A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Disclaimer: I do not own G.I. Joe.
Thanks to Little Lady Hawk for the brainstorming and editing!
She closed the door to her room with her foot, cell phone glued to one ear and mail in her hands, "Roger, you sent a package with two flash drives. What gives? You couldn't possibly have sent me that many pictures to go through!"
On the other end of the phone her childhood friend laughed, "This is the digital age, Babe; all your family photographs are on disks. I figured flash drives would be easiest for you to work with."
"But we couldn't possibly have that many pictures, could we?"
"Sure, I called all the family in Ireland, all the family pictures I took along with every picture taken by the O'Hara clan has, over the years been scanned into my computers. I've got virtually every picture ever taken by your family. Is your computer on yet?"
"Yeah, yeah, give me a sec to dump my mail." She randomly selected one of the flash drives and opened up the pictures. She frowned glancing at the thumbnails, "Roger, these are all pictures of me!"
He laughed, "Yeah, I totally had you going there didn't I! You thought you were going to have sort through like a million photos to create the montage!"
"Well you could have told me when I volunteered that it would be more work that I thought it was going to be!"
"Where's the fun in that? Besides, you wanted to do something to contribute to your dad's big birthday party, this is something that you can do where you are, most of the other stuff, decorations, booking the hall, all that has to be done by someone in Atlanta."
"Does he know what we're planning yet?"
"Nope, not a clue. He just thinks Penny and I are coming up for a visit. He has no idea we're flying in people from all over."
She sighed looking back at the photos, "It is a big birthday, I'm a little surprised he hasn't figured we'd do something for him."
"Shana, you're taking leave, I'm coming up, that's a big deal and he knows it. He'll think our visits are the big deal, even if someone lets something slip."
"Okay."
"So what do you think of your present?"
She groaned, "All the pictures of me? I had no idea you took so many pictures of me. Didn't you need me to sign a consent form or something?"
"You weren't modeling. You were just there. I was just there with my camera. There are a ton of pics with you and other people in them, there are a ton of pics of other people."
"Uh, huh, the other people pictures must be on the other drive."
He just laughed again, the sound making her smile. Good old Roger always had a trick up his sleeve. "Thanks."
"You're welcome. Take a look through them and if you need help with the montage, let me know. And Shana…"
"Yes?" she asked in a resigned voice.
"Actually look through the pictures of you. It'll do you good to remember."
She rolled her eyes, "Fine."
"Promise?"
"Yeah, yeah, I promise."
"All righty then, later babe."
He hung up before she could say good bye. "Typical Roger; always has to have the last word. Well, all right let's see what we've got."
She started looking through the pictures and got caught up before she realized she'd intended to look at them later. Some she printed on the photo printer she borrowed. She looked through the pictures carefully, remembering as Roger had told her to. There she was winning her first martial arts completion. She stood on that podium beaming from ear to ear, her hand holding up her medal victoriously, a look of proud triumph on her face. The picture reminded her a lot of her oldest niece Melanie who'd taken over Shana's rein of family martial arts champion. She printed an extra and slid it in next to the frame of her standing with Melanie as Melanie received her first gold medal.
She actually remembered posing for the next one, a picture of her in a short green party dress, black heels, sitting on the hood of Roger's black trans Am. She'd looked good and she'd known it. It was one of those rare times she'd actually delighted in being girly. There was a picture of her graduating law school, once again a look of pride on her face.
The next was a secretive picture she wondered why Roger had bothered to take. They'd been at a friend's wedding. Roger and his long time girl friend Penny had taken turns taking pictures of the guests and dancing with each other. So there she was, dressed to the nines in a killer dress, it's sleek silk hugging her curves, her hair piled high on her head, champagne glass forgotten on the balcony railing beside her. She was gazing up at the stars, a wistful look on her face. She ran her thumb across the picture, the memory coming to her so clear. She'd been wishing.
