Desire Ch. 8 - Your Blessing

[itztigress3]

Chapter 8 – Your Blessing
POV: Zac
Word Count: 2899

May 17, 2009; Sunday

It was 9:30 when I opened my eyes and while there was no head on the pillow beside me, I felt her in the bed anyway. She was sitting about mid-way down the bed in my shirt from the night before, with a missing button. She had the blanket over her legs and I watched her for a moment and realized she was crying. When I sat up she jumped some but then smiled weakly at me.

“Baby, what’s wrong? Are you ok?”

She nodded, remained sitting there in the same position. I could see tear stains on the shirt already.

“Emily, why are you crying? I didn’t hurt you last night did I?”

She looked at me and smiled some. “No. Last night was great, you leaving the dress on was different but everything else was fine.”

“Your fault, I was just too excited to wait for it to come off. Not that you complained. But, if that’s not it what is? It’s not often I wake up to you crying.”

She moved finally, laid me back down and curled up beside me. I held her there, it seemed like that was kind of what she wanted but her crying did not slow, instead it got a little worse before it began to subside. I wondered if she’d had a nightmare, those had stopped three months after the attack, but her father could have triggered them again and if he did, it just added to my reasons to dislike him.

She finally looked up at me and I wiped her cheeks off.

“I know that you know every detail about what Adam and Gary did the whole week. Whom did you tell those details too?”

“The only people I spoke to were Christopher, Craig, and my brothers.  Taylor and Isaac only got that you were physically hurt and sexually assaulted, those exact terms. But, neither of them asked for specific details. Craig and Christopher got details such as what was used, how they hurt you physically, and sexually. They knew about the videos so I would image that Christopher and Craig know all the details.”

“Do you know if they shared those with anyone?”

“No. I did ask your brothers and Craig not to disclose the details to anyone. Why?”

“When Dad was talking to me he said Adam only used the drumsticks because I made him mad.”

“Baby, you know that’s not true. He used them because they would hurt you more, doubly because they were mine.”

“I know that Zachary. But, if my brothers, Craig, or you never told anyone that he used a drumstick on me. How did Dad know what he used?”

I kissed her nose and pulled her in for a hug. “Ems, it’s obvious that Adam and your father are talking to one another. Odds are Adam told him what he did.”

“I don’t understand how my father could feel he is better for me than you. You worry about consensual spankings being too hard, there is no way in hell you’d ever do that to me or anyone else. Why would he still want me to be with someone like Adam after what he did?”

She laid her head on my shoulder and I kissed her forehead. “I don’t know honey, I can’t answer that question. But, you don’t have to worry about Adam; I won’t let him near you ever again.”

We laid there another 15 minutes before we heard Aaron’s door close. We got up and found clean clothes for the day, there was a family reunion at 2, and we were attending that as well. She went with a navy blue skirt and lighter t-shirt. I went with blue jeans and a grey t-shirt with a button up blue and white checked shirt over it. We went to the front where Aaron was already cooking breakfast, he favorite waffles. He turned and looked at us and smiled.

“You know, I thought George was supposed to be the one getting laid, not you two.”

“Who said we did?” Emily asked.

He looked at her. “It’s not like my walls are sound proof Emmy… Sadly I never wanted to know that you were that loud either.”

I felt the heat rise in my face. “Um…how long were you home?”

“I left an hour after you two, I would have seriously waited longer but god damn, I wondered around 3 if you were going to bed.”

I lowered my head the very thing I tried to avoid apparently wasn’t avoided.

“Least you didn’t walk in on us, because if I had it my way we’d been here in the living room floor.  Seriously Aaron, I’m no angel.”

“Seriously? Thank god one of you had a clear enough head to do that, and I am betting that was Zac. It’s clear you are no angel.

Emily giggled. “I haven’t been one of those in a while now.”

He laid the spatula down and looked right at me. “Am I to assume that is your fault as well?”

“It could be...” I mumbled.

Emily smiled. “Aaron if you simply wanted to embarrass him, you should have asked me. I’m much better at it.”

He smiled. “Well, actually I really didn’t think he was your first, but I don’t think I will complain. I know he’s not complaining and you damn sure didn’t last night. But really, next time you visit please reframe or at least be quieter.”

