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Wish Shift: Chapter Forty-One A Whisper of Spring Year 1 A.S. Day 212 Day 257 of Jenny's Pregnancy Danny looked over the old photo and handed it back to Jenny. "And you say he mailed this to you?" he asked. "Yes he did," Jenny said. "It came a few days after the mail started running again."The petty bastard actually took the time to send it to me." "So what did you do when you saw it?" Danny asked her. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Year 1 A.S. Day 201 Derek knew that something had gone terribly wrong the moment that he walked in the door. There was something in her silence and in the way that she was looking at him that made his blood run cold. She hadn't even looked at him like this when she was raging at him after she came out of the trance that bastard Brother Paul had subjected her to. Even the low simmering anger that she had felt for days afterward hadn't shown itself on her face this way. The only time he had seen anything close to the way she was looking at him right this moment was months ago, in the aftermath of her fight in the parking lot of the institute. "Do you want to say something about this Derek?" she asked him coldly. She slid a small envelope across the kitchen table at him. He looked down at it. There was no return address, but Derek thought that he knew who had sent it. He reached for the envelope and opened it where she had torn it open. He slid the old photo out of the envelope. He looked at it and lay it back down on the table. "What do you need me to say?" he asked her quietly. "It's just what it looks like." "I just wanted to find out for sure," she said in a low voice to him. "I wanted to be sure that really is a photo of you with those two motherfuckers that tried to rape me." "It is," he said. "And?" she asked in a dangerous voice. "I know them," he said. "I've known them a long time. Since we were kids." "I asked Cody to help me meet you," he said quietly. While she glared at him he started to slowly tell her about how he had been at a loss for how to speak to her in a way that would have a chance of her actually speaking back to him as a person and not just a bystander that she would just be polite to for a moment and then forget existed. "I just wanted a chance for you to look at me like a person," he said. "I see a person all right," she said "I see the person that arranged for two motherfuckers to try to rape me." Derek insisted to her that it wasn't supposed to be like that. He hadn't wanted Cody to do what he did. When Derek had asked for him to help, what he had in mind was for Cody to just be an asshole and be annoying enough to piss her off before Derek chased him away. When Derek saw that she was driving into the medical park alone for the first time since he had seen her there he had called Cody and told him that he needed to come over today, that he needed him here for what they had talked about doing. What he hadn't expected was for Cody to bring Stephen along with him. Derek hadn't seen how Cody having Stephen along with him would help but, Cody told him that it would be more impressive to her if he chased off the two of them instead of just one person. Derek thought he could see a little logic in that. While they waited for the right time to go and start this act, they all went into the back office of Java Jolts to go over what Derek thought was supposed to happen. "And then what happened?" Jenny demanded from him. He told her about how, while they were waiting, the three of them started talking about the Shift. Derek hadn't really seen either of them since he had left the church. They had kept in intermittent touch, but both of them had moved far away from here after they grew up. Cody had moved to a small town in Texas and Stephan had moved to Buffalo, New York. Neither of them had shifted either and they told him that they both had come home to be with their families as soon as they could after the Rapture. That was the first time that Derek had heard anyone referring to the Great Shift in that fashion. He immediately didn't like it. He especially didn't appreciate that they were making not so subtle hints to him about the need for faith in all of their lives now. They kept harping on that, especially in reference to how important it should be in the lives of unshifted people like they were. As he listened to them and started to tune them out, he realized where he had heard someone else that he knew speaking in this fashion recently. Vicki had talked like these two when she had come to see him a couple of weeks ago. It was in the first weeks just after the Shift. Businesses were starting to open again. The plea from what remained of those in authority that those who could do so return to work and start putting things back together had just been sent out. Martial law had already been declared for the duration of the emergency and the first elements of military and tactical police units were making their presence known on the streets. Mindy was still missing and Derek was increasingly desperate for any sign of what could have happened to her. He hadn't needed to call to come in and be in his shop, he was already there waiting for her and hoping that she would make her way back to him. There wasn't that much for him to do in the shop in those first few days. Not as many people were out still and those that were didn't have much of a taste for coffee. The shop stood mostly empty each day that he opened it. He heard the bell on the door tinkling and looked up at the noise to see her walking into the empty coffee shop. She was moving