PROBLEMS, PLANS AND PROPOSALS
Written by Ann Rivers ann.rivers@virgin.net
Completed 1 March 2002
Summary This story follows on from Of Past Regrets and Future Fears.
Some families cause problems when planning a wedding. Others try to solve them…
Spoilers References made to The Mouth that Roared, Misdiagnosis Murder,
Murder can be Contagious, Murder by Remote, Pressure to Murder, Murder x 4
I know in the episode The Seven Deadly Sins that Amanda makes a vague reference to
Jesse's father's ghost, implying that Dane Travis had died since the episode Discards.
However, I've taken it here as the lost father/son childhood that still tends to haunt Jesse.
So Dane Travis lives… if only in the world of fanfic…
Disclaimer Diagnosis Murder and its characters belong to CBS and Viacom
I'm not making any profit from their use here… just giving Jesse a bit of a break…
"So, Jess, how are the wedding plans coming along…?"
A simple enough question – but one that didn't bring the cheery response Mark Sloan had expected.
For someone with so much cause to be excitedly happy, Jesse Travis currently looked anything but.
True, he was halfway through an especially busy shift, but his eyes were strained rather than tired.
He'd been fine earlier that morning, his usual cheerily ebullient self when he'd arrived with Susan.
Then half an hour ago he'd grudgingly taken a phone call, and had been oddly subdued ever since.
Some discreet detective work from a concerned friend had traced where that call had come from.
With a fair idea now as to the cause of that strain, Mark then smiled and gently patted his shoulder.
"I'm guessing the next person who asks you that will end up as your next patient…" he said at last – oddly reassured by Jesse's somewhat less than charitable response.
"I tell you, Mark, if she doesn't stop bugging me, that next patient will be my own mother…"
"Ah…" Mark nodded, doing his best to keep a tactful straight face while glancing around the lobby.
Taking advantage of a lull in the real thing, he gently steered his young friend towards the lounge. Time, he quietly decided, for a little father to surrogate son chat.
On reaching the lounge, Jesse flopped wearily onto the couch while Mark poured coffee for them.
Smiling his thanks, Jesse took a deep, reviving mouthful then sighed and tiredly rubbed his face.
"Jeez, Mark, these next months should be some of the happiest in my life, and instead…" he went on,
running a fidgety hand through his hair, leaving the tawny blond fringe even more tousled than usual.
Aware of the uncharacteristic edge in his voice, he then took a calming breath before adding softly,
"And in answer to your question… well, that kinda depends on whose wedding plans you mean…
the ones that Susan and I have agreed on, or the ones that my mom thinks are so much better…"
Mark simply nodded in amused empathy – all too aware of how domineering Eleanor Travis could be.
His only experience of her had been when she'd offered a stunned Jesse a partnership at her practice.
Her flattered but reluctant son had, to Mark's privately selfish relief, been able to say no to her then.
Now, though, with the baby due in three months time, a new apartment to find and a wedding to plan, plus frequently long shifts at the hospital, both stubbornness and son were looking decidedly jaded.
"Is it that bad…?" he finally asked, more serious as he watched Jesse absently rubbing his knuckles – another of those telltale signs that his normally easygoing young friend was upset or unsettled.
"Is it that obvious…?" Jesse shot back – pulling a suitably rueful face at Mark's wryly amused shrug.
"Okay, don't answer that…"
Grinning back at him, Mark thought for a moment before casting Jesse a gently quizzical glance.
"I take it that you and Susan still want a simple, quiet wedding once the baby's born…?"
Jesse nodded, his voice and smile both thankfully easier now from Mark's calming influence.
"That was one of the first things we sat down and talked about…" he said at last, sipping his coffee.
"I mean, I'd assumed Susan would want one with all the pizzazz that… well, all girls dream about…
you know, string quartet… rows of chairs on the lawn, loads of flowers, the whole caboodle…
but in fact the more we talked about it, the more I realised she didn't want anything like that…
all we both want is a quiet service here in LA, surrounded by all the people we love, whereas…"
"Your mother doesn't…" Mark finished for him, nodding in sympathy for his young friend's dilemma.
Recalling how he'd resolved that same dilemma himself, he then smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
"I went through the same argument with Katherine's mother when we were planning to get married…"
"Really…?" Jesse looked up at him in hopeful interest, a spark of familiar mischief lurking in his eyes. "And was it a fair and clean fight, or did you Mickey Finn her into submission, like you did me…?"
Mark couldn't help but laugh, from both the memory and his relief at seeing Jesse start to relax.
