The Twelve Days of Christmas
On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 7 Hours of Marriage, 6 Ghosts remembered, 5 shades of Red, 4 Best of Friends, 3 Day Shift, 2 Miles to Go and a Brown Leather Charm Necklace.
Be warned, this chapter is a lot longer than my others and compared with chapter 3 it's like the big daddy!
"And you may..." The Minister paused for a moment and glanced at his watch.
Everybody sitting in the audience wondered how the Minister could suddenly stop in the middle of the ceremony, especially at such a moment. Some found it rude, others were confused but as soon as the loud bell chimes started their song the Minister finished.
"Kiss the Bride."
And so, Nick Stokes did.
And so, the newly appointed Sara Stokes returned her husband's eager kiss.
And they were married just like that at the dead of midnight, the first minute of the 25th of December 2005, they became husband and wife.
25th December 2005 00:03
"So how does it feel being married?" Warrick asked, patting Nick on the back.
"It's the best feeling in the world." Nick beamed, pulling Sara close to him, admiring the way the white skirts danced around her tiny feet.
"What about you Sar? Taking back that whole anti-marriage thing?" Warrick questioned.
"No but being married to Nick's completely different, I'm completely anti-marriage excluding marriage with Nick." She smiled.
"So I can't marry Eloisa but I can marry Nick?" Warrick chuckled, referencing his girlfriend of the last 2 years.
"Erm, No, I'm completely Anti-marriage excluding true love."
"You're such a hopeless romantic." Nick chuckled, kissing her cheek.
She opened her mouth to reply when the cries of "Unkie Nick" met their ears.
"Josie." Nick smiled, catching the nine year old girl who flung herself at her favourite Uncle.
"So you're married now too?" She asked, playing with the flower he had in his coat pocket.
"Yip." He smiled, holding her in his arms.
"So she's really properly, properly Auntie Sara now?" She enquired, looking at Sara with her big, brown eyes. "Not like the Auntie Sara I called her when I was little."
"Yip, really, properly, properly Auntie Sara." Nick grinned.
"You're very pretty." Josie smiled, blushing as she addressed Sara. "Like a princess."
"Thank you." Sara smiled, "So are you."
At being told this Josie hid herself in Nick's coat, blushing and shy. She wore a lilac purple dress that touched her ankles, it had a flowery pattern on the skirt and a belt with sewn on lilac flowers. She had tiny white shoes on and a tiara in her untamed curls that sparkled with the glittery spray she would wear everyday if she could.
"Everybody's getting married." Josie announced, "First Mummy and Daddy, then Auntie Payt'nin and Uncle Drake, then Uncle Garth and Auntie Martie and now you two!"
"I suppose it's true, everyone is getting married." Nick realised.
"Josie?" A tall blonde man came through the crowds calling the young girls name.
"Daddy." Josie whispered to Nick and Sara.
"Josie!" The man smiled in relief as he lay his eyes on the brunette in Nick's arms. He ran over to the trio, followed by Nicks youngest sister Teresa, Josie's Mother."
"Josie, we asked you not to run off." Teresa cried, taking Josie from Nicks arms.
"I wanted to Congratulate Unkie Nick and Auntie Sara." Josie replied looking at her newly wedded Mother and Father.
"Well tell us before you run, Josie-Jump, your Mummy was panicking." The man chuckled, wrapping an arm around his wife's waist.
"Mummy always panics." Josie chuckled.
"So Tess, are you going to introduce us?" Nick asked, looking at his petite sister then at her mystery husband.
"Oh, Nick, I forgot you hadn't met, this is Patrick. Josie's father and my husband." Teresa blushed, looking up at her smiling husband.
"At last." Patrick grinned.
"It's nice to finally meet you." Nick smiled, shaking hands with the elder man, emphasizing the word 'finally'.
"To finally, I'm afraid dear Teresa's timing is a little off." Patrick laughed.
"Yeah, not everybody goes bar-maid, cop, detective, mother, boss, wife." Nick laughed, watching his sisters blushing cheeks.
"I'm not everybody." She shrugged, moving over to talk to Sara as the two men got to know each other.
"You deserve better than him." She joked, admiring Sara's beauty in the white wedding dress and the happy smile.
"I don't." Sara smiled, "It was some magic mistake that I got him, it's him who deserves better than me."
"Not a chance, I've seen the two of you together, ever since that morning five years ago I've wanted you to be the one he settled down with, you're good to him and you're both surreally perfect for each other."
"Thank you, I wouldn't say perfect though." Sara smiled, fingering her newly placed wedding ring.
"I don't know, anyone watching this on TV would think so."
