"Coming!" Catherine yelled when she heard a knock on her apartment door. It was late-who would be there at this time? She opened the door to find Mary standing there.

"Hey," Mary said. "I need to talk to you."

"Okay. Come in."

Catherine closed the door. "You want something to drink?"

Mary shook her head. "I'm fine, thanks."

"So what's up?"

"I need some advice, and since you're a mom, well, I thought you could help me."

"Of course."

"Okay. Hold on a minute, though. I hope you don't mind me asking, but is everything okay with you and my brother?"

Catherine looked confused. "Yes, why?"

"You adopted two kids with him, but you don't live with him."

"We wanted to wait until we get married. You know, the two kids living in the house, and then an unmarried couple? It didn't seem right."

Mary smiled. "I totally respect that. At least you're there all day, because I can only handle so much Steve."

Catherine laughed. "Living at home again isn't everything you wanted it to be?"

"When I first came back from LA, I was staying there, and then I got my own place. Of course, as soon as Steve sees that my place was broken into, he makes me move back home. He doesn't understand that I'm not a little girl anymore." Mary paused before saying, "But I need to ask you something important."

"Okay." Catherine nodded.

"Danny and I have been talking about me legally becoming Grace's mother. With Stan dying in the accident and Rachel arrested on neglect charges, he has full custody. He says I love her more than Rachel ever did. I don't think I should adopt Grace-I mean, I definitely want to, but..."

"But what?"

"I'm not exactly an ideal mother. What should I do?"

Catherine gave her a knowing smile. "Trust me, I know what you mean. I'm not exactly an ideal mother, either. It doesn't matter if you legally become her mother because you love her. Being a mother on paper and being a mother by love are two totally different things."

"Yeah, but I don't think I like the whole step-mom thing. She's had a step parent before, and he was a jerk. I don't want her to think of me like that."

"You have to do whatever feels best. You have reasons for not becoming her mother and reasons for not becoming her step-mother. If you become her step-mother, she won't think you're a jerk. You clearly love her, and she sees that."

"How do I know if it's right for me to adopt her? How did you know it was right for you to adopt Serenity and Willow?"

"When I started to do things for them that a mom would do out of love for her kids, like I took a desk job in the Navy so I could see the girls everyday, I'm at the house before they wake up so I can see them before they go to school, I say goodnight to them before they go to sleep...when you find yourself doing things like that, you know you're meant to be a mom."

Mary was silent for a moment. Then she said, "I have a feeling when I'm around her, like responsibility, like I'm making sure she's okay. I think I want to legally become her mom."

Catherine grinned. "I had a feeling. The way you talk about Grace, how whenever you speak of her you always smile and your voice is so full of love, it makes sense."

"So this is what it feels like to start a family," Mary said, placing a hand on her stomach.

"It's an amazing feeling."

"Have you chose a date yet?" Mary asked Catherine.

"We don't have a definite date, but we'd like to get married sometime in July," Catherine replied, looking down at her ring. Every time she looked at it, she felt amazed and happy that she was engaged to Steve and they had two daughters. "What about you?"

"I want it to be after I have the baby. I want him to see his parents get married." Mary looked down at her own ring.

"Him?" Catherine inquired.

Mary smiled. "Danny came with me to the doctor yesterday. We decided we wanted to know the baby's gender. It's a boy."

"Three girls in the family and now the first boy!" Catherine exclaimed.

"I want a job by the time he's born."

Confused, Catherine said, "You have a job."

Mary shook her head. "Serving food at a restaurant on the beach is not exactly my preferred career choice. I went to college-Steve made sure of that. I have a degree in criminal justice. I wanted to become a probation officer." She trailed off.

"It's not too late to turn everything around," Catherine stated. "You're obviously committed to this."

"It would have to be after the baby is born. There's a test of physical health and I definitely will not pass that while I'm pregnant. But I'm gonna look over my stuff from college. That way, even if I can't become a probation officer until the baby comes, I'm at least making an effort." Mary didn't say anything else before changing the subject. "So we need to pick out dresses."

"Steve's wearing his uniform, why can't I just wear mine?"

"Catherine, are you insane? One of the main reasons women get married is so they can wear a beautiful dress!" When Catherine rolled her eyes, Mary said, "Alright, maybe that's not one of the main reasons, but seriously, come on! Every girl dreams of walking down the aisle in a gorgeous dress."

"I really am fine with something simple."

"Simple? Simple, she says," Mary muttered. "Let me tell you something, with me around, your wedding is gonna be everything except simple."

"I figured."

"How about we go tomorrow? It's Saturday-no school so the girls can come with us. We'll get Lauren and Kono to come, too. It'll be a girl's day out!"

"You really are into this."

"Like I said, simplicity is not in my vocabulary."

"I don't know, Mary, we haven't even set a definite date yet."

"Come on, Catherine, it'll be a girls' day out! We can pick out dresses, get some lunch, and then we can go to the mall."

Catherine sighed. "Okay, fine."

On Saturday morning, Catherine, Mary, Lauren, Kono, Willow, Serenity, and Grace entered a bridal shop.

"I'll be with you in a moment!" a voice called from a room in the back.

"People actually get paid to design this?" Catherine muttered. She pulled out a multicolored bridesmaid dress, the top covered in sequins and the bottom framed with feathers.

"Yeah, that's a little over-the-top, but we'll find something. This is one of the best bridal stores on this island," Mary whispered back. "And anyway, it looks like only this section has designs like that."

Catherine sighed as she put the dress back. "I hope so."

A woman came into the room. "Hello. My name is Vera. Welcome to my store. Who is the bride?" she asked, a thick accent in her voice.

"We're actually shopping for two weddings," Mary said.

"Oh, even more dresses to try on!" Vera exclaimed. "So who are the two brides?"

"Myself and Catherine here." Mary put her hand on Catherine's arm.

"Such gorgeous brides. Must be two very lucky men. Okay, and what are we looking for in the dress?"

"I want something simple," Catherine immediately stated before Mary could go into her simplicity-is-not-in-my-vocabulary speech.

"Full length?"

"Yes."

"Follow me."

Vera lead them to a small room filled with white dresses. "This is what you are looking for." She pointed to a section of gowns. "And for you?"

"I want a little bit of design on the front," Mary explained.

"You come with me."

After an hour of debating, Catherine chose her dress. It was plain white with sheer three-quarter sleeves.

"It's gorgeous," Mary approved. "You're going to look amazing. What do you think of mine?"

Mary's dress had a floral design that made its way down one side of it and sheer short sleeves.

"You're going to look incredible. It's beautiful."

"Have you thought about colors for the bridesmaid dresses?" Vera asked.

"No," Mary replied as Catherine said, "Not yet."

"I think you will find something over here." Vera brought them back to the front room and indicated to a wall. She looked at Kono, Lauren, Grace, Serenity, and Willow. "Is this the same bridal party for both weddings?"

"Yes," Catherine and Mary answered in unison.

"It isn't often the wedding party is this beautiful," Vera complimented. "You will all look stunning in anything you pick out."

The bridesmaid dress for Catherine's wedding was lavender while for Mary's wedding it was brown.

"Let's get some lunch and then we'll go to the mall!" Mary exclaimed as everyone exited the store.

"Great, more shopping," Catherine mumbled.

There is probably going to be another update tomorrow, so please review!