Capter 12 - A Secret Wedding

The next morning was Saturday, time for Leslie to take her weekly trip home.  Just the thought made her nauseous, she moaned slightly trying her best not give in to the swirling feelings in her stomach as she got dressed and did her chores before heading to visit her parents. She managed to control her upset stomach until she got on the train at which point she made a mad dash to the restroom and promptly lost her breakfast. After three trips to the restroom and heaving the contents of her stomach into the toilet bowl, she started to get worried.  But then again she was a little anxious that her parents might notice her ring while she was home for the weekend.

“That’s what it is,” Leslie told herself, “it’s my nervousness about being engaged, and someone finding out that’s making my stomach upset. That’s all.”

 Walking around in the fresh air at the train station while waiting for the next train on her trip home seemed to settle her stomach a bit. By the time she got home that afternoon her stomach was fine. However the next morning the nausea returned, she struggled to conceal her sickness from her family completely forgetting that she had something else to hide, but it seemed that all her precautions were unnecessary, no one noticed the sparkly addition to her left hand or to her dashing to the restroom three times before breakfast.

“That’s how much they actually pay attention to me!” she thought gloomily on the train ride home.  “Funny” she thought, “in one short week home had changed from Mom, Dad and the kids, to Jamie.”

 She was excited to be able to spend half of her Sunday with Jamie and couldn’t wait to see him, if only this terrible nausea would go away.  Leslie wasn’t sure it was just nerves now because if it was she should feel better now that she was on her way home.  A quick look at her pocket calendar confirmed that she still hadn’t had her monthly visitor yet. With a groan Leslie dialed Jamie’s number and explained what had been going on all weekend. Jamie suggested that she try and purchase a pregnancy test when she switched trains, she could take the test when she got to the apartment. Leslie followed Jamie’s suggestion and bought a pregnancy test at the next stop, the next half-hour was an anxious wait and by the time the train pulled into the station she had worked herself into quite an emotional state and fell sobbing into Jamie’s arms.

“Jamie, I’m so sorry” she sobbed into his chest.

“Sorry about what?” Jamie asked trying to calm her tears “if you are pregnant then you didn't do that by yourself, so it’s my fault not yours, darling. Come on let’s go home and get this suspense over with.”

When they got home Leslie when straight to the bathroom and took the pregnancy test.

“So?” Jamie asked when she exited the bathroom “What’s the results?”

“I don’t know yet” Leslie shrugged “it takes a few minutes for the test to give the results.”

“Ok well I need to use the restroom” he said with grin “I’ll be right back.” A few seconds later he poked his head out of the bathroom door “How long did you say this takes for the results to show up?” he asked.

“Three minutes.” Leslie responded heading back to the bathroom, “Why?”

“Nothing really” Jamie said holding up the pregnancy test “Just what does two lines mean?”

Leslie skidded to a halt and stared at the test in Jamie’s hand. Sure enough, there were two very bold, very bright, pink lines. Leslie hung her head “it means I’m doomed.” she muttered, tears falling slowly.

“I’m going to take a wild guess and assume it means I’m going to be a dad.” Jamie said laying the test back on the counter and pulling Leslie into his arms. He let her cry there for a while and then guided her back into the living room and set her down on the couch.  “Look, darling,” he said holding her hands in his “I know this wasn’t the result you were hoping for, but let’s get a couple of things straight. One, this result does not change the way I feel about you, I love you with all my heart and always will.  And two,  this baby will be as special as any other baby, though perhaps not done the proper way, it is a product of our love, and I don’t want you to feel sad about it anymore I only want us to be happy and excited about the baby. And three, the only thing that this will change is the date of our wedding, I will go on Monday and start the paperwork for our wedding, hopefully I can get clearance for us to marry by the end of the week.” He leaned over and kissed her gently on the cheek.

Leslie sighed and laid her head on Jamie’s shoulder, “I love you too, and you’re right it’s not the baby’s fault, I just know that when my dad finds out I am going to be dead meat!”

“That’s why we’re going ahead and getting married as soon as possible, we can keep the wedding and the baby a secret until we go visit your parents for Christmas and then when the baby comes they won’t know it was conceived before or after we were married. See it will all work out, honey don’t you worry!”

Leslie sighed again and cuddled up against Jamie “I guess you’re right” she admitted “but if I’m getting married the end of the week what will I wear? It’s not like I have a wedding dress just stashed away in the closet somewhere!”

“You don’t?!” Jamie teased “Ouch” he grinned as he dodged Leslie’s elbow to his ribs.

“Jamie, be serious!” Leslie said “I can’t get married in just any old dress.”

“Well, honey, I’ll see what I can do I do have some money in savings and if we don’t find anything by the wedding we can always have a fancy ceremony later after we tell our parents… Actually that’s a great idea since it’s just you and me now and when we take leave in January to visit my parents in the States we can have a big church wedding then with all the trimmings. What do you think?”

“That sounds good to me,” Leslie said, “What do you want me to wear for our wedding?”

“Nothing?” Jamie winked “Just kidding, Babe, anything you want to wear will make me happy, you do have that black velvet dress I just bought you”

“But it’s black,” Leslie grimaced “I can’t wear black for my wedding!”

“Well we’ll figure it out, right now I should probably get you back to the Holland’s so no one asks to any questions.”
      

