A/N: Just a little idea that popped into my head whilst listening to Taylor Swift's "Speak Now," slightly different take on how it's been used in the past. It also ended up being loosely based on a scene in Suddenly 30. I was originally tossing around the idea in relation to Bones but then thought it might work better here :) Hope you think so too! :)
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
~*~
I'll meet you when
I'm out of my tux at the back door
Baby, I didn't say my vows
So glad you were around when they said
"Speak now"
-"Speak Now," Taylor Swift
~*~
Speak Now
Everything was perfect: fantastic weather, the bride was beautiful and the groom was handsome, but one thing was missing.
Amongst all the guests there was a conspicuous absence and only the groom knew why she wasn't there: he had told her not to come.
Oh, not as straightforward as that but when he had told he would be proposing to the beautiful woman who stood beside him she had asked him not to do it. She had told him that she loved him, that she had always loved him she was just too scared and too stupid to realise it.
She had told him that she knew she had the worst timing in the world but if she didn't tell him now she might never get another chance.
Then he – how could he have done it? – had looked her in the eye and told her that if she couldn't be happy for them, then she shouldn't come to the wedding.
The hurt in her eyes had cut him to the quick, but he had waited too long for her: he had moved on. He couldn't just turn his back on the life he had built with another woman because she had decided she was ready.
No matter how much it cost him to do so.
He shook himself from these thoughts as he was called upon to begin saying his vows, but the next three words he spoke changed everything: "…take thee Kathryn…"
The silence in the room was deafening as he stared at his bride in horror at his mistake: it was all wrong, that was the wrong name. But as he regarded the woman in front of him it began to dawn on him that it wasn't the wrong name, it was the wrong woman.
Chakotay was well aware that there were many people who considered him slow, and maybe he was, but once he made up his mind he acted quickly. He decided there was only one thing left to do: run.
So he did.
He ran passed all the shocked guests – although not all of them looked shocked, some looked relieved or even slightly smug – and out of the church. He had only one goal in mind: he had to find Kathryn, he had to fix this.
…
To say that Kathryn was surprised to find him on the other side of her door in a tux and evidently out of breath would have been an understatement. But that was nothing compared to the surprise she felt when he summoned up the necessary air to say four simple words: "I didn't say yes."