Legend

At last

January turned out to be a dreary month, with dirty snow and slush and ice and low dark clouds that looked like they'd start spitting out snow at any moment and frequently did, but as we slogged through the month, we got an incredible amount of wedding planning done. I selected my bridesmaids (Aslyn as maid of honor, Barbara, Karen--Rill wasn't sure if she could get time off from work, that being a busy month for her company--Cara, Martha, and Bess) and chose dresses that everybody seemed to like (hopefully they weren't just being nice about it). I offered to buy the dresses since most of my bridesmaids were having to fly in and Aslyn and Karen would have expenses from Aslyn's wedding too. We'd selected scholarship funds at our alma maters, animal shelters, and soup kitchens in lieu of wedding presents, decided to have a candy table with little bags so people could take some home with them instead of some cheesy favor they'd just throw away, chosen our wedding invitations, and I'd found a pair of beautiful, comfortable shoes for the wedding. I also warned my groom that I had the jewelry I wanted to wear for the trip down the aisle, and the only ornament I required from him was a wedding band. He had a few ideas about the type of wedding ring he'd like, and I'd started researching. Toward the end of the month, we interviewed photographers, videographers, bands and also decided on a string quartet to provide music during the ceremony and dinner. We made our selections and got everybody booked. We left Aslyn in the dust, planning-wise, but she also didn't have the Great (Wedding) Dictator inquiring about our progress every. Single. Night. Our progress was really just sort of self-defense.

Nora went home after looking around at several campuses in the area, and I was sorry to see her go; she was bright and lively once she lost her reserve.

Damian brought Bruce home one night all battered and bloody; he'd gotten into a fight with Killer Croc and for the first time since I'd moved in, I stepped into my support role as Alfred's backup medic and patched him up. I started napping on the nights when Batman and Robin went out so that I could be alert when they came back and took over treating Damian's bumps and bruises myself. Alfred understood that it wasn't any kind of slight to himself and it worked out nicely that each of us tended to one crimefighter. I started making Damian do more stretching, and he admitted later that it helped.

Work was going well, and we'd isolated a promising candidate for the lab. The problem was that he wasn't graduating til May, so our plans had to be scaled back a bit. We also found an engineering grad who could begin messing around with novel designs to use the chemoluminescent bacteria to provide lighting fixtures, and a genetic engineer who was interested in making our algae glow so that we could increase the electron capture there too. It was an abrupt expansion of our plans, and kind of scary, but both Tony and Bruce began teaching me management skills.

We got the prenup signed just before Valentines Day. There wasn't much fuss; Damian's lawyers had done an excellent job and mine had been impressed with the generosity and terms. I didn't have many assets beyond the jewelry he'd given me and my retirement investments that I made through work, so my valuation was a lot easier to accomplish. I insisted on a clause that stated that if we did split up, the Wayne pearls would be returned to Damian and that the intent was that they would be passed down to our children, if we were fortunate enough to have any. We each put our copies in our safes and I relaxed, knowing that I'd helped to protect Damian in the event of a disaster.

For Valentines Day, we had dinner out, went to a musical, and finished celebrating at home. He sent me an extravagant bouquet at work that made Sigurd sneeze. His gift was quite restrained, for Damian, a simple diamond pendant that I could wear for every day. I wore it often, but I still preferred the Asgardian pendant I'd gotten for high school graduation. I'd had to have the clasp replaced a few times, and finally Emma made me a chain our of a special platinum alloy that was extremely strong. I got him a set of shirt studs that coordinated with the cuff links I'd bought him and a black kitten, which he promptly named Nicholas. Nicholas quickly developed the habit of riding around on his shoulder, and I hoped he wouldn't be a really big cat. Winston took the kitten under his wing, so to speak, but Grayson was jealous and frequently ignored the little cat. Hestia was just glad to add to the number of cats she could curl up with and nap.