I don't own anything...I simply borrowed everything and played with them. Now the time has come for me to give them back. :(

As they say, everything must come to an end....and here is the final chapter.

A very special thanks to all my reviewers. You guys are really awesome and are what kept me going as I wrote this.

One year later….

It had been a year since John had left Olivia in Washington DC, and what an eventful year it had been with both Atlantis and the White House seeing their fair share of problems. Atlantis had seen a handful of problems, all of which seemed to begin the moment that John stepped foot back into the city. John had been on a mission where they ran into a villager who had been raising a wraith as his own child; Carson had given her some of a retrovirus he had been working on to turn the wraith human, but it hadn't worked like planned. John had been bitten by the girl and had undergone a transformation of his own. Carson had barely managed to find a cure before he had been permanently turned into a bug. Then just as he had recovered he and the team had been taken hostage by Aiden Ford, a former member of the Atlantis expedition who had become hooked on the wraith enzyme. They managed to escape only for John to again go missing on his next mission when he had wondered into an ancient village through a portal; the village he wandered into ran on a different cycle of time. While in reality he had been missing for only a few hours, to him more than six months had passed in the portal. Upon returning to Atlantis he had come to a realization—that he had spent too much time away from Olivia. He packed up his bags and returned to Earth in order to tell her how he felt.

Things hadn't been quiet for Olivia either. Shortly after returning to work things had gone from bad to worse. The White House had suffered major set backs in their legislative agenda thanks to senators who felt that those in the White House were doing things that were beyond their duties, like President Bartlett's choice of a Supreme Court nominee (who was not the guy that the Senate 'suggested'). Things only got worse after that. They had been attending a lecture at a local university when two gunmen had opened fire on them. Both Josh and the President had been hit, (though the President's wound was mild), and not only was the country thrown into chaos but Olivia had to deal with the fact that she could lose her best friend. Josh had amazingly pulled through his surgery and recovery and Olivia, to the amazement of everyone, had managed to not go off the deep end again. By the time that John had made his decision to come after her, she had been feeling the same way he did. Neither of them wanted to waste any more time deciding that they were more than ready to give their relationship another chance.

They were left with an even bigger decision to make, and that was who was going to give up their career. Both of them had important jobs, jobs where people depended on them. In the end though it was Olivia who made the painstaking decision to leave her post and she headed to Atlantis with John. To her it was an easy decision, the people on Atlantis depended on John and defending two galaxies from aliens hell bent on dominating (well more like feeding on) any and all races that they came across was more important than making deals with politicians. President Bartlett was reluctant to see her go but he knew that it was the right choice for her. And it wasn't as if she was leaving the administration as he had appointed her as the official liaison between the White House and the Stargate Program, (well as official as one could be with a project that was classified beyond top secret). She was now fully in charge of making sure that both Atlantis and the program in Colorado had everything they needed and that they never had to go through political hoops again.

Once both of them were settled back into Atlantis their relationship flourished. They didn't want to rush into anything so they took their time in getting to know one another again. They had lunch and dinner together several times a week when ever John was on base. He would bring her gifts on some of their more private dinners—flowers that he weaseled out of the new botany department, (he no longer brought her flowers that he collected off world after one of his gifts had put in the infirmary with a nasty allergic reaction), or her favorite chocolates that he ordered on supply runs. They played it easy for a couple of months trying to avoid the subject of where they intended to take their relationship, but unfortunately that was not a memo that their friends received. They at least waited until Olivia had been on Atlantis for about five months before they started pressuring them. Then the topic always seemed to come up whether they were at lunch, watching movies, or in some cases at the daily staff meetings; someone always breached the subject as to what they were going to do next. After about a month of the inquisition at the hands of their friends (and Olivia's as well, she had received several letters from Josh and the rest of the gang regarding the same subject), John finally told them to leave them alone, that they would make an announcement when they were ready. That of course had their friends even more fired up, but rather than hounding them everyday with questions they began to look at Olivia's hand to see if there was a ring on her finger. They finally seemed to give up after several weeks of nothing but disappointment when one morning at breakfast Rodney noticed something that caused him to spit his breakfast all over his other team members: there on Olivia's left hand was an engagement ring.

The news had quickly made its way around Atlantis, and to Olivia's surprise had also somehow made it back to Earth and ultimately the White House. During the next mail run Olivia had received letters from everyone back home congratulating them, although both Josh and Jed's letters had warnings to John about an ass kicking and being buried in various national parks if he screwed this one up. Abby's letter had been more along the lines of wedding planning. Olivia laughed and then wrote back telling her aunt that they hadn't even started talking about weddings yet. When the topic was broached a week later, by other Atlantis staff members, Olivia and John said that they wanted something back home on the Bartlett farm and low key, especially seeing as that their last wedding had been a grand affair. When Olivia told her aunt that Abby said she agreed whole heartily and assured them that it would be kept low key. It was only later (much later) that Olivia would remember that the words simple and low key were not in her aunt's vocabulary.

