Emerging Compassions

Chapter 39: An Awkward Proposal

(Sheen's POV)

It had been 3 months since Taylor's birth, and she was getting more adorable with each passing day. It started out as a normal day, with me actively playing my video games that afternoon while Libby took care of Taylor at her place. I was playing the latest UltraLord video game, Ultra Universe Quest, and was battling the level 7 boss when my cell phone rang. I put the game on pause and went to answer it, picking it up, pressing the "talk" button, and saying, "Hello? ?"

"Hey, sweetie! !" came the familiar voice on the opposite end. It was my sweet, ultra-awesome girlfriend Libby! ! She sure sounded excited when she spoke to me! I wondered what she had to say...

"Hey, 'Love Puppet'! What's up?" I wanted to know.

"Hon', you are NOT gonna believe this...! ! !" she began, "Get yo' butt over here right now! ! Our daughter- well, you better come see for yourself!"

"I'll be right over, Ultra-Libs! !" I informed her, a huge grin spreading on my face.

She just giggled and replied, "See ya soon! 'Bye!"

"Bye, Libs!" I concluded, and hung up. Boy, was I ever psyched! ! Whatever was going on with Taylor, it had to be MEGA exciting, so I stopped my game, saved my progress, and hurried right over to her house, eager to find out what was happening!

I knocked on the front door impatiently, and within seconds, Libby answered it. "What's so exciting, babe? !" I eagerly asked of her.

"Come see fo' yourself! !" she urged with an ecstatic grin, grabbing my arm and pulling me inside and into the living room, then pointed and added, "Right over there, Sheen! !"

I hurried over and immediately was in awe! Our little girl was just starting to crawl! I squatted down to her level, looked into her hazel eyes, and coaxed, clapping my hands slightly, "Crawl to Daddy, Taylor! Come on!"

Taylor looked first at me, then Libby, who was right next to me in the same pose, then back to me, cocked her head a bit, then lifted herself off the floor and inched forward a few paces. Then, seeing as gravity had proven too much for her at the moment, she plopped back down on her stomach again, sprawled out. I took one of her little golden-skinned hands and reassured her, who seemed to be a bit startled and start to whimper a bit, "It's okay, Taylor! You'll get better soon! You're just starting to learn, that's all. You'll be fine."

Slowly, a smile spread on her face, which told me she understood and knew she was gonna be just fine.

Suddenly, my watch started blaring an alarm like crazy! It was some hi-tech communicator watch Jimmy made me one year for my birthday. I pressed one of its buttons and Jimmy's image appeared on its screen. "What is it this time, Jimmy? ?" I wanted to know.

"You need to come to my lab right away!" he urged me on the other end, his voice hurried and anxious.

"I just started to play with Taylor, and guess what? ! She's starting to crawl now!" I informed him proudly, "And also, I think we need to stick together as a family, no matter what we do."

"Then bring them along! I'm gonna call Carl and get him over here, as well. This is urgent! !" Jimmy persisted, and hung up, my watch's screen going black.

"Well, it looks like we're goin' to the lab, babe," I hastily informed Libby, looking over at her.

"What? ! All 5 of us? ? We can't leave our kids behind, Sheen! !" she protested.

"I know. I told Jimmy that, and he said we might as well bring Taylor with us, like Cindy will bring Marie. He said it was extremely urgent!" I added rather anxiously.

"Okay, good. Ya up fo' another adventure, hon?" she wanted to know, picking up Taylor and gesturing to the baby carrier you could strap to yourself to carry a child while leaving your hands free, which I immediately grabbed and fastened onto myself. Libby then gently placed our daughter in it with her facing me, with me proceeding to fasten her in firmly yet gently.

I stroked her jet black curly locks around her ear and softly told her, "Mommy and I are gonna go on an adventure! This'll be fun!"

She just gurgled and cooed her response as she looked up at me and grinned her adorable toothless grin. Libby smiled and said, giggling softly, "Aw, how cute! Let's go, Sheen!"

