This is really the last part. I hope I have wrapped up everything well enough to satisfy most readers. We get another wedding, find out who Charlotte ends up with (and Georgiana, too), have a funeral and see how our couples' families grow.
Normally I would give shout outs to all my reviewers and highlight how many reviews they all contributed, but I have decided to forgo that this time to get this conclusion out quicker. Please know that I read each and every review and respond with private messages to anyone who has a ff profile that allows me to do such. Thank you so much for all your kind reviews.
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Epilogue: Four Weddings and a Funeral
Part III
Two and a half years later, Caroline and Raimundo were married on a sunny day in May, on a Saturday. Her brother, Charlie, helped pay for her wedding, considering it his duty as her brother as their parents had been gone for years. The Hursts also chipped in some money, too, as a reward for all her hard work helping them with the boys, especially those first few months when she lived with them.
Raimundo and Caroline married in a cathedral with beautiful stain glass windows, carved wooden pews and elaborate tile work on the floor. As Raimundo was Catholic and Caroline was a baptized but non-practicing Lutheran, they had to receive consent from the diocesan bishop to "enter into a mixed marriage" to be married there by sacramental mass. Caroline wore a dress with a train that looked magnificent when spread out on the staircase she ascended to reach the altar. Louisa and Jane were her attendants and had to arrange her train just so.
The Hurst boys were adorable ring bearers. Each was dressed in a tiny suit with a bow tie and held a blue satin pillow. Donny was easily differentiated from Lewis as Donny was the taller and chubbier of the two and had dark hair and eyes while Lewis had a leaner build, blond hair and hazel eyes. They wore the same size of clothes but Donny filed his well, while Louisa had to purchase a tiny belt to keep Lewis's pants up. In an abundance of caution, although they were potty-trained Louisa had put them in pull ups for the occasion.
While Louisa had expressed concern when Caroline first requested that they play this role, explaining "You've managed to miss the worst of their antics these past couple of months," Caroline replied, "I'm sure it won't go perfectly, but it only seems right to have them there. They were there when Raimundo proposed, after all."
As first, Louisa's concerns seemed to be overblown. The toddlers walked down the aisle with a quiet dignity unprecedented in children who were only two. They were led forward by their father, who held each by the hand. When they reached the last pew, he let go of their hands and told them, "Go to Mama." The boys were supposed to climb the stairs, hand their pillows to their mother and then come back down and sit with him. Louisa was already turned in their direction, urging them forward.
Louisa had proposed that when they reached the front that Don should simply bring the children with their pillows over to take their seats in the front pew. However, the photographer, who had no children of his own, had suggested the current arrangement as leading to much more adorable photos and it had worked during the rehearsal.
But as everyone who has ever had two-year-olds knows, they can be capricious and unpredictable. When it was time to leave his father and go to his mother, Lewis took two steps and then stood still and wouldn't budge. He yelled, "No, no, no!"
Donny knew that Lewis was messing up, but rather than grab his hand or otherwise urge him forward, he took this opportunity to hit his brother with his pillow. Naturally, Lewis hit Donny back with his pillow and things devolved from there. Don tried to seize them, with Louisa a few steps behind him (hampered as she was in having to scamper down the dais stairs while holding up her floor length skirt), but the toddlers eluded them while engaging in a lively pillow fight. Fortunately, no one had actually trusted them with the rings.
The priest, improvising, instructed the organist to begin playing a congregational hymn early, Amazing Grace, which was to be sung during the Eucharist. The guests duly rose to their feet and began singing. Still, even above the sounds of the organ and the singers, the guests could still hear Lewis shouting, "No!" and Don shouting, "Don't wanna."
Eventually, Louisa and Don cornered their boys with some help from the guests and Don grabbed Lewis around his waist with his left arm, Donny with his right and picked them both up. As they fought back by hitting their father with their pillows, Louisa plucked the pillows one by one from their grasp. The boys made a tremendous din, and as all four verses of the song had been sung, there was nothing to muffle their response, with Don wailing, "That's my pillow!" as he began to cry and Lewis yelling angrily, "No, Mama, no! Bad, bad!"
