Epilogue
5 years 10 months and 2 days later
"Did you find her?" asked a frantic looking man. Based on his appearance he seemed to be in his early twenties. He was wearing a sharp looking suit and there was no question that he was undeniably handsome. He was at that age where he still had some boyish charm but they were becoming more refined like a man's. Women- both single and married- present could not help but ogle at him but of course they knew he was off limits.
"I have no idea," replied a second man. He had blonde hair and he looked to be about the same age as the first man. He, too, was wearing a very expensive looking suit. And although he was charming , he wasn't as good-looking.
"This is unbelievable! Where could she be!" yelled the attractive man. Anyone could tell that this man had a special bond with the missing girl.
"I don't know but I'll search the corridor again," replied the second man.
"Great. I'll look over here. Oh and whatever you do, don't say anything to her mother. She'll kill me."
And so the blonde-haired fellow hurriedly went the other way muttering to himself about how he got himself in this situation. When he was asked to be the best man, he was very touched and honored. It was a big part to play and he took delight in the fact that he just needed to stand still alongside the groom and look as handsome as he could be. He wasn't the most coordinated guy in the world so he was happy that the role he was given in the wedding required minimal movement. But he didn't foresee that when the big day came, he would need to do a lot of running because right before the ceremony, everyone was getting in a frenzy looking for the missing girl.
He checked under the desks and behind the curtains but she was nowhere to be found. He looked inside all the bathroom stalls but there was no sign of the five-year-old girl. He called out her name and there was no response. He opened the coat closet and was about to close it when he noticed that one of the trench coats happened to have grown feet. He breathed out a sign of relief.
"Mackenzie!" he yelled excited that he found her. "Mackenzie, come out of there."
But the pair of feet that was visible did not move. However, that did not deter him. Because the blonde-haired man just recently graduated college with a degree in psychology, he knew a thing or two about human behavior. And so at this instant he took what he could remember about the whole concept of stimulus and response that he learned in all his psychology classes. What he needed to do was to lure the girl out of her hiding place by offering her a stimulus that would be too good to pass. And he thought of the one thing that this girl would never pass up.
"Hm…" he started off saying. "Well, look at what I have here –a big jar of juicy pickles. But it's too much for me to finish. I wish I had someone I could share this with."
And just like that the pair of feet moved and out emerged a boisterous girl who yelled, "OH! GIMME GIMME! I want some!"
Bingo. Worked like a charm. That was the response he knew he was going to get because the girl in hiding had a weird obsession with eating pickles at every chance she could get.
But when the girl noticed that there was no jar of pickles that she could get her hands on she pouted her lips and looked up at him and said, "Uncle Randy, you're such a liar. You don't have any pickles!"
"I'm sorry I lied, kiddo," Randolph said. "But I had to. Do you know what kind of ruckus you are causing right now?"
"I'm sorry, but I won't do it," she said stubbornly.
"Any why not?"
"Because…Auntie Stella is going to get mad at me," she replied solemnly.
"Why would your Auntie Stella get mad at you, Mackenzie?" Randolph asked the little girl.
"Because of this," Mackenzie replied as she lifted the back of her dress and sure enough there was a very visible dirt stain.
"How on earth did you get that?"
"Well, there were these kids outside and they dared me that I couldn't climb up the tree outside in the church court yard," she explained. "And I just had to show them that I could because they were teasing me about my dress. And when—
"Okay. Okay," Randolph interrupted her kindly. "I think I get it but it doesn't look that bad. And I think your Auntie Stella could do something about it. They don't call her the upcoming genius of the fashion world for nothing."
And so he took the young girl's hand and led her back down to where everyone was waiting.
"What's so funny, Uncle Randy?" asked Mackenzie when she noticed that he was laughing to himself.
"It's just that you sure are a force to be reckoned with, Mackenzie," he answered. "Wherever you go, you just happen to bring so much drama."
"I do not!" the girl objected defiantly.
"Oh, yes, you do," he answered. "Even before you were born you were already surrounded in drama."
"Huh?"
"Nothing," he replied quickly.
