Disclaimer: I don't own Good Luck Charlie.
A/N: I have no idea where this came from. I do really like this show, though I don't think I've seen all the episodes though whenever my little brother watches them I watch it with him. So I'm sorry if my characterization is all over the place. I tried. I wish this had a bigger fandom, though, and more Teddy/Emmett shippers. There needs to be more fic for them, I love them. Anyway, please review, I'd really appreciate it. :D
Three Times Emmett Asked Teddy To Marry Him
(And the One Time She Asked Him)
.001
The first time that he sees her he knows that she's The One.
It doesn't even matter that he's only six or that Emmett's only seen Teddy for about three seconds. They were the most enlightening three seconds of his life. Or, at least, that's what he tells himself when he's older.
Her hair is curled into blonde ringlets, messy and in her brown eyes, her yellow checkered dress matching the bow in her hair. He'll remember that image of her forever.
PJ punches him, making him forget about Teddy for a few seconds because of the pain in his arm. Evidently PJ doesn't like him looking at his sister at his own birthday party. "Ew," PJ says. "That's my sister."
"Be quiet. I need to ask her something!" Emmett tells PJ, rubbing his arm and pushing the blonde boy away.
His dad always said, when he and mom tell his sister the story of Their Epic Romance, as mom titled it, that as soon as he knew that Emmett's mom was The One he asked her for her hand in marriage.
Well, Emmett was certain that he knew that Teddy was the girl that he need to have marry him. He'd make her happy; he could make a crazy good peanut butter sandwich, even PJ has said so.
"Can I have your hand in marriage?" he asks, grabbing the said hand and getting down on one knee like he's seen done in movies.
"You want my hand?" Teddy shrieks.
"Yeah."
"No! You can't have my hand! I need it! I need it to-to I need it to color with! Mooom! Emmett wants to eat my hand!"
"But that's not-" Emmett protests before sighing and kicking a the grass. This might not be what he had been expecting, but he knows that he's never going to give up.
.002
He gets the idea to try for a second time two years later, after he got her to agree to go to Homecoming with him if he doesn't have a girlfriend. (And seeing as how he's pretty sure by the time that he's in high school Teddy is going to be his girlfriend it's moot point anyway.)
He gets PJ-who even though he's Emmett's best friend and future brother-in-law (if all goes well today) isn't actually too thrilled about this idea but since he gets to use the camera he thinks that it's okay he guesses-to film this moment so that there will be documentation.
Documentation is important, after all, and Emmett doesn't want to forget this.
He comes up to her when she's on the couch, watching what she calls her 'soaps' even though really they're nothing of the sort. For one thing, in real soap operas there is more kissing, or at least in the soap operas that Emmett's mom watches.
Maybe Teddy should watch more soap operas-maybe she'd suddenly realize that she actually wants to kiss the pants right off of him. Emmett would like that, he thinks.
"Teddy!" he yells, making the blonde girl turn around and glare at him.
"What?" She does not sound impressed, her voice as flat as the Great Plains as she continues to watch her shows, not even looking at Emmett.
"Will you marry me?"
"What?" Teddy sounds significantly less bored this time. Emmett takes this as a good sign. When she looks up and sees PJ holding the camera she grimaces. "Why me? PJ get your crazy friend out of here!"
"I can't. The heart wants what the heart wants, and for some reason Emmett wants you." PJ replies, which makes Teddy throw him a face.
"So, please? Will you marry me?"
"If I say yes will you leave me alone forever?"
It doesn't seem like a fair trade, but it's good enough for Emmett. Either way he and Teddy are together in holy matrimony.
"Yes."
"Then yes, I will marry you. Now leave me alone! I need to see what's going to happen to Claire and Richie!"
.003
They're both twenty-one and bursting with life, exploding with it like fireworks making their way over the dark sky of the universe.
Teddy's laughing at one of his jokes and some strands of hair have gotten stuck in her lipgloss, and she's her mouth is open as she tries to move the hair away from her face with the hand that he isn't holding. Teddy has never looked perfect-never been perfect-but she never needed to be. She already was that way, at least to him.
Emmett can't ever imagine loving her more than he does right in that moment.
It might be more unplanned that he wanted to be, but that's okay. (Emmett's honestly been planning this since their junior year of college, there's a ring in his sock drawer that was once his grandmother's, and he had wanted to be somewhere nice and inside, not out by a fountain in a park in the dark.)
He'll have years to spend with her, he knows he will, and he already loves her enough to know. Teddy has always been his One, even when she never wanted to be.
"Teddy Duncan," he says when she's stopped laughing. He gets down on one knee, takes her hand and wishes that he had something to put on her finger. Teddy's eyes grow wide and the hand that he isn't holding covers her mouth. "I've loved you forever and I always will. Will you marry me?"