Don carried them out of the sanctuary, having given up on the idea that they could handle sitting calmly during the rest of the ceremony now. With as much dignity as she could muster, Louisa took her place back by Caroline, horrified at what a disruption her children had been. Louisa gave Caroline an apologetic look and a barely voiced, "Sorry," but Caroline just gave her a little shrug in return and Louisa noticed that to her shock, both Caroline and Raimundo were doing their best to keep from laughing (both of them had their lips pressed closed), while the corners of Caroline's eyelids crinkling with amusement and Raimundo's dark eyebrows speaking volumes as they wiggled.
The couple said the traditional vows mandated for the Catholic wedding mass, so save for the twin debacle, the only real moment of note in the ceremony was when it was time for the wedding kiss. All the guests must have realized how awkward it would be for the couple to kiss, but Raimundo had a solution. He dipped Caroline back, holding her securely as he bent over and kissed her. There were many spontaneous outbursts by the guests then, with several women exclaiming about how romantic it was, for Raimundo to kiss Caroline like that. "Huh," Elizabeth commented to Darcy, "I wonder why we never thought of that."
When it was time to take pictures of the whole wedding party afterwards, Don brought the boys back out of the church nursery room, where he had entertained them by building block towers for them to knock down. The boys whined as they were led from the room with the toys and refused to pose. Donny kept covering his face with his pillow, while Lewis kept making funny faces. The photographer quickly gave up, and Don took them back to play with toys again.
At the reception, held in an adjoining building, Donny became very excited when he spotted the wedding cake. He had recently attended a birthday party for Jane's and Charlie's daughter, who had just turned one. Madeline had been given her own cake to tear into, but had not touched it until her mother hand taken her hand and placed it on the cake, dipping her fingers down into the frosting and then bringing them to Madeline's mouth. Even then, when given this overt permission, she'd mostly contented herself with getting small bits of frosting. Donny had wanted to rip into the cake for her, but his Dad had said, "It is not your turn," but his turn had never come.
Later, when they got home, his mom showed them a video of them grabbing big chunks of a sheet cake together and eating enormous mouthfuls when they turned one. He knew that was him and Lewis on the screen and it looked like so much fun, but he didn't remember getting to do it. But now was his chance, and that cake was so big! "Cake, cake," he told his dad, who pretended not to understand. Silly Daddy took him to a table instead.
Donny didn't want to eat dinner when there was cake to be had. He slithered off his seat (Don and Louisa not having thought to bring the boys' booster seats with them) and ran as fast as he could back towards the cake, but his Uncle Charlie caught him and brought him back again. However, Donny was determined and after foiling Donny's second attempt himself this time, Don firmly held Donny on his lap as Donny squirmed, trying to get loose.
While Lewis sat obediently in his seat, he did not eat, either. He wanted chicken nuggets and fries and not this other stuff. Out of boredom, he reached over to his mother's plate and grabbed one of her cherry tomatoes off of it, because looked a ball. He was disappointed to discover it was not a ball, so he threw it hard and to his joy discovered that it bounced well off his Auntie Jane's back (she and his uncle were at an adjoining table).
Louisa called out, "Sorry," when Jane turned around and then told Lewis in a stern voice, "No, no, no playing with food, no throwing" and moved her plate farther away. She then scooped a bite for him from his plate and coaxed, "Lewis, eat your mashed potatoes."
"Bad 'tatoes," he told her, very annoyed that she was trying to get him to eat something that was obviously not mashed potatoes (it was red skinned potatoes mashed with the peels, with chopped up chives and roasted garlic).
Louisa set the loaded spoon down on Lewis's plate, but that was a mistake as a moment later he flung the spoon, potatoes and all as hard as he could. He would show his mom what he thought of those "potatoes." The spoon ended up striking Uncle Charlie on the back.
Charlie, startled, spilled his wine, but fortunately it spilled away from him and his quick-thinking wife was able to catch the liquid with her cloth napkin before the spreading purple stain reached the edge of the table. While Charlie laughed the incident off, the Hursts looked at each other and Louisa declared what Don was thinking, "We have to leave."
