Reunited After 25 Years 42: Carol and Donna's Baby Shower

As they were both in a romantic mood that night, Anton and Andrea both began shedding their clothing almost as soon as they were inside the house.

"It is the perfect ending to a perfect night, is it not?" Anton asked as they joined their bodies together.

The following day was much colder. Andrea turned on the central heat and dressed in a turtleneck shirt with a sweater over it. She and Anton snuggled together under a pile of blankets to keep warm that night. She didn't want to get out of bed the following morning.

Several mornings later, she was snoring softly as Anton placed a row of kisses down the side of her face.

"What is it?" she mumbled.

"It is snowing, Andrea."

Now fully awake, she looked at the window and, sure enough, she could see white flurries clinging to the outside.

"The first snow of the year," she said softly.

"I wanted to share it with you so I woke you up," Anton told her.

"Well, I'm glad you did," she replied. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

They went to the Parkers for Thanksgiving like they had the previous year. Denny announced that he and Darya wouldn't go unless Fawn was welcome as well, so Andrea reluctantly agreed that she could come along. They had to take two separate cars, as only four people fit comfortably into Anton's compact car.

Jewel's smile quickly turned into a look of bewilderment when she saw Fawn.

"This is my sister, Fawn," Denny proudly told his grandmother.

"Your sister?"

"Dennis' daughter by a Vietnamese waitress," Andrea explained.

"It is nice to meet you," Fawn told Jewel.

"Well, I never...come on in, then...I guess." Jewel stepped aside so that their visitors could enter the house.

"Thank you," Fawn said politely.

"What's this business about Dennis having a Vietnamese kid?" Alan, who'd been watching TV, asked loudly.

"It's true," Andrea said, blinking back tears. "Dennis had an affair with a waitress when he was in Vietnam, and Fawn is their daughter."

"Oh, dear, I'm so sorry!" Jewel rushed to embrace her daughter.

"I will just go sit in the car," said Fawn. "I am not wanted here."

"Oh, no, you won't," Denny said quickly. "You have just as much right to be here as anyone else does."

"He's right," Andrea heard herself say. "Fawn can't help the circumstances of her birth."

Anton squeezed her hand and smiled at her sympathetically.

Although each family member put on a smiling face, the entire visit felt very awkward to them all, and Andrea was relieved when it was finally time to leave.

"I understand how it makes you feel," Anton told Andrea as they were driving back home. "But Denny is the only family Fawn has in America. It is only natural that he wants to protect her, to include her in family events."

"I know that." Andrea sighed. "I keep telling myself I should feel sorry for her instead of resenting her."

"You are only human, Andrea." Anton chuckled and patted her knee. "You are always very kind to Fawn, and I am proud of you for that."

A few days after Thanksgiving, Andrea went to Carol and Donna's baby shower. Carol had told her that they were expecting a boy, so she brought a light blue sleeper with a matching blanket and hat as a gift.

Andrea noticed that Carol looked very pregnant as she greeted her at the door. "I still have a couple more weeks to go," Carol said with a sigh when she saw her friend's expression.

All the other guests were strangers to Andrea. "These are all friends of ours from the Unitarian Universalist church," Donna told her. "Meet Linda, Terry, Patsy, Susan, and Ellen."

"It's nice to meet you all," Andrea said. Patsy and Susan were obviously also a couple, as they held one another's hands and gazed into one another's eyes during almost the entire visit.

"Why don't you join us sometime, Andrea?" asked Ellen. "I think you'd really enjoy it."

"That's what I keep telling her," said Donna.

"Anton and I might just do that sometime," Andrea replied.

"Oh, you're married?" Ellen raised an eyebrow.

"Since last February." Andrea smiled. "We got married on Valentine's Day."

"Aw, that's so romantic!" Linda exclaimed.

Andrea enjoyed meeting the other women, and Carol and Donna received a lot of nice gifts. They seemed to really like the sleeper/blanket/hat combo Andrea had given them, and several weeks later, Andrea received a telephone call from an ecstatic Donna.

"Our son is here!" Donna exclaimed. "Ryan Joseph Walker-Lane. Eight pounds, seven ounces."

"That's wonderful!" Andrea exclaimed, swallowing a lump in her throat. "How's Carol?"

"She's fine. She has to stay in the hospital for a couple of extra days because she had a C section. She was in labor for over thirty hours and the baby still wouldn't come, so they had to do something."

"Well, I'm glad they're both all right," said Andrea. "Congratulations to both of you!"

"Thank you," said Donna.

"Carol and Donna have a new son," she told Anton after she hung up.

"That is nice." Anton smiled. "Now they have family to call their own."

A few days later, Andrea went to visit her friends and their new son.

"I forgot how tiny a newborn was," Andrea commented as she took baby Ryan into her arms. "This sure brings back memories." As she cuddled the newborn, memories of Denny as an infant came flooding back, and it was with reluctance that she handed Ryan back to his mother.