A/N: Dum-dum-da-dum, dum-dum-da-dum, dum-dum-da-dum-da-da-dum-da-dum. Welcome to the wedding of Angela and Hodgins! Bride's side or groom's?
"I need to borrow your kid."
"Excuse me?"
"Parker. I need to borrow him."
"Ange, Parker isn't really mine to loan out."
"Whatever, Brennan. I am in a serious bind here."
"Did you talk to Booth?"
"Noooooo, I haven't seen Booth. I am here. With you. Now are you going to loan me your kid or not?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's going on? And why are we renting Parker out?" Booth swooped into his fiancée's office and stood between her and her best friend.
Angela sighed dramatically. "The little boy I nannied for a few summers ago? Tyler? He's got the chicken pox, so he can't be our ring bearer for the wedding. I NEED A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD. YOU GUYS HAVE ONE. GIVE HIM TO ME."
"Okay, bridezilla. Relax. I will ask Park if he wants to do a big big favor for his favorite Angela in the whole wide world. But if he says no, will it be okay? Or are we going to need to have you committed?" Booth teased.
Angela sighed again, this time a little less dramatically, a little more relieved. "Thank you. Yes, I will be fine. But it is really important to me that this be perfect and there not be any drama like with the last one."
"Ange I highly doubt not having a ring bearer is comparable to--" Brennan began but Booth interrupted before she could send Angela back into hysterics.
"I know. It'll be okay. I'm sure Parker will be fine with it once we explain how important it is to you. And swear to him that he can put his jeans on immediately following the ceremony."
"Of course!" Ange promised. "Tell him there's a corner piece of cake with as much frosting as he can handle with his name on it if he'll help me out."
"We'll be sure to mention that. Sugar is always a good bribe with Parker," Booth winked.
"Whew. I feel better already," Angela smiled brightly, Bridezilla gone and the fun-loving artist they knew returning in her place. At least temporarily. "So." Her grin brightened. "You two set a date yet?"
--
Booth had known Angela Montenegro for a good few years now, and it was safe to say that she was one of the sweetest, most laid-back people he ever met. It concerned him that the mere thought of a missing wedding attendant got her high-strung enough to potentially be brought up on kidnapping charges. It was a little bit of relief to escape the aura of panicked wedding-ness that she was exuding.
So he thought.
"Hey, man," he greeted his favorite bug and slime guy, who was hunched over his computer in his office. "You might want to check on your fiancée at some point. She might need some treatment for wedding fever."
The blue eyes that looked up at him wildly when Hodgins' chair spun around almost made him take a step backward. "Well, yeah, dude. This thing is two weeks away. You know how much we have to do in two weeks?"
"Well, I…" Booth was about to point out that he never in his life quite got that far in preparing for a wedding, but he wasn't allowed to continue in that train of thought.
"You have your tux yet?"
"It's at the shop. I just need to pick it up."
"So you haven't tried it on?"
"Well, no, but I gave them the right measurements and…"
"Booth! Dude! You know how much Angie will flip out if we get the pictures back, and your socks are showing because your pants are too short?"
"I wear great socks," he retorted, offended.
"Don't care. I don't want to have to photoshop pants on you."
He frowned. "Fine. I'll go try it on right after work today, okay?" End of discussion. "Hey, did you see the Phils game last night? That double-play? Was classic Thome."
"No," Jack replied distractedly, turning back to his monitor. "We had to get a few things together…do you have everything ready for the party?"
"The bachelor party? Sure. The private room at the Rathskellar, just like you wanted."
"I need you to make sure Jersits doesn't get trashed, okay? In college, it was entertaining watching him stumble around in the morning with his eyes looking like Bloody Mary's. Not so much at my wedding."
"I'm on drunk patrol, now? That doesn't sound like much fun," he said indignantly.
Hodgins swiveled around. "You know what's not fun? Having to hear for the rest of my life about how much my drunkard friend ruined our 8,000 dollar wedding photos by puking on his own tux."
Booth grimaced. "Okay, okay. I'll talk to him." He was starting to regret coming in here to talk to Jack. "So this stuff's pretty hardcore, huh?"
His friend laughed, an octave higher than usual. "You'll see, man. You'll see," he said ominously.
