The DAY is finally here

Marissa woke at first light the next morning. She knew that it was still very early and that she should go back to sleep … but she just couldn't. After the night that they'd shared she knew that Ryan wouldn't wake for quite some time… unless of course she decided to wake him. She smiled at the thought. Maybe she would do that … but first she just wanted to lie there and think about what today would bring.

She was getting married.

She knew that sounded weird given that she'd already been married for 2 weeks. But the first time it had all happened in such a rush. She hadn't had the joy of taking her time and thinking about it. Not that she regretted one moment of it. Ryan's surprise wedding in Las Vegas had been wonderful … better than wonderful … fantastic … as her Dad would have said.

She thought fleetingly of her father. Much as she would have liked Jimmy to be there … to be like a normal father and give her away … that was something that he'd given up the rite to a long time ago. She hadn't heard from him since she'd said good bye to him on his boat after spending the night with Ryan for the first time. Seeing him beaten up had taken a lot of the joy out of her first night with Ryan but of course Jimmy would have had no knowledge of that. Having to tell her mother that Jimmy had let them down yet again hadn't been easy. And of course it had led to Julie and Marissa having to leave Newport to support themselves. How different her life may have been if she could have changed all that and had a 'normal' father. But she thought that she had finally learnt to accept what life threw at you, deal with it and move on. And Ryan had helped her to do that.

And today, she was going to surprise him with the wedding that she had always dreamed of. And she intended to enjoy every little thing … including the anticipation of each step as she got closer to becoming Ryan's wife in front of the people nearest and dearest to them.

She looked at the man lying beside her and knew that he was her soul-mate. After everything that they'd been through nothing was more certain. They had found their way back to one another. She loved him completely and only felt half alive whenever she wasn't with him. No one would ever mean more to her. She ran her hand lightly over her flat stomach wondering if their child was furiously growing inside her. She wanted it so much now that it had become almost a physical ache whenever she allowed herself to think about it. He or she would be the only person who could ever rival Ryan in her affections. The thought of being able to hold their child … a person created from their love … brought tears to her eyes. She swiftly wiped them away. She wasn't sad … quite the opposite in fact … she just seemed to have been overly emotional lately. She could only hope that it was pregnancy hormones that were causing her feelings to running amok. But after the emotional upheaval of her last pregnancy scare when it turned out that she wasn't pregnant, she didn't want to spend too much time focusing on it. She had a wedding to think about. And if she wasn't pregnant now, then hopefully she would be very soon.

Trying to get her mind on to something else … she couldn't help but wonder how Cathy was going. She felt a little bad about having left her friend to make all of the arrangements. But then she knew that she was nothing if not resourceful. Marissa had given her little direction … only the major things … like the dress … the church and the restaurant for their celebration.

She hoped that there were no problems with the dress. She knew that Cathy knew the exact one that she wanted. They had seen it the last time that Marissa had been to stay with Cathy and they had gone to visit Tony's sister who worked in a bridal salon that specialised in designs which featured Venetian lace. Marissa could still recall it in detail. She had fallen in love with it instantly and had even been convinced to try it on. She had felt like a princess. She hadn't even contemplated the possibility that it may have not been available. So far everything had fallen in to place for her. She just had to believe that they would continue to do so.

But other than those main items Cathy had been left with it all. Marissa wondered if Cathy had taken her advice and spoken to Kirsten. She hoped that any reservations that Kirsten may have had about their marriage would have passed and that she would be behind them 100 percent. She didn't want any reluctance from any of the guests to spoil their day.

And that included her mother.

She still wondered if it had been the right thing to do to invite her. She was sure that many people would have thought that she was mad to include her. And at the start Marissa would have been happy not to. But knowing how important family was to Ryan … how lacking the early stages of his life had been in anything remotely like a real family … and the fact that he had some regrets about not trying hard enough with his own mother before she died … made Marissa realise that she did hope that somehow she would eventually be able to forgive Julie for her interference and lies that had caused them so much pain.

After Marissa's well intentioned lie to Ryan about Karl's status in her life, Ryan had somehow found it in his heart to forgive her and had given her another chance. If he could do that then surely Marissa could find it in her heart to give Julie another chance. She was after all the only mother that Marissa would ever have.

She couldn't help but see the similarity between the two situations. Julie had lied because she wanted to protect her own lifestyle and she thought that Ryan and Marissa being together would ruin that. She either hadn't really thought or hadn't really cared about how much Ryan and Marissa would be hurt in the process.

