REVAMPED AS OF APRIL 2014

"Hey, babe, I can't make it for lunch today..."

Carmen blinked at her phone is disbelief – Mort never canceled plans. Carmen did from time to time when something came up that needed her attention at the magazine, but this was a first.

"I've got an errand I need to run in the city," Mort continued. "It's not going to take long."

"Well, why don't I just come with you?"

"No! I mean, I think... I've got it covered," Mort stammered, realizing that he was giving off a vibe that would make Carmen more suspicious than anything. Suspicious Carmen was nothing to be messed with, he had learned in the months he had known her, and he wanted to make sure that a suspicious Carmen was not the Carmen he was talking with tonight. "But listen, let me make it up to you, because I am absolutely the jerk for flaking -"

"It's not a big deal," Carmen said, her voice very casual to Mort's relief. "We can just have lunch another time."

"No. I want to have a nice dinner tonight," Mort said suddenly. "Just as my house, nothing fancy. Just... you know, nice."

"Wow, the meetings you've had with your new agent lately going that good?" Carmen asked with a chuckle – she clearly assumed that Mort was going into the city for his agent, which was good for him anyway. "Okay. What time?"

"Uh – seven."

"Okay."

"Thirty. Seven thirty," Mort reneged. "Be there at seven thirty."

He hung up on her, and realized that he had been unusually abrupt with Carmen, something that he normally avoided for the sheer fact that she tended to worry about him – for good reason. And truth be told, she wouldn't be totally wrong in the belief that he was lying about going into the city to see his agent, because he wasn't. He was heading back into the jewelry story on Bowery while Rob and the Carters were packed into one car, heading up to Mort's house in Tashmore Lake. It was better for them to be in one car that they parked a bit of a way down the road, because the sound of all of their cars on the mountain roads might alert Carmen's attention.

"I can't believe you all got me to keep my mouth shut about this for two weeks," Mel said as they carried some of the supplies they had brought out of the trunk of the car. Rob chuckled, shaking his head and helping Mel with the roll of tulle she was carrying.

"Hey, Boss Man!" Andi called out. "Where are we bringing this canopy thing?"

"Down by the water – Mort said the fastest way down there was the side path," Rob called over his shoulder. "Mel, slow down, you don't need to be doing any powerwalking in your condition!"

"That's sweet, Robbie, but I'm a big girl," she laughed, giving the roll of tulle they were carrying a playful tug. "My camera's in the car, right? If I don't get photos of tonight, I'm going to knock Carmen across the head, give her amnesia again, and make Mort do it over."

They made their way to the clearing next to the lake - close to the spot where, on their first walk by the lake, Carmen had been so gravely startled by a grey squirrel that she practically threw herself into the lake and took Mort down with her. It was here that Mort had directed them to set up shop.

"You sure you're okay with this, Rob?" Mel asked, noticing that Rob - her boyfriend, though she still felt strange calling him that - had been unusually quiet this whole time. "I know it must be really weird for you that we're doing this for Carmen..."

Rob leaned over and gave Mel a brief kiss and sighed before managing a small but sincere grin. He genuinely thought Mel was a godsend - she was so kind and simply cared about him, and never felt insecure about how important Carmen was to Rob. She knew - this was strange for him. He had admittedly once been head over heels for Carmen - had stayed that way for a very long time - and now was helping her new boyfriend propose to her.

"It's fine," he said with a lopsided grin. "Don't worry about me."

"Something nice? God," Carmen muttered, looking at herself in the mirror. She and Mort were not a couple that did nice very often. Perhaps it came with the territory – Mort was hardly welcome at most of the restaurants in town and they rarely thought it was necessary to go too far when there was food at home, the television set, and a comfortable couch. They had become a very down-home couple, so for Mort to actually suggest something nice was a change indeed.

