round." Jean stamped her cards on the table.

"No, that's what they want, they don't want to sit here with the old folks, they want to go off and do young people things."

"Daddy! No, we don't!"

"Can we please just finish the hand!" Roy grumbled from behind his cards. "What's going on with that Lucy person?"

Rosemary took a sip of tea. "She's just your typical high society southern belle. She ain't anyone's problem unless you have a problem with that kind of woman."

"She said the Clements were 'country.' I don't know what that means down here, but up in Maryland, it means they're trash."

"Right on the nose, Karen. Molly Sue and her mama are normal folk, pageant queens. Ellen Sue being a school administrator for the parish, wonderful woman. Only some types like Lucy can't bear for their little boys to marry such common folk."

"I thought she wanted Miles to marry Ellie."

"What are you trying to say?"

"You're just not like that...that's all."

"She was bullshitting, all she does is bullshit." Ellie put on a fake, French accent. "Lucinda Dubois. Bullshit, her name on her birth certificate is 'Lucy Redford.' She ain't got a lick of Creole in her. She just hopes it's been long enough that people would forget who she was before she got married. I mean, 'Dubois,' she picked the name of the most famous Tennessee Williams heroine. Stop trying to peek!"

Wednesday, September 21st, 2005. 1700 - 72 hours

"Fuck this shit," Anna muttered to herself through the collection of sewing pins resting between her lips. She switched the sewing machine into reverse and lightly stepped on the pedal, pulling the fabric out far enough to release a run over pin from underneath the needle and foot.

"Seventy two hours until D-Day," Derek called as he walked from the living room to the kitchen.

"Can you please stop counting down the exact minutes until the wedding? You're only making me nervous." Claire wrapped the measuring tape around Ellie's waist.

"But I'm so excited. I can't help it if I can't wait until you're my wife."

"Ew." Anna continued sewing a carnation pink sash she was to wear over the black halter neck dress Ellie had chosen for her, the whir of the engine drowning out the storm outside.

"One day you'll feel the exact same way when you find a woman as wonderful as your sister."

"Oh my God, Derek. I'm in the most saccharine sweet, disgusting relationship ever, and I'm turned off right now." Ellie relaxed her stomach at Claire's request. "Why are we doing this anyway?"

"I just thought it would look nice. Give it a little more colour." Claire took note of Ellie's waist measurements and calculated the amount of material they would need for her sash. "Speak of the Devil, how's JC doing with with all the farm work your daddy's probably forcing on him right now?"

"He's doing OK. Mainly lifting hay bales though. It's still the sexiest thing ever."

A crash of thunder sounded as JC bounded through the screen door, Claire and Derek's labrador mix puppy meeting him at the door. "Hey there, Fluffbutt." He walked into the living room holding the squirming bundle of caramel hair. "It's fucking pouring down, out there."

"Trust Mama to schedule a wedding during the wettest weekend of the year." Claire headed over to the fridge. "Can I get you anything to drink?"

"Thanks, water will be fine." JC went over to Ellie and kissed her, putting the dog down near the kitchen table, pausing when he saw the bridesmaid dresses laid out on the table. "Oh, wow."

Ellie wrapped her arms around his waist as she stood behind him. "What?"

"I just haven't seen these since I proposed; I was just having a little moment there."

"What?" Anna asked as she finished turning her sash inside out, preparing to sew the final seam.

"I was getting ready to send these off from Orlando just before he proposed." She ran her fingers across his stomach. "He just came in the room and asked me. Came out of nowhere."

"Actually, I had been nursing the idea for around a month prior. That morning, it just came to a point where I couldn't wait any longer. I needed to know what you were going to say."

"Did I say the right thing?"

"Yes." He intertwined his fingers in hers. "I'm sure the two of you have a much better story than us."

"A few years back, we kind came to an agreement that if she wanted to get married, she would let me know. Last Christmas she gave me a card saying that her Christmas wish was that I would be her husband next year. All of January, she started dropping hints that she thought it would be nice to get away for Valentine's and I kind of took it as a signal that she wanted me to propose. I popped the question at dinner on the 14th." Derek picked the dog off the floor. "I'm not sure it's any better. Any stories you want to tell, Anna?"

"Mom went into my room one day to get my laundry. She found my art book open to a Sailor Moon comic I was drawing where Sailor Jupiter was eating out Sailor Mercury. So, she charges into the living room, demands to know what it was and I yelled back ‘It's Lita and Amy making love,' and she's all like, ‘Why would you draw this? Do you know how much you're wasting your talent by drawing this filth? Do you know how sick this is?'" She trimmed the thread off the sash.

