Taylor took a deep breath as he knocked on the door of his parents' house. As he heard footsteps coming toward the door he gave Natalie a nervous glance.
Diana opened the door with a smile on her face.
"Taylor? Why did you knock?"
"Ah..." Taylor tried to think quickly, "just... nevermind. I'd like you to meet someone."
He took Natalie's hand and squeezed it a little.
"This is Natalie. Natalie, my Mom."
"Come in, come in," Diana ushered, "it's nice to meet you Natalie."
Natalie
"It's nice to meet you too, Mrs Hanson," Natalie replied.
She followed Taylor inside.
Taylor
"Where's Dad?" Taylor asked on the way to the living room.
"Upstairs, as usual. I don't know, I think he's been working on something with Jerry again."
"Want me to get him?" Taylor bit his lip.
"Nevermind. We finally rigged the phones again," Diana grinned, then made her way over to the kitchen phone.
They heard her talking for a moment, presumably into an intercom.
"So..." Taylor began nervously as they sat down, "this is our old house."
Natalie
Natalie nodded, taking another look around as she sat down.
"It's very nice," she said politely. "Very homey."
Taylor
Taylor smiled again, then leant over to her ear and whispered.
"Those paintings I told you about should be in my old room."
Natalie
Natalie smiled.
"Cool. You'll have to show me later."
She found herself absently fiddling with the ring on her finger. She was so nervous!
Taylor
"Will do," he promised.
He looked up as Diana entered the room again.
"Your father's on the phone, but he'll be down in a moment," she explained, sitting down herself.
She immediately felt how nervous Natalie was, and worked her empathy to soothe her a little.
"So Natalie... where are you from? I guess from your accent the South?" she asked nicely.
Natalie
Natalie smiled as a calmness washed over her.
"Georgia," she replied.
Taylor
"Taylor told us you were a massage therapist," Diana went on, "is it what you really want to do, or is there something you're more passionate about?"
"She's already doing it," Taylor spoke up, "she started work at a new health spa just recently."
"Oh. Well I suppose that's going to be difficult on your schedules," Diana frowned.
Taylor quickly grabed Natalie's left hand, so his fingers covered the ring.
"We're working on it," he said nervously.
Natalie
Natalie gave Taylor a smile.
"Tony's been very accomodating. Of course, he gets paid to do it, but that's not the point," she grinned.
Taylor & Walker
"Tony?"
"He's a teleporter," Taylor explained, "we employed him when we first met and began the treatments. Basically... he hasn't lost his job."
"I'm here, I'm here," came Walker's voice from the staircase making Taylor's nerves rise.
He came into the room and smiled when he saw Natalie.
"Hi, I'm Taylor's Dad," he greeted, holding out his hand to her.
Natalie
"Hi Taylor's Dad," Natalie replied, taking his hand. "I'm Taylor's girlfriend."
She grinned. A good thing she hadn't fallen into the habit of calling herself Taylor's fiancee yet (by the time she got into that habit, they'd probably be married already).
Taylor & Walker
"I like her already," Walker grinned at Taylor before sitting down beside his wife.
Taylor smiled back, blushing a little.
"There's a couple of things we need to talk to you about," Taylor announced, "and... they're rather serious."
"Something's gone wrong with the treatments?" Walker asked decidedly.
"...No," Taylor shook his head, "Tanya finished them off last week. Natalie's finished over a month ago."
Natalie
Natalie smiled and found herself sqeezing Taylor hand.
She felt her heart beating faster. She didn't recall the last time she had been this nervous, even with Diana's calming influence.
Taylor & Walker
"No repercussions?" Walker went on.
Diana shushed him.
"No," Taylor replied, looking between them.
He turned his gaze to Natalie as if asking her permission, then moved their hands forward and revealed the ring.
"We're getting married," he announced, suddenly a lot calmer.
Walker's eyebrows rose as Diana tried to hide a grin.
"Fabulous!" came from Diana's mouth, and that was it.
Natalie
Natalie couldn't stop the grin in response to both her own excitement, and Diana's enthusiasim. All that nervousness just drained away in that moment.
"On June 8th."
Well, maybe the date might throw them off...
Taylor & Walker
Taylor kept his eye on his father. There was a moment of silence.
"So soon?" Diana turned her head slightly.
