Title: It's a Wonderful Life
Chapter 5: Bittersweet vows
Time: December 2008 (after the sixth season of Reba and beyond)
Characters I don't own: Reba McKinney, Brock Hart, Barbra Jean Booker, Kyra, Jake, Cheyenne Montgomery, Van Montgomery, Elizabeth Montgomery, Barbra Jean Booker, Henry Hart, Mike Holliway, Terry Holliway, Lori Ann Garner, JV McKinney, Helen McKinney, John D. Hart, Liz Hart, and any other characters from the Reba cast.
Characters I do own: Anyone not part of the Reba cast – original characters developed for this story include: Max Thornton, Cheyenne McEntire-Smith (Nana), Vince McEntire (Papa), Kenneth Smith (Gramps), Paige McKinney, Michael Davis, John McKinney Thornton, Barbara Ann Grant, Kim Campbell-Holliway, Sam Holliway, Jenny Miller, Terry Holliway, Jr., Josh Holliway, Madeline Mitchell (Maddi), Greg Brooks, Jason Holliway, and Maggie.
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Now on with the story-
Previously- Reba covered her mouth and tears threatened to fall. It appeared that she married a stranger. Her exes and her children were going to have a field day with this one.
Brock looked over to Reba and saw a similar ring on her hand too. "Oh, you got one too."
"Brock, did we get married last night?" she asked tentatively.
"Yes, I have a feeling that we did. The details are a little bit fuzzy, but you were a beautiful bride in that dress that you wore last night. You've been the object of my fantasies in that dress. You don't seem happy."
Reba was pacing back and forth. Her voice was rising with each step. "Do I look happy, you mo-ron? Honestly, look at me. I just woke up hung-over and married to a stranger."
"We're not exactly strangers. That may have been true in Vegas, but it isn't now. It's hard to say because you displayed a variety of emotions last night, but I seem to remember how serene you looked after we got here. You did look happy then. You looked shocked now, but this is our first morning-after so it would feel different."
Reba stopped pacing. She was facing him now, but she was flailing her arms as she spoke to him. "It's all comin' back to me. We've got to find the guy who did this and tell him that we didn't mean it."
"But honey, what if I did mean it?" He smiled at her.
"On a first date? Of course you didn't. How could you? You don't wanna be married to me. You don't even know me. We need to find out where we are. I need to get some clothes on. You need to stop sneakin' a peek under this sheet. I need to call my kids. They don't even know where I am. I need to get home to them." Reba ranted as she scooped up her clothes off the floor and rushed towards the bathroom. She slammed the bathroom door shut.
Brock was left to think about what had just happened. "How do you know?" he asked her softly, but she didn't hear him. He was left to wonder just what made Reba think that he didn't want them to be married. That's when he remembered that his Reba wouldn't have presumed that. His Reba! There wasn't such a way like that to distinguish between the two of them anymore because this Reba was his Reba too. He smiled when he realized that this Reba was his wife.
This alternate reality was wild, but really great. He couldn't move this fast with Reba in the real world. Reba was in a hurry to get home to her kids. They decided to straighten everything out legally when they returned to McAlester. That's when she figured that she and Brock would part ways. She figured that Brock would be on his way back to Houston in the next day or so. She thought wrong...
What will happen now? What will happen when they get back to McAlester? What is Reba's loved one's reaction to her marriage? Will Brock stay on in Oklahoma or return to Texas? What will Barbra Jean have to say about Reba marrying her ex-husband? What will Max say about Reba's new marriage? Reba doesn't want to stay married to Brock. Will Brock get the chance to win her heart again in this other reality or will he fail and wind up back in his reality alone?
What happens next? Stay tuned to find out this chapter!
The answers to these questions will be revealed as you read the story. Here is the latest installment of It's a Wonderful Life.
Now on with our next chapter-
Reba couldn't get home fast enough. She was anxious over the anticipated reactions of her family. Paige was going to laugh over the hypocrisy of what she did. She'd been giving her sister a hard time over her impulsive Vegas drunken nuptials that Paige had been wanting out of for the past couple of months when Reba had been pressuring her to try to make the marriage work. Meanwhile, Reba had gone off and done the same thing. If she tried to get out of it, what type of example was she making to her sister and her daughters? After two divorces, she didn't think that she was a good example of how to have a successful marriage.
A third marriage that ended in divorce shocked and frightened her whole being. She was not that type of woman. She was a good, loving woman. Why was she making these types of destructive decisions? She was stuck on what the right thing to do was in this situation. It was times like this that she knew that she couldn't be counted on to be the family's moral compass. She wondered how she got into that position in the first place.
