The Eyes Have It

Chapter Twenty - The Perfect Spot

John wasn't kidding. By the time Marlena woke up, John was already up and dressed and ready to go. He had a list of places that he found on the Internet that he wanted to check out; restaurants, bakeries, florists, etc. He was very excited about it.

"Honey," Marlena began as she was laughing at him, "we don't have to do all of this today."

"The sooner, the better," John explained as he took her in his arms. "Come on, this will be fun. I want to plan the most perfect, beautiful wedding Salem has ever seen."

"But John, I don't need a big wedding. I just want to marry you in front of God and a few close friends. That's all I need."

"And all I need is you," He kissed her softly, "But I want our wedding day to be the most beautiful, amazing day of your life."

"It will be because I'm marrying the most beautiful, amazing man in the world." She kissed him intensely.

"Nope, uh-uh, no way, you're not going to work your wiles on me..." John gently pushed her away. "...that will have to wait until later. We have a busy day today. Go get dressed." He turned her around and pushed her towards the bathroom.

All that weekend and over the next few weeks, John and Marlena spent all their free time planning their wedding. Even though Marlena really didn't want a big wedding (she had already had two), she couldn't help but get caught up in John's excitement. She had never seen or even heard of a groom that was so interested in every little detail...they went to a florist and discussed all the different types of flowers and decorations, they went to bakeries and looked at photos and sampled cakes, they went to several restaurants & hotels to look at their banquet rooms...Marlena still thought that John was going completely overboard, but she was having a marvelous time. She did convince him to cut back a bit on his extravagant ideas, but the one thing that they did agree on was where they wanted to get married. As soon as they saw it, they both knew that this was the place.

It had been a lovely family mansion, up on a small hill overlooking the lake that was just outside of Salem. The family had turned it into a hotel several years before and had kept it in marvelous shape. The grounds were surrounded by trees and beautifully landscaped with little gravel paths and gardens. And as John and Marlena walked along the paths, they found the little stone chapel on the back of the property. It was something out of a fairy tale. It looked like it was hundreds of years old and belonged in Old England. They both immediately fell in love with it.

Marlena jumped into John's arms. "This is it! I love it here!"

"It's perfect," John agreed as he swung Marlena around in a circle.

"It's not very big, you'll have to cut down your massive guest list," Marlena teased John.

"Well, I guess you'll get your small, intimate wedding after all."

"You don't mind, do you?...really?" Marlena asked as she placed kisses along John's jawline slowly getting closer to his mouth.

"No, I don't mind...," he paused as an idea came into his head, "on one condition."

"What?"

"You have to let me buy you something else."

Marlena sighed, "John I don't need you to buy me anything."

"I know, but I want to..." he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and turned so that they were both looking out over the lake. "You really like it here don't you?...the lake I mean."

"Umm-hmm...it's lovely here and it smells so good."

"Then how about we go looking at houses?"

"Houses?" Marlena turned and looked at John. "In this neighborhood? Are you crazy?"

John laughed. "Marlena you keep forgetting that I'm loaded."

Marlena felt herself blush as she looked at him through her lashes, "Yeah, well, you won't be for long at the rate you're going."

John kissed her, "Come on, there's no harm in looking. Let's go book this place for our wedding and then drive around the lake a bit."

"Okay, but I don't want a mansion John...just something small and comfortable."

"Yes, Dear," he said, teasing her as they walked back to the front of the hotel.

The hotel chapel was usually booked six months to a year in advance, but it turned out that there had been a cancellation for the Saturday that was just four weeks away...John and Marlena were offered the date if they wanted it.

Marlena looked at John, "Just four weeks, can we do this?"

"Yeah..." John smiled, "let's do it."

Marlena smiled back, staring into John's eyes, "Let's do it."

John grabbed Marlena in a tight embrace. He had never been so happy in his entire life. "Just four weeks, Baby," he whispered into her ear. "In four weeks, you'll be my wife, and we'll be together forever."

"Forever," Marlena whispered back, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "I love you so much."

"I love you, Baby." John took Marlena's mouth in a deep, passionate kiss, oblivious of the Hotel Manager that was standing right next to them.

"Yes, well...I'll um...I'll just get the paperwork while you... uh...excuse me..," the Manager quickly slipped out of the room.

Most of the houses that they saw while they were driving around the lake were much too large for Marlena's taste. John kept trying to convince her that they could afford it, but she wasn't interested.

"Seriously, John, how do you take care of a place that big?" she asked him, as they were driving home.

"You hire a maid and maybe even a cook." John glanced sideways at Marlena.

Marlena hit him in the arm. "I don't want servants John. That would be too strange. I just want a comfortable place, just for the two of us."

"What if there are more of us some day?"

"What do you mean?"

"What if we have children?"

Marlena froze for a moment. "What?"

"I know we've never really talked about it before, but what if we decide to have children?"

"I didn't know you wanted children. You've never mentioned it before."

"Honestly, I'd never really thought about it until recently. I've never been with anyone that made me think about it until I met you Marlena. And now I can picture us in a beautiful house by the lake, with a large backyard full of trees and our kids playing in the treehouse I built them. Can't you just picture it?"

"Yeah, I can picture it." Marlena replied rather softly.

"Hey," John reached over and took her hand in his. "It was just an idea. We have plenty of time to talk about it and decide what we both want, okay?"

Marlena smiled weakly and squeezed his hand.

"Honey, are you okay?" John asked, very concerned with the change in Marlena's mood.

