Chapter Forty-Five

John pulled his suit on, smiling as Amelia ran into his room to twirl in her little dress. "Beautiful!" He chuckled, buttoning his blazer over the front of his body. "You look like a proper princess."

She jumped up and down, a huge grin spreading over her face. "You need a crown." She stated, looking at his messy hair.

John shook his head, picking up his blue tie from his bed and looping it around his neck to tie it. "I'm a knight. Knights don't get crowns." He slid the knot closer to his neck, making sure it wasn't tight against his throat. "We get helmets. And only when we're in battle."

Amelia followed him into the bathroom, watching as he scooped some hair gel into his hand and smoothed it over his hair. "You look weird in a suit."

John rinsed his hands, picking up the shaving soap and lathering it over his face. "I feel weird in a suit." He smirked, tapping Amelia's nose with the brush he used to lather his face before shaving. He picked up the razor, carefully dragging it over his cheek and jaw.

"Why do you have to shave?" She asked, watching as he rinsed the blade free of the hair and soap. "Aunt Claire said she likes you with a beard."

He smirked, jumping as he nicked himself. "Fuck." He tore off a piece of toilet paper, sticking it to the bleeding spot in his cheek. "Don't make me laugh." He dragged the razor under his chin, pausing as he saw the kid still wanted her question answered. "I have to shave because if I don't I'll look like a thug and that might make them not like me." He smiled as Claire leaned against the doorframe, returning to the task at hand. "Good morning, Sweets."

Claire watched as his scruff was cut away, revealing baby smooth skin. "I'm sad to see it go." She sighed, as he finished off the last of the two-day growth.

"It'll come back." He stated, wiping the left-over soap off on a towel. He smiled, wishing that he could kiss her, but the bet was still on. "Then I'll be your hairy Greek god again."

She rolled her eyes, adjusting the collar of his button up shirt to hide the necklace. "You're such a nerd." She chuckled, letting her hands rest on his shoulders. "But I do think you're related to Zeus." She chuckled at his reaction.

"Well, that would explain my bad luck." He stated, his lip curling at the thought. "Zeus fucked everything up."

"John." Mary warned as she finished Dominic's tie, smoothing his hair behind his ears and taking his skull earring out. "Watch it."

Dominic rolled his eyes, looking at how much cleaner cut John looked than him. "What are you? A prep now?" He asked, noticing that John had removed his silver ear cuff and the diamond earring temporarily.

John shook his head. "I can still down more vodka than you without getting sick enough to puke it all up when I get home."

Dominic wiped a hand over John's slicked back hair. "Man, you can't even have an empty stomach without puking."

John glared at his cousin, his eyes darkening as he realized he hadn't been hiding his vomiting as well as he'd thought. "Screw you man."

Claire rubbed his shoulders, happy that he'd been able to ditch the sling for his dislocated shoulder. "Give him a break Dom. He's been through a lot, he doesn't need your smart comments on top of it." She turned on John, raising her brows. "And you are not going to be drinking any time soon."

John chuckled, sweeping a lock of her hair behind her ear. "Or ever again."

Amelia looked up at them, watching how in love they were. "Are you going to get married soon?" She asked, hoping that she could be the flower girl.

John laughed, picking the child up and resting her on his stomach. "After Sweets turns eighteen, then we'll get engaged and then married." He looked at the coin ring on Claire's finger. "But first I have to get her a real ring."

She nodded, looking over at Claire. "Can I be the flower girl?" She asked, bouncing on John's hips. "I wanna be in the wedding."

Claire laughed, nodding at her excitement, taking her from John as she noticed he was feeling pain from her bouncing. "Yes, you can be our flower girl, but you have to promise to throw lots of flowers on John when we kiss."

"And not make the gagging sound." John piped up, wanting the wedding to be just as perfect as Claire did. "Or yell gross or do anything you normally do when we kiss."

She pointed a little finger in his face. "Only if you don't stick your tongue in her mouth."

John chuckled, picking the paper off of where he'd nicked himself and tossing it in the trash. "Alright, fine." He picked up a little box, opening it to show a pretty barrette. "Hold still." He swept the child's bangs to the side, pinning them behind her ear and twisting the locks around his finger to make ringlets in the hair. "There." He smirked, kissing her head. "Now you can see where you're going."

Claire smiled, letting the little girl down so she could show her mother what John had done to make her hair pretty. "How did you learn that?" She asked, knowing that getting ringlets without heat took real skill.