"Oh boy," Darcy commented to Elizabeth that evening when they were home at Pemberley, "I hate that the Hursts had to duck out of Caroline's wedding reception so early, but I must say I was relieved when they did. What a handful those boys are!"
"Yes," Elizabeth replied, "they are called the terrible twos for a reason, and with them it is double the trouble, but even so, they were also cute. During the ceremony, the twins stole the whole show."
"They sure did. Caroline seemed to handle that well, although I can imagine she was disappointed. Seeing those kids, acting like that, I don't think I am ready," Darcy opined. "I think we've been spoiled by little Madeline. She can't be representative of the average child. Maybe we should just have cats like David and Charlotte," Darcy suggested.
"Did I not tell you? They broke up. Charlotte said that nothing was majorly wrong, and they had given it a good try, but he just wasn't the one. After she's had some time, I want to set her up with your cousin Rafe. I remember that they got along swimmingly at our rehearsal dinner and at the reception. I think they would be good together. What do you think?"
"That's a good idea for sure. I could tell he liked her, but as she was with David there, Rafe was just friendly, staying within the proper bounds of propriety. As for us having kids, I think I'd like to enjoy more time with just you, even if the plan is to still have kids eventually."
"Uh, Darcy, I think you are forgetting something. We agreed last month that I wouldn't start my new pill pack and that we'd see what happens. I've been keeping track of things and I am a day late. Now that may not mean anything as a natural cycle could be quite a bit longer than an artificial one."
"You mean, you could be . . ." Darcy's face was frozen in an expression that was half surprise and half dismay.
"I don't know. I have a dollar store test and can see what it says."
"Please do!"
Elizabeth went ahead and followed the procedure including the five minute wait. Then she came out of the bathroom and revealed, "Just one line, negative according to this cheapo test."
"Oh, okay." Darcy felt relief, confusion and a tinge of disappointment. For a whole five minutes he had thought about what it would be like being a dad. It was scary and exciting all at the same time. "What now?"
"Well, if my 'friend' as my mother calls it, doesn't turn up in the next couple of days, I'll take another test."
That night, Darcy had trouble sleeping and finally got up at around 3 am and watched some TV. Elizabeth joined him at about 5 am, wearing the cuddly pajamas he had gotten her for the first Christmas after they were married. They were fluffy blue pajamas with happy little Pembroke Welsh Corgis running around on them. She was also wearing the matching ridiculous slippers. The pajamas were similar to the set he had gotten Gina before.
"No need to worry now," Elizabeth confided. "My 'friend' arrived with a vengeance, good old 'Aunt Flo.' I can start a new pill pack tonight."
"Okay, good. Let's make sure we are really ready."
Another two years later passed and then when Jane and Elizabeth met for lunch, Jane told Elizabeth, "I have news, I am expecting another baby. I'm only four weeks along, so things could still go wrong, so please don't tell mom as then everyone will know." Naturally, Elizabeth said all the right things to Jane even though the thought of Jane with another baby when Elizabeth didn't even have one made her somewhat envious.
The evening after Jane's announcement Elizabeth told Darcy, "Guess what Jane told me at lunch?"
"That she's having another baby? Charlie called and told me this afternoon." Darcy responded.
Elizabeth said, "I can't help it; it makes me want to have a baby, too. I always had this picture in my mind that her kids and mine would grow up together."
"I don't know then that I should tell you this, but when I talked to Charlie he mentioned that Caroline is expecting also. She's at fourteen weeks."
"Caroline too?" Elizabeth whined. "But she got married after us. She shouldn't get the cousin monopoly with Jane. I'm ready for it to be our turn. Can we be ready to try yet?"
"I thought you wanted to wait until you finished the first year of your new job and passed your evaluation with flying colors," Darcy commented.
"Yes, but that's only two months away, can't we start trying now? What are the chances I will get pregnant in the next couple of cycles?"
Darcy, who had thought off and on about whether he had been overly spooked by the Hurst twins atrocious behavior, was quick to agree. As it turned out, their timing must have been excellent as Elizabeth did not have another period. The day her two supervisors, Mr. Davis and Ms. Price, were due to speak to her about her evaluation, Elizabeth was battling nausea and had to run out in the middle of their meeting to throw up. She made it to the bathroom, but it was a near thing.
