Sorry. I lied. I re-formatted the chapters of this fic and it's this chapter but mostly the next chapter that is the climax. Don't think I'm letting y'all off the hook- you still have to review!

Also, review Nestrik's fics. I haven't read them. I'm only saying that because she's my sister, but I'm sure they're awesome. Just read them. The titles are To Die Alone, In Your Arms, and When Tears Are Not Enough. Coincidently I named chappy 22 To Die Alone, but I wasn't copying. I swear!

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Chapter Twenty-Three

Till Death Do Us Part I

~*~

               Serenity woke up to bright sunshine streaming through her window, her mother pounding on her door, and a nauseous feeling in her stomach. Today I will be married. Today is the first day of the rest of my life and the last day of life as I knew it. She practically fell out of her bed and landed on her knees on the floor, her cheeks wet with tears but she did not remember crying. Hurriedly she wiped her face with her hands and opened the door. Her mother's arm hung in the air, poised for another knock, but she lowered it as Serenity stepped out into the hallway.

               "Come on dear, Connor and your father are already at the chapel!" said Mother. "Get on your dress, get it on quickly! Do you need any help?"

               "No," said Serenity from behind the door, sliding the dress over her head and watching it fall down to her feet, giving lovely shape to her curves and making her feel more like a woman instead of a working girl. When she was finished Mother came in again and began fussing with her hair.

               "Why won't it smooth out?" Mother wondered aloud as she tried to pin Serenity's thick hair up. However, the top would not stay smooth. She sighed, defeated. "I guess we'll have to leave it down," she said, sounding troubled. Serenity's hair fell back down around her shoulders, curling in the Caribbean heat. "I think you look lovely," said Mother.

               "That makes one of us," whispered Serenity, a little breathless. The air was muggy this morning, and it was hard to breath as it was without adding the nerves and tension of a wedding on top of it. There was barely a slight breeze in the air, and everything was still.

               Mother handed a bunch of wildflowers to Serenity that she had picked the other day. They were all bright colors, reflecting their Caribbean homeland. Serenity took them as Mother placed her veil on her head and flipped the sheer fabric over her face. The world became blurred behind the veil, turning the colors of Serenity's world into world of bleeding surreal. She closed her eyes as she tried to hold back the tears, clutching the stems of the flowers until their thorns pricked her skin. Mother noticed her tension and lifted the veil so that she could look her daughter in the eye.

               "I cried before my wedding too," she said, smoothing the wrinkles of the wedding dress. "Just remember this- you love Connor. You love him! You're going to spend your lives together in happiness. I believe in you two, daughter," she continues, her own eyes filling with tears. "I wouldn't be letting you marry him if I didn't see your love plain as day before me."

               "Thank you, Mother," Serenity whispered through the tears.

Mother smiled sadly and hugged her daughter carefully so as not to wrinkle the gown. "Come on, Serenity," she said as she pulled away, "we don't want you to be late for your own wedding!"

"Of course not," she replied and followed her mother, seeing herself not as a bride but as a ghost.

~*~

Will turned over in his hammock and promptly fell off of it as it flipped him onto the ground. He groaned and slid his hand under his head as if to return to sleep, but he didn't as soon as he remembered what day it was. His eyes shot open but he stayed on the floor, not willing to move. If he moved than it would mean that this was not a dream and that Serenity really was going to marry Connor that day. I can't let them do it.

How are you going to stop them?

Will pried himself off the floor and wandered into the workshop. He was almost finished with the Commodore's sword, and he only had left to finish laying the filigree into the hilt. He walked over to his worktable and began the task, working until the sun was high in the sky. All the while he debated whether he should go to the wedding or not, whether Serenity would want him there or not. Would I just prove an unwelcome obstacle? He wondered. Would I be an obstacle in Serenity's path to final happiness? Or would she want me there?

               Why would she want me there? His hammer rose and fell, beating the metal into the desired shape. I'm sure she wants to forget every part of her life that had me concerned in it.

               She loved me, but look where that got me.

               I can't be an obstacle if she doesn't know I'm there.

               Will took off his working clothes and changed into something a little nicer. Than he slipped his three-pointed hat over his head and pulled it down so that it cast shadows over his face. The road to the chapel was long and dusty and he hoped that he wasn't too late.

~*~

               Serenity found herself, as if in a dream, standing outside the doors of the chapel clothed in white. She could hear the nasal sounds of the harpsichord playing the wedding march, and she knew that any moment she would have to force herself to walk inside. Her father squeezed her hand from where her arm was slipped through his elbow; she had walked this way with Connor many times.

               Will he be my last?

               Her father was pulling on her arm now, and the doors to the chapel were open. Sunshine bled in through the stained windows, creating eerie triangles of light on the floor. The pews were filled with family and friends, some which had sailed from the surrounding islands just to see her wedding. For once Serenity was grateful for the veil covering her face, she would hate all these people seeing her with the look that she had on her face at that moment. She tried to arrange her features in an expression of calm confidence, as she didn't want Connor seeing the doubt in her eyes.

               She could make out Connor's shape through the veil. He was dressed in his finest clothes, which were sailor clothes nonetheless. She could make out the black bulky shape of his hat through the crisscross white fabric of the veil.

               I will never tell him about Will.

               They reached the front of the chapel, and her father lifted her veil so that he could kiss her cheek. "I love you, my daughter, and I wish you happiness," he said. Serenity tried to smile as the veil floated back down over her face, obscuring the world from her.

               The ceremony passed by in a daze in which Serenity tried to think as little as possible. When it came time for Connor to lift her veil for the final time, she was grateful to find that her face was willing to cooperate with her, and she even managed a small and even happy smile. The world became slightly righter when she looked into Connor's eyes and saw the happiness there. His happiness was out there for the entire world to see, even brooding blacksmiths that hide in the shadows in the back of the chapel during a wedding.

               Will leaned against the wall and folded his arms over his chest, watching this take place from under his hat. He could see how happy they looked, how perfect they looked together. I can't stay! His mind called out, but he forced his feet to glue themselves to the floor. He was not going to move until all this had come to pass.

               The poetic words of the final vows floated back to him. He watched the two of them slip their rings on each other, a symbol of their everlasting love. No! part of him called out. This isn't right, I shouldn't be here, I should be up there with Serenity! I should be the one marrying her! Elizabeth did not once cross his mind in those few moments where he steeled himself unsuccessfully for the inevitable.

               In sickness and in health…

               For rich or for poor…

               Until death do us part.

               "You may kiss the bride."

               Will watched Connor lift Serenity's veil and kiss her, and in that moment his heart died.

~*~

               What happened after they kissed was like a dream for Serenity. She saw nothing. She felt nothing. She was floating down the aisle being pelted with rice, bursting out into the sunshine that she neither saw nor felt.

               "Are you numb?" asked Connor happily.

               "Yes," she answered.

               I don't feel anything.