Jennifer sniffled as her father wrapped an arm around her. It had been a week since she'd accepted the way things had played out over her babies, and they were in a small church, just the four of them, along with their parents and a few close friends, listening to a preacher talking a lot about Heaven, and the "Great Beyond," a phrase he seemed fond of. Little Nick's death had been highly publicized in the tabloids, which was why the funeral was so small: It was hard to gather everyone together without the media finding out and asking stupid questions. Jennifer could just picture that: a reporter asking, "How do you feel about this, Mrs. Bloom?" and herself responding, "Um, I feel great." She'd grown to loathe the media over the years, since that one single night in which she'd met the man who would become her husband, and her entire life had changed.
The preacher finished his speech, which he'd probably given a thousand times before, and stepped down from the pulpit as a slow, mournful tune drifted quietly out of the speakers. Jenn listened to the words and almost smiled; the idea of playing Mark Schultz's Remember Me had been timidly suggested by Michelle, who looked very frightened that Jenn would either break down crying or start screaming when she'd said it. Jenn and Orli stepped outside, followed closely by their parents, Josh and Michelle. The grass was wet and dewy with last night's rain, leaving grass stains on Jenn's white pumps. Heedless, she followed Orli to a small patch of grass they'd chosen three days before.
Nicholas Joshua Bloom, the headstone read simply. Died at birth. Loved and missed. They'd opted for a small marble carving of an angel holding the headstone, watching over it, and over Nicholas himself.
Jenn couldn't hold back her tears, but she felt more peaceful than she had in weeks. Somehow, with this moment, everything was falling into place. She wasn't leaving Nick behind, but she was putting him to rest, moving on with her life even though almost every waking moment was devoted to thoughts of him. Orli came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her while Josh cradled Allyson. Jenn watched Josh closely, not because she was paranoid, but because she was absorbing the sweetness of the moment. In two weeks' time Allyson would be baptized as a nondenominational Christian. Josh and Michelle were Catholic, but Jenn and Orli had discussed this, and didn't care; there were simply no other godparents for their little girl. Jenn was already fantasizing the baptism ceremony; looking at pictures of her own baptism had always made her intensely curious and strangely desirous. Even as she watched Nick's headstone being erected not five feet from where she stood, she watched Josh swing Ally up into the air, laughing softly, and his joy was so incompressible that she had to smile too.
It occurred to Jenn again, as it had in the hospital, that they'd never had a baby shower. It made her sad, as though they'd already missed out on the first milestone of parenthood. But small matter- she had diapers to buy. Orli had been up all night with Ally and looked beat in the morning; Jennifer had recommended a good long sleep, and he'd seemed keen on the idea, practically pushing her out the door and handing over Ally as she went. So she'd taken Ally with her to go buy more diapers- the baby ran through them like no other, Jenn was sure. She also went out in search of bassinets- Ally had been using her old bassinet, with Orli's old baby blankets, but both bassinet and blankets showed the passage of over twenty years and had clearly been much used; Orli and Jenn agreed that they wouldn't do at all on a permanent basis.
Jenn was frustrated, looking at the bassinets- nothing seemed right. It was all too cheap or too tacky or too outrageously expensive or too uncomfortable-looking. She sighed, gave up, purchased four packages of diapers, and headed home, Ally firmly strapped to her car seat, a much-needed and readily accepted gift from Jenn's parents.
It took nearly twice as long as usual to get home; traffic was terrible for absolutely no reason. She was mildly ill tempered by the time she pulled into the driveway, thinking she might put Ally down for a nap and join Orlando in sleep.
She almost dropped Ally in shock as she walked into the kitchen and heard about two dozen voices crying in unison, "Surprise!" She flashed back to Orli's surprise birthday party and laughed at herself, embarrassed.
Sidling up to her husband, she asked curiously, "What's all this about?"
He laughed and pushed her gently towards the crowd of people all watching her. "You wanted a baby shower. Better late than never."
Her eyes widened in disbelief. "Really?" She winced as her voice shot up two octaves, but he just smiled and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Really. Go mingle."
"Where's Ally?" she asked automatically, and realized, so this is what being a parent is all about. Your first concern is always for your children.
Orli laughed. "You're holding her."
Jenn looked down with a start; Ally, pleased with the attention, gurgled happily. "So I am."
Orli reached to take Ally, with a smile for Jenn. "Go on, have some fun. I'll take care of her for awhile."
"You need to enjoy yourself too," Jenn protested halfheartedly.
"Nah," Orli answered dismissively. "This is your baby shower. Enjoy yourself- really. Before long we'll be in New Zealand and I won't have much time to take Ally off your hands."
