If you thought Miranda and Oliver were gone for good, well...they aren't. :P The good news is they won't have much screen time (page time?) from now on, but they will definitely be in the background, Oliver even more so.
Three Months Later
November 1999
Jeannie couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so terrified. She wanted to hide under her bed and block out all noise until the next day. Everyone said the day before a wedding was scary, but no one had told her it would be this scary.
Next to her, Jack looked solemn. This didn't help Jeannie's nervousness any. In fact, he'd barely spoken to her all day. She wondered if he suddenly had a problem with the plan.
After several heated arguments and much coercion, the two of them had come to a compromise. They would marry outside in a park near the river with a panoramic view of the city. It would be a small ceremony without any fanfare. Jeannie had originally decided to keep Jack happy and not invite Oliver, but apparently Miranda had told him and he'd insisted on coming. "At least they're staying in a hotel," Jeannie said. Jack growled under his breath in response.
There would be seventeen people at the wedding in total, including the officiant. Jeannie knew her parents wanted a much more traditional wedding, but it was too late to do anything about it now. She wanted to keep Jack happy, not her parents.
So far, things were tense but nothing had snapped yet. Liam, Susan, Harriet, Rebecca, and their boyfriends all arrived earlier that day. The Kerr house was bustling with activity and Jeannie wanted to sneak away from the attention. A very pregnant Susan was due to give birth next month and with the focus momentarily on her, it was easier for Jeannie to grab a few minutes of peace and quiet.
She leaned her head back against the wall and listened to the excited chatter downstairs. Her parents were excited about their third grandchild, but not surprisingly they were treating it like their first. Jeannie often forgot she had two nieces somewhere in Boston. They would be almost five years old now. Time sure flew by fast.
"Doesn't it seem like just yesterday that Harriet was pregnant?" Jeannie asked, nudging Jack on the shoulder.
He gave a noncommittal grunt in response. Bent over a page of indecipherable chemical equations, he looked as intent as any professor would. Jeannie always knew that Jack was a "hidden" intellectual, but she had to admit it was odd to see him solving chemistry problems so fast she barely had time to look at the numbers.
Even without a high school diploma, he'd gotten the job at the chemical factory a month ago. The "worrywart" part of Jeannie was secretly glad he was working at a safer place than a bar, but of course she wouldn't ever say it out loud in fear of sounding like her mother.
Jack often brought his work home with him and spent the evenings hunched over a paper trying to work out an equation. No matter how much he pretended it was a chore, Jeannie knew he enjoyed it. Jack was extremely intelligent, despite his dislike of organized education. In fact, Jeannie didn't even know what he was doing and she was in university.
There was a loud laugh from downstairs, followed by an outbreak of chatter. They were probably talking about the many ways Jeannie's marriage could fail. Harriet had made no secret how she felt about the wedding.
"Jack?" Jeannie said hesitantly. "Can I ask you something?"
He glanced up at her, suddenly suspicious. "Going to break up with me, Jean-nie?"
She shook her head. "I…I wanted to know if you were nervous. About tomorrow."
"No," he said right away. "Why would I be? Are you?"
"Kind of," she admitted. "I guess I'm just nervous about moving out of the house, starting a new life, stuff like that."
He continued giving her a blank look. Jeannie realized he couldn't understand her qualms in the least, since he'd never been attached to any one place or routine. "Never mind," she sighed heavily. "I'll get through it somehow."
"You better," he warned, a slight teasing tone to his voice before turning back to his books. Jeannie smiled and rested her chin on his shoulder. "For two weeks we'll have a whole house to our—" Her train of thought was cut off as the loud chime of the doorbell echoed through the house.
"Oliver!" she heard Mrs. Kerr exclaim. "You're early! We didn't expect you until tomorrow morning! Miranda, too! Oh, and—"
Jack gave her a dark look. "I think that's my cue to leave," he said.
"Wait," protested Jeannie. She curled her hand around his and tried to pull him off the bed. "At least say hello. Please?" Without waiting for an answer, she led Jack downstairs and to the front door where the crowd was gathered.
Oliver looked the same as he had at Jeannie's graduation a year and a half ago, if marginally more tired. Behind him was the identically dark-haired, olive-skinned Mrs. Hammet, whom Jeannie hadn't seen for at least six years. She didn't recognize the man standing next to her, but her eyes were only focused on Miranda. To her shock, she was carrying a small bundle in her arms.
"Mir—I—you were pregnant?" Jeannie asked in disbelief, unable to tear her eyes off the blue blanket.
Her friend nodded proudly, exchanging a secret smile with Oliver. "His name is Alexander and he's a month old."
Jeannie stared at the red, crinkled face. Alexander's hands were balled into fists and he flailed around in Miranda's arms as if he was about to start crying.
