Maggie tightened her arms around her young son, pulling him against her chest to protect him against the intense glare that was hurting their eyes. The light had scared them, but as it slowly began to dim, Maggie realized they weren’t in the courtroom anymore, but in a beautiful bedroom. When she turned her head, she saw a man and a woman standing nearby watching them. She was confused to why they were with them, but since they were smiling at them, she didn’t feel threatened.

Maggie whispered to Ryan to open his eyes.

When he did, he didn’t see his grandpa trying to take him away from his mother, so he quit crying, and sat up.

Maggie was totally bewildered by this new development. Was her mind playing a trick on her? There wasn’t any possible way to explain how they could be in this room and not in the courtroom anymore. What was even stranger was that she felt as if she was supposed to be here, it was as if this was the right place to be. How could that be possible, as she didn’t even have an idea where she was.

The woman walked closer to Maggie and Ryan. “Maggie, my name is Tammy Miller, and this is my husband, Dave, who is the ship’s doctor. You can call us by our first names, we are your host couple, and we will answer all of your questions.”

Maggie first stared at the woman, but her mind was baffled by what had happened to them, but quickly found her voice. “How do you know my name? Where are we? How did we get here, wherever here may be and what is going to happen to us?” Maggie rapidly asked.

Dave pulled a chair up next to Maggie and sat down within inches of them. “First of all, you and your son aren’t in any danger and we mean you no harm.” He calmly told her. “We’ve been monitoring you for several years and when Jack died, a red flag went up on your file, so we came to retrieve you. You are on now our spaceship.”

Ryan’s eyes lit up. “Oh, boy. Can I go exploring?”

Maggie’s arms gripped Ryan even more tightly to her, afraid she’d passed out. Was she having some sort of a dream?

Dave smiled at Ryan, before he continued to explain to Maggie why she was on their ship. “We’ve transported you and Ryan to our ship because we want you and your son to come home with us to our planet to live. You have been matched with a man who will become your new husband. His name is Matthew Adams, he is the same age as you are, and he too has a five-year-old son. His wife died a year ago during an epidemic which kills the native females of our planet.” Dave continued to explain to Maggie about the epidemic and the death of Matt’s wife. He showed two photo albums to Maggie, same as he had done for Sara. The first one was of her life, and in the album were pictures of Jack, Ryan, and Mrs. Thompson, and of course, herself in the book.

Maggie started crying as she started going through the first album, as it brought back so many wonderful memories. When Maggie came to the last picture of Jack, she put her hand on his picture. “Bye Jack, I love you.” Once again, the tears appeared on Maggie’s face.

Tammy hands Maggie a tissue, she takes it and dried her tears before starting on the other album. The second album was of Matt’s life. The last picture in the album showed him with his pregnant wife and young son, she saw that they too had once been a happy family.

Maggie put the album down on top of the other album on the nearby table. “Let me get this straight. You want me to marry Matt, and in exchange, I get to keep my son, and I never have to worry about Jack’s parents taking him away from me.”

“Yes.” Tammy tells her.

“That seems fair enough to me.” Maggie figured she would do anything to be able to keep Ryan with her. “Yes, I will marry Matt and live on your planet.” She told the surprised couple. Yes, Maggie thought she would marry Matt, she would marry the devil himself in order to keep her young son with her.

She would do about anything in her power to keep Ryan from Jack’s parents, even if it meant she was to marry a total stranger, one she would never learn to love and go live with him on a different planet.

The Millers stared at her for a moment, as in all the trips they ever heard about, never had anyone accept this proposition this fast or this easily.

Dave was apprehensive about how quickly Maggie made up her mind about this important decision and didn’t want her to regret her decision years later. He went on to explain to Maggie her choices about staying or leaving. “You must understand, once you decide to stay, you can’t ever change your mind.”

“I understand, and my answer is still yes,” she told him, as she wasn’t about to change her decision about marrying a stranger as she had to protect her son. “I don’t know how much about my situation you know, but if I go back to earth, my son will be taken away from me. His grandparents are wealthy, so they bought off the legal system as they’re determined to have Ryan.”

