A/N: This story is a sequel to Bleeding Hearts. I strongly suggest you read that first before starting this story! Also, a few notes about this story: It takes place in the near future, starting in January of 2004, Edge never had a neck injury, and there is no roster split.
PART ONE
6 MONTHS LATER
Britney and Stephanie sat in Steph and Jay's hotel room, leafing though a wedding magazine. Britney and Adam's wedding was less than four months away, so they really needed to kick the final planning touches into gear. Britney had thought of the idea of hiring a planner, but Stephanie advised her not to go that way. She suggested she talk to Terri, who had been married twice. Terri had said it would be better for her not to go with a planner, seeing as how she didn't really need to work on a budget, and that way she could do things the way she really wanted them done. Britney finally gave in, and she and Stephanie, along with some help from Linda and Adam's mother Judy, did nearly all of the planning for the wedding, while Vince agreed to pay for it.
"So, did you ever narrow down the wedding party?" Stephanie asked curiously. Britney turned the page of the magazine, nodding.
"Yeah, I was thinking maybe twelve people… maid of honor and best man, and then five bridesmaids and five groomsmen," Britney replied.
"And who are they going to be?" she asked. Closing the magazine and placing it on the table across from them, Britney looked up at her cousin.
"You and Jay as best man and maid of honor, obviously," she said grinning. "Then for the bridesmaids, Amy, Trish, Chris's wife Jess, Trish and my friend from home, Nicole. Then," she said, taking a deep breath as Stephanie grinned at her. "I talked to Adam about groomsmen, and he said Shane, Chris, Terry, Matt and Jeff."
"Cool. Aww, that's so sweet that he wanted Shane to be in the wedding," Stephanie noted fondly.
"Yeah… I guess after all they went through last year they just grew really close. I thought it was sweet too," Britney replied.
"Okay, back to the wedding stuff… what do you think of these centerpieces?" Stephanie asked suddenly, grabbing the magazine and opening it up to the page she had marked earlier. As the maid of honor, Stephanie had helped Britney with tons of the planning work going into the wedding.
"Wow, they're really pretty… but at this point, I'm thinking everything's pretty. I just want to get the planning over with," Britney said. While she was beyond excited that she was getting married, it was a very tedious, time and energy consuming thing to plan. Everything had to be perfect.
"Yeah, I know… it'll all be done soon," Stephanie insisted as Britney laid back tiredly on the couch.
"I hope so," she said. She closed her eyes, envisioning what her big day would be like.
Even though the planning was starting to get on her nerves, Britney could not be more excited about the upcoming wedding. Any woman would be. Not only was she getting married, but she was getting married to a man she was completely, totally in love with. And he loved her back… that was still like a foreign concept to her. Perhaps the best thing about marrying Adam now was that there was no one to interrupt or ruin it. Paul was in jail without bail until his trial, which was still a few months away, and Brock was dead… they couldn't show up and they couldn't do anything to ruin the day which she would allow to be nothing less than perfect. She sighed happily, thinking of how amazingly her life had turned around for the better. She was going to get *married*, something she dreamed of since she was about seven. She opened her eyes, looking over at Stephanie, who was still flipping through the magazine. Suddenly, a thought of something she still had to do popped into her head.
"Shit… Steph, how am I going to tell Vince about Mark?" she asked, an uneasy feeling washing over her. Stephanie sighed, closing the magazine and placing it down again.
"Britney, he'll understand. He knows that he and you haven't really been close till this past year," she explained, placing a hand on her arm. Sighing again, Britney shrugged.
"I hope so. I don't want to hurt his feelings… I mean, he *is* paying for it," she commented.
"True," Stephanie replied. "But Brit, you have to stop worrying about it. He's not going to disown you or anything."
"You know what Steph? You're right," Britney agreed, nodding as she looked over at her cousin. The brunette smiled, causing Britney to automatically return her grin.
"Aren't you so excited?" Stephanie asked, eyeing Britney eagerly. Britney's grin widened immediately.
"Of course," she said, in disbelief that her cousin would even ask such a question.
"I thought so. As it gets closer and closer, I get more and more excited too," Stephanie added, grinning widely. It was going to be great to finally see Britney get married, and to someone like Adam… it was wonderful. Britney nodded, leaning back in her seat again. She could feel the butterflies in her stomach already, but they weren't the nervous kind, they were the lovey-dovey kind, the kind that made her know she was doing the right thing.
"Yup… I can't wait."
THE NEXT DAYBritney stood in front of the door to Mark's hotel room, nervously hesitating knocking. She wasn't nervous about Vince anymore, as she'd already talked to him about it, and he'd already told her he completely understood. Now she was nervous about how Mark himself would react… he never had been one for 'mushy shit,' as he liked to put it. Finally, she gave in, reaching up and knocking firmly on the door. After waiting a moment, the door opened, and Britney looked up to see Mark standing in the doorway.
"Hey kid," he said, smiling as he saw her standing outside his door. "What's up?"
"Um, can I come in and talk to you for a sec?" Britney requested, hoping he wasn't busy.
"Sure, come on in," he said, stepping out of the way and allowing her room to enter. She walked in past him, and Mark eyed her curiously, wondering what she had come over to talk to him about.
"So, what's going on?" he asked, gesturing over to the couch for her to sit. He grabbed a chair from the table in the room, flipping it around backwards and sitting on it.
"Well, I kind of wanted to ask you a question," Britney started, and Mark couldn't help but notice how nervously she was fumbling her hands.
"About what?" he asked, curiosity growing by the second.
"Well," Britney continued hesitantly, "it has to do with my wedding." Mark raised an eyebrow.
"Really? What about your wedding?"
"I, um… was wondering if maybe… well, you know you're like a father to me Mark. Since my dad died, I haven't really had someone to play the father-figure role for me… except for you. I was kind of hoping that you would… maybe walk me down the aisle?" she said hopefully, bringing her gaze back up to him. Mark's jaw dropped, as he certainly hadn't expected those words to leave the young woman's mouth.
"Woah… you want me to give you away?" he asked in amazement. Britney sent him a confused look… she had never seen Mark look quite so… surprised… before. Britney nodded, smiling at him almost timidly.
"It would mean a lot to me," she admitted.
"I, uh… wow, that… that means a lot to me Brit," he said, looking up to meet her blue eyes.
"So… does that mean you'll consider doing it?" she asked hopefully. Mark looked at her seriously, before breaking out into a large grin.
"Of course I'll do it… it would be an honor," he said, smiling at her. Britney also broke out into a wide grin, jumping up out of her seat and running over to him. She threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.
"Thank you so much Mark… you have NO idea how happy that makes me," she said, kissing him on the cheek. "I have to go, Steph and I still have a shit load of work to do."
Mark watched with a grin on his face as the young McMahon waved goodbye and exited out of her room. He shook his head, gently touching the spot on his cheek where she had kissed him. He was already so happy that Britney and Adam were getting married, and now that he had found out that he would be walking her down the aisle he was even more excited. He stood up and pushed the chair back under the table, thinking of the upcoming wedding, and of all the planning Britney and Stephanie were going to have to do to prepare for the big day.
Yay, sequel time!!!! I hope you guys are ready!!!! Let me know what you think!