::Sigh::
This is it. The end.
I was thinking about doing this a few other ways, but I don't know. I think this is the best. This was always one of the final scenes I saw in my head for this story, but I don't know if there should have been scenes before it or after because man I so did NOT address all of the things that have been addressed in my head. But this is it. The end. The best I could do. I hope you enjoy it.
Familiar Places
"Bunny!" the boisterous voiced called out seeing they had new guests as he headed towards them, not noticing anything particular about them first. A normal couple, jeans and tee-shirts. Hopefully they'd be interested in the super deluxe and she wouldn't be one of those woman who had always wanted to be married in jeans…Most women seemed to change their minds about that that at the last minute though. They did however have a little half pint with them, which automatically made them a peculiarity, people tended not to bring the little ones to Vegas for occasions such as this, unless they were the reason for the hasty nuptials.
"And welcome to the-" he stopped short, his smile froze, "you again."
"Hi," the brunette smiled brightly at him. "See," she elbowed the man he had married to her several years back, who grimaced slightly with the unexpected blow, "I told you he'd remember us."
"You're hard to forget," her spouse bluntly replied.
She frowned and glared at him, "You forgot me."
"I have brain damage," he gave her a disbelieving look that came along with her retort.
"Pssh," she shook her head.
"You're back," the minister of True Love, once more questioned in shock.
"Yea," she nodded, "we need you to marry us again."
"Ah," he smiled brightly, "you'd like to renew your vows."
"Oh no," she shook her hand, "we got those annulled, we need the full package."
The full package, those were the most beautiful words in the world. "That's right, you're one of our most famous couples. You were marrying the…." He waved his hand forgetting the details Bunny had clipped out for the scrapbook, "after your," he looked down at the tot, "legal issues."
"This was not a good idea," the former hubby shook his head.
"Nonsense, nonsense," he shot down the other man, "what more appropriate place after your true love returns to you than the True Love Wedding Chapel? Bunny. And with the little boy, what greater way to make him feel comfortable about being part of a new family than-"
"What?" the man who had been accused of murdering his wife's ex-boyfriend stopped his words. "He's my son."
"Ah well of course," the reverend nodded, "with those blue eyes how could he be mistaken for anyone- Bunny! And how do you feel about your new st-"
"Ours," the bride to be, stopped him before he said anything else to the little boy he was bending down to talk to.
"Bunny!" Oh yea the scary fiancée looked like he was ready to kill him. He looked down at the boy, four or five?
"This is not a good idea," deathly serious fiancée once more.
"Nonsense," he shook his head, "nonsense. What better place than the-"
"Oooh is this the happy couple?" Bunny said stopping just in time to avoid slamming into said happy couple.
"The returning happy couple," he brightly smiled with wide eyes hoping to warn her.
"Ooh we have all the newspaper clippings of you two in our scrapbook," she enthusiastically greeted Brenda. "Glad you went back to him instead of that other guy…" She shook her head, "too perfect. Can't trust a guy that looks like that."
Jason frowned.
Brenda snickered.
"Aww and they brought a little one," she squatted down to his level. "Hello doll, would you like to be the ring bearer."
Brenda harshly looked over at Jason, "Please tell me you remembered the rings this time."
"I brought mine, I thought you wanted to use our old rings."
"You bought me a ring that looks like I could go ice skating on it and you expect me to put it with that dinky old ring?"
"You know you could just say you didn't like it-"
"I never said I didn't like it, I just said it doesn't go with my old one."
"Well use that for the-" he looked down at her hand, "where is your ring?"
She waved her hand and waved a face, "I took it off when your mom was dropping off Eddie…" she waved away the thought. "You know if you'd just taken Lila's ring from Edward when he offered it."
"A ring that Edward-"
"Oh will you stop it, he's your grandfather, and anyway it was Lila's ring," she quickly retorted.
"Fine, I'll ask him for it when we get back."
"Thank you," she sharply nodded.
"You're welcome."
"Well now that that's settle kids, what do you say we get down to deciding what package you'll be interested in this time?" the good reverend smiled.
"Yea," Bunny nodded, "we just got a new bouquet in," she lifted the white bouquet, "a few squirts and" she lifted up a perfume bottle, "you'll think you're getting married in a field of flowers."
"Oh god," Brenda's hand rose to cover her mouth in reaction to those squirts.
"Are you al-" the groom and minister asked in unison.
She shook her head and took off.
"First door on your left," Bunny called out after her.
"Pre-wedding jitters happens all the time," he nodded trying to ensure his sale. "Now what do you say we decide what package-"
A wad of cash emerged from Jason's pocket. "Just do it. No smells, no clothing, no-"
"I remember," he said taking the wad of cash. "Come on Bunny let's go line everything up."
"Coming Bucky," she smiled and bounced after him.
'Bucky?' Jason mouthed to himself.
