A/N: Thank you all for your kind reviews. It was so nice to hear that people liked the first chapter and want to read more. Sorry it took me a while to update. Hope you enjoy.

CHAPTER 2

After they had applied for their marriage licence at the courthouse they headed to the mall. Their first stop was the jewellery store. They were excited to pick out their rings.

Elizabeth picked a delicate white gold band that complemented her engagement ring. Henry picked a thicker white gold ring. When the rings were being boxed up the couple just stared at each other. Both of them had butterflies.

"This is your final chance to escape" Henry winked at her "otherwise you will be stuck with the crazy McCords forever."

Elizabeth laughed, a twinkl in her eye. "Dont get any ideas Lieutenant, you are very much stuck with me. Besides you know Will and I are ten times as crazy."

They left the jewellery store hand in hand, grinning like idiots. They made a plan to split up and buy their clothes alone. They may not be having a traditional wedding but Elizabeth still wanted to surprise Henry.

Elizabeth bought a blue dress that she knew Henry would love, new heels and some racy lingerie. She had some time to kill so she called Will from the phonebooths. Will was delighted for them and he promised he would be there. "That's a much better idea, I dont know why people bother with all that big wedding crap," were his exact words. When she hung up she headed back to the jewellery store to pick up a wedding present for Henry.

Meanwhile, Henry had picked up a new tie. He had picked a blue one because it reminded him of Elizabeth's eyes. He had decided he would borrow a suit and dress shoes from Shane. There was no point in spending money when he had plenty of suits back in DC.

"You're back again," the jewellery store clerk said as Henry walked back in to the shop. "Something caught my eye earlier, I thought it would make a nice wedding gift," Henry replied pointing at a necklace in the glass case.

The clerk broke in to a smile, "good choice, I'm sure she will love it." In fact he knew she would because she had just bought him the exact same necklace.

Elizabeth approached the fountain where they had arranged to meet and saw him waiting with two ice-cream cones. "This right here is why I am marrying you" she leaned in to kiss him and take the cone from him.

"Oh really, I thought it was because of my rugged good looks," he joked back.

"That too, I cant resist a man in uniform."

When they pulled up to the house she let out a sigh. Henry looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm nervous," she said quietly "what if they think this is a bad idea?"

Henry took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Babe, they are going to be thrilled for us, we'll expect Maureen, but she's never happy. And even if they aren't their opinion won't matter. We love eachother and we are going to spend the rest of our lives together."

She relaxed a little. He always knew exactly what to say. She leaned in and pressed her lips to his. She ran her tongue along the seam of his lips and the kiss quickly deepened. She tugged on the hair at the nape of his neck, eliciting a groan from Henry.

Reluctantly she pulled away. "We should probably head in before this gets more heated, we don't want to get busted by your Dad again."

Henry pouted like a child whose favourite toy was taken away but nodded in agreement. He made a mental note to book a hotel for their wedding night. He had big plans.

An hour later the McCords had just finished dinner. Henry cleared his throat, "I got some news today," he began with a deep breath.

All of the McCords turned to look at him and Elizabeth reached over and took his hand. She gave it a squeeze urging him to continue. "I am being deployed in three weeks ... to Iraq."

A sharp intake of breath was heard around the table. "Oh Henry," Mary exclaimed, quickly rounding the table and throwing her arms around her son.

The McCords took it in turns to embrace Henry. Even Patrick had to hold back tears as he hugged his son. Mary pulled Elizabeth in for a tight hug. Knowing that this was going to be extra hard for her. Henry filled them in on the rest of the details of his deployment when they had all returned to their seats.

Henry took Elizabeth's hand again and turned back to face the others. "There's something else we want to talk to you guys about. As you know Elizabeth and I were planning to get married this summer. Obviously that can't happen if I'm deployed. We talked about it today and we both agreed that we don't want to wait, we want to get married before I go. So we are doing it tomorrow at the courthouse."

The McCords were shocked but delighted for the couple. Even Maureen begrudgingly offered her congratulations. But she couldn't resist getting a dig in, "maybe the queen is pregnant," she muttered not quite under her breath.

Henry and Mary glared at her. "I'm joking," she said throwing her hands up.

"Ignore her," Henry whispered to Elizabeth placing a kiss on her cheek.

While it had gone as well as Elizabeth hoped she couldn't help but feel disappointed that she didn't get to share the news with her own parents.