Bill looked between the two fiancées. "So what does this mean now? You're really gonna get married?"

                                 "Um, yeah, that's what it means." Answered Donna. "I mean, you heard them. If we don't they're gonna take the kids."

                                "So we don't have to go?" Asked Delilah, trying to figure it out for herself. Donna smiled at her innocence.

                              "Not as long as I'm around," She said, taking the girl from Michelle's arms.

                              Robert sat on the couch, still trying to process the scene that just unfolded. He'd suddenly gone from young man taking on CPS to soon-to-be husband and adoptive father. And in the process, he'd managed to solidify the entire destiny and fate of another innocent soul.

                            Donna joined him on the couch, Delilah still in her arms. "We get to stay with you Robert." Mark concluded, letting go of Bill's hand and climbing up on the couch in between them.

                          Robert looked all three of them over. Them, plus a skittish dog back home. His new family. A plethora of adult responsibilities flocked to his mind.

                          Pick up extra shifts at the farm, marry Donna, legally adopt the kids, buy a house, maybe get a bigger truck-or a van, take the kids to and from school, holidays, doctor's appointments, grocery shopping, all new challenges he would be facing, but thankfully, not alone.

                         Night came and a single thought plagued Robert's mind as he laid on the couch. When he and Donna were together, they'd never actually gotten to the point where they could call themselves boyfriend and girlfriend, and now there was to be a wedding. And now she would give up the rest of her life because she happened to be the only single, able-bodied, age-appropriate woman around at the time.

                        He decided he needed to talk to her. Now. He stood up and made his way over to the staircase. He went up and then down the hall to his new bride's bedroom. He sighed with relief to see her light still on, beaming from beneath the bedroom door.

                     Robert approached the door and rested his hand on it for a moment before opening it and entering. Donna was just putting on her satin nightgown. "Oh, I'm sorry, should I-" He said, quickly looking anywhere but at her. In his experience, half-dressed women didn't appreciate you barging into their rooms.

                    "Why? You're gonna see them soon, anyway." She said, half-grinning as she finished putting it on. "Oh, you're right." He said, realizing his mistake. "I gotta say, that's gonna be a little weird."

                     "Why's that?" She asked, sort of amused. "Because you and I broke up before we got to-that." Robert explained.

                    "True. So what brings you up here?"

                    "Just that I've been thinking about what comes next for us. Does it scare you as much as it scares me?"

                    "Of course it does. I mean, clearly neither one of us could've imagined that this would be our first and probably only marriage. But you know what? That's okay. Sometimes life puts you in a direction you didn't think about before. And sometimes it works." She said, smiling at him. On the inside, she wasn't sure if she was trying to reassure him, or herself.

                   Gauging the uneasy feeling between them, he grabbed her hand. "What do you say we go downstairs and be a family tonight?" He offered.

                  "I'd like that." She responded, turning her lamp off and once again linking arms with her husband-to-be.

                  "One more thing." He said.

                  "Yeah?"

                  "Can I take this keyring off? I stopped feeling my finger hours ago."