FanForum Secret Santa fic for Heidi (FoxPhile)! Merry Christmas, dear friend!
(Note to regular readers – this is obviously not tied in to any of my other fics.)
"Look who it is!" Paige said in a teasing tone as Florence and Sylvester came down from the loft. "T minus twenty – eight hours! How are you guys feeling?"
"Also, what were you guys doing up there for forever?" Happy asked.
"Happy, their private lives are none of our business," Toby said in a low voice. Then he smirked. "Actually, I kinda wanna know details."
"Nothing interesting," Sylvester said. "We were discussing the best route to the park with the construction and then got caught up looking at different buildings on Google Maps."
Paige nodded. "As one does."
"That seems to have been the last detail we needed to get figured out," Florence said, clasping her hands together. "So…I think we're ready." She glanced at Sylvester and smiled.
"So what did you get for your good luck pieces?" Paige asked.
"For good luck?" Florence said, frowning. "I don't believe in luck. Sylvester doesn't believe in luck."
"It's not really about luck at this point," Toby said. "More like just a thing a lot of couples do."
"Really? I mean. I haven't been to a lot of weddings. But…"
"It's from an old English rhyme," Toby said. "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, a sixpence in your shoe."
"Can it be like, one thing?" Florence asked. "Like an old blue thing that we borrow, so it's new to us?"
"Efficient," Walter said, giving an approving nod.
"No," Paige said, elbowing him. "Four things. Four separate things, for luck."
"Did you have these things?" Sylvester asked, cocking his head with a frown.
"No," Paige admitted. "But those things are a little harder to come by when you elope."
"They did it on Friends," Cabe said. "Monica and Chandler, that is."
"Not everyone lifts their crap from Vegas gift shops," Paige retorted.
"Especially when you elope thousands of miles from Vegas."
"Thank you for that addition, Walt, really helpful," Toby said.
"Guys!" Florence clapped her hands together. "I have managed to not bridezilla this wedding up until this point and you just threw some extra pressure on us at twenty – eight hours out. Do you have any ideas for what these four things should be? And where the Hell we can get a sixpence?"
"I don't think anyone actually takes it that far-"
"And we can't even just go out and buy stuff because we need something to borrow! Who is going to lend us something? Do I have to like, wear it? Or just carry it? What if-"
"Florence," Sylvester said, gently grabbing her upper arms and making her look at him. "This is literally the least important detail. We don't need it."
"Yes we do."
"We hadn't even thought about it until now. What if we had remembered this retroactively?"
Florence stared at him as if she had no idea who he was.
"Okay," Paige said, hopping off the desk and moving toward the couple with a glare in Toby's direction, "Florence, we'll figure this out, okay? Me, Walter, Cabe, Toby and Happy, we'll each pick one thing and be responsible for it. You will have everything tomorrow morning. Just relax tonight. We'll cover it."
"But-"
"Florence." Paige drew out the older woman's name. "It will be fine." She raised an eyebrow. "You and I are not alike in almost every way but we both break out when we're stressed so please don't worry about this so you don't have to worry about your face betraying you on your wedding day."
Florence looked at Paige in horror. "Oh my God, I forgot about that."
"Nice one, Dineen," Toby said.
"You." Paige spun on her heel and pointed at the behaviorist accusingly. "You have been less than helpful tonight. You get something borrowed. The easiest. Just go find something and bring it in the morning."
"I can cover the something old," Cabe said.
"You showing up to the wedding does not count." Toby's eyes widened and he slapped his hand over his mouth, pretending to be startled at his own response.
"Can we bring in something battered?" Cabe asked. "Because I think-"
"If this is going to be another variation of you putting your foot up his ass, I'm impressed at the number of ways you've figured out to say that," Sylvester said, "but…not the time? Maybe not the time?"
"Okay!" It was Paige's turn to clap her hands together. "Let's not all add to the stress, please!" She turned to Toby. "Okay. Something borrowed. Cabe, something old. Walt, you want something new or blue?"
Walter looked alarmed. "Are we not doing this together?"
Paige gave an exasperated sigh. Florence gave a stressed moan and put her head against Sylvester's chest.
"Okay, okay, okay," Walter held his hands up as if to surrender. "I'll do something new."
"Perfect. Then I've got blue." Paige pivoted back to face Florence and Sylvester. "You guys go home and sleep. We'll get this sorted. Okay?"
"Hold on a moment," Cabe said. "Isn't the couple supposed to spend the night before the wedding apar…" he trailed off at a death glare from Paige. "Never mind."
"Like, I trust that Paige will come through, and Cabe. Walter and Toby? How do I know they'll take it seriously?" They always mean well, but sometimes it's a little…I don't know, they interpret things in a way that is…let's say outside the box, and…"
"Paige and Happy," Sylvester said, watching her pace in front of the bed. "If Walter and Toby go off on some weird tangent with this, Paige and Happy will keep them in line."
Florence made another aggravated sound and pushed her hands up through her hair.
"Can I ask you a question?" Sylvester asked cautiously.
Florence turned to him, standing still for the first time since they'd gotten home. "What?"
