Author's Note: Yay for Chapter Ten! Took me a while. I'm hoping that there wont end up being a lull in writing since I have to be an adult now and get myself on a schedule, but I make no promises, I will try though, to have Chapters out as quickly as they come, but I wont force it. As Always, Read/Enjoy/Review!

Chapter Ten: What If?

" The hardest thing for someone to do in their life, is wonder about the "what if's" because they can seem endless…"-Anonymous.

Evangeline's POV

September 30, 2012

Six. Days.

Six days from now and I will be walking down the aisle and marrying Jared.

Six days. And I feel like I'm losing my mind.

I watch the clock slowly turn. 3:27...3:28. Three twenty eight a.m. and I'm laying on my bed stressing out. Stressing out because I have to find a delicate way, six days before what is supposed to be the happiest day of my life, to tell my best friend in the whole wide world, who is still in her ' happy, newlywed state,' that the guy who ripped her heart out of her chest and stomped on it will not only be one of Jared's groomsmen, but will also be joining us on the seventeen and a half hour flight to Italy.

Oh yes, and she is not going to be happy. So not happy. So not happy in fact that it wouldn't surprise me one bit if she pulls out of the wedding, and then what? I'm out a maid of honor?

I groan rolling over, squeezing my eyes shut, but it doesn't help me drift off to sleep. Not at all. Instead it just forces the many possibilities of how bad this can turn out to run on repeat through my head.

Fuck. My. Life.

" Psst.." a whispered voice breaks through the darkness and I scream, full out, blood curdling scream, scrambling over my bed to the can of pepper spray in the bedside table drawer, but before I can reach it with shaking hands, the lights snap on.

" Braelyn? What the hell! You scared the shit out of me, do you know that? What the hell are you doing here?" I demand watching her as she drops a duffel bag onto the floor.

" He doesn't want kids," Braelyn says, her lips quivering, and I sit blinking at her.

" Excuse me?"

" Chase, doesn't want kids."

" What do you mean he doesn't want kids? Your Brae, you were made to be a Mommy."

" Well apparently, that's a dream I will never get the chance to realize because I married a man who doesn't want babies!" she screams hysterically throwing herself onto my bed.

" Okay, slow down. Tell me what exactly was said."

" We were eating dinner together, a rarity because he's a doctor and all, and he got time off for the wedding, since we fly out in what, sixteen hours…so we're eating dinner. Everything's great, when he asks how I feel about dogs. And I told him, I love dogs, but not as much as I love babies. You know what he says to me? He says babies will never happen. That he doesn't want kids."

" Didn't you guys talk about this before, you know, getting married?"

" No! I guess, since he comes from a pretty big family, and he's so good with kids, I thought that it was highly likely that he was going to want to have them."

" All right, so then what happened?"

" Then we fought. Major fight. Throwing things, slamming doors, name calling, the whole nine, and then I just grabbed my stuff and drove here. What am I supposed to do Evy? I want children. I want Chase's children. I want them to have my hair, and his eyes. I want to see Chase playing catch with our sons, and holding our daughters hands and telling her she's the prettiest girl in the whole wide world. What did I do? What did I do?"

XXX

Braelyn's POV

In the history of weddings, I have got to be THE WORST maid of honor there has ever been. Why? Because there is six days left before Evangeline's wedding, and instead of it being all about her, I snuck over to her house in the middle of the night, before what is going to be the most grueling flight ever, and laid all of my issues in her lap and cried my eyes red, staining her pillow case.

Why, why now did I choose to bring up the idea of children? And why now is it that I'm just finding out that Chase doesn't want children.

Not with me.

Not ever.

No. Children!

Oh that's right because it was my bright idea to get married after dating the guy for five months.

What in the hell was I thinking?

I sigh as I hand my luggage to an attendant, glaring at the back of Chase's head, and his perfect hair, wondering why I got myself into this mess. Why I thought he was worth it. That any of this was worth it.

Then he turns and smiles at me, the shy, 'I'm so sorry,' smile, and like the snap of a finger I remember why.

Damn him.

" Brae," Chase murmurs his hand finding the small of my back and I look up at him, eyes burning and before I can open my mouth to tell him 'we'll talk about it later,' a familiar voice comes from behind us, and I cringe.

