Note: Someone wanted to see the results of the bet made back in chapter ten regarding how long it would take Jefferson to ask Alice on a date. Someone else wanted to see Jefferson and Alice's first date. This is about as close as I could get. A Jefferson/Alice chapter.
I take Alice's surname (Kingsleigh) and her sister's name (Margaret, here shortened to Meg) from the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film.
Summary: Jefferson is about to go on a rather daunting date with Alice – and her family.
Brownie
Gold was having a perfectly normal lunch time – well, in as much as having a picnic in one's office with one's wife can be classed as perfectly normal – when the door burst open and Jefferson rushed in.
"Do you mind?" Gold asked. "God only knows what we might have been up to in here!"
"The walls are thick, but they aren't that thick," Jefferson said. "I'd have heard you, and so would everyone else in the building. That's beside the point. The point is, I am in desperate need of your help."
"And you couldn't knock because…"
"Because this is practically a matter of life and death!" Jefferson exclaimed. "My life and possible death to be precise!"
Belle sat bolt upright from where she had been lounging in the chair opposite Gold's. "What's happened? Are you all right? What do you need us to do?"
"Alice wants me to meet her family. I need you to come on a triple date with me and Alice and her sister and her sister's husband. And her mother."
"Jefferson, I am quite certain that I have no more desire to meet Alice's sister and mother, charming people as I'm sure they are, than you do," Gold said. "Moreover, I am even more certain that they have much more desire to meet you, a possible future in-law, than they do to meet Belle and me, being as we are mere friends and acquaintances."
Jefferson sagged slightly in the doorway, his whole manner akin to a balloon with a slow puncture.
"Jefferson, are you honestly telling me that you have been in a relationship with Alice for a year now and you have never met her family?" Belle asked.
Jefferson nodded sadly, then came into the office fully, sitting down on the edge of the desk. "She won't move in till I've met her mother."
Gold folded his arms.
"Jefferson, I appreciate your plight, but there are some things that man must do alone. Meeting the possible future in-laws is one of them."
Jefferson sighed and looked at Gold with wide, doleful eyes.
"I suppose begging and pleading aren't going to help me?"
Gold shook his head and Jefferson narrowed his eyes.
"You know, I think you're enjoying this," he muttered.
Belle reached across and patted Jefferson's arm in a gesture of comfort.
"Jefferson, you will be fine. Honestly. Alice has been with you for a year now, she's not likely to change her mind based on one meeting with her family. It's just lunch. Not much can go wrong."
The look Jefferson gave Belle was one that quite clearly showed that he felt exactly the opposite way…
X
Jefferson could categorically say that he was not at all looking forward to the next couple of hours. He was sitting at a large round table in Granny's, fiddling with cutlery and trying very hard not to let how incredibly nervous he was show in his face.
Emma came over and sat down at one of the empty chairs.
"Jefferson, everything about your demeanour is screaming 'I would like to be anywhere other than here'," she said. "Please calm down. Meeting the parents is not pleasant, but it is not a life-threatening experience either. You are in a safe environment. You are not going to be murdered by Alice's mother. No-one is going to stab you with a cake fork."
Jefferson gave Emma a pleading look.
"It's me against three of them," he whined. "What if they decide that I'm not good enough for Alice and just sit there with disapproving looks on their faces for the entire time? If there's one look I can't deal with, it's the disapproving one."
Emma patted Jefferson's hand. Despite the cafe being the social point at which most of the circle of friends' lives converged, Emma and Jefferson actually knew each other from another source. Grace and Henry had been in the same class at school for a long time and the parents had met at an open evening.
"Jefferson, it's going to be fine," Emma said. "I promise. You and Alice have been together for a year now. I think if her family had any strong objections to you they would have made them felt by now, and Alice is still with you. So either no strong objections were made, or if they were made, Alice has ignored them. And if they were made, then do you really think that you would be sitting here now waiting to meet her mother?"
Jefferson had to concede the point. He just wished that he and Alice could continue being a family with Grace without having to go through the motions of meeting the family.
It had taken a long time for Jefferson to pluck up the courage to ask Alice on a date. He was all too aware of the bets that had been placed in the cafe and amongst his colleagues at Guildhall as to how long it would be before one of them made the first move. Belle had been closest with her estimate of three months - it had taken four and a half and Grace had been the one to prompt the shift from colleagues with an awkward and undeniable attraction to actually dating. Grace, sick of seeing her father 'moping about making puppy dog eyes' had asked Alice out on Jefferson's behalf. He could still remember his absolute mortification when he realised, and his joy when Alice had said yes. (And, of course, Grace's smug 'I told you so' smile.)
