Written for the het_bigbang on on Livejournal. Thanks to Karlamartinova for beta-reading.
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Epilogue
"Ugh. I still can't believe we allowed Ellie to arrange our wedding." As she spoke over the phone with Chris, Georgie huffed, fearing the day to come. "We should have done what any normal person does and elope. We still have time to do that though, right?"
Chris couldn't see her, and yet, he just knew she was pouting. Trying to get the upper hand with him. Like she had always done.
"Hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but this is what normal people do."
"Then eloping is what sane people do. Which we are. Sane, I mean. Normal… jury's still out on that." She giggled, a sound he hadn't heard a lot during the months of her pregnancy- since she had returned to New Orleans in general, actually- and it filled his heart with joy, knowing that he was doing that to her.
He hadn't thought that he would have been able to get this again. He had believed his heart was lost once and for all. That he would have never realized his dream of having a family- a wife and child- and yet, when he was less expecting it, it had happened.
"Where are you now?" She asked, looking, a bit dissatisfied, at the dress hanging up on the mirror; the problem wasn't with the dress itself- more with the fact that she had been dragged into this nightmarish situation. And all to make peace with dear old Ellison.
"I'm outside, just under our window." She could hear the smile in his voice. Then, Chris took a big breath. "Listen, if you really want to do this… we can write down a note and take a flight to Vegas. We'd be there in three hours, and got married just the two of us."
"Nah. Besides, wedding aren't for the people actually getting married, they are for their families and their friends to have fun, get drunk and try to get lucky." She grunted. She had never been a fan of weddings- marriages were another thing altogether, she had been there, done that, and was more than ready and willingly to do it again.
"Also for the families and friends." He sounded a bit offended; when she spoke next, Chris swore that he could see her rolling her eyes over the phone.
"Whatever. You know I'm talking about those circus-like ceremonies, not the getting married part. It's those I can do without, but someone guilt-tripped me over the fact that I eloped already once in my life, hence they couldn't be there to see me walking down the metaphorical aisle."
"And that's how, to answer your question, you probably allowed your sister to turn into the wedding planner from Hell?" It wasn't really an affirmation, more like a question. Because frankly? He couldn't think of anyone else being mad because Georgie wanted to elope.
"Actually, I was talking about Jethro. You know, as in Gibbs."
Chris snorted, and Georgie joined in the laughter; she went to seat at the bay-window and looked down; she could see Chris underneath, already dressed to the nines, smiling over the phone.
They were both in silence.
"You still there?" She nodded, then remembered he couldn't see her so she answered in the affirmative, "So, I'll see you in, what, 45 minutes?"
"An hour tops. I'll try not to be late."
It doesn't matter- I'll still be there waiting for you, he almost said, but then he decided it was just too heavy, too serious. And today, today was supposed to be about happiness, not wasted time and missed opportunities.
"I love you." He simply said, instead.
"I know." She answered, giggling. She wasn't good at putting her feelings into words, and she liked to make fun of Chris, every now and then. He was a nice guy, so who said she couldn't quote Han Solo to him every now and then?
She hung the phone up the moment Ellison, already fully ready in her forest green dress, waltzed into the room without bothering knocking, in pure Ellison fashion, their two eight years old twin nieces hot on her heels, still in their frilly pink pajamas, busy rubbing their sleepy eyes; they immediately made their way for the crib, but Georgie tsk-tsked them.
"C'mon girls, come here and give your aunt a kiss!" Ivy and Lily quickly obeyed, but as soon as they were done, they immediately went to look in awe at their sleeping cousin, doing their best to not disturb her.
"You have five minutes to take a shower, and use that under the shower balmy stuff instead of the cream. You'll not have to wait for it to dry and it will buy us some time."
Georgie chuckled, and put her hands on her older sister's shoulders. "What, no Good morning sis, how are you doing? Or, how did you sleep?"
Ellison snickered. "We are on a tight schedule and your boyfriend already asked you all those things. Now stop wasting our time and go get ready, unless your daughter needs feeding."
"My daughter already ate and Chris isn't my boyfriend. Not any longer, at least."
"Yeah, all right, whatever, now go and get ready, I still have to do your hair and your make-up once you are done with the shower."
Georgie did as she was asked- demanded, actually- and not more than ten minutes later she was sitting in front of her vanity, dressed with a simple wedding dress, pearl white and knee-length with lacy long sleeves, just a solitary diamond at her neck and at her lobes.
"The Major would have loved this. You always made him proud." Ellison said while brushing her younger sister's hair. "He wouldn't have been proud of how we fought, thought."
Georgie put an hand on her sister's one, right on her shoulder, and grabbed it like for dear life; the truth was, when their brother and his wife had died and left her the girls, she hadn't been mad with Ellison for fighting to get them; of course she had been hurt by her words, but not too much, not knowing that they were true.
She had been single, with no life-partner at the horizon, whereas Ellison had been married for a good ten years and already had a pre-teenage son.
She was a cop, worked cases in the field and didn't fully considered how risky it could be for her safety, whereas Ellison was an interior decorator.
Hell, she hadn't even card about the hours, falling asleep at her desk more nights than not, while her sister, well, she did worked as many hours as she wanted whenever she wanted to, being on her own.
