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Chapter 24

"Natalie I... I...Just wanted to prove to you, show you even that I was really in this, this time, I heard you on the phone with Jess, you were telling her how unsure you were that things would be different from how they use to be, different when we got back and into the real world even. Natalie I just didn't want you to doubt it or me, or what I felt," he told her as he continued to sit across from her

"John... You are making no sense" she told him " I just don't understand what marrying me in Vegas when I was drunk was suppose to accomplish?" she asked him still a bit calm, John noted her calmness and thought it was a good sign, a real good sign.

"I didn't set out to marry you while you were drunk. It just happened that way. I waited for you, I was going to ask you, show you that I wanted the same things as you. You told Jess you wanted those things, a husband, a family, I didn't want you to go on any longer thinking I didn't want those things," he told her and he reached over to her across the desk, he tried to take her hand that was resting on the desk and she pulled it away from him.

"I still don't understand why? Why you would trick me into marrying you while I was drunk" she told him and her tone got a bit higher.

"You came back drunk Natalie!" he said his voice now rising, " I was all set to ask you, had the damn cheesy Justice from one of those crappy chapels coming over to marry us in an hour and you came back drunk! You were suppose to be shopping for gifts for Gabby and Brenna!" he said his voice rising and rising in tone.

Natalue stood, "you've got to be kidding me JOhn? You're mad at me for coming back drunk? And... and..." Natalue was ready to explode, she saw him now stand, and he was turning red.

"A cheesy Justice married us? Please tell me he wasn't dressed up like Fucking Elvis... John... he better not have been any resemblance to Elvis" she yelled at him all hostile now, her emotions, her temper all over the place.

John laughed at the Elvis comment, he couldn't help it, it was funny, but she didn't think it was so funny. She glared at him like she wanted to kill him.

"Its not F-ing funny, you knew I was drunk and you married me without me knowing"

"Natalie, you're over reacting," he told her and she almost spit fire out of her lungs at him

"I'm over reacting, I'M OVER REACTING!" she screamed

"Yeah, calm down, you're all emotional and hormonal or something"

"Yeah, well... I have more than one reason to be," she yelled at him, he just shook his head confused for a minute.

They just stood for a few minutes glaring at each other when after a few minutes he began to speak and gently.

"Natalie... I made a mistake, okay, another one. This time cause I just wanted to give you what you wanted. I wanted you to know without a doubt in your mind that I loved you and wanted the same things as you. That I wouldn't change when we got back to Llanview. I didn't expect for us to clear the air on the plane. I just didn't want you to have any doubts," he told her and she looked at him, she softened a bit, her eye's got watery.

"I can understand that to a point JOhn but... we've been home a month, we've been planning a wedding when we were already married"

"We weren't married in front of God and with our families around to help us celebrate," he told her, she just shook her head.

"Natalie can you honestly tell me... if you weren't drunk that night, if I asked you like I planned, would you have said no?" he asked her and she looked him straight in the eye.

"I'm not mad about that," she told him

"Then what?'

"You took away my choice... again" she told him and it hurt, she saw his face and it hurt him.

"Well... I guess I did... except this time... this time I wasn't keeping a secret of your dead husband being alive, this time... I just wanted for us to be husband and wife like maybe it should've been along time ago, maybe if I didn't fuck things up then, I just... I just didn't want to screw it up again," he told her and she was still being stubborn.

"I Love you Natalie" he said as he stood in front of her, looked into her glassy eye's, he reached around her grabbed his jacket. " I'll be at Llanfair on time tomorrow, do what you want to do," he told her and he turned and walked out the door.

Natalie watched his back as he walked all the way out the door and down the halls, she went back over to his desk, sank down to his chair, sat in it and looked over the marriage certificate, she heard a noise by the door and her eye's moved up and off the paper to see Bruce standing there.

"You know... its not like he cheated on you Kid " Bruce told her as her as he entered John's office obvious that he was ease dropping.

John walked into their apartment devastated, well their apartment for now he thought as he went near the Answering machine. The message light was blinking and he pushed it.

"Ms. Buchanan this is the Pharmacy on Lincoln street, We're just calling to tell you that your prescription for prenatal vitamins are ready and can be picked up at anytime, thank you and have a good night"

John sank himself on the couch. He put his elbows on his knees and placed his face in his hands.

The End

Sequel to follow... Forever and Ever