Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS: New Orleans or its characters… (obviously)
Author's Note: I've never written a wedding-themed fic before, or ended my shippy fan fiction romances with them, because well, I find them a little bit too cliché. But I'd also avoided writing Holiday-themed fics and had never tried the 'five times' style before I was drawn into writing LaSalle/Brody ('Cherri'). So why the hell not go there? See what I can do with the old Wedding Trope…
UNIVERSE/SPOILERS: So this is a sequel to Deal of a Lifetime which was begun mid-season one, and became AU for the end of season one. In other words, Chris and Savannah never became serious and she was never murdered in the universe in which this fic takes place. Otherwise, this runs sort of parallel to season two, will take in elements of the canon, such as Percy being added to the team, etc.
*Special Thanks to Marjorie K. Place for bouncing around ideas with me*
FIRST ATTEMPT: A TRADITIONAL CHURCH WEDDING
Chapter 1: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something… Missing
A bride dressed in white, looking somewhat terrified stared back at her. The gown was satin and shimmered like a pearl in the light that streamed in through the tall, narrow windows. White hardly seemed appropriate for her to be wearing. No one thought she was a virgin. And everyone knew what she and the bridegroom had been getting up to over the past year. Well, she supposed they might not know, just suspect about their activities prior to their moving in together. But either way, white was hardly an appropriate color for her to be wearing to a traditional church wedding.
"Stop fidgeting." A much shorter bridesmaid appeared beside the woman erroneously dressed in white. She was the newest addition to their little team-family. Pride had brought her in from the ATF since she'd been looking for a change and Director Vance's recent edict was that there was far too much fraternizing happening between NCIS agents and romantically involved persons could not be partners in the field. They could still work in the same office, however. Agent Sonja Percy had instantly fit in, and been included in the wedding party. Her dress was lilac. And not very pretty. It seemed like ugly bridesmaids dresses were entirely unavoidable, no matter how hard they'd tried. "You look absolutely gorgeous, Brody, and you know it. So quit flaunting it in our faces."
Merri smoothed the dress over her front. Not that it needed smoothing. It sat perfectly on her figure, clung to it really. Well, she may be falsely wearing white, but at least there was something appropriately risqué about the cut of her dress. It was styled like a slinky vintage 1930s evening gown, with bare shoulders, crisscrossing pleats molding it to her chest and waist, accentuating the 'mature woman' curves of her body. So, she didn't entirely look like the naive young bride she most certainly was not.
"Aren't you supposed to be nice to a bride on her wedding day, Percy?" Merri turned to the younger woman, smiling at her in thanks for being her normal snarky self, a welcome distraction to the butterflies in the bride-to-be's stomach. If she wasn't careful, Merri might be making a trip to the bathroom to disgorge her breakfast.
"She is right, though," Loretta said, beaming at the two women. "You are a vision, Merri."
The older woman placed her hands on Merri's shoulders, and she obligingly leaned in, allowing her friend to air-kiss her cheeks. Didn't want to mess up her make-up this close to show-time, after all.
Sonja glared jealously at the coroner's attire. Somehow, Loretta Wade made her lilac gown look elegant and sophisticated. Merri hadn't wanted bridesmaids. Hadn't wanted a traditional church wedding. She would much rather be standing in front of a justice of the peace with their little NCIS family as witnesses. But it was a concession she'd made, not to Chris, but for Chris, for his family. In particular, for his mother. And she honestly didn't care how it was done. Only that it was done.
Okay, so she was sort of being eager to please Mrs. LaSalle. Not that the woman was difficult. She was a very kind, very effusive (it was apparent where Chris got it from) soul. Only, ever since she found out that Merri was an older woman, eight years older than her son, there was something different in the way she treated his fiancée. It wasn't purposeful or malicious, but Merri could tell she was disappointed. She had probably thought, had outright said it, that Merri looked maybe 35 at the oldest. Normally, it was a beneficial thing, a flattering one, possessing good genetics and health that made her look younger than she was. But, his mother must know as well as Merri did, that Chris wanted kids, as many of them as he could get. And being realistic, she could maybe give him two pregnancies, and they might be complicated as it were. And that was only if they started right away.
They'd discussed it, of course. Merri had never been opposed to having children in her life. Her lifestyle had just never seemed appropriate for having them, however. When she'd been engaged to James, children had been in their plans, as a far off in the future, several years down the road, sort of thought. But the reality of her biological clock now was that if they wanted children, she and Chris had to make a solid plan. He wanted to wait just a little while, to enjoy married life for a few months without the pressures of trying to get pregnant straining their marriage, or her being as sick as a dog with a pregnancy. She'd agreed, although they already knew how to live together peaceably... more than peaceably.
Unfortunately, she'd accidentally destroyed that plan. Just that morning she'd discovered what she'd unintentionally done, when she'd gone searching for their damn Wedding Binder with all of the involved parties' contact numbers (because why would she clog up her phone with the numbers of florists and caterers and the like?). Anyway, she'd found it alright, dislodging a large stack of wedding-related paperwork, and apparently buried in the midst of it, the refill of her birth control she'd forgotten about. With all of the wedding insanity, she'd forgotten it had run out. How stupid was that?! She marked it on the calendar, set a reminder on her phone. But of course, she hadn't dealt with it immediately and promptly it was pushed to the back of her mind and buried under a deluge. She'd tried to remember the last time she'd had her period, realized she was over a week late, checked when her birth control ran out, determined she could be up to three weeks pregnant, and promptly had a panic attack.