in a trembling hesitant way all the way across the floor. He couldn't say anything. He saw her, but if anything that the Shift had taught him was true, it was that you couldn't trust appearances any more. It wasn't until she was standing across the counter at him that he realized that he was holding his breath. "Is that you Derek?" she asked him, "Is it really you inside?" In another time he would have had some kind of remark at hand to respond to how that kind of question was phrased. But with what had happened since the Shift what she was asking was perfectly reasonable. In his mind he was praying please let it be Mindy over and over. He felt his heart soaring with hope and at the same time weighed down and sinking with dread. The uncertainty of the last few days had gripped him so strongly, that now that some part of it may have a chance of resolution he was utterly aware of how much it had rested on him with crushing absolute finality. He walked over to the counter slowly, like his feet were engulfed in pit of molasses. He flipped up the counter and stepped out from the prep area and stood in front of her hoping. "I'm still the same," he said as steadily to Vicki's face as he could. "I'm still me. I'm still Derek." When she heard that she let out a sob of relief and rushed into his arms. He felt her warm body crushing against his and felt the weight inside him start to drop away. The absurdity of having the woman he loved now in the body of his ex-girlfriend didn't matter to him as long as he knew that she was all right. He held her close and didn't move. She was crying, but if it was from relief or from joy he couldn't tell nor did he care. He felt a wave of relief start to crest inside himself as well and then it subsided into despair. She started talking through her tears about how it was a sign from god that they had remained untouched and how it was a new beginning for them. She was promising him that it would be better this time now that they were together again. It wasn't Mindy he realized feeling his hope torn from him. The sobbing woman in his arms was still Vicki inside. Derek didn't push her away though. He didn't do anything, but hold her until the river of tears and words flowing from her subsided for the most part. When he could get her to stop gripping him and he could let her go, he sat down with her on one of the empty chairs in the silent coffee shop and tried to talk to her. To get her to understand that while he was really happy that she was still in her own body and he was glad that she was all right, he was still with Mindy and until he knew what had become of her, that was his greatest concern right now. He thought that she would explode over that, but she didn't. It was unlike her to not react this way when she had something she wanted denied to her. She could be a little inflexible when he was with her but she didn't act like that now. She was being far too reasonable with him, but it could very well be that the shock of the Shift had rocked her even more that it had him and she was able to better understand his need to know in this matter. She told him that she still felt it was the Lord telling them that they should be together now, but she would wait for now for him to understand that as well. She reached for him and caught in his own tsunami of emotion he reached back for her and held her tightly against him. She was the one person right now that knew what he was feeling and even though he had good reasons for breaking up with her before, he couldn't help but hold her close right now. She refused to leave his side after that for the rest of the day. He didn't have the heart to make her go either. The only time that he refused to indulge her was when she insisted that he let her come with him back to his house after he decided to close up for the day. It took a bit of talking, but he got her to go back to her home and not his. When he parked his Jeep that evening he went back into his empty house and waited for the phone to ring and for it to be Mindy on the other end. Vicki was waiting for him the next morning sitting in one of the chairs outside when he arrived to open up Java Jolts. And she was waiting there the next morning and the each one after that. She just wouldn't let it go and he couldn't find it in himself to tell her to go away. She was the only one there most of the time and it was getting harder for him to want to tell her to go away. It was just like after Aunt Dina had died and she was there for him again and even with knowing what she was like, he appreciated her being there with him in some mad desperate fashion. When a short red headed man walked into the shop and told him that he was Mindy in a hesitant, crushed way he could see Vicki's eyes lighting up in the corner where she was sitting listening to them talk. He took Mindy back into the office and they stayed there talking for hours. It was Mindy in that man's body. He knew that just talking to him. They were both too numb from what happened to do more than that and even though Derek had hugged Mindy before he left he could already feel that it was finished between them. He could feel Mindy's reluctance to have him hold him in this way now as well. He could tell that the woman inside of him wanted him to do just that, but the sensation of his new flesh made it feel wrong for him at the same time. Mindy told him that he would be back, but he needed a few days first now that he knew that Derek was all right for now. Derek had immediately closed the shop and he didn't reopen it the rest of the day. He had no idea of what could be next for him