But Mackenzie could tell by the look in his eyes that he was remembering something that happened in the past.
And just like he said, Stella was able to fix the minor fashion mishap and handed the young girl her basket. The ceremony took place without anymore delay. Everything ran smoothly except for the part when Mackenzie took it upon herself to yell, "HI MOMMY!" just when the bride walked in.
It was the part of the day that Nick dreaded - the big dance. He wanted to show to his family, especially his brothers that he didn't pay $250 an hour for ballroom dancing lessons for nothing. This was his chance to show them. They even made a bet that he would mess up so Nick was doing his best to remember the steps so that he wouldn't have to shell out $50 each to both Joe and Kevin. It was part of the dance where he was supposed to twirl his partner but it wasn't happening.
"Macy," he whispered in her ear. "Why aren't you turning?"
He smiled nervously at the 200 guests who were watching them both at this special moment.
"I don't see her," Macy replied simply. She had a worried expression on her face.
But because Nick was too busy concentrating on the moves of the waltz he learned, he foolishly asked, "Who?"
Macy looked at him as if he was crazy.
"Who! The girl we love to call Mackenzie. That's who," Macy retorted.
"Mace, don't worry, she couldn't have gone that far," Nick assured her as he tried to improvise the next move in the dance. He was a sequential dancer meaning Nick only knew the moves to the dance according to a specific order. If the order gets messed up, he becomes lost and that was why Nick was now awkwardly swaying from side to side since Macy wasn't doing the necessary twirl.
"I know but…"
"There's security surrounding this whole place so she couldn't have gone outside," he said. But he too was worried so he signaled to Randolph from across the dance floor to go find her.
"You're right," Macy said and she was about to do the twirl that was part of their first dance when all of a sudden there was a loud commotion. All 200 pair of eyes, as well as their own, turned to look at the direction where the fuss was all about. And there it was. The three layered cake, that Liam, Macy's brother, who was a well renowned chef, spent two weeks working on for the big day, was now lying completely destroyed on the floor.
"MACKENZIE!" both Nick and Macy said at the same time.
And sure enough the young girl came out from behind the cake stand and yelled, "Mommy! Daddy! I didn't do it!"
But they knew better judging by the icing that was on the young girl's face and arms.
And just like that, their dance was over and they made their way to the disaster zone.
Nick sighed.
"I swear she's just like a mini-Macy-Misa," he said under his breath as he remembered the first time he met Macy, who was quite accident prone back in the day, at Horace Mantis Academy.
Macy looked at him incredulously, "A mini-Macy-Misa! You got to be kidding me. If anything she's a mini-Nick-Lucas!"
"What! I was never that clumsy when I was that age!" Nick argued.
"Yeah but I never took out all the pots and pans out of the kitchen and pretended like they were drums!" Macy retorted.
"Hey, at least she's showing musical talent. She needs to start of young if she wants to be like her dad."
And like that Macy and Nick argued who Mackenzie took after more but it was hopeless because they each offered valid points.
The day was supposed to be perfect— the marriage of Macy Misa to Nick Lucas. But if there was one thing they both learned in their life, they knew nothing was perfect. Things were bound to go wrong on their wedding day, especially if you had a flower girl like Mackenzie.
However, the wedding itself was just for the formality of it all because way before this day when Macy and Nick became husband and wife, Macy was already part of the Lucas family. When her mother kicked her out of her home when she told her she was pregnant, the Lucas family welcomed her into their home with open arms. And when she had to drop out of school because of her baby, Mr. and Mrs. Lucas made sure that she was properly home-schooled so that she wouldn't be left behind. But Macy wanted the wedding. It was her birthday wish on her 17th birthday to spend her entire life with Mr. Nick Lucas. So right after she graduated college with a degree in journalism, Macy and Nick got ready for the big day.
