Things Change

"Oh, okay. That makes sense. Well, if you were staying in. As an enlisted Marine."

"I didn't mention the MECEP program. I promise."

Jaclyn laughed then reached for his hand.

"My mom really likes you."

"Well, I really like her, too. And your dad. He's not scary at all."

"Told you, right?" she teased.

Jared squeezed her hand and told her she was correct.

"So when do I get to meet Bill?" she asked with a smile.

"Oh, yeah. Bill. Um...soon."

Jared asked his roommate to join them the following Sunday for dinner at Jaclyn's, and he promised he'd be on his best behavior. And for the most part he was. The only exception was when Jaclyn excused herself for the first time after meeting Bill.

"She is smokin' hot, man!" he said a little too loudly.

Jaclyn was in the kitchen and heard him, and that made her not only smile but feel good, too.

"You know who she looks like?"

"Uh-oh," Jared replied hoping he wouldn't say.

"No. It's all good. She looks like that hot chick on Grimm. Remember?"

"Grim?"

"Yeah. Only with two 'm's. The show about..."

Bill stopped and said, "You've never even heard of Grimm?"

"Sorry. No."

Bill told him what it was about, a show set in Portland, Oregon, where a police detective learns he's from a long line of something called 'Grimms', a people who hunted and killed other people known as 'Wessen'. Wessen, pronounced 'vessen' turned into monster-like creatures when provoked and as the series progressed, more and more types of Wessen were introduced. This police detective fell in love with a beautiful woman named Juliette on the show whose real name is Elizabeth Tulloch.

Jared pulled out his phone, searched for her name, and said, "Wow. She does look like Jaclyn."

"Who looks like me?" Jaclyn said, waiting for the right moment to come back in as though she hadn't heard anything but that last line.

Jared held up the phone and showed her.

"She's gorgeous!"

"So are you!" Bill blurted out.

A 'tamp-it-down' look from Jared blunted his laughter that followed, but Jaclyn only thanked him.

"You do look quite a bit alike," Jared admitted as he compared them again.

"Thank you, too," she told her younger boyfriend. "But I definitely don't have her bank account."

She scrolled around and found the police detective whose name was Nick on the show and said, "Oh, my goodness! This is you, Jared!"

His real name was David Giuntoli and he was as hot as his TV girlfriend whom he married in real life.

She showed him his doppelgänger, and Jared was amazed at the resemblance.

"I forgot all about the dude!" Bill said. "But I don't look at dudes like that, so..."

Jaclyn laughed, and Jared returned to her comment about money and told him that was the last thing on his mind where she was concerned.

"Good thing, because I might have two-hundred dollars in the bank. Maybe."

"That's two hundred more than I've got!" Bill said, as he drained his third beer in an hour. He needed to belch but managed to hold it down to a dull roar when he let it go.

When Bill got up to pee a little later, Jaclyn said, "He's really sweet."

"Sweet? Bill is...sweet?"

"Yes! He's...a very nice guy."

Jared made a 'huh' sound then said, "And I thought you were so smart."

Jaclyn's eyes opened wide in mock surprise as she grabbed a throw pillow and hit her boyfriend with it.

"Ouch!" Jared said as he grabbed the pillow and tossed it aside before grabbing her.

Thinking Bill was still in the 'head', he pulled her close and kissed her. Jaclyn kissed back and the kiss was still in progress when Bill walked back in.

"Ahem!" he said, causing the two lovers to quickly pull apart.

"Sorry. I didn't know you guys were in a lip lock," Bill said.

He bleached again then added, "But if I had a girlfriend like that, I'd stay lip-locked with her 24/7."

Jared gave him another look, and as before, Jaclyn just laughed then thanked him for the 'compliment'.

While Jaclyn continued seeing Jared every day and running with him several times a week, the next time she saw Bill was on the 25th of April. That was the day that all Marine ordnance men and women celebrated the beginning of their career field which was established on that day in 1925.

Jaclyn joined Jared for the celebration and had a very nice time with him but also really enjoyed meeting several of the Marine wives who were there. Without exception, each one of them told her how beautiful she was before also mentioning something about how attractive her younger boyfriend was.

"He is pretty gorgeous, huh?" Jaclyn said several times even when Jared wasn't listening.

She was also told a couple of times by other women how surprised they were she wasn't older.

