Okay guys, I've got a long one for you right now. I have to go make cupcakes and get everything ready for my job, so if I have time later I'll update again, if not, I'll update sometime tomorrow afternoon/evening. We're getting closer to the wedding, and I've got some Big plans for that. Not to, you know, make you antsy or anything =)
Basically, I don't own Pepper, Bruce or Tony. That's a little easier for this chapter.
"Morning Tony, Pepper." I smiled at them as I slipped my hand into Bruce's.
"I love your shirt." Pepper said as she looked at it. "So cute!"
"Bloomingdales." I sighed with a small smile. "Addict." I pointed to myself with a small laugh making her nod in understanding. "Should we go in?"
"Time to face the firing squad." Tony grinned and I rolled my eyes as I looked at Bruce.
"They're not that bad, just a little... Out there." I shrugged. He gave my hand a reassuring squeeze and I smiled before we walked in. Tony instantly found himself at the line for food, and Pepper went to go found somewhere to sit. She had met most of my family before so she was immediately recognized.
"Mon cher, bonjour!"
"Bonjour maman." I smiled at my mom as I let go of Bruce's hand and hugged my mother. I had gotten my red hair from my father, her hair was this beautiful shade of blonde I had always been jealous of when I was a child.
"Qu'est-ce ne sont pas que vous me dites?" (What aren't you telling me?) she asked as she looked at Bruce over my shoulder.
"Eh bien, je ne vais pas vous dire qu'il sait ce que vous dites." (Well I'm not telling you he knows what you're saying.) I said softly making her look at me for a moment before turning to Bruce and smiling. "Bruce," I said as I took his hand. "This is my mom, Cecile. Mom, this is my boyfriend, Bruce." I said and smiled up at him.
"It's very nice to meet you Mrs. Strong." Bruce said as he shook my mother's hand.
"Call me Cecile." she said with a warm smile. "It's nice to meet you too." she turned and smiled as my dad walked over.
"Dad!" I grinned and let go of Bruce to throw my arms around my dad. He groaned and laughed as he caught me. I was always kind of a daddy's girl. I mean, I got along with both of my parents, but while Abby and Tabby were going shopping with mom, I was begging dad to show me how to change the oil in the car, just like he showed Sonny when we were kids.
"It's good to see you sweetheart, and look at that tan, here I was expecting you to be some little New York vampire." he said and I laughed. "I hope you wore sun block."
"Yeah." I nodded.
"And you reapplied."
"Twice."
"That's my girl."
"Daddy there's someone I want you to meet." I moved away from him to Bruce and took Bruce's hand. "Bruce, this is my dad, Nathan. Daddy, this is my boyfriend, Bruce." I said as I looked at Bruce with a smile.
"It's nice to meet you." Dad said as he shook Bruce's hand. "I'm not going to do that whole obligatory dad threatens new boyfriend crap, you look like you've got a good head on your shoulders, and I trust her judgment." he said as he looked at me.
"Uh, thanks." Bruce smiled. "It's good to meet you too."
"Is that Tony Stark?" my mom asked suddenly and I cleared my throat.
"Yeah, didn't you know he was coming?" I asked and she smiled.
"Well the more the merrier." she said and I laughed. "Honey, let's go get something to eat." she said as she linked her arm through mine. "Nate, you and Bruce go find a table."
"No problem." he said and I rolled my eyes and gave Bruce a sympathetic smile.
"Yeah that's not completely obvious." I said as we walked away.
"I don't know what you're talking about." she said and I rolled my eyes.
"If we get back there and Dads completely freaked Bruce out, I'm gonna be pissed." I said. "Oh jeeze they have crepes." I said when I caught sight of my kryptonite. I grabbed a plate and had the guy make me some strawberry cheese crepes.
"So how old is he?"
"The guy making the crepes, I don't know, what twenty three? Twenty four?" I asked and the guy smiled.
"Twenty two."
