Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 64th cycle. Now cycle 65!

"Formally Request"
Sam (& Nell, Rachel), Hiram & Leroy Berry
Sam & Nell/Samchel series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

A few weeks before

He was already in the process of packing his and Nell's things for their trip up to New York to see Rachel when he made up his mind. Maybe he should have done this before he actually bought the ring, but now he had it, hidden away, and he still had yet to do it. He wanted to do it before they departed.

"Hey, hey," he had gone to find his daughter, playing with her bears. "Want to go see the gramps?" he asked her, and she stood, excited. "Is that a yes?" he smiled.

"Yes!" she grabbed hold of his hand and started pulling.

"You need shoes first," he laughed.

Nell had been referring to Rachel's fathers as her 'gramps' for so long, he didn't think she had ever seen them as anything else. Leroy and Hiram had been more than happy to answer the call. They loved Nell like she was their own.

When they showed up at the house, Leroy picked up the tiny girl, which got him a heavy load of kisses to his cheek. He would also make her bear talk, and Sam wondered what would happen when Nell realized the bear only 'spoke' when Leroy was around. For now, she absolutely believed that the bear was an occasional talker.

Nell had been set up in the dining room with paper and crayons, where she could make enough drawings to cover the refrigerator doors at least twice over, the better to give her father and gramps time to speak in private. Sam tried not to show himself too nervous, even though he was. He wanted Rachel's fathers to know he was serious about this, about her and their future together. When they sat down, he took a deep breath or three before starting his talk.

"I came here today to ask you for something, to ask… I want to marry your daughter, so I guess I'm asking for… her hand, your permission…" As soon as the word 'marry' had been spoken, the men sat up, focused now on the boy sitting across from them. "We've been together for a long time now, and I know how old we are, but it doesn't change the fact that I love your daughter and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. She's been good to me, good to my daughter. She's been Nell's mother already, and I couldn't imagine what our lives would be without her."

"Sam, you need to think about this. If you say you love her this much, why not wait a couple more years, after you both are out of school, or…" Hiram asked.

"I don't know when we would actually have the ceremony, it could be within a year, two years, or five years, I don't know. But by this time next year, Nell and I are going to be living in New York, with Rachel. We've been making this long distance thing work, and we've been a family since before that. I don't know when I'll ask her, but I do know I have the intention to. If that's the case, then I wanted to come to you first. I know how much Rachel looks up to both of you, and how much Nell loves you. You've been there for us over these last couple of yours, so I want to do this right. I can leave you to think about it for a few minutes, or a day or two, or…"

"Sam," Leroy stopped him, looking to Hiram for a silence conference. "You have our blessing." He didn't want to let his smile show too easily, but he couldn't hold it in. "We trust you to do this right."

"Yes, Sir," he promised.

"Rachel is our only child, and if we feel the need to intervene, we are going to."

"I understand."

"We know you do," Leroy glanced toward the dining room, where Nell was hard at work on her masterpiece.

Sam would explain to them not to mention anything about a possible engagement around Nell, as she was bound to talk, and he didn't want this getting out until such a time as they were ready. The two had stayed for dinner, and then they had returned home, to continue with the packing before they left the morning after next.

He needed time to let it sink in. He had the ring now, and he had her fathers' blessing. All that stood between him and being engaged to the girl he loved was a proposal. He wanted to do this right, to make it something she would remember for the rest of her life, the kind of story she would want to tell again and again. She deserved to have something like that done for her. It was going to require a fair share of planning, especially since he might not have been the most imaginative person in situations like this. But then he had time on his side.

He had to factor in that they were in two different cities, and he was definitely going to have to do this while they were in the same place. But he wanted to catch her by surprise, for her to have absolutely no idea this was coming, so she couldn't know he would be there. He wasn't going to propose to her in this next visit, if she knew he was going to be in New York, no. This proposal was going to catch her completely by surprise.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!