Author's Note: Yeah, no notes today.

Chapter 7: Does anybody hear the Echo of Wedding Bells?

Lois was appalled. "WHAT?"

"Mom, I told you. Luke proposed to me and we're getting married. If you want to talk to him, he's coming in the door right now."

Luke was casually walking in to the Griffin's house when Lois walked up to him and threw an unprecedented punch to his nose. Luke flew backwards and hit the wall. When he got up, he was having the beginnings of a bloody nose. "You want to tell me what the FUCK that was?"

"You proposed to my baby without even asking me first! What do you think it was for?"

Lois immediately realized the mistake she had made and started crying. "Oh my god, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry…"

"It's okay, Mrs. Griffin. You had every right to respond the way you did. It just surprised me."

"…I apologize for hitting you, but I'm sorry, I don't give you my permission to take my daughter's hand in marriage."

"If that's what you want, Mrs. Griffin, then okay."

Meg, who had been eavesdropping in on their conversation from the kitchen, ran in to confront her mother. "Mom, why not? I love Luke, and he loves me too! Are you just too jealous because you don't have dad that you feel the need to not let us get married?"

Tears were running down Lois's face as she looked her daughter in the eye, realizing that Meg had really meant what she just said. Lois just stood there, looking into her daughter's infuriated eyes. After multiple melancholy minutes, she slowly backed away and walked upstairs. Luke turned towards Meg to ask her if she wanted to go talk to Lois, but she only shot backwards with a look of disdain before storming out of the family room. His eyes followed the love of his life out of the room before he sighed and sat down, trying to digest what just happened.

Luke's POV

I feel terrible! Meg is pissed and poor Mrs. Griffin is upstairs crying just because I had to ask Meg to marry me. Am I really that horrible of a person? Sure, I'm pretty upset that Mrs. Griffin is withholding my permission to marry her oldest daughter, but she definitely didn't deserve that kind of treatment from Meg! And Meg… I've never seen her that angry before. I mean, seriously, I was truly scared when she looked at me directly like that. Maybe she doesn't love me? Maybe…

When Brian walked in the door at 8:00 P.M. that night, the first thing he noticed was the mysterious absence of sound in the Griffin house. As he made his way into the kitchen, he noticed a note on the kitchen table. It was addressed to Meg, and it was from Luke. He slowly opened the envelope and took out the scribbled note that was inside. "Dear Meg, I'm sorry, but I don't think things are working out. I left to go to Providence to see if there are any vacancies still left on campus over at Brown. I love you, and I wish I could believe you loved me back, too. Sincerely, Luke."

"Oh my god!" Brian dropped his briefcase and ran upstairs. "Meg, Meg! Where are you? I need to know where you are, now!" Meg peeked out of the door that was at the end of the upstairs hallway.

"What do you want?"

"Luke's gone!"

"Oh my god, no! Are you sure?"

"I don't know, Meg. Is this note that Luke wrote himself sure enough for you?"

Brian handed the poorly written note to a panicky Meg, who frantically ripped it out of his hands and immediately began scanning it. With every time her eyes moved back from the right side of the paper to the left, they became more full of terror. After a few grueling minutes, Meg grabbed Brian's wrist and started dragging him downstairs and outside towards his Prius. The surprised dog pulled his arm free of Meg's death grip, and, when she gave him an odd look, he explained.

"Meg, this is your problem, and if you really want to prove your unconditional love to Luke, you should go search for him on your own. I trust you."

Meg looked him in directly in the eye and realized he meant what he had said. She silently nodded, taking the keys to the Prius Brian offered her, and drove away with a look of hard determination plastered on her face. Brian sighed as he watched the hopeless romantic chase after her true love. After a few minutes of deep thought, He walked back into the house and made his way into the master bedroom. When he opened the door, he was surprised to see Lois not there. After further inspection, he noticed stifled sobbing coming from the bathroom. He slowly poked his head in through the door and saw Lois holding her knees up to her chest, crying in the bathtub. When she noticed he was watching her, Lois stumbled out of the bathtub, and knelt down to open her arms for a hug she had been in desperate need of. Brian, who apparently knew what Lois and Meg had fought about, said nothing, and shared with her a passionate kiss. Brian eventually opened his mouth to speak, but Lois put her finger up to his lips.

"Brian, Meg is my daughter, and I take back what I said to Luke, she does have my permission to marry him, and as her mother, it's my duty to find her and help her chase down Luke. Can I ask you to take care of the kids while I'm out doing what I should have been two hours ago?"

"…You know what? Yes, yes you can. But before you go, I do have a question for you. What made you change your mind and allow Luke to hold Meg's hand to the right of the aisle?"

