Jarod paced nervously, fiddled with his dinner jacket, paced, and fiddledsome more. As a waiter came by with champagne and wine, Jarod grabbed oneof the long-stemmed glasses, downed it, then grabbed another. He was keepingsuch an intent lookout at the entrance that a few people had begun to slowlyinch away from him, and he'd checked his watch so much that his wrist hadgrown sore.

Jarod was just a tad nervous.

Catherine and Kyle, however, were the complete wrecks. It's not likethere had been any signs, a slow rise in Jarod's attention towards Parker.No, he'd simply waken up this morning, and decided that today was the dayhe'd tell Parker he loved her.

The day, however, had not gone as planned. His nerves had choked himthe first time he saw her that morning; he absentmindedly left his coffeein the freezer and a shoe in his top left desk drawer, and managed to triptwice when he passed her in a corridor. He'd finally given up and gonehome, with the promise to see her that night at the hospital's banquet.

And so now he stood, with a tight stomach and dry mouth, half wishingthat she'd get here, half begging his legs to carry him far, far away.Catherine and Kyle merely paced, bumped into each other, and paced again.

And then she appeared in the doorway, dressed in an elegant black dress,her hair done up in a French twist, and Jarod suddenly had to remind himselfto breathe. He took a few forced inhales, then walked as confidently ashe could to her, and offered his arm. After that, it became a lot easier.They went around the large, richly decorated dining room, greeting friendsand colleagues the same they had a hundred times before at a hundred otherevents. In fact, he let himself fall into the habitual routine so much,that as they sat at their table chatting before dinner, he let his mindwander.

"I love you."

That caught his attention. His head snapped up, he stared at her inshock. "What?!"

She gave him a confused look. "Olive juice. I said, these appetizerstaste like they've been drenched in olive juice."

"Oh." He gave a weak laugh.

"Are you...okay?"

"Me? Yeah, sure, fine, never better." He looked down, realized he wastwisting his cloth napkin until it was practically tearing, and tossedit onto the table. "Why, uh, do you ask?"

She gave him another peculiar look. "Oh, I don't know. Could be thefact that your face is paling by the second, or that you're sweating profusely.Or maybe my first hint was when you asked the waiter for a 'vodka IV drip,stat.' "

He blinked. "I didn't."

"You did. So, mind telling me what's going on?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing, really. Absolutely nothing at all."

"Right..." She shook her head, then let the conversation dropped asthe waiters began serving their table.

~~~~~~~~~

Jarod was scheduled to present that night's speaker. Everything hadbecome such a blur by that point, however, that he wasn't even aware itwas time to go up until Parker was practically lifting him from his chair.Then, numbly, he walked up on stage, positioned himself behind the podium,and pulled his cue cards from his pocket.

Looking up, he froze, as over two hundred faces looked back expectantly.They were all obviously waiting for him to introduce the speaker, but theonly thing Jarod's mind would concentrate on was a smell in the air. Hesniffed, frowned, sniffed again, then smiled as he finally placed the scent:perfume. Parker's favorite perfume, that he'd given her for Christmas.

The audience continued to wait. Jarod, remembering quite suddenly thathe was up here for a purpose, shuffled his cards, coughed, and began. "Ourguest tonight, Dr. Colin Baker, is well known and well respected in themedical field..." They were giving him their full attention, clearly, butJarod still couldn't help but feel that this somehow sounded wrong. Thisisn't what he wanted to say right now.

At the back of the room, Catherine hid her eyes, Kyle groaned. Thingswere not looking promising.

His brow bunched as he considered the situation, then with a light shrug,merely tossed the cards behind him. Hell or high water, he was gonna say,and say it now. Looking straight at Parker, who was watching him with obviousconcern, he said in a clear voice, "There's another great doctor here tonightas well. She's dedicated her life to helping children, and has selflesslygiven of herself since joining this hospital nearly two years ago in hopesof bettering every aspect of it. Her name is Dr. Parker--" He kept hiseyes steadily locked on hers. "--and I love her."

A consecutive gasp, then low murmuring hummed throughout the diningroom. Parker could only sit, absolutely frozen. Jarod stepped down withoutanother word, and another man took his place, desperately trying to getthe show back on track. Oblivious to this, Jarod just walked determinedlyto her, took her hand and led her into the coat room. They stood, silent,looking at each other expectantly.

Finally, unable to take it anymore, he blurted out, "Not to rush youor anything, but I've just put eleven years of friendship on the line."

She continued to stare at him.

"Listen...I understand if you don't know what to say. Hell, I more thanunderstand. I mean, you saw the way I was behaving today." He was justrambling on aimlessly now. He knew it, but needed something to fill thesilence. "I was acting like a complete idiot. I even managed to--"

"Me too."

"--lose my shoe. I found it later in my--" He froze, processed whathe'd heard. "What?"

"I love you too," she whispered. She smiled, and continued on, her voicegrowing stronger with the realization. "I always have. I don't know how,but even before I met you, I had you pictured in my mind, down to the verylast detail."

He let out a breath he didn't even realize he'd been holding. "Parker..."

"I love the way you make children laugh, even when they're in pain.I love that you can cook absolutely anything, and still be patient withme, despite the fact that I'll never be able to make even toast withoutdestroying an appliance. I love how you know the exact moment to appearat my door with icecream and a shoulder to cry on. I love the way you makeme stronger, the way you see me through even the most difficult cases.I love knowing that when I look at your smile, I'll find more warmth andhumor and promise of safety there than anywhere else in the world." Shelaughed. "I love the fact that you wear Loony Toons boxers."

He laughed, they hugged, and after a moment of happy hesitance, kissed.Nearby, Catherine and Kyle began to high-five and whoop in excitement.