"I heard you were a lot older than Jared, but I'm 35, and you're obviously younger than I am, so I'm not sure how this rumor got so blown out of proportion."

Jaclyn only thanked her and didn't mention she was going to be 38 in a few weeks.

The other topic of conversation was Jared's MECEP application.

"Are you excited about being an officer's wife?" one of the woman asked.

"Oh. We...we're not even engaged," Jaclyn let her know.

"Oh. I...I just assumed. I thought...sorry."

Jared was listening and when the women finished talking said, "Things change, though," as he took his beautiful girlfriend's hand.

"Yes. Yes, they do," Jaclyn agreed just before he gave her a little kiss.

As soon as he walked into work on the 14th of May, the gruff, LDO captain he worked for handed him a piece of paper and said, "Congratulations, Sgt. Quinn."

Jared said, "Thank you, sir," without looking, but as soon as it was okay to do so, he looked down and started reading.

He was holding a copy of the list of MECEP selectees published via Naval message, and Jared Quinn was one of them. Next to his name was the school he would be attending, and it was all he could do not to holler out when he saw 'The University of Washington' next to it.

He also had to force himself not to run out of the shop as he grabbed his phone and called Jaclyn at work.

"Honey? Guess what?" he blurted out, calling her that for the first time.

"Did you get it?" she asked, her heart beating fast from the endearment.

"Yes! I got accepted and to the U-Dub!" he told her using the local name for his school of choice.

"I'm so happy for you!" she told him. "We need to celebrate!"

"Sure. Yeah. Anytime. I'm just so...pumped!"

"I'm so glad you called me."

"And I'm just so lucky I have you in my life," he told her, the enthusiasm still there but tempered with genuine feeling.

"I love being in your life," she replied, wanting to call him 'honey', too, but afraid he wouldn't remember saying it to her.

"I gotta go, but you were the first person I wanted to tell."

"I'm so glad you did, Jared."

"I can't wait to see you, honey."

A second time wasn't a mistake, and Jaclyn now had a lump in her throat as she said it back.

"I'm so proud of you, sweetheart."

"I'll uh, I'll see you tonight, okay?" Jared said, her endearment going right over his head.

"Okay. See you then!"

"Bye, honey. I love you!" Jared also blurted out before hanging up prior to Jaclyn being able to reply.

"You...you what?" she said very quietly into a dead phone.

It wasn't until chow time, military speak for lunch, that Jared remembered the date. He'd already picked up a card for Jaclyn and was going to get some flowers before seeing her the next day. But after getting this incredibly good news, he had another idea in mind. One he hoped wouldn't blow her mind.

When he showed up that evening, he came in empty-handed. Jaclyn didn't think twice because her birthday wasn't until the next day, and she honestly had no expectations. But she did think twice about dinner and made reservations for them at the nicest place she could afford after looking at her checking account to be sure she could pay the bill.

"You didn't have to do that," Jared told her.

"Yes I did. There is no way we're not going to celebrate this huge deal!"

They were face to face and Jared took her hands in his and looked into her eyes when he said, "I love you so much."

Jaclyn's heart nearly burst as she said it back.

"I love you, too...honey."

Both of them moved to kiss the other and after a few seconds Jaclyn pushed herself away and said, "If we don't stop right now, we're going to miss our reservations."

"Oh. Right. Yeah, you're um, you're very hard to resist."

"It isn't just me. Trust me," she assured him with a smile that said what she didn't say.

The dinner and the glass of champagne they had were fantastic, but nothing could compare with the way Jared now felt about the beautiful, older woman he knew he loved and was in love with. There wasn't a single thing he didn't love about her, and by the time they got back to her place, he knew he was doing the right thing.

It was one minute before midnight when he told her he needed to get something from the Jeep. Less than two minutes later he came back in holding a bouquet of red roses, and Jaclyn gasped.

"Happy birthday, honey."

"Jared! Oh...my...goodness! They're...beautiful! Thank you so much!"

He handed them to her along with the card, and when he did, he saw tears welling up in her eyes.

"Let me help you with those," he said as she headed to the kitchen to trim the stems and put them in some water.

"These are so beautiful," she told him again as she trimmed one then handed it to Jared to put in a vase.

"No. They're just flowers. But you're beautiful," he told her.

"Are you trying to make me cry?" she asked, pretending like his words were no big deal.

"No. Of course not."

He saw her use the left sleeve of her blouse to dab an eye then waited for her to look at him. He took that hand then told her something was missing.