-12-
25th December 2005 01:03
"And may the bride and groom make their way to the dance floor where we will begin the night; I mean morning with the first dance." The lead singer of the acoustic band announced to the hustling crowd of people in extravagant clothing
Nick held a hand out for Sara and she bit her bottom lip, she was definitely no dancer. He laughed at her nervous smile and pulled her close to him, placing a hand on her waist and holding her hand in the other.
"I can't dance." She whispered, placing her free hand on his shoulder, a little closer to the base of his neck.
"You danced at the bar." He chuckled, twirling her into the centre of the dance-floor.
"No, you danced and I let you pull my strings and make me dance." She smiled; looking up at her new husband not at her feet which she was sure meant that now she was about to trip.
"Well then puppet, let me pull your strings again, just look like you know what you're doing." He smiled, leaning in and planting a kiss on her lips.
"So what song did you pick?" Sara asked as he pulled away.
"You'll see." Nick said, nodding at the band who immediately struck up the song.
The soft picking of the strings on the guitar led them into a song that spoke Sara and Nick's life story in four minutes. Nick slowly led Sara across the dancefloor, gracefully twisting her making her dance with great elegance and poise as he stepped without thinking, smiling at her and occasionally laughing when she apologised for stepping on his toes.
"It's meant to be the guys who have two left feet darlin'." He chuckled, whispering into her ear as she rested her head on his shoulder.
"Why do you think women wear big gowns on their wedding day? It's so they can hide their mistakes behind three layers of silk." She replied, laughing as she yet again stood on his toes.
"Doesn't that hurt?" Sara asked, looking down to avoid stepping upon his poor leather clad toes.
"Steel-toes shoes, Sar." He smiled, spinning them so she could see the people watching.
Watching the pair as they danced together with two gold wedding rings shining in the gold light.
Wise men say,
Only fools rush in
But I can't help
Falling in love with you.
Shall I stay?
Would it be a sin,
If I can't help
falling in love with you?
Like a river flows,
Surely to the sea.
Darling so it goes,
Something's are meant to be.
Take my hand,
Take my whole life too,
For I can't help falling in love with you.
For I can't help falling in love with you.
As the song closed, Nick pulled Sara into a kiss and the spectators applauded, some women smiling overly-brightly to fight the tears they felt escaping. After the applaud had finished the lead singer stood up with his microphone in hand:
"May the Groom's mother and the Bride's father please come up and dance with their children for the last audienced dance of the night before we truly get this party started."
Nick glanced over at Sara who was looking straight at him, everybody here knew Sara's father wasn't here, the fact that she'd given herself away had been the major clue in the puzzle but only a handful of the audience knew the real reason why the beautiful bride was the only person in the whole room with Sidle-blood.
Gillian emerged from the crowd in her fitting sky-blue dress, her red hair pinned back and a light cover of make-up on her face looking as young and as happy as many of the twenty year olds in the room, in fact had she not stepped into the floor at that moment no-one would have guessed she was the mother to seven children, the eldest of which being 40 years old; she smiled at her son and her newly appointed Daughter-in-law and joined her son on the centre stage.
An awkward moment lay as no-one came forth to claim the lady in white, she stood off to the side by a lot and was about to let Nick and his mother dance on their own when four things happened all at once.
Jim Brass stood up and straightened his tie, perfectly fine with dancing with Sara Stokes for in all of his life: She had been the most like a daughter to him.
Warrick Brown began his walk to the floor, not having his best friend who would forever be his little sister alone in a dance of such a matter.
Greg Sanders stood up and made his way towards the floor, happy to dance with Sara in whatever the occasion was, whether he was playing the role of a father she never had or being a best friend, there for her no matter what.
Bill Stokes took a step onto the wooden dance-floor and took Sara into his arms. If the man who'd been allowed the joy of having such a beautiful, smart daughter couldn't have realised that he was the luckiest man in the world before he begun the abuse Bill Stokes had heard everything of then he would gladly take the place of that man and be the Father of Sara Sidle-Stokes.
The band began to play a simple country song, it was just the melody and Sara had never heard of it before but as she danced with Nick's father he sang the lyrics in a silent voice. He danced as exquisitely as Nick, obviously taught well by Gillian who even Nick was having a hard time keeping up to.
"I'm very happy Nick chose you Sara." He smiled, twirling her and chuckling as she was caught by surprise."You are a Queen compared to some of the other girls he's been with."
"Thank you." Sara smiled, watching her feet in a desperate attempt not to step on Nick's father.
"Look up, and smile. Act as if you aren't dancing with the devil." Bill laughed; Sara was definitely one of the fun ones to tease.
"I'm sorry." Sara chuckled feebly, embarrassed thoroughly.
"It's no problem in the slightest."
The song came to a close and Nick swapped his Mother for Sara, whisking her off to the side.