He studied her. "You haven't let this wedding stress you out this entire time. We aren't crazy with the guest list, we both believe that the marriage is more important than the wedding so if something minor goes wrong we'll deal with it. Is something else bothering you? I mean, you aren't the type of person to let a detail like this cause so much distress. The others didn't even do this borrowed, blue, whatever thing."
Florence stared at him for a long time. Then she sighed, dropping her head, and walked toward the bed. Sylvester scooted over, sitting criss cross in the middle, making room for her as she climbed on and sat facing him. "It's stupid."
"I doubt that."
"You haven't heard it yet."
She was quiet. He waited. He wished she would hurry up; the silence was driving his anxiety crazy, but she was clearly anxious too, worried that their friends wouldn't come through on this aspect of their wedding day that had suddenly become so important, and pushing her would just elevate her stress as well as prolong him finding out what was wrong, thereby elevating his own. Prompting was a lose – lose, for both of them.
Finally, Florence sighed, rubbing her eyes. "I've never been normal."
"Same. Big Mood, as the kids are saying nowadays."
She gave a little laugh, a brief smile coming over her face before she grew solemn again, reaching out and grabbing one of his hands as it rested on his knee. "I know I've never been normal. But when people – normal people – would bring it up, it would hurt more, you know? Kinda like how the LGBTQIAP community has reclaimed the word queer and a lot of them identify as queer instead of gay, lesbian, etcetera, but when a straight person uses it against them, it still hurts."
Sylvester nodded.
"The something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue thing, it's like a stereotype of normal weddings. It's the thing that, once upon a time, people said was a must have. To the point where Friends featured it, and that show wasn't really on that long ago, I mean, it's no Leave It To Water Vole."
"Leave It To Beaver," Sylvester corrected.
"Whatever. But what I mean is, it's like a thing. And so because of – "
"I'm sorry," Sylvester said, holding up his free hand. "We're talking about something very serious here, but Water Vole? You came up with Water Vole before Beaver?"
"I'm not normal. Remember?"
"I mean, neither am I, but I still…never mind." He squeezed her hand. "Go on."
"My parents before they died, my sister before she died, all my classmates…" Florence shrugged. "They all made an effort to point out that I was never normal. And so I guess when Toby brought this up tonight…it's such a common thing with weddings and I hadn't even thought of it. And I guess I had in that moment convinced myself that if we didn't have those four things, it was just going to prove all those people right. And although it doesn't make sense and although I'm self – aware about it and all, I still…" she hesitated.
"You still feel that way."
Florence nodded. "I'm sorry. I'm fixating and I don't know how to stop it. The only thing that should be important right now is us and I'm just…"
"You're not detracting from us," Sylvester said. "You're stressed about this being perfect because weddings are seen as a reflection of the couple. You're upset because we are so important to you. Sure, we said nothing would bother us, but we're also familiar with the 'easier said than done' concept."
"But you're not stressed," she said. "You're handling this like an adult and I'm seven years older than you." Her eyes widened. "Oh my God, what if we'd met when we were little. I had no idea how to take care of babies. I could have killed you."
"You know, as long as you're not interested in killing me now, I think it's all good," he said with a smirk. "Internally, sure I'm stressed. Maybe not about this specific thing. But I keep imagining everything that could go wrong tomorrow. But that's how anxiety works a lot of the time. You're terrified of doing something or making sure something works out correctly, but when someone you care about is terrified of the same thing, you suddenly become able to do it because you're doing it for them. So weirdly, I think that you freaking out is giving me the capability to stay calm to help you through that."
"Okay but what if it would help me more to see you freaking out, too?"
"Well. No relationship is perfect."
Sylvester had been hoping for a laugh and was pleased when he got one. "Trust me," he said, leaning forward and putting his forehead against hers, "they'll come through. We'll have our nice little normal wedding and then come back here to our little apartment with really geeky stuff all over the walls and proceed with our very normal abnormal lives. Sound good?"
"I love you."
He smiled. "Right back at you, Tipton."
As soon as Florence and Sylvester arrived at the park, Paige ushered them over to a gathering area, some picnic tables with a rusty barbecue setup next to one. "We have our items for you!" She said excitedly, waving the others over. She gestured to the two of them. "Sit."
Sylvester took a seat on top of the picnic table, and Florence sat on the bench, leaning back between his knees.
"Ready, ready?" Toby asked as they approached. Florence realized her leg was shaking, her knee bumping up and down so quickly it was making the table wobble. She focused on stilling it.
"I'm going first. Something borrowed." Happy stepped forward, handing a small container – roughly the size of one of those five-hour energy bottles – to Florence. Actually, the chemist realized, it was one of those five-hour energy bottles, sans the label. "Sorry for the weird wrapping. Blame my husband. But anyway." She gestured, and Florence opened it.
"Glitter…confetti?"
"Glitter confetti." Happy glanced at Toby. "So before we got engaged, Toby actually proposed to me before. And I couldn't say yes, because I was married to Walter. And in this big proposal, he had…it was a whole thing. There was confetti involved. He threw most of it away, but saved a little bit."