"Right!" I agreed, heading out of her place, down the road a few blocks, and arriving at Jimmy's place in under a minute.

Just as we expected, he was waiting for us with an anxious look on his face, accompanied by Carl, Cindy, and his daughter Marie. She looked exceptionally cute, with her auburn hair pulled into pigtails and gazing at us while on all fours with her brilliant green eyes. She donned a cute pink teddy bear t-shirt with some sparkle jeans and tiny purple tennis shoes.

"Hello, Sheen? We have an urgent situation here! !" Jimmy reminded me firmly, waving his hand in front of my face, startling me a bit. I guess I had been admiring his daughter so much I forgot to listen to what he had to say!

I shook my head vigorously, then managed to say, "Oh, sorry, Jimmy. Marie is just so cute..." Taylor proceeded to look up at me again with a curious look in her eyes, then giggled.

Cindy apparently took notice of this and pointed out, "Libs, your daughter just laughed for the first time! How adorable is THAT? !"

"Guys, focus! !" Jimmy urged us, catching our attention again as Cindy picked up her daughter, "We have a dire situation on our hands! Let's head into my lab, stat!" With that, he pressed a button on his watch that teleported all 7 of us inside. Once inside, he sat at his lab chair and got right to work, typing furiously on his keyboard.

"So, Cin," Libby questioned, "What's new with your daughter, Marie?"

"Well," she replied, setting her down on the lab's concrete floor, "Marie here is just starting to walk and is speaking in broken sentences already! I think we have a little genius here!"

Marie giggled, sitting upright and nodding, and added, "Me smart! Me smart!" She then got up onto her 2 feet and toddled a few steps, then fell forward, but that didn't even seem to phase her, seeing as she just giggled afterwords. We all just laughed ourselves as we watched her, all save Jimmy, who was still hard at work.

Carl smiled at her admiringly, then turned to Jimmy and wanted to know, "So, what seems to be the problem, Jim?"

"A little busy, here, Carl! But, I will say that I'm currently trying to figure out how the villains escaped the late Cretaceous Period after being trapped there for 6 years, or has it been 6 years since they've escaped? ! This is all very puzzling...," he mused to himself, continuing to type furiously.

Libby apparently noticed how quiet I was, so she asked, "Sheen, hon, are you feeling okay? You haven't really said anything in a while..."

"Libby, I'm fine," I told her, "I'm just deep in thought about something..."

"Well, that's a first...," she told herself aloud. She then went elsewhere to listen to some music for a while.

Let's see... I thought to myself, Just HOW can I pull this off? ? I mean, how DO most guys propose to their girlfriends? It usually involves something romantic, but just what's romantic for Libby? ! It's all very confusing for me! I hope I get some ideas soon, cuz she probably won't want anything UltraLord-related... This is gonna be hard for me; I can tell...

My thoughts were interrupted when Jimmy announced, almost scaring the heck outta me, "Guys, I've figured it out! ! What they had to do to escape was..."

As he was explaining himself, my gaze wandered to Marie again while the others paid attention to Jimmy. While I was watching her, I noticed her pulling herself up again and attempting to take a few more steps. Unfortunately, she was dangerously close to one of his control panels as she toddled ever closer, then stumbling again and catching herself this time on a nearby stool. She looked at it, then at the control panel above her, then climbed up onto the stool and stood up, steadying herself with the edge of it.. I had a bad feeling what would come next!

All the blinking lights must've fascinated her, because she exclaimed in awe, "Ooo! Pretty lights!" Without warning, she began pressing all the buttons at once randomly, as well as pulling a lever or 2.

Naturally, this frightened me, so I ran up to Jimmy while yelling, "Jimmy, JIMMY! ! ! Over there, your daughter is-! !"

He immediately took notice of my cries and saw where I was frantically pointing, so he hurried over with me while saying urgently, "Marie, no! ! Don't pull that-!"

But he was too late. All those buttons she pushed and levers she pulled really did it in for all 7 of us. Before we knew what was happening, our surroundings instantly changed from his lab to some primitive grassland with some tribal huts in the distance and some random trees dotting the area.

