Taking the Plunge 1/1
Title: Taking the Plunge
Author: truthlostmsr
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Sheppard/Weir
Word Count: 2,790
Spoilers: The Entire 'Lantean Manor Series is fair game, but this picks up after 'Getting the Feet Wet' and 'Lazy River'.
Summary: The comedy of errors can't change the heart.
Author's Note: The previous stories can be found at the AU's community: lantean_manor
featherjean is awesome. Tell her so. Daily. No, make it hourly. *nods*
"Elizabeth, the caterer just called."
Elizabeth Weir groaned, dropping her briefcase by the door and fixing her assistant with a pleading look.
"Don't tell me, please."
"They had to cancel-"
"Teyla," she whined.
"I'm sorry, Elizabeth."
"I asked you not to tell me. What was this one's excuse?"
"They discovered that they were double-booked, and their other reservation had made the request first. They offered to reschedule."
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, petulantly shoving her leather case to one side and sitting at the kitchen table, lest she stamp her feet like a child. Teyla nodded sympathetically, already pouring them each a glass of Elizabeth's favorite merlot. Holding the goblet out to her friend, Teyla settled at the table, looking at her own drink thoughtfully.
"I take it that you don't want to reschedule?"
"It's my wedding reception, Teyla. If I postpone that, then I might as well reschedule the entire wedding."
So far, every aspect of the wedding preparation had gone wrong. After nearly a month of debate over picking a season, forget focusing on a date, Teyla had helped them make a decision for both. Then she and John hadn't been able to agree about a church - which one, or whether a church wedding was even what they wanted - but they soon came to a compromise; they let their mothers fight it out. Elizabeth's mother won, and had already started talking to ministers. She'd gone through three already, and just last week had called with the first bit of good news; apparently the fourth time was the charm. To make matters a little worse, Elizabeth's first choice for her dress had apparently just become all the rage in Los Angeles, because when she took Teyla back for a second opinion, it was gone, and every other bridal shop in town was sold out as well.
Her mother took issue with the fact that she didn't want to include her brother's kids in the ceremony. She'd tried to explain that she didn't want the boys fighting over being the ring bearer, since having one be a flower girl was out, and that John wasn't fighting to have his niece in the wedding party. Then John brought up having his niece as the flower girl. She gave in and told her mother to give both of her nephews a job; she didn't even care what they were.
And now today the caterers, which had seemed like the one sure bet in this whole scheme, had called to cancel - or reschedule, whatever they felt like calling it. If Teyla hadn't been handling so much of the preparation, Elizabeth was sure that she'd be pulling more of her hair out than she was already. Teyla was, as always, a godsend for putting up with everything she foisted onto her.
Teyla's hand covered one of hers, and the women shared a small smile. "It will be fine, Elizabeth."
"Just as long as nothing else goes wrong," Elizabeth agreed, taking a deep breath and a small sip of her wine.
"Now don't shoot the messenger, but I have bad news."
Elizabeth's strangled groan masked the slam of the door, and Teyla shot John Sheppard an irritated glare in lieu of speaking.
"What now?"
"Your mom called me. The minister backed out, or the church was already booked. Something. I couldn't really hear her very well," John paused, ducking to kiss Elizabeth's cheek apologetically.
"Why didn't she call me?" Elizabeth groused, raising her wine glass to her lips again.
"She must be under the impression that I'm not scared of you," John quipped, dropping into a seat beside her. "Which I am, but I know you're a reasonable woman and you wouldn't kill me for something that's not my fault."
Rolling her eyes, she nodded, conceding the point to him. It wasn't his fault that everyone and everything was conspiring against them getting married. He was doing as much as she was to make things work out, but just like her, his schedule was almost completely full.
"So what do we do now? Did my mom have anything to say about that?"
John leaned back in his chair, grabbing a bottle of water from the counter behind him. He waited to answer until he'd drained almost half the bottle; he was probably gathering his thoughts and weighing his options for how quickly he could escape the kitchen.
"She's working on it. She said not to worry, even though she knows you will anyway. She said to just focus on finding dresses and worrying about the food."
