Well, after almost a month-long of debating whether I should enter this Challenge, I finally decided today and rushed out this story. It's a little on the long side for a post but I wanted to make the deadline. Enjoy!






Desperate for changing, starving for truth
I'm closer to where I started, I'm chasing after you

Jack watched Sue as she absent-mindedly fingered the chain around her neck. The additional chain to the cross she had always been wearing. The one that had her wedding ring on it. He’d know; he had a similar one around his neck too. He smiled to himself as he recalled the events leading up to the two rings.

It was about two weeks ago. They had finally wrapped up a particularly difficult case and the whole team decided to head down to Bennington’s for a couple of drinks to unwind. A couple of drinks soon turned into a couple of drinks too many as Jack became loose with his words. Not quite drunk enough to not know what he was saying, but just drunk enough to not care.

He was walking Sue home when he finally decided he wanted the truth. To finally find out if Sue’s feelings about him were the same as his feelings about her. So, empowered by the alcohol and adrenaline, he plucked up the courage to ask, “Sue, would you like to marry me?”

X

Sue was thinking about how did they ever end up like this. Married with both their parents’ blessings but unable to tell their co-workers about it. Yes, she knew he was joking. She was attempting to take the joke one step further – to call his bluff.

So the next thing she knew, they were in a judge’s chambers, waiting to get married. And all the while, Sue waited for Jack to admit that he was just kidding. But he didn’t admit it.

20 minutes later, they left the chambers as man and wife. Sue was now legally Mrs. Jack Hudson. It had really happened and she was miserable. Not because she didn’t love Jack but because she wanted a real wedding. She wanted to wear a wedding dress, not the blazer, blouse and pants she was currently sporting. She wanted her father to walk her down the aisle, the chambers didn’t have one. She wanted her friends to be watching, not just the judge.

X

Jack rubbed Sue’s hands in a bid to get her attention. She snapped out of her dreaming and turned to Jack.

“YOU-OK?” he signed.

“Just thinking,” she gave a weak smile.

“About us,” he nodded.

“We have to tell them,” Sue brought up the subject that Jack had been trying to avoid for some time now. “You promised me that we’d tell them.”

“I promised you a lot of things that night, huh?” he gave a sheepish smile. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to tell the world she was his. He just had to figure out a way around the no-dating rule first.

“A promise is a debt,” Sue said matter-of-factly.

Jack sighed. Sue’s mind was set and there was no changing it. “All right, we’ll tell them when we get back from lunch.”





I'm falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I've held on to
I'm standing here until you make me move
I'm hanging by a moment here with you

Sue couldn’t help but notice the curious glances she was getting from her coworkers, or the whispers that followed her down the hall. Once or twice, she stopped to look around, but every time she did, they all went about their business as if they hadn’t been saying anything. It was really starting to grate on her last nerve. She sped up her pace, practically sprinting into the conference room.

Jack glanced up as she all but slammed the door behind her, his brow furrowed in both confusion and concern. “Are you all right?” he asked, his voice adopting that tone that could turn dangerous if she didn’t calm him down.

“We work with juveniles,” she said, collapsing into her chair. Ever since 2 weeks ago, whispers and stares met them everywhere. It had only been 2 weeks, but she didn’t know how much more she could take before she snapped. “I think they know something.”

Jack smiled and shook his head. “They suspect, that’s all,” he said. “They don’t know anything. They just think they do.”

Sue sighed. Either he truly didn’t care what people thought about the two of them together, or he was in complete denial about the whole situation. Either way, she was growing frustrated. She was tired of the two of them having to wear their wedding rings on chains around their necks. She was tired of not being able to touch him or steal kisses. She was tired of one of them having to wait to leave so it wouldn’t raise suspicion. She was tired of sneaking around. Sneaking around took energy that she simply didn’t have. Any energy that she had when she got home from work was used up by the grinning fool sitting opposite her. Any questions on his stamina were banished from her mind.

“We need to tell them about us now,” Sue said, for what felt like the millionth time.

He sighed. “All right, Suzie,” he said. She smiled. She loved it when he called her that, so long as he called her Sue at the proper moments. “We’ll tell them.”

“Excellent.” She rose from her seat and was at the door when she realized that he was still seated. She raised an eyebrow at him and shot him a pointed look.