"Why did I have to marry into a family that belongs in Strictly Come Dancing." Sara frowned, referencing the British Dancing tournament both her and Nick found fun to make fun of ever since they saw a clip which had been on some young girl's iPod that they had found when she died.
25th December 2005 02:04
"Sara!" The over-cheery unknown female voice made Sara turn around, only to see a bleach-blonde woman come bounding towards her, hung on the arm of a much elder man.
"I'm Loretta, Darling. Nick's sister, oldest sister I mean. And this is my husband Ethan." The woman-Loretta had such a bright lipstick smile, the exact shade of her coral pink dress. Sara had never met Loretta before but Nick had told her all about her, she was the oldest daughter of the Stokes Family, born when Gillian and Bill were only 17; she lived in Hollywood with her millionaire- director husband Ethan Scott who was a year older than Bill, something of which Gillian wasn't proud of. She was a big-built woman but was kept slender by the many Celebrity-Diets of Los Angeles, she was generally a nice woman, always smiled but as Nick had warned she generally pushed into others business, asked questions without mercy and could be a bit full on for anyone who didn't know her.
Sara glanced nervously around for Nick, hoping that at this moment her knight in shining armour could ride in and rescue her from the clutches of the blonde woman. She found him over in the corner chatting casually to Greg and Warrick, she tried helplessly to send telepathic messages and meet his gaze but after a moment she realised she would have to Sidle-up and face the woman and her husband.
"Hi." Sara smiled, brushing a strand of curly brown hair from her face.
"Darling, you're so cute." Loretta cried, "Isn't she cute Ethie."
Ethan nodded and looked back at his wife.
Sara however was cautious and slightly irritated, Loretta was a handful and she couldn't say she was anything like anyone else in Nicks family. She also didn't respond well to being called cute. She wasn't cute.
"Thank you." Sara smiled weakly.
"I'm so glad you married Nick, to reach such an age and not be married should be a crime. I had a few of my girlfriends from L.A lined up to meet him next time he flew in, a shame though they were looking forward to seeing him."
"The job doesn't really allow for much personal time." Sara reasoned, realising she'd been so incredibly lucky to manage to have a life outwith her work despite the irony of the fact she was married to her co-worker – a problem that did not go down well with Ecklie.
"Nonsense, you meet people every day."
"We meet people on the worst day of their life; no-body wants to find a relationship when someone has just died." Sara explained.
"Still, I can't see why you couldn't have met someone before, or perhaps you and Nick could have married sooner, you've known each other for what, ten years." Loretta scoffed.
"Nine years, but we only started dating seven years ago." Sara said.
"Darling, only isn't a word you use there. I knew Ethie for 2 months before we got married." Loretta laughed.
"We wanted to wait." Sara answered.
And so they had, their job involved too much loss as did their history. They wanted to make sure they had a Happy Ending before they even wrote the book.
25th December 2005 03:04
"The sun's coming up." Nick smiled, wrapping his arms around his new bride. "Do you think we should get everybody outside?"
"Is everything set?" She asked, turning around in his arms so they were face to face. Despite it being their Wedding they hadn't had many small moments together, they'd missed each other and even though they loved having everyone around they preferred the little moments they had alone, together.
"Table's set, band's set. Everything's ready." He chuckled, leaning in closer and inhaling her scent. She brought her head over his shoulder and leaned into his neck, planting tiny kisses on one spot on his neck. A spot that Nick felt was turning into Jelly.
"Do you want to tell everyone or shall I?" Sara asks, gesturing towards the empty microphone.
"Why don't we both do it Wife?" He smiled, the word "wife" sticking on his tongue at the unfamiliarity of it.
"Let's go then Husband." She said, with the same feeling as he. She laughed at the absurdity of calling each other Husband and Wife though, it was surreal both that she was married and could say things like that and surreal that they called each other husband and wife, titles never really spoken.
They held hands as they ran up the steps, Sara carefully holding her skirts in hand so she wouldn't trip on them. As they reached the microphone Nick tapped on it to get everyone's attention.
"Would everybody like to make their way outside?" Nick asked, giving no reason as to why they were leaving the warmth of the hall to waltz out into the freezing Winter Weather.
Sara smiled as she watched the crowd thread through the door and outside into the breaking dawn of Christmas Day.
Outside was a paved square, stretching on for metres in each direction, it was outlined by trees and woodland. The view you only found in the country. Not in the whirlwind lights of Las Vegas. In the centre of the square was a large pine tree decorated with large fairy lights and baubles and upon the very top was a gold star, it sparkled in the upcoming dawn and the lights stood out in the kaleidoscope of colours in the sky. As soon as everybody had emerged from the castle they had been in the band began to play a well known Christmas song and the crowd began to join in the song, until the crowd of people, standing before the over-sized Christmas tree were all in chorus, a harmony of voices singing.