Lois looked at Brian, slightly shocked by his questioning of her motives to allow Meg to get married and wanting to help her find the currently MIA Luke. She had wanted to keep her reasons to herself, but Brian was her soul mate, and he had the right to know. She stared at the wall, and after a solid thirty seconds of putting her thoughts together, she turned back to her concerned husband and cleared her throat.

"When I told Meg she was too young to get married and I punched Luke, I realized something. Sure, they're not the perfect couple, but who is? I know Peter and I weren't, and I also know that you and I aren't. And if I was really going to prevent two people who were obviously madly in love with each other, I would be no better than Daddy. I love Meg, and I want what's best for all of my children. And you know what? I think that her marrying Luke would be best for her. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go save a relationship."

Lois's POV

After saying good bye to Brian, I walked outside and got into my station wagon. The cool feel of the steering wheel's leather on my hand was invigorating. Looking myself down in the rearview mirror, I was bestowed with a newfound confidence that I don't think I had ever felt prior to that night. The next two hours I spent driving around the Providence area, looking for any sign of Meg or Luke. I tried as hard as I could to find them, but to my despair, I had no luck. By then, it was starting to get really dark outside, and the bustling city of Providence was starting to turn into a gangster's paradise. I was sitting in a Starbuck's parking lot when I got a call from Meg. When she started speaking, the first thing I noticed was her raspy and rather terrified voice…

The red station wagon skidded to a stop near an old abandoned movie theater, and Lois literally jumped out. She ran down the nearest dark alley, finding Meg and Luke pushed into a corner by a man who had a scar across his face. The visually startling thing to Lois was the horrible realization of the switch blade of the knife in the man's hand he was pointing at Meg. Luke tried to step in front of his speechless girlfriend and protect her with his arms, but before he could help, the shady man had made a clean cut across Luke's face. He sharply yelped and backed up. After witnessing that, Lois couldn't take any more. She had dealt with a handful of hoodsters, and she was a black belt in tai-jitsu. And if anybody, ANYBODY messed with one of her chicks, they were going to have to deal with the mother eagle. She stepped out of the shadows she had been dwelling in and made her self noticed by the people in the alley.

"Hey buddy, did you really just do that to one of my children? You know, it's sad. I was going to just call the police, but now, you're mine, you piece of chicken shit. And I'll tell you, anybody who knows anything about Lois Griffin knows that she fucks with whoever she wants to. And you know what? You're now mine to fuck with."

The man proceeded to charge at Lois, who quickly sidestepped his knife, which ended up stabbing the air, and threw a roundhouse kick to his face. The mysterious man rocketed into the wall. He slowly raised and shook his head, and threw his switch blade at Lois. This time, however, Lois wasn't fast enough to react, and the knife became buried deep into her bicep. She gasped in pain, but still displayed fury in her eyes as she threw a final knockout blow to the man. She limped over to Meg and Luke and hugged them, but before she could say anything, she blacked out.

When she woke up, Lois instantly noticed the searing pain that was coming from beneath a white gauze bandage that was wrapped around her arm. She would have panicked if she didn't notice Meg, Brian, and Luke sitting next to her. Meg looked as if she were still mad at her, but at least now, she at least appeared as if she loved her mother a little bit. Brian seemed relieved but still a little shaken. But the person who's reaction surprised Lois the most was Luke. He was calmly sitting there with a warm smile on his face and a caring look in his eyes. Luke really must have been a nice boy if he cared that much about her. It was nice, but after the way she had treated him earlier that night, Lois felt like he should have been flipping her off and telling her to go fuck herself in a hole and die, not expressing more concern for her health than her own daughter, who in Lois's point of view, also had the right to be treating her like shit if she felt like it. She looked to a doctor at her heart monitor and finally spoke up.

"Excuse me-"

"Oh, Mrs. Griffin. I was wondering when you were going to wake up. With that kind of blood loss, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary to completely lose consciousness."

"Will we be able to leave soon?"

"Yes, I just need to run some paperwork down to the receptionist. I'll be back in a minute."

The young looking intern hurriedly walked out of the small hospital suite. As soon as the door closed, Brian started interrogating Lois.

"Usually, Lois, I would have almost have been pissed if you had almost gotten yourself killed like that, but Meg told me exactly what happened, and let me just say, you certainly not only have the eye of the tiger, but you also have the heart of the lion."

"Thank you, Brian. I love you."

"I love you, too, Lois, and I wish I could stay here with you, but I need to go sign you out to be released. While I'm gone, though, I think there some people who are actually pissed off and would like to have a word with you."

