"Gwendolyn, stop fussing and get out right now, or I´ll drag you out!" Grandma Grace called, in a raspy tone that would have shocked anyone who didn´t know her very deeply. Although Gwen´s maternal grandmother had her bossy temper from the women in her family, she preferred smoother methods to get things done her way, like emotional blackmail. Only on very rare occasions could the others have glimpses of her true nature underneath her well-combed hair, pearl necklace and pastel colored silk shirts.
Everything was set for Kevin and Gwen´s wedding - the flowers, the food, Julie´s maid of honor dress (changed, so it would match Aunty Joyce´s hat) - everything but the bride´s gown. Any model of dress she would like was promptly dismissed by the familiar committee led by Grandma Grace, who was all set about using her late mother´s veil in the ceremony. Frank suggested sarcastically that perhaps they should have Galliano drawing a special gown, which earned him a furious glare from his wife. Finally, a work colleague of Natalie recommended bridal shop to them. According to her, it was very expensive, but their salespeople were specialists in solving bride problems.
Reluctantly, Gwen left the changing booth and presented herself to her mother and grandmother. Since she and Kevin had decided to make their union official, Gwen had fantasized pleasant moments choosing her dress helped by Emily or Julie and exchanging hot jokes . However, both her best female friends had schedules of their own that day. Anyway, none of her female friends would feel comfortable with Grandma Grace around. Through the last days the old woman had been stuck to her granddaughter like a barnacle on a rock. Natalie had joined them because she had good taste and knew better how to deal with her mother´s excesses.
"You look like a princess, sweetheart!" Grandma cheered when she saw Gwen trudging towards them. "Your Kevin will fall on his back when he´ll see you!"
"He´ll certainly do it... from cracking up too much" Gwen thought. The only thing good in that dress was its ivory, slightly yellowed color, which matched perfectly to the veil´s. Its style, however, was a caricature version of something taken from a movie about the 17th or 18th Century. It was high-necked, with puffy sleeves so big that looked like balloons or camel humps. Its large, bell-shaped skirts had dramatic draperies evolving its large hips, which would make anyone think of theatre curtains. As much as she tried, Gwen couldn´t smile.
"But even princess need to breath occasionally", she complained, tugging at the tight collar. The balloon sleeve brushed her face when she did that "I can´t raise my arms, or these 'bumps' will hit my face!"
"You´re not going to raise your arms in the wedding, young woman," the old woman admonished "This dress is a classic. Pure Victorian style."
"It´s more Elizabethan, mom," Natalie scoffed "These skirts are so large that they´ll knock the reception table over when Gwendolyn´ ll bend to cut the cake." Not awaiting a response, she picked up one of the dresses the salesgirl in charge (whom made her best efforts to not burst laughing at Gwen) offered "This one is very beautiful, too." She said firmly.
"Suit yourself. You two never like anything I´ll choose!" Grandma Grace complained, pouting her lips as a child.
"Grandma, please,"Gwen tried to calm her. "The dresses you chose when we came here were gorgeous, but they didn´t match to this veil. Maybe it´ll be better if I´ll take it off and try again of those first ones with their original... ouh!" she raised her arms to take the old veil off, causing the sleeve 'bumps' to hit both sides of her face.
Her grandmother gave her such an outraged look that made Gwen feel nastier than Argit.
"You´re talking just like Mary Ann´s daughters. They didn´t want my mother´s veil, too... Jocelyn made the point to say that she preferred marrying naked than 'losing her head' - whatever that means!"
"Losing face, grandma. It´s just…see, it´s too fragile. I´m afraid of ripping it accid..."
"Say it! It´s too old! A smelly, useless rag! Throw it away, I don´t care..." the old woman looked down dramatically. "My grandfather had that veil shipped from Europe, as a symbol of the fortune regained after the war took my family´s riches. My mother, then myself and my sisters and then my Natalie were married in it..." she ranted by the zillionth time. "Her sister didn´t want to wear it, but I didn´t care because I would pass it for my granddaughters. By nobody else wants, all the youngsters don´t want anything that´s not brand new and shining, the old things are worthless..."
Natalie marched towards her mother as she shot Gwen a "you just couldn´t keep your mouth shut"' look. Both mother and daughter comforted their stubborn matriarch, repeating over and over that the veil still would be worn one last time, that no, it wouldn´t go to the trash can. Gwen started to think that she would have to apologize more twenty times at least when a cell phone called. There was a moment of confusion as the four women - including the salesgirl - checked on whose cell phone was ringing . Finally, Gwen realized it was hers, and took her time retrieving her purse from under her mother and grandmother´s, on the leather chairs of the store and finally picking the phone. A strange relief filled her when she recognized her cousin´s voice.
"Ben? That´s not a good moment. I´ll call y..."