She had been married twice before. The reason why her first marriage failed was because she cheated with the man who became her second husband. Her cheating behavior led to her daughter's birth. Her youngest daughter wasn't fathered by her first husband, whom she was married to at the time. She was also currently engaged in an affair with her first husband, ten years after their divorce. She was so far off the moral path that she didn't know how to get back. She looked over at the man who was now her legal 'husband'. She just couldn't wrap her head around the concept. She barely even knew this man.
There they were in Brock's truck again. Brock was experiencing déjà vu. He felt like they had been this way before and they had. This was what it was like in the past when Brock was driving Reba home from Holliway's after her fight with Mike when she asked Brock if he really wanted to date her. There she was clutching the door handle again like she was truly scared of him. He was going to have to be diplomatic about this again. He decided to be the first one to talk about their situation. He'd hoped to put her at ease.
"So, we had quite a night, didn't we?" he remarked jokingly.
She wasn't looking at him. She was still looking out the window. She was silent and he knew Reba well enough to know that it wasn't a good sign. She was either mad, scared, or both.
"Come on now, things aren't so bad. Things could be worse. You could be married to a complete stranger. At least, we know each other. We've met before."
Reba turned to him with a tear stricken face. "You don't understand. My sister made this type of mistake and I gave her a hard time about it. My children are counting on me to keep things stable, safe, and happy for them in our home. I was tryin' so hard to keep things from being chaotic again. I've raised my children and grandchild for the last six years in a stable, loving home. I've been focused on them and what they need."
"So, what about you? Everyone knows that if Mama's not happy, then nobody's really happy. Don't you think that they've picked up on the fact that you're all alone? Anyone can see that you've sacrificed your life for theirs."
"I don't matter in this. That's how I got in trouble in the first place. My happiness doesn't matter. If it did, then I wouldn't be raising my kids alone right now. I had a good husband who was a loving father to my children. I screwed that up by having an affair. I deserve to reap what I sow."
"There are two people in a marriage. Marriage is not a jail sentence. A smart lady once told me that it can be the most wonderful way to spend the rest of your life in the arms of the person that you love."
Reba laughed with sarcasm dripping from her voice. "Horsefeathers! I once thought like that myself, but I've been through two marriages. In my experience, marriage is not that way. It's soul crushing."
"Not all men are out to hurt you. You've just gotten mixed up with the wrong ones."
"That's what happens when you get married for the wrong reasons. I got married the first time because I needed a father for my child. It wasn't really for love."
"Same here. Barbra Jean and I got married because she was pregnant with Henry so I know what you mean. We grew into love and mutual affection for one another. We both love Henry."
"But it's not enough. Max wanted his version of a wife and I couldn't be that way. He's one of the richest guys in Oklahoma. He belongs to a country club. He plays golf. He hosts dinner parties. He travels in social circles.
He wanted me to have the children raised by a nanny. He wanted me to join the Junior League. That's not me. I don't fit in that world. I went back home and there was Mike. Everything was the way it was before. If I really loved my husband, I wouldn't have fallen into temptation.
By that time, Max and I were going through the motions. John was four and Cheyenne was three. We kept dragging the marriage on until John was fourteen and our youngest, Jake was three. I thought that I was doing the right thing by making a life with Mike. I really loved him. We were happy. You don't know how strong a marriage is until it's tested. Ours didn't pass the test when we hit the first major roadblock."
"Well, this time you didn't marry because you're pregnant, desperate, or scared. We could have a mutual respect for one another that a good marriage needs. The rest can come later."
"That doesn't sound like a good foundation for a marriage."
"It's better than most. You can learn to move on from your past. We can support each other. I can help you with your kids. I know that you've always wanted to go to college. I can help you with that."
"Really? I won't be bought, Brock." Reba's eyes bore into his.
"I wouldn't dream of it, honey. Look, if this were the end of an ordinary date, wouldn't you wanna see me again? Wouldn't we exchange phone numbers to see where things go?"
"Yeah, that's what I was hoping for. I enjoyed the parts of the evening that I remember, but you live in Texas and I live in Oklahoma. We could get to know each other on the phone and through e-mail."
"Okay, what about the legal status of our marriage?"
"We can get it annulled or get a divorce, something that doesn't disrupt the rest of our lives too much."
"Let me see if I understand this. You wanna get to know me and you wanna date me. You wanna see where the relationship goes. You just don't wanna be married to me?"
"You make it sound like a bad thing. We are leading two separate lives and I don't wanna jump into something so quickly."
