Gideon Fischer ⚕️ Alex Karev (pediatrician) wrote in dunhavenic, @ 2020-04-21 09:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log, * jeanne, * terri, c: embry fischer, c: gideon fischer |
WHO: Gideon Fischer and Embry Marshall Fischer
WHEN: April 21, 2020
WHERE: Nellysford, VA
SUMMARY: The Wedding Ceremony
WARNINGS: Language, Kissing, References to sex
They'd driven separately to the brewery, with Gideon heading off in advance, since he'd be in the main brewery area before the ceremony to greet the guests. Even though they'd already seen one another that day, they'd agreed to still keep to the idea of having her 'reveal' to the rest of the guests at the start of the ceremony itself. He shook hands, offered half-hugs, and laughs all in equal measure. The room itself was set up with long wooden benches, slightly angled toward the center aisle. Battery powered candles lined the aisle, and little fairy lights were strung up around the windows. (The windows themselves had thin curtains drawn to block out some of the setting sunlight, just to mitigate the glare, and to enhance the candles and other light.) As people started to take their seats, Dahlia moved to stand up at the front of the aisle. There was a microphone there, designed to take in the voices of officiant, bride, and groom, for the purposes of the video they were making of the day. So Gideon took his place, too, facing Dahlia, a little grin on his features as Embry's chosen song started to play. Gideon hadn't known what she'd selected before that moment, but as he recognized those first few bars, he couldn't help laughing to himself. -- Embry had gone back to meet up with her parents who were transporting her to the ceremony. She would not be returning to this particular Airbnb, but there was still plenty of stuff there from anyone else who had chosen to stay that night. She'd had her makeup touched up just a little, and they'd left after a short delay, bringing her in through the back way as to avoid all the guests. She kept touching that spot where her ring should be, though she had given it up to Dahlia for safekeeping before she had left with Gideon earlier. She would have it back within the hour, and that…that was all she needed to know. Embry had received the last flurry of hugs and kisses from her mother before she'd gone to take her own place, and she had waited with her father until they were signaled that it was time to walk. The song she'd chosen might not have been strictly traditional, and no, all the lyrics didn't exactly tell their true story. However, it was the song that had played on karaoke the first night they'd spent together in Philly, "Signed Sealed Delivered (I'm Yours.)" It was an opportunity for a little levity that she and her father had talked about and planned extensively. So, the bartender was recording along with the videographer, but Embry and her father were more bopping down the aisle than walking, and right there in the middle, they took a true little dance break, grooving to that music. She traded her father her bouquet for her vows note cards, as she mouthed the lyrics. Using her father's back as a support, she uncapped a red pen with her teeth to make a few notes on said cards even while still dancing a little to that beat. Their guests were laughing, and she fake shushed them, pointing to Gideon who still had his back turned. With their little interlude complete, Embry had taken her flowers back, and relinquished the notes temporarily, even though she kept the pen. They had made it the rest of the way up that warmly lit path, until she and her father were just behind Gideon, her heart flying happily as they looked up to Dahlia, who also hadn't been warned of Embry's music choice or dance break. -- Gideon had been laughing as soon as he recognized the song, but Dahlia had well and truly lost it when Embry and Ezra Marshall started dancing down the aisle itself. She'd known that this was likely to be a non-traditional wedding, all told, but what a perfect start to confirm just that. Gideon forced himself to stay stock still throughout it all, knowing that he'd eventually understand the commotion when he saw the video, and not wanting to ruin Embry's fun. As Embry finally stepped up closer, Dahlia spoke. "Marriage, done right, is nothing short of a damn joy. Even more so, then, when two people start it all off with the love and support of their family and friends." Embry had been very insistent- and Dahlia agreed- that she wasn't being given away. She wasn't her father's property any more than she'd be Gideon's. She was here of her own free will. "Who accompanies this woman as she chooses to be married to this man?" Ezra looked to his daughter, smiled, and pressed a kiss just to her forehead. "With every bit of love and support for her, on behalf of all of us here, I do." -- Embry had wanted this to be a joyful occasion, and was determined that it would be just that. There was no stuffy tradition to uphold, or bar that they needed to reach to call it a success. She smiled as Dahlia and her father made that exchange, and pressed a kiss to her father's cheek, "Love you, dad." Ezra squeezed her hand, and dipped into his coat pocket once more for her vow cards, gently placing them into her hands before she was relieved of her bouquet for the time being. She made just a little bit of a show of tucking those cards into hidden pockets of her own in that chiffon skirt, and it garnered a few more giggles from their guests. She stepped up there with Gideon, though before she could take his hand, she smirked at him and leaned in to tuck a red pen into his jacket pocket, patting it a little, "Hi, there." -- Gideon had turned, finally, facing Embry and Ezra with that last little exchange. There was still a