Jenn, having been relieved of her baby, clapped her hands like a delighted schoolgirl. "Do you know, I'd almost completely forgotten about that, with everything that's happened lately. We leave the day after tomorrow, don't we?"
"That we do," Orli said, then added with a laugh, "and you still have your three suitcases mostly packed. Not much to do but wait around for two days."
The baby shower had been a wild success. Orli, having been planning the whole thing in secret for weeks, had kept the number of celebrity friends to a minimum, reluctant to involve the press in yet another aspect of their lives. Still, they had received the needed bassinet, along with a crib from Josh and Michelle, half a dozen baby blankets, a smart changing table, a brand-new high chair, countless numbers of baby toys, an expensive pair of intercoms for when they moved Allyson into her own room and a little musical mobile to hang over her crib. Jennifer was surprised and delighted with the whole thing, and even Orli couldn't quite believe the generosity of their friends. At the moment, however, they had more pressing matters at hand.
"Jenn!" Orli called in desperation. "They're waiting! Come on!"
"I'm coming!" she called back, hastily brushing out her tangled hair. There would be no time to dry it. For all Orli's prediction that there would be little to do since they were mostly packed, Jenn had woken up exactly four hours before flight time and convinced herself that she had thousands of things to do. She had consequently spent two frantic hours running around, repacking, adding things to the separate bag she had packed for Ally, and fighting off a panic attack as she tried not to think what would happen if they ran out of diapers, forgetting that there just might be babies, and therefore diapers for sale, even in New Zealand.
Technically, they should have been there the week before, but since Ally was just days old, Jenn's doctors had advised against taking her on a plane halfway across the world at least until she and Orli were more comfortable feeding her, calming her down when she cried and learning what it took to be parents of a newborn. Jenn was very glad for that extra week, but even still it didn't seem to be enough.
"Stop worrying about your hair!" Orli bellowed from the hallway, and Jenn almost screamed in sheer frustration- how could he possibly know what she was doing? Why did Orli know everything? Why was Orli always right? Why was Orli the only one packed?
"I'm not worrying about my hair!" she called in response, a blatant lie. There was no answer from the hallway, and Jenn sighed in relief, all the while desperately running the brush through the knots that had suddenly taken up residence in her hair.
The door crashed open. "I told you!" Orli cried triumphantly. "Forget your hair. Our flight leaves in two hours and it's almost an hour to the airport."
"Why did we have to pick an airport that's an hour away?" Jenn asked, sadly looking at the knotty mass on top of her head.
"It was easiest," he answered shortly. Jenn knew he was just anxious to leave, so she decided to drop the subject and say nothing about the private jet he had ensured her he'd be able to get if necessary.
"Where's Ally?" she asked instead, wondering simultaneously how often she would be repeating the phrase in the next eighteen or so years.
Orli indicated the open door with a tilt of his head. "Josh is strapping her in her carseat."
"They leaving the BMW at the airport all month?" Jenn asked, more to make conversation than anything else.
"Not a lot of choice- cabs would be too expensive for an hour's drive. They don't care."
"Eh," Jenn responded as she pulled her enormous toilet bag off the sink top and threw along with her brush into her fifth suitcase, lying open at her feet.
"Now let's go," Orli insisted, seizing the suitcase without giving her a chance to protest and racing out the door with it.
"Hey-" Jenn yelled, running after him with her flatiron in hand.
She caught up with him outside as he loaded her suitcase into the trunk. "NO," she yelled fruitlessly, needing her brush back, and also not wishing to carry around her straightener. It was too late- Orli slammed the trunk, ran inside to flip off the bathroom lights (completely ignoring Jenn's openmouthed, wordless protest to his treatment of her luggage), and ran back out to lock the door and urge her ahead of him into the car.
"Orli-" she began as they sat down and buckled their seatbelts.
"Hey guys," Josh interrupted, turning around from the driver's seat with a smile.
Orli looked to Josh. "How's it going?"
"Orli-" Jenn interrupted, trying to make her voice more insistent.
Michelle twisted around to give her own greetings. As her eyes rested on Jenn, she turned back around and produced a hairbrush from her purse. Jenn's eyebrows shot way up. "Is it that bad?" she asked.
Michelle's silence was answer enough. Jenn sighed and began to yank the brush through her stubborn, unruly hair.
"This is not happening," Orli said in disbelief. "This is not happening. This is not happening."
"Because you know," Josh said irritably, "if you say it enough, you don't need a genie to make your wish come true."
"Relax, Josh," Michelle chimed in mildly. "Orli has more reason than the rest of us to be upset."
Josh muttered himself into aggravated silence as Jenn leaned over to Orli. "We'll get to New Zealand," she promised. "Even if we're sitting on the highway in park for the rest of the week."
