Meanwhile, back on earth…

July 2014 was a quiet month for the three angels. They were still summoned by their friends and family every so often, but it seemed that they did not need them quite so much. Rachel had settled in on Funny Girl, and although she had experienced feelings of boredom for a short while, she had overcome them due to a combination of sage advice from Kurt and Blaine, and a good dressing down from Santana. The latter was still working hard at the diner with Brittany and Sam. Some days it felt to her as if she had been working there forever. She had been rewarded with promotion to a supervisory role on a permanent basis. The owner was talking about retiring and he wanted to spend less time in the place. So he had shown her the basics of stock and staff planning - and so far, his trust in her had been repaid. He knew that she would soon be going to NYADA, and was quite prepared to tailor her hours to suit that. She had also had to deal with a crisis when she caught another employee with their hand in the register. It all meant that Jeff made his appearance on the regular rota far more quickly than he had imagined. With Santana spending much more time in the back, Sam found himself in charge out front more often, and he had risen to the challenge. The Spotlight Diner was going from strength to strength, and when retirement eventually came, whoever took over would be getting a thriving business.

Quinn was spending her summer in a small town in Virginia, close to the base on which Puck was currently stationed. Mike had left Chicago behind, and was spending his summer in Lima before heading to New York. Tina was there too, and they were spending as much time together as they could between Tina's summer job at Breadstix and Mike helping Burt out by doing the paperwork at the garage. Artie had also returned to Lima to make a film, with Kitty as his star - though Marley, Ryder, Jake and Unique all had parts too. They had all graduated from McKinley, leaving the New Directions in the capable hands of the next generation. It seemed like their glee club would be in safe hands with Jane, Roderick, Mason, Madison, Spencer and Alistair, given that they had helped them to a win at Nationals that year. Their own trophy was a bit of a bonus. Even Sue had been forced to congratulate Will on his second win in three years, given the circumstances. Kitty and Marley would both be heading to New York, to NYU and NYADA respectively. Ryder was also joining them, having won a football scholarship that would place him at the same college as Dave. Jake and Unique were heading to L.A., albeit to different schools. They would be far from their own friends, but there was no doubt that Mercedes, David and Thad would look out for them.

Those three were spending the month of July relaxing after a traumatic and hectic year. Once the trial had finished, Mercedes had been in the studio pretty much every hour of every day, even having to decline an invitation to Rachel's opening night. The latter had understood her reasons. David and Thad had been hard at it with college and part time jobs, but they had made time for a bit of fun now and then. Thad had spent a week in June in New York with Wes on the quiet - only David had known where he was, and he had been smuggled in and out of the building by Wes. He didn't want Santana finding out. At the same time, David had romanced Mercedes every night, and the two were now officially an item to their friends, family and most importantly, her record label. Life was good for them.

Beats and Flint had stayed in Princeton for the summer - both had jobs that had offered more or less full time hours if they did. Beats had one issue - he was getting more and more conscious that he could hear both Kurt and Blaine from time to time. He was more convinced than ever than that they were there. Flint had begun to realise that something was up, and had almost arranged for Beats to see the campus shrink out of his concern, as a friend - he loved him like a brother. The problem was, he had noticed that when Beats had his 'episodes' as he called them, he could feel draughts just before and just after. He hated to admit it, but maybe they both needed to see the shrink. In the end, he had confronted Beats about it, and after a heartfelt chat, they had resolved to speak to Wes about it when the wedding planning allowed - so that would probably be the night before the wedding.

For the four Warblers in the loft, the month had started of as a bit of an anti-climax. Having just spent four weeks in Europe for three of them - and four weeks in relative peace, working hard on his thesis, to the point that it was now almost complete, for Wes. It would have been finished if he hadn't invited Thad to come and visit, but it had been so good to spend time with him alone, free of any pressure of expectation, or an audience. It had been, Wes had to admit, the happiest week of his life to date. They had laughed, they had talked, they had shared secrets. It had ended with them still just friends; but best friends as Thad had put it cheesily. And yes, Wes might have kissed Thad lightly on the cheek at the airport departure gate whilst they were locked in a hug… But as ever, life had a funny way of throwing you a curve ball, and after Jeff had checked in with his tutor at college… well that was the start of another story. Those pictures were being carefully stored away were a certain Ms. Lopez could not discover them. As the month wore on, Nick found himself with less hours at the library as it grew quieter, but that allowed him time to start on his own reading list for college. Conversely, Jeff had more hours at the diner, but Santana tried her best to schedule him to work when Nick was also working.