Elizabeth snorted. "The caterers cancelled. So there's a little more to worry about now."
"The ones you like? The super dependable ones you wanted?"
Elizabeth nodded. "They called this afternoon. They offered to reschedule."
"That's not so bad. We could do that."
"Postpone the reception? Then we won't be able to have everyone there."
"Well, we're probably going to have to change the date anyway. Unless your mom manages to find a church and a priest for the exact same day," John replied, for once being the pragmatic one. He reached out for Elizabeth's hand, rubbing his thumb along her wrist gently.
"I know," she sighed, turning in her seat and leaning forward, trusting him to catch her before she went tumbling to the tile. Her forehead landed on his collar, and she released a shuddering breath, which evolved into a harsh laugh. Heaving another heavy sigh, she shook her head.
"I give up," she muttered, raising her palms in surrender.
John rubbed her back lightly, trying to think of something to say that would calm her. A questioning glance at Teyla confirmed that it was the right thing to do.
"Hey, didn't you have a work-out with Laura tonight?"
Reluctantly, Elizabeth nodded. "Not until later. She and Carson are driving in from her parents'."
John nodded, brushing a gentle hand through her hair. She'd let it grow since they met, and now it fell in soft waves instead of the tight curls it once had. Still, it was soft beneath his fingers, much softer than his own hair, probably due to the gel he used each morning. It just made giving her scalp massages a little bit more difficult, because now he had the added obstacle of untangling her hair.
"Have you eaten yet?"
Elizabeth shook her head.
"Do you want to eat?"
She shook her head again. "Too wound up."
He considered lecturing, but thought better of it when the idea of sleeping on the couch with Sedge hit home. Instead, he just nodded, slowly rubbing her temples. Elizabeth sagged against him, sighing as the tension left her body.
"So the doc finally met Laura's parents?"
"Mmm hmm. Back at Christmas."
"And he wanted to go back?"
Elizabeth laughed, tilting her face so she could glance up at him, smiling fondly.
"Laura is not that bad."
"For a marine," John replied nonchalantly, rubbing her cheek.
Snickering once, she wound her arms around his neck, leaving her chair and silently coming to sit with him. John hummed softly, turning her face to his for the kiss he really should have given her when he came in. When they parted, he flashed Teyla a grin, letting her know that Elizabeth would be okay.
"You'll still want to get married when all this is over, right?"
"It would be a waste not to," he murmured. "The honeymoon's already paid for, after all."
Elizabeth swatted him.
"We're going to get married, Elizabeth, it doesn't matter when."
"Okay," she agreed unnecessarily.
Nestling against him, Elizabeth closed her eyes. John and Teyla shared a look before she stood and reached for the phone to order dinner from Elizabeth's favorite health food place. While she placed the order, John shifted his arms and stood, carrying Elizabeth over to the couch to let her get some rest before dinner.
While they waited, he joined Teyla at the table to discuss some options. Taking a deep breath, he reached for the stack of notes both Teyla and Elizabeth had been making. While Teyla told him some of her ideas, he read through the papers in front of him. When Teyla ran out of things to suggest, he stood, getting himself some water and using the walk to the fridge to think.
He hadn't realized how much went into planning a wedding, having never had to do more than provide beer at a bachelor party. So when Elizabeth presented him with a stack of brochures as large as the dictionary he'd nearly lost it. He tried to help as much as he could, even though frankly, he didn't care one way or another about whether it was Father James or Pastor Stephen who married him and Elizabeth. Likewise, it wasn't important to him whether they had the reception in a fancy hall with lots of hors d'oeuvres or in their backyard with burgers on the grill. Nevertheless, it was important to Elizabeth, and by default, that made it vital to him. He couldn't let her continue to work herself up in knots about everything that was going wrong. Even if it meant dragging her to the Elvis Chapel in Vegas, he had to help get this wedding off the ground.
"Hey, Teyla," he started, grinning suddenly. "I'm going to the study to get Elizabeth's mom on the phone. Call Ronon and get him over here. I've got an idea, but we're going to need his help."
