Lessons Learned Ch. 17

I smiled. "Yes ma'am."

"All right. I'm going to set your shoes in front of you. You go on and put them on while I go get my son and the bridal party."

I was so intent on putting on my shoes that I almost didn't hear her leave. But then it occured to me what she said,

"Wait, we have a bridal party?"

Ms. Justine had left out the door before I could get an answer. Once my shoes were on; I sat and waited for Shane and my "bridal party" to come in. I could hear some rustling outside my door and within seconds everyone began to pile into the room.

There weren't many and I only recognized a few of the people. I recognized Shane's sister Olivia. A vaguely familiar looking man came in behind her and behind him another man came walking in. He looked like an older version of Shane only with blue eyes. All of the men were dressed in black suits with purple shirts. Olivia wore a purple cocktail dress with strappy sandals. I smiled in approval.

"You all look beautiful." I replied.

"Thank you and so do you." They all said collectively.

We all laughed. The man who looked like an older version of Shane with blue eyes stepped forward. It immediately occurred to me that this was Shane's father. He took my hand into his and replied,

"Hello my dear, my name is Marcus Blane. I'm Shane and Olivia's dad."

"Nice to meet you." I replied. He bent down and kissed my cheek and stepped to the side.

Olivia came forward and replied, "It's so good to see you again, I wish it was under better circumstances; but it's still nice."

I nodded and replied, "Very True. But I'm glad you here. I didn't get to say this to you before, but thank you for all of your help that day. I hear Maxine is where she needs to be right now."

"She is. And I'm going to make sure that she stays there."

I nodded in agreement. Before I could introduce myself to the other guest the door opened and in came Shane with his mother on his arm and the chaplain of the hospital. Justine was no longer in scrubs but in a purple dress of her own. Our eyes met and the sight of him took my breath away. He placed his mom beside his dad and came to me. He took my hands into his and helped me to my feet. I saw nothing but love in his eyes.

"You look gorgeous my love." He said to me as he brought my knuckles to his lips.

"Thank you baby." I replied

"Shall we get married?" Shane asked.

"Oh most definitely." I answered.

We turned to the chaplain. The chaplain looked into our eyes and asked us,

"Are you ready?"

"Yes." We replied together.

Olivia stood behind me, Shane's best man (who I now remembered as the fire chief who helped when my house burned down) stood behind Shane. Shane's parents stood in the back. Dr Blane reached for her husband's hand. Mr. Blane caught her hand and held it tightly to his. They glanced lovingly at each other and smiled. The minister began the ceremony,

"Dearly beloved, we're gathered here today to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony......"

Meanwhile....

As I was in the midst of getting married; my parents were busy at the police station. They went inside introduced themselves as family of the prisoner and asked the front desk officer if they could see their beloved Maxine. The front desk officer was going to decline, but then my father pushed a wad of cash discretely into the booth. The officer looked down in surprise and looked back up into the eyes of my father. Never breaking eye contact; my father assured her that all he wanted to do was see his cousin.

The front desk officer nodded in understanding and told the bailiff to bring in the prisoner. The front desk officer then told my parents to wait in the visitor waiting area as the prisoner so that the guard can bring the prisoner to them. They went into the waiting area and waited patiently.

By this time they had fingerprinted, booked and dressed Maxine in her orange jumpsuit. She came walking through the door. She saw my mother first and snarled. Before my mother could return Maxine's snarl with a comment of her own; a deep, familiar voice spoke out and Maxine Harper's heart almost stopped in mid-beat.

"Hello Maxine, it's been awhile."