Dana balled up her uniform and threw it into the corner of her room, too tired to bother hanging it up, let alone worry about cleaning it. It was probably a write-off, anyways--for someone who didn't usually get directly involved in combat, she always seemed to do a number on her costumes. And it was always dirt or soot or some other sort of muck. Bobby had once joked that she ought to try it 'Rogue's way', and let her uniform get ripped into 'strategic shreds' just once. A brief smile flitted across Dana's face as she remembered Sam's admirably direct response to Bobby's crude little comment, but her amusement faded quickly, her thoughts moving inescapably back to the mission they'd just been on.
I swear, she thought wearily, if I don't see another damned Prime Sentinel in my entire life, it'll be too soon. Even almost five years after Zero Tolerance, they kept appearing--in this case, a whole group, ten in all, who'd attacked a mutant-friendly day-care center in Boston. Dana winced, remembering how pervasive the children's terror had been. Even Jean and Psylocke had been affected.
According to Hank, it would be next to impossible to ever eliminate the threat of the Prime Sentinels completely. They still had no idea how many innocent people had been infected by Bastion's nanotechnology and then sent back to live their old lives until their 'services' were required. And if even one Prime Sentinel survived, a whole new nest could develop. The nanites could be passed on with a horrific ease--Dana had seen it happen to a young woman once, an innocent bystander who'd just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Maybe ease is the wrong word, she thought, feeling a ripple of nausea at the memory. It's easy for the Sentinel to infect a victim, but what happens to the victim is anything but 'easy'-- Dana had tried to heal the woman, but the damned nanites wrote DNA, and, as she'd discovered years before when she'd tried to help Moira with the Legacy virus, her powers didn't work in cases like that.
She half-collapsed onto her bed with a weary sigh, putting herself into a partial meditative trance, just like Cable had taught her--slowing her breathing, clearing her mind. Her headache was just beginning to retreat quite nicely when a knock came at the door, breaking her concentration. Dana sat up with a scowl.
"Dana? You okay?"
Her irritation faded. As remedies for post-mission blues went, Sam had Askani meditation tricks beaten hands down. "No, Sam," she said, keeping her voice perfectly solemn. "I'm asleep. Or dead. I'm not sure which."
There was a moment of silence from the other side of the door, and then she heard him chuckle. "Well, either you're talkin' in your sleep, Danes, or you're awful lively for a dead woman."
."Oh, get in here, Guthrie!" she groaned, making a token attempt to smoothe her hair. The door opened, and Sam came in, grinning. He was still wearing his uniform. Dana frowned as she noticed a rip in it, at his left shoulder. The edges of the fabric were dark with dried blood. She gave him her most forbidding scowl as she slid off the bed and approached him.
"For someone who's supposed to be invulnerable, you certainly end up with more than your fair share of bumps, bruises and various lacerations," she said, a trifle waspishly. The gash looked shallow, and it had stopped bleeding, but she laid a hand against it anyways, concentrating.
He seemed surprised. "Shucks, ah didn't even notice that," he said bemusedly, trying to move her hand away so that he could take a look. She slapped his fingers away with a growl, and he chuckled. "Must've been some shrapnel or somethin', from when the Sentinel blew up that bus."
"You didn't notice," she said disapprovingly. "Lovely. And why didn't you have your blast field on, you idiot?"
"You gonna t'nag me this much when we're married, Danes?" he asked with a rueful grin, flexing his arm when she removed her hand, the healing complete.
"More, buster. Then I'll have the legal right to." She squirmed as he put his arms around her, not quite willing to give up on her bad mood quite yet. "What's everyone else doing?" She always worried about her teammates' emotional states after a mission where they'd fought Prime Sentinels. It wasn't so bad when the Sentinel in question was someone like Gryaznova, who they knew had been a volunteer. Dana could actually feel a great deal of satisfaction when she looked back to that day, almost two years ago now, when the X-Men and X-Force had teamed up to take out the massive nest Gryaznova had created in Brazil. That had been the last mission Cable and Domino had taken part in, actually--well, Dana thought in dark amusement, Dom was hardly going to let us go after Gryaznova without her. And Cable had a particular hatred for Bastion and his works--Dana had heard him mutter something about 'twentieth-century version of Infinites', once.
No, none of them would shed any tears for someone like Gryaznova. That woman had been one twisted piece of work--touching her empathically had been like jumping into a pool of filth. But when they were dealing with sleeper units, presumably innocent people--no one on the team could be quite so matter-of-fact about it.
