Stormwatch - A Party of Four

Anthony and Marjorie Friedman came over and greeted Josh who rose and shook their hands. "Mister and Mrs. Friedman, these are the guests I had mentioned, Paul, Adrianna, John, and Marie-Claude and they're all Jareckis. Andi and Macy had a race to the delivery room two weeks ago and Andi won by eighteen hours." Somehow Katarina ended up in Marjorie's arms.

"Look at that smile!" gushed Marjorie as she tickled Katarina's nose, "She's smiling at me!"

"It's just gas," said Anthony, it was the same remark he got from Marjorie every time he held one of their newborn sons or daughters and mentioned the smile.

"It is not fair," pouted Macy, "elle l'a déj� fait, she's done this before."

"That doesn't count, the twins were cesarian," responded Andi and not for the first time. Andi and Macy love each other and have since the moment they met, and they are like real sisters. Even though neither of them has a sister they tend to enjoy a good-natured bicker like sisters often do.

Marjorie who has had seven children smiled and patted Macy on the shoulder and handed Katarina back to her. "It gets easier as you go."

Hearing Macy's French/Canadian accent Anthony said, "You must be our newest citizen," and he extended a hand to shake. "And Veronica tells me you're a doctor?"

"Oui, doctor of psychology."

"AND theology," added John.

Marjorie walked up behind Andi and leaned over to look at Danny who was sleeping peacefully in Andi's arms. "What an amazing race, they're both so beautiful. Veronica tells me that you're a doctor too, what is your specialty?"

"I'm a Pulmonologist with the VA specializing in pulmonary vascular issues," smiled Andi as they shook hands.

"Which are what?" asked Anthony.

Andi took a deep breath in preparation to expel a barrage of syllables, but Josh interrupted, "Please don't get her started, we'll be here all night. And don't let her see that cigar you're carrying."

"Good to know," chuckled Anthony, then to Paul and John he said, "What do you fellows do?"

"I was a flight surgeon when I was on active duty, now I'm a cardiologist with the VA specializing in the effects of pulmonary hypertension on the heart," said Paul.

"And I'm just the pastor at the Springville Congregational Church," said John.

"John is also a doctor of theology," interrupted Macy a little angry that her husband was so modest about his accomplishments.

Paul grinned, "Tell him how you got your degree."

John shrugged. "Ok, I studied theology at the École de théologie évangélique du Québec in Montreal and my doctoral mentor was the former Quebecois fashion model, the Reverend Marie-Claude Solange Dagenais."

"That was you?" Marjorie asked Macy.

"Oui, his thesis was a biblical argument of why I should not be teaching him," said Macy. "It convinced me, so I quit my job and I made him marry me."

After the laughter settled down Josh pointed out, "we have a doctor, a doctor, another doctor, and a doctor-doctor, and me."

Anthony chuckled, "four people, five doctorates and none of you are Jewish? My mother will never believe this. Have a great time at the party!"

As soon as Anthony and Marjorie left, Terri sat down in the empty seat next to Josh putting her between Josh and Paul. "Is anyone sitting here?"

"My date will be showing up later," said Josh.

"Nobody believes that story anymore Josh," said Terri as she took a piece of stuffed celery off of Josh's hors d'oeuvre plate and began to crunch on it. "Did she stand you up or did you strike out?"

"No, really. She'll be here later," he pointed out the large, giftwrapped package under the table. "That's for her."

"See, you should have worn your uniform like the army guy sitting next to me," said Terri as she shook hands with Paul.

"He's Air Force."

"See? You were Air Force, you could be twins, he could help you pick up chicks. Your suit is the same color as his, and you're both wearing a bow tie. Maybe after dinner you two could go..."

"Thank you, Terri, but no."

"Hey, at least you shaved off that beard, you were starting to look like a hermit."

Hoping to deflect Terri's attention, Josh said to Macy, "Terri is from Mississauga Ontario." Which started a conversation between the Canadians which quickly changed to French. Terri changed seats with Josh so they didn't have to shout across him, but he could tell that Terri was talking about him because of the hand gestures and Macy's laughter. At least her attention was diverted. Veronica was seated at the head table while Anthony, Marjorie and the company vice presidents and their wives were circulating among the crowd. Mitch was seated next to her in his Army full dress uniform and was fetching her snacks and drinks. It was agony to not stare longingly at her and her gown which is the same white gown she's worn every year by popular demand and the design basis of Andi and Macy's gowns.

