Part 2

"So have a good time visiting your parents?" Aaron asked Dave as soon as he and Penny had returned to New York.

"Yes, we did, very much," Penelope said. "Dave won my parents over easily, even my dad approves of him and he's a rather hard sell. As for his parents they are just as wonderful, as they were at the wedding."

"Mom was so excited to be getting another daughter-in-law that she hugged Penny for 10 minutes," Dave snorted in amusement.

Even Aaron chuckled at that and Emily grinned.

"You are the oldest son, oldest child," Aaron pointed out in a teasing tone. "Isn't that what your mother is always reminding you of."

"Yes, and so mom reminded me several times, while we were there. Still, Penny was the main attraction as several of my siblings were visiting, so we caught up on all the news. They were all excited that I was finally getting married and all them will be at the wedding, even if they have to pass themselves off as cousins. I just told Penelope's parents that I only had nine siblings when we all know I have far more."

"That's very true," Aaron grinned.

"So how many siblings do you have, Dave?" Emily asked.

Dave told her and Emily blinked in astonishment.

"You have to remember that my parents are immortal just like you are now," Dave reminded. "An immortal never gets too old to have children and since my parents are far older then you or me it makes sense they have so many kids."

"I suppose so," Emily said. "I hadn't thought that far ahead."

"You're still getting used to being immortal now, love," Aaron said gently. "It takes awhile to truly comprehend that you're not going to die by any ordinary means. Of course, that doesn't mean you can't die at all, but it depends on how you die, as whether or not it's permanent. I went through my own struggles when Dave first turned me."

"So have fun while we were gone?" Penelope asked, rhetorically.

"Oh, yes, we had a lot of fun," Emily said grinning wickedly.

"Well, we don't need to guess what you did while we were gone," Dave said smiling in amusement.

"No you don't," Aaron grinned. "We are newlyweds after all."

"And also reincarnated in my case," Emily said. "I know I didn't have a chance to miss Aaron like he missed me, but we are together again and that's all that matters."

"No diseases are going to take you from me this time," Aaron said with a determined glint in his dark eyes.
"They can't touch her now," Dave reminded Aaron who nodded.

"I know that, in my head at least," Aaron answered. "In my heart though..."

"It's giving you trouble, because you already lost her once due to the influenza and that had a profound effect on you," Dave finished, knowing what Aaron was thinking.

"Got it in one," Aaron agreed soberly. He wasn't surprised that Dave understood what he was getting at immediately, as the two knew each other in every way.

"I suspect that you'll always worry about Emily a little, because of what happened the first time," Dave said. "The death of a loved one has a profound effect on a person, especially if they were deeply loved. For the two of you to be back together again that means your love was true, as I don't see somebody sending Emily back to live another life if it wasn't true love between you."

"Dave does have a point Aaron," Emily said.

"Yes, he does," Aaron agreed smiling. "That's not unusual though."

"So have you decided where we'll be moving to once my wedding to Dave is out-of-the-way?" Penelope asked.

"We thought New Mexico for awhile," Aaron said. "Of course, you have a right to have a say in the decision to, since you'll be coming with us, so if you don't like the thought of Mexico let Emily and I know. It needs to be something that all of us agree on."

"New Mexico sounds fine with me," Penelope said and Dave nodded.

"It's a good destination for a few years," Dave agreed. "We'll just have to decide on what city to settle down in."

"Well, we might as well discuss it and start making plans as Penny's wedding isn't all that far away," Emily said pleased at her friends agreement. "I'd like to leave soon after that and get settled somewhere before the baby is born."

"So have you decided whether or not you're going to let your mother see the child once they are here?" Penelope asked. "I wouldn't be able to blame you if you didn't, you know, considering I've met your mother on a few occasions, so I know what she's like."

"Aaron and I have talked about this subject a lot," Emily said.

"We've had plenty of time while you two were off visiting your parents," Aaron added.

