I hope everyone is enjoying this tale. I just hope to do it justice.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Walton's. Too bad.

April 14th was an unusually warm day with the temperature over sixty degrees by early morning. Mary Ellen came downstairs to be greeted with a platter of homemade toast, her grandmother's strawberry preserves, milk, and a cup of coffee. She enjoyed some quiet time with her grandfather while she ate. Everyone else was doing morning chores before their breakfast later on that morning.

Curt arrived at seven exactly to pick up Mary Ellen. Zeb opened the door for him and he walked to the table. As Curt kissed his girlfriend, he snuck the last piece of her toast with preserves that was sitting on her plate.

"Curt!"

"Hey, I got myself out of bed so I could spend some time with you. I'm hungry." He turned and heard the laughter of the older man. "Morning Zeb"

"Better get out there while the fish are biting, Doc. Tell 'em I said hi"

"Will do" Curt said as he picked up Mary Ellen's tackle box. Her grandfather was a bit flighty but he had come to love the old man. He looked over at the young woman as she was grabbing a food basket. The dress she wore was vaguely familiar, but looked different somehow. "Mary Ellen, do I know that dress?"

Mary Ellen smiled, hoping he would notice. "It's from the Hard Times dance. My mom and I made it into a two piece dress. The top now has buttons"

Curt smiled as he realized the significance of the dress. "You look very nice, Mary Ellen"

They shared a moment before they loaded up the van and left. As promised Mary Ellen took him to the best fishing spot she knew, along with a thermos of lemonade and a couple of sandwiches for lunch.

Curt had plans to give Mary Ellen her present when they were alone, but what he didn't know was that she was planning on giving him a gift too, a piece of herself she shared with no one before.

Their morning was spent fishing and enjoying the beautiful day in between steamy embraces. They had a quick lunch after eleven. Soon after, Curt was adding his fish to the bucket while Mary Ellen was lying on the grass enjoying the beautiful day. She pointed to a gray bucket. "Ha ha ha. Let's see…..my three fish to your two. Who's the fishing master now, Doctor Willard?"

Curt quickly washed his hands in the stream and came to join his girl on the grass by leaning back against a tree. "Well, today is your nineteenth birthday. I have to let you win at something, Mary Ellen"

"Well, I guess when it's your next birthday I could let you win at a snowball throwing contest. I mean, they say I should respect my elders"

Curt moved onto his haunches and turned to Mary Ellen, who was laughing. "Ahhhh, you think that's funny, do you? I'll show you funny" He got up and scooped her up in his arms.

"What are you doing?" Mary Ellen exclaimed.

"Showing you something funny" Curt said while walking closer to the river. "Like giving you a bath"

Mary Ellen started to squirm when she realized he was serious. "Curtis Willard, put me down!"

"You should respect what you say to your elders, Mary Ellen Walton. Now, you must pay the consequences"

He had her dangling over the edge when Mary Ellen thought she felt a raindrop. "Curt did you feel that?"

"Whatever Nurse Walton. Nothing you can do to escape punishment for calling me old" Suddenly, Curt felt it, too. "Well, I guess I don't need to dunk you because you're about to get a shower thanks to Mother Nature!"

"I know where there is shelter, Curt. Come on, let's get our stuff"

After he put her down, they quickly grabbed their catch bucket, fishing gear, blankets, and food basket. Mary Ellen took Curt's hand as they weaved through a bunch of trees while unsuccessfully dodging rain that fell through.

"Mary Ellen, should I be worried about never going home again?"

"Hush, Curtis Willard. We're almost there"

After a few minutes, they arrived what Curt observed to a small cabin with a small slab of wood in front of the door. He looked around impressed. "I wonder who this belongs to"

Mary Ellen quickly ran to the door, which now put her in the line of the rain. She removed a key from around her neck and unlocked the padlock. "Me. Come on inside. We're wet as it is. Stay out here we're going to be soaked"

Curt got drenched as he followed Mary Ellen inside. He took in the small space and liked it. "What is this, Mary Ellen?"

Mary Ellen squeezed out her hair and quickly dried herself with one of their blankets from earlier. After handing it to Curt, she pulled the necklace with the key off her neck and put it on the table.

"Momma said a girl needs to have a place to call her own. After I gave John Boy the shed a few years ago, he helped Grandpa and Daddy fixed up this cabin for me. This large couch bed I got from Miss Emily and Mamie after I helped them paint a few of their rooms a few years back. Momma wasn't happy that I got it since it came from the Baldwin sisters, but Grandpa convinced her to let me take it for payment and put it in here. That quilt on top of the other one is the one I helped make for my quilting when I turned seventeen"

Curt watched as Mary Ellen walked over and touched a chest. "This here is my hope chest. Momma gave it to me around the time of my quilting. It used to be her mother's and her grandmother before that. It gets passed down from mother to daughter"

Intrigued, Curt put his arms around Mary Ellen from behind. "Sweet Mary Ellen, why is something like this kept in here? I figure you would have this in the attic or your bedroom"

Mary Ellen held onto Curt's arms and rubbed them gently. "My momma used to" She swallowed as she tried to find the next words.