"Now you two," Toby said, "you also had a rocky start. Because of Walter."
"Don't worry," Paige said in a low voice when her husband shifted awkwardly. "I'm going to make out with you aggressively later so we both forget about that all over again."
"But," Toby continued, "like us, you guys got through it, and now you're getting married, just like we did. So, take this confetti as your Something Borrowed."
"I don't know what to say," Florence said, glancing at Sylvester.
Toby suddenly seemed less confident. "Like, in the good way or the bad way?"
"Good," she said with a smile. "The good way, I promise."
"My turn?" Cabe asked. He stepped forward. "Something old. Other than myself." A corner of his mouth turned up.
"Oh, it's funny when he says it," Toby mumbled. Happy elbowed him. Florence wondered if she ought to start elbowing Sylvester like the other women did. She was unsure if that was a general relationship dynamic. She would have to seek answers from Google.
"This is a newspaper clipping from the day you two met," he said, taking a folded item out of his pocket. "It's got a quote in there – I think it's a song lyric, actually – about how a lot of people believe in things like destiny or fate, but happiness is most often something that we make happen for ourselves. Now obviously that logic is flawed because of things like depression and natural disasters and – "
"Move it along, grandpa, they want to get married today."
"Anyway," he said, glaring at Toby, "love is like that. Sometimes there seems to be some other power bringing people together, but love is a verb. There will always be points in a relationship where you choose to try, choose to make things work, choosing to keep loving someone even through rough patches. All of us understand that."
The previous night's talk flashed through Florence's mind.
"And I think it may have been destiny or fate that put this article in the paper on the day you two met," Cabe said, "but end of the day, you guys created the love that's between you now. So I was thinking you could incorporate this into your bouquet somehow."
"Absolutely," Florence said. She already had method in mind. "Thank you, Cabe."
"Me next?" Paige asked, glancing at Walter.
"Sure," he said.
"You actually…have something, right Walt?" Happy asked.
"I take my jobs very seriously," he said, looking hurt. "Also, Paige wouldn't have let me come here if I didn't."
"Damn right," she said with a grin. "Okay. Something blue. I actually don't have it with me. But – "
"Walter," Cabe joked, "you let her come here without something?"
"I did something that I remember my mom doing for a neighbor of ours when I was a kid. One of the only good memories I have of her from that age, honestly. I know you're both hyphenating your names to Tipton - Dodd, so you'll both have new initials after today. So I went and brought your tux and dress to our place and I embroidered your new initials on the inside right over your hearts, with blue thread. Including Sylvester's middle initial for obvious reasons."
"What obvious re…" Sylvester trailed off. "Oh."
"I really love that idea, Paige," Cabe said.
"I do, too," Florence agreed. The first time she would ever see her new initials would be when she was getting ready. The thought gave her an exciting shiver.
The only person who didn't look impressed was Walter. "I mean, their initials are technically also something new, so…"
"Give it a rest, Walt," Paige said. "You still get to give them your thing."
"And technically speaking," Toby said, "we aren't giving them the new initials."
Walter cleared his throat. "Toby. My time."
"This is Sylvester and Florence's time," Toby said.
"Thank you," Walter said slowly. He looked back at the couple. "So this was actually going to be my wedding gift to you. So I don't have, like, a fancy speech prepared about why I have it. But it is something new, so…" he held a box out toward them.
Florence took it, flipping the top up.
"Weird looking keys?" Sylvester asked, leaning over to study the contents.
"Ah, yes, well." Walter cleared his throat. "I had gathered audio. Of you, Sylvester, saying 'Florence' and of Florence saying 'Sylvester.' I took the visual representation of the audio and made these keys, heart shaped at the base, and then the audio waves make up the teeth of the keys. Because, you know, key to the heart, that whole…thing…oh!" He added in surprise when Florence stood up and hugged him.
"Thank you," she said. She pulled back, smiling at the rest of them. "Thank you, thank you, all of you."
She heard the table creak as Sylvester got off of it, and then felt his chest against her back as his arms curled around her.
"Well," Paige said, glancing at her wrist as if she had worn a watch at any point in the past decade, "T minus ninety minutes." She smiled at Florence. "Ready to get in your dress?"
"Ready to probably have a minor freakout like Walt and I did?" Toby asked Sylvester.
"I am."
"None of my freakouts are minor."
Paige glanced at Walter, Toby at Happy, and both couples smiled. "Alright," Paige said in a soft voice, taking Florence by the elbow. "Let's go get you guys married."
"Wait," Florence said, stopping and craning her neck around to see Sylvester. "What about…I need my purse."
"Oh. Right." Paige dug into her pocket. "We use pennies here in the States, though I'm sure you researched and found that out already." She handed one to Florence, and the chemist couldn't help but notice it was from the current year. "We'll put it in your shoe right before you walk down the aisle."
"Thanks." Florence felt her face flushing. She smiled at Sylvester, then looked back at Paige. "Okay. Now I'm ready."
"Then let's get you married."
THE END