and Mindy. Mindy was also at a loss. He couldn't take it in and the enormity of what was facing them both was too much to deal with in any way. Mindy stood with him in the dining area after they came out from the office. He didn't want to leave but he kept insisting that he had to, even as he kept finding new things to talk about. Derek just stood there until he did eventually leave. He told him that he would be back and they could talk some more, but he had no idea what lay ahead of them both in their lives and with each other. After he left Derek took the bottle of whiskey he kept in the cabinet out to the dark room and filled a coffee cup to the brim. He hadn't wanted Mindy to leave. He had been the one insisting that he needed to. He looked at the locked door and drank down a hefty swig of what he had and then took another. Vicki was still sitting there in the corner and when he sat down and started drinking she waited until he had finished the cup and refilled it before she came over and sat down with him. Sometime after half of the bottle was left she leaned against him and just stayed there while he finished the bottle. He woke up on the floor behind the counter with Vicki's naked sleeping body intertwined with his. His head was pounding from drinking the entire bottle and when he tried to extract himself from her he woke her up. Vicki got up from the floor and pressed her naked body eagerly against him and wouldn't let him out of her embrace. He didn't have to ask her if they had slept together. It was clear from the state of the two of them that sometime during his alcoholic haze that he had ended up having sex with her and dimly remembered that it was more than once as well. He felt her warm flesh against his and looked down at her eyes beaming happily up at him. Things would be all right from now on her eyes were telling him. They were together again like they should be and now there was no doubt in Vicki's eyes that they were supposed to be together. It was a sign she said when she first came to see him. It was hard not to think that she wasn't on to something. The woman that he was with before was now a man and he and Vicki were both still who they had been the day before the Shift. As much as she was starting to bother him with this belief of hers, he also was starting to fear that she could be right as well. She stayed with him the rest of the day after he opened the shop. But he only stayed open for a couple of hours. Mindy had already come back and he knew now what had happened to her. He had said that he would be back but Derek knew already that it wouldn't be today. He told Vicki that he was going to close and go home. She didn't question him but she did kiss him before she left. Derek didn't resist her doing that even though he knew that it was completely the wrong thing to do. He had only been home a couple of hours when there was a knock on the front door. When he opened it the fallout from his drunken hook up was standing there with a small suitcase sitting beside her on the porch. He was still hung over to a degree and the whole way home he had been telling himself that he had been stupid to do something like that last night. She walked into the house with her suitcase and put it down. He stood there mainly because he really couldn't believe that she was just doing this. She closed the door behind her and let her coat fall open and showing him her naked body underneath. She leaned against him and ground herself against his body in the hallway and told him that she belonged to him again. Her body was his and she wasn't going to let him go again now that she knew they should be together. She pushed against him and after seeing Mindy as a man followed by being with Vicki last night he wasn't really sure how he could tell her differently. She told him that she understood his objections to them being together before but now that he had found out what had happened to that person he was with before, there was nothing left that would interfere with them being together anymore. Derek wasn't completely out of it. Now that his mind was not clouded with emotion and alcohol he recognized that this was just like how she had gotten together with him before and he really didn't think that the Shift had buried the things that were wrong between them for good. But he had slept with her last night; he had allowed her into his life from the moment that she had walked back in his door. Last night was a mistake and the last thing he wanted was for her to be back in his life this way. He tried to use her faith against her to keep her to make her leave. He reminded her of how when she and he were together that she had refused to consider doing more than visiting him here because it would be living in sin. He saw the way she was looking at him and knew the moment the words left his lips that it was exactly the wrong thing to say. Vicki looked at him and told him that didn't matter anymore. It didn't apply to them. He knew he was going to regret hearing the answer, but he had to ask. She stood up and let her open coat slip off of her and stood naked in his living room. She told him that there was no sin for two Levites who had been passed over by the Rapture to be together now. She walked toward him and reached for him. He didn't even know how to respond to the craziness that she was saying to him. He felt her fold herself against him and whispered that that the Lord had already wedded them when he left them untouched. She insisted that the Lord would give them a further sign very soon. He made the mistake of asking what that could possibly be and she