Just Once... And Yes, I Mind Pt. 02

"I don't know. I don't know anything." I turned my head, looking once more into her eyes. "All I know, Janice Saito, is that I love you. I have for a while. It started in Europe and now," I shrugged my shoulders, "now I want you in my life for the rest of my life."

Tears fell from her eyes. "I love you too, Rick. I know that we have some bumps coming up, but I want to go over them with you. I'm not blind. I realize that we haven't lived together...or slept together...and that we both have histories. But I know that I'm better with you in my life than not."

"What about her," I said, nodding toward the sleeping child. "I can't imagine not having her in my life. But I'm 50. Isn't that too old to become a new father?"

"You're thinking wrong. If you had her when she was a baby, you would have been 44. A bit later than most, but is that too old? And who cares? If we love her, and I think we both know we do, than so what if we show up at her graduation using walkers? We'll just put those squeeze horns on them for when she walks across the stage."

"It's like when a man marries a single mother. He isn't just marrying her, he's marrying the family. I want you in my life for the rest of my life, Janice. But you have to know...I'm going to do everything I can to keep her."

"You damn well better, Rick. Because I want to keep her too. But it's going to be hard. I have a one bedroom apartment in DC. You...well, you're homeless. We're not married. I don't even know where to start."

"Let me work on that," I told her. I kissed her, a soft gentle kiss that quickly turned passionate. Our hands started to roam, and I shifted my foot - and accidently kicked Ami's mattress. Her eyes opened, she looked around just after we had parted. "Sorry, sweetheart," I said to Ami, but also sending it to Janice.

"You just wait until we have our own room," she whispered into my ear, her voice low and needful.

The next morning, I managed to get a message off with Charlie's help. He had been at something of loose ends on the ship, as had most of the team, and was happy to have something to do. After the call, Janice and I went to see Doctor Smith, while Ami was busy on the bridge, being shown how to pilot a 70 ton ship that is nearly 3 football fields in length. I knew this was only going to make my teaching her how to drive impossible ("I know how to drive, I piloted a Navy ship when I was six, remember?")

"So, what have you two decided?"

"I think we would all benefit if you were to work with her, and when we get back, we should settle down near your practice so that we can continue uninterrupted."

"That's not the most practical solution," he opined. "What about work, weather, schools, entertainment? You have no idea where my practice is. You would be walking into the area completely blind."

"Where IS your practice, Doctor?"

"Omaha, Nebraska."

Janice and I looked at each other. A grin appeared on her face. "Not a damn thing," she said.

"Me, either," I replied. Obviously, we had heard of Omaha, and I think I might have flown over it once or twice, but we had no clue what was there.

Janice looked deep into my eyes, then fixed the doctor with a look. "If that's where we need to go, then we," emphasizing 'we' "will be there. Our little girl needs help, and we think you're the best one to make it happen."

And so we began. Ami talked to the doctor every other day the last week of our trip. My team was going their own ways upon arrival. I had been a little worried when we got to Rota about the accommodations, but there was a suite waiting for us on base. It had a bedroom with a queen bed and a pull out sofa. There was a very awkward pause as we tried to figure out the sleeping arrangements. Janice and I started discussing who was going to be where when we noticed that Ami had laid down on the bed and was fast asleep. We just shrugged at each other and I told Janice to take the pull out and I would sleep on the chaise lounge.

That lasted all of two hours, when Janice and I awoke to the sound of muffled crying. We ran into the room, and found Ami, curled into a ball, sniffling. She said she had a nightmare, and when she woke up, she was completely alone for the first time ever.

Janice climbed onto the bed. "No, sweetheart, you aren't alone. You'll never be alone for the rest of your life. Rick and I will always be here for you. We're going to help you grow up to become a strong young woman, like we know you will be. We're going to take you to movies, and places to eat, and we'll always put you first, never worry about that." She had been lightly stroking the little girl's head, speaking softly to her, and Ami dropped back to sleep.

We spent the next few days decompressing, eating on base, occasionally going out to Jerez de la Frontera. Ami was amazed at the way life flowed on the streets, the Spanish whirling around her head, and the smells. She told me that even in town, she could still smell the ocean over everything else. Both Ami and Janice fell in love with the paella at Ché!, a restaurant in town. I knew that if we ended up settling down in Omaha, we'd be far from the ocean, and it would be next to impossible to find a place that served paella.

