I guess I can say, "yay, it's not as long as some of my delays have been?" Maybe? I tried, lol. Between work and some veterinary emergencies involving my dog (she's fine now, thank goodness) real life's been a bitch lately.

Thanks so much for the comments to the previous chapter and your endless patience. May the universe lighten the load on all of us sometime soon. :-)

"I ran into Pastor Lloyd and his wife the other day while running errands and he mentioned that the church is free on December 23rd and he'd be happy to perform the ceremony if it's something you and Angela are interested in."

Eric glanced up from prepping Georgia's meal. His mom had invited them over for lunch after the baby's swim class and before he had to go to work. Now he wondered if the invite was as innocent as it seemed in the moment. "The only times Angela and I go to church are when you and dad ask us to on holidays so you can show off Georgia. Before Easter the last time I was at church was for yours' and dad's vow renewal." He dropped the elbow macaroni and shredded chicken and cheese on the high chair tray. "Hell, even when I was a kid church was something we only did for holidays, weddings, funerals, and whenever Nana Boo Boo came to town."

"And this is a wedding," she pointed out. "Besides, it's going to be hard to find another venue this close to the date."

"Maybe if we were getting married in the summer, but December isn't all that popular for weddings."

"What about all the corporate holiday parties and banquets booked around that time?"

"Mom, don't. Angela and I will figure it out, okay? Cory and Topanga didn't get married in a church. And please don't even bring up that I "stole" a wedding. It's been over ten years and I think everyone needs to get past it. Before I upgraded their big day they were just going to have a little thing here in the house." He thought back to the old albums dragged out when he was a kid. "Didn't you and dad get married at a courthouse the first time? You eloped, right?"

"We didn't technically elope. It was done at the courthouse and was very small, but that was because we were broke and our families thought we were making a mistake and refused to pay for anything. We could've waited, but we wanted to be married before dad shipped out with the Navy. It wasn't an especially dangerous assignment, but he was still going to be gone for six months and we wanted it official."

"See, you guys did it your own way."

"I just wanted to let you know that you have options."

"I appreciate that, but let me and Angela go through the options. We're going to do what's comfortable for the both of us." He could understand now why Angela got so exasperated by just a few minutes of wedding conversation. Everyone seemed to have an opinion they wanted to share. It was worse than unwanted parenting advice. "So long as we end up married at the end of the day, does anything else really matter?"

"Morgan, I already said we'll pick a day before Rachel goes back to Texas."

"What about tomorrow? I already talked to Topanga and it's going to be a light work day for her. We really like the burgundy but it's hard to get a real idea of how it will look unless we see it in person."

"I'd need to find a sitter for Georgia. That's hard at midday on a Wednesday."

The teen turned to her mother. "Mom?"

"Sorry, Morgan, but I promised Lila I'd keep her company while Mr. Feeny is getting some tests done tomorrow."

"Tests? No one told me about more tests. It's nothing serious, is it," Eric asked.

"No, honey, they're completely routine scans to check his progress. But they can take a couple hours so I told her I'd take her out to lunch and then she wanted to go to the house for a little bit and gather some more belongings."

"We can't take Georgia dress shopping with us?"

"Be serious. There's no way she'd have the patience for that. Plus I don't trust her around all those expensive dresses with hands that are always covered in either her own drool or food."

"But-"

"I don't have to go into the station tomorrow."

"What?"

"Ray begged me to switch with him. He's covering the broadcasts tomorrow and I'm taking Saturday." If looks could kill the daggers Angela sent his way would've left him seriously wounded. "I mean…yeah…don't you remember?"

"Yay! No need to get a sitter." Morgan took her phone out of her pocket. "I'm calling Topanga."

/

/

"It's been a while since we've gotten together. How have things been?"

"So busy," Cory exclaimed. "You know I'm a guidance counselor and the end of the year is always insane, though not as bad as last year because I had seniors then. That was rough. As rewarding as it was seeing my first group of kids fly the nest and go to college it made me feel old. And now starting over with a new group of freshman…well…"

"You feel even older," Dr. Kelly guessed.

