The Pregnancy Ship

Chapter 16: Guess Who's Coming to the Wedding?

This is an A/U story

Disclaimer: These are not my characters they are fully James Duffs. I just love them so much and love to play with them.

The next morning Rusty baked scones, and made a spinach and mushroom quiche for Sharon and Andy for breakfast. As he placed the quiche in the oven and finished making the scone batter, his iPad dinged to let him know someone was trying to get in touch with him on Skype, he pushed the button to open his end, and Emily's battered face came on screen. "Whoooo Em, what happened?"

"I fell down the steps in front of the brownstone I live in. I also broke my ankle."

Rusty made a cringing face then asked, "Ouch. How did that happen?"

Emily didn't want to get into what happened so she said, "it's a long story. Is Mom home?"

"Yes, she just got home yesterday afternoon from the hospital."

"From the hospital?" Em panicked a little then asked concerned about her mom, "What happened to her?"

He knew he needed to explain it enough to help his new sister to calm down, but tell her the truth about their mom. "She fell and hit her head real hard on the credenza behind the desk. There some swelling, and she's um...temporarily blind."

The shock on Emily's face was evident to Rusty as she listened to him, but at the end she jumped in with, "What? Blind? Mom's blind? Rusty! Why wasn't I told this?"

Rusty defended himself quickly, "probably because I couldn't get a hold of you when it happened. I left like ten messages!"

Emily asked in calmer voice, "Oh, well when did she fall?"

"On the fourteenth of September."

Relaxing more when she realized why she hadn't been getting the messages. Emily started, "well that explains it. I also fell on the fourteenth. My neighbor Linda Kaplan saw me fall and called an ambulance. She rode with me to the hospital and stayed with me after the surgery. She was real shook up and didn't remember to look for my phone. It fell down in the stairwell and was rained on. By the time I got it back, it was ruined. Thank goodness for my iPad."

To Rusty it seemed when things happen in this family things happen big. "You had to have surgery on your ankle?"

As she spoke Emily looked at her leg that was elevated on a pillow, "yeah, they had to put a steel rod in it."

Rusty was shocked at that. "Wow! That's...that's terrible! Will you ever dance again?"

With a sad voice Em answered her youngest brother's honestly, "that's a good question Rusty, one that I don't know the answer to right now. The good news is I'm coming home, tomorrow. So about mom, do they know for sure that it's temporary? How is mom taking it?"

Happy that Emily would be coming home, but not why she would be there. Rusty decided to drop it and explain their mom's situation to her more. "From what Andy told me, the doctors all agree she'll get her sight back. She had a real hard time at first, but she's trying to be brave and work with her Low Vision Occupational Therapist, Melinda and learn how to be more independent. Speaking of which, Melinda's due any minute. I'm working on breakfast, for them. Did you want to speak to Mom before that?"

"Yes," she answered quickly anxious to see and talk to her mom.

"Well hold on, I have to make sure nothing is burning and the timer is on." He did so and then took his iPad to Sharon and Andy's room. Rusty poked his head in the room to see if they were still asleep. They had slept all afternoon the day before after they came home from the hospital, woke up for dinner, and then Sharon had gone back to sleep around seven. Then slept through the entire night until now. Rusty was worried. Sharon had never slept that much at one time the entire time he'd known her.

"She's just trying to catch up on the sleep she lost at the hospital, Kid. She needs whatever sleep she's getting here at home, it will help her heal faster," he remembered Andy saying when he had seen how Sharon sleeping so much, seemed to bother him. When he opened the door he saw Sharon coming out of the bathroom. He watched as she walked slowly towards the bed, he could see her mouth moving and knew she was counting the steps to herself. He waited until she was seated on the bed before he spoke.

"Hey, I thought after all that sleep you'd be hungry, so I'm making some scones and clotted cream, a spinach quiche and some coffee and um Emily is wanting to Skype. She has some...some news." Rusty noticed that Sharon jumped a little when he spoke. Her concentration had been so complete as she walked across the room that she had not known he was there.

"Oh Rusty, you scared me..." she put her hand to her heart. Then she realized what he had said about Emily having some new. "Good news or bad news?" Sharon asked with a worried frown.

"A little of both I think." Rusty told her.

Sharon brought her hand to her face and felt the stitches. "I'm not sure I want her to see me like this. Does she know... about the temporary blindness?"

Rusty knew it was more of a mother-worrying thing than a vanity thing with Sharon. So to help her he explained, "yes, she knows. I emphasized the word temporary, but you can't shield her from this Mom I think she'd notice if she comes for the wedding."