"But yes, I've decided to let my mother see whatever this child will be. Of course, there will be several restrictions and one of those is that she's never to be alone with any child we have. I don't think I'll ever trust her not try to influence my children in the direction she wants them to go once they are old enough. She might just decide to spend more time with them then she did with me and my siblings and that's not necessarily a good thing."

"Contact will also be limited," Aaron said. "All visits will be supervised by someone we trust whether that's you and Penny or us."

"Well, at least, your mother is going to get to spend sometime with them," Penelope said pleased with the decision. She knew that Emily had every right to at least heartily dislike her mother and Penelope couldn't blame her, considering what she knew about her friend's love and affection starved childhood.

"That's if she wants to, which I doubt, considering how she treated me and my brothers when we were growing up. We were as important as the dust bunny under the bed," Emily said acidly.

"In other words, her children didn't matter at all," Aaron said.

"We got it," Penelope told Aaron with a smile, though it was tinged with sadness.

"Yes, we got it and didn't need the words translated," Dave said smiling. "Still it's a mature decision to at least give your mother some contact, even if it's only once a month or something."

"She'll be lucky if I let her see them that often," Emily snorted. "I was thinking once a year. She can't have too much influence on them then."

"Now Emily be realistic," Aaron told her, although he sounded sympathetic as well.

"Alright, twice a year, but that's my final decision," Emily said only halfway joking.

Everybody else laughed at that, but also knew that Emily was at least halfway serious. Her childhood had been so bad, because of a domineering mother and an absentee father that Emily didn't want to expose any child she had too her mother's coldhearted attitude, which was understandable.

This was something that everybody in the room understood and thought Emily was being very generous to allow Elizabeth Prentiss any visitation rights at all. Only Dave had never met the woman, but he'd certainly heard enough about her. Descriptions like domineering, coldhearted, uncompromising, heartless and hard had been used. No words like compassionate, loving, affectionate, kind or tender had entered into the description, which said a lot about the kind of woman Elizabeth Prentiss was and none of it was good. Of course, grandparents tended to be more indulgent than they had been with their own kids, but Dave knew that Emily didn't believe that at least right now and it might not be true in this case, so he wouldn't voice his opinion, since he didn't have enough facts to really have one.

Emily's childhood hadn't been abusive, at least not physically, just lonely, cold and friendless, except for her brothers. Dave was sure that Emily would have liked at least one girlfriend to hang out with sometimes, since almost all females did. Being forced to go to parties that she hadn't wanted to go to, being ordered around, as if she was a servant, by a cold, heartless mother who didn't see how her children needed to be loved. Her mother had expected her orders to be obeyed no matter how much her children protested or were hurt by her cold, heartless attitude.

Elizabeth Prentiss had never been there for her children when they were really sick or praised them for good grades. She had never been around to give them a hug when they needed one or when they needed encouragement, where a word of praise or a comforting pat on the shoulder would have gone a long way. None of the Prentiss children had been able to go to their parents when they were having a problem, as they were just too busy to pay attention to them and to Dave that was sad indeed, but he also knew it was all too common. He had no idea why most parents had children at all, if that's how they were going to treat them.

In Elizabeth and Alan Prentiss's case, Dave understood their motivation to have so many children, as turning down millions of dollars would have been nearly impossible, unless they were already individually wealthy and even if that had been the case they likely would have done exactly the same as some people were just greedy. Once Emily's father had died that money had gone to his wife, who had increased that amount through her business. All the Prentiss children who had at least four kids would inherit a nice chunk of change that would see them live a more than comfortable life, even with ever rising inflation. The Prentiss fortune, from the way Dave understood it, had increased substantially, due to wise investments over the centuries. That the family had managed to keep their fortune through several world wars, as well as bad economic times said a lot about the brilliance of whoever they had hired over the years to increase the already substantial amount of money. Of course, it might actually have been members of the family that had been born over the years that had increased their own portion of the family inheritance. Dave suspected though that most of the family had hired some kind of financial adviser to increase their fortune, so they'd be plenty for any heirs.

