A/N: The reason this story has been updating so slowly is that I tend to get really stuck when I'm writing it (like as bad as my current writer's block with "Of Love and Vampires" is). So, rather than risk a situation like with that story where it's been on hiatus for six months, I've been posting the chapters of this story at a much slower pace so that I never have to put it on hiatus.

Anyway, that's all moot now as I finished writing the epilogue today. Woot! And of course that means that I'm going to change how often I post it. I'm giving you this chapter today, as that's what I promised. But after this week, this story will alternate posting with "A Second Neko". This means that Chapter 12 will be posted in three weeks (4/27), and after that, new chapters will come out every other week.

Now, I'm pretty sure that you're all excited for a wedding...

.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

I stared at my brother in shock and horror as he unilaterally determined the date of my wedding. "Friday?! Nii-san! That's way too soon!"

My outburst was met with a stern glare. "Lenalee, you're already starting to show. We need to do this now, while Central is still ignorant of the pregnancy."

I squirmed slightly under his gaze and placed my hand on my baby bump. Nii-san had said things like that several times during my pregnancy, but this was the first time he said it where I was the pregnant one, and it felt awful to have him so disappointed in me. "But that's nowhere near enough time to properly prepare a wedding! Can't it wait just a couple weeks?!"

Allen placed his right hand on top of mine and wrapped his other arm around my shoulders. "Lena, it's ok. It's all already been taken care of."

I blinked at him. "Huh?"

He smiled brightly at me. "You didn't think I just sat around doing nothing when I was here alone, did you? Your brother and I have been putting the wedding together for a while now. Whenever you would go out on a mission, we'd get together and work on it. We knew this was going to have to happen fast, so we've put a lot of work into making sure it would be ready."

I pulled Allen's hand off my belly and clasped it tight. "Look, Allen, that's really sweet of you, but it just makes things worse. You don't know what I want."

Lavi laughed at us. "She's right, buddy. You don't mess with a girl's wedding fantasy. She's probably been planning this since before you got engaged."

Allen snorted and threw a balled up napkin at him. "I know. I found the notebook."

It took a second for me to process what he said. "You read my notebook?!"

He smirked at me. "Of course I did. I wasn't going to prepare our wedding in secret without making absolutely sure I knew what you wanted first."

I narrowed my eyes at him. Despite the appreciation I felt for what he had done, I felt a little violated that my fiancé had gone through my private things. "So you went snooping through my stuff until you found something that would tell you what that was?"

"No! Of course not!" Allen's silver eyes were wide with horror as he denied it. "I found it on accident. I stumbled across it in the desk drawer when I was looking for a pencil."

It was an honest answer, but I was still a little pissed. "And you read it? What if that had been my diary?!"

Allen scowled at me. "Lena, it was very clearly labeled as your wedding notebook. I wouldn't have even touched it if I thought it might have been something else."

Lavi laughed, obviously enjoying our argument. "He's got you there, Lena-lady. The Bean Sprout would never so much as touch something he thought might be your diary, let alone read it."

"Don't call me that! My name is Allen!"

While Allen yelled at Lavi, Komui placed a hand on my shoulder. "See, it's all taken care of. You've got nothing to worry about."

I frowned at him. "I'll believe it when I see it."

.x.x.

The next forty-eight hours were a flurry of activity as Allen and I worked nonstop to get everything ready for our wedding. We were back to our usual selves before that first day was over; the body swap all but forgotten. It turned out that they were telling the truth, and I was, begrudgingly, impressed with what they had done. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty close; closer than I thought possible given the circumstances.

My dress was the only real source of disappointment. Having lived in Europe for most of my life, I wanted some elements of my Chinese heritage in my wedding. The most important one was my dress: I wanted to wear a Chinese dress, in the traditional wedding colors of red embroidered in gold. But that couldn't happen. I was showing too much for the form-fitting Chinese style.

So instead I was stuck with a white, Western style gown. It was actually a nice dress; I was just upset because it wasn't my first choice. Allen had apparently also been meeting with Johnny to make sure that the dress did more than just fit right. It looked amazing on me and hid my bump flawlessly; even if our wedding didn't happen for another month, no one would be able to tell I was pregnant.

Thursday evening was hard. With the preparations finished, all that was left to do was wait until morning. I wanted to spend the time with my fiancé, since I had barely seen him since the morning we switched back to our own bodies. However, because everyone knew that we were back to normal and that we were getting married in the morning, we couldn't share a room that night.

Instead, Lavi dragged Allen away for what he called a 'stag night'. Apparently, it was a British custom that he thought Allen would appreciate. They were going to grab Kanda, get drunk, and celebrate Allen's last night as a single man. I wanted to go just to watch it fall apart; Allen wasn't going to let a drop of alcohol pass his lips, Kanda was going to be uncooperative, and Lavi was going to be overbearing and annoying. Then Allen and Kanda would have one of their usual fights, and it would end with one of the three storming off. I couldn't help calling after Lavi as they left. "Tell Kanda that if he hurts Allen in any way tonight then he's going to have to answer to me. I need my fiancé in top form tomorrow morning!"

