AN: Well I am surprised by some of the comment and reviews. They have been rather interesting to read and occasionally reread. So I guess with the current views that I will keep this story to a monogamous. I do agree that Lauren was ill treated in the season and I have no doubts that she will continue to be treated rather ill. I also agree that Bo did not try very hard to work at her relationship with Lauren. Sex for her is fun and she does seem to reveal in it. We have seen her feed without sex and their is no real in book statement that she can't heal without sex. She needs desire and sexual energy which most strip clubs have plenty of. She could go in there and have a ready buffet at any time but she doesn't.
Hell I clearly have enough qualms otherwise I wouldn't be writing a new relationship for Lauren. What can I say I am a Lauren fan. So yes things are progressing in the Lauren Faith relationship and yes I will eventually reintroduce Bo. In what respect? I don't know. However, I don't think there is a Bo/Lauren future. At least not within the next couple of centuries and really I am not writing that far ahead.
So thank you to those who have read this and an ever greater thanks for those who have offered up their thoughts and opinions. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
"Good morning Beatrice." Faith's familiar voice entered the room moments before she did.
"You know it's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding." Lauren called back as she ran into the bathroom.
"We don't need luck." The smug reply was issued as a tray was placed on the small two person table. "Plus I didn't think you would be the type to believe in luck?" Faith queried as she turned to look around the room for Lauren. "Are you really going to hide in the bathroom until I leave?"
"Faith I might forego the traditional for the scientific more often than not but I did grow up dreaming of my wedding day. It went into the background when I was introduced to science but I still dreamed of it. Part of that dream was following tradition so no seeing the bride before the ceremony." Lauren admonished while partially closing the bathroom door.
"We are hardly traditional." Faith scoffed and smiled. "But if you want to follow tradition than that is what we shall do. The ceremony will start in two hours. Should I send someone in to help you with you coiffure or dress?"
"Ariel will be in soon to help me with my dress." Lauren called out feeling a little impatient. "So go finish getting ready."
"I am ready. I brought you something to eat. Since I am not allowed by tradition to sit here and make sure you eat, I want you to promise that you will." Faith said moving back to the door and waiting for a reply.
"I promise. I will eat as much as I can stomach."
"Not exactly the promise I was hoping for but I guess it will have to do." Pausing Faith stared at the bathroom door wondering how she could fully express what she was feeling. Releasing a frustrated sigh she closed the door and made her way to her study.
Making her way straight to the liquor cabinet Faith pulled out a bottle of whiskey and a glass. Pouring out two fingers she placed the glass to her lips and contained her urge to gulp the whole thing down.
"Nervous?" A voice said softly from the doorway. Turning to the door Faith spotted Liam, her best friend and most loyal companion. They had met in England while Liam was terrorizing the citizens of London, Dublin and occasionally Edinburgh . He was the bad wild child who toed the line of reckless and evil. Looking at him now it was hard to believe he had murdered his entire family after his turning ceremony.
"No, not really." Faith said taking another small sip.
"So why are you drinking?"
"I suppose I am a little nervous." Pausing she took a seat behind her desk. "I'm not worried about getting married. I'm worried about Beatrice."
"Why? You know we will accept her. She is part of the family as it is, she is one of us." Looking at Faith, Liam speculated. "Are you afraid of her turning ceremony? That is months away not until after her child is born." Seeing Faith stiffen slightly. " Or are you worried about the child? Are you having doubts about keeping it? Are you worried that she will return to its father? Or that you won't be able to accept it?"
Shaking her head Faith refused to admit that some of Liam's questions hit a little too close to home. She was worried about Beatrice. She was worried that Beatrice spent too much time working in the lab trying to find an answer to a question Faith still didn't know. It was that question that plagued Faith. She watched Beatrice pushing for something and she had no idea what it was or how to help her. She had thought a bond had formed between them but now Beatrice's secrecy made her doubt.
Another part of her worried about the child as well and how that child was affecting Beatrice. She was still suffering from morning sickness and didn't eat nearly enough. She worried that the family wouldn't accept a child fathered by a Fae. The traditional Fae were tolerated, they were not welcome. The few Fae clans that lived within her territory swore loyalty only to her and rescinded their Fae status. They still weren't welcomed with smiles and open arms. They were accepted with a grudging respect that Faith had worked years to achieve. Could the family accept the child? After everything Faith had promised could she accept a child that wasn't her own? Shaking away those thoughts Faith took another sip of whiskey happy for the slight burn.
