The doorbell rings at quarter past 5. Mary answers it, knowing that it is Wilson. As soon as she sees him, she finds she has to struggle to fight back tears, but fails miserably. It looked as if a river was rushing from her eyes. Wilson puts his arms around Mary, and she digs her head into his chest. He takes her hand and walks her into the living room.
"How about you relax for a little bit and we can eat a little late."
She nods wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands. Wilson and Mary lie down on the couch together lengthwise, with Mary in-between Wilson's legs.
"Do you want to talk or do you just want to lie here?"
"Lie here, talk later." She says, snuggling closer to him. He kisses her lips nonchalantly.
"Everything will be all right, trust me. I love you."
"I love you too." She answers, no longer able to keep her eyes open. The events of the day have surely taken their toll on her, and she quickly falls asleep in Wilson's arms. He notices how tired she is, and decides to let her sleep. 10 minutes later, Mrs. Camden comes into tell them dinner is on the table. Wilson quietly asks her to save plates for both of them, and she agrees to.
At 7:30, Mary and Wilson go into the kitchen to have their dinner. As they eat, they begin to talk.
"So, did you have anything specific you wanted to say to me?"
"Not really, just that I love you. And that if I made you feel not needed, I'm sorry. I'm just not fully comfortable with all of this. It feels weird telling you about Robbie."
"How so? You've talked to me about him before."
"No, I talked to you about what he did to me, that's different. I never described my feelings towards him, and frankly I don't want to. Its not right for me to do that, so I'm not going to."
"OK. I'm not asking you to."
"I know, but I kind of felt that's what you were trying to get out of me before."
"I wasn't though. I was trying to get out about how you feel about his death, not about your relationship with him. I don't want to know about your relationship with Robbie or how you felt about him. He's not important to me, he never was. You are. You and Billy are the two people I care about." He touches her face lightly with his hand. "You know that right?" He can tell she does by the look in her eyes. "And you know that I love you, don't you?" She nods. "I want you to know that every time I say those words to you, I mean it, with all of my heart. You know that I think it's a big deal to say that, and that I wouldn't say it if I didn't feel it. We belong with each other, and I can't wait until you're my wife."
"And I cannot wait until you're my husband."
Their lips meet in a passionate kiss, as Annie strolls down the stares, catching a glimpse of the two. She clears her throat, and they stop.
"I'm glad to see that you're OK Mary." Mary blushes. Annie pulls up a chair next to them. "I wanted to talk to the two of you. Your father and I were talking Mary, and we came up with an idea, one that we're very proud of."
"Ok…"
"We've been thinking, and we decided that we could put an apartment in over the garage. And once its built, we would like you and Wilson to live in it, and Billy too of course."
"Oh Mom. Wow. Do you mean it?"
"Yes."
"Thank you." Mary says, as happy tears roll down her face. She is glad that her dream is starting to become a reality; she is going to actually marry Wilson. They are going to live together, eventually, and they already have place to stay.
"This is really nice of you and the Reverend." Wilson says.
"Well, it's our pleasure. This way we can keep and eye on you three. And I won't risk loosing my baby, either…or you Wilson. You've practically lived at out house for six months now. I noticed today that I set an extra place at the table now, out of habit. I just expect you to be here and eat with us." Annie laughs. "And we can always tell something is wrong with Mary when we don't see you around for a couple of hours." Mrs. Camden puts her hand on Wilson's arm. "We all treat you and Billy like family. And even though we weren't ok with the idea at first, we are looking forward to the two of you actually becoming a real part of our family."
"Thank you Mrs. Camden. You don't know how much that means to me."
"Your welcome Wilson." She says, as the both stand up and hug each other.
"Well, that's all I wanted to talk to you two about, so I'll go back upstairs and leave you to alone. Oh, and the blankets are still in the living room in case Wilson wants to stay."
"Thanks Mom." Mary says.
Annie smiles at the happy couple and walks away.
"Do you want to stay?" Mary asks Wilson.
"Sure, why not."
They walk into the living room, holding hands, and sit down on the couch.
"Are you tired?" he asks her.
"Sort of. Not so much tired, though, more like emotionally drained."
"Let me help." Wilson says softly, placing his lips against Mary's. Their kiss becomes more passionate as they explore the depths of each other mouths with their tongues. Eventually, they pull away in need of air.
"That helped a lot." Mary says with a slight smile. "And you've helped a lot. Everything always seems so complicated, but when I'm with you it just isn't anymore. You're honestly the best thing that's ever happened to me."