“Maggie, because you have a son from a previous marriage, you will be asked to have at least one more child. We have ways to ensure that your baby will be a female, as we need a lot more females on our planet who are immune to this virus. It is our goal in the future that the epidemic won’t ever again affect any females on Zodar. You must understand this isn’t a marriage of convenience, but a marriage necessary to increase the female population on Zodar.”

“Yes, I understand what you are telling me, I’m willing to be a wife in every sense of the word. When do I get to meet Matt, and when will the wedding be taking place?” Her eyes held a gleam of excitement in them.

Dave looked over at his wife and she nodded at him. “The wedding is to take place today, in fact in less than an hour, as we’re in a hurry to head for home.”

Tammy walked to the closet, opened the door, and brought out a dress that looked identical to the one Maggie had worn when she married Jack. Maggie slowly moved Ryan off her lap, stood up and walked over to the dress as if she was in a trance. She slowly reached out and touched the dress, her hands searching the hem until she found the exact spot she was looking for. She gasped. Yes, this was her own wedding gown, the very same one. It had the same small repaired tear in the hem, the one caused by Jack accidentally stepping on the dress on their wedding day, as they danced.

“I can’t believe it; this is my own wedding dress.” Maggie felt the tears building up behind her lids, she blinked, and the tears slowly make their way down her cheeks. This dress brought back so many wonderful memories. “How did it get here?” she asked quietly. Her dazed mind couldn’t accept that she was holding her own wedding dress.

Tammy smiled at Maggie, “We brought all of your belongings here for you. Since your first marriage was a good one, we figured you wouldn’t mind wearing this dress for the wedding. If you don’t want to wear it, we can find you another dress to wear.”

Maggie shook her head. “No, this dress will be fine. Maybe it will bring me good luck in this marriage too. Jack and I had a small wedding, but it was still beautiful. It was just him and I for the ceremony, he didn’t tell his parents about the wedding until afterwards.”

She had to wipe her tears before she continued with her story. “He didn’t want them to know anything about the wedding until afterwards, as they had a great deal of control over him. Our wedding without them was his way of escaping their overbearing control.” Maggie seemed lost in the past for a moment. “I found this dress one day while I out was shopping for dresses. I immediately fell in love with it, but I thought it was too expensive. Sadly, I put the dress back on the rack and left the store. Later, I told Jack that I had found the perfect dress but didn’t buy it because of the cost. He didn’t say much about it, other than he hoped I would find the right dress.” She smiled at her memory of that day.

“The next day he asked me all about the dress. What store was it in? What did it look like? Did I have a salesclerk helping me? How much did it cost?” She smiled. “I didn’t think much about all the questions when he had asked me all these questions about the dress that I had fallen in love with. Later that week when I finally decided I couldn’t live without the dress and had gone back to get it; the dress was gone. I was so upset that I couldn’t even make it out of the shopping center. I simply sat there on a bench in the middle of the mall and cried for what seemed like hours, but actually it was only for several minutes.” She laughed at the memory of that day.

“When I got home, I told Jack about the dress being gone.” Her eyes glistened with tears. “Would you believe that man went into the bedroom and returned with that exact dress in his arms? He knew how much I had wanted that dress, so he’d gone out and bought it for me without me even knowing that he had done it. He said the salesclerk had given him a rough time about buying the dress, asking if he thought it would fit him. It made the dress all that more special, since he had gone through so much trouble to buy it for me. That was the way Jack was, always thinking of me.” Maggie finished as tears trickled down her cheek.

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Dave cleared his throat. “If you ladies will excuse me, I will take Ryan to meet his new brother. The boys will be waiting for you and Matt in the front row of the church.” Dave waited until Maggie’s eyes turned to look at him. “I will be back in a few minutes to walk you down the aisle.”

After they had left, the women continued to get Maggie ready for the wedding. She was a little bit scared as the reality of the situation finally hit her square between the eyes. She knew Matt was an attractive man by what she had seen of his pictures, but she wondered what type of person he was. “Tammy, can you tell me anything personal about Matt?” Maggie licked her lips and looked anxiously at Tammy.

