The pledging/wedding Pt.1
S-pov
"Are you nervous?" I asked Lily, as we sat and got our nails done for the ceremony tonight.
"No, why would I be? Were you nervous before you pledged and married Eric?" She asked. I had to smile at that.
"I was terrified. However, I had no idea how special and rare our bond was and our pledging was done in a kind of necessary haste, but as for the wedding… I guess I was worried I was giving up my whole life to be with him. When in reality, I was gaining a life because what I had before we were together was just a never ending string of heart ache, loss, and pain." I thought back to how stupid I had been and how awful I was to Eric back then. But I know everything happens for a reason and it all came out okay in the end.
"I was a slave before, so anything would be a step up." We laughed. "Pam says I'm "marrying up". I don't know what that is, but she says it's good." I had to laugh at that.
"Mrs. Sookie, what color for the toes?" Izzy asked me.
"Blood red for both of us," I replied and reached to hand her the bottle.
We sat making small talk as our hair and make-up was also completed. Then, we walked up to the bridal sweet/Pam's room to get her dress on.
"Alex is awake. He is very excited, I can feel it." She said, rubbing her stomach. I could hear her thinking about how excited she is to have a baby and that she is glad to have me around to show her what to do. She is sad that she never knew her mother or father, but she thinks they would be proud and happy that she has me to show her how to be a good wife and mother. I started to tear up and I launched at her with a hug.
"I'm glad to have you also," I squeaked in her ear.
"What? I'm confused." She just looked at me.
"Sorry, I was reading your thoughts… it was an invasion of your privacy, but I just slipped. Sorry," I said.
"No big deal, at least now you have no doubts about how I feel." We laughed, and then Pam burst into the room wearing a headset with Amelia following behind her holding a hot pink clip board and a hello kitty pen. The pen even had a small tassel hanging off of it with a dangling kitty charm that made tiny clacking noises as she wrote.
"We have 1 hour until the ceremonies and Alex is about to tattle on me. I punched him in the face because he was being insufferable. Don't worry; he will heal well before the event. This is my day and I will not let him spoil my moment by insisting on seeing Lily before the ceremony. It is bad luck." Pam stated, I just looked at her and rolled me eyes.
"Pam, don't hit your brother," I scolded.
"I'll try," she replied half-heartedly.
I sighed, "This is not your day." She looked taken back from my statement.
"Yes, it is. Master said I could plan my dream wedding since Lily had no preference. This is my day." She had a look on her face that just made me shake my head. This, in her eyes, was her day. I will let her have it as long as she doesn't get too carried away. I doubt Lily would care even if she did, because she is just that laid back.
"Is her dress ready?" I asked, Pam touched her head set and spoke into it. "What's the ETA on the precious cargo?" At least she never does anything half assed, I thought to myself.
"It's en-route and should be here in 7 minutes. Let's strip her down and get her under things ready. Sookie, you strip too. They also have your dress," she said, pointing at our little white track suits. She and Amelia were already perfectly quaffed and dressed. Someday I want to know how she manages to get ready so fast and look so perfect.
We stripped down and I pulled out the little box containing Lily's under things and unwrapped the tissue paper. I pulled out the little red bustier first, then the microscopic red thong, and the garters and stockings for Lily. Then, I got out my blue set of similar under things. Lily put hers on with grace and poise, where as I tripped a little, trying to stand on one leg while pulling up my stockings. It's times like these where being a mortal sucks.
"It's too tight." Lily said, shifting her recently enlarged breasts from side to side, trying to take in a deep breath. Pregnancy had given her quite the bounty.
"I have backups." Pam stated, ripping the offending piece of lingerie from her body and tossing the shreds into the corner. She tapped her head set again and said, "Bring in the reserves." Like I said, nothing half-assed.
A woman walked in with a rack full of back-up underwear. Amelia walked over and said, "What size now?" Pam walked over to Lily, grabbing her breasts and giving them a squeeze. I looked wide-eyed and shocked at her, while Lily just continued to look confused.