When Elizabeth returned only Ms. Price was waiting for her. She was a woman with three children of her own (who was the only other woman in Elizabeth's department). She asked "How far along are you?"
Elizabeth, who hadn't wanted to tell anyone at work yet, ended up admitting the truth to her. Ms. Price said, "You should have said something." She recommended, "What helped me was saltine crackers and only taking my prenatal vitamins at night. Those things are nasty and would make anyone barf." Both tips helped.
Elizabeth worked up until the last day before the baby was born, determined to save every day of her six weeks of paid leave for afterwards. When she came back to work, Ms. Price arranged to accommodate her with a flexible schedule that allowed Elizabeth to keep up with nursing and pumping, while still excelling at her job. Ms. Price noted, "We don't want to lose you, with there being so few women in the field and I got Mr. Davis on board with the idea."
However, it was still hard for Elizabeth to leave baby Eugenia Georgiana Ariel Darcy at home with the nanny. Some nights, Elizabeth would cry about it and although Darcy offered, "You don't have to work; don't work if you don't want to," Elizabeth did not want to just be a stay-at-home mother either, explaining, "I am more than just a mother." She was convinced that the crying was more about being stressed and her crazy post-pregnancy hormones than about a genuine desire to do anything other than what she was actually doing.
When Genie was one, they sent her off to the preschool that Mary now ran. In the intervening years, Mary had finished her four year degree and then Miss May had announced her plans to retire and desire to turn the whole operation over to Mary. It was an inconvenient distance, but Elizabeth felt far better knowing that her sister was on hand.
When Genie was almost three, the Longs announced that they were going to have their first baby. Mary had felt the need to have everything running smoothly at the preschool before they tried for a child and Henry had wanted to advance to mostly working days before they grew their family, and based on Elizabeth experience that wanted to be fully prepared if Mary conceived quickly, too. Then as it turned out, it took Mary more than a year to conceive.
They had a little boy, Michael Henry, who Mary got to take to work with her once she returned to work. Being the boss had certain advantages. She nursed her son at work and took on a more managerial than hands on role for a while, having other employees run the stuffed animal school which had been expanded to all the two, three and four year old classes.
Michael was less than a week old when Nana Bennet passed away at the age of 94. Mary was glad that she had made it a priority to resume visiting with Nana right away, as Mary was her last family visitor, having visited the Sunday following her release from the maternity ward, with Henry accompanying her as he always did. Nana seemed more confused than usual, and was too weak to get out of bed (she had been in decline the last few months), but Nana took a great deal of interest in the tiny baby who Mary gently laid down on the bed beside Nana. Nana gently stroking his fuzzy head with her trembling, arthritic fingers which had freshly coated nails as she said, "Baby, baby, baby." When they left, Nana raised her liver spotted hand and wiggled her fingers. Mary could not decide if she was waving goodbye or trying to get Michael's attention.
Mary was a bit sad that she hadn't been with Nana when she died, but when Mary came to collect Nana's personal items, Nurse Lisa Wilton stopped by to see her. After Mary thanked Lisa for caring for Nana all those years, Lisa responded, "That's my job, and it was my pleasure. You know, some families are good at visiting and some are not, but when my faith in humanity was at its lowest, I would know you would come to visit her like clockwork and that made everything seem all right. You know, Monique was with your grandmother at the end. She is working today if you'd like to speak to her about it."
Of course Mary did. Monique told her, "I've seen other people die of course. You can't be in this job for long without being around for that at some point. Some go in their sleep and are just gone, others struggle so hard to stay to force each breath even though it is a losing battle, but a few have bright eyes and seem calm at the end. She was one of the latter. I like to think that the ones with the bright eyes are seeing their dearly departed relatives coming to greet them, or maybe God welcoming them himself, but perhaps that is just a silly fancy of mine."