“What?” he said. “Now?”

“It’s now or never, Jack.”

He lifted one shoulder in a barely perceptible shrug. “I vote never.”

“Jack.”

“All right, fine.”





Forgetting all I'm lacking, completely incomplete
I'll take your invitation; you take all of me now

“For the last time, D,” Lucy grumbled, “You can only pick one. Picking more than one is cheating.”

“It’s not cheating,” D insisted, attempting to take Lucy’s pencil from her. “It’s hedging my bets.”

Lucy and D fought over the pencil, which surprised Sue. “If you were so confident in your pick, you wouldn’t need to hedge your bets.”

“She’s got you there, mate,” Bobby laughed and then looked up, meeting Sue’s gaze. “Hey there, Sue.”

The others looked up. D released his grip on Lucy’s pencil, and Lucy scrambled to close the day planner in which she’d been writing. Sue pursed her lips. She knew they knew something had happened, and she knew that whatever they had just been discussing had something to do with that, but she had no idea what it could be.

Sue looked expectantly at Jack. Jack returned her stare, raising an eyebrow as if to say, “Well?” She turned back to the others and took a deep breath.

“Jack and I have something to tell you guys,” she said. Movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she turned to see that Jack was pointing at her and shaking his head. She ignored him.

“What is it, Sue?” Lucy asked, looking more eager than anxious, which only served to confirm Sue’s suspicions that they knew something.

Sue took another deep breath. “Jack and I are…” She stopped and took another deep breath. She noticed absently that Myles was bracing his hands on the table, leaning forward. “Jack and I are…” Lucy had scooted closer, her hands clasped in front of her. “We’re…”

Jack groaned, grabbed Sue’s hand, pulled her towards him, and kissed her. Really kissed her. Like he kissed her when they got back to his apartment. Like he kissed her on their wedding night. This was not at all a chaste little appropriate-for-work kiss. He released her just as abruptly, and then ran his thumb across his bottom lip, as if savoring her taste.

When Sue could only gape at him, he grinned and said, “There you go. We told ‘em.” And he leaned against the doorframe, looking so unbelievably good.

Myles’ jumping up and down tore her eyes from Jack. He was dancing around the break room and laughing in everyone’s face. “I won! I won!”

“Won what?” Sue asked, as Lucy grudgingly held out a wad of cash, which Myles gleefully ripped from her hand. Sue gasped as she realized what they’d been discussing earlier. “You guys bet on whether or not we’d get together?”

“No,” Lucy exclaimed, sounding scandalized. “There was no question you guys would get together. We were betting on when.”

Myles giggled – actually giggled – and started counting his money. “Yeah, and today was my day in the pool.”

Jack and Sue exchanged a glance. Jack was smiling, and Sue couldn’t resist smirking at Myles. “Hate to break it to you, Myles, but if you were betting on today, you lost.”

Lucy let out a great barking laugh and grabbed the cash out of Myles’ hand. He narrowed his eyes. “So then who won?”

Ted Nerdley suddenly appeared in the doorway, waving a sheet of paper. “Hey, guys, I’ve got those IP addresses for you.” He looked around, his brow furrowed. “Did I not get an invitation to the party?”

Sue leaned forward so that she could look at Lucy’s day planner, and now she saw what Lucy had been writing – nearly every day of that month had little initials penciled by the date. D had apparently been attempting to pick more than one day. She trailed her finger along the previous week until she found the date of her and Jack’s impromptu wedding. She lightly tapped the day with one finger.

She didn’t notice that her wedding ring had fallen out until she saw mouths hanging open.

“Oh, my God,” Lucy said. She stood up so quickly that she knocked her chair over.

Bobby crossed the room in three strides and yanked at the chain around Jack’s neck, pulling his ring out of his shirt. “I knew it!”

“You got married?” Lucy asked, though she sounded more awed than shocked. “Like, really married?”

Sue could only nod. Her tongue felt thick in her throat. She closed her eyes, mentally preparing herself for the onslaught of comments that were sure to follow this certainly unexpected revelation. But no one said anything, and when Sue finally dared to open her eyes, she saw that everyone was looking in yet another day planner.