The wedding was planned for the end of November during the Thanksgiving holiday. Olivia, John and everyone coming from Atlantis would arrive Wednesday night to get settled in, and the senior staff from the White House would arrive late Thursday afternoon in time for dinner. The wedding was scheduled for Friday evening when everyone would still be relatively off work. Everything went as planned and Thanksgiving dinner had been wonderful. It had been rather interesting when Josh tried to explain the tradition to Ronon and Teyla who had made the mistake of asking the man what the day was about. In the end it was the President who informed them why they were celebrating (and he managed to do it in under twenty minutes…a new record for him) and added that it was also a good excuse to watch football and drink beer. Everyone had a good time and ate plenty of food, all gearing up for the next day. John and the guys left late that night to check into the hotel that everyone was staying in, while all the women stayed up in some of the bedrooms playing poker and laughing until they finally fell asleep in the early morning.

They slept in the next morning having no where to go until 1:00 when they would head into town to get their hair done. They had their final fitting for their dresses the day before, so they didn't have to worry about that. All the caterers and decorators began arriving around 11:00, so the girls decided that it was time to get up. As soon as Olivia made it downstairs she saw all the fuss that her aunt and uncle had gone through for this party. Tents had already been erected in the backyard, chairs had been placed out down by John and Olivia's oak tree where the ceremony would take place, and flowers by the thousands were being arranged all over the place. She tried to argue with her aunt over what she thought was just a little bit overboard, but it didn't do any good. Abby just went about her business and prepared for the evenings festivities. Olivia, realizing that she would never win an argument with her aunt, gave up and proceeded to allow the girls to lead her to the salon to get ready.

By the time that Olivia and the gang arrived back at the farm the guys had arrived. They, in Olivia's opinion, had it easy; all they had to do was wake up, shower and later put on their suits. Olivia on the other hand had spent the afternoon with Laura Cadman, and her cousin Ellie at the spa getting massages and their hair done. Now, as they rushed back into the house to avoid the men, it was almost 5:00 pm; they were scheduled to have pictures done at 5:30 and head down for the ceremony before 6:00.

At 5:50 Olivia was standing alone in her room. She and her bridesmaids had already finished taking pictures so she had headed back upstairs to spend the few minutes she had left to herself. A knock on her door broke her from her thoughts and she turned to see Jed Bartlett standing in the doorway. He was dressed in a black suit and tie just as the other men in the wedding party were going to be wearing. When she looked up at him she saw that he had a smile on his face and was attempting to hold back the tears in his eyes. Today he was not the President of the United States but rather simply Jed Bartlett, father of the bride. Olivia's father had died five years before so Jed would be filling in for that position, and he was more than happy to do so. He had always considered Olivia Barrington to be more like his daughter than his niece. Her father had been a wonderful man and loved his daughter dearly, but after the loss of Olivia's mother when the girl was barely four years old he had been unable to cope with the loss let alone raise a child. Olivia had moved in with Jed and Abby and become an official Bartlett. When her father was finally ready to be a parent again Jed had handed the girl back with much regret and a pained heart.

"You look beautiful," he whispered.

"Thank you."

"Well, it is time that we make our way down there. The girls and everyone else went on a head," he told her.

"What?" Olivia asked when she caught him looking at her strangely.

"I was remembering when you were six years old; you and Ellie used play dress up and we had all these wonderful play clothes for you guys. One day you put on this princess dress and you fell so in love with it that you refused to take it off. You practically lived in that dress for weeks, even going as far as wearing it to school."

"I remember that," she said with a smile.

"I asked you why you wouldn't take the dress off and do you know what you told me?" Jed asked her. When he saw her head shake in the negative he went on. "You told me that you wouldn't take the dress off because it made you feel like you were a real princess and that you didn't want that to end. You said that if you took the dress off than your fairytale would end and you would turn back into a normal little girl."

"You remember that?"

"I remember it because it was at that moment I realized what a wonderful little girl I had on my hands. I look at you today in that dress and I suddenly see the little girl pretending that she was a princess."

"You know that you are going to make me cry, right?" she asked.

"Well we can't have that, your aunt would kill me. I suppose that we should head down there instead."

"That sounds like a good idea," Olivia said as she took the arm he offered her and they headed out the door.

They walked a ways until they reached the field where the ceremony was being held. She met up with her bridesmaids, Laura, Ellie, CJ Craig (White House Press Secretary), and Donna Moss (Josh's assistant).They were all wearing dresses in a soft green color that ended at their knees and were holding bouquets of white calla lilies. Ellie, who would be serving as her maid of honor, handed Olivia her bouquet. Like her bridesmaids Olivia's bouquet was also made of calla lilies, only hers were in a variety of colors—reds, yellows and oranges. The music started and the girls made their way up the aisle. When the music changed to the wedding march Olivia once again took Jed's arm and together they made their way up the aisle. John was standing at the front looking dashing in his black suit (they had decided to forgo the military uniform and tuxedo). He was joined by Evan, Rodney, and Ronon who would be serving as his groomsmen and Josh who would be filling the role as best man (once again).

Neither one of them could take their eyes off the other, both wearing goofy grins as Olivia made her way towards him. When they reached the front where the alter had been set up, Jed shook John's hand and handed Olivia over to him. They smiled at each other for another moment before turning their attention to the priest before them.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…"

A link to Olivia's dress has been posted on my profile page.

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