Without the pressure of everything that had been going on for the past months, Janice and I were falling even more in love. I knew that I wanted her with me for the rest of my life, and I was fairly certain she felt the same. But things were complicated now, we had this child in our lives who needed us both. We, as a group, were vagabonds, no real home, no legally recognized relationship. I needed help, and was thinking of calling the person I usually called for assistance when I heard a knock on the door to our suite.

"Diedre," I said, "I was just thinking about you. Literally."

"Yeah, I have that effect on people," she smirked. "Janice around?"

"Um, yeah, is everything okay?" Janice had walked out of the bedroom when she heard her name.

We gathered at the table while Ami was watching the television. Oddly, she wasn't watching AFN, she was watching the local channels, as though she was determined to learn the language before she left. Diedre started, "All right, so Rick, when you called..."

"Wait, what," Janice asked.

Diedre explained, "When you were on the ship, Rick reached out to me, asked if I could find a place for you all to stay. I used some of my contacts and reserved this room for you. Don't sweat the cost, it's covered under my company's contract with the DoD. Which brings me to the reason I'm here. Rick, what are your plans going forward?"

I hadn't honestly thought that far ahead. I got up to give myself a second to think, my movement catching Ami's attention. She looked at me, smiled, and went back to learning a new language. I felt Janice's hand slip into mine, and she looked up at me and also smiled. I knew what I wanted.

"I am obviously going to need to get back to work," I started, looking at Janice, "but my days of traveling are over. I have two ladies in my life that I want to see every night. Nothing will take precedence over that."

Diedre smiled at that. "I guessed that. I should have been more specific - where are you going from here?"

"Omaha," I said, hearing Janice and Ami both saying it with me. Ami rushed into the room, climbed onto Janice's lap, hugged her around the neck, and kissed her on the cheek. She then stretched her hand out to me, and I wrapped them both in a hug, getting a cheek kiss from both.

Diedre had a packet of papers that she had brought with her. I looked at her, wondering what was all that. She explained "Inside here," tapping the large manila envelope, "is a contract with my company. We are setting up an office in one of the buildings on Offutt AFB for you to work from. You will be overseeing all the projects like what you were doing. You have the most hours in country of anyone we know, and we recently negotiated a contract with DoD to take over military assistance and training of non-aligned foreign governments and agencies, contingent on your leading the program."

I opened the package and glanced at the compensation page. Apparently, I was going to be able to put Ami through college and a medical degree without ever needing a loan.

"I also took the liberty of having the State Dept work with the DoD to expedite the paperwork...in case you two wanted to formalize your relationship. The base chaplain is at your ready. Once that is done, there are adoption papers for young Miss Ami that are basically signed and ready to go. You just need to put your signatures on them and it's a done deal."

Janice and I were sitting there with our mouths hanging open. "What," Diedre asked. "You can't tell me that you don't love one another. Anyone can see that. And Ami belongs with you."

"Okay, agreed, but how the hell did you pull all this off," my head spinning. Admittedly, I had been thinking about all of this, but I figured it would take a year or more to get through the red tape.

"Well, let's just say that working for the company has benefits. Like knowing people who can pull strings to get all of this paperwork together and to grease the rails to make everything happen overnight."

I heard someone clearing their throat behind me. "Do I have any say in this," Janice asked.

Shit. I was so caught up in the fact that all these bumps in the road had been graded over, I realized. I had never actually asked Janice to marry me. Would she want to? I had pretty much cheated on Marcy, and while there were extenuating circumstances, it still happened. And then there was the divorce. Why would she ever want to marry me? I'm not that young, and she is a beautiful woman who could hook up with any man she might want...

She was looking at me. Her eyes were narrowed. "Say that again. I dare you."

Wait, did I actually say all that out loud? I looked at Diedre who was smirking. Yes, I apparently did say all that out loud. I needed more sleep. It's my only excuse.

"Janice, you know I love you. And the only reason I haven't asked is...well, I'm damaged goods. You could do so much better than me."