Instinctively knowing something was going on Sharon tilted her head and gave Rusty a small glare as she asked, "If she comes for the wedding? I thought she was dancing Giselle, or is it Sleeping Beauty?"

Rusty made a face she couldn't see. "Here she is, Sharon talk to her." He handed her his iPad with her daughter on it.

Sharon held it awkwardly, leaning against Andy. "Hi Darling, how are you?"

Emily smiled at seeing her mom, but it dropped off as she said, "um... well...I fell, Mom and I broke my ankle."

Sitting up a little straighter at the bad news from her daughter Sharon said, "oh no Honey, when?"

"The same day you fell apparently." Trying to ease her mom's concern for her Emily joked, "Seem to run in the family. Does your head hurt? It looks painful."

"It aches, but not as bad as it did when it first happened," she said rubbing her temple unconsciously.

Emily knew her mom wasn't vain, it was just she didn't want daughter to see her in pain. "Mom it doesn't look that bad. Rusty told me you couldn't see, but that the doctors are very sure you'll get your sight back."

"Yes, they tell me it's temporary. It doesn't feel temporary right now but that word temporary is what is keeping me from losing it…" Sharon thought daughter like mother, she knew Em was changing the subject. So in true form she brought it back to Emily by asking, "Honey, how are you managing?"

"Don't worry, do you remember my neighbor, Linda Kaplan?"

Sharon thought for a moment and was able to conjure up the lady's face from her memory. "Yes I remember her."

Knowing she wouldn't get away from explaining what happened to her mom Emily gave her the short version. "Well, she saw me fall. She was coming from the grocery store, and I was walking down the stairs on the way to the street I guess I missed a step and the next minute I was at the bottom of the stairs and my ankle was broken. She called the ambulance, and went with me to the hospital and waited with me. She even stayed overnight with me after the surgery. She's been wonderful."

"I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you Em!" Sharon felt bad being so far from her daughter.

Wanting to comfort her mom, she added. "It's okay, you fell too not to mention the fact that you live three thousand miles away. I love you, Mom."

"I love you more," Sharon said through the lump in her throat. She swallowed hard. She was moved that this Linda person was taking care of her Emily, but at the same time she wanted to be the one taking care of her daughter. "Is she there now? "

"Yes." Looking over her shoulder Em called out to her friend, "Linda, my mom would like to speak to you."

Sharon could hear rustling noises as Linda got settled in front of the iPad. "Hello Sharon dear, don't you worry I'm taking care of Emily. She'll be fine. How are you?" Linda paused as she got a good look at Emily's mom face. "Ohhh, that looks painful. Are the babies alright?"

"Yes they are fine thank you for asking. Thank you sooo much for being there for my baby girl. I can't begin to thank you enough," Sharon said gratefully.

Linda laughed it off, "oh please! I told you when you were moving her in next door that I would keep an eye out for her. How are you managing with the temporary blindness on top of everything else?"

"It's difficult. I won't pretend otherwise. It's frightening to not be able to see. Like I said to Em, the only way I'm not losing it completely is the word temporary. I figure I can handle this as long as it's temporary." Talk about her blindness was beginning to unnerve Sharon. She felt her body begin to tremble. Andy rubbed her back and whispered words of encouragement in her ear. She relaxed, and decided to change the subject. "How bad was the break? Did you say you had to have surgery? Will you dance again, Emily?" Sharon's voice held her worry for her daughter.

"Yes, I had to have surgery, they put a steel rod in my ankle. I don't know if I'll dance again. Mom, it was a clean break but the rod is supposed to keep the ankle stable, and the doctor said my age was a factor. He said my bones in my ankles are starting to weaken and that I'm low on calcium and my understudy is really good and she's younger than me. I don't know if I'll get my spot back once my ankle is healed. I probably will have to consider doing something else sooner than later." Emily's voice sounded thick with emotion. Dancing had been her dream since she was three.

Tears formed in both Sharon's and Emily's eyes. Sharon pressed her lips together and straightened her back. "Don't worry, Darling it will all work out. You could come to Los Angeles and dance here. I'll have Rusty look up the names of the companies around here. Also you could teach. Um, what was the good news? Rusty, said there was good news too?"

"Well, Linda is going to accompany me home. She and I are catching a plane to LAX tomorrow, in time to see you and Andy get married on Saturday."

"That's...that's...wonderful, Darling, but should you be traveling with a broken ankle?" In truth, Sharon wasn't sure how she felt about Emily being there to witness her mother learning to be blind. She had always tried to be strong in front of her children.

Emily could see by the look of trepidation on her mother's face that she wasn't entirely happy about her coming. "Don't you want us there, Mom?" Asked Emily sadly. "You just said..."