"Is it over yet?" Eddie asked looking up at his father, doing his best to be good like both of his parents had asked.
"I'm afraid not," Jason said laying a hand on his son's shoulder.
"But I wanna go in the pool!!" he whined.
"I know," his father nodded, "but trust me we're saving you a lot of pain doing it this way. They would have put us in suits."
"I hate suits," he frowned.
"Me too."
"Is it Halloween?" the little boy asked frowning as he looked around the place.
"Not for a few more months," he frowned himself, "why?"
"This place looks like Aunt Em's last year."
"Huh," he nodded looking around at the pillars, the chandeliers, the crystal, the velvet drapes. It was kinda Wyndemere-esque. "I guess it does."
"I'm gonna be a doctor," he informed his father.
Jason sat and looked at his son, "Really?"
"Uh huh," he nodded, "Dr. Quartermaine like Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Em."
"Quartermaine?" the smile that had been playing on his lips fell.
"Uh huh," he nodded. "Grandma said I could be Dr. Morgan, but Poppy said that I wouldn't be like Grandpa if I wasn't Dr. Quartermaine."
"Really?" he was going to kill that old man.
"Yea," he nodded again, and spun on his foot in a circle, "or a ninja."
-x-X-x-
"And there's our blushing bride," Bucky informed with a smile as Brenda walked back into the room within seconds of his own return.
"Smell gone?" she ignored him and asked Jason.
"I think so."
"No more smells," she ordered walking into the room.
"I already told him."
"I'm not kidding," she threatened the minister.
"Not a problem, here at the True Love Wedding Chapel, we pride ourselves on catering to our clients' individual."
"Jaime!"/"Eddie!" the names overlapped at the young boy was attempting to reach the pink cake.
"What?" he looked back innocently at them.
"Okay we need to speed this up," she ordered Bucky.
"Eager to tie the knot as always," his eyes widened. "Perhaps though," he couldn't believe he was saying this, "this is something you should take more time considering."
Bunny almost dropped the little pillow she'd found for the boy…Just because they didn't have rings didn't mean he couldn't still be the ring bearer. Bucky waved her away.
"Oh no," Brenda shook her head. "I'm not going through that."
"Are you sure-" Jason began to ask, not all wanting a big wedding or even a wedding where they knew anyone aside from each other, but she had, several times.
"I am not picking out another wedding dress," she glared at him.
"You don't-"
"What?" she gave him attitude, "Don't need all the hoopla?" she vigorously nodded, "I'd like you to try telling that to your family.
"Why are they my family when they do something annoying?"
"Probably because it's the only time I see them as you do," she nodded back at him.
"Jaime tell her what you're going to be for Halloween," he asked his son.
"Dr. Quartermaine," he looked up at his mother.
Brown eyes widened.
"Tell her why."
"Because Poppy said I couldn't be a doctor like Grandma, Grampa and Aunt Em if I wasn't a Quartermaine."
She suddenly snickered.
"That's not funny," he informed the mother of his child.
"No," she shook her head and made stopping cut off motions with the hand in front of her face, "it really kinda is."
"Brenda," he ordered.
"I'm sorry," she tried to stifle her laughter, "oh come on Jase, it's one day. He'll grow up to be Dr. Morgan, won't you Eddie?"
He looked up with his father's eyes, "But I wanna be a bowler."
His father smirked. "Admirable goal Jaime."
The wife to be frowned at the husband to be.
"Or maybe a cowboy."
She smirked again to Jason. "You two tried to save six birds this summer Jason, you should really come to terms with it, it's either a vet or a doctor and judging by his lineage…"
He continued to frown, not that he had anything against Jaime being a doctor… "Dr. Quartermaine?"
"Oh come on," she waved her hand at him, "it'll be cute." She hunkered down to her son's level and swept brown waves to the side, "We'll spray your hair black. Get a white coat, you already have stethoscope. You need a new suit anyway."
He looked up at his father, "I don't wanna wear a suit."
His father's turn to smirk.
"That's okay," his mother shot his father a dirty look, "I'm sure Aunt Robin knows where we can get a pair of scrubs in your size. She's not much bigger than you," she teased and tapped her son on the nose before she should.
"So the wedding?" Bucky asked again.
"Brenda?" Jason questioned.
"I'm not going through that Jason," she shook her head. "They've been on us to get married again for two years. It's bad enough I'm going to have to listen to Carly about you only marrying me because of the baby."
"If she does that, it's only because you did it to her first," he pointed out.
"Yea well," she nodded, "I was right."
He sighed, "Brenda if I was marrying you because of a child, wouldn't we already be married?"
She glared at him, "That did not make it better."
"Brenda, we have a son, a house, a dog, two hamsters, a fish tank that we only got because you promised to clean it."