Carmen picked out a dark green dress with sleeves, because autumn in Tashmore Lake was much chillier than she had expected. She pulled a sweater on over it and got into her car. As she was leaving, the sun was just starting to set - driving when it was dark out made Carmen feel slightly squeamish, given past experiences, but this was different. There was no reason to be nervous about tonight. It was just a quick drive.

Tashmore Lake in the autumn was admittedly beautiful, even to someone like Carmen who knew nothing at all about being out in nature or the outdoors in general. She'd left early and as such, had a little time along the way to actually appreciate the scenery during her drive. She had lived here for months, yet the changing of the seasons brought something entirely new to her surroundings. She barely noticed how far she had traveled until she was in front of Mort's house. She parked and walked up to the front door to knock - she knew Mort was home because his car was there as well. When Carmen knocked, however, there was no answer. She frowned a little and placed her hand on the knob - it was unlocked.

Pushing the door open, she glanced around the empty living room and took off her sweater, draping it over the back of the couch. "Mort?" she called out, glancing around the room. "Are you there?" Her gaze finally landed on a piece of paper taped to the television screen, where Mort had written, Back Door. Brow furrowing, she walked across the house to the back door, onto which was taped another note, though since it was darker, she had to come closer to it to read it.

"Follow the lights," Carmen read to herself, pulling the paper off the door. What was this? She pushed the screen door open and glanced around, catching a single tiny light that looked like a firefly - coming close, she realized it was a tea light candle. As she approached the hilly ground, she realized that the candles were lining the path down small incline to the lake - it was different. She and Mort usually took the stairs because it was faster. She followed the hill's shallow slant and saw a small white canopy set up next to the lake, lit by a few paper lanterns, adorned with more tea light candles and bows made of tulle.

And standing underneath the canopy was not only Mort - who was, for possibly the first time in the entire time she had known him, wearing a dress shirt underneath a sweater that looked new - but also Rob, Mel, Andi, and Chloe, standing around a table with champagne and a small but very elegant dinner setup.

"Wow," Carmen laughed, walking down the rest of the way and heading over to join them all under the canopy. "Mort - your agent must have had some really good news for you today," she laughed, leaning over and giving him a brief kiss before making the rounds and hugging the others in greeting.

"I'll tell you more about it later - dinner first," Mort said, nodding over to the table. Dinner was delicious, even if uneventful, and once they were finished, it seemed that they were all sitting around the way they normally did when they had dinners together. Rob ate all entree and no side dishes, Melanie ate enough of everything for two, Chloe and Andi ate like birds. The only thing that was unusual was that Mort was eating unusually slowly, occasionally pausing and just nudging his food around the plate.

"So, what's the news?" Carmen finally asked as Chloe made to pour everyone a glass of the champagne she had brought with her. It just seemed to unusual to Carmen that Mort would call all of her friends over for his own news, even if he had grown surprisingly friendly with them as well. "Is it about - the new novel you've been working on? The one you won't let me even look at?" she chuckled. "I didn't think it was done yet."

"No - no, it's not," Mort said, chuckling awkwardly and getting to his feet and pulling Carmen gently to hers as well. She blinked in light confusion, and Mel had to pinch herself underneath the table to keep from squealing in excitement - she was pregnant, so while she would have been elated regardless, the hormones only amplified it.

"Carmen..."

"Mort?" she asked, with a lopsided smirk, resorting to being a smart-aleck rather than being worried about how strange Mort was acting. "What's this all about?"

She no longer felt so smug, however, when Mort reached out and grabbed one of her hands, rubbing small circles with his thumb on the smooth, slightly cold skin of the back of her hand.

"So..." Mort began, and finally, Melanie couldn't hold it in anymore - a small squeak managed to escape her lips, but it didn't distract Carmen. Rob wrapped an arm around Melanie's waist and pulled her closer, shushing her with a smirk on his face. Mort cleared his throat again, quickly realizing that while he'd planned the dinner itself out with a great deal of help, he hadn't planned what he was going to say. It had been years - more than a decade - since he'd done something like this, and for the first time, the age difference between himself and Carmen, though only about seven years, made him feel a little dated. What did people do to ask someone to marry them nowadays?

