A/N: First, thank you for the kind responses for the previous AN. Anytime you're accused of something, at least in my case, it takes you for a loop and I reacted very strongly - which was probably the Anon's intention. Lesson learned, definitely. And on the advice of another Anon, I have deleted your responses, at least the ones I could, including that rogue review. I know what my intentions were and are with Honestly and I plan on ending this story with those same intentions.

I didn't think it was realistic to have them get married after 5 months of dating given their history so this chapter will run over the course of 10 months bringing us to August 2016. The last two chapters will see some time jumps as well. I planned to have them get married on GCI but since there's a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage that's been in place since 2009 for the Cayman Islands, that kinda messed up my plans since I want to stay as close to reality as possible. However, same-sex sexual activity is legal on the Islands so that left the honeymoon open territory.

-ED

"Are you fucking serious?!" Hakeem yells as he hears the tail end of Cookie's conversation with Jamal. Although Cookie wasn't Jamal's manager anymore, he still respected her ear for music and wanted to get her opinion on a few songs he had written. It didn't register to Cookie that she probably should've taken her ring off prior to entering Jamal's apartment. In fact, he'd stopped her as soon as he noticed the diamond on his mother's finger which was anything but inconspicuous.

"You can't be serious," Jamal deadpans.

A look of confusion crosses Cookie's face and Jamal picks up her hand to display her engagement ring. "Shit."

"Ma?" Jamal asks as his mother walks past him to his kitchen. She's hungry and she starts rifling through his refrigerator and cabinets for items to make a sandwich.

"I knowwwww, Jamal," she says as she opens up a package of smoked turkey.

"You know what, exactly? Enlighten me because I'm confused. Y'all just got together and now you're getting married?" he sits on a barstool and watches his mother make her sandwich.

"Look," she slaps his hand away as he tries to steal a piece of her turkey, "I didn't know she was going to ask me. I was just as surprised as you are now."

"But you still said yes," Jamal offered.

"Technically, I didn't," Cookie countered before she took a bite.

"But you're wearing the ring?"

Cookie nods before swallowing, "She knows how I feel; I wouldn't be wearing it if I was going to say no." And she wouldn't have. Cookie would've slid the box right back to Anika and told her she was out of her mind if Cookie didn't feel like she could spend the rest of days with Anika.

"That's a nice rock, though. It must've set her back a lot."

Cookie honestly didn't know how much the ring cost and Anika refused to tell her. She planned on getting the ring appraised but didn't know what she would do with the information. It wasn't like Anika would take it ring back if Cookie thought it cost too much.

"Maybe. I don't know. But Jamal, you have to promise me you won't open your mouth and tell anybody."

Jamal leaned back in his seat, a smile etched on his face. "Oh my God, dad is gonna flip. Hakeem is gonna flip."

"Shut up, Jamal. I don't wanna think about that right now," Cookie said as she continued to eat her sandwich. Neither of them heard the whirring of the elevator as it signaled that someone was coming up.

"This is nuts. Nah, this is amazing. I can't believe you're going to marry Anika." Jamal said right after the elevator dinged.

"Are you fucking serious?!"

Cookie and Jamal's heads whipped towards the elevator and they saw Hakeem step out.

"Look what you did!" Cookie said as she threw her napkin at Jamal which earned her a shrug in response. Jamal at least had the audacity to look guilty as he got out of the way. Any conversation that his mother was having with Hakeem was bound to be disastrous and he wanted no part in it.

"So you gon' marry her?"

Cookie rolled her eyes, "She has a name, Hakeem." mirroring Anika months before when Anika had more or less demanded that Cookie use her actual name.

"Alright. So you gon' marry Anika?"

"Hakeem…" There was no use denying it. Eventually, she did want to marry Anika. "Yes, I am."

"How are you just gonna marry somebody you don't even know?" Hakeem asked as Cookie finished the rest of her sandwich.

"I know her, Hakeem. You may not think I do because we haven't known each other very long, but I do."