"We can go as slow as you want, but I don't think that we have to dissolve our marriage to do that; unless we decide for sure that we don't wanna be together." Brock tried to start calm, cool, and collected. He wanted to be mature about this. He usually let Reba bait him into flying off the handle into an argument with her. He learned a few things that would be very useful to him in dealing with this Reba.
"Okay, so you return to Texas and we won't tell anybody a thing about this whole mistake."
"I really don't appreciate you calling our marriage a mistake. For some reason, this happened and we shouldn't play the blame game. We should just be open with it."
"So I can deal with the fallout when you're safely in Texas? No way!"
"Calm down. I wanna make this relationship work. I feel the same way that you do about marriage. What better way to deal with Cheyenne and Paige than to handle this the right way," Brock urged.
"What way is that?" Reba asked with her arms crossed in front of her.
"We should stay married and work on the relationship. We could show them that you are practicing what you preach."
"I don't know. It seems so fake and dishonest. I'm kind of involved with Max at the moment."
"You've said that you did that because you were lonely. Did you plan on seeing him and me at the same time?"
"No."
"Okay, then. That's one obstacle out of the way. Look at it this way. It will drive Mike and Barbra Jean crazy."
"That's one benefit. I just don't want my kids to be confused. I don't want them torn between their dad and me. Max isn't going to like it if I stop seeing him. It's gonna be a problem."
"You should've anticipated how the man would react when you eventually ended things with him again if you really don't love him. Honey, you should've known that it was gonna be a problem to marry a man that you didn't love strictly for security and companionship in the first place."
"Then why are we stayin' married?"
Brock pulled the truck over to the side of the road. Brock leaned over and captured her lips in a warm, melting kiss. She became warm and accommodating under that kiss. Brock slowly lowered her down onto the front seat of his truck. Passion coursed through Reba's veins like wildfire. She opened her mouth to deepen the kiss. She ran her fingers through his hair and down his back.
Brock pulled away and looked into her eyes. "That's why. We have something special between us. I knew it the first time I saw you. Did you have that with your first husband?"
"No. That took Max and I twenty-five years to develop. Of course, we are engaged in a strictly physical relationship now. What do you mean that you knew it the first time you saw me? In Vegas?"
"Yeah, Red. We danced and we kissed. You asked me to dance first. Lori Ann and I helped you back to your room. You kissed me and told me that I was like a fantasy. I helped you when you got sick. You said that I was the perfect guy before you passed out."
"And you remember this from one night twenty-five years ago from a random encounter with a random woman in Las Vegas."
"No, you can imagine my shock when I found out that you were the bride at the wedding that I attended the next day. Things like that don't happen to me very often. You aren't a random woman to me."
"Because of Mike. I know. I was your best friend's girl. I was a damsel in distress. I was in trouble and you helped me."
"It may have started out that way, but it's different now. I accepted the date because I've always been attracted to you. We're married because there's a connection between us. That was why we made such a subconscious decision."
"Let's say that I buy into all of this. You have to understand that I am not that type of woman. I'm not gonna start sleeping with you because we have a piece of paper that says that we're married."
"But Sweetheart, you already did that. We've already done the deed." Brock smirked at Reba.
"I know that, you mo-ron. But that doesn't mean that I wanna repeat the experience. You wanna get to know me. Great, good for you, but that doesn't mean that you'll be scoring a touchdown with me anytime soon. I have a big house with a lot of bedrooms. Pick one." Reba issued the challenge. If Brock wanted to stay married to her, he'd have to accept her terms.
Brock readily agreed. It only took him five seconds to decide. He'd spent six years without her by his side as his wife so he wasn't going to waste any more time on anything that would keep them from working to build a life together. Brock was ready to face whatever challenges lie ahead, even if Reba wasn't quite ready yet. He looked at her. He was ready to face anything that came his way, if it meant being with her again. He figured that he could get the kids on his side from the conversations that he had with them before. The exes were going to be the main problem.
One of them was a man that she admittedly still had feelings for, despite his relationship with another woman. The other was a man that currently occupied her bed almost every night. The only good thing was that she admittedly couldn't say that she actually loved either of these men anymore. He had his work cut out for him this time. He had to wonder if it was easier to woo his beloved redhead with the field wide open. Reba hadn't found anyone that she allowed herself to fall in love with during the past six years. In both realities, she clung to memories of her relationship with Mike.
