Of Princes and Princesses

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Saturday my wonderful readers, and for those in the USA Happy Fourth of July! Here we have a cute little chapter of the two lovebirds celebrating their anniversary and a little bit of a miscommunication will be cleared up as well. As always don't forget to review, I'd love to know what you guys think, and I'll see you next Saturday!

23.

For their second-year anniversary, Marshall saved up all that he could and purchased her the trip of a lifetime. To show her that he could be just as thoughtful as she was for his birthday. He spent a lot of time planning it. He was very impressed with all he had managed to put together for her without any help from Rose.

He had picked California because a lot of her dream destinations were there. Harry Potter World, Disneyland, all the California tourist traps. She wanted to see it all.

He had surprised her a month before the actual trip. He waited for her to come home from work, waited for her to have a truly terrible day, and then he pulled out the tour package he paid for, all the brochures, and the confirmation email and showed it to her.

His princess went from crying over the untimely death of one of her patients to crying in happiness and he was so grateful to have given her that. To have turned her day around like that. But nothing came close to being actually being there, in California, with her, watching her eyes light up at everything and all the things there was to see and visit.

He thought she'd notice that he had bought the cheap package. That it was bare minimum in a small room off the Disney lot. But she didn't care. She threw herself down onto their queen-sized bed and squealed. They rested for all of ten minutes, she unpacked her toiletries and essentials, locked up their passports and then demanded that they explore.

They went through the hotel, figured out where the restaurants were and the gift shop. She found the pool and the spa, and the poolside bar, and the regular bar. She found all the brochures of things to do around and picked out all the ones she thought they might like to do together.

She hadn't asked how much this had cost, but she was adamant that she pay for most of the extra things. He had called dibs on the dinner for their actually Anniversary in a few days and she very nicely conceded that to him.

The first day they spent the whole day in Disneyland. They took pictures with all their favourite Disney characters, or more aptly, hers as Marshall didn't really have any favourite Disney characters. Except for Buzz Lightyear. Marshall fucking loved Buzz Lightyear

They visited Belle more than once as that was Kate's favourite Disney princess, they visited all the shops. They had lunch at Beauty and the Beast's castle and then had dinner a Tony's Italian Restaurant, where they shared Tramp and Lady's spaghetti. The sauce and meatballs were in the shape of mickey mouse. They even did the thing where they shared a strand of spaghetti and kissed at the end. More than once cause it made her giggle and he was all about making his girl smile like that.

The second day was Harry Potter World which was like a theme park within an theme park. And boy did she seem at home in that part of Universal Studios. She bought herself a quidditch jumper, Gryffindor, and bought him his own, Hufflepuff, for his kind heart. She bought herself every kind of butterbeer and him a firewhiskey.

While she was in the line for every-flavour ice cream, he went into the Ollivander's wandshop and purchased her a wand, Hermione's wand. He would have liked to have given her one tailor made for her, but Hermione's wand would have to do. He hid it in the backpack he was carrying so she could be free to run all over.

They did all the Harry Potter rides, which included the train ride between the two parks, they got pictures of her trying to go through Platform 9 ¾. They went on the Jurassic Park ride like twelve times in a row, she bought them both Jurassic Park Tee-shirts. She was all about the matching souvenirs over at this theme park. They ate at the Leaky Cauldron for lunch and then again for dinner.

On the third day they were back in the Disneyland. They did all the rides and everything that Marshall would want to do. Then back to the hotel for diner.

The fourth day they did all the sight seeing they could in Los Angeles. They went to Venice beach for the board walk, they went to the Hollywood sign, the carnival at Santa Monica pier, and then they walked down Rodeo drive just to see the shops that neither of them could afford.

On the fifth day, they stayed mostly around the hotel, rested by the pool before going for their anniversary dinner. The dinner was at the Beauty and the Beast castle, he had paid an extra thousand dollars to rent it out for the night, money he had borrowed from Rose and promised to pay her back.

Kate was in this stunning little back dress and he was in his best black suit. They had a private candle lit dinner, where they got to stare at each other from across from one another. Marshall was certain that she had never looked that beautiful before. When dinner was done they got to waltz in the ballroom and Kate got a little misty eyed. Money well spent… or well borrowed. Rose would be super happy to hear that.

The last two days of their trip were slow. They wandered around Disney for one day. And the last day they went back to Venice beach where they spent the whole day and had a little bit of a picnic on the sand by the water as the sun set.

Once the sun was down, they returned back to their hotel where Marshall was ready to collapse. He let Kate shower first and when she came out all damp and dewy and in nothing but a towel. She had a strange look about her and Marshall wasn't certain what could possibly be wrong. Their trip had been so… wonderful.

"You've been awfully quiet, Marshall," she said to him and a frown crossed his face. "You've been quiet for some time now."

Well… maybe that was true. Maybe he had been quiet. The pregnancy scare had thrown him. Not because he wasn't ready but because he very clearly had been and his Kate… she hadn't been as ready. It wasn't like he was mad at her. He did get why she wouldn't want to have a kid with him, but it had hurt and he hadn't wanted to lie to her about it. And he didn't want to argue with her about it either. Not when they were having such and nice time and he was certain he was being unreasonable. So, he had kept his mouth shut lest he say something stupid and ruin their relationship. Besides he figured he had plenty of time to one day change her mind.