"Jimmy, where are we? !" Carl nervously asked him.

"From observing our surroundings carefully, according to my calculations, we have been transported back in time to the Stone Age!" he informed us.

"Great. JUST great...," Cindy griped, slapping her forehead, "Thanks a lot, genius! ! If you hadn't spent so much time jabbering and instead paid attention to your daughter, we wouldn't be IN this mess! !"

"In case you're forgetting, Cindy, she's YOUR daughter, too!" Jimmy reminded her, annoyed.

"Oh, yeah. She's still your responsibility, though!" she snapped, clearly irritated, "Which you failed to keep watch of!"

"If you'd been watching her, we wouldn't BE in this mess, now would we? !" he retorted.

All that arguing clearly worried Marie, so she crawled up to them and yanked on their pant legs while urging, "Mommy, Daddy, pwease, no fight! No fight!"

Jimmy let out a sigh of defeat and muttered, "I just can't say no to that cute little face... She's right, though. We shouldn't be fighting; we should be working together to get out of this."

We all voiced our agreement, nodding simultaneously.

Then I thought to myself, Rats! Now that we're in the Stone Age, I can't come up with anything to propose to Libby! It's officially ruined! ! Then I suddenly remembered something. Of course! ! DUH! ! ! I said to myself, feeling very stupid,feeling the ring container in my back pocket, I put this here in case I ever needed it! Sure was worth my last 80 bucks! I then muttered to myself, "It's a good thing I have it in my back pocket. That way, I'm not screwed!"

Unfortunately, I wasn't quiet enough about it, cuz Libby asked, "What's in yo' back pocket?"

Trying to keep her from finding before I was ready, I kept facing her as I tried to back away, saying nervously and handing her Taylor in her carrier, "Trust me, babe! You- you wouldn't wanna find out about it too early!" I wasn't watching where I was headed, though, and ended up tripping on a root backwards and landing on my back, then a slight incline in the ground made me turn over onto my stomach. "Okay, that hurt... Ouch." I said, rubbing my lower back.

Libby bent over to get a closer look after strapping our daughter in, then wanted to know while reaching into the pocket and grabbing its contents, "What's this in your back pocket? ?"

"It's nothing, really, Libby! Honest! !" I tried to convince her, turning over and sitting upright.

She examined the container, then opened it and gasped, "A ring? ! Sheen, why didn't ya tell me? !"

"I was wanting it to be a surprise...," I admitted, defeated, getting up onto my feet. Then I had a thought and exclaimed, "Hey, wait a minute! Isn't the guy supposed to do this? ? Gimme that!"

She reluctantly handed it to me, then I got down on one knee and looked up at her with pleading eyes, opening the ring case with it facing her.

"Sheen, is this-? !" Libby began, but I held up my hand for silence.

"Yes, it is, Libs. Liberty Danielle Folfax, beautiful, flawless Libby," I continued, "Will you marry me?"

"Sheen, this is so awkward, with our current situation an' all, but how can I resist such an adorable face? ! Yes, the answer's YES! !" she practically squealed, pulling me up to my feet again.

The others had apparently witnessed the whole thing, cuz Cindy interjected, "Aw, how romantic is THAT? ! Of course, I'd want whoever proposed to me to be just as romantic, if not more so! !"

Libby slipped on the ring, then the 2 of us rejoined the group.

"Aw, that was so sweet, Sheen!" Carl told me with a huge grin on his face.

"Thanks, Carl. I do what I can for my Libby-licious here!" I responded.

Libby just giggled flirtatiously when she heard that, saying, "I just love it when he calls me that...!" Then she faced Cindy and gushed, "Oh, my gosh! I can't believe I'm finally engaged! !"

"Words can't describe how happy I am for the both of you. But despite that fact, we're still trapped in the Stone Age, and have yet to find a way to get back to our time...," Jimmy reminded us firmly, picking up his daughter and beginning to think seriously about our situation...