"So just fuck my feelings, huh? I guess you gon' always put whoever you fucking over your family."

She feels badly for her son, truly she does, but she's tired of sacrificing her happiness for the sake of others. It's time to make Cookie happy.

"Hakeem, I'm sorry," she begins but stops. Why exactly is she sorry? She's not going to apologize for something she can't and doesn't want to help. She recognizes that she hadn't been present for her youngest son and that it's taken a toll on him, especially with Lucious as a father.

"I'm sorry for not being there for you. I'm sorry for missing 17 years of your life when it didn't have to be that way. I know how hard it was for you, son, because it was hard for me, too. I missed all of my sons but I think I missed my baby the most. But you're not a baby anymore. You didn't get the time that your brothers had and I can't give you that time back, but I'm here now."

Cookie wants so badly for Hakeem to see where she's coming from. She doesn't want to hurt him but she doesn't want to lose Anika either. It appears that Cookie's desires don't matter because Hakeem doesn't respond to Cookie's apology, he just leaves Jamal's apartment the same way he came in. After he's sure Hakeem is gone, Jamal comes out of his bedroom.

"You alright, ma?" he asks as he wraps his mother in a hug.

A sniff, "Yeah, Mal. I'm good," she responds as she accepts the hug. She couldn't force Hakeem to feel differently about the situation, but she feels she's done what she can.

Over the next few months, Cookie and Anika's sole focus was getting AC on the map as records were recorded and singles were chosen. Working with Beretti was far less difficult than Cookie thought it would be but they still had their moments when he'd attempt to overstep his boundaries and Cookie had to put him back in his place. Cookie was quick to let him know that this wasn't Creedmoor and he wasn't in charge anymore.

Working on the label, however, had left very little time to plan a wedding. As far as Cookie was concerned, they could extend their engagement for a few years. It wasn't that she wasn't in a hurry to marry Anika, she just wanted AC to continue to be their focus as they continue to establish themselves. Anika, on the other hand, was getting restless.

"Do you want to marry me, Cookie?"

Cookie fought not to roll her eyes. They'd been having the same conversation for the past 3 months. Neither woman was ready to get married when Anika first proposed but it'd been some time now and Cookie hadn't budged.

Exasperated, Cookie replied, "Yes, Kitten, I want to marry you."

"So what are we waiting for?"

Cookie sat on the bed she'd been sharing with her fiancé. How could she begin to explain how she was terrified that their marriage would end like her previous one did? Cookie had no plans to return to prison but that didn't mean that their relationship wouldn't fail and they'd end up divorced. Cookie thought that she would be Mrs. Lucious Lyon for the rest of her life and he ended that by mailing her divorce papers. And then there was her family. Hakeem still wasn't talking to her and although Jamal was supportive, Andre still kept her at arm's length. Carol was in rehab once again and Candace pretended that her middle sister didn't exist. Anika's own family had stayed true to their word and hadn't spoken to her since she saw them on GCI.

"I don't want to mess this up," Cookie finally stated.

Anika's eyes softened and she crawled over the bed to sit in front of Cookie.

"I think you're giving yourself too much credit. You won't mess anything up," Anika said as rubbed Cookie's thigh.

"You don't know that, Anika."

Anika nodded, "I do, actually. You love me too much to deliberately hurt me." Before Cookie could say that she'd hurt her in the past, Anika spoke again. "You aren't the same Cookie that you were back then, just like I'm not the same Anika. We've hurt each other and we'll hurt each other again, but it won't be on purpose. You have all the power to break my heart, but you won't. I have faith in that, I just wish you did, too."

Cookie took Anika's words to heart. She strove to make her relationship with Anika as different as possible compared to her relationship with Lucious. They were on equal footing and worked towards the same goal, both professionally and personally. Maybe it was time that she took a leap of faith and trusted herself, trusted her partner.

