Who: Cameron Mitchell and Melinda May What: Date Night and A Question When: Backdated to Saturday night Where: In town Warnings: None Status: Closed/Completed gdoc
Cameron had been carrying an engagement ring around for months now. He’d made the decision that he wanted to marry Melinda but actually asking her was all about timing. He was sure her answer would be yes. They hadn’t really talked about it, but he knew she’d been married before and wasn’t against doing it again, and she knew he wanted to get married one day. That kids didn’t really need to be on the table for him because they had Lucas. So while they hadn’t actually talked about it, they were on the same page. They were in the same place.
And most of the waiting had been making sure that Lucas hadn’t spilled anything on him.
The kid was more excited than his dad about the whole thing.
But Cameron was still waiting for just the right moment. Which never seemed to come.
He’d taken Melinda out to dinner, just for the hell of it, made her go for pizza and stop for a couple beers afterwards, and they were having just a really good night, even decided to take advantage of the warm summer weather and neither of them having to be anywhere early to walk home, neither feeling the need to fill their time with idle chatter. Which was when Cameron realized that he wasn’t finding the perfect moment to propose because there wasn’t one. They weren’t the kind of people who made a big deal out of things, weren’t the kind of people who wanted a lot of fanfare. They did things at their own pace, in their own way, quietly and there was no perfect moment because they weren’t perfect.
And a warm summer’s night walking home was as memorable as anything else.
Glancing over at her, Cameron slipped his hand into hers, stopping dead in his tracks and tugging her to do the same. “Hey.”
***
Melinda was at a place in her life where she could really be content. She liked her life here and wouldn't trade it for anything. She could admit that to herself. She could even admit it to others at this point. She had the family she made here, plus family she made back home. Sometimes she missed the job back home, but some part of her was happy not to keep putting herself in danger all the time.
But the people who were most important to her in this town, Cameron and Lucas, were truly her family. She was legally Lucas's mother. It didn't matter that there wasn't a blood relation, he was every bit her son. That was how she felt. Cameron was someone she truly loved. She didn't think she'd find anything like that after Andrew, but she had and it was a nice feeling. No, they weren't perfect, but that was a good thing. It made things just a little more interesting.
So when Cameron stopped suddenly, directing her to the same, she immediately looked around. "Is something wrong?"
She was on alert, thinking maybe there was some kind of threat nearby.
***
The way she immediately looked around for trouble made Cameron laugh. He’d have done exactly the same thing. They both had the habit, years of on the job training, to be expecting trouble in every corner and every shadow and he’d tried to push through that a little more than she had, didn’t always automatically assume something was wrong, but more often than not.
“No. Kind of the opposite, actually.” He squeezed her hands gently. “I was just thinking, we’ve got a really great thing going on here. The best thing I’ve ever been a part of, actually.”
They were family already. They were committed already. All that was left was to make it official.
***
Melinda thought they had a great thing going, too. This was as close to the family she planned to have one day as she was going to get. That wasn't a bad thing at all. She didn't feel like she was settling for second best. This was a great life they made here. She wouldn't want it any other way.
"So, what are you trying to say?" she asked, having an idea why they were stopped on a random sidewalk discussing how great their life was together. The small smile on her face might have given an indication that she knew what was going to say next.
***
She definitely wasn’t someone Cameron would say smiled a lot, and that she was was definitely a sign that she knew what was going on. Which was good. They’d never talked about this being their next step, about wanting to do it, and he was taking a leap surprising her with it. A smile told him that she was right there too and this was their moment. There wasn’t a better one.
“Asked like she doesn’t already know exactly what I’m getting at,” he teased with a laugh and a much brighter smile of his own. Releasing her, he fished the ring he’d bought many months ago out of his pocket, dropped to one knee and cleared his throat. Some things needed to be done properly.
“Melinda May, will you marry me?” He wasn’t worried about her saying no. Not anymore at least.
***
Melinda had indeed been expecting this question. She had even prepared for it. Or so she thought. Knowing it was coming or not, it was quite different when she heard the words said out loud.
She wasn't one to get overly emotional or cry tears of joy, things that tended to occur during proposals. That wasn't happening now, either. It just wasn't her. Even so, anyone in the vicinity would see that she was happy right now. Really, genuinely happy. She didn't believe marriage would ever happen again for her back home. Here, it was very different, and she was grateful to have this new opportunity to bring more joy into her life.
"Yes," she said, her face breaking into a true smile. "I'll marry you."