"And you me."
"Why do you say that? What have I done for you?"
"Come on, like you don't know."
Mary shakes her head.
"You're my reason to go on. I love Billy, you know I do, but it's very difficult to be a father at my age, and depressing. You're my reason to get out of bed every morning."
Mary kisses him. "Thank you. Even if you don't mean that, because I don't know how I possibly could have helped you, thank you."
"I do mean it." He says staring into her eyes.
"You're a great guy, you know that? No I take that back, you're a great man, a real man. You're the only real man that I've ever known."
"Thank you, but don't be so quick to sell yourself short. You're a great woman, and your going to make a great wife. I couldn't have asked for a better person to share the rest of my life with. And with that, let's sleep."
Mary squirms around, trying to find a comfortable position. She can't seem to find one that suits her.
"I hate this couch! I can't wait until we can sleep in a real bed. I'm always afraid that I'm too heavy to lay on top of you, or that I'll fall off, or even worse that I'll fall off and bring you down with me." She says sitting back up.
"Your not too heavy." He says, but she doesn't listening.
"We could sleep on the floor…" she says, pointing behind the couch.
"Okay, if that what you want."
They get up off the couch and set up the blankets on the floor. They crawl under them together, wrapping their arms around one another and entangling their legs provocatively. Mary rests her head on Wilson's shoulder. He kissed the top of her head.
"Are you OK?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Seriously, you're fine?"
"As fine as I'm going to be. Don't worry about me, I'm not."
"See, this is what I love about you. Your smart…and beautiful…and sweet…and funny…and kind…" he says, kissing his way from her neck down to her collarbone. He slips that shoulder off her tank top off and kisses from her collarbone over to her left shoulder. She pulls his face back up to hers and kisses his lips. After they pull away, Mary raises her eyebrow at him, seductively.
"No. See, don't get mad at me, but this is why I don't express my love for you in any way besides kissing you- on your mouth. Because you expect everything to lead to sex."
"Not everything." She says to him. He glares back at her. "But why not? That's what I don't understand. We just spent the last 2 hours telling each other how much we love the other, and we're getting married. Why not now?"
"There are many reasons." He says, as he grabs her hand to try to keep her focused. "One, we are on the floor of your parents' living room. Not that romantic. Two, when we do have sex, eventually, I want it to be special, and this is not special. Third, and the most important one, your not ready."
"Yes I am."
"No, I mean emotionally. Today was hard enough for you; I don't want to add to it. I was thinking about this, and I think that waiting until we get married would be best for you. That way you'll know when it's going to happen, and you can emotionally prepare for it. No matter what you say, it's not going to be easy."
"Yeah, but I'll have you, and I want you. You don't get it. I want to be as close to you as we possibly can be."
"But the longer we wait, the better it will be."
"But it will be amazing now."
"And how would you know."
"I wasn't numb when he raped me."
Wilson's eyes widen. "Why don't we stop talking about this."
"Why? Does it make you nervous?"
"Honestly, a little. But that's besides the point…"
"Come on Wilson. We love each other." She pleads.
"Yes, we do, but you're not going to pressure me into having sex with you."
Mary smiles, but quickly wipes it off her face. "You don't understand."
"You're right, I don't, because I don't see the importance in doing it right now. Let's wait, please."
"Fine," she says with a bit of an attitude.
"Don't be mad at me Mare," he says, wrapping his arms around her. She rolls away from so that she is no longer facing him.
"I'm not mad at you, I just don't know anymore."
"Don't know what."
"Nothing, never mind. I'm sorry."
"Come here." He positions her between his legs. She wraps her legs around his tightly. "Better?"
"Much."
"OK, good. Sleep now."
She closes her eyes and falls into a deep sleep. About an hour later, she starts to turn in her sleep. Mary opens her eyes suddenly, and finds her heart beating fast and that she is short of breath. She starts to cry, recalling her dream, and remembering that it seemed more like a reality. She slowly frees herself from Wilson's grasp, and stands up. She walks up the stairs, and into her bathroom in search of the box of tissues. She fumbles around in the dark, putting her hands out in front of her. She feels around at the spot where the tissues usually are, but doesn't find them. She figures Lucy must have taken them into the bedroom. Reluctantly, she stumbles inside, sobbing and all. She cannot locate the tissues in the blackness, and it is not long before Lucy hears her.
"Mary? Is that you?"
