AUTHOR: Goddess Isa
EMAIL: goddessisa@aol.com
SUMMARY: Xander & Willow on their wedding day - set several years in the future - Buffy and Angel are married with two kids (they WILL be happy in fanfic land if no where else) - in Xander's POV
SPOILER: more or less Revelations, Beauty And The Beast and Lover's Walk
DISTRIBUTION: Sure, just email me & lmk where it's going - I like seeing my name in print =)
FEEDBACK: Please, I'd hate to have to Slay for it. =P
RATING: TV-14
DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters, Joss Whedon does. If he ever decides to give them to me, that would be nice. =)
May 13th, 2005
3:00 am.
"Hello?"
"Were you asleep?" Willow's voice whispered. "I couldn't sleep."
"Me neither. I'm just sitting here, doodling."
"You do that a lot lately."
"Nothing better to do. I got so accustomed to Slaying every night that now that we don't have to, I just lie around and doodle. When we're not together." I added quickly.
"I can't wait," she says in a dreamy voice. "I still can't believe we missed the end of the movie."
"Me neither, but there was no way Buffy and Angel were going to risk messing up our wedding."
"They're so superstitious."
"Hey. All this old fashioned mumbo jumbo was your idea." It was. When we picked the date of our wedding, Willow and I swore we wouldn't see each other on the day of the ceremony until the actual ceremony.
"Fair enough." I can hear the smile in her voice. "We'll go see it again when we get back from the honeymoon, right?"
"Oh yeah. Gotta see how it ends."
*****
11:00am
"Is this a record?" Willow asked. We were still on the phone, but we were finally getting off so we could get ready to leave for the chapel. "Our longest phone conversation ever?"
"If not the longest, darn close. 'Member when you had the chicken pox and we had to watch the Woody Woodpecker marathon at our own houses?"
She laughed. "Yeah. You tried to do the laugh but never could get it."
"Maybe we should rent some of the cartoons and practice."
"I'd like that."
"Willow!" I heard in the background. "Are you still asleep?"
"I have to go," she whispered. "My mom knows I'm up now."
"I'll see you at the chapel."
"Four o'clock." she promises. "I love you."
"Love you too."
*****
2:31pm
I enter the chapel loudly humming the theme song to the Andy Griffith show. I figure I've been sitting in my car long enough now, I probably have BO among other things. I hear a door slam.
"Xander? That you?" Willow asked in a rushed tone.
"Willow! What are you doing here?"
"My mom split her nylons and broke a heel, so I asked her and my dad to drop me off before running to the mall. I've been here since one-thirty."
"Me too, just about. I sat in my car, just thinking."
"Sit against the door," she says softly. I do as she asks, and then it's almost as though we're sitting together, 'cept for the wood between us of course. "I can't believe today is here. I feel like I've waited all my life for this. You know, when you think about it, I have waited my whole life for this."
"Are you nervous?" I ask. To be honest, I'm afraid to hear her answer. Willow and fear have never mixed well, and nothing can go wrong today. It can't. It just can't. Now that I think about what she's like when she's nervous, I'm reminded of so many things from high school. Our first day as seniors, when she panicked about eating lunch off campus, and the night we got ready for the Homecoming dance and we kissed. That kiss had been so sweet, so filled with passion and yet so innocent.
She's quiet, never a good sign with girls. "Will?" I whisper.
She sighs, and I relax only a little. "I'm very nervous," she admits.
I feel my entire body tense and my heart stop beating. I know it's normal to have cold feet, but I'm scared this is more than that. After all, Hellmouth or not, Sunnydale is still Sunnydale.
"It's my wedding Xander." she goes on. "It's the most important day of my life. I've dreamed of this, of marrying you, since I was five years old. But that was just make believe, and it gets harder as you get older. When you get right down to it, I'm scared to death."
She pauses for what I can only hope was a deep breath. "I'm scared to death that something will go wrong."
If I could've, I would've given her a sweet kiss on the lips. Or at least taken her into my arms and held her. "Nothing will go wrong Will." I heard a strange, loud noise. "What was that?"
"I threw my hairbrush across the room and it hit the wall. I hope no one notices the mark it made."
I had to laugh at her. "Willow?"
"Xander."
"Our wedding will be perfect, I promise."
"I wish I could see you."
"Me too, but--"
"Hellmouth." we said in unison. She managed to laugh. "I love you."
I touch the door, since it's the closest I can come to touching her. "I love you too."
"Three more hours."
"Three more hours." We continued to sit there until our attendants arrived and shooed us "apart".
*****
5:04pm
The tiny chapel had become a picturesque room full of candles and flowers. The minister and rabbi had both arrived and were standing at the alter, fighting over how to perform the service.
Angel came up beside me. "You nervous?"
I shrugged. "Were you nervous when you married Buffy?"
"Not at all."
"Bad example," I muttered.
He glanced at his watch. "Giles is late. He's never late."
"First time for everything," I remind him. "You know all about that, don't ya? First Vampire with a soul, first Vampire to marry a Slayer, first Vamp to be a dad--"
Angel looked like he was ready to give me two black eyes for my wedding day. Thankfully for my health, Giles jr. picked that moment to run down the aisle to his father. Angel scooped him up and softly spoke to him. The toddler nodded and ran back down the aisle just as his grandparents arrived. "I'll go tell Buffy they're here." I said and started to take off, but Angel grabbed me by the collar of my tux. "Ow!"
"I'll go. You stay here."
I made a face and watched him go. Joyce smiled at me before sitting down with Giles behind Willow's mother and grandparents. Angel came back a moment later, a panicked look on his face
"Don't tell me she chickened out." I was trying to be funny but there was no humorous tone to my voice.
"You gotta get back there. Right now."
"Why?"
"Cordelia."