Dave didn't know much about the father, though from Emily had said she had never gotten any affection from him either, as he was too busy politicking. People like Elizabeth and Alan Prentiss never should've gotten married at least to each other, but Dave understood the marriage had been arranged by Elizabeth's father and that she'd had no choice in the matter. Because of the family statutes Emily's father had to have at least four children when he probably would've been happier with none or maybe just one. What Dave did not understand was why they just hadn't divorced once Elizabeth's father was dead, but then, he didn't know what went on within the marriage or what was in the likely prenup agreement, so they might not have been able too, with Emily mother at least losing a substantial amount of money that was likely hers so long as she stayed married to Alan Prentiss.

"I would say once a month's plenty," Emily said more seriously. "If she behaves like a decent human being I might consider letting her see them more often, maybe and that's a big maybe."

"We'll see how it goes," Aaron agreed calmly, knowing Emily's emotions were a little out-of-kilter at the moment and also stronger, because she was pregnant, so allowances had to be made or at least they should be for a pregnant woman. Any man that didn't understand that was stupid, but then, there were plenty of idiots in the world and not just men either.

"Does that mean we're not moving to New Mexico?" Penelope asked.

"No, it just means that we'll bring whatever kids we have up to New York to visit mom for a few days, though we'll be staying in a hotel not with her. There's no way I could ever sleep in my childhood home again, as I'd likely toss and turn all night and not get any rest at all," Emily answered. "We have the money to travel as much as we want, so that doesn't factor into our decision."

"It's only a few times a year," Aaron said.

"Only seeing your grandchildren 12 times a year would be hard on most grandparents," Penelope suggested gently.

"Not on my mother, it won't be. She doesn't have those kind of feelings," Emily snorted in disbelief. "She doesn't have any nice feelings at all, just nasty ones. She's domineering, cold, heartless, thoughtless..."

"You don't need to go through the entire list, love. We all know what you think of your mother and I can't disagree, even though I've only met her that one time. She didn't impress me with her attitude either, but I know that some people warm up to others after awhile, not after just one visit," Aaron said.

Emily stopped, as Aaron was right everybody knew what she thought of her mother and while her opinion might be a little biased it wasn't exactly untrue either.

Penelope was sad that Emily's relationship with her one remaining parent was so bad, but she also knew it was at least partly up to her mother to forge a closer relationship and that was only if Emily was willing, which was unlikely. Emily had been so hurt as a child by her mother's cold attitude in particular that Penelope didn't see Emily going out of her way to forge a closer relationship and that's only if her mother was willing to meet her halfway.

"Oh by the way, you're relieved of wedding planning duty," Penelope said causally. "My mother is helping out long-distance."

"Thank you God," Emily almost cheered causing everyone to laugh at her. "You should have assigned your mother in the first place."

"I was thinking originally, about the distance..." Penelope shrugged, "but there are phones and email now, even videoconferencing, which make it relatively easy to communicate long distance. Mom can certainly call the caterers, the bakery and the other places that need to be contacted from California."

"Well, at least you're off the hook," Aaron said smiling.

"That is so true," Emily said genuinely relieved.

"You didn't need to stress with you pregnant anyway, as it's not something you enjoy doing," Aaron said.

"Hey! She volunteered and I wasn't going to turn down the help," Penelope grinned.

"I won't do that ever again, I swear," Emily promised fervently.

The other three people chuckled again while Emily looked as if a great burden had been lifted from her shoulders.

"I don't think you need to worry about having to plan another wedding, unless it's for one of our children someday," Aaron said.

"They can plan their own weddings or ask their Auntie Penelope to help out," Emily said firmly. "I'll be happy to supply money for whatever they want, but otherwise, I'm staying out of it."

The other three people chuckled at this, but knew Emily would never change her mind. She just didn't have the patience for planning any type of complicated event, making arrangements for a large party for instance. Dave suspected it had a lot to do with her childhood where she had been forced to go to all those political parties.

~~~Dave and Penelope~~~