The Right Moment

Will was helping his mother set up decorations in the back yard while Nyssa and her mother cooked the food. They were celebrating Will graduating from medical school and Nyssa getting here masters degree in engineering from MIT.

Will looked into the kitchen window of his mother's house and watched Nyssa and her mother cooking and talking in sign language; her mother, Susan, was deaf. They came from a very Italian family, with very good Italian recipes. Their family came to America in the 30s when Mussolini came into power in Italy.

Nyssa caught Will looking and smiled. She held up her hand and made the sign for 'I love you', index, pinkie, and thumb sticking up with the middle finger and ring finger down. It had taken her two years but she had taught Will sign language, he knew what she meant and signed it back.

Over the years Nyssa had grown to look more like her mother, who was a regular Stacy's Mom. Will had always thought she was beautiful, but now most others saw it too.

They stood smiling at each other…until Nyssa's mom hit her with a sauce-covered wooden spoon and told her to get back to work.

They had plans to spend the summer together before starting their work back in New Jersey. Nyssa had a job in astro-engineering at Rutgers and Will was working as a Pediatrician near the Jersey shore.

Will hoped to have bigger plans for the summer.

Two hours later the party had started and Will's big southern family had come up from Tennessee, there were his college friends and Nyssa's friends. Everybody was having a great time in the back yard, catching up, meeting people, and swimming in the pool. But they had some party crashers.

"Congratulations, Will,"

Will turned to see a man who looked like he was middle-aged. Will soon realized that it was in fact, his father. "Dad, what are you doing here?"

"Your mother got a hold of me and told me about the party you were having. Hephaestus should be around here somewhere too."

"That's good because there was actually something I had to ask him…"

"What could you possibly have to ask Hephaestus?"

"I actually wanted to ask Nyssa… to… to marry me," Will stammered out, blushing.

There was a moment of silence between the two of them before Apollo said, "Well good for you," enthusiastically.

"Really?" Will asked.

"Yeah, good luck with Hephaestus, though, Nyssa is his oldest daughter and he can get protective,"

Will found that his father's words weren't very encouraging. So from fear of being killed by Hephaestus, he decided to ask Susan first. Maybe, he thought, if Hephaestus knew she was okay with it, he would be too.

A asked to speak to her in private, and led her to the guest bedroom upstairs.

"I don't know what you want, but you look nervous." Susan signed to him.

"I am, but there is something important I have to ask you, "

"What?"

"I wanted to ask Nyssa to marry me, and I wanted to know if that was okay with you,"

She didn't answer, but Will assumed by the enthusiastic way she hugged him that it was a yes.

"Thank you," Will told her, "now all I have to do is ask Hephaestus. What do you think he'll do?"

Susan looked at him seriously, "Well I don't think he'll hug you,"

When they left and went back to the party, Will started looking for Hephaestus, even more nervous than before.

He got distracted when someone tapped his shoulder. He turned to see Nyssa smiling at him, "Hi, I haven't seen you since the party started," She said.

"Wow," was all Will was able to say to her. It was true, he hadn't seen her yet, and she looked beautiful. Her dark hair had been pulled out of its earlier ponytail and fell straight around her shoulders. It had grown out since their days at camp and it wasn't as choppy. She was also wearing lavenders, strapless sundress that stood out nicely against her dark Italian skin tone. And her make-up was the way Will loved it. Non-existent.

"You looked amazing," Will told her. She blushed and nudged him playfully, "You don't look too bad yourself. Have you seen my father anywhere? I saw yours, and he said my dad should be around but, I haven't seen him,"

"No, I haven't, sorry,"

"It's okay, have you talked to your father?"

"Yeah,"

"What did he say?"

"You know the usual; 'congratulations', 'I'm proud of you', other assorted comments."

"I didn't know he was…" Nyssa was cut off when a southern boy with a thick accent about a year younger than Will, but bearing a shocking resemblance to him, came up to them.

"Hey Will, Nyssa. I hope I wasn't interrupting something," It was Will's full-mortal cousin, Sam. He was a nice guy with good intentions, just bad timing.

"You look as beautiful as ever Nyssa," Sam told her.

"Thank you," Nyssa said back, but Will, egger to get his girl-crazy cousin to stop thinking about how beautiful his girlfriend was, asked, "Sam, are you still dating that girl from Tampa?"

"Nah, we broke it off. Things just weren't fun anymore. I'll tell you, Will, you're lucky. I wish I could find someone like Nyssa…"

"Hey hands off, she's mine," Will said protectively, before wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her close to him.

"You know, Sam, I have a friend who just went through a pretty bad break up, if you were interested,"

"Yes," Sam said a little too quickly and blushed for looking desperate. Nyssa pulled herself from Will's death grip and called her friend over. She was a petite red head in a yellow dress.

"Same this is Abby, Abby this is Sam,"

"Hi Abby, do you have a boyfriend?" Sam asked.