Welcoming Mackenzie into the world also affected Nick and even those around him. Once the media found out that he got his girlfriend pregnant, Jonas faced a major backlash from their fans and critics. Because of all the negativity surrounding the whole matter, the band was forced to disappear from the music scene for about two years. It gave time for Nick to concentrate on raising his daughter while also writing some more songs. During this time they were able to reinvent their image and so when they made their comeback, fans accepted them as if they never left. Two years were enough for the Jonas heads to recover from the pregnancy scandal and to accept that even Nick Lucas could make a mistake. He was human after all. Because they were gone for two years, Nick and his brothers were able to write a lot of new material in which they were very proud of. That was why the following year after their comeback they were able to win the coveted Grammy Award.
Nick and Macy definitely went through their ups and downs. And boy, did they go through A LOT. But they endured all the hardships and obstacles that life threw at them because in the end they were rewarded with the greatest gift in the world – a beautiful baby girl named Mackenzie Nicolette Lucas.
Even though their wedding day was not picture perfect, Nick and Macy didn't mind because if you have a daughter like Mackenzie, they knew something was bound to go wrong anyway. They were just waiting for it to happen.
/4 hours later/
Nick and Macy decided that they really didn't need a honeymoon. Everything they needed was at home. So instead of spending their days after the wedding in a tropical island or an exotic resort, Nick and Macy returned to their suburban home in New Jersey. Yes, that's the reason why they opted out of a vacation…or at least that was what they liked to tell themselves. However, if they were truly being honest about the matter, a big part of their decision to stay home was because they couldn't find anyone who would be willing to watch Mackenzie for a week. Of course, Randolph offered but because Nick and Macy valued their friendship with him too much they didn't want to lose him as a friend at the expense of watching their daughter because Mackenzie can be quite a handful, and that's just putting it nicely.
On the night of their wedding day, Nick situated himself in the living room as he penned down more songs and Macy found herself kneeling by the bath tub, where Mackenzie was sitting.
"QUACK! QUACK! QUACK!" Mackenzie yelled as she played with the rubber ducky that Nick and Macy kept by the tub for her entertainment.
"Kenzie, can you please sit still?" Macy asked her daughter patiently. She was busy trying to get out the wad of gum that Mackenzie had stuck in her hair. She was trying her best to get it out because she didn't have the heart to cut Mackenzie's beautiful thick dark brown curly hair—hair she definitely inherited from Nick.
"Ow!" she yelled when Macy accidentally pulled too strongly as she combed her way through the tangle.
"Sorry about that, honey. Now whose bright idea was it to give you gum?" Macy asked as she continued combing through her hair.
"Uncle Randy," she said simply as she continued playing with the rubber ducky.
"Remind me to thank him next time I see him," Macy said sarcastically because she knew that the next time she saw Randolph she was going to give him an earful.
"Mommy?"
"Yes, sweetie?"
"Uncle Randy said something funny today," she said as she looked up at her mother.
Macy looked at her daughter and still couldn't believe how uncanningly similar Mackenzie's almond shaped eyes were like her own.
"Well, your Uncle Randy says a lot of funny things," Macy commented as she now tried putting some shampoo to help untangle her hair from the gum. "But what did he say, Kenzie?"
"He said that I was a force to be reckoned with."
Macy laughed.
"Well he said that because you are, Kenzie," Macy answered as she smiled at her. "You're impossible to ignore."
"And he said that I cause drama wherever I go," Mackenzie added.
Macy sighed and answered, "You do. Now if you listen to your mommy and behave half the time, there wouldn't be as much drama surrounding you."
She bent down and kissed her forehead thinking that this was all she was going to say.
"No, but then he said something I didn't understand," Mackenzie continued.
"Oh?" Macy asked as she was now tugging her hair with a comb to get that pesky ball of gum out of her beautiful mane.
"Yeah, he said that I caused drama even before I was born," Mackenzie said with a confused expression on her face. She was a very curious girl and when something like this didn't make sense to her, she has the urge to get to the bottom of it.
Macy stopped what she was doing and bit her lip. She might need to give Randolph more than an earful if he dared to corrupt the mind of her beautiful innocent little girl.
"And did he say anything else?" she asked carefully.
"No, but I don't get it! How can I cause drama if I wasn't even alive!" the young girl exclaimed as she now through the rubber ducky she held against the wall. "What did he mean by it, Mommy?"