~ # ~
Having concluded her weekly Saturday workout with Laura, she came home to find what felt like half the city parked in her driveway. She saw John's Jeep, Ronon's truck, and Teyla's Civic all parked in their usual spots, but three other vehicles were also in front of her house. One was obviously a work truck, but the other two were rental cars. What the hell was going on?
She parked behind John and raised the roof on her car. Rain wasn't in the forecast, but she hated the smog residue that sometimes got on the dash when she had the top down. Taking a deep breath, she left the car to see what the chaos in her house was about this time. Hopefully it was something she could deal with in spandex and with exercise-mussed hair.
Her jaw still dropped when she walked into the living room and found Teyla, John, and her mother crowded around the coffee table. It was really the third person whose presence surprised her.
"Mom? What are you doing here?"
Instead of granting her an answer, her mother looked at John. "I thought you said she'd be gone most of the afternoon."
"Nice to see you, too, mom."
John blinked, looking between the two of them. "Aren't you home early?" he asked slowly.
Elizabeth shifted her gym tote on her shoulder, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow. "No. Saturdays with Laura are only two hours. We don't always go out for coffee afterwards, you know that."
"Ahh," John nodded, glancing guiltily at Angela Weir. "Sorry."
"Is dad here? Maybe he'll make sense."
"He's out back with Ronon." Elizabeth nodded, moving toward the sliding door. "But you can't go out there," John added in a rush, darting over to pull on her arm and keep her from making it to the door.
"Why not?" she snapped, crossing her arms.
John's hands rubbed her upper arms. He gave her the patented 'You love me and will let me get away with anything' smile and brushed a gentle kiss over her forehead.
"How was your work-out?"
"It was fine. Laura and Carson want to have dinner with us next week."
"Sounds good," John agreed. "Did she say where?"
Elizabeth shook her head, eyes narrowing in suspicion. "What? No comment about Laura this time?"
"I have plenty of those, want to hear some?"
Elizabeth laughed. "Not right now, no. Right now I want to know what's going on."
"Would you believe that it's a surprise?"
"A big one by the looks of it."
John nodded, kissing just above her right eyebrow. "It is."
"When do I get to know?"
"In a little bit. Why don't you go up and get cleaned up? Take a hot bath, soak those tired muscles." A mischievous grin blossomed and he lowered his voice, leaning down to whisper in her ear, "Get yourself all wet and soapy and pretend I'm right beside you."
She giggled; wrapping her arms around his back and drawing him down for a kiss that promised that he wouldn't be able to look her mom in the eye. John hummed against her mouth, grinning when she slipped him the tongue.
"Okay, I've got good news! I just talked to the bakery and they've got us down for- Elizabeth? When did you get back?"
Elizabeth broke the kiss, looking over John's shoulder. Immediately her eyebrows knitted in confusion. What was Jill Sheppard doing in her living room? For that matter, what was this about the bakery?
"Early enough to put a damper on the scheming, apparently."
John had the good grace to look guilty. Their mothers shared a look and Teyla picked up the slack, setting the folder in her hand down and crossing to Elizabeth's side. She smiled encouragingly, knowing that her friend would trust her word.
"Go get cleaned up, Elizabeth. We will tell you when you come back down."
"You'd better."
John nodded, turning Elizabeth's shoulders and leading her out into the hall. When he tried to return to the other room, she grabbed his hand, yanking him insistently up to where they could talk in private. He stopped her halfway up the stairs, pressing her back against the banister and brushing the hair that had escaped her ponytail behind her ear. She raised an eyebrow, waiting until he'd already kissed her once to speak.
"I'm not kidding John; tell me what's going on."
He pulled back, breathing warmly against her cheek. "Okay," he acquiesced, waving his hand for her to precede him up the rest of the stairs. Nodding shortly, she did so.
Once their bedroom door was closed, she crossed her arms again, clearly intimating that he should start talking before her patience ran out.
