Chapter 53: Nice Day for a White Wedding…
GH:
Matt looked at Johnny as if he had suddenly grown a second head. "What did you just ask me?"
Johnny extended his hand. "I want you to be my best man for my wedding," he repeated.
"For a second there I thought the morphine was making me hear things." Matt shook Johnny's hand. "I would love to be your best man."
"Great! I want to see what Carly has planned for us" Johnny said.
Lulu arched an eyebrow. "Really, since when? As I recall all you wanted was a priest, an altar, a tux, and me in a big white dress."
"Can't I change my mind?" Johnny asked. "It's my wedding too!"
Matt nodded towards Lulu. "How did you checkup go? Are the babies okay?"
"They are fine, thanks to you," Lulu said. "I don't know if I had said it enough but thank you, without you I don't know what would have happened."
"Luckily that never happened," Matt said. "Let me know when I day is."
Lulu laughed. "If I know Carly, it's already been planned right down to the table linen."
Metro Court:
"When Carly said that she booked us a suite, I didn't expect this!" Johnny said.
Carly came through in a big way, she booked them the biggest and best suite that the Metro Court had to offer, all free of charge. Deep down Lulu knew that Carly somehow twisted Sonny's arm to agree to pay for everything.
The room had a fantastic view of the twinkling city at night. Lulu didn't notice. She collapsed on the plush sofa. "My feet are so swollen!" She complained as she kicked off her shoes. "That's one thing I missed about the island, being able to go barefoot all the time."
Johnny sat next to her; he brought her feet into his lap and began to rub them. "It's going to be fine. We have everything we can possibly need here. You cousin even bought us clothes to wear. She thought of everything didn't she?"
"That's Carly. I can't wait to see what she planned the wedding. Word had it that Sonny gave her his credit card and told her to go to town with it."
Johnny chuckled. "That's not a good idea considering Carly's taste is rather expensive."
"Sonny has only one goddaughter," Lulu pointed out. "He has to spoil the hell out of me."
"I'm just wondering if Carly is going to release doves or something."
"I bet she hired Bocelli or something," Lulu mused as Johnny continued to rub her feet.
"I wouldn't put it past her," Johnny commented.
The next several days went by in a blur. They almost always had one member of Lulu's family stop by their suite for one reason or another. Even Alice showed up with a big basket of all of Lulu's favorite baked goods: cookies, muffins, cakes, and pies all from Cook.
"Man, if I knew people were going to miss me this much…" Lulu stared at the all the flower arrangements in their room when she was done showering and changed into a pair of sweats.
There has to be a flower shortage on the Eastern Seaboard with all the flowers in their suite. Flower shops had fewer flowers. They thought of donating some to the hospital to give to some patients.
Johnny wrapped his arms around her. "Don't even say it. You are not going anywhere because I am never letting you go."
There was an intense knocking on the door. Johnny sighed. "What can that be? We have every single flower on the East Coast in here, thank goodness that we aren't allergic to pollen. We have enough baked goods to feed an army. Are we missing something that I don't know about?"
The knocking increased as he made his way to the door. "You better find out before the person on the other side breaks down the door."
Johnny swung open the door. Carly was in the hallway. She was suppressing a grin. "Hey what are you two doing today?"
"Ordering room service and watching a movie," Johnny answered. "That's about it. Why?"
"Good." Carly entered the room without being asked. "You don't have plans."
She took Lulu by the hand. "Come on, there is so much to do before tonight."
"Tonight?" Johnny echoed. "What's going on tonight?"
"You are getting married tonight at seven. I need Lulu so I can help her get ready."
"What?" Johnny asked.
"Don't tell me you are having second thoughts," Carly said. "Sonny will kick your ass."
Johnny held up his hands. "No second thoughts, I swear! I thought that I would have a bachelor party before…"
"Hey!" Lulu cried. "No strippers!"
Carly laughed. "That's all taken care of too." She linked arms with Lulu. "Now if you excuse us, the bride to be needs to be made even more beautiful."
"If that's even possible," Johnny said as he gave Lulu a kiss on the cheek. "I guess I'll see you in a few hours."
Not a second after Lulu and Carly left there was knocking, thinking that they forgot something, Johnny opened it.
In the hallway were: Matt, Spinelli, Nikolas, and Lucky.
