Jack was stood at the front of the church now, infront of the mass of people. Panic was still seeping through him, even though he had been assured by his elder sister, Laura, that Kate was now on her way with Sam and the women. Anxious, he kept shifting his weight from one foot to the other, still trying to figure out what to say in terms of vows. It was proving as hard as it had been the night before, and the night before that, and the night before that, and the week before that. The only reasonable thing he could think of was 'I love you'.
Sawyer nudged his shoulder. "You gonna calm down now, or am I gonna have to knock you out?" He asked.
Jack hesitated for a moment, but the shook his head. "No, I can't."
"God you're like a kid on Christmas Eve wanting presents." Charlie muttered under his breath.
"First of all," Jack pointed out. "It is Christmas Eve. Second of all, there's nothing wrong with acting like a kid. Third of all, my present is on her way over here in a car right now."
Defeated, Charlie shook his head again. "You're nuts." He said.
A few more minutes passed, and Jack began to wonder where she was. It's just traffic, he told himself, just traffic, just traffic, she'll be here, it's just traffic. A few more minutes passed, and Laura's cell phone started ringing. Jack jumped at the sound, and started at his sister desperately while she spoke.
"Yeah...Alright, I'll tell him...Sure, that's fine,...Ok see you soon." She hung up and looked at her brother. "The car's broken down." She told him, Jack looked like he was about to say something, but she held her hand up to stop him, "But, it was just around the corner from the house, so they're going back for her dad's car." Laura told him.
Jack sighed. Then turned to Sayid. "Left, you got the rings?" He asked frantically.
"For the fifteenth time - YES!" He assured Jack.
"Just-"
"Just checking, I know." Sayid said with a smile.
Jack flashed him a smile before beginning to bit down on the skin surrounding his thumb nail. It was nearly red raw now, and Laura sighed heavily, turning to her eight year old son, and Claire's son Aaron, now five, who were being page boys, standing proudly beside the other men. "Tommy, Aaron, give Jack a hug, stop him worrying." She instructed.
Tommy and Aaron went over and hugged Jack, who bent down to recieve his hug. Ruffling his nephews red hair, and Aaron's blonde curls, Jack stood up fully. "Where's Meagan?" He asked Laura.
"With Kate. She's bridesmaid too, remember?" Laura told him.
"Oh yeah." Jack said stupidly. He turned to his youngest sister, Hannah, who was only seventeen, but had her three month old daughter balanced on her knee. "Shame Ellie's not old enough to walk down the aisle as well." Jack laughed. Hannah smiled.
"Don't worry, she's old enough to dance with her uncle at the party." She told him.
A few minutes passed with light conversation, but just as the panick returned to Jack, music started playing and the doors at the back of the church opened. Jack's head whipped up from where he was looking at his neice playing with the sleeve of Hannah's dress, and to where his soon-to-be-wife was walking up the aisle - towards him.
When he saw how amazing she looked with her broad smile when she locked eyes with him, he could hardly believe that she was about to marry him. She herself could hardley believe that she was finally getting to walk up the aisle with Jack standing at the end of it. Of course, with her arm lopped through her fathers and Claire along with the other bridesmaids, she missed her mother being there with her, but was glad that everyone else could be there. It seemed to take forever to walk up between the rows of people, and she felt like running up to him, whilst Jack's feet were rooted firmly to the spot.
After what seemed like an age, she was standing before him. Claire took the flowers she was holding, and her father leaned to talk in her ear. "He makes you smile like no one else could," he told her, "I am happy to hand you over to him." Taking her hand, he placed it in Jack's who gripped it tightly, grinning at her.
The priest, convientiently Mr Eko from the island, went through various passages from the bible, but neither of them heard. Eventually, though, came the time for the vows. Jack went first, and took a deep breath before giving Kate's hands a reassuring squeeze. Amazingly, the words just came to him.
"Kate, I was suprised how hard it was to come up with something to say to you right now besides telling you that I love you. Now that you're here though, I can't think of anything not to say, and it feels like I can't get the words out quickly enough to tell you. A lot of things happened to bring us together, some good, some not so good, but all that matters to me is that we are together. I want to tell you so many things; that no matter what happens, I'll always be there; I'll pick you up when you fall, hold your hands when you're stessed out, make you feel safe and comfortable. I want to be there for every smile, every tear and every frustration you have. I know that I can't be there every single second like I want to be, but when I am with you, I want to make you happy. I get the best feeling in the world when you smile at me or just speak to me, because I know that for one second, you were thinking about me. I love you much that I don't want to go to sleep at night, because suddenly my life is better than my dreams. Someone told me once that life is a fairytale, you just have to get past the evil stepmother part to find your happy ending. I've found my happy ending, here, with you, Kate, but it doesn't feel like an ending. It feels like a beginning, a new beginning, our beginning. I just want you to know that whatever happens in the future, nothing will ever stop me loving you, because I've never loved someone like I love you; I want you to know that for as long as I'm here, you'll never be alone, because my love is too strong to fade."