"I suppose it is only pre-wedding jitters. I'll get over them soon enough." Taking another longer sip Faith looked at Liam. He was her best friend and most loyal companion. On more than one occasion they had toed the line of friend and lover. There was enough chemistry between them that the attraction was occasionally palatable. The day she had found Beatrice was the day their possible romantic relationship had come to an end. Thankfully he never took her turning from him as a form of rejection.
"Will your wife be attending the ceremony?" She asked hoping to change the subject.
"You know she is not my wife yet." Liam said with a slight sneer. "Nor will I allow you to annoy me into letting the subject matter go. If you are having doubts about this child I recommend you get them out in the open now." Moving towards the liquor cabinet Liam took out a bottle of brandy.
"I'm sorry." Faith said feeling awful for bringing up Liam's tenuous situation with the woman he loved. Liam's history had been sordid and his deeds despicable, but she had never thought he deserved the punishment he set for himself. His penitence through chastity, humility and poverty were unnecessarily extreme. The fact that he refused to allow himself the comfort of the woman he truly loved was worse. He pinned for her in a way that made Faith's teeth hurt. But nothing she could say or do could convince him to give up his penitence and take the woman he loved so deeply for the few years they would have together.
"There is no need to apologize." Liam said on a sigh pouring out a finger's worth of whiskey. Taking a small sip he savored the taste before looking at his best friend. "I may never have met your son but I know he wasn't yours by blood. If you were able to raise a child not of your own flesh or connected to you in any substantial manner then why can't you raise this one. I know you loved your son and I know you mourn him till this day. It has been over a two centuries since he left and still I see the shadow of regret fill your eyes at the loss."
"I know" Taking another sip Faith thought back to the son of her heart. "I didn't expect to love him so much. I didn't expect to want children. Nor did I really expect I would be able to raise the son of my best friend and worst enemy. Things were so complicated back then. They still are I suppose."
"Exactly my point though. You raised and loved a child who had no connection to you. Don't you think you will love this child even more since you love it's mother so deeply? Ammon was your son and you were his mother. This child will be as much yours as it will be Beatrice's. I know you will love it. I know you will do all you can for the sake of this child." Pausing Liam took another sip of his whiskey. "I am I instilling any sense of confidence in you in regards of becoming a parent again? Or do you still doubt your ability to love the child of a stranger?"
"Ammon's mother was a stranger to me as well. I had seen her only on the day she gave birth; the day she died." Faith said remembering back to that night filled with screams and terror and blood.
"If you didn't know her than why take her child?" Liam asked curious as to what was making Faith open up about this rather private topic. The only reason he knew of her son was because of the portrait that hung in her office. He had asked about it once thinking it was her father or husband and was surprised to find she had a grown son. There were other portraits of Ammon as a child throughout the other mansions all hanging in a place of honor in Faith's study or office.
"Because I loved his father like a brother and sometimes something more. I took him because by that point I knew I had to. He was so innocent, so perfect. I knew if I left him to his father he would become twisted and dark." Faith paused remembering how beautiful her son looked even as he was covered in blood and mucus.
"Who was his father?"
"He goes by many names and he has wandered the whole world over and has lost all forms of satisfaction with it. He lost himself long before Ammon was born. I lost him when I feel in love. In that time he changed. He became everything I hated, everything he had taught me to hate. I still loved him and when I learned of his loss and his plans I intervened. Ammon's mother begged me to take him, to make sure he didn't turn into his father. So I did. I took him for the sake of his mother, for the friend I had lost, and for my own sake." Pausing Faith took another sip lost for a moment in the memories of a child she had loved with all her heart. "You are right of course. Ammon was Fae and the family was willing to accept him. It was grudgingly done but I know they will accept this new child. That still doesn't stop me from worrying." Another small pause allowed Faith to form her thoughts. "I...sometimes I just can't help but worry that Beatrice will go back to the Fae. I promised that I would let her if that is what she choose to do. Part of me lives in fear that I am not for her. That my love isn't what she needs."
The look of confusion and dejection was enough to make Liam move closer to Faith. Laying a hand lightly across her shoulder he thought of what words he could offer in the way of comfort. "She may not love you in this moment, at this time, but I am sure she will grow to love you Faith. It is nearly impossible for her not to. You are the most loving, warm, and giving person I know. How could she not fall in love with you? You just have to give her time. She is willing to marry you so that has to say something about how she feels." Liam stated the last with a slight lilt.
"I guess it does say something. I do hate feeling like this. I hate doubting her, doubting us. It's not a feeling I am overly familiar with." Finishing up the last of her whiskey she looked at Liam and gave him a slight smirk. "I suppose I just have to have a little faith." Getting up she placed her glass on a separate tray next to the decanters and motioned for Liam to join her. They had a wedding to get to.
