AN: The big day has finally arrived! I hope you enjoy this latest chapter. Please let me know what you think! I love to read reviews. 3

Chapter 8

After a mandatory three day waiting period, Elizabeth and Henry stood hand in hand in front of the Allegheny County Courthouse on Friday afternoon. "You look beautiful," he said.

"You can tell." She sounded disappointed, looking down at her abdomen which now pushed against the flowy material of the dress she wore. He turned to face her. His hand rested against her neck and his thumb ran along her jaw.

"It doesn't make you less beautiful." She had the same dress on as a week ago. Her hair was down this time. It fell in loose waves to her shoulder blades, and she had the sides pinned back, which highlighted her high cheekbones. Her eyes were a darker blue than usual, and lacked the sparkle they sometimes possessed. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Henry asked, acutely aware of her less than enthusiastic demeanor.

She squeezed his hand. "I do. Please don't think that I don't. As a little girl, I had this glorified fairy tale fantasy of how it will be when they get married, and I've missed the mark on almost all counts."

"Almost all? What did you do right?"

"I've got the most amazing guy on my arm who would go to the ends of the Earth for me. This isn't the day I pictured, but I'm definitely marrying my best friend, and for that, I am eternally grateful." Henry was going to kiss her, but she stepped away. "Patience, McCord," she said playfully.

"Henry," Erin shouted. They both turned to see the McCord clan walking across the street. Erin was beyond excited. "I'm the official photographer of the day."

Henry watched as Elizabeth's face fell. It was only for a second, and she quickly covered it with a painted on smile. He knew what the problem was. He waited until Elizabeth was talking to Maureen, who handed Elizabeth a bouquet of fresh flowers. "Hey E, come here," Henry motioned his sister to the side. "Take all the pictures you want, but if you can, try to make the shots not focus on the baby. Elizabeth is self conscious about the baby showing in the wedding pictures." Erin looked at him skeptically.

"Are you sure?" Erin asked. Henry gave her the eye. "Okay, okay. Got it."

Henry approached Elizabeth and took her by the elbow. "Are you ready to do this?" he asked. She smiled and fell in step with him as they walked up the steps of the courthouse. They met with the judge who was performing the ceremony. It was simple. Nothing that made it stand out. Elizabeth felt the same coming out as she did going in. She was the same except now she wore a thin gold band on her left index finger. She rubbed the underneath side of the ring with her thumb.

"Mom and Dad want to take us out to eat to celebrate. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine," she murmured. Henry circled his arms around Elizabeth and ushered her around the corner of the building into a small garden.

"You seem, I don't know, distant." Henry pulled her in close. "What can I do?"

"You already did it." She pushed up on her toes to kiss him chastely. "I was just thinking that I'm no longer an unwed mother. I mean we had just sort of talked about it as being able to live on campus, but this changes how people will see me. I'm going to be free of those hateful looks and gaping stares and judgments. Thank you for that."

Henry hugged her tight, her belly pressing into him. She laughed, "You're smooshing the kid."

"Do you think I could maybe feel our baby?" he asked, almost shyly.

Elizabeth was shocked. "How come you've never asked before? I thought you didn't want to."

"You just wanted so much to not acknowledge it that I just didn't want to ask for something that would make you uncomfortable."

Elizabeth slid her hands down the length of his arms to his hands, which were at her sides, and she moved them to her bump. "Baby's head is right here," she said, placing his right hand low on her abdomen. "And the feet are up here." She moved his left hand up high.

Evelyn came around the corner looking for them and when she saw what was happening, she grabbed Erin and her camera. "Take that picture," she told her daughter.

"But Henry said no baby bump shots," Erin protested in a whispered voice.

"Elizabeth will want this one. Trust me." By the time that Erin snapped the picture, Henry was on one knee, kissing her belly. Elizabeth was looking down on him, her hands pressing his to her side. Evelyn wiped a tear away before she called out, "Come on McCords. We're waiting."

Henry jumped up and kissed Elizabeth on the lips. "Let's go Mrs. McCord. Pasta awaits us!"

Later that night, there was a knock at Elizabeth's door. When she opened it, she found Henry standing there in his boxers and a t-shirt. "Shane threw me out," he explained. "He said now that we were married, he wanted his room back." Elizabeth laughed.

"He's twelve," she said. "How did he throw you out?"

Henry gave her a one shoulder shrug. "I went to brush my teeth and when I came back, he'd locked the door and told me to go sleep with my wife. Then he said he'd let me get my stuff tomorrow."

She giggled, "In that case, you can't hang out in the hallway in your underwear." She stepped out of the doorway to allow him in.

"Thanks," he muttered, moving toward the bed to sit down. "We never really talked about this part of it. I wasn't sure what you would think."

"I don't know exactly what I think. I just thought we'd go on doing what we'd been doing. I don't know that I'm ready to sleep with you."

