She tried to speak and failed miserably. Samantha was silent for a long moment, her processors running at top speed to understand what was happening. Did she hear him correctly? He said 'marry', right? Her face was bright red; she certainly wasn't cold anymore. Her vision faded around the edges, focusing only on the man before her, on his knee in the snow as the chilly wind blew all about them, sending her hair all about her face. She only saw him then, illuminated slightly by the twinkling lights that he had decorated the rooftop with. She saved this moment for just her.
She found herself smiling softly down at him and nodding her head 'yes' over and over again as she couldn't quite get the appropriate words out. His worried expression quickly changed to one of relief as he stood and slipped the ring onto her left hand. She glanced at it briefly, it was a beautiful and simple solitaire, before throwing her arms around his neck and smothering him in a kiss. The ring didn't matter much, they both knew that. It was more for show than anything. What did matter was their relationship. Hell, Sam didn't even need the ring. If she could only have him, she would be just as happy. Knocked off balance a little by her throwing herself at him, they tumbled backwards and into the snow, laughing.
"Congratulations!" Her family burst through the rooftop door and surrounded them, Martha exhibiting that shrill screeching of her's again.
"Mr. Blume!" Connor gave the man a hard stare and the older man chuckled.
"Sorry, Connor. I've never been good with keeping secrets."
"I would have liked at least some sort of warning." He sighed and stood, helping Sam up as well. They dusted the snow from themselves and faced the group while holding hands.
"You'll never get that with this family." James grinned. "You should know that by now."
"I should have assumed as much." They all took their turns shaking hands or hugging, congratulating the couple before filing back inside due to the cold. Hank was last, hovering by the door the whole time.
"Son." The older man approached them once everyone else was out of the way. He clasped a hand onto his shoulder and nodded before turning to Sam and doing the same thing. "Welcome to the family."
"I could say the same to you…papa Hank." She grinned as he groaned. "Well, I can't call you both 'dad'. That would get confusing.
"Yeah, yeah. Shut up…" He smiled the faintest of smiles and turned to join the others back inside, leaving them alone again. "Freezing my ass off out here…"
"So…" Sam began, giving Connor a seductive side glance. "I've... turned off my temperature sensitivity. We could stay out here for a while longer. If you want."
"Oh." His eyebrows shot up as he understood her insinuation. "I would enjoy that very much."
"So would I." She grinned and took his hand, leading him around to a more secluded section of the roof behind the air conditioning and heating units. She threw herself at him again, pushing him against one of the units. He quickly swapped places with her, lifting her up from the ground by her thighs. She wrapped her legs around his hips and their lips crashed together passionately.
When they finally did return to her apartment, everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at them. They both turned red and Sam quickly combed a hand through her hair, clearing her throat and imploring them to stop gawking. The night soon came to an end and Sam wished Hank and Sumo a Merry Christmas before they left to return back home. James bid them farewell and one last congratulations as he had a concert to attend tomorrow. And lastly, Sam's parents hugged them both before retiring to the second bedroom for the evening.
"Do you wish to stay awake?"
"A little." Sam shrugged a bit as they lied next to each other in bed. "I want to be sure that this day isn't some sort of deluded dream of mine."
"I can assure you with the utmost positivity that this day was, in fact, not deluded nor a dream." He brushed a hand along her cheek and into her hair. They laid there until morning, neither one wanting to go into stand-by. When the sun barely began to peek in through the bedroom blinds, Sam rose from the bed, a little too excited that her parents were leaving today.
"Sammykins, are you awake?" Her step-mother's voice called through their bedroom door.
"Yeah, we're awake. Be out in a minute." She quickly got dressed into her warmest sweater and opened the door to greet them. Her parents were already all dressed and packed, suitcases waiting by the door. "Ya'll leaving already? It's only five-thirty."
"Sure are, darlin'. Have to catch an early flight back." She stood with them by the door as Martha helped Bill wrap a scarf around his neck.
"Super early flight, apparently." She gave them each a hug and kiss to the cheek. "Ya'll need to come up here more often. We'll come visit you down there soon."
"You'd better. We don't see you nearly enough." Bill gave her a big smile and an equally big hug before planting a kiss to her LED. "I love you, Junebug."
"I love you too, dad." She watched them leave down the hall, suitcases rolling behind them. The disappeared and Sam breathed a sigh of relief as she closed the door.
"Is it terrible of me that I am glad they are gone?"
"Ha, not at all." She chuckled and sauntered back to their bedroom to change into her work clothing. "That's kind of a thing in our family. You love them to death, but don't want to spend more than three days with them. Now come on and get dressed. We have to get to work."
"Coming." Connor called from the closet where he was getting his pants on and choosing a jacket. Sam tossed him his red scarf as they made for the door, wrapping her own large fluffy ivory one about her neck. Her LED flashed as she called them a cab; she hated driving in the snow. "I had a question."
"About?" Sam settled herself into the taxi and it began its journey to the DPD.
"Our engagement."
"What about it?"
"It's concerning the telling of our friends. How do we go about doing that? Or I suppose, a better question is, how would you like to go about doing so?"
"Well…most people take engagement photos and post them on social media." She shrugged and looked over at him. "I don't know if I want to do that though. You know how I feel about having my picture taken willingly, let alone posed."
"Then we don't have to do that." He returned her shrug and they left the cab as it parked outside the precinct. "Shall we just…tell them?"
"That works for me." Sam beamed as they entered the office and took her seat. She took out her laptop, typed up a draft of an engagement announcement, showing it to Connor for approval before sending it out to both of their social media accounts. A collective ringing sounded through the office as various people received the notification and all at once, they turned to face the couple who were sitting quietly at their respective work spaces.
