FROM THIS DAY FORWARD…
Written by Ann Rivers ann.rivers@virgin.net
Completed 16 May 2002
Summary This story follows on from From Here to Paternity
The big day finally arrives for Jesse and Susan… bringing a few surprises with it…
Spoilers Reference made to A Resting Place, Resurrection and Murder by Remote
Disclaimer Diagnosis Murder and its characters belong to CBS and Viacom
I'm not making any profit from this story… just enjoying a little bit of romance…
"Well, not that you need me to tell you, but motherhood certainly agrees with you…" Amanda smiled, studying the proudly radiant Susan in knowing approval while they walked back out onto the sundeck.
Pausing for a moment, she then nodded to where Jesse lay slouched contentedly in the rocking chair, gently bouncing three month old Leo on his stomach before hoisting the giggling baby above his head.
"And fatherhood certainly agrees with Jesse…"
"Yes, it does…" Susan nodded, raising her voice just enough for Jesse to hear her next teasing words. "Though it would be nice if he let me have a go in the rocking chair every once in a while…!"
"Especially since you were the one he bought it for…" Steve agreed, glaring pointedly at his friend.
"For you to nurse the baby, if I recall…" Mark chipped in, adding his own light hearted rebuke.
Four amused, meaningful looks were now met by one of injured innocence.
"Hey, no fair… there's four of you, and only me and not even a half on this side…!" Jesse protested – pulling a face as four others remained amused but completely unmoved by this plea for clemency. Knowing when he was beaten, Jesse sighed and rose to his feet while ruefully addressing his son.
"You see all the abuse that I have to put up with…? All the nagging and the tormenting, and…"
"And you love every second of it…" Susan shot back – hugging him until he reluctantly grinned back.
"Well, someone has to keep you in line…" Steve went on, with the patient smile of much experience. "Yes, and by this time tomorrow, I'll be doing just that as Mrs Susan Travis…" Susan added proudly, glancing at Steve and so missing the bittersweet smile that crossed Jesse's face at what she said next.
"Just make sure he behaves himself at your place tonight… and get him to the church on time…"
"Oh, they won't have any trouble with that…" Jesse assured her, still with that slightly strained smile. "More likely they'll have trouble keeping up with me, I'll be that eager to get there…"
"Don't worry, honey, we'll all be there…" Mark chuckled, placing his hand on Jesse's shoulder – keeping judiciously silent at the telltale flinch of tension he felt there as they returned inside.
It had been a wonderful afternoon of leisure and laughter before tomorrow's very special event.
But to keep to superstitious tradition, the bride and groom would be spending the coming night apart.
To his credit, Jesse kept that smile bravely in place as he gently kissed Susan and his son goodnight – not wanting to let Susan see his reluctance to leave, or for the baby to become unsettled by it.
But his uncharacteristic quietness as Mark and Steve drove back to the beach-house spoke volumes.
He was still understandably subdued later that evening, unable to fully enjoy the night's ballgame.
Finally a cordless phone was gently placed in his lap, accompanied by a kind, understanding smile.
"There's nothing to say it's bad luck for a groom to talk to his bride on the phone…" Mark explained,
trading a grateful glance with Steve as that familiar, effortless grin magically reappeared.
Keeping Susan company through a night that she would find just as lonely and nerve-wracking,
Amanda looked up from watching her nursing the baby, and met proud eyes with an envious smile.
"You know, much as I love him, I wish CJ had been this calm and contented…" she said softly.
"And you look wonderful too… a lot more relaxed than I was when CJ was this age…"
"Well, that's really thanks to Jesse… he's made sure that I don't overdo things…" Susan chuckled, nodding around the living room while memories of a leisurely afternoon caused her smile to widen.
"You remember all those talents of his that we were talking about the day before Leo was born…?
Well, now you can add laundry and ironing and housework to the list… he's been just wonderful…"
Keeping the real cause for her enjoyably restored figure to herself, she then shrugged her shoulders.
"No, the only exercise I've really had is just out walking with Jesse and the baby around the park…
I guess I'm just one of those lucky mothers who get their figures back fairly easily after childbirth…
and I'm sure the reason why he's so happy is because Jesse and I are always laughing around him… all the time, but especially at bathtime, when Jesse usually gets wetter than he does…"
Aware of that familiar laughter's absence, she then fell tellingly silent while she tended to Leo.
In the process of consolingly patting her arm, Amanda then turned to answer the telephone.
Listening for a moment, she then smiled broadly and nodded before passing the handset to Susan.
