Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own Army Wives, Emmalin Holden, or Jeremy Sherwood…I'm just a broke 16 yr old with a laptop :)… if I did own Army Wives then Richard Bryant would never ,ever wear a shirt…or pants.
The first time Emmalin Holden ever met Jeremy Sherwood was on a trip to Fort Marshall with her father. She was five and he was seven.
Michael Holden had important business to deal with at Fort Marshall, a post close to where the Holden family was staying at the moment, and couldn't find her a sitter while her mother and sister where on a school field trip that Saturday.
Emmalin remembered holding her father's hand as they walked up the Sherwood family's driveway and asking him 'why they were here'. All he told her was that he was 'meeting with a few people from this post and that it was very important that she behaved like a "proper young lady".' Michael rang the door bell and soon a pretty, dark-haired woman around her mother's age led them inside.
Her father addressed the pretty lady as 'Mrs. Sherwood' and led Emmalin by the hand to the living room where a table covered in green cloth was occupied by a group of men playing cards. Emmalin would later learn that the 'important business' her father had to deal with was really just poker.
"Major Holden, glad you could make it. And who's this adorable little girl." Mrs. Sherwood said smiling down at Emmalin.
"My name's Emmalin Jane Holden and I'm five." Emmalin giggled, holding up her hand and displaying four of her fingers. She learned in kindergarten last week how to count to five, but she was still getting the hang of it. Her father quickly corrected her, lifting her last finger and explaining to Mrs. Sherwood that Emmalin was learning how to count in school, making Denise smile lovingly at Emmalin.
"You look very pretty today Emmalin." The dark-haired woman complemented as her father went to join the men in their game.
Emmalin looked down at the frilly pink dress, white tights, and slip-on shoes her mother insisted she wear today. The dress was itchy and the tights would surely be ripped by the end of the day but Emmalin liked being told that she looked nice.
"I have a son a few years older than you. I couldn't tell you where he is at the moment but he's around here somewhere." Mrs. Sherwood told her as she led her to the kitchen to get Emmalin a glass of apple juice.
"Mom? Where's my base ball mitt?" she heard a voice call.
"Speaking of my little monster!" Mrs. Sherwood laughed as a boy around seven with a buzz cut walked into the kitchen.
"Jeremy Lee Sherwood! Why are you covered in mud?" his mother exclaimed upon looking at the mud coated red t-shirt and jeans he was wearing.
"Fitch and I were at the park playing foot ball, Mom." The seven year old explained, washing his hands under the faucet at the kitchen sink.
"All I have to say is that you better not have tracked mud into my clean house or you'll never hear the end of it!" Even though Mrs. Sherwood was scolding the boy, it was evident that she adored him, he was her baby. "Jeremy this is Emmalin Holden, why don't you go upstairs to change and then when you get back we'll ask Emmalin's father if you both can go to the park together."
"Mom, I wanna play baseball with Fitch, not baby-sit a girl." He sighed, as if he couldn't be bothered to play with a girl, especially not one who's father was his dad's superior officer.
"You and Fitch can play with Emmalin too." His mother insisted, the seven year old gave up realizing his mother was going to make him watch this girl no matter what he said.
Mrs. Sherwood carried Emmalin on her hip back to the living room where her father was, as Jeremy went upstairs to cleanup. To this day her perfume smells exactly the same, something tropical that resembles the clean air after a good rain.
"Hey Dee. Who's little girl?" asked a man with a blond buzz cut, Sergeant Sherwood.
"That'd be mine, Frank." Laughed Michael Holden, looking up from his cards.
"Frank, Michael how about Jeremy takes Emmalin to the park while you continue on here and I run to the supermarket?"
Michael and Frank quickly agreed to Mrs. Sherwood's plan, eager to start the heavy gambling and bluffing that they could only do without the ears of a spouse and children.
Seconds later, Jeremy came down the stairs dressed in clean clothes his baseball glove in tow. Glancing at the young Holden girl almost sullenly.
