Maura awoke early the next morning to find that she had slept on the couch. A few empty bottles lay strewn across the floor close to her feet, and Rachael, Vivian and Cho were huddled up across the living room floor. She looked around the room, eyes bleary with sleep and tried to sit upright. As her body began to adjust to her sitting upright, her head began to violently throb, her hand rushing up and her eyes closing in pain. Dreading to think about how much she drank the night before, she stood up and made her way into the bathroom, filling up a tumbler with cold water and dropping two advil into the glass. Maura watched the effervescent bubbles rise and fill the glass as her brain began to slowly work and she realised what day it was. Her eyes widened in shock and she looked at the watch on her wrist, which displayed the time as 07.30AM. "Shit!"

The sound of her voice resonated through the apartment, waking the three sleeping bodies in the living room.

"What's wrong?" Vivian asked as she sat up.

Maura came out of the bathroom and ran into the living room. "It's 7.30! We're going to be late!"

"Shit. How much wine did we drink last night?" Rachael rubbed her head as she sat up.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Cho bolted upright and ran for the bathroom, his hand covering his mouth in an attempt to not throw up over Maura's expensive furniture.

"You can say that again," Maura panted heavily, trying to regulate her breathing to stop hyperventilation.

"It's going to be okay. There's plenty of time – we'll be fine," Vivian stood up, making her way towards Maura. Her arm reached out to try and soothe the medical examiner.

"The stylist will be here at 8.15, and the cars will be arriving at 9.15 and...and –"

"We shouldn't have had those last two bottles of wine," Rachael groaned as she sat down on the couch, resting her head in her hands. "Hangover central."

Cho returned from the bathroom, his face pale and sat besides Rachael on the couch.

"Right," Vivan said, taking charge of the situation. "You," she pointed at Maura. "Shower." "I'm going to put a pot of coffee on, and then we'll sort everything out," She braced Maura by the shoulders and frog-marched her towards the bathroom. "Okay? Trust me. It'll be fine."

Maura nodded and smiled as she turned into the bathroom, locking the door behind her and turning the shower on. Vivian started on the pot of coffee as the doorbell rang. Rachael stood up to answer it and opened it to find the courier delivering Maura's flowers. She signed for the delivery and brought the bouquets into the living room. Maura's bouquet was made up of roses and lilies; a mixture of ivory and apricot flowers to match the champagne colour of her dress. Vivian and Rachael had a small mixture of apricot lilies and Cho had a cream-coloured rose to put into the button-hole of his suit. Since Maura had no biological family attending, she had picked Vivian and Rachael to be her bridesmaids and Cho was going to walk her down the aisle.

Maura stepped out of the shower and sat down on the side of the bathtub. She rested her head in her hands and tried to stop her stomach from doing somersaults. She was beginning to regret her choice of location for the wedding. It was the one thing that Jane said Maura should pick, having been in some of Boston's finer establishments – I know you'll pick a better place for us to get married than I will, babe. You should choose the location. Maura hadn't accounted of being hung-over on the morning of her wedding when she had taken their wedding venue into consideration. Instead she had called up one of her old friends from college, Simon, who she knew had a yacht docked at the marina. The yacht could hold up to 350 people which was ample for their guest list, and he had agreed almost instantly. They had settled on a price, and that was that. Except now, she was already feeling sea-sick and she hadn't yet left her bathroom.

A couple of minutes later, a knock on the bathroom startled Maura and she opened the door and crept her head around the side of it, only to see Cho standing there with a cup of coffee and her cell phone. "Angela's on the phone, do you want to speak to her?"

Maura nodded and took the phone and the coffee with thanks, before closing the door behind her again. She sipped the coffee and felt the dark liquid making its way through her body. "Hello?"

"Maura? Hey! How are you?" Angela's voice was way too cheery for Maura's liking.

"I'm not feeling too great, if I'm honest with you," Maura said, sipping some more of the coffee and saying a silent prayer to whichever God was listening.

"Nervous? Jane is too, even though she won't admit it. I was just calling to see how you were."

"I've just gotten out of the shower, and I certainly feel like I'm about to vomit," Maura said, leaving the question open. She didn't want to be the one to piss Angela off by telling her that she was about to marry her daughter with a tremendous hang-over.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. You're going to look stunning in that dress of yours. I'll see you later, okay."

"Bye, Angela," Maura started.

"Mom, remember? Mom!"

Maura laughed down the phone, and she could hear Jane in the background apologizing profusely for her mother's behaviour. "Sorry. Bye, Mom." She placed the phone on top of the laundry basket and splashed her face with water, before finishing her coffee and brushing her teeth. She made her way out of the bathroom and into the bedroom, changing her underwear and putting some pajamas on. Just as she made her way out into the living room, the doorbell rang and Cho walked the hair stylist into the living room. Vivian ducked out of the room to take a shower, with Rachael declaring that she would be next and Cho should be last as men should only take 'ten minutes tops' in the shower.