"We're getting married," he blurted finally, wincing almost immediately at how it sounded. "Well, our families are here so that we can get married. Teyla, Ronon, your mom, and I've been working on it for the last couple weeks, and we decided not to try putting it off, to just pull everything together and get it over with. So," he shrugged. "They're all here, and we've got almost everything ready for tomorrow."
Instead of getting angry, Elizabeth dissolved into laughter. Loud, uncontrollable, raucous laughter. Confused, he didn't join in her merriment.
Finally, he crossed his own arms. "What's so funny?" he demanded.
Elizabeth wiped her eyes, closing the distance between them and tossing her arms around him. He returned her affection without even knowing what had caused the 180 degree change in her mood. When her laughter died away, Elizabeth kissed him on the cheek and reached for his hand, drawing him over to her dresser, where she pulled a booklet of papers from her sock drawer. Slapping the papers into his palm, she waited for the source of her happiness to sink in.
"Vegas?"
"Yup."
"Why?"
She smirked, raising an eyebrow. "Why do people usually go to Vegas, John?"
He blinked, suddenly at a loss for words. "You wanted to go to Vegas and get married?"
She nodded.
"Tomorrow?"
She nodded again.
This time, he joined her in laughing at the absurdity of the situation. Two weeks ago, they hadn't even been prepared for one wedding, and now apparently they were going to have two.
"When did you do all this?"
"Last week. With everything going wrong I decided to say forget it and surprise you with the trip. When did you decide to call my mom and plan everything?"
"The day the caterers cancelled."
She nodded, tightening her arms around him, and burying her face in his neck. John followed suit, lightly pressing his lips against the base of her throat.
"I'll call the airline and change our reservations. Vegas for Labor Day?"
"Sounds good. I'll let you get changed."
"Okay," she agreed, releasing him long enough to grapple for his hand. "Thank you, John."
He kissed her quickly, offering her two words that, though simple in their context, made her feel more loved than she ever had in her life.
"Of course."
He closed the door behind him, leaving her alone in the room. As she undressed and stepped into the shower, a silly grin spread across her face.
She was getting married in twenty-four hours.
End.
Author: truthlostmsr
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Sheppard/Weir
Word Count: 2,790
Spoilers: The Entire 'Lantean Manor Series is fair game, but this picks up after 'Getting the Feet Wet' and 'Lazy River'.
Summary: The comedy of errors can't change the heart.
Author's Note: The previous stories can be found at the AU's community: lantean_manor
featherjean is awesome. Tell her so. Daily. No, make it hourly. *nods*
"Elizabeth, the caterer just called."
Elizabeth Weir groaned, dropping her briefcase by the door and fixing her assistant with a pleading look.
"Don't tell me, please."
"They had to cancel-"
"Teyla," she whined.
"I'm sorry, Elizabeth."
"I asked you not to tell me. What was this one's excuse?"
"They discovered that they were double-booked, and their other reservation had made the request first. They offered to reschedule."
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, petulantly shoving her leather case to one side and sitting at the kitchen table, lest she stamp her feet like a child. Teyla nodded sympathetically, already pouring them each a glass of Elizabeth's favorite merlot. Holding the goblet out to her friend, Teyla settled at the table, looking at her own drink thoughtfully.
"I take it that you don't want to reschedule?"
"It's my wedding reception, Teyla. If I postpone that, then I might as well reschedule the entire wedding."
So far, every aspect of the wedding preparation had gone wrong. After nearly a month of debate over picking a season, forget focusing on a date, Teyla had helped them make a decision for both. Then she and John hadn't been able to agree about a church - which one, or whether a church wedding was even what they wanted - but they soon came to a compromise; they let their mothers fight it out. Elizabeth's mother won, and had already started talking to ministers. She'd gone through three already, and just last week had called with the first bit of good news; apparently the fourth time was the charm. To make matters a little worse, Elizabeth's first choice for her dress had apparently just become all the rage in Los Angeles, because when she took Teyla back for a second opinion, it was gone, and every other bridal shop in town was sold out as well.