'Cause I just want you here tonight
Holding on to me so tight
What more can I do
Baby all I want for Christmas is you'
"You're my favourite Christmas Present Sara." Nick smiled, placing his suit jacket over her shivering shoulders and kissing her cheek.
25th December 2005 04:04
Sara leant further into Nick as they rode in their "Santa's sleigh" that was being pulled by 7 horses to the hotel they were to stay at. It had been something Sara had planned for Nick when they first started planning the Wedding, something neither of them enjoyed in the slightest and to him it was the greatest surprise that finished off a perfect day with the best ending.
And he couldn't help but think that right now his life was perfect.
His wife was cuddled up to him as they rode in a carriage to their hotel.
They held each other's hands like they would never let go.
Both wore gold bands, a promise of a million days like this.
It was Christmas Day and seven years ago at this very moment they were breaking the fence of friendship as they tumbled into the cotton sheets, wondering if this was the right thing.
They were further than they ever believed they'd get in life.
They were married.
They were In Love.
They were perfect.
25th December 2005 05:04
He bent down and placed a chaste kiss on her lips, his body covered hers and her arms wrapped around his neck. A flimsy nightdress and a pair of cotton boxers was all that separated their skin and as they continued the kisses their skin was raging with fire and demanding. Nick brought a hand to Sara's shoulder and slowly, ever so slowly began to pull the thin strap down. Their lips never left contact with each other and with each different move of lips, of tongues, of teeth made everything more urgent.
"Wait, Nick." She protested, feeling his hand sliding back up her bare arm.
"What is it?" He asked, still making his fingers dance along her skin, her flesh tingling at the soft touches.
"I don't feel right doing it with your Mum and Dad next door and with your sister and her husband and the other, especially as Josie's with them." Sara said, hating how she managed to destroy the moment in one swift move.
"Oh, yeah." Nick remembered. Getting up and off of Sara.
"You don't mind?" Sara asked, rolling so she was in the crook of his arm, her head lying on his bare chest.
"No, I'd prefer it. I had forgotten Josie and my parents were beside us. Couldn't care less about my sister though, there's been enough stuff with me and her that means I'm not embarrassed by anything with her now." Nick chuckled.
"I really wanna know, but I'll not ask right now." Sara laughed, tracing patterns on his chest with her finger.
"I feel like I'm the luckiest man in the world." Nick announced, breaking a moments silence.
Sara only looked up at him.
"I love you Sara, marrying you has been the best moment of my life. Knowing that there is more moments like that to come is reason enough to feel this way, but knowing I get to love and live forever with my best friend is something that will always make me lucky."
"You're a hopeless romantic Nick Stokes, and I'm glad your mine." She smiled. "You make me the luckiest person ever to live."
"I love you." Sara finished.
"I love you too." Nick smiled, dropping a kiss into her hair before turning off the lights.
25th December 2005 06:04
There was a light knock at the door which woke Sara and Nick, they clambered out of bed and sleepily walked to the door to open it. On the other side of the door was a young, sleepy-eyed, freckled-face girl who stood barefoot on the once cream rug of the hallway.
"Josie?" Nick questioned, rubbing his eyes.
"Can I sleep with you Unkie Nick? Mummy and Daddy are being really loud." Josie asked, clutching a white teddy with pink letters spelling out Josie on its stomach.
Nick picked up Josie and Sara shut the door, yawning as she plodded behind the two, self consciously pulling down her nightdress in effort to appear modestly dressed in front of the nine-year old girl.
"What are they doing Josie-Jane?" Nick asked, wandering through to the bathroom which was the room right next to his sisters room.
"I don't know, being really loud. Like Bang-Bang-Bang!" Josie exclaimed, raising her voice so loud that Nick had to clamp a hand over her mouth to keep her from waking anymore people. Sara stood at the doorway of the bathroom as Nick stood in the centre with Josie on his hip.
As soon as the noises started up again Sara and Nick knew what they were, and it wasn't suitable for a nine-year old girl.
"So what are they doing?" Josie asked, covering her ears at the banging.
"Kissing." Nick replied.
"...The walls with hammers." Sara added, looking at Nick as he shot her an incredulous look.
"What a funny thing to do." Josie giggled, nesting into Nicks shoulder, content with having her question answered.
As Nick passed Sara he laughed.
"What?" She asked, shrugging her shoulders.
"Kissing the walls with hammers?" He repeated. "Seriously."
"I couldn't think of anything." She protested.
"Kissing was fine." He replied.
"What kissing do you know makes sounds like that." She asked, raising her eyebrows.
He was about to open his mouth with a suggestive comment but Sara clamped a hand over his mouth.
"Don't answer that."