But the most touching of all was of Melanie's birth. She looked down at herself, still in college, barely out of her teens and for the first time in her life seriously wondering if she might like to have a husband and family after all. Being with Melanie through the first few years of her life and kept the thought at the front of her mind. Joining the Army and later the Joes, she had put that wish away. But falling in love with Conrad Hauser had brought that wish welling up in her soul once again. Damn Roger for making her realize it. She grabbed an envelope from her desk and placed the pictures inside. These were special and if she didn't waste time she might have the courage to share them, and something of herself.
Conrad smiled when he saw her on the other side of the door, "Hey, this is a nice surprise. I wasn't expecting to see you again until breakfast."
He closed the door behind her and pulled her into a hug, "Don't tell me you finished already?"
"Baugh, I've barely gotten started. I had no idea my family had so many pictures or creating 'the life and times of Patrick O'Hara' would be so time consuming. I've finished up to the time my parents came to America now I just have to sort through a billion photographs to find ones of our childhood-decedent pictures of our childhood."
He chuckled, "What, no goofy faces allowed?"
She rolled her eyes and sat down at the kitchen counter, taking the soda he offered her, "It's not so much the eye rolling as the elbow jabbing and expressions of furious pain as one or the other of us punched, pinched, or stomped on another's toes."
"Ah the joys and tribulations of growing up in a large close knit family. How I survived with one sibling I'll never know."
"Ha! Laugh now buster, fate may just saddle you with a large, noisy brood of your own. Then you'll see just what I had to go through."
"Only if the brood comes with red hair and blue eyes."
She rolled her eyes, "I've had enough of large families."
"That's why you still know every detail of your brothers' lives and the lives of their children and pets, and why they know things about our relationship I'd rather them not know."
"They don't know we share a bed, that's something right?"
"They don't have confirmation that we share a bed -but they know."
She eyed him over the rim of her glass, "Hmm….is that why you can't take off to go home with me for the party?"
Conrad grinned, "That is just pure luck."
They were quiet for a minute, finishing their drinks. Finally Shana figured she had waited long enough. Either she was going to stick to her guns and give him the pictures or she was going to chicken out; and Shana O'Hara did not chicken out on anything.
She took a deep breath, reached into her pocket, and slid the envelope across the counter to Conrad.
He glanced down curiously, "What's this?"
She bit her bottom lip and he wondered exactly what was in the envelope. She only bit her bottom lip when was nervous and she wasn't nervous often.
"Something for you. I thought you might like them. "
Conrad picked up the envelope and opened it to find pictures of her inside. Speechless, he went through them twice quickly before looking up. "Thank you, Shana. These…this…." He cleared his throat, "They mean a lot, you sharing them with me. Come tell me about them."
He took her hand and led her to his recliner. He sat and settled her on his lap, his arms around her.
They laughed over the picture of her winning her gold medal, "You look ecstatic!"
"I was and so, so proud of myself."
"Hmm…don't you have one of you and Melanie when Melanie won a gold medal?"
She laughed lightly, "I do and I tucked a copy of this picture into that frame."
He held up the picture of her in that green party dress, "How old were you?"
"Oh late teens, maybe 18 or so. I was home from school and a bunch of us were getting together to celebrate the holidays."
"I like that look on your face, I bet your broke some hearts that night."
"Mmm…" she muttered noncommittally.
"Law school, huh? Who was prouder, you or your dad?"
"Well considering that an Atlanta firm had snatched me up, dad was at least happier. He was thrilled to have me back home for a while. We both knew it wouldn't last long."
"Remind me how long you practiced before joining up?"
"Close to five years. I just go so frustrated with how slow everything was working. I wanted to make a difference. I figured being a lawyer would make a difference-if anything ever got finished in time to do good."
He pulled out the next one and just stared at it for a while, "You are so beautiful. Why didn't you pose for this one?"
She wiggled uncomfortably, "Why don't we skip that one and go on to the next one. Mel was a really cute baby."
