{{Author's note: Our episode title comes from a song by Mama Cass Elliot, and while I normally try to avoid repeating myself on episode titles, I haven't used this one on the Jenkins thread yet.—tmw.}}
Harold Jenkins stood at the altar with everyone gathered for the grand ceremony.
To say he was as nervous as hell (which was ironic, considering he was within a church) was a serious understatement.
Yet a great wave of relief washed over him as he heard those fateful words: "You may now kiss the bride."
Harold turned to the woman standing next to him.
He noted his hands were actually shaking with excitement as he lifted her veil, but was shocked when it wasn't his beloved Eliza* before him, but Virginia McCoy!
"Is something wrong honey?" Virginia asked, looking lovingly at her new husband.
Harold Jenkins woke up in shock.
"What is wrong with me?" he asked aloud, although there was no one to answer.
He had dreamed before. Pleasant flights of fancy until the nightmares when his wife was first diagnosed with the cancer that eventually took her from him began, but this...???
Rolling over in what was once their bed, Harold took a quick glance at the alarm on his nightstand, saw it wasn't even 4 yet, and tried to go back to sleep.
"So Mrs. Jenkins. This is it," said Harold, stating the obvious.
"Yes, it is," she replied, standing at the foot of the king sized bed in their motel room with her arms wrapped around him as they kissed. "Are you ready?"
Truthfully, he was as nervous as all get out. But he wasn't about to admit it.
"If I wasn't, I wouldn't of married you," replied Harold, as he began to nuzzle her neck and started seductively undressing his new bride.
Neither of them were virgins in any sense of the word, but this was their first time together.
Both knew it would be far from the last, but still...
As he cuddled her naked form on the bed, not even bothering to turn down the sheets in their haste to finally be together, she looked at him once more with those beautiful, loving eyes of hers and said, "If you don't want to..."
Harold's only response was to slowly sink his hard penis into the wet and very willing vagina of Mrs. Virginia Jenkins as they began his induction into were society.
Slowly at first, but with increasing enthusiasm, the newlyweds raced toward orgasmic bliss together.
Then, with passion spent for the moment, Harold Jenkins laid in his wife's arms as he felt the fur begin to sprout on his body for the first time as his weretiger fursona made its debut.
What the hell??? Harold said to himself, waking up in a cold sweat.
Eliza and I met in college and were both virgins when... as he got up to use the bathroom.
I'm not running a fever, he realized, feeling his forehead. Far as I can tell, I'm not sick. So what is it?
With no answers forthcoming, Harold took 2 aspirins and went back to sleep, barely noting it wasn't even 5 yet.
"That's it Mrs. Jenkins. Push!" said the doctor, as Harold held his wife's hand.
Hearing his love in such pain was heart wrenching to him, but both Jenkins smiled as a small cry was heard throughout the operating room.
"We did it. We're parents," Harold cried in joy, before kissing his wife and wiping her sweaty brow.
That smile on her face was the second most important thing Harold Jenkins had ever seen in his life.
The first was when the doctor brought over their new bundle of joy.
"Congratulations," said the doctor. "It's a boy."
"Huh?" said Harold, looking down at the child.
Virginia Jenkins was holding a little tiger cub*, stroking its fur lovingly with one hand as she said, "Welcome to the world John Sebastian Jenkins."
NO! Harold wanted to scream as he woke up.
Except for some of the people involved, that was Eliza and I welcoming Melissa into the world. What the hell is wrong with me?
He turned and stared at the empty space where Eliza should be for what seemed like a very long time.
When the answer finally dawned on him, Harold Jenkins threw himself across the empty space, as if trying to embrace a ghost of the past, and cried himself to sleep.
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Author's afterward:
The above was originally written during my "lunch" break about 4 am this morning. Imagine my surprise when I got up after a relatively good "night's" sleep and discovered Harold had already been dreaming. But never having been one to let good material go to waste...
*I checked every past Jenkins episode and found no evidence of Harold's wife having been named. However, if I'm wrong, my apologies.
**Yes, I know that naturally born weres don't have their first transformation until after they've entered puberty, but Harold doesn't.—tmw.