24 Hours (Wattys 2016)

Hour 22

Hour 22

4:00am EST

We are lying on Beckett's bed when my phone dings, signalling that the hour is over.

"Now what?" Beckett asks, sitting up.

I check my list, then check it again.

"I-I didn't plan anything for this hour." I mumble, confused on why my timeline goes from 5am-3am.

"What?" Beckett gasps in mock horror. "Harlyn didn't plan?"

"I skipped over four am." I shake my head, puzzled.

"Well now what do we do?" Beckett laughs and I shove his shoulder.

"I don't know." I shake my head again. "I guess you can choose what we do."

"I think we should find a spot for our marriage, and our dream house." Beckett grins.

"Beckett that will just make us not want to--" He cut me off.

"Come on, it will be fun." He gives me his best puppy dog face and I can't help but give in.

"Fine." A smile stretches over my face. "Let's go get married!" Beckett pulls me down the stairs and we quietly exit his house. One we are in the car, Beckett leans over and gives me a kiss.

"What was that for?" I ask when he pulls away.

"I was being spontaneous." He says and I laugh.

"So where do you want to get married?" I ask as we pull away from his house.

"I was thinking we would go down by the river and see if we find any perfect spots." Beckett grinned over at me.

"Do you remember last year," I begin. "We were walking along the river, and we saw that couple getting married?"

"That's what made me think of it."

"They looked so happy." I sighed.

"We could be like them some day." Beckett says softly.

I smile over at him, but it wavers.

"You can't lose hope, Harlyn." Beckett continues in the soft voice that makes my heart break.

"I could never." I say, blinking tears out of my eyes.

"We have three hours." Beckett says, and it sounds like such little time. "Lets not be sad for another two and a half, ok?"

"Ok." I nodded as we pull up by the river.

We don't talk as we leave the car, both lost in our own worlds. We walk down by the edge of the river and pass a big oak tree.

"Right there." I say, pointing to the tree.

"Next to the tree?" Beckett asks and I shake my head.

"In the tree." I smile, and tug his hand over. I begin to climb the tree and hear Beckett's laugh behind me.

"You are insane." He calls, but I can hear him climbing behind me. I reach where the branches become too frail to climb any higher, and I perch on a sturdy one.

"I want to get married right here." I say as Beckett sits next to me. "So high that they need to scream to talk to us, and it feels like there is no one else in the world but us." I take out our poloroid and snap a picture of the Beckett sitting the the tree next to me, half of his face blending into darkness.

"That sounds amazing." Beckett says, and the ends of his hair curl in the night wind.

"And we should marry at 4am." I laugh.

"4:15 to be exact." Beckett laughs too, and leans over and kisses me.

"I love you." I whisper when we pull away.

"I love you." He says back. We are quiet for a moment, lost in eachothers arms. "And I do." Beckett whispers.

"I do."

*****

"Why don't you want to live on the river?" Beckett asks, as we drive away from the river in search of a dream house.

"I just don't." I shrug. "I would feel compelled to enjoy canoeing and I really hate it." I say and he laughs.

"But you could go for a swim in your backyard." He insists.

"So we have a pool." I shrug again.

"What about that house on the hill?" He asks and my eyes brighten.

"The modern one built last year?" I ask and he nodds.

"It has a pool." He grins and I nod in agreement.

"That is definitely a possibility."

"Let's go look at it." Beckett says and turns right.

"That's so creepy." I wrinkle my nose. "People live in there."

"It's four in the morning." Beckett insists. "No one will notice."

"We look from the end of the street only." I say and Beckett agrees. We pull into the street and begin to climb the steepest hill in town.

"Stop here." I say when we can see the house.

"Wouldn't this be a fun place to live when it snows?" Beckett asks, pointing to the steep drop behind us.

"Like it ever snows." I snort.

"True." Beckett laughs. "Our kids would love the pool in the yard though."

"Kids?" I raise an eyebrow teasingly.

"Yup." Beckett pops the P. "One boy and one girl. Rosie and Beckett Jr."

"Why not Fred and Harlyn Jr.?" I laugh.

"Because I'm cooler." Beckett insists.

"You wish." I scoff.

"Find then they will both be named after us. Beckett Jr and Harlyn Jr." Beckett grins.

"I have a better idea." I smirk. "We have one daughter, named Harlyn Jr. then we get a dog, and name him Beckett Jr." I laugh at Beckett's look of indignation.

"No children then." Beckett grins. "Just a dog, Beckett Jr. and a cat, Harlyn Jr."

"Ew no." I laugh. "Cats hate me."

"And dogs hate me." Beckett smirks.

"Then we will have a fish!" I laugh.

"Named Beckett-Harlyn."

"No." I insist. "Harlyn-Beckett."

"How about Becklyn?" Beckett asks with a cute grin.

"We name a fish after our ship name?" I raise an eyebrow and laugh.

"How is that any weirder than hyphenating our names and calling him that?" Beckett grins.

"Touche." I stick my tongue out at him.

A light clicks on in the house we are parked a few meters away from.

"We better go." Beckett and I say at the same time, and we speed away, laughing so hard it hurts the whole way.