How was he going to get her to turn away from a past love in order to move forward with him? It was a long shot because she couldn't remember the tentative past that they had together. By rights, he had just as much of a claim in her life as the father of one of her children, but he knew Reba well enough that she would force him from her life before she would admit that Mike was not John's father. It would take time and Brock was ready to invest the time in this relationship. He would figure out how to proceed in winning Reba's heart and getting her to remember their night in Vegas. The hard part was figuring out how to do the same thing in the 'real world'. Reba was a lot less lonely in that world because Mike was available and wanted to marry his Reba.
She was his Reba and Brock was not going to let her go that easily. He wanted to kick himself for being so blind all these years. It wasn't over between them. How could he have thought that it was? He only thought that it was because of what he did with Barbra Jean. He didn't communicate with his wife to figure anything out. He didn't pay attention to what was going on around him and he lost his family. These were mistakes that Brock didn't plan on ever making again.
They turned to drive down the gravel road to the McKinney family homestead. Reba's driveway extended down from the gravel road that led to her parents' house. Her driveway was paved and ran up to the house. It was over a half mile down from the gravel road. Reba had lived with that gravel road that her parents used as a driveway for all of her life. She wasn't settling for that. She had the funding when the house was built so she decided to splurge on having a concrete driveway. She turned to Brock to let him know where the turn was for her house when he surprised her by making the turn without further instructions. "How did you know that this was the right road to turn down?"
"Instinct. Honey, you'd be surprised how much I know about you. For example, I know that this is the place where you've always wanted to live. It's near the barn and the creek. It's also right by your favorite tree."
"How did you...? Never mind, I don't wanna know. The focus needs to be on what we're gonna say to the kids."
"Of course, it's gonna be okay. We're just gonna go in there and talk to them in a calm, rational manner."
"You obviously haven't met my family. We aren't calm, rational people. We're the screaming, yelling, and jumping to conclusions type of people."
"Maybe that should be the first thing that we work on as a married couple, honey. We can show everyone that we can have a marriage that works with good communication."
"Yeah, sure. And while we're on the subject, don't call me honey. It's unnerving," Reba responded with her usual sarcasm.
"What do you want me to call ya? You want me to call you Sally like Mike does?"
Reba felt her composure under attack. She felt an acute sense of loss. With the reminder of Mike came the realization that they were finally over. They would never be together again. Once again, Mike chose BJ and now Reba had married his best friend. That had to be final nail in the coffin. She swallowed the despair in her throat. She shrugged in mock resignation.
Brock saw the hurt and longing lay naked in her eyes. It tore his heart in two. He got the answer to his question about whatever or not Reba would be better off if they were never together. She wasn't. She was bedding a man she didn't love while pining away for a man who'd chosen another woman over her. How could he fix that? He wanted to see the sunshine shining in her eyes again. Sunshine! Finally, Brock came up with the answer.
"It's gonna be okay, Sunshine. I promise you that."
She bit her lip and looked up at him. "How can you be sure of that? In twenty-five years, I haven't made a decision in my life that hasn't negatively impacted my children's life, except the decision to be alone."
Brock clutched Reba's hand with both of his. "Let's just take this one step at a time. We'll go in there together and we'll handle whatever happens together." Reba met the smile and the hand which was offered. She reached out of the grasp, lacing his fingers with her own. Her face brightened at the suggestion. She managed a small, tentative smile. He captured her eyes with his. He got out of the truck, walked around the other side to open the door for his new bride.
"Okay, so you're a gentleman. Any other surprises? I didn't expect that about you. Mike's filled me in on your sexual escapades. Your reputation as a ladies' man precedes you, Casanova." There was a trace of laughter in her voice.
Brock's smile deepened into laughter. "Okay, maybe I was. But that's not who I am anymore. Would you believe me if I told you that in another life I was only intimate with two woman? I've dated a lot of woman in my time. That's how I got the reputation, but I don't sleep with every woman that I date."
"Well, that's all over for you now," she proclaimed teasingly.
"Oh, yeah. Why is that?" he asked, amused by her comment.
"Because you're married to me, buddy. Don't you ever forget it!"
Brock's smile widened. "I don't intend to. By the way, the same goes for you. I've heard about you, too. You've had your share of sexual escapades, but that's all over for you now unless you want to share that with me."
Reba threw her head back and laughed. "Dream on."
"I'll settle for just going over the rules." Brock began as they approached the front door to Reba's house.
"Rules? What rules?"
"Your reputation precedes you, my dear. Rule one: No matter how much we've quarreled, we never go to bed without having kissed the other. Rule two: We are never apart from each other for more than two weeks. Rule three: We always spend our anniversary in bed. Rule four: The children always come first. No matter what else is important. Rule five: We'll always be there for each other whenever one of us needs the other. Rule six: We can talk about anything with each other. Rule seven: We always kiss at bedtime and fall asleep, arm in arm every night. Rule eight: We dance together before we go to bed every night. Finally, rule nine: No talkin' about our exes in the bedroom. Did I get that right?" Brock wore that characteristic smirk on his face.
