With my birthday out of the way, the rest of the week went smoothly and before I knew it, it was the weekend before the big day and I still didn't have a dress. I sat at the counter in the kitchen, my fingers softly thumbing a number into the cordless phone. After completing the sequence I placed the phone against my ear.

"Hey, this is Melissa...leave me a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible...(beep)." The answering machine picked up for the 10th time that morning and I silently hung up the receiver with a sigh; maybe she had another wedding she was doing this weekend. Not that I could say she needed to drop every other client for me, but I was paying her a large amount of money for this wedding and I still didn't have a dress to attend my own wedding in. I threw the phone over the counter and it landed in the sink with a thud. I sighed again, resting my head on my hand and leaning on the counter in the kitchen. What if my parents didn't call? Could I go through with this without them there? I prayed I could. Why did they have to be so stubborn. I guess that's where I got it from, I reasoned, looking out the back window at the sunny day that was starting. I had wanted to marry Fulton since we were 13 and I wasn't going to let my parents ruin it, even if it wouldn't be the same without them. I heard the familiar boards creak to signal some had entered the room and I felt Fulton's rough hands slide up my shoulders and begin to massage the tension in them. I smiled slightly, turning on the stool I was seated out to hug him around the waist.

"What are you doing?" I sighed,

"Nothing, just wondering if maybe my parents lost our number..." I joked a little, pulling back to look up at him.

"Maybe you should go talk to them? You know, without me." He asked as I shook my head,

"No, I'm not going to make them do anything because I'm their only child left. And I'm sure as hell not going to pretend I don't love you. They should know that I'm the only child and maybe try to see things from my point of view every once in a while."

"Okay, don't say I didn't try." He warned, moving to the other side of the counter to pour himself a glass of juice and glanced at the local paper sitting on the counter. It was opened to the announcements page and a medium size photo of us graced the page with our wedding announcement below. He smiled a little before looking up at me,

"Remind me again why we picked this photo?" He asked, taking a slip of his juice and looking back at the page. I laughed a little,

"Because it's the best one we have of us so far. Besides, it's from our trip, you look good." I smiled and he leaned over the counter to give me a soft kiss on the lips.

"So Connie and Julie are coming by later to take you out." I looked up at him,

"And why wasn't I told about this?"

"Because you aren't supposed to know." He said with a smile playing on his lips.

"What are they going to do?"

"I don't know anything...except they've been on the phone with Madison all week planning it." I looked up hopefully.

"Are Madison and Portman coming home?"

"Don't know...Portman just said they were "working it out." Whatever that means."

"Well, I suppose I should get ready then." I said stretching and grabbing the phone from the sink to replace it on it's hook as I moved towards the door.

"You're not supposed to know their coming. It will look suspicious if you're ready..." He said as I exited the room to head upstairs.

"Well, you told me they were coming for what reason then?" I playfully yelled back, reaching the bottom of the staircase. There was a knock at the door and I stopped, turning to see if I was just hearing things before the rapid clicking was repeated against the door. I sighed, stepping off the bottom stair, Fulton meeting me in the hall after hearing the sound as well. We slowly walked to the door; I leaned against the door, peaking out the peephole. A man stood at the door holding a clipboard and was dressed in some sort of uniform. I backed up, motioning for Fulton to open it and find out what he wanted.

"Hello?" Fulton questioned suspiciously.

"Hello, I'm looking for Tammy Duncan, is this her residence?" The man questioned.

"What's this about?" Fulton questioned, crossing his arms over his chest in an intimidating fashion. I smiled slightly from behind the door.

"I'm Ted from Federal Express. I have a rather large shipment for Miss Duncan." He explained. Fulton turned to look at me for a moment.

"Okay, can I sign for it?" He asked.

"I'm sure that would be fine, sir. Congratulations by the way." The man said taking the clipboard back from Fulton after he signed it. "I'll be right back with the first bunch." He explained, turning fast to return to his truck. Fulton nodded, looking back at me.

"You don't think..." He started as I smiled,

"Wedding presents!" I yelped, throwing myself into his arms. "I'm just going to go get dressed. I'll be right back!" I exclaimed, heading up the stairs.

"The first bunch?" Fulton mouthed to himself opening the door for the man.

I was gone literally not five minutes before I returned to the top of the stairs and overlooked a full hallway that was starting to progress to the living room.

"Just a few." Fulton muttered to himself, trying to weave through the packages of all different sizes. I stepped down the stairs as he looked up at me.

"Where do you want to start?" He asked with a small smile playing on his lips.

"What were they saving a truck load to bring it down here?" I asked with a smile.

"You should probably check these out first, looks like Scott had all your stuff from California sent out." Fulton said, pointing at a set of boxes at the foot of the stairs. I sat down and opened the top box, looking inside. A letter sat on top of my childhood teddy bear. Picking it up, I recognized the handwriting as Coach's and unfolded it to read.