*****
5:12pm
I found Buffy using all her Slayer strength to hold Cordelia back from barging into Willow's dressing room. Faith was in a corner, holding Amy back.
I pointed at the Slayer and the Witch. "What's that about?" I asked Angel.
"She won't let turn her into a rat!" Amy said loudly.
"Shhh," Angel hushed. "Not everyone knows how strange we all are. We'd like to keep it that way."
He was ignored. Faith grinned at him as Amy yelled loudly. She clamped a hand over her mouth. "I know this doesn't do anything to help the spells, I just like muffling her." Amy bit her finger. Faith pulled it away but didn't let go of her arm. "Ow! Shit Amy, what'd you do, give yourself fangs?"
"You'd be anemic if I could." she remarked.
"She needs her hands to cast her spells and call on Hecate." Faith explained. "We're five by five over here."
"You'll be a rat as soon as this wedding is over," Amy muttered. "Or maybe a chameleon."
I turned my attention to the crazy brunette who was trying to kick the dressing room door down now.
"Xander, tell her!" Cordy yelled. "Tell her to let me in there!"
"Why do you need to go in there?" I did my best to remain calm. That's supposedly what's best with someone who's losing their mind.
"So I can keep her from marrying you! Then we can be together! Dammit, Buffy, let go! You're hurting me."
"You're only hurting yourself," Buffy muttered.
I could tell she tightened the grip. Slayers. "Cordy, try and calm down." I touched her arm softly.
"No! You can't marry her. You can't! I won't allow it."
Buffy shot me a 'what-do-I-do?' look.
I glanced at Angel, who shook his head.
"Oh, please let me hush her up," Amy begged. "Just for the ceremony. I could make her mute. She won't be hurt, she'll just be mute. Or I could give her a vallium!"
I glanced at Angel again, who still shook his head. Damn. That would've been fun.
"Marry me!" Cordy yelled. "Marry me Xander! We'll be happy. I promise you."
I was so thankful that Amy and Willow had tried to make the chapel soundproof a few days ago. Granted, it was possible that all it did was muffle the sounds, but the less the crowd heard, the better. My mother would never understand why I was marrying a Witch.
"It's five-thirty," Buffy whispered.
"Faith, let her go."
"Shit," she muttered, but she let her go.
"Thank you!" Amy, after shaking her arms out a bit and taking a few deep breaths, moved towards Cordelia and pointed her hands at her. She began some sort of spell, and after a moment, Cordy went slightly limp in Buffy's arms and when she opened her mouth, no words would come out. Buffy sat her in a chair and she and Faith used scarves to tie her to it. Cordy noticed a picture on the wall and began trying to look through it, or at least that's how it appeared to us.
"That'll teach you to be so indignant," I muttered as I walked past her. I knocked on Willow's door. "Sweetheart? It's me. Everything's all right."
"Where's Cordelia?"
I glanced at her. "Mute, tied to a chair, starting at a picture of the Virgin Mary and pointing with her thumbs."
She laughed. "Tell Buffy to come in. And Amy. Angel, take Xander out of her so he doesn't see me."
"No prob," Angel reached for my collar again but I started towards the door on my own. "I love you."
"Love you too. Go!"
*****
5:54pm
Still on time.
Buffy's little sister Amanda and daughter Kaylin came down with Giles jr. as the flower girls and ring bearer, then Faith came down on her own. I had to laugh at her. Even in the expensive green velvet gown she wore, and the flowers in her hair, she was still Faith. She wore the massive makeup, earrings that looked like spikes and she walked just like a Slayer. Fast and furious.
Amy came out next. She walked slower than Faith did and I could see the wheels turning in her head as to how to handle Cordelia after we were gone. I felt so bad for Cordelia. She truly had gone crazy on all of us, and even though Drusilla was responsible, I still felt guilty.
Buffy came out then, without an escort since Angel was standing next to me at the alter. Despite Giles jr. yelling "Hi Mommy!" and my mother trying to hide the fact that she was smoking, the wedding was so far, so good.
Then she came out.
Willow looked....elegant is the only word for it. Her white dress cascaded around her as she walked, and her smile grew the closer she got to me. I beamed right back at her and was very proud when Ira Rosenberg passed me the hand of his only daughter.
The minister and rabbi began, fighting over every word or verse. I ignored them, watched Willow and repeated what my heart told me. The next thing I knew, we were kissing as husband and wife. We changed and left the chapel quickly. Willow had been right to plan a wedding photo shoot for when we returned from Florida, because all I wanted right at that moment was to be alone with her.
On the plane ride, she kept looking at her finger, at her ring.
I nudged her. "You okay?"
"Yeah. I can't believe we're married."
"I can't believe my father didn't ruin the ceremony."
"Your parents seemed very happy for us." she said sincerely.
"I believe that they were, but the reality that their little boy is moving to Palo Alto hasn't hit them yet."
She put her arm around mine. "Relax, they'll adjust. Besides, it's not that far from Sunnydale."
"You sure, Dr. Rosenberg-Harris?"
"I'm not a doctor yet," she reminded me. "Two more years."
"I'm glad we got married before your hospital rotation."
"Me too. Oh God, I doubt we'll have two minutes together a day come September."
"We'll work it out. If I'm out of work, I can always get a job in the hospital nursery."
"You're not going to be without a job. The youth center director loves you."
"I don't know. If they find out I'm on my honeymoon instead of with the Peace Corps in Nigeria, I'm screwed."
"You're too much." she shook her head and laughed.
"Attention passengers." a voice came over the loudspeaker. "We will be landing in Orlando ahead of schedule in about thirteen minutes."
"We're almost here," she said excitedly.
"Last chance to join the mile-high club." I joked.
She hit me playfully and picked up a magazine.
Hey, can't blame a guy for trying.