"You're just never going to forgive me for that, are you, Dorothy…?" he said at last, still laughing. "Nope…" Jesse chuckled, enjoying this chance to flush out some dangerously simmering tension.
Once satisfied that it was back to a more manageable level, he then grew more appropriately serious.
"So what did you do…? I – I mean, how did you find a way to keep everyone happy…?"
"Quite simply, Jess… I didn't…" Mark replied, smiling as Jesse stared at him in puzzled confusion. "Or should I say that I didn't drive myself and Katherine crazy in trying to find ways to do so…
we simply did what we wanted to do… because that's what our wedding day was all about, Jesse…
it was our day, the start of our new lives together… just as your wedding day will be with Susan…
and hard as it'll be for your mother to take, Jess, this day isn't about what she or anyone else wants…
all that matters is what you and Susan want… and believe me, if you give in to your mother now…"
"She'll expect the same for the rest of my life…" Jesse concluded, pulling a comically horrified face.
"And imagine how Susan would react to that…" Mark went on, laughing as Jesse cringed and nodded.
"There would be bloodshed…" Jesse mused, adding with a wry smile, "Most probably mine…"
"Well, maybe not bloodshed as such, Jess, but there'd be an awful lot of friction…" Mark chuckled,
turning rather more serious as, drawing from his own family's experience, he then added gently,
"My sister learned that lesson the hard way, Jess… I'd hate for you and Susan to learn it too…"
Jesse had been nodding thoughtfully throughout this time, clearly appreciating Mark's encouragement.
His eyes, however, remained slightly puzzled as both rose and headed for the door.
"I don't think I've ever met your sister…" he said at last, further intrigued by a wickedly playful grin.
"No you haven't, have you…?" Mark replied, the grin widening as he cast Jesse a mischievous wink.
"More to the point, neither has your mother…"
Jesse was grinning too now, the blue eyes calm once more, bright with conspiring mischief.
"Ooh, that bad…?" he asked – intrigued yet again by yet another shrewdly sly reply.
"Let's just say if you ever want to get some instant payback on Steve, simply tell him she's coming…
he'll have his bags packed for a spontaneous camping trip before you can say goodbye auntie…"
"I'll remember that…" Jesse chuckled, keen as always to make life hell for his surrogate big brother.
As they returned to the lobby, Jesse looked up at him with that rare, shy smile few people got to see.
"Thanks…" he said softly, wanting to say more – assured by a gentle smile that he didn't need to.
Instead, watching Susan settle at the records desk with her latest paperwork, Jesse went to join her – with, Mark noted in relieved approval, that familiar spring now very much back in his step.
He was still grinning when their paths crossed again an hour later – for now happily familiar reasons.
Unaware of his earlier crisis of confidence, Steve couldn't resist a little, sensibly unheard teasing.
"Ah, young love…" he observed dryly, nodding towards the records desk in the main lobby.
Following his son's guiding nod, Mark grinned too in privately relieved approval.
Making the most of another lull in patients, Jesse and Susan were stealing a quietly romantic moment.
What they saw was a gentle hug around her now tellingly swollen stomach and a kiss on her cheek –
a few whispered sweet nothings, swiftly followed by now familiar hysterics of laughter.
While a still blushing Susan returned to her work, a still grinning Jesse met two looks of amused curiosity with his own patented one of highly dubious innocence.
"Deciding what to have for dinner…" he explained, not quite able to keep the broad grin from his face.
"Yeah, right…" Steve muttered, watching his friend bounce off on rounds with a shrewdly wry grin. Seeing his father's more thoughtful expression, he then grew more serious. "Everything okay, dad…?"
Mark had to smile at that – knowing how protective Steve was towards their young friend.
And that protective radar was at its strongest when there was even a hint that Jesse was in trouble.
"He just has so much on his plate at the moment, Steve… and I don't mean dinner…" he said at last – not at all surprised to see that his son was already nodding in equally concerned agreement.
"Yeah, dad, I know…" Steve thought for a moment, as if coming to a tricky decision, then he smiled.
"Actually, dad, that's the main reason for why I'm here… I wanted to… well, run something by you… something that'll hopefully take one of those courses off that plate…"
Intrigued, as he always was by any kind of mystery, Mark followed him towards the doctors' lounge.
By the time they reached it, both were smiling again…
It seemed to be a day for giving two nervous, soon to be parents some encouraging, supportive advice.
And while Jesse had either Mark or Steve to confide in, Susan had the equally sympathetic Amanda.