Macy breathed a sigh of relief. Good job, Randolph, for not saying anything.
"Well, honey I can't tell you that," she said as she continued what she set out to do.
"BUT WHY?" Mackenzie yelled in frustration.
"Because you're much too young to hear that story," Macy said as she was able to release a good amount of hair from the ball of gum. Things were looking up, thought Macy.
"But I'm not like other children! Remember what my teacher said?" Mackenzie asked Macy.
"Yes, I remember."
"She said that I'm three points shy of being a genius!" the young girl exclaimed.
"Yes, I know but, you see, sweetie, to hear that story you don't have to be book smart," Macy reasoned. "It's more of a grown-up story."
"I'm grown-up!"
Macy looked at her and smiled thoughtfully, "I hate to tell you this, honey, but you're not a grown-up yet. Because grown-ups don't get gum stuck in their hair."
Macy continued freeing her hair from the gum but she could tell her daughter was clearly upset that she wouldn't explain why she could have caused drama even before she was born. But Macy wasn't going to budge.
"Hey, Kenzie, how about after this we get a big bowl of ice cream?" Macy said trying to appease the distraught girl.
But Mackenzie wasn't going to buy into that and she said stubbornly, "I bet if I ask Daddy, he'd tell me!"
"No, sweetie, I don't think he will," answered Macy. She almost had the gum out of her hair until—
"KENZIE!" Macy yelled because at that moment the young girl jumped over the bath tub and speedily ran out of the bathroom.
Macy had to shake her head and say, "She's definitely a mini-Nick- Lucas."
But she said this more like a self-assurance because the way Mackenzie gracefully jumped over the tub and the speed she ran out of the bathroom was definitely reminiscent of a young Macy Misa, sports-girl-extraordinaire.
It wasn't long before she heard Nick call out, "MACY! A little help over here!"
Macy sighed. Mackenzie may be feisty and mischievous but she and Nick loved her with all their heart because she was the physical representation – body and flesh- of the love they have and will always have for each other.
"Coming!" Macy called as she headed out to the living room.
She could hear Mackenzie's increasing cries of "Daddy please tell me! Please! Please! PLEASE!"
Macy knew it was going to be another long night in the Misa-Lucas household.
THE END.
And there you have it. I hope all of you enjoyed the story. There was a lot of drama but I hope you realized that it was necessary for the story. I hoped you like the epilogue and hopefully it answered any unanswered questions you might have. The interesting thing about this story was that the idea of it had always been in my head but just this past week I actually took time to write it out. I hope you liked it. The funny thing about this epilogue was that this was the second one I wrote. The initial epilogue revealed that Macy gave up the baby for adoption and that their daughter found out who her biological parents were. That was how it was suppose to end but the great thing about writing a story is that you become attached to the characters and in a way the characters help you write the story. So even though I already had a make shift outline of the whole story I had to adjust it because I knew in the end Macy and Nick had to keep the baby especially since I made them go through all that drama. I couldn't deny them the joy of keeping their baby. Also I didn't intend for Randolph to play a big role in the end. In fact in the chapter where he revealed to Nick that Macy was pregnant, I initially wrote it so that Stella was the one who revealed the secret and I even made her slap Nick in the scene. But once again I felt like Randolph needed to redeem himself and in the end like I wrote in the epilogue, he became one of Nick's and Macy's closest friends because any way you see it, he was the one who brought them back together.
It has been a great joy writing this. If you loved it, great! If you hated it, then you hated it. Either way, I'd love to hear your input and if you do review (which I hope you do) tell me which chapter was your favorite! Also if you are like the fan-girls in the story who didn't understand how Macy and Nick fell in love, why don't you read my other story 'A Complete 180' to read my take on the beginning of their romance! lol I love how I just pimped out my other story. I know I mentioned before that this wasn't a continuation of 'A Complete 180' but now that I look at it I used some subtle details from there for this story so I changed my mind. You can read this as some sort of indirect extension of my other story.
Thanks for reading! You guys rock!
It's been fun. Kind of sad its over. But it needed to end.
-Penelope36