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William eased back his Lay-Z-Boy, propped up his feet and surveyed the scene before him. He couldn’t imagine a better way to spend Christmas morning than this. There was a fire roaring in the woodstove, the tree was twinkling away, he had a cup of joe in hand, a full belly, and most importantly everyone he held dear barely more than an arm’s reach away. His daughter Justice, (call me Judy, Dad, please, I beg you) sat on the floor stuffing used wrapping paper into a trash bag, bickering away with her mother who flitted from sitting room to kitchen. Fifty years ago, he never would have guessed it, but at seventy-two Joy had become the homemaker his parents had wanted him to marry at twenty. William chuckled to himself as his gaze shifted over to the two quietest occupants of their family gathering. Warren had such a rough childhood, crushed under the weight of his father’s sins. The kid let his misplaced anger, hate, and guilt build up and no one was really surprised when his power manifested as fire erupting forth from within him. He and Joy had tried to be there for them, but Justice’s job as a big shot lawyer took her so far away that it was hard to show Warren enough love to overcome the pain. Everything got better though when his favorite grandson (I’m your only grandson, Pops) got together with the Stronghold boy. From what he’d been told, they were a might combative at first, but looking at them now you’d never know it. The boys are curled together on the couch, peering at a book in Warren’s lap. Its one of the stack that Joy picked out as his gift this year. That was one thing that Joy and Warren had shared from the very beginning, a love of words. Warren would sit enraptured as his Grammy, the great Joyful Anthem, would sing just for him. As he got older, she taught him about rhyme and cadence and Warren had absorbed it all, taking to poetry, especially, like a fish to water. William liked to believe that everything, the good, the bad, and all of the grey in between had culminated in this, Warren quietly reading from The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe to a beaming Will as they snuggled together on his decrepit couch. They’d been inseparable for nearly a decade now and his boy had never been happier. Unknowing or simply uncaring of their audience, though with the obliviousness of the Stronghold boy it was probably the former, Will picked up Warren and resettled him in his lap. William couldn’t help but chuckle as the boy showed himself to be impervious to all things but Warren, failing to restrain himself from nuzzling into the boy’s throat and placing a kiss there regardless of the blush blossoming on dear Warren’s cheeks. His boy, ever aware of his surroundings, half heartedly shoved and threatened the boy with the octopus-like hold surrounding him before huffing and situating himself more comfortably to continue his reading. Seeing such a display, William couldn’t help as his eyes sought out his own dearest love. Joy was simultaneously humming and bickering with Justice as they tidied up from breakfast and opening presents. He remembered clear as day the first time he laid eyes on the awe-inspiring lady that would become his partner in all things. Hailing from Connecticut, the Peace family came from old money and their high society, especially his parents, were scandalized when William accepted the offer to attend The Vanderbilt University instead of any of the prestigious institutions in their own New England. But William loved Nashville, feeling infinitely more at home in smoky bars than he ever had at his parent’s dinner parties. It was one such jaunt off campus when the live music for the evening came from one particular unknown beauty, Ms. Joyful Anthem. William is ashamed to admit that he overlooked her at first, another girl adorned in another cowboy hat and boots ensemble. She was undoubtedly attractive, but she wasn’t interesting. He was proven oh so beautifully wrong the moment that Joy opened her mouth and sang with what seemed to be her very soul. Her subject matter wasn’t new - growing up poor in the south, living paycheck to paycheck, Daddy’s hard work, Momma’s cooking, following her dream to Nashville. And yet, there was always hope, happiness, a life well loved imbued in every word and note uttered from her fascinating lips. After her set ended, William sought her out and they talked all night. He found out about her loving and supportive, but confused parents. How they were so hurt when she left home and moved so far, but hearing her so happy out here, encouraged her to follow her dream. He listened as she told him how she spent nights sleeping in her old car, saving up a deposit for an apartment. He was fascinated how she didn’t have much, but she was living her dream, and that was plenty for her. William was