Hi, so here is the last update before Christmas and I hope you enjoy! I wish you and all of your family a very happy holiday season and I will be back in the New Year!

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Happy Christmas and a Happy 2024!

The Same Coin

Chapter 7-The Long Way Around

It's the morning of the wedding and Olivia comes to a decision.

The day your child gets married is supposed to be one of the most fulfilling motherly moments that you have. When Mary Ellen got married she was up before John was and John always got up before the chickens did. A combination of home and the Army had made it so that her husband only slept in when he was sick and that was rare enough. When she'd found out that Ben was married—after hitting the roof—she'd been fine at the end of it, sure that her son had made the right decision and had made it for the right reasons…namely that Cindy had not been pregnant.

But the day that your child gets married is supposed to be a proud day.

Now she was struggling to get out of bed.

She didn't want to get out of bed. She didn't want to get out of bed and do her hair and get dressed. As wakefulness pressed into her she wanted to stay there in bed, in the warm sheets and she wanted to sleep until this whole day was over. She wanted to turn back the clock and pretend that she had never heard that Ashely didn't believe in God.

And when she thought about it she had to concede that she had pushed Erin to tell her that. She'd had her suspicions but she'd managed to push them back until she'd not had a choice.

Now here Olivia was, the morning of her daughters wedding and here she was unsure if she was going to go. Unsure if she could watch her walk down the aisle to a man that she truly believed wasn't right and into a marriage that had been hastily arranged between shipping out and coming back.

It wasn't the best start for a marriage either. She knew a lot of marriages had been made during war but a lot of them had been broken too. She wasn't a fan of atheism but she liked divorce even less and that was before you got to what happened when children got involved.

But the day of Erin's wedding she dragged herself out of bed eventually to use the bathroom. Mary Ellen came out her hair in curlers and her baby on her hip and she watched her critically as she shuffled to the bathroom. Now looking at herself in the mirror she had to concede that she looked every inch of her years and every inch of her sickness. She looked tired. This thing had taken it's toll.

"You going?"

"I don't know" she said staring at the mirror and not looking at her eldest daughter.

"Aha"

"John Boy told me about the Quilting. About how he made you go"

"Yes"

"And that you did it for me and your Grandma. So we could carry on as normal. So we didn't have to have a split in our relationship"

"Yes"

So she wasn't denying it. That was good.

"Did it help?"

"Did what help?"

"Going to it"

"I don't know" Mary Ellen said finally. "I enjoyed it once I was there. But…"

"But what?"

"I'm a Walton" Mary Ellen said simply. "I'm a Walton woman. I don't like being told what to do. But I did it. And if you aren't there today she will never forgive you, Daddy will never forgive you and you will never forgive yourself and I don't see how God is going to get you out of it"

"Mary Ellen"

"Sorry Mamma. But God and I had a falling out on December 7th 1941. One he gives me a good reason for why he took my husband and the father of my child away then I will start speaking to him again. But until then…" she shrugged and then she went back into her room and Oliva tapped her knuckles on the porcelain rim of the sink.

And just like that. She knew what she had to do.

If John was surprised to see her there in her dress with her flower in her hair he didn't comment. Only Olivia who had known him for as long as she had was able to see the small tremor in his hand. Rose was helping Esther into the car and Esther was not moving once she was there. John-Boy was dealing with Jeffrey and Serena. Ben was helping Cindy to sit next to his grandmother Cindy's belly a little protruding bump. She wanted her red headed passionate son take care of his wife with a tender expression that he had inherited from his father and she smiled.

God Ben was so like John.

The Baldwin House was done up in yellow and white roses, large wreathes of honeysuckle came down the door and supported them into the garden where the ceremony would take place. The stairs had been intertwined with soft daises and wild violets and Olivia had to note that it was a beautiful set up. The Baldwin Sisters had thoroughly put their talents to good use. They worked in consort one in red and one in white and they moved around greeting guests with their usual good manners and Olivia had to admit that this was a beautiful place to be married.

Mary Ellen let John-Curtis loose on Cindy and then moved to go upstairs but Olivia stopped her with a touch on her arm. For a second mother and daughter stared at each other and then Mary Ellen rolled her eyes looking less and less like the respectable nurse that she was and more like the teenager that she had been.