Maura had insisted that she would do her own hair and make-up, but Angela was having none of it and offered to pay for the stylist to arrive at her apartment. No daughter-in-law of mine is going to spend the morning of her wedding worrying about what she looks like. Both Maura and Jane had rolled their eyes and agreed with Angela for arguments' sake, deciding it was better to not argue with her when she had her mind fixed on something. Maura had decided on a half-up, half-down hairstyle, loose curls framing her face slightly with the most of her hair swept back and pinned back into place. It took about twenty-five minutes to complete, by which time both girls had showered and Cho was just turning the water on in the bathroom. The stylist stepped back and Maura checked her hair in the mirror to make sure everything was perfect. When she had decided it was, she sat back down and the stylist began to work on her make-up. Vivian and Rachael were fixing theirs as Cho emerged from the bathroom and made his way into the guest bedroom to get dressed. Maura's make-up consisted of mainly neutral colours; gold eye shadow shimmered in the hollow of her eyelid's, enhancing the colour of her eyes. Rose-coloured lipstick lined her lips, and her cheeks had a blush tint to them. Looking in the mirror at herself, she couldn't help but be glad she no longer resembled one of the many corpses she had performed autopsies upon. She thanked the stylist who wished her well and left quickly so they could get dressed. Maura checked her phone for the time, and any messages she was hoping Jane had left for her.

There were no messages on her phone, so she typed out a quick message to Jane. 'I love you, see you soon :-) xo' The time on the front of her screen flashed 08.56AM in large white letters and she suddenly felt nauseous again. The boat was to leave the dock at 10AM and although they didn't live too far from there, Maura was beginning to panic about traffic and whether they would get there on time. The Rizzoli residence was closer to the dock than they were so she wasn't too worried about Jane and the Rizzoli's getting there on time. By this point, Rachael, Vivian and Cho were all dressed and ready to go; they were just waiting on Maura. She had asked Vivian to help her get dressed, normally she would have been fine but she didn't want to mess her hair or get make-up on her expensive dress so figured it would be better to have some help.

Vivian and Maura left Rachael and Cho trying to figure out how to fasten Cho's rose into the lapel of his suit and made their way into Maura's guest bedroom, where she had been keeping the dress.

"How are you feeling?" Vivian asked, as she unzipped the zipper on the case.

Maura nodded, "Better than before. The tablets have begun to work and my veisalgia seems to be reducing."

"Good," Vivian replied, taking the dress out of the bag. "Maura, this is absolutely gorgeous."

Maura nodded, taking the bottom of it in her hands, stroking the fabric which was smooth to the touch. "It is, isn't it?"

"I dread to think how much you paid for it," Vivian laughed, in a throwaway manner.

"$9,875.00," Maura stated, as if it were nothing. Vivian's jaw almost hit the ground with shock.

"I'm not sure I should be handling it at that price!" Vivian unzipped the material carefully, as if she were going to break it.

"Nonsense, it's perfectly durable. You're not going to break it unless you intend on doing so," Maura turned around to pull the knee-length white tulle underskirt on first, removing her pajama bottoms in the process. The dress was strapless so it was easily slipped on as her pajama top was removed, and the dress slid down her body perfectly. The tone of the dress complimented her skin colour and hugged her silhouette elegantly. Vivian zipped up the back and fastened the dress-buttons over it to disguise the zipper and Maura turned around to face her; arms extended. "Well?"

"Maura, you look absolutely gorgeous. Stunning," She walked forward and hugged the medical examiner, wiping a few tears from the corner of her eyes.

"Thank you. I was hoping that would be the case." She held on to Vivian's arms as she steadied herself to slip her feet into the pair of Champagne Jimmy Choo heels that were lined up against the base of the guest bed. Turning around to face herself in the floor-length mirror that was stood up against the armoire, she admired herself in the mirror. She sucked a deep breath in and let it out slowly, "I hope Jane likes it."

Vivian stepped up behind her and smiled, "Jane would have to be an idiot not to."

Maura smiled and turned around, hugging Vivian once more. "Thank you for your help this morning. I couldn't have gotten ready in time without you."

A knock on the door revealed Rachael standing there, announcing that the cars were there and waiting for them. She practically ran up to Maura and enveloped her in a hug when she saw her stood there. "Maura! You look gorgeous!"

Cho appeared in the doorway quickly, a huge smile across his face. "Well, Jane is certainly a lucky woman, isn't she?" He kissed Maura on her cheek quickly, and handed her the bouquet of flowers, before giving Vivian and Rachael theirs. "Time to go, ladies."

Just a quick one for tonight! More tomorrow, unless the dentist sedates me in which case it will be the weekend :-)