We both smiled and agreed; he finished the waffles and sat the plates down.

“Emmy, do you ever think we were too strict? I mean, I know Dad was but I’m talking about the five of us. I know we protected you with our lives, but did you feel like we over done it? Did you ever feel like you would have had more experiences if we weren’t your brothers?”

She smiled at him. “No. I think had ya’ll not been that way I may have turned out far worse. I have a great job that I truly love and enjoy, with co-workers I adore. A great boyfriend who will do anything I ask, quite literally. A family that loves me and everything that I truly need, I think it would have been different if I were given more freedom. By the time I left home I knew what I wanted to be.”

He smiled. “I wondered after you left, Craig said you went through a pretty crazy few months where you were very curious and wanted to know about things.”

I couldn’t help but giggle. “Yeah, she’s still pretty curious about things.”

“You are guilty of that too.” She said.

“Yeah, I’m going to shut up now because I don’t need any more details.”

We finished breakfast with light conversation on what the day would be about. We got some downtime before we left for the park, arriving promptly at 2. This reunion was much bigger because her uncles, cousins, aunts, and distant relatives were all expected and it appeared most had showed up. I would never remember all of their names though; I stayed close to Emily because I didn’t know anyone. About four I sent messages to all five of her brothers and to Craig to meet me down at the gazebo, I was already there having snuck away while she was talking with her cousin.

I was nervous which got worse when they were all standing there, all looking at me perplexed and confused. Nervous habit to run my hands through my hair, and boy was I was doing that a lot.

“You asked us here? What’s up?” Aaron asked.

I looked at them and took a few deep breaths, before I let my focus move to George, the oldest one.

“I want to start with I know that it should be your father I am approaching. However, given his reaction yesterday I am pretty confident I know what his answer would be and honestly, I can’t live with that answer because of his reason.”

George looked confused, but Aaron filled him in quickly. “Ok. So, what are you asking then?”

I took in a good deep breathe. “I am asking you all for your blessing and permission to ask Emily to marry me. The six of you are the closest male relatives she has, and since I know her father’s answer, it is appropriate to ask.”

“You want to marry our baby sister?” Joshua asked.

“Yes.”

“Why?” Jason asked.

“Because I can’t live without her, I can’t image waking up alone or going to bed alone. I can’t see my future without her in it. I haven’t set a date to ask, but the ring’s been picked out for months.”

“Were you hesitating because of your previous wife?” Christopher asked.

“Yes. It’s a large part of why I promised her and didn’t ask last time. I really should have asked her though.”

“I think you made the right decision by promising Zachary. You both needed to be together without the weight and burden of a marriage and problems. It was good for you both.” Craig said.

“You won’t do her like you did Kate will you?” Aaron asked.

“No. I am very happy with Emily in every aspect of our lives. I have loved her since I laid eyes on her, honestly, I should have never married Kate and I should have kept looking for Emily. I regret that decision, but I don’t regret anything else regarding her and I.”

George was just standing there listening to the others; he was making me very nervous because his eyes remained locked on me. He finally turned to the others.
“I don’t do this often, but I am pulling rank. I got this. You can all return to the party. Craig, please find Emily and hang out around her because our father just arrived.”

The other’s nodded, but I saw them all send him a text message and I know he read them all. Each of them returned and he waited until we were alone. Yeah, now I was surely nervous as hell.

“Let’s go for a walk.” He then abruptly turned and walked away, I followed.

He got farther away from the party, farther away from anyone who could save me, hopefully this was not some plan to lure me away, beat the crap out of me and leave me there. But, then he would have to answer to Emily.

“My wife, god that’s weird to say, is a very big fan of yours. I am sure you know that, so I am fully aware of what Hanson is doing at any given time. I am aware that you do travel a lot, you are in contact with women daily, so give me a reason why I should believe that in a few years my baby sister won’t come crying to me because she’s caught you with someone else.”

It was a logical question, one I expected from at least one of them. “I don’t need to find anyone else because everything I need, everything I ever wanted, is in Emily. I don’t need anyone else but her. I meant what I told her George.”