"Dearest Tammy - I have no doubt I will see you again in the future, I felt it was time to send your things home to you. You were my star pupil and an amazing skater, please don't stop skating, you still have so much to give to this sport but I knew from the moment you stepped into my compound nearly 8 years ago, that you would go home someday. Congratulations and send my best wishes to your family, Coach." I re-folded the letter and glanced in the box, my teddy bear stared back at me, causing a small smile to form on my lips. Removing that from the box, I saw old pictures of friends from the compound, my roommate Toni, a picture of Scott and Madison, messing around on the ice one rainy day. A few pictures of Scott and I, either posing for stills or for casual pictures, his arms around me or just skating around. I smiled again, still digging in the box and coming out with a picture of the Ducks that had sat on my bedside table all 7 years and a photo that was just caught by Connie of Fulton and I leaning against my locker, talking just before I was supposed to leave. That year had been both the best and worse of my life. I slowly ran the tip of my figure down the glass, over the 13-year-old Fulton staring back at me, like I had done so many times in my dorm room alone, wondering if he still loved me.

"What's that?" Fulton asked, sitting next to me with a small package in his hand.

"It's a picture of us, Connie mailed it to me a few months after I left." I told him, handing it to him.

"Oh, I remember her taking this but I always thought it never got printed." I shrugged, still digging in the box, "This is my life for the past 8 years." I said quietly, placing the bear and photos back into the box and closing it to move on. I'd go through the rest later.

We weren't even close to being done opening the presents when the doorbell rang again.

"Fulton look! Another china set!" I laughed at the 5th set of dishes we had received. He laughed getting up to get the door,

"It'd be a nice gift if I drank tea." He joked. The door opened before he could reach it and Connie and Guy poked their heads in the opening.

"What present bomb exploded on your house?" Guy joked, pushing the door open enough for Connie to duck under his arm and enter the hall. I was seated just against the bottom of the stairs and Fulton was standing near the opening to the kitchen.

"It wasn't a bomb, it was a UPS guy." Fulton joked back as Connie tried to weave her way though the presents to sit next to me,

"How you doing?" She asked as I glanced at the next box, from my Aunt Rosie and sighed.

"They didn't call?" I shook my head no and began to open the box to keep myself distracted; it was a sterling silver picture frame. I turned it over to read the engraving on the back,

"For your most beautiful wedding photo, love Aunt Rosie." I smiled; every other member of my family was okay it was it. Connie smiled,

"Oh, how sweet..."

"Yeah, we'll have great photos because the photographer confirmed but I may be going in the white night dress my Aunt Claire sent..."I said pointing to the lacy garment Fulton was now holding up. He shook his head, no, hiding it back in its box. Guy and Connie laughed at us,

"You guys never fight anymore, it was like crazy the way you guys fought when you first came back." Connie reminded me. I scrunched up my face at the memory, I really didn't want to remember me being a witch with a capital B.

"Well, that was before I realized I couldn't live without him." I smiled, as Fulton blushed a little bit, it was so cute. "So what are you guys doing here anyway?" I asked, nudging Connie in the ribs.

"Ow!" She played, falling off the steps as the doorbell rang again.

"Come in!" We all yelled at the same time as the door opened and Adam moved the few packages out of the way to let Julie in.

"My god, how big is this wedding going to be!" Adam questioned, closing the door and wrapping a protective arm around Julie's waist.

"We have 250 confirmed guests." I said still looking at Connie, quietly waiting for her to spill the secret of them taking me out.

"Well, that's all well and good but Tammy Duncan, soon to be Reed, this is your last weekend as a free woman!" Connie said taking my hand to help me up, "And we don't intend to waste it!" She said taking my arm, Julie grabbing the other arm to pull me towards the door. Connie grabbed my purse as Julie opened the door and yelled back,

"You boys behave!"

"Where are we going?" I questioned as they pushed me out the front door and into someone standing in front of me. I turned still smiling as the boys gathered at the door behind me. Dean Portman smiled back at me, his large toothy grin and handing me a small gift wrapped in purple paper.

"You're back!" I said momentarily forgetting who I was hugging and flinging myself into his arms.

"Hey, missy! Watch where you put your hands on my man!" The voice belonged to a certain redhead who was standing a few feet behind him, holding a large package in front of her and smiling brightly.

"Madison!" I practically screamed, letting go of Portman and racing past him.

"Congrats!" She said holding up the box to me, I took it, handing it to Connie before hugging her tightly. I backed away slowly and looked down at the very evident bump that was hidden by her oversized sweatshirt, that was in fact Dean's.

"Madison, are you pregnant?" I asked still shocked.