"Shana…"
She ignored him, pulling Mel's baby picture from the stack, "Isn't she cute? I was thrilled at being an aunt. I hadn't even at that point considered having a family. I was going to be a career woman all the way. I was going to save the world and that didn't leave time for husband's and babies."
"Does the word 'was' mean you've changed your mind."
She smiled and spoke softly, "When I picked that little girl up I was a goner. At that moment I knew being a lawyer, even saving the world wouldn't make my life complete. I wanted to have it all, the career and the family. I still want that, just after I finish saving the world."
The forced light note didn't escape his notice, "Do you ever think about the future? What would you do when the war with Cobra was finally over. And it will be over, we will finish it."
She nodded, "Sometimes."
"Just sometimes?" he asked softly, prodding.
She swallowed, "More frequently now."
"Now that we're together?"
"Yes."
"Are you really opposed to having a brood of your own?"
She turned to look at him, "Not if they have blond hair and blue eyes."
He smiled as she handed his earlier words back to him. Enough seriousness for the moment. Well, enough seriousness about their future. They were both happy in their relationship with each other and while they could talk about the future they both knew well and good that they wouldn't be having children until after the war with Cobra was over. And unfortunately, it wasn't over yet.
He pulled out the weeding picture again, "So, tell me why you didn't pose for this one? You are gorgeous, especially so in this picture."
She shrugged, hoping he let the issue drop, "I don't like having my picture taken."
"Why not?"
She sighed and leaned back against him, he wasn't going to drop the issue, "I was never a girly girl. I can barely do the minimal with makeup and hair. I was always more interested in other stuff, sports, the law, training. I never looked as elegant or graceful as my mother. After I joined up the very idea of my name and my picture being in the same place at the same time was terrifying."
"You're you-not your mother but you look so much like her. You don't need to be shy about having your picture taken."
"I don't look anything at all like my mom. Like I said, she was tall and graceful."
He snorted, "And you're not?"
"No, I'm tall and gangly. Maybe tall and athletic but not graceful like she was. She had this way of walking…"
"Like she was so comfortable with her body she forgot about it? Like she knew without thinking exactly where she was in a room? Like she knew exactly who she was and liked that person just fine?"
"Yeah…how'd you guess all that?"
"Like I said-you look, and I'm guessing here, but act a lot like her. You are beautiful and graceful."
"I just don't see it. Maybe if I'd known her as an adult…but…I didn't get that chance."
He pulled out the baby picture of Melanie, "What's that running joke in your family about Frank's girls? Melanie and Cricket?"
Shana laughed, "The joke is that maybe this time around Caro will turn out a baby that actually looks like she belongs to Caro and not to me."
"Hmm…what does your dad say about Melanie?"
"He says she looks like mom more and more every day."
"So if people inside and outside of the family say Melanie looks like you and you and your dad think Melanie looks like your mom, don't you look like her?"
Shana was speechless for a long time, "You are a very sneaky man, you know that?"
He hugged her tight, "Yeah, but I'm your sneaky man. So counselor, have we established the fact that you look like your mother?"
"Yeah, I suppose so."
"You suppose so?"
"Okay, I agree." She said quietly, "I look like my mother." She was happy, awed but happy to have someone outside the family actually be able to convince her she looked like her mom.
"All right then, back to the wedding picture. What were you thinking?"
Shana debated about what to tell him. It was obvious she was lost in thought. They'd shared a lot tonight, well she'd shared a lot tonight. She knew he was surprised but beyond pleased. Those walls were coming down between them left and right. It was scary. It felt right but scary just the same.
She took a deep breath, "I was wishing."
"Oh, what for? Prince Charming?"
"You."
"I was wishing for you." She turned to look at him, "I didn't know you yet, and I didn't know what kind of man I really wanted but I knew what he'd be like at the core. Somewhere, somehow, along the line I must have done something ridiculously right because my fairy godmother granted my wish."
He swallowed heavily, "Shana." He whispered, framing her face in his hands, "I love you."
She smiled, "I love you too."