a/n: i've got one more chapter, that's kind of like an epilogue-y thing and then i'm done with this story. so i hope you enjoy this.
and can i just say that i've got a stupid song stuck in my head (lullaby by the dixie chicks) which a CERTAIN PERSON reading this got stuck in my head in the first place. so to that person, i blame you.
once again, it's not mine
They were married two months later, after what would have been a whirlwind romance if it hadn't been six years in the making.
The ceremony was beautiful, white roses everywhere. They were married in a small chapel on September tenth, precisely six months after Addison's return to Seattle. It was small, only Alex's mom, Addison's father (her mother had died the year before), Richard and Adele, Savvy and Weiss, Derek and Meredith, Christina and Burke, and a couple of Alex's old college friends. Izzie was Addison's maid of honor, and Callie, who had flown in with George from Miami where they were now living, Naomi and Miranda were her other bridesmaids. Denny and Alex had become closer over the course of time and Denny was Alex's best man. Aiden and Amaryl were flower girls, one because Addison wanted them to be, and two, they didn't do anything without the other. The only person absent was Mark, but he hadn't even been invited, as per Addison's request. He hadn't even attempted to talk to Aiden and Addison figured she had a right to refuse to invite him to her wedding.
While she was walking down the aisle she looked so happy, so confident that she was making the right decision, that Alex could hardly believe that the night before she had almost called the whole thing off.
----
Aiden was at Izzie and Denny's, where she would be spending the next few nights, and the bachelor/ bachelorette parties were over and done with. Alex was sitting in his and Addison's bed watching TV. She came from the bathroom where she had been brushing her teeth and sat down next to him, laying her head on his chest while he wrapped his arms around her. "Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked, obviously referring to the wedding.
"Do you not want to?" he asked her back instead of answering that loaded question.
"I- I don't know," she answered truthfully. That was their thing; in times where honesty was of the utmost importance, they had to be completely truthful.
"Do you want to call it off?"
"I don't know," she answered.
"Hate to pressure you, Adds, but you kind of need to make a decision like now."
"You're okay if I do?"
"As long as you don't go running off to some distant country and fall in love with another guy, then yeah, I'm okay with it. My only condition is that if you call it off, you have to stay with me, because I'm not letting you go, not again."
"You won't hate me?"
"As long as you're happy. If you're not ready then we can always get married later. And even if you decide later tomorrow that you are ready, there's always Vegas."
"One, I am not getting married in Vegas," she informed him. "Callie may be able to embrace the trashy, but I am not. And secondly," she said and takes a deep breath. "I'm not calling it off. This wedding is happening whether you want it to or not."
"I want it to; you're the one with the cold feet."
"I am not. I do not have cold feet."
"You have lukewarm feet."
"What?" Addison laughed.
"Well, I figure that if you can have cold feet, then if you kind of have cold feet then you have lukewarm feet. I don't know. Don't listen to me."
"I rarely do," she smirked.
"Funny," he retorted. "But let's see how funny you think it is now!" he exclaimed, pinned her to the bed and promptly began to tickle her. She shrieked. "Shh!" he hissed. "It's like two in the morning and you're screaming like a madwoman."
"Not my fault," she panted. "All yours."
"Well, you're the one screaming. I didn't force you to shriek."
"Hey Alex?"
"Yeah?"
"Shut up and kiss me."
He gladly did.
----
The vows were said, the rings exchanged, the first dance danced. Addison was sitting happily on her husband's lap, not caring about the looks her father kept sending her, the ones that told her she had a perfectly good chair not a foot away. He had never really, truly forgiven her for the divorce, Derek was the son he never had, but it was her wedding and she would sit in her husband's lap if she felt like it, damn it.
"My dad's glaring at us again," she commented.
"Addison?"
"Yeah?"
"Seriously, I don't care. I mean, I care that your dad likes me and all, but I don't care if he doesn't. I'm your choice, not his. You chose me, he didn't. I get it. As long as you're sitting right where you are, I'm good."
Addison pinched herself. "Ow," she winced.
"Now why the hell would you go and do something like that?"
"You're too good to be true," she informed him. "I have to be dreaming. I'm going to wake up back in the brownstone in New York to another day of being ignored by my husband."
"Not to my knowledge," Alex replied. "And you're not going to be ignored by your husband."
"And you would know."
"Well, yeah… I am said husband. I would know."
"You can't possibly be said husband. I don't deserve said husband."
"You deserve said husband," he contradicted her and kissed her.
"Aww! George! Look at the newlyweds!" Callie exclaimed happily.
Addison pulled away and glanced up at her friend. "Hi," she said.
"You're glowing," Callie told her. "She's glowing," Callie told George.
"Um… thank you?"
"It's a good thing, don't worry. It means you made the right choice."
"I never doubted it," Addison protested.
"You did," Alex disagreed.
"Did not." She could block out anything she wanted to, and she was choosing to block out her "lukewarm feet".
"You did."
"I did not!"
"You did."
"Okay, one, you two bicker too much to be newlyweds. You sound like you've been married for twenty years, not an hour. And two, Alex, why would even want to remember that she had doubts? I'm just curious."
"I don't," he said, "I just want to be right for once."
Callie snorted. "Oh, get used to being wrong. Get very used to being wrong."
"Great. Can't wait," Alex said sarcastically.
"Oh don't worry," Addison consoled him. "You're not wrong all the time, just most of it."
"Good to know. And this time, I'm right."
"No you're not."
"Yeah I am."
"Are you two even capable of having a mature conversation?" Callie asked.
"Yes," Addison said at the same time Alex said no.
"Sorry, Addie, but I think Alex is right in this one," Callie said.
Addison gasped, her mouth hanging open comically. "I'm not talking to you anymore!" she exclaimed. "You're supposed to take my side against my husband!" The statement would have been a lot more effective if she hadn't burst out laughing.
"Okay, you've become Scary-Happy Addison. I'm leaving now," Callie said. "Have fun."
"Mommy! Daddy!" Aiden called as she ran up. Addison picked her up, so they were both sitting on Alex. "Mommy, can I see your rings again?" Aiden was fascinated by the glittering bands. Addison laughed and held out her hand. "They're so pretty!"
"Aren't they?"
"I like this one," Aiden said, pointing to her engagement ring.
"Your daddy did a good job, didn't he?"
Aiden turned around even further. "You did a good job, Daddy."
"Thanks, Aidie."
"Okay, well, bye guys!" Aiden exclaimed, wiggling out of her mother's grasp.
"That child is hyperactive," Alex commented.
"I know. I love it."
"I love her."
"I know you do. You know what kind of surprised me about you?"
"What?"
"You're a really great dad."
"It's surprising?"
"Well, yeah. I mean, you were the one who slept with me then screamed at me. It's not exactly the stuff of dreams. I kind of really hated you."
"I don't blame you."
"Good."
"I love you."
"I love you too."
Sometimes, it takes you painful years to get there, but in the end, life gets you where you want to be.
reviews?
-Lauren
