Marc and Mercedes were in the same restaurant as his parents, but they were in a separate area of the dining room. He held her hands from across the table as they waited on the meals. “Mercedes. I have a serious question for you.”
She looked the question in her eyes at him. “What’s the question, baby?”
“How much do you love me?”
“More than life itself, Marc. Where are you going with this?”
“Do you love me enough to marry me?” He reached into his pocket.
Her eyes widened a little bit. “Yes.”
“Do you love me enough to be the mother of my children?”
“Yes.”
He pulled the small black box out of his pocket. “Mercedes, say you’ll be my wife”, he said as he dropped to one knee and opened the box.
She gasped as one hand covered her mouth and the other went to her chest. “Oh my God, Marc.” Tears filled her eyes as she extended her. “Yes, Marc.”
He caught her shaking hand, laid a soft kiss against her knuckles, and slipped the ring on her hand before kissing her. “‘Cedes, you just made me the happiest guy in the entire world”, he whispered against her lips.
“No, Marky, you just made me the happiest girl in the entire world.”
---------------
Dress rehearsal was the following day. The guys were all buzzing with energy. They’d spent hours getting warmed up and ready to go out on stage. “David Michael Draiman, would you be still for a few moments?” Brie asked as she helped him into the straight jacket that he going to be wearing at a couple of points during the show. “You’re making it impossible for me to buckle this damn thing.” She was making sure that it fit or if they needed to buy another one. She knew of a couple of places where she could get one at a reasonable price.
“I can’t help it”, he laughed. “This is the rehearsal for the last show. Tomorrow, I’m going to be putting on this straight jacket for the last time. I can’t help but buzz a little bit. I’m sure all of the guys feel that way.”
She laughed. “What will it take to get you to settle down long enough for me to finish locking you in this contraption?”
“I’d say kiss me to distract me, but…”
She contemplated that for a moment. “Wouldn’t work. I’d have to see what I was doing. But I do have an idea.” She looked around for one of their children. “Jacob!” she called when she spotted the good doctor.
“Yeah Mom?” he asked.
“Will you help me get your father in this damn straight jacket? He can’t seem to be still long enough for me to fasten it.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“Secure it while I distract him.”
Jake raised an eyebrow at the comment until he saw what his mother had in mind. Watching his parents make out didn’t really bother him. He actually thought it was funny that they had been together for so long and were still so in love. It was… endearing, for lack of a better word. He just took one of his father’s arms and secured it in the back, then took the other and did the same thing. He patted his father on the back and chuckled. “Done back here. You’re secure, Dad.”
Brie pulled away and looked at their son. “Thank you, Jacob.”
“No problem, Mom.”
She looked back at her husband. “There, that wasn’t so hard; was it?”
He chuckled. “I guess not. So, how does it feel to see me in this?”
“I’ve always know you belonged in one”, she laughed.
He laughed. “That’s cold. That’s REALLY cold.”
“No. Cold would be saying that you also belong in a padded room complete with that little slot where they slide your tray in.”
His jaw dropped. “Wow. You’re evil.”
She giggled. “I learned from the best you know.” She stretched up and kissed his nose.
“I know you’re not saying that was me.”
“Nope. You remember that tall, lanky mother fucker we buried about fifteen years ago, right? Matt, my brother?”
He laughed a little harder. “You’re a sarcastic bitch, huh?”
“I thought you knew”, she said with a laugh. “I mean, David, 31 years and you DON’T know? Come on.”
He laughed so hard he had to lean down and rest his head on his shoulders. “Oh my God!” he laughed as he struggled to breathe.
She kissed the top of his head and rubbed his back. “You’ll get over it I’m sure, Big Daddy. In through your nose, and out through your mouth. You can control this. Anyway, Jordan’s almost done out there. You need to get out of the straight jacket and ready to run out onto the stage. How does the straight jacket fit? Still like a glove?”
“Yeah”, he laughed. “Still fits like a glove. Get me out of this fucking thing.”
She walked around behind him and started unfastening the buckles that held him in it. “I think you’re sexy in this, by the way.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Just something about it. It’s… kinky.”
“I could always get one for you.”
“I’ll give that some thought.” She helped him slip out of the straight jacket and kissed him. “Grab your mic, handsome. I’ll stay back here so that someone can help you get into this damn thing once you need it.”
He grabbed the mic and kissed her again. “I’ll be back in a little bit.” He started getting warmed up to run as he listened to the guys play ‘Remnants’. When his first cue in ‘Asylum’ came up, he screamed into the mic, “Release me! RRAW!” and took off running out onto the stage.
Brie stood back and smiled. She was happy to finally have the chance to see him in his element once more. The rally tour seemed like it had been a lifetime before. Now, as she watched him work the stage for the first time in years, she couldn’t help but smile. Wow, it’s almost over, she thought. This is going to be the most monumental performance in history. I can feel it. She had no idea just how monumental the performance was truly going to be. The records they would break would stand for years to come.