"Not much," Sam said, letting go of her with a reluctance she could sense. "Relaxin', mostly--well, Logan and Bishop are runnin' some program in the Danger Room full-tilt with all the safeties off--"
"Stress relief by any other name--" she said, with a deadpan expression. Sam laughed, and she finally let go of her pique. "How about you, Guthrie?" she asked wickedly. "Got any tension you need relieved?"
"Dana Hawkes!"
He was so cute when he blushed. Dana, still feeling a little on the naughty side, was about to say more when she suddenly felt a familiar, warm golden presence in her mind, and heard a fond laugh.
#You definitely spent FAR too much time with Dom, kid.#
Dana gasped, a grin spreading across her face. Looking at Sam, she saw the same surprised happiness in his eyes that she knew were in her own. She opened her mouth to say something, but words turned into a yelp as he scooped her up into his arms and blasted out the open window.
"We could've taken the stairs!" she cried out, giggling as he made a tight turn around the corner of the building and went right for the front door, where a small group of people were gathered.
The landing wasn't bad, actually. Scott gave Sam a mildly disapproving look, but Sam merely grinned at him as he set Dana down. She ignored Scott totally, and threw herself at Cable with a shriek of delight. He gave a grunt of surprise as she slammed into him.
"You asshole!" she cried, hugging him fiercely and projecting her joy to see him as forcefully as she could. "SIX MONTHS, old man! Didn't anyone ever teach you to use a flonqing telephone?"
"Umm---"
Beside him, Domino was just about killing herself laughing as she embraced Sam. Dana let go of Cable and turned to her. "And you! You're just as bad!"
"It's all his fault," Domino said complacently, giving Sam an affectionate look and a clout on the shoulder before she turned to hug Dana.
"Isn't it always?" Dana asked, and then had to wrestle with another fit of the giggles as she caught the look Nathan was giving the two of them. Domino looked back at him blandly, and he glowered, muttering something about 'corrupting innocent youth'.
*Who ever said I was innocent?* Dana thought at him pointedly, still grinning, and was rewarded by one of his rare smiles.
#Do you hear me disagreeing?# he asked wryly, and then turned to Sam. "Well, Guthrie. All I can say is that it sure took you long enough."
Sam snorted. "Ain't that the frying pan calling the kettle blue, sir?" he asked with a straight face, and Cable actually grinned at him.
"He's got a point, you know," Domino said, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't you start."
"Start what?" she asked innocently.
"Anything."
"Who, me?" she said innocently, and then turned to Roberto, who was watching and grinning. "You're a sight for sore eyes, kid. The rest of the merry band here yet?"
"Not quite yet," Jean answered when Roberto just shook his head. She hugged Cable, whispering something in his ear, and then turned back to Domino. "Fortunately, none of the other teams are descending on us for a little while. Gives us plenty of time to hide the breakables."
Dana gulped at the mental image that resulted from that comment. Cable slid an arm around her shoulders. #Don't worry, Dana,# he sent comfortingly. #Things won't get too out of hand.#
Why do I always get nervous when you say that? she thought at him pointedly.
#Trust me.#
That's even worse. She gave up her pretence at being annoyed, and hugged him again. I missed you, Nathan.
#Same here, mi'stianna,# he sent back softly, and Dana closed her eyes to hide the happy tears that threatened as he used the Askani word for student, with the inflection that he added only rarely. Spoken that way, the word meant not only student, but daughter. Hearing that, sensing the emotions that flowed through the remains of the old teaching link, she didn't have any doubt that this was the only man in the entire world that she wanted to walk her down the aisle and give her away at her wedding.
***
"Hey, you," Dana called affectionately to Sam as she entered the living room. "I've got something I want you to look at."
Sam eyed the huge stake of wedding magazines in her arms dubiously. "Something? That implies one, y'know--"
"Well, things plural, then. Just a few!" She set the stack down on the coffee table with a loud thump. Sam flinched, remembering his bizarre dream of a few nights ago, where he had been slowly being crushed to death by an ever-growing stack of wedding magazines. "Oh, you big baby," Dana scolded. "C'mere." She patted a place beside her on the couch. Resigning himself to the inevitable, he obliged, slipping his arm comfortably around her waist as he did so. She reached for the first magazine and flipped to a bookmarked page, laying it open on her lap. "What do you think of this?"
He examined the page. It showed a lavish outdoor reception. "What part of it am ah lookin' at?"
"All of it--the whole effect." He narrowed his eyes and tried to examine it carefully, looking for the elusive 'effect'. It looked a lot like the other pictures of receptions he'd seen, but with fancier food and more expensive china.