"Exactly! Some days they looked at me like I was about a million years old. But it was a good year with a mostly good group of kids. They're going to go far. I'm looking forward to sophomore year in a few months. I think it will be fun."

"That's really great. Topanga, how has work been for you?"

"A little slow actually. I've been at the tail end of a few cases and helping to wrap things up. That was the plan for the summer though. We had Shawn and Naomi's wedding which was so beautiful and every moment was perfect and they-"

"Wow, how did I not open with Shawn's wedding? I talked about work instead? What's wrong with me?"

"It's not a crime to focus on yourself and your own successes, Cory," the doctor reminded him. "In fact, given how preoccupied you can get with how other people are living their lives I'd say it's progress."

"How?"

"You're not living through other people anymore. You are content with what you have in your life."

"Can I toss another theory out there?"

"Of course, Topanga."

"Maybe now that Shawn's married you feel like you can worry about him less. You helped him reach the finish line. Not that married is the end," she added. "We've definitely learned over the last couple of years that just because you're married doesn't mean there still isn't work to do, but he's come a long way…we all have."

He pondered his wife's response. "Is it weird if that makes me a little sad?"

The doctor jotted down notes on her pad. "Elaborate."

"I'm thrilled for Shawn, but I do miss him. Marriage changes things. Does that count double now that we're both married? Is it going to be even harder to find time to hang out? It shouldn't be that different, right? He and Naomi have been together for over five years and have lived together for most of that time. They just finally made things legal."

"There will be changes to get used to and adjustments to be made, but as you've learned during our time together: change can be a very good thing."

"I know. I just over think things."

"No! You? Never!"

He rolled his eyes at the mock disbelief. "Ha, ha, Topanga."

"I'm joking. But get all of your thinking out of the way now. This way you can relax and be worry free on our vacation."

"Can you promise the same?"

"Excuse me?"

"Are you going to be okay in the Caribbean for two weeks without worrying about work?"

"Why are you asking me that? I think I've been very good about maintaining a work/personal life balance lately. Have I done anything to make you question my commitment?"

"No, not at all." He leaned over and took her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "But two weeks is still a long time. I know how much your career means to you."

"I suppose I can't promise that work is never going to cross my mind, but I'm not going to be sneaking into the bathroom to call the firm already knows I'm not to be bothered." She cringed thinking about their last vacation. It had been years ago, Eric was still with Hollie and they rented a cabin to go skiing. She probably spent more time hiding in the shower stall on her phone and laptop than on the slopes. "I thought we were beyond this."

"We are. I'm sorry." He shook his head. "I don't know where this is coming from."

"It's okay," the doctor interjected. "It's perfectly normal to have a back and forth. Being aware of negative behaviors can help prevent them from cropping up again."

"What did you think I was going to spend our vacation worried about," Cory asked, curious about her initial comment.

"Finding the perfect souvenirs to bring home, over scheduling so we don't miss any important site, or worrying about our luggage getting lost. And don't deny the last one because you are the man who once suggested we wear everything we planned to take with us so there would be no bags to lose."

"I told you about what happened to the vice principal a few years ago, didn't I? He and his wife took their honeymoon in Naples, Italy but their luggage was sent to Naples, Florida. They didn't get it back until after they got home!"

"Cory, the odds of that-"

"I'm just saying it happens."

/

/

"If your dad's flight is getting in at ten on Friday why don't you just have him take a cab to the station and then he can ride home with me? The station's halfway between here and the airport. It worked when he flew in last Christmas. I'll make sure I don't stay too late so we're not coming home at one in the morning. I know how tired he gets." He tossed some of the baby's clean laundry into her basket. "I think this kid has a bigger wardrobe than the two of us combined. How did that happen?"

Angela chuckled. "We have generous family and friends. Not to mention that neither one of us can resist when we see something cute."

"So does that mean you won't lecture me if another package shows up today?"

