Cristina drove Owen and the girls across to Josh's parents' house. They had borrowed Cristina's dad's car. He hadn't been using it so he gladly lent it to them. Owen was nervous, especially since they had specifically asked that he be there. It was a middle-class house, much smaller than Cristina's dad's grandiose house.
Cristina knocked on the door. They waited for a bit and then, she knocked again. "Coming, coming, don't go, we are here," they heard a woman's voice say. The door opened to reveal a plump woman with salt and pepper hair. blue eyes and rosy cheeks.
"Cristina!" she screamed, as Lillian Daniels hugged her daughter in law. "It has been too long!" Then, she took notice of her grandchildren. "Iris, Laurel!" She scooped up both girls in her arms and had them in a bear hug.
"Granny, Granny," the girls said, as she covered them with kisses. "Granddad will be so happy to see you girls," Lillian said, as she led them into the house. She had been so pre-occupied with her grandchildren that she finally noticed Owen following Cristina into the house. She put down the girls. "Where are my manners?" she said to Owen. "I should introduce myself to you. I am Lillian Daniels."
"Yes, I know," Owen said. "Major Owen Hunt. I am very pleased to meet you." Owen and Lillian politely shook hands, both acutely aware that he was the man, who had taken the place of Josh in Cristina's life.
"Very nice to meet you, Major," she said. "Oh, you can call me Owen," he said. "No need for formalities."
"I thought I heard voices in here."A tall, older man with brown hair, with specks of grey in between, came into the room. His face and eyes lit up as soon as he saw the two little girls. "My precious grandchildren." The two girls ran to him as he bent down to hug them. "Iris, Laurel, you both have gotten so big. Granny and I have lots of treats for the both of you." He stood back up and beckoned Cristina to him. She went to him and he enveloped her in his arms. "Cristina, it is always good to see you. As pretty as ever."
"Thanks, Tom," she said. "I am so glad that we are here."
"So how is your dad doing?" he asked, with a look of concern in his green eyes. Owen noticed that Tom had the same green eyes that Josh and the girls had.
"He is doing as well as can be expected, given the circumstances," she said. "He sends his greetings."
"Ah, we should go and see him, Lillian. Bad business this cancer," Tom said. He had certainly noticed Owen's presence in the room. He went to Owen and put out his hand to shake. "Tom Daniels," he said. "I assume you are Major Owen Hunt."
Owen nodded. "Yes, sir, I am pleased to meet you," he said. They both shook hands. "Should I call you Major?" Tom asked. Owen shook his head. "Owen is just fine," he told Tom.
"Good, good," Tom said. "I hope you guys are hungry. Lillian has prepared a feast for lunch."
"Starving," Cristina said, as they all headed to the dining room. Owen followed everyone. He still felt uncomfortable but even though Lillian and Tom were both polite to him, it still had not put him at ease. As they walked, he noted that there were numerous pictures of Josh all around. Many were from his childhood and in his uniform. There were also pictures of Cristina and the girls. It made Owen feel more and more like an interloper.
In the dining room, Tom and Lillian took their seats at the head and the foot of the table. Cristina and Laurel sat on one side, while Owen and Iris sat on the other. Tom was right. Lillian had prepared a feast for them. Cristina thought it was too much food for just the six of them but she knew her mother-in-law would insist on them carrying some leftovers home for her father.
"Shall we say grace?" Lillian asked. Everyone joined hands. "Thank you, O Lord, for the food for which we are about to partake. Thank you even more for bringing Cristina, Owen and our grandchildren here to visit us. Bless us, O Lord, this day and for all the days to come. As always, keep Josh close to you in your arms. Amen." She let out a big breath after she said it. Owen could tell that even though it was a year, she had not really gotten over the death of her son. He knew that would be a hard thing for parents to get over. His own mother would be devastated if something would ever happen to him.
"Okay, let's eat," Tom said. The food was extremely scrumptious, Owen had to admit. He decided to tell Lillian that and was rewarded with a very sweet smile. "Thank you, Owen," Lillian said. "It is rare that I get a chance to cook like this. It is only Tom and me here and we don't need that much. Love it when we have family come to visit."
"So how is school, Iris?" Tom asked the five-year-old. "Very good," the little girl replied.
"Do you know that Iris goes to a school for the gifted?" Owen said, proudly. "They said that she is probably capable of doing fourth grade and possibly even fifth grade work."
"What!" Lillian said. "Iris is a little genius. I always knew she was a wunderkind since she was able to read when she was two." Iris gave her grandmother a shy smile.
"Yes," Owen said. "Cristina and I are very proud of her. " He patted his daughter on her back.
"Clearly, that book-learning comes from your side, Cristina," Tom said. "Certainly wasn't from our side." He guffawed, loudly and slapped the table. Everyone laughed.
"What about little Laurel?" Lillian asked. "Is she as smart as her sister?" Laurel looked around at the mention of her name.
"Laurel is smart," Owen said. "She already knows her ABCs and also how to count. She is starting pre-school in the fall." He was very proud of both his girls.
"Well, I am sure that Laurel is going to do just fine in pre-school," Lillian said.
After the meal, Cristina helped Lillian wash up the dishes. Lillian also put aside some extra food for Cristina's father and insisted that she must take it with her, when they left. In the meantime, Tom played with his grandchildren while Owen looked on.
