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Part 5

"Steve, I know the problem. You're on the ground now?"

"Yes, taxiing in right now."

"Okay, I knew you were going to be late, the closure's been all over the news. Okay, here's what you do. Get a taxi straight to the house. We'll pick your car up from the airport later. It's a mob scene now anyway. Go to the house, get changed and cleaned up. I'll take the kids out to ..." she went on to describe our favorite restaurant. It took a long time there, but the kids loved the food. I was to get another cab to the restaurant and she'd tell the kids I'd be joining them as soon as I could.

"Great minds think alike. I was going to suggest something like that, if you were willing."

"I didn't sign up for this, but we'll get through it. Just be safe, and join us."

"We're at the gate. I love you."

"See you at the restaurant."

Amazingly, things went as planned. As I walked in, they were just getting to the main course, and could see that she'd ordered something we'd been known to share before.

"Hi, Honey, Kids."

"Daddy." Our little one was out of her chair and hugging me in an instant. "We missed you, Daddy."

"I missed you too, Punkin."

"Daddy, Susie and Katie are both got their ears pierced yesterday."

"And you want yours pierced too, right?"

"Sorta," she replied.

I looked over at Shelly and she shook her head. I knew then, that there was something up and she'd tell me later.

"Okay, Punkin. If you decide to, just let us know. I think you're about the age your sister got her ears pierced."

"That's right, Daddy." Her sister piped up.

Dinner went well and Shelly seemed okay.

Later that evening, when we were  home and the kids off to bed; "Well, how was your trip, Steve?"

"I can see why Stacy and Jim begged me to do it. Carol was ready to bounce off the ceiling at every turn. I can only imagine how she was a few months ago."

"She's lucky to have a friend like you."

"Emphasis on friend. You're the only one I love."

"I know. I've come to understand how much over the past few months." She didn't say anything for a short while, and I became a little afraid. "No problems traveling?"

"It went well. I only had a slight problem with security the flight out. Thank you again for your quick thinking at this end."

"There was no way to predict that, though it could just have easily have been thunderstorms, although it's a bit early in the year for them."

I nodded. "That's what we based the travel plans on. I guess I should have taken the red-eye last night, after all."

"No, it all worked out, and the kids got a treat. I guess we do need to be more careful planning next month though. I'll not be able to cover for you. Let's take care of those nails now."

"I used the time in the taxi to file them down." I said with a sigh.

"They didn't cause you any trouble, did they?"

"No, like you said, that little bit of extension didn't get in my way."

"Now, tell me about the gowns."

I showed her the picture, "I brought back some pieces of the fabric, if you want to coordinate.

"That looks good. If I didn't know better, I'd have believed you were a girl."

That hurt, and I guess I must have reacted, or at least shown it in my eyes or something.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Steve. I didn't mean it like that. It's just that you didn't get to grow up as a girl, and you can't tell looking at the picture."

"Thanks, honey. I know you didn't mean to hurt me." It felt good, when she gave me a hug.

"Oh, Carol gave us all a little gift we were supposed to open when we got home. She said she wanted to make the weekend last a little longer."

I got up, and got the small package from my bag. I sat back down next to Shelly and opened the wrapping.

There was a small box, as expected. When I opened it, we both exclaimed.

"Oh, Steve, they're beautiful."

They were. They looked to have stones that matched the ones in the neck of the gowns. There was a large stone at the top and three silver dangles with another stone at the end of each.

"Oh, no," I said. Shelly looked at me.

"I bet she wants us to wear them for the wedding, since they match the gowns. I guess I'll just have to forget my pair."

"They do make clips that allow those without holes to wear pierced style earrings. You can try that."

I sighed, "Thanks, honey. I hope they work."

She asked some more questions about the trip, and laughed at Stacy's reaction to having seen me, and not seeing things. She commented that she'd probably have had a similar reaction, if she hadn't seen it being put together at the school, that first day.

We got ready for bed. I made sure the clothes in the suitcase stayed there; I didn't want to put any more strain on our relationship. I could take care of cleaning things in the morning.

The next few days were fairly normal. I found one of the clip devices, and tried it out with the earrings. I wasn't happy.

"Did you find any of the clip adaptors?" Shelly asked that evening.

"Yes, but I don't think they will work for the wedding."

"Let me see them."

I showed them to her, and she went over to her mirror and tried them on after taking out her earrings. I could see her shaking her head.

"No, you're right. With this style earring, I don't think they'll work at all."

"I'll just leave them at home."

"Not so fast. Let me think about it."

I let her think, but I was prepared to forget the earrings. I mean, get my ears pierced? Not likely! It'd make things even more difficult on the return. I mean, as things stood now, nothing was permanent. My eyebrows had been thinned somewhat, and arched a little, but mostly they just looked a bit neater. The weekend had felt good. I'd not really wanted to change back, but for Shelly and the kids, I'd do anything.

