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Chapter 24

A few days had gone by since Natalie learned of Chris' death and she was starting to feel less and less guilt for his situation, with every time she and john made love she felt it, the reasons they were right for each other, the reasons they belonged together, the guilt was subsiding with every touch and every emotion John showed her. She had gone to Chris' funeral only to stand in the back, she thought it best not to be seen by Carlotta and Antonio since they, themselves laid a tremendous amount of guilt on Natalie for not sticking things out with Chris. She said goodbye to the man she once loved, the gentle kind Christian Vega not the man that he had become, not the man that refused help. She was cleaning up Lauren's room when she started to clean up her drawings off her desk.

Natalie smiled as she flipped thru the drawings, she came to a picture Lauren must have drawn at nursery school, it was a picture of the three of them, Natalie was in a white dress, at least Natalie thought it was a dress, John had on what she guessed to be jeans and a black shirt, and then Lauren was wearing a lilac colored dress, Natalie smiled as she read the wording that the teacher obviously spelled out for Lauren. It said my family, my mommy, my daddy and me. Natalie's smiled got bigger, Lauren hadn't said anything to John calling him dad and they weren't even sure she understood things yet but in the picture, Natalie got excited and wanted to make things final, she wanted to be married to John, she wanted them to all be a family. After they made love the other day, she asked him when, when he wanted to get married and he said he was ready, since that day they hadn't had much time to discuss it, he was working on a big case and Nat was really busy at BE. But tonight, tonight they would discuss it even if she had to hand cuff John to the bed to find some free time too, handcuff him to the bed, she thought and got a smutty look on her face, that "sounds like fun ", she said out loud as she heard him walk in the room with Lauren.

"What sounds like fun?" John asked as he put Lauren down off his back from giving her a piggyback ride up the stairs.

"Nothing" Natalie said with a smirk on her face

"You're home early," Natalie asked as she saw his face, he was trying to figure out what she was talking about even thou she said it was nothing.

"Yeah, finished up that big case all by myself, sometimes I just amaze myself" John said boosting about how great of a cop he was

"All By yourself Huh? Wasn't my kid brother helping with that one?" Natalie said giving him a hard time

"Yeah, so?" John said knowing she was joking and he moved closer to her and gave her a quick kiss on the lips

"Nothing" Natalie said and she again smiled

"Uncle Ex is a great op, he's smarter than Daddy" Lauren said and John didn't know to be mad cause Rex obviously was telling his daughter he was smarter then him or to be ecstatic that she called him daddy. He went with being ecstatic and smiled widely.

"Did you hear what she called me? She called me daddy" John said as if it was the best thing he had ever heard, well, it was definitely up there with Natalie agreeing to marry him. He picked Lauren up and planted a big kiss on her forehead and said thank you to her.

"Can I play now? " she asked looking at John like she couldn't understand why he was acting crazy. Lauren went off to play and Natalie looked at John who still had a proud look on his face.

"You heard her, right? She called me daddy," he again said as if not thinking it was real

" Yes John, I heard it, she said Daddy, she called you daddy" Natalie told him smiling

"Now, I'd like to discuss calling you husband" Natalie said and they started to talk about getting married.

John and Natalie decided on a small wedding at Llanfair with just immediate family and friends. No tuxes or formal attire required, not even for John. Natalie would've married him in his jeans if that were what he wanted; she just wanted to be his wife. John did decide to wear a very nice tailored Black suit with a navy blue dress shirt. He shortened his hair to just below his chin the way he knew Natalie liked it the best.

Natalie decided she would wear a cream colored simple off the shoulder short-sleeved dress, the dress' length was just above the knees and it fit every one of Natalie's curves perfectly.

Lauren would be wearing a dress she picked out; it was a lilac colored little girls dress with a bow in the back. It was made of satin material and was simple but beautiful.

Jessica was to be Natty's Matron of Honor and of course Michael would be John's best man.

After they made the decisions on the wedding it took them almost a month to plan it, plan things simple, actually Natalie couldn't believe how long it actually took to plan, to plan something so simple, something that she knew would be beautiful.

It was about fifteen minutes before Natalie was to walk down the aisle, walk down the aisle alone to John, she didn't need anyone to give her away, part of her was already given away, a big part, she had started giving it to John little by little over the years since they first met and now today she would give him the last bit of her, she would be his wife, and be it for the rest of her life. She stood looking at herself in the mirror and she didn't see it. She didn't see fear or guilt, she only saw Love, and the love that she and John had for each other and she knew in her heart that, that their love would last a lifetime. Jessica came up behind her and they looked at each other thru the mirror.

"You look beautiful, it's time, are you ready?" Jessica said not only with her mouth but also with her emotion filled eyes.

"I know I'm beautiful, John showed me that, I'm ready," Natalie said as they went out into the foyer

John watched as everyone stood for his bride to walk down thru the room and take her place next to him, by his side, the place he knew she would always be.

Natalie walked down the aisle and smiled as she saw his loving face staring at her, she stopped right before she got to him and took Lauren who was sitting in the front row, by her hand and guided her up over by her and john in front of the priest. The three of them stood there ready, ready to embark on their journey together, their life together, joined by god the three of them would be a family, all the hopes of the future, all their dreams.

As the ceremony progressed it came to the vows part and neither planned on writing there own vows, they both liked the traditional vows and knew anything they needed to say was already being said by there hearts and their souls. The priest announced them as Husband and wife and as the Mcbain family. Lauren got a huge smile on her face when she heard her new Name.

"Lauren Mcbain" she said to herself over, and over as if she really liked the sound of it.

There was a brief reception after the ceremony and then it was time for Natalie and John to leave and go on their honeymoon. The honeymoon John had planned and kept a secret from Natalie. They were only going away for a few days, neither could bare to be away from Lauren that long, so they said there Goodbye's and were off.

John drove for a few hours and then they arrived, she knew where they were going the minute he started driving in that direction. Atlantic city, the place they both grew up in, the casinos, the boardwalk, chili cheese fries, and cheese steaks. How he knew just what she liked, how he knew who she was, and what she wanted, how he knew how happy she was to be his. John and Natalie went into their room and couldn't wait to celebrate their life together, they walked in the room and John turned to close the door behind them.

By the time John turned himself back around towards her she was Naked and standing in front of him.

"Wow! You move fast," he said as he grabbed her by the waist with his hands and pulled her body to his. John started to nibble on her neck with his mouth and then he brought his mouth to hers to kiss her deeply when she suddenly pulled back.

"I'm going to be sick" she said as she raced off to the bathroom to throw up.