“Maggie, I have known Matt for a couple of years as he’s Dave’s cousin. Matt’s wife, Cindy, was his high school sweetheart and after college, they were married. A few years later Cole was born, he is a sweet boy, but now is extremely sad, missing his mother as you can image. He was exceptionally close to her, but he understands what is happening here, and is accepting this marriage. It was hard on both when Cindy died. It wasn’t an easy decision for Matt to decide to remarry, but knows he’s needed to help his planet survive. Matt is a carpenter and builds houses for a living, and built the house you will be living in.” As Tammy continued to talk about Matt and Cole, her love for them showed.

“You probably noticed Cindy was expecting a baby in their family portrait in the album. They were so excited about having another baby, and knew it was going to be a little girl, but he ended losing them both. We hope to end these horrible epidemics by creating a new species that is immune to it, as for some reason women from Earth aren’t affected, so you needn’t worry about it killing you or any of your children.”

“How strange. How did they come about finding out that it doesn’t affect people from Earth?”

“Trial and error. Luckily, for Zodar, this solution was found sooner than later. I will have to save the rest of the story for another time, for now you need to finish getting dressed.”

As she held the dress in her hand, Maggie thought back to the first time she had worn this dress, she and Jack had been so much in love and they didn’t have a single care in the world. When Jack died, she swore she would never marry again, and here she was getting ready to get married again. Would Jack understand why she was getting marrying so soon after his death? Was this really the right thing for her to do? How will this marriage affect Ryan? Maybe she should have talked to Ryan before agreeing to this marriage.

Maggie shook her head, as if the clear her mind. What choice did she really have? If she went back to Earth, she would have lost Ryan, the only thing she had left of Jack. After the wedding, she would sit down with Ryan and explain everything to him the best way she could. She hoped he would understand why she was marrying so soon after his father’s death, especially to a stranger who lived in a different galaxy.

Tammy seemed to sense Maggie’s mood as she saw her faraway expression, she knew Maggie needed to get on with her life and couldn’t remain in her past any longer, so she touched Maggie’s arm, “You need to get dress now, because we’re running out of time.”

Maggie nodded in agreement, finished putting on her wedding dress, and then sat down so Tammy could put the veil into place. Tammy walked over to a table and picked up a small box, returned to Maggie, and she handed it to her. Maggie slowly opened the box, and inside the box was a beautiful man’s golden wedding band.

“Oh, it’s beautiful”

“I’m glad you like it. It’s hard to pick out a gift like this, but it is part of our job. It’s so you will have something to give your groom. You can always replace the ring later with one of your own choosing if you want.” Tammy quickly added.

“No, this one will be fine. Thank you for everything.” Maggie gives Tammy a quick kiss on the cheek.

As Dave and Ryan walked down the corridor, Ryan began firing off questions about the ship at Dave. How big was it? How fast could it go? Did it travel faster than the speed of light?

“Whoa a minute young man, you are asking too many questions for me to answer all at once. I can’t answer all your questions for you, but before this trip is over, we will try to get them all answered for you. I don’t know the exact figures on the size of this ship, but there is enough room for 300 people to live on this ship at one time for several weeks. This ship travels faster than any car you have on your planet, but to the exact speed, we will have to ask someone else. Do you know a lot about spaceships?”

“No, but I see several movies about them. My daddy and I used to watch them together all the time. I want to be a pilot when I grow up, and my daddy told me that I could be one if I worked very hard. He died; you know.”

“Yes, I know. I’m sorry,” Dave said as he looked down at him.

“I miss my daddy.”

“I’m sure you do.” He gave the young boy a sad look, unsure what to say to make the situation easier.

“His mommy and daddy were going to take me away from my mommy.”

“Yes, I know.”

“Do you know a lot?”

Dave held back a laugh as he smiled down at the young child. “More than some people and less than others. Come on, I want you to meet Cole, the boy who will soon be your new brother.”

Dave took Ryan to a room where a young boy sat on the floor playing a video game. “Cole, this is Ryan. His mother is marrying your father.”

Cole laid down the game’s controller and came over to where the two of them were standing. “Hi, you want to help me kill aliens?”

“Sure.” Ryan said excitedly.

The two boys ran back toward the television, Cole reset his game and handed Ryan a controller.

“These are some bad dudes. Sometimes it is hard to kill them, but with your help it shouldn’t take too long to kill all of them.”