“No way,” Tara whispered, raising her eyes from the planner to look behind Sue.

Ted reached across the table and plucked the wad of bills from Lucy’s hand. He started to count them, whistling nonchalantly, completely ignoring the shocked looks he was getting from his coworkers. He turned away without saying a word and disappeared out the door, still whistling.

Sue looked at Jack. He shook his head.





There's nothing else to lose, there's nothing else to find
There's nothing in the world that can change my mind.

It was everything he’d ever wanted it to be.

It was big and romantic. It took him ages to plan it.

He took her ice-skating at the ice-rink. She’d never been ice-skating at the ice-rink in the middle of fall. Neither had he. He led her out to the center of the ice. He got down on one knee. He pulled out the emerald diamond he’d only found after dragging Lucy to a hundred stores. Green was Sue’s favorite color.

She gasped, and her hands flew to her mouth. “Jack,” she said, but he stopped her. Everyone around them was watching intently.

“Sue,” he said. “I love you. More and more each day. I love you so much it hurts. And you deserve more than I can give you. But I want to be the guy that gives it to you. You deserve a real proposal, and a real wedding. You deserve to have a romantic story to tell our children and our grandchildren. You deserve better than me. But I’m yours, for as long as you’ll have me.”

She started crying, and instead of answering him with words she answered him with a long lingering kiss that left his insides churning and his knees turning to butter.

“I love you, Jack Hudson,” she said when she pulled away. She whispered it in his ear so that he would hear it over the applause from the spectators. “I have always loved you. But what about the rule?”

“They said no dating. No one said anything about being married,” he grinned. He looked so adorable and Sue resisted the urge to kiss him again. Sue failed.




I'm falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I've held on to
I'm standing here until you make me move
I'm hanging by a moment here with you

It was everything she’d ever wanted it to be.

It was simple and elegant. It was beautiful and romantic.

The church was decorated with flowers – lilacs, her favorite. It was small, but they didn’t need a big wedding. All the important people were there: her father, her mother and brothers, his parents, his grandparents, his cousins, their friends. Only a few of the pews were filled, but they were filled by loved ones.

Her dress was silk and satin. There was no train. Lucy and Tara, the maids of honor, wore dark blue dresses and carried bouquets of white roses. Bobby, the best man, and the other ushers – Myles and D – looked amazing in their tuxedos with dark blue cummerbunds.

Jack always did look good in a tux.

Her father walked her down the aisle. She couldn’t stop smiling. She also couldn’t stop the tears that spilled out of her eyes as the priest – a real priest – began the ceremony.

Jack lightly squeezed her hand halfway through the vows. She squeezed it back.

She could barely make it through, she was crying so much. Jack sniffled a couple of times and could only continue after Bobby gave him his handkerchief.

They were pronounced husband and wife – again. Everyone in the church cheered as Jack kissed her. The kiss was anything but chaste, but it was hardly inappropriate. They were in church, after all.

When Jack pulled away, he said, “I just wanted to give you the fairytale. Like I promised.”

She shook her head, smiling. “Oh, Jack. You already did.”

FADE OUT

Lyrics from Lifehouse’s “Hanging by a moment”.

beautiful

loved the team laying bets on when it would happen

cath

~Siti~

I Loved it. thought it was cute when bobby yanked the chain from jack's shirt. of all the people tp win the bet ... what a surprise.. wait were there two bets going on? t'm glad you posed the story.

Great story!
Glad you decided to post! Thanks for sharing!
Ted Nerdley won the bet!

THat was cute....simple but cute. Love it Mel.

That was perfect Mel, so glad to see you enter in the Challenge!!!

Jen

Great story Mel, perfect!

Never complain about a post being too long either!!!

Soph

Wonderful story

Loved the story. Just right

Dianna

Thanks for a beautiful story.

So adorable

Loved the story and the song!
thanks,
Terie

Whew! Caught up at last.

This is good! Well done and so glad you made it in time.

Glad he kept his promise, it was important for both of them!

Beautiful!

Simple and peaceful! Excellently amazing!

Melissa, I love this!! So like our team and Jack and Sue!!!

Thanks for sharing!!!

Joy

reread this and its terrific lin

lol loved the bet making for both when they got together and when they got married.

That was wonderful.




Hope ~