When I opened my eyes, it was still dark outside, and quiet, so I figured it was only the wee hours of the morning and everyone was asleep. There wasn't enough light in the room for me to be able to see anything; I sat up slowly, my neck was sore and stiff, I must have slept on it at an odd angle; I rubbed the back of it, groaning quietly before I stood up and got dressed in my robe before going to look out the window. The snow had not stopped, it was as if snow was building up in those clouds for years and now it was finally being released onto the ground in big, puffy flakes that looked like marshmallows.

The wind was much louder here than it was back home, it sounded like there were a pack of wolves howling in the distance, but really, it was just the sound it made as it blew over the rolling hills and flat, open fields framed with trees.

Feeling a short breath of hot air on my shoulder, I was reminded that I wasn't alone. I closed my eyes as he lightly brushed his finger up and down my arm slowly, and trailed soft kisses behind my ear, setting my heart on fire as I was reminded of the night before. It was the first time we allowed ourselves to be truly vulnerable with each other, to let our weaknesses show through our tough exteriors.

"Come back to bed, love," he whispered, his voice husky from just waking up. "It's too early to be up and about."

"I don't think I can sleep much longer," I protested, "it's Christmas morning after all."

"You don't have to sleep, just lie down with me for a little while," he pleaded, "at least until it's bright enough outside to see."

"Well, since you asked so nicely," I smiled, "I think a little more rest wouldn't hurt."

As soon as I laid back down and folded the warm covers over me, I could feel sleep coming to visit me again.

"I can't believe that in a few hours, we'll be married," I whispered as he crawled into the bed beside me and moved as close as he possibly could.

"I don't necessarily like the idea," he said and for a second, I wondered if I had heard him correctly. "You've robbed me twice now."

"I'm sorry?" I said. "Robbed you? I haven't stolen anything from you, except maybe I borrowed your clothes once so that I would feel like you were still with me, but I never stole from you. What could I have possibly taken?"

"My heart and my last name."

"You're impossible," I scoffed and practically heard the grin in his laughter as I hit him on the head with my pillow.

"I know, but you can't deny that you love me anyways." He recovered from the blow and took a piece of my hair, twirling it between his fingers.

"Of course I do, you nincompoop, or else I would not be marrying you." I said and relaxed again. "This is the best day of my life."

"You said that about yesterday, too,"

"No, I said that you coming back to me was the best Christmas present ever, not the best day ever."

"Ouch, you really wounded me, darling," he said, mocking injury.

I rolled my eyes, almost laughing, and then sighed. "Why can't everyday with you be the best day ever?"

"Then you will have a lot of those," he replied, bringing my head onto his chest so that I could hear his heart beating; I liked it when he did that, it was his non-verbal way of reassuring me that he was here. "I'll make everyday the best day ever. We'll start by drying those tears."

I hadn't realized I was crying until I felt the back of his sleeve drying my eyes. "That's better. Now close your eyes and don't think of anything else but this moment, right here, right now." As he continued speaking, his voice became softer and softer, until it was as quiet as a spring breeze.

I didn't know how long I had slept until the door flew open and we both sat up, startled for a moment until we found out that it was only Alice. She was jumping up and down on the floor. "It's Christmas morning!" she cried, positively delighted.

"Christmas morning already?" I echoed in feigned confusion; she nodded and then drew back the curtains; I blinked several times as my eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness. Once my vision recovered, I smiled. "I don't suppose you want to go downstairs and see what Father Christmas brought for you, do you, Princess?"

"Yes!" she said, jumping up onto the bed, yanking on the covers and trying to pull the both of us out of bed.

"Hmm, well, I'm afraid you'll have to escape the tickle monster first!" Sherlock declared, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her down flat onto his chest, crushing her in a fierce bear hug before tickling her sides and placing kisses across her face.

Alice squealed with laughter, her bright smile showing off two adorable dimples. "Charlie!" she called desperately between fits of laughter and her tiny fists reached out helplessly toward me. "Help me!"

"Don't worry, I'll save you from the monster," I smiled adoringly at them and then gently snatched her away, setting her on the floor. She made a mad dash out of the room and I could hear her talking to Mary and John.

"What did you do that for? I was having fun." Sherlock grumbled, laying down again, he pouted and abruptly closed his eyes.

