Cristina took a final look at herself before she stepped out of her bedroom. She was wearing a sapphire blue strapless dress. Her hair was up except for a few loose tendrils to soften the hairstyle. She looked presentable, she felt. She paired the dress with navy blue Manolo Blahnik heels.
She left the bedroom and went downstairs. Meredith, Owen and Mrs. Hunt were already downstairs and waiting on her. She just could not believe that she was the one, who took the longest to get ready. But she figured it was worth it when she saw the look on Owen's face, when he first caught sight of her.
His face broke out in a huge smile. "You look beautiful," he said, happy that he was escorting this lovely girl as his date. Technically, she wasn't his date, since he was taking his mom, Meredith and Cristina to the wedding but he figured by the end of the evening, she was going to be his date, if he had anything to do with it.
Meredith was dressed in blush pink, while Mrs. Hunt was in yellow, while Owen was wearing a dark suit with a blue tie. Even though it was not planned, his tie matched her dress. He happily went forward to escort her down the last few steps. When they stood next to each other, Mrs. Hunt remarked that they looked like they were going to prom, together. They both smiled, a little sheepishly.
"Good grief," Meredith thought. "I am going to have a hard time, pulling her away from this place and that guy." At that point, she thought about the sheriff and wondered what he was wearing.
They all headed out of the house to a different vehicle, this time a Lexus SUV. Cristina and Meredith both sat in the back seat, while Mrs. Hunt took the front passenger seat. Owen looked back at Cristina, apologetically. She smiled, telling him it was okay with her eyes. She knew that she had to literally take a back seat to the lady of the house.
It was a short 10-mile drive to Brewster, where the wedding ceremony was taking place. They took their seats in the church. Owen sat in between Cristina and his mom, while Meredith sat on the other side of Cristina.
Meredith and Cristina recognized some of the people they had already met. The two doctors were there, along with their nurses. Then there was Teddy, Owen's high school girlfriend who ran the diner, as well as Henry, the auto mechanic. The lawyer, Miranda Bailey was having a chat with a handsome young man in a white tuxedo they had not met before. They assumed he had to be the groom, Alex. Meredith was only looking out for one person in particular. She spotted that luxurious mane of hair nearer the front of the church. He was sitting next to his red-headed deputy Kepner. She wondered if the sheriff and his deputy were a couple and she fervently hoped that they were not.
They barely had time to settle down, when the violins started playing "Here Comes the Bride." The blonde bride, accompanied by her father, was dressed in a strapless ivory dress with a long train and ornate veil. She was tall and lovely.
Meredith cooed, "Look at Izzie. She looks so gorgeous."
Even though Cristina did not know Izzie, she had to agree that she made a beautiful bride. Alex's face lit up, as he saw his pretty bride make her way down the aisle, on the arm of her father.
The wedding ceremony was a standard one, except for the fact that both the bride and groom wrote their own vows.
"Would you write your own vows?" Meredith whispered to Cristina. "I think that is so much pressure. You don't want it to sound maudlin and sappy."
"I think that's the whole point," Cristina whispered back. "It is maudlin and sappy because you're so in love with this person that you don't care how stupid you sound. I think I will write my own, when my time comes because there is no freaking way am I going to include 'obey' in my vows."
Owen chuckled, as he listened to their quiet conversation. Mrs. Hunt gave the girls an admonishing look, which shut them up immediately.
The wedding ceremony was beautiful and when the bride and groom made their way down the aisle, everyone clapped, enthusiastically. The reception was in Huntsville, so all of the guests piled into their cars to head down to the Town Hall.
When they arrived at the reception room in the Town Hall, Owen found out, to his dismay, that he and his mother were seated at a different table from Meredith and Cristina. Owen's table was closer to the front of the room, while Meredith and Cristina's table was closer to the back. They all went to their respective tables.
As they settled down at the table, Meredith remarked, "Look at your farmer. He keeps looking back here, like if he is missing something that is located at this table."
"Ah, well, what can I say? The man cannot resist me," Cristina said, laughing.
"Well, I can do you a favor. I can exchange seats with him, so he can be here with you and I can go to that table and sit with his mother," Meredith said, as if she was making a huge sacrifice.
"Oh, come on, Meredith, you think I don't know that you're doing this for your own selfish purposes," Cristina said.
"Whatever do you mean, Cristina?" Meredith said, widening her eyes as if she had been accused of something.
"I see the sheriff sitting at that table," Cristina said. "You want to be closer to him. You want to strike up a conversation."
"Well, you can't diss a girl for trying," Meredith said. "I just can't get over that hair."
"Oh, go ahead," Cristina said. "Don't know if Owen would be willing to change seats, since they obviously have a better table than us. But you can always try."
"I am pretty sure he would want to change seats with me," Meredith said, picking up her clutch and making a beeline for the front table.
Cristina watched as Meredith bent over and whispered into Owen's ear. Owen's face lit up, as he nodded and smiled. He then spoke to his mother, before giving up his seat to Meredith. He then made his way to the back table where Cristina was seated.
"Hey there," he said, as he took the seat next to her.
"You didn't have to do that," she said. "You had a better table, closer to all of the action. You're obviously one of the favored guests in this wedding reception. That's why you got the good table."