"Yeah, whatever," he said impatiently, now anxious just to get out of here. There was no way his wedding was going to cause this much commotion. Bones didn't get all worked up over big events like this. Although, he remembered a certain Father's Day barbeque not so long ago where Bones wasn't quite the cool, collected woman he was used to…He shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I think I'll leave you to…whatever you are doing."
"'Kay. I'm mapping out the radar for the big day," Jack said, turning to the multi-colored blobs on his computer screen. "So far, 20 percent chance of rain."
"That's good, right?"
"Did you hear what they are talking about doing for the Olympics? Shooting dry ice right up into the sky. No rain, perfect gaming weather."
Booth paused. "You wouldn't really…"
"It's our BIG DAY," Jack said, as if it explained everything.
"Ooooookay." Booth back out of the office. "See ya."
A glance over near Bones' office evidenced Angela thrusting fabric swatches at his own bride-to-be, while she looked on doubtfully. He made a beeline for the exit.
Weddings made people weird.
--
After they'd assured Angela they fully intended on getting married the twenty-fifth of October, Booth had left Brennan alone with Bridezilla. She wasn't a hundred percent sure what that meant, but she had some recollection of Russ making her then 9-year-old self watch a movie about a monster who was supposed to be a cross between a whale and a gorilla taking out Tokyo. She had a feeling the moniker was derivative of the monster.
"Bren, are you even listening to me?"
"Yes. Of course. Satin. Taffeta. The merits of each. Please, continue."
"I asked you if you wanted to go with Custom Cakes and Confections or Creative Cakes for the cake."
"Oh. Right. Um, Creative. I ordered it this morning, actually. Four layers, two chocolate, two vanilla. Raspberry filling. Booth's cake is going to be carrot."
"Brennan. Groom's cake is supposed to be chocolate with chocolate frosting."
Brennan shrugged. When the hell had Angela become such a stodgy traditionalist? "Booth likes carrot. It's his favorite."
"You know, you're being very nonchalant about this, Brennan."
"I'm sorry, Angela, it just doesn't seem like anything to get worked up about. I made a list of everything I needed to do, and I'm doing it. What's the big deal?"
"Let me get this straight. A month ago, you were freaking out about throwing the perfect barbeque to show your fiancé you thought he was the father of the year, but now, planning your wedding, the single most important day of your life, you're having a carrot groom's cake?"
Good-bye, Ange. Welcome back, Bridezilla.
"Ange, look." Brennan put down the file she'd been going over and rounded her desk to sit next to Angela on the couch. "Booth and I have talked about it. And we both know that we're going to hit roadblocks. And that it might not be easy to get around them. With wedding planning and marriage. But all that matters is that I'm marrying an incredible man, and that even if we aren't perfect, we complement each other perfectly." She shrugged and smiled.
"Okay Captain Sappy. Where'd you come from and what did you do with my best friend?"
Brennan sighed and flopped against the back of the couch. Sometimes trying to reason with Angela made her want to scream. "Do you love Jack?" she asked, almost more as a statement than a question.
"Yes."
"Do you want to spend the rest of your life with him?"
"Yes."
"Then isn't it more about the marriage than the wedding? Do you think at your fiftieth anniversary party people are going to say 'oh that was a lovely ceremony, but do you remember how they had carrot instead of chocolate for the groom's cake? I mean really.'"
Angela was biting her lip to keep from smiling, but apparently couldn't hold back her laughter anymore as she burst into a fit of giggles.
Brennan gave her friend's hand a gentle squeeze. "But I'll still talk to Parker for you."
Angela's smile brightened. "Thanks, Bren."
"You're welcome. Anything else I can do?"
"Did you get your bridesmaid dress?"
"Altered and hanging in my closet."
"The flowers?"
"Will be delivered Saturday morning."
"And the table decorations for the reception?"
"Sitting in boxes in my living room. Oh, but those glass bowls haven't gotten here yet. I called this morning and apparently they shipped this morning."
Angela nodded. "Okay. Okay, I think we can do this. I think I'm ready to get--"
Brennan interrupted. "To have a wedding. You've been ready to marry Jack for a long time now."
"Have I ever told you you put the best in best friend?"
Brennan grinned. "Okay, Captain Sappy."
--