"Hey, there's no sour faces on Christmas," I chastised, my lips touched his whiskered cheek with a featherlight kiss.

"No matter, if that's the way of it, I guess you'll make a good substitute." His pout turned into a devilish grin and his arms snaked around me.

"Really? You know, this is oddly childish of you." I stifled my giggles into the pillow.

"Come now, You asked for it!" He was leaning over me, one hand holding onto my wrist, pinning it down while his other hand tickled my sides and neck.

"I surrender!"

"Too late for that now." He growled and continued his sweet torture, laughing along with me.

"I mean it, if you don't stop with this, I'll hit you with my pillow again!" I threatened, but it was no use.

"And how, may I ask, would you accomplish that? You are completely immobilized."

"I'll find a way." I was struggling for breath now and my chest ached from laughing so hard.

Finally, he relented and laid down on the bed beside me, while I hid my face in my hands, trying to reclaim some of the oxygen I'd been so savagely robbed of.

"We should go downstairs soon," I said, "No doubt the others will be thinking we're up to no good."

"They could probably hear you laughing, I doubt they think we're up to no good, as you say. If that were so, you wouldn't be laughing, you would be screaming."

"Would I?" I asked, as if to challenge him.

"Yes," he said, leaning over me now, "but since that would cause some suspicion and quite possibly embarrassment, we should share the good news with your family."

When we finally emerged from the bedroom, we noticed that everyone else was already awake.

"It's about time the two of you were awake," Aunt Lucy teased and I smiled, too tired from my busy morning to fire back.

"What were you laughing so hard about?" Arthur asked, looking up from his new trainset.

"I-" I started, but then Jane stood up off the couch and then walked toward me with a clever smile.

"It's okay, you don't have to tell us if it's too uncomfortable."

"It's not what you think, Jane," I said, but the heat in my cheeks gave away the giddiness I was feeling at that moment. "We were talking about a funny dream I had."

"Really, Charlotte, that's the best excuse you could come up with?" Arthur asked. "We thought you were making-"

"Arthur!" Aunt Daisy laughed, while trying very hard to sound like she was scolding him, and Uncle Charlie brought him over to sit between him and Grandfather.

"I want to know what they were making!" said Alice.

"No you don't," Arthur countered back, which earned him a gentle smack on the shoulder by Uncle Charlie.

He didn't even flinch, but he knew that enough was enough so he went back to playing with his new toys.

"Arthur's right. There's no way you could be sleeping in late on Christmas morning and-" Jane stopped and then reached out to snatch my hand, and her eyes became saucers once she saw the diamond that rested on my finger. "What is this?"

"Oh, you mean this?" I asked, holding up my hand and attempted a neutral expression. "I've always had this."

"Really?" she said, tilting her head to one side, "How come I have never seen you wearing it until now?"

"Maybe because we were too busy to notice it. I mean, I didn't even know that I was even wearing it until you pointed it out to me." I knew I was playing with her, but I couldn't deny that I loved seeing the confusion on her face. The smile was threatening to break on my face.

"When you said that you were getting engaged soon, Sherly, I didn't think you meant this soon," Mycroft said with a slight chuckle.

"They aren't engaged, are you?" Aunt Daisy asked and I could sense the hope in her voice.

"My word!" Mary exclaimed and Mother's jaw dropped.

Father just looked at me for a moment, shocked and not knowing what to say, before he started smiling, too.

"Welcome to the family, boy," he said.

"Thank you, sir."

"Please, call me Thomas."

"I did not see that coming at all," Simza said, laughing beside me, putting her arm around me.

"Of course you did," said Sherlock, "Everyone kept saying that we were made for each other and whatnot, so I figured, why not make it official?"

Mother walked up to him and started kissing his face, which he surprisingly did not object to.

"I can't believe this!" Aunt Lucy grinned, still so shocked.

"This is such great news!" exclaimed Mrs Hudson. "So have the two of you decided on a date yet?"

"Actually, Charlotte and I were thinking, What would be a better day to be wed than on Christmas morning?"

There was absolute radio silence in the room and I was certain that John was this close to dropping his cup of tea.

"You're joking, right?" Mother asked, her body was trembling from overexcitement, as I expected. "You're getting married today?"

I nodded in confirmation. "We're getting married at eleven o'clock sharp."

"Why so soon?" asked Jane. "I know you're really in love, but is it really that necessary to get married this early?"

