Disclaimer: Mine is mine, while Marvel's is Marvel's!

Sam Guthrie stood outside the jewelry store, his palms sweating and his heart pounding in his ears. He swallowed against the nervous lump that seemed to take up residence in his stomach, sour as month old milk. He reached up to wipe away a drop of sweat from his brow and looked around, searching for someone in particular.

When he didn't see her, he swallowed again, and stepped into the jewelry store. He blinked rapidly to clear his vision; it was quite a switch going from the bright light outside into the dimmer illumination of the store.

As he was blinking the spots from his eyes, a middle aged woman with hair that had obviously been dyed descended on him. When he could finally see with out the dots swirling through everything he found himself on the receiving end of a too bright and too knowing smile.

"Hello, sir, and welcome to Young's Jewelers. How may I help you?" The woman asked him, her smile still a little to bright for his piece of mind. Her name tag read Joy and he couldn't help but take that as a good sign.

"Ah'm looking for a-ring. An engagement ring." Sam told her, suddenly feeling embarrassed. He found himself having to twist his tongue about in the oddest ways to get the words past his lips.

But he had said it. And that made his decision final. He WAS going to ask Tabitha for forever. There was no way around it now.

Suddenly the prospect of forever loomed at him. That was a long time, longer then he could imagine. He would wake up every morning with her there, he'd go to sleep every night with her beside him.

She would always be around. Tabitha would be there, with him, for the rest of her life or the rest of his. If he asked her for forever, it would be forever.

Panic sudden rose up in his throat. What is she wasn't the one? What if it turned out that he didn't love her as much as he thought?

What if she didn't love him as much as he thought she did? What is she didn't want to get married?

What if they had kids, and they discovered that they really weren't meant for each other?

A thousand questions raced though his mind, and Sam had to clasp his hands together tightly to keep them from shaking.

God, this was too much. How could he think that he was ready to ask Tabitha to be his wife? He loved her---that was true. But how much did he love her, how long would he love her? How long would she love him?

Joy was still looking at him, her eyes holding a knowing look. He suddenly realized that she must have seen the way he was standing, the look in his eyes as he battled with his indecision. Sam sighed to himself.

"Nervous?" Joy asked, smiling brightly.

Ah didn't realize that Ah was so transparent.

"Yeah." Was all he could answer.

"I'm sure you and your love will be very happy." Joy assured him, leading him over to a display of rings. Sam stared at them all, trying to picture putting one of them on Tabitha's slender finger.

He closed his eyes, and let the image of Tabitha invade his mind. Just thinking about her smile, the way she laughed calmed him down more then he realized.

A burst of love ran through him, like sweet honey in his veins. Just the thought of holding Tabitha every night for the rest of his life was enough to make him want to weep with joy.

He loved her.

And then another memory of her stole into his mind and he couldn't help but smile. He remembered the light in her eyes when he smiled at her, the way she always smiled when he came into the room. He remembered the way she use to sigh happily, when he held her in his arms at night, and she thought he was asleep. He could remember the tenderness in her touches, the soft whispered words as they drifted off to sleep.

She loved him, too, he realized with a sudden burst of awe.

He'd never thought about it before, never really. He'd just sort of assumed that she returned his feelings because she said she did, not really thinking if she showed that she did or not.

But she did. Maybe even more then he did, she showed that she loved him. That she wanted to spend the rest of her days with him.

Sam swallowed hard, and felt a smile creep to his lips.

"Her hands are really small-which one of these do you think would look the best?" Darkchilde's Stories