The two women had become even firmer friends than they'd been before Susan had left for Oregon – both grateful for, as Amanda had wryly described, a little more girl power to keep their boys in line.
On the more serious side, Susan had welcomed her advice from experiencing her own pregnancy,
from cures for morning sickness, which she already enjoyably had, to choosing the right babybuggy.
So when she arrived for her latest check up and sonogram looking rather more distracted than usual,
Amanda knew something was troubling her.
"Is everything okay…? You seem a little down…" she said at last, gently helping Susan onto the bed –
a shrewd smile warning her there was no point in telling anything but the truth.
Susan grinned back, both for her concern and her help as she tried to get herself comfortable.
"I – I think I'm having one of those mood swings you warned me about…" she finally replied,
thinking for several moments and toying with her engagement ring before she sighed and looked up.
"Before I had to leave to come here, Jesse was treating a little boy who was having an asthma attack… anyway, once he was stabilised, his mother and I got talking while we went through his paperwork.
She was really taken with how gentle Jesse had been with her son, and I told her we were engaged.
Naturally she assumed Jesse was the father, and… well, I couldn't bring myself to tell her about… anyway, she said all the usual things over how lucky I was, and how she hoped I knew that, and…
well, I guess that brought back all those regrets I had about leaving him, and how much I hurt him…"
Pausing once more to regain her composure, she then met concerned eyes with confusion in her own. "Amanda, what right do I have to expect this of him, after all the pain and hurt I caused him…?
I mean, he's been through so much recently, without having me to worry over too, and… and…
watching him treat that little boy, knowing how much he loves children, how good he is with them, well, I – I just got to thinking about the baby and what's happening between me and Jesse, and…
now I'm wondering why the hell I'm doubting him, and…"
Seeing how distressed she was becoming, Amanda quickly slipped a consoling arm around her.
"And you're going through the same fears and doubts all mothers to be go through…" she said gently.
"And believe me, Susan, what's happening between you and Jesse has nothing to do with rights…
yes, I know that Jesse was going through a rough time when you came back from Oregon, but…
Susan, both before then and now, you were the best thing that could possibly have happened to him…"
As Susan remained unsettlingly doubtful, Amanda then paused before trying again to reassure her. "Susan, you know as well as I do, if there's one thing that Jesse loves more than solving murders,
it's helping people with their problems, no matter how serious or how great that problem might be…" Realising that hadn't quite sounded as she'd intended, she hastened to reassure her startled friend.
"Honey, what I'm trying to say is that Jesse didn't ask you to marry him because he felt obligated…
and he would never insult either of your feelings by marrying you because he felt sorry for you…
Susan, he asked you to marry him because he loves you, more than anything else in this world…
and any time you find yourself doubting that love, just look into his eyes… see how he looks at you…
how proud he is of you… all the answers and all the reassurance you'll ever need will be in his eyes…
believe me, Susan, he loves you that much, that answer will never change…"
Susan nodded, thankfully calmer and happier now while she considered what Amanda had said.
Before she could reply, however, Jesse made one of his typical, eagerly breathless entrances.
"Speaking of things never changing…" Amanda sighed, rolling her eyes as Susan did the same.
"Hey, sorry I'm late… just been seeing Mrs Kenyon settled in with Jamie…" he explained sheepishly,
perhaps thankfully missing the trade of knowingly amused glances as he closed the door behind him.
Only when he came to sit beside Susan did he notice that significant looks were being exchanged.
"Hey, have I missed something…?" he asked, pausing in mid hug to return each in some puzzlement.
"No, we were just asking ourselves how you can tell when someone's in love…" Amanda smiled,
trading a discreet wink with a now broadly grinning Susan before letting her happily enjoy the answer.
She was still enjoying that answer later that night as she lay against him, gently cradled in his arms – her intense study of him causing him considerable if slightly puzzled amusement.
"What are you thinking about…?" he asked at last, casting a ruefully peeved glare towards his toes.
"Apart from wishing I was several feet taller…"
Laughing at his plaintive expression, Susan shook her head before gently kissing the tip of his nose.
"No, I was just remembering something that Mrs Kenyon told me earlier…" she finally explained.
"Not that I needed her to tell me, of course, but she kept saying how lucky I was to have you…
how good you'd been with Jamie… and what a wonderful father you're going to be…"
"I hope I will be…" Jesse said softly, still smiling but his eyes more serious as he added quietly,
"Maybe it was growing up with so many other little cousins, but… well, I've always loved kids…
and I always promised myself that if I ever did become a father, whether intentionally or not, that…
well, I'd always be there to give my kids all the love and support that I didn't get from mine…"
Pausing briefly to collect his thoughts, Jesse's voice when he spoke again was still tellingly quiet.