My face fell, she was right. Why did we need to rush things when we could plan it all out and have a proper ceremony? With a minister and an altar and all the other things that made a wedding spectacular? As Mother was listing them out loud, I couldn't feel the twinge of anger and hopelessness that I felt.

Wouldn't it be nice just to have a simple wedding at home surrounded by our closest friends and family?

I stood there, glued to the ground, and glancing over at my fiancé, who was ready to intervene, but I didn't allow him to.

"We already discussed our plans last night," I said in the most confident voice I could muster. "My nightgown is nice enough that we can add some touches to it to make it suitable for a wedding dress - what you all are wearing right now is perfect. We thought that you, Mycroft, could be the officiant, Mrs Hudson, you could bake the cake, and Father could walk me down the aisle."

It was Grandfather who spoke next. He was more of the offer sage advice and listen to other's problems type, not one to intervene without a good reason.

"I think it's a perfect idea," he said, clearing his throat and standing up carefully; his old war limp was acting up again and John stood up to help keep him steady. "I know what it's like to lose someone precious to you. If I had the chance to marry my dear Lizzie again, I would take it without a second's hesitation. They might not get another chance like this. Who knows when they'll be separated again? What if something happens and he dies for real this time? Then she'll regret it for the rest of her life."

"I'll be the flower girl," said Alice, walking over to me. "We can use the flowers in my basket. They're just pretend, though."

"They'll do perfectly," I smiled, then addressed the rest of the crowd. "John, you have the honor of best man, by Sherlock's request, of course."

"I suppose I'll have the task of organizing, or not organizing your stag party," said John with a small, knowing smirk on his face.

"There'll be no need, Watson," he said dismissively, smiling back at him. I was well aware of how John's stag party turned out, since it was also a fateful day for the three of us, which reminded me that I had a task to assign.

"Simza, would you like to be my maid of honour?"

"I've never been a maid of honour before," she admitted, joining me by my side. "but I'd love to."

"Great, you're stealing my sister from me, too," Jane said, teasing her a little. "You know, Charlotte, you have to chose the better sister. Sim, or me?"

"I don't have to choose one, I love both of you equally," I said. "You're still one of my bridesmaids."

Jane seemed to be satisfied with that.

"That gives us three hours to prepare," and the next thing I knew, she was listing all that we had to do to get ready. I was dragged one way, toward the upstairs, and Sherlock was whisked the other way, into another room while John followed close behind him.

"You know it's not too late," Jane commented loftily as she stood in front of me. My lips twitched in amusement.

The soft tune of a violin carried through the air. Under normal circumstances I would have found the sound calming, but these weren't normal circumstances.

"I'm in a wedding dress about to walk down the isle," I said, laughing nervously. "I think it is a tad too late. Is that him playing?"

"He wouldn't let anyone else play," Simza said, smoothing down my dress and putting on the veil.

"Nonsense, sister dear," she returned, "You have one last chance to run."

"You're awful for even thinking I would," I teased as I took one last look at my mother and father as a Berkeley. In a few moments, I would be Mrs Holmes. My father was holding out his arm to me. Shakily, I hooked my arm through his; the music started to swell and I took a deep breath in.

Then the doors opened; turning my head, only slightly, I saw my father's soft smile as he walked me down the isle and halfway down the makeshift path, something clutched tightly at my chest. Was it nervousness? Perhaps. I wasn't used to being the center of attention, and all eyes were on me, but I focused on one face in particular.

My gaze immediately went to Sherlock's, and I found it hard to look anywhere else once I saw his face. His eyes were gleaming, with an almost dazed look to them. His lips were formed in a grin, the same kind of smile typically reserved for truly interesting revelations or epiphanies; My whole world was waiting for me right there, and there was no way I was going to back down now.

When I finally reached the end of the seemingly long isle, my gaze lifted up to meet Sherlock's. His dark eyes burned with delight, and he winked at me.

A blush rose up to my cheeks, and I smiled affectionately at my soon-to-be husband while Father handed me over.

As Mycroft started talking, I was barely listening. My head was swimming in joy and my heart was pounding painfully loud in my chest. I was sure that we were probably going to start crying soon because I could see the same expression mirrored in my partner's eyes. I didn't have time to prepare a proper speech, but I was told that I didn't have to worry about that, I would just say what was in my heart, and that would be good enough.