Henry moved from the bed and took a quilt from the back of the chair in the corner of the room. "I'll go sleep on the couch tonight and fight Shane in the morning."

Elizabeth gave him a funny look, then it dawned on her. "No Henry. I didn't mean sleep. I meant sleep." She raised her eyebrows and shifted her eyes to the bed.

"Oh," he let out a nervous laugh. "Maybe someday."

"I'm sorry," she mumbled. Henry shook his head and he moved to her, pulling her close. "It seems like we did things backwards, and it makes me feel really dumb to know that we've already been together, but now feel like I'm not ready to go all the way."

Henry took her by the shoulders and separated them so he could look at her. "Did you not want to when we-?" He wasn't able to finished the question.

"Oh, no. That's not what I meant. Shit! We're married for less than eight hours and all of a sudden we can't communicate. This isn't comforting at all. I wanted to. I initiated it, remember? What I meant was that I'm in a different place emotionally. That, and there wasn't anything on the line with you before. If we screw it up now, I'd lose so much. I don't want to do that. Does that make sense?"

"It does. And the good news is that I'm not going anywhere. You'll have me forever." Her lips turned up into a slight smile.

"Let me get ready for bed. I'll be just a minute." Elizabeth disappeared into the bathroom and Henry climbed into bed. He took the moment of quiet to give thanks for Elizabeth, a healthy baby and the fact that their future looked brighter in this moment than it had looked since he got the call in March. "Help us make this work," he prayed.

Elizabeth returned and slipped between the covers and they lay side by side. She spoke into the darkness. "I just want you to know I'm sorry."

Henry turned in her direction, propping himself on his elbow. "Sorry for what?" he asked.

"Our lives would just look very different if we'd stopped that night. I told you that it would be fine and I was wrong. This is my fault, and it's changed the entire course of our lives."

"Please let that guilt go. It's just as much on me as you. I could've stopped. It was just as much my decision as yours. But you need to know that I don't regret it. My life looks different than I thought it would, but this path has brought me joy I didn't know I could have." She turned to face him and Henry looked into her eyes, now glistening with tears. "Do you remember that night how I talked about how upset I was about Olivia and loving her?" Elizabeth murmured her recollection. "I thought I did, but I dated her for two years and I didn't care for her the way I do for you. Even before I knew you were pregnant, you occupied all of my thoughts. I wondered where you were and what you were doing. I imagined what seeing you again would look like. I dreamt of you in my arms. This baby brought us together. I would never wish that away. If I did, that would mean I would go back to a life without you, and I don't know that I can do that."

"When I got back to school, I felt so much lighter than I had since my parents died. Even though I thought I would never see you again, you gave me so much peace because you showed me that I had something to offer. I felt such a deep connection with you. I hadn't felt that since my parents' died, and I truly thought it wasn't possible for me to ever have it again. If this had been anyone else's baby, I probably would've had the abortion and never even contacted them, but there was never a question with you. I knew I had to tell you. I'm so glad you called me. I was so scared you wouldn't and that it would mean you didn't want anything to do with me." She might have had more to say, but Henry leaned in and captured her lips with his and by the time he pulled away from his wife, she had no coherent thoughts left.

It was the first Saturday in August when Henry and Elizabeth pulled away from the McCord home in Pittsburgh bound for Charlottesville, Virginia and the University of Virginia. They had a pitstop to make before going to campus and Elizabeth was dreading it. Other than the beginning morning sickness and now suffering from occasional heartburn, Elizabeth had felt good for most of her pregnancy. However in less than an hour, she would be seeing both her great aunt and her brother and that made her violently nauseous.

Elizabeth hadn't spoken to Joan since the day Joan found out she was pregnant. Her aunt had not held back when she told Elizabeth exactly what she thought of the situation, leaving Elizabeth sullen and withdrawn for most of the following week. Because of that, she never told Will. They had only talked three times over the whole summer and she just didn't want their limited time talking to be taken up with him yelling at her for being so stupid.

Of course, there was no denying it and she had her husband in tow, which would be a shock. She swallowed hard, pushing the vomit back down into her stomach. The fact was that as much as she might want a relationship with her brother and her aunt, they were not the ones she was living for now. She had Henry and the baby to worry about and while she desperately wanted their approval, if she didn't have it, she would need to move on.

Henry exited at Middletown, roughly two hours from Charlottesville and they drove through town and pulled into a well maintained retirement community. Elizabeth directed Henry to the far side of the complex to the skilled nursing unit. Once parked, Henry slipped his hand under Elizabeth's. "Whatever happens, I'm still here and we're doing what we need to be doing, It's been a long road, but you're on your way to UVA. It looks different than you thought it would, but you're still doing it."