immediately replied she was certain that they had already conceived their child together when they consummated their marriage last night. Derek had enough of it and told her so. He told her that she had gone too far and to leave. It took forever to make that point to her and the whole time he was telling himself what a fool he was to put himself in this situation. After she finally was gone he had no idea what had gotten into her. She had never been this crazy when they were dating and he was starting to wonder if the Shift had driven her over the edge. It had taken having days more of her throwing herself at him before he had enough. She kept dropping by the shop and resting her hands on her belly in an obvious hint that she had gotten pregnant during their drunken coupling. He had to start telling her in no uncertain terms that it wasn't going to happen before he had finally put an end to it. He finally had to be extremely harsh with her to get the message across, but it had worked. Even though it was what he knew needed to happen he still regretted that it had been necessary at all. And most of all he despised himself for being weak enough to sleep with her at all. "When I told you that when Mindy told me that my girlfriend was outside and that she was pregnant, I told you I thought it was Mindy's body in the shop instead of you. I'm sorry, but that wasn't entirely true when I said that," he said to Jenny. "I really thought it was just as likely that it was Vicki out there waiting for me and that I really had gotten her pregnant that night. I didn't want to admit it to you that I had been with her like that. I didn't want to admit to you that I had done something like that afterwards, but she was just too crazy and I couldn't take it." Jenny looked at him across the table. She didn't say anything about his confession of him sleeping with his ex-girlfriend in a drunken stupor before she ever knew him. It didn't matter to her. She told him that and told him to get back to telling her about what did matter to her. Derek nodded and resumed telling her what happened next. Sitting in the back room waiting with Cody and Stephen, he recognized that how Vicki had been talking when that was going on between them was being echoed by these two. Derek wondered if it had been a mistake as well to reconnect with them now. When it was time for them to go and do this, he was really starting to have misgivings about letting them back into his life with how strange the beliefs they were showing to him had become. It made him far more uncomfortable than he thought that it would be and he found the change in them since the last time they had been together more disturbing than he realized. He was a bit relieved when they drove down into the parking lots in the medical park and cruised around until they found where she parked her truck. They found some empty spaces in a nearby lot and waited for her to come into sight. "Remember guys, loud and obnoxious. I'll have the bat, but it's just for show," Derek said when they saw her come around the far corner. Derek ducked between his jeep and Stephan's van. He leaned against Stephan's sliding door panel waiting for his cue. Derek watched the two of them walk across the street toward the pretty Chinese woman. He had told them to just be annoying and when they started catcalling to her he figured that it would be just a few moments of letting them be a pair of assholes before he would jump in. Watching how quickly it escalated was a pure horror for him. He had been shocked at what they were saying to her and even more shocked to see that it was not just words to them, they were going to really do it. He turned and reached into his jeep for the bat in the back seat. He had just turned around with it in his hand when he saw her turn away, spin on her heel and explode into vicious action against the two of them. Derek had never seen anything like what that petite woman did to the two of them. It was like watching a snake hunting a pair of mice. Cold, efficient and brutal. It was over in seconds. Both of them were on the ground and Stephen was rising to his feet when she leveled a pistol at him and said something that Derek couldn't hear. He couldn't hear her, but he could see the look on her face. He sprinted across the street bat in hand. Those two stupid shits didn't deserve to die. Getting the shit kicked out of them was enough for them he thought. "You know what happened after that part," he said quietly to her. "After you left I went back to demand they tell me what the hell they had been thinking to do what they had done. They were gone and then I found your ultrasound photo on the sidewalk," he said. "And that makes it better?" she asked him "No," he said. "But this might. I went to Cody's house after that." Cody and Stephen were groaning in pain when he walked angrily into Cody's place. "What in the blue fuck was that shit about?" he shouted at them. "What the hell is up with you beating the shit out us you crazy fuck?" Cody demanded. Derek looked at the two men lying in the room. They had gotten some first aid for their injuries, but he didn't think they had gone to a hospital. "My beating the shit out of you two probably saved your damned lives you stupid shits. She was gonna pull that trigger. It was already happening." Stephen groaned and rolled over. "I think you broke my damned ribs you bastard," he said to Derek in a nasty tone. "And what is up with you siccing us on that vicious half bitch? Were you trying to get us killed?" Cody added. "What the fuck were you doing trying to rape her?" he demanded. "We weren't