Things Take Time

CJ/Danny

PG maybe

Not mine, never were, never will be, but they consume my soul

Feedback -- please!

Because "writer in the making" said " so please do continue - because: Mrs. Concannon, I think its high time I started working on getting you pregnant. - that screams for more;)"

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The first sense to insinuate itself into his consciousness that early August morning was smell – wet seaweed and wild onion grass. Almost immediately, he heard the seagulls and felt the cool morning air; he could almost taste the briny salt in it. Sleeping with open windows was something he hadn't experienced that often in the last 10 years. He opened his eyes to see the foggy mist on the western ksy over the ocean. Next summer, they really should spend some time on the DelMarVa – it would be wonderful to experience an ocean sunrise with this woman in his bed. Vague, indistinct memories of an erotic dream teased at him; his mind and his body began their preparations to make sweet lazy summer morning love with her.

Then he felt it, a tiny, almost imperceptible but very steady movement of the bed. He wondered if they were experiencing a very minor tremor. Turning to the center of the bed, he saw his wife sitting up, her head down with hair falling over her face, a glass of water in one hand and a washcloth in the other, dabbing at a rusty streak on the sheet.

Feeling his eyes on her, she said, "I started during the night". She looked up at him with a little half smile and he could see a trace of redness in her eyes. For a small part of a second, his eyes mirrored her regret. Then he took the glass and cloth from her, pulled the top sheet up over the damp spot on the bed, and gathered her up against him.

"Deal with the laundry later", he said, kissing her hair.

"But the stain will set", she protested.

Remembering the paperback romance they had so much fun with in January, he joked, "Good. Anyone else makes a comment about what went on for the past eight years in the White House, I can show them that you came to me a virgin." She laughed and lightly socked him on his upper arm. "Unfortunately, there are a couple of guys who would call you a liar."

"Do you need the heating pad or can I make you some tea?" he asked.

"I'm fine", she replied. "Maybe in my case the old wives' tales are correct". Seeing questioning face, she continued, "When I was twelve, my grandmother told me that the cramps would go away once I got married."

"What does a marriage certificate have to do with a medical condition?"

She got up on her knees, sat back on her heels, and loosely draped her arms around his neck. "It was a euphemism. They say that having regular orgasms makes cramping less likely. And lately, my orgasms have been very". Light kiss on his forehead. "Very". Light kiss on his nose. "Very". Light kiss on his mouth. "Regular".

He tried to stop it, but his innate sense of male pride and accomplishment brought what his sister called a wild Irish shit-eating grin to his face. "Concannon Alternative Medicine at your service, ma'am. I make house calls."

She smiled back. "That's why part of me was glad in June. If everyone thought that you had impregnated your wife on your wedding night, you would have been insufferable". Her tone got a little more wistful. "And then in July, we weren't even sure, the ovulation test two weeks earlier was so iffy. But this month," she trailed off.

"Hey, you're ovulating, the doctor say my guys are normal, it'll happen." Pause. "Listen, since you feel okay and we have nothing better to do since you are of no use to me now," he grinned, "let's walk down to the pier and have breakfast."

"Sounds like a plan", she said. She looked down again at the stain, looked up. "Twenty, twenty-five years ago, there must have been about ten times when this was cause for prayers of thankfulness to God, Mary, and all the angels and saints I could think of. And now, I'm crying. I wonder if there's a connection".

"Jeanie", he admonished her softly but firmly," do not go there. God doesn't work like that. Tee Tee Tee."

"What?"

"It was something one of the girls from St. Mary's that I dated for a while taught me. I hear that she eventually joined the order. Things take time."

Epilogue –mid-September

"CJ, it's been almost, I mean shouldn't you have, like 6 days ago?"

"Daniel Michael Fabian Concannon, don't you dare tempt the wrath from on high atop the thing! You go outside, turn around three times, and spit!" She paused and softly said,"I'll stop at the drugstore tomorrow."