"And I'm all like ‘I don't care, Mom. I want to draw it. It comes from my heart. Whether or not you like it, it's my art and I'm going to keep drawing it.' Then she's all like 'Why?' And I'm all like 'Because I'm a fucking lesbian.' And Dad was there and that's the story of how I came out to my parents."

Wednesday, 1823 - 70 hours and 37 minutes.

JC and Ellie sat in the truck on the way back from getting dinner for the five of them.

"What was Anna talking about back there?"

"Um...let me see if I can remember this. OK, so the blonde one who wears the blue and red pinafore is Sailor Moon or Serena. Sailor Jupiter, or Lita, is the brunette who wears the green pinafore, and Sailor Mercury, or Amy, is the one with short black hair who wears the blue pinafore."

JC took a left turn. "Anna identifies with Mercury whilst she has a crush on Jupiter?"

"I never thought of it that way, but yeah, I guess. Ever since Diana let her dye her hair, she's worn it short and black."

"Does she have a crush on you?"

"Oh my God! I was wondering that. Every time I've tried to bring it up with Claire, she's always brushed it off."

"How long do you think she's felt that way?"

"A few years now. She said this thing when she was fourteen, when she found out about Miles. Granted the whole town knew about fucking Miles, but she was all like ‘If you were my girl, I'd treat you better.' and I'm just standing there like, ‘You're eight years younger than me, you're still in training bras. It's cute, though, having a crush on your big sister's best friend."

"You two haven't done anything?"

"What, like kiss?...No! I'm into dudes."

"You haven't kissed another girl?"

"You haven't kissed another boy?"

"Touché." He wrestled the gears into park. "What's the creepiest thing you've ever done for a guy?"

"What's the creepiest thing you've ever done for a girl?"

"I tracked down her hotel and stole her business card."

"I got banned from a photo agency website."

"What?!"

"Last New Year's, I spent it with Maurice and Craig playing Scrabble. I got depressed because of how alone I was and got really, really, really drunk. I Googled you in my drunken misery and found all of these photos of you on this photo agency's website. I needed a login, which I have through my work, and I left all of these awful comments on photos of you and Eva saying that she was a whore and that she was fucking half of the Dallas Cowboys and that I knew her in college, which I didn't, and said that she fucked all of Texas A&M's football team as well. I got an email the next day, ‘cause they register you with the email you use for your publication, saying that my account had been suspended indefinitely due to abusive comments."

"Should I even ask why you did that?"

"She had something I wanted." She looked down into her lap in shame. "I was alone and I hadn't met anyone in New York who really liked me. When I met you, we just kind of clicked. I thought you liked me, that you might track me down, I guess not though. When I found out not only that you were dating her, but she was also probably cheating on you, I wanted to burn her hair off. I was so fucking jealous that she got to have this perfect guy and she was treating him so badly and I didn't even get a chance." She paused. "I'm super happy the way things ended up for us, but I wish you had called sooner. I wish we could've been together sooner so she couldn't hurt you like she did. I wish that I didn't have to try and mend you before I could fall in love with you."

"How is the situation with how Miles left you in any different?"

"It just is. I was young and stupid. He kept telling me all of this shit about how nobody would love me the way he did, nobody would ever find me as beautiful as he did. I put up with what he did because I believed him, not only that but because when he did what he did, he always said he was never going to do it again. I was so fucking naive and I was burnt because of it."

JC grunted in disgust. "I...just..." He gripped onto the steering wheel. "I want to punch him in the fucking face."

"You and seventy other people. What's your excuse to why you let Eva treat you the way she did?"

"She made me feel important. Because of all the shit that was going on, with the label and the group, having her think I was important enough to sponge off made me feel like I wasn't the insignificant, untalented shit I felt like I was. I knew what she was doing, I knew that she was using me and why. Every time I even considered trying to bring up the subject, she would try and force it back down, saying that we never agreed on a exclusive relationship, that I was being sexist for calling out her need to express her sexuality and that I was just jealous that she was becoming more famous than me."

A tension grew between them. "How many girlfriends have you cheated on?"

"A few."

"Why?"

"I was on tour-"

She cut him off. "Let me guess, you needed to feel love, you wanted to feel important, you were missing a woman's touch. Fuck!"

"What!?"

"How do I stop it? How do I stop you doing the same to me? Do I constantly need to keep you on a leash? I want to trust you, but I also feel like I shouldn't. I want to give you room to feel comfortable, but I also feel like you'll abuse whatever space I give you. I can't do this..." She hit the dashboard with her hand. "Shit! We were going so well. We were happy and we had just worked through all of that shit with the engagement and now this all comes up."

"We'll work it out."