"He's twenty two Mom." I said and she hit my arm. "Child abuse!"
"You're an adult, I can hit you all I want!"
"Damn." I muttered. "He's fourty four."
"I mean I'm not saying he's too old for you, but do you really like them that old?"
"I like Bruce."
"Honey, you don't... Like have daddy issues do you?"
"Mom!" I said in shock.
"Well I'm just asking, I mean-"
"Well don't ask again." I said, my face probably turning the colour of my strawberry covered crepes. "That's weird. On like every level."
"Well what would Freud say?"
"Oh please mom, don't start that intellectual psychoanalyst stuff." I sighed. "This is neither the time, nor the place."
"Honey I'm just curious."
"So ask me some normal questions like what does he do, how did you meet? Leave dad out of it, god." I scowled.
"You know if you keep making that face it'll get stuck like that." she said and I laughed. "So how did you two meet, and what does he do?"
"We met last year after the whole Aliens in New York thing," I said and she nodded. "And he's a scientist. He's a friend of Tony's, he works with him."
"Okay, was that so hard?" she asked and I shook my head as I walked over to the table dad had secured with Bruce, Tony and Pepper were also there, which made me smile at least Bruce hadn't gotten the third degree with Tony around.
"Hey there Red." Tony said, I must have still been blushing. Bruce got up quickly and pulled my chair out for me making me smile as I sat down. "So, Pepper here wants to take a swamp tour and see all the creepy crawlies, you guys up for it?"
"Did you just say creepy crawlies?" I asked and Tony grinned. I turned to Bruce. "What do you say; want to go see the creepy crawlies?" I asked. "Maybe we can shove Tony and Dallas off the boat."
"Sounds good to me." he said and I smiled.
"Hey, it's not like you don't like it." Tony said looking at Bruce. "I mean you haven't gotten angry or anything." he shrugged and Bruce stared at him for a moment before he stood up.
"I'm going to grab some food." he said and kissed the top of my head.
"Okay." I smiled as he walked away.
"Bruce, I'll go with you." my dad said and stood up.
After we had eaten I touched Bruce's arm lightly. He looked at me and I smiled. "Do you feel up to meeting some people?" I asked and he nodded.
"Sure." he said.
"Who are you taking him to meet?" Mom asked.
"MeeMaw, Chaz, Rick and some others." I said.
"Do you want me to come?"
"No." I said sternly. She laughed and I took Bruce's hand and lead him over to the table where Abby and her husband Rick were sitting with their four year old twins Mandie and Frankie.
"Morning Bruce." Abby smiled and he smiled back.
"Good morning Abby." he said.
"Bruce, this is my husband Rick, Rick, this is Bruce Banner, Sammy's boyfriend."
"Oh ace, nice to meet you." Rick grinned, speaking with his thick London accent. He stood up and shook Bruce's hand. "These are our kids, Mandie and Frankie." he said pointing to the kids.
"Auntie Sammie, Auntie Sammie!" Mandie said while Frankie signed to me.
"Hi guys." I signed as I spoke. Frankie had been born deaf, but that didn't stop him from babbling through sign language. "I missed you!"
"Did you bring us stuff from New York?" Mandie asked as Frankie did the sign for gifts.
"Maybe." I said and signed, then turned to Bruce. "This is Bruce," I spelled his name out for Frankie. "He's my friend."
"Are you Aunt Sammy's boyfriend?" Mandie asked and he nodded.
"I am."
"Do you bring her flowers?" she translated what her brother was signing.
"Uh- I haven't." he said and looked at me.
"Frankie says boyfriends are supposed to bring their girlfriends flowers, and that you'd better get on that." Mandie said making me laugh.
"I'll get right on that." he said and I signed to Frankie who laughed. To those of you who haven't heard a deaf person speak of laugh before, it's usually very monotone. Some deaf people won't even speak because they're not comfortable with their voices. Frankie was in speech therapy, but he didn't like to talk too often, because even at four he wasn't comfortable with his voice. I walked over and kissed the top of his head and signed to him that I would bring his present to him later.
