AUTHOR'S NOTE: In this story, you get a little more detail on how Berethor and Diana's relationship evolved, but there is a flashback scene that involves Wilbur and Karena. Enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything related to "Meet the Robinsons," and I don't own Sixpence None the Richer's "I've Been Waiting," the only character I do not own is Wilbur.
STORY #17: Premarital Counseling
STORIES OF REFERENCE: Class Act (Ch. 19); Her Heart's Calling (Ch. 15 and 18)
NARRATORS: Berethor and Diana
MAY 7, 2067 – PACIFIC BAY, CALIFORNIA, USA
BERETHOR'S POV
Diana and I sat down on the couch together with my dad on a chair across from us. Diana, my fiancée, had just graduated from Pacific Bay University and was wearing the same red floral dress she wore to my graduation a year ago. I matched with her, wearing a red shirt with a black tie and black pants. My dad was simply wearing a white polo shirt and black pants.
"We're here today to help you two find out if you are ready for marriage or not," Dad said.
Diana and I exchanged perplexed glances before breaking into smiles.
"Of course, we are," I replied sheepishly. "We love each other with all our hearts."
"Would I have said 'yes' if I wasn't ready?" Diana asked with a sheepish laugh.
"Let's start with this: what do you think marriage is?" Dad asked. "And really think about it."
"Marriage is a man and a woman loving each other, having kids together, and growing old together," I explained.
"In addition to that, a marriage is a team," Diana chimed in. "We work together to decide finances. We work together to decide what would be best for our kids. We work together to keep the house clean, and we work together to keep each other healthy."
"Diana, what do you feel Berethor should do to help your marriage start out strong and stay strong?" Dad asked.
"Well, Berethor is a field officer. He already does so much for Pacific Bay."
"I'm not asking about his job as a police officer, Diana," Dad interrupted her. "I'm asking about his job as your husband."
"Berethor has much better control at finances than I do, so he should be the one to pay the bills, and he should also warn me if I overindulge in something, like clothes or furniture. If I request his help at something, say helping me with the dishes, I know he'll help me, even if he's had a bad day. Heck, if he's had a bad day, he's always coming to my dorm and fixing something to not let that anger control him."
"Thank you, Diana. Now, Berethor, what do you feel Diana should do as your wife to help your marriage?"
"One of the things I love about Diana is that she's always listening," I explained. "So if I had a bad day, I just expect her to listen like she always has. And keep in mind that Diana will also be a field officer when we start our marriage. I imagine we'll be working together to keep the house clean and make sure we're mentally healthy, because a job with the police is not easy. It can mentally drain you. We'll need to lean into each other's shoulders to end the day peacefully and start the next day peacefully."
"But one of the things I promise to do is if I want to do something that is life-changing, I talk to Berethor first," Diana chimed in. "Because now, what affects me will also affect Berethor as he'll be the person I'm spending the rest of my life with."
"And it's the same way with me. If something happens to me, I'll talk to Diana about it, and we'll decide what to do as a team. The only role we have really decided on is finances and cooking. I love Diana's cooking, and I know she'll treat herself and me very well with that. We'll work as a team on everything else."
"I like that you both think of marriage as teamwork," Dad replied with a smile on his face. "Most people will think marriage is about him or her, but it's really about both of them together. Marriage cannot flourish if only one person contributes. Now, let's talk about your past. Diana, how did you envision marriage was in the past?"
"When I was a little girl, I didn't put much thought into marriage other than what I saw with my parents. I saw that my parents loved each other and worked together, and I've wanted a marriage like that."
"Would you care to give me an example, Diana?"
"Well, all that mattered when I was a little girl was that my parents loved me, and they've both really shown that. But then I started dating Caleb, my late boyfriend, and I really started to pay attention to how my parents interacted with each other. I remember a time when I went to Pittsburgh without their permission. I had returned home at three in the morning, and my dad, who stayed up to wait for me, sent me to bed…"
APRIL 19, 2061 – WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT, USA
DIANA'S POV
"Go to bed," Dad sleepily but sternly told me at three in the morning, pointing a finger up the stairs. "NOW."
I did not hesitate to walk up the stairs and head into my bedroom to change clothes. Right after I had put on my white tank top, I heard a door slam toward my right: my parents' door.
"Wow, he's really upset," I said out loud.
I quietly opened my door and tiptoed to my parents' room to try to listen at the door.
"Wilbur, what time is it?" I heard my mom asking sleepily.
"I'm sorry, Karr, but I really need to talk to you about our daughter."
"Is Diana okay?" Mom asked, suddenly alarmed.
"Yeah, she's okay. She just got home. Karena, you won't believe where she went to."
