The Wedding Planner

Genre: Anti-Mary Jane and Romance? Humour and Angst too of course! S/J, S/P, J/other. The ending however, I shall not reveal.
Spoilers: through Season 8 - Threads mainly
Disclaimer: I really don't own them. None of them. Not a smidgen.. well maybe a smidgen. I own Katarina and that's about it. So please don't try and take away my imaginary money. I need it to buy more tea.
For my brother and great thanks to Noble Mira for beta reading this thing. My first posted fic, please be kind.

She sat in the dark dank room and sighed. Straining her neck, she craned it to the light and smiled. The negatives had come out better than she had thought, and that was saying something. Sitting back in her chair, a smug grin crossed her face as she reached for her cell phone. Just as she had picked up the contraption the possessed thing began to ring, causing her to fly back a few feet and to drop the negatives back into the desk.

"Hello?"

Who on earth could be calling her at three in the morning?

"Katie? Is that you?"

She tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear as she tried to go over the list of people in her life who would still call her by an old nickname. Drawing a blank, she sighed.

"Yes, speaking. Who is this?"

The other voice squealed in excitement, in an odd familiar way that she was sure she should be able to place. It sounded so… arg.

"It's Sam."

She nearly flew out of her chair.

"Sammy?"

"Oh wow" the voice said "I haven't been called that in forever."

A small silence ensued as she paced back and forth in the small space. It had been well over fifteen years since she had talked to her, and the curiosity was killing her. Not to mention the fact that her number was unlisted and her last name was different, the girl must have taken quite some time tracking her down.

"Must have taken you a while to get my number."

She hoped she wasn't being too obvious, but she was supposed to be hard to find.

"Yes, I had to pull a few strings." She paused. "Listen, I'm going to be in D.C. in a week for some business. I was wondering if we could have lunch together. Catch up."

Sighing out of the phone's reach, she pulled her lower lip under her teeth. Course her area code was DC, but this was a cell phone that happily worked in Portugal. Where she was standing currently. However it was in a week, she could catch a plane and rent an apartment in that time.

"Sure, I'd love to. Listen I'm busy now, but can I call you back tomorrow?"

Sam agreed and she quickly jotted down the number. Promising to call, she hung up and turned back to the negatives. Smiling again she marveled over her work of art, it really did exceed her expectations. A random noise of joy escaped her lips and she giddily flung her full weight back into the chair. Lord she needed to grow up.

Due to work related difficulties it took her two days to call Sam back, apologizing of course for the delay. Finding an apartment in DC had been harder than she had expected. Decorating the spacious place had been a blast, and she sat happily now in the middle of the peaches and cream room she had designed. Okay, maybe it was a touch too much on the girly side, but she had a persona to keep up. Slipping into a cream colored suit and polishing her already perfect hair twist, she put on some pumps and grabbed a matching purse before shutting the door.

Wandering down to the café she noticed a blonde woman sitting facing her direction that looked like a much older version of her childhood friend. She pondered how old she must look to Sam as well, before stopping to perch on her tiptoes and offer a gracious wave. Sam got up and the two embraced, before they both smiled and sat.

"Well, you look very old."

"You do too!"

They both sighed. No, they weren't fresh-faced twenty-year-olds anymore. The waiter brought Sam coffee and her tea. The both mixed their special concoctions and took a sip before Sam burst into speech.

"So much has changed." She nodded, so Sam continued. "You got married?"

She placed her cup back on the saucer and folded her hands in her lap. It was bound to come up.

"Yes, I did." She paused, cruelly allowing Sam to squirm a bit, before thinking better of it and continuing. "He died, in the line of duty."

"I'm sorry."

Yeah, she was too.

"Don't be. It was eight years ago." Sam looked a little hurt. "We eloped. There wasn't a wedding, so I didn't forget our promise, I just didn't have a chance to make good on it."

She eyed the ring on Sam's finger, motioning for her to elaborate.

"Oh," Sam looked at it and blushed. "This is why I'm here actually. I'm engaged."

Finally something good to smile about that wasn't work related.

"Wonderful!"

She waited for Sam to elaborate, but instead there was a silence again.

"So.." she began, trying to start up a conversation. "What are you doing now? Are you still in the Air Force?"

Sam nodded eagerly. "Yes, still in the Air Force."

"Great! So where are you stationed?"

The tension was back as Sam fingered her coffee cup.

"Cheyenne Mountain." The expected confusion appeared. "Doing deep space radar telemetry."

Bull. "Ahh." She exclaimed in that, right that's a big bunch of classified crap tone. "Sounds incredibly stimulating that.. deep space radar telemetry."

Sam nodded and they both burst into giggles. Yeah, it hadn't been the first time they had had one of these 'enlightening' conversations. The giggles receded, and Sam took on a more serious tone.

"So, what about you?"

She shifted in her chair. "No, no. " Her tone dropped before she cautiously elaborated. "I left the Marines after Brian died. I'm a private citizen now."

Sam nodded. "So what do you do now? You look very…" Sam eyed her near perfect appearance. "Polished."

"You mean girly. Yes, I know, but it comes with the territory. People have certain expectations of how wedding planners should look."

Sam nearly choked on her coffee. "You?" She muffled a laugh. "Are a wedding planner?"

"There's nothing wrong with being one!" Perhaps that was a bit too defensive. "It was an accident. Five years ago my four brothers all got married and they wanted help and it kind of became a career."

Sam giggled uncontrollably, she sank back defensively and rolled her eyes. "Sorry, sorry." Sam paused, before leaning in to whisper conspiratorially. "Do you show them your Marine tattoo?"

This time she couldn't help but join in the laughter. "No, no I don't. I think that's illegal in some places in the world anyway."

"Places in the world?"

She nodded. "Yes, I travel a great deal. I do mainly royal and head of state or country wedding now."

Sam seemed to understand. "So you plan a senator, a CEO, a Chief-of-Staff and a garage mechanic's weddings and you get a free new career?"

She nodded and smiled. "Yes, we were all actually surprised about Charles marrying so late. The president complimented me on my peony arrangement on that one." She paused in her reverie to take in Sam's shocked face, before adding. "Well, it was a good chance to get in touch with my feminine side."

Not that she ever really had known she had one. Brian had always teased her that he had a stronger feminine side than she had, and it had been true at the time. Finishing off her cup of tea, she paused and smiled at Sam.

"After this next month I'm on vacation for three." Sam nodded. "I should be able to make it as a Bridesmaid if it's within that time frame."

Sam wrinkled her nose and looked ashamedly back at her long empty coffee cup. "We haven't actually set a date, or a location, or really an anything yet."

"Oh, well I could talk to your planner." Sam winced. "You don't have one?" Sam shook her head. Well, that was a bit of a different story. Planning a wedding in three months would be interesting, Sam couldn't possibly afford even a fraction of her salary, but she was practically family. She reasoned with herself a bit more before realizing it would probably get her out of choosing a gift. Before she could open her mouth, Sam had started to speak.

"Could you possibly do it? I have no idea what to do and you know me better than anyone."

Well, she had known her better than anyone. Ten years could work wonders on people; fifteen could make them complete strangers. Yet here they sat as if time itself had waited for their reunion. Plus she hated picking out gifts.

"Well," she began slowly. "I'll need to meet your fiancée and anyone else involved in the wedding party."

"Is that a yes?"

She teetered on the brink of a decision before giving in. "Yes, it's a yes."

The girly squealing began again and she couldn't help but join it. There really wasn't anyone else she giggled with anymore and it was fun to indulge in the past time. A phone call from Sam's apparent boss interrupted any chance of lunch, and so she returned to her apartment and plopped.