"She's a 32… DDD almost. She has too much for the double so put her in the triple and slide in the cutlets." Pam said, releasing Lily's chest. Of course, Pam can determine a woman's bra size just by feeling her up. I should have known that was something Eric would have taught her.
"I got it, Pam Chop." Amelia said, fastening the snaps on the fresh piece of lingerie, slipping the little silicone cutlets in to fill up the empty spaces, and shoving her breasts into the stratosphere.
I saw Pam tap her little headset again, before she said, "The dress is here." She opened the door and I saw the dress. It was even more beautiful than the picture the seamstress had sent, absolutely breath taking. It was a large princess dress with the skirt made of many layers of white and gold tulle and the bodice was a sweetheart neckline. The whole dress was covered in red lace and it was belted with a gold belt that looked like ivy. It was so beautiful I almost wanted to kick myself for insisting on white for my wedding.
"It's perfect!" Lily announced. "They finished the hem, right? I don't want it dragging on the floor all night or have Alex's giant feet stepping all over it," she said, the whole room broke out in laughter. This was a constant issue with her clothes because she was so short and slight. It seemed we always had to get something hemmed for her.
"Yes, all of the proper adjustments have been made." Pam stated, as she unzipped the dress and indicated for Lily to step into it. Then, Pam did up all of the little buttons on the back at vampire speed and stepped back to admire her work.
"It's perfect, Pam. You have done such a great job. I'm so grateful that you made this so perfect for me and Alex," Lily said, giving Pam a very awkward hug. Lily and I were working on normal social cues for the human realm. I taught her about kissing boo-boo's and we had to reign that in because she would hit people so she could kiss their boo-boo's and make it all better for them. I had to laugh at that.
"It is my pleasure, Lily," she said beaming. "See, Sookie would not let me within a mile of the planning for her wedding, so this is my time to shine!" I shot Pam a look and retorted, "You wanted me to walk down the aisle on a carpet lined with diamonds. I had to nip it in the bud before you got out of hand."
"Here take your dress, whiner." Pam said to me, as she thrust my dress at me. It was midnight blue with a soft rounded neckline and thin spaghetti straps. It also weighed a ton because of all of the beading Pam had done to it.
"Pam! It's so heavy!" I said, as it started to weigh down my shoulder.
"I don't care Sookie, this is my show. Now put it on and no bitching." With that she spun on her heal to leave, tapping on her little head set, saying, "Mother Hen and Lady Bird are ready, bring in the photographer." Then, she turned to us before leaving and said, "The photographer will be here to take your before pictures. I will escort you down stairs for the ceremony in 38 minutes."
"Wow… she is organized." Lily said, helping me adjust my dress.
"You haven't seen anything yet, this can only get worse." I said with a stressed smile on my face.
E-pov
I woke from my slumber with my son lying next to me in Sookie's spot, propped up on his elbow just like he did when he would wait for me to wake as a child. I could not help but feel warmed by the act because today, for the first time, I feel like he is no longer mine to protect. It is now his turn to be the protector. He has found his mate and a very good match for him, as well.
Lily is very mellow and laid back, a very "go with the flow" type of person, as Sookie likes to put it. There have been many times Alex or I have said things to her and I will tense up and get ready for a fight, but she always replies the same, "Okay, I want to see where this goes anyway." I realize every time she does that, that Sookie and Pam are my only real comparison for the female mind.
Lily is not a guns blazing-type of woman, she likes to sit back and let things happen before she decides if she wants to make her move. It is very similar to how Alex operates. He would much rather wait and find a diplomatic way to solve issues, whereas I have always been partial to the "kill first, ask questions later" approach.
"I'm so excited that I think I might throw up." He says to me.
"No, you won't. You have never thrown-up and as many times as I have seen your mother do it, I have never seen her do it from excitement." I said, giving him a good smack on the back, noticing a black-eye and bruised jaw that was starting to heal.
"What the fuck happened to your face?" I asked, grabbing him to look for more damage.
"Pam fucking punched me!" He said, with one of the most annoyed looks I have ever seen. I swear it could rival Sookie's worst.
