Impromptu Wedding

By Donna, Toni and Ev

It had been a day that had felt longer than usual to Toni, as she drove herself and Marty home in the small buggy they used to go back and forth. But then, she thought to herself as she pulled up in front of Marty's home, they had seemed like that a lot lately. Maybe she wasn't getting enough sleep.

Marty stepped down off the buggy, hiding a yawn behind her own hand. "See you tomorrow when we go to church," she said sleepily. Between her managing the day care in town and helping Luc with the grape harvest and wine making, Marty was running on empty herself. Luc was out in his vineyard cleaning things up after harvest and to prepare for winter.  He saw Marty arrive and waved, but turned back to his work.  Soon he saw more smoke coming from the chimney and thoughts of dinner ran through his mind, but he wanted to get a certain area finished before he quit for the night. 

Meanwhile Toni drove the short distance to her own place.  Sal stepped out of the barn when he heard the sound of a buggy, smiling when he saw it was Toni driving up. "I made a nice pasta and salad for dinner," he told her as he helped her down. "Go inside. I'll take care of the horse."

She was grateful for what he'd done, and, going in, she immediately sank into a comfortable chair, closing her eyes temporarily. Maybe just a few winks....

"Bella? Wake up! You should eat something," came a voice from what seemed to be far away. Sal had come in and found his fiancé sound asleep, dinner untouched.

Toni woke groggily, murmuring, "Ooh, God, my feet are aching, love. Just let me get a few more minutes...."

Sal chuckled and eased her shoes off. "I will take care of your aching feet, Bella," he said. The Sicilian then proceeded to give her a wonderful foot massage. Of course, being who he was, his hands didn't stay very long on her feet. But then something very out of character happened. The tired woman said, "Oh yes, that's so good...", and the next thing anyone knew, was fast asleep, with her beloved's hands caressing her thighs!

"Bella?" Sal said, looking up. His only answer was a soft snore. Shaking his head, he gently picked her up and carried her to the bed that they shared. But as he went to blow out the lantern by the bed, he noticed her date book. A thought crossed his mind, and he thumbed though it while Toni slept soundly beside him.  A thoughtful look on his face, he closed the book, then covered Toni with a quilt. Kissing her tenderly on the forehead, he left the house.

***

 Even though she was beat, Marty managed to get a good supper on the table. But Luc, even though she called him several times, did not show up to eat it. Sighing, she put everything away except for his plate, and then went to bed.

 Luc worked as fast as he could and still do everything properly.  He thought he might have heard someone calling him at one point, but when he stopped to listen, he didn't hear it anymore, so he went on.  When he finally finished, he cleaned up and went in.  The house was fragrant with the scent of a nice, home made meal, but Marty was nowhere to be found.  There was just his plate on the table.  Concerned, he looked around and found her fast asleep in bed.

He thought about waking her up, but decided against it. Returning to the kitchen, he sat down to eat. He was just finishing up when he heard a knock at the door.

Luc took the last forkful of dinner and paused to put his plate in the sink before answering the door.  He couldn't imagine who it could be.  They weren't expecting anyone.  His eyebrows rose when he opened the door and saw Sal. His friend looked concerned about something.  "Is something wrong?  Come in." 

“No, nothing is wrong," Sal said as he came in, greeting his friend in a typical European fashion with a hug. "Could I please talk to Marty? I have something important to ask her."

"She is sleeping.  When I came in from the vineyard, she was already in bed.  This has never happened before."  Luc frowned thoughtfully.  "You know what is going on?"

Sal shook his head. "I do not know about how your woman is, but Toni is very careful about keeping records. I looked in Toni's date book. She always puts... she puts little x's on the days when she is, you know, indisposed. It has been almost 2 months since she put any x's in her book."

"Indisposed?"  Luc grinned. That was a very old-fashioned way to put it.  Then he realized...  "You think that she is pregnant?"  He would have gone on, but he started going over in his mind his past activities with Marty.  He could not remember the last time Marty had been *indisposed*! His eyes widened at the thought. Could both women possibly be with child? Sal, reading the look on his friend's face, poured them both some of the strawberry wine that Marty had made earlier in the year.

"We must do the right thing, my friend," the Sicilian said firmly, a serious look on his face.

"Yes.  We must.  Tomorrow we will go and talk to one of the priests.  We should take care of it tomorrow!"  Luc shook his head.  "I did not expect to be married like this.  Where will we get rings?" 

"There are some in the store, I do believe," Sal told him. "We will go into town with them to attend the morning service. Afterwards, we will ask the priest to perform the ceremony."

Luc nodded, and then raised his glass in a silent toast to the two women and to the fact they could possibly both be fathers already.

***

Toni finally woke, and felt a little better, at least. It was Sunday and she enjoyed going to church very much. As she got ready to go, she again wondered what had been so off about her energy level lately. Maybe a trip to the doctor after church for some basic tests would be in order. She nodded affirmingly to her reflection in the mirror.

To her surprise, Sal was getting ready to go as well. The Sicilian had made his peace with God over his actions in the past and the blood that had been on his hands, but he still wasn't exactly a regular church attendee. Toni didn’t press him to come, but enjoyed it when he did. On the few times that he did go with her, they would usually eat out and visit with friends in town.

On the other hand, Luc had yet to darken the door of the Mission. So when the Frenchman took his best suit of clothes out of the closet while Marty was getting ready to go in with Toni, her jaw dropped in surprise.

"Luc!  You're actually going to church with me?  If this is something to do with losing a bet or that sort of thing, I don't want to know."  She winked at him as she finished dressing.

He smiled mysteriously.  "All right.  I will not tell you."