"Susan, I pretty much went through my entire childhood, in fact most of my life, without my father…
until a couple of years ago, the only contact I had with him was a birthday and Christmas card,
maybe the occasional phone call… and, if I was really lucky, lunch if he happened to be in town…"
"You get along now, though… I mean, he was first to say he'd be at the wedding…" Susan ventured,
a little guilty that she'd unwittingly opened what was clearly a still difficult subject.
Jesse seemed to sense this, since he now smiled more easily back at her before kissing her forehead.
"Yes, we do… and boy, is he ever excited about being a grandpa to little junior here…" he agreed, thoughtful for several moments while he gently rested his hand against the side of her stomach – sharing her proudly excited, delighted smile at the new life that both could feel stirring within.
After such a long shift the previous day, Jesse had hoped for a leisurely lie in the next morning.
But then he hadn't accounted for a hungry fiancée with a sadistic sense of humour.
Lying snugly against his back, Susan was subjecting him to what was, for him, the ultimate torment.
Letting Susan find out how ticklish he was, he now wryly reflected, had not been the best of ideas.
As that torment continued, his only hope of resistance was the distraction of his bedside clock –
the discovery that it had only just turned seven prompting another plaintively exasperated groan.
He'd surprised himself by how long he'd managed to hold out against her attempts to wake him.
They were now three clear minutes beyond his previous record, and he still hadn't buckled.
By the end of that minute, however, as gently skilled toes continued to tease the backs of his legs,
he could feel his resolve finally start to weaken.
Feeling him start to shake with suppressed laughter, Susan grinned and gently set to work on his ribs – raising herself on one elbow so she could enjoy his comically frantic efforts to keep from laughing.
"Jesse…?" she whispered, finding it impossible not to giggle at the contortions on his face.
"Mmf…" came the somewhat muffled reply as Jesse tried to bury his face in the cover of his pillow.
"Jesse, are you still asleep, or are you awake yet…?"
"Mmm…. mmmff…" came with a splutter of laughter this time and a telltale wriggle against her –
met with a seemingly innocent enquiry which, given what she was doing to him, was anything but.
"Sorry, Jesse, was that yes that you're asleep or yes that you're awake…?"
"Mmf…!" came slightly higher pitched than usual, followed by another frantic, futile wriggle.
Five seconds later he finally surrendered to the inevitable and started howling with yelps of laughter.
"Oh good, you're awake…" she grinned, totally unfazed by the baleful glare that eventually followed.
"Just in time to get me some breakfast… cereal, please… oh, and a double shot of orange juice…
Amanda told me yesterday to make sure I get plenty of vitamin C to keep up my energy levels…"
"Believe me, Susan, there is absolutely nothing wrong with your energy levels…" Jesse shot back, glaring at her while he rubbed some feeling back into still aching ribs. "Mine, on the other hand…"
"Aw, poor baby…" Susan grinned, pausing for effect before playfully flexing her fingers once more.
"Want me to rub them better for you…?"
"You'd have to catch me first…" Jesse retorted – hastily sliding out of bed before she got the chance.
"Ooh, now there's a thought…" Susan mused – prompting an equally hasty move towards the door. "That cute little body can run, but it can't hide…" she called after him, thoroughly enjoying herself. "And don't forget, I asked for a double shot of orange juice…"
She could hear vague mutterings of 'hormonal sadist' continue even after the door closed behind him. Moments later the door opened again – admitting, to great amusement, two gently tossed oranges.
By the time he returned with a typically laden breakfast tray, she'd partly called his light-hearted bluff.
"There, you see, I'm not all hormonal sadist… see, I saved the other one just for you…" she grinned –
turning more serious when the expected wisecrack didn't arrive. "Jesse…? Is something wrong…?"
"I'm not sure…" he admitted, setting the tray on the bedside table before sitting carefully beside her.
"I've just had a phone call from Mark, asking if we had a couple of hours free before we go in…
he didn't say why, or where or what about… just said Steve would be here at eleven to pick us up…"
"And he didn't say why…?" she asked, enjoying a quick snuggle while replacing her glass on the tray.
"No, not a clue…" Jesse then grinned in the familiar awareness of being pulled gently onto his back – his next words threaded with laughter as Susan put her restored energy levels to enjoyably familiar use.
