I hope you all enjoy this thought that wouldn't get out of my head until I wrote it down. I love these two together and only wish this was real life.
Enjoy!
Lucy sat in her dressing room, looking at herself in the mirror, still in shock that the day she had been waiting for for seven years was finally here.
Today was the first of two days of shooting for Aria and Ezra's wedding.
As she looked down at the amazing dress that had been picked out for her, and back up in the mirror with her hair and makeup all fully done, she couldn't help but smile but also be sad at the same time.
This has been such a long time coming and their characters had gone through so much to get to this point but also, so have they. They were now less than a week away from Pretty Little Liars being done forever and no one was quite ready for it.
Lucy was brought out of her thoughts by a knock on her door. She said come in and Marlene walked through the door. She stood silent for a moment as she just looked at her, a slight tear falling down her cheek.
"Now why in the heck are you crying?" Lucy said with a smile and a laugh.
"Even though this was always the plan for Aria and Ezra, a part of me always wondered if we would ever get here."
"You're telling me?!" Lucy got up and moved around the chair and walked towards Marlene. "You've kept me waiting way too long for this."
"You look incredible Lucy. Ian is going freak out when he sees you."
"Damn right he is."
Everyone had wanted Ian, as Ezra, to have a raw reaction to seeing Lucy all done up in her wedding dress for the first time when they filmed her walking down the aisle, so the dress had been kept under wraps and they hadn't been allowed to see each other all day, which for the two best friends and basically inseparable pair, was proving to be difficult. The girls, Chad and Holly, had seen her already since they had filmed the scenes together earlier in the day and Ian had been badgering them for hints all morning.
"It should only be a few more minutes before we bring you down to set. Everyone is almost ready."
"Awesome. Thanks Marlene."
"See you down there Luce."
Marlene left the room as Lucy's assistant and best friend Carrie walked in, along with the head of the wardrobe department Mandi.
"Each time I see you in that, I am at a loss for words." Mandi says.
"Well it's all your handy work."
The dress was similar to the dress that Aria had picked out when her and Ezra had planned to elope earlier in season 7 but a bit more fancy. The top was a strapless sweetheart neckline with beaded lace, a beaded belt and then a big full skirt. The only thing Ian knew about the dress was that it was full, given that they had to practice dancing for the reception scenes that they would be filming tomorrow. He couldn't help but laugh when Lucy walked into rehearsal with a huge hoop skirt.
She had her hair pulled up into a loose, but formal, updo with a veil pinned to the back and the only jewelry was the earrings Ezra had given Aria in season 5 and the engagement ring.
"You ready to shoot this thing?" Carrie asked.
"I've been ready for seven years." Lucy said as she picked up the front of the skirt and walked out the door with Carrie and Mandi holding up the back of the dress.
"You and everyone else. People down there are already crying, you would think you two were actually getting married." Mandi mentioned.
Lucy just responded with a small smile.
While she was super excited to film this wedding, a part of her was sad that her and Ian would never get to have the dream day they had talked about once upon a time.
Very few people knew that Ian and Lucy had dated from the end of season 1 until the beginning of season 4. Once they started filming the fourth season, just as their characters started to drift apart, so did they. They stopped talking and hanging out and only really saw each other on set for their scenes together. The split had been amicable, they both knew they basically had another two years together and they didn't want it to be weird.
They went back to being friends, of course having that awkward phase of trying to figure out if it was even going to be possible and by the end of season seven, it was almost as if nothing had happened and they were best friends again. Still, Lucy couldn't help but remember the nights where they would lay in bed after a long night of filming and talk about the life they wanted to build together after Pretty Little Liars ended.
They had talked a little about how they were going to get through these next fews days and decided that this wasn't about them. It was about the love that Aria and Ezra shared and how much they really had gone through to get to that moment. They would put their emotions aside and do this for the characters who had done so much for them.
As Lucy made her way through the stage, heading towards the set where the inside of the church was, she could hear the murmuring of hundreds of voices. This is one of the biggest scenes the show had ever filmed, with almost every character present and many of the crew and creative team being added in as extras.
The first scene they were shooting was her walking down the aisle with the main camera on Ian to get his reaction and then she would do it over and over as different cameras got the shot from different angles and then they would set up for the vows and the rest of the ceremony. Tomorrow, the entire day would be spent filming the reception and smaller scenes with just her and Ian.
