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Eleven o'clock at night on the next day, Mary had just left for the night and Billy was in bed. It was the perfect time for Wilson to execute his plan. It was just 8:00 on the west coast.

"Hello?" a cordial woman said on the other side of the phone.

"Mrs. Camden?" Hi, it's Wilson, Wilson West."

"Hi Wilson," she said sitting down on her bed. "How have you been?"

"Good. And yourself?"

She smiled at his politeness. "I'm fine. What's up?

"Well, I wanted to talk to you about something. I'm not exactly sure if I should be getting in the middle of this, but I guess I don't have that much to lose. You see, Mary's been kind of down lately. She wants to come back to GlenOak for Thanksgiving, but she's afraid that you don't want her there, don't want her home at all."

"That's preposterous. We'd love to have her home, especially for Thanksgiving."

"Great, that's what I thought. I was thinking of buying airline tickets for her and myself to come out there. Would it be OK with you if we came for Thanksgiving?"

"Oh, that would be wonderful!" she gushed. "We'd love to see both of you." Annie paused. "What about Billy?"

"My mother agreed to take him. She hasn't seen him in over a year."

Annie smiled again. "You know, you're a good man Wilson. I really admire you. And you're always such a good influence on Mary; you teach her the right things."

"Thanks Mrs. Camdens, but Mary's a good influence on me as well. She's everything to me."

***

Three days later, Wilson rang Mary's doorbell at the Colonel's. She opened the door, her wet blonde hair cascading down her robe-clad shoulders. It was obvious that she had just stepped out of her morning shower.

She laughed when she saw him. "Come in, I'll go put something on."

Wilson sat on the couch and waited for Mary to emerge five minutes later. When she entered the room, she looked even more beautiful than before. Wilson stood and Mary went over and kissed his cheek.

"So what's up?" she asked him.

"I have something for you," he said as she handed her a plain white envelope.

Mary unfolded the top triangle tucked inside and pulled out the contents. Inside were three plane tickets- one for Wilson, one for Billy, and one for herself- for a flight departing from Buffalo and arriving in GlenOak early Thanksgiving morning. She looked up at him questioningly, asking him to explain.

"I talked to your mom, and she said that your family would love to see you for Thanksgiving, so…" He gestured to the tickets in Mary's hands.

Mary kissed Wilson passionately, grabbing his face in her hands and rubbing her thumbs over the smooth skin of his cheeks. "See, this is why I love you. You're so good to me." She kissed him again, "Thank you. This means a lot to me."

He smiled widely. "You're welcome. And…my mom is going to take Billy because she really wants to se him. So it can be like almost a date… at your parents' house." Mary took his hands. "And speaking of your parents, we can tell them that we're engaged while we're there." Mary looked a little leery. "What?"

"It's just that if I tell my parents- my family- that we're engaged, they'll expect us to get married soon. I don't want to feel pressured by them."

"I won't let anyone pressure you into anything, don't worry." He kissed her once more. It was so hard for him to stop; her lips were so soft and inviting. "So you're OK with this then?"

"Very OK. Happy OK. Appreciative OK." She paused. "These must have cost you a fortune. Thanksgiving is in less than a week."

"That's none of your concern. Besides, you can't put a price on your happiness."

She giggled. "Well, at least I know what to be thankful for this year."

***

Very early Thanksgiving morning, before the sun was up, Mary, Wilson and Billy were seated on an airplane headed back to the hometown that belonged to all three of them. Each row of seats of the plane held three places, a trio to the left of the aisle and a trio to the right. They were seated to the left. Billy had the window seat. He loved to fly and, even though it was dark, didn't want to miss out on any of the action. Mary was in the middle due to Billy's urging. He wanted so desperately to sit next to her. That left Wilson with the aisle seat.

Mary was generally OK with flying, but she had to admit that after September 11th she wasn't all that comfortable with it anymore. It was only a little over two months after the terrorist attacks, and the Terror Alert had been elevated for the holiday. Wilson hadn't flown since that day, either, but he seemed calm. The rest of the plane, however, was on the same boat as Mary. She looked around at the rest of the travelers- they all seemed to be on edge. Flying was always stressful, but this was fear. She noticed all the other passengers were eyeing their flight-mates as they got on the plane, making quick judgment as to whether or not a man with Italian leather luggage or a woman in a business suit were capable of carrying out a horrific act against the country they now held even closer to their hearts. When Mary noticed them doing this, she realized that she had been doing the same thing, too. She knew that it was wrong to judge someone on their appearance, but it was hard to stop.

To divert her attention away from her anxiety, Mary turned her eyes to Wilson. She looked up at his face, then down in his lap and sought out his hand. She grabbed it and squeezed gently. He squeezed back without a word, and she instantly felt safe and loved. He had the uncanny ability to make everything OK. She smiled at him when Billy tapped her shoulder. He was positively giddy over getting to fly. Mary wondered how Billy could have so much energy this early.

"When are we going to take off?" he asked.

"Soon I think, but not for a little while. People are still getting on."

Billy sulked. "They should hurry up. I want to take off right now. Maybe when I'm older, I can be a pilot. Then I can fly you and Dad anywhere you want to go."

"No," Wilson said as he butted himself into their conversation.

"Why not?"

"Because…it's too dangerous and I don't want you to be a pilot."

Mary smiled and shook her head as Billy formulated a comeback. "But what if I was really good at it?"

Wilson smiled at his son's innocence. "You learn how to fly a plane, then we'll talk."

"I could be a good pilot," Billy said, not able to drop the conversation. "I'm not afraid to fly at all." He turned to Mary. "Are you?"

"A little," she confessed.

Wilson compressed his grip on her hand and she turned to face him. "I didn't know that. You going to be OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm not afraid to fly, I'm just afraid to fly now," she explained.  He nodded and wrapped his arm around her. "That helps."

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Nearly forty-five minutes later they were up in the air. Mary yawned loudly as the objects on the ground beneath them began to look smaller and smaller with their climbing altitude. Wilson rubbed the side of Mary's arm and she turned to look at him, eyes drooping.

"Are you tired?"

She nodded. Wilson pushed the armrest between them up and out of the way before pulling Mary against the side of his body. Mary snuggled in beside him and closed her eyes. This was the first time she was actually sleeping next to him- not counting that time when they were just kids. It felt good to have him so close to her and to know that when she opened her eyes he would the first thing she would see. It was just what she needed at the moment.

Within fifteen minutes she was asleep. Billy and Wilson both made sure they stayed quite as to not disturb Mary. About halfway into the flight, Wilson dozed off, too, leaning his head on top of Mary's. Billy looked away from the window and over at the two of them and smiled. As soon as he did that, though, Wilson woke up.

"What?" he whispered to his son.

"Nothing." Billy couldn't wipe the smile off of his face.

Mary remained asleep for the rest of the flight, up until Wilson woke her to relay the message that they would be landing soon. She rubbed her eyes as she sat up, getting a grin out of both Wilson and Billy. This was certainly going to be one sweet trip back to GlenOak- sweet enough to land you in the dentist's office with multiple cavities. That was what young engagements were supposed to be like, though- cavity inducing sweet.

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A/N: This chapter didn't' exactly turn out as mushy as I wanted it to be, but I think it was good enough. And I hope the September 11th thing wasn't cheesy- I was trying to make it realistic, especially since they were taking a cross-country flight. I know I'd still be nervous now.

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Write me a review and tell me about all the cavities you got from this chapter.

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