"How old are they again?" he asked as we went to meet some other people.
"Four." I said and he sighed. "Frankie was born deaf."
"Is that why you know sign language?"
"Yeah, of course. My nephew is deaf, I'm not going to be one of those types of people who expect his parents to get him a cochlear and act like nothing's normal."
"Why don't they?" he asked and I looked at him.
"It's kind of a sore subject in my family, um, we don't believe a four year old should have to go through brain surgery for something that might not even work." I said and he nodded. "Just don't bring it up to people, okay?" I asked and he nodded.
"Of course." he said.
"Come on," I said as I slipped my hand into his. "You should meet Sonny." I brought him along to my older brother's table where he was sitting with his wife and her son from a different father, and their two daughters. "Sonny." I said and he looked up at me.
"Hey Sammy." he smiled and stood up. He gave me a long hug and then I gave his wife Claire a hug.
"Hey Claire."
"Hey Sammy." she smiled.
"Sonny, I want you to meet my boyfriend Bruce, Bruce, this is my older brother Sonny."
"Nice to meet you." Bruce said shaking Sonny's hand.
"This is Claire, his wife, and her son David, and Georgia, and Virginia." I said pointing to the girls.
"Nice to meet you all." Bruce smiled. After introducing him to a few more people I finally brought him to MeeMaw's table where she was sitting with Dallas, Tabby and Chaz.
"Hey love bug." Dallas smiled at Bruce who turned pink.
"Stop flirting with my boyfriend." I said and Tabby laughed.
"Hey Bruce." she stood up and gave him a quick hug.
"Hey Tabby." he said.
"Bruce, this is Chaz, Chaz, this is Sammy's boyfriend Bruce, the one I told you about."
"It's nice to meet you." Chaz smiled. Chaz kind of reminded me of Steve in a way; he was very genuine and had the all American blond boy thing about him. It was no wonder she had fallen for him, he and I had been in the same class together in high school, but he was never my type.
"It's nice to meet you too, congratulations." he said to Chaz who grinned and wrapped his arm around Tabby, looking like he had won a million dollars.
"MeeMaw," I said as I walked over to her.
"Hello dear." she said as I knelt down next to her. She was a little old lady in her 90's with curly blue white hair and large glasses.
"MeeMaw, I want you to meet someone." I said and gestured Bruce over. "MeeMaw, this is Bruce Banner, my boyfriend." I said. She looked up at him and then patted my hand.
"Go see your little friend for a minute." she said nodding to Dallas. I smiled and stood up.
"Should I be worried?" Bruce asked softly.
"Yeah." I said and he shot me a look before I moved over to Dallas and crossed my arms.
"You know you probably should have listened to MeeMaw when you started dating Simon." Dallas said. "He knew that boy would be trouble." he looked at Chaz quickly.
"No offense."
"None taken." Chaz shrugged. "I didn't want him here either. You know my mother."
"Oh boy." I muttered at the thought of Gwen.
"I'm just glad I passed her stare down." Chaz mumbled and I laughed.
"Come down here where MeeMaw can see you." she instructed Bruce who knelt down in front of her. She took his hand and stared at him for a long moment before she smiled and patted his hand. "You're a good boy," she said and he looked up at me in surprise. "You need to trust people more. Let them get to know the real you." she said as she continued to pat his hand. "Come here Simone." I walked over to her and she took my hand with her other hand. "He's a good boy. Handsome too." she nodded and I smiled.
"Yeah, he is MeeMaw." I smiled at Bruce as she nodded.
"Good, now Chaz, help me get to the crepes. I think that boy was flirting with me." she said waving Chaz over. He laughed and helped MeeMaw stand up before they walked over to the food.
"So she approves?" Bruce asked and I nodded.
"She approves." I smiled before I kissed him lightly.