Curt sensed her hesitance. "Mary Ellen, Honey, what's wrong?" He held on tighter.

Mary Ellen exhaled as she tried to hold the emotion in. "She usually kept it in the attic, but one day she asked Daddy to repair one of the hinges. He put it in the barn to work on it the next day. Later that night, we had a house fire."

Curt could do nothing but wait for her to finish speaking about what he could tell was a painful thing for her to discuss.

"I remember Momma coming into our rooms yelling at us to wake up, that there was a fire. We threw as many clothes and items as we could out the windows. She yelled at me to get the girls out. I grabbed Elizabeth and I thought Erin was behind me. When the two of us got outside, Erin was missing and so was John Boy. Daddy went back in and they barely got out in time."

Mary Ellen sat down on the couch, followed by Curt. "Our first night was spent in a tent in the yard, all seven of us. It stormed that night. I grabbed an umbrella just in case and I'm glad I did because the tent leaked" She laughed through her tears. "Eventually, it collapsed and we all ran into the barn with Momma and Daddy. Grandpa and Grandma were staying in the downstairs of the house, but they got rained on, too"

Curt took her hand and Mary Ellen squeezed it. "There was no way for us to be together, so we had to stay in different places. John Boy stayed in the shed. Ben went with Yancy, Elizabeth stayed with Cora Beth and Ike, Erin and Jim Bob went to Rev. and Mrs. Fordwick's, Jason was with the Baldwin sisters, and I got to stay with Dr. Vance and his wife"

A light bulb went off in Curt's head. "No wonder you got your nose out of joint when I rearranged Dr. Vance's office"

Mary Ellen smacked her beau. "That's enough from you Curt Willard" They laughed for a minute before the mood shifted. She leaned her head on his shoulder and he promptly put his arm around her. "I guess I am afraid to take it back to the house. When I need to feel secure, I go here where I know everything will be safe. Does that sound stupid?"

Curt unconsciously started to play with her hair while talking. "No, Mary Ellen. Everyone and everything needs a place to be safe. For me, that's with you." He sat for a moment and followed instinct. "That's another reason why I love and need you like I do. I've never felt for anyone what I feel for you" Seeing the look on her face, Curt felt guilty. "I guess I need to tell you that more, huh?"

Mary Ellen knew he had deep feelings for her, but he had never explicitly said them to her. She felt her heart swell as she felt the exact same way. She leaned up and began to brush the hair from Curt's forehead as silent encouragement to continue.

Curt reached into his pocket and pulled out his gift. "Happy Birthday, Mary Ellen"

Mary Ellen opened the small box and was stunned when she saw her gift. She pulled a cameo locket out of the box and it was perfect. The background of the cover was a sage green with a white carving of a small bouquet of flowers. Suddenly it dawned on her that her gift was not a cheap thing from Ike's.

"Curt you didn't all of your back pay back yet. How did you—"

"Don't worry about it"

"But Curt, this must have been expensive. Please tell me you didn't spend a lot of money"

"Woman, don't you know it's rude to ask how much your gift cost?"

"I know, but—"

"But nothing. It doesn't matter. Do you like it?"

Mary Ellen looked again and could honestly say she had never seen anything so stunning. "It's so beautiful, Curt. Thank you. Oh please put it on me."

"Check the back first"

She turned it over and the simplicity of it brought tears to her eyes. There were his initials and hers with a small caduceus in the middle. Nothing could have made it better than that. "Oh Curt, it's the most lovely thing I've ever seen"

Relieved, he looped the necklace around her neck and secured it. When she turned around, he was stunned by how beautiful it looked on her. As she smiled, he swore she was lighting up the room of the small cabin. It was then he knew it was time to ask her an important question, not tell her like in the past, and hoped this time she would say yes.

For Mary Ellen, she had her proof that she did the right thing by not marrying David. She knew that Curt was rough around the edges and that they would always have differences, but it was what made the two of them human. At that moment, she felt shame as she realized that Curt has expressed his love to her on several occasions and she didn't realize it.

He showed his feelings every time he accompanied her family to church and had Sunday supper. He would take her to the movies, but also did small things like bring her coffee while she was preparing statements for him and wait up to two hours until her shifts were finished at the hospital to take her home. Realizing all that made her see how much she loved him and what she felt for David paled in comparison.

She saw a look in his eyes and she realized it was time for a change. Gently, she touched his cheek. "Curt, I think it's time to take the next step in our relationship. What do you think?"

Curt felt his heart burst out of his chest as he realized what she was saying. Uncharacteristically tongue tied, he forgot his master plan to ask her with romance and pressed forward. "Mary Ellen Walton, are you going to marry me or what?"

She smiled and kissed him before breaking apart so they were face to face. "Yes, Curtis Willard, I'm going to marry you"

They came together and kissed each other with all the love each had for the other.