"Well..." Taylor began, "it's happening in Georgia. She had her heart set on this particular church - which is amazing - and it's very hard to get a free day there. Apparently. So rather than wait until the end of the year, only a few days next month were free..."
Natalie
"There's nothing wrong with a year long engagement. Give you some time to prepare," Diana frowned.
Natalie looked at Taylor and chewed her lip.
"Well," she said, knowing they'd find out sooner or later. "There is another reason..."
Taylor & Walker
Walker leant back and rubbed his chin, making Taylor even more uneasy. But taking the hint from Natalie, he cleared his throat.
"We'll be... starting our own family... sooner than anticipated," he announced.
"And we would rather have all this out of the way beforehand."
Walker just closed his eyes as Diana couldn't decide which emotion to show.
Natalie
"We... we both want to bring this baby up with both parents in his - or her - life," Natalie went on. "But, we're not just getting married because of the baby. We really do love each other and without this particular, umm, catalyst, we may have decided to get married eventaully anyway. It's just that the date is sooner than anyone expected."
Natalie was feeling encouraged from the private conversation she had had with her own father after he had finally broken his stony silence. He was back to his old self now, and even started being civil to Taylor, which she figured was a miracle in its own right. Probably Taylor's willingness to 'make an honest woman' of her had helped.
Taylor
"I understand," Diana smiled eventually, "but what does this mean with the distance issues?"
"We haven't quite decided," Taylor replied, "Nat will mos tlikely quit her job toward the end of the... pregnancy. And well, we're going to go from there."
Natalie
"I may as well continue to work while I still can," Natalie said, by way of explanation. "Sure beats sitting around the house doing nothing. Definitely after the baby is born, I'll move in with Tay. I think I'll probably have the baby in Georgia, though. If I can't work any more, then I imagine travel is probaby not a good idea."
Taylor
"Good idea," Taylor said softly, squeezing her hand again.
"So you have the majority of it settled, I see," Diana began.
"...Yes," Taylor affirmed, "and as far as the wedding goes, we have the church and the reception sorted already. There's no need for you to do anything but you know... show up."
Natalie
"It's nice to be involved in my sons' wedding," Diana replied blandly.
"Well," Natalie piped up, "you could ask Zoe if she would like to be my flower girl."
Taylor
"I'm asking Mac to be my page boy," Taylor added.
"Will she get to choose her own dress?" Diana asked, "what sort of colour theme were you having?"
"I'm not sure we got that far..." Taylor trailed off, looking at Nat.
Natalie
Natalie giggled.
"Are you kidding? The girls and I went shopping the same day I told them. Besides, they're human, and unlike us aliens, they can't just atomically manipulate their clothes to make them fit properly," she said, and started fishing through her bag. "Ah ha... This is a swatch for my dress, and for my bridesmaids."
She leant over to show Diana the two samples of material, which she had brought for this exact purpose. And, well, she had suspected that Diana would be interested in her own right.
"I was thinking Zoe might like to match my dress," she went on.
Taylor & Walker
Taylor raised his hands in surrender and sat back.
"I guess we should ask her," Diana considered, "though I love the colour for the bridesmaids! Is that lace on your dress too?"
Meanwhile, Walker stood. His gaze directly on his son.
"Walk with me, Taylor," he said sternly.
Taylor looked to Natalie for a moment, before squeezing her hand again.
"Back in a moment," he promised.
Natalie
"Okay," Natalie replied.
She squeezed his hand back, before letting go to let him talk with his Dad. She hoped it would go well.
"Yep, that lace is on mine as well. If you prefer the bridesmaids colour for Zoe, that's fine too. Having never actually seen her, I have no idea what colours would suit her best."
Taylor & Walker
Walker and Taylor left the room and made their way outside.
Sitting down on a nearby bench, Walker sighed.
"Are you sure you're doing the right thing?" he asked straight out.
"I knew this was coming," Taylor held back from rolling his eyes, leaning against a veranda post.
He chewed his lip for a moment in thought.
"What aspect are you talking about?" he asked finally.
"This is so soon after Jane," Walker came out with, making Taylor nod, "and to get her pregnant as well? You haven't known this girl for very long..."
"I know, Dad," Taylor insisted, "but I knew Jane less."
"That's not the point," Walker shook his head.
There was an awkward silence for a moment.
"Dad," Taylor began carefully, "I'm going to tell you what I told her."
