Michael and Donna kept their decision to remarry a secret from everyone while they planned the wedding together, a simple yet formal affair they held in their living room (which, Michael joked shortly before the ceremony with Roger, John, and Ryan, who were standing up with him-Jamie had an emergency at the hospital and hadn't been able to come to the wedding with Marley and Christopher, which hadn't been a cause for concern since everyone, including Roger and Holly, thought they were just attending a dinner party at Michael and Donna's-was about the only place they hadn't gotten married already) two weeks after Roger and Holly's wedding. Roger, John, and Ryan all served as co-best men, though Roger held onto the ring, and the shocked yet elated Vicky and Marley served as co-matrons of honor for their mother along with Holly. Bridget held baby Christopher and, with help from Sharlene, Josie, and her fiancé Gary Sinclair kept a watchful eye on the boys-Vicky and Ryan's Kirk, Vicky and Jamie's Steven, and John and Sharlene's 5-year-old Gregory-during the ceremony, which Reverend Watson officiated. Roger and Holly also met Michael and John's mother, Clara Hudson, who thanked Roger for helping keep her son alive during his CIA days.
True to Frankie's premonition, Wallingford Cass Winthrop, known to one and all as Wally, was born at Bay City General Hospital and, like his sister Charlie before him, delivered by his uncle, Dr. Morgan Winthrop, albeit not in a stuck elevator as Charlie had been, on May 18, 1997, the day before his parents' fourth legal wedding anniversary. Wally had ten fingers, ten toes, his mother's sparkling blue eyes and a shock of dark, curly hair like his father. Roger and Holly visited the Winthrops at the hospital, bringing flowers for Frankie, a teddy bear for Wally, and a doll for Charlie.
Rachel rediscovered her artistic roots, finding a deeper, more profound satisfaction in her art than she ever had before. Her first showing in December was such a smashing success that she had another one in April that was an even bigger success. Her December showing featured as one of its centerpieces a piece of sculpture that had been directly inspired by Roger and Holly: a pair of lovers, whose faces bore more than a passing resemblance to Roger and Holly's faces, standing side by side on a mountaintop, arms around each other, and gazing down at what could only be described as a mass of humanity struggling and fighting below them. The detail was breathtaking and exquisite, and when they saw it at the showing, Roger was convinced that he and Holly were supposed to be the couple, while Holly agreed that the couple did resemble her and Roger but wasn't sure if that was intentional. Rachel approached them to say hello just in time to hear this debate and assured them that they were, indeed, the couple in the sculpture, which Rachel named "Love's Triumph."
After the showing, when a crate arrived at their suite at The Bayshore addressed to both of them, Roger and Holly were genuinely shocked to find "Love's Triumph" in the crate, with a handwritten note from Rachel: "Consider this your first housewarming gift for the home you're looking for. But above all, never forget that this is what it's all about: the two of you holding on to each other no matter what is happening in your world. Love, Rachel"
As for Roger and Holly, as they began their first full year in Bay City, they settled into life there easily.
The same, unfortunately, could not be said for tying up the loose ends they left behind in Springfield.
After packing up, donating to Goodwill, or putting in storage everything that neither Holly nor Blake wanted from Holly's house in Springfield, Holly put the house on the market, but there were no prospective buyers lining up to look at the house.
The trial started right after the new year 1997, with Cass representing Roger, and an attorney that Ross had referred Dinah to representing her and Hart. Frankie, Michael, Donna, and Rachel were all present, as were Ross and Blake, Vanessa and Matt, Henry, and Quint and Nola. Frankie, Michael, and Donna all testified about the afternoon at the Jessup farm. Dinah, for once, told the whole truth about why she and Hart went after Roger. Hart was sullen and uncooperative on the stand, and Cass got permission from the judge to treat him as a hostile witness, but Hart still managed to say as little as possible.