"Did she say why she punched you or was it a sneak attack?" I asked, knowing that Pam has been stressing about "her big day" for weeks now.
"She was keeping me from visiting my bonded when I woke up because she said it was bad luck."
"Why was Pam awake?" I asked.
"I don't think she ever went to rest, maybe Claudine gave her something," he said.
"Most likely, but you know I can't help you because your mother would have punched you also. I did not see her for a week before our wedding because she was sure the other shoe would drop at any moment, so consider yourself lucky." I said, opening the garment bag by the closet and inspecting my suit.
"Have you showered? I'm going to go take mine. Then, I have a wedding gift for you." I said, as I sauntered over to the bathroom to get ready for my son's wedding. Wow, that is an odd thought, MY son will be married in less than two hours… incredible.
I left him lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling with a crazed, love-sick grin on his face. I know exactly how he feels and I have never been so excited in my long life as to share this feeling with him at this time. Love really is one of the greatest experiences.
I got in the shower and I mulled over my life; at least the parts that mattered, those being the parts with Sookie and Alex. I remember the first time I saw Sookie that night at my bar, I knew right there she was special and that I had to have her. I know if she ever knew that I was flying to her house and watching her every night she would have found me creepy, but I just had to know everything about her.
I remembered Dallas and tricking her into taking my blood since Compton was doing such a piss poor job of keeping her safe. She stomped around for weeks complaining about what a jerk I was and how manipulative I could be. Then, she comes to that year's Halloween party dressed as a Dallas Cowboys' cheerleader and being followed around by a very pissy Compton. She was obviously strutting around to garner my attention, attention that I was more than willing to give her.
Then there was Jackson, which was when I knew I loved her and I would do anything to make her happy and keep her safe. Seeing her lying in that bed, trying to heal after being staked ripped my undead heart out. She was my everything from then on; though I just could not bring myself to openly admit it until I remembered my time from the curse.
Yes, the curse. That was when she got to see the man inside the Vampire. Thank the gods that I don't have to put on face for people anymore. I can be as loving and tender with my wife as I want now, public be damned. Anyone stupid enough to think me weak because of my love for Sookie has met the sharp end of my sword. If anything, my love for her has only made me fiercer. After her experience in her first fairy war, I knew I wanted her to feel loved and cherished all the time, not just when we were at home.
Everything seemed to be perfect, then she got pregnant with Alex and for me things only got better. She, however, had to get married and quick. She cried for days about having to have a "shot-gun wedding" and how the whole town would talk about her. I had to spend many nights prior to our wedding trying to convince her that the only people in that town that mattered supported her and did not care is she was with child out of wedlock.
Then, we had our wedding night and it was lovely. It was very small, just me, Sookie, Sam, Pam, her brother, and Amelia. We were married under the stars and she looked like a vision in her white dress. Niall knotted us that night, as well.
I loved being married to her and watching her swell with our child. She was a beautiful pregnant woman. I remember her coming home one night and telling me she heard the thoughts of some of the women in a Target saying that they hate women like her that look so good pregnant. Honestly, you could not even tell she was pregnant unless she turned to the side. Claudine had always said something about Brignat women's bodies always handling pregnancies well.
Then, the night Alex was born. What a cluster fuck! Felipe tried to come and take Sookie and hold her captive in Las Vegas. He brought a whole army of vampires including Victor and his minions. Honestly, that vampire made children like they were going out of style. But, like the idiot he was, he did not realize that Stan, Russell and Bartlett were in town with their people waiting for Sookie to give birth and swear fealty to our son. We wiped them out in under half an hour. Ironically, Felipe died at the tip of Sookie's sword and her water broke just as his body turned to ash. Honestly, an ancient vampire was taken down by a 28 year-old pregnant female human who was in labor. I still laugh about that.
Alex was born on the very desk he was conceived on. I still have that desk in my study. He was perfect in every way. Niall even got Sookie exalted to goddess so she would never age and could walk with me and Alex forever, provided that I keep her human body from harm. I have never minded the task of "keep the Sookie safe", in fact; at times, it has been all consuming for me.