"Guess who…" she chuckled, gently taking over Leo's post feed backpatting as Susan took the call – taking the greatest pleasure at seeing the happiest smile of the night spreading across her face.
Steve had known from the moment he'd agreed to it that being Jesse's best man would be a challenge. Getting him to the church on time hadn't been the problem – in fact they'd arrived half an hour early.
It was keeping Jesse's nerves under control once they got there that was running his nerves ragged.
Now he rolled his eyes in response to the question he'd been answering for the last twenty minutes.
"And you have got the ring there, haven't you…? I – I mean, you haven't lost it, or forgotten it, or…?"
Pulling a face as Steve waved that precious velvet box in front of him, Jesse then grinned sheepishly.
"Sorry, I – I guess I'm just kinda nervous…" he said at last, breaking off to glance around him –
finding some reassurance at least at seeing both familiar and unfamiliar faces smiling back at him.
Eileen Delaney was there, joined by as many of their colleagues as the hospital's needs would allow.
His parents were there too, putting their past differences aside for the sake of their son's special day.
Jesse grinned back at them – quietly hoping this truce of goodwill would last for the rest of it.
"And I know I'm driving you nuts…" he went on, turning back to Steve, "…but… well, it's just…"
Not having the heart to tease him for stating the patently obvious, Steve squeezed his shoulder.
"Jess, you're getting married… if you weren't nervous, you wouldn't be human…" he said gently – breathing a private sigh of relief as Amanda and Mark nodded to him from the far end of the aisle. "They've just arrived…" he whispered, giving a suddenly dry mouthed Jesse a heartening smile.
"Hard as it sounds, Jesse, just try and relax… take your time… but most of all, enjoy this… okay…?"
Jesse nodded and rose to his feet, prompted by murmurs of admiration to glance over his shoulder – whatever he'd planned to say in reply lost as his mouth dropped open in total amazement.
"Wow…!" he breathed – the power of further speech escaping him as Jesse stood and simply stared.
Susan didn't just look beautiful, as all brides do on their wedding day… instead she looked stunning.
She'd chosen a classically simple, elegant dress in a soft cream silk that suited her colouring perfectly.
And even with the veil covering her face, he could see her excited smile meeting his from beneath it, her eyes never straying from his as Mark walked her gently and proudly down the aisle to join him.
Amanda followed on behind, both as maid of honour and custodian to a contentedly gurgling Leo, while CJ and Dion took their role as page boys in slightly overwhelmed seriousness.
Happily accustomed to dealing with dumbstruck bridegrooms, Father Donal O'Neil now smiled –
needing several carefully discreet coughs to gain the sheepish attention of his latest charge.
"Dearly beloved…" he finally announced, casting Jesse and Susan a friendly, encouraging wink,
"On this most special of days for Jesse and for Susan, we are now gathered here together…"
The ceremony itself was just as they'd wanted – short and dignified and without extravagance,
broken by the occasional 'what might have been' sniff from the direction of Eleanor Travis' seat.
But for all they knew or cared, Jesse and Susan could have said their vows standing in a mudpuddle.
In the hours and days to come, all Jesse would remember was how loud his voice sounded as he said
"I will…" and how tiny Susan's hand seemed to be as he gently slipped her wedding ring onto it.
And all Susan would remember was the intense blue of his eyes, more than she'd noticed before.
The surprise and delight that shone within them as she pushed a matching band of gold onto his finger.
Neither of them remembered who said those precious vows first, or even if they'd said them correctly.
But both heard, clearly and happily, the announcement that they and everyone else had waited to hear.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to present Dr and Mrs Jesse Travis…"
In the chorus of cheering applause that followed, it was hard for Jesse to hear what the priest said next.
But then he remembered what he'd seen at this point during other weddings, saw the priest smile –
and needed no other incentive to gently lift Susan's veil and enjoy their first kiss as husband and wife.
To another chorus of approving applause, another inevitably followed, together with an exuberant hug.
And when the clamours started for another from those who hadn't had their cameras quite ready – well, neither Jesse nor Susan had any complaint in providing all the photo opportunities they wanted.
In all the excitement, however, the previously contented Leo was becoming understandably fractious.
And although a bottled drink brought a temporary relief, only the real thing was going to pacify him. So when Steve quietly offered to drive them home with Mark and Amanda, both gratefully agreed – unaware that, in a day already full of joy and surprises, the greatest surprise of all was still to come.
But for now, as he waited for his guests to arrive, Jesse had more immediate concerns on his mind.
