DISCLAIMER: I do not own the song by Collin Raye – he wrote it. I just put the lyrics in here.
-Marco-
Rachel left me to my TV shows that evening. I just hoped she'd cool off before morning or we'd really have a hard time making it look real.
-the next day, 1pm-
I got up, showered, put on my tux and gelled my hair. By about 3, I was ready to go, standing next to Jake at the front of the church listening to the dorky music and watching people being seated. Finally, the flower girl came up and then Cassie. Then, the music changed and Rachel started to walk down the aisle. Whoa! She looked gorgeous! I mean, she always did, but this was different. I'm sure my eyes bugged out of my head – I couldn't take my eyes off her. Hopefully she'd think I was just playing the part.
We went through all the motions – the rings, candles and everything else. Then he asked us to say "I do" and said "You may kiss the bride." I looked Rachel in the eyes – she looked scared to death, even with the fake smile on her face.
I put my hand on her cheek, leaned in and kissed her. She kissed me back! Whoa! It was only a few seconds, but it was ... amazing! I'm sure I probably had a dreamy look on my face, but hopefully she'd think that was just playing the part too. She was smiling when we pulled apart. Really smiling not fake smiling. Huh? You'd almost think she enjoyed that! Yeah right. I grabbed her hand and we ran down the aisle to more of that dorky music.
We waited in a room off to the side while everyone else walked down and left to go to the reception. Then they made us take a bunch of pictures and stuff. By the time we got to the limo, my cheeks hurt from smiling so much!
Rachel wouldn't look at me. She looked like she was trying hard not to cry. She cried at my Dad's wedding to Nora. I guess it was a girl thing – I didn't really see anything to cry about. Now laugh? Yeah – the fact that Rachel was not afraid of anything that I knew of, but she was scared to death of kissing me? I found that to be highly amusing. I glanced at her and tried very hard to stop giggling.
-Rachel-
I couldn't look at him. I wasn't supposed to enjoy kissing him! What if he did too? What if he realized I'd enjoyed kissing him? What if... I couldn't think about all the 'what ifs' right now. Right now I had to deal with the fact that in less than 10 minutes we'd be at the reception, back in the line of cameras. Ugh! I hate cameras. And Marco's sitting over there giggling for no reason. Well, maybe he had a reason.
"What's so funny?" I snapped.
"You, Xena, are not afraid of Yeerks or Hork-Bajir or death-trap battles, but you're afraid of kissing me. That's what's so funny." He grinned at me, still giggling.
Well, when you put it that way, kissing Marco wasn't going to kill me or anyone I cared about. It was kinda funny to be afraid of it, I guess. I started giggling too. The tension had been broken. I was relieved.
-Marco-
I got her to laugh. Good. She wasn't going to kill me. Yet. "Ready to go, Xena?" I asked when the limo stopped at the reception hall.
"Let's do it!" she said, fiercely grinning at me. We climbed out of the limo and they announced our arrival. We had dinner, the toast went well, I think. Cassie seemed a little shy about the speech, but she did fine. We had cake and I refrained from stuffing it into Rachel's face, like she'd asked.
She looked relieved when it was over. Finally, it was time for dancing. I'd danced with Rachel tons of times before. We'd taken dancing lessons so we wouldn't blow our cover when posing as husband and wife. "This part will be easy." I thought.
Rachel danced with her dad while I watched. Then just the two of us, and then everyone was all together and dancing. They started this one slow song and we were dancing to it. I wasn't really listening – it was just nice to have an excuse to be close to Rachel. She had her arms around me and we were just kind of swaying to the music.
After it was over, she almost looked like she was going to cry. She said she had to use the bathroom and then left. I had no idea what was wrong, so I walked over and got some more punch.
-Cassie-
Rachel had been listening to the song and after it was over, she looked like she was going to cry. She walked into her private bathroom, so I followed her to make sure she was ok. She wasn't – she was crying.
"Rachel, are you alright?" I asked.
"No." she said, sniffling. "That song . . . did you listen to it?"
"Yeah." The song was 'What the heart wants' by Collin Raye:
She met him down at the laundromat
3AM on a washing machine they sat and talked 'til dawn
He bought her breakfast at a small cafe
That morning turned into the rest of the day
And then the day was gone
He thought that she'd surely turn away
No fairy tale ever started this way but ...
It ain't the mind that calls the shots 'round here
When stronger powers pull two bodies near
Nothin' on Earth can interfere when love is
What the heart wants ...
They made a wish on an evening star
From a rooftop high above the boulevard
Up in the twilight sky
He held her hand, she held her breath
Two lonely hearts beating scared to death
Of the chance to fly
Giving in to the arms of Fate
This isn't quite like the plans that they made
It ain't the mind that calls the shots 'round here
When stronger powers pull two bodies near
Nothin' on Earth can interfere when love is
What the heart wants
I didn't know what she meant though. Was it bringing up memories of Tobias? I asked her if it was. She shook her head. Then what?
She looked at me, not sure if she should say anything.
"It hits a little too close to home." She said finally. "Our first mission, Marco had no idea how to use a washing machine in a laundromat. I had to show him." She laughed.
"He was so hopeless, but we ended up talking all night and going out to breakfast the next morning. I showed him the book I'd written, and he told me to publish it. Said that everyone would want to read it. He even came up with the title. We started doing missions together after that. We were like best friends, but now..."
"What's it like now?" I asked patiently. I was pretty sure I knew the answer – the way she and Marco were looking at one another, but I'd wait until she decided to tell me.
"It wasn't supposed to happen! I'm not allowed to fall in love again!" she blurted, then looked embarrassed.
I wasn't too surprised, but it had to be the weirdest situation for her – she was falling in love with Marco at their real/fake wedding. I'd never thought it would be possible – they were always bickering at one another, sort of, but then again, they were often on the same side of an argument when it involved all of us. Hmmmm.
"Why not?" I asked, knowing the answer.
"Tobias . . ." She said, looking down, afraid to continue.
"You've been mourning for 8 years. Don't you think he'd want you to move on?" I asked.
"He wouldn't have." She said pointedly, avoiding the question.
"But you would have wanted him to, right?" I asked.
"I don't think I can talk about this right now." She answered. "I'm going back to the reception. Thanks for listening to me."
She stopped to check her makeup in the mirror, applied some more lip-gloss, and then headed out. I watched her leave, not sure if I'd done more harm than good.
-Marco-
The rest of the reception went fine, I think. Rachel went and changed her clothes, then I changed mine and we took the limo to the ship where we'd be leaving for our "honeymoon." Of course it was all televised, so when we got out of the limo, I made a quick decision. I picked Rachel up and carried her onto the ship with a big smile on my face. She couldn't do anything about it without blowing our cover. Hee hee! The cameras were gone, finally, and Rachel was glaring at me. Oops. I'd made her mad. Oh well.