"Yes." She says, immediately trying to stop crying, but to no avail. Lucy turns on the light by her bed, and sees Mary's tear-stricken face.
"Why are you up here? Isn't Wilson here? Are you crying? What's wrong?" she says squinting as her eyes adjust to the light.
"Tissues, yes, maybe, and nothing."
"Tissues are over there." Lucy says, pointing at the desk. "Now come and tell me what's bothering you. Is it Robbie?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Yes you do, otherwise you wouldn't have come up here. There's tissues downstairs."
"I came up here because I didn't want Wilson to here me crying."
"Maybe, but that's not the whole truth. What's wrong?"
"Its stupid-" she says trying to shrug it off.
"I don't care. I won't laugh at you." Lucy says interrupting her.
"I had a bad dream."
"What happened in it?"
"Look, I already told you, I really don't want to talk about it. Can I just stay up here for 15 minutes without you hounding me?"
"Fine, but you know Wilson is going to come look for you."
"No he won't. He won't even notice I'm gone. He was sound asleep."
"I notice when you're not here, and he's in the same bed – err, couch - with you. Believe me he'll notice."
And with that, Wilson comes walking through the door. "Mary, are you ok? I rolled over and you weren't there, I was worried."
"Yeah, I guess I'm ok." She answers, but all three of them know that that's a lie.
Wilson sits down on the bed next to her and puts his arm around her back.
"I just came up here to get the box of tissues."
Lucy coughs loudly and pats her chest. "Sorry, I guess I must be coming down with something."
Mary glares at her sister, who just smiles.
"OK fine, I didn't come up here just to get tissues. Maybe we should go downstairs and talk though, because Lucy has to get up in the morning. Besides, she needs her rest if she's getting sick." Mary smiles at her sister, getting a slight taste of revenge.
"Oh, come on!" Lucy protests. "After you woke me up in the middle of the night, and after I helped you today you're just not going to tell me."
"That's right." Mary retorts. Lucy begins to pout. "Fine, fine, I'll tell you later. Good night." She says, walking out of the door, dragging Wilson behind her.
Once they get back downstairs, they walk into the living room and sit down on the couch. As soon as they touch the fabric of the couch, Mary clutches Wilson tightly. He holds her back, not knowing what was going on. He could hear that she was crying, and tries to comfort her without saying anything, waiting for her to be the first to speak.
"Promise me you won't ever leave me?" she asks him.
"Never, I promise."
After 20 seconds, Mary sits up and dries her eyes. Wilson grabs her hand, and notices that it's shaking.
"I feel like an idiot." She begins.
"You're not an idiot." He tells her, having no clue where she was going with this.
"I-I had a dream that- you know what forget it, its stupid. I'll be OK."
"Its obviously upsetting you, but if you don't want to tell me that's fine. I'm not going to force you."
Mary thinks for a second. "Promise you won't laugh?"
"Promise."
"I had a dream that you and me and Billy and my parents and brothers and sisters were all somewhere. The room was bright and we all seemed so happy. Then all of the sudden Robbie burst through the door, kills me, kills you, and then kills himself. You tried to save me, though, but it didn't work. Then we disappeared, I don't know how but we did, and my family wasn't even fazed. They watched him kill me and didn't care. And Billy was left all alone, and-" She is unable to finish her sentence because she is crying hysterically.
Wilson holds Mary out in front of him by her shoulders. "You know that would never happen, right? Robbie's gone, and your family does care about you. They love you, almost as much as I love you." he says brushing her face with his hand. "Ok?"
She nods. "That was stupid, wasn't it?"
"Not at all. It seemed perfectly normal to me. You're scared, but I have you. There isn't anything to be afraid of."
"You tried to save me then, too, but you couldn't."
"But it was only a dream."
"Yeah," she says with a yawn. "Wilson, I was thinking…" she says.
"And?"
"What do you say to moving up our wedding date?"
"We haven't even set a date yet."
"But we set a general time."
"To when?"
"Um, really soon." She says, playing with his fingers, not able to look him in the eyes.
"How soon?"
"2 ½ hours."
"What?!"
"We could drive to Las Vegas. We'll have a mini-honeymoon and come back Tuesday."
"Are you serious?" he asks, staring deep into her eyes.
"Yes. I don't want to wait anymore. And tomorrow is not guaranteed. Please Wilson. I want you. I want to be married to you, now, so we'll never have to leave each other."
"And what brought this about?"
"The thought of you having to leave me later. I don't want you to go. I never want you to leave, but now I just really need you. I've been needing you more and more lately. I'm lost when you're not here."
