Author's Note: This is a part of the (in)famous "Alex Gets Punished" series, starting about five months after "Normal Life". Alex is seven months pregnant as we start.
Justin Russo flipped over a page of the menu, ran his thumb down the side. "Seeing anything you want?"
"Yes," Alex said, turning her head and nuzzling Justin's neck. "But it's not on the menu."
"Oh?" Justin smiled a little, said, "Well, I don't think you can have that here in the restaurant. So you'll need to find something on the menu."
She stretched a little, settling in fully against him in their booth. Justin moved her hand to the side of her seven-month-pregnant belly, rested it there lightly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw their waitress arrive, looked up to see a smiling Korean girl with round Lennon-style glasses and a name tag that read 'Jessica'. "Good evening, sir, ma'am. What can I get for you to drink?"
"Coke for me, a double chocolate shake with whipped cream for the lady," Justin answered, finishing by turning his head and giving Alex a kiss on the temple. She smiled, and the waitress smiled at both of them, said, "I'll be right back with those."
When she was gone, Justin said, "So… your usual, or is the baby craving something different tonight?"
Alex shifted a little, and Justin frowned at her, feeling something wrong in the way she'd done it. "Are you feeling okay? If you don't want to eat right now, we don't have to…."
"No," she said quickly. "Feels like I want to eat all the time, right now."
"Well, you're supposed to." Justin smiled, gave Alex another kiss. "At least Mom isn't complaining that you need to gain more weight now."
He expected a chuckle from that, and when it didn't come, Justin frowned, then turned in the booth, moving his arm so he could pull away a little to take a better look at his sister. "What's wrong?" he asked, and Alex blushed a little.
"Oh, well…. Nothing's really wrong," she said, looking down at the table, "but…."
Justin knew better than to voice the sigh he felt. Instead, he laid one hand on Alex's arm and said, "But what?"
"I've been thinking, with Max and Tutor getting married… we didn't really get to have a wedding. I mean, what we had was wonderful, but the only people there were Miranda and Harper. And I didn't get to wear a gown, or have you in a tux, and -"
"Alex," Justin interrupted, squeezing her arm. "Before you get any further, I've got something I need to show you."
She frowned at that, said, "Can't it wait? I -"
"No." Justin shook his head, looking serious, raised his other hand to stroke Alex's hair. "It can't."
"Okay, well - we're not done with this yet, so if you're trying to distract me -" She stopped as Justin slid off the end of their seat, standing up.
"Excuse me," he called out, using what Alex recognized as his 'lecture hall voice'. "I'm sorry to interrupt your dining, but, if you'll indulge me for a moment…." People all over the restaurant turned to look as Justin turned back to Alex, knelt down and took her hand in his. "Alexandra Margarita Russo," he said in the same voice, "I love you now more than the day we married. I know the wedding we had was small, and you've never complained about that, but now, I want you to be able to have the wedding you deserve. So… will you please marry me again?"
He produced a box from his pocket with his other hand, held it out to Alex. She smiled, blushing slightly, and Justin smiled in return, knowing full well that the blush was a fake on her part. Alex still loved being the center of attention, and she deliberately paused for a moment, making sure everyone's attention was on her, before she said, "Yes."
Applause broke out, and under the cover of it, Alex said quietly, "It's a good thing you worded that the way you did, because if you'd made all these people think we weren't already married with me this pregnant, I would have had to hurt you."
Grinning a little, Justin leaned in and gave Alex a brief kiss, then said, "I love you too."
"So," Alex asked as Justin sat back down, "I take it was Tutor who tipped you off?"
Justin nodded and opened his mouth to say more, but the waitress interrupted, setting down their drinks. Smiling, she said, "That was very nice. The manager said to tell you, dinner is on the house for you tonight."
"Oh," Justin said, blinking, "that wo -"
"Would be wonderful," Alex interjected smoothly, giving Justin a not-too-subtle nudge in the ribs. "I'll need a little more time to look at the menu, though, please," she finished, and the waitress nodded.
"Of course, ma'am. I'll be back in just a few minutes."
Picking back up her menu, Alex started to flip through it, mostly looking at the pictures. "Okay, so... if Tutor tipped you off, I guess she also filled you in on the plan?"
Nodding, Justin said, "Yeah. A double wedding, with them and us. I like it. Saves everyone having to go to two weddings. And we can split a lot of the costs."
"Yeah, I figured you'd like that part." Alex rolled her eyes, then sighed a little. "But yeah, I was thinking of that too. Not like we've got a ton of money to spend."
Justin chuckled then, and Alex frowned. "What's funny?"
"I was just thinking about Da - your dad," he corrected smoothly, glancing around to see if anyone was listening, "and how he'll probably react. You know him and money."
"Oh, God, yes. I expect at least twenty minutes about how getting married at the courthouse was good enough for him and Mom. Followed by three hours of Mom not speaking to him."
"Yeah." Justin nodded, then said, "So... who else already knows about this wedding?"
"Just us, Tutor, and Max right now." Alex set her menu back down and leaned into Justin, let him wrap his arm around her. "We're still having dinner at Mom and Dad's Saturday, right? I figured we'd tell them then."
Justin snapped his fingers. "Oh, yeah, I'd almost forgotten about that."
"Alex... you need to get up." A hand shook her shoulder, and she burrowed deeper into the blankets.
"Don' wanna," she said, her voice blurry from sleepiness and the pillow against her face.
That was answered with a sigh of exasperation, followed by another shake. "Come on... you told me you have a meeting with clients at nine. You've got to get up and get moving."
"No. No I don't." The voice was a bit clearer now, beginning to be tinged with a bit of pique. "I can just tel -" She cut herself off just in time, before finishing the word, 'teleport', then turned over.
"Okay," Lexie said, looking up at Gigi. She was already showered and dressed, and Lexie felt a moment's jealous anger - an all-too-familiar feeling where Gigi was concerned. With a sigh, she pushed the feeling down, and instead grabbed Gigi by the arm, pulled her down as she sat up, moving her head so that their lips met. For a moment, Gigi was still, and then she began to shyly return the kiss.
After a few seconds, they pulled apart again, looking into each other's eyes, and Gigi blushed. "I can't be late for work again," she said. "But I so want to."
Lexie made a frustrated sigh, but nodded. "I know. We'll have fun tonight, though." She slid to the edge of the bed and stood up off it as Gigi nodded. Wish I could just stop time for an hour or so right now and play around. But that'd involve explaining magic to Gigi, so...
Picking up her bra from where it had wound up on the footboard of Gigi's bed, Lexie started to put it on. As she did, Gigi stooped down and picked up Lexie's skirt and blouse from the dressing table, then carried them over. Lexie nodded her appreciation, picked up the skirt and stepped into it.
"Oh," she said then, "I just remembered... I'm supposed to have dinner with the family tonight. Justin's visiting."
"Really?" Gigi smiled, said, "That's good. I know you miss him." She paused a second, then said, "Is Tutor going to be there?"
"Yeah," Lexie said, then stopped, her blouse on now, looking at Gigi. She was looking in the mirror, pretending to check her makeup, and Lexie knew she was trying not to let any hurt show, knew she still thought that Jerry and Theresa didn't accept her, when the whole problem was the magic thing, and...
And then Lexie had an idea. "You're invited too," she said, keeping her voice casual. She caught Gigi's surprised look out of the corner of her eye, managed to keep from smiling. "Can you come over at nine? We're going to have dinner a little late, since Justin's stomach is on California time."
"Sure!" Gigi said brightly, and Lexie had to smile at how happy she sounded. Well, that's good. Now I'll just have to deal with the fallout at home...