Sebastian was of course getting ready to move in with Dave. He had fallen in love with the little apartment that Cooper had to rent out from the moment that he had seen it - the stained glass panels and the high ceilings had sold it, but the clincher had to be the old roll top bath that was so big that both he and Dave could fit into it comfortably. They knew because they had tried. Sebastian had always secretly envied Nick and Jeff's habit of sharing a bath - it was one which he hoped to start with Dave once they had their own place. He moved out on the last day of July - the tears that he, Nick and Jeff had shed that day were of sadness, not relief. It had been good fun living there, with the two boys he now regarded as his best friends, bonded as they were by what they had suffered at Hunter's hands. It was time for him to move on, and see if Dave really was the Jeff to his Nick. Four weeks of sharing hotel rooms in Europe seemed to indicate that he was. Wes would also be moving out slowly during August; Mike would move in mid month and there would be a very brief period when he and Wes would be sharing the room. Wes was glad that Mike was their new roommate - he was a calm, sobering influence. Either that, or he would end up as a mad as the two of them within 3 months tops. Personally, Wes had his money on the latter.

As August loomed ever closer, so preparations for Nick and Jeff's big day began to seriously dominate not just the lives of the two boys, but of all those around them. Even far away in Washington DC, wedding fever seemed to be spreading. Burt had to admit that Rory and Trent had both returned from Europe with a smile on their face. It took a week before everything came out, one quiet afternoon when Carole had popped in to see Burt. Rory told them how he had gone to see his mother against his own better judgement, and had been rejected and humiliated once again. How Trent had been with him, and when he found out what his mother had done, had charged up to the door and laid in verbally to her, at the top of his voice, airing her dirty washing in public. Burt had always liked Trent, but his admiration for the boy shot up tenfold when he heard what he had done. Rory then went on to mention the one sentence that he had overheard that meant everything - "The man that I hope one day to call my husband." No ring had been forthcoming yet, but Rory knew now that it was only a matter of time before it did. In fact, he had popped out in Dublin, and bought something, just in case. He pulled a little box out of his jacket pocket, and was rewarded with a gasp from Carole and a smile from Burt. This news, combined with the fact that his brother, Séamus, was moving to the States next year, made Rory as happy as a sandboy. Burt began to plan for another wedding there and then. It did seem strange to him that it was all the boys that wanted to get married and show their commitment to each other. He could only hope that another engagement might encourage some of the others…

One of those others was Cooper. Grace Duval had come into his life as a consequence of the trial, and now, less than 6 months on, he could not imagine his life without her in it. She was everything that he had ever hoped for in a girlfriend - smart, beautiful and more than able to hold her own in a conversation. Fate had been kind to them - Grace had got the job she had been in the city for, and she had accepted when Cooper had offered her the use of his spare room whilst she found her own place. She wasn't looking too hard for one, if at all. They had gelled so well as 'roommates', knowing when one of them needed to be alone and when company was required. She was quite happy after a day at work to come home and help him with his scripts for Kinky Boots, playing all the other parts most of the time; sometimes Nick and Jeff would appear for dinner and would help - Nick's talent for voices making the other dissolve into laughter, especially when he was reading Lola. Grace was also unperturbed by the fact that Cooper spent long periods of time at home, teetering around in the high heeled boots that Nick and Jeff had found for him in Edinburgh. She had seen the show, and knew that he needed to be able to strut about in them at the show's climax; and it was far better for him to tumble over at home than on stage. She kept good on her promise not to laugh - Blaine and Kurt had made no such promise though, and had positively hooted with laughter the first time that they saw him. They had been banned from watching him after that, but they carried on doing so in secret. They needed something to cheer them up after all.

Keeping busy was a major help to Kurt and Blaine, particularly when nothing amusing could be found. A lot of the time they found themselves on call for Nick and Jeff, as the reality of getting married hit them. There was far more to do than just show up at the New Yorker and say I do. Even with the services of the hotel's wedding planner, there were so many decisions to be made - colour schemes, menu choices, seating plans, flowers, musical performances and worst of all, the thorny question of attendants. Wes as head groomsman was obvious - he had been their leader and mentor for so long that neither of them could imagine a wedding without him there to manage any crisis that came up. They had also asked their respective best men whilst they were in Europe; Trent had just nodded and hugged Jeff, making him promise that when his day came, he would return the favour. Sebastian had burst into floods of tears when Nick asked him, unable to believe that he had been chosen. Since then, he had been a constant source of help. For ushers, they had asked Dave and Rory first, and then when they arrived back in New York, they had asked Cooper and Sam.

