"Come here come here come here," Jeff said happily as he practically threw himself at John and Shawn. The happy and newly married couple had slipped away for a quick round of sex and were now just joining the reception, which had gotten started without them. There were wrestlers and they were all around booze. Of course the party started without them. It started without them and would most likely continue long after they called it a night. It wasn't like Shawn and John were the most notorious of partiers these days. That just meant that they all had to do it for them.

"Umph!" Shawn grunted as Jeff put a vice grip around his neck. Though Jeff didn't have a drink in his hand it was quite clear he was already getting started on a full fledged night of drunken debauchery. "Hi Jeff."

"I'm so HAPPY for you guys," Jeff declared. He planted both their cheeks with huge kisses. "I really am." He gave them both another kiss on the cheek. "That was a beautiful ceremony." Another kiss on the cheek followed. "It really was."

"Thanks," John said as he began trying to pry Jeff off of them. It wasn't going too well at all and he had to sigh and shake his head. "How much have you had to drink?"

"Not much," Jeff said with a shake of his head. "Just a LITTLE bit. Weddings just make me all emotional."

"That champagne you just chugged didn't help either," Mark muttered. He came over to them and pulled Jeff off of them. "I told you that stuff gets to your head faster than you think." He smoothed down Jeff's blonde locks (they made him wash the dye out of his hair for the occasion) and shook his head slowly. "You're going to have to make me take you out of this party sooner rather than later you know."

"Nooooo." Jeff shook his head and hit Mark on the chest. "No way man. This is going to be the biggest party of the year. You can't pull me away from it. That's not allowed."

"Well you better slow down then," Mark warned him. "I don't want to be babysitting you the whole night to keep you from doing something stupid. Understand?"

Jeff nodded but didn't look at Mark while he did it. He was already scanning the crowd, grinning as he caught sight of Matt and Adam heading out to the dance floor. "Matty! Addy! Wait for me!"

Mark sighed and shook his head. "That kid is gonna be the death of me."

John smirked and elbowed the older man in the ribs. "What a way to go though. If I wasn't so in love with Shawn here I'd be mad jealous."

"Oh yeah, I'm a real lucky guy," Mark said with bit of a smirk. "I've got two pains in my asses. Who else would have those? Juuuust me."

"Hey you brought it on yourself Deadman." Shawn reached up and clasped a hand of his on Taker's shoulder. "You knew what you were getting into. Maybe you should have thought twice about it." He frowned as he glanced around. "Speaking of your pains in the asses, James isn't here, right?" He was actually really worried about him showing up. Just because he wasn't invited didn't mean shit. James had no respect for things like that.

"Not as far as I know," Mark replied honestly. "I told him not to come and he didn't come with Jeff and me-and I didn't see him during the ceremony. So I'm hoping he actually listened for once."

"Hopefully we can count on that hope." Shawn certainly wasn't getting his hopes up too high. He had had too much experience with James to place any hope of him having that kind of decency. "If he does show up though-"

"I'll do my best to handle him," Mark promised. "I really will."

"You better. Or I might knock his teeth down his throat."

Mark just smirked. "I'd rethink that strategy if I were you Michaels." He gave the happy couple a respectful nod before walking off, on the prowl for both James and any antics from Jeff that would lead to some heavy embarrassment and regret in the morning.

…

"How much longer do we have to keep this up?" Ted whispered at James as he pushed him around in the wheelchair. He had wanted to just get him out of here already but of course it wasn't going to be that easy. James couldn't dare let anything be that way. He was making Ted cart him around and get him all the finger foods he could get his hands on.

"As long as I say my boy," James answered, badly impersonating an old feeble man. He popped about six shrimp cocktails in his mouth at once and took a big swig of champagne. "Why in such a rush? This is the reception we're supposed to enjoy ourselves."

"How am I supposed to enjoy myself carting you around?" Ted countered. "I mean, you're supposed to be like a million years old. Realistically, this should be your bedtime."

"Realistically, this is the part where I get up and put my foot in your ass if you don't get me more appetizers."

Ted gulped and glanced around nervously. "Dude come on. I think people are figuring out that you aren't actually my grandpa."

"No they're not."

"Yes they are."

"Not they're not."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"Who the hell has figured it out? Tell me that."

"Dude!" Almost as if on cue, Cody came up to them. "Who is this man? This isn't your grandpa."