***
If she’d reacted like the women in movies, Cameron would have known something was seriously wrong. Instead she looked just like her, exactly the woman he’d fallen in love with, quiet and too serious and soft as fresh bread underneath it all. He’d never thought before her that he’d actually find someone to settle down with, it had always just been an abstract someday kind of idea in his head, but things were so very different now.
Grinning brightly, he slid the ring onto her finger, a little big but he’d had to guess and going up had seemed like the better choice. At least he’d only missed by a little and it wasn’t going to drop off in a second. “I was really hoping that’s what you were going to say.”
It probably would have been a lot less stressful to have talked about it beforehand.
Rising, he stepped in to kiss her, unable to contain his happiness.
***
A kiss was very appropriate for this situation. Melinda might not be one of those people who cried at things like this, but she could appreciate how romantic it was. They had just gotten engaged. That required some level of celebration.
Once she pulled away, she glanced at the ring on her finger. "Very nice."
She wasn't surprised that he'd chosen the perfect ring, one he knew she would like. Nothing big and gaudy, but still pretty and noticeable. That wasn't what mattered, though. Yes, it was nice to have, but the prospect of spending the rest of her life (in Madison Valley) with Cameron was the real important thing here. At her age, and after all she'd been through, particularly in the last few years, she never thought she'd have another chance like this. It all made sense, in the end. She and Cameron just worked.
***
Following her look, Cameron laughed. “Now that, you have your son to thank for.”
Lucas had been an enormous help when it had come to ring shopping. The kid had been eagerly on the side of Cameron proposing from the start. Maybe even more so than Cameron was, and that was saying a hell of a lot. He’d been the one who had just thought one day yeah, he wanted to marry her, but Lucas had been right there pressing for it and hoping for it all along.
“He’s gonna lose his mind when we get home.”
***
Melinda had no doubt Lucas would be very excited about this news. She knew it was something he would want, so this was no surprise at all. Though she did shake her head momentarily, amused at what she was hearing.
"Sounds like you two had a secret," she said with a little smile.
She was impressed they'd managed to keep it from her.
***
“Oh no. I kept him mostly in the dark on this one.” It wouldn’t have been a surprise if Cameron had shared any details with Lucas. He was impressed that the plan to do it at all had gone as quietly as it had. “We just went and bought it together. Funnily enough,” he paused, draped his arm over her shoulders so they could continue the lazy stroll home, “that was the same trip he decided to propose himself on.”
Lucas had been older at the time and Cameron hadn’t thought anything of it. If the kids were together for that many years then yeah they could be thinking about getting married, they were old enough and clearly going to keep making it work. He’d never anticipated that the kid would go back to it when he was the proper age again. That’d been his miss.
***
"You still managed to keep this from me," Melinda said, indicating the ring on her finger. "I'm really not sure how you did that."
She was still speaking from an impressed place. She'd been a master spy in her life at home. Not a lot got by her.
But that was forgotten when he relayed that information about Lucas. "I'd say we dodged a bullet with that one, but..."
He still went ahead with it. Melinda was just glad things had worked out in the end, for the most part.
***
“I have my tricks,” Cameron joked. His tricks involved a lot of not telling Lucas anything and not really making any real plans so he wouldn’t give t away himself. He’d put a lot of work into not letting anything change.
He might not be a spy but he knew how to keep secrets. A lot about his regular life was a secret.
“Our kid’s a special one, I’ll give him that.” Special was not necessarily a good thing all the time. Cameron wished, sometimes, that Lucas was a little more like he’d been at that age. “We got him put straight, though, so I think we’ll just have to worry about us on the getting married front.”
There were a lot of things to worry about, setting a date and getting everything organized, but that wasn’t for tonight. It was for a week or so down the road when being engaged at all settled.
***
"I can deal with that," Melinda said, a little smile as she nodded. "You know, I never did plan a wedding before. This will be a new experience."
She and Andrew had a quick, Vegas wedding. It was a spur of the moment thing. She was very different then. Now, she'd be more conservative about this kind of thing. Maybe there'd even be some traditional type of things. She knew Cameron would want some of that.
But that really wasn't for tonight.
"Should we get home and let Lucas know?" she asked. "Or should we walk about a little longer?"
It was nice that it was just the two of them right now. They didn't always get moments like this.
***
As much as Cameron would love to say that whatever she wanted would be fine by him, there were some wedding traditions that were still a necessity for him. Proper ceremony, in a church and preferably the one he attended weekly, proper reception with friends and family. Those were important and he looked forward to arguing about the details later.
For now he just grinned and nudged her back along walking. “I think he’ll have a heart attack if we make him wait. Better get our butts home.”
Hopefully there’d be the opportunity to have a private celebration later.