Physically, emotionally, and spiritually cringe.

Tyson.

" Evy," I say her name slowly, catching her eye and she winces, her face showing genuine guilt.

" Brae, Chase," Tyson says beaming at me, and I feel my muscles tense as his voice rolls over me.

" Tyson," Chase says, his hand automatically coming down to link with mine, and I feel his protectiveness pour into me as he squeezes my fingers lightly.

" We ready for a wedding or what?" he asks setting his suitcase with the rest of ours.

" Oh, your going to a wedding to? How coincidental," I murmur and he laughs, a full laugh that warms something inside me that I quickly smother.

" Your so funny. I'm in the wedding," he says and I slowly turn my head towards Evy, who dramatically lowers her sunglasses onto her face stopping any chance of our eyes meeting.

" He's. In. The. Wedding?" I hiss out at her, and before any sort of scene can be made, we're ushered into the airport to stand in the security line.

XXX

He's. In. The. Wedding.

Tyson Jay Ritter, the man who obliterated my heart into a bazillion teeny tiny pieces is in my best friends wedding and I'm just finding out about it as I stand in line to get on a plane for seventeen and a half hours and be trapped with him.

Breathing the same air.

Possibly having to sit somewhere where I will have to see his face and his crooked smile and his ridiculously perfect tousled hair.

Why. Me?

" Miss. Your shoes?" one of the security guards says and I look down at my pink ballet flat type shoes, and I step out of the setting them into the bin, and I catch the look on Tyson's face when he notices my left hand, new addition of my wedding ring and all, and his eyes cloud, confusion first, giving way to hurt.

" Brae…"

I snap my hand over it, covering it quickly trying to think of what to say to him. How to explain it, but before I can Chase pushes me forward, and it's a good thing he does, because the tears are all ready starting.

" Miss? Are you okay?" the security person asks and I nod my head, breath hitching in my chest, as she looks over my passport.

" Fine. I'm fine," I murmur, and with a sympathetic smile she motions me on my way.

Only I'm not fine.

Not fine at all.

XXX

Evangeline's POV

I never meant for Brae to be blindsided by the news that Tyson would be in the wedding, in fact I had every intention of telling her myself, until she snuck into my house in the middle of the night and dropped the " Chase-doesn't-want-babies-like-ever" bombshell on me.

To be fair, that would be enough to distract anyone, especially someone who has wedding brain, like me. So add that bombshell to the fact that I have a million things of my own running through my head, and naturally things would slip my mind.

Still, I feel deep seeded guilt for not telling her. Especially since Tyson found out in a way that none of us wanted him too.

It helps the guilt in no way that Brae's been crying since we took off in San Diego, all through the hour and fifty-four minute layover in San Francisco, and now for the first forty five minute of the ten and half hour flight to Germany. Her back turned to me in her first class suite seat, blanket pulled over her head, shoulders shaking silently.

Fuck.

" Is she going to be okay?" Chase asks, and I look up at him, where he crouches in the aisle, his face scrunched up in worry.

" I don't know. I. I don't think she ever wanted him to know, and if she did, she didn't want him to find out that way," I murmur, and I can tell we're tiptoeing around a sensitive subject for Chase by the way his jaw clenches tight, and his hazel eyes glaze with anger.

" Why does she care so much? He obviously didn't."

" It's Brae's way. People can hurt her, completely tear her down and shatter her, but somehow some part of her will always care. Always," I say and he rolls his eyes, " I'll talk to her. Watch out."

I slide past him, letting him take my seat as I slide in next to Brae, pulling the blanket off of her head.

" Hey."

" Why didn't you tell me?"

" I was going to. I had every intention of telling you, but…"

" Did you see the look on his face Evy? I hurt him, I really hurt him. And I know I shouldn't care, that I would be completely justified in pulling a bitch card here, and saying that 'what goes around, comes around,' but I never wanted to hurt him. I wanted to forget him, yes, move on yes, but hurt him? Never."

" I know. I know. I think once he has time, to just think about it, to understand, he'll be okay."

" Will he? Will he ever be okay? Because that's what people kept saying about me too. That I would be okay. But Evy, what if all of this was a mistake. What if marrying Chase was a mistake?"