30-Something Reality

Been A While...

SHANNON'S P.O.V.

We had made plans to take a couple days and just hit Las Vegas.... Siren and Jeanette had made up from their fight, and to be honest, Jared had been spending a little bit more time with Jeanette than he had Siren... I still saw the fire between my brother and the woman I was still so desperately in love with. But something started to spark with in my brother that I had never seen when he looked at Jeanette. It almost reminded me of the way I looked at Siren when we first met in D.C. a few thousand miles and a zillion heartaches ago...

I took a sip of my coffee and set it down on the counter next to the couch in our bus... There was a knocking sound at the door. "Come in!" I yelled as I was playing around on the  guitar. I had that song in my head that Siren had worked on with Jared... He had us lay down drums and guitar parts for it... It ended up sounding great! Jesse J had even said she had loved it... She was going to surprise Siren in L.A. and see if she would sing it for her... I just hope she didn't bolt when we got there. 

"Mind if I sit down?" It was her... Siren... She looked like she had been crying... I wanted to just pull her to me and hold her. But that was not what she had come for... I'm surprised she had even come to the bus. She was steady getting stronger... She was 3 months pregnant now and we had talked breifly in passing and through Jared and Jeanette about things about the baby but this was the first time she had come to see me since the hospital.

"Of course... " I stood up and put the guitar on the bench at the table.. "Do you want some tea?"

She smiled at me and rolled her eyes... "Have I EVER drank tea when I was around you Shannon Leto?"

I ran my right hand through my hair and laughed... "No, that you haven't baby doll... no you haven't... SO! What brings you by?" I stopped... I sat down next to her very cautiously... "Are you and the baby okay? Do you need anything? Does Jared know you are here?"

She laughed and put her hands on top of mine... It had been so long since I had touched her... The feel of her skin on mine sent chills up and down my entire body... She looked me straight in the eyes... Her eyes seemed more blue than gray today... But with her longer hair it was really growing on me... She still hadn't cut it... She blinked at me and then pulled her face away smiling...

"I don't answer to your brother... OR my sister for that matter... Besides, from what I saw of them this morning... I think you can safely say your brother has moved on.... And to be honest," she looked down and then back up into my eyes... "I helped set them up since we left Colorado... My sister was right... I don't love Jared... I..."

I didn't even wait for her to finish... She could have said she wanted to go back to her ex girlfriend for all I knew.... I didnt give her the chance to say anything past she wasn't in love with my brother.... My lips crashed into hers before she could say another word! I pulled her face to me with both my hands around the back of her neck. I didn't care what else she wanted to say, I wasn't loosing this chance to make it up to her... She kissed me back with a fever that I hadn't felt in so long. Like things were pulling us together again... I didn't care how... or why... she was in my arms... Straddling my lap... She is pulling away from me... NO! I pull her body back down into mine with my arms around her waist and up under her shirt... She still pulls away...

She looks me in the eyes.. I can't help but it flys out of my mouth.... "Marry me... Today... Here... in Vegas... "

"Yes"

"I know it would look bad, so please... don't just say no... I don't care what the tabloids... wait..." I stop... I look at her and smile... "Did you just say... "

She leans down and growls in my ear.... "Yes Shannon, I will marry you..."

I push her up off me and get down on one knee... "No... If you are serious as I am then I am going to do this right..."

I sit her back and kiss her stomach and take her hand... "Sarah Carter, from the day I saw you at the Memorial in D.C. I have been drawn to you... You have given me the chance to see the country through your eyes in photos... Please make me the luckiest man around to get to show you the world, just so I can see it through your eyes for the rest of my life... Will you please," I pull my mother (and biological father's) engagement ring out of my pants pocket... I open the box, it's already sized... and I added her one of her favorite stones to it... I had 2 blue saphires put on either side of the diamond in memory of her son... "My Siren,,, will you marry me?"

"IF she doesn't say yes I'm going to kick her ass!" I hear Jeanette say from the door way of the bus... 

I look at SIren... she laughes... "Yes Shannon, yes... I will marry you...." I pull her into my arms and kiss her... "Any day... Every day... I love you...I'm so sorry... I hurt you... I love you...."

I didn't care... she was mine again... that was all I needed... I finally let go when my soon to be sister in law coughed... "You know she is still to delicate to fuck the way you two do... I've seen the pictures of the hickeys you have left on her!"

We broke our kiss and laughed... "I'm just glad your sister is occupying my brother so we can run off and get married today...  I'm not leaving ANY room for someone else to fuck this up for us. I have all I need right here... "

"You might want to make that a double..." Siren laughed... "If my sister was smart, she liked the ring I helped Jared pick out 2 days ago..."

"I did!" My sister and Jared both beamed as Jared slid his arms like a snake around Jeanette's waist.... "I never thought I could fall in love after Jackson... But Jared just captured me..."

"I bet you my mother saw this whole thing coming!" Jared laughed...

"She did..." Siren looked up at me... "The night before we left the hospital... She winked at me and said something about how Jean and I remind her of you two...I think she knew back then..."