"Is this all to apologize for flaking on lunch earlier?" Carmen laughed shakily. "Because I really wasn't all that mad -"

"Well, you should be," Mort chuckled, looking down at his feet. "There are so many reasons for you to be... beyond angry with me. Since we met in the spring, I have probably been one of the most difficult people to love. I don't think I really gave you much to fall in love with, but here we are. My life had been in a complete shambles for years, and after half a year with you, I have a career again... I have friends for possibly the first time in my adult life. I have a gorgeous girlfriend."

"I think you're giving me a little too much credit," Carmen said. She tried to laugh but found that her voice was tight and choked because she was finally starting to have a feeling where this was going. But she refused to jump to conclusions. "I didn't do all that for you -"

"Yeah. Yeah, you did," Mort chuckled, finally managing to look up at Carmen. "And I haven't given you enough credit for it yet. I think when someone changes your life this much, you - you have to grab the chance and make them your whole life. So before I - ah. Man, I should have gone with the darker pants," he noticed, laughing and shaking his head for a moment before doing what everyone was waiting for - what Carmen had only just started to suspect he was going to. Dirt on his clothes be damned, he dropped down to one knee and reached into his sweater pocket, pulling out a black velvet box. Carmen's eyes went wide, and suddenly, she became one of those girls - the girls she always laughed at in movies, the girls she swore she could never understand and certainly never be: criers. She blinked hard and looked upward, fanning her face fervently.

"Guys, look! Carmen's crying," Mel pointed out to the others in a whisper as they looked on - and of course, at the sight of Carmen, Mel was a tearful mess as well.

Mort took a moment to gauge Carmen's reactions before he felt confident enough to flick the small box open with his thumb to reveal the ring that he'd spent two weeks waiting for from the jeweler. She let out a small gasp and gripped Mort's hand tighter, and he decided he had to ask now, before she fainted or something. "Carmen Anderson - Allen - whoever you are," he chuckled with a smirk, drawing a small, tearful laugh from her as well. "Will you marry me?"

"I - whoo..." Carmen said, drawing in a few deep breath and fanning her face. She couldn't be crying, could she? "Yes. Of course," she said with a still disbelieving smile. "Of course I will."

Her gaze was riveted as Mort, after a moment of looking extremely surprised himself, slid the ring onto Carmen's finger - thankfully, Rob had been right about the side, because Mort couldn't have been sneaky about finding it out, and he had wanted more than anything for this to catch Carmen by surprise, because when she was surprised, she was the most honest, the most sincere. Mort wanted a sincere 'yes', and he felt a weight lift from his shoulders when he finally received it.

Carmen stared down at the ring that was on her finger - she had never worn a ring on this finger in her life. Even when Rob had proposed, clumsily and admittedly a little tipsy in the living room of the flat they shared with the Carter's, she'd refused. She'd never even put it on because she had refused right off the bat - she hadn't even entertained the possibility of accepting. Now, she was wearing a ring. An engagement ring. The diamond was small, a tiny sparkling star set in a white-gold ring. It was the band of the ring itself that caught her eye more than the rock itself. It resembled intertwining vines, looped around a pair of tiny delicate keys set on either side of the ring. It wasn't a regular engagement ring by any means, but it was gorgeous - and it caught her completely off guard.

Mort cleared his throat, and Carmen looked up to see that he'd gotten to his feet and dusted the dirt off of his knee while she'd been staring at the ring. He smirked a little and gently looped his arms around her waist. She finally managed to snap out of the trance she had been in for a few seconds to realize that the others were hooting and whooping. She laughed, shaking her head before wrapping her arms around her fiance, kissing him soundly as he lifted her briefly off of the ground.

"She said yes! Oh my God!" Mel sobbed, and Carmen heard a familiar clicking noise - when she broke the kiss, she realized that Melanie was wielding her camera and clicking away. Slightly embarrassed, Carmen laughed and buried her face in Mort's sweater, shaking her head fervently.