The cafe door opened and Alice came in, followed by her family. Emma gave Jefferson a final pat on the arm for good luck and left the table to return to the counter.
Although he had not met them in the flesh before, Jefferson had seen pictures of Alice's mother, sister and brother-in-law, and he knew what to expect, and he stood to meet them, feeling for all the world like a man on his way to the scaffold.
Once hands were shaken and introductions made, Jefferson sat back down. It was crunch time.
X
It was going about as well as Jefferson could expect, that is to say, it was not going well at all.
Alice's sister, Meg, was lovely. Her husband was an arrogant twerp, but Jefferson had been warned about this by Alice, who could barely tolerate the man herself.
Alice's mother, Mrs Kingsleigh, was downright terrifying. She kept looking at Jefferson through narrowed eyes, as if she was working out the most entertaining way of slowly killing him. Jefferson looked towards the cafe doors, not for the first time during the encounter. He kept hoping that Belle and Gold would walk in unexpectedly, despite Gold telling him in no uncertain terms that they were not going to save him by coming on a triple date.
Maybe Belle would take pity on him and come to his rescue.
Jefferson suppressed a whimper of fear, trying to tune out Alice's brother-in-law's voice. He had recognised very early on in the proceedings that the older man was trying to bate him, and he was concentrating all his attention on not rising to it. It didn't help that Meg and Alice were over at the cake display, arguing about triple chocolate brownies whilst they tried to work out what to order, and Meg was not there to keep her husband in check like she had been doing for the past half an hour.
Presently, Mrs Kingsleigh spoke.
"Oh, be quiet John, you'd try the patience of a saint."
Abashed, John stopped talking. Sadly this meant that Mrs Kingsleigh's attention was fully focused on Jefferson. Her next words, however, where not at all what he was expecting.
"How's Grace, Jefferson?"
Jefferson blinked.
"I, erm, she, erm, she's very well, thank you."
Jefferson didn't know why it came as a shock to him to learn that Alice's mother knew about Grace. After all, it wasn't as if Alice never spoke to her family about her life and the fact she was an almost-stepmother to a twelve-year-old.
"Where is she today?"
"She's at basketball practice," Jefferson said, still slightly shell-shocked.
"That's a shame, I was very much looking forward to meeting her. Alice has always told me what a sweet girl she is." For the first time since she entered the cafe, Mrs Kingsleigh smiled. "By all accounts, you have done an excellent job raising her. Oh, do excuse my squinting at you all the time, I've lost my glasses. Meg always says I look murderous without them and even though you look fuzzy I can tell you're slightly scared."
John gave a snort of laughter that was hastily turned into a cough when Mrs Kingsleigh's eyes turned on him.
Jefferson was not quite sure what to say to that. The part of him that was still vaguely compos mentis was helpfully telling him that he really ought to say something but the majority of him was too relieved to speak. Mrs Kingsleigh saved him the trouble of trying to string a coherent sentence together and continued.
"Alice is very fond of Grace, and I am sure I would not mind another ready-made grandchild." She smiled. "Welcome to the family, Jefferson."
X
"Gold, I really think we ought to just go and see how they're getting on," Belle said, tugging on the sleeve of Gold's coat and trying to steer him in the direction of Granny's. "Jefferson is quite clearly terrified of Alice's relations and he's going to need moral support."
"Belle, darling, Jefferson is perfectly capable of taking care of himself. If he can handle Sid and Jones on a bender, he can handle Alice's mother."
Belle raised one eyebrow. "Are you quite sure about that? Gold, he's your best friend, you really ought to be more concerned for his welfare."
Gold sighed. "All right, we'll go and see if Jefferson looks to be on the verge of fainting, and if he is, then we'll think up a battle plan for intervening."
He let himself be dragged towards the cafe, and Belle peered in through the glass, looking for their friend.
"Is he alright?" Gold asked. Belle pulled away and nodded with a smile.
"I think he's going to be fine."
Gold looked in through the cafe window. Jefferson was sitting at a table in the centre, smiling. Alice was looking happy too, and they were holding hands on the table. The two women who must have been Alice's mother and older sister were laughing, and there did not seem to be any animosity in the air.
At that moment, Jefferson looked over and saw Gold and Belle outside the cafe, and he nodded his acknowledgement.
"Yes, he'll be just fine."