Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or the song used. The song used is 'I Loved Her First' by Heartland.
I Loved Her First
As the sparkling lights fell on the smiles of the happy couple, the music began to play, a gentle rhythm familiar to the two. A sweet melody, slow and safe and precious, followed them as Jim Cook carefully led his new bride to the dance floor, for their traditional first dance.
The eyes of the crowd followed them, some clapping or cheering, others weeping, and some just watching with a smile on their face.
Jim took the proud hand of his new wife - manicured for the occasion - and looked deep into her eyes as they began to sway to the music. Neither one was greatly experienced with dancing, but they put their arms around each other and let the music guide them.
Alexis had never had much interest in dancing - that interest was one of her brother's many - but now she moved in time to the music perfectly, the motion coming naturally to her.
Over the shoulder of her husband, Alexis could see the smiling faces of her family and friends. A hush had fallen over them and all were intently focused on the happy lovers engaged in their first dance as a married couple. Her parents were there, her mother crying joyous tears and her father nodding with a smile on his lips. Assorted aunts and uncles - from both her family and Jim's - smiled fondly at them. Her brother had a tear in his eye but still wore that flirtatious smile that was so characteristic for him. Even now he seemed to be being eyed up by various female cousins of Jim's.
Her friends, from Duel Academy and since, were watching her. Even Chazz smiled at her - she knew that he had once harboured a crush on her but that he was long since over it. Much the same way as her feelings for Jaden had disappeared. But she saw the smile on Chazz's face as his free arm wrapped around Syrus.
Alexis saw this and smiled, her head lay gently on Jim's shoulder. She was not the only one in love. Many of her friends from Duel Academy - whom she had known as teenagers, as opposed to her friends who she had known only in her adult years, through work or college - had found love.
Chazz had his arm around Syrus. Jaden smiled in Jesse's embrace. Aster leant back against Zane as his lover's arms came around his waist from behind.
It seemed that she, along with others, had fallen deeply in love.
That love - something she felt, this way, only for Jim - had brought her here today.
Her wedding day.
It had been a church wedding - to keep her parents happy, more than anything. Now, they were having a party to celebrate. She had already been caught in hugs by her friends and by her family - that had grown enormously, since she had just added all of Jim's family to the group. Some of his relatives had travelled a long, long way to get here for the ceremony and party.
Alexis realised that 'I do' were some of her favourite words. She had just learned that two small words, so seemingly insignificant, were almost the most beautiful pair of words two people could exchange. Second only to 'I love you'. And Alexis knew that meaning very well, too.
/
A sigh fell from the thin lips of an aging father, who somehow felt so much older on this day than he had the previous evening. Yesterday, he'd been in his lounge with his wife, drinking a pleasant glass of whiskey while faintly strumming his guitar. Just like any other day.
And this morning, he had been in a formal suit and leading his youngest child down the isle.
His baby girl, the younger of his two children, was now - as of today - a married woman.
He should have expected this. He had known, the first time that he was introduced to Jim Cook, how much his daughter loved him. He'd always known, and wanted, this day to come.
But did it really have to come so soon?
His only daughter was a grown woman now. She was a great duellist, a successful teacher, a clever young woman. And now, she was also a married one, presently dancing in the arms of the man to whom she had given her heart.
When he had held a newborn Alexis in his arms, he'd dreamed of all the things she could achieve, prayed that she would grow up healthy and happy, sure that she would always be loved.
And now, it was like she had outrun him. She had taken off herself, left him behind. It wasn't that she was just married, or just working, or just duelling. She was doing it all. How did she manage to keep going?
Of course, he knew the answer: she was Alexis Rhodes. She got on with it. She was strong.
His baby girl wasn't really his baby girl any more. She was a beautiful woman of twenty four, sure of herself and ready for what was coming, surrounded now by friends and family.
He took a sip of his glass of white wine, trying to smile at the dancing couple when all he really wanted to do was cry.
He looked at Alexis and noticed how different she was with Jim.
He looked at Jim, then. Did Jim Cook really deserve his daughter?
Well, no. But that answer was obvious. She was his precious daughter. Nobody truly deserved her - not even him himself. Fatherly love could do that to a man.
The real question was this: was Jim good enough for her?
And the answer was yes. Yes, he was good enough. As long as he loved Alexis and she loved him, as long as they were happy together, then he was good enough and more.
But still, in his heart, Alexis' father felt a pang of jealousy and a spike of bitter truth.
He had loved Alexis first.
She was his little girl, and he had cared for her long before Jim Cook had.
This wasn't actual jealousy, just the truth. He had loved her before Jim had, and he always would.
The bride's father stood up from his seat, carefully moving through the crowds, accompanied by nobody. On the other side of the room was his acoustic guitar, his oldest friend.
Somehow, he had passed on some of that music talent to his son. Atticus may not really be a guitar player, but there was his beloved ukulele, and he fancied himself as a singer. Atticus got his musical traits from his father.
He reached into the guitar case - he'd brought it with him, since he was later to honour the couple with a song - and pulled out the sandy coloured instrument.
He didn't want to disrupt the married couple, of course. He just wanted to let Jim know that he, Alexis' loving father, would always love and watch out for his daughter.
He suspected that Jim Cook knew and respected all these things, but it would be nice to say them out loud for Alexis to hear as well. Not to mention that it was an excuse to play another song for them, one that he had been writing in his mind during the ceremony.
He had a reasonable voice, he reckoned. Not enough to make him a great singer, but enough that he could sing softly and sound alright, when accompanied by his guitar.
/
The song came to an end and Jim seized Alexis' lips in a kiss. Everyone clapped again - enthusiastically, all of them now ready to do some dancing themselves. Well, at least some of them. Chazz refused to dance, and Zane and Aster thought it beneath their dignity.