Cookie picked up Anika's iPad which was sitting on the nightstand. She opened up the calendar app and selected Saturday, August 6, 2016. She handed the iPad to Anika as she spoke, "a marriage license is valid for 60 days. It's June 29th so if we go next week, that gives us some time to find a venue."

Anika looked up at Cookie and somehow she was always surprised by the amount of love that she saw in Anika's eyes. Anika leaned forward to kiss Cookie, "It's a date," she said against her lips.

And so, on August 6, 2016 in a small chapel in Niagra Falls with Jamal standing by her side, Cookie Lyon vowed to love, honor, cherish, and "fuck obeying. Nobody is obeying anybody up in here," Anika. In turn, Anika Calhoun vowed to love, honor, and cherish Cookie, although with much less dramatics with Rocky was by her side. They'd chosen to keep the wedding intimate as neither woman had a long list of people they wanted to invite to the wedding and who would actually show up. Cookie invited all of her sons and as she predicted, only Jamal responded. Anika refused to invite her parents on principle, just inviting Rocky.

Finding a venue was more difficult than they'd anticipated. Cookie refused to be married by a Justice of the Peace as that was how she was married to Lucious. Anika didn't want a grand affair and was content with having the ceremony being just the two of them and their officiant. Though it wouldn't be the wedding that she had envisioned growing up - Cookie definitely didn't look like the groom she had pictured - she doubted that she'd want to change anything about it.

They'd looked at different venues online and when Anika had found a link to a small chapel in Niagra Falls, she immediately wanted to see it in person. They flew to the Falls and Anika fell in love with the chapel. It was intimate, had a spectacular view of the Falls and just felt right. Cookie had to admit that the scenery was beautiful; she'd never been to Niagra Falls and the waterfalls created the perfect backdrop.

Anika and Cookie each walked down the aisle by themselves and stood facing each other. Behind Cookie, Jamal had started to hum the chorus to TLC's Waterfalls and Cookie casually stepped on his foot in response, effectively stopping his humming. When it was time to seal their union with a kiss, Cookie did a little shimmy before bringing Anika closer to her for their first kiss as wife and wife.

After the ceremony, they had dinner with Jamal and Rocky before they headed to their hotel room to consummate their marriage. Their flight to George Town was scheduled for Monday in which they'd be flying into JFK and then flying out to the Island. Jamal headed back to New York while Rocky headed back to New Haven on Sunday leaving the couple to their own devices until they flew to GCI.

Although Cookie was worried about both of them leaving the label for their honeymoon, Anika felt their employees could handle the workload until they returned. AC had grown tremendously since they'd started a year ago, but they were still small compared to Empire and the other majors. Veronica's latest single had hit number one on the R&B charts and the other artists' records were slowly climbing up the charts as well.

Upon touching down in George Town, Anika drove their rental to a secluded villa right on the beach. As Cookie sorted through her luggage, Anika walked down to the beach and sat down facing the water. She hadn't been back home since Gran's death and she missed feeling the sand beneath her. After a few moments, she felt Cookie slide behind her so Anika was sitting between her legs. Cookie leaned back so she could support both of their weight and Anika made herself comfortable against her wife. The sun was just beginning to set causing the sky to become a mixture of purple, pink and orange. They sat together in silence as they watched the sun set completely and watched the ocean turn black. They were close enough to the villa that a soft glow of light would guide them back to the house.

Cookie trailed a dusted the sand off of her right hand before stroking Anika's stomach and kissing the side of her neck. Anika moaned, "mmmmm…..I don't recommend having sex on the beach. You get sand...aaahh...everywhere." Cookie was focused on biting Anika's neck when she paused.

"And how would you know?"

Anika turned and looked at Cookie whose face held a look of indignation.

"Awww, is Cookie jealous?"

Cookie tweaked one of Anika's nipples and smirked as she jumped.

"Not at all. Besides, the only one you're going to be fucking from now on is me. Wife...for...life," she said as she placed kisses on Anika's lips.