Soon came dinner, it was standard large crowd fare, braised beef tips or roast chicken breast, or vegetable plate, rice pilaf, and vegetable medley followed by sorbet for dessert. Paul leaned over and said to Terri, "Would you like to hold the baby while Macy is eating?"

Terri looked like she was just offered a choice of suicide method. "Hell no! I mean no offence, she's all cute an' shit, but Hell no!"

"Aw, come on," said Josh knowing full well Terri's fear of babies, "why not?"

"No! Those things are contagious! Those adorable little faces, the way they smell, the cute noises they make. If a girl gets her hands on one of those the next thing you know she's out looking for a guy with a steady job."

As table erupted with laughter and Josh held Danny for Andi and bottle fed him letting Andi finish her dinner. Terri took a picture of Josh with the baby for blackmail purposes as Anthony stepped out onto the dance floor with a wireless microphone and a page of notes. Behind him the band was quietly taking their places. "If I could have your attention, please," he said, and the background murmur quickly quieted.

He spoke about the stellar year they had, announced several large accounts they just landed, each announcement met with applause. As he spoke Veronica stepped up next to him, the sequins in her gown glittered under the spotlights. She was holding several plaques that were for the Salesman of the Year, Code Writer of the Year, and Technician of the Year. She handed out the plaques to the winners as Anthony called out their names and accomplishments. Terri whooped and screamed like she was at a hockey game when her friend Jen won the award for Technician of the Year.

He then introduced the guests including Macy and she got a standing ovation for receiving her citizenship, and Andi who also got a standing ovation for winning the "First Annual Springville Baby Race." He then smiled and said "Let's kick off the entertainment part of this shindig with what has become a Andalon tradition. Miss Veronica van Köster and New York National Guard Major Mitchell McDonnell."

Mitch stepped on to the dance floor and soon he and Veronica began to dance as the band struck up a foxtrot. "I thought you were going to ask her to dance," Terri said loud enough for the whole table to hear her. Her thought was to embarrass Josh.

"You're right, I'm going to do it," said Josh as he handed the baby back to Andi and pulled the box out from under the table and handed it to Paul, "Could you hold this for me colonel?"

"Sure," said Paul with a straight face. He was dying to see the look on Terri's face, she was the only person at the table that wasn't in on the plan. Josh took off his blazer and lifted the lid on the box and pulled out another jacket, placing his blazer in the box and returning it under the table. He put on the other jacket which turned out to be his USAF dress blue uniform jacket which was covered with his badges, wings, and ribbons.

"What are you doing?" gasped Terri. "You can't wear that!" Josh had far more ribbons than Paul and Mitch combined. Terri immediately thought that Josh had bought more ribbons to intimidate Mitch.

"I know," said Josh dramatically as Paul gave his uniform a final inspection. The colonel tugged the jacket into place, brushed off the shoulders, and tugged his tie straight. "But I'm trying to impress a lady."

"Are you allowed to wear wings?" scolded Terri, "You're not a pilot!"

"Paul has wings, he's not a pilot," Josh responded. Paul is a flight surgeon and as such wears fight surgeon wings, and his wings were different than Josh's whose wings denote him as a flight crew member, but Terri didn't know that either. Josh also wears a paratrooper badge, a Missile badge for his years as an armament specialist on bombers carrying cruise missiles, and an Aircraft Maintenance badge, along with more than twice as many rows of ribbons as Paul is wearing. When you fly from one hot spot to another and put iron on targets and bullets in bad guys, people tend to give you ribbons. The six stripes on his arms boldly declare his rank as Master Sergeant. Yes, he's not actually allowed to wear the uniform now that he's retired, but no one will actually stop him if he doesn't disgrace it.

"Wish me luck," he said as he snapped Paul a salute. Paul returned the salute, then as if announcing his own impending death, Josh turned to Terri and in a deep steady voice said, "I'm goin' in." He snapped an about face and stepped up to the dance floor followed by John Jarecki with a video camera.