hooked, there was no other word for it. He was fascinated and inspired and started spending all of his free time with her. He made friends with the sound guys and they taught him how to set up a microphone and a speaker, how to amplify that stunning voice to the greatest effect depending on the shape of the venue. In school, he took extra classes to augment his business degree, including accounting and advertising. Her dream became his and as soon as he graduated, they were married. His parents were, of course, utterly appalled. Not only was he not coming home and marrying his childhood best friend and first girlfriend, Betsy, as they had always dreamed, he was hitching his life to a low-born crooner. He and Betsy never wanted to marry anyway, they tried dating briefly at sixteen and soon found that the love they shared was strictly and devotedly platonic. He was structuring his life around that of a mere woman and they would have none of it. They gave him his cut of his inheritance from his grandfather and severed all ties to him and his new wife. William can’t say that he is or ever was upset to never go to high society dinner party ever again. They used his inheritance to put out some ads and buy a RV. William became her manager, sound tech, and partner in every way. They lived in a time where a male voice down the phone line would book infinitely more gigs than that of woman, no matter the circumstances. The two traveled around making a name for the wondrous Joyful Anthem. There were hard times, but eventually she became a household name, sharing a stage with the likes of Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, and even the King himself, Elvis Presley. “Moooooom, call me Judy, please, I am literally begging you,” his baby girl’s voice cuts into his reverie. “But honey, Justice Peace just flows so well, and you’re a lawyer. Baby girl, it is just perfect,” his wife exudes mock sincerity, but even Will could see the twinkle in her eye. As if on cue, Will pipes up. “You couldn’t have known Ms. Judy would be a lawyer when you named her, so where’d the name come from, again? I can’t remember.” Will has just managed to suck up to dear Justice and lie blatantly while outwardly expressing only earnestness. It is no wonder that every member of the Peace clan is so very taken with him. The boys disentangle and Warren bashes his head against Will’s shoulder at the prospect of hearing the same story another time. But Will just smiles and kisses his head, because he loves it. He so obviously loves them and loves being a part of their family that there is no way that Joy wouldn’t indulge him, even if she didn’t plan on telling it just to rile up her daughter every single time. Joy plants herself in the armchair closest to the fire, edge of her seat, showmanship rising as she has this story down to an art form. Justice huffs and joins the boys on the couch as Warren places his arm on the back of the couch, his hand minutely brightening as it warms the back of Will’s neck. “Fate has a way of bringing people and events together, everything turning out just as they should be regardless of plans made. This includes everything from heartbreak and loss to partnerships and the truest of love,” Joy gives her daughter a sad smile at the former and looks first at the boys and then at him for the latter. He returns her smile as she recounts the best decision that he ever made. “My momma christened me Joyful May Anthem and that namesake ran true because music was in my veins. I left home at nineteen, packed up my old car and drove to Nashville. I had been singing wherever they would have me, trying to make ends meet. One night, my set ends and this college boy walks up to me. He doesn’t leer, doesn’t try any cheesy pick up lines. He looks me in the eye and asks about my songs, about my motivation, asks for my story. I am, of course, intrigued. We talked until they kicked us out and he walked me to my car. He was there the next time I sang and the next and the next. Soon we were getting together outside of dingy bars and I fell in love with this beautiful, crazy, idealist named William Arnold Peace, III.” At this point Joy always stops to give William a blinding smile that makes his heart skip even to this day. “William took my dream seriously, believed in me in a way that no one ever had. My parents loved me, told me to take chances, but they never thought their baby girl would really make it. William did. He had more faith in me than I did and somehow I knew miracles could happen as long as we were together. So after college boy graduated, we made our way to Momma and Daddy’s house to get hitched. We didn’t have the money or the people to fill a church, so it was just the four of us down at the courthouse. Momma sewed up her wedding dress to fit me. Daddy picked me some daffodils on the way. William brought along his