A.N - I hope this is realistic. I haven't had any experience in eloping - duh - and, ultimately, I wanted Suze's family to accept it.
Thank you to everyone for all of your reviews last chapter.
Chapter 23
Two days later, the new Mr and Mrs de Silva drove back into Carmel, California, hands entwined as Jesse drove.
"You know," Susannah complained. "You could let me drive. I've almost got my drivers license."
"Yes, Mrs de Silva," Jesse replied happily. "But almost is not now."
Susannah sighed.
"Mrs de Silva," she whispered. "I like the sound of that. Susannah de Silva."
"I like it too," Jesse admitted, kissing his wife's knuckles.
"What do you think they're going to say?" Suze spoke quietly, obviously fearing her parent's reaction.
"Well," Jesse paused as he thought over the past week's events. "You explained in your note, right? That we were going to Vegas?"
"Yes." Suze replied immediately.
"Well then," her husband continued. "I suppose they shall just be glad to see you again."
Suze nodded in agreement, before pausing and biting her bottom lip.
"Jesse?" She asked.
"Yes, querida?"
"What about your family?"
"What about them?" He glanced over at the girl huddled into his side.
"Won't they mind that you ran off to Vegas to get married?"
Jesse laughed at that.
"No, querida," he said. "They won't. My mother has always had this ability to guess events. She was the one who gave me that ring. I imagine that she knew something like this was going to happen eventually."
Susannah nodded, taking his explanation at face value, never doubting his honesty.
Jesse pulled the car in front of the Simon-Ackerman residence. Well, he supposed, maybe not Simon anymore.
"Ready?"
Susannah took a deep breath as she stared up at the house, fearing her family's reaction.
"Yeah," she muttered eventually. "Let's go."
Climbing out of the car, the newly-weds clutched each other's hands as they walked up the pine-needle strewn drive. Jesse kissed his wife before opening the door and allowing her to walk in ahead of him.
Susannah's mom, step-dad and three step-brothers were all in the sitting room, surrounding an extravagantly decorated Christmas Tree with sad expressions on their faces. Jesse winced as he thought about what they must have been through since Friday.
Only Brad had looked up at the sound of the front door. Andy was comforting Susannah's mom, Jake was laying back on the sofa, eyes shut and David was still at the age where he was excitedly opening his Christmas presents at seven in the morning.
"Suze!" Brad exclaimed, quite enthusiastically considering how he treated her otherwise.
The rest of the family looked up at hearing her name and then rushed towards her, hugging her and bombarding her with questions about where she'd been.
"Didn't you get my note?" Was all she said, quietly reaching behind her to take Jesse's hand.
Her family then looked over at Jesse - who had been standing awkwardly in the corner, unsure of what to say - who had gone unnoticed until then.
Susannah's mom lifted her eyebrows at the action while Andy steadily glared over at Jesse.
"Yes, we did." She muttered unbelievingly. "I'm glad you didn't actually go through with it, though. Honestly! Married? At sixteen. What would you have been thinking?"
Susannah looked down at the floor while Jesse looked around the room, squeezing his wife's hand reassuringly.
"What makes you think we didn't go through with it, Mom?"
All the room was silent for a moment as they recognised what Suze was saying. Then her mom's eyes widened and Andy exploded.
"What?!" He demanded walking over to where his step-daughter and 'husband' stood, staring down at them, Jesse in particular.
When Susannah cringed into his chest, Jesse knew that it was up to him to explain.
"Well, sir," he began. "After the dance on Friday, I proposed to your daughter realising that I couldn't live without her."
Jesse was cringing as the terrible lie kept coming off his tongue.
"She accepted," he continued, "and we decided to go to Vegas straight away."
"Merry Christmas." Susannah whispered sarcastically while Andy looked between the two of them and his wife, unsure of what to think.
Jesse placed his arm around Susannah and hugged her warmly, trying to tell her without words that everything was going to be okay.
Witnessing the loving action, Susannah's mom placed her hand on Andy's arm, trying to calm him down. She was sure that this boy wouldn't hurt her daughter and that he made her daughter happy. In the end, that was all she wanted.
"It's alright, Susie." The sound of her mom's voice brought Suze to break away from her very enjoyable hug. "I give my blessing. I want you to be happy."
Suze smiled widely.
"Really?"
Her mom nodded and Suze ran towards her, encompassing her in a hug.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She exclaimed happily.
Andy glared at Jesse again and the boy shifted uncomfortably until Andy's face softened into a smile.
"Just, look after her, alright kid?"
Jesse smiled gratefully and nodded.
Andy stuck out his hand.
"Welcome to the family."
Jesse shook it laughing as Susannah's step-brothers all came up to congratulate them.
"Damn," Brad whistled. "This is the strangest Christmas we've had in a while."
The family's laughter was interrupted by the doorbell ringing.
Looking around at the other occupants of the room, Jesse got up and reluctantly left Susannah's side to answer the door, deciding to give them some alone time as a family.
The visitor knocked on the door again, obviously impatient.
Jesse flung open the door as he smirked at the boy on the other side.
"Hey Paul," Jesse sneered. "What can I do for you?"
Paul literally froze in shock, before styling his mouth to form a smirk of his own.
"What are you doing here, de Silva?" Paul spat out.
The boy inside of the house shrugged as he noticed the faint bruising around Paul's nose.
"Ouch," He stated. "Looks like someone hit you pretty hard."
"Ha ha," Paul said dryly. "Well, if you're back, then I suppose Suze is too? Where is she?"
Jesse was saved from answering by the sound of his wife's voice calling out to him.
"Jesse?" She called, walking up to the door. "Who's there?"
Jesse opened the door wider, showing Paul on the other side.
"Oh," Susannah spoke with hate in her voice as she once again entwined hers and Jesse's hands. "It's you. What do you want?"
"You don't sound like you're happy to see me, Suze."
"I'm not."
Paul laughed, ignoring her distaste at his presnce.
"How is it," he wondered, "that the Ackerman's are letting you in their house anyway, de Silva. After all, you kidnapped their daughter."
Jesse glared at Paul as he was reminded of the story they'd seen in the local newspaper the other day.
"Haven't you heard the news?" Jesse's face twisted into a smirk again as he pulled Susannah closer to him. "We're married."
Paul's face drooped as the colour left it.
"What?!"
"Married," Susannah jumped in, lifting up her left hand to show both the engagement ring, that he had given to her in the car, and the wedding ring that Jesse had bought for her in Vegas.
"It's true," Jesse held up his own left hand to show his wedding ring to the other boy.
"This can't be happening!" Paul refused to believe this. It was some stupid joke.
"Well, it is." Jesse shrugged and kissed Susannah's forehead. "Looks like your little plan to break us up only brought us closer together."
Suze smiled happily, snuggling up to her husband. She loved saying that. Jesse was her husband. She was Jesse de Silva's wife.
"Susie," her mom called out to her. "Invite whoever it is at the door inside. We're celebrating!"
Jesse raised his eyebrow and stepped out of the way of the door, allowing Paul to walk inside - which he did, angrily.
"That was fun," Susannah smirked.
"Yep," Jesse agreed. "The best kind of revenge for what he did to us."
Susannah nodded and together they walked back into the lounge area where the rest of the family were gathered only to find they had an extra guest.
Someone they'd forgotten about but obviously hadn't gone anywhere.
"Oh sure," Craig Jankow exclaimed throwing his hands up dramatically. "Have a party and don't invite me!"