~~~~~~~~~

They returned to the dining room a little over half an hour later. Dessertwas just being served; the speaker was done, and so when they re-entered,everyone's attention was turned to them. Parker blushed, Jarod grinned,and they took their seats, holding hands the entire time.

It was then that the idea struck Jarod. Given his achievement just earlier,his head was in the clouds, and as he watched Parker chat with the womannext to her, he began to see no reason not to go all the way. He considered;no ring, but she'd understand. And he couldn't exactly do it at the table,he had to do it right, on one knee. Carried on the impulse, he braced himselffor the lunge he was about to take, and pushed his chair back to stand.

A waiter, however, had the unfortunate luck of standing right behindhim, bearing a silver dish of flaming cherries jubilee. As the chair madecontact with him, the poor waiter immediately lost his balance, especiallyunder the heavy weight of the food. The dish went flying, landed on a nearbytable, and set the tablecloth on fire.

The attention of everyone in the room turned from the happy couple tothe shrieking older socialite wives whose table now had a centerpiece offlames. The excellent fire alarm system acted at this moment, dousing theentire room with water from the sprinkler system. As per customary firebehavior, everyone tried to hurry at once to the doors, and the serverscaught in the traffic began to drop their dessert trays, and the assortedcakes and such they held, to the floor.

At this point, the entire room was chaos. Everyone was shouting, millingaround, completely soaked. One person would slip on a spilled bread pudding,and like a domino effect an entire line of people would fall.

Parker and Jarod, however, stood right where they were. Parker was laughing,holding her hands out, like she was playing in the rain, while Jarod'sbrain was hard at work on the debate: do it, don't do it, do it, don'tdo it. His mouth opened without him consciously knowing it, and he wassurprised to hear the words coming from his own mouth, "Parker, I needto say something." As he spoke, he'd cupped her hands in his own to keepthem warm, a natural instinct he hadn't even thought about.

She was shivering a bit, but grinning just the same. "Yeah?"

He took a deep breath, wiped his hair back. "This isn't exactly howI pictured this happening; but during a romantic picnic, on a mountain,in a coffeshop--knowing us, this is how it'd turn out anyway, no matterwhere I did it."

"Did what?"

"Asked you to be my wife." Feet away, Catherine and Kyle gaped, blinked,comprehended, and began to jump up and down, hugging each other and screaminghappily.

She stopped shivering; her smile weakened, but stayed. "I...I don'tknow what to say."

"It's okay. We have all the time in the world. You know I'd never pushsomething like this on you, and I'd never try to tell you what to say--Waita minute, what the hell am I talking about?! Say yes, Parker." She continuedto stare into his chocolate eyes. "I know this probably isn't the besttiming, and I know there isn't a ring, and I know that right now all youwant is to go home and dry off--"

"Jarod!" she laughed, pulling a hand away and brushing his cheek lovingly.

"Yes?"

"What do you think I'm going to say? There's only one option." His facebroke into a huge grin, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, pullingherself closer. "Now shut up and kiss me." He was only too happy to oblige.
 
 
 
 

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