But before anyone could go onto the dance floor, there was the sound of tapping on a microphone. A high frequency sound filled the room, causing one or two of the younger guests to cover their ears.
Alexis and Jim turned to face Alexis' father, sitting on a chair on the stage - that was only raised six inches off the ground.
"Congratulations, honey" he smiled. "I'm so glad we're here. I knew this would happen, and it's great that it has. But you know, baby, that you're always mine, too?"
Alexis stared at her father in confusion, mentally killing him with his guitar. This was exactly where Atticus got his annoying traits from.
"Well, I've got a song to sing. I know I'll be playing for you later, but this is a song that I personally wrote. Jim, this is for you and Alexis. So you'll know that I care about my daughter."
Jim was surprised, to say the least. His one visible eye widened in surprise, but he didn't say anything - best not to argue with the emotional in-laws.
Everyone had fallen into silence. Atticus had one hand on his embarrassed mother's shoulder.
Alexis' father smiled and he began to strum his guitar, hoping everyone would be quiet enough for Jim to hear. This song was, after all, strictly meant for him.
He took a deep breath and parted his lips.
And he began to sing.
Look at the two of you dancing that way
Lost in the moment and each other's face
So much in love, you're alone in this place
Like there's nobody else in the world
I was enough for her not long ago
I was her number one, she told me so
And she still means the world to me, just so you know
So be careful when you hold my girl
Jim's eyes - well, at least the sole eye visible - narrowed slightly. Just what was his bride's father trying to say?
He was always careful with his Alexis, of course. Why would he need to be warned?
Alexis' father continued singing, unintentionally answering the questions Jim hadn't even asked.
Time changes everything, life must go on
And I'm not gonna stand in your way
But I loved her first, I held her first
And a place in my heart will always be hers
From the first breath she breathed
When she first smiled at me
I knew the love of a father runs deep
And I prayed that she'd find you someday
But it's still hard to give her away
I loved her first
Alexis stared up at her father, stunned. She knew he sang, but he only ever did his own versions of existing songs? Why was he creating his own? Why now?
Her heart was beating furiously under her custom made white wedding dress - curtsey of her brother, since she didn't really want for material things herself. Her father had written a whole song … just for her?
She had always known that he cared for her. Their father-daughter bond was close. But she had never known just how much he treasured that bond.
Still, his words continued to sink deeper and deeper.
How could that beautiful woman with you
Be the same freckle face kid that I knew
The one that I read all those fairytales to
And tucked into bed all those nights
And I knew the first time I saw you with her
It was only a matter of time
It was true, Alexis reasoned. She had already fallen completely in love with Jim by the time he was finally introduced to her parents. It had only happened at all because they were celebrating her completion of college.
She stared at her father as his singing continued further.
I loved her first, I held her first
And a place in my heart will always be hers
From the first breath she breathed
When she first smiled at me
I knew the love of a father runs deep
And I prayed that she'd find you someday
But it's still hard to give her away
I loved her first
From the first breath she breathed
When she first smiled at me
I knew the love of a father runs deep
Someday you might know what I'm going through
When a miracle smiles up at you
I loved her first
He strummed the strings to create the ending melody of the song, and then completely ended the music, looking up from his guitar and into the teary eyes of his daughter. He looked at the couple intently: Alexis looked to be near tears, Jim's smile was both caring and respectful.
Alexis' father jumped off the stage and went straight to his newly married daughter, where he smiled at her, holding back his own tears as he grinned.
"Good luck, sweetheart" he whispered.
Alexis removed her arm from her new husband's waist and fell into her father's arms - something she had not done since before she had went to Duel Academy. She felt like such a child, and at the same time, she knew that nobody would hold this action against her - it was just the loving bond that any father and daughter should share, and it was respected and admired.
Her father's arms were larger than Jim's, though not as muscular. They had the beginnings of fat on the upper arms as she dug her fingernails into his skin - how had she never noticed before now that her old dad really was getting older? Had she ever before considered that, one day, she was going to lose him?
She didn't want to think about that. She and her father had so many more memories coming. She could only imagine what was to come. Her mother had hinted, years previously, that she hoped to one day become a grandmother. Would Alexis make her dream come true by having children? It wasn't something Alexis had ever seriously considered, if she was honest.
Alexis looked at her father, who had loved her since she was seconds old, and even before her birth.
"Thanks, Daddy" she whispered.
Daddy. She had always called him by that name, so long ago. She always called him that. And yet, at some point in her life, 'daddy' had shortened to simply become 'dad'. She didn't recall quite when it had happened, and reasoned that it was probably just part of growing up.
But that didn't mean she couldn't say it, just this once, as an adult, and give her father this gift. The gift of knowing that his loving little girl was still there, even though she may spend her days at work rather than at school, and come home to the arms of her husband instead of the arms of her parents.
/
Jaden looked over at the dancing couple, swaying dubiously to the music, not really keeping time. Neither he nor Jesse was very experienced with dancing - it wasn't a particular interest to them, duelling was their game - but it was a wedding party and they were going to try. It was funny, if nothing else.
Jaden's eyes wandered over to the newly married couple at the centre of the attention. His smile widened slightly as they engaged themselves in a tender kiss. He noticed the love in Alexis' eyes - the same way that Syrus looked at Chazz, that Aster looked at Zane, that he looked at Jesse. The love in Jim's eyes, caring, could be found duplicated into Jesse's eyes. Even into Zane's, even Chazz's.
It was amazing what love could do to a person. It could alter you slightly or it could change you completely.
And it wasn't really up to you. It was also up to the person to whom you had given your heart. It was truly love when you gave away your heart and didn't want it back.
It was the way that Jim and Alexis looked at each other.
Please R&R