Holly handled testifying better than Roger, since Roger was genuinely worried about getting cited for contempt of court. He understood Hart wanting to take a shot at him, and given some time, he maybe even could have forgiven that. But taking a shot at Holly, even though there were blanks in the gun, and even though Holly was the one who jumped in front of the gun and shoved Roger out of the way, was something Roger would never forgive Hart for.
Still, gaslighting was a difficult area for the law to administer, and the bottom line was that Hart and Dinah both received probation, and Hart was ordered to court-mandated anger management classes. Roger did not take that well at all, but kept his seething enough under control that, while Ross and Blake both looked at Roger worriedly after the judge gave his decision and then banged his gavel, dismissing court, Roger felt Holly slide her fingers through his, lacing their hands together, and it calmed him down, because it was impossible for Roger to be angry or upset when feeling Holly's touch.
Their drive back to Bay City was silent. When they were driving through downtown and had almost reached The Bayshore, Holly finally broke the silence by asking, "Do you want to call Michael and tell him you've reconsidered and we will have dinner with him and Donna?"
"I'm not hungry," Roger replied quietly.
After a beat of silence, Holly said, "Do you want to go to a movie?"
"I'm not in the mood," Roger replied.
Another beat of silence. Then, as they pulled into the parking lot of The Bayshore, Holly asked, "Do you want to sit up all night and get drunk?"
Roger screeched the car to a halt, earning a honked horn and shouted obscenities from the driver behind them, which he studiously ignored. He looked at Holly in alarm and said, "Definitely not! I still have vivid memories of the morning I found you after you sat up all night getting drunk after you had that horrible fight with Blake."
Holly had honestly forgotten about that disastrous birthday of hers, it seemed so long ago now. "Oh. Right," she said. "Yeah, I guess that's not such a great idea, is it?"
Roger parked the car and turned off the ignition, leaning back in the driver's seat with a sigh. Holly unbuckled her seat belt and reached across the console, taking his hand in both of hers. "Talk to me," she encouraged softly.
"I don't know how I feel," he admitted, looking into her eyes. "I really don't. I wasn't really sure what to expect because Cass said it was impossible to predict the outcome, and he sure turned out to be right about that, but..." He trailed off.
"You thought there'd be more of a sense of closure?" Holly guessed.
"I guess," Roger replied. "I mean, I'm free of Dinah and Hart, which is good, and they did get some kind of punishment for what they did, or tried to do. But will they...will Hart come after me, or come after you, again in the future?"
"What would be his reason?" Holly countered.
"I still own the farm," Roger reminded her. "He'll never stop resenting me for taking it away from his grandfather." Then a thought occurred to Roger. "And why am I still holding on to the farm?"
Holly had a pretty good idea where Roger was going with this, but all she said was, "Because you couldn't come to terms with Dylan Lewis when you offered to sell it to him a few years ago?"
"And that's a good thing, too," Roger said, "because I still own the farm, so that means I'm the one who can decide what to do with it." He looked at Holly eagerly. "What if I were to give the farm back to Hart?"
Holly smiled. "One less loose end in Springfield. At least one of us will be able to move some real estate."
"Your house will sell," Roger assured her, reaching out with his free hand to tuck an errant strand of hair behind her ear. "It's not like we've found a house here yet anyway. Of course, now we'll have more time to look for one."
"That's true," Holly said. "But first, Valentine's Day. Let's go upstairs."
"Um, Hol, Valentine's Day isn't for another five weeks," Roger pointed out as they got out of the car and went upstairs.
"True," Holly acknowledged, "but to pull together what I have in mind, it's going to take about that long." When they reached their suite, Holly went over to the middle drawer of the bureau, removed a small, dark, rectangular object, and held it out to Roger with a flourish. "Step one," she said as she did so.
The object was a passport...specifically, Holly's new passport, with her new name. He smiled, looking from the passport to Holly, who was smiling back at him. "Valentine's Day," he said, understanding now. "Our belated honeymoon trip."