Chad Lowe, who played her dad, was waiting at the back of the church set, ready to walk her down the aisle. He was one of the few people who had seen her since they filmed Aria and Byron having a heart to heart earlier in the morning.
"You look beautiful Lucy." He said to her as she walked up.
"Thanks dadio." He laughed at the nickname he has had for the last seven seasons. The two shared a smile as the cameras got set around them and hair and makeup did some last minute touch ups.
Lucy heard Marlene addressing everyone in the other room and then things got quiet. Someone handed her her bouquet and her and Chad got in place behind the doors.
"Ian you ready?" Lucy heard Marlene ask.
"You have no idea." Lucy smiled as the room laughed.
"Ready Lucy?"
"Yep."
"Alrighty…. Marker….. ACTION."
"Ready Aria." Chad asked her.
Lucy looked over at him. "More than you know." The two shared a smile and then the doors opened and everyone in the room stood and gasped at how beautiful she looked and tears all around the room started to fall but Lucy barely noticed any of it, her eyes were fixed on Ian.
The tears almost came instantly for the both of them.
Ian looked incredible. Very few times over the course of the series had Lucy seen him as Ezra all done up. Ian of course always dressed up for appearances and award shows but Ezra had a different style and there was something about how he looked today, all dressed up for the wedding, that took her breath away and made her knees weak more than ever before, especially when he flashed that smile at her.
Ian's breath was taken away at how amazing she looked. The waiting all day had been worth it and he could only imagine the shots they were getting right now. He cheeks hurt from how big of a smile he had on his face but was still wiping tears from his eyes. They had been waiting so long and now the moment was finally here. The entire time Lucy was walking down the aisle, neither of them looked away from another. By the time she reached the end and Chad handed her off, she couldn't wipe the smile off her face. All of her earlier reservations were gone and she was very much in the moment.
"Cut!" Marlene yelled from behind the camera. "Guys that was incredible. This time Lucy we are going to have the cameras craned more on you so bring the same emotion. It really was awesome you guys. Alright everyone, reset."
"I gotta say goose, you are the most beautiful bride I have ever seen."
"Well you don't look so bad yourself Mr. Fitz"
Lucy and Ian shared a smile before Lucy made her way back down the aisle to the back of the set.
Once they were back behind the doors, makeup came over to touch her up and get rid of the tear stains. Carrie came over while they were working on her, noticing the smile was gone and was replaced with a face that was worried.
"Hey you okay?" Carrie was one of her best friends and could tell when something was bothering her.
"Yea. I knew this was going to be hard but this, it's-."
"Do you need a minute?"
"No no, i'm good."
"Okay, let me know if you need a minute."
"I will."
They finished up and then proceed to reshoot her walking down a few more times before moving onto the vows and the rings.
The first time she had read the script and heard the vows that Aria and Ezra had written for each other, she had burst into tears. She was thankful that she didn't have to completely memorize them since she was going to be able to read them off a sheet of paper.
Everyone was reset and Marlene called action and then Ian started reading Ezra's vows. They had been given the vows written for them, but had been told they could change them if they wanted based on what they felt their characters would actually say.
"B-26. It's a number. It's a song. It's a girl. This is the beginning of the poem I wrote for you in the early days of our relationship because even back then I knew that we were something special ... that you were something special. From that very first moment in the bar I thought who is this girl? If I only knew how much you were going to change my life. Ever since then you have never ceased to amaze and astound me at how strong you have been even with everything you've faced. Over the past eight years we have gone through so much to get to this point. We've gone through the highests of highs and the lowest of lows and came out the other side, together. You told me once a long time ago that you couldn't imagine your life without me and I told you that I wanted you in mine and that we would figure something out and then we spent years apart. I will forever be thankful that you walked through the door of The Brew that day two years ago. My world was a very dark place before you came back. Slowly but surely, you helped put me back together and we started to build our life together. For the rest of our lives, I want you by my side, I don't ever want to let you go. I love you and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life loving you."