Mary thanked Monique, grateful that it had been her in attendance rather than someone like Zana (Zana herself had long ago left her job at Village on the Green), or no one there at all. She left comforted and told her father, sisters and husband all about the conversation. Henry agreed, "I have seen a few people pass with the sort of light in their eyes that Monique was describing. It is a wonderful thing to behold."
As it turned out, everyone in the Bennet family had seen Nana in the previous month and given how well she had been cared for after her stroke by each member of the family, there was no cause for regrets. After the scary experience of her stroke, her son Tom periodically checked his mother out of Village on the Green, mostly for an hour or two on holidays, and she had been present that last Christmas. Nana especially enjoyed home cooked holiday food (carefully prepared to make sure everything was the proper consistency and temperature) and seeing all the pretty holiday lights and the Christmas tree. Although Nana did not know who any of them were, save for Tom, she enjoyed gathering with the family and as the family had grown seemed captivated by the young children.
The great grandchildren did not attend the funeral, except for Madeline, as they were deemed too young. Instead, Mr. and Mrs. Philips kept them at the Bennets' house, where they did their best to keep them fed and well occupied. Little Genie, when presented with a pudding cup politely said, "Thank you," but then added, "Aunt Pee Pee," with a little smirk that reminded Mrs. Philips of her mother Elizabeth. Soon, to her dismay and Mr. Philips's carefully hidden amusement, all the children were calling her Aunt Pee Pee.
When their parents were back and everyone was eating the post funeral spread, the Philips soon left and returned to their own home, to take a well-deserved nap. "I am so glad we never had children," Mrs. Philips told her husband, who quickly agreed. He was just glad that he wasn't being called "Uncle Pee Pee."
Mr. Bennet's daughters stuck closely to their father after the funeral, worried about how he would deal with his mother's death. When he noticed he told them, "Quit hovering, I will be okay. She had a good long life and things were getting so much harder for her at the end that I know it was her time."
In the days that followed, whenever Mrs. Bennet saw that her husband was growing morose or mopey, she would ask one of her daughters to bring their children by. With Madeline, who was older and calmer, Grandpa Tom would read her stories, but when the younger and more active grandchildren appeared, he was quick to get down on the floor to play with them, even if he complained about his achy back when he had to get back up again.
Darcy and Elizabeth did end up introducing Rafe and Charlotte. They hit it off, even though he had a basset hound named Maxwell that did not get along with her cats (she only had Paisley and Tartan by then, Argyle having passed on a year earlier). After a three year courtship, they married in a simple civil ceremony at the courthouse with only Darcy and Elizabeth for witnesses, and moved into a house that had two floors.
They never chose to have children (much to Mrs. Lucas's dismay, who then focused all of her efforts on getting Maria to produce grandchildren for her), but did own one piece of baby equipment, a baby gate that they used to separate their dog from the cats. The cats could have chosen to leap over it, but the dog was firmly kept out. The dog stayed downstairs and the cats above on the second floor, although Paisley had grown braver as time went on and enjoyed sitting on the step up from the gate and teasing the dog by hissing at him.
When the dog died, after a reasonable interval there was much debate about whether or not they should get another dog. Charlotte (despite her protests to the contrary), had become rather fond of Maxwell, but she liked how her cats now had run of the entire house. However, when Rafe started looking at pictures of pugs and corgis online, Charlotte felt her resolve weakening.
Rafe, noting her weakness, surreptitiously put a deposit down to secure a future puppy from a reputable corgi breeder who lived two hours away and did not dock their tails. Six months later, when he took her to see the corgi puppies, promising that they did not have to buy one, Charlotte fell in love with a tricolor female whose large white splotch on the top of her head was not breed standard but made her adorable nevertheless. Rich and the breeder made the arrangements that day and two weeks later, Charlotte held the puppy, who still had floppy ears but now bore the name Polka-dot, on her lap in a towel all the way home.
The introduction between the puppy and the cats went better than Charlotte could have hoped. Tartan came when Charlotte called and the orange male cat simply sniffed at and then ignored the interloper. Paisley stayed hidden under a side table, her black coat blending well with the shadow it cast, but for her golden eyes.