On Saturday, we had to take Hope to the mall to get new clothes for the summer. Henry needed his too, but, he could wait a little. Hope had little warm weather clothing that fitted her. We'd learned that taking more than one kid at a time just didn't work, so Henry would be staying at home with Vicky. We were lucky she was such a responsible kid. I figured that, as usual, I was just along to push carts and lug the bags.

We started the trip, and found new sneakers. As we went by one of the earring kiosks, I could see Hope looking. "You looking for getting your ears pierced, Punkin?"

She jumped.

I knelt down, and saw Shelly come to stand behind her. "What's the problem, Punkin?"

"I'm scared it might hurt, Daddy."

I looked at Shelly. "Well, Vicky did say it hurt a little, but it wasn't too bad. No worse than getting a shot." Then, I recalled that this was the kid that almost had to be held down to get her shots. "It's okay, honey. I understand."

"Hope, dear, would it help if someone else got their ears pierced with you?"

"Maybe, mommy."

"How about if you picked out the starter posts for both of you?"

Where is she going with this? Is there another friend that needs her ears pierced?

"That'd be okay, Mommy, if you held my hand."

"Would you like to do it now, honey?"

I looked at Shelly, over Hope's head. Who does she have in mind? Is she going to get another hole?

"How about daddy? You wanna give him earrings?" I can't believe my ears. Are you serious, honey?

"You're silly, Mommy."

"Maybe, but would Daddy be okay?"

"I get to pick out his posts?"

"Uhuh. Do you want to?"

"Okay, Mommy."

"Let's go find some nice ones then. Even nicer than they have here."

She took us to a nice store, and let Hope pick things out. "Sorry, I didn't have time to tell you, Steve. I really wasn't sure, until she looked so longingly at them. Are you okay?"

"I'll survive, I'm sure." She's some woman. I don't believe she's doing this. "It may take some explanations, but I can manage. I can even let the holes grow closed again once things settle down."

She looked at me, and nodded.

"Well, have you picked out two pair, dear?"

"Yes, Mommy. I got the flowers, and Daddy gets the ball that matches his ring."

Wow, she'd picked out a simple ball.

"That's very good, dear."

While she choose our earrings, Shelly explained what needed to happen to the lady behind the counter, and why.

"That's very kind of you, sir. Not many dads would do that for their daughters." She then turned to Hope. "Now, since there are two of you, we can either do one of you at a time, and do both ears, or do one ear at a time and both of you together, do you have a preference?"

"If Mommy and Daddy hold my hand, I wanna do it with Daddy."

"Of course we'll hold your hand, Punkin. Do you mind if I close my eyes?"

"You're scared too, Daddy?"

"A little bit, maybe. But, if I don't know when it'll happen, maybe it'll be over before I get to worried."

"I'll close my eyes too, Daddy."

She held my hand, and Shelly took her other hand. If the tightness of the grip was any indication, she was really scared.

"Now, we'll rub this bit on the ear first, which will reduce the pain and make sure everything is clean, then you'll hear a bit of a popping sound and it'll be done." They rubbed both of our ears, and I did close my eyes—in case Hope peeked.

Pop. "Eyow!" yelped Hope.

"Are you okay?" we all asked.

"Ummm. I guess so. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but you'll hold my hand again, won't you Mommy and Daddy?"

"Yes, dear," we both said.

The second ear was a bit worse than the first, probably because I anticipated it, but Hope didn't even yelp this time.

"You look very pretty in your new earrings, Hope."

"You do too, Daddy."

"Thank you."

The saleswoman then explained to Shelly and me how we'd have to care for our ears until they healed. She also warned Hope and me that it might be a bit uncomfortable for the next few days, but that after a few days, we would probably forget they were there.

Hope was a very happy little girl, the rest of the morning, though Shelly had to remind her to not play with her ears. I caught myself going to play with mine a time or two as well, and once Shelly caught me and laughed. My first concern was Henry's reaction, when we got home. As it turned out, he didn't even notice it, though Vicky did.

"How come you have earrings, Daddy?"

"Your mom's idea. I had nothing to do with it. But, she thought if I got mine pierced at the same time, Hope would get over her fear of needles enough to get hers done. It seems to have worked."

"I know, she came running in to show me. You're an amazing dad, Daddy. I don't think any of my friend's dads would have done it for them."

I didn't know how to handle the compliment really. "It wasn't much, really. I'd do as much for you or your brother, if you needed it."

"I know, Daddy." She gave me a hug then, which I carefully returned. Getting hugs from my teen was a rare thing.

That night, while getting ready for bed, "Thank you, Shelly. I'm sure we could have found another way for Hope to get her ears pierced."