"Eric-"

"It's matching daddy/daughter shirts for Sunday. You can't get mad about that. I get to dress her for Father's day."

"I didn't dress her for Mother's day."

"That's because you decided to make it a pajama day."

"It's cute and appropriate for other people to see?"

"I got a couple different shirts for us because there were so many awesome ones I just couldn't decide."

"Naturally."

"Besides, when have I ever bought her something inappropriate? And don't say the Shih Tzu shirt because that's a real dog breed and she looked adorable in it."

"You took her grocery shopping yesterday wearing a shirt that says, 'I'm the product of a foxy couple'. I didn't buy it for her."

"Can I help it if the shirt speaks the truth?"

She shook her head and smiled, deciding to go back to their previous conversation. "I'll ask my dad about taking a cab to the station, but I think he'll be okay. It would be nice to not have to drag Georgia out now that she's starting to go to bed at a more human hour. I'd love it if she didn't insist on waking with the sun, but I'll take the victories where I can get them." She looked up when she heard a crash, quickly followed by squeals of laughter. Georgia had, for the millionth time, knocked over her little stack of plastic blocks. "She gets such joy in being destructive."

"It's fun making things fall and go boom. Right, Georgia?" He scooted closer and stacked a few blocks on top of each other. Her hand immediately flew out and sent them tumbling. "Boom!"

"Boo," she shouted, mimicking him.

"That's right," he said through laughter as he stacked the blocks again. "Come on, make them go boom."

"Boo!"

"Yay, good job," he cheered her on. "What?" The baby grabbed onto his hand and pulled it towards the blocks. "Again? You want boom again?"

"Aga boo?"

"So you'll try to say boom and again but not dada? Okay, I see how it is." He stacked her blocks into a little tower while she waited, anxiously bouncing on her knees. "Go ahead, you human wrecking ball. Make the stack go boom."

"Boo!"

"Good job!" He looked away when a phone chimed. "Is that yours' or mine?"

"Do you have Beethoven text alerts?"

"No, but I did recently add the Simpsons theme for my ringtone." Eric noticed she made no move to respond to the text. "So who's on the other end of the angry sounding classical music?"

"Symphony No. 5."

"Whatever."

"It's the bridesmaid chat. They're discussing things."

"Shouldn't they be discussing things with you? You are the bride."

"I check in occasionally."

He saw that the baby had grown tired of her blocks and was now flipping through a board book, so he took the opportunity to move back over to Angela. "Is something wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

"Ever since we told people the date you don't seem very excited anymore. You still want to get married, right?"

"What? How can you even-" She pulled him close and kissed him briefly. "-of course I want to marry you. I love you and want to be with you more than anything. Please don't doubt that. Please."

"Then explain why every time you get a text from your little bridesmaids' circle you look ready to commit murder."

"That has zero to to with the marriage part and everything to do with the wedding."

"Huh?"

"It's hard to plan and come up with ideas when I've got three very strong personalities coming at me."

"I need to buy a vowel because this puzzle makes no sense to me, Vanna. Just tell them to lighten up. You don't usually have a problem opening your mouth when something's wrong. Why should now be any different?"

"I just want this to be a happy time for everyone."

"So do I, but let's be real. The only ones who need to be happy are you and me. We're the ones getting married."

"I know. I guess it doesn't help matters when they constantly point out that we don't have any plans. They're right though. All we have is the date. We haven't picked colors or anything."

"Red and green?" She wrinkled her nose. "What, too much?"

"Just because it's happening at Christmas doesn't mean it can't still feel like a wedding. Although I can't promise there won't be a day between now and then where I'll demand we go to city hall because these people are driving me nuts."

"If that's really what you want-"

"No, this isn't just my wedding. It's ours'. Marriage is about compromise. We're already not having the huge blowout you always imagined and I'm not going to make you-" Movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. "Eric, look," she said quietly.