gonna do that," Stephen said. "The half bitch just took it too far is all. We were gonna scare her and she just took it too far." "No she didn't and you're the ones who took it too far," Derek shouted to them and threw down the dark photo on the table. "She's fucking pregnant you assholes!" "I doubt that mattered to them did it?" Jenny said to Derek. "No," Derek said, "But they started to talk about how this wasn't over. They said that once they had recovered they were going to pay you a visit and teach you that you couldn't do things like that to them." "And then what did you do?" she asked him. "I finished the job that I started when I jumped into the fight," he said. "I beat the two of them until they couldn't move anymore and then I told them that if they ever came near you or me they wouldn't have to worry about you killing them. I'd do it first." "And then?" "And then I picked up your ultrasound photo and walked away. I felt so damned guilty over what they had done. Over what I had made possible for them to do that I almost couldn't speak to you when you came in that first day. That's when Brother Paul started coming back around too. And I felt so guilty still over what I did, that I just let him keep coming around instead of brushing him off." He reached for the photo on the table. "This was taken at a church summer camp about ten years ago. Stephan is the tall one on the left and Cody is in the middle. It was the last church camp that I went to before I cut all my ties with them." "So you did this just to meet me then," she said. It wasn't a question, but Derek answered her anyway. "Yes, and afterward I just felt so damned worthless over it that I thought that if I had even just one chance to make it up to you I'd take it no matter what I would have to do. And then when you started talking to me and I thought that I had that second chance." He reached for the envelope and turned it over. It was a small buff colored envelope. The handwriting was slanted to one side and the letters were sharp and angular. "This looks like Brother Paul's handwriting," he said. "It probably is. He probably put it in the mail just before they snapped him up. I think he saw the FBI was already here and decided to send that after he left when he couldn't get to us," Jenny said. She wasn't looking at him with the same level of pure malice now, but he could tell that she was still angry over it. "So what happens now?" he asked her waiting for her to tell him that it was over between them. He didn't see how her knowing this now would end in any other way and deep inside he knew that no matter what he had done since then, he would deserve it. There were no second chances, not really when it mattered. Jenny looked at him across the table. "I think he sent this as a final fuck you to both of us," she said finally. "I think he wanted me to see it and leave you for good and I don't want to give that son of a bitch any kind of a win. I'm still angry as hell at you though," she said. "I know," Derek said. "And I deserve it too. It was an incredibly stupid thing to do." "Almost as stupid as wrecking your car while trying to impress Sabrina Mulligan," she said to him. Derek looked up and over to her. "That's the stupidest thing that I did to get a girl to talk to me," she said. "Did it work?" he asked her. "No," she said. "But she did tell her friends what a stupid jackass I was afterward," Jenny reached for the photo and put it back in the envelope. "I'm still angry at you Derek," she said again. "But I believe you. Let me think about this for a while. I'm not going to forgive you right now for this. But I'm not saying I won't either." Derek nodded to her and didn't say anything. He watched her hoist herself up from her chair and leave the room. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- Year 1 A.S. Day 212 Danny handed the photo back to Jenny. "I forgot about when you wrecked your car in high school," he said. Jenny slipped the photo back into the envelope. "I didn't. It cost too much to repair all of the damage. So what time does grandma think she's going to be here?" she asked changing the subject. "Amelia called just before she left. She's going to take some time off and stay down here for a while with you after the wedding," Danny said. "That's gonna put a crimp in my honeymoon plans. Nothing like your nineteen year old grandma in the next room to throw cold water over you," Jenny said. "Like you can do anything more than roll over and sleep right now anyway," Danny said. "A girl can still dream can't she?" Jenny said before turning red, standing up and walking away quickly. Danny followed her and asked what was wrong. Jenny waved him off and told her that she had peed herself again and she needed to wash and change her underwear. Danny nodded and went back to the kitchen. He remembered that as well even though his last pregnancy was a lifetime and another gender ago. "Did I tell you I saw the dress?" Jenny asked when she came back into the kitchen. "What dress?" Danny asked her. "The Dress," she said. "The one I was wearing when I was getting married to Derek in my dream." Jenny started telling him about going out with Kira and Dianne this morning. She needed them to help her get a lot of supplies for after they got back and she didn't want Derek along for this trip. He was going to be busy anyway, getting things ready at the house for after they finished with the justice of the peace. Dad, Little Jake and he were going to do the set up in the back yard while Jenny took care of what needed to be done on her end of things. They had gone to a party shop in one of