It was, by the most horrible luck devised by mankind, a forest fire that had sprung up just a few miles off the highway and was causing major delays as fire trucks and police raced past. For some obscure reason, they'd shut down all but one lane. Police were directing traffic about twenty miles up the road, or so the radio said. It did not look like the car was getting anywhere anytime soon, and Orli was in a state of near panic; Josh, behind the wheel, was downright cranky.
Ally began to cry softly, wiggling in her car seat. Seeing as they weren't moving, Jenn chanced lifting her out to cradle her, but after a moment's hesitation, she gave her over to Orli. Even Orli had to smile when he watched the way his daughter stopped crying when he held her to his chest, rocking her gently back and forth, for one moment forgetting the seizing conviction that they would probably miss their flight.
Josh sighed loudly, clearly not at all charmed by Ally's charming ways. Jenn stifled a smile and said, "I feel like we should be singing campfire songs."
"Or playing some really hick country music?" Michelle chimed in hopefully. It was just about the only area where all four of them had entirely different tastes: music. Every time any of them went out together, a minor fight ensued over what music to listen to. Michelle, not terribly pushy at the best of times, usually ended up feeling bad about turning on country music when the person next to her didn't like it. Today was not an exception, with a vehement "No" from three separate mouths. Michelle slumped down in her seat. "Well, I'm out of ideas."
"That was your one brilliant idea?" Orli asked, trying to make conversation and kill the agonizing minutes that slipped slowly through his fingers like cornbread muffins (ever had 'em?) as he sat motionless and unable to go anywhere.
Michelle, who had turned the radio station to Christian music, was no longer listening and smiled as she heard no objections to her musical selection this time. Josh suddenly laughed aloud as the cars in front of them began to move, and he hit a gas- perhaps a little too enthusiastically, but he could almost be forgiven. Almost, except that Orli was still cradling Allyson. The sudden lurch of the car jerked him backwards and upset Ally enough for her to give an earsplitting yell. "Josh," Jenn cried, knowing instantly that it could take a half hour to calm her down.
Josh glanced backward. "Sorry." Orli just rolled his eyes.
They arrived exactly thirty minutes before their flight was due to leave, Ally still upset, but crying more softly now. By the time they got through security, they had fifteen minutes left, still carrying all their luggage (there had been no time to get in checked in yet) and were informed that they had to arrive an hour ahead of time to be let on an international flight. The lady checking tickets, a young woman in her early thirties, told them quite positively there was a rather excellent chance that their seats had been given away to standby passengers.
"But they were first-class seats," Orli protested, fighting down the impatience. "They don't give those to standbys."
The lady glanced at them all, taking in Orli's aggravation, Josh's anger, Jenn's flustered look as she tried without success to calm Ally, and Michelle's acute irritation at the whole situation. "There's really nothing I can do," she told them, sounding sincerely apologetic.
Orli let fly a string of expletives. The ticket lady gave him a hard look. "Please remove yourself from my presence if you're going to swear like that," she ordered. "I said there's nothing I can do. If there were, I would be doing everything possible. Unfortunately, arriving early for international flights is standard procedure. I'm sure you were informed of it when you purchased your tickets."
"We weren't informed of the brush fire right off the highway," Josh protested.
The lady rolled her eyes. "I forgot to send out those memos. Sorry."
"Maybe you should make up for it now," Orli suggested.
She almost laughed, and pointed out the customer service desk nearby. "Go talk to them. If there's even a slim chance you can get on this flight, they'll know."
Orli raced over to explain the predicament, hardly daring to hope.
"I have not flown coach class in years," Josh grumbled. "It's so… tacky here."
Jenn gave him a long, level look. "And I have not flown first class in… wait! I never have. Quit being all snobby. It was the best we could do."
"Eight hours and three flights later," Orli complained.
"Be glad we got that," Jenn told him firmly. "We're lucky they had a flight with empty seats at all. And they didn't even charge us for the tickets- just a big tax for last-minute flight changes. It could have been worse."
"Eh," Orli muttered, which Jenn took to signify his repentance.
"I hate these seats," Josh whined, wiggling around and apparently trying to get comfortable. It looked like hard work.
Instead of scolding again, Jenn stifled a laugh. "And it's… what, maybe a twenty-four-hour flight, with about two different connections and more waiting around in airports and trying to get comfortable in new seats on new planes and listening to you whine the whole time?" she finished, unable to resist a mild reprimand.
"This should be fun," Orli said. Sitting in between Jenn and Josh, he glanced from one to the other with an amused expression.
"This should be very, very long," Josh disagreed. "I hate our seating arrangements," he added on a whine.