"I´m sorry, Gwen. "Ben cut off hurriedly. "I know you´re busy, but this is an emergency! Kevin´s already on his way to..."
Before he could say anything else, Natalie took the cell from her daughter´s hand.
"Gwendolyn is very busy now. She can´t drop everything and come every time you call." she lectured her nephew before hanging up.
"MOM!" Gwen bellowed in protest as she reached for the phone "Why did you do that?" the younger woman bristled. "Ben couldn´t even tell me what he meant!"
"That´s not much hard to guess. You´ve been all set on those alien activities since you were fifteen. When you´ll start to have your own life?"
"This is MY life, mom! I told you a thousand of times. And Kevin will be there with him..." Gwen argued. Grandma Grace approached and started running her hand through the young woman´s soft hair, in a comforting way.
"They probably have a surprise for you. You´ll see them later", the old woman cooed, speaking as if Gwen was still eight. "Aww, don´t make that worried face. Isn't Ben the most powerful hero in the world? If it´s really serious, he´ll take good care of Kevin and bring him back safe and sound for your wedding."
The way she talked made Kevin look like a baby unable to defend himself, and Gwen frowned at that. Her grandma noticed it and changed her tactics.
"It´s so rare for me to have a chance of seeing my favorite little granddaughter." she fretted. "You never went to see me again through all these years because you were always so busy fighting those space monsters of yours, and I have been so lonely..."
Grandma Grace lived with one of her married daughters, to her in-law and grandkids´ dismay. She had seen Gwen on most of her birthdays and the other way around. Not mentioning the occasional family reunions or the times when Natalie 'dragged' her daughter for a visit to her side of the family. However, both Grace´s frail appearance and that mortally wounded look she always wore when someone told her 'no' made almost impossible to rub those things in her face. Besides, there was also Natalie´s stern look hovering behind Grace´s shoulder. It wasn´t easy enough for Gwen to deal with her mother´s pressures, and both her mother and grandmother's combined powers could put down the resistance of even the most self-assured person in the world. Gwen finally surrendered and lowered her eyes, her annoyance giving in to guilt and to an overwhelming feeling of getting crushed between two stony walls.
"I think you´re both right..." she sighed.
"Of course we are!" her grandmother gloated. "We love you so much! But you´ve got a point... this dress really is not good for you. Take that thing off, before it´ll pull your eyes out. After we find the perfect dress for you, we´re going to eat some pastries at that coffee shop I saw at the other side of the street."
"That´s the best thing I heard the entire day. I´m starving! " Gwen cheered a little, a weak smile lighting up her face, but her mother arched an eyebrow."
"You weren´t on a diet?" she inquired.
"What for? The poor girl is fine, I´m not going to let her starve just because Sandra went paranoid with healthy," Grace dismissed the issue with a wave of hand.
"That wasn´t what you said that when I was about to marry Frank," her daughter insisted with a bit of jealousy.
"That´s the fun of being a grandmother: doing to your grandkids what you couldn´t to your kids!"
Gwen went back to the booths, laughing as she carried carefully the dress chosen by her mother, so it wouldn´t touch the dusty floor. Distantly, the name of Kevin came to her ears on a whisper; she stopped and turned around to see her grandmother grinning and waving. She frowned slightly, but shrugged and entered the booth she had been using for one hour and a half. With great relief, she freed herself from the 'Victorian" dress and the mould-smelly veil. Both the voices of her mother and grandmother kept coming to her in a confuse murmur. The proof cabins stood a few meters away from the place where the two elder women sat to wait, and the traffic out there would make impossible to understand any word they said; still, they were whispering. Funny... Oh well, she had nothing to do with that. If they were talking with their voices low, it was certainly about something that they didn´t want her to know.
Dejectedly, Gwen studied the dress in her hands. Unlike the one she had dressed in before, this gown was simple and of good taste, but a little plain in Gwen´s opinion, with short sleeves and an almost inexistent V-shaped low-neck. She would have preferred a strapless dress, one with small silver details on its bodice. Probably her mother would have chosen one like this for her, if it wasn´t for Grandma Grace. The respectable matriarch had some restrictions about deep low-necks and bare shoulders, although she had worn both when she was young. Maybe it was about that they were arguing out there? Nah, nonsense.
"I really shouldn´t... I was taught to never eavesdrop. Oh, whatever. Only once won´t hurt."
"Auris Natalie Grace," she muttered. That spell would allow her to hear whatever her mother and grandmother were talking about- and only them. Grandma Grace´s voice came to her ears as clear as she was at Gwen´s side.
"...having an affair when he´s just about to marry my granddaughter! And with a crippled girl!" the old woman sniped.
"Chh! We say that she is handicapped now. And we don´t even know if it´s true. You know that Rachel is still angry at Gwendolyn and Emily because of that band issue. "
"That´s why you´ve prohibited her to tell anyone else?" the older woman scoffed with a bit of malice. " Hmmm... don´t tell me that you changed your heart about that boy."