Stepping out into the dimming light of sunset Faith looked down the aisle and smiled. The garden was brimming with flowers. The scent of rosemary, roses, lavender and sage permeated the air. Michael had pulled up part of the garden and rearranged it for the sole purpose of Faith getting married. The gazebo was lightly decorated with shear silk, artfully arranged around red and white roses. Walking to the gazebo with Liam at her side Faith turned and looked down the aisle. Her heart beating a little quicker in anticipation of seeing the most beautiful woman walk down to meet her.
The first notes of Adagio for Strings began to play and Faith held her breath. Beatrice stepped out onto the aisle and for a moment Faith swore her heart stopped. Beatrice was decked out in a satiny white dress that hide her now burgeoning baby bump while still hugging all of her delectable curves. Her hair was arranged in ringlets showering down her back with a few curving around her face, framing it perfectly. Keeping her eyes fixed on Beatrice, Faith waited.
In a slow procession Lauren walked down the aisle. She hadn't expected this moment to feel so wonderful. Nor had she in her dreams expected Faith to be the one waiting for her at the end of the aisle. Her few dreams of this day over the last couple of years had involved a different brunette. Giving herself a mental shake Lauren reminded herself that dreams changed. That people changed. The woman at the end of the aisle might not have been the one she had dreamed of but it was the one she wanted.
For all the strangeness of their meeting and the way their relationship had developed, Lauren knew in her heart that she loved Faith. The woman in front of her was warm, loving, considerate, and attentive. Faith went out of her way to make everyone comfortable. She was a leader but she was able to follow, to listen. All the qualities Lauren had ever wanted in a spouse, in a life partner, she had found in Faith. A part of her mourned the death of her old dreams, of her old life, but another part rejoiced at the life she was being given. At the love she was being showered with.
Turning to Faith she smiled hoping to show all the love and joy that overwhelmed her heart. Shifting slightly to they faced the minister.
"Friends and family today we are gathered here to celebrate in the joining of Faith and Beatrice in marriage." The minister paused. " When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. Such is an impossibility, and even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity - in freedom, in the sense that the dancers are free, barely touching as they pass, but partners in the same pattern." Again the minister paused as if to give everyone the chance to think about his words. "Faith and Beatrice have decided to share their own vows."
Turning to look fully at Lauren, Faith smiled. "In every life and in every form I have loved you. I spent years waiting and more searching. I have done my best to always put your needs and your heart before my own. I will always love you, cherish you, and do all that I can to make you happy. Love does grow, ebb, and change but I swear to you that my love will never die. Today in front of all I give you my heart, my love and my solemn oath to be what you need."
Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves Lauren cleared her throat. "Faith, I have never been eloquent with words. I have always been a woman of logic and science. My science and my logic can never truly explain why I love you so very much. You have changed my life in ways I never would have expected. You have given me a home, freedom, warmth but mostly importantly you have given me your love. I swear that I will spend the rest of my life making you happy. I will always be there to comfort you, to hold you, and to remind you that you are loved. I will give you my whole being, my whole heart as I know you have given me yours." Lauren stopped her voice catching as her emotions threatened to overwhelm her.
Hearing the prolonged pause the minister decided to continue with the ceremony. "Do you Faith, take Beatrice, to be your partner in life and sharing your path; equal in love, a mirror for your true self, promising to honor and cherish, through good times and bad, until death do you part?
"I swear"
"Do you Beatrice, choose Faith to be your partner in life, to support and respect her in her successes and her failures, to care for her in sickness and in health, to nurture her, and to grow with her throughout the seasons of your life together?"
"I do"
"Wedding rings are made precious by our wearing them. Your rings say that even in your uniqueness you have chosen to be bound together. Let these rings also be a sign that love has substance as well as soul, a present as well as a past, and that, despite its occasional sorrows, love is a circle of happiness, wonder, and delight. May these rings remind you always of the vows you have taken here today." The minister motioned for the rings to be brought out. "Faith?"
"With this ring, I thee wed. With my body, I thee worship. With my heart, I thee cherish. Would all that I am, I give unto you. Would all that I have, I share with you. From this day until forever done." Faith slide the platinum ring encrusted with small diamonds onto Laurens finger.
"With this ring, I thee wed. With my body, I thee worship. With my heart, I thee cherish. Would all that I am, I give unto you. Would all that I have, I share with you. From this day until forever done." Lauren softly repeated sliding a engraved platinum ring onto Faith's finger.
"Now by the power invested in me by the state of New York, I pronounce you Wife and Wife. You may now kiss your wife." The minister finished with a smile to the clapping of the crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen I give you Mrs. and Mrs. Lehane."