The ride to the Holland’s was quite each lost in their own thoughts, Jamie parked the truck a block away from the house and leaned over and after  kissing Leslie good-night his hand stroked her still flat stomach and whispered “Goodnight little one, I love you! See you tomorrow?” He asked Leslie as she got out of the truck.

“No, I don’t work until Tuesday, but I’ll definitely see you then.” Leslie shut the door and mouthed “Call me” to Jamie as he put the truck in gear and followed her to the door and let herself into the house.

As she entered the house she sighed at the bedlam that greeted her, it appeared that the Holland’s were not only home but also had some people from their church over for fellowship. After the news she had received today she didn’t really feel like socializing, she was tired and emotionally worn out and just wanted to sneak upstairs and take a quick bath and go to bed. Unfortunately that was not to be, Veronica saw her and grabbed her.

“Come help us” she squealed “Jeni and I are trying on mom’s old wedding dress we need someone to help us fix our hair and make-up and take our pictures!”

“Ok,” Leslie said “I’ll be up in a minute,” She slipped into the kitchen and grabbed herself a plate of mini pizzas and a sandwich, and headed upstairs. In the girls room she paused in awe over the most beautiful wedding dress she had ever seen.  After helping the girls try it on and fixing their hair and taking pictures, she tried it on herself. While the girls had looked cute in a playing dress up kind of way, Leslie actually looked like a radiant bride. And while the girls oohed and aahed over how well it fit, Leslie was trying to figure out how she could wear it for her own wedding. While she might be able to sneak it out of the house and back in without anyone noticing that was not a risk she was willing to take at this point, at least not if she could come up with a better plan.

The next morning she put her plan in place, by asking Mrs. Holland if she could borrow the dress for a photo shoot, a friend of Jamie’s was taking some photography classes and wanted to practice taking wedding pictures. It was easier than she thought it would be, Sandy shrugged and agreed no questions asked.  When Jamie called her that evening she could hardly contain her excitement at having found and received permission to use the dress free of charge. Jamie’s news wasn’t as good as her’s, in order to get the paperwork to get married both of them had to be there. Was there a day that she would be available to come down to the clerk’s office and file the necessary paperwork,  once it was filed they would be able  to pick up their marriage license  in three to four days. They agreed that Jamie would fake an emergency call from Burger King asking Leslie to come into work early the next day, so they could file the paperwork. And then she would plan on staying over the weekend getting married Friday evening and then having two days as their honeymoon, for now. Jamie promised that they would have a real honeymoon around Christmas time when they both could take some time off.

Friday, Leslie, woke up bright and early, “Today, is my wedding day!” she thought followed by “oh, baby, why must you make mommy feel so sick?” as she held her hand over her stomach trying to ease the queasiness before she got out of bed. She had a lot to do today, luckily, she wouldn’t have to sneak out of the house since she told Sandy that she was borrowing it for a photo shoot she was able to get all dolled up before leaving the house. First she was going to take a nice long soak in the tub, when she got out the girls were excited to help her get ready. They curled her hair and painted her nails and helped her do her makeup, even Sandy came up and helped her get ready. Leslie smiled to herself she really felt like a bride getting ready for her wedding. She giggled to herself “If only they knew”.  Jamie was picking her up at the house, so she wouldn’t have to walk down the street in her dress. They had told Sandy that he was a friend of the photographer and was also participating in the photo shoot so he was picking her up and driving her to the site of the photo shoot. She had also told the Hollands that she would be going home for the weekend right after the photo shoot, she knew that Sandy was thinking of home as her parent’s house while Leslie was thinking of  her and Jamie’s apartment, and she felt a little guilty but at this point she didn’t care she was getting married!!!

The look on Jamie’s face when he pulled up and saw her in her fancy dress was one of pure admiration though he tried his hardest to mask his feelings in case anyone who was watching might be smart enough to put two and two together and figure out the whole scheme. But it seemed that the Hollands were content to see only the things that they wanted to see, or the things that they were told they were seeing.

Neither Jamie nor Leslie spoke until Jamie turned onto the Autobahn, Leslie turned to him with a puzzled look on her face, “I thought we were going to the base don’t we have to be married by somebody there?”

 
 “Actually,” Jamie smiled “Yes, we do have to be married by the chaplain from the base, but there is nothing that says it has to be done on the base. I found a place on the river that is especially beautiful this time of year, so the chaplain is going to meet us there. And I also hired someone to come take pictures as well. I’m sure Sandy will want to see a few shots eventually!” He grinned again. “It looks like the weather is on our side, the sun is coming out” he reached over and grabbed Leslie’s hand, “you look like an angel, darling! How are you feeling today?”

“I’m feeling ok now, I was pretty queasy this morning though I didn’t throw up this time.” She sighed “I guess I need to get a book or something to find out what is normal and what’s not! It’s so frustrating there really isn’t a pattern to it that I can tell some days I’m fine and others I can hardly stand up without  feeling sick”

“Well, just as soon as we get married and get all the paperwork processed, I’m taking you to the doctor to make sure everything is ok.” Jamie said “But for right now let’s focus on our wedding and enjoy our day”    

After about a twenty minute drive they arrived at the spot that Jamie had picked out, they met the chaplain and the photographer. And were married right there under the trees on the bank of the river Neckar. The ceremony was short and sweet and the photographer did a marvelous job of capturing the day for them. In less than an hour they were back in the truck and heading home.