Our son was… no, is perfect. He was smart and funny and fierce right from the start. I was glad to have him be able to guard his mother during the day when I could not. Even as a toddler, he was lethal if he or his mother was threatened.
Seeing him grow into a man was amazing to watch. His education, his weapons training, even when he started to join me in meetings in hopes of giving him the thrown some day was exciting to watch. However, a few years before Lily arrived in our lives, he was becoming complacent and bored, skipping meetings, holding up in his room for days. I feared these were the dreaded teenage years I was so convinced we had gotten away without experiencing. He was no longer dating. I had not had to fire a maid for being obsessed with him in months. I was becoming concerned.
Then, Lily happened. I knew from the moment she walked in the door that she was his and that he was just lonely and needed to meet his match. I can't help but feel a tiny twinge of jealousy that I had to wait over a thousand years to find my mate and he only a little over a century and a half. But whatever, everything happens for a reason right?
Tonight, my son will wed, his bride is swelling with his child, and I shall be a grandfather. Sookie says we get to be the fun ones and spoil him. I have to say I am going to be very excited about the prospect of being a Pappy, as Sookie says. I don't know how I feel about the name Pappy, but Sookie says it matches well with Gran and that she has been waiting so long to get to be a Gran. I know how important her Gran was to her, so I may have to give into being a Pappy unless I can negotiate something else between then and now.
I turned off the shower and stopped running the slideshow of my life in my head. Tonight is going to be a very, very good night. I dried off, then blew my hair out, then slipped on some blue silk boxers Sookie left out for me, which I assume they match her underwear also. I go back into my room and see a clean, shaved, and combed Alex sitting on the end of the bed in his underwear.
"Are you going to get dressed?" I asked.
"Not yet. Pam said she will drain me and hide the body if I wrinkle myself." Then he let a dramatic pause happen, "Master be damned!" I rolled my eyes.
"Oh yeah, Dad, she said it."
"Don't tattle on your sister, you're too old for that shit," I said. But in my mind, I'm pissed she said that. Her day or not, I deserve a little respect.
"Fine." He said, as he flopped back on the bed.
"Now, I have something for you." I said, pulling out a little blue fairy cloth bag from my sock drawer.
"Sweet!" He said, popping up to look at me.
"This is the piece of rope your mother and I used for our fairy knotting and I would like you and Lily to use it also." I handed him the little pouch and he just looked at me with awe.
"I…I don't know… Thank you this means more to me than you will ever know." He said, as he pulled me into a bear hug. Had I been human, he would have killed me.
"Come now, we must dress or Pam will drain us dry for being late to "her wedding," I said with a laugh.
"Dad?"
"Yes." I said, while taking my suit out of its bag.
"You turned her into a spoiled monster."
"I know." I just shrugged and continued to get ready.
L-pov
"Are you pumped, Lily?" Amelia asked me, as I was being fluffed and primped by Pam just behind the curtain while I was waiting to go down the aisle.
"Yeah, I'm pretty pumped." I said with a shy smile.
"Good, it's time to go." Pam said as she said one last thing into her headset and picking up her bouquet. "Lady Bird is ready to fly to the ass hole."
Sookie rolled her eyes at Pam and said "Alright, there's the music!"
Eric walked up behind us, grabbed Sookie's arm, and winked at me as they walked down the aisle. Then, Pam and Amelia linked arms and followed them. I was left alone… the last one to go. I have never been so sure of something in my life. When I came here, I was ready to die. Now all I can think about is how much I want to live and not just live, but love.
The music shifted to a soft chiming from a harp and I walked around the curtain and started down the aisle. The first thing I saw was Alex standing on the most beautiful gazebo I have ever seen. There was what seemed like thousands of fairy lights everywhere. I headed down the aisle on a blanket of gold and red rose petals. I don't know how Pam got gold rose petals but they looked lovely. I was surrounded by hundreds of guests, vampires, humans, fairies, demons and weres. It really was a sight. Then, I closed the final distance between me and Alex. He was absolutely beaming.
