"Zoey, how did this happen?" Charlie asked, stunned.

"I don't know," she said. "It just… happened."

"But we were careful."

"Yeah."

"Every time."

"I know."

"So how did this happen?" Charlie asked again.

"It was never a guarantee, Charlie, you know that," Zoey explained.

There was a silence. "So what are we going to do?" Charlie finally
wondered.

Zoey shrugged. "I don't know."

Charlie shook his head. "We're having a baby," he whispered to himself.

"Yeah," Zoey agreed. "We are."

Still shaking his head, he said, "Wow."

Zoey was beginning to feel somewhat worried. "Do you not want this baby?"

The questioned pierced his reverie. "Not want this baby? Zoey, of course
I want this baby. How could I not want this baby? It's just such a big
surprise."

"You just don't seem very excited."

"You just caught me off guard, that's all," Charlie explained. "How could
I not want the baby of the woman I love?"

Zoey smiled a little. "I don't know, but you had me wondering there."

"I knew I wanted a family, but I just didn't know it would be so soon."

"Well, timing has never been my specialty."

"Zoey… this is wonderful," Charlie said softly, a grin spreading over his
face. He came over and hugged her. "We're gonna have a baby."

"Yes, I think we've established that," Zoey said, laughing.

Suddenly, Charlie's face fell. "How are we going to tell your dad? He's
going to flip out-I mean, he's really not going to take this well."

Zoey's face fell. "I'm sure he'll come to accept it."

"Zoey, for one thing, his 19 year old daughter who is barely a sophomore in
college is pregnant. And then you consider that we're not even married and
he probably doesn't really know how far this relationship has gone."

"I think he must have some idea."

"Yeah, but he hasn't admitted it to himself."

"So we get married," Zoey said simply.

"We what?"

"Get married."

"How do you plan on doing that?"

"I don't know," Zoey said, shrugging. "But can you tell me it doesn't
sound like a good idea to you?"

Charlie gaped. Then he said, "Well, yeah… I mean, yeah. But can we do
that?"

"Sure," Zoey said, her excitement building. "We'll elope. We'll go
tonight."

Slowly, the idea became exciting for Charlie. "I know somewhere we can go.
We can go right now and do it."

Squealing, Zoey hugged him again, kissing him this time. "I can't believe
we're going to do this."

Grinning uncontrollably, Charlie said, "This is going to be the best night
of our lives."

"Just you and me… and the baby. We're going to be a perfect family."

"I know," Charlie said. "Let me make one phone call, and then we'll be
off."

"Okay," Zoey said, as Charlie went to the phone. "I'm going to go get
Gina."

*********

After coming back inside, Sam gently took Caelan by the arm and led her
outside. Caelan's expression seemed fearful and suspicious all at once.

"Sam, what's going on?"

"There was a time when I was interested in Mallory," he told her candidly.

"You're interested in Mallory?"

"No, I was interested. At one point, I thought we had something going."

"But you don't," Caelan concluded, sounding confused.

"No. I mean, last spring, things went crazy on me. First there was a
misleading picture and then there was the incident at the Newseum. I tried
to talk to her, but she never responded. She put me off so many times, that
I stopped trying. I figured she wasn't interested anymore."

"But she obviously is. Didn't you think to tell her you were dating
again?"

"Yes," Sam said. "I mean despite the fact that Mallory and I were never
dating, I tried to call her in September. But she never called back."

"So there's nothing going on between you two."

"No," Sam told her passionately. "There's only one person I'm interested
in right now."

Clearly more relaxed, Caelan smiled. "And who would that be?"

"Oh, she just a quiet girl, with brown hair. She's not very tall, but
she's extremely smart."

"Really, she sounds kind of out of your league."

Putting his arms around her waist, he smiled. "Oh she is. And there's one
more thing. She's got these incredible green eyes. They just shine,
sometimes they almost glow. The moment I looked into them, I knew I was
gone."

"I love you, Sam Seaborn," Caelan whispered.

"I love you too," Sam whispered back and then let his lips meet hers.

***************

The evening faded to night, as the couples began to pair off. Finding
herself alone and miserable, Mallory ordered a drink at the bar. She took a
sip, when someone sat next to her. Looking up, she recognized him as Kenny,
Joey Lucas' translator.

"Rough night?" Kenny asked.

"Am I that obvious?" Mallory asked.

"I only know because you look how I feel," Kenny lamented. "So what's your
story?"

Mallory sighed. "Oh, nothing. Just that the man that has tried for months
to date me finally moved on, right when I was ready to start."

Kenny cringed. "Sorry."

"What's your story?"

"Just another night of having no personality."

"What do you mean?"

"Ohh… the same old story. I work full time with Joey Lucas. I talk for
her, and listen for her, I spend all my time with her so that there's no
time for my life because I'm too busy helping her live hers. Then at any
given moment, on any whim, she can just ask me to go away. Then what do I
do? I don't know anybody so I have no one to talk to," Kenny explained.

"I had no idea," Mallory said sympathetically.

"Oh, it's not your fault. Such is my life."

Mallory took another sip of her drink. "You know, maybe this night's not a
complete waste after all?"

"How do you figure that?" Kenny asked skeptically.

"Because I got the chance to meet you."

Kenny looked at her, genuinely touched. "That's probably the nicest thing
anyone's ever said to me."

Mallory took another drink, and smiled at him. "You doing anything
tomorrow night?" she asked.

A grin slowly spread over his face. "Not anymore."

*************

Zoey was bustling around, trying to grab anything she needed. "Are we
going to dress up?" she called to Charlie.

"I'm wearing what I have on," Charlie replied.

"Well, just give me a moment, I want to wear something a little bit nicer
than this!"

"Okay," Charlie said. He stood nervously by the door, where Gina was also
standing.

Gina knew that her job was to protect Zoey from outside threats. Anything
Zoey did was completely confidential. She couldn't tell anyone, and she
really didn't have a right to talk her out of it unless her life was in
danger. But at that moment, it took all her will not to call up the White
House and get the President involved.

Instead, she said to Charlie, "You sure you know what you're doing?"

Charlie grinned anxiously. "Not really. But I think that's the point."

"Marriage is a big step."

"I know. Zoey does too. But we can't fight what we feel inside. So we're
just going to ride this out."

"Don't you want to wait a little bit? Get more people involved?"

"No, this is how it should be. Just me and Zoey, starting our life
together."

Before Gina could formulate a response, Zoey came out. "I'm ready."

Charlie couldn't help but widen his smile as he saw his bride-to-be. "You
look amazing," he said.

"Thank you," Zoey said, kissing him gently.

"Well, let's go," Charlie said.

"Okay," Zoey agreed. Gina said nothing, and followed the couple out to
Charlie's car. After a fifteen minute car drive, Charlie pulled into an old
looking church. Although it was late, there was lights on. Charlie parked
the car, and they piled out.

"This is it," Charlie said, proudly.

"We're actually going to get married in a church?" Zoey questioned.

"Yep. I know the minister, and he said he'd be thrilled to do this for
us."

"Charlie, this is the most wonderful night of my life!" Zoey exclaimed.

Taking her into his arms for one last kiss, he said, "Mine too."

THE END