"What do you think of it, honey?" he asked casually.
"Oh, I think it could work for us. I like the way the tables are laid out, and the use of flowers."
"Ah like the flowers too," he said quickly, trying to give the picture an appraising look. She sighed, and pulled his head up to look him in the eyes.
"You're not fooling anybody, buster," she scolded. Her harsh look only lasted a moment, and then her eyes softened and she kissed him briefly on the lips."I know this isn't any fun for you. I just want to know your opinions. I don't want to pick something you'll be unhappy with."
"Ah'm sorry," he said softly, honestly regretting that he couldn't 'get into' it as much as she obviously was. "Ah know this means a lot to you. Ah want you t'have the wedding you want. All that matters to me is getting married to you. It doesn't matter where or how."
"That's so sweet." Dana kissed him again. Thinking he'd been excused from wedding planning duty, he rose to leave. "Wait a minute!" She tugged on his shirtail, and he sat down heavily. "What about this dress?" She flipped open another magazine. "There're three here I really like." She turned to pages in another two magazines and laid them on the coffee table in front of him.
Well, at least it was dresses. He could see differences--pick favorites. He examined the three pictures carefully. They were all long, with full skirts. Princess dresses, he thought, smiling. One had long sleeves with points at the end and a high neck that was all lace, the second was off the shoulder, while the third was strapless and looked an awful lot like the top half of Jean's wedding dress.
"I kinda like the middle one," he finally said, pointing to the one with the long sleeves. She'd look like some mediaeval princess in that one, he thought, enchanted by the image.
"Really?" Dana frowned and bit her lip thoughtfully. "Even the neckline?"
"Umm--neckline?"
"Yeah. It's a little high, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Sam allowed, "but the top part here is all lace, so it's really not that high. But if you like another one, go for that one. Get the one YOU like--you'll be the one wearin' it."
Dana frowned and looked at them all carefully again. Sam was just about to start in on the 'you'll look great in whatever you wear' talk when Rogue came in.
"Oh, ah'm sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt anythin'," she said, and was about to turn and leave when Dana waved her into the room.
"That's all right, Rogue, we're just looking at magazines," she said absently, still concentrating on the dresses. Rogue trotted over to the back of the couch and looked over Dana's shoulder.
"Oh, ah love that one!" She pointed to the dress on the left, the off-the-shoulder one.
Dana nodded thoughtfully. "I've been looking at that one too."
So there was a right and wrong answer to this pop quiz. Sam suppressed a sigh.
"Wedding magazines?" Jean asked eagerly from the doorway. "Can I see?" She walked quickly over to the couch to peer over Dana's shoulder. Sam got up, slowly, not wanting to jeopardize his chance of escaping, but the women didn't even look at him. Rogue actually sat right down in the place where he'd been sitting. Sam smiled. Guess ah'm dismissed.
He took slow, quiet steps towards the door--just in case--and nearly got run over by Betsy as she hurried into the room saying "Did I hear someone say wedding magazines?"
Sam made it out into the hall, and carefully looked both ways, making sure no more women were incoming. He saw Bobby and Roberto at the end of the hall, and waved as he headed towards the kitchen with the vague idea of getting something to eat before he went looking for Cable. The two of them hadn't talked much since he and Dom had come back--Cable seemed to spend most of the time in the commsuite talking to his stations. So much time, actually, that Domino had threatened to have Scott change the security systems to keep him out of the room. The 'fight' the two of them had over that had been a little unnerving, Sam thought with a chuckle. He could've handled it if they'd shouted at each other or even pulled weapons, but they'd just stood there and glared, and glared, and glared--it was pretty obvious how much deeper their psi-link had grown. He figured Dom had probably won the argument, seeing as though Cable hadn't set foot in the communications room for almost two days after that.
Sam sighed. It seemed stupid to be worrying about Cable now, considering all the troubles he'd overcome in the last few years, but Sam didn't look how tired his old teacher looked. He was obviously in control of himself and his powers like he'd never been before, and more happy than Sam had ever seen him--you only had to watch him when he looked at Domino to see that--but he seemed drained, for lack of a better word. As if he were a runner coming up to the end of a marathon and was just running out of steam.
"Sam, wait up a minute!' Roberto said, exasperated as he and Bobby caught up to him.
Sam blinked at him, surprised. "Oh--sorry, 'Berto. Ah was just thinking--"
"Yeah, whatever," Roberto said briskly, taking one of his arms as Bobby took the other.