Feeling worse from making her daughter feel bad Sharon quickly said, "Of course I do Darling, I was just being a mother hen worrying about her chick. The only reason I was okay with you not being at the ceremony before was I knew you were dancing, so I figured it would be impossible for you to be here. Now that I know you're not able to dance right now, of course I want you and Linda here. It's...It's just I'm not all that good at this being blind thing, yet. I've always tried to show you strength not weakness, and to be quite honest I'm not feeling very strong right now. I get disoriented so easily. I go from anger to tears pretty easily too. Quite frankly I'm...a mess."

"Mom, you are my mother and I love you no matter what, I hope you know that. You don't have to shield me anymore. I'm a big girl, now." Emily knew she sounded just like her mom but she was proud of that. "Forgive me though, I have to ask, should you even be contemplating a wedding yet if you're having these issues?"

Andy could hear both side of the conversation since he was so close to Sharon and smiled at how much Emily sounded like her mother. "I'll admit the timing could be better, but we made these arrangements before I fell, based on Judge Richwood availability. It will be a very small ceremony just Andy and I exchanging vows before Judge Richwood. With a little cake and sparkling apple cider. The team will be there, Rusty and Gus, Patrice and Provenza, also you, your friend Linda, your brother and maybe Andrea and Paul, but not sure about that. Nicole and Dean will be there with Andy's little grandsons. That's it."

Surprised at how fast their small little family was growing as Emily said, "that sounds like quite a crowd. Where are you going to put everybody?"

Sharon snuggled more into Andy's arms as she continued to talk to her daughter. "In the back yard hopefully. The real party will be when I get my sight back and the babies are born. We'll have a reception on the beach and have the babies christened first then we will say our vows again. That won't happen till next spring, though."

"Well why not just wait for that?" Emily asked.

"Andy and I don't want to wait to get married. Em, we love each other. We've got babies on the way, and we're old fashioned enough to want to be married before our babies are born. The party will be mostly to celebrate the babies christening, but we thought we would renew our vows for your grandparents and aunts sake, and to cement our commitment before an Episcopal priest."

Questioning her mom again, "an Episcopal priest, but we're Catholic?"

"Yes, but Emily a Catholic priest wouldn't marry us because of the divorce." Sharon admonished. The Episcopal priest will. Of course there are some hoops we have to jump thru figuratively speaking, but he'll marry us. Now, back to your broken ankle. Don't you have to go to rehab?"

"Not till after the cast comes off and I'll probably be doing rehab there in Los Angeles."

Sharon wondered, "How long will Linda be able to stay?"

Linda answered for herself. "As long as you and Emily need me Sharon. I'm retired, and it's not like I have anything pulling me back here. It's cold in New York in the winter time so I won't miss it, if you need me to stay."

Feeling relieved that someone would be helping and caring for daughter Sharon said, 'thank you Linda. Again I can't begin to tell you how much your being there for Emily means to me. When are you supposed to arrive?"

"Tomorrow afternoon, about 4:30." Linda told her.

Sharon knew it was a long way to travel and asked, "Any layovers?"

"No, my niece is a flight attendant for United. She got us a straight flight from Reagan airport to LAX."

Even though she couldn't see Emily it was great to talk to her daughter and it would be even better to have her home. Happily Sharon said, "Good, Rusty or Ricky will pick you up."

"Okay, Thank you. See you tomorrow." Emily smiled thinking she'd be in LA and seeing her family in person soon.

"Mom, breakfast is ready and Melinda is here." Rusty called from the kitchen.

"Okay! Bye Em. Bye Linda, I have got to go." Sharon ran her fingers over the bottom of the screen and managed to end the call. She sat for a moment, and tried to gather herself together for the coming lessons. She pressed her lips together and blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall. They weren't tears for herself, but for her daughter. Emily had dreamed of being a ballerina since she was a tiny three year old after she was taken to see the Nutcracker Ballet. Even as little as she had been Em had sat on her mother's lap and watched with fascination as the ballerinas on the stage had jumped and twirled and pirouetted around the stage. She had worked towards that end from then on. The idea that it could all be taken away, in a moment broke Sharon's heart.

The thing she wasn't quite clear on was how she had fallen. What had led up to it? Emily was always very careful. She was graceful, not clumsy! How had she managed to miss a step? Something had happened before she fell. Something that Emily was not telling her, something that made Emily wish to be out of New York. She would find out when her daughter got home. She took a breath and started to turn to Andy to let him know she was ready to show Melinda her progress.