The redhead waved to acknowledge that he heard me, and then they were gone. I sighed heavily and leaned back against my door. Now what do I do?

I was pulled from my thoughts by nervous giggling. Looking up, I spotted Miranda watching me and carrying a small bag. She smiled shyly at me. "Noise told me what the boys were planning. I thought you might like some company tonight."

I smiled gratefully at her. "That sounds great."

Her nervous smile stayed as I led the way into my room. "I was going to bring wine, but Noise told me that you don't drink alcohol, so I left it behind."

I panicked briefly at that. Did he tell her that I'm pregnant? But Miranda just continued to babble. "I'm so excited for you! You and Allen were made for each other! It's going to be amazing having another married couple around. Though if you don't mind me asking, why are you having the wedding so soon after switching back? I would think you'd want to wait until you lose the weight your body gained while Allen was in it."

At least I now knew that Marie had kept his promise and didn't tell her about the baby; she clearly thought I was overweight like the rest of the Order did. It was very much like Miranda to say it like that too; she was incapable of blaming anyone for anything, especially if that person was Allen. Deciding that with the wedding in less than twelve hours it wouldn't hurt to tell her the truth, I smiled nervously at her. "Allen did this to me long before he got stuck in my body."

The German woman clearly didn't get what I was saying, and the subject dropped. She returned to babbling about how excited she was, and after a few minutes, I had forgotten that I'd tried to tell her. Until half an hour later, when Miranda suddenly bolted upright from where she was lounging and stared at me. She looked like she'd seen a ghost and that scared me. "Miranda? What's wrong?"

She spluttered momentarily before she finally found her voice. "You- You're- you're pregnant?!"

I gaped at her for a second before I recalled that I had tried to tell her. Then I sighed happily and placed my free hand on my bump. "Yeah. Almost eighteen weeks."

Miranda practically threw herself at me as she sobbed tears of joy. It took ten minutes to get her to calm down to the point where her words were understandable again, and another five before those words made sense.

The rest of the night was spent talking about baby things. Miranda wanted to know absolutely everything about my pregnancy. It was especially awkward since I didn't know the answers to some of her questions. And when I actually said, "I don't know, I'll have to ask Allen," out loud, that led to an even more awkward explanation as to why my fiancé knew my pregnancy better than I did.

Despite the awkwardness, it was still a pleasant evening. I hadn't yet talked about my pregnancy with another woman (aside from Hevlaska and the Head Nurse, but those were exams, so they don't count), and that was a nice change of pace.

.x.x.

Morning finally came and I woke early, much too early for getting ready. I went down to my brother's office, worrying about whether or not everything was perfect. In the middle of all that, there was a knock at the door. I let Komui answer it, not knowing or caring who was there, until I heard Allen's voice. "Is Lenalee here?"

"She is, but you can't see her. It's bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding."

Allen stopped Komui from closing the door on him, holding it open with his Innocence hand. "That's only if she's already in her dress. And I've already seen it on her, as I was the one doing the fittings, so it's pointless to be superstitious about that now. Besides, I just want to make sure that she ate breakfast this morning, that's all."

Komui took one look at me, figured out that I had skipped breakfast, and pushed me out into the hall. It wasn't until he spoke to Allen that I realized that I had been bothering him. "Keep her busy for at least half an hour and then it'll be late enough that she can start getting dressed."

Allen grabbed my hand and pulled me to the cafeteria. He was smiling brightly, clearly excited for the wedding, whereas I was just nervous. He entertained me through breakfast with stories of their party the night before. I had been right about him not drinking, but I had been wrong about him and Kanda getting into a fight. Neither really wanted Lavi's idea of a party, so the two teamed up to get the redhead so plastered that he made a complete fool out of himself.

It was fun to listen to, and it made me wish I had actually been there to see it, but what I really wanted was to go make sure that everything was ready for our wedding. It was distracting though, and before I knew it, Allen was deciding that enough time had passed, and that I had properly fed our child, and he was letting me go.

I spent the rest of the morning with my bridesmaids, Miranda and Emilia, doing my hair and makeup. They helped me to make sure that everything was absolutely perfect. Then I changed into my dress, and Emilia pinned my veil into my hair.

Then my brother came and escorted us down to the waiting room next to the chapel. All that was left to do was wait for the ceremony to start. It was only ten minutes but it felt so much longer than that. I could hear everyone gathering in the chapel next door, and that only added to my nerves.

Then there was a knock at the door, and Secretary Leverrier and five other men from Central walked into the room.