"So. Ask me."

"Now? Here?"

She shifted Ami a little, so she could see us both more easily. "Yes, in front of our little girl. Ask me."

I liked it, the symbolism. "Janice Saito, will you marry me?"

"Diedre," Janice started by way of answering me, "is there a jewelry shop in Jerez?"

Diedre stopped smirking and started openly grinning. "Look in the small white envelope."

I pulled out the letter sized envelope and took out business cards for a couple bridal shops and three jewelers. "Rick can go ring shopping with you, and I'd love to go dress shopping, if you'd like."

"It'll be a girls' day out." Janice looked at me. "When are we doing this?"

"You haven't said 'Yes', yet. Ami, did you hear a 'Yes'?" I winked at her and Ami said no, that she hadn't heard an answer yet.

Janice grabbed me by the shirt, pulled me to her, and kissed me, a kiss that promised so much...if not for a 6 year old and our visitor. "Yes, of course, yes," she said. "I would have said yes in Europe."

Apparently, I was the slow one in our relationship. So Janice, Ami and I went ring shopping, found nothing in the bigger stores but found a jeweler in the old part of town who would design and make a ring. I took him aside and had something special made for the occasion and he said I could pick everything up in a week.

Diedre took Janice and Ami dress shopping, and I spent the day going through the packet of paperwork. It felt odd - my future, the future of those two women, were being molded by a stack of papers. Personal, professional, educational, all of it, right there in my hands. The past was in there too - I noticed a page with DNA results. Ami's mother and sister, it was a match.

That night, when Ami fell asleep, Janice came out to find me sitting in the chair, staring at a television, playing nothing. "You okay," she asked. "Are we moving too fast...am I pushing you too much?" She sat on the arm, wrapped her arms around my neck. "I'm sorry, Rick, but I've known that I wanted to be with you after a couple of months together last year. And I'm sorry if you feel like I'm pushing you to be a father when your kids are out of the nest, and I'm sorry..."

"Stop apologizing," whispering loudly. "I'm just...I don't know. Scared. I wasn't a great husband; hell, I wasn't a great person before. I love you, I know that, and I'm afraid that I could screw this up. And Ami? Geez, I would be proud to be her father, and I love that kid like no one else, but she's so fragile. I was a pretty absent father to Kyle and I loved Rhonda and did everything I could when I was there, but I was gone so often. I love them both and know that they love me, but it could have gone so, SO very fucking wrong."

"And that's the human condition," replying as she slid into my lap. "We fuck things up, then we learn from that and make damn sure not to do it again." She lightly turned my head to hers. "If I am important to you, if she is important to you, you learn and do things differently."

I leaned and kissed her. The kiss lasted longer, her tongue dancing with mine, and we made out for a few minutes before she broke the kiss, her eyes going to the open door of the bedroom. "We're going to have to get her to understand that we need our time alone."

"We'll install a doorbell on our bedroom door, so if she needs us, she can just ring it. It'll give us some warning," I laughed.

The next afternoon, mindful of the time difference, I called both Rhonda and Kyle and told them about the wedding. Diedre was at the suite, ready to take Janice and Ami out for another round of dress shopping. Rhonda said that she would have to get a flight out of Baltimore to Madrid, then find a way down to Jerez. Diedre made a waggling motion with her fingers, the "give that to me" thing that people do, and spoke into the phone for a couple of moments. She wandered out of hearing range as Ami was sitting in my lap, trying out a few words she had picked up on the television.

While the girls were out, I took the time to call the corporate headhunter, whose information was found on the paperwork. We spoke at length about the work that I would be doing, travel expectations (none, as far as I was concerned), and everything one could talk about on an open line. After that, I decided that since I was soon going to be a married man in the corporate world (yeah, same company, but different - very different - job), I should think about learning the game of golf. That's what middle aged men did, right? At least, those who aren't running off to teach others the best way to kill their adversaries. After a couple of hours at the driving range, I decided that I wouldn't ever play the game, and had no clue how this was supposed to be a relaxing way to spend the day. A very nice young man, apparently the golf pro, offered a few tips, but eventually asked me if waterskiing was more to my liking.