"Boy, you take good care of little Emmalin here. Got that?" the Sergeant warned Jeremy sternly. Emmalin noticed that his mother was much more affectionate with him than his father was. At home, Emmalin's mother was more stern than her father. Her Daddy always held her hand on the way to school and kissed her 'ouchies' when she fell.
"Yes, sir." Jeremy sighed.
"Now listen here ,boy, you be nice to Emmalin. Because she's gonna grow up and be beautiful, and she'll remember you being nice to her when you go asking for a date. Girls never forget anything!" Sergeant Sherwood promised, making the adults in the room laugh.
"I promise you ,kid, if your mean to a girl ,even when she's five, you're gonna hear her complain about it for the rest of your life." Laughed an older black man at the poker table.
"Alright Dad." Jeremy swore.
Emmalin remembered the adults watching from the window as she and Jeremy took off for the park.
"We take the crosswalk here and then go straight a few blocks until we hit the park." The boy explained as they crossed his lawn and reached the sidewalk. The tiny brunette reached for his hand when they made it to the crosswalk, receiving a questioning stare from her new companion as he pulled his hand away.
"We have to hold hands when we cross the street, that's what my teacher says at kindergarten." Emmalin pouted, reaching for his hand again. Both of the army brats were aware of the adults watching them.
"It's a crosswalk, we don't have to hold hands." Jeremy told her.
"Hold my hand." The way she said it made it seem more like an order than an option.
"We don't have to." He tried again to convince her.
"Hold my hand or…or… or I'll hold my breath till I turn suffocate." Emmalin threatened.
"Go ahead." Jeremy challenged, daring her to hold her breath. Well unfortunately for him, the little girl was stubborn and headstrong and it would occasionally create trouble for him in upcoming years.
The five year old crossed her arms and pouted, holding her breath. Emmalin's face was starting to lose color, but Jeremy wasn't going to back down anytime soon. After two more minutes, he was beginning to worry about her but he wouldn't cave. The younger army brat gave up and sucked in a deep breath, coughing roughly.
"Please, could you just hold my hand." Emmalin's dark eyes welled up with big tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks.
"Ugh. Fine, fine just don't cry. Okay?" Jeremy yielded, throwing her his hand which the little girl happily took, skipping next to him, even refusing to release his hand when they crossed the street, much to his dismay.
"I'll bet every single one of you $50 that they grow up and get married." Gambled Denise Sherwood, when the children where out of sight.
"No way. He won't even hold her hand now, Dee." Challenged Frank Sherwood.
"It doesn't matter, Frank. He gave in, he held her hand. She's got him!" insisted his wife.
"Dee, you can't look at a little girl and just know that she's the one our son's gonna marry." Scoffed the Sergeant.
"Frank, a mother just knows." Claimed the army wife.
"I'll take you up on that, Denise." Laughed Michael Holden and the other five men, including Frank, agreed thinking it was easy money.
Three hours later, when Emmalin Holden and Jeremy Sherwood walked through his front door as their father's were collecting their winnings of the night, Emmalin was still dragging him by the hand. Though now her tights were ripped, there were leaves in her short, light-brown hair, and she had mud on her white slip-ons. Jeremy too was covered in mud, again.
"I learned how to play baseball." Emmalin beamed at her father, as he gathered his things.
"I'm glad you had fun sweetie, but your all messy. You know how your Mom will get if I bring you home covered in dirt." Lifting his daughter in his arms as he thanked everyone for having him.
"Bye, bye Jeremy." Emmalin smiled, waving as her dad carried her out of the house.
"See you." She heard him call.
On the way home, Michael Holden received an earful from his little girl about the day she had.
"And then when we got to the park, I met Jeremy's best friend, and his name was Fitch, and then we went over to this baseball field…um um um…a diamond, Jeremy said it was and he taught me how to play baseball with some more of his friends. Daddy I caught the ball and I didn't fall once! So then we had to hit the ball with a bat. Do you know what that is, Daddy? Jeremy had to show me how to do that since I didn't know how. And I had fun. But I fell when I used the bat…that's why I'm all muddy and my tights are ripped, Daddy. This one boy pushed me down because, well I don't know why, and I fell in some leaves and Jeremy pushed him down and said that being mean to girls made him a baby. But then Jeremy helped me up, and tried to get all the leaves out of my hair. But I think he missed some." Emmalin explained while they were in the truck, simultaneously pulling a leaf out of her short hair.
