FanFic100: #063 Summer
“Nervous, Captain?” She gives him a look that tells him that she’s not amused and shakes her head.
“No, sir. Or at least not as nervous as Laura was.” It’s a lie, of course. He has never met a woman who wasn’t nervous on her wedding day. He also has known her long enough now to know very well that she’s at least as nervous as Laura was - and he has it on good accounts that Laura was nervous as hell.
But because he’s also known her long enough to know that Maureen Reece doesn’t take it lightly to be teased about a weakness in her own way, all he does is smile at her and say, “Sure. Now, do you want continue torturing Tom or are you ready to go out there?”
If it were up to him… they’d stay a little longer here, just to get back at Tom for making him insane on both his weddings; the one Laura and he had wanted and the one their mothers had forced on them after hearing they’d married on the base. But of course this isn't his wedding and it was an honor that Maureen and Tom asked him to lead Maureen down the aisle in lieu of Maureen’s deceased father.
“As ready as I’ll ever be, sir.” She squares her shoulders and he wonders if this is how Laura prepared for getting married to him… as if she’s about to face down an enemy. Yeah, well… probably, but he sure hopes it was more because of having to face the audience than because of him.
“Thought so. Shall we?” He offers her his arm and with a small smile, she takes it, with surprising ease. Strangely enough, in this moment he remembers how they’d first met. She’d just come out of Tom’s office, after having been chewed out by him for the very first time. Because the little Lieutenant had seemed to be nice enough he’d taken a moment to smile at her and tell her that barking dogs usually don’t bite and those barking loud enough that the whole corridor could hear them even less. Her only answer had been a shy smile with just a hint of her later dry sarcasm and disappearing from the scene as soon as possible. She’s come a long way indeed. Oh well, there’s something that’s overdue, “By the way… I wouldn’t mind if you’d call me Evan when we’re off-duty.”
“Sir?” Ah yeah, she’ll probably never get rid of second-guessing other people caring for her.
“You’re about to marry a guy I’ve known since the Academy, Maureen. I think it’s about time, don’t you?” That makes her smile and even blush a little
“You got a point there, sir… Evan.” Of course he has. Laura, also of course, will tell him in no uncertain terms what she thinks of him taking so long to offer it to Maureen, even though he knew she’d never start calling him by his first name on her own, as Laura had done with Tom at some point. And then she points out, “Anyway, I think we should get going.”
Mh, yeah, true. They’d stopped right in front of the door to the pier Tom and Maureen had chosen for the ceremony and according to the schedule they’re on cue now to enter. “Right.”
And then she takes his arm again and he leads her through the door, out onto the sunlit pier, with the waves gently swapping against it and a number of Atlantis personnel sitting in rows leading up to Mr. Woolsey, Laura as Maureen’s Matron of Honor and Tom with Sergeant DeLisle, his Best Man. Actually… he still wonders what exactly Maureen did to make Laura wear a dress for her wedding and keep her from grumbling about not being allowed to be part of the Guard of Honor
The moment Tom sees them walking through the door, his whole posture changes. He seems even taller than usual, alert… and when they are closer, he can see a look of astonishment and affection he has never before seen on Tom’s face. It dawns on him that in all the years they’ve known each other and despite all they went through together he has never seen Tom as open as this, probably not even… no, this is not a day to think about things like that.
When they arrive, he leads Maureen to stand beside Laura and is amazed and a little amused at the giddiness and joy she radiates. He gives her another encouraging smile and catches a short look at Laura who seems to be just as amused about how open Tom and Maureen suddenly are in their affection for each other. Then Maureen mouths “Thank you, Evan,” and this is his cue to step aside until it’s time for the Guard of Honor.
Taking his seat, beside newly promoted Oberstabsarzt Matthias Morsberg, he leans back; now free to observe the ceremony. He doesn’t mind not being Tom’s Best Man because he knows very well that he may be Tom’s oldest friend here… but Sergeant DeLisle is his best friend, even though they would never admit to this. In fact… had Tom asked him he would have turned it down, pointing out that there was this Sergeant on his team who’d follow him to hell and back if he had to just because someone had to make sure he wouldn’t get himself into any stupid scrapes.
He’s glad, though, that Maureen asked Laura to be her Matron of Honor because that meant that Laura had no chance to get away with wearing Class A’s instead of a dress. Actually… the only thing he’ll ever openly admit to have been a good thing about their second wedding had been Laura being forced to wear a wedding dress, even though she still claims she hated it with all the passion possible.