As people who have ever gotten a puppy know, training them to hold it until they go for a walk is not easy, especially when the puppy is small. Charlotte and Rich had to take alternating vacation days to look after Dot (who was also sometimes called Dottie) for those first few weeks and did not get much sleep when they had to take her out in the middle of the night. Eventually, Dot was able to hold it better and life moved on. Charlotte and Rafe determined that they would never get such a young puppy again. It confirmed to them both that it was best that they had decided against children which might have been a lot of trouble to conceive anyway, given Charlotte's age by the time they married.
Within two months, Charlotte came home from work to find Tartan, Paisley and Dot all curled up together in Dot's bed. At Charlotte's appearance, Tartan gave a lazy yawn and then closed his eyes again.
When Rafe came home, he was sorry to have missed the moment, although he already knew about it, having seen the copious pictures she had posted on Facebook about the whole thing.
"You were right," Charlotte told Rafe. "They are all getting along so perfectly. Our family is now complete."
"Ah, hearing you say I was right is such a wonderful thing. Can you say it again?"
She repeated herself and then Rafe noted, "But I think you are wrong about one thing. I think we need one more cat. Have you seen pictures of a Scottish Fold? They have huge eyes in a rounded face with flattened ears."
Soon enough they were scrolling through pictures on the internet and Charlotte was opining, "Oh, they are the cutest things ever."
When all was said and done, the Fitzwilliam-Lucas household consisted of one corgi, one pug, a mutt that seemed to be a mix of chihuahua and basset hound, and four cats. Over the years, the composition of their pets changed as they passed on, but their "parents" were always anxious after a mourning period to find new "babies." As the years marched on, Charlotte and Rafe found themselves traveling less, as it was hard to be away from their animal family even though they always hired a reputable pet sitter.
Jane ended up having three children (all girls) and Elizabeth and Mary ended up with two children each (a girl and a boy for Elizabeth and two boys for Mary). Mary was more than satisfied by two, as she felt that all her students were also her children to a certain extent, and anytime she missed holding babies there were many she could cuddle in the infants' class.
Although Elizabeth pondered off and on having more, she also cared about her career. She was doing cutting edge research and really felt that she was making a contribution to society as a whole and that was important to her. Their son Maximillian Fitzwilliam Sebastian Darcy (they would have named him Maxwell if not for Rafe's former dog's name) had been a handful as a toddler, and although there was only one of him, he could easily cause the trouble of two boys and Elizabeth feared that if they had a third, she would have another Max rather than another Genie. After Elizabeth got a big promotion at work, which meant she had to do a lot more management, but had a whole team, she firmly decided that she was done.
It was just as well that she had as Maximillian's teenage years were almost as hard to handle as his toddler years, as he started experimenting with drugs and almost got kicked out of school. Fortunately by the time he was twenty, all his prior difficulties had been sorted out.
Everyone thought Caroline would likely stop at two children as well, but then she had a third and then a fourth. By the time she had a fifth child at age thirty eight, her friends and relatives had stopped believing her to be done. Eventually, Caroline ended up with six children. When asked why they had so many she always said, "Raimundo's Catholic faith is very important to him," implying he was the reason that they had so many, but it was really the result of their mutual desire for a large family, with Caroline always wanting "just one more." While she had little time for painting, she occasionally still illustrated books. In her latest effort, in which she was illustrating a story that took place in a school, she modeled the paintings after her own children.
Raimundo was able to get a better surgical job after he became a permanent resident of the United States (and later a naturalized citizen) and could well afford to care for their growing brood. For their twentieth wedding anniversary, he offered to buy Caroline the wedding ring of her dreams, but by then she saw the impracticality of a gigantic rock, so instead they spent the money taking their children on a month-long vacation to Brazil to spend time with their extended family.
As for Georgiana Darcy, romance was not the first thing on her mind when she met the teen who, more than a decade later, was to become her husband. They met at Darcy's and Elizabeth's wedding and while she had thought he was cute, with his too long blond hair that he kept raking back with his hand, that was outweighed by his youth and obnoxiousness.
At her brother's reception, he strode up to her and said, "Blondie, come dance with me."
