A Womb With A View by Kakie

Chapter 10

The next few weeks went by very quickly for both Larry and Ally. Larry had to secure the time off between Christmas and New Years which wasn't an easy feat considering the short notice. He celebrated Christmas a couple of days early with Sam and Jamie who's attitude remained chilly towards him. Sam seemed okay with being excluded from the wedding; he was more excited about becoming a big brother. Larry told his boss as soon as he returned from Thanksgiving and gave his notice effective February 1st. His boss was happy for him but disappointed about losing a valued employee. His friends were happy but wary for him. He assured them that this was the right decision. In spite of everything, he couldn't wait to marry Ally.

Ally, on the other hand, was not having an easy time. Her parents, although in the mist of a divorce, banded together for a common goal, to try to convince her that marrying Larry was a mistake. Nothing Ally said or did could convince them she knew what she was doing. She gave up and let them think they were making progress with her. They seemed pleased by this and left promising to see her over Christmas. Of course by the time she did see them again, she would be Larry's wife and it would be a done deal. She hated lying to them but she felt they gave her no choice. At work, people congratulated her and then gossiped behind her back. All the while she was getting bigger every day. Between the pregnancy and planning for the wedding, she had no energy to strike back at those like Nelle and Ling who looked at her with pity for being desperate enough to marry Larry. In spite of everything, she couldn't wait to marry Larry.

The doorbell rang and Ally waddled to the door.

"Larry!"

He grabbed and embraced her. "God, I've missed you."

"I've missed you, too."

He closed the door with his foot and then kissed her.

"You're early. I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow."

"But that's Christmas Eve and our wedding day. I think it's in bad form for the groom not to show until the wedding day." He intertwined his fingers with hers. "I know you had doubts that I wasn't going to come at all. I wanted to prove to you that trusting me again was not a mistake."

"Larry, I never doubted that you wouldn't come. My instincts told me that you'd be here. They didn't tell me you'd be here a day early."

He grinned. "I didn't want to wait another day to see you. These last four weeks have been painful."

She cocked her head and looked at him. "Painful?" She glanced down at her bulging stomach and he followed suit.

"Whoa. I didn't realized you had gotten so much bigger."

She patted him on the cheek. "Thanks, Larry. I appreciate that. I'm not finished, you know. I have another seven weeks to go and the doctor insists I'm not done gaining yet."

He wrapped his arms around her. "I don't care how big you get."

She wrapped her arms around his neck. "Spoken like a man in love."

"No arguments from me. So, is there anything I can do for the big day?"

"No, I think everything is done. The car has gas, I have directions and as long as you have a nice suit to wear I think we're in business."

"So, it looks like we have everything ready to get married tomorrow."

"So it does."



A former client had once mentioned to Ally that she and her husband had gotten married in a quaint little chapel about two hours north of Boston. The Justice of the Peace and his wife ran the adjacent bed and breakfast. When Ally first called about getting married there on Christmas Eve, she was told that the chapel would be closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It didn't take much persuasion on Ally's part to convince his wife to make an exception. She had a soft heart for second chance couples and they agreed to marry them.

"Are you nervous?" Larry asked as he drove down the interstate.

"Would you be upset if I said that I was terrified?"

"Not in the slightest. If I let go of this steering wheel, you'd see how unsteady my hands are."

"Good." She took a deep breath. "We have the video camera all ready to go in the trunk. Your suit and my dress in the backseat. Do you have the marriage license and the rings?"

"In the glove compartment. I'm surprised you didn't show me your wedding dress."

"Why would I show it to you? I'll admit we have broken almost every wedding tradition there is but I refuse to let you see me in my wedding dress before the ceremony."



With the help of Mrs. Wesley, Ally slipped into her wedding dress.

"Oh," she gasped, "you look beautiful."

Ally turned and stared at the woman in the refection. Was this really her? The dress she selected at the maternity boutique disguised her pregnancy so it wasn't so obvious.

"The dress is so flattering you would never know you were expecting so soon, Miss McBeal."

"Thanks."

Mrs. Wesley glanced at her watch. "It's time. Are you ready?"

Ally gave her hair, which was piled on her head with flowered combs, one last pat. A piece of her last meeting with Dr. Wyatt ran through her head.

"Dr. Wyatt, how will I know if I've made the right decision?"

"Because in your heart, there will be no room for doubt."

Ally stared at her reflection one last time. "No room for doubt."

"What was that?" asked Mrs. Wesley.

Ally smiled at the kind woman. "I'm ready."



Larry paced in front of the fireplace in the parlor. The butterflies he had earlier had turned into frogs and were quickly becoming rabbits. Where was she? He stopped suddenly. Had she changed her mind? He shook the thought away. No way. She was getting ready.

"Larry."

He turned at the sound of his name and stared at the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

"Wow. You look amazing." He walked over and lightly kissed her on the lips.

"You don't look so bad either," she said with a shy smile. "Ready to get married?"

"I've been ready a long time."



With the video camera recording, the justice of the peace began the ceremony. While holding hands, their eyes never wavered.

"Do you take Ally to be your wife?"

"I do," replied Larry.

"Do you take Larry to be your husband?"

"I do," replied Ally.

"Then I pronounce you husband and wife."

While Larry kissed his bride, Mrs. Wesley whispered in her husband's ear. "They remind me of us, Harry. How many times did fate throw us together before we took the hint?"

"Several." Harry placed an arm around his wife as they watched the newlyweds kiss.

At last, Larry pulled back and grinned. "Did we really just get married?"