"No, do you?"

Sam laughed and said, "Nope,"

"Let's talk," Together they walked off.

"You know, I love that kid, but he has some shitty timing," Will complained,

"Aw, give him a break, what were we talking about?"

"I don't remember," Will said cluelessly. They both started laughing. Will looked down to Nyssa and she bit her lip. Will realized a while back that she did this when she wanted him to kiss her, so that's what he did.

Or tried to do…

When he leaned down, some one coughed behind them, trying to get their attention.

I swear, peoples timing today just keeps getting better and better, Will thought bitterly.

His anger was replaced with the previous nerves when he saw who it was, "Father," Nyssa said. Her back was to him now, but he was sure her face was as red as it could be.

"Hello, Nyssa. Congratulations,"

"Um… I'll just leave you two alone for now," Will said before running off.

Will was half way across the yard when he heard his father speak to him, "Don't tell me you're getting cold feet now," Will turned to see Apollo behind him, who wasn't there a second ago.

"No, it's just…Hephaestus is gonna kill me!"

"I won't let him kill you, and besides, he should want his daughter to be happy,"

"You really think Nyssa marrying me will make her happy?" Will asked.

"Please, I've seen the way she looks at you, and the way you look at her. It's going to sound sappy, but that's true love,"

Will smiled; his father's words had given him some confidence. "Can you tell Hephaestus I need to talk to him,"

About half an hour later Will was leading Hephaestus to the guest bedroom to ask him about Nyssa. When he opened the door, Sam was making out with Abby on the bed. "Both of you, out," Will said. They both took a walk of shame out of the bedroom. As they passed, Will shot Sam a what-the-hell look, Sam just shrugged.

"Now what was it you wanted to ask me?" Hephaestus asked.

"First you have to swear on the River Styx not to kill me," Will said.

"Is Nyssa pregnant?"

"NO!" Will shouted quickly. "No, she's not pregnant," This is getting harder and harder by the second, Will thought. Then the he added, that's what she said.

"Good, I wouldn't have made that promise if she was," Will gulped, "but I swear on the River Styx I won't kill you. Now what did you have to ask me?"

Before he lost any more courage he quickly blurted out, "'sokaywithyousir,"

"What?" Hephaestus asked, he hadn't caught any of that.

Will took a deep breath and tried again, "I want to ask your permission to ask Nyssa to marry me,"

"Sure,"

Will was in shock. It was that easy? "Really?" He asked.

"Yes, you can ask her, but I can't guarantee she'll say yes,"

That bit of information set a new fear in Will.

Now that Will had permission from both parents, there was only one more thing he needed. The ring. He knew exactly where to get it.

Will walked up to his grandmother (meemaw, as he called her) who was sitting on the couch in the living room with her husband, Will's grandfather (who Will had looked up to all of his life). "Meemaw, can I ask for something,"

"Well, that depends, what is it, William?" His grandparents were the only people who ever called him by his full name.

"I wanted to ask for your engagement ring," Both of Will's grandparents looked up. They had been married sixty-four years, and in those sixty-four years his grandmother hardly ever took off her engagement ring and wedding ring.

Will looked at both the rings on his grandmother's hand, the diamond still shone like it was new.

"What could you want that for?"

"I wanted to ask Nyssa to marry me," Will told them.

"Well good for you William!" His grandfather said, giving Will a hug.

Will's grandmother took her ring off for the first time in sixty-four years and handed it to Will, "I always liked Nyssa. She's a sweet girl,"

"Are you going to ask her now?" Will's grandfather asked,

"No," Will replied even though he had a sudden desire to run outside to Nyssa and propose. "I was going to wait until the moment was right,"

"If you really love her," His grandfather said, "every moment is the right moment,"

Will didn't need any more convincing, he walked outside onto the back deck and spotted Nyssa talking to Abby. He pulled her over and kissed her fiercely, the ring still clenched in his hand.

"Someone is happy," Nyssa commented.

"I am, my grandmother just gave me something very important,"

"What?"

"This," Will showed her the ring and Nyssa's had flew to her mouth. Will got on one knee, "Nyssa, will you marry me?" Nyssa looked close to tears, but Will assumed they were happy tears, because without a moment of hesitation, Nyssa nodded her head yes.

Will slipped the ring on her finger, it fit perfectly. When he stood up she kissed him, and when she did Will knew…

That was the right moment.

Well that was really long. 1867 words and 6 pages. It was also a bit cheesy. Fluffy things always will be I guess. I think Travis and Katie are next. A review submitted the idea, when the chapter is up, I'll credit you I just don't want to give the idea away :)

I fear my love of this pairing is getting out of hand! Someone else want to start writing them, too, so I stop feeling like a loner and a hipster? If you like the pairing I have more stories about them.

Please tell me someone got the Stacy's Mom joke!