A/N: In which we finally meet the bride and groom-to-be. Hope you like them!
I feel a kind of fear/When I don't have you near
Unsatisfied, I skip my pride/I beg you, dear
Don't go wasting your emotion/Lay all your love on me
Don't go sharing your devotion/Lay all your love on me
- Abba, Lay All Your Love On Me
"Danny! Danny!"
Daniel James Lestrade, aged 21 and a bit, turns and smiles as his fiancée comes running up to him. He's been swimming, relaxing and enjoying the day with his mates, enjoying their good-natured joshing about how he's giving up his freedom, but missing his Rosie as she runs about doing pre-wedding things with her bridesmaids. "I missed you too!" he laughs as she rushes into his arms and kisses him.
"Mm, yeah, missed you too but that's not - Danny, they're here! They actually came!"
He pulls back a bit, frowning. "They who?" he asks, then widens his eyes as the truth dawns. "Rosie, you mean you did it? You actually invited them? Why?"
It's her turn to frown and pull away. "You know why," she says lowly as she turns her gaze on the waves tumbling lazily onto the beach.
He's glad his mates have long since ambled off to other pursuits, preparing for his stag do later that night. He reaches out and draws Rosie back into his embrace, pressing an apologetic kiss to her lips. "Sorry," he says as he guides her over the rocks edging the bay. "Why don't you tell me about it, eh? Have you met them? Did all three of them come?"
They settle down onto a flat-surfaced stone, and he takes her hands as he makes sure to meet her eyes. They're a deep cornflower blue, just like her mum's, and her long blonde hair is blowing softly in the wind. She makes the same beautiful picture as the day he first laid eyes on her, on this very beach, near these very rocks. He'd been on holiday, setting up his towel near the pretty blonde he'd spotted, and she'd been busy tapping on her mobile but when their eyes met it was as if...as if destiny had chosen that very moment to bring them together.
He's not very good with words, but he'd shared that belief with her after their first night together and her radiant agreement had told him he'd made the right choice - in telling her, and, six months later, in asking her to marry him.
"Captain Ron picked up three passengers, guests for our wedding," Rosie says, sounding both nervous and excited. "He confirmed their names and I just - oh Danny, I couldn't believe it! They actually came, all three of them! David Greene, John Watson - and Sherlock Holmes." She's more than a bit starry-eyed as she breathes out that last name, which Danny can certainly understand; Sherlock Holmes and, to a lesser extent, his blogger John Watson are famous enough that he'd heard of them even before his recent reconciliation with his own father.
A reconciliation brought about in no small way by the beautiful woman sitting next to him. He knew she'd done it for her own sake as much as his own, but no matter what the motives the outcome has certainly been a good one.
So maybe, just maybe, this won't be the disaster he's been predicting it would be? "And?" he encourages her.
Her brow crinkles in a bit of a frown; uh-oh, maybe just a tiny bit of a disaster? He holds her closer as she continues, "I guess my mum was down at the pier to greet them and apparently there was, um, a bit of a row." She bites her lip, a habit she only slips into when she's really worried and trying not to show it. He's never told her about this particular tell, mostly because he'd rather know when she's hiding her concerns, and right now it just makes him want to hold her closer. To keep her safe, to protect her from harm and heartache - but in this case, there's nothing he can do to save her from the consequences of her own impetuous actions.
One Month Ago
Danny's working on the website for the Villa Rosa Hotel when Rosie slips into his room, closing the door quietly behind her. He turns and grins, expecting she's come for a bit of a snogging session, but her serious expression causes his grin to fade. "Rosie, you all right?" he asks, starting to his feet in concern.
She waves him back, then settles on his lap and twines her arms around his neck. "You know how I said I wanted to find my father?" she begins.
He takes her arms and pushes her back just enough to look into her eyes. "Rosie, we've been over this a million times!" he exclaims. "You don't need a father, you have a family!"
She raises an eyebrow at him, looking uncannily like her mother. "That's what you said about your dad before I talked you into letting him back into your life," she points out - quite unnecessarily, as he'd realized the moment the words left his mouth exactly what she'd say. "What's wrong with me wanting the same thing?"
"There's a difference between reconciling with a dad you haven't seen since you were ten - and finding out it wasn't because he didn't want to see you," he mutters, still more than a bit peeved at his mum for keeping them apart because she was afraid he'd prefer to live with him in England instead of with her in Australia. Which, he reminds himself, is all water under the bridge at this point. "There's a huge difference between that and trying to find a man who doesn't even know you exist. And how would you, anyway? You said your mum never talks about him, that you don't even know who he is -"
"That was before I found this," Rosie interrupts him, holding up a thumb drive. "I have to get this back before she knows it's missing. Can you copy it for me, please?" Her eyes are huge, blue, and pleading, and he's never been able to say no to her, even if he can tell this is a really, really REALLY bad idea.