"If your going up there to stop it then don't" Mary Ellen said bluntly. "Because if you make it so that she doubts herself after this Momma I swear to the Almighty Daddy's rage won't compare to mine"

And then she was gone smile in place to speak to Ashely's best man a war buddy by the looks of it and Olivia noticed the same time her husband did that at least four men in uniform descended on her single daughter as if she was a slice of warm bread at lunchtime.

She watched again as Esther took her seat and she thought it lovely that Miss Maime said gently that she was sure that Zeb was here looking down on them all and perhaps enjoying a glass or two of recipe. Esther replied in her stilted words that a glass or two was all he would have had but her face was kind and her hand patted Miss Mamie's. Olivia remembered that when her father in law had died peacefully in his sleep it had been the two sisters who'd been the first of their shocked neighbours to arrive and while Miss Emily had taken the baby from a stunned Mary Ellen it had been Miss Maime who had sat in the dark room with Esther until she was ready to come out and face them all.

But that was then and this was now and so she went upstairs to the room where her daughter was getting ready.

Erin turned to face her when she walked into the room. Her red hair was gently tied back, pulled off her face and she had a tiara on that Olivia knew from the way it shined was the Baldwin's. Her dress had taken a detour from what she and Erin had been working on and it was now a long v neck that clinched at the waist and then went into a loose and fairy skirt flowers embroidered on the skirt. Rose and the Baldwin Sisters, Mary Ellen, Elizabeth, Cindy, Serena even had all added their touch to the dress. The only one who had not had been Olivia and now looking at it and how composed her daughter was staring her down she couldn't help but feel that John at the end of it had gotten the better point across.

"You look lovely"

"Thank you Momma. I'm glad you're here"

Damn. Already the stiltedness was back. The line between the two of them back.

"I won't try and talk you out of it" she said finally. "I won't…I know that…maybe I should but I won't. I want you to know that I…that I didn't mean to hurt you. I just…I need you to understand that when I was taken from you I was dependant on God to get me through it. I know that you might not understand what that means but…but I was totally and wholly dependant on God. Because if I didn't have Him to pray to then I was lost without you all. And I know that Ashely is his own man, I know there is a war on and he won't be the first man to question why someone as benevolent as God would let this happen. Your Daddy…well…he has his demons too in that regard. I know that he makes you happy and that should have been all that mattered. I want you to be happy Erin. As a mother and as a woman that is all I have ever wanted for any of you children especially my girls. I just…I hope that he makes you happy. I really hope that he makes you happy"

There was a pause as Erin stared at her and then she nodded her head up and down.

"I know Momma. I know you do"

There was a pause and then she said quietly.

"I am sorry I didn't work on your dress"

"Don't worry about it" Erin said with a small smile. "It turned out alright. And at least you get to be here. It's not like Ben's wedding"

Very carefully Olivia did not think about Ben's wedding. She didn't know what she would have done had she been there when her son brought Cindy home but she was sure that she wouldn't have reacted well.

There was a pause as the two of them stared at each other.

"I do love you Erin. And I want you to be happy. And if I spoilt this time for you then I am sorry. Please go and be happy"

"I will be" Erin said simply, dignified to the end. "And I am happy with him Momma. And I know one day that you will like him just as much as I do"

Olivia was quite sure that she would not but that was by the by. She knew that was not what her daughter wanted to hear right now.

"Then go and be happy" she said smiling. "Go and be happy and have a wonderful long and happy life"

Erin smiled at her and took her hand and squeezed it and Olivia squeezed it back.

And then John was knocking on the door.

She had to conceded they made a lovely couple. Ashely in his uniform looked pale and she noted that he did not have the confident of Curt who had managed to exclude confidence but he was well enough.

The vows were simple ,the service simple. It was not as beautiful as Mary Ellen's wedding but she kept her eyes on John and kept her mouth shut. John who looked as stunning now as he did they day they had snuck off to get married. John who time had aged well, who always looked good. Who was half of her soul and she had missed more than she dared to admit even to herself.

And then it was done.

It was over.

She was married.

Erin was married.

To the atheist.

Well…Olivia thought painfully managing a smile as her daughter cast her eye around, it was over now.

It reminded her of what John had said that day before Mary Ellen had ran off with Jamie the singer.

All children have to grow up.

And so here she was watching her children grow up.

And that was no small thing when you thought about it she thought taking John's hand in her own and watching her daughter and her new husband be congratulated by family.

No small thing at all.

And there you go! See you soon.

Next Chapter-In which Erin enjoys life as a married woman. And the war tumbles on.