"They live in water," she defended, "how was I supposed to know they would be that smelly? And you know all of that stuff. Two years Jason. That's how long I've been hearing, when are you two going to get married again? So either we get married now or it's going to be three months of constant planning, tasting different foods, being harassed about flowers and me having to walk down the aisle looking like a whale."
"You wouldn't-"
"Oh no, trust me, I would. And did I mention people taking bets on if I actually make it to the altar? Or the wedding being legit? And don't even look at me over that last one, yours didn't turn out better than mine did on that front."
"Fine, so we'll get married here," he snapped back.
"Fine," she spun and faced the reverend.
"Let's do this," Jason nodded.
"You sure?" Bucky asked.
"No," Brenda's voice lifted and both men turned to her. "No cake."
"But Mom it's just sitting there," there was a camera snap of the little boy standing forlornly next to the cake.
"It's not your cake to eat," she told him, "who knows where the hell that thing has been," she muttered under her breath, "we'll get you a snack after okay?"
"Fine," he grumbled.
"Come stay over here with me buddy," Jason opened his side to his son.
"We need to hurry this thing up," Brenda nodded sharply at Bucky any good mood she might have been in beforehand had disappeared with the arrival of that bouquet.
"Bunny!"
"Are we ready?" she asked skidding into the room, hopeful the money would remain in their pocket.
"Yes"/"Yea," overlapped.
"Now would you like to recite your-"
"Just marry us," she gave him the evil eye. She wanted to go back to the hotel, put on her jammies and brush her teeth.
"Dearly beloved," he began.
They both glared.
"Do you Brenda Barrett take this man, Jason Morgan to be your lawfully wedded-"
"Oh god do we really need to go through all of that again?" she shook her head at him. "Yes to everything. Well except for the obey part," she turned to Jason, "still not gonna happen."
"I didn't think it was," he smirked.
"So that's an-" Bucky prodded.
"I do."
"And do you-" he turned to Jason.
"I do," he nodded.
"Okay then," he nodded back at them and placed another phony smile on his face thankful it was at least almost over, "then by the power invested in me by the state of Nevada I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now-"
"You kiss me, I'll punch you," she informed her now husband, "that'd just be gross."
"Is it over?" Eddie asked looking up at his father.
"Thankfully yes," he said with a relieved expression.
"We just need your parents to sign something real quick and you can be out of here buddy," Bucky smiled down, hopeful they wouldn't be returning in another few years.
"Then we can go to the pool?"
"That was the deal," he promised his son, leading him up the aisle. "We'll put your trunks on and go down to the pool while your mom rests."
"I'm supposed to rest while you're down at the pool?"
"Fine," he shook his head, "we'll find a spot with an umbrella and you can-"
"What? Lie there like an invalid? I'm pregnant Jason not sick."
"I thought you were tired."
"I'm fine."
"Brenda it's really hot out there. Last time you-"
"So I got a little dizzy."
"You passed out. Cold."
"We'll be in the water, I'll be fine."
"Whatever you say Brenda," he conceded.
"Smart move," Bucky muttered under his breath to the other man.
She glared at him, "Don't do the placate the moody pregnant woman."
"I would never dream of it," Bucky lied.
-x-X-x-
"Hmm," Bunny pondered as she pulled out their scrapbook ready to update it. "Was their little boy's name Eddie or Jaime?"
"I have no idea, but hopefully he does," Bucky said watching the couple from the window.
"Think they'll be marrying other people within a year again?" Bunny asked more familiar with the stories in their scrapbook than he.
"I don't know," Bucky pondered as he continued to watch the not so happy couple by their car. Jason had turned on the car, opened the windows and then jogged next door to the convenience store that had cropped up last year. He returned as she decided it was cool enough to strap their son into his booster seat in the backseat of the rented black SUV. He uncapped a bottle of iced tea before handing it to her; she smiled thankfully before she took a sip. She gave him an embarrassed smile as she squinted upwards because of the bright sun, he laughed and suddenly pulled her in close to him and just held her. He dropped a kiss on the top of her head before he pulled away and headed around the car to climb into the driver's side. "I think they're going to make it this time Bunny."
Hmmph. I don't want this story to end. I like it. (Umm if you couldn't tell that by the fact that I think it grew to about double its size… Though I swear once more I did complete the chapters I expected to within the time frame I expected to, you know that first month and now here's the ending a YEAR later. :-P)
I want to thank everyone for the awesome reviews, they were great. Thank you soooo much for reading!!! I hope you guys liked the story at least half as much as you claimed to. :-P
I'm going to start work on "An Unexpected Family" in a couple weeks once the crazy December-ness is coming to an end, but expect to see a lot of "Slippery Slope" during that time because I don't need to think about it, so it fits easily into its role as a procrastination task. :-P
And I'm assuming for those who read "We Were Friends Once," you wouldn't mind if I just kinda picked it up again, writing it with a different style just so I could finish the story without having to inflict pain upon myself by trying to read and fix the other chapters?