A/N: Hey guys! So, I'm back, but I'm going to camp, so it might be a while before I post the next chapter to KindaSortaMaybe. Although, if you're reading this story as a stand-alone, I would suggest for you to go read KindaSortaMaybe. Also, I'm trying to get 50+ reviews for that one, so help me out! Other than that, here's the last chapter.
P.S.: I know I said Rudy died in the earlier chapters, but for this one, can we say that he's still alive and well?
For Jack Anderson and Kim Crawford-soon-to-be-Anderson, the road to getting hitched was full of second chances, mild anger, lots of humor, and mess-ups. When the day for their wedding finally came around, though, they couldn't have been happier.
July 23 was the date. The destination was Malibu Beach, which they had cleared out completely just for their wedding.
"I'm so excited!" squealed Fawn.
"My BFFLAD's getting married!" Cora joined in on the squealing.
"What does that even mean?" asked Wini.
"Best Friends For Life And Death," Amanda informed her.
"Kim, stop moving!" complained Rachel. She was helping Kim with her dress, a Rachel Krupnick/Valentino/Monique Lhullier Collab (1).
"Sorry. Just nervous, I guess." Kim offered her friend a bright smile.
"You don't look nervous," said Kelsi, forever the skeptic.
Kim laughed. "Nah, I'm too happy to be nervous."
"I'll bet you twenty bucks Jack is nervous as hell," challenged Wini.
Kim rolled her eyes. "No thank you."
"I'll take you up on it," said Fawn.
In the end, they would find out that Fawn was right (and that Wini owed her twenty bucks).
Jack was calm as a cucumber (does anyone know why they say that, anyway?) in his dressing room. Milton, on the other hand...
"Nononono!" yelled Milton. "That is not the right color!" He pointed to the flowers in a vase in the dressing room.
Andrew gave him a weird look. "Milton, no one even's going to see them aside from us."
"So?"
Drew rolled his eyes and laughed. "Anyways, Jack, you better hurry up. We start in, like, 15 minutes."
"Remember the rehearsal dinner?" Eddie prompted.
Jack groaned. "Don't remind me."
Jerry snickered. "You were late."
Jack glared at him. "I know that! Although, looking back, it was mostly Thomas' fault."
"What? What did I do?" protested Thomas. "I wasn't even with you when you were late!"
Jack swung his glare towards Thomas. "I am trying to come up with an excuse here, but you are not making this very easy."
"Thomas doesn't make anything easy," agreed Andrew.
"Yeah, him and Drew," added Eddie.
"I know, right?" agreed Jerry.
In unison, everyone said, "You, too, Jerry."
"Hey, where'd they go?" asked Jack.
Milton smirked. "They went off to sulk. Probably."
"Alright, Kimberly Ann Crawford, let's go and get you hitched," declared Cora.
"So, Rudy's niece, Kirsten, will go out first as the flower girl. Then comes Cora and Thomas, and the rest of us. After that, you wait five seconds, then enter," babbled Rachel nervously.
Wini rolled her eyes and stuffed a tube of lip gloss into Rachel's open mouth. "You don't need to micro-manage this, Rach."
"Hey!" said Rachel indignantly, after removing the tube of lip gloss from her mouth.
Kelsi giggled quietly, and soon the whole room of bridesmaids (and one lucky bride) had burst out laughing.
After they had all calmed down, Kim took a deep breath and hugged each of her friends one by one. "Thanks, you guys. I love you so much."
"Not to us, hon. Tell it to Jack," commanded Fawn.
"Yeah. I know. Um, I think I'm ready." Kim offered them all a smile, two parts confident and one part nervous.
"Alright, man. It's your big day," said Drew, patting Jack on the back.
"Remember, you can't mess up," said Eddie.
"Yeah, otherwise Kim's going to be mad and kill you. Also, you're going to look like an idiot," added Jerry.
"And nobody wants to look like Jerry," agreed Thomas.
"Jack, remember to look Kim in the eye when you say 'I do,'" advised Milton.
"Otherwise you'll look like a wimp," explained Andrew.
"I don't get it. Was this supposed to be encouragement? Because if it was, then you're not very good at it," said Jack drily. "Anyways, I'm ready. Let's go."