"No way," Georgiana replied. "You're obviously only a high-schooler, so too young for me, and no gentleman to ask me in such a crude way. I have a name, you know."
He shrugged, did not ask for her name and then walked over to another table and got the older Gardiner girl to dance with him.
Georgiana ended up dancing by herself near her brother's and new sister's friends. She couldn't help but notice that when the guy's dance partner got tired and quit the dance floor, he began dancing with the lady who had caught the bouquet. She had to be twice his age!
Georgiana met this guy again at a party the Darcys threw to celebrate Rafe's and Charlotte's wedding (at the Lucases' request). His hair was far shorter then and he had gained a few inches, and was no longer that skinny youth, but she recognized him anyway. Now he looked more man than boy, and an attractive man at that. From the half smile (which was a bit smug) and little wink he made while she was looking at him, Georgiana could tell that he recognized her, too, and had taken note of her interest in him.
This time he actually introduced himself as Jack Lucas and asked for her name. They talked about this and that and they were so absorbed by the conversation that Georgiana almost missed when the toasts began.
It wasn't clear if there was going to be dancing, but Mrs. Lucas urged her new son-in-law to dance with his bride, and Darcy got some music going through his laptop computer by playing a YouTube video (it just had lyrics on the screen) of Etta James singing At Last although it wasn't very loud. After they finished, he found another song suitable Charlotte to dance with her father, but then it was unclear whether other dancing would happen. Finding videos and waiting for the ads between them to finish playing was obviously not a good solution for more than a couple of songs.
Jack asked Georgiana, "If I can get some real music going, will you dance with me?"
"Okay," she told him. Jack went off to talk to Darcy, and overhearing their discussion about technology, Rafe and Charlie joined them and pretty soon the men were returned with music system from Darcy's office and debating on the best method to get dance music playing. Darcy volunteered, "I have CDs," but Rafe noted, "I know the kind of music you like to listen to and it isn't right for dancing."
Jack must have worked some magic, because he found some dance music site and got the music set up to play through the speakers. It wasn't the best, but as there were only about thirty people, it did not have to be. At first no one got up to dance and they just all stood around listening to the song playing. Like some other couples, Georgiana and Jack lingered on the sidelines. But then Love Shack by the B52s came on and Darcy brought Elizabeth up and they started dancing (although not very well, in Georgiana's opinion her brother was a lame dancer), and then Jane urged Charlie onto the dance floor (he had some of the goofiest dance moves), and then the Lucases joined in. At this point, Jack grabbed Georgiana's hand and pulled her into the area that had been cleared for dancing. Pretty soon more couple joined in, including the assembled children, who more jumped than danced.
Jane's youngest daughter was the only one who seemed unhappy with the proceedings, tugging on her mother's skirt and requesting, "I want the baby shark dance."
Jack overheard her and said, "That can be arranged," and then to Georgiana, "Can you excuse me for a bit?"
When the current song (YMCA) ended, Jack pulled up a video of Pink Fong's Baby Shark Dance. The little kids cheered and started doing all the movements, with some of the parents joining in as well, with Charlie doing exaggerated movements mirroring their daughters. Jane pulled out her phone and started to film.
While Jack monitored the video so that he could switch back to the other songs, Elizabeth sidled up to Georgiana. "You like Jack, don't you?" she opined more than asked.
"I don't know," Georgiana hesitated to confess anything. "He was such a jerk the last time I met him, but tonight he seems almost sweet. It was so nice to put the song on for the little kids."
"I've known him since he was a baby," Elizabeth told her. "He was a sweet kid but went through a jerky period for a while. He was too cocky for his own good. But these last couple of years from what I've heard from Charlotte, and from her mom via my mom, he has settled down. He's finished college, has a job, is saving for a house."
With this encouragement, Georgiana felt entitled to like Jack. They danced for the rest of the party, which didn't go on very long, and then Jack asked for her number, and then texted her so she would have his.
Jack and Georgiana dated off and on for years and finally married when Georgiana was 33 and Jack 31. They tried for a couple of years to have children and eventually resorted to fertility treatments, which after another year resulted in boy-girl twins.