"Poor little guy wants his lunch…" he murmured, frowning slightly while Susan carried Leo upstairs.
Remembering that he had many other mouths to feed, he then glanced uncertainly around the kitchen.
"Speaking of which, do you think we ordered enough food…? I mean, everything looks great, but…"
"Jesse, there's enough food here to keep an army going for a week…" Mark assured him, laughing.
"But only if you stop picking at it…" Amanda chided, laughing too as she lightly slapped his wrist.
"Hey, I'm not picking… I'm sampling…" Jesse protested around a handful of BBQ Bob's finest ribs.
Before he could sample any more of them, however, Amanda deftly moved the tray out of range –
amused but unmoved by the wheedling smile and all too familiar claim that followed.
"Aw, come on, Amanda…! You heard Mark, there's more than enough stuff here to go around…!"
A pause, before the blue eyes and pleading smile stepped up to their full glacier melting strength. "Besides which, you know, I'm hungry… I mean, really hungry…"
All too familiar with Jesse's insatiable love of food, Amanda simply stared at him in amused disbelief.
"Aw, poor baby… didn't they even feed you…?" she asked, openly surprised as Steve shook his head.
"No, he said he was too nervous to eat anything in case he threw up over the priest…" he chuckled,
deciding this was the perfect time for some payback for everything that he'd had to endure earlier.
"Well, he's making up for it now…" Mark observed dryly as another rib surreptitiously disappeared.
"Yes, at this rate I'll have to call the restaurant… again…!" Steve agreed, glaring at his friend.
Faced with such an unsubtle hint, Jesse grinned and held up his hands in good natured surrender –
the sight of them covered in grease and gravy prompting a comical look of panic as the doorbell rang.
"Don't worry, Jesse, I'll get it… you get cleaned up…" Amanda chuckled, throwing him a washcloth.
"If your mother catches you looking like that, you'll never hear the end of it…!"
Throwing her a look of pure gratitude in return, Jesse had more reason than motherly rebukes for wanting to give his hands a thoroughly sound scrubbing before she, or Susan, got to see them again.
"And you really had no idea that Susan had got you a ring too…?" Mark asked after a slight pause,
watching in some amusement while Jesse gave that precious band an especially thorough polish.
"No, that was a total surprise… I had no idea she was going to do that..." Jesse replied, still polishing –
greeting Susan with a puzzled smile and grateful hug as she returned with a contentedly sated Leo.
"Well, you were so ingenious in surprising me with my ring, I thought I'd do the same…" she replied,
hugging him back while nodding across to where her cohorts in conspiracy stood grinning back at her.
"So I asked Mark and Steve if you'd ever worn… well, a college or signet ring before I met you…" "No, the only time I've ever worn a ring was that case we had a while back at that retirement home…
you remember, Mark, you thought I'd make a more convincing married son if I wore a wedding ring… so Amanda lent me an old plain ring of hers, and I needed a ton of soap to get it off again, and…"
Jesse then paused, laughing and shaking his head as he glanced in turn at three smugly grinning faces.
"Oh, honey, you're good…" he murmured, still laughing while he gently kissed Susan's cheek.
"You both are…" Steve chipped in, meeting two slightly startled looks with an openly proud smile.
"You both deserve each other… belong to each other… and you're going to be very, very happy…"
Jesse grinned back, hugging his friend in a gesture that expressed so much more than gratitude –
a moment of mutual affection that didn't really deserve to be interrupted by a familiar shrill voice.
"Coming, mom…" Jesse murmured, quickly inspecting his hands before he and Susan moved away.
Laughing at his rueful expression, Steve turned to his father and wryly shrugged his shoulders.
"The last time I told them that was under a ton of rubble after Caitlin Sweeney bombed the hospital… Jess and Susan risked their lives to evacuate a badly injured patient out of an elevator before it fell…"
Steve then paused, silent for several moments while he recalled that and other more recent traumas.
"A lot's happened to him since then, dad… a hell of a lot…"
"It certainly has…" Mark agreed, patting Steve's shoulder while both watched their young friend –
a study of contented confidence as, with Susan at his side, he stepped forward to greet his parents.
"Yes, Steve, you're right… a lot has happened to him…" he sighed, still smiling as he added softly,
"Our mischievous little boy has suddenly grown right up…"
It was a day filled with love and laughter – one that neither Jesse nor Susan really wanted to see end.
As evening fell, though, and his parents and other guests tactfully left them to be alone together,
Jesse was slightly surprised when Mark and Steve showed no inclination of going home themselves.