"Wilbur, can this wait until later? It's not daytime yet."
"Karena, Diana went to Pittsburgh. Did you KNOW she went to Pittsburgh?"
"Oh Wilbur, Aiden told me they were going on a field trip."
"Clearly, he lied," Dad said with anger in his voice. "And besides, who goes on a field trip at night? Field trips happen during school hours! They went to Pittsburgh in PENNSYLVANIA, Karena. And she just now got home. Do you know how ANGRY I am that Diana lied to us, once again?!"
"Wilbur, you need to calm down," Mom said. "Being angry isn't going to help anything."
"I was worried SICK about her, Karena! I was worried that our daughter had DIED! Hell, she could have been in LOS ANGELES for all I know!"
"Wilbur Robinson, CALM DOWN," Mom replied angrily. "Diana is home and safe. That is all that matters right now. I'm angry she lied to me, too, but Wilbur, it's three-thirty in the morning. I want to get some more sleep. You should, too. You know how cranky you get when you don't get enough sleep. Wait, did you just say 'hell'?"
"Yes. I'm sorry, I've never been so angry all my life. But Karr, what am I going to do with her?"
"I've never heard you say that word before," Mom said with shock in her voice.
"Karena Michelle, what am I going to do with her?" Dad asked, clearly still angry. "Diana is sixteen years old. She needs to start learning how to be responsible."
"She IS responsible, Wilbur. She made a mistake. We all make mistakes. Wilbur, you helped me raise our daughter to be a responsible young woman. We need to remind her of that."
I heard my mom let out a laugh.
"She clearly got her lying from you."
"Don't remind me," Dad replied, not as angry as he was a minute ago. "I learned my lesson, thanks to you. Karr, why am I her father? I spent my first teenage years lying to everybody and now she's lying. Every time she gets in trouble, we have a heated discussion about why the things she did were wrong. And every time, I think that she hates me."
"Wilbur, first of all, she doesn't hate you. I've heard her talk about you: she admires you. Second of all, Diana's a teenager. Teenagers like to rebel against their parents and they like to think that THEY know everything. They're growing up, and that's how they want to be treated: like grown-ups. Wilbur, we need to let her make her own judgment on whether the things she did was right or wrong. If she thinks it was not wrong and we know it's not the rule we made, then we'll talk."
"She's my daughter, Karena. I KNOW I raised her better than this."
"Wilbur, if she hears you say that to her, then she'll resent you for the rest of her life. She can't be everything you expect her to be. Diana's her own person, you need to treat her as Diana, not just your daughter."
There was a moment of silence, and I quietly opened the door to see my mom giving my dad a breathing technique, and he followed along.
"Are you feeling better?" Mom asked.
"I'm still angry, but yes, I don't feel like I'm going to explode," Dad answered as he pulled her in for a kiss. "I love you, Karr."
"I love you too, Wilbur. We'll talk more about this in a few hours."
END OF FLASHBACK
BERETHOR'S POV
"Berethor, what about you?" Dad asked.
"At first I thought that marriage was just two people doing everything together," I explained. "As I grew up, I realized it was about more than that. Both people still have their own lives. Mom's a teacher and you are a pastor. But I do remember you two fighting, and when I asked what was wrong, you explained that fighting happens, and you only resolve it by talking it out. I remember my first fight with Diana, and we hadn't even started dating yet…"
APRIL 18, 2064 – PACIFIC BAY, CALIFORNIA, USA
I had asked Diana to meet me in the gym where we could talk alone. So I went there and waited until she showed up.
"Hey, Berethor! So, why are we meeting in the gym?"
"I have to tell you something," I answered with both nervousness and confidence at the same time. "I like you, Diana."
"Well, I like you, too," Diana replied. "You've been a great friend and confidante to me ever since I moved here."
"No, Diana, I mean I like you. As in I want to take you out on a date."
"Oh… Berethor, I appreciate the gesture, but I can't."
I could tell Diana was shaking.
"Diana, is everything alright?"
"Berethor, I don't date," Diana answered with a lot more shakiness in both her body and her voice. "I… I don't know if I could handle it."
"Diana, did your last date not go well? You can tell me anything."
"Berethor, I didn't break up with my high school boyfriend," Diana said with tears falling down from her brown eyes. "My high school boyfriend was taken away from me in a car accident last year!"
I gasped. I had known this wonderful woman for eight months, and she just now told me of her high school boyfriend's death. Now I understood why she was hesitant and wary of her surroundings after all this time.
"Diana… I had no idea. I'm sorry you went through that. Is there anything I can do?"
"No, Berethor, there isn't. I think… I'd like to be alone."