He twisted around and watched Georgia use the coffee table to pull herself to her feet. She would let go for a few seconds only to grab back onto it again. Then she did something he never saw her try before. "Walking," he exclaimed in a hushed whisper, trying not to startle the baby. "She's taking steps. We have a walker."

Angela had tears in her eyes. It seemed like only yesterday they brought a tiny little newborn home from the hospital. It didn't seem possible for her to be walking already. "Georgia, hi," she called out. She knew her daughter well enough to see her confidence falter when she tripped over her own feet. "What are you doing, big girl? Huh?" She held out her arms. "Come to mama and daddy."

Eric was thankful he'd put the foam protectors around the coffee table when her chin bounced against it. "You can do it. Eye of the tiger, kid, eye of the tiger."

"Eye of the tiger?"

"Hello? Rocky III? Apollo says it to Rocky about a million times to get his head back in the game after Mickey dies. There was a song and everything!"

"Sorry, don't know where my mind was." Angela expected her to drop to the ground and crawl when she ran out of table to hold. But it seemed her daughter had decided to take an all or nothing approach to this particular milestone. "Come here, baby. You can do it. Come here." It was some combination of a walk, run, and a drunken stumble out of a club at three in the morning. For a moment it seemed like Georgia was coming for her, but at the last moment veered left and walked to Eric. Well, landed on him when she ran out of gas was probably a more apt description. "Good job!"

He cheered and lifted her high over his head. "That's my girl. You walked to daddy, didn't you?" He kissed her cheek and hugged her close. "Yeah, you walked to daddy." He looked at Angela. "I'd say sorry, but-"

"Considering you can't wipe the grin off you face I wouldn't believe you anyway," she joked, smiling at her family. "Do you feel better now?"

"Kind of. Let's see if we can make this moment perfect." He held Georgia in front of his face. "Georgia, can you say dada?" She rubbed her eyes and whined in response, squirming around. "No?"

"I think that's her way of saying we only get one major milestone a day. That and it's lunch time, right, Georgia? You want some food?"

"Mama!"

"Hey!"

Angela could only laugh. "Or maybe she is just screwing with you at this point."

/

/

"Morgan, no, that slit is way too high."

"Please, just because you guys are old now and want to dress boring doesn't mean you have to kill my fun."

"Excuse me, I'm not old. I won't be thirty until November," Topanga offered in rebuttal.

"Thirty's not old either," Rachel exclaimed. "If it is then I'm a few years beyond old and I don't like that."

Angela rolled her eyes but otherwise ignored the bickering. At least they weren't pressing her to make more plans at the moment. She wandered over to a rack of dresses, finding a few that she really liked.

"This is nice. I know you said you guys haven't picked colors yet and personally I think burgundy would look amazing at a Christmas time wedding-"

"Red's also your favorite color, Topanga."

"That's beside the point. What I was going to say is that if you like the blue I will happily wear blue."

"I was looking for myself."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Nothing. It's nothing. The blue is really nice."

She placed the garment back on the rack. "Spit it out."

"I just didn't realize you weren't wearing white, that's all."

"I haven't decided anything. But the big white dress isn't me. Besides, Eric and I already live together and our baby is almost one. The cat is out of the bag on whatever antiquated virginal stereotypes the white dress represents. I'm not going to feed into the stereotype while also being a hypocrite." Angela only now realized how loud she had become and had not only her friends watching her, but a dress shop full of brides-to-be, some of them on pedestals in the midst of trying variants of the white wedding dress and veil. "I need some air."

"Angela, wait-" Rachel- along with Topanga, and Morgan- tried to follow after her, but was stopped by store employees. "Hey, what are you doing? We have to check on our friend."

"Did you pay for those dresses?"

They looked at each other, realizing they were still in their bridesmaids' dresses. "No."

"Then you don't leave with them on."

"Right. Sorry about that."

/

A little while later, after worrying she'd decided to leave without them, the trio found Angela's car on the opposite side of the shopping center, parked outside a party store. When they went inside she was at the counter, flipping through a binder and talking to an employee. She appeared relaxed, happy and smiling. After she was finished she didn't seem surprised to see her friends waiting for her. "Stalking me?"

