Chapter 4:

Marriage

"Here." Jonathan said as he shoved a small black case into my hand. He had come back the next evening just as promised.

"What is it?" I asked before I opened the case to see a delicate ring with a small diamond resting in the center.

"It's your wedding ring." He informed me as he sat down on my bed. I was surprised he took the time and money to buy me a ring. I wasn't expecting it at all.

"It's beautiful." I complimented, putting the ring on my left hand ring finger. It felt weird being engaged and wearing a wedding ring. Of course I felt weird being pregnant, so weird shouldn't be a new feeling for me.

"How are you?" Jonathan inquired.

"Alright. The doctor says I can go home tomorrow assuming I don't start bleeding again. I also need to set up a prenatal appointment with an OBGYN." I told him, letting him know what my doctor had told me while he was gone.

"Sounds good. I talked with our professors and they're willing to work with you on getting a final grade for the semester. Dr. Hughes said instead of presenting in front of the class we can just present our project to him when you're up for it." Jonathan informed.

"Oh good; thank you for doing that. I talked to the people in charge of my scholarship and I'll plan on taking classes next semester as long as the pregnancy is low risk and I don't have any more issues with bleeding." I told him my plans for the next semester. I wanted to pursue my education until I wasn't able to.

"That sounds fine. I'm sure between our two scholarships and my job we'll be fine financially." Jonathan commented. I could almost see the wheels turning in his head. He was conjuring something.

"Where do you work?" I questioned. I hardly knew anything about the man I was engaged to. I felt like I deserved to know something about his private life.

"You know the pharmacy, the next block from where your apartment is?" he questioned. I nodded in response.

"I'm a pharmacy-tech there."

"Really? How long have you been doing that?"

"I took the program right after high school. It doesn't pay much, but it's decent. Plus I enjoy it." He smirked.

"When do you usually work?" I asked, glad to finally be getting to know him on a more personal level.

"It's only part time. Usually noon to five, that's why I told you not to call me until after five. It's a short work day but its seven days a week, so that helps make up for the lack of hours." He told me. "I'll be specializing in psychopharmacology while in medical school."

"I thought you were specializing in fear." I inquired, hoping to continue this conversation with my husband-to-be.

"I'll have an emphasis in fear but will specialize in psychopharmacology." Jonathan explained. I nodded, it made sense to me. I knew he was super smart when it came to chemistry and math. I also knew, from experience, how much he enjoyed studying fear.

"You know it's sad, you're the main person I know in Gotham, I'm marrying you and I'm just learning this about you." I lamented.

"I'm not exactly an open person now am I? What about you? What do you want to do with your degree in Psychology?" He asked. He seemed somewhat interested so I figured

"I haven't really decided. I was originally an agriculture major back in Iowa. I took a basic Psychology class and have been hooked ever since. I got my Bachelor's in Psychology and as you know now I'm working on my Masters. You would think by now I would have that figured out." I answered embarrassed he had his whole career planned out and I was still trying to decide.

"Psychology is a wide field. I've always known I wanted to study fears, I didn't know I was interested in psychopharmacology until I became a pharmacy tech." he explained.

It was nice having an actual conversation with him that wasn't about our fears. I could tell he had worked hard to get to this point and he wasn't afraid to continue to work hard to achieve his dreams. I could respect him for that and for his willingness to help with the pregnancy.

….

The next day came and I was being released from the hospital. Jonathan had a double shift at the pharmacy so after setting up my first prenatal appointment the nurse got me a cab and I was able to head home.

It felt so great to be out of the hospital. It was so good to be back at my own apartment. I looked around and thought about how I wouldn't be living here too much longer.

'Maybe I should keep it just in case.' I thought to myself not convinced the marriage would really work.

The morning sickness was beginning to kick in. It lasted most of the day so that wasn't too much fun. I tried to eat some crackers and lay on the couch while I felt queasy.

It was around 7 when I heard a knock on the door. I managed to crawl off my couch and walked over to the door. After unlocking it, I opened the door to see Jonathan. That wasn't much of a surprise; he said he was going to stop by.