"I can't believe you were all in on this," she said, her voice muffled as she hid her face from everyone, and even Rob managed to laugh at the knowledge that Carmen didn't want anyone to see that she was crying. "And I'm sorry I'm crying all over your new shirt, Mort, now you can't return it because I know you were probably planning on returning it."

"You know me so well. This is exactly why we're getting married," Mort chuckled, hugging her tightly and gently kissing her temple. Carmen took a deep breath and pulled away, wiping her eyes quickly.

"The ring," she said, looking down at her hand again. "It's perfect! But... but how...?"

"I had a little expert advice on something you'd like," Mort shrugged, nodding to where Rob was standing behind Carmen. She turned around and looked at him with a look of absolute surprise. Rob was one of the few people who knew about the book that had been her favorite since she was child. The Secret Garden was special to her because as a little girl, she had related to the main character, Mary Lennox. Her parents had died, and she was sent away to live in a new, unfamiliar place that was cold and dark and ugly - she found the key to a secret garden, and brought life back to a home. Carmen's favorite scene in the story had always been the moment when Colin, a little boy thought to be crippled who had been locked away in the house for so much of his life, was brought outside for the first time all because Mary had found him.

"C'mere, you," Carmen laughed tearfully when Mort released his embrace around her and nudged her in Rob's direction. Rob chuckled and hugged Carmen tightly, shaking his head. She sniffled a little and shook her head. "When did you learn to keep secrets from me, huh, Wallace?" she laughed, hugging him tightly for a few seconds. When she pulled back, he tilted his head to the side and gave a calm grin.

"He's your Colin," Rob shrugged, nodding in Mort's direction, and Carmen's smile went a little teary again. Rob was right. Since she was small, she had somehow wanted to do what Mary Lennox did - she wanted to do something for someone, to change lives, to be the reason someone's life became light and good again. Though it wasn't quite in the way she thought it would happen, she'd found her own secret garden, and she'd brought Mort back out into the light again. "Stop it, crybaby. You're so embarrassing," Rob chuckled, gently pushing Carmen away from him and nudging her towards Mel, who had been snapping pictures of the pair of best friends as well. Now that Carmen had been passed like a hot potato, she lowered her camera so that it gently dangled over her growing belly and reached over, hugging Carmen tightly. Andi and Chloe quickly followed suit so that the four girls were practically huddled together. While the girls squealed and hugged and already began grilling Carmen about beginning her wedding plans, Rob walked over and stuck out his hand towards Mort to shake his hand. When Mort accepted it, he was surprised when Rob reached around and clapped him on the back with his other hand in an almost-hug as well.

"You're a lucky guy," Rob said with a nod. "A lucky, lucky guy. Congratulations."

"Couldn't have managed to get a yes out of her without your help," Mort shrugged awkwardly. He was surprised to find that he couldn't even bring himself to feel territorial about Robert Wallace anymore, even if he suspected that a tiny sliver of feelings may have remained in him for Carmen. He just seemed to have let her go and moved on - the way he and Mel got along was proof enough of that - and there was something about a man moving on that Mort couldn't help but find a kindred spirit in.

Tonight, Rob and the Carters decided not to stick around after dinner, so after cleanup Mort and Carmen were left standing together on the porch as the others drove off. For a moment, they glanced at one another, not knowing what to say. After something so big, so momentous, what was there to be said?

"I think there's still some cheesecake left over from dessert. Do you want to go grab some?" Mort said, clearing his throat, glancing back at the kitchen. Carmen's face twitched, and he realized that she was trying her best not to laugh at his choice of an ice breaker. "Go ahead," he said with a dismissive gesture, and Carmen finally let out a shrill laughed, leaning over and wrapping her arms around Mort again. It felt different now. It felt different to be held by someone who had confirmed that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with you.

"Cheesecake sounds great," she laughed, kissing Mort quickly. "I thought you'd never ask."