Ten minutes later she's returned the stolen drive and borrowed his laptop in order to view the downloaded contents in the privacy of her own room - "In case there's anything super embarrassing on it," she says with a giggle. As if expecting to find no such thing from her mum.
Fifteen minutes later she bursts back into his room, this time not only closing but locking the door behind her. Then she rushes to the window, closes and locks it as well, and draws the curtains to boot. He's really concerned now; jumping to his feet he crosses the room to stand right in front of her. "Rosie? Is something wrong? What did you find out?"
Her eyes sparkling with glee, she says, "How would you feel if I had three men to walk me down the aisle at our wedding?"
"What?" he gapes at her, not understanding. "Who?"
"Where, when, why," she replies teasingly. Leaning forward, she kisses him. "My mum, I always suspected she had a bit of a past - I mean, how could I not? She gestures at herself. "I'm here, mum's here, but no dad in the picture and she's always been very vague about anything to do with him - and now I know why!" She giggles again in pure delight. "It's because she doesn't know who it is either!"
Danny gapes at her again, this time understanding all two well. "So when you said three men to walk you down the aisle, you meant…"
"She was in love, but it turns out he was engaged to marry someone else," Rosie tells him. "So she dumped him and met another man, they had a wild weekend together but then he went off to rehab and she met a third man - in Paris, isn't that romantic? - but he was way more into her than she was into him so she left him and came here to spend the rest of the summer with my Aunt Meena and Aunt Ginny. Then she found out she was pregnant and it's just...wow!" she finishes in a rush. "Crazy, right?"
"Wow," Danny echoes, completely at a loss for words. "So," he tries after a few seconds of silence, "did she, ah, name names?" He'd seen that the files on the drive had mostly been a mix of docs and spreadsheets, but there had been a couple of video files as well. "Did she keep a video journal or something?"
Rosie nods, grinning. "Yup," she says, popping the p with relish. "And you're never gonna believe who two of my potential dads are!"
The Present
To say he'd been gobsmacked when she'd pronounced the names Sherlock Holmes and John Watson would be an understatement. At least he hadn't recognized the third name, that would have been way too much of a coincidence - and thank god his own father's name hadn't been one of the three! But no, if that had been the case, then Mary would have definitely put the kibosh on his romance with her daughter!
Rosie brings him back to the present with a sigh. "I was really hoping I'd be the one to meet them, but Captain Ron's radio was out again. Now Mum knows and I'm sure she's already figured out I stole that stupid thumb drive and copied it." This time she bites down on the edge of her thumbnail, a sure sign that 'worried' is turning into 'extremely worried'. "She's probably looking for me right now. Thank god I didn't tell Gwen and Stacy where I was going, she'd get it out of them without them even trying!"
It's so very, very tempting to give her an 'I told you so' but Danny heroically bites his tongue. "Then maybe you should let her find you," he advises instead, pressing another kiss to her forehead. Her forehead is one of his very favorite places to kiss, right after her lips, cheek, ear, belly and...well. Other parts of her body. Which, he scolds himself silently, is NOT where his mind belongs at this moment.
"Yeah," Rosie agrees unenthusiastically. "I suppose you're right. But it's just…" She blows out another sigh and slips out of his arms in order to stand up and start pacing. "I had the image in my mind, you know? I'd greet them at the boat, and I'd know, just by looking at them, which one was my father, which one would walk me down the aisle at our wedding. Now I'm wondering if I should have just asked Aunt Molly to sneak some DNA samples from John and Sherlock for me instead!"
"My dad would call that water under the bridge," Danny reminds her. "And we both know what your mum would say," he adds with a knowing grin.
Reluctantly she returns the grin. "'It is what it is'," they chorus together, one of Mary Morstan's favorite sayings.
"Right," Rosie says, squaring her shoulders and glancing up the steep hill leading to the Villa Rosa. "Better get it over with."
Danny offers to go with her; she declines, as expected, and he kisses her good-bye and wishes her luck - and decides maybe he'd better talk to his father before he discovers the newcomers - and why they're here - on his own.
End note: A couple of blink-and-you'll-miss-them lines of dialogue in this chapter are taken directly from the movie Mamma Mia! and I offer kudos (and possibly a sneak peek of the upcoming Molly/Sherock chapter) to whoever recognizes them. :) Thank you as always for reading and commenting!