"I would prefer to sit back here with you than be closer to the action, any day," he said, as he took her hand into his. His eyes twinkled, as he gently squeezed her hand. She smiled back at him.
Their conversation was interrupted by the emcee, who said that the bride and groom had arrived. "Ladies and gentlemen, let us welcome Mr and Mrs. Alex Karev." Everyone got up and clapped the bride and groom, as they took their seats at the head table, next to their parents, best man and maid of honor.
"This is the trickiest part of the reception," Cristina said. "Unless you're really funny, this can be really awful and embarrassing for the bride and groom."
Owen agreed. He had been a best man twice before and he knew what it was like to bomb and also to do well. He figured the next time he was going to be in the wedding party and was forced to make some stupid speech, he was going to be the groom.
The father of the bride, the best man, the maid of honor and the groom all made it through their speeches without stumbling too badly, though there were some groans at some of the jokes. Inwardly, everyone cheered when it was announced that dinner was going to be served.
Cristina caught up with Meredith at the buffet line, while Owen and Shepherd chatted. "How are you making out with the sheriff?"
"How are you making out with the farmer?" Meredith countered.
"Oh, alright, I will go first. He has already held my hand," Cristina said. "What about you?"
"Well, we've just been talking. You and the farmer already had a head start on us. At least, I found out that he and the deputy are not a couple," Meredith said.
As they got their plates filled, the two would-be couples headed back to their respective tables, chatting and eating and getting to know each other better. Much laughter was heard from the two couples.
After the bride and groom had their first dance, Owen couldn't wait to take to the dance floor with Cristina as another slow song came on. He took her in her arms and held her close as they danced. From the corner of her eye, Cristina could also see Meredith and Derek dancing. So, Meredith was making progress with the sheriff.
"I like this song," Cristina said. " 'If You're Not The One' by Daniel Bedingfield. It is one of my favorites."
"Me, too," he said. "I think it captures how you feel when you fall in love."
She rested her head on his chest. It felt so warm and comforting in his arms. She was sad when the song ended and it went into a fast, peppy song. Though they continued to dance, they were secretly hoping for the next slow song to come on. And that was how it went for the entire night.
Coming closer to the end of the night, during one of their slow dances, she looked up at him and he looked down at her with the realization that he really, really wanted to kiss her. He bent his head and claimed her lips with his own. The kiss deepened as she responded to him. He knew that people in this small town were going to talk that Owen Hunt was kissing a stranger in the middle of the dance floor. But he didn't care. This moment was magic to him.
When they broke apart, they looked into each other's eyes and kissed again. Their kisses were interrupted by the sound of a man, talking very loudly. The man seemed to be inebriated. The groom was trying to restrain him but the man was giving him a lot of fight.
"Jeez, why does Mayor Jennings behave like this, when he is drunk?" Owen sighed, loudly.
"That's the mayor? That's the groom's step-dad? Oh, yes, he was up at the head table. Unfortunately, I was sitting so far back I didn't make him out clearly," Cristina said.
"Still making cracks about your seating arrangements?" Owen laughed.
"It's okay. The bride and groom don't know who I am, so I really didn't expect to get a good table but Meredith went to school with Izzie and I would have thought she would have got a better table than that," Cristina said.
They watched as the Mayor suddenly fell to the ground and started foaming at the mouth. His wife screamed.
"Doctor O' Malley! Dr. Webber!" Alex called out. "Please help."
Both doctors rushed forward to help. They got no pulse, so they worked in tandem to revive the fallen Mayor. Olivia brought the portable AED from O' Malley's car. They tried it again but it was to no avail. He could not be brought back. Alex was comforting his mother, who was inconsolable. Izzie was also crying.
"Was the Mayor drunk?" Shepherd asked.
"No," Alex said. "He only had one drink and that was during the toast."
"Hmmm," the sheriff said. "We cannot rule out foul play, then, unless the coroner can say if his death was by natural causes."
"Foul play!" screamed Mrs. Jennings. "Who would want to hurt Larry?"
"Well, he was the Mayor and he could have enemies," Shepherd said. "Unless the coroner rules it out, we would have to assume that it could be foul play and everyone in this room is a suspect."
"What?" Izzie screamed. "My wedding is ruined. My father in law dies at my wedding."
Cristina looked around, the only people left at the wedding were about 20 people from Huntsville. The Brewster people, including the bride's parents and family, had already left.
"Miss Yang, Miss Grey, I will ask you not to leave Huntsville until we clear this up," the sheriff said.
"We're stuck here? We have tickets to fly home tomorrow," Cristina was aghast.
"Don't worry, you two can continue to stay at our house," Mrs. Hunt said.
"What about our jobs?" Meredith said to Cristina. "We were only given a certain amount of time off."
"Ladies, I will try and clear this up as soon as possible," Shepherd said. "Kepner, I need you to get statements from everyone still left in this room. Doctors, I hope you can secure the body at the undertakers, until the coroner from Millbrook comes in the morning."
Cristina and Meredith looked at each other. It was going to be a long night.
A/N: Please leave your reviews. Thank you very much. I do appreciate them.