record player and a Doris Day album.” His girl has to visibly stop herself from breaking out into song. He had no doubt that it’ll happen later, it always does. And to this day, he loves to hear her sing. “When we got to the courthouse, it looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in years, dusty and grungy from seldom use in a town so small. The judge took one look at my dress, William’s powder blue suit, and simply shook his head saying ‘this simply won’t due’ and walking away. The four of us had a moment of blind panic, before Judge Preston turned back with a smile and told us to follow him. He took us to his own back yard and there Daddy led me up a stone path while My Secret Love played in the background. I got to marry my best friend and greatest supporter in the shadow of weeping willow. It was better than any fairytale. Judge Preston didn’t have to do that. He didn’t have to make our day so beautiful and special, but he did and to thank him, we promised to name our first born after him.” Joy does hum a few bars here, but she reigns it in quickly, she still has a punchline to proclaim. “Now, Judge’s name was Horace Preston, God rest his soul. And when our baby girl was born, we knew that there was no way that we could make that into a girl’s name. So we named her Justice after the judge that made our marriage so very wonderful. Aren’t you glad we chose Justice, baby? We could have named you Horace. Would you rather that I’d named you Horace?” Joy finishes with a flourish, challenging her daughter to defy. “Yes, Mother, I am eternally grateful that didn’t name me Horace,” Justice grumbles. “And look at that, fate took hold again and you became such a good lawyer. It worked out so well, dearest.” Joy takes a moment to wink at Will as she purposefully eggs on her daughter. And because Will knows that this story always precedes another, he ignores Warren’s suddenly fiery grip on his arm, to take up that moniker of fake innocence again. “But what about Warren? Ms. Judy, if you’re not a fan of,” he gesticulates, searches for a word, “more interesting naming choices, then why’d you name this one,” he takes a moment to poke his fiance, before slowly intonating “War-ren Peace.” “That was her fault,” Justice jumps in, pointing to her mother. “I wanted to name him after Pops, but noooooo,” she elongates the word. “I was just waking up from the anesthesia after pushing out that little bundle of joy,” she nods her head towards her son, she then looks to Will and mock whispers “shoulders like a linebacker,” showing the breadth with her hands, much to Warren’s continued embarrassment. “Mom was next to me filling out some form. She saw that I was awake, wiped my brow, and told me sign it. Groggy as I was, I just did it. Should have known better. But we had talked about it. All those baby name books and then we decided to name him after Pops,” Justice trails off with a huff. “You know I can’t remember anything that isn’t set to music,” Joy can’t help but pipe in, getting up from her perch next to the fire to settle in his lap. William smiles and they share a brief, fond kiss, contentment abounding. “But Warren is such a wonderful name and it just rolls off the tongue, Warren Peace,” she continues and is of course, answered by Justice’s growl of frustration. “And it is a good thing we didn’t name him William,” Joy begins, turning toward the boys, again. They seem almost startled by the sudden attention. “How awkward would that have been if our boy had shared a name with dear Will, here?” Will begins to laugh, turning toward Warren. “One of us would have had to change. In the alternate reality where this occurred, I officially volunteer. I mean you’d be William Arnold Peace, THE FOURTH. That definitely beats the name that my parents picked at random.” “What if I never gave you a chance? Too complicated with a shared name and everything,” Warren banters back, smile escaping, and Will’s affronted gasp signals the boys trapped in their own little bubble again. Justice looks on smiling, surely so very happy to see such a change in her baby boy from his early teenage self. She grabs a book from her very own Christmas pile and moves over to the arm chair by the fire, the stroll down memory lane over for now. William looks at the woman in his arms and can’t help but squeeze a little tighter, leaning in, so lucky to be here right now. Joy turns toward him singing quietly, just for him, “once I had a secret love,” she begins. He hears Will proclaim, triumphantly, “you never could have resisted all this,” brimming with mock arrogance and real fondness, layered with Joy's continued singing. William could never regret hitching his life to a girl he found in a bar. He might have lost his family and a life of luxury that had never quite fit right, but he had gained everything that he never knew he needed. Fate did good.