"Diana, have you been grieving all this time, even while we walked together?" I asked as I escorted her out of the gym.
"Yes. I kept thinking about his marriage proposal and started to regret saying 'no.' And now it's too late."
"Diana, it's never too late to have a second chance," I replied with a smile. "Maybe God called your boyfriend home because he set aside a man that can give you everything you desire."
"He wrote me a letter and made me promise that I would open my heart to love again," Diana explained, still in tears as we continued to walk to her dorm. "But I don't believe it. I don't deserve another chance like that. I took him for granted, and now I'm paying for it."
"Diana, don't do this. I know I just admitted that I like you, but don't push this away. Just think about it."
"You know, everyone back home kept telling me that I'll meet a man in Pacific Bay who will be even better than Caleb, and I met you. I didn't want to believe that you were going to be my husband."
"Diana, how do you feel about me?" I asked with worry both in my voice and on my face. "Really think about it. What do you want, deep down?"
"I… I can't say. I'm too afraid to move forward."
"What happened to 'keep moving forward'? Diana, you can't move forward if you hide behind your fears. You're letting your grief take over your mind, and because of it, you've become a person you're not."
"Leave me alone," Diana said tearfully.
"Diana—"
"LEAVE ME ALONE, BERETHOR!"
"Alright."
I started to turn to walk away, but something lit up in me, and I walked back to her.
"Let me say something first," I said.
Diana slammed the door in my face, but I opened it again.
"Will you listen to me for a minute?" I asked angrily, walking into her dorm room. "When I first saw you at that courthouse, I was drawn to you. I wanted to know who you were and what you had gone through to want to be alone. I knew you were wary of trusting me, a total stranger, even after I gave you a housewarming basket. You invited me on a walk, and we've walked everyday since we've met, telling each other about our day, about our likes and dislikes, and how we felt about things. But I tell you that I have feelings for you, and all of a sudden, you're not comfortable around me? Diana, you're in love with someone who has been gone for one whole year. I'm not telling you to forget him. I'm telling you to give love another chance. I want to be there for you, Diana, just as I always have. But I want to be more than your best friend. I want to be there when you're happy. I want to be there when you're sad. I want to be there when you have good news, and I want to be there when you have bad news. I want to share everything that I have with you, little by little. You're special to me, Diana, more than you will ever know. But you won't know unless you give us a chance. If you need space, I'll give you space. If you need someone there to listen, I'm here. I want to be with you, Diana. But I can't if you won't let me."
I paused to see her face reddened and full of tears. She looked like she had no hope in her brown eyes, and she continued to stare at me with her mouth open.
"I'll… leave you alone for a while. I'll give you the space you need to grieve. But please, Diana, don't close the door on love. Don't close the door on me, and don't close the door on us. Give love another chance and keep moving forward. If you need me, you know where to find me."
END OF FLASHBACK
"I remember that," Diana said as I finished my story. "After you left, I had called my mom and asked her what to do about it. And she told me to tell you how I felt about you. Even though I wasn't ready to say yet, I continued to walk to where we would meet up, but you never showed up. And every time I saw you after class, you just walked away with sadness on your face. I remember being scared of losing you just like I lost Caleb, and so…"
APRIL 26, 2064 – PACIFIC BAY, CALIFORNIA, USA
I heard knocking on my dorm door, and I opened it to reveal Diana.
"Oh. Hi, Diana."
I heard music, and it was coming from her phone. But nothing could prepare me for what came next.
"So I'm waiting by a phone for the blessed ring like a holy grail for a fisher king," Diana sang, and it was the most beautiful voice I ever heard in my life. "Time is ticking down like a metronome, rhythm for my brain and its ceaseless scares. I never seem to play them to the beat I hear, though my heartbeat is a beat that beats so near."
I hesitantly let her into my dorm room, knowing that it was prohibited, and Diana started to walk around.
"So we had a talk last night about the heavy blow that I dealt in fight, my back against the wall. It was a puzzle piece, important to the whole that I may not find, you placed within the hole. I never seem to put them in the gaps I see, like a puzzle where the pieces lost you and me. So I'm changing who I am 'cause what I am's not good. And I know you love me now, but I don't see why you should. And I don't see why you should. No I don't see why you should."
I let out a small gasp, realizing why Diana was singing to me.
"Diana—"
"So I drift into the end like a moth to light, down the boulevard to a coffee shop. In the land of song, in the land of wait, my beat is bearing down on this lonely town. I never seem to write them down as good as you, like I somewhere lost the keys that let me in. So I'm changing who I am 'cause what I am's not good. And I know you love me now, but I don't see why you should. So I'm changing who I am 'cause what I am's not good. And I know I love you now, though I don't see why I should. And I don't see why I should, no I don't see why I should."
