C.A.P.

C.A.P.

They pulled up to the restaurant where they'd been asked to meet his parents. Neither one of them were really sure what to make of the invitation they'd gotten to come and have dinner with them tonight. His parents never did anything together by choice, having been divorced for over a decade and not overly fond of one another, to say the least. They were very insistent, though, so he had reluctantly agreed. He was hoping to get to the bottom of their strangely tepid reaction to the news that he and Michelle were now engaged. Time to get this over with , he thought. He moved around the car and opened the door for his bride-to-be, and holding out his hand said, "Are you ready for this, babe?"

She took his hand as she climbed out and said with a strained smile, "As I'll ever be." And he found himself lost in the beauty of even her half a smile, marveling once again that in a few short months she would be all his...forever.

The hostess brought them to a table in a private backroom, and his parents were already there. There was a third person as well that they hadn't been expecting. "Uncle Danny!" they both cried in unison.

"Hi, you two lovebirds. I hear congratulations are in order." The man who had been a close friend of both of their families since childhood rose to greet them with giant hugs. At the glares he received from Brian's parents, he became a bit red in the face and rubbed at his neck in an irritated fashion before sitting back down and motioned for them to do the same. Neither his mother nor his father even bothered with a hello. "I suppose you and Shell are wondering what this is all about, eh, Brian?" At the couple's nods, he pulled a briefcase out from under the table, opened it, and from it took two seemingly identical stacks of paper, placing one in front of each of them. "These are just standard non-disclosure forms saying that you will not repeat anything you learn here tonight and that you understand that should you do so it will be considered an act of treason, blah, blah, blah... You get the idea."

Brian and Michelle sat there stupified for a minute, and they looked at one another as if they each hoped the other had some inkling of where this was all going. Michelle shook herself and managed to ask, "What happens if we don't sign them?"

"Then this conversation ends here and now, and we never speak of it again," said Uncle Danny, eyebrows raised as he awaited their answer.

"You'll be making a huge mistake, son, if you let this opportunity pass you by," his father gruffly interjected into the pregnant pause in conversation.

"Oh, he speaks! We're fine, Dad, thanks for asking. It's nice to see you, too, Mom. Thanks for inviting us, by the way." Brian's parents shifted uncomfortably in their seats at his chastisement. He turned his attention back to Michelle, looking into her eyes and saying, "What do you think, babe? We either do this together, or we don't do it at all."

Michelle searched his eyes for a minute, then took his hand. "Together," she said. They took a few minutes to skim the particulars, and then they signed their names on their respective dotted lines, both a bit uneasy at what they might be getting themselves into.

As soon as they finished signing, Brian's father blurted out as if he'd been holding his breath underwater and just broken the surface, "You're not really in love with Michelle, son! This wedding of yours cannot happen. We never should have let things go on this long."

"Where do you get off-" Brian began as both his voice and his body started to rise. Uncle Danny stopped him with a hand to his arm, and he motioned for him to sit back down.

"Really, Aaron? That seemed like the best way to start this conversation to you?" His questions were met with strained silence. "How about we start at the beginning?" When no one seemed to object, he started. "Michelle, both you and Brian know all of your parents and I work on government research." They both nodded. "You also know that we aren't able to discuss our work. This will be the one and only time that restriction is lifted.