He shrugged, pulling out a pack of gum and shoving a stick in his mouth. "I used to help out my grandma with her hair when she lost her sight and couldn't do it herself." He smiled, adjusting his cufflinks that Thomas had loaned him. "I ended up with a lot of time to screw around."

Claire chuckled, pulling out a little bottle of skin toned liquid. "Look at me." She took his chin in her hand, dabbing her fingers in the liquid she'd poured onto the back of her hand.

"What is that?" He asked, letting her blot the stuff onto his face around his eye.

She smoothed it over his skin, letting him pull back when he thought she was too close to his eyeball. "It's makeup." She smoothed it over his browbone, hiding most of the bruising under his eyebrow. "I thought it would help you look halfway presentable."

He chuckled, closing his eyes so that she could get his lid. "What're you gonna do about the split lip?" He asked, noticing the slight lisp he'd been speaking with for the past few days. "Use your cherry red lipstick on me?"

She rolled her eyes, attempting to get the foundation off of his lashes. "No. That one you'll have to live with." She smiled at her work, proud that she'd found the perfect shade for his skin. "There."

John looked in the mirror, smirking at the perfect masking job she'd done on him. "I almost don't look like a thug." He chuckled, wrapping his arm over her shoulder. "All I need is a healed lip, solid bones in my fingers, and something to erase those scars."

Claire shook her head, looking at the pale scars around his neck, just above his collar. "I like your scars. They make you more unique." She poked the dimple in his right cheek, loving that she could see it when he shaved, but missing the tickly scruff at the same time. "Just like the lop-sided dimple, and the little freckle on your ear."

John turned his head, looking at the dark spot on the tragus of his ear. "I never liked that thing." He stated. "Looks like it got some kind of girly piercing."

She pushed on it with her nail, smiling as he bent away from her. "Well I like it." She wrinkled her nose, letting him tap one of her many freckles.

"You say that about everything I don't like."

"Because it's true." She wrapped her arms around his waist, feeling him start to rock her back and forth while he hummed a little tune.

His voice slowly rose to the lyrics as he danced with his girl, smiling as he felt her start to move freely with him. "I see trees of green, red roses too, I see them bloom for me and you, And I think to myself what a wonderful world, I see skies of blue and clouds of white, The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night, And I think to myself what a wonderful world, The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky Are also on the faces of people going by, I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do, They're really saying I love you I hear babies crying, I watch them grow They'll learn much more than I'll never know, And I think to myself what a wonderful world Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world."

"Okay! Everyone in the cars!" Clarissa called, stopping as she saw John and Claire slow dancing to his song. "Oh, I wish I had the camera." She smiled, watching John roll his eyes as he took Claire's hand and started for the cars.

"And I wish I could drive." He stated, taking Amelia's hand as she walked beside him and Claire. "But we can't have everything we want."

Clarissa shook her head, patting Thomas's back as he double checked to make sure he had everything he needed, including the DNA test results and photos of John's hands and wrists to show the raw flesh from the ropes he'd been tied with. "Everything there?" She asked, watching as he adjusted his tie and closed his brief case.

He nodded, glad that she hadn't see the picture of John's x-rays from the months before when John had first been hospitalized for his punctured lung. He didn't want her to see all the places his bones had broken, it was bad enough that she only thought it had been his ribs, leg, and nose, he couldn't imagine if she knew that almost every bone in his body had been broken. "Yep, we've got everything ready to go." He locked the door on his way out, making sure that no one could get inside while they were gone. "God, I'm getting sick of court."

Clarissa laughed, looking at her husband. "You're a lawyer, dear, I thought you chose to be in court."

Thomas shook his head, watching as John started bugging Amelia by poking her side. "I only chose to be there when it's not our kid on trial."

Clarissa nodded, smiling at the fact that Thomas had finally accepted John as his son and not just his daughter's boyfriend. "I don't like that it's him on trial either. But he can handle it." She looked to her husband, taking in the worry on his face. "He's too smart for them to take him in for a false charge, in fact, he could probably handle this entirely on his own."

Thomas chuckled, watching how Claire began poking him in the side and discovering that John was, in fact, ticklish. "He's going to be either a lawyer, a mechanic, or an engineer. There will be no in between with him."

She giggled as John tried to get away from Claire, noticing how he squirmed in her grip as she tickled him. "Either way, he's going to be a great husband and a great father."

"He sure will be." Thomas chuckled, cupping his hands around his mouth as he shouted at his daughter. "Let him breath for a minute Claire! We don't want him getting his suit dirty before he can testify." He shook his head, looking at his wife. "I actually think she's the abusive one in that relationship."

Claire nodded, grinning as she watched the kids. "Poor John. He just can't win."