Georgie loved the girls, had loved them since day one, but… she wasn't sure she would have been strong enough to give up on her lifestyle back then. But as soon as she got pregnant? That was a whole other argument.
The moment was getting heavy, and Ellison was starting to see her sister's eyes getting teary; she couldn't have any of that, not when she had helped her sister with her make-up, and, all right, the label said water-proof, but she didn't really wanted to test it yet.
So, she went for levity.
"You know, I'm confused… how does it work exactly?"
Georgie looked at her sister's reflection in the mirror, confused. She sounded quite serious, and the former detective wondered where she was going. "What? Me and forensic, you mean? You know that's technically what I studied, right?"
Ellison tsk-tsked. "Oh, no, I wasn't talking about of anything as boring as work… I mean, do you call him Chris in bed? And, has he ever called you that in that heat of the moment? Because, to us, you've been Chris for a long, long time, and now, not only you suddenly aren't Chris any longer, but you actually call someone else by that name…"
They both started laughing, Georgie's cheeks coloring of a deep red as she reassured her older sister with a smug grin. "Ellie, c'mon, you know that I'll always be Chrissy to you."
"WE ARE READY!" The sisters turned as soon as they heard the two hurricanes running into the room in their cute green dressed and the ballerina shoes they had insisted on; at their back, Chloe, the Major's wife, the woman who had fostered them, with Cait, a cloud of pink and white, in her arms.
"Gibbs's waiting for you, honey." She leaned over her step-daughter, and gave her a quick kiss, the twins going to hide behind her legs.
Georgie stood, and looked at Ellie. "I know that I should have asked before, and that I did say that I was giving you free reign, but, I was wondering…"
Ellie shook her head. "Sis, sis, sis… when will you learn to trust me? In my line of work, I know how to look for what people wants- not what I'd like to have for myself."
"Yes, but that's a wedding. Not at apartment. Which is why I'm suddenly worried I'll not be able to handle today."
"I'm sure your sister arranged just the thing for you, Newman." Gibbs knocked at the semi-open door, and gave a quick look inside, impatience in his tone. "You ready or what? We are getting late."
Georgie nodded; she stood, and gave a kiss to each woman of her family- her "mother", her sister, her nieces and her baby, and then she joined Gibbs, and allowed him to walk arm in arm with her towards the front door, downstairs, and then the car.
"Uhm. That's weird."
"Yeah, I know." Gibbs laughed. "By the way, I think I may say that I'm somehow… honored that you asked me to walk you down the aisle. I thought you would have asked Pride. Not that I've never believed you to be the kind of woman who needs to be given away or walked down the aisle to begin with."
She shrugged. "Don't read too much into this. You are simply the man I've known longer in my life. Who is still alive, I mean."
Gibbs shook his head, like to say, Don't make me hit you on your wedding day.
He opened her the passenger door of the robin-eggshell historic Citroen, and then took the driver's seat, Georgie's eyes looking at him with mirth and fun- it was unusual, and a bit strange, seeing Gibbs all dressed up.
"Does it mean I don't have to read LaSalle the riot act? Don't have to tell him to better be careful with your heart because he'll have to deal with me if he breaks it?"
For a long time, Gibbs had been a mentor to her, a friend- sometimes, even a sort of father figure. Now, seeing him happy, smiling and making fun of the situation, it filled her heart with joy.
"No." She shook her head, and reached at the same time for the bouquet of white flowers on the backseat. She smiled, inhaled the sweet scent and enjoyed the sensation of the cold and delicate petals and leaves under her fingertips. "He'll be careful with my heart. Just like I'll be careful with his."
After having driven in circles, they finally reached their destination, and she smiled, shaking her head almost in disbelief, because Ellison, for once, had been right- she had arranged her sister's wedding, not her own.
Their few guests, immediately families and their closest friends, less than 30 people among the two of them, were gathered in front of Pride's bar, where a sign with "Private Event" made good show of itself.
"By the way, I know you never wanted to be walked down the aisle. It's not really in your strings." Gibbs smirked as he left the car, someone else opening her door and offering her an helping hand. "I think I may have in mind someone who's better suited for the job."
"Ehy." She simply breathed, her voice only a murmur; she stopped thinking about anything, and any nervousness she had felt until that very moment vanished. There, in Chris' arms- looking at him- she knew: they were going to be all right. Their lives – their life- wasn't going to be perfect, but she knew with certainty that it would be the best version of it; they were going to have problems, just like anyone else, there were going to be arguments, ups and down, but they were going to be part of them. They were going to do it together. The both of them.
The three of them, actually.
Georgie took a big breath and looked up in the sky; her thought went to the woman who had shaped Christopher into the amazing man he had turned into, and she thanked Savannah, for she and St. Christopher had watched over her beloved, and even her child before she was born.
She firmly believed they still did.
Chris looked at her quizzically, and she tightened her grip around his hand; they walked inside the bar, hand in hand, families and friends at their sides, ready to celebrate something that many of them had seen long before the soon-to-be married couple did, something that the both of them were either too scared or too guilt-ridden to fully accept it.
He lightly kissed her, just a quick peck on the lips, like a sweet promise of things to come, his eyes shining with a joy Chris would have never thought capable of feeling ever again in his life- the same thing she had firmly believed in for way too long. "You ready for this?"
"Yes." She answered as they stood before the Judge of Peace. "More than ever."
FIN