The therapist came to see what was keeping her. "Oh! Here you are." Melinda said, "Rusty says breakfast is served." She noticed Sharon's face was mottled from struggling to keep from crying and saw the tears threatening to fall. "Are you alright?"

Unfortunately being directly asked about what had upset her seemed to bring back her worry and concern full force. "Yes I 'm alright, but I just got some disturbing news about my daughter. She had an accident and broke her ankle. She's a Prima Ballerina, for the American Ballet Company in New York and has been dancing all the coveted parts this year. This break could ruin her career. She's worked so hard, and for it to end like this..." Sharon shrugged and then bowed her head a moment while she gathered her thoughts. "The worst thing ...the thing that has me worried is that knowing my daughter like I do my instincts tell me there is something she's not telling me." She swallowed hard again and tried to tamp down her feelings of unease concerning her daughter's situation."

"I'm so sorry. I know, being a mother myself that it's hard when your children are hurting or in trouble and they live so far away." Melinda said, sympathetically.

Andy stood up and helped Sharon to stand up also. Then he gave her a hug. "Sweetheart, we can't do anything until she gets here, and then we can talk to her and find out what she's hiding. Meantime, you have got a date with Melinda and I am hungry. Let's go eat. It smells like Rusty really outdid himself this time." Andy said.

Andy wasn't trying to downplay what was happening, with Emily he was just trying to distract Sharon for the time being, so that she could concentrate on her therapy. It worked because Sharon's stomach rumbled, once she became more aware of the smells coming from the kitchen. "Yes, I guess you're right. I am...well I suppose it's the twins that are hungry, so I suppose we should get started."

"Okay," said Melinda. "There are..."

"Fifteen steps from here to the dining room table," Sharon said interrupting her. "I'm sorry I interrupted you, but I counted them last night when Andy and I went to eat dinner after we woke up from resting." Sharon said proudly.

"Ahh you are an apt pupil Sharon. Some of my clients have trouble remembering to count their steps and some fight me every step of the way."

"Well, I have some background in this and a vested interest in not ending up with anymore bumps and bruises than absolutely necessary. I'm getting married the day after tomorrow, not to mention the pregnancy. Don't want the babies to get hurt. Plus I have always been a little fascinated by people who are blind and able to function in a seeing world. I never wanted to find out first hand how they did it, however." Sharon said with a little bit of irony.

"I don't imagine most people would and...um ...congratulations." Melinda said happy for them.

Andy could see that Melinda was surprised they were going through with the wedding so soon after the accident and was concerned about Sharon's blindness and her ability to navigate.

"We had made these arrangements weeks before the accident. We thought of postponing but the truth is, we don't want to postpone being married and the availability of Judge Richwood was a factor as well. So we're going to say our vows in front of a few people, have some cake and sparkling apple cider, and that will be it." Andy explained.

Melinda nodded in understanding and took up her story, "I also had that fascination Sharon and I took it a step further. I did an experiment, for a paper I was writing in college. I spent a week doing things around the house blindfolded. Doing the laundry, cooking cleaning. My conclusion was that although I had an idea of what a blind person was up against, my conclusions and the experiment itself wasn't a true representation because I could always open my eyes and see. A truly blind person can't. It wasn't until I was in a car accident and my corneas were damaged that I had a real idea of what it was like to be blind."

"You're blind?" Sharon asked amazed.

"No, not now. I was for about 18 months." Melinda usually didn't tell people about what she had been through, but she felt a connection with Sharon and felt it could help her too. "I had two corneal transplants, about five years ago. I went to school once my eyes healed from the surgery, and became a Low Vision Specialist/ Occupational Therapist. So I guess the trauma of losing my sight for real had its purpose. It opened me up to the idea for this career path."

Sharon nodded and then remembered that food was on the table. She reached for the wall to use it as a guide and began to count her way out of the bedroom, down the hall and into the dining room. Melinda watched and used verbal prompts to help her find her seat at the table. Then they all sat down. Once they were all seated, Melinda began her instructions. "Sharon, remember the face of the clock. You have a piece of quiche between 7 and 10 on the face of a clock. Between the 6 and 4 are the scones and between 3 and 1 on the clock is a cup of clotted cream to dip your scones in. Your coffee is at the number 10 a hand's breadth away from your plate, and your orange juice is at 1 and 2 the same distance from the plate as your coffee. Can you picture it?"

Sharon nodded, "yes. I can."

"At the 12 there is a small pitcher of half and half, a bowl of sugar at the 1 on the clock. Rusty, I have to commend you for the thoughtfulness of the choices you made in cooking breakfast, and setting things out for your mother. Not to mention the fact that the quiche and the scones are delicious." Melinda complimented Rusty.