"When were you released?" Johnny asked Matt. "I would have arranged …"
"About twenty minutes ago," Matt answered. "There was a limo waiting for me, the next thing I knew the limo was packed and we ended up here."
"Are you going to let us in or are we going to be standing in the hallway all day?" Lucky asked.
Johnny moved aside to let the men inside the room. Spinelli picked up the room service menu. "What kinds of rations shall the Jackal order?"
"I'm game for anything, Carly said order whatever we wanted," Nikolas answered. "Sonny is paying for everything anyway."
Johnny looked around the room; a year ago he never imagined that he would spend his bachelor party with Lulu's brothers, Matt Hunter, or Spinelli. Now it looked right. It felt right; he was a part of the family.
"How surprised were you when Carly showed up telling you that you only have hours left to be a free man?" Lucky asked.
"As surprised as you were when she told you," Johnny answered.
"Not as surprised as me when you asked me to be your best man!" Matt said as he cracked open the case of beer that was in the back of the limo. "I mean I practically slept with one eye open every night on the island afraid that you were going to hurt me if I looked at Lulu the wrong way."
Johnny chuckled as Matt passed him a beer. "Sorry, man."
"Not necessary, you were just protecting your girl." Matt looked at his watch. "And in a matter of hours, she'll be your wife!"
MC Salon:
Carly had closed the salon for the day so everyone can cater to Lulu. Lulu sat in the chair wearing a big fluffy white while surrounded by an army of stylists. One was doing her hair after the shampooing. One was doing her fingernails while another one was doing her toenails. The last one managed to squeeze in somehow to apply Lulu's makeup.
The stylists were on strict orders not to tell Lulu anything about the wedding no matter how much she begged.
"Carly! They are not even letting me look in the mirror when they are done!" Lulu complained. "I want to see what they are doing!"
"Trust me, you need to wait. I want you to have the full effect when you get the dress on."
"Dress? You actually found me a dress that would fit me?" Lulu asked astonished. "It's not a tent, right?"
"Lu!" Carly scolded. "I found several. I also have a tailor waiting to do all the alterations. The dresses are beautiful. But there is this one…that's totally you."
Lulu's reply was muffled as a powder puff was dabbed on her face.
"And don't worry about the guest list. They are all going to be there," Carly promised.
"Why did Jason threaten to shoot them if they didn't show up?" Lulu joked. After Carly didn't reply, "Carly I was kidding!"
"I know. But it's the truth. Come stranger things have happened. Johnny is upstairs right now hanging out with your brothers. Hell has frozen over and the devil is building a snowman."
Suite:
They had ordered two of everything on the room service menu but each ordered their own steak. There were room service carts all over the suite.
"Should we have ordered all this food?" Matt asked as he dug into his steak. "I mean I imagine that Carly has all the food planned for the reception. She'll be pissed if we get full on room service first."
"That's hours and hours away," Lucky said as he took a bite out of his steak. "We'll get a second wind."
"As long as Lulu is happy then I'm happy," Johnny stated.
"Spoken as a man in love," Matt noted.
"Just in a few hours she'll make an honest man out of you!" Nikolas commented.
Bridal Suite:
Calry lead Lulu into another suite as soon as her nails were dry and the makeup was applied. She had covered Lulu's eyes with her hands, careful not to ruin the makeup.
"Carly!" Lulu whined. "What's the big deal?"
"I want you to have the full effect on everything." Carly took her hands from Lulu's eyes.
Lulu was astonished, there were clothing rack everywhere that had more garment bags than Lulu ever saw in her life. "Are these all for me?"
"And me. You still want me as your maid of honor right?" Carly asked. "I found some really pretty dresses."
"Of course I want you to me my maid of honor!" Lulu exclaimed as Carly dragged her to the dress racks.
"Finally you both are here!" A voice from somewhere in the Bridal suite cried in an accent that Lulu couldn't place.
A tiny woman that was barely five feet tall came into the room. "I understand there is going to be a wedding today and you are the bride. Let me take a look at you."
The woman began to inspect Lulu by walking in a circle around her. "Not bad. You have more up top to fill out some of the dresses. I think I have just the dress for you, wait here."
The woman disappeared behind the racks of dresses.
"Carly who the hell is that?" Lulu whispered so that the woman wouldn't be able to hear her.