"Umm--what?" Sam asked a little nervously as they steered him into the library.
"We need to have a little talk," Bobby said. There was no one inside the library, and Sam started to feel distinctly anxious as they motioned for him to sit in an easy chair. He did so, and watched them in confusion.
"As concerned members of the wedding party," Bobby started, "we'd just like you to know that you have our complete support to break tradition."
"What do you mean?" Sam asked, befuddled.
"Look, it was really nice of you to name Marcus as your best man, him being Dana's brother and all, but you know, he's been SO busy lately. You might want to--redistribute some of the best man's duties, so that he doesn't get overwhelmed," Roberto said helpfully. Sam gave him a confused look.
Bobby gave a martyred sigh. "I think what 'Berto's tyring to say is--PLEASE don't let Marcus plan the bachelor party. Please. He's Dana's brother, and he's sure not going to let us doing anything that would ruin your impending marriage. It won't be any fun!"
"Well, guys, ah really didn't want to have one of THOSE bachelor parties, anyways," Sam said, feeling somewhat apologetic.
"This isn't about you," Roberto said patiently. "This is about US. As representatives of the male side of the wedding, we wanted to remind you how few and far between weddings are in this house. The last one was Scott's, and HIS bachelor party was beyond boring. You can't do this to us again, Sam," he said in a wheedling tone. "It's our only chance to do things our significant others would normally kill us for. They EXPECT us to do it. You wouldn't want to let them down, would you?"
Sam frowned. That seemed to be a rather convoluted argument to him.
"The girls are planning a WILD bachelorette party for Dana," Bobby contributed.
"Really? Wait a minute--no, they're not! My sister's the Maid of Honor, remember?"
"So?" Bobby instantly earned the big brother's irate glare from Sam. "I mean, SO then some of the other women must be planning it," he corrected quickly. "Anyways, we can't just let them have all the fun!"
"How d'ya know they're not just having a tea party or something?" Sam asked.
"Tea party?" Roberto laughed. "I doubt it, Sam. Well--I can see maybe Storm and Psylocke going for something like that. Maybe Jean too, depending on what mood she was in, but Rogue or Cecilia--or Dom? Not to mention your fiancee--remember what she looked like when she and Cable and the others timeripped back home?"
Sam winced at the memory, shaking his head. Wearing full armor, Askani war-paint, and packing a gun that looked like it'd come straight out of Cable's weapons locker, Dana had thrown herself into his arms almost before she'd fully rematerialized, and said 'Sam! I'll never leave you again!' He'd been more than a little disconcerted by the whole thing--until she'd started kissing him, of course.
"C'mon, we can't let the ladies have a better party than us," Bobby said pleadingly. "What do you say?"
"Sorry, guys," Sam said firmly. "Ah told Marc he was the best man. That means he gets ALL the duties involved, includin' the bachelor party." Sam got up and headed out of the room. Just before he reached the hall, he heard Bobby sigh.
"Dammit. Well, that sets it. Roberto, you'll just have to propose to Tabitha now. You're our next best hope."
"Well, you could always ask Cecilia--"
"Oh! Will you look at the time!" Bobby said quickly. "I'm scheduled in the Danger Room. See you, guys!"
Sam laughed all the way to the kitchen. He made himself a sandwich and sat down at the table to eat it. There was a Modern Bride magazine sitting at his elbow. He sighed. Lord, they're multiplying-- They were like Tribbles, damn it!
He scanned the front cover. '700 of the season's hottest dresses!' 'The top ten honeymoon getaways!' '80 ways to have the wedding of your dreams without breaking the bank!' Well, the Shi'ar fabricators pretty much took care of the cost concerns, at least, Sam thought with relief. He took another bite of his sandwich and casually leafed through the maganize. "Five articles, two advice columns, and five hundred pages of dress advertisments," he muttered to himself, shaking his head in wonder. One of the pictures showed the perfect wedding; the gorgeous bride, the impossibly handsome groom, the smiling little cherubs that were the flower girl and ringbearer. He chuckled. His mother had once told him there was no such thing as the perfect wedding. So, she had continued, getting stressed by all the imperfections was useless. Besides, Sam thought, if weddings were always perfect then there'd be no stories to tell. No videos to send in to America's Funniest Home Videos--the family dog eats the flowers, Uncle Bob gets drunk and collapses into the wedding cake, the best man loses the rings. Sure, they were terrible at the time, but they would be fond memories, eventually.
Sam could only imagine what could happen at an X-Men wedding. The fights for the bouquet and garter alone were enough to make him cringe.