Lois watched the Labrador retriever with the unprecedented intelligence of a human being make his way out of the suite and down the emergency wing hallway. She had really paid a lot of visits to the hospital within the last year, hadn't she? Lois was almost scared to look up to either Luke or Meg. It hurt to feel like they hated her, but Lois felt like they certainly had the right to be mad at her. Meg was the first to clear her throat. Lois winced, waiting for her daughter to express her pure hatred for her bitch mother, but thankfully, Lois was wrong. Before Meg said anything, she reached in and hugged her mom. Lois was already moved, but when she noticed salty tears running down her daughter's cheek, she began to start crying tears of her own.

"Mom, I'm so, so sorry for being such a horrible person towards you earlier. I don't blame you for crying or telling me that I couldn't marry Luke. You're my mother, and I love you. Maybe I don't agree with all of your decisions, but you are my superior, and I am expected to respect and honor your rulings."

"Meg, sweetie, I'm sorry to scare you, but the only reason I'm not letting you get married right now is that you're too young. Maybe I'll change my mind later, and seeing how much of a gentleman Luke is, I'm certain that in the very near future, I'll be in the pews wiping my tears at your wedding."

"You really mean it?"

"Of course I do. If you don't mind, could you go down to the receptionist and make sure Brian's not running into any trouble? You know how much they can tend to crack down on dogs in a hospital."

"Okay, Mom."

Meg received a kiss on her damp cheek from Luke before briskly leaving the room, with the only two remaining people being Luke and Lois. Lois hadn't really gotten a good look before, but she was now able to easily see the pink, inflamed skin that ran in a diagonal line down his young face, scarring his perfect features. Well it could have been worse, right? Lois felt horrible. She felt like all of the events of this evening were completely her fault, and nobody else's. What she didn't know however, was that Luke felt exactly the same way. Luke looked at Lois, feeling like a total dick. Why did he have to go and propose to Meg? If he didn't, poor Mrs. Griffin wouldn't have had a panic attack, or worse, a knife impaled in her arm. All she did was give and give. She didn't deserve this! Luke couldn't take it anymore. He shook his head before abruptly standing up and quickly walking over to Lois.

"Mrs. Griffin, I just have to apologize for this entire evening. I'm such a jerk, and I know that everything that happened was my fault, and somebody as wonderful and gentle as you definitely doesn't deserve to receive all the misfortunes you did."

"Luke, you don't have to call me Mrs. Griffin. Call me Lois. And also, believe me when I say absolutely none of this was your fault. If I didn't punch you, you wouldn't have felt unwelcome, and you wouldn't have left in the first place."

"Thank you. That helped a bit, but I'm still a little bummed about not being able to marry Meg."

"You know, originally, I was completely against you marrying my daughter, but after she left to go find you, I realized how hopelessly in love she was with you. And when I saw her like that, I noticed how much she reminded me of myself when I was originally in love with Peter. I wasn't a whole person without him, but Daddy refused to let me marry him. I really just felt trapped."

"Lois, it's okay. I get that you don't want me marrying Meg."

"No, no! That's not it! I was just about to tell you how much of a gentleman you are, and I take back what I said earlier. If you would like to take my daughter's hand in marriage, then the pleasure is mine."

"You don't know how long I've been waiting to hear that."

"Don't worry about it. And also, if you're still looking for a place to stay, then you're certainly welcome to move back in. I'm terribly sorry if I made you fell even close to unwelcome at any point in time, then I apologize. Now, I think there's a special girl who's expecting some wonderful news from you."

Meg was standing at the receptionist's desk with Brian when Luke came up and hugged her. Meg wanted to ask him what he and Lois had talked about in her absence, but before she could even open her mouth, Luke bent down on one knee and pulled out a small black box.

"Meg Griffin, I know this is two times in one day, but this time, I have your mother's permission. Would you like to join me and be my partner in life?"

"Oh my god, yes! Yes, I will marry you, Luke! I love you!"

An hour later, Brian and Lois were sitting on the couch back at the Griffin's house. It was now nearing 2:30 A.M., but neither Brian nor Lois were anywhere near tired enough to fall asleep. Lois looked at Brian warily, and he returned the look. The two shared a short laugh before Brian started.

"You know, I think what you did today was really cool."

"Yeah, really?"

"Of course. When I say that you have the best damn heart in the house, what do you think I'm referring to?

"Um… I don't know?"

"It doesn't matter. I love you anyway."

"I love you, too, Brian."

"It's kind of getting late. Even if it's here on the couch, can we at least make an attempt to go to bed?"

"Sure."

That night, the couple fell asleep hand in hand on the couch in the family room.

That's all for tonight! I'm sorry if the ending sucked, anyway. Don't forget to review, follow, and favorite! Love y'all!

Mgmoose99