The first thing Kim heard when she was behind those wooden doors was the wedding march. 1, 2, 3, 4, and the doors opened. The dynamics of her wedding was a little different than most. First of all, they were getting married on a beach. Therefore, when the wooden doors opened, they opened out to the beach. There was a stretch of sand dyed red for Kim to walk on, and the guests were seated in chairs with intricate metalwork. They only invited their close friends and family. No paparazzi allowed. Although their lives pretty much revolved around paparazzi (that's what happens when you grow up as the offspring of the Hollywood elite- and end up being part of the elite as an adult), their wedding was not something to be tainted by flashing cameras and screaming reporters. Although, with both Jack's mom and Kim's, the possibility of flashing cameras increased tenfold. Both were photography fanatics.
Anyways. I digress.
On with the wedding, right? (2)
(3) Rudy felt lightheaded. The crowd before him seemed to grow tenfold as beads of sweat started to appear on his forehead. He couldn't speak. But he had to! The whole reason he was here was so that he could speak! Literally, the whole entire church (or beach, I guess...) was counting on him to speak! But he couldn't. The words that he had spent hours memorizing suddenly floated out of his head. Kinda like Jerry in all aspects of life.
Rudy leaned forward towards Jack and Kim nervously. "Um, Jack?" he whispered.
"What?" muttered Jack behind his slowly-turning-forced smile.
"Rudy, get on with it! People are starting to get restless!" hissed Kim, behind her own plastic smile. Just smile and look happy, she told herself. You can punch the living grits out of Rudy later.
"I- I can't remember," whispered Rudy urgently.
"What? The whole reason you're here is so that you remember!" retorted Jack angrily.
"I know that! Wait, are you saying that you wouldn't have invited me to your wedding if I wasn't the officiate?" Rudy was suddenly offended.
"Yes! Probably, if I had known you would do this!" replied Jack. "This is my wedding day! Get yourself together!"
"Jack, you need to calm yourself down and stop shouting," patronized Rudy.
"I'm not shouting! Kim, am I shouting?" He turned to his wife-to-be.
Kim rolled her eyes and stepped on Rudy's foot, hard. She smirked as she heard Rudy's almost-silent gasp. Sharp heels? Oh, yessss. (4)
Rudy's eyes bulged and he squeaked out, "Great weather we have today!" The guests seemed to have not heard him, so he repeated himself (which, later, looking back, he would come to realize as a grave mistake).
Jack and Kim breathed a sigh of relief. At least Rudy was talking. Still, they eyed him rather apprehensively, unsure whether to be happy that he was speaking, or dreading what he was about to say next.
"And, uh, what a lovely beach this is! Except for the seagulls. You know, 'cause they might poop on you or something..." Rudy trailed off nervously.
It was the latter.
"Dear God, kill me now," Jack groaned quietly.
"Not that Jack and Kim didn't do a great job with the wedding or anything!" added Rudy hastily. "Well, it was probably just Kim, since Jack is a guy, and he would probably get bored. Unless he was gay. But then he wouldn't be marrying Kim. Not that there's anything wrong with homosexual people! Or guys planning weddings! All guys can plan weddings! If we really wanted to, we could all do it!"
"Rudy is so dead after this," muttered Kim quietly, resisting the urge to smack her forehead in frustration.
Rudy realized his mistake. "That's not what I meant by doing it! Not that there's anything wrong with doing it. It's a very healthy part of marriage, and none of us would be here if our parents hadn't done it..."
"Rudy..." growled Jack.
"Ah, right." Rudy cleared his throat and offered the crowd a nervous smile. "Sorry about that. I'm kind of new at this. Anyways. The reason I'm here today- the reason that we're all here today- is for Jack and Kim. I love them both very much, and I'm extremely happy to see them finally getting hitched. This day has been a long time coming."
Jack and Kim both breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully they would be able to get through the rest of the ceremony without any mishaps.
Well, we wanted the rest of the ceremony to be free of mishaps, but perhaps we spoke too soon.
A nervous Jerry dropped the rings.
Is anyone surprised?
After the ceremony, Jack and Kim had their reception on the beach.
There was one big table in the center of all the other, for the bride and groom- and friends. It was just like old times- well, minus the old enemies. (5)
"Wow, I can't believe we're finally married!" exclaimed Kim, looking flushed and excited.