"What if we can't? What if we are destined to fail? I just..."

"It'll be fine."

"It's not fine. It won't be fine. I already know I'm not good enough for you, I already know that I can't stop you from cheating on me if you wanted to."

A tap sounded from the passenger side window, Derek standing in the rain. "Is everything OK in there?"

Wednesday, 1908 - 69 hours and 52 minutes.

JC and Derek stood out of the back porch and watched the three women inside, Ellie sitting on the sofa, Claire sitting next to her trying to console her and Anna eating at the table.

"Is everything OK with you two?" Derek asked.

"No, I'm a piece of shit."

"Jace..."

"No, I am. I'm a piece of shit who cheats on every girl he's with and Ellie thinks that she deserves it. Miles is a piece of shit and I'm a piece of shit and..." He turned away into the rain and ran his fingers through his hair. "I really don't want to fuck this up. If only so I don't hurt her...The only man she feels she can trust is her daddy and I'm not OK with that. She's just this wonderful person and everyone treats her like shit." He wiped the tears from his eyes and sniffed. "I'm going to break her heart and I don't want to."

"But that's it, you don't want to. You haven't yet, so you can keep telling yourself not to." Derek placed his hand on JC's arm. "Look, man, I can't fix everything about you, but I can tell you this, as someone who's been in a relationship for seven and a half years and who's getting married in 69 and a half hours. You need to take it day-by-day. You're going to want to fuck up, but you need to remind yourself not to. That same thing that stops you from stealing or killing someone, it's the same basic morality, just tell yourself ‘don't do it' and you won't. Just remind yourself ‘I don't want to do this and I don't want to fuck everything up,' and you won't. Just remember the woman you get to go home to."

At that moment, Claire charged through the back door. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?! IF YOU'VE HURT HER--"

"Baby, sshhh..." Derek tried to calm her down. "He hasn't done anything. He's just scared. They're both scared."

"Why would you be scared? Huh?"

"Because I've fucked up before, she shouldn't trust me. You shouldn't trust me with her."

"Look, I'll decide if I should trust you, Jace." Derek placed his hand on JC's shoulder again. "I work in correctional services. I believe any man can be rehabilitated."

"You're a fuckwit, Derek."

Wednesday, 23:48 - 65 hours and twelve minutes.

JC quietly tiptoed down the stairs and took a beer out of the fridge, perching himself on the back porch to watch the rain.

"What's wrong, Son?" John sat down beside him on the wooden bench.

"I'm starting to think that maybe I'm not what's best for your daughter."

"What makes you think that?"

"I've just...I don't know. I've just done some stupid shit, that's all."

"What are you, 29? So you've sown some oats. Every man has."

"But I've--" John cut him off.

"Look boy, we were all young once, didn't have any responsibilities, didn't need to think of the consequences. You can't change what you've done, but you can accept that God forgives you."

"Derek said all this shit about rehabilitation and trying not to reoffend--"

"Boy, that shit's for criminals. All that boy knows is for criminals. If that was the right advice for you, you would be in jail right now. Let me tell you something, as the eldest of four brothers, no husband is the same, no wife is the same, so no marriage is the same. What works for me and Emily ain't gonna work for my brother, Sam, and his wife, Betty. Just like what works for me and Emily won't work for you and Ellie."

"It's just that--"

"Look, boy, I get what you're trying to say. Before I went to war, I thought I would never sleep with a Saigon prostitute in a bamboo hut, but I did. And you know what, after I was removed from that situation, I stopped doing it."

"But you weren't dating anyone at the time! You were single! You didn't have a girl back home's heart to break! I did! And now I do...I don't know why she's still with me. She knows she should run, but she never does, even after she's been warned."

John sat and thought for a moment. "Well, she's just gonna have to lie in the bed she's made herself, isn't she?"

"You don't think...?"

"I can only control my actions, just like you can only control yours and she can only control hers. If she wants to stay with you knowing what you've done, then she's going to. If you're going do good or bad by her, that's your choice to make. We don't know what's gonna happen today or in five years time. Things just don't work that way. The only things we know are what's happening now and what's happened in the past, and the only thing we can change is what we do right now. How long have you two been together, seven months now? You haven't done anything yet, have you?"

"No."

"Well, then. There's seven months where you've done right. Soon it'll be eight, then nine, then thirty years. Maybe that won't happen, maybe she'll do you wrong. Maybe you'll die of the Black Plague or something. I know my baby girl, I know how smart she is, and I know how dumb she can be. But I also know how great it feels to be loved by her. I would advise you to appreciate that, don't wallow too much in your past mistakes and try to learn from Miles. She has a point; you don't want to reach it. Follow your gut. If she's worth it, you'll work for it." John stood up and patted JC on the back. "I don't think you would be so worried to fail if you were OK with failing, that counts for something." John stepped into the house and went up to bed, leaving JC with his beer and thoughts.