Marissa had now realised that while her lie wasn't of the same magnitude … the fact was that she had been almost as selfish. She had wanted to maintain her relationships with both Ryan and Karl and she knew that if they both knew the truth then that wouldn't be possible. She knew that she had ended up hurting them both but the worst thing that she'd done was to cause Ryan to doubt his importance in her life and she hoped that this surprise wedding would go a small way to showing Ryan that he would always be number 1 to her. She hoped that at some time in the future she would be able to mend things with Karl but she knew that they would never be the same … just as she doubted that things with her mother would ever go back to how they were.

But they would just take it one small step at a time and see where they ended up.

---

Ryan woke a short time later. It was as if they were so perfectly attuned to one another that they could sense when the other was awake.

"Hey." He said gently leaning in and placing a delicate kiss on the tip of her nose. "What are you doing awake so early?"

"I'm not really sure. I guess that I'm just excited about taking you to Venice and showing you around." She smiled. She actually knew exactly what she was excited about … and showing him around Venice wasn't it … but she had a feeling that he would forgive her for her little white lie … just this once.

"You really like it that much?" he asked.

"Uh huh. And I hope that you will too."

"So you don't like it here?" Ryan asked. He thought it was beautiful here and had been half hoping that she may have thought so to and that he would be able to convince her to stay another night. He didn't need to meet up with Roger until Monday so it would be fine with him if they didn't get to Venice until tomorrow.

"It's not that. It's lovely. I just can't wait to get to Venice." Marissa replied.

"So … I couldn't talk you in to staying here another day?" Ryan asked as he started to lightly trace circles on her stomach. "If you're scared that you'll be recognised then we could always just spend the day in bed." Ryan suggested a smile making it's way onto his face.

"Oh no you don't mister. It may be very nice here, but we're getting out of here … this morning. You promised. I'm taking you out tonight to somewhere very fancy and I need to look my best for you so I don't want to be arriving in Venice and then having to rush around to get ready. If we get there early enough I may even go and have my hair done for the occasion." She suggested hoping that she could buy herself a bit of alone time during which she'd be able to go and check on all the arrangements.

"So after dragging me there, you're going to go off and leave me to sight see all on my own anyhow?" Ryan asked.

"No. I don't want you sight seeing without me. I want to be the one to show you around." Marissa replied. "Isn't there something else that you could do to amuse yourself for a little while?" Marissa asked and then noticed the frown form on Ryan's face. "What's wrong? Surely you can manage a couple of hours without me?" she teased.

Ryan tried to smile but she could see the effort that it was taking him. "Of course."

"Ryan what is it?" Marissa asked unconvinced by his words. She was starting to worry. She stroked the lines away that had formed on his forehead. It seemed that the closer they got to Venice the more hesitant he was about actually getting there. "Do you not want to go to Venice with me?" she asked now puzzled.

"No. I mean not no. Yes … it's just … I guess since you kidnapped me last Saturday and whisked me off into the French countryside I feel like I've been off in some dream world and I don't want it to end. With no internet … I haven't thought of work." He explained. "I can just imagine how many emails I must have waiting for me to answer. Annabel has no doubt figured that I've fallen off the end of the earth."

"I'm sure that's not true. She knows that you're on your honeymoon." Marissa replied.

Ryan nodded. "And then … "

"And then?" Marissa queried when he stopped talking.

"There's the problems with the Cohen's. I need to try to make things right with them all. But I don't know how. If Sandy didn't manage to get through to Seth then he may very well still be angry or even worse … by now he's probably sulking over the whole thing. I guess that I've been happy to just ignore it but I feel that once we're back in civilisation then the time has come to try to fix things."

Marissa now understood Ryan's hesitance about finally getting to Venice and she needed to find a way for him to get over it. "How about we get ourselves moving and then once we're in Venice you can give him a call. And you can check your emails as well. Then you can get everything under control while I'm off having my hair done. We'll sight see tomorrow. You can meet up with Roger on Monday and then we'll head back to the farmhouse on Tuesday. And you'll have everything under control before we go back. That way we'll be able to spend the last few days of our honeymoon totally stress free." She suggested.

"I guess that makes sense." Ryan agreed somewhat reluctantly. "I can't stay in my dream world forever."

Marissa smiled. She wondered if he would consider getting married again a dream? She certainly felt like it was. She leaned in to him for a kiss and said "You know we don't need to go right now. I think that we have time for a little something before we leave."

Ryan smiled. "What sort of something are you referring to? Food or some thing else?" he asked as he pulled her on top of him … his hands stroking her nakedness.

"Both." She replied as her lips met his.