“Honored guests and friends, we are here today to be witnesses to Captain Maureen Catrina Reece and Major Thomas William Moore Junior being joined in marriage.” Junior? Junior? Tom is doomed now and he knows that judging by the way he just winced when Woolsey mentioned this insignificant little detail Tom even managed to omit even in his records… at least the version he’s allowed to read.
As Woolsey continues to speak, he manages to catch Laura’s eyes and he can see the amused twinkle in it… someone just had the same thought at hearing the “junior”. And was that a cough he just heard from Morsberg? With a raised eyebrow he turns to face him and the medic has the decency to look caught. “Very… dry air here, sir,” he whispers and adds another little cough for good measure. Dry air. Uh-huh. Right. Better concentrate on Woolsey again or he might make some inappropriate remark involving the word Tom will probably hear a lot over the next months… maybe even years.
“They are about to enter a commitment to each other just as serious as their commitment to their country and they deserve our deepest respect for making this step.” Yeah, mostly because it had taken both Laura and him endless hours of convincing them that they should either stop whatever half-baked thing they had going on or make it official, permanent and a lot less stress- and hurtful for everyone involved.
“Even more so because they had to face many obstacles to reach this point,” namely the NID, Goa’uld, Wraith, several other hostile Milky Way and Pegasus inhabitants… and most of all themselves, “but their story also teaches us that perseverance is a very important thing in every relationship. Both Captain Reece and Major Moore have shown us that they have it in abundance,” but they could have spared each other a lot of heart ache if they hadn't insisted on making it as hard as possible for each other, “which I daresay bodes well for this marriage.”
“And I daresay they aren’t even listening,” Morsberg says with a little smirk and he has to grin at that. No, they really aren’t. They only have eyes for each other and even though he has seen them together off-duty a lot of times, he never saw them so very much in love and happy like now. If the sun wasn’t shining as brightly as it is now, they’d probably light up the pier all on their own.
“To conclude… let me give you just one last little quote, to remind you what marriage should be like. It was the great Homer who said ‘There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.’ May you confound many enemies and delight all your friends for a very, very long time.” Hey, that was actually a nice quote. He wonders who helped Woolsey writing the speech… wait; did Laura just give him a very smug grin? She didn’t… did she?
“Would you please step forward, Sergeant DeLisle?” The Sergeant does as he is told and Woolsey continues, “Major Thomas William Moore Junior, do you take Captain Maureen Catrina Reece as your wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do you part?”
Tom doesn’t hesitate, simply takes the ring and puts it on Maureen’s finger, saying, “I do.”
On to the last hurdle now, then. “Captain Maureen Catrina Reece, do you take Major Thomas William Moore Junior as your husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do you part?”
Maureen… does look a little nervous for a moment but then she catches herself in time, does as Tom did and says, “I do,” smiling so brightly that she even rivals Laura’s smiles at both their weddings. Beside her… oh. Laura… Laura looks very much like she can’t decide between ironically rolling her eyes as if to say, “Took you two long enough,” and blinking away something that looks suspiciously like tears. Huh.
“You may kiss the bride.” And kiss they do. People have told Laura and him that their wedding kiss - or kisses - were very… inspiring but the way Tom kisses Maureen and she kisses him back… speaks volumes of how long they had to wait for this moment and God is he glad they are finally there. He also… wishes a certain Laura Greenspan would be here to see this because he’s sure she would have had a field day, probably conspiring with Morsberg for whatever prank for Tom and Maureen’s wedding night he had planned with Maureen’s German office mate, Hauptmann Julika Naumann or confusing DeLisle by smiling at him all through the ceremony…
Ah well, time to stop musing on what can’t be changed - most of all because she wouldn’t want that - and to welcome a new military wife to the Air Force. Tom and Maureen have stopped kissing and that’s his cue to get up and join the other members of the Guard of Honor. It was Maureen who had specifically asked for this, despite Tom not being really set on it. She had told him that she wanted to get it right and that also included formally being welcomed to this kind of family. In the end Tom had agreed, admitting confidentially that he’d rather welcome Maureen to his real family - the USAF and even more specifically his team - than to the one he had on Earth.
So it’s another great honor for him that he’s the one to conduct the sword ceremony… and be the one to give Maureen the little slap on the bottom and a grinning, “Welcome to the Air Force, ma’am.” Welcome indeed… and now off to torture Tom with this new intriguing new little detail… and to find Laura and make her uncomfortable with compliments over compliments on the dress…