"We're done, now," Lillian said, wiping her hands on a kitchen towel. "Tom?" Her husband looked at her. There was a quick exchange of looks, which Owen caught, immediately. He knew this was coming. They wanted to speak to him and Cristina. "Cristina, can you take the kids up to Josh's old room? There are a lot of things we bought for them in there. You can leave them there and come back. We just want to have a chat with you and Owen, if that is okay," Tom said. Cristina gathered up her two little girls and carried them to Josh's room. She returned, a few minutes later.
"Let's go the living room and have some coffee," Lillian said. As they got there, Cristina and Owen felt somewhat nervous. Lillian poured out coffee for everyone. When everyone had a cup in their hand, Tom spoke. "Lillian and I are very grateful that you could come and visit us. There is nothing that gives us greater pleasure than seeing our granddaughters. So, we thank you for that. Owen, we really wanted to meet you, since you will be raising them, along with Cristina. Now that we have met you, I think it is safe to say that they are in good hands. We can see that you love them, too."
He took his wife's hand before he continued. "Lillian and I were very wary of all of this," he admitted. "Especially the speed of your marriage, so soon after Josh's death. We were shocked, totally shocked, when your dad told us that you had gotten remarried, especially eight weeks after Josh had passed." A tear rolled down his face, as he said it.
"I am sorry about that," Cristina said. "I loved Josh very much. I still love Josh very much. When Owen and I got married, I made a choice that I thought was the best option for the girls and me. You know we were going to come back to South Carolina to live with Dad and Beatrice. But, well, you know how it is with Beatrice."
Tom and Lillian nodded in unison. They were both aware of how prickly a personality Beatrice was. "I knew it was not going to be a good environment for my children. Owen made me an offer of marriage and I knew it was a risk because we had known each other for such a short time. But in the time that I knew him, he was nothing but kind and generous to the girls and me. I knew he was a good man and he would do right by the kids and me."
"What? So you two didn't know each other very long?" Lillian was shocked.
"Yes, only a couple of days, actually," Owen said. Lillian and Tom's mouths dropped open.
"So how?" Tom asked. "How did you meet them?"
"Actually, I met Cristina because of Josh," Owen said. "Josh and I met at the combat hospital in Iraq. I am an army surgeon and Josh was my patient. I was the one who operated on him." At this point, both Tom and Lillian were in tears.
"I operated on him twice. I really thought he was going to make it. After the first operation, Josh and I talked and he showed me the picture of Cristina and the girls that he carried around with him, all of the time. He told me how they met and had their babies and got married," Owen said, thoughtfully. He could actually still see Josh telling him all about Cristina and the children.
"Yes, he loved you so much, Cristina. I remember the first day he saw you in class, he came home and couldn't stop talking about you," Tom said. "Never saw him that excited about a girl before."
"Remember, Tom, he used to call her his Asian princess," Lillian said, smiling through her tears.
"Yes, he told me that, too," Owen said. "Later that night, things turned for the worst for Josh. He was having internal bleeding, so I had to go back in. But before he went in, he gave me the picture of Cristina and the girls and made me promise to tell her that he loved her so much and that she was the love of his life." Cristina, at this point, could not hold back the tears. She grabbed for Owen's hand and he squeezed it.
Owen continued, "So when I came home from leave and visited my mother in Seattle, I made the trip to Georgia to return the picture to Cristina and to tell her Josh's last words."
"Wow," Lillian said. "Thank you so much for doing that for my son. Not many people would go through that effort, especially traveling across the country to do so."
"I think I owed it to Josh," Owen said. "Then I met Cristina and the girls. I helped them pack up the house, as they had to move out. Then, she told me about moving back to South Carolina and living with Beatrice and her dad. It was clear to me that she and the girls were not going to be happy, there. I was headed to the airport and then, I made the decision to ask her to marry me. They could remain a military family and get all of the benefits that they were used to getting. Cristina thought about it and she agreed. Then, we moved to Fort Clemson in California. That is where I am based."
Tom and Lillian were both quiet, as they allowed all of that information to sink in. "So it was a marriage of convenience?" Lillian asked. Cristina nodded. "Yes, it was," she said. "I mean we liked each other but we didn't love each other."
"And now?" Tom asked. "We love each other very much," Owen said. "I can't imagine life without her and the children in it. I will do everything to make them happy."
"Me, too," Cristina said. "I love him. We actually fell in love while we communicated with each other, while he was in Iraq. I mean I know it sounds crazy but it is true. And the girls love him very much. He is a good father to them."
"I can see that," Lillian said. "But I don't want them to forget Josh."
"Oh, no, they won't," Owen said. "I think it is very important to remember their dad. He was a good soldier, who died for his country. I want them to be proud of him. He gave the ultimate sacrifice."
"Thank you," Tom said. "Thank you. Josh was our only boy. He had sisters but he was our only boy. I was so proud of him when he decided to serve our country. Owen, I know you understand how he felt."
"Yes, I do," Owen said. "You raised a good man." There was silence as each of them thought about the fallen soldier. There were some more tears, as they hugged each other.
Later, when Owen took Cristina and the girls home, he turned to his wife and said, "I am glad that we came."
"Me, too," she said. He took her hand and kissed it.
A/N Please leave your comments and thoughts. Thanks for the reviews. I do appreciate them.