Ian folded the paper back up and handed it back to the minister. Most of what he said Lucy knew what he was going to say, but some of that he added and she was in tears all over again. Hearing them out loud in this setting, brought more tears. Now, usually Marlene would get a little mad if they went off script but she was perfectly fine when Ian brought his hand up to her face to wipe away the tears. He held his hand there just for a second as the two shared a loving smile.
"You know it's not really fair to make me go after that." Everyone around her laughed as she was given her paper.
"Ezra, I would be lying if I said that there weren't times in the last eight years that I doubted that we would ever end up here. It always seemed as if we had the whole world against us, something always fighting to keep us apart. I told Mike once that when you love someone, it's worth fighting for no matter what the odds and it always seemed like the odds were never in our favor. The one thing I always knew though," Lucy paused for dramatic effect, sharing a coy smile with Ian, "was that you always had faith that we could eventually get here. Every time something would happen and I would try to push you away, you always knew if it was the right thing to give me space or pull me in until I told you what was wrong. From the early days of our relationship, you always let me take the lead and never pushed me to do anything I wasn't ready to do. You always put me first, even when I begged you not to. You let me go, trusting that we would find our way back to one another and eventually find our way here. Thank you for always having faith in us, even when I couldn't. I love you so much and I can't wait to start this new chapter of life with you."
Her, Ian and everyone else in the room were brushing away the tears as she handed the letter back. She quickly wiped away her tears before joining her hands with Ian. They exchanged rings and before she knew it, it was time for them to share their first kiss as fictional husband and wife.
Lucy wasn't even sure how she got through those scenes without losing it more than the moment called for. When they shared their first kiss, for both of them, it felt as if the world stopped. There was no one else in the room and it was just the two of them. Lucy was brought back to the many kisses they shared in Ezra's apartment and the kisses they shared together when no one else or any cameras were looking. As they separated, they were met with cheers and yells from the audience. Lucy was thankful when Marlene was happy with their first kiss and didn't need to shoot it more than once. Neither one of the could wipe the smiles off of their faces.
The two walked back down the aisle together, looking like the happiest couple in the world. Once they made it the doors Ian turned to look at Lucy.
"That was amazing Goose!"
"Thanks Smian" she said softly with a small smile, her big smile from moments ago gone as soon as she was sure the cameras stopped rolling.
"Hey … are you okay?" Ian asked concerned.
"Yea i'm fine." Lucy said as she wiped away a few tears. "Just hard to believe that we finally got to shoot that scene after seven years of waiting."
Ian smiled at her as she was distracted by the four other girls walking out of set, praising her for her performance. He watched her from afar, not completely assured that she was as okay as she wanted him to believe. He grew concerned when he saw Lucy walking away towards her dressing room alone.
"Hey is she okay?" Marlene asked coming up behind him.
"She says she is, but, I don't know."
"Well, those scenes couldn't have been easy for her to film, given the circumstances."
Ian turned to her with a confused look on his face. "What do you mean?"
"You must be really blind. That girl is still in love with you. After you guys split up -"
"How did you -" Ian asked surprised before she cut him off.
"You really think we all didn't know?"
"I guess we weren't as careful as we thought."
"No you really weren't," She said with a smile before she continued. "Like I was saying, after you two split up, we all saw the changes in you two and how unhappy you both were. You guys got better as the months went on but I could tell as today got closer and closer, she was acting different."
"I just don't get why it would be affecting her this much. This was something we always knew was going to happen for Aria and Ezra so we knew it was coming."
"Yes but imagine how hard it was shooting that scene as Aria when she knew she was never going to get to have that moment as Lucy."
Ian was silent. The thought had never really crossed his mind.
"Why do you go and check on her, we have other scenes we can film in the meantime before we move outside to the shots of you two leaving the church"
Ian started to walk in the direction of her dressing room when he heard Marlene call out to him. He stopped and turned to look at her. "Ian …. Don't break her heart again."
He smiled back at her. "Wouldn't dream of it."
As Ian walked down the hallway towards her dressing room he could hear her crying from the other side of the door. He knocked lightly before opening the door a crack and poking his head in. The sight he found broke his heart.
I know this is a horrible place to leave off but I had to break the story into two parts. The only thing is like 10 pages long and no one wants to read all of that.
I'll post the other chapter in a few days! Please review, it really does make my day better! (I work in journalism, which is a pretty sad, depressing profession so I need all the happy I can get)