There was a long pause before Natalie finally answered.
"Gwendolyn is not a fool, mother." the middle-aged woman said slowly, as if she was measuring her words. "Gossip or not, that only has to do with her and Kevin. I don´t want the rest of our family laughing at Gwendolyn because of that man."
"As if they´re not already doing that. But do as you wish. At least nobody will say that Gwendolyn didn´t marry as a Wilkes woman." she concluded with pride.
Natalie gave such a deep sigh that Gwen could swear that she could have heard it even without the spell.
"When Frank and Ken made me promise that I would respect Gwendolyn´s wishes, I couldn´t imagine that it would be so hard. We expected that her relationship with Kevin wore off naturally while she was at college. But they always found a way to see each other. You know, teleporting or any of these weird tricks they use in their missions."
Grandma Grace had no idea of what teleportation was, so she thought it was some type of virtual communication.
"With this internet thing, today, you can keep touch with people even if you´re at the other side of the world," she started ranting. "When I was young we hadn´t this kind of thing... The letters your father wrote took at least two months to come, that really me. My parents were sure that I would end up tiring myself of this and marrying a son of their friends, who was doing a career in the bank ... But then your father came back with his pockets full of money, so they gave in..."
The flood of remembrances was cut by her daughter.
"Gwendolyn is taking too long." Natalie commented suspiciously. "I wonder if she´s fainted or something?"
Gwen heard the salesgirl ´s voice mumbling something, followed by the sound of steps coming.
"Do you need some help?" the girl asked nicely, as soon as she came close to the booth.
"No, thanks. The zipper got stuck and it was really hard to take this off. Here," Gwen answered as she handed to the girl the 'Victorian' dress through the cabinet curtains ."I´m trying the other one now."
She heard the salesgirl's steps fading away, then her voice reporting to Natalie and Grandma Grace.
"Looks like Sandra wasn´t that paranoid," Gwen´s mother scoffed.
"Talking about your father, it made me remember something," Grandma Grace cut in all of a sudden. " This Kevin - vulgar name - is he a scholar student?"
"No, he´s paying the college tuition. Gwendolyn told me that he´s got a lot of money with some of those thingamabobs he does. One of her friends, from the Donovan companies, is even interested..."
"Oh well. At least he won´t freeload my little pumpkin," the older woman cut off. Apparently, talking positively about Kevin wasn´t that interesting. "Are you sure that his mother is human? She seems too young to have a son of that age."
"Even I would look that young if I let my hair grow and dressed myself as if I had 20." Natalie answered bitterly. "At least she doesn´t get the colors of everything she touches."
A ruffling sound of curtains turned their heads towards the booths. Gwen was standing outside of it, wearing the jeans and the long-sleeved T-shirt she wore when she entered the shop that afternoon. Both the dress and the veil were carefully folded in her arms. In silence, she made a beeline to the three women.
"The dress didn´t fit?" the salesgirl asked simply.
"I don´t know. Didn´t get to put it on." Gwen said in a neutral tone as she handed her the untouched dress. "I´m sorry to have taken your time." She apologized, before turning to talk to her relatives. "I´m sorry but I´m too worried with Ben and Kevin. They might be in trouble while I´m here." with that, Gwen hoped to go without no further arguing, but Natalie barred her way.
"You´re not going to stand your grandmother up." the middle-aged woman demanded sternly" She crossed two States just to help you with your marriage.".
"It´s okay, Lily." Grandma Grace cooed sadly, although she couldn´t hide completely her spite " If she´s so worried sick is better let her go. Our little Gwendolyn is just afraid of becoming a widow before marrying."
"When you marry a plumber, that´s a risk you run permanently" Natalie replied briskly.
Gwen narrowed her eyes, the frustration gathered in all those weeks bubbling its way up to her throat, spurred by the way her relatives looked down at the man that meant the world for her. She was reminded of the way her parents reacted when she and Kevin told them they would marry. Her father´s forced smile (I´m happy for you, Gwen), her mother frowning(Isn´t that too soon?) and the deception into Kevin´s eyes. Gwen had tried to cheer him up, insisting that they actually liked him, but they still saw them both as two children. She had been just deceiving herself. He had always known the truth.
"You´re right." Gwen pretended to agree, her voice cold and sharp. "I ´d never have to worry if I´d marry a doctor. One with a respectable mother, who cropped her hair short, as an old lady must do."
Three gasps were heard, followed by a soft, almost inaudible thump - the dress that the salesgirl was still carrying. There was a tense, short silence, disturbed only by the traffic outside.
"How...You couldn´t... " Grandma Grace babbled. "Not with all that racket out there! Natalie! I told you YOU were talking too loud!" she admonished her daughter, but Natalie didn´t pay her any attention, her eyes set on her daughter´s hurt figure. Into Natalie´s eyes, successive emotions flashed: shock, understanding, deception, shame, motherly worry...