The five year old finished her story just as the truck pulled into the drive way of the Holden home.
"I'm glad you had a good day, Princess." Michael told Emmalin, as he lifted her carefully out of his dark blue four-door Ford.
"Daddy, one day when I'm all grown up, can I marry Jeremy? He reminds me of the way you treat Mommy." Asked Emmalin, smiling as she ran to the front door to see her mother.
"If he makes you happy, sweetheart." Michael called after her, realizing that Denise Sherwood's 'Mother's Intuition' may not be a force he should've underestimated.
14 Years Later
"Dad, I'm so nervous." Emmalin Holden gulped, pacing back and forth in anticipation, her long dark hair swaying.
"We can leave him. If you don't want to be here, we can leave him right now."
"No Dad! I don't want to leave Jeremy, I'm scarred I might forget my vows. Or…Or I could trip down the aisle…you know how clumsy I am." She snapped at her father, General Michael Holden, appalled that he'd even suggest she leave her long time love at the altar. Emmalin actually did trip at the rehearsal and she hadn't even been wearing a huge white dress then, so the chances of his daughter falling where pretty big, but he wasn't about to tell her that.
"Kiddo, I know you love him, but this is a big decision and your so young…" Michael started.
"Oh God, Dad your not gonna go on about how you think I deserve better again, are you?" his nineteen year old daughter interrupted.
"Well if it would help?" He smiled at Emmalin.
"You've been telling me I deserve better since Jeremy and I went on our first date." She laughed.
"Well it's nothing personal, I'd hate anybody who I had to give you away to." And that was the honest truth.
"You tried to talk Amanda out of dating him too." Emmalin smiled reminiscing.
"Yeah she didn't listen either." He remembered fondly.
"I wish she were here." Her eyes welling up with tears.
"She's watching over us and she's happy for you." Michael reached over and dabbed at his daughter's eyes, careful not to ruin her makeup.
Suddenly the piano rendition of 'Here Comes the Bride' drifted down the hall.
"You're sure about this? Your positive that Jeremy's the one?" General Holden asked, guiding the nineteen year old by the arm down the hall.
"Positive." Emmalin smiled as she caught sight of the groom at the end of the aisle. The Best Man, Fitch, nudged Jeremy, making him look down the aisle at her, his face lighting up when he saw her in her white gown.
"You look beautiful, Princess. He's a lucky man." Michael said sincerely.
"Thanks, Daddy. I love you."
"I love you too." Michael whispered as he handed her off to Jeremy Sherwood, the twenty-one year old took her by the hand gently as if she was fragile cargo that he was terrified of breaking.
Michael took his seat between his wife, Claudia Joy, and Lieutenant Colonel Frank Sherwood.
"Do you, Jeremy Lee Sherwood, take this woman, Emmalin Jane Holden, to be your lawfully wedded wife?" asked the Pastor.
"I do." Jeremy replied confidently, taking Emmalin's petite hands in his own large ones and sliding a ring on her left ring finger. They both were smiling at each other, their eyes full of love.
"And do you, Emmalin Jane Holden, take this man, Jeremy Lee Sherwood, to be your lawfully wedded husband?"
"I do." She smiled, sliding his ring on.
Denise, Claudia Joy, and Frank were all crying by now, though if you asked Frank, he'd lie like a dog.
"Then I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."
Jeremy pulled Emmalin toward him and lifted the veil while her arms entangled around his neck, and the couple shared in the first kiss of their marriage.
By now Frank was balling, but once again would deny it later, never being portrayed as a sensitive man made his public tear-shedding a very new experience.
"Frank, Michael, I told you a mother just knows." Denise Sherwood laughed, smiling as she looked at her son and brand new daughter-in-law.
"Worth every penny, Denise." Michael smirked as he and Frank each handed the dark-haired woman a $50 bill.