"You look like an angel," he whispered into my ear, as he helped me step up onto the platform. All I could do was blush and try not to cry. I saw Russell and Claude standing in front of us. Russell was in tight leather pants and a black hooded cloak while Claude wore a silver shining suit with a metallic blue tie. His hair was pulled back in a short pony tail. He looked very regal and reminded me of Niall, from the pictures I looked at with Sookie.
"Shall we begin?" Russell asked. We both nodded and grinned like fools.
"I'm going to begin with a few words." He paused and looked out over the crowd. "I have known Eric and Sookie for a very long time. Eric preformed both my first and second pledging for me and my husband, Bartlett. He never looked down on us for our love, in fact, he encouraged and embraced it. It gives me great pleasure that I can be the one to pledge and marry his son and his bonded."
"From the day Alex was born, I knew he would be destined for great things. He has chosen not only an exquisitely beautiful mate, but also one that is his true equal. But he is a Northman after all, there was never any question he would find a beautiful woman to love," Russell said, winking at Sookie, who gave a deep blush. Eric just chuckled beside her and rubbed her back.
"The bride and groom have chosen to write their own vows. Then we will pledge them by knife. Alex you may begin." As he said this, he reached over and grabbed the jeweled pledging knife and the chalice to hold the blood.
"Lily, I have waited my whole life for you. I can't imagine having to walk for an eternity without a partner. You are my forever, you are my infinity. I never understood before I laid eyes on you how invested I could be in someone other than myself. I pledge you my life, my heart, and my soul." I can't help it at this point, as the tears run down my face. In a flash, Pam is there mopping up the black metallic streaks so they don't stain my dress.
"Your turn, Lily," Russell said, with a slight crack to his voice, eyes rimmed with red.
"Alex, before you I had no life, no heart, and no soul. You gave me everything I could ever want or need. You love me unconditionally, even when I am at my worst. You saved me. You are my hero, my knight in shining armor. You gave me a reason to live and I am so glad I lived long enough for you to show me what it means to be really loved. I pledge you my life, my heart, and my soul."
The whole yard was a mess of sobbing supes and humans at this point. Sookie looked hysterical and Claudine was shaking with tears. I hope every single person here gets to feel the type of love I feel for Alex.
"Let's exchange the rings. Do you Alex take thee Lily to be your wife, bonded, pledged and knotted?"
"I do." He said, as he slipped the wedding band on my finger.
"Do you Lily take thee Alex to be your husband, bonded, pledged, and knotted?"
"I do," I said, slipping the ring onto his finger.
"By all of the magic present, I pledge you by knife for all eternity." We held out our wrists over the chalice and Russell cut both of us at the same time. We watched as our blood flowed into the cup. We licked the blood off of the healed wounds on our arms and watched as he swished the blood to combine it.
"Please drink and your souls will be sealed together forever in a pledge of love." Alex took a drink first, then me. I could feel the magic coursing through me. I have never felt more alive or connected to Alex.
Claude stepped up and Alex handed him a little piece of rope. Claude smiled a wide smile, as he took it. "By your rights as Fairies, I grant you two the highest honor to our people. Fae love matches are very rare. In fact, I have only ever seen one other." He says, as he glances at Sookie and Eric, who are holding hands while Sookie whimpers and hiccups with a wide smile. "Hold out your hands." We do so and he wraps the rope around our hands. He waves his hand over it and it tightens, as if on its own.
"All Fae will recognize your love and no other will ever harm you or your family. You hearts are pure and your love will be lasting." He waved his hand and chanted in a language that sounded familiar, but I could not understand. Suddenly, the rope glowed and left an impression on both of our hands, then it released and fell to the ground.
"You are now bound and connected in every way possible. You may now kiss your bride," said Claude. Alex threw me back into a toe curling kiss, then picked me up so my feet were well of the ground while still kissing me. Everything was so perfect; who would have known Pam's dream wedding was also mine?