"Oh Emmett," she responds and tears form in his eyes. She's going to say yes. She is. He knows it. There's already a smile growing on his face.
"I can't right now. I'm sorry." Slowly, gently, she takes her hand away from his. "I just... I want to graduate first, before we get married."
"But we don't have to get married. Just engaged." For a moment there's a selfish part of him, a quiet part that he hasn't heard from in years, asks him why he even bothers. But then he remembers her smile and he knows why.
It's always been Teddy, at least for him. It might not be the same way for Teddy, but Emmett knows that he's always going to love her.
"I just... I can't." There are tears rolling down her face now. "Not right now. I'm sorry."
Teddy turns around and walks away.
Emmett kicks the grass that surrounds the fountain. This might not be what he had been expecting, but he knows that he's never going to give up.
For some reason it feels awfully familiar.
.001
Teddy knows that he's not going to ask her again. Knows it, because over the years he's asked her to marry him three times (not that she's keeping count or anything), but she still can't help but hope that he'll ask again.
Emmett took her back when she said no the last time, but things have shifted just a little bit.
But she loves him. God she loves him even though she thought that she never would.
It's Charlie that finally convinces her one night, after she and Emmett had dinner over at the Duncan household. Things are a bit strained and Teddy's mother notices, but not her father of course. Teddy ignores Mom's questioning looks over the mashed potatoes and Emmett goes to her parent's right after, giving Teddy a quick kiss as he goes. Teddy escapes to her bedroom soon after, she doesn't want to explain what an idiot she really is.
It's the first night that they've spent apart from each other in a while. Teddy reaches out and feels the cold bed beside her and wants to cry. She doesn't like being alone, not really. Why hadn't she just said yes instead of stalling like an idiot. They were graduating in a month anyway.
Charlie came in then, her straight blonde hair all over the place and in her pink princess Aurora pajamas.
"Teddy, you love Emmett, right?" Charlie asks with all the innocence of a six year old as she makes her way into Teddy's lap.
"Right," Teddy affirms. She does, she really does.
"Then why aren't you two married yet?"
"Well..." Teddy can't find the words.
"Because Daddy was wondering and Mama said that something had happened... and I don't want you to break up. Not like Gabe and Jo."
"We're... we're not going to break up. I promise. And I'll go ask him to marry me. Right now, if you want me to."
Because Teddy knows that she'll never want to marry anyone else and she can't wait to tell him that. She wants to marry him right now, because she doesn't want him to change his mind.
Sometimes she finds it amazing that he waited for her this long, and she's always making him want to make him wait longer even though he's never pushed her into anything once they grew up a little bit.
"Ask him!" Charlie commands, and so Teddy does. She climbs out the window, feeling a bit like a teenager again as she does so.
"Do you want to come too?" He won't say no, not with Charlie there. No one could ever say no to Charlie.
So they go down the tree together, Charlie on Teddy's back, and even though they almost die on the way down. They walk holding hands all the way to Emmett's mother's house.
"Well here goes nothing," Teddy tells Charlie, who smiles because she's so glad to be going on this grand adventure. Teddy throws pebbles against the glass and counts backwards from ten in her head because she knows that Emmett's a light sleeper and will wake up soon enough.
"What the-?" comes his voice once the window opens. He shuts his mouth once he sees that Charlie is there too. Emmett sighs. "I'll be right down."
Teddy's so happy that she almost feels like dancing as he makes his way to them. She and Charlie exchange grins, and then Emmett's there and so close that it makes Teddy's heart flutter.
"Yes?"
"Emmett, I-" she looks down at Charlie who is still smiling at her, because her little sister knows what's going to happen next and she doesn't want to ruin the surprise. "Look Emmett. I love you more than anyone and I'm just an idiot. I wish I wasn't, but I am, and just. I don't want to lose you. I want you. Forever. I really do. So I was wondering-" she takes a deep breath to calm herself. She hasn't taken a breath the whole entire time.
Charlie evidently thinks that she's not going to finish, so she fills in the blank. "Will you please marry Teddy? Please?"
For a moment Teddy holds her breath, praying that he won't say no. From the way things have been lately she honestly has no idea how he's going to respond. Emmett smiles, though, happier than Teddy's ever seen him.
"Yes. Of course I'll marry you. Yes!" He picks Teddy up and spins her around, kissing her hard on the mouth as he does so. "And I guess I have you to thank for this, don't I little mama," he tells Charlie after he's done.
"Yay!" Charlie tells him, nodding and Teddy appreciates her little sister so much in that moment.
.x.
Six months later they get married.