"But maybe now's not the best time. I mean, you're going through this whole Robbie thing now. I don't think now is the right time. We could push the date up more, maybe in a couple of months."
"I really want to get married now. It feels right."
"But we have to tell everyone. And don't you want your dad to marry us? That's the way I always pictured it. And Ruthie as the flower girl and Billy as the ring bearer. We don't even have rings."
"We don't need rings to be married. And maybe I could con my dad into marrying us, now, instead of going to Vegas, then we could get it over with and be married already."
"I guess. But how would you do that? And why would you want to?"
"I already told you why I want to. I'd tell him that this whole thing shook me up, and I want to get married now. This whole thing has put things into perspective for me, and I don't want to wait. I'll tell him I still want him to be a part of it, but I just want to do it now."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"If this is what you want then its fine with me."
"Really?" she asks enthusiastically.
"Yeah, I guess so."
"Great," she responds, and kisses him passionately.
"But how about we wait until tomorrow morning."
"All right." Mary grin goes from ear to ear. She hasn't been this happy since she first met Wilson.
"Want to try to go back to sleep."
"I guess."
"Couch or floor?"
"Floor."
They lie back down to sleep, and this time sleep through the night.
Mary awakens early the next morning, and kisses Wilson's lips lightly, hoping to wake him up. He begins to stir, and slowly opens his eyes.
"Hello." He says to her, and leans up to kiss her lips above his face.
"Let's go talk to my dad."
Wilson is caught off guard. "Now? What times is it?"
"Six."
"In the morning?"
"Yes silly."
"Right, right now?" She gives him a puppy-dog face, and he smiles. "Ok, Ok. Give me a couple of minutes."
Wilson sits up and Mary sits in his lap. "You sure?"
"Yes. Ready?"
"For my dad to scream at me, no."
"Maybe he won't yell." Mary glares at him. "Or maybe he will." She smiles and kisses his cheek. They both stand up, and clasp hands. "Wait, I forgot to ask you. How are you doing? Are you all right?"
"Yeah I'm fine. Thanks for asking."
"Really? I thought you hated it when anyone ask you how you are."
"Well yeah…but you're not anyone."
Mary and Wilson walk up stairs and knock on her parent's bedroom door.
"Dad, can Wilson and I talk to you? Its kind of important." She asks through the door.
"Sure, I'll be out in five minutes."
Ten minutes later, Mary tells her father her plan, and tries to explain her reasoning. He doesn't even let her finish, though. "What?! This is insane. That's the only word for it, insane."
"No its not. This is what I want. Please Dad. You and mom are both always talking about how you can help me, well this will help. I want to be married to Wilson- now. I can't wait any longer. I want to include you in this, but I don't have to you know."
"Are you threatening to elope if I won't marry you right now?"
"It's possible."
"Mary!" Eric takes a deep breath and controls his temper. "Please, don't do this. You couldn't have even put that much thought into it."
"It doesn't matter how much thought I put into it. My mind is made up; this is what I want. I love Wilson, and I want to marry him."
"And Wilson? Is his what you want too?"
"Yes, Sir." He answered.
"Well, let me think about this one."
After an hour of anxiety, Eric reenters the kitchen with Annie. At the sight of them, Mary and Wilson grab each other's hand tightly.
"Look, I-we, uh…you're not pregnant, are you?" Eric asks seriously.
"Dad! No!"
"Just asking, because I was thinking, you know, why would you guys want to rush to get married all of the sudden? I mean, where's the fire?"
Mary bites her tongue to refrain from saying anything.
"What your father means is," Annie starts, "why right now? Can't you wait a little bit, 6 months?"
"No, I can't." Mary looks into Wilson's eyes for the courage to continue. "I'd like to tell you why I feel like I have to get married right now, but I can't. I can't put it into words." She squeezes Wilson's hand tightly. "I love him so much, so strong, that I can't wait any longer, and I honestly don't see the point in it. I've been waiting for over four years. I don't have the strength to wait any longer."
"And I feel the same way." Wilson adds, smiling at his fiancé.
"You understand, don't you Mom?"
Annie smiles at Eric, "Yes, I have to say I do."
Mary turns to her father with tears in her eyes. "Please marry us Daddy."
"You haven't called me Daddy in 10 years." Is all he can say before he slumps down into a chair.
"This is what you really want, what you both really want?"
"Yes" Mary and Wilson both say in unison.
"Well then I guess I only have one choice…"