And just as promptly, stopped. If she was pregnant, it wasn't at all a bad thing. In all honesty, Merri more than a little suspected that Chris had insisted they wait a few months before they started trying, just to not seem eager, to not place pressure on her. He'd be absolutely giddy at the news of a possible pregnancy. And it occurred to her that it would be the perfect gift for her husband on their wedding night.
Merri caught herself, stopping her hand before she could caress her still flat-as-ever belly in a telling way as she studied herself in the full-length mirror. Not in front of Loretta and Sonja. And certainly not in front of the other bridesmaid, Chris' sister, Cassie. (Apparently Chris' mother had been an alliterative namer.) She would doubtlessly surmise the truth if Merri let any sign show. Cassandra Blake had two kids of her own. And the woman's dark blue eyes, so disconcertingly familiar to find in a face that didn't belong to Merri's lover, were far too clever by half as she assessed her sister-in-law-to-be's appearance.
Brandishing a bobby pin, Cassie reached up and caught a stray, disobedient curl pinning it to the side of Merri's head. She'd been growing her hair out, just for a change (not because Chris had said anything, but he did seem to like running his fingers through the longer locks quite a bit now that she had them). And Cassie had meticulously styled it up with little white silk roses for the wedding. When she had offered to do her hair and make-up for the wedding. Merri wasn't sure if her lover's older sister was just being courteous or if she actually wanted to. Chris had insisted to Merri when she ran it by him that his sister wouldn't have suggested it if she didn't want to do it, and so the bride had decided some bonding time with her soon-to-be-sister-in-law was probably a good idea.
Cassie stood back, giving Merri a complete once over.
"Perfect," she said with a smile. "Chris is lucky, Merri. You are as gorgeous as you are smart."
Merri blushed, squirmed. This was too much. She much preferred Sonja's snarky remarks, although hers had been back-handed compliments, too. Being the center of attention like this… Merri didn't especially like it. But she supposed it was her wedding day, so she'd better just suck it up and get used to being spoiled and fawned over. Yuck.
She'd already been taken through all of the traditions she didn't actually care about, Sonja being slightly on the superstitious side tracking down a charm that fulfilled all of the criteria of 'something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.' Actually, it had been sweet and perfect. It was the necklace she was wearing, the silver chain was old and borrowed (taken from a pendant necklace that Loretta's mother had left to her) and the teardrop sapphire was something new (a gift from Percy) and blue. Merri self-consciously touched it, not that it needed adjusting. It sat perfectly centered on her chest an inch below her collarbones and a couple inches above the neckline of her dress.
There was a rap on the door. And Chris' drawl came through, slightly muffled by the wood, asking to see Merri.
"Hold on," Sonja said, placing her petite body against the door. "Can't ya wait fifteen minutes and then you two will be hitched, and you'll be seein' her everyday for the rest of your lives."
Cassie joined the small, feisty bridesmaid at the door, grabbing the handle and further preventing it from being opened.
"Chris, you know you're not supposed to see her before the ceremony," his older sister scolded.
"I need ta speak ta her."
There was something, a slight urgency in her fiancé's tone that raised the hairs on the exposed back of Merri's neck. She rushed to the door, Sonja and Cassie parting to let her lean her forehead against the heavy wood. She would probably leave a foundation smudge on the white paint of the door, for she wasn't used to wearing so much make-up, even though it was tastefully done. But it was difficult to care, because there'd been an edge of distress to Chris' tone.
"What's wrong?" Merri asked.
"King's not here. And no one can get ahold of him. Not even Laurel."
Her stomach hollowed out, apparently trying to crawl out of her throat. She attempted to swallow down the lump that had lodged around her voice box.
"What were his plans? Has someone checked the office?" Loretta asked.
There was no way in hell Dwayne Pride would be late for his agents' wedding, that he wouldn't be there to stand up beside his surrogate son as he got married.
"He was supposed to meet us here over an hour ago. I can't imagine any banal reason for him to be late," Chris said. And Merri instantly took his meaning. He wasn't going to send a civilian to check on the man. Because something serious had to be wrong. An untrained person could be walking into trouble they couldn't handle.
"Agreed," Merri said, pushing a protesting Cassie aside with a quiet apology and opening the door. She took a breathless moment to admire her bridegroom. He was extremely smartly dressed in a three-piece black suit and a blue tie that brought out the sparkle in his eyes, a lilac boutonnière tucked into the buttonhole on his lapel. His suit was just fitted enough to be immensely flattering to his fit figure.
"You clean up nice," she commented.
Chris blinked. "So do you."
"Let's go find our missing Best Man," she said, taking his hand and tugging gently, snapping him out of the appreciative stare he'd been giving her white silk-clad body.
A/N: Couldn't help myself... Had to throw potentially Pregnant!Brody into the mix, while I was entertaining the romance tropes anyway. ;-)