I own nothing.

This chapter is a little boring, but this is something she'd have to do if her mom was getting married, so I feel justified including it. As a side note, for the Henry/Vicki lovers, wait and hope for better things. You never know when things will start looking up, and if you did you'd know that it's in the next two chapters. : )

Two weeks later/ Six weeks till the wedding/ Mid April

Moments after dark, Vicki's phone rang. Noticing the ring tone, Pure Morning by Placebo, she smiled as she said, "Hello Henry." She had to change that to Dancing In the Moonlight for the wedding, she thought to herself. The thought that immediately followed was, I'm acting like a 14 year old.

"Love, I made your appointments," Henry informed her.

"What appointments?" she asked absentmindedly. "I already got the dress altered."

Henry chuckled to himself, "Well that's one, but there's also the appointment to touch up your highlights in 4 weeks, to get your nails and toenails done in 5 and a half weeks, and to have your's and your mother's hair and makeup done the day of the wedding," he said, anticipating a fight.

"Wait, what?" she asked her head spinning. "Why do I need to do all this stuff?"

"Because," he sputtered, "well, because it'll make me happy."

"Henry, I wouldn't even do all this for my own wedding, much less my mother's."

"Okay, a compromise. You'd have done your hair anyway, and you should have your hair and makeup done for the wedding with your mother, but if you want to skip the nail treatments, I'll cancel them," he offered magnanimously.

"I suppose," she said, "but can't I just do my own hair and makeup?"

"You could," he sighed, "but then you'd have to explain why you changed your mind when I already told her you took care of the arrangements for the both of you." Coming through the front door, Henry says into the phone, "I guess we can hang up now, huh?"

"Henry, you could have mentioned that you were on your way. What am I going to do with you?" she asked exasperated.

He looked at his watch, "Well right now, you and I are going to go look at your mom's registry and purchase a gift. Come on," he said, leading her to the car.

"Mom has a registry?" Vicki asked, trailing behind him in the darkness.

"Honestly Vicki, do you even listen when you talk to her on the phone?" Henry asked incredulously.

"Pretty much no, not since the I'm-getting-married/You're-wearing-a-dress conversation," she said cheerfully.

"Nice," he muttered. He closed her door behind her, and drove to a department store she usually took great pains to avoid.

"Are we really doing this?"she asked no one in particular.

"Why is this so distasteful to you?" he asked slightly surprised. "I think some of the other wedding plans have been substantially more torturous for you. What's so bad about buying your mom a present?"

"It is not about buying mom a present, it is about 'us' buying mom a present. Together. From both of us. It's like we're announcing to the world we are, indeed, an us."

"Is that so bad?" he asked with a sad smile.

"No. I think 'we' make sense, but I just don't know how I feel about declaring it to my mother," she explained, reaching for his hand as they walked.

"We are going together, and, darling, I hate to break it to you, but I speak to your mother more than you. At this point, she's sure I'm either very serious suitor or your gay best friend, and I've been as forthcoming as possible to prove it's the former," he smirked.

"What?"

"She knows I love you. She's a mother, she realizes it. She knows you're crazy about me too. Otherwise, you'd never have agreed to wear a dress. She knows you better than you think," he smiled.

She tilted her head, thoughtfully. "So what do you think? The dinnerware or the margarita maker?" she asked impishly.

He smiled at her choices, "What about something unexpected?"

"Hm, just like us. What do you have in mind?"

"Well," he said, "she hinted that she'd like a set of new pots and pans, but the ones she wants are a bit pricey. We could get them for her."

"How did she hint? Henry please tell me you didn't 'Jedi-Vamp Mind trick' my mother!" she said horrified.

"No," he laughed, "she just mentioned that hers were older and she was looking at these, but they were out of her price range."

"Well, that sounds okay."

Motioning toward the sales associate, Henry said, "We'd like this set, please and we'd like it gift wrapped."

Vicki rolled her eyes. At this he said, "Are you prepared for everyone to see your horrible gift wrapping abilities, I need not remind you of the Christmas debacle," he said drily.

Vicki found this hilarious, murmuring, "I guess not."