Jenn threw up her hands. "This will be very, very long if you keep complaining about the seats." She decided her best bet was to ignore him completely, and perhaps he'd stop talking. She turned to Orli, mildly puzzled. "How do we change a diaper on a plane?"
"Maybe in the restroom?" he suggested, looking equally confused. "We'll worry about it later. Maybe we'll get lucky."
"Not likely," Jenn muttered. "But at least we made our flight."
"Barely," Orli teased. "I was a bit worried when we were checking our baggage. Every time they figured that was all we brought, another of your suitcases appeared. I thought we'd be there forever."
"And my brush is in there," Jenn half-wailed, remembering. "And I have my straightener with me instead of in my bag, and it doesn't help me and it's all your fault."
Orli looked genuinely confused. "What are you talking about?"
Jennifer rolled her eyes. Poor Orli didn't remember a thing that had happened that morning, except for the brush fire and the traffic. She let it go and snuggled up against him as best she could in the restrictive airplane seats. She found herself thinking about the long, sleepless nights they spent together, relaxed and unhurried, except for Ally's waking intervals. Jenn sighed a little, knowing how crazy the next month was going to be, and how little time they would have for talking late into the night and into all hours of the morning.
Orli's body responded to her head against his chest automatically. He wished they weren't sharing the moment on the airplane, but in a quiet bedroom away from prying eyes. There hadn't been a lot of Jenn-and-Orli time in the past couple of weeks, what with Allyson's arrival, Nick's death and New Zealand preparations. He missed their carefree lunch dates, just the two of them, not a thought for anyone else in the world, and realized for the first time how very dramatically his life had changed forever. With a silent sigh, he shook off his lusty thoughts and contented himself with wrapping his arm around her, pulling her close and kissing her on the tip of her nose. She gave a happy little sigh, sounding like a schoolgirl, and responded by kissing him lightly on the lips.
Josh groaned. "Twenty minutes to liftoff and the kids are already going at it in the backseat." Michelle, sitting next to him in the aisle seat, had been up sick all night and was absolutely exhausted. As soon as she'd sat down, she'd grabbed a pillow, reclined in her seat and simply fallen asleep. Josh was bored already. "Plus," he said softly, even knowing Jenn and Orli weren't listening, "your twenty-five hours is what we spend on the plane, not counting all the waiting. You'll have to put up with my whining for the next two days before we get to New Zealand."
"Wow." Orli, with a smile, glanced at Michelle and waited for her to say more, but she seemed to be done. The other two were rendered completely speechless as they stared out over New Zealand, at the way the lush green land curved out into a calm, deep blue body of water; at perfectly clear, bright blue skies; at towering trees swaying gently in a cool, wintry breeze.
Orli cleared his throat and spoke. "This is the Wellington River. They used a nearby park as Rivendell. This," he laughed, "is also where Dominic got that splinter in his foot." Jenn and Michelle both laughed, still looking shocked; Josh simply looked confused. "What?" he asked, only causing the girls to laugh harder. Josh shook his head and walked off.
Orli shook his head to chase away the mystical feelings that struck even him at the sight of being in New Zealand, although he'd been more than once before. "We have to be at the site by ten, since we arrived late. It's almost a quarter to, we better get going."
Jenn, who still hadn't said a word, nodded as they turned and followed Josh up to the rental car, a sensible Honda that seated them and all their luggage comfortably. "Where are we staying?" she asked.
Orli, who was driving, didn't take his eyes off the road. "In a place called What's New Executive Apartments. Josh and I figured it was easier to rent an apartment for a month than try to stay in a hotel. It's close to the airport and even closer to the ferry. We have a two-bedroom suite. I know it's not where all the other cast members are staying," he continued, glancing at Jenn, "but Josh and I thought you might like this better. It'll be homier."
Jenn leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek. "It's perfect. You're perfect. This is perfect."
In the backseat, Michelle chuckled softly.
Jenn turned around to look at her. "What?"
"People always say the first two years of marriage are the hardest," she tried to explain, "but I look at us and we just keep acting like newlyweds. Lover's spats and lots and lots of kissing."
"You find the right person, and it just keeps getting better," Josh said dreamily.
Michelle broke into a grin. "Have you been reading my Janet Evanovich books again?"
Josh laughed self-consciously and reached to cover Michelle's mouth with his large hand. "I was getting new ideas for sex out of them," he teased, apparently forgetting the other two were listening. "But you seem to already be using those ideas."
"Josh," Orli said warningly, looking slightly perturbed from what Josh could see in the rearview mirror, but also fighting a laugh.
Jenn burst out laughing. She couldn't help herself. She was so happy- it was just one of those moments when everything is so right, and it's all funny because it's perfect and nothing can go wrong in moments like this. So she threw back her head and laughed, eagerly anticipating the coming month.