Crossover Crossroads (The Kell and Maille Story)

Insurance

"What?" Maille's voice had risen and dropped in one breath. Her eyes darted back and forth searching his. This couldn't be happening, this wasn't how she pictured things...

"Insurance."

Maille caught her breath. "Insurance?" She repeated lamely, twisting her fingers and the ring harshly, pressing it into her palm with her nails.

"Just in case."

"In case what?"

"In case we can't wait." 

"Why couldn't we wait?"

"We can wait ... but just in case..." his eyes were pleading. This was harder than he'd expected. Maille didn't think the way he did about sex, and waiting to have it. It would have been easier to take her there and tell her as it was happening. That had been his original impulse. But something about playing with her emotions like that, expecting, assuming... it wasn't right.

"So, it'll not be real? A real marriage? It'll be like, pretend? And we' ll just go on? As if... as if we aren't married?" He felt some dismay as her tone suggested her own disbelief.

"Until we can be married in the Temple." He repeated hopefully.

Maille flopped back but Kell leaned forward to watch her. "Did you just propose to me?" she asked sharply.

Kell shrugged, a small smile playing at the corners of his lips. "In a roundabout way."

"I'm already on the plane? I have no choice but to go along with this farce?"

 "It's not a farce...." He bit his lips anxiously.

"I wanted to be married in the temple first."

"You will be. This will simply be a piece of paper in my pocket. It'll keep me from--"

"It'll make it easier for you to." 

Kell took a deeper breath, watching her wary and annoyed expression. "Maille, I can 't live without you."

"You haven't even known me a month!" She protested.

"And you can't live without me." 

"That's beside the point."

He smiled. "I love you."

She looked around. "Here on the plane? How can you say that here on the plane?" 

"Not romantic enough?"

''Not even."

"But you already knew I loved you."

"How would I know?"

He was silent. How should she know? How could he have just said those powerfully magic words? What in the world prompted him? That wasn't part of the plan.

"Maille." he said and turned her chin to face him, she closed her eyes. So he let himself out of his seatbelt and gently brushed her lips with his. Maille trembled slightly. He cupped her face in his hands. "I do love you." he whispered.

"Kell ... I..." 

"Nothing will change." he said. "Just give me the peace of these few minutes. A piece of paper, Maille. Okay?"

"You will still wait a year?" 

"We will."

"You're really being baptized?"

"I am."

"Kell." she threw her arms around him, and he felt every contour of her pressed to his chest and knew he was making the right decision, even though it seemed unconventional. It was an insurance.

Plus, he couldn't bear to be away from her without it.

It would be the knowing. That's all. The waiting and the knowing.

*****