“I have played this game before with my dad. He played with me all the time, but he’s dead now. Does your daddy play with you?”

“All the time. He is really cool.” He said proudly.

“Do you think he will like me?” Ryan asked quietly.

“Sure, he likes everyone.”

Ryan’s smile broadened.

The two boys continue to play in silence for a while.

“Cole, will your daddy let me play with you and him?” He waited anxiously for Cole’s answer.

“Sure. We are going to be brothers soon.”

“I was almost a brother once, but my baby sister died,” he said sadly.

“Gee, that’s too bad. I lost my baby sister too, but now we will have each other. When we get home, I want to show you my playhouse my dad built for me.”

Bashfully Ryan asked. “Do you think he could build me a spaceship instead of a playhouse?”

“Sure, my dad can build anything. I’ll ask him later. Ryan, I think we are going to have fun this summer.”

Ryan smiled. “Me too.”

Dave simply smiled. It looked like another marriage was off to a good start. Sometimes when two new families were blended like this, there were problems at first. Jealousy in children was usually the biggest cause of many of the problems in the new marriage, usually caused by children having to share their parent with someone new. Once that problem was taken care of, things usually began to calm down for the new couples.

Dave stood when the bedroom door opened, and a young good-looking man walked into the living room, his face lighting up when he saw Dave sitting in the room. “Hi doc. Am I running late?”

Dave laughed. “Matt, I have never known for you to be late for anything in your life.”

“Hey Dad.” Cole called to his father, then turned back to Ryan. “Come on Ryan, I want you to meet my swell dad.”

Soon the video game was forgotten, and two five-year-old boys were hurrying over to where Matt stood.

“Dad, this is Ryan. He is going to be my new brother.”

Matt put his hand out to shake. “Nice to meet you. It’s time for us to leave for the church now, so run, and turn off your game for now. Ryan, we’re going to the church, where your mother and I are going to be married, then Cole will be your new brother and I’ll be your new father.” He hesitated just a split second, before continuing. “Is that okay with you?”

“Yes. I think that will be great.”

Matt relaxed and smiled at the boy before him. “Dave is going to get your mom and take her to the church. I want you both to behave during the entire time you’re in church. After the ceremony, there will be a party and you two can have fun then, so until then, you both will have to be quiet. Do you both understand?”

“Yes, Daddy. I promise we will both be good.”

Matt smiled at his son. “Thanks, Cole.”

“I promise too.”

Matt put his hand on Ryan’s shoulder and smiled at Ryan. “Thank you too, Ryan.”

Soon the four of them were on their way out the door, Dave headed to the room where Maggie waited, while Matt and the boys headed towards the church.

Before Maggie knew it, Dave was knocking at the door. Tammy opened the door to let her husband in, then quickly kissed Maggie’s cheek. “I’m going on to the church, we’ll talk more after the ceremony.” She was gone before Maggie could say anything more to her.

Meanwhile down on Earth, another time of drama was going on regarding Maggie and Ryan Reynolds. When the occupants of the courtroom eyesight recovered from the unexpected blinding light, Dewayne went to reach for his grandson, only to find Maggie and Ryan were gone.

“He’s gone. During the commotion, Maggie has stolen Ryan from us. I want everyone to start looking for them, as no one is leaving until they are found. I want every court room searched and the entire courthouse will be shut down. No one will allow to leave until they are found.”

Marlene rushed to the husband, and he engulfed her into his arms. “I don’t understand what has happened.”

“It must be some sort of trick for her to steal him away from us. I’m going to have her arrested for this action, as Ryan is now ours.”

An hour later, neither Maggie nor Ryan had been found. Everyone in the entire courthouse was questioned, but no one had seen them. The Reynolds were furious, as things like this didn’t happen to them.

The police were sent to Maggie’s house, and when they forced open the front door, they were shocked at what they found. Actually, it was what they didn’t find, as the house was bare, not one item had been left in the house.

How was that possible? She couldn’t have done this on her own, so she must have had help from someone, but the Reynolds didn’t have any idea who it could have been. Dewayne posted a hundred thousand reward for the return of their grandson, it went unclaimed, as no one knew what had happened to him or his mother.