the small strip malls nearby. Jenny was having much more difficulty even walking now and she was constantly short of breath. She hadn't really thought that they needed to get too much from there, but Dianne was kind of offended that Jenny wouldn't be having what she thought Jenny should have at the very least for her wedding day and she insisted that it should look like something was being celebrated here and not just them having a family visit. They had been walking under the overhanging awnings when Jenny had come to a complete and total stop in front of a bridal shop. Dianne looked up at the dress that Jenny was staring at and told her that if she wanted to buy it she would have to postpone the wedding since there was no way that it could be altered in time for her to use it tomorrow. Jenny told her that it was nothing like that and then as they started walking away to the party shop she told Dianne how eerie it was to see the dress that she was wearing when she dreamed of getting married. Dianne told her most girls who had something like that happen to them usually took it as a sign and bought the dress. Jenny told her that she wasn't going to do that, but she couldn't help looking back at it again when they were going back to the car with what they had gotten. Jenny asked Danny if she and Derek decided to have a much more formal wedding sometime much further down the road if she should consider going back for it. Danny looked at his daughter and told her that considering the nature of what she had told him about that dream that it would have to be one hell of a gorgeous dress before he would have done that when he was a woman. He asked her if having the more formal ceremony later was something that she wanted to do. Jenny looked at her mom and said that yes they would. But it wouldn't be happening until long after she was no longer pregnant. She refused to wear that dress while she was like this for any reason. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---- Year 1 A.S. Day 215 Danny sat with the rest of the family and watched Jenny and Derek. Since it was a simple ceremony it was only them and a couple of friends of Derek's who had come down. Mindy, who he knew from the coffee shop, was the best man, But he didn't know the black man with his arm in a sling wearing an eye patch or the man he was with. They had been introduced, but other than his name and that he had been close to Derek's aunt before the Shift he hadn't talked much with him. Kira was acting as photographer and Dianne was her only bridesmaid. It wasn't going to be a big deal doing it this way, but they were going to have some photos anyway. It wouldn't be right not to at least have that. Jenny was wearing one of her more beautiful dresses that she could still fit into and Derek was just wearing his good suit. He stood there beside her and Danny was having a hard time just seeing it. No matter how much he had known that Jenny had made her peace with what she was becoming over the last few months, it was still a giant step for him to watch her standing there as she became this man's wife. He was so proud of her for how far she had come that he didn't really know how to put what he felt into words. In a few moments it would be done and Jenny would be someone else from now on. That was a step he was glad that she had grown strong enough to take. Jenny was having a hard time breathing again. She had been feeling twinges all morning, but she put it down to the twins moving around inside of her. It wasn't being pregnant that was making it hard for her to breathe though. It was standing next to Derek while the fourteen year old Justice of the Peace had her repeat her vows to Derek. She thought about how she had imagined what this would be like when she was going to be standing next to Sonya. It wasn't the same, but it felt as right for her to do this with Derek. She looked over at Mindy. Jenny's engagement ring was nestled into the wedding ring now and he was waiting for when he had to put it into Derek's hand to slip onto her finger. She had only been wearing it for a couple of days, but already her finger felt naked without it on. She listened to Derek's voice as he made his vows to her. Her voice only trembled a little when it was her turn as well. She couldn't help comparing how their wedding had been like in her dream and how it was happening now. But the specifics of it didn't matter as long as she was married to him today. The justice asked for the rings and she watched as Derek took her hand and she felt the white gold set moving onto her finger. Her hands trembled as she slipped the matching ring onto his and then it was done. She moved toward him and felt his lips against hers. She felt their family's eyes on her as she shared her first kiss with him as his wife and Jenny felt the fire that Heather spoke of to her become an inferno in her heart. Danny watched Derek take her hand and slip the ring onto her finger. It was done. Jenny would always be who she was inside, but from now on she was going to be part of someone else as well. It was one of those defining moments in a person's life and one that changed everything for a woman in how she looked at herself. She looked over at Sam. She was getting a little weepy eyed. She had been the one who always cried at weddings even when she was a man. Danny looked at her, squeezed her hand and then turned his attention back to Jenny and Derek. The civil ceremony didn't take long to finish and when they turned around to face them as a married couple Danny felt a few tears of his own looking at her. He had no idea that she could come so far, but she had and he loved his daughter for it. There wasn't an aisle for them to walk down on so they had just milled around them after they signed the license. Danny took his newly married daughter's hand in his. The engagement ring was beautiful, but with the full wedding set now together it was stunning in his opinion. James had chosen well when he had bought it. Danny leaned into her and hugged her while he told Jenny how very happy he was for her right now. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---- Year 1 A.S. Day 216 Just after midnight Danny heard knocking on their bedroom door. He was starting to get up to answer it. Sam was stirring beside him. She was still mostly asleep. He had just started to get up out of the bed when it opened and Derek's face came through the crack of light the opened door let into the room. "Danny, I think Jenny needs you and Amelia right now," he said. Danny threw the covers off him and shook Sam awake. "I'll be right there," he said to Derek. While Sam started coming out of his stupor Danny was throwing on his clothes. Sam asked him what was wrong and he told her that he wasn't sure, but unless he missed his guess Jenny might need to go to the hospital tonight. Sam woke up when she heard that and started getting dressed herself. He walked into the hallway and went down to Jenny and Derek's room. Amelia was already there. She had just thrown a robe on and come as soon as Derek woke her. Jenny was lying in the bed. She was definitely going to need to go in Danny thought. He told Derek to get his car ready and they would get her up and into it. Derek asked him if they should wake everyone else and he told him no. He looked at the time on his watch. The sun would be rising in a few hours and they might as well get what sleep that they could. Danny said that he would leave a note for Kira and Dianne and if it was the real thing they could come later on. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Year 1 A.S. Day 216 Day 261 of Jenny's pregnancy Kira had called Danny the moment that she had seen the note after she had woke up. She was righteously pissed that they had not woken them up for this. Danny got her to calm down and told her that they didn't need to come after all. It was a bout of false labor. That was one of the reasons that he had let them sleep in he said to her. If it turned out to be a birthday there would be plenty of time for them to get some sleep and come to the hospital later on. Kira grumbled some more but she accepted what Danny was telling her and said that she would take care of getting everyone else up to speed. Danny told her that they would be leaving soon and that they would stop by and pick up some doughnuts on the way back for everyone. Kira got Mattie and Jake up. Dianne was just coming out of the bathroom and asked her what was going on. She told her that it was just false labor and she rolled her eyes when she heard that and said that she didn't think that Jenny was going to appreciate meeting Braxton Hicks any more than her sister had liked meeting him. Kira asked her who that was and Dianne answered that he was the lying son of a bitch who told you that you were going to have your baby today as some kind of sick joke to screw with pregnant women. Kira started to laugh at that until Dianne glared at her and told her she wouldn't think it was so funny when it was her turn to meet him. The five of them returned from the hospital about an hour later. Derek had two big boxes of doughnuts in his arms. He went into the kitchen to put them on the counter and start some coffee while Amelia and Danny helped Jenny onto the couch. Kira saw how worn out Jenny had been from her trip to the hospital and didn't say anything to her other than making sure she was all right. She went into the kitchen. Mattie and Jake were already pillaging the jelly doughnuts. She fished a glazed one out of the box and asked Derek how he was doing. Derek looked up at her. She could see that it had been a weary night. "Not quite the wedding night you were thinking of was it?" she said to him. "No, it really wasn't," he said. Derek told her that Dr. Waverly had kept her there for a few hours after she had determined that this wasn't the real thing. But she also had said that it wasn't that far away either. When Kira told him that it kind of made it that much more real he tiredly nodded his head and said he was going to try to get some sleep for a couple of hours. She watched him go into the living room to check on Jenny one last time and then lean over and kiss her. Amelia came in and sat down on one of the stools by the kitchen table. Kira handed her the half empty doughnut box and watched her fish one out of it. Amelia took a bite and chewed it for a few minutes. Kira asked if she wanted some coffee and she just nodded while she ate her doughnut. As Kira handed her the cup Amelia said that she wasn't going to be going back with them when they went back up tomorrow. Kira asked if she was going to be able to do that. Amelia looked at her and reminded her that after over fifty years at that hospital even with having a need for nurses they could spare her for a couple of weeks while she was down here to welcome her great-great grandchildren into the world. Kira snorted at the mental picture of her nineteen year old grandma telling that to her hospital administrator and making it stick. She finished her own coffee and grabbed another doughnut out of the box before walking in the living room to sit with Jenny for a while. ------------------------------------------------------------------------