No Matter What

Chapter 44

"Don Man, is everything okay?" Meryl asked her husband as they continued to sit up in bed and play with the babies. "You keep looking at your phone."

Don had an alternative reason for wanting to take care of supper. He had been thinking about this at the hospital and he even had a chance to talk to Stacey about it privately. Once Stacey confirmed what he was afraid of, he put his plan in place. He was able to privately bring all the Browns in on it once they got home and Meryl was asleep. Now, he wanted to make sure that his wife was up to it. "Everything is fine. Actually, I need to talk to you about something."

"Okay." Meryl said as she placed Brady on her lap, and then placed Mags' on Don's. "You said everything is fine?"

Don nodded with a smile. "It is. Well, if you marry me."

"Don." Meryl shook her head with a laugh. "I'm the one that asked you, remember?"

"I do." Don said with a small smile. "However, I was hoping you would marry me tonight."

Meryl was shocked. "Tonight? How?"

"Well, Larry hopped on it and got us a marriage license, and took care of all the legal stuff." Don grinned and held up his left hand. "We have the rings. Larry can marry us. We have each other."

Meryl wanted nothing more, she was just surprised. "What brought all this on? I thought we were going to wait until we got home and do it up big."

"We were, and we still can if that's what you prefer. However, I personally don't want life to get in the way anymore. When I couldn't find you earlier and saw that text from my mother, I was terrified she had taken you away from me. That she had taken you away from us. I don't want to put this on hold any longer. You are too important to me. We can have a big wedding when we get home." Don decided to continue to tell her where this was coming from. "At the hospital while you were in the machine, Stacey had me sign some papers for you. I asked her if I could still make medical decisions for you even though we are not legal married. She said I could since it was on file that you put me down as your power of attorney. I asked her what would happen had you not, and she said that if you were unconscious I would have no say in your care and that scared the shit out of me. For 35 years, you have trusted me to make medical decisions for you, just as I have trusted you. It scared me what could happen to you and I would have no control over it. I want to be your husband in EVERY way. Will you please marry me? Tonight?"

Don's little speech caused caused tears to well up in Meryl's eyes. As she was signing those damn papers, she wanted to marry him as soon as possible, but she promised him a big wedding. Hearing his reasoning struck a chord with her, and she started to think about the situation being reversed, and she would HATE not being a part of making decisions on her husband's behalf. She carefully leaned over the babies and placed a deep kiss on his lips. "You had me at I was hoping you would marry me." Meryl said making Don laugh. "Should we tell everybody?"

"They already know, and are waiting for my word that the wedding is on." Don said making her laugh. "I just wanted to make sure it was a yes first."

Meryl shook her head at her husband. "Did you really think it wouldn't be?"

"Never." Don said as he looked down at their babies playing on their laps. "I just thought maybe you would want to wait."

"I don't want to take another moment for granted. I want to marry you right here, right now." Meryl said with a big smile on her face. "What about the kids, though?"

Don nodded, he of course had already thought of that. "We are going to FaceTime them in."

"You have thought of everything." Meryl smiled tearfully at her husband. "You are the best thing to ever happen to me, Donald Gummer."