***
Domino chuckled to herself as she walked up the stairs. It was much more fun to shop for wedding dresses when you didn't have to leave the house, and could just toss the rejects back into the fabricator to be 'recycled'. Of course, that flexibility had its downsides--it let Betsy try her hand at design, for one. Dana had turned an unbelievable shade of red at a few of Psylocke's suggestions. That one little number had less fabric that Betsy's uniform, for Pete's sake--and I didn't think that was possible.
With a pang, she remembered how much fun Tabitha had always had with the Shi'ar fabricator. And that, of course, made her wonder what Tabitha's plans were. She'd spoken to Terry last week, and Siryn had told her that 'of course' X-Force was coming to the wedding. But Domino wasn't sure if that included Tabitha--and part of her had almost been afraid to ask. The last thing we need is another battle royale-- Domino thought with a sigh.
Well, she just wouldn't let that happen. Dana wouldn't start anything. Furthermore, Domino knew that the X-Force kids--you can hardly consider them that anymore, she reminded herself wryly--still respected her authority. If she had to put her foot down, so be it, but Tabitha's lingering jealousies were not going to disrupt this wedding. Domino fought down a surge of fresh irritation. Dearly as she loved the girl, one would THINK that Tabitha would have been mature enough to get over it by now!
She glanced at her watch. She'd told Jean she'd meet her at the front door at half past three--the two of them had been trying to snatch some time to get away and have coffee or something in town. Just enough time to get changed--
Domino opened the door to the room she and Nathan were sharing, and started in mild surprise as she saw him stretched out on the bed, dead to the world. He's actually catching up on his sleep? Has hell frozen over when I wasn't looking? Smiling, she went over and sat down beside him on the bed. She wasn't worried about waking him up; while he was a light sleeper under most conditions, he tended to sleep like the dead when he was somewhere 'safe'.
Damn it, he still looks about twelve years old when he's asleep, she thought tenderly, gently smoothing the unruly silver hair back from his forehead. He didn't even stir at her touch. His breathing was deep and even, and all she got along their psi-link from his sleeping mind was utter, blissful unawareness. After the countless nights when all she'd been able to do was hold him and try to soothe him as he thrashed around in the grip of some unspeakable nightmare or another, she was always passionately glad to see him at peace. Although he'd be peeved when he woke up--it wasn't like Nate to sleep in the middle of the day. As a matter of fact, this was the first time she could remember him doing it.
But it meant he was relaxing, which was good. He needed this time to recharge--hell, they both did, but at least SHE was being sensible about it. The first week they'd been here, he'd tried to manage the entire network from the mansion's commsuite. She'd finally put her foot down--and later called Cruz and told him that if he or any other station chief called with anything short of a major catastrophe, she'd have ALL their heads. Sometimes there are benefits to being a 'clan mother', unofficially or not, she thought wryly. Rank hath its privileges.
#Oh, really?# inquired a sleepy voice in her mind, and Domino shook her head, unable to repress a silent curse as she looked down and saw him blinking up at her.
"I didn't mean to wake you up," she said apologetically, leaning down and kissing him on the forehead.
"It's all right," he said, stretching as he sat up and leaned back against the headboard of the bed. "On your way out?"
"Yeah, Jean and I were going into town," Domino said easily. "Catching up and all that."
Nathan yawned. "Sounds like fun. I should go call Cruz--"
"Want to see how long it takes me to chain you to the bed, pal?" Domino bristled.
Amazingly enough, he grinned. "Why, Dom, I didn't know you went in for that sort of thing."
She swatted at him half-heartedly. "Leash that sense of humor, will you?" she demanded. He caught her hand and kissed it. "And stop doing that, too, or Jean's going to be waiting down there wondering what happened to me--"
"I could always send her your regrets--" he suggested, and proceeded to demonstrate what they could be doing if she didn't have a 'prior engagement'.
"Stop that," Domino said, trying not to laugh.
"Stop what?"
"You know--" she couldn't help a shiver of pleasure, "that!"
"Really?"
"Um--well, no, not really--"
"I didn't think so."
***
"Sam, I want to talk to you about something," Dana said, sticking her head into her fiancee's room. Sam sat up from where he was laying on his bed and scooted over to make room for her to sit down next to him.
"What's up?"