"While he's here, I'm gonna ask him to get this juice checked out… 'cos I know one thing for sure…
whatever's in that carton, it sure isn't natural…!"
"And is this another of your zany theories, doctor…?" Susan asked, raising a mischievous eyebrow.
Before Jesse could stop laughing to reply, she kissed him while teasingly pushing him downwards.
By the time he came up for air again, Jesse was too happily dazed to remember what that reply had been.
Come to that, he was too enjoyably groggy to remember the question…
When the door finally opened to him, Steve didn't know what amused and intrigued him more –
the slightly spaced out grin on Jesse's face, or the smugly happy look of triumph that Susan's held.
"Well, judging by that orbit you're still in, I'm guessing dinner went well last night…" he said dryly,
guessing from the redness of Jesse's face that dinner, and breakfast too, had gone very well indeed.
Grinning back at Susan, he then snapped his fingers to bring his young friend back to Earth.
"Hey, ground control to Major Travis… now, are you gonna stay up there in orbit all day, Jess,
or should I ask those kind folks at NASA to send a shuttle up to get you…?"
Left with very little in the way of defence, Jesse glared at him while Susan fought back a fit of giggles.
"Does sarcasm come naturally to you, or did you learn it as a job requirement…?" he shot back,
that peeved indignation only increasing as Steve simply grinned and shrugged his shoulders.
It wasn't long, though, before curiosity over that earlier mysterious phone call got the better of him.
"So what is that your dad wants to see us for…?" Jesse went on, gently helping Susan into her jacket.
"And how come we couldn't just drive ourselves over to meet him…?"
"Well, Jess, we all know how good you are at spotting clues…" Steve grinned, shrugging once more.
As Jesse continued to frown in puzzled curiosity, the grin smugly widened as he held the door open.
"Okay, Sherlock, let's go… let's see how good you are…"
Trading bewildered glances, Jesse and Susan moved past him – Jesse adding a hopeful afterthought.
"Steve, you don't happen to be ticklish, do you…?"
"No, but I know for a fact that you are…" Steve retorted, gently shoving him onward. "Now, go…"
Uneasily wondering how long his friend had been standing at the door, Jesse winced – and went.
Mark was waiting for them in the car, wearing the same broad, I-know-something-you-don't grin.
Even so, he couldn't help but be intrigued by his son's rather offbeat remark as he took the wheel.
"Sorry, Jess, you'd be wasting your time… dad isn't ticklish either…"
Thwarted, for now at least, Jesse just shook his head while helping Susan into the passenger seat.
"It's a conspiracy…" he finally muttered, still shaking his head as he slid in to sit behind her.
"Now, Jesse, you're free associating again… I've warned you before about that…" Mark chuckled, laughing still more at the plaintive glare he received in response.
"And you thought that would stop him…?" Susan chipped in, turning in her seat to grin back at them – prompting great amusement from two of her companions and another peeved glare from the third.
Feeling that three against one was just a tad unfair, Jesse simply rolled his eyes and gave up – contenting himself instead with trying to work out where they were going.
Beside him, Mark traded a secret glance with his son… grinned back at him… and patiently waited…
It wasn't so much that Jesse didn't spot the clues – more that he couldn't quite understand them.
The route was strangely familiar, especially the stunning houses that lined the road on either side.
And while Susan was happy enough just to sit and admire those houses, Jesse knew differently.
He'd driven along this road before – not that long ago either. And a lot more urgently than now.
Glancing sideways, and to his open surprise, he found Mark smiling calmly back at him.
Finally, the proof of those suspicions was there – right in front of his wide, still confused eyes.
A bright white house, set slightly back from the road. A house that he instantly recognized.
Before he could say anything, though, another hushed voice came from the seat in front of him.
"Oh, my God…!" Susan breathed, turning once more to stare at him with now wide, delighted eyes –
unaware of the true cause for his own wide eyed silence. "Oh, Jesse, it's gorgeous…!"
"Yes… yes, it is…" Jesse replied, casting Mark another puzzled glance as both opened their doors.
Susan, however, showed no such uncertainty – not even waiting for Jesse to help her out of the car,
such was her eagerness to fully appreciate one of the most beautiful houses she'd ever seen.
"Oh Mark, it's the kind of house I've always dreamed about…!" she enthused, hugging Jesse's waist –
unaware of why he was still so quiet, and the reason why Mark and Steve smiled at what she said next.
