Disclaimer: Please see previous chapter. Thank you.

A/N: We're coming to the best part of the story. I hope you all like it. There's probably between five and ten more chapter left. Yeah, I know that's a lot. But, don't you want to know what happens during their forty or so married years and what happens after Christine dies? I know I do. Again, thank you so much for all the kind reviews. Enjoy!

One more thing… sorry it took two weeks to post this. I have finals and studying is at the moment more important. Do not expect anymore updates until after the 15th. I am sorry. Enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 23: Here Comes the Bride

Louise was ecstatic as soon as we told her the good news. She smiled and immediately began planning the wedding. We just laughed at her. Apparently, she'd been playing matchmaker all this time and was happy to see that everything had turned out exactly the way she had planned it, with Erik and I together.

There was so much to plan! We opted to get married in June, like so many star-crossed lovers, and were busy for the next six months planning. We got a hold of a priest to do the ceremony and were given leave to use the church. Louise and I went out dress shopping, which was so much fun. We must have spent days looking for a dress. I finally found the perfect one. It was a medieval- like dress that was absolutely gorgeous. I think Erik was confused as to what made dress shopping appealing to two women. Louise and I just laughed at him.

When it came to invites, there weren't many. Our only guests would be Louise, Alex's family, and Jack's family. Neither Erik nor I had many friends and neither of us wanted to involve the public with the wedding. Can you imagine what would happen if the De Chagnys showed up? It would be a complete nightmare. So, it was to be a small, private ceremony for us. On a side note, in Alex's and Jack's families, both boys were not only children. Alex had four siblings and Jack had two. So, our wedding guests consisted mainly of children, which was perfectly all right with us.

We faked my birth certificate since I didn't have one; it being somewhere in the 21st century. It wasn't too difficult to do, but I felt bad. I hate lying to the government, but what were we to do? Tell them I was from the future? Not likely, so we did the next best thing. Much to my shock, it worked and I was declared a "fine, upstanding French citizen". If only they knew.

Our wedding took place on the 21st of June. The date has special significance, but I won't get into that. Let's just say it has something to do with my previous life in the "future". The day dawned bright and beautiful, with not a rain cloud in sight. Perfect for a wedding. Louise accompanied me to the church in the carriage, Erik already being there. The church was lovely, with the typical stained class windows of the churches of that time. The priest stood at the front with Erik, who was dressed in a black suit with a matching cape and the mask.

Jack, Alex, and their families occupied the first two rows of pews. The rest of the church was empty. I stood behind a great wooden door as Louise straightened my train. I was a ball of nerves. I couldn't believe I was doing this. I had never thought of marriage yet here I was, soon to be married. I looked at Louise nervously. She smiled and patted my shoulder.

"Pre-wedding jitters, dear. You'll get over them. Just put one foot in front of the other and soon you'll be living in a fairy tale." She opened the door and hurried inside before shutting it. For some reason, her words brought into my memory a Christmas movie I used to watch as a child. The thought relaxed me and at the sound of the music I entered, almost perfectly calm. Almost.

I think Erik was shocked. He had seen Christine in a wedding dress, but it had been slightly old and yellowed. My dress was the purest of white and seemed to shine with the colors of the stain glass. My head piece was a simple silver chain that encircled my head. I did not care for a veil. I felt like a princess. When I reached the altar, Erik took my hand and smiled. I smiled shyly back and we walked up the steps together.

I won't bore you with the details of the ceremony. I am sure you have been to countless weddings. To me, it took less than a minute, but it actually took more than an hour. The priest's voice rose and fell as he recited the vows. Erik and I both repeated after him and slipped rings onto each other's fingers. I smiled when I saw Alex squirm in his seat. Poor children, I thought. They must be bored. Either that or they were thinking of the fine meal that was going to occur afterwards. I noticed Erik's smirk and I realized he had seen Alex, too. We exchanged a secret glance. It was almost over.

When it came time for Erik to kiss the bride, we were both at a slight loss. How do you kiss someone while wearing a mask that comes almost to your lips? I must say, if someone had video-taped it, the kiss would have looked extremely funny. I had to tilt my head at such an angle that it was almost vertical. But, we managed and we walked down the aisle as man and wife, with the cheers of our friends making us smile.

Our reception (if you can call it that) was at the house. Louise outdid herself. There were French delicacies that I couldn't even begin to pronounce or tell you the name of (I think one was something snail). There was the famous French wine, which I did not partake of. I still could not stand the taste of wine, no matter how much Erik tried to coax me to drink some. Louise had also constructed a terrace cake. It was beautiful and oh, so tempting. I toyed around with the idea for a while and finally decided it was worthless to resist. So, I gave in.

It was half-way through the reception when this happened. I hit a silver spoon against my glass, announcing that I had something to say. Everyone, minus one or two of the kids, gathered around me. I was standing next to the cake and Erik was on the other side of me, beaming like any new groom should.

"I'd like to thank you all for coming to our wedding. Erik and I really appreciate you taking the time out to enjoy this very special day with us." A few cheers went through the room, mostly from the young folk. "I hope you all are enjoying the food cooked exceptionally by Louise." Another chorus of cheers from the kids and nodding heads from the adults. Louise just blushed. "Where I come from, there's a tradition that the groom and bride feed each other a piece of cake. I think this is a tradition I'd like to implement right now." There was some nodding of heads by the adults and a few "That's an interesting tradition. I think I like it" floating around. If only they knew what I was going to do. That cake was just too much of a temptation.

Louise handed over two small plates and Erik and I each cut a tiny sliver of cake. We picked up the tiny pieces and got ready to feed it to each other. I don't know what alerted me to it first: whether it was the smirk in his eyes or the fact that the cake piece wasn't quite heading for my mouth. Next thing I know, I had cake all over the side of my face. I can't say Erik fared much better. I smeared my piece all along the bottom of his jaw and I dabbed a small dot of frosting on his cheek. We were both laughing and the rest of the room with us. After cleaning ourselves up, the rest of the reception went off without a hitch.

I think Erik was anxious to make everyone leave because as soon as the clock struck 8:00, he shooed everyone away: including Louise. She was going to visit some friends in the near-by country side. As soon as everyone was gone, Erik swept me off my feet and carried me upstairs to his bedroom.

I'd never been in there before so at first I was more interesting in the room than him. It was a gloomy room (I soon fixed that) with gray painted walls. The only furniture was a bed (thankfully not a coffin) and a dresser which held his clothes, I presumed. Around the room was one or two pictures hanging on the walls which he had drawn. I won't describe them to you. They contained scenes of agony and pain and broken hearts. They were his way of expressing himself to the world. I turned because I could not bear to look at them. A side door lead to either a bathroom or a closet. That was as far as I got in my observations.

I won't go into detail as to what happened after he pulled me into a kiss. All I'll say was that it was magical. I never did find out, being scared to ask, whether or not Erik was a virgin on our wedding night. But, what did it matter? From then on, we each only had eyes for the other. What more could I have wanted?