x Nemily. Nolan pops the BIG question to Emily on Thanksgiving.
Nolan sat in the living room pretending to look at his Nolpad instead of Emily as she stood in the kitchen, her back turned to him. He glanced at the spoon on the tray on the coffee table in front of him and snatched the spoon up. Emily turned around two mugs in her hands and walked towards him. He clutched the small box in his coat pocket and let out a breath of air as she took a seat beside him.
"Uh, Ems, you got a spoon?"
She pointed to the table, "There's one on the tray."
He looked at the floor, the spoon between their feet.
"Oops,"Nolan said. "I'll get it."
He leaned down, placing the spoon in his pocket and retrieved the box out of his pocket.
She sighed, "You're a real klutz Nolan."
"Hey, Ems. I think, I found something." He said looking up at her. She looked down at him with the same questioning glance. Her eyes widened seeing him kneel on one leg.
"Nolan, what are you doing?" she asked.
He smiled at her, "I feel like the luckiest man to be by your side after everything that's happened to you, and, I promised to continue to stick by your side, whether we're taking down corporate baddies, fighting masked ninjas, or traveling the country in disguise. I want you to know I'm here for you, for wherever the wind takes us."
Emily's heart race in her chest as he opened the small box, revealing a ring, Nolan looked up to her with a grin that warmed her heart.
"Emily Clarke, will you marry me?"
She'd spent so long shutting people out of her life.
She'd spent so long thinking she'd been all alone in the world without her father.
She was wrong; he'd always been there for her.
It'd just taken her this long to realize.
That he was sitting in front of her all along.
Emily placed her mug on the table and knelt to the floor and then placed her hands on either side of his jaw and stared into his blue eyes. She pressed her lips into his. "Yes," she breathed, nodding her head as tears rolled down her cheeks, "yes, I'll marry you."
He kissed the tears off of her cheeks and then pressed his lips to her. He smiled into the kiss savoring the taste of the vanilla and cinnamon flavor of her lipstick. The weight of her on him was too great for Nolan and he fell on his back. Emily broke her lips away from him.
"Nolan, are you alright–" she asked worried.
She was cut short as he wrapped his arms around her back, pressing her body against him and deepening the kiss. He wanted to hold onto her. To know that this moment was real and not a dream.
When they realized they needed to breath, Emily broke from his lips, and rolled to her side. She rested her head on his chest and placed her hand over his, interlocking her fingers with his. He lay on the floor, relishing the feeling of her hand in his and the warm tingle sensation on his lips.
They lay like that for a moment, letting the warm smells of Thanksgiving dinner roll over them.
Nolan watched as Emily held up her hand and stared at the large diamond in the gold setting surrounded by smaller diamonds; the gold band split in two woven into an infinity around her finger. It glimmered as she moved her hand around.
"My dad would be so happy to see this on my finger." She said, trying not to cry.
"He'd be proud of you Ems. He wanted you to find happiness."
"I'm happy when I'm with you." she rolled on to her stomach, staring down at him. "I love you."
"I love you too."
Nolan stretched his head forward, laying his head against her forehead and caught her lips in his.
The doorbell rang, breaking them from their kiss.
"Sounds like company." Nolan sighed, wishing that they could lay wrapped in each other's arms all afternoon.
"Come on," Emily forced herself up from the floor, despite wanting to stay there with him and adjusting the collar of her cream sweater, "I have to finish dinner."
"Well, I'd rather have dessert." He smirked at her. Emily simply smiled and pointed towards the door as she walked back to the kitchen. Nolan grasped the edge of the coffee table and stood up.
The doorbell chimed three more times as Nolan adjusted his jacket, as he made his way to the door.
"Alright, I'm coming." He opened the door, letting a flash of brown and red bolt right past him.
"Carl, slow down." Amanda said, walking into the doorway.
She staggered over the threshold, heaving an over filled bag of groceries in one arm and a baby carrier in the other. Carl appeared out of nowhere, and rushed past her, the bag slipped from her arm.
Nolan caught the bag just as it tumbled to the ground.
"Thanks Nolan. I thought my arm was going to fall off."
She reached her arm forward, and pulled him into a one arm hug. "Happy Thanksgiving."
"Happy Thanksgiving," he pulled her into a hug. "How's the little princess doing?" he asked her, and then glanced down into the baby carrier, to see a sleeping baby wrapped in a blanket, her soft, blonde curls poked out from underneath the pink cap.
"She's an angel, slept through the whole car ride. Unlike someone." The two glanced to Carl, who was content with plopping himself down in the middle of the living room and emptied his red backpack onto the ground, a mountain of toy cars, and trucks spilling from the bag.
"Happy Thanksgiving, Amanda." Emily appeared beside Nolan.
"Happy Thanksgiving." she smiled at her and pulled her into a hug.
