Family.

Chapter 11: Spring Madness.

Wildwing and Lizzie had decided that they would have a May wedding and had told their lovable manager/father that if he publicised where and when the wedding would be they would give him gift wrapped to Draganus themselves. So their wedding in the middle of nowhere was going to be a well kept secret. The manor house they were getting married in was surrounded by woodland and they had only known about it from a friend of Lizzie's, Wildwing refused to tell Lizzie the cost as he knew she would never have agreed to the amount he had paid but both agreed on one thing, the wedding had to be secret, with a minimum amount of guest so that they would be safe from Draganus. So, now that the venue and the date had been aranged (May 15th) they had only to organise the rest, which unfortunately for the guys involved shopping, plus it meant there was only three weeks to get everything ready.

"Will you guys stop moping around out there and get in here!" yelled Silver to Nosedive, Grin, Duke and Canard, Wildwing was already trying on a suit in the dressing room but the others did not want to be shopping with the credit queen Silver.

"Man I swear she could win a meddle in shopping, she's worse than Mal!" Dive said as he rolled his eyes and followed the others inside, causing a few snickers, "I hope Saffy's okay."

"She'll be fine kid Lizzie and the girls'll look after her." Although Saffron was up and about she was still pretty weak and according to Tanya it could take weeks even months for her to recover due to the fact that she was so skinny. Nosedive looked over his shoulder wondering where they were and could have sworn he saw a very familiar cat trot along between people's legs in the mall.

Elsewhere, Lizzie was trying on various wedding dresses and freaking at the prices, she wasn't poor but she wasn't rich like Wildwing either and her dear old dad didn't seem like he wanted to pony up the dough. Of course Phoenix saw right through that and was trying to get her to fall in love with the most expensive dresses in the store with Mallory as her back up, the children were playing in the corner of the shop with some dolls. Saffron was sitting in a corner looking at some magazines Nosedive had bought her whilst half listening to Tanya waffle on about how interesting it would be for her to run some tests on the magick she did to see if she could work out how it all worked, when;

"Hi, girlfriend!!" someone yelled from the shop door making everyone inside jump.

"Taisha!" Lizzie screamed, ran over to her friend a pretty black girl around Lizzie's age, and hugged her, "I thought you were never going to make it, you get time off to be my Maid of Honor or not girl?"

"Duh, me miss my best girl's wedding?" she grinned and leant over to speak privately in Lizzie's ear, "Besides I want to check out the uh, potential you're linvin with girl." Lizzie playfully slapped her best friend and they returned to the stunned shop assistant and continued trying on dresses. Lizzie finally decided on a medieval style ivory dress with a train that fixed just behind the ears in her hair, flared sleeves and a corset bodice. Taisha chose a red silk, off the shoulder, long, elegant dress with roses to go in her hair, Tai's was so nice the other girls decided on all having the same. Saffron however didn't think she was included in the whole bridesmaid thing so kept herself to herself until she realized Lizzie was walking over to her.

"Aren't you going to try one on Saf?" Lizzie asked as she knelt down beside her.

"Me?!" she replied genuinely shocked.

"Sure, you're part of the family too now so you have to be one of the bridesmaids," Lizzie gently took the small girls hand and led her over to the dressing rooms, "I wouldn't hear otherwise." Saffron obediently tried on the dress she was handed that was another clone of the others and stepped out and looked at herself in the mirror, she tried not to frown, she did look pretty but it just wasn't her and she knew it, Phoenix, Tanya, Mallory and Taisha, were all telling her how 'lovely' she looked and that made it worse, couldn't they see it wasn't her. But she didn't want to hurt their feelings so she just nodded and went along with it, then she and other girls went to have themselves measured so that the dresses would look tailor made for each of them and that's when Lizzie noticed Saffron looking at herself in the mirror again with an odd expression on her face, "You know," she said smiling, "I just don't think that dress is you." Saffron turned and looked at her in relief.

"I'm real sorry Lizzie it's so nice of you and all but, well I'm . . .I'm not this type of person, I don't wear this stuff," the raven haired duck looked at the ground afraid of how the human would react, "I'm so sorry Lizzie."

"It's okay Saffron, you don't have to wear that dress if you don't want to," Lizzie put her arm around her, "you wear whatever you feel comfortable in." Saffron smiled and rushed back to the dressing room to get back into her old gothic clothes she felt so comfortable in. It was then that Lizzie had an idea, so as she went to tell the assistant that they wouldn't be needing all of the dresses, and to warn her that Silver would probably be in later that day to be fitted for her dress she also asked if she could take a copy of Saffron's measurements, which they didn't mind at all. She then told the girls that she had to go else where with Taisha and the two friends walked off in the other direction.

The guys had finally finished getting their new suits for the wedding and were walking to the Migrator, where they hoped the girls would already be waiting, of course they weren't so they just put their shopping in the migrator and went to a fast food joint to grab something to eat. Canard was up at the counter buying the meals when a scream was heard, then another, and another, until a whole herd of people came running from the nearest electrical store and down the street. The six ducks looked at each other, left the store and changed into their battle gear. They rounded a corner where they saw Cleghorn and some nut with a gun firing at anyone within range. Wildwing stomach dropped and he immediately started looking any wounded he could see in case it was Lizzie or one of the girls.

"What are you guys doing here, this is police business!" Cleghorn yelled at them, another fire went off and they all dived for cover again.