It was the groomsmaid issue that was the problem. They both wanted one, and for Nick the choice was simple. He could only ask Grace - who else? She had cried, and told him she would be honoured and delighted to stand at her brother's side on his wedding day. For Jeff, things were a bit more complicated - he didn't have a sister to ask. He toyed with the idea of inviting Santana to take the role, but did not want to risk causing offence to the other New Directions' girls, particularly not Rachel, who was missing two performances to attend. There was his cousin Flora, but he had only met her once and it just didn't seem right. In the end, Kurt had pointed out the best person to ask to take the job. Someone who would be only too pleased to be so closely involved in his big day. He told Nick what he was going to do, and he had agreed with it wholeheartedly. So Jeff had asked Elspeth if she would be his groomsmaid, and as Kurt had predicted, his mother was only too happy to agree.

Even with that potentially thorny issue out of the way, with the suits bought, the theme set and a whole mountain of suitable songs and music organised, things still crept up that could cause them stress. Counting vegetarians and vegans for the meal, and seeing to it that their meal was of a similar standard to everyone else's was not as easy as they had initially thought. Factor in religion and just plain old dislikes and it was all starting to get out of hand. They were glad that they lived in such a big city at moments like these - hotel staff were used to fuss over the menus and could offer the best solutions. At one point, Jeff had considered telling Nick that everyone could just bring their own food; then he had considered a buffet instead of a formal meal, though that did not really fit the theme. He was close to his breaking point, and it took more than the usual shared bath to calm him. The wedding planner had seen this and had offered up the perfect compromise - a selection of dishes from the normal restaurant menu, that could be ordered on the actual day of the wedding, prior to the start of the ceremony, and cooked to order. A cold starter, that could also be selected on the day, and a similar arrangement for dessert. It was perfect as it catered for everyone. As Nick put it, if anyone was still unhappy, they could call for a takeaway.

The wedding cake was one thing they would not compromise on. It was to have three tiers - one of traditional fruit, one of Victoria sponge and one double chocolate fudge, to give the biggest choice. Jeff had also requested mini cup cakes, including some to a vegan recipe, as this allowed for Rachel; and Kurt had also insisted that no wedding was complete without them.

Flowers were another issue. They had decided to avoid red and yellow roses, although both Kurt and Blaine had insisted that they had no problem with them using them. Nick and Jeff both identified them as Klaine's flowers, and they had seen the displays that had been prepared for their aborted wedding. They chose instead to go with a mixture of blues, pinks and purples - lilacs and forget-me-nots jostled with carnations in the small example arrangement that the hotel's florist had created for them. Kurt agreed it was nice, but then again, he was biased to his own favourite flowers. Buttonholes were a different matter, and after a quick chat, they had asked for red and yellow roses for a contrast. They had been rewarded by a delighted smile from Kurt and a big thumbs up from Blaine; Jeff and Trent would have the yellow, Nick and Sebastian the red. The ushers would be provided with carnations. Wes did pose an issue until the florist produced a variegated rose of red and yellow - and it was a done deal.

With their 1920's theme in place, and their clothes sorted - even down to the pile of Daltonesque bowties that had been bought in Selfridges - there still remained the issue of hair and music. All the images of the period showed dapper young men with slicked down hair - but as Jeff put it, "We don't all want to end up using a Blaine sized amount of gel - there would be a city wide shortage if we did." Once Blaine had come out of his huff, and Kurt had stopped laughing, the latter pointed out that gel was a modern concept, and they actually needed a hair cream or a pomade. They experimented one night in late July at the loft. Jeff went with the Brylcreem first - it left him looking totally wrong, his hair almost dark as it sat flat and wet on the top of his head. Wes walked in and asked him if he had just taken a shower. Nick just shook his head. He elected to test the pomade whilst Jeff was washing the product out of his hair. It left his hair neat, but without it looking like he had just been caught in a monsoon. It also managed to give it a glossy shine; and a faint smell of apples. It was given a thumbs up by Wes and Sebastian, and when he returned from the bathroom, it turned out that it was perfect for Jeff as well.