Thursday, 00:34 - 64 hours and 26 minutes.

JC crept into bed next to Ellie, lightly kissing her forehead so she would wake. "Baby..."

She stirred. "Josh...what time is it?"

"Around twenty five to one."

She grunted. "Have you been drinking?"

"I couldn't sleep. I had a beer to calm down."

"Why did you wake me up? I thought you were avoiding me?"

"I need to tell you some things. I fucked around when I was in *NSYNC. We all did, some of the other guys will tell you otherwise, but we all fucked around back then. Any girl we wanted, they would throw themselves at us. We were shitheads with everything laid out for us. We were too selfish to say 'no,' and some of us thought we could have girlfriends and groupies and all of that shit. I did, I was wrong."

She exhaled through her nose, "OK?"

"There's another thing. I was in love with Eva. I've tried so hard to downplay how I felt about her, but I can't. I thought she might have been the one. When it turned out that she wasn't, I felt so fucking stupid. I tried so hard to convince myself that she wasn't important, that I didn't love her, especially since we started dating so soon afterwards. I didn't want you to be a rebound. I didn't want to treat you like she had treated me. I fell for her hard, got too serious too soon, then she didn't feel the same. Maybe I wasn't a good enough lover, maybe she just stopped liking me, maybe she only saw me as an opportunity. She broke my heart. When you came along, I didn't expect you to have the impact on me that you did."

She groaned and rolled over. "What am I supposed to do with this information?"

"I don't know, I just want to be open with you."

"Have you cheated on me?"

"No. I don't want to, I don't need to." He rested his head on her shoulder. "It's different with you, I'm not just saying that. I've never had someone to come home to, someone who comes home to me."

"OK, so we'll go from there. We still have a clean slate, sort of."

"Anything you want to tell me?"

She thought for a moment, running her fingers through his hair. "On the 14th of March, the day after I dumped you, I thought I might have been pregnant with your baby. I was having all of these symptoms and I hadn't gotten my period yet. I just took a test just to see if I was. I emailed you from outside the drugstore after I bought it. I don't know how things would've played out if I was. It came up negative, though, and I got my period later that night."

"How far along would you be? If you were?"

"Around seven months."

"You would be huge."

She laughed. "Yeah. We would know by now if it was a boy or a girl."

"We might also be married by now, too."

She paused as a flush of warmth rushed over her. "Yeah...I want to marry you, I want to have a family with you. If anything happens, between us...I don't know."

"What if it doesn't? What if we can do this, treat each other well?"

"Yeah, we can be cautious, but we shouldn't kill ourselves over things that haven't happened between us."

"Yeah." He played with the fabric of her t-shirt, yawning.

"Do you want to go to sleep now?" She watched as he slid off the bed and took his shirt off. She placed her fingertips on his bare back before he stood up and took his pants off. He got underneath the blanket with her and pulled her close to him. She rested her head on his chest and snuggled up to him, playing with the hair on his chest. "I thought Lance was gay?"

"He is."

"Then how did he sleep with all those girls?"

"He had some of both, I guess. Girls at the start, guys more towards the end. I don't think any of us knew who we really were at first."

Saturday, September 24th, 2005. 1706 - 0 hours minus 6 minutes.

"Get her out of here!" JC heard Claire call from the dressing room. He smiled as he caught Anna and a petite brunette girl lightly kiss down the hallway in secret.

"Can you please take care of Meredith for me, Jace? Kay, thanks." Anna ran past him and down the corridor as the brunette in the emerald green cocktail dress ran after her.

"Madam?" He bowed and offered his arm to her.

"Monsieur." They followed Ellie's family into the hall of the country club.

Anna managed to wrangle Diana into the hall, leaving Ellie and Claire alone. "I swear, she is my light and my soul, she is the very reason I am on this Earth, but I cannot deal with her nervously buzzing around in here."

Ellie walked up behind her, trying to place Claire's veil on straight. "Everyone's just trying to get everything perfect. Lewis is going on about how it wouldn't be raining if the two of you married in the church."

"Do you think it's bad luck that we didn't? We're running late. Is that bad luck?"

"It's not bad luck. Stop being so superstitious. You have a wonderful man out there who loves you and is so excited, he's practically bouncing off the walls. You just need to get through today, and then everything will be fine."

Claire wiped a curl from her face. "Don't I usually say those kind of things to you?"