"Oh, I suppose I have been. I'm sorry, I haven't meant to."

"Are you… are you okay?" she asked him as she came to stand before him. "Has something happened?"

He had been lying down, but once she was in front of him he sat up.

"No… I guess… I guess I've been thinking about things."

"Oh yeah? Me too!" she said. "What have you been thinking about?"

Marshall winced. "Nothing you'd be happy about."

"What do you mean?" When he wouldn't answer she frowned. "Are you… mad at me maybe?"

"No… no… I don't know…" Actually. He… he sort of was he just hadn't really thought about it. "Maybe?"

She sat down beside him in just her towel and stared at him. "Alright, well you're allowed to be mad at me, you know. But it's not fair if you don't tell me what I did, otherwise I can't fix it. So can you pretty please tell me what's wrong?"

Marshall and Kate rarely fought over big things. They argued over the toilet seat and whether or not he remembered to put it down. They argued over him using her good towel to wipe his butt, it was one time but now she didn't trust him with it. They argued about him forgetting to get milk when she reminded him three times. They argued about all the times he had to snake the drain because her hair was so goddamn long and apparently she shed a lot of it in the shower. They argued about how she still didn't want to sing despite the show she put on for his birthday.

But those were small things. Spats that they quickly made up from, spats that ended in amazing make up sex.

This was something completely different… something fundamentally bigger.

"I… It's nothing…"

"Is it the hair?" she asked. "I swear I've been brushing it before I go in to shower to get all the loose stuff out." Marshall shook his head. "Okay, no, is it the singing, cause… I've gotten better, I agreed to practice with you and the band next month."

That's true she had and that was a big step. But that wasn't what was bothering him either.

"The pregnancy scare. I'm mad about the pregnancy scare."

Kate blinked at him. "Oh, well I told you what happened, that my cold medicine most likely cancelled out the birth control I was taking."

"That's not it. Kate, I heard you when that test came out negative. Thank God. Why, in all that time we were sitting there waiting, did you just not tell me you didn't want to have my kid?"

Kate's mouth actually dropped in shock. So… maybe that meant good things. It meant that she hadn't meant it, either for him to hear it or in that way.

"No! No… I…" she faltered and then she stopped. She slowly put a hand out to his cheek. "Oh Marshall, why must you always think the worst of me?"

What? How had she turned this back onto him?

"No, no I don't!"

"Or the worst of yourself?"

Marshall pulled his face out from under her palm and looked away. She didn't understand. She was going to twist his words around and make this about how he didn't think he was a good enough for her. Another thing they tried very hard not to argue about but frequently did. This was almost as big as the pregnancy scare. It lay somewhere between the small arguments and the pregnancy scare argument.

"I was relieved, yes. But not because of anything to do with you. I was relieved because… well… frankly, I was scared. I don't think I'm a good person, despite what you and my friends might say, and if I don't think I'm a good person… well… how will I be a good mother?"

"That was what you were afraid of?" he asked. He couldn't believe that she could even think that she wouldn't be a good mother, she was so kind and wonderful. She was a pediatric nurse for Christ sake. And a damn good one too.

She nodded solemnly and stared at him. "I was relieved because I didn't think that I was ready. It had nothing to do with it being your kid. It was any kid. I didn't think I was ready for any kid. And I had all these different worries running through my head."

"Like what?"

"That you'd propose because you felt like you had to. That you'd stay to help me and then get too scared by the commitment and cheat on me. That together we'd be shit fucking parents and mess up a kid."

"You thought I'd be shit?"

"I thought you'd run, Mash. I thought you'd…"

"You thought I'd leave you? That I'd cheat?"

"Irrational fears, Marsh. I thought the worst cause I was panicking. That's all. I think together, when we're ready, we'd make great parents."

Marshall smiled though he felt like she might be pandering to him now. "Yeah?"

"Of course."

He took a hold of her hands again and held them tight. "And for the record, I think you'd be a great mom. I see you with the kids at the hospital they love you and you're great with them. And you know… you were right… I was thinking of proposing but not because of the potential kid. I think about proposing to you all the time… if we're going to be honest."

"Oh yeah?"

"Well sure. I gave you that promise ring for a reason. I told you, you're my future. Just this evening, the sun hit you the right way on the beach and I thought… Wow, this would have been a good time to propose to her."

Kate laughed. "Well… it's good to know where you stand, you know. I uh… if we're going to be honest, on that beach, I just kept thinking that if we were alone, I could have gotten on top of you…"

She leant in to kiss him and he smiled into the motion, but he wouldn't let her get on top of him yet.

"Wait… you had something you were thinking about too. What is it?" he asked her and Kate's happy smile faded.

"Oh uh…"

"Come on, I told you mine. You can tell me yours. Are you mad at me for something too?"

Kate smiled weakly and shook her head. Alright. She looked down, she separated herself from him but took his hands. "I've decided to go to London," she whispered and Marshall froze. "I've decided to donate marrow for Paris."

And that was when they really started to argue.