"Yes, and I have the ring to prove it." She held out her hand and watched as the gold band glittered in the light.

Larry glanced down at his hand and stared at his ring for a moment. It felt weird and yet right. He looked at his wife's beaming face. "I love you."

She kissed his cheek. "I love you, too. What do you say we get out of here?"

"My thoughts exactly."

While Larry settled up with Mr. Wesley and his wife, Ally packed up the video camera.

"Good luck, Ally."

Ally turned and saw Mrs. Wesley standing beside her. "Thank you for everything, Mrs. Wesley. I know you probably wondered why we chose to get married like this."

"Not at all. I've been where you are." She glanced down at Ally's stomach. "Well, not exactly where you are. Can I share a story with you?"

"Please do."

Mrs. Wesley looked over at her husband, who was in deep conversation with Larry. "Harry and I were high school sweethearts. We planned to get married after graduation but the war came and Harry got drafted. We decided to wait until after he returned. During those years I fell in love with a local boy and we got married. I had just delivered my first child when Harry returned for me. It broke my heart to break his heart. I realized soon after my third child was born that I had made a mistake in marrying Ian. Ian was a good man and a good father but I could never feel the way about him that I did for Harry. Ian and I quietly divorced and I went to find Harry. But I was too late. Harry had met someone. They had married and had started a family."

Ally touched her arm. "Oh no. What did you do?"

"What could I do? I did nothing. Harry had no idea I had been looking for him so I let him be. I moved with my three children back to Virginia where my parents lived. My dad was a pediatrician and I became his assistant while my mother stayed home and watched my kids and ran the farm. Then one day, this man came in with his hurt little girl. She had been horseback riding at a nearby farm when she fell off and broke her leg. The moment I saw the man, time stopped."

Ally was loving the story. "It was Harry?"

"The one and only. The look of surprise and love that I saw in his eyes was something I'll never forget. After my dad treated his daughter's leg, we all went back to the farm and Harry and I started talking. His wife had decided after she didn't want to be a wife and mother to his three kids anymore so she moved on with her life. A week later Harry asked me to marry him and three days later we were married in the county clerk's office, just the two of us."

"Three days?" asked Ally, incredulously.

"Fate had thrown us together several times and we ignored her. I wasn't going to take that chance again. So, Ally, I do understand why you did what you did. And I hope you and Larry are as happy as Harry and I have been for the last twenty five years."

Ally hugged the woman she had only known a couple of hours. "Thank you for that story. So you and your three children lived happily ever after with Harry and his three children?"

"Not quite. You forgot about the two we had together." Mrs. Wesley picked up a framed photo from the table and handed it to her.

"Eight kids?" asked Ally.

Mrs. Wesley laughed. "Eight wonderful kids and ten grandkids. It's a better life than I could have ever dreamed of."

Larry appeared at that moment and slipped his arm around Ally's waist. "Ready?"

She nodded and hugged Mrs. Wesley once more. "You inspire me."

Mrs. Wesley nodded. "Now, go home, you two and enjoy your new life."

Within minutes, the Wesley's were alone in the house.

"Thank you, Harry."

"For what?"

"For being everything I ever dreamed of."



Larry carefully joined the traffic on the interstate. He glanced over at Ally and noticed her eyes were closed.

"Sleepy?"

Her eyes opened. "No, just thinking about how happy I am. Are you as happy?"

He squeezed her hand. "If I was any happier, I would float. You and Mrs. Wesley seemed awfully chummy."

"She's a great lady with an amazing life." She told him the story she had shared. "I want to be like her one day."

Larry raised an eyebrow. "The mother of eight and the grandmother of ten?"

"No," she chuckled, "to know the man I married is the man I was destined to be with even after twenty-five years."

He took her hand and kissed it. "I think you will."



He handed her a cup of hot chocolate and climbed back into the bed. She took a sip and set it on the nightstand.

"Do you remember the first time we watched this movie?"

Larry played with the ends of her hair. "Not really."

Ally looked over at him. "It was a year ago in this apartment. It was the first time you mentioned you had a son."

Larry thought back to the night. "I remember. Seems so long ago."

"Another lifetime. At that time you were ashamed of your lacking relationship with your son. Here we are, a year later, married with a child of our own on the way."

"And my relationship with Sam is better than I could have hoped for. It's been quite a year."

"I'll say," said Ally as she stared at her wedding ring. "We've gone from falling in love, to living together to breaking-up to unplanned pregnancy to estrangement to making-up to engagement to marriage all in a year."

He pulled her closer. "And we survived it all, Mrs. Paul."

"Mrs. Paul. It has a nice ring to it. Being your wife is going to be challenge, isn't it?"

Larry frowned. "I don't know if the 'challenge' is the right word."

Ally sat up. "What other word is there? You return to Detroit on January 1st, a mere seven days after we get married, where you will spend the next month tying up loose ends and getting ready to move. You are scheduled to return to Boston at the end of January and Kelsey is due two weeks later. We will have to break the news to everyone that our marriage is a fait acompli and wait for the fall out from your side and my side. Who do you think will hit the roof harder, my parents or Jamie?"

Larry chuckled and turned off the TV. "Since Jamie already knows about our plans, I vote for your parents."

"Not necessarily. I bet Jamie is counting on the fact that you'll do another repeat performance and she'll be there to comfort you."

"Ally," he said as he nibbled on her neck. "I don't want to talk about Jamie or your parents or anything at all. It's our wedding night and I have other plans in mind."

"Oh?" she asked. "Do tell."

"Turn off the light and I'll show you."