-1What Happens In Vegas ...

Las Vegas, Nevada

"Blech. I finally get to see the ocean and now this? Nothing but desert for miles on end?" Paige made a truly hideous face. "What a tease."

"That's weird," Jay pondered, "The stalls in the guys' bathroom say the same thing about you."

Craig stifled his laughter. He didn't want to encourage Jay - or infuriate Paige, for that matter - but it was a clever line. Besides, he was in a pretty good mood. They all were. Their day at the beach had left them calm and refreshed, as if something cleansing had been in the water.

"I can see your smirk," Paige informed him but she, too, was grinning good-naturedly. "I'd rather you two go back to barely tolerating each other if you're gonna get all buddy-buddy and then just gang up on me."

"What can I say? You're an easy target," Jay shrugged.

"Don't make me turn this car around," she threatened. She'd convinced Craig to let her keep driving until the next rest stop. There was something about having her hands on the steering wheel and the road stretched out in front of her that made Paige feel free. "It's a long way back to Canada and I know you wanna see Vegas."

"Actually." Sean removed his earphones so that everyone could hear the Eagles blaring before he shut down his iPod. "I don't quite get the Vegas thing. We're not old enough to gamble. What's the point?"

"The list doesn't say anything about gambling," Emma explained, not meeting his eyes, but not ignoring the question either. It was a definite step up from where they'd been a day ago. "It just says Vegas. We can walk the Strip, see a show ..."

"Ooh. What kind of show?" Jay's eyebrows waggled suggestively, causing both Manny and Emma to take half-hearted swats at him. "Just wondering!"

Manny gasped in delight. "Oh my God! Em! Hello? Do you remember what we used to always say we wanted to do if we ever went to Las Vegas?"

It took a minute, but the memory came. "Be witnesses at a wedding! But the priest had to be an Elvis impersonator. We were very specific about that part."

Manny nodded, a gleam in her eye. "What do you say? It could be fun."

"Right. The stupid idea you guys had when you were thirteen is sure to be hugely entertaining for all of us." Jay rolled his eyes. Who would've thought he'd end up being the brains of this operation? "Do you even know what the second easiest thing to do in Vegas is?"

"After gambling?" Sean took a moment to consider. "Getting lost?"

"Getting booze," Jay corrected. "Come on. We've been on the road for a solid week. I can't be the only one who wants to unwind a bit."

Everyone looked to Emma for a decision. As the mastermind of the entire trip, she was automatically given leadership rights whenever a choice presented itself. A grin spread slowly across her face. "I say, we're goin' to the chapel."

XXX

"Hey, Cameron, I dare you to stand up when they ask for objections," Jay proposed, leaning across Emma and Manny to deliver the challenge.

From Sean's other side, Paige fixed him with a withering stare. "We're in Vegas, idiot. I think they skip most of the formalities."

"I hope so," Craig whispered to her, "I'm bored already."

"You know, for all those cute songs you write, you're not much a romantic," she observed, arching a brow.

"My songs are not cute!" He looked aghast at her choice of adjectives, as if it was a personal attack against him. "They're … hip and edgy."

Paige laughed. "Please. Face it, Manning, since you've been back with Ashley and left all your lady troubles in the past, you've lost your edge. You don't have the 'it' factor anymore."

He looked away. "Yeah. Guess so."

Before she could question his noncommittal response, Jay stood up and announced, "I'll be right back."

Manny grabbed his wrist to keep him in place. "It's starting soon!"

"Yeah, well, I'm not exactly vital to the process, now am I?" He disentangled himself and worked his way out of the pew. "Hey, look, here comes the bride. Enjoy, guys."

The ceremony did not disappoint. The priest did a dead-on Elvis (pre-fatsuit, an added bonus). The bride was giggly on champagne, slumping against her soon-to-be husband for support. He was steadier on his feet, but slurred almost every word he attempted so that even his 'I do' was more of a hiccup.

The group burst out of the chapel in hysterics, showering the newlyweds with rice. When the cab had pulled away, Manny sighed happily. "Well, it was everything I thought it'd be." She looked to Emma. "You?"

"Better," she confirmed. "I never pictured Jay there, tying condoms to the back of a taxi."

"I was fresh out of tin cans," he defended. "And besides, you don't want those two reproducing any more than I do."

"The man's got a point," Sean agreed.

"Oh, I've got a whole lot more than a point." Jay's grin belied the fact that he was very, very pleased with himself. "I picked us up a little something else while I was hitting the convenience store. Come on, it's a surprise."

Exchanging wary glances, they followed him back to the hotel room.

XXX

"Alcohol?" All of Emma's dismay was apparent in that one word. Her brown eyes were wide with shock and a tinge of disappointment. "You bought us alcohol?"

"Technically, a fifty-year-old businessman bought it," Jay explained. "But yes. I thought we could all do with a little tension release."

"I don't know why she looks so shocked," Paige said to Manny, crossing her arms. "It's Jay, Degrassi's favorite juvenile delinquent since Sean converted."

"I couldn't have asked for a greater honor," the boy in question murmured, not looking up from his self-appointed job of bartending. The liquor flowed smoothly from the bottle into the six Dixie cups he'd lined up on the window sill. "So? Who's in?"

"I, for one, think it's the greatest idea he's had yet," Craig declared, taking a swig from his cup and then lifting it into the air. "May I propose a toast? To … to the trip of a lifetime. And to the man who inspired it."

He didn't have to wait long for the rest to join him. Emma took her cup from Jay's hands a bit reluctantly and Paige wrinkled her nose after sniffing the contents but no one refused. "To Simpson," Jay pronounced, downing his first shot. "May he rest in peace."

"And may we find ours," Sean added, his eyes on Emma. Tipping her glass to him in acknowledgement, she drank.

To Be Continued …