Her mother took issue with the fact that she didn't want to include her brother's kids in the ceremony. She'd tried to explain that she didn't want the boys fighting over being the ring bearer, since having one be a flower girl was out, and that John wasn't fighting to have his niece in the wedding party. Then John brought up having his niece as the flower girl. She gave in and told her mother to give both of her nephews a job; she didn't even care what they were.
And now today the caterers, which had seemed like the one sure bet in this whole scheme, had called to cancel - or reschedule, whatever they felt like calling it. If Teyla hadn't been handling so much of the preparation, Elizabeth was sure that she'd be pulling more of her hair out than she was already. Teyla was, as always, a godsend for putting up with everything she foisted onto her.
Teyla's hand covered one of hers, and the women shared a small smile. "It will be fine, Elizabeth."
"Just as long as nothing else goes wrong," Elizabeth agreed, taking a deep breath and a small sip of her wine.
"Now don't shoot the messenger, but I have bad news."
Elizabeth's strangled groan masked the slam of the door, and Teyla shot John Sheppard an irritated glare in lieu of speaking.
"What now?"
"Your mom called me. The minister backed out, or the church was already booked. Something. I couldn't really hear her very well," John paused, ducking to kiss Elizabeth's cheek apologetically.
"Why didn't she call me?" Elizabeth groused, raising her wine glass to her lips again.
"She must be under the impression that I'm not scared of you," John quipped, dropping into a seat beside her. "Which I am, but I know you're a reasonable woman and you wouldn't kill me for something that's not my fault."
Rolling her eyes, she nodded, conceding the point to him. It wasn't his fault that everyone and everything was conspiring against them getting married. He was doing as much as she was to make things work out, but just like her, his schedule was almost completely full.
"So what do we do now? Did my mom have anything to say about that?"
John leaned back in his chair, grabbing a bottle of water from the counter behind him. He waited to answer until he'd drained almost half the bottle; he was probably gathering his thoughts and weighing his options for how quickly he could escape the kitchen.
"She's working on it. She said not to worry, even though she knows you will anyway. She said to just focus on finding dresses and worrying about the food."
Elizabeth snorted. "The caterers cancelled. So there's a little more to worry about now."
"The ones you like? The super dependable ones you wanted?"
Elizabeth nodded. "They called this afternoon. They offered to reschedule."
"That's not so bad. We could do that."
"Postpone the reception? Then we won't be able to have everyone there."
"Well, we're probably going to have to change the date anyway. Unless your mom manages to find a church and a priest for the exact same day," John replied, for once being the pragmatic one. He reached out for Elizabeth's hand, rubbing his thumb along her wrist gently.
"I know," she sighed, turning in her seat and leaning forward, trusting him to catch her before she went tumbling to the tile. Her forehead landed on his collar, and she released a shuddering breath, which evolved into a harsh laugh. Heaving another heavy sigh, she shook her head.
"I give up," she muttered, raising her palms in surrender.
John rubbed her back lightly, trying to think of something to say that would calm her. A questioning glance at Teyla confirmed that it was the right thing to do.
"Hey, didn't you have a work-out with Laura tonight?"
Reluctantly, Elizabeth nodded. "Not until later. She and Carson are driving in from her parents'."
John nodded, brushing a gentle hand through her hair. She'd let it grow since they met, and now it fell in soft waves instead of the tight curls it once had. Still, it was soft beneath his fingers, much softer than his own hair, probably due to the gel he used each morning. It just made giving her scalp massages a little bit more difficult, because now he had the added obstacle of untangling her hair.
"Have you eaten yet?"
Elizabeth shook her head.
"Do you want to eat?"
She shook her head again. "Too wound up."
He considered lecturing, but thought better of it when the idea of sleeping on the couch with Sedge hit home. Instead, he just nodded, slowly rubbing her temples. Elizabeth sagged against him, sighing as the tension left her body.
"So the doc finally met Laura's parents?"
"Mmm hmm. Back at Christmas."
"And he wanted to go back?"
Elizabeth laughed, tilting her face so she could glance up at him, smiling fondly.
"Laura is not that bad."