Reba's eyes grew wide with surprise. "How did you...? Never mind. Mike has a big mouth. Okay, so now you know."
"Know what?" It was Brock's turn to be surprised.
"What a control freak I am," Reba revealed. Brock's eyes lit up in amusement. Reba couldn't understand why he knew so much about her and still wanted to be locked into this strange situation with her. She refused to think of it as a real marriage.
"You are not a control freak, but you are one strange woman. You're definitely worth it."
"Thanks a lot, Brock. You really know how to make a woman feel special." Reba's voice was dripping with her usual sarcasm.
Brock took that with a grain of salt. This was Reba and he knew how to read her moods. She was still holding his hand so he took it as a positive sign. "I'm trying here, at least give me credit for that."
"Fine. It's just weird that you know so much about me when we hardly know each other at all. You have to understand how strange this is for me. I have to walk in and announce this strange situation to my children as if it's perfectly normal, which it's not."
"Reba, you gonna listen to me when I tell ya that everything is gonna be okay. I will work out. I promise."
Reba eyed him suspiciously. "I've never seen any man actually fight this hard to stay in a marriage, especially to a woman that he barely knows. I'm not sure about any of this and I'm definitely not sure about you. I don't know what it is because I'm not wealthy. I didn't take a large settlement in divorces. Believe me, I'm gonna figure out your angle." Reba opened the door to her house. Her children assembled in the living room, awaiting their mother's arrival. "Guess what, kids. I have an announcement to make. Brock and I are married. Any questions?"
Silence filled the room after that shocking announcement. Brock was left to wonder what else Reba would say about their marriage. He wondered what the kids' reactions would be. He wondered what her ex-husbands would say about their sudden marriage. So far, day one of their new marriage wasn't a bad one because they'd reached an understanding. He wondered what was lying ahead for them. One thing was for sure, Reba McKinney was now Reba Hart and Brock liked the sound of that...
What will happen now? What will happen once the kids get over their shock? What is Reba's ex-husbands' reactions to her marriage? Will Brock stay on in Oklahoma or eventually return to Texas? What will Barbra Jean have to say about Reba marrying her ex-husband? Reba is skeptical of Brock. Will Brock get the chance to win her heart again in this other reality or will he fail and wind up back in his reality alone?
What happens next? Stay tuned to find out in the next chapter!
Thanks for the reviews, please review this chapter and give me your thoughts and comments….
Author's note: Some things are not clear to readers so I will try to summarize for clarity.
Here's the rundown on Reba's relationship with the three men in this story:
In Las Vegas-Wedding to Mike-failed, Met Brock-conceived John-one night stand
Was with Mike before and after Vegas so she assumed that Mike was the father.
Reba left McAlester for Ada. She worked as a nanny to Max's children. Max's wife died. Max offers to marry Reba and help raise John. She didn't give birth prematurely and Mike didn't show up when John was born.
Was married to Max- had Cheyenne
Cheated on Max with Mike-conceived Kyra
Max found out and wanted to save the marriage. Stayed married- had Jake with Max
Mike's marriage ends in divorce. Reba unhappily married and wanted a divorce to be with Mike. She married Mike.
The rest of it is just like Believe in Love Again- got pregnant, had a heart attack, lost the baby on the kitchen floor- similar to my other story. Reba suffered from depression, she couldn't handle being in the apartment anymore, lack of communication- Mike and Reba got separated. He met Barbra Jean and she "comforted" him. He got caught and Reba divorced him. BJ left because Mike was devastated that Reba divorced him. She knew that Reba came first in his life. She married Brock. It didn't work out because BJ was still in love with Mike. She divorced Brock and left Houston to try again with Mike.
Over six years, Mike and Reba have worked to build a good relationship- A friendship that could develop into something more when BJ came back into their lives. Reba realized that she was lonely and settled for started friends with benefits relationship with Max.
I will continue to write new chapter updates as often as possible. Thanks for being patient.
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Disclaimer: I don't own Reba or any of the characters in this story from Reba. They belong to the writers of the REBA TV show. I also do not own the rights to any of the songs and lyrics that I use in this story. Those are the property of the artists involved. I also do not own the rights to any television show or movie reference that I use in this story. Those are the property of the Hollywood creative teams involved in their production. I will be changing some release/airing dates of the titles used to fit in with the story.