"No. You're usually the one telling me not to do anything stupid, like fucking the bridesmaid's fiancé at her best friend's wedding."

"Do not even consider it!"

"But he's so hot in his little suit!" Ellie whined, "...see?"

"OK"-Claire got up out of the makeup chair-"I think I'm ready." She smoothed down her dress and straightened her veil, taking a deep breath as she looked at herself in the mirror.

Ellie stood behind her in her black halter neck dress with a carnation pink sash. "I always forget how much taller you are than me."

"I'm pregnant."

"What?!"

"Derek and I are having a baby." Tears welled up in Claire's eyes. "Oh, wow. Please don't tell anyone. I'm only five weeks; we're trying to pass it off as a honeymoon baby. He is so happy about it." She wiped a tear from her eye. "Shit, I promised myself I wasn't going to get emotional."

A knock sounded on the door.

"Coming!" Claire grabbed the bouquet of pink carnations of the dressing table and walked out the door to her parents.

During the ceremony, Anna took Claire's flowers, Claire taking Derek's hands in hers.

"Corinthians one, chapter thirteen, verses four through eight states"-Lewis adjusted his collar-   "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails...The lesson we can learn from this is that love is unconditional, it holds no grudges and never judges. It sees beauty where darkness lies and is strong when we are weak. As a father, I am proud that my daughter has found a love as pure as the one she shares with Derek, and I am proud that they love each other as the way God has made them. As tribute to this blessing, they have written their own vows."

Derek fumbled at the pockets of his tux. "Oh, bullfrogs...here it is." He unfolded the ratty piece of memo paper. "Claire Marie, I remember the day I met you, nine years ago. I remember the furl of your blonde hair as you tossed it over your shoulder when first I laid eyes on you, the sweet song of your voice the first time you said 'hey.' Though I have grown, I am not very different from that day, I am a simple man but with you by my side I know love. I know the warmth of God's blessing and I know that with you I can do anything. I am so incredibly happy you chose me, that you choose me to be your husband as you to be my wife, and the mother of my child, sorry, children. Children, one day we'll have children." He shuttered into tears. "Please come with me, follow me down this road of life as mine, for we shall walk in God's gifts and know love and salvation, or something like that."

Claire wiped the tears from his face. "Baby...Um, when I was twelve, I wrote a letter for you. It reads: Dearest husband on my wedding day, I'm so happy I found you, and I'm happy that you are marrying me. I hope that you are cute, and nice and that you have a job that you love. I hope your mom is smart and beautiful and bakes you delicious cookies every week." A laugh from Derek's father rang out through the hall. "I hope your daddy is proud of you and that you love your sisters and brothers as much as I love Anna. I hope you are a good man, who tries to do good in this world. I can't wait for you to be my husband, I can't wait to grow old with you, and I can't wait until our children, CHILDREN, are born. With all of my love, Claire Marie Matherson. I wrote this for you because we had an assignment to write to the person we think is the the most important person in the world to us. For some reason Derek, I chose you. I'm happy I did."

Ellie remembered JC in the audience. "Shit...I really hope I'm wrong..." She whispered under her breath.

Ellie passed JC the slice of bundled up wedding cake. "If you eat it, I swear to God..." She started digging into a drawer on her desk.

"I have that song stuck in my head." He started singing the song from the first dance, "'All my life, I've prayed for someone like you, and I thank God, that I finally found you.' Derek picked it, didn't he?"

Ellie took a sheet of paper from a binder sleeve. "Yes, indeed, I can confirm that he did choose their song." She climbed next to him on the bed. "It was number one when they started dating."

"Yeah, hook like a harpoon. What's that?"

"Something I wrote when I was twelve."

"Is it a letter to your future husband, the most important person in your life?"

"No, it's a letter to you. 'JC, I love to watch you on the Mickey Mouse Club and I think you are very talented. You have amazing hair and an incredible singing voice. I read that you're from Maryland, I'm from Louisiana and I love reading. I want to be either a doctor or a journalist. I'd love to go to London one day. Have you ever been to London? I bet when you're a famous pop star you will. I think you're going to win a lot,' a lot is spelt as one word...'of awards and tour the world. I hope I can meet you one day and fall in love with you.' It stops there. It was probably when I decided that I maybe shouldn't submit it as an assignment or mail it to you."

"You never told me your name. How can I fall in love with you if I don't know your name?"

She climbed up into his arms, kissing a piece of frosting from his lips. "Hello, my name's Elizabeth, but you can call me Ellie."

"Hello, Ellie. I'm JC from the Mickey Mouse Club. It sure is swell to meet you."

"Have you fallen in love with me yet?"

"Yes."