"Hey." He greeted me as he walked passed me and into the apartment.

"Hey." I said, closing the door behind him and walking back over to the couch. I laid back down trying to keep what little I had in my stomach to stay there.

"Not feeling well?" Jonathan asked as he looked down at me.

"It's just morning sickness." I explained.

"I'll try to pick something up to help with that." Jonathan offered. I smiled and thanked him. I was glad to have him here so I didn't have to go through this alone.

"I picked up our marriage license before work this morning. I thought we'd go down to the courthouse tomorrow morning and get that part taken care of, if you're feeling well enough." He continued.

"Yeah, that would be good to do. Do you work tomorrow?" I asked.

"Just my normal shift." He answered. I nodded as we sat in silence for a couple of minutes.

"We have another issue I forgot about." I told him.

"And what's that?" he asked.

"What are we going to tell our families back home?" I said. He snickered a bit.

"That's not that big of a deal for me. I don't talk to my family." He answered.

"Really? Why not?" I asked.

"Well…long story short I don't like them." He bluntly stated.

"I guess that works. So then I guess the issue is what am I going to tell my family." I thoughtfully said.

"They're not my family, that's up to you."

"That's not helpful."

"Sorry."

"No you're not."

"No, not really but I have other things to spend my time on." He reminded me. He was such a busy person. I wondered what he was going to do without classes for a few weeks. Of course we still had our project to present and he still had work.

"I'll be taking on some more shifts at work since the Christmas break is here. We're usually pretty this time of year." He informed me like he was reading my mind.

"So you want to be here for Christmas? You don't want to fly out to Iowa and meet your new in-laws?" I joked, giving him a half smile.

"Why would I want to do that?" he seriously asked.

"I don't blame you. I don't really want to either." I said. I had enough going on now and this news would start some major family drama.

…..

The next morning I had just finished getting ready when I heard a knock on the door. A second later I heard the door open and shut. I knew Jonathan would be coming soon, so I unlocked the door for him before I got started on my hair. A minute later Jonathan walked into the bathroom next to me.

"Almost ready?" he asked obviously wanting to get this over with. I didn't blame him. I wanted to get it over with too.

"I just finished. What do you think? Does this look good enough to get married in?" I asked him looking down at the lime green and yellow shirt and skirt I had chosen to get married in.

"You look fine." He barely glanced at me. Jonathan was wearing a black suit with a dark red tie. He looked nice.

"Shall we go then?" he asked me. I nodded.

The ceremony was exactly what I wanted. Short, sweet and to the point. There was a side of me that felt guilty that my family wasn't here. They didn't know I was getting married. Actually they didn't know about anything that happened in the last week. That wasn't going to be a fun conversation when it eventually happened.

...

I couldn't believe I was married. I was now Mrs. Emily Crane. This past week was so full of life changing events. After the ceremony was over Jonathan and I walked back to my apartment.

"I was thinking you could come over to my apartment tonight after I'm finished with work. We could have dinner and we can get started on moving you in." Jonathan suggested.

"Sure, I'd like that." I agreed. I hadn't been to his apartment before; I was interested to see what it looked like. Moving in with him and starting our married life seemed kind of nerve wrecking. I still didn't know if we'd last very long, but hey it could be an adventure.

A few days passed and I was completely moved out of my little one bedroom apartment. Jonathan was a very neat and organized person. I could tell by his apartment, though he did have some clutter here and there. I was very glad to see that so I knew I didn't have to keep the apartment completely spotless.

We had finally been able to present our project which we got an "A" on and I was able to take all my finals.

The Christmas break would be over soon and we would be starting classes up again. Jonathan and I had a few classes together this upcoming semester. So that might be fun.

I was now eight weeks pregnant and it was the day of my first prenatal appointment with Dr. Elmer, the OBGYN I would be seeing during the pregnancy. Jonathan was at work, so I ended up going to my appointment by myself. It went well, everything looked good and the doctor even scheduled me for another ultrasound in a couple of weeks. He did notice my iron levels were low so he prescribed me a prenatal vitamin with extra iron.