Rusty shrugged his shoulder as if it was no big deal. "Yeah, well I was looking things up on the internet trying to decide what would be easier to handle. I thought it would be less frustrating to try to eat something that was...um...cohesive? Or together like a quiche, rather than say scrambled eggs. As for setting things out I read about the clock analogy and wanted to make it easy for mom. It's not rocket science to know that things put out in an orderly manner is easier for a blind person to navigate, then when it's haphazard."

"Thank you Rusty," Sharon said, proud of her son.

"You're welcome Mom and um thanks for the compliment, Melinda."

As she ate, Sharon tried to remember to move slowly and carefully so she wouldn't knock anything over. She managed to get through most of the meal without any accidents, but with her success came over confidence and when reaching for her coffee she knocked it over onto the table. "Oh! Oh no! I'm so sorry!" Sharon jumped up and tried to clean it up but then knocked over what was left of her orange juice." Her hands started to tremble and she blinked back tears of frustration. She sat back down and hung her head in abject misery. She pressed her lips together and wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. Andy put his hand over hers in silent sympathy letting her know he was there.

"Sharon it's okay. Accidents happen. It actually took you a lot longer to experience this part of the learning process than most. You've been so careful and you were doing so well that I was beginning to think I had a superhuman being as my client." Melinda said with a touch of sardonic humor.

Sharon made a sound that was a combination snort laugh and strangled sob. "Hardly," she managed to get out.

"Now that we know you're as human as I am we can move on. What do you think contributed to the accidents that just happened?"

Not needing to think about Sharon answered immediately, "Overconfidence?"

"Yes. There's nothing wrong with being confident, but it's a little too early for it yet. I'm actually glad this happened, you can learn better if you have some failures under your belt."

"Not too many, I hope," Sharon said softly.

"Oh trust me, there will be many along the way, but failures are what we learn from, more than successes. It's okay to fail at first. You just have to learn from those failures, right? Isn't that what you told your children when they were growing up?" Sharon nodded, and started to relax. "Okay, so now we clear the table." Melinda said.

Rusty started to jump in and offer to do it, but thought better of it. It would be part of the therapy he realized. He decided he would go get his shower and get ready for his day with Gus. They were supposed to go to the Santa Monica pier. He wanted to show Gus one of his favorite places in California. "Mom, I'm going to go get ready for Gus's and my trip to Santa Monica. Good luck," he kissed her on the cheek, and gave her a hug.

She hugged him back, "thanks Rusty."

Andy also decided to vacate the kitchen and go take a shower so he could take care of some last minute details having to do with their little wedding. Nicole had said she would take care of the cake and decorations, but he was supposed to order the chairs and a canopy or tent to protect the guests from the harsh California sun or in case of the very rare rainfall. "Sharon, I'm going to take a shower, okay? I'll be out in a few minutes. I love you," he said kissing her on the lips.

"Oh ... okay. Love you more," she said kissing him back. Then turned slowly toward Melinda for more therapy instructions about how to do the dishes and clear the table.

Once Andy was done in the shower, Sharon took her shower with the therapist there to remind her where everything was, and spot her for safety. Her propensity for getting dizzy warranted her not being alone in the bathroom for showers or baths. Once the shower was done she got dressed with minimal instruction and they went on with their lessons.

Melinda stayed with Sharon for two more hours. At Andy's and Sharon's request, they made the patio and part of the yard part of that day's lesson. It would also be part of the next day's lesson as well. Melinda was invited to the wedding, and she accepted. She felt she could be of help in setting up the area to Sharon's advantage and be an anchor for Sharon should she become disoriented. She made several suggestions. One of her suggestions was that they say their vows on the patio and let the guests be the ones to traverse the grassy part of the yard. It was too early in her therapy for Sharon to feel comfortable with too much space, or too many people surrounding her. Fortunately there were no steps to worry about, only a ramp from the house to the patio level. The patio was flush with the ground level.

After they did a thorough run through of the house and the patio, counting steps and learning where the furniture was both inside and out, Andy was told not to allow anyone to move the furniture once Sharon familiarized herself to the placement of each piece. Then Melinda said goodbye and told Sharon what time she would be back the next day. Once her therapist was gone, Sharon followed the sound of Andy's voice, to the sofa. She started to sit beside him but he pulled her into his lap instead. She cuddled into him, and closed her eyes. She fell asleep almost immediately, holding tightly to his shirt. He covered her with a fleece throw and continued with his phone calls. Once they were done he turned so that his legs were on the couch and Sharon was settled next to him on the inside so she wouldn't be in danger of falling and he fell asleep with her.

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