Walker looked up curiously as Taylor shook some hair out of his eyes.
"This is different," he said determindly.
"It's a lot different to what happened with Jane. When I fell in love with her, a lot was going on. The whole thing with Craig, with Blakesley, with Christian... Even with my head. It's when it all started, and looking back on it I can't even be sure that what I was feeling was real anymore."
He shrugged.
"This time? I know it's for real. And I'm going to act on it. Because I decided long ago that I wasn't going to second guess for the rest of my life. I wasn't going to let what they did to me restrict my judgement or natural instinct. My instinct here... I can't explain it. But the feelings I have for Natalie enormously outweigh those I had for Mouse. Maybe this is real and hers wasn't. I don't know."
"I hope you didn't give her such a lecture."
"No I didn't," Taylor chuckled a little, "I'm just... I just want people to understand. It's purely me this time. And I know I want to spend my life with Natalie. And I've told her almost everything, so it's not like we're going in hiding things from each other."
Natalie
Diana returned with her wedding photos.
"Ahh, this is a good one," she said, after turning a couple of pages.
"Oooh," Natalie breathed. "You look so gorgeous!"
Diana glanced over at her.
"If you disregard the fashion of the day?"
"Am I that transparent?" Natalie asked.
"Well, I am an empath."
Natalie giggled.
"But still," she went on. "You do look quite beautiful."
"Well, thank you," Diana smiled, knowing she meant it.
She turned another page.
"Ahh, and this is my flower girl."
"Oooh!"
Taylor & Walker
"When did you propose?" Walker asked, his voice having softened.
"First of May. Cliqued, I know," Taylor shrugged, "kind of cool though."
"I guess," Walker amended, "have you decided what to do when the child is born?"
"What do you mean?" Taylor frowned.
"With the likes of touring..."
"I've spoken to Ike and Zac about it. They're fine for Nat and... him or her to come along."
He couldn't help but smile at the thought.
There another moment of silent, this one amusing.
"Well," Walker said reluctantly and he stood, "I guess we've kept the women waiting long enough."
Natalie
"She is so adorable," Natalie said.
They had moved on from the wedding photos to photos of Zoe.
"I know," Diana sighed. "My baby's growing up so fast."
Taylor & Walker
The men returned to the room to find both women fawning over multiple photo albums.
"Mum," Taylor complained, "you haven't brought out the baby pictures already. Tell me you haven't."
Natalie
Natalie grinned.
"Why, yes, I have Tay," Diana replied. "But not yours. Yet."
Natalie giggled.
"I hadn't seen Zoe, before, so your mom thought this would be the next best thing. And she also wanted to show me what her flower girls' dress was like. But, given your reaction, I'm very interested in your baby photos, now."
Diana chuckled.
Taylor & Walker
"Ok, that is so not fair," Taylor chuckled, shaking his head as he sat across from them.
"Would anyone like a drink?" Walker offered.
"Besides, I'm in a lot of those. Granted I'm like 14 and everyone saw me then, but still..."
Natalie
"Aww, but Tay," Natalie said, "isn't that the point of taking baby photos? So you can show them off to other people, and embarrass them? Like you won't want to do it to our baby."
Diana chuckled.
"I'll have a tea, thanks," she said.
"Oh, I'll have tea too, please," Natalie said. "White with two."
She gave a dramatic sigh.
"Giving up coffee for nine months is going to suck, but there's an increased chance of miscarriage with coffee, and I just don't want to deal with that."
"You don't smoke do you?"
"Who me? Nah. Am I'm only a social kero drinker, so that won't be a problem. But coffee... I'm going to miss coffee... I don't know if I'm going to be able to resist the temptation..."
Taylor & Walker
"I certainly wouldn't be able to," Taylor insisted as Walker headed to the kitchen.
"And besdies, Zac has the best coffee maker."
Natalie
"Ugh," Natalie said, "Please don't tell me stuff like that. Now I'm going to be spending all day thinking about Zac's coffee maker, and how I'd like to try it out to see if it really is the best... darn!"
Diana chuckled.
"Don't worry, honey," she assured her, "I'm sure that the occasional cup won't do any harm, just as long as you don't start living on four cups or more a day... unlike some people I could mention."
She smiled at Taylor.
Taylor
"The sacrifices I make," Taylor sighed dramatically.
"It comes with having a tight schedule. I swear."