Marlena smiled bigger, "Um-hmm, I'm fine...just fine. I'm just ready to get home now. We've got a lot to do in the next four weeks."

John knew that Marlena was changing the subject, but he decided to let it go for now. He just wanted to concentrate on their wedding day and making it the most memorable, wonderful day of Marlena's life.

When they got home, Marlena went upstairs to change while John started on dinner. As he was chopping up the fresh veggies and poaching the fish that they had picked up on the way home, he couldn't stop thinking about all the wonderful things that he and Marlena had ahead of them. He imagined what she would look like walking in the door of the chapel on their wedding day as he was standing there waiting for her, and he imagined placing the ring on her finger as he vowed to love her for the rest of his life. He imagined carrying her over the threshold of their brand new house by the lake. He even imagined growing old with her and watching their grandchildren play in the backyard.

John had been so lost in his own thoughts that he hadn't realized how long Marlena had been gone. Dinner was almost ready and she still hadn't come back downstairs. He turned everything off and headed upstairs to find her.

"Marlena?" he called as he entered the bedroom. She wasn't there. He walked over to the bathroom door and knocked softly. "Marlena?"

He thought he heard a muffled sound, but she didn't answer.

"Marlena are you okay?" he asked again. When she didn't answer, he opened the door a crack and peeked in. He could see her reflection in the mirror, she was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, holding a towel against her face.

John rushed in, "Honey, what's wrong?" He moved the towel away from her face. She had obviously been crying and from the looks of her eyes and nose, for quite awhile. John sat next to her and wrapped his arms around her. Marlena buried her face against John's chest and continued to cry. John could feel her whole body shaking as she held on to him tightly. John tried to soothe her by talking softly and slowly rocking her back and forth.

When Marlena could finally get some words out, she just kept saying, "I love you so much," and "I'm sorry."

John was getting scared. He had no idea what had upset her so terribly or what she was talking about.

"Marlena, honey, please tell me what's going on. Why are you so upset?"

"Please don't leave me. I couldn't bear it if you left me, too."

"Baby, what are you talking about? You know I'll never leave you." John held her tighter and stroked the side of her face gently with his hand.

"They left...they both did...maybe if I could have...they wouldn't have gone." Marlena was still sobbing and John still didn't know what she was talking about.

John lifted her face up and tried to get her to calm down. He made her take some deep breaths and concentrate on his face. He spoke very slowly and gently, "Marlena, I need you to calm down, okay? I love you Sweetheart and there's nothing that you can tell me that would ever change that. Please try to tell me what's going on."

Marlena took a few long, shuddering breaths as she tried to calm herself down. She looked down at her lap before she spoke. "I can't have your children, John," she admitted very softly.

"Oh, Baby...is that what this is all about?...I told you, I was just talking. If you don't want children, that's fine...I just need you..."

"I do want children," Marlena interrupted him, "I want to have your children more than anything in this world, but I don't think it's possible." She looked absolutely desolate.

John was beginning to understand now and his heart began to ache, just seeing the incredible sadness in her eyes. "Do you mean that... physically...it's not possible?" he asked her very gently.

Marlena nodded and wiped the tears off her cheeks with the back of her hand. She continued to look down at her lap while she explained, "I've always wanted children. I tried with Don and then again with Roman and it just never happened. My doctor finally told me that it would be... extremely difficult for me to conceive."

John lifted her chin so he could look at her. "But not impossible?" he asked her.

She shook her head, "It's very unlikely, John. After Roman left, I gave up any hope of ever having a child. I figured it just wasn't meant to be."

"That might be true...and it might not." John took Marlena's face between both of his hands. "But I can tell you what is meant to be...you and me. We were meant to be together, Marlena, no matter what happens in the future...whether we have children or not. You're what I want. You're what I need. I can't imagine ever being without you, Sweetheart."

John began to kiss the tears off of Marlena's cheeks as he continued to hold her face in his hands. Marlena finally began to calm down as she wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her forehead against the side of his face. "Promise that you'll never leave me," she whispered.

"I promise, Baby. I could never leave you." They sat there for several minutes just holding each other, finally John nudged her gently. "Hey, did you know that there's a lovely dinner waiting for you downstairs?"

Marlena slowly sat up and wiped her face. "I'm sorry, John."

"For what?" John asked as he picked up the towel and dabbed at her cheeks.

"For ruining this beautiful day...for being such a mess."

"You're a beautiful mess," John said with a smile, "...and you're my beautiful mess...don't you forget that."

He took her hands and helped her to her feet. "Now I want you to splash some cold water on your face and then come downstairs and eat."

Marlena wrapped her arms around John and hugged him tight. "Thank you... for always knowing what to say...for always taking care of me."

"I told you, Marlena. I will always be here for you. I will always take care of you. You don't have to go through anything alone anymore. You just have to share things with me so that I can help...okay?"

Marlena finally smiled as she looked up into his face, "Okay."

She placed her hands behind his head and pulled him towards her. She began to kiss him softly, her lips just brushing against his. As John's mouth opened wider and he began to kiss her back, softly licking and sucking on her bottom lip, Marlena felt the familiar heat in her belly begin to spread throughout her body. She grabbed him tighter and began to explore his mouth with her tongue. John groaned as he pulled her body tightly against his. Marlena could feel John against her thigh. She rubbed herself against him and kissed him harder. John kissed her back ravenously as he began to back her into the bedroom. Dinner would have to wait.