She looked at him and shrugged. "Just don't fall asleep during the service," she teased.

A short time later the two couples were on the road. They were going in early because they wanted to drop by and see Ceara and her baby. After dropping the women off at the boarding house, Sal and Luc dashed over the Mercantile. There, just as Sal had said, there was a small collection of wedding rings.

As the women played with the new arrival to their town, Toni smiled, "He's so adorable...makes you wonder about the day when you're going to have one of your own, doesn't it?" The question was directed at Marty, whose finger was busily being gummed by the young Mr. Harper.

"It does.  I remember when my friends and my cousins were having theirs.  I always used to feel just a little bit jealous," Marty sighed happily. 

The two women continued to smile, as they both envisioned themselves with little ones of their own. Then, slowly, Toni's smile faded, as an idea occurred to her. Again looking at her friend, she asked, "Marty, have you been sort of...unexplainably tired lately?"

Marty stopped and thought about it, a look of surprise stealing across her face.  "You know, now that you mention it, yes, I have!  Last night, I made dinner and I couldn't even manage to stay up for it.  Luc wasn't even in yet when I went to bed.  I just couldn't keep my eyes open.  I was thinking it was... I don't know, from staying up a little too late or something.  What about you?" 

"I actually fell asleep with Sal's hands on my thighs and moving up my legs!" she remembered, astonished now that she thought about it. That sort of thing would normally find them in bed, but definitely not asleep! She looked, a bit wide-eyed, first at the baby, at the other woman. "Marty, do you think..."

Marty considered for a moment.  "It's possible."  She wasn't sure yet quite how she felt about it.  This idea would take some getting used to. 

Meanwhile, the men had made their way to the church, where they had found Father Alec and the others making preparations for the service. If the priests were surprised to see them, they hid it well. But the request to be married after the service took them a little by surprise! Even so, once Sal and Luc both convinced the priests that they were sincere, it was agreed upon. No one even thought to ask if the women had been asked! After all, that was what was normally done!

When those particular women were picked up by their men, neither one mentioned anything about their suspicions in front of them. They figured they'd bring it up later, when they weren't in danger of an immediate buggy wreck!

Luc smiled at Marty.  He was going over in his mind how he wanted to propose to her, but none of the words seemed to be right.  He had better think of something soon! 

Likewise, Toni noticed Sal a bit quieter than usual even for him! Concerned, she asked softly, "Sal, are you all right? Is there anything the matter?"

He mumbled something under his breath. Before Toni could ask him to repeat what he said, they had arrived at the church. They had to rush in, because the service was fixing to start. Imagine both Toni and Marty's surprise when, during the announcements, the priest invited everyone to stay after the service to witness the marriage of Salvatore Giuliano to Toni Fanara and Luc Teyssier to Marsha Collins!

The women were both speechless and wide-eyed; though Toni and Sal had been engaged for a while, somehow she never expected her wedding to come about quite this way! To tell the truth, they had never actually discussed a date! She slowly turned and looked at her love, asking softly, "Sal? When did you make these plans?"

"Last night when you were sleeping," he whispered, giving her a playful smile as he shrugged his shoulders.

Luc on the other hand had never even mentioned getting married to Marty. "It seemed like a good idea, no?" he sputtered in French.

The women exchanged glances. "What we'd like to know is, what put the idea in your minds? You never seemed to be that anxious about weddings before. What happened to make today different?" Toni pressed further.

"Shhh," Sal said, putting his finger up by his lips. "We are in church." Then both he and Luc turned their attention to the front, pretending to be totally immersed in the rituals.

Now the two women were smiling as they looked at each other, and Toni asked, in a whisper, "Just one question more, if you don't mind. Why exactly did you decide on today for these weddings?"

Sal whispered back, "I want to marry you today. Luc and I both agreed. It is a good day for a wedding." One of the responsive prayers started, so it gave him an excuse not to say anything more to her.

Luc took Marty's hand.  "We thought today..." he muttered as he gently kissed her cheek. 

Marty raised her eyebrow, her jaw set. For a moment, Luc thought she would get stubborn on him again, but to his relief, she nodded in agreement.

Any more comments were postponed by the prayers, and for a while, the discussion was tabled. When she was able to once more, Toni also nodded, though she was still wondering why today in particular had been picked. And about him and Luc agreeing, she said, "Well, I'm glad you and Luc agree, but...were you ever going to get around to asking us what we thought?" They knew their men's minds pretty well, but it was still a bit of a surprise.

Luc smiled and shrugged a little.  "It seemed that you would both say yes.  For more than one reason." 

"We.. we wanted to surprise you," Sal said, giving her his best poor pitiful me look. He didn't use it too often. Usually he had a very serious expression on his face. It was only in private with Toni that he tended to relax and enjoy himself.

Now they were getting somewhere. "Well, you did, most certainly! But besides the fact that we love you two, what other reason were you thinking of?"

"Nothing," Luc said with a shrug when Sal shot him a sharp look. "We were thinking nothing." Of course Marty didn't buy that for a second. Those two were up to something, but here in the middle of church was not the time to find out what!

The service finally ended and to the amazement of both Toni and Marty, no one got up to leave. In fact, others were waiting outside to come in! Word had been spreading through the town about the wedding, mainly thanks to Portia, the fae that had sold the men what they needed at the Mercantile.

The brides-to-be were ushered back into one of the side rooms, where they found two lovely dresses hanging up for them to change into, as well as two bouquets of flowers that they had pilfered from a garden. "Looks like they thought of everything," Marty chuckled. "Well, girlfriend, it looks like if we are in the family way, our kids are both going to be completely legit!” Toni giggled, and they turned to get ready for their rather impromptu and unexpected wedding.