Author's Note:This came to me after reading a few 'Don visits Peggy on her wedding day' fics. I've come to believe that if the series had continued, such a scene would have inevitably arisen. I've left it ambiguous as to whether it is a romance fic or not, take it how you'd like. This is a one-shot, so please enjoy!
Peggy carefully viewed herself in the full-length mirror, making sure the laces on the back of her wedding dress were perfectly spaced and even. Anita looked at her, glowing with a soft happiness.
"I always knew you'd find the perfect man." She gushed. Peggy smiled genuinely, her face flawless after Joan had applied her make up.
"Everything happens in God's time." She agreed. She looked at herself in the mirror again, hardly believing that it was actually happening. She was getting married to her best friend. It wasn't the rich executive with a house in the countryside that Joan had painted for her on the first day of her job, but it was even better than that. Being with Stan felt like being reunited with a little part of herself that she hadn't even known that she had lost.
"Have you two decided where you are going to honeymoon?" Anita asked.
"Stan really wants to go to California. I don't know if we will, but we'll see." Peggy replied. Anita tsked her.
"You shouldn't put off the honeymoon until later. You want your first time with Stan to be romantic and special, not just back at your apartment. You'll have all the time in the world there!" Peggy nodded guiltily. After giving her child up for adoption, she had promised her mother and sister that she wouldn't be intimate with a man again until she was married. So much for that.
Suddenly, their mother stormed in, a raging look on her face. "Peaches, the man that knocked you up is here, and he won't go away! I tried to tell him off, but he insisted I come here and ask you if you were willing to see him." Peggy blinked, and it took a moment for her to remember exactly who she was referring to.
"Don? Ma, how many times do I have to tell you, he didn't touch me. Of course I want to see him!" Her mother glowered and pursued her lips together unhappily, then spun on her heel to go and retrieve Peggy's guest.
"Anita, we'll need to be alone for a couple of minutes." The bride requested. Anita looked at her watch and tapped it.
"Alright, but make it quick. We still have to get your train on, and the wedding is starting in half an hour."
"Of course." As Anita left, Don came into the room, holding his hat in one hand, followed by her mother.
"Just holler when you're done with him, Peaches." She then made a not-so-discrete slashing motion at her throat and pointed to him, before leaving the two alone. Peggy looked at him for a moment, and felt like she might cry at the sight of him.
"Don!" She exclaimed happily, launching herself into his arms.
"Peggy." He replied warmly, wrapping his arms around her small frame in a tight squeeze. He held her for a bit longer than Peggy was used to, and she frowned as she broke the embrace.
"Are you OK?" She asked. Don looked up up and down, a far away look in his eyes.
"You look beautiful."
"You've been avoiding me, Don." Peggy noted, her ire beginning to rise. "You don't look at me in meetings, your secretary is the one who gives me your approvals, you never take my calls. Worst of all, you never even R.S.V.P'ed for the wedding. We're short a plate now." Don shook his head.
"I'm fine not having dinner." He looked around and brought a floral-patterned chair to Peggy. "Here. Sit." Peggy shook her head.
"I can't sit until after we get married. The dress might wrinkle." Don took his seat instead, and stared at Peggy with a concerned look, and she knew right away that he had something on his mind.
"Are you happy, Peggy?" He asked. She frowned, confused.
"Of course I am. I've never been happier." He nodded and looked down, tapping his foot anxiously.
"Are you sure you want this?"
"If I didn't want it, I wouldn't be here." Her frown deepened, unsure of what his angle was.
"You can still get out of it, you know." He said softly, and looked up, almost pleadingly. "Say the word and I will whisk you out of this church."
"Don," Peggy took a few steps towards him, and put her hand on his shoulder. He looked up into her confused blues eyes as she asked "What is wrong?" He sighed and looked down again, pressing his palm against the hand on his shoulder.
"I guess you help someone, and then their life gets better and they move on." He murmured somewhat bitterly.
"Don't you want them to move on?" He nodded.
" Of course I do. I just didn't realize it would be without me." He paused. "Is it selfish if I tell you that I don't want you to get married?"
"A little. Why not?" Peggy was bewildered. Don shifted in his seat, but grasped her hand harder.
"After Megan and I got divorced..." He chose his words carefully, and alternated his glances between Peggy and the walls of the dressing room. "I went though some hard times. Chased after the wrong women, did the wrong things. And while I was out in California, I realized that what I had been doing wasn't going to solve any of my problems. I also realized that you are really the only family I have. And despite all of the bullshit that has happened between us, at the end of the day, it would always be us, working together into the night in that sardine can at McCann's. And then when I came back, you spent more and more late evenings with Stan instead of me, and now you're getting married to him. You'll have someone to go home to, eat with, do things with. Eventually you'll have kids, and then you'll be gone. And I'll still be here, sitting in that office, making ads and dropping off at Chang's for dinner for one." He squeezed the hand on his shoulder and let it go. Peggy withdrew her hand, and looked at him, unsure of what to say. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish as she fought for the words.