Georgiana remained friends with Mary, with their love of music a strong bond between them. They often attended symphonies and classical music concerts together, after Mary saw that Henry, despite his best efforts, inevitably ended up dozing at those sorts of things. Before Georgiana had even finished college with a degree in music, they had already collaborated on a fundraising project to supplement the funding for the high school musical programs in their state and they continued working on this project for many years.
A few years after Mary took over running the preschool, Georgiana helped Mary plan the addition of early musical training there, which mostly consisted of the children learning to make rhythms with improvised percussion instruments. Later, they worked on introducing the older children to other musical instruments, with Georgiana finding musicians who were willing to visit the four-year-old classes and teach the children about the particular instrument they played. When it came time for the piano, it was Georgiana herself who demonstrated on the old piano that had once belonged to Mary's Nana, and which was even less in tune than it had been more than fifteen years prior, when it lived in Elizabeth's and Mary's apartment.
The preschool music program culminated in the four-year-olds all being offered the opportunity to stay an extra half hour on Tuesdays and Fridays and receive volunteer instruction to learn simple songs on donated instruments. Mary supervised the project, which took place in the preschool's gym. Although there was a cacophony of sound, she couldn't leave adult volunteers (even though they had been background screened) alone with such young children.
One of the children participating was Reina's much younger sister, Gabriella, the last of the Vasquez-Garcia family to attend the preschool. Gabriella, after hearing the violinist declared, "I want to learn to play that." Mary had huge doubts about including the violin in a program for such young children, given all she knew how difficult it was to master and indeed, Gabriella was the only one to request lessons on it.
However, when the school year was drawing to a close, Gabriella's instructor, Taishiro Sato who played for the local symphony raved to Mary after the children had gone home, "I've never seen such raw talent in a child of her age."
The sounds Gabriella managed to produce on the violin sounded awful to Mary, but she kept her opinion to herself; perhaps they were less awful than he had been expecting. She commented, "That's great!"
Mr. Sato asked Mary, "Do you think her family would be willing for her to continue with lessons this summer?"
Mary, knowing that the Garcia family was poor and Gabriella was on partial scholarship, told him, "I'm sure they would, but I am not sure they can afford to pay."
"Oh, that doesn't matter," told her. "Gabriella has it in her to be great, and it would be my honor to see to it that her talent is nurtured." A few days later, the school year ended, the four-year-olds had their graduation and Mary heard nothing further about whether Gabriella was going to take more lessons. The matter quickly left her mind as she had many things to do to prepare for the summer session.
Ten years later, Mary received a handwritten letter from Gabriella and that memory flooded back to her as she read:
Dear Ms. Long,
I can't thank you enough for what you did for me with your preschool's musical program. The rest of my family isn't musical at all and I don't think I would have been introduced to playing music until maybe middle school if it wasn't for your program. Mr. Sato was an amazing instructor and then helped me find another instructor when my family moved to the other side of the state.
As it is, I already have a musical career even though I've only in my freshman year of high school. Recently, I was even invited to play violin at our state governor's inauguration. People sometimes think that preschool and early music instruction isn't important, but I am proof of just how vital it is. Enclosed are two tickets to the inauguration; I hope whether or not he was your candidate, you will attend and see me play.
Sincerely,
Gabriella Garcia
P.S. My sister Reina Vasquez still has her snake Slytherin. She claims he is just a relic of her childhood, but I know the truth. The last time I was at her place when she was feeling sick, I found her curled up with him. She has never forgotten how you saved him with your crochet hook. Recently Reina married and is expecting her first child, a little boy. She has been trying to learn how to crochet so that she can make him his own special lovey.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this story. I suppose with the brief mention of Georgiana's courtship and wedding could make me claim to have five weddings but as we got very little in the way of details on her wedding or Charlotte's wedding, maybe it would have been more accurate to call it three weddings, but I liked the movie reference too well to alter it up or down. I could go on and on, and give you many more details of her story, and what all the kids got up to, but for the sake of my other in-progress stories I've got to cut it off here.
Thank you for all your support. I hope this happy ending has left you filled with many warm fuzzies. I think we need more of those than ever these days. Happy reading.