Jack came up behind her and slid his arms around her waist. "I'm just glad Rudy's off that podium."
"Rudy," hissed Kim, pulling away from Jack's embrace.
"Where is that old man?" joked Jack.
"Behind me," replied Milton.
Rudy peeked out behind Milton's shoulder, waving nervously to the newly-weds. "Uh, hi!"
"Rudy," sighed Jack exasperatedly. "C'mon, we don't bite."
Andrew shot Kim a look. "Well, she might."
Kim sighed and dropped her angry facade. "It's okay, Rudy. I don't blame you."
"R-really?" Rudy slowly crept out behind Milton.
"Yeah. I mean, it wasn't too bad, right guys?" Jack offered everyone a smile.
"Um, yeah..." Kelsi trailed off.
Amanda rolled her eyes. "C'mon Rudy, it really wasn't that bad."
"Yeah. Just the beginning," Eddie assured him.
"Which lasted for a while..." muttered Thomas.
"Although, I could've lived without the part where you talked about 'doing it,'" said Kim dryly. (6)
Jack laughed. "Yeah, that went a little too far."
"I thought it was funny," commented Jerry.
Fawn laughed. "Do you guys remember? 'Except for the seagulls. You know, 'cause they might poop on you or something...'"
Rachel nudged Rudy's shoulder. "That speech was pretty nice."
"Yeah, it was surprisingly heartfelt," agreed Drew.
Cora shot him a look. "When did you learn the word heartfelt?"
"Well, I'm not stupid or anything," replied Drew, in a duh sort of way.
Everyone shared a collective glance. In unison, they said, "Yeah, 'cause that's not like you at all."
"First dance goes out to the newly-weds! Kim and Jack, get your butts out here!" Jerry spoke into the microphone as the official DJ of Jack and Kim's wedding.
Jack groaned quietly. "We really shouldn't have taken Jerry up on his offer of a DJ, right?"
Kim nodded. "It was your decision, though, so I'm blaming you."
Jack laughed, taking her into his arms. "I love you."
She smiled softly at him. "I love you too. So, so much."
They danced together, reveling in each others warmth. A single spotlight swirled over them.
At their table, Milton held out a hand for Rachel. "May I have this dance, milady?"
Eddie stood up and offered Amanda an arm.
Andrew and Wini, the dark and mysterious couple, were the first couple (after Kim and Jack) to reach the dance floor.
Cora and Thomas spun across the dance floor, happy and content.
Drew asked Fawn to dance, a goofy smile adorning his face.
"Fine, if I must," sighed Fawn, the drama queen that she was.
Kelsi stood by the side, watching her friends dance with a small smile on her face.
"And to the lady of my heart- would you care to dance?" Jerry held a hand out to her. She smiled and took it, laughing as he twirled her around
Rudy watched them all with a satisfied and content look on his face. And even though he messed up a bit?
Looks like they finally got their happy ending.
A/N: (1) Go to my profile for pics for all my Kickin' It stories! (2) Ugh... that ending was just plain uncomfortable. (3) The whole messing-up-the-vows things was inspired by DJNS's story, An Auspicious Beginning. The 'doing it' part was paraphrasing a part of her story. I take no credit for it. (4) A reference to Chapter 7 of Kinda-Sorta-Maybe. (5) Another reference to Chapter 7 of Kinda-Sorta-Maybe... I am shamelessly advertising here. (6) Again, DJNS's story. I just paraphrased it, and I take no credit for it.
Gosh, guys, it's finally done! Anyways, here's an UPDATE: So, camp ended a week ago, and school starts tomorrow. Between juggling 7th grade, extra math classes (I'm Asian, whaddaya expect? I'm taking 9th grade math outside of school. Bleh), 8 hours of dance a week, Chinese class (and homework) piano, voice, and guitar lessons, it's going to be hard to update my other stories. Plus, I'm really busy with my FictionPress stuff (same username, if anyone's interested) and other stories. I'm coming out with a new Kickin' It summer camp fic, a Valentine's Day fic (every romance author has to have one of those) and a future-fic. Watch out for Camp's Going to Kill Me, Valentine's Day, and 10 Years Later! Visit my profile for more details.