"Don... I'm not going to leave you, or work. I mean, you got married twice and you never had to leave."
"It's different for women, Peggy. You know that. Mothers shouldn't work if they don't have to. Besides, you have someone to go home to. You were the person that I stayed at work for."
"Don." Peggy said with a stern, gentle tone. "I'm not going to forget about you. I could never forget about you. I wouldn't have any of this if you hadn't seen something in me, mentored me, been my champion." She crouched down in her dress, and his eyes finally rose to meet her gaze, his green eyes glossy and a small frown dotting his lips.
"Don't get married." He begged, taking her hand and kissing it reverently. Peggy suddenly felt trapped in her wedding gown and heals, her body heating up with frustration at her helplessness. It was unfair that he was here now, saying these things. It was unjust that on the happiest day of her life, her little storm cloud had to come in and rain on the event she had been looking forward to since she was a little girl. She wished she had the hard edge in her to tell him how selfish he was being, how unreasonable. But she couldn't help but try to console him, try to make him happy on the day where everyone else was supposed to cater to her.
"I can't spend the rest of my life staying until midnight to write copy with you. I have to move on Don. But I'll never leave you. You might have to call me once in a while, but just because I'm not in the office all the time doesn't mean that you have to forget about me either." Don had a haunted look on his face, but he attempted a small smile as he wiped at the corner of his eye.
"I know Peggy." He sighed. "I'm 46 years old, and I've never truly had a friend."
"I've always been your friend, Don. Even in the moments where I hated you, I would have dropped everything if you needed me."
"You've always been more than a friend." He stroked her fingers gently, inspecting her engagement ring with downtrodden eyes. "Are you sure you want this?"
A small part of Peggy was tempted to say no. She knew that, in his own way, Don was issuing her an ultimatum, and the same terrified part of her that hadn't slept until Don came back to New York wanted her to give in and sooth his angst. She couldn't imagine life without his moody outbursts, his brilliance, his harsh critiques, and most of all, his kindness. She felt like a baby bird, being pushed out of the comfort of her mother's nest into an endless sky.
"I do Don. I really do." His face went from pleading to an uneven frown, and he kissed her hand again. He finally grabbed his hat and rose from his chair, giving Peggy a hard, penetrating stare as a grim look of understanding and hurt played across his face. He took his hand and gently stroked one side of her face, careful not to smear her make-up, as Peggy looked back, breathless and terrified.
"I love you Peggy. I hope Stan knows how lucky he is." He turned and strode towards the door.
"Don," she called after him helplessly. "It doesn't have to be like this." He didn't turn, and he didn't falter as he walked out of the church entrance. Peggy looked after him, heartbroken as she blinked away the tears.
"Don..." Immediately Anita and her mother stepped back in, and began to fuss.
"Peaches, did he upset you? I knew I should have called the cops. The nerve of that man!"
"Mom, we don't have time for this. We need to get the veil on." Anita announced, and both women started rummaging for bobby pins as Peggy continued to stare at the door.
The wedding was a success. Peggy's hurt had turned into nervousness as she walked down the aisle, but once she looked into Stan's beaming face, she knew she had made the right decision. The reception was wonderful, the food was perfect, and the weather held out for everyone to dance long into the night. Everything had gone smoothly, as though God himself had guided the entire event along.
The next morning, Peggy and Stan went to open the wedding gifts. They came to an envelope, with 'Mr. And Mrs. Rizzo' scrawled elegantly in familiar ink, and Peggy's heart stopped.
"Open it!" Stan urged her. "At least we know it's not going to be another fondue pot!" She took the letter opener and cautiously opened the seal, wanting to preserve it as pristinely as possible. There was only one paper in the envelope, and Peggy gasped and covered her mouth as she took it out.
"Wow." Stan murmured, both of them looking at the cheque in a daze. "Thank you Don."
Bank of America
Amount: One hundred thousand dollars
To: Peggy Rizzo
Memo: For the house
Signed: Donald F. Draper
Don wasn't at work the next week, nor the week after that. Rumours flew abound about various the enforcement agencies he was running from, and why he was on the lamb. Peggy kept her head down and ignored them as she and Stan went house shopping. After a few months, it was apparent that Don was not coming back, and eventually they filled the position with an upbeat man with a penance for words like 'Synergy' and 'Paradigm'. A year later, Peggy became pregnant with their first child, and decided that she would rather spend her time with her son than return to work, and her career at McCann Erickson came to a halt.
She kept her eye out for Don at her going away party, but he didn't show. She looked for him when she went into Manhattan, when she bought groceries, when she was out for a stroll with Calvin, but he was never there, and she tried to accept that he never would be.
"He's OK Peggy." Stan said to her one night as they lay, spooning together in martial bliss. "He always comes out OK." Peggy sighed.
"I know." But every night she still looked out of her window, and mentally recited the prayer that was lodged in her memory.
I love you Don. Come home.