“What did you tell her?”

“In an e-mail she saw while I was very sick, I told her that I would give up everything for her. That I was filing from Kate and I didn’t care if she took everything that I owned, everything that mattered to me because all I needed was her. Emily was worth giving up my business, career, and whatever else Kate wanted from me. If that is not a good enough reason for you, perhaps I should have skipped everyone and asked her first.”

He laughed. “Emily will say yes Zac, hands down.”

“I know she will. It was right to ask you and the others. Her father will say no, there is no need for me to ask him. But, his reason would be because he wants her to marry Adam still and I do not approve of that. Adam does not need to be anywhere near her.”

We paused and he looked over the lake. “I know the five of us scare the hell out of you sometimes, you looked very terrified when we walked into that hospital room last year. I think you were glad to be behind her.”

“A little bit.”

He looked at me. “None of us have ever seen you as a bad person Zachary. In fact, we were glad you were there for her, glad that she trusted you enough to sit in your lap after what they did. Craig told us how you were afterwards, coming over at 2 and 3 am because she needed you, because you were the only person that she felt safe with. It shows what kind of man you are, that you’d sacrifice so much for someone else.”

I simply waited; I had nothing else that I could say on the matter. He looked at the lake again and for a long time that’s what he did, stood there and looked across the water. He finally turned to me and his face was serious.

“Because of those reasons and others, it is why we all believe you are perfect for her. Despite your past actions toward your ex-wife we believe that you would not do that to Emily. As for our father, we do not care what he says or thinks; he lost that right when he hit her for no reason. We also know he wants her with Adam for some reason and none of us believe she needs to be with him.”

Again, I waited but why couldn’t he just say yes or no?!

“If you want to ask Emily to be your wife, then you have our blessing and our permission to do so. We know that you will protect her and be good to her, we know that you won’t hurt her and most importantly, we know Emily would be very happy with you.”

Had I heard that correctly?!

“But, Zachary Walker Hanson, do not be mistaken. I do not care who you are, what you do, or how popular you are. She better never come crying to us because you hurt her physically or emotionally. She better never come crying to us because you cheated on her. If she does, you will not like the consequences.”

For that, I could smile. “No fear, I have younger sisters as well and I know those consequences very well. But, you don’t have to worry because I don’t ever plan to hurt her that way. One time of her screaming at me in the middle of a parking lot is plenty.”

He laughed. “She’s screamed at me more than once and I am sure she will scream at you again at some point.”

It was about then I heard my name being screamed, not particularly in the way I liked by her and George just smiled. She ran up and looked at us confused.

“Everything ok?” George asked.

“I saw you all at the gazebo then some came back but the two of you vanished. You weren’t threatening him were you?”

“No. I was not. We were just talking.”

“Ok. Hey, baby what time is our flight?”

“It’s 3 am Tuesday morning, Tay and Natalie went back today.”

“Ok. I asked Dad if I could come over and get pictures of all of us, I have most of mine but hardly any of my brothers or of us, he said it was ok and I will go tomorrow and get them.”

“Will Dad be home?”

“No. He’ll be at work. George, I’ll be fine there. I’ll probably go really early so I can get back to Aarons.”

I groaned at the early remark, it seemed like sleeping in had gone out the door for the last few weeks. We started back to the party and spent the rest of the afternoon with her family, mingling and talking.

While we had things planned, they did not go that way. Our flight time was wrong it was actually 3pm Monday. She called her father as soon as we got up and asked him if she could just take the albums and pictures home with her and return them when she had the time to go through them and get the ones she wanted. He agreed as long as she promised to take care of them, because some of the pictures were of her mother and those were irreplaceable. I got the feeling he attached a threat to it if she didn’t, but she didn’t tell me if he did.

We purchased large suitcases and she carefully packed the albums from the house in them, she did not open any of them, just grabbed them and put them in the suitcase, including several photo boxes. While she did that I had looked at where she grew up. The two suitcases were flown back with us and once we got home they were both placed in the spare bedroom until she had time to sit down and go through them. We had the community event coming up and since May had been crazy so far, we both needed to catch up at work and get things done.