"I know, Steve, but this solves the wedding problem too. It's not as if you'll be the only person with pierced ears around."

"I'm just surprised you were willing to have the constant reminder."

"I'm getting used to the idea, I guess. Not necessarily totally thrilled, mind you. But, I've seen that you are still the same person I love and married, even though you're different than I thought."

We had a nice cuddle, before falling asleep that night. I was a bit restless, as sleeping on my side poked me with the posts, but I did settle down.

One thing bothered me about the piercing. With only a bit over three weeks to heal, would I be able to switch to the special earrings? I'd not thought about it when the lady was describing care and cleaning and such, but I'd remembered the four plus weeks she'd recommended before removing them. Well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I can still say I forgot them.

I think most folks didn't notice the earrings, to be honest. I did get a few questions, but telling the story about helping Hope got me kind and approving remarks from most of the women and the men mostly gave me strange looks or said the she should have waited until she could do it herself. I just nodded and let the latter comments float by. Most memorable was one of the mothers when I dropped Henry and Hope at school. She said she wished her husband would do things like that for their kids. I wasn't sure how to react to that.

I shouldn't have worried about Henry's reaction, when he noticed. I was surprised, to be honest.

"Hey cool, Dad. You gunna to get a BIG diamond studs in both ears?" He went on to explain that one of his sports heroes had that kind of earrings.

"I doubt it, sport. We'll just have to see."

The time before we headed to California went quickly. It always seems like suddenly it's time for vacation, and you've not packed. I was curious what Shelly was going to wear to the wedding, but she just said, "you'll see," whenever I asked.

Finally, it was the night before we were to leave. I'd repacked my small suitcase, and Shelly had one to check.

"You remembered your earrings, didn't you Steve?"

"Yes, but it'll still be too soon."

"We'll look at things, as we get closer. I also went over your wardrobe. We'll have to do some shopping for you out there. You certainly can't wear the same thing EVERY day."

I laughed.

"And we'll need to pick up another bag for you too. You'll have more to bring back than you're taking." At my blank look she added, "Oh, I wasn't talking about buying THAT much, but you do have a nice gown to bring back as well." Light dawned.

"Of course, I'd completely forgotten that. If I'd been a groomsman, we'd just be returning the tux following the rental."

"Yes, being a woman IS more expensive." She sounded a little strange at that, but I wasn't going to push.

After we got the kids off to school, I got changed while Shelly called Mom and reminded her where our contact numbers could be found and how to reach us at the hotel.

Security at the airport was interesting again, but when I showed the letter from the previous trip, they just called the supervisor out and he recognized me, and that took care of that.

Shelly rented the car in her name, and listed me as an alternate driver.

The clerk did a double take on my name. "Are you sure this is your license, miss?"

"Yes."

"You may not have noticed it, but it lists you as male. You might want to get that fixed when you get home."

"Thank you for pointing that out."

"Quite all right." He turned back to Shelly, and continued. "Your travel profile indicates that you prefer economy cars, will that be sufficient on this trip, or would you like to upgrade?"

Shelly took an upgrade to give us a big enough car to carry our gowns for the wedding and not get them messed up, and allow us to take two others with us, if needed. The GPS was helpful, and we made it to the hotel in good time. There was no issue checking in.

"Well, I'm impressed with your performance. The clerk downstairs thought we were sisters, I'm sure, and I almost lost it with the rental car clerk. How did you just stand there so smoothly and agree with him?"

"No reason to correct him, really. It's reassuring, in a way."

"You're still nervous, aren't you?" At my nod, "Oh, Steve – I mean Stevie. After your fitting trip, I don't see why."

"I guess it's that when I look in the mirror, I still see me."

"I've come to learn that you ARE still the same person, though, the surface is more different than you seem to believe. It will take me a little to get used to it."

"I'm sorry."

"No, we'll manage the week. I just have to remember to call you Stevie." I nodded.

"I hope you're not too bothered going around with me though."

"No. I'm sure most people will assume we're just two friends—or maybe sisters—if they see our names."

"If you're sure."

"Yes, now let's freshen from our trip and rest a bit before dinner."

Dinner was nice, though I noticed Shelly glancing at me occasionally. Oh, I don't mean the normal looks we give each other when talking, but more glances when I happened to be looking elsewhere. It was as if she was looking for something. Maybe she'd been doing it on the trip out here, but I'd not noticed. I asked her about it later that evening; "You were really watching me, honey. Is something wrong?"

--- Continued

Chapter End Notes:
Author's Note: I want to thank all my alpha and beta readers for their thoughts and encouragement.  I espacially want to thank my three editors/proofers whithout who's help, this would be a much worse story. Any problems remaining are mine. The story is complete, and will be posted in ten parts.
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