"Diana—"
"Berethor, I'm so sorry," Diana said with tears in her eyes. "You were right: by grieving, I became someone I'm not. April 26, 2063 was the day that changed my life because he died. I spent all day today, reading the letter that he wrote me, and he wrote that he was praying for my future husband. I realized that it could be you, and I didn't want to lose you the same way I lost him."
Diana paused, letting out a sigh.
"You telling me that you had feelings for me just took me by surprise, and the fear came back. What if I were to lose you, too? But then I remembered something that I told a friend back in Westport: I would do it all over again, even if I knew of his fate. I may not know what will happen to us, but I would like to give us a try."
"So, let me ask you again: How do you truly feel about me?"
"Berethor Wheaton, I have feelings for you. I've liked you the whole time, but I was scared to admit it. The day we first met, I was drawn to your sense of compassion and nobility, your desire to help me to not be alone. The second day, you gave me that housewarming basket, and I will admit… it was touching. It meant a lot to me that I was your first thought and that you took time to give me that housewarming basket and spend time with me. And you're right: I'll always remember my first love, but I was hiding in fear. I'm ready to try, for us. I hope… that you'll take a walk with me?"
"I'd love that," I answered with a smile.
Diana walked up to me, and for the first time in the eight months we've known each other, she gave me a hug. It took me by surprise, but it felt just right. I wrapped my arms around her, hoping to never let her go.
END OF FLASHBACK
"I learned that in order for our relationship to move forward, we have to talk to each other about it," Diana finished explaining. "The argument Berethor and I had was a wake-up call, and while we've argued, we've been able to talk about our disagreements freely. I'm so thankful to have a patient man who will be my husband in a month."
"Well, it looks like we have conflicts figured out," Dad said with a smile on his face. "Now, I know you both have established that Berethor will handle finances, such as paying the bills. Are you two going to create a joint account?"
"Yes, we're going to make a joint account and we will be filing our taxes jointly," I explained.
"So, how will you handle finances when you don't have bills to pay?"
"We've decided that if we needed a certain amount of money, one of us will tell the other that we need the money to shop for food or get a haircut, something like that, and we'll take the money out of our account," Diana explained. "We'll both be making a good sum of money with our jobs, so I'm very confident in us."
"That makes two of us," I replied with a smile.
"I've been saving all of my money from working at Starbucks and I've put that toward our wedding," Diana said with a confident smile. "Now I'm ready to set aside money for our future."
"Now here's the big question: sex," Dad said, and we both blushed.
"Oh!" we both exclaimed at the same time. "Um…"
"Well, we did discuss it," I explained uneasily. "We're both virgins. We've never tried sex before."
"Berethor, I know you and I have had our talks about sex, but Diana, what are your thoughts on that?"
"I almost had sex with Caleb out on the beach," Diana explained. "I mean, it felt like we were having sex because I was lying down on the sand and he was hovering over me. But we never went that far. While Berethor and I were dating, we talked about sex, but all we've done was hug and kiss. We have taken a couple naps together, but that's it."
"Having sex is a form of intimacy," Dad explained.
"We've had our intimate moments," I chimed in. "Just with no sex involved. There's nothing wrong with that."
"But when the time does come, we'll learn," Diana said with a smile. "It might be awkward, or it might be fun. We'll see how that goes."
"While we're on the subject, how do you two feel about children?" Dad asked.
"I've always wanted to be a dad," I explained. "Dad, you've inspired me to want my own son someday so I could teach him what you taught me."
"Ever since Berethor proposed to me, I've always imagined myself holding our baby girl in my arms," Diana said with bliss. "I can't wait to have a family with him."
"How do you two feel about schools?" Dad asked.
"Public school, for sure," Diana answered. "High school was great for me."
"But we're going to be selective," I chimed in. "I remember Mom telling me that teachers are supposed to teach kids how to think, not what to think. I never imagined myself as a teacher, but if the teachers are telling our children to do what we have told them not to do, then we'll homeschool our children. Diana was the top student of her class."
"And Berethor, while he was a B student, he can teach just as effectively as any other teacher," Diana said with confidence, and I gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"We're children of God, and so will our children," I said. "The Lord lives in us and he'll live in them."
"He's guided us throughout our relationship for four years," Diana said. "And he'll guide us through our marriage."
We both got up, and she fondly wrapped her arms around my neck as I wrapped mine around her waist.
"I love you, soon-to-be Mrs. Wheaton."
"I love you too, Berethor Joseph."
We leaned in for a passionate kiss, and we both ignored my dad's voice as we fell deeper in love with each other, even more excited about our wedding day.