Before dinner time, the women had returned from their hunt, and if their expressions were any clue, they had successfully tracked and killed a wedding dress. Janice had made it clear that she wasn't going to go with the traditional gown and veil, but still wanted something elegant and memorable. Apparently, telling her that anything she wore would look elegant and memorable was the correct response, judging by the kiss she gave me. Surprisingly, not much more was said about the dress, other than it was being made by hand by yet another of the artisans in the old town. Chains are apparently great for when you have the lead time and don't need a lot of modifications, but for us, the locals gave us better service with the time constraints.

The next week was spent setting up the wedding ceremony at the base chapel, with our "reception" being held at the on base club. Since it was an afternoon wedding, and the club didn't open until 4, we were able to secure the whole room, and they agreed to set up a buffet. We weren't entirely sure of the number of guests, so we requested enough for 20 people. Now we just had to set up the date. We thought about a workweek ceremony, to lessen the impact on the base functions, both chapel and club, and felt that a Wednesday would do. The wedding dress would be ready in a few days, and taking in account any alterations that needed to be done, we felt that a date two weeks away would work fine.

The Monday before the wedding found Janice and I and Ami at the chapel, going through a quick rehearsal. This wouldn't be an elaborate ceremony, therefore, this was just us getting familiarized with the surroundings, and making sure the verbiage was correct on the vows. I was pleasantly surprised when Janice made sure to include the old standard of "obey" into the vows. She looked at me, and told me that she trusted me to not take advantage of her vow, and that she wanted to me to understand that she would never do what Marcy had done.

As we wrapped up, Diedre came in, with guests in tow. There was Rhonda and her husband, Logan, now an ensign in the Navy. And Rick was right behind her, with the same young lady from Rhonda's wedding. I sighed, figuring I was about to have another wedding in the future. A second behind them, I saw Janice's parents, holding hands and looking at each other the way Rick and his companion were.

"Mom! Dad! How...?"

Ms. Saito, grinned at her daughter, "My old friend Diedre," she replied. I looked at Diedre, who gave a shrug. Was there ANYONE in the upper echelons that she didn't know? "She finagled a flight out of Andrews to Moron AB, got us all on it," flashing a look at Diedre that indicated she didn't know how she got a bunch of civilians on a hop, but was grateful she did, "and got us there on Sunday." She looked at her watch. "Yesterday. I hate jet lag. We all got up a couple of hours ago, had lunch, and then headed here."

Once again, I was amazed at how Diedre managed to pull things off. Everyone chatted and caught up with one another in the pews of the chapel. I could tell the chaplain was looking to go home, so we finalized a couple of details, shook hands, and everyone streamed outside. I looked at my watch and asked if anyone was hungry. Ami yelled out "Ché!," confusing most but Janice, who I knew would be very happy for a repeat there. I had Janice call ahead (fluent in Spanish, remember?) and get a couple tables pushed against one another so we could all be seated together.

The food was good, the company perfect. I had Ami sitting on my left, between Janice and I, Rhonda on my right, and Kyle and Jamie, her name as I found out during our conversations at the chapel, across from me. Janice's parents were across from her, with Diedre begging off that she had work to do. She had secured lodging for everyone until after the wedding, at which point everyone was free to do as they wished.

I tapped my glass, bringing everyone's attention to the table. "It's been just shy of a year since Janice and I got reacquainted in Africa. It was during that time that I truly fell in love with this amazing woman. Beautiful, smart, dedicated...I couldn't have asked for a better life partner. I thought I would never take this chance, never find someone like her again, but I am all the better for taking that chance and having her permanently in my life."

"But, there was another element thrown into the mix. Ami," my hand settling on her shoulder, "had found her way into my heart and showed a strength I have rarely seen. She quickly became my daughter in spirit, if not in blood." I nodded at Janice and she took up the narrative.

"Honey, Rick asked me to marry him, to become his wife. We'd like to become a family, not just a couple. We couldn't replace your parents, they brought you into this world, gave their lives to protect you and keep you safe, and for that we'll always be grateful. But we, Rick and I, would like to ask if you would also become OUR daughter. You'll always have them, here," tapping Ami's chest, "and here," her forehead.