"The best things in life, are the things we don't expect. If you had told me when I was a little girl, that one day, I would be going on a high-speed chase across Europe, facing one of the world's most dangerous criminals and stopping the collapse of Western civilization with a consulting detective, a doctor and a fortune teller, I would have laughed straight in your face. I was not the type of girl who said yes to dangerous situations, though I was more likely to do so than my more mature sister, Jane."

At the word mature, Jane scoffed, but still smiled.

"But it turned out to be one of the most incredible experiences of my life; I found not only courage and friendship that will last forever, but I found someone special, which I am sure my parents are proud of. I didn't want to marry for the comforts that only money could buy, I wanted to marry for love; someone who could make me smile and laugh, who brought out the best version of myself, and accepted me when I was at my worst. And I found it right here." I paused because as I was reading from the little slip of paper I'd managed to scribble out at the last minute, the words became blurry through my tears. "When I lost you, I thought I would never see your eyes light up the way they do when you've discovered a hidden message, or hear the sound of your voice, but more importantly, I thought that I would never be able to tell you that I loved you. But thanks to Simza, my dearest friend and the sister that I've always wanted-"

"Hey!" Jane laughed, earning a couple of laughs from everyone else, too. She knew that I was only teasing her, but was drying her eyes anyway.

"I get to stand here and say it, and I will keep saying it until death takes us both." I slipped the wedding band onto his finger. According to Mycroft, they belonged to their parents and were kept safely tucked away until one of the brothers managed to find themselves a partner. "I love you, Sherlock Holmes, today, tomorrow and forever."

"Charlotte, when I first met you, I had just lost someone very dear to me, and though I never saw her, I could picture the fight leaving her eyes and the smile leave her face and I could imagine her taking her last few breaths and silently begging for me to come and save her; she told me that she didn't want to run anymore, that she wanted to break free from Moriarty's clutches, and all I did was brush her aside without a second thought. When I found out why she didn't show up, I felt something for the first time since Mycroft and I lost our parents. Grief. Heartache, and guilt because I couldn't get to her in time. I felt like I failed her."

"You didn't fail her, I know that she knows that you would have came if you could," I said to him softly.

"I know," he replied and brushed away a tear from my cheek with his thumb. "I vowed that I would never again keep anyone so close to me that I would risk them getting hurt, but then I saw you sitting at a table in the Diogenes club, only reserved for men, mind you. Your hair was wet from the rain and your eyes were shining in the candlelight, I couldn't tell you how it made me feel. Scared, intrigued, in love, all of those things I never knew I could feel; and when we travelled together, I became more and more fond of you, and it was more and more likely that someone would use that to their advantage and harm you."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Mycroft watching us with surprise and pride; maybe it was uncommon for them to let their emotions slip onto the surface while in the presence of other people, but in this private setting, he seemed to be learning more about his brother's complexities than he'd known in their lifetime. Love? When was that ever in the cards? He probably didn't know that Sherlock could come up with a speech so...unlike him.

"When we were separated, I saw the look on your face; the tears in your eyes and it made me regret what I knew I needed to do, but I couldn't let him get his hands on you or anyone else. Was it worth the pain I caused you? Absolutely not, I tried and tried to think of a million different ways that this could end, but I couldn't." He pulled me in close. "But I found a reason to live, a reason to bring myself out of that cold, dark water. It's what drove me to keep fighting, so that we could have a future together without any fear, and now, here I am, about to be married, something I never in my wildest dreams could have imagined myself doing, but like you said, the best things in life, are the things we don't expect."

We were both crying by now and I could see that my parents and several of the other guests were weeping also.

"You never have to lose me again, darling; I will be here to hold you, to comfort you, and to love you, and I promise you that no one will ever come between us. No matter how far apart we are, I will always find my way back to you."

As Mycroft pronounced us husband and wife, we stood there, drying our wet faces with the back of our hands, and I didn't care whether or not my makeup which Aunt Daisy applied generously stayed on or not. Then it was time for the two of us to kiss. Being planners, we decided to make it short and memorable, but save the more passionate kisses for when we were alone together. No one had to know that we had already exchanged our private vows last night, that would be our secret, our special memory.

Lifting the veil over my head, our lips met and we shared our first kiss as a married couple, nothing or no one could ruin this special moment between the two of us.

Not even death itself.