A/N: Title comes from Katy Perry's Waking up in Vegas. What can I say, the song came on the radio and then I couldn't get this idea out of my head.

Carly groaned as the sound of her ringtone rudely woke her.

Cursing her past self for forgetting to set her phone to 'do not disturb' she opened her eyes in an attempt to look for where the noise was coming from. The mid morning light streaming through from behind the blinds forced her to promptly shut them again as a surge of pain thrashed through her head.

"Shit" she moaned as she patted the bed around her and the tune began to play again. The tune sounded as though it was coming from inside her head, rattling at her brain and she desperately needed to find her phone to shut the noise off. Her hand reached further, searching, until it eventually made contact with the hard rectangle and she brought it up, glancing through squinted eyes at the screen.

Harper was calling.

As she accepted the call, putting an end to the endless noise.

"God, finally," a tired drawl from the other side of the bed announced.

Carly sat up suddenly at the noise, her sharp movement sending a wave of nausea through her. There was a man in bed with her.

"Where are you?" Harper asked through the phone.

"Huh?" Carly asked. Her exhausted, and possibly still drunk, brain struggled to catch up with the events of the 60 seconds since she had woken up.

As Harper repeated her question the lump of man hidden under the bed covers stirred. Carly watched with wide eyes as the blanket was thrown from over his head and her best friend Freddie groggily stretched.

His jaw dropped just slightly as he turned and locked eyes with her.

Carly narrowed her eyes at him in an unspoken warning and lifted her finger to her lips, miming a shushing noise.

"Just grabbing a coffee," she said to Harper, slightly impressed at her ability to pull such an easy lie from mid air in the moment. "Was feeling pretty rough when I woke up, big night and all." She added, trying to make her story believable.

"Right," Harper said before letting an uncertain silence hang between them. "I just don't remember seeing you since the casino, didn't think you'd even made it back to our room so I thought I should check you were alright."

"All good, thanks for checking in on me." Carly responded as her eyes continued to stay locked on Freddie's. The man didn't move, taking her silent warning to be quiet very seriously.

After promising Harper that she really was ok Carly hung up the phone and flung it casually down on the comforter beside her.

"What the hell are you doing in my bed?" Freddie asked as he sat up against the bed head, pulling the blanket with him so that it was still crumpled up under his chin.

Carly shook her head, her eyes still staring into his as her mind raced, trying to find any memory that could give her some sort of indication as to how she had gotten here. Unfortunately most of the previous night had been wiped from her mind by the large amounts of alcohol she had apparently consumed - if her current hangover was anything to go by.

"No idea…" she said.

A wave of panic washed over her and she turned away from him and in a swift movement brought the bed covers up over her head and glanced down at her body. Her clothes from the night before, although now wrinkled from having slept in them, were still very much intact and covering her body. She took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself before glancing to her left, where she found Freddie's body which was also very much clothed.

She let out a loud sigh of relief and threw the covers off of them.

"At least we're both dressed," she shrugged lightly.

Freddie glanced at her again and a small laugh broke across his face.

"One less thing to worry about!" He agreed.

For the second time that morning the blaring noise of a cell phone ringing broke out.

The smile on Freddie's face fell as the noise grew and Carly was sure his head was throbbing just as much as hers was. The noise seemed to grow louder and louder with each passing moment it went unanswered and they both scrambled to find it and put an end to the chilling sound.

Their hands met as they both found the phone at the same time and Carly quickly pulled her hand back, allowing Freddie to pick it up.

"Harper," he whispered at her as he clicked accept.

Carly sat frozen as she watched him carry out his half of the conversation.

"No, I haven't seen her. Maybe she went looking for food or coffee or something." He said, easily repeating her lie from earlier.

"I'm pretty sure I remember both of you heading back to your room together," He added after a moment of silence. "If she says she's fine, I'm sure she's fine."

Freddie continued to talk on the phone but Carly was unable to follow the conversation as she had discovered a rather odd sight. As he held his phone up to his ear Carly had a completely unobstructed view of his left hand and a wedding ring sitting where she had seen it sit so many times before. But Freddie had been divorced from Gwen for almost two years now, why on earth was he wearing his wedding ring again?

"I'll text her and let her know we'll all meet for breakfast, or… um, brunch?" He added as he pulled the phone away from his cheek to glance at the time. "In an hour." Then he hung up on her.

"She's going to keep asking questions," he sighed. "Maybe we should just tell her you slept here, it's not like anything happened…"

Freddie's voice tapered off as he watched Carly brush a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

Without warning he launched at her, grabbing her arm and pulling it towards him with more force then she was sure he intended to use. His eyes were becoming comically larger by the second and Carly was about to laugh at the bizarre expression on his face before her eyes followed his gaze and noticed the small, gold band sitting on the ring finger of her own hand. Her stomach dipped and she was unsure if it was the hangover or nerves but she had to compose herself from the very sudden urge she had to throw up. She breathed deeply through her nose before exhaling with a soft hissing noise. Confident that her wave of nausea had passed she held onto his hand and flipped it, revealing the wedding ring she had noticed a moment earlier.