"Stella, she works here in the clothing store. Trust her she's a genius. She'll find a dress for you to where."
Stella returned with a dress in a garment bag draped over her tiny arm. "Here is one for you to try on."
Carly took the bag. "I'll help you try it on…"
MC Grand Ballroom:
Several hours later, most of Lulu's family and extended family began to filter into the ballroom. Carly had out done herself. The room was decorated with cream and lavender. The flowers were all shades of lilac from deep purple, light purple to white that Carly have gotten from all the flower shops in a hundred mile radius of Port Charles.
Edward was already restless. "There is an open bar at the reception, right? I need a good single malt Scotch to get through the rest of the day. I can't believe that Little Girl is getting married to that reprobate."
"Hush Daddy," Tracy scolded. "I trust that Carly took care of the liquor."
"Where's your husband? It's his youngest that's getting married, he should be here."
Tracy shook her head. When she got up in the morning, Luke was already gone. She hated to admit it but Edward was right. Luke needed to be here. She had no idea where he could be.
Suite:
The tuxes arrived. Lulu's brothers complained that their ties and cummerbund were purple. Spinelli pointed out the color was lavender. Matt just laughed he knew better than to complain.
"Remember that Carly planned everything out," Johnny said as he tried to tie his lavender bowtie.
The door opened, Luke came in. "John. Let me help you with that." Luke turned to the rest of them in the room. "How about you give us a few minutes? I need to talk to my future son in law."
MC Grand Ballroom:
The ballroom was nearly full. Lucky, Nikolas, and Matt took their place at the altar. There were joined a minute later by Johnny.
"What did Dad say to you?" Lucky asked, softly.
"Nothing that I already know, if I hurt her again, my body would never be found."
That caused the groomsmen to stifle a laugh.
"Carly really out done herself," Nikolas noted. "This must have cost Sonny a small fortune."
The organist began to tune up was a cue for everyone that the wedding was about to begin.
First to come down the aisle was little Molly dressed in a purple gown holding baby Emma and the both of them were dropping flower petal on the floor. Matt wanted Emma to be the flower girl but she was too young, so they opted for the double flower girl.
Next both Cam and Jake they were in black suites with purple ties. They were both holding the little pillow came down the aisle.
Next Carly came down wearing a strapless purple gown carrying an arrangement of all the different colored lilacs as her bouquet.
Finally, Laura appeared to the astonishment of everyone in the room. She was dressed in a tasteful purple gown.
"Did you have to do something with this?" Johnny whispered to Nikolas.
"She's Laura's baby girl; why wouldn't she be here?" Nikolas responded.
When Laura reached the altar, she embraced her sons then Johnny. "Welcome to the family," she whispered then she took her place beside Carly.
The Wedding March began to play and everyone rose to their feet. Lulu appeared with Luke on her arm on. She was in strapless white wedding gown with an empire waist with lilac stitching. Her hair was in an elegant updo with curls framing her face, and she was a diamond tiara on top of her head. The tiara was no doubt from Nikolas' side of the family.
When they reached the altar, Luke took Lulu's hand and put it in Johnny's. "Remember if you hurt her, everyone in this room is going to hurt you back." He whispered so that Johnny was the only person that would hear him.
The pastor cleared his throat. "Dearly beloved we are gathered here today…"
They came to the part of the ceremony for the vows. "I wrote my own vows," Johnny said, reaching into his jacket pocket. "I would like to say them."
He turned to Lulu. "I never expected my life to change that night I went for a drive. I picked up a hitchhiker on the side of the road. You made me want to be a better person. I messed up and you forgave me. I never told you how much it meant to me for you to give me that second chance and I am going to spend the rest of my life making it up to you. I love you Lesley Lu Spencer and I'm so happy that you agreed to be my wife."
Lulu's eyes welled up. She didn't want to cry and ruin her makeup. "I wrote my own vows too." She took a deep breath before she continued. "I never thought that I would love someone as much as I love you. I can't wait to be your wife."
The pastor turned to the guests. "If someone objects of this union speak now or forever hold your peace."
There was dead silence. Lulu breathed a sigh of relief; she was sure that Tracy or Edward was going to object.
"By the power invested in me and the state of New York, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride…"
Johnny wiped
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