"You're going to get in trouble," warned Terri, then she turned to Macy and said, "Il va se faire abattre � nouveau." (He's going to get shot down again)

Josh stood at attention on the edge of then dancefloor and a murmur went up throughout the audience, was that Josh? What is he doing? The murmuring grew louder as more and more people noticed him standing there at attention. Now people started rising to their feet, even Anthony was befuddled. "What is that guy doing?" he asked Marjorie. He didn't expect an answer but she got her phone/camera ready and smiled. "Watch."

Now the dancers came close, Mitch in his Army mess dress, Veronica in her traditional white gown, the same one she wore at the beauty pageants. Like Josh was proud that he could still fit in his uniform, she was proud (and a bit relieved) that she could still fit in the dress. Now Josh came to life. Back ramrod straight he stepped up behind Mitch and tapped him on the shoulder. "May I cut in?"

The couple stopped and Mitch turned to Josh and was more than a little shocked to see Josh in his dress blues. "God damn," he whispered seeing Josh's ribbons, wings, and badges, "Holy shit sarge... step aside and let someone else win the war, will ya sarge?"

"Will do sir," said Josh as they shook hands, then with a sharp salute that Mitch returned, Josh turned to an utterly stunned Veronica. She eyed him up and down, entirely speechless as Paul bowed slightly and said, "Nica, may I have this dance?"

"Oh my God," gasped Veronica as she melted into his arms, "You said you would never wear your blues ever again..." They had planned for Veronica and Mitch to pretend to be a little surprised to see Josh, but when he appeared in his semi-formal dress blue uniform without telling them, they honestly were shocked. Veronica was so honored that he wore the uniform for her that she was moved to tears. "Oh Effy," was all she could say and she melted into his arms.

"For you I'll make this and many other exceptions." He pulled her tight and she smiled has her man began to lead her in the dance. As they picked up the dance that they practiced dozens of times, Josh said, "You look so beautiful, I know exactly when I fell in love with you."

"When?" she said breathily. She was exhilarated that he was finally holding her as tightly as she desired. In practice she kept telling him to hold her tighter, tonight he got it perfect.

"It was a year ago when I saw you dance for the first time, then you walked through the crowd straight to me, and you called me Effy."

"So sweet," whispered Veronica. She smiled and blinked away the tears. "For me it was much longer."

"When was it?" asked Josh as he tried to not concentrate on his steps. He did so much better when he let the music and the feel of his lover in his arms guide his steps. "Was it when we went to the Ellicott Manor?"

She smiled at his joke, that was when they first publicly admitted their feelings for each other. "It was when you came into my office for your HR briefing." Normally Sophia in HR does that, but Veronica is HR trained and will fill in for Sophia when needed...

A week after the annual party where they first met and Josh fell in love with her, just a few days into the new year, Anthony Friedman tapped on the connecting door between his office and Veronica's office and strolled in. There are few locked doors in the Andalon building and the door between her and Ant's office is never locked. Veronica had decided that no matter how busy she was, she was never too busy for the man who rescued her from the publishing firm she was trapped in several years ago. Anthony always treats her like family and sometimes that's more important than a hefty paycheck. "Hey Veronica, do you have time to do me a favor?"

The first rule of business is whenever the CEO asks any question, the answer is always... "Yes," even if you don't have the time. The next rule is "make the time."

"Sophia is really jammed up today, and our new hire over in Mark Post's group has to do a survey of our equipment in the field. He needs to hit every remote customer between here and Syracuse before the end of the quarter and he hasn't had his HR intro briefing yet. Can you handle it for him?"

Veronica looked at the piles of folders she had on her desk and the mind-numbing report that she was putting together for a presentation for Anthony. He needed that report to give a sales pitch to a very lucrative customer that he was 'romancing.' It was going to take another week to piece it together and the customer was due here in two days. "Sure," she said closing up her laptop. "Give me three minutes to straighten up my mess and..." she looked up and there was Josh.

"Sorry," he said softly. "I can step outside if you need Nica."

She saw Anthony's smile as he closed his door then turned her attention to Josh. That smile, that southern accent, and he remembered the pet name her Grandmother had for her. She realized that she was going to have to change her panties right after this briefing. "No, Effy, sit down. I'll be right with you."