Of course, he'd frequently stayed the night with them too, both as an invited guest and otherwise,
but choosing his wedding night to start expecting him to return the favour did seem a little… odd...
Jesse had known them for long enough now to sense that something was brewing between them.
For one thing, there'd been that trade of glances he'd seen when he'd opened their wedding present – almost as though their gift of a luxury food processor hadn't been their originally intended choice.
He'd been too delighted to question it at the time, but to see those glances being traded again now…
Something else was troubling him too – the length of time that Susan was taking to put the baby down.
Leo had stopped crying several minutes ago, but it was some minutes after that before Susan returned.
"Hey, is everything okay…?" he asked softly, greeting her in slight concern as she sat beside him.
"Don't worry, Jesse… it just took a little longer than usual to get him settled…" Susan assured him –masking the true cause for that delay behind a bright, happy smile that Jesse had no cause to question.
Yet another trade of glances between Mark and Steve, however… well, that was another matter…
Seeing the confused anxiety on Jesse's face, Steve then nodded back at his father and rose to his feet.
"I'm sorry, Jess, I really wanted to give this to you both with your other presents…" he said at last,
meeting puzzled blue eyes with a slight, almost apologetic smile as he shrugged his shoulders.
"But… well, I didn't want to cause a big scene, or embarrass you around your other guests, and…
well, this is your proper wedding present… from dad and I… with all our love to both of you…"
Intrigued now as well as confused, Jesse stood and took from Steve a small, official-looking envelope.
With Susan reading over his shoulder, he took out the contents and glanced curiously through them. His eyes then widened, his mouth dropping open as he read them through again – very carefully…
"You're giving us the house…?" he said at last, staring at his gently smiling friends in total disbelief.
"But Steve, this… I – I mean, this place must have cost you a fortune…!"
"Jess, there are some things in life, such as friendships, that you can't put a price on…" Steve replied, gently squeezing Jesse's shoulders while studying his still dumbstruck friend in playful suspicion.
"Now, you're not going to get all mushy on me here, are you…?"
"Hey, it's my wedding day… and on my wedding day, I'm allowed to get mushy…" Jesse shot back – whatever he planned to say next lost in a tight hug that not even his mother could have interrupted.
Never one to get overly philosophical, even with his closest friends, Jesse then looked up and grinned.
"Just one thing I need to ask…" he went on, stepping aside so that Susan could hug her own thanks.
"I still get to keep that food processor, right…?"
Later that night, finally alone together, and after celebrating their marriage as only they could,
Jesse and Susan lay snugly in each other's arms, reflecting on what had been a truly unforgettable day.
"I'm sure you told him the same, but I can't get over Steve giving us this house…" Susan said at last, guessing from Jesse's slow nod and drowsily pensive smile that he couldn't quite believe it either.
"Neither can I… just as I can't believe how lucky I am…" he murmured, holding her gently closer.
"I'm lying here on my wedding night, safe in the arms of the woman I love more than life itself…
my son is sleeping down the hall, in a house given to me by two friends who I love as my family…
I have everything that I could ever possibly want… my wife, my son, my career and my family…
and I couldn't be happier than I am right now…"
Had he not been so tired, he may have wondered why Susan then smiled so serenely back at him.
She'd find out for sure tomorrow whether that home pregnancy test she'd taken earlier was accurate – but her own body was already telling her all that she needed to know.
Only when he was finally asleep did she gently coax his arm further around her to hug her waist, smiling at the bands of gold that circled their fingers as she pressed their hands against her stomach.
Gently holding them over the new life that they'd created together.
"Oh, I think you will be, Jesse…" she whispered, reaching to gently stroke the side of his face.
"In nine months time, God willing, I think you will be…"
"Well, that's hardly surprising, after all that's happened today…" Mark added with an experienced smile. "Don't worry, Jess… take it from someone who knows, he'll be just fine tomorrow…"
"Well, I can't get over how good he was today…" Susan went on, settling back against Jesse's side – sharing with him a tired but happy smile as she reflected on what had been a truly memorable day.
"And hasn't it just been wonderful, Jesse…? I mean, the marriage service was so lovely and moving,
with everyone we love joining in around us… and we've been so lucky with all these presents…"
"Yes, and we've had some great surprises too… especially this one right here…" Jesse murmured, stealing a grateful kiss on her cheek before glancing at that precious gold band that circled his finger.
Seeing another trade of glances between Mark and Steve, the smile then became a puzzled frown. "And why do I get the feeling that those surprises aren't quite over…?"