"For a marine," John replied nonchalantly, rubbing her cheek.
Snickering once, she wound her arms around his neck, leaving her chair and silently coming to sit with him. John hummed softly, turning her face to his for the kiss he really should have given her when he came in. When they parted, he flashed Teyla a grin, letting her know that Elizabeth would be okay.
"You'll still want to get married when all this is over, right?"
"It would be a waste not to," he murmured. "The honeymoon's already paid for, after all."
Elizabeth swatted him.
"We're going to get married, Elizabeth, it doesn't matter when."
"Okay," she agreed unnecessarily.
Nestling against him, Elizabeth closed her eyes. John and Teyla shared a look before she stood and reached for the phone to order dinner from Elizabeth's favorite health food place. While she placed the order, John shifted his arms and stood, carrying Elizabeth over to the couch to let her get some rest before dinner.
While they waited, he joined Teyla at the table to discuss some options. Taking a deep breath, he reached for the stack of notes both Teyla and Elizabeth had been making. While Teyla told him some of her ideas, he read through the papers in front of him. When Teyla ran out of things to suggest, he stood, getting himself some water and using the walk to the fridge to think.
He hadn't realized how much went into planning a wedding, having never had to do more than provide beer at a bachelor party. So when Elizabeth presented him with a stack of brochures as large as the dictionary he'd nearly lost it. He tried to help as much as he could, even though frankly, he didn't care one way or another about whether it was Father James or Pastor Stephen who married him and Elizabeth. Likewise, it wasn't important to him whether they had the reception in a fancy hall with lots of hors d'oeuvres or in their backyard with burgers on the grill. Nevertheless, it was important to Elizabeth, and by default, that made it vital to him. He couldn't let her continue to work herself up in knots about everything that was going wrong. Even if it meant dragging her to the Elvis Chapel in Vegas, he had to help get this wedding off the ground.
"Hey, Teyla," he started, grinning suddenly. "I'm going to the study to get Elizabeth's mom on the phone. Call Ronon and get him over here. I've got an idea, but we're going to need his help."
~ # ~
Having concluded her weekly Saturday workout with Laura, she came home to find what felt like half the city parked in her driveway. She saw John's Jeep, Ronon's truck, and Teyla's Civic all parked in their usual spots, but three other vehicles were also in front of her house. One was obviously a work truck, but the other two were rental cars. What the hell was going on?
She parked behind John and raised the roof on her car. Rain wasn't in the forecast, but she hated the smog residue that sometimes got on the dash when she had the top down. Taking a deep breath, she left the car to see what the chaos in her house was about this time. Hopefully it was something she could deal with in spandex and with exercise-mussed hair.
Her jaw still dropped when she walked into the living room and found Teyla, John, and her mother crowded around the coffee table. It was really the third person whose presence surprised her.
"Mom? What are you doing here?"
Instead of granting her an answer, her mother looked at John. "I thought you said she'd be gone most of the afternoon."
"Nice to see you, too, mom."
John blinked, looking between the two of them. "Aren't you home early?" he asked slowly.
Elizabeth shifted her gym tote on her shoulder, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow. "No. Saturdays with Laura are only two hours. We don't always go out for coffee afterwards, you know that."
"Ahh," John nodded, glancing guiltily at Angela Weir. "Sorry."
"Is dad here? Maybe he'll make sense."
"He's out back with Ronon." Elizabeth nodded, moving toward the sliding door. "But you can't go out there," John added in a rush, darting over to pull on her arm and keep her from making it to the door.
"Why not?" she snapped, crossing her arms.
John's hands rubbed her upper arms. He gave her the patented 'You love me and will let me get away with anything' smile and brushed a gentle kiss over her forehead.
"How was your work-out?"
"It was fine. Laura and Carson want to have dinner with us next week."
"Sounds good," John agreed. "Did she say where?"
Elizabeth shook her head, eyes narrowing in suspicion. "What? No comment about Laura this time?"
"I have plenty of those, want to hear some?"
Elizabeth laughed. "Not right now, no. Right now I want to know what's going on."
