A/N: For mental picture purposes, let's say Eddie's dress is the same one Vanessa wore on the cover of Sophisticated Weddings. Not super complex or overstated, just elegant and beautiful. Enjoy!
Saturday, June 23
"Lena! Hello! You look beautiful as always."
"Jamie," Lena sniffed. "Where's your bride?"
"Oh, you know—I don't think she's here yet," Jamie lied.
Lena's eyebrows inched towards her hairline. "The ceremony starts in sixty minutes and she's not here yet?"
"Yeah. The photographer liked the hotel room better than the staging room here for pictures of Eddie and the bridesmaids getting ready, so that's a last-minute change. I'm sure they'll be here soon, though."
On cue, Thompson wandered pointlessly into the lobby from the direction of the suite where all the men of the wedding party were getting ready. He made his way over to Jamie and Lena and shook Jamie's hand. "Nervous yet, Reagan?"
"Not at all," Jamie smirked. "Lena, you remember my partner. You two seemed to really hit it off last night at the rehearsal dinner."
Lena pressed her lips together in flat acknowledgement. "Yes, hello."
"Great to see you again," Thompson said, offering a bashful smile.
"Well, what did you expect—that I wouldn't show up to my own daughter's wedding?" Lena scoffed.
"Right. Well, I was just on my way to find my grandpa," Jamie said, swinging his arms in front of his body until his hands met and flopped down to rest against his thighs. "I'll see you both in a bit."
Out of Lena's line of sight, Thompson narrowed his eyes and sneered at Jamie's back as he walked away.
"Is it true?" Lena said, drawing his attention back to her. "My daughter really isn't here yet?"
"Uh," Thompson said. He knew it wasn't true—Eddie and the bridesmaids were getting ready in a large staging room downstairs. Having had plenty of time to get to know Lena last night, he sort of understood why Jamie and Eddie had come up with the hotel lie, but he couldn't quite bring himself to repeat it.
Lena's eyes narrowed at his hesitation. "She is here, isn't she? Of course Jamie would take it on himself to keep me from her." She spat his name in disgust.
"Um—"
"You know your way around this church, young man?"
"Kind of," Thompson managed. Between last night and this morning he'd seen enough of the enormous building that he could manage. And he definitely did know the way to the bride's room.
"You'll help me then," Lena declared. "I'd like to find my daughter, make sure all the last-minute preparations are going well. A bride needs her mother on her wedding day."
"Yeah, sure," Thompson sighed. "Um, I think it's this way." He offered Lena his arm and turned left to head down a side hallway. He wasn't sure where it went exactly, but that didn't matter. He just had to avoid any stairs.
Erin pushed her way into the multipurpose room that served as the bridal staging area. The space buzzed as bridesmaids in purple dresses, all the same shade but slightly different styles, flittered around to take care of the finishing touches. Eddie sat on a rolling chair in the center of the room with Greene's little daughter on her lap as the hair stylist picked at the veil, making sure it fell perfectly behind her head.
"Is everybody just about set?" Erin called. "We've got to move upstairs in about twenty minutes."
"Almost ready," Eddie replied. "Whoa, girlfriend, where you going?"
Greene's wife Alaina stepped forward to grab the squirming toddler, who wore a sleeveless white top with a hilariously flouncy purple tutu to match the wedding party.
"Alaina, can she have a graham cracker?" asked Shannon, the mother of the other flower girl. She handed another half cracker to her daughter and offered the other half to Alaina.
Erin watched the exchange and then stepped closer to Eddie. "To answer your earlier question, yeah, your mom got here half an hour ago. But Jamie's partner seems to have it under control."
Eddie raised her eyebrows suspiciously.
"I saw them a minute ago on my way back here from checking on the Father," Erin elaborated. "All the way upstairs, wandering around the office wing. I think Thompson told her he'd bring her to see you."
Eddie laughed, earning her a look from the woman fussing over her. "I've never been a huge fan of that kid but you know? Maybe he's alright."
Erin nodded. "So. You seem good. You're good?"
"Yeah," Eddie said, though her voice got notably smaller. "Ready to get this show on the road."
"Well, you look beautiful. I can't wait to see Jamie's face when he sees you."
"God, he better not start crying," Eddie muttered. "If he starts crying then I'll start crying and then it'll all just be a big mess."
"Do what you gotta do," the stylist cut in. "They make waterproof makeup for a reason."
"You don't seem too nervous," Erin observed. "But Jamie sent me with this, just in case." She dropped a package of M&Ms on Eddie's lap.
"No way," the stylist snapped. "None of that. Lips are perfect, don't want any color to get on your hands or rub off on your dress…"
"I'll save them for later," Eddie grinned.
"You're really doing okay, though?" Erin pressed.
"I think so. There's some butterflies happening. But I'll make it."
"Because the other option, if the candy's not enough, is to give you a little scotch before we send you down the aisle." Erin held up her hand and wiggled the shot glass Jamie had given her, an extra from the customized souvenirs he'd given to all his groomsmen.
"Now we're talking," Eddie smirked.
"Eh, you wouldn't be the first bride who needed a little liquid courage," Kara said. "Let's be honest, it's a miracle I could walk a straight line down the aisle when I got married."
"Really?"
"Really. I spent the whole night before puking my guts out, I was so nervous. My sister started pumping me full of booze at about ten in the morning and the ceremony wasn't till four. So trust me, you may not feel like it, but you really do have it together better than most."
"Guess so," Eddie conceded. "Thanks to you guys, mostly—and Thompson. I'm going to owe him big time after this."
"Stop!"
Thompson jumped at Lena's sharp tone and turned to look at her. "What's wrong?"
"We already came through this way, you idiot. It's been more than thirty minutes. I'm sick of you dragging me all over this god-awful church—if you didn't know where my daughter is, you should've just told me and saved us both a lot of time."
Thompson blew out a long, relieved breath. As long as Lena didn't figure out that he was actively trying to keep her as far away from Eddie as possible, he'd be okay. He was actually quite proud of himself so far, that he'd truly convinced Lena that he was trying to help and they were just lost. He thought he'd have cracked under the pressure five minutes into the fake search.
"Do you want a drink? I need one," he finally said, pressing fingers into his eyeballs. "This place is just so confusing."
"Where will we find a drink in a church?" Lena demanded.
"I bet we can come up with something."
Lena scowled, hands on her hips in a pose Thompson had seen Eddie adopt a million times. It was her subtle way of communicating her irritation to Jamie at the precinct, when they were in professional mode. "Fine," she muttered. "But you better get us back to the right place in time for the ceremony. If you make me miss my daughter's wedding, so help me, I'll have you fired. Your Commissioner's in the family now, remember."
Thompson fought the urge to roll his eyes as they turned back the way they came.