DUCKING THE SLINGS AND ARROWS OF LOVE
Lesson Two: Don't be Late for Your Own Wedding
"Where is he?" She asked worriedly, pacing back and forth.
"Uh, maybe he's stuck in traffic?" One of her bridesmaids asked hesitantly.
"He's flying here by chopper," Callie said tartly, staring out the window for the tenth time.
"Oh."
The wedding was already twenty minutes overdue to start and the groom still hadn't appeared nor called. All the guests were sitting in the garden, talking and wondering what was going on.
Suddenly a loud roar filled the air and a sonic boom rattled the building. Callie blinked as she saw the Turbokat take a holding pattern above the wedding area then panel opened below its belly and a basket began to lower.
A dirty, wet and disheveled looking Feral clung grimly to the basket as it set down on the ground and he quickly scrambled out. The basket was hauled back upward then the jet moved off to a nearby field to land.
The groom ran across the lawn, ignoring the loud questions yelled at him. Shaken and worried, he hurriedly entered the room where he was supposed to change clothes.
"Damn, Ulysses. You'll be lucky if your bride will marry you now. You're twenty minutes late for your own wedding for crud sake! You better have a good reason!" Tyrone berated his brother as he helped him yank his stinky clothes off and pull on his dress uniform that, fortunately, had been waiting here for him.
"Oh I do, believe me, but she won't want to listen to it!" He grimaced. "Well, let's get out there and I'll know if she'll forgive me if she appears."
"And if she doesn't?" His brother asked.
Feral just gave him an unhappy look as he finished dressing and headed out to the lawn and all the guests.
He and his brother strode up the aisle and took their places. The minister eyed him a moment in annoyance but said nothing as he signaled the pianist to begin the music the two had picked for their ceremony.
Looking on from the sidelines were the SWAT Kats, standing at the rear of the seated crowd. They'd been invited by the bride but never expected to be bringing the groom when he'd hailed them before they could leave the scene of the messy fight with Viper and begged them for a ride.
"Think she'll show?" T-Bone muttered.
"If I were her...no...but...who can say," Razor grunted, shrugging his shoulders.
The music kept playing to its end but no bride showed. Feral squirmed nervously and pulled on his tie as he stared at the door Callie should be walking through.
The minister sighed and signaled the pianist to just start again. By the time the music was halfway through, Feral felt truly miserable and humiliated as a whisper of concern swept through the guests.
But suddenly, a vision in white strode through the door, head held high, her four bridesmaids behind her. In minutes, she glided up beside him. She turned to hand her bouquet to her maid of honor then turned to face her groom, giving her paw to him.
Her face was calm but her whispered words were flat and filled with anger, "now you know how I felt waiting for you. The explanation had better be good!"
He dropped his eyes and murmured, "I is and I do. I'm sorry, my love."
As the ceremony finally got under way, he thought, 'what a way to start a life together.'
