Chapter 24: For God's sake, just answer the damn question!
Time may pass, fortune may smile, trials may come; no matter what we may encounter together, I vow here that this love will be my only love. I will make my home in your heart from this day forward.
She studies his face for while, her eyes seeing the faint lines starting to show, his deep green eyes which take a huge part of his face, in which she always felt she could dive in and drown in them. His hair is shorter now, his face thinner than when she met him, but he still holds the same eager expression he had in his face that enchanted her when she first met him.
Suffering and pain had left their marks: his nose will always bear the marks of his father's thugs, he has more scars now than a few years ago, but still, he held on the same purity she felt permeating the air as he sat beside her in a bar that Saturday so long ago.
He gulps and she notices nervousness creeping in his eyes. She finally realizes that she left him hanging, waiting for the answer of the most important question of his life.
"Yes. I'll marry you."
The change was extraordinary. Instead of nervousness and insecurity of previous seconds, a huge smile appeared in his face, his happiness filling out his eyes with a serenity that she had rarely seen in him. He has always seemed a little nervous, anxious for something indescribable, seeking and searching and for some reason, he seemed to be, for the first time since she has met him, at peace.
He lowers his gaze to her lips, his thumb moving from her cheek to softly glide over her lips. Her breath catches as she sees the change in him, as he looks at her lips hungrily. Yet, he first glances up into her eyes, as if to seek permission to touch her. She smiles softly, leaning towards him and he does the same, both pausing just a few inches of each other.
Their breath mixes and he closes his eyes, lightly touching her delicate nose with his. She smiles wider, closing her eyes and enjoying how he playfully runs soft lips over nose, cheek, finally reaching his ultimate goal, her lips, encasing then in a light touch, a mere taste, whispering against the soft skin untold delights, before his left hand on her cheek lightly dives behind her neck holding her firmly as he opens his mouth and asks - no, demands - her total surrender, that she gladly obliges.
She inhales deeply as she feels his right hand floating around her waist, gliding from her tummy to her back, and slowly pulling her towards his muscular chest, her legs getting tangled with the skirt of her dress. Her hands automatically go to her shoulder, as the kiss deepens and he seeks entrance with tongue, lips and teeth. She feels herself melting against him, as one of his hands glide from her back to her neck, his fingers getting tangled with her hair as the other brings her to sit on his lap, rubbing her against his awakening desire.
Their breathing becomes more erratic, as their desire escalates and both lovers separate, their foreheads touching as they exchange loving looks with each other.
"Jo-" Timothy's voice comes several octaves lower, and he has to stop and clear his throat before he tries again, "Joy Buchanan, love of my life, you've just made me the happiest man on earth tonight."
She giggles and smiles wickedly at him, "The night is not over yet, Timothy. I'm planning on making you much much happier tonight." He laughs delighted and lowers her face for another kiss.
Unbeknownst to them, a haunting song starts to fill the library as lyrical voices gather together singing in haunting tunes which the human ears could not fully grasp their meaning, the flickering of powerful wings beating with the compass of the song.
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
Later that night...
"How fast can your family set up a wedding?"
Joy looked up from the simple white gold ring now resting on her finger, with three delicate diamonds: The center piece was square, while the two others were circular, with a delicate art deco design uniting the three stones.
"How fast do you want it to be?" She asked him, studying his face as he looked down at her, his finger playing with her curls on the pillows on their inn bed.
"Uhm..." He frowned a little, in deep thought. "Next Saturday?"
She looked at him for a minute, before sitting on the bed, the duvet edge firmly held against her breasts. "Are you serious about that?"
"Yeah."
He pushed two pillows against the headboard, imitating her as he supported his back on them.
"We're on mandatory leave anyway until the end of the month. Our next - and hopefully last - psychiatric evaluation with the shrink from DC is ten days away. We tie the knot next weekend, pass the exams on Tuesday and go back to DC with the ink drying on the papers on Friday."
He waited patiently for the shocked expression from her face change, slowly turning into a wicked grin.
"Are you totally serious about that?" she repeated, now with a barely contained giddiness on her voice.
"Yeah, we do a simple thing, invite your siblings, my sister and the team. I've spoken to your father, he could perform the ceremony at his church, we won't even have to rent a place for the party. We could do a barbecue in your garden. At least your mom could be there as well."
He grinned as she squealed and jumped into his arms, almost strangling him with a hug. After she finished squealing in his ear, she jumped out of the bed, carrying the duvet with herself and dragging him towards his laptop in sleep mode on the commode.
"What?"
"We have to send e-mails for them to start preparing things. By the time we finally wake up tomorrow, they will have most of the things planned already."
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
With a little computer programming, McGee created a self executable program to be launched once the person clicked on the e-mail, which would act as invitation for the guests.
Joy then wrote a very detailed e-mail to her own sisters, explaining what she was planning to do and what they needed to do to help her plan and prepare.
After sending the e-mails, the two lovers went back to bed, ready for a good night to rest before their trip back to Glasgow.
NCIS NCIS NCIS
In different states of America, in Germany, Afghanistan and Japan, the emails pinged in their recipient e-mail boxes, just waiting for their owners to read them the following morning.