"Jack's not with you?" Emily asked.
"He'll be here. He's just finishing up a few things at the bar."
"Come on in and make yourself comfortable." Emily said walking back into the kitchen with Amanda. Nolan followed them and placed the bags on the dining room table. Carl raced into the dining room and Nolan looked down at him.
"Uncle Nolan, look mommy got me a new airplane." He waved the plane around for him to see.
"Hey, that's pretty neat Carl!" He laughed and scooped the boy up into his arms.
"You think you'll be an airplane pilot when you're older?" Nolan asked him.
"Yeah! And a fire fighter, and a policeman! I got lots of cars and trucks, wanna come see?"
Amanda looked over to them from her spot at the counter, "He's changed his mind three times this week. Last week he wanted to be a magician, and a race car driver."
"He's keeping his options opened," Nolan said to her and then turned to him, "That's the sign of a true entrepreneur. Do you want to be a software creator like me?"
Carl nodded his head and continued to play with his airplane. Nolan sat him back on his feet and followed him into the living room to the pile of cars on the floor.
"So, when are Charlotte, Dec and the twins getting here?" Amanda asked Emily, as she unloaded the groceries onto the counter.
"Their flight gets in, in an hour." Emily explained, as she stood at the counter with a cutting board full of vegetables and chopped some celery.
"Oh my god," Amanda cried. "Emily is that…. an engagement ring?" Amanda took her hand, staring at the ring. Nolan glanced across the living room, seeing Emily blush.
Amanda turned to Nolan, "Well, it's about time you ask her. You know, for a while I was worried you'd be too scared to tell her how you really felt."
She looked between Emily and Nolan and raised an eyebrow at the two, smiling at her teasingly, "Does this mean I'll see mini- Nolan's walking around pretty soon?"
Nolan pretends not to hear what Amanda had just said. He kept his eyes on the toy vehicles in front of him as he felt his face heat up.
"N-no, Amanda," Emily stuttered and looked back at the cutting board, resisting the urge to blush, "He just proposed to me a few minutes ago."
"Aww, Charlie's going to love this. I guess we win the bet then."
"What bet?" Emily asked.
Amanda continued to place groceries on the counter as she spoke to them, "Charlie, Declan and I bet against each other how long it'd take for Nolan to propose to you."
"You better on that?" Nolan asked.
"Yeah, and it looks like Declan lost big time."
"Oh, I forgot to get the yams." Amanda sighed in frustration.
"I want yams mama!" Carl whined, abandoning his toy airplane and bounced into the dining room.
"You know what, I'll go to the store and get it." Nolan offered, rising from the couch.
"You sure," Amanda asked, as she reached for Carl to place him on her hip, "I could just call Jack."
"No, it's fine. I have another errand to run anyway." He grabbed his keys from the inn table and then walked over to Emily and kissed her cheek.
"I'll be back in an hour."
He knelt down next to the plaque and dusted the fallen leaves off with a handkerchief. Nolan exchanged the wilting bouquet of flowers and placed the fresh, bouquet of red roses on the plaque. He knelt down to the plaque feeling a rush of nervousness overcome him. He sat there like he was talking to an old friend and smiled.
"So David, How've you been? I'm sorry; I haven't visited you the last few weeks. Things have been, busy at the company."
He wiped away the tears from his eyes with his hand, "Hey, you remember when I said that I would look after Amanda? I guess I never realized how far that promise would go. Surprise, Dad." He laughed.
"Is it alright that I call you dad? To be honest, I always thought of you as a dad. My old man wasn't exactly a role model. God, I wish you and my mom were here for this. You should see how far she's come. She's had it rough, growing up, but I've never back down from her, I never left her side. Honesty, I never wanted to. I guess I just wanted to make sure she wasn't ever alone. And now, I'm not alone anymore either."
His thigh vibrated, he reached into his pant pocket for his cell phone. It was Emily.
"Hey, are you back yet? Charlotte, Declan and the twins are here." She asked. He could hear Charlotte, Declan, Jack and Amanda in the background talking, in the dining room, and the squeals and laughs of the kids racing around the living-room.
He rose to his feet, and nodded into the phone "Yeah, I'm on my way back."
"Okay, see you when you get back."
"Alright."
She hung up and he stuffed the phone back in his pocket. Nolan placed his hands in his pockets, letting the cool fall air hit against his back as he turned and walked forward away from the grave. As the wind blew he swore that he almost hear the sound of David's warm and carefree laugh through the trees.
A/N: I've never written a love scene for these two! Because it's fall time and I read this amazing interview with one of the R8 writers, Ted Sullivan, that basically says that NEMILY IS CANNON (At least from Nolan's point of view). Check out the interview here; /emilythorne-org-exclusive-ted-sullivan-qa-part-1/ :-)