"What's going on Cleghorn?" Canard yelled over the noise.

"This nut just suddenly started firing at people, there's three dead and eight wounded, all wounded are on their way to the hospital, the only trouble is. . "Cleghorn looked over at the building behind the gun man, "that building is currently holding two billion in gold, it's a treasury and the alarm was triggered just after this guy started having his little spree."

"So the dude's a distraction, we can take him right guys." Nosedive looked at his friends and brother.

"No, it's too dangerous," said Wildwing looking over his shoulder at the gun man, "we have to get past him with out his knowing."

"But. . . " Nosedive tried to protest.

"No." Wildwing looked around and spotted a manhole, he then looked over to the building and noticed another one near the door, "Stay here." before the others could say anything against him he took off at a run to the first manhole, tore off the cover and jumped in, narrowly missing a few stray bullets. Then he used the mask to work out which direction he needed to head to get to the other manhole.

He pushed open the cover as quietly as the thick metal would allow and thankfully the gunman didn't notice, he took aim with his gauntlet and shot a bola puck tying him up instantly. Once the rest of his companions had caught up he, Canard and Grin took the front exit whilst Duke and Nosedive took the roof. Inside was a mess, there was rubble everywhere which made it easier to find the vault as all they had to do was follow the rubble, the more of it there was the closer they got. Soon they got to what looked like it used to be a vault door, they followed the stairs down a level and it wasn't long before they heard voices.

"You'd better set those charges right Alex you know what the boss'll do if we don't get this gold to him." Said one of the thieves.

"Yeah," said another, "if we get caught first he'll spring us and then he'll kill us." The second man drew his finger across his throat as the woman setting the charges wiped her brow.

"I'm working on it," she pressed a few buttons and they heard a snap, "stand back gentlemen." They hid behind some crates and the woman went to press a button on a remote in her hand.

"Hold it right there lady and gents," yelled Canard stepping out and aiming his blaster at the three, "you're not going anywhere with that gold." The men raised their hands as both Grin and Wildwing also stepped out guns at the ready, the woman however narrowed her eyes, smiled slightly and pressed the button, the three ducks jumped in the hopes of getting out of the way, but were thrown by the blast. The three robbers made a dash for the hole in the wall that lead into the sewers, Wildwing got unsteadily up onto his feet and, after checking his friends were nothing more than unconscious, he ran after them.

"Ah to hell with this man," Nosedive said when he heard an explosion coming from a few floors down, he took aim at the door Duke was trying to open and blasted the lock, then he and Duke forced their way through. "Come on man they could be hurt."

"Don't panic kid I'm comin'!" Duke shouted as he ran after the teen. They found Grin and Canard in the basement just coming round, "you two okay?"

"I think so," said Canard rubbing the back of his head, then he looked around and noticed there was a member missing, "where's Wildwing?" Nosedive had also noticed the absence of said brother and was checking under larger pieces of debris incase he was underneath. Duke helped Canard and Grin to their feet and they helped to look, five minutes past and they heard footsteps coming from to sewers, they were slow and uneven so they didn't sound like anyone they knew, so they readied their blasters and waited for the owner to show him/herself. The figure shielded his eyes as he stepped into the light of the room and Nosedive yelled in panic when he saw his brother with blood falling down his arm drenching his clothes.

"Wildwing!" He yelled as he rushed over to help his brother, "you okay man?" Wildwing happily accepted his brother's help and leant on him for support.

"Yeah, it's nothing, lets just get back to the pond," he said first to Dive and then the others, "oh and uh, tell Cleghorn they're all wrapped up in the sewers for him." He grinned at them and let himself be led out of the building by Nosedive. Canard and Duke filled Cleghorn in as Grin got the Migrator and Wildwing got his arm bandaged by a paramedic, Dive hovered over him like a mother hen asking if he was okay every five seconds. The girls were contacted and told what had happened and they all went back to the pond where Tanya could patch Wing up properly. Wildwing spent two nights in the infirmary to make sure that he was okay after the blood he lost and then he was near enough back to normal.

* * *

Two weeks later and it was just before the wedding, Saffron walked into her room after a long day her 'new' white cat trotted past her and jumped onto the bed.

"There's something here for you Saffron," Mihoshi said when the door closed, "it looks like a present." Saffron looked at the parcel and stared at it, who would give her a present, Dive wasn't the surprise type of guy, he couldn't keep a secret to save his life, and the others, well, "Go on," Mihoshi said impatiently, "open it then!" Saffron reached down and carefully opened the package, it was a dress, the same color as the ones the other bridesmaids were going to wear with one difference, instead of being your pretty ordinary run of the mill dress this was tailor made for a goth, it had chiffon skirt and sleeves that were cut in a way that made them look ripped, the bodice was a corset with the ties at the front, she also found shoes and other things to go with the dress too, along with a letter.

Dear Saffron,

Your part of our family now, so that's why you have to be a bridesmaid, but, I wouldn't want you to be anyone other than yourself. So I went to a shop I knew of and they've made you this dress to wear so that you can go to the wedding as the Thorn Blood you are.

Hope you Like it:

Lizzie x x x.

Saffron smiled and tried on her new clothes and then ran to thank Lizzie.

Hope you like it, I wrote it when I had a cold so It's not Shakespeare, any way, I hope to put up more soon.