The world ground to a halt as they both looked back up at each other, realisation hitting the both of them in unison and sending their minds into a blur.

"We didn't?"

"Those can't be?"

They spoke at the same time before pausing. Carly watched Freddie, waiting to see if he would continue. Instead his shoulders slumped, eyes dropped to his lap and he pulled his hand back, away from hers.

It felt like a slap of rejection but Carly very quickly swallowed that feeling down, reminding herself that there was no reason for her to be hurt by his reaction.

"Maybe we decided to get friendship rings!" she said, knowing just how absurd her suggestion sounded but committing to it anyway. "You know, people wear friendship bracelets or whatever all the time, maybe we had some bright idea to get…"

"Friendship rings?" He cut her off, finishing her sentence. He glanced back up at her and raised a single eyebrow, clearly indicating he thought she had lost her mind. "On our ring fingers?"

"It was just an idea," Carly bit back, feeling defensive.

Without warning Freddie jumped up and started patting his back pockets. He was still dressed in his smart button up shirt, the sleeves now rolled up to his elbows, that he had worn the night before and a pair of dark wash jeans. Unfairly he didn't look anywhere near as dishevelled as Carly felt. His hands flew forward, digging deep into his front pockets and coming up empty.

"What are you doing?" Carly asked.

"There should be a marriage certificate! You know… if we were actually stupid enough to get married."

"Right! Yes, marriage certificate. There's no marriage without paperwork!"

Carly swung her legs around so that she could kneel on the bed and started patting down the pockets of her silky jumpsuit. Finding nothing but a single gum wrapper within them. She reached for her bra straps, making sure she hadn't stored anything within the undergarment either, an old habit from before she had vowed to only ever buy clothes that had real pockets.

Freddie was now pulling at the covers on his side of the bed and she shifted her weight so that he could pull them free from underneath her. He pulled and prodded at the bulky duvet, making sure nothing was hiding within it as her eyes flew from one side of the bed to the other.

"Nothing?" She asked as she hurried over to her purse which was discarded by the hotel room door. Her hands fished around in the bag before she decided to simply empty the entire contents on the ground so she could get a better view.

"Nope!" Freddie announced as he continued to search by the bed.

After a number more minutes searching desperately and both coming up short Freddie excused himself and locked himself in the bathroom, they both needed to freshen up before brunch or face more questions from Harper.

Carly knew that the absence of the paper they had been searching so relentlessly for wasn't a sure sign, but she was definitely feeling calmer now that there was no definitive proof just yet to confirm they had fallen for the terrible Vegas stereotype and drunkenly gotten hitched.

Her breathing slowed and evened out for the first time all morning and she got down on her knees by the bed to retrieve her shoes which had clearly been haphazardly thrown the night before and landed almost underneath the bed.

As she reached for the shoes she noticed a piece of paper tucked further under the bed and her stomach dipped. She didn't need to read it to confirm what it was, she knew the moment she saw it, but she reached for it anyway. With the paper now gripped in her shaking hand she knelt by the side of the bed and read it.

This is to certify that the undersigned Minister Brian Desley, did on the 18th day of the month of June of the year 2022, at Little Heaven Wedding Chapel Las Vegas, Nevada, join in lawful wedlock Fredward Benson (groom) and Carly Shay (bride), with their mutual consent, in presence of Georgia Desley (witness).

And there, under the prefilled contents of the certificate, sure as day, were her and Freddie's signatures.

"Freddie!" She yelled, standing on weak legs and charging towards the bathroom door.

"Freddie!" She called again, knocking on the door desperately. The noise she was making was definitely too loud but she didn't care, the only thing that mattered was showing him the very solid proof that they had done just as they feared.

"Freddie!"

She paused to catch her breath before lunging forward to pound on the door at the exact same time that Freddie pulled the door open.

The sudden disappearance of the surface she had been intending to force her weight against caused her to lose her balance and she fell forward through the doorway, landing with a thump into Freddie's arms.

He rolled his eyes at her before helping her to stand again.

"What?" He asked, crossing his arms over his chest and waiting for her to reveal whatever was apparently so desperate.

Without speaking she waved the piece of paper in his face only stopping when he reached to take it from her.

She watched his eyebrows furrow into concern as he read the certificate.

"Someone really needs to ban me from getting married." He said as his eyes met hers. "It's becoming a bad habit!"

A/N: I had a plan for this fic but as I was writing I realised I din't like that plan very much so I've started to rewrite this whole story and I honestly have no idea what direction it is going to go.

I figured I would get this first chapter posted because at the very least it can be a fun little oneshot. But I am going to keep trying and see if the new direction this story is taking works a little better… If so this will very much be a WIP and I won't be updating as regularly as I did on my last fic. (That one was fully planned and over halfway fully written when I started posting).

Let's see where this ride takes us shall we?