When Jack finished, he could see the tears glistening in Kate's eyes from the beauty of his words. It was a lot easier than he thought. The words didn't even register in his mind before he had said them. She had never known him to put so many of his feelings into words. Kate went next, still smiling incredibly, and holding into his hands.
"God, what can I say that you haven't?" She asked. "You've changed my life so much, and now everything is finally good. When I think of you, of your smile, it might sound silly, but I get butterflies in my stomach. When I go to bed and wake up in the morning beside you, I feel butterflies. To every first kiss of the day, and the words that you say to me, I feel the butterflies. You don't come across many people who give you that sort of feeling every day, you just don't; but somehow, I did, and I wouldn't change a second of it. When I'm with you, everything just seems to fall into place and make sense. The world around you gets hazy and the one thing I can focus on is you and me. It's like I've been given this amazing gift and I want to laugh and cry at the same time, because I'm so lucky to have you, but at first I was so scared that you'd go away. You're my whole world, Jack.When I was a little girl, I used to ask all the time was true love is, but I know now that it is something you have to experience to know what it is. I think that true love is when two people would give their life for the other, when they can understand each other so well they can almost read their thoughts, when they know that they would be there for that person no matter what. Some people search their whole lives for that one true, the one thing that will make their lives better. I found it, and it took me so many years to realize that what I was trying so hard to find was right in front of me all along. Being with you makes me feel as though I won't have to try so hard to be happy, that it will just happen, and it does. All you have to do is be near me, and I find myself smiling. I love you, Kate, and I'll always love you. I'm glad that I'm standing up here with you today."
Jack felt like he was welling up himself when Kate finished her vows, but, being a man, he forced it back down and simply kept smiling at her. He was resisting the temptation to lean forward and kiss her now, but Kate wanted the traditional wedding, so he would reserve his needs and let her have the traditional style. With the rings on their fingers, they moved onto the final part of the service.
"Do you, Jack Christian Shephard, take Katherine May Austen to be your lawfully wedded wife?" Eko asked, smiling at Jack.
Smiling at Kate and squeezing her hands, Jack grinned his cheeky grin. "I do."
"And do you, Katherine May Austen, take Jack Christian Shephard to be your lawfully wedded husband?" Eko asked Kate, smiling softly at her, almost proudly.
Smiling back at him, she nodded slightly. "I do."
"Then by the power invested in me, I now finally pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride."
Not wasting a second, Jack pulled Kate towards him to kiss him. He didn't just kiss her once, he kissed her many times, smiling and talking in between, oblivious to the applauding audience. "You have no idea how long I've waited to hear that." Kate told him, with her arms wrapped around his neck.
Jack had one arm around her waist and the other resting tenderly on her cheek. "Me too." He agreed. He kissed her again. "God, I can't believe it, we're finally married. Look at you, you're beautiful. Oh my god, you look fantastic." He observed.
"You don't polish up too badly either." She said slyly. "Is that a new shirt you're wearing?"
"Yes," He said proudly, "And despite you're impatience with buttons, I'd rather like to keep these ones." They both laughed, "Shall we?" He asked, offering his arm to her, which she took and they started to walk back down the aisle, this time together.
After they had walked down the steps from the alter, Jack surprised Kate by lifting her up and carrying her the rest of the way down towards the door, earing a few cheers from their friends. When they got to the door of their car, the now working wedding car, Kate looked over Jack's shoulder and threw out her bouquet of flowers. Hearing all of the laughs that followed, they both turned to see Sawyer now holding Kate's flowers, which had mysteriously flown straight into his grasp when Kate had thrown them. Jack was laughing so much that he had to set Kate down on the floor so he could nearly double up laughing. Sawyer scolwed, if only for a moment, and hastily shoved the flowers into little Aaron's hands, who passed them to Charlie, who passed them to Claire, who held them specially in her hands as if she had been the first one to catch them. It was only that they realised the people were waiting to get the to reception party where there was a vast amount of food, that the newly married couple climbed into the wedding car together.