You Are My Sunshine

Chapter 54 - Reality Check

"I asked her if she believed in love, and she smiled and said it was her most elaborate method of self-harm." - Benedict Smith

*About a week later*

The change of shift was always eerily quiet. Day shift forensics sat in the locker room, hiding from their supervisor on the chance any cases came over the wires while night shift slowly bumbled in one by one. Amelia wasn't hiding though; she was at her computer looking to request a copy of her marriage license to help speed along the annulment. Surprisingly, all she found was the first license, issued for use, but the signed copy was nowhere in the records database. She immediately called the vital records office.

"Hi, I'm sorry I know it's late in the day and a Friday but I need some help." Amelia blurted out before the woman even finished her greeting. "I'm with the LVPD, if that makes a difference."

The woman sighed as she agreed. "Sure, only because you're a city worker. What do you need?"

"I'm looking for a marriage license, mine actually." Amelia admitted. "We were married a few months ago, but I can't seem to find the signed copy."

"What's your full name, middle and maiden." The woman asked and Amelia could hear her typing.

"Amelia Jane Winston," she sighed anxiously. "My husband is Jackson Nathaniel Teller."

Silence. If felt like the longest silence Amelia had to wait through while the woman searched. "I'm not seeing it," she said with uncertainty. "One was issued but the signed copy was never returned back to the city."

"Wait," Amelia felt sick. "So, we're not married? Not technically?"

"Not technically, not at all," she said regretfully. "I'm sorry, even if you found it, it's expired, so you'd have to reapply for a new license and have an officiant marry you. I'm really sorry."

"Yeah, thanks."

--

Amelia went back to Juice's since Alice was with Jax and, much to her dismay, Gemma, who had come to visit when she heard of the separation.

"Hey," he beamed as she walked in. "How's my girl?" Wriggling his eyebrows he pulled her close.

"I'm more your girl than we ever realized," she sighed, kicking her heels off. "Turns out the judge never finalized the paperwork, I'm not actually married to Jax."

She could see how hard he was trying to hide his joy but Juice still looked ready to burst no matter the effort. "That's good, isn't it? You look sad, Amelia, why are you sad?"

"It's good, for us, but this means everything is a battle." Closing her eyes, she leaned her head back on the couch, exhausted by her life more and more each day. "Since Alice wasn't born here they'll have to check her paternity, and we'll have to go to court for custody and child support, and the house, I don't even know what happens with that. We have to figure it out, I guess? I don't think I can afford the mortgage and my car payment, medical bills and all that shit without help, help I would have gotten automatically through the divorce settlement and annulment."

"Oh." Now he understood her dismay and her hidden heartbreak could remain just that, hidden. "Shit, that's a fucking mess."

"Yeah," she rolled her eyes even though they were shut tight. "Had I known we'd never get married I wouldn't have put my name on the mortgage and the deed, or I wouldn't have had him on it."

"I'd say sell it and we'll get a place together but, yeah, then you'd have a dead man on the mortgage and deed instead of a deadbeat."

Amelia smiled, wishing it were that easy, and grabbed his hand to pull him onto the couch beside her. "You're too sweet, Juan Carlos."