First of all, I want to thank you for your thoughts and prayers after the last time I posted back in February (I think it was the last time). I went ahead and found a job, and have just been actively trying not to fall into depression. We are homeschooling our oldest this year, on top of both of us working full time and me being a full time student so we're just having fun trying to figure it all out. I haven't written anything except for school essays since the last time I posted here. This one has been knocking around in my head for awhile though. It's a little AU and set in the future.
Ten Years Into The Future
I always knew that given even the tiniest chink in her armor he would be able to coax her into marriage. I knew she was against it, not because she didn't believe in the concept, but because she was scared thanks to her no good first husband. I knew that no matter what I did, I was always her second choice, and it would never be my hand she took in hers up there in front of Father Gazzoli.
After all, we had never managed to make it work despite nearly five years of trying. I didn't know why she had picked now, all of a sudden, to decide that this was the route to take, but I was there with her. I was her best friend, after all.
It still hurt that she was going to marry him today, though.
I knew Stephanie Plum was the woman for me from the day that I reconnected with her in my thirties. Despite how crazy she could be, her wildly dangerous job that was actually good at no matter how often I put her down in a misguided attempt to express my fears, despite all the times we broke up and got back together, I knew that I would never meet a woman who meant so much to me.
I knocked on the door to the bridal suite just a few moments before the ceremony. There was a muffled response inviting me in from within those doors, and I steeled myself to keep my good friend face on. I didn't want her to feel guilty that I was still alone, no matter what she knew in her subconscious and no matter what we shared.
When I walked in my breath left my body in a whoosh. I had never seen anyone as beautiful as her, whether they be in their twenties, their thirties, or like we were now, their forties. She had on a flowing cream colored dress with some intricate lace details that looked like it had to be handcrafted, and a long veil with her wild hair half up in some fancy updo. She had little black converse on her feet; she was wearing nearly a year of my salary in jewels between her ring, earrings and necklace. Standing next to her was one of the lights of my life, the only reason we had made it to five years together.
Our daughter. Conceived during a lapse of birth control the first time we slept together, and raised part by me and part by him. Annabella loved us both, just like her mother, but at the end of the day there was a hero worship in her eyes for me, not him – or there used to be, before the teenage years hit hard. She was amazing.
Standing off to the side was the daughter that Stephanie shared with him – just as beautiful as the daughter, Julie, he had had in his early twenties with a stranger, that Stephanie had rescued and now loves as her own. She was here too, next to her half-sister, Gabriella. They had one other child together – a boy named Sebastian – and what was incredible to me is that I knew that not one of the collective 4 children were planned. Not one.
"You look beautiful, Steph," I told her.
"Thanks for doing this, Joe, I can't express how much I appreciate it," she replied.
Because yes, I was walking the love of my life down the aisle, to the man who was the love of her life in just a few moments.
I knew his groomsmen were ready – his friend Pierre, better known as Tank, and Sebastian were standing up with him, leaving Stephanie with a slightly odder number of attendants on her side between Julie, Annabella, and Gabriella. Julie had offered to sit out, but Stephanie wouldn't hear of it. Besides, Stephanie didn't do anything within convention anyway.
We got the girls all lined up, with Annabella giving me a kiss on my cheek, and a squeeze of the hand, and then the girls walked down the aisle ahead of us. I held my arm out for Stephanie, who was truly radiant and still at forty-six nearly vibrating with the anticipation of wedding the love of her life. She hooked her hand in the crook of my arm, and smiled up at me, and I felt my heart crack just a bit further.
I walked her down the aisle and handed her to the man who she was destined to spend her life with, and then I sat down on the brides side while his whole family sent me little looks of varying degrees of pity and confusion. After all, why was I here?
I stayed for the ceremony, and once it was over I sent Annabella a text that told her I was going to go home to change because I caught a case. I didn't want to stick around for the reception, and I knew that if I showed up at the precinct, there would be a case waiting for me – I was just off today with approval from the mayor so they wouldn't call me in.
Instead, I went home and changed out of my suit and tie, and then I just laid on my bed in my quiet, empty house.
I would always love Stephanie Plum.
And I'd always be grateful he gave her everything I never could.