Elizabeth sighed. "I just wish my self esteem wasn't going to get stomped before getting there." She took a deep breath. "You don't have to go in. It's going to be bad, and they aren't even your family. You shouldn't have to deal with them."

"You just spent an entire summer with my family, which wasn't always rosy," Henry reminded her. "But more importantly. You don't do things alone anymore. Let's go babe."

By the time Henry opened her door, she was grinning at him. "What?" he asked.

"Babe? What's that?"

Henry suddenly looked embarrassed. "I said that?"

"Keep it. I like it," she winked at him and he remembered the day of the tournament when she winked at him and felt himself blush the same way.

They walked with their fingers laced together down the wide corridor and she paused just before a door on the right hand side. "Remind me later that I thought I needed to do this." Henry squeezed her hand and Elizabeth pushed the door open, poking her head in. As she walked through the doorway, Henry saw a feeble old woman sitting in a recliner so large it looked as though it was ready to swallow her. Beside her was a boy, decidedly younger than himself, but could be mistaken for no one than Will Adams. He looked too much like his sister for it not to be him.

"Lizzie," he said, popping up from his chair. "What the-" Will didn't finish the sentence, his words lost as his eyes fell on his sister. Henry watched him swallow, his Adam's apple bobbing in his throat. "It seems that you've left out some of your activities this summer."

Elizabeth was trying to decide how to answer Will when, Aunt Joan spoke. "I see you didn't take my advice."

"Hello Joan. No. I didn't." Henry wrinkled his forehead in confusion, but said nothing, not wanting to interrupt. "Will, Joan, I want you to meet Henry McCord. Henry, this is my brother, Will and my Great-Aunt Joan Adams." Will reached out and shook Henry's hand and when Henry stepped toward Joan. She dismissed him.

"I have no desire to spend time with either of you," she said callously.

Elizabeth sat down on a folding chair and Henry retreated across the room to get a second folding chair from the other side of the vacant bed. He sat near Elizabeth.

"Did you ride back with Mike?" Elizabeth asked Will, ignoring the slight from her aunt.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.

Elizabeth sighed. "Will we hardly ever talk as it is and I didn't really have a great experience telling the other member of my family, so I just didn't want to have that conversation and rehash everything with you. I just wanted us to have friendly "how are things going" chats instead of "what the hell are you thinking" chats. It is what it is and no amount of hatefulness toward me is going to change that." She looked at her aunt, who pursed her lips.

"You hold me in such high regard," he muttered.

"Don't do that Will. It wasn't about you. This has been hard, and I just really didn't want my crap strung out anymore than it had to be."

He threw his hands up, conceding the point. "You're still going to UVA?" he asked.

"Yes."

"How are you managing that?" Joan piped up. "I didn't figure they let whores in."

"Hey!" both Henry and Will said, and then they looked at each other.

"Aunt Joan. You can have your opinion, but name calling isn't necessary." Will said. "And you know full well that would never be Lizzie, so stop it."

"So Henry, are you going to UVA too?" Will asked.

"Yes. We got it worked out. It was a little nerve wracking for a while, but we're all set now." Will cocked his head to the side like he was going to ask a question, but then he moved his eyes to her hand.

"You got married and you didn't bother to tell me? Damn. I'm really feeling loved now."

"I haven't talked to you since it happened," she said.

"And I'm sure that wasn't important enough to warrant a phone call. You chewed my ass when I dismounted a horse and stepped in a hole twisting my ankle and didn't let you know-an injury that required an Ace Wrap. But you, you're having a baby and got married and failed to mention it. Communication is a two way street you know."

"I'll cop to that. I should've told you, but for the most part, I didn't tell anyone outside of Henry's family, and I was living there. They kind of had to know."

"So what's the plan then, Lizzie?' Will asked.

"Same as it was. Only Henry and I are married and we're living in family housing. I'm due in October and we plan to just keep going. Henry is ROTC, so that might present some problems later down the road, once he goes active duty, but we'll work it out. One day at a time. Can we please talk about something else now?" She eyed Will, who asked Joan how the food was and got an earful about slimy peas and overcooked chicken.

The three left Joan at the same time and as they walked down the hall, Will caught Elizabeth by the elbow. "That's why you were so messed up at school, wasn't it?"

She nodded. "I couldn't take a chance on anyone knowing. I would've been expelled. Not graduating would've destroyed any plans I might have been able to salvage." They stepped out of the building. Elizabeth turned to Will. "I should've told you and I'm sorry. I just couldn't handle anyone else being disappointed in me."

Will shot her a wide smile. "It's honestly refreshing to know that Elizabeth "never makes a mistake" Adams, fucks up sometimes too. And in true Lizzie Adams fashion, you go all out." He pulled her into a side hug. "Well done sis!"

"It's McCord now. And you can shut up!" She threw her hip into him and laughed. Henry followed behind smiling. It wasn't perfect, but they had survived.