"He looks just like you," Jack said cheerfully. Jeannie shot him a warning glance—but luckily, Miranda and Oliver didn't catch the insult.
"I hope you don't mind I brought a few extra people along," Oliver said sheepishly. "This is my stepfather Gary and my half-sister, Julia." As he spoke, a little girl Jeannie hadn't previously noticed shyly poked her head around Mrs. Hammet. She had Oliver's dark hair, but Gary's hazel eyes.
"How old are you, honey?" Mrs. Kerr asked, bending down so she was at face level with the child. Julia lifted up three fingers.
"That's fine, Oliver," Jeannie said, although she was honestly annoyed by the fact there were suddenly three more guests. Jack's expression was smoothly emotionless, so she had no way of knowing what his opinion on the matter was.
"Why don't you stay for dinner, Jack?" Mr. Kerr offered. "You are the groom-to-be, after all." But Jack shook his head, muttering something about 'other arrangements.' Before Jeannie could squeeze his hand in a goodbye, he wove between Gary and Oliver and was out the door in an instant. While the newcomers were left staring wondering what to make of him, Miranda stepped forward and pushed the infant into Jeannie's arms.
"Guess what?" she exclaimed. "We want you to be Alex's godmother!"
Jeannie stared in shock at her childhood best friends, trying to process the information. Her? A godmother? She'd barely spoken to either of them in eighteen months. "Thanks," she stammered. "It's a real honor."
Alex stared up at her with enormous eyes, fixing her with a baby's unblinking gaze. Jeannie smiled at him, but he stayed grim. Miranda laughed. "Don't worry, he doesn't smile much," she explained, stroking her son's head. "The doctors say he'll become more cheerful as he grows up."
"Who's the godfather?" Rebecca asked.
"One of Mir's close friends. His name is Brian Douglas," said Oliver.
Jeannie frowned. Miranda noticed her confusion and gave a slight nod of her head, as if promising she would explain later.
Alex finally started bawling and everyone's attention was immediately switched to him. Jeannie wondered what the reason was for the sudden baby boom: first Susan, now Miranda.
A startling thought suddenly hit her like she'd been drenched by a bucket of ice water: what if she was expected to be next?
After an extravagant dinner that had taken Mrs. Kerr all day to prepare, Jeannie finally found herself alone with Miranda. Everyone else was watching a movie in the living room while Jeannie did the dishes. This was a chore she usually detested, but there was no way she could sit still and stay engaged in a movie in her current state. She decided to take out her anxiety on the cutlery instead of biting her nails or twirling her hair.
Miranda leaned against the doorframe and watched Jeannie wordlessly for a number of minutes before speaking. "Oliver's not the father," she mumbled.
Jeannie dropped the plate she was washing into the sink, briefly forgetting about her own problems. "What?"
Her friend furtively glanced behind her, as if checking to make sure nobody could hear. "We broke up for a little while back in the spring and I started seeing someone else…but then we got back together. When I realized I was pregnant I originally thought Oliver was the father…but it's not possible. The timing isn't right."
"Then who is the father?" Jeannie asked, flabbergasted. She'd thought Alex bore no resemblance to Oliver, but then again infants didn't usually look much like anything.
Miranda whispered, "Brian Douglas."
"But you said he was the godfather—"
"He is. He doesn't even know he's Alex's real father. Don't look at me like that, Jeannie, it was a one-time thing—"
"Mir, that makes it even worse! Listen, you can't keep this from Oliver forever." Jeannie dried her hands on a dishcloth and reached over to hug her. "I can be there if you want."
"I can't! Don't you remember Oliver dated Samantha Douglas in eighth grade? She's Brian's sister! Oliver told me that he lost his virginity to her."
Jeannie screwed up her face in disgust. "No offense, but that's more than I wanted to know—"
"The point is, he'll flip out when I tell him that his girlfriend's son isn't really his, but the son of the brother of the first girl he slept with." It sounded like something out of a soap opera. Jeannie could hardly believe it herself.
"Fine, Mir, but if you don't tell him then he's likely to find out for himself when Alex looks more like his godfather than him."
Miranda slumped forward in defeat, her shoulders sinking. Jeannie felt a wave of sympathy for her. "He'll be furious when he finds out—"
"When I find out what?" a voice said from the other door. Both girls jumped and Miranda began to cry quietly.
"Please tell him, Jeannie," she whispered. "I ca—can't—"
Jeannie had absolutely no idea what to say or how she was supposed to act, so she settled for a half-gentle, half-bewildered tone: "Ollie, I hate to say it, but it looks like you're not Alex's real father."
The roar that came next nearly tore the roof off the house: "WHAT?"
It was high time to get out of there. Jeannie almost sprinted out of the room, figuring it was best for everyone concerned to let the adults sort out the situation.
The next day was going to be absolutely splendid, wasn't it?