"Would you believe that it's a surprise?"
"A big one by the looks of it."
John nodded, kissing just above her right eyebrow. "It is."
"When do I get to know?"
"In a little bit. Why don't you go up and get cleaned up? Take a hot bath, soak those tired muscles." A mischievous grin blossomed and he lowered his voice, leaning down to whisper in her ear, "Get yourself all wet and soapy and pretend I'm right beside you."
She giggled; wrapping her arms around his back and drawing him down for a kiss that promised that he wouldn't be able to look her mom in the eye. John hummed against her mouth, grinning when she slipped him the tongue.
"Okay, I've got good news! I just talked to the bakery and they've got us down for- Elizabeth? When did you get back?"
Elizabeth broke the kiss, looking over John's shoulder. Immediately her eyebrows knitted in confusion. What was Jill Sheppard doing in her living room? For that matter, what was this about the bakery?
"Early enough to put a damper on the scheming, apparently."
John had the good grace to look guilty. Their mothers shared a look and Teyla picked up the slack, setting the folder in her hand down and crossing to Elizabeth's side. She smiled encouragingly, knowing that her friend would trust her word.
"Go get cleaned up, Elizabeth. We will tell you when you come back down."
"You'd better."
John nodded, turning Elizabeth's shoulders and leading her out into the hall. When he tried to return to the other room, she grabbed his hand, yanking him insistently up to where they could talk in private. He stopped her halfway up the stairs, pressing her back against the banister and brushing the hair that had escaped her ponytail behind her ear. She raised an eyebrow, waiting until he'd already kissed her once to speak.
"I'm not kidding John; tell me what's going on."
He pulled back, breathing warmly against her cheek. "Okay," he acquiesced, waving his hand for her to precede him up the rest of the stairs. Nodding shortly, she did so.
Once their bedroom door was closed, she crossed her arms again, clearly intimating that he should start talking before her patience ran out.
"We're getting married," he blurted finally, wincing almost immediately at how it sounded. "Well, our families are here so that we can get married. Teyla, Ronon, your mom, and I've been working on it for the last couple weeks, and we decided not to try putting it off, to just pull everything together and get it over with. So," he shrugged. "They're all here, and we've got almost everything ready for tomorrow."
Instead of getting angry, Elizabeth dissolved into laughter. Loud, uncontrollable, raucous laughter. Confused, he didn't join in her merriment.
Finally, he crossed his own arms. "What's so funny?" he demanded.
Elizabeth wiped her eyes, closing the distance between them and tossing her arms around him. He returned her affection without even knowing what had caused the 180 degree change in her mood. When her laughter died away, Elizabeth kissed him on the cheek and reached for his hand, drawing him over to her dresser, where she pulled a booklet of papers from her sock drawer. Slapping the papers into his palm, she waited for the source of her happiness to sink in.
"Vegas?"
"Yup."
"Why?"
She smirked, raising an eyebrow. "Why do people usually go to Vegas, John?"
He blinked, suddenly at a loss for words. "You wanted to go to Vegas and get married?"
She nodded.
"Tomorrow?"
She nodded again.
This time, he joined her in laughing at the absurdity of the situation. Two weeks ago, they hadn't even been prepared for one wedding, and now apparently they were going to have two.
"When did you do all this?"
"Last week. With everything going wrong I decided to say forget it and surprise you with the trip. When did you decide to call my mom and plan everything?"
"The day the caterers cancelled."
She nodded, tightening her arms around him, and burying her face in his neck. John followed suit, lightly pressing his lips against the base of her throat.
"I'll call the airline and change our reservations. Vegas for Labor Day?"
"Sounds good. I'll let you get changed."
"Okay," she agreed, releasing him long enough to grapple for his hand. "Thank you, John."
He kissed her quickly, offering her two words that, though simple in their context, made her feel more loved than she ever had in her life.
"Of course."
He closed the door behind him, leaving her alone in the room. As she undressed and stepped into the shower, a silly grin spread across her face.
She was getting married in twenty-four hours.
End.