"You drove."

"Right."

"What did you buy," Rachel asked, trying to keep things light.

"We needed tablecloths and napkins for the barbecue on Sunday."

"You needed to look through a book for tablecloths?"

She rolled her eyes. "No, Morgan. I was looking through the book to get a head start ordering things for Georgia's first birthday."

"You guys picked a theme? What is it?"

"Rookie of the Year."

"So…sports themed?"

"Not really. We figure aside from sleep she's pretty much nailed her first year of life so it fits. It was Eric's idea. He's designing a rookie of the year card for her and everything with her stats and milestones. He's so excited he is about it which is adorable." She led the way out of the store and headed for her car. "So are we grabbing something to eat or heading home or-"

"Or talk about why you acted like a freakin' weirdo in the dress shop," Morgan muttered, which got her an elbow in the ribs from Topanga. "Ow."

"Lunch it is then."

"Angela, come on." Rachel grabbed onto her arm before she could get into the driver's seat. "What's going on? And don't lie and say nothing because you don't storm out of a bridal shop over nothing."

As tempted as she was to get in the car and drive away, fleeing an uncomfortable situation only provided a short reprieve. Angela had learned that many times over the course of her life. Running solved nothing. "I'm fine." Apparently she hadn't learned that a cheap lie solved nothing either.

"Really? This was supposed to be a fun day picking out bridesmaids' dresses and colors and going over other wedding details."

"Yeah, I know. I'm getting married. Me. That thought still sounds ludicrous sometimes. I never imagined myself having a wedding let alone having to pick a dress or a venue, and a million other decisions that go along with it.

"That's why you have us, to help you plan."

"Who the hell asked for your help?!"

"I…what?"

"I know it wasn't me. I never asked you to be my bridesmaids. You assumed and all of a sudden started planning and are up my ass with color suggestions and flowers and photographers and venues and now Amy wants us to get married in a church! You're all stressing me the hell out and throwing plans at us when literally the only decision Eric and I have made is the date. And even that gets crapped on."

"So you don't want Morgan, Rachel, and I as bridesmaids?"

How was that all they took from her rant? "That's not what I'm saying."

"Then what's going on?" In all the years they'd known each other it was rare to see Angela this riled up. "Talk please. Clearly something is wrong."

"I remember how excited I was when you each asked me to be your maid of honor. I was so thrilled and honored to matter so much to someone they'd put me in that role. You guys know how I grew up traveling constantly. I wouldn't change a thing but it's not always something that easily lends itself to creating lifelong friendships."

"But you've created those bonds and that's why we want to be here for you now and support you the same way you did when we got married."

"And I appreciate that, but you didn't even give me the chance to ask. You assumed and jumped into planning. You robbed me of having those moments."

The trio of presumptive bridesmaids looked at each other and realized she was right. It wasn't intentional. They'd just been so excited for her and Eric, but the end result was the same. "Why didn't you say anything Sunday?"

"I wasn't going to end Shawn and Naomi's weekend on a sour note. It was still their wedding. I felt bad enough I slipped and revealed the date. The last thing I wanted was to start an argument about bridesmaids."

"Can we just start over," Morgan suggested. She'd remained quiet for most of this conversation. Sure, she was a bridesmaid for Topanga, but she was also just a kid and she didn't even go to Rachel and Jack's wedding. Her and her group of friends were not in the wedding stage of life yet and she hadn't felt she had much to offer the conversation before now. "Pretend all this never happened?"

"That's a good idea," Rachel agreed. "What do you think, Angela?"

"How far back are we going to go?"

"However far back you want. You are the bride."

Angela weighed the options. It felt silly to ignore the last week of insanity, but she was also tired of feeling angry and anxious whenever she thought about the wedding and their latest texts of ideas. Maybe it was worth a shot. "Hey, guys, big news."

"What?"

"Eric and I set a date for the wedding."