The HR briefing normally takes thirty minutes tops, but two hours later they were just winding up their chat. They spent the time with small talk and laughing, she was taken by his polite southern charm and the witticisms delivered in that perfect baritone voice. To this day Veronica can't remember if they actually covered the HR briefing completely, the loose-leaf binder was open to the HR briefing she was supposed to give, but their minds were only on each other.

"It was that day I gave you the HR introduction," she said. "We spent the afternoon laughing and just being nice to each other. That's when it happened."

"Oh yeah," smiled Josh, "that was the day that Anthony took Sofia out to lunch and said I had to get my briefing from you."

She tried hard not to laugh; he took Sophia to lunch so she could spend time with Josh? That was so Anthony. For her part Veronica was overwhelmed, she almost wordless. Seeing the man that she loved in his dress blues stunned her and she wanted to know the story behind every brightly colored ribbon on his chest. "You look so..." she couldn't finish, tears of joy were still welling up. "Thank you so much," she finally whispered.

The song ended and as they drew to a stop Josh held up a finger indicating to the band and to Anthony that they wanted one more. Anthony raised the microphone he was holding and said, "Let's give them one more dance folks, shall we?" There was applause from the darkened party and as the band's female vocalist stepped forward, the band started to play the most beautiful of country waltzes.

I'll always remember

The song they were playing

The first time we danced and I knew

As we swayed to the music

And held to each other

I fell in love with you

They always opened their practice sessions with country waltzes to warm up because Josh said he was most comfortable with them, and it showed. And now they danced to the beautiful three-quarter time ballad, swirling around the dance floor, her gown glittering in the spotlights, his back ramrod straight, his uniform once again a part of him. Every step was in unison, every twirl, every dip looked like they did it together for years, and all the while Josh whispered soft endearments to her.

The men and women of Andalon were utterly shocked, they all consider Veronica to be more than Anthony's executive assistant, she was their sister and in many ways their patron saint. Beautiful, sweet, incredibly smart and efficient, she was the personification of their company, and now she's dancing with one of us worker bees? Joyful confusion coursed through the crowd as men and women tried to explain to the person they brought what was happening. They murmured with each other in complete surprise, yet the couple danced like they were born to dance with each other. Cameras started to flashed as the dance progressed and John caught every moment on video.

Across the room Terri watched her boss dance with the most elegant, unreachable woman she ever knew. She was in shock. "Holy shit, he can dance?" She turned to Andi and said, "He can barely walk, and now he's dancing?" Andi almost spit the water she was drinking onto Danny. Throughout the crowd the reaction was the same, grouchy ol' Josh Gravely was dancing with the beautiful, elegant, regal Veronica van Köster?

Macy leaned toward Terri and said, "he told you he was going to ask her to dance with him, why did you not believe him?"

"I believed he would ask her, but I didn't think she would do it!"

Veronica could think of nothing more than dancing right off this dance floor and heading up to the suite they reserved up on the twenty eighth floor. Josh leaned close and whispered, "This is the first song we danced to at Paul's house, remember?" She nodded remembering their first dance and how surprised she was to find that he could actually dance. She remembered that back then how right it felt to be in his arms just as it does now, just like the song say. Was it a premonition set to music? "I was already madly in love with you before we ever saw our first snowflake together Nica," he said.

"Effy, I've never felt so loved, so secure..." she fought to hold back the tears.

"One more surprise," he said softly as the song headed into the final stanza.

Could I have this dance

For the rest of my life

Could you be my partner

Every night

When we're together

It feels so right

Could I have this dance

For the rest of my life

She found that they had stopped in the middle of the dance floor, what was he doing? He stepped back then slowly dropped to one knee... she heard Terri cry "WAAAA?"

Now he pulled something out of his pocket... "Nica, without you I am nothing, then you showed me how wonderful life truly is. Your love completes me. Please be my partner and share this dance with me... for the rest of our lives." He opened the little box in his hand and a dream she never dared to realize suddenly came true. Through the welling tears of joy, she saw the ring that Mr. Wetzel made with her diamond in the setting they fell in love with...