Ted gave James a "I told you so" look before trying to cover his ass with Cody. "Sure it is. He's-"

"Dude, come on. Quit shitting me." Cody poked his finger on Ted's chest. "I've known you for how long now? I know that's not your grandpa." He leaned down to get a better look at the "old man". "Dude, this IS make-up. What the hell, Kane was actually ri-"

"Would you get out of my face dude?" James snapped, getting out of character in annoyance.

Cody jumped back, his eyes widening in shock. "Dude what-"

"Sssssh!" Ted slapped a hand over Cody's mouth to keep him quiet. "Dude. Don't get me in trouble. It's James he MADE me do it."

Cody stared at Ted in disbelief. "Dude, Shawn is going to KILL you! James isn't supposed to be here-"

"I know I know. But James…dude he's scary. It was either get killed by Shawn or get killed by him. Getting killed by Shawn sounds less painful than having James do me in." He wrapped his arm around Cody and gave him a pleading look. "Please don't say anything dude. Please. I just want to get through this without any problem. Can you help me out?"

Cody sighed and nodded. "Alright. But if Shawn finds out, you're taking the fall for it. Got me?"

Ted nodded. "Thanks man." He turned back to look at James and his eyes widened when he saw that the wheelchair was now empty and James was nowhere to be found. "Oh no…"

"Well THAT'S not good," Cody said with a wise shake of his head.

…

James ducked into the nearest bathroom, locking the door and ripping off all the prosthetics that he and Ted put on him. The whole old man shtick was getting old and all the bullshit on his face was starting to itch. At this point, he had gotten through the ceremony and there was enough people at the reception that he could probably go unnoticed for most of the night-if he wanted to anyway. Knowing himself the way he did, he knew that he was going to cause some kind of scene. He couldn't help himself. It wasn't like he was MEANING to ruin shit for Shawn. It was just the reception. The entire locker room was going to get drunk and be idiots. Wasn't like he would do anything worse than that…not too much worse anyway. Maybe he would go a little over the top to get attention…but that wasn't anything personal. That was just his way.

He turned on the water in the sink and rinsed his face off, making sure to get all the sticky shit off of him before turning the faucet back off and dried his face with the nearby towel. He was going to catch hell from Mark if he found him here but he found himself not giving a shit. Let him say shit. Not like it would stop him. Never had before, never would.

…

After about a half hour of mingling and drinking, everyone sat down at the tables that were set up all over the place to be served their food that Vince had been nice enough to have catered for them. Everyone wanted to just dig in but before they could, Randy stood up and tapped his spoon against his glass, getting everyone's attention. "Okay okay everyone, listen up." He glared at the people who still kept talking and they quieted down after a couple of minutes. "I don't want to make a big speech to take up our time because I'm hungry too. But there is something I need to say." He put the spoon down and raised his glass up, which prompted a lot of the others to do the same thing. "Shawn…John…can I tell you how much I hate the way your names rhyme?"

Everyone laughed at that and the newly married couple playfully flipped Randy the bird. He put his hand over his chest, faking being morally offended before continuing on with his speech. "Look, in all seriousness, John, you've been my best friend since we met in OVW. I love you like a brother…hell, I might even love you more than my actual brother but don't tell my parents that." He chuckled a bit at his own words. "And Shawn…most of us here grew up watching you in the ring and completely idolizing you-"

"Way to make me feel old buddy!" Shawn called out playfully. Underneath the table he and John had to himself he took the younger man's hand and squeezed it tightly.

"Hey if the shoe fits…" Randy smirked and shrugged his shoulders. "Look, I never thought you two would end up together. But you did and you two are without a doubt the best thing that ever happened to each other. Everything about you two is just insanely perfect. Even with all the crazy stuff that goes down in the locker room-and we all know there's a LOT of it-you guys are the stable force besides good old Taker being our wise and all powerful leader. I used to never believe in love myself but things have changed" he looked at Cody as he said that "and I hope to have even half the relationship you guys do." He raised his glass higher and now everyone had theirs up. "To an eternity of love and happiness. You guys deserve it."

Everyone drank to that and Randy was about to sit back down when BANG BANG BANG! A bunch of firecrackers went off at once. Everyone screamed and ducked for cover under their tables, coming back up a couple of minutes later to see James standing there with a sheepish grin on his face.

"Whoops…guess I should have waited huh?"