"So, how did you know about this place…? I mean, do you know the owners…? Is it for sale…?"
"Well yes, you could say that…" Mark replied, resting a gently reassuring hand on Jesse's shoulder. "Now then, Susan, let's go inside so you can sit down… then we can tell you all you need to know…"
A short while later, to Jesse's surprise and Mark and Steve's relief, that enthusiasm hadn't waned.
Not even learning about the house's rather dubious past could change how much she clearly loved it.
"But those computer controls have been taken out now…?" she asked into the silence that followed,
smiling her thanks for the glass of water that Jesse now passed to her, yet unable to resist teasing him. "I mean, we all know what tends to happen when Jesse lets himself loose on a computer…"
"Yes, we tend to need torches to find the nearest fuse box…" Steve retorted in equally wry agreement, sharing his father's relief that a thankfully more relaxed Jesse now glared peevishly back at them.
"Hey, what is this, a let's bug Jesse day…?" he asked – rolling his eyes at the inevitable stereo reply.
"Yep…!"
He soon cheered up, though, when Susan took Mark's kiss and make up suggestion in its literal sense.
His other companion on the sofa, however, remained understandably reluctant to do the same.
"Don't even think about it…" Steve growled as Jesse gazed up at him and coyly batted his eyes – turning to meet Susan's look of long suffering sympathy with one of his own as he added dryly,
"Now, to get back to the sane half of you… yes, all those weird gadgets and gizmos have gone now…
I figured if I was going to rent the place out, then… well, my tenants would prefer it that way…"
"And is that why we're here…?" Jesse asked, totally serious now as he glanced up at his friend.
"I – I mean, are you're thinking we could stay here with the baby until we find our own place…?"
"I say, Watson, I believe he's got it…!" Steve grinned, glancing across at his equally amused father.
Still laughing at Jesse's playfully indignant glare, he then gently patted his young friend's shoulder.
"Seriously though, Jess… yes, that was the idea I had, for you and Susan to stay here…" he went on, meeting two pairs of astonished blue eyes with a near embarrassed smile as he shrugged his shoulders.
"I'm sorry I couldn't suggest it before, but it's been continually occupied since I started renting it… and though it's finally vacant now, I've already got a couple of people interested in taking it, but… well, I knew that you and Susan were finding it hard to find a new place that… well, that was…" "…that was in our price range…" Jesse finished for him, smiling at Steve's gratefully relieved nod.
"And this place is…?" Susan chipped in, still staring around the light and spaciously airy sitting room.
"I mean, no offence, Steve, but this place is just gorgeous, and the rent must be…"
"Don't worry, we can discuss all that later… there's no rush…" Steve assured her with a gentle smile.
"All I need you to tell me today is whether you want it, so I can let these other people know…"
"Maybe you'd like the traditional grand tour of the house while you're deciding…?" Mark suggested,
smiling at the eager speed with which both Susan and Jesse nodded and rose to their feet.
Leading the way, Mark and Steve traded grins of silent conspiracy. So far, so good…
Those signs were even more encouraging when Steve led them, smiling, along the main hallway.
"Wow, will you look at the size of this kitchen…!" Susan breathed, shaking her head in open wonder.
"Jesse, you could fit your entire apartment into it, and still have room for a ping pong table…!"
"Mm, there's a thought… and think of the dinners I could rustle up on that stove…" Jesse whispered.
Turning an amused blind eye to Susan's beet red face, Steve led them on up the main staircase.
All joking aside, Steve still knew that both would appreciate some privacy to discuss his suggestion.
Leaving them strategically alone to dream and plan, he then joined his father at the top of the stairs.
"So how's it going with our little lovebirds…?" Mark asked, greeting his son with an expectant smile.
"Susan's already planning the nursery's colour scheme…" Steve reported, grinning just as broadly.
"And where we wondered if Jess would be okay after what happened to you and Lana, he's fine…
in fact, he has a grin on his face that would make a Cheshire Cat look severely depressed…"
"Sounds promising… ever thought of becoming a realtor…?" his father asked, totally straightfaced.
"I thought I just had…" Steve shot back, rolling his eyes at the familiar sound of nearby laughter.
"And my first two clients seem quite happy with their realtor's service…"
"Yes, they certainly do…" Mark chuckled, regarding his son in amused but still genuine approval.
"And you're still sure you want to do this…?"
"Absolutely positive…" Steve nodded, glancing towards the end of the hall with fondly proud eyes.
"And I can't think of two other, such special people as those two that I'd rather do this for…"