Little Red (Jacob Seed)

35. Formalities

Rieka opened the front door of the cabin and was greeted by John's smiling face. "Hey Rieka, where's Jacob?" John asked as he stepped into the cabin and Rieka shut the door behind him.

"He is working, I am sure that he says 'hi' though" Rieka smiled and guided John into the living room where the twins where playing.

John's smile grew when he saw they babies and when they looked at him (babbling and kind of talking) happily. "These two are going to be running the mountains when they grow up" John commented and crouched down beside them. "Damn, they are probably going to be leading the project all together" John laughed to himself.

"Why do you say that?" Rieka asked curiously as she stood beside John, smiling down at her children.

"Well Joseph, Faith and I aren't likely to have any children. Which means it all comes down to these two" John explained.

"I never thought about that" she hummed to herself, wondering what the future held for the twins.

"Which do you think will be the best little preacher?" the baptist asked playfully.

"Well Julian talks more but I think that Abigail is the boss" Rieka laughed, shaking her head.

"They will be great, I know they will" John smiled as he stood up, turning back to Rieka. "Anyway, Jacob told be to come and collect them. They are due for some uncle John time, I am taking them to the ranch for the day" The youngest brother explained.

"Really? Well I am sure that they will have a great time, you get them sorted and I will get their things" Rieka smiled before walking up stairs to collect their favourite toys and any necessities. She wondered why Jacob had told his brother to take the children for the day, and why he didn't mention it to her.

They met back up at John's car, he can already secured the twins in the back of the car. "I will see you later then John, take care of my babies" Rieka warned teasingly.

"Please, if they came home with a simple cough Jacob would kill me" John joked as he hugged Rieka good bye. Rieka waved at him as he drove away from the cabin.

Rieka smiled to herself, she loved the twins more than anything but it was nice to have a break. She quickly cleaned up the cabin and tidied away the baby things. Then taking some time to relax, Rieka lay down on the sofa and rested her head on the armrest.

She allowed herself to just close her eyes and forget about everything. However, she was interrupted from her peaceful state by the sound of a truck pulling up outside. Rieka sat up, assuming that it was just some of Jacob's men coming for their shifts of patrolling the cabin.

Rieka shrugged to herself before walking into the kitchen and making herself a cup of coffee. She furrowed her brow and turned around when she heard the front door open and close. Picking up her cup of coffee, she walked towards the living room.

As she walked in, she heard some shuffling and mumbled words. When she reached the doorway, she paused, seeing Jacob hunched over the record player and cursing to himself. She shook her head and sipped from her cup before walking further into the room, laughing silently as he cursed to himself again.

"Need some help?" Rieka asked teasingly. Jacob grumbled about something before turning to her with a frustrated look. Rieka smiled as she placed her cup down on the coffee table.

"Why can't anything be easy?" he grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest. The truth is that he couldn't get it working because he was rushing, trying to get the music to play before Rieka walked into the room.

"Are you sulking? Stop sulking. Here, let me help" Rieka frowned, Jacob very rarely gets like this. He only ever gets like this when either nothing in the day goes right or when he can't find the words to express something. She passed Jacob and walked over to the record player, only taking a few seconds to get it playing. Rieka smiled and turned back to Jacob as 'Only You' began playing at a relaxing volume. "What's wrong?" she asked, noticing the frustration still on his face.

Jacob took a breath and dropped his arms to his sides before speaking. "You're right, I have been falling into deep thought recently. I didn't lie, I wasn't thinking about anything bad, I was thinking about you. About Abigail and Julian. About us" Jacob tried to explain. "Joseph had mentioned it before the Deputy arrived and I told him not to be ridiculous. After the twins were born, I began to think about it again. Rieka...whenever I look at you I see that girl from town that I somehow got lucky enough to notice me back. I tried to scare you off, I shut you out, I shouted at you, I took you to the bunker to show you the horrible things that I do, I told you about the awful things I've done. People are scared of me, disgusted by me. But not you, you were never disgusted. You never ran away, you stayed by my side. Rieka-" he let out a sigh and ran his hand through his hair, getting frustrated again about not being able to find the right words. "-Rieka...I'm no good at this" he looked at her.

"Jacob...just say what you have to say" Rieka encouraged him, stepping towards him. Confusion was written all over her face, he doesn't talk like this...ever.

"This is not what you deserve. You deserve a selection of rare flowers like Joseph suggested, or a fancy dinner like John suggested...but that isn't who I am. So I thought there could at least be some background music...even if it is just an old record" Jacob forced out a laugh and looked down at Rieka. "I didn't want to make a huge deal out of it since it's just formalities at this point...but it's what you deserve...so I'll do it" he sighed, caressing her cheek.

She watched in realisation, shock, and awe as Jacob some what awkwardly knelt down on one knee. "Rieka...will you marry me?" he asked. Of course he already knew the answer, why would she say no? And Jacob was never one to think about marriage, they loved each other and had a family. That was all that mattered. After the fear of loosing her to the Deputy, he knew that he wanted her to be his in the most official way possible.

"Do you even need to ask?" Rieka smiled, still shocked by the whole situation. Jacob gave her a look that said 'just say it' and she let out a small laugh. "Yes Jacob, of course I will marry you" she smiled again and wrapped her arms around his neck, falling into his embrace as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

Jacob pushed her away slightly and they were both kneeling in front of each other now, Rieka with a huge smile on her face. Her smile only grew when Jacob pulled out a folded piece of cloth. "They are nothing special" he warned her before opened the piece of cloth.

Rieka looked down at the two rings, they were both plain silver bands but one as quite a bit bigger than the other. "They are beautiful" she smiled as she picked them up and held them in her hands.

"Made them myself" Jacob commented casually.

"You what? You made these? Is that were you have been all the time?" Rieka asked in complete amazement.

"Yeah, they have been keeping me busy" Jacob nodded, feeling a little guilty for being away so often recently.

"You are amazing" Rieka shook her head in disbelief before embracing him again.

"There isn't an engagement ring, I hope that you don't mind" He shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck, should he have made one?

"I don't care" Rieka scoffed as she handed the rings back to Jacob, who wrapped them back in the cloth before tucking them into his pocket.

"I love you Rieka"

"I love you too Jacob"