"What? What are you talking about?" she asked as he held it and looked at it from several different angles.

"It's...bare."

"Jared Quinn, what in the world are you talking about?"

He let go of it, reached into his back pocket, then got down on one knee as he opened a small, velvet box.

"Oh...my..." Jaclyn began when she saw the beautiful diamond inside of it.

She'd gotten a handle on the tears, but this was too much. The welling up became a steady stream as the younger man she loved told her how much she meant to him and that he never wanted to be without her.

"So...Jaclyn Frances...will you marry me?"

She was trying to say 'yes' but couldn't speak. But her head was nodding north and south, and a smiling Jared Quinn slid the ring on her finger then stood up. He took her hand again, looked at it, then said, "Much better."

Jaclyn put her arms around him and squeezed him tight and finally found her voice.

"I love you so much."

"I love you, too, honey."

When she finally let him go she looked at the ring and smiled.

"I love it," she said before looking at him and saying, "And I love you, too," again.

"Okay! So...where were we?" Jared quipped as he pointed to the untrimmed roses.

Jaclyn was so happy she laughed at his silliness before grabbing the next flower while never taking her eye off of the beautiful diamond ring she was now wearing.

"So...how do you feel about being an officer's wife?" Jared asked, recalling what he'd overheard at the Ordnance Day celebration.

Finding herself, Jaclyn decided it was her turn to do a little teasing.

"I don't know. I'm engaged to a sergeant who hasn't even graduated from college yet."

"Oh! You!" Jared said as he turned her his way, lifted her off the ground then spun her around.

Once they both stopped laughing she put her arms around her fiancé and said, "Things have a way of changing, though."

"Yes. Yes, they do," the man she loved replied before kissing her and asking, "do you need some...reassurance."

"No. I'm no longer in need of that," she told him matter of factly.

"Oh. I see," came the somewhat dejected response.

"But I most definitely would enjoy taking my handsome, officer-to-be fiancé to bed so he can..."

She put her lips next to his ear then whispered something he'd never heard her say before.

"Jaclyn Frances! You...you potty mouth, you!"

She laughed as she took his hand and said, "You've never complained about my mouth before."

"Good point. And no one's complaining!" Jared said immediately. "Especially not me!"

*****

In August, Jaclyn put her house on the market, and it was snapped up in just three days. Since she wasn't married to Jared, they would have to pay to move her to the Seattle area which was one of the most expensive places in the country. The money from the sale of the house along with Jared's pay let them find a very nice apartment they furnished with some of her things, the rest either getting sold or put in storage.

Never more motivated to do anything in his life, Jared approached his final year of college like it was a mission from on high. As a result, he made a perfect 4.0 GPA in every class and graduated on the 6th June with honors which was, of course, D-Day in 1944.

But more importantly, it was later that evening that Second Lieutenant Jared Quinn married the love of his life who was such a beautiful bride it took his breath away when he saw her in white. Her parents, as well as Staff Sergeant Bill Sampson, flew in for the ceremony, and it was Bill who was the first to salute the new officer after he was commissioned. Jared removed the silver dollar in his pocket and handed it to his former roommate and good friend as tradition demanded.

"Thank you...sir," the new staff sergeant said with genuine sincerity.

The two men then shook hands before Jared turned around to see a Marine sergeant major in dress blues standing at attention.

"Congratulations, sir," the immaculately-dressed Marine said to his new son-in-law.

Jared returned the perfect salute from the older Marine and thanked him.

"Take care of my girl," the sergeant major told him.

"I will, Sergeant Major. You have my word."

And with that, Jared took his beautiful wife's and led her the limousine that was waiting for them.

Alone in the limo, other than the driver, Jaclyn looked at her new husband then at the new diamond band on her hand and told him how much she loved him.

"And I love you, too...Mrs. Quinn."

Jaclyn smiled then held out her left hand, smiled, then told her husband, "Things really do change, huh?"

Jared took it, kissed it, then said, "Yes. Yes, they do," as they limo drove off symbolizing the start of their life together as husband and wife.

****

By the time Lieutenant Quinn reported to Camp Pendleton, California, his beautiful wife was three months pregnant with their first child. Jared was given the platoon of Marines he'd dreamed of leading for the last two years and went on to command a rifle company four years later.

Each time a significant event happened in their lives, either he or Jaclyn would smile and say, "Things change."