---------------
That night at family, dinner David and Brie were shocked at the amount of new news everyone had. “We’re getting married!” Marc said when his parents came to him. As usual, they started with the youngest and worked their way to the oldest. Jessi’s news was the introduction of her new boyfriend to her sisters. They boys had already met him.
James and Jeremiah hadn’t had any news. Meagan was excited about her new job at NASA and Makayla was going to be going back home to teach dance. Maddie announced the expansion of the clinic to include two new saunas, a mud tub, and a new acupuncture room was being set up in the expectation that they would soon be hiring Damien, Jona’s brother.
“We’re pregnant again”, Jake said with a smile.
“Do you know yet or are the powers that be going to let you have a surprise this time?” David asked
“No odd dreams of late, thankfully. Hopefully God will let me have a surprise this time”, Jake said with a laugh.
“What are you hoping for?” Brie asked.
“I’m hoping for another girl”, Delilah said. “Of course I won’t care as long as they’re healthy, but I really want another girl.”
“Jordan? Any news?”
“Actually, I think my news goes right along with my twin’s to be honest. We’ve found another sperm donor. Davina’s pregnant. She’s about two months along now. We’ll find out in two months what she’s having.”
“What are you hoping for?” David asked.
“A girl”, Davina said. “And I think we’ll be done after that. We’ll have one of each. That’s all a lesbian couple really needs, I think.”
“And last but not least; Malachai. Any news for you and Mandy?”
“You’re going to be getting three new grandchildren from us in about four months. We found a great surrogate, she was inseminated five months ago and we’re having triplets. We’re done after that. No more for us.”
“Boys? Girls?”
“We’re going to have that same delicate balance you two managed to achieve. The triplets are going to be two girls and one boy”, Mandy added with a smile.
“Excited?” Brie asked.
“Oh yeah. We’ve been trying so hard for so long. Finally, Eli’s not going to be the baby anymore.”
---------------
Brie beat David to bed that night. She was lying in bed with her Kindle in her lap as she read a new book that had come out not long before that she’s been interested in reading for a few months. David was standing over the sink of their open bathroom staring into the mirror. “Wow”, he said out of nowhere.
Brie looked up at him from the book she was reading. “What, baby?”
“We’re going to have a new daughter in law soon. And at least five new grandchildren within the year. It’s a lot to take in, love.”
She took her glasses off and laid them, with her Kindle, on the nightstand. “I know. It’s strange that all these babies are being born like this. It’s rather sudden. I guess with Malachai and Mandy being in their mid thirties now, they’re feeling the push to have more. I mean, if you think about it, Miranda and Isaiah are going to be old enough to start making babies soon. We’re just getting used to being Gramma and Grampa. Can you imagine being Great- gramma and Great- grampa?”
David shuttered at the thought. “Oy vey. Are we really old enough to be great- grandparents?”
“It’s coming, David. We both know it is. We’re going to have to accept it. Doesn’t mean we’re getting old. It just means that we’re getting better seasoned.”
“Personally, I view you as a fine wine. You just get better with age.”
“As do you, my love.” She patted the bed beside her. “Come lie down, David. This bed is awfully big and cold without you in it.”
He laughed as he walked over to the bed and crawled in next to his wife. Once they were lying down David brushed the back of his hand down her cheek. “You have got to be the most patient woman on the face of the planet”, he said.
“Why do you say that?” she asked, looking up at him from where her head rested on his chest.
“Thirty years you’ve stood by and watched me do this. You stayed home with the kids and made sure that everything was being held down the way it was supposed to be. You never complained that I wasn’t around enough. You just took the good with the bad and let me be a rock star.”
“David, there hasn’t been an ordeal that I’ve had to go through that you weren’t right there next to me. You want to talk about how I’ve taken the good with the bad? My love, you are the epitome of that in my mind. Every ordeal I’ve gone through, you’ve stood by me. From the moment you saved my life all those years ago when you tackled me to the floor as the sniper’s bullet broke the glass in my clinic, you’ve been right there through it all.”
“You’ve done the same for me.”
“And that’s why we work. We’re very yin and yang, David. We’re mutually supportive of each other. We balance each other.”
He brushed a lock of hair from her face. “I love you so much, Brie. I have no idea what I would do without you. You were the missing piece of my soul when you came into my life.”
She reached up and rubbed his scruffy cheek. “And I love you too, David. You completed me the moment I met you, I was just afraid to admit it. I don’t know what I would do without you either.” She stretched up and kissed him passionately. The kiss built to the point that Brie actually had to pull back. “Baby, as much as I’d love to make love with you right now, I have to ask if it’s a good idea. You have a show tomorrow.”
“I’ll be fine, love. Let me make love to you right now. I want to show you how much I love you.”
She didn’t respond with her words, but with her lips. He rolled her onto her back and settled between her legs. Being with his wife like this was sure to tire him out enough to sleep. He would get up in the morning ready to do his final performance ever. He was may have been calm on the outside, but on the inside he was bouncing off the walls. He knew that if he was going to get the rest he needed, he needed to expel the pinned up energy so that he could sleep; and that’s what he intended to do.
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