She sat down and folded her hands in her lap uncomfortably. "What happens when I die?" She flinched at the wave of shock that washed over him. Frowning, she rephrased the question. "I mean, I'm going to get old, and eventually die, and you're immortal. You probably don't even age. You'll still look like you're in your twenties when I'm forty or fifty." She sighed. "I guesss what I'm trying to ask is, did you think about that stuff before you asked me to marry you?"
Sam sighed, and pulled her closer to him. "'Course ah did. When ah first learned ah was an External, ah thought 'bout all of that. Ah couldn't HELP but think about it. Ah sat down by myself and made some decisions about my life. Ah kinda created a set of rules, a list of questions to ask myself before ah made a big decision, like finally askin' you t'marry me. Is marrying you worth the pain of losing you after a long life together? Yes. Will it be awkward if ah don't age? Yes. But it is worth that awkwardness to be with you until God separates us? Yes." He reached down, lifting her chin and looking deeply into her yes. "You are a woman that ah'm willin' to risk losing my heart over. Ah may not have foreseen this happening when you first showed up at the mansion all those years ago, but ah acknowledged the difficulties of being an External when ah entered into this relationship. Ah'm willing to chance that a few decades of married life is worth losing it all." He continued examining her face and frowned. "Is that all right with you? Ah don't know yet if ah'll age or not, but ah imagine that would be harder on you than it would on me."
Dana smiled faintly. "I think I can cope with having an eternally handsome husband, but if you ever run off with a twentysomething bimbo, I'll be a little pissed."
"Ah'll try to keep that in mind," he chuckled. "Seriously,though, ah've shared pieces of my soul with you that ah can't imagine sharing with anyone else. We fit together pretty well, ya know? Ah think ah'd be hard pressed to ever find anyone to even partially take your place."
She smiled warmly at his words, but then frowned again as shetried to put her next thought in to words. "After I-- umm-- After I'm gone, I do want you to find someone else. I don't want you living alone for centuries.I want you to know that. Although you might want to wait a few weeks," she amended drolly. "With this group you never know when you'll get brought back to life or cloned."
He smiled faintly. "As long as we're bringing up the big issues, what about kids?"
She sighed. "I know you probably want them--"
"Ah asked ya what you wanted, not what you think ah want."
"Well, I think it would be tricky to raise a child in this house. If we do have a child, I'd hope for it later rather than sooner, because I don't think I'm anywhere near being ready to be a mother. You'd be a great father, but I'm just not patient enough at this point in my life. Sorry."
"You don't have to apologize for anything. We're still pretty young. Ah'd like to spend a few years alone with you before we consider bringing kids into the picture-- although ah give my mother a year before she starts asking about when she can expect grandkids."
Dana chuckled and then ran a hand through her hair. "God--kids. I hadn't even really thought of that."
"What about-- umm-- ah mean, before the weddin' night-- uh--" Sam blushed furiously, but he did want it out in the open, after that discussion with Roberto. At least he thought he did.
"You mean premarital sex?" she asked him quietly. He nodded. She schooled her face. It was almost too easy. It was just too big of an opening. "Now?" she asked as sincerely as she could, leaning closer and posing just a little. Sam choked. "I'm kidding. Relax." She laughed, but then sobered. "Actually, that's another thing I hadn't really thought about. How do you feel about it?"
He scratched his head. "Well, there are a few little religious and moral arguments against it, ah guess, and ah'd be lyin' if ah said they didn't factor into the whole thing. But then, ah'm gettin' the feelin' that everybody's pretty surprised that we've waited as long as we have. 'Bertowas shocked that we hadn't moved in together."
"Do you want me to move in?" she asked carefully.
"Ah don't know. Do ya want ta move in?"
"If you don't know if you want me to or not, I probably shouldn't."
"Ah'm sorry, ah didn't mean it how it sounds. Of course, ah'd love fer ya ta live with me, but ah'm not sure if we should--"
"I know. I'm just saying that if we're not absolutely positive we shouldn't force it. It's not very romantic if we feel we have to."
Sam nodded. "Ah think so too. Ah just wondered if you felt like everybody else seems to."
"If I said I had no desire to push you back on the bed right now and have at it, I'd be lying." Sam raised an eyebrow as she smiled slyly. "Of course I want to. I wouldn't have stayed with you as long as I have if I didn't find you devastingly attractive. I just don't think it's a good idea for us right now. Well, I don't think it would be good for me, anyway," She amended. "I just think that if we wait it'll make the wedding night that much more special. It's not like there's all that much long to wait, really, and after we've waited so long, we're bound to be pretty impatient. We'll probably end up tearing our clothes off and won't even make it to the bed. That should be exciting," she grinned.
to be continued...
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