She gave a step aside.
"From all people you´re the last one I expected that from." she censored in an inexpressive voice as Gwen walked past her.
"I never did that before, believe me. But, if it serves as comfort, I´m much more disappointed than you." the young sorcerer answered at the same tone as she made a beeline to her grandmother and gave her the veil back.
The old woman looked a little scared and her hands shivered as she received the relic. Still, she forced herself to smile.
"You´re not hurt, are you? " she asked "When you come to a certain age you don´t realize what you´re saying. Let me choose a beautiful dress for you, before..."
It occurred Gwen that the entire veil drama could be a scheme of her grandmother to make her give up on marrying Kevin, at least for a while. But, if she accused her grandmother, the old woman could feel ill - or pretend. Anyway, Grandma Grace never would admit to have planned such thing, and Gwen would be pointed as the villainess.
"Thank you, but it´s hopeless." the young enchantress stated. "We could spend the entire day here and we´d never make your veil fit with any of the dresses in this shop. Just like some people never will fit to other´s high standards, as much as they try."
"Gwendolyn!" Natalie bellowed, marching angrily towards her daughter.
Meanwhile, the forgotten salesgirl put the neglected dress on the balcony and leaned herself on it and on her elbows, in order to appreciate the arguing. "I love when anything like that happens" she thought. "It´s much better than watching soap operas."
"I understand you´re hurt, but that doesn´t give you the right to be cross with your grandmother! "Natalie lectured. "Our family..."
"Please, mom. I´ve always treasured my family - and so has Kevin. He liked when you and dad said thank you for him to bring me home safe and sound after a hard mission. He fixed Ken´s car free. He made a point of watching etiquette videos, so he wouldn´t offend us when you invited him to dinner!"
"He watched them with his eyes closed, I bet." her grandmother hissed "That boorish, cunning rascal... he´s been cheating on y..."
"I know everything about these sordid rumors evolving Emily - and they´re nothing but rumors. " Gwen cut her off firmly. "Did you know that Kevin once adapted his car, so Emily could enter it with her wheelchair and go out with us occasionally? So she wouldn´t feel lonely and abandoned anymore?" she paused, more to brush her eyes than to wait for an answer. "Yeah, I guessed you didn´t. Kevin´s not perfect, but he has done too much for others´ sake... If it wasn´t for him, none of us would be alive now - so you two wouldn´t be there saying those awful things about him!" with that, she grabbed her cell phone and purse and started her way toward the door.
"You mean if it wasn´t for Ben Tennyson, right?" the salesgirl asked from her spot on the balcony. Her work colleagues, who were also listening since there weren´t other customers in the shop, agreed with her. Gwen turned around and gave the salesgirl such a glare that the other woman backed away.
"No, I mean Kevin Levin!" she exclaimed, taking a big effort to control herself "The one who nobody gives a second look because his power is 'to get the color of anything he touches'. For me, however, he´s much more of a hero than Ben, because he never worried into having his face stamped on a T-shirt. All he wanted was to be accepted by our family - and what has he received? 'I wish that my daughter had dumped him when she was at college!'" she finished in a falsetto voice.
Natalie cringed as if she had been slapped.
"No one is saying that Kevin is not a good person, sweetie," she apologized, almost begging. She seemed about to cry, too. "It´s just that we wish you had a normal life. There were lots of good young men in Harvard..."
"There were lots of good young men when you studied there, too," Gwen reminded her. "And they had no aliens in their families."
With that, she finally left the bridal shop, but still could hear her grandmother´s ranting at her back.
"See? Even your daughter thinks the same as m..."
"Please mom, shut up!"
Notes: This fanfic began to be written before the last season of Ultimate Alien started airing. If something here will clash against whatever will be shown in the next episodes, please think of this story as an alternate universe. Paradox admitted that there plenty of Ben 10 universes, anyway.
This chapter twists really surprised me. I had started this fic thinking of it as a romantic comedy; however, as I developed the story in my mind, more and more serious questions popped. According to Dwayne McDuffie, Gwen´s parents don´t like Kevin, although they don´t forbid her from dating him. Especially Gwen´s mother, who not only has shown to be prejudiced against the Tennysons, but also revealed herself a little snobbish (C´mon! Who´d else have handwritten invitations nowadays?)
I wonder if Gwen´s parents´ feelings toward Kevin will change in the future... or if they´ll still won´t like him, even if he´ll go back to school and have a good career, but will pretend to like in order to not hurt Gwen´s feelings? It´s much easier to fight a xenophobist that insults and tries to hit you physically than one that behaves politely and doesn´t admit his/her prejudices against you. But don´t worry, Ben´s team has many surprises on their pockets.