Jonathan's P.O.V

Work was busy as normal this time of year. I had just finished filling a prescription when I heard the phone ring. The others were busy, so I answered it.

"This is Pharmacy, how can I help you?" I asked into the phone.

"Hi, this is Jane from Dr. Elmer's office; I need to call in a prescription." The woman on the other end of the line said.

"Alright, name and birth date of the patient, please." I said, going over to the computer to type in the information I needed.

"Emily Crane and her birthday is June 5." The woman told me. I paused a moment realizing this was a prescription for my wife.

"What does she need?" I asked, once I finished typing in Emmy's name and birthday. I was relieved when I found out it was only for vitamins. I had been slightly worried that something was wrong with the baby.

A few hours passed and it was now 4:45. I would be getting off of work in 15 minutes and Emmy still hadn't picked up her vitamins.

'I'll just take them home with me if she doesn't pick them up.' I thought to myself, as I helped a man check out. I looked to the next person in line and was pleasantly surprised to see Emmy. She smiled at me as she walked up to the counter.

"Hey." She greeted when she reached me.

"Give me five minutes and I'll have that out for you." I told her before turning around to grab her vitamins.

"Don't you need my information?" she asked and winked.

"I'm pretty sure I know your information." I informed her with a smirked before heading to the back.

"Who do you need?" Greg, another pharmacy tech asked me as I looked through the bags for Emmy's name.

"Emily Crane." I replied as I picked up the bag with her name on it.

"Crane? Is she related to you?" My coworker asked. This guy was more annoying than Emmy was and there were times it took all my strength not to ring his neck. Emmy had some intelligence, this guy had none.

"She's my wife." I replied.

"You're wife? When did you get married?"

"About two and half weeks ago." I answered, going back to the front counter. Emmy gave me a small smile as I handed her the bag. I quickly typed her information into the computer.

"Do you still get off at 5?" she asked.

"That will be $8.50 and yes, I do." I told her. Emmy handed me a 10 dollar bill.

"Do you mind if I wait for you? I was thinking we could go to that little Thai food place a few doors down for dinner." She asked me. I smirked.

"Pregnancy craving?" I asked her handing her, her change.

"Yep." She replied.

"That would be fine." I told her.

"Ok, I'll just wait over here." She said before walking away. I nodded to her and turned to my next client.

...

About ten minutes later I hung up the white lab coat I wore for work and walked over to Emmy.

"You ready to go?" I asked her. She turned to me, nodded and soon we were out the door.

The last two and half weeks had been interesting. We had managed to sell Emmy's apartment contract, got her completely moved into my apartment and she had managed to eat Thai food every night for about a week now.

"That baby must sure like spicy food." I commented as we walked into the Thai restaurant she managed to notice.

"I think so." Emmy smiled.

Things had definitely been different since Emmy and I started living together. I was able to get Emmy to open up with me more. If I was going to allow her to raise my child, I needed to know her better. I found out she had five brothers; she told me a lot about growing up on her father's farm and about the university back in Iowa. I didn't understand why she decided to move to Gotham, where she seemed to enjoy the university back in her home state. I had asked her but she brushed it off. I was going to find out, but decided to do so slowly. I could tell, though she denied it, she wanted to go back to Iowa for a visit. She still hadn't told her family about me or the pregnancy. I decided to stay out of that one and just watch as things unfolded.

…..

Author's Note: Hello everyone. Thanks for checking out my story. I hope you enjoyed chapter four. Thank you to those who are following/favoring my story. Special thanks to Meg and Nommy for the reviews.

Meg-The answers to your questions are in chapter two. It's the last part of the chapter in Jonathan's P.O.V.

Nommy-Thank you! I hope you will continue to like it. :)

Thanks again everyone. Please leave a review if you have a moment. Constructive criticism is always welcome. Thank!-Lin