Prologue

"...I woke up on a boat in the middle of a scene of eighties extravagance and debauchery, with my eyelids so heavily caked in make-up I could barely force them open. I felt more lost, scared and alone than I ever had in my life and I ran... I ran and tried to find safety, and by chance I did, and it was you. Immediately you became my safety, my security and my strength. I fought it, and I fought you every step of the way. I fought against a world and a life that felt so strange and so crazy but all I was fighting in the end was my own happiness. And even when I admitted that - in you - I'd found everything I never knew that I was looking for it seemed as though I'd left it too late. We both had. So, I took a leap of faith... and I landed right there, in the life that has made burn with joy, with desire and with devotion ever since, with the man who has made me happy every single day. And for so long we thought the bubble could burst at any moment... we wasted years by waiting for the worst... and when we stopped waiting for it, the worst happened. But all it did was strengthen our bond. All it did was to show me once and for all that I belong with you. This is where I want to spend the rest of my life. With you, by your side. Although we have been through some very hard times nothing has ever been strong enough to pull us apart because the attraction between us is unbreakable. You have taught me so many things. Trust. Love. Passion. But most of all you've taught me that life can take you In the most unexpected directions. Sometimes you can't help which way you fall. I am eternally grateful that it was in your direction I fell."

Gene stared at Alex. He lifted his glass and took a mouthful of rough red wine.

"I'm still not writing me own bloody vows," he told her and Alex groaned, lowering her sheet of paper.

"You don't have to write something that long or sentimental," she told him, clambering onto the couch beside him.

"Just as well, I'd make meself vomit over the pulpit."

"There's not going to be a pulpit, we're marrying in the chapel," Alex reminded him

"I'm still not writing me own vows," Gene told her.

"Spoilsport," Alex pulled her legs up onto the couch and picked up her glass. "Even for nieteen ninety eight the traditional vows are outdated," she told him.

"Why?" Gene asked, scanning Alex's sheet of paper, "something in it about not mincing her man's sausage in a mangle?"

Alex rolled her eyes.

"You're not getting me to say obey for a start," she told him, "Love, honour and obey. That's the line."

"Love, honor, obey and bonk," Gene said, "there. Is that better?"

"The last one is something you won't be doing if you make me say the full traditional vow," Alex told him.

Gene pulled Alex closer and looked at her, slightly pie-eyed. There had been a lot of wine and scotch on the go that evening and his defences were uncharacteristically low.

"Come here, Bolly," he said.

Alex looked at him suspiciously.

"I'm not doing anything with chocolate body paint until you find a way to get the stains out the carpet from last time," she said.

Gene looked at Alex, really looked at her. It wasn't something he had the chance to do very much these days. Not like he did back before they were anything more than friends; when he used to watch her through his office door, when he would stare at her across the table over a bottle of red at Luigi's, as she sat by his side in the Quattro, then the Merc, then the Fiat... He remembered the days he'd spent examining every part of her body, every inch of her face, committing her expressions to memory. Not that he'd ever told her. Not that he ever would.

"You and me, Lady B," he said, "we've made it this far. We don't need a load of fancy words or a bloody volume of poetry to prove it. I'm not one for words unless they've got four letters and result in Shoebury leaving the room, pissed off and swearing under his breath. But you don't need me to tell you how I feel. Shouldn't do anyway. Nor should the stuffy idiots in suits lines up to watch me slip a ring on that finger of yours."

Alex looked at Gene for a very long time. She stared right into his eyes, so familiar, the blue she knew so well. There was a strange smile on her face, so tiny and slight but there none the less. Gene wondered what that was in aid of and she had been quiet for so long that he was almost too afraid to ask but she finally spoke up.

"Then that's what you need to say," she told him. He looked at her blankly. "Your vows," Alex brought the glass to her lips which were as red as the liquid she sipped as she told him, "that's what you need to say. That we don't need the words. Because you are right, Gene," her smile grew a little stronger, "I do know."

Gene stared back, nodding slowly. He considered what she'd said for a moment as he drank the rest of his wine and sat down his glass. He picked up Alex's vows again and indicated a little doodle in the corner of the sheet.

"I see you took the time to illustrate yours," He pointed out.

"Well, not so much for the vows," Alex felt herself turning pink, "that's more an illustration to show what comes afterwards."

Gene raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe yer time with the Gene Genie is paying off after all," he said. He saw Alex looking a little coy as she gave an innocent shrug and drank a lot of wine. "These wedding things," he began, "aren't we supposed to rehearse or something?"

"Rehearsal dinner," Alex told him, "I think it's more, of an American thing."

"Shame," Gene told her, "I was hoping we could get in a bit of practice for the honeymoon."

Alex raised her eyebrow, downed her wine and replaced her glass.

"Well," she began slowly, "I think, considering the fact that we'll only get one honeymoon and need to do it right, a good night of practice is in order." she got to her feet and widened her eyes. "No time like the present," she told him.

As he saw her heading towards the bedroom Gene couldn't help but agree.

~xXx~

A/N: Finally after 2 and a half years of engagement and god knows how many stories Alex and Gene's nuptials are approaching! This story will be more light-hearted for a bit of comic relief after the last dark tale. This fic will also be updated on a far more relaxed schedule than the last *breathes a sigh of relief*

Thanks again to Jess for helping me pick a title for this fic from my shortlist, and thank you to all of you who have followed the series this far! Do you really need the disclaimer by now? I don't own A2A, never have and never will, and if anyone tries to suggest otherwise Simon will chase them with his crappy jumper :P