"Not that belated," she said. "And with the trial over, we can take the time to plan a fantastic trip now."
He nodded. "Yeah," he said. "And I'll call Cass tomorrow and see what giving the farm back to Hart will entail legally." He chuckled then. "Look at me, doing things within the law."
"I knew you had it in you," Holly replied seriously.
"So," Roger asked as he gently pulled Holly into his arms, "where do you want to go?"
"I know where you want to go," she said as she rested her palms on his chest. "Tahiti."
"But what about London and Paris and Monte Carlo and the other places you mentioned?"
"Are they going somewhere? We'll get to all of them someday. But the first stamp in my new passport is going to be for Tahiti." She slid her hands up his chest and around his neck, cradling the back of his head in one palm. "Picture it: snow and ice and freezing cold here in Bay City-"
"How do you know that's what the weather will be like here on Valentine's Day?"
"Sharlene mentioned it at Michael and Donna's wedding. The Farmer's Almanac. She grew up on a farm, you know, and she swears by the almanac for its weather forecasts every year."
"Oh. Okay. Please, continue."
"So, snow and ice and freezing cold here in Bay City...and you and I are strolling hand in hand along a moonlit beach in Tahiti."
"I don't think I'm going to find a pair of shorts and a tropical print shirt at The Galleria."
"I don't think The Galleria sells sarongs, either. But we'll probably have to fly out of O'Hare anyway, and if we can't find it in Chicago, they'll probably have it in New York, and we'll probably have to go from O'Hare to Kennedy to Tahiti."
"Well, I promise this time, I won't fall in the water when we're out in a canoe or whatever kind of boat we go out on."
"I'd like to go out on a boat again. There's a lot to do there. Museums, and places to tour like temples and gardens and waterfalls, and there's dancing, water skiing, horseback riding-"
"You're coming up with a lot of reasons to see me in those cargo shorts and that tropical print shirt."
"Well, when we're outside our room, sure. Inside the room, it's an entirely different dress code." She grinned flirtatiously then.
"Why, Mrs. Thorpe, are you trying to seduce me?" Roger asked, pulling her closer.
"If I say yes, does that mean it's working?" Holly countered before leaning in and brushing her lips softly, gently against Roger's. He melted against her with a quiet moan as they tightened their hold on each other. The kiss lingered, growing in both tenderness and passion, their tongues just barely brushing against each other.
When Roger broke the kiss, he kept his eyes closed, resting his forehead against Holly's, feeling her breath on his face and her hands gently soothing the tension remaining in his shoulders and upper back. Before either of them could say anything, the phone rang. Not wanting to end the moment, they just stood there in each other's arms, Roger holding on to Holly as she continued massaging his neck and shoulders. After three rings, the answering machine picked up, and it was Holly's realtor in Springfield, calling to let her know that there was an offer on her house for the full asking price and asking Holly to call her back in the morning.
"You did it! You unloaded the house!" Roger exclaimed.
"I signed a piece of paper and let the realtor put a sign in the yard. That pretty much began and ended my participation," Holly said wryly. "The realtor unloaded the house, but it's about time."
"Another loose end tied up," Roger said. "Well, once you accept the offer."
"How about we get changed and I'll give you a backrub, get the rest of that tension out of your shoulders and back, and then we can order up some dinner and talk about all the things we want to do in Tahiti?" Holly suggested.
Roger let go of her to loosen his tie. "I can think of one thing I want to do in Tahiti," he said.
"What's that?" Holly asked as she bent to step out of her heels and untucked her blouse from her skirt.
Roger bent down and whispered in her ear. Holly looked up at him when he finished whispering, her eyes sparkling with both lust and mischief. "And here I was hoping we could do that tonight," she said.
"We can definitely do that tonight," Roger agreed. Then he asked, "And in Tahiti?"
"And in Tahiti," Holly agreed with a laugh.