grin on his features even though the music had faded out, and when Embry reached up and placed a red pen in his suit pocket, right there next to his pocket square, he just shook his head, nose wrinkled and eyes crinkled in continued amusement. "Well, hey. Good to see you." Gideon reached his hand out, easily taking up Embry's. Once they were ready, Dahlia opened up a thin black binder, and started to read aloud. Her voice was clear and even. "Today is a celebration. A celebration of love, of friendship, of family, and of two people who are totally in it forever." "The most remarkable moment in life is when you meet the person who makes you feel complete. The person who makes the world a beautiful and magical place. You share a bond so special that it totally transcends normal relationships and becomes something so utterly pure that you can’t imagine spending another day of your life without them." "For Embry, that happened about 25 years ago when she met me and we became best friends." She spoke that sentence so calmly, making deliberate eye contact with Embry and Gideon both. There was a bright tittering of laughter through the crowd. "But about 11 years ago, she also met Gideon, who is… pretty okay, too, I guess." -- Embry had known pieces of what Dahlia was going to say, but she’d given her liberty in choosing the rest - trusting her not to cross any lines. As it was, she smiled as her best friend spoke, squeezing Gideon’s hand when it was proclaimed that the two of them were in this with each other forever. That was very true. Those words were beautiful, and exactly right...and then Embry was laughing at the twist, her cheeks flushed pink with amusement, even as she grinned and looked between Gideon and Dahlia both. She looked directly up at Dahlia and mouthed Dreamboat, wiggling her brows and nodding to Gideon. -- Pleased that she'd pulled off that little switch, Dahlia just grinned. She knew that Embry and Gideon both had placed a trust in her for today- it was desperately important, after all- and she had no real intention of making it about her. "You don't have to have a ceremony to have a marriage. The two of you have been engaged for a while yet, and at any point in that, you could have gone to an austere government building and called it a day. And, really, when you think about it, the whole ceremony thing is kind of weird, right? You're standing up here, looking fancy as fuck, being stared at by pretty much everyone who has meant anything to you in the past twenty-something years." "So why do we do it? We have thousands of important moments that happen, all through our lives, so why is this one is regarded as one so critical that we acknowledge it by sharing it with others? Why this moment?" "Because, despite our myriad differences, love is what we all share. It's our one universal truth. That no matter who we are, where we've come from, what we believe, we all know this one thing: love is what we're doing right. That's why you both are standing here. That's why we're here to watch you stand up here. Being here together, we're reminded that the ability to love is the very best part of our humanity." "Trying to describe love is one of our favorite pastimes. And even though we describe love in different ways, we all know it when we see it. And we totally see it here, between Gideon and Embry." -- What Dahlia said was, of course, entirely true. Embry wasn’t sure that she could have put it into better words herself. They had waited to get married on their anniversary when they could have done so on any random day over the last year...or two years, even. They had wanted to celebrate their love with their family and friends, even if their wedding wasn’t as strictly traditional as some. There was a cue there for them to transition into their vows, so Embry turned a little more towards Gideon, those microphones set up to pick up what they were saying. She looked back out to the gathering of their family and friends, and smiled, “Gideon and I have each prepared vows for each other in our own words...our own way of trying to describe the love that we experience being a part of each other’s lives. It’s a safe bet that neither of us are going to get through this without crying, so just...bear with us, please.” She looked back up to Gideon, taking a deep breath, “Ready?” -- He had to let go of Embry's hands for this part, because even if he might have 90% of these words memorized, he still wanted to... have that reference, there in front of him. Because he'd worked on these vows for a long time, and now that it was finally time to share them, he didn't want to miss a single detail. Gideon pulled the note cards out from his inside suit jacket pocket, took a deep breath, and offered Embry a little smile before he started. "I read a lot of other peoples' wedding vows, before I wrote these for you. And one thing stood out to me, through all of that. The word promise. I've used it before, of course, and I'm sure I'll use it again. It's not that I have an issue in promising things to you, Embry. But, today, here, in front of these people? They're not promises. They're privileges. These are things I get to do with you, to say to you, to know of you and of us." Tucking the note cards back away, Gideon took another slow, shuddering breath. He brushed the tears away with a brush of his thumb, though with Embry's vows coming up next, it was all but guaranteed that there would be more. -- There were moments when it was difficult for Embry to not just bury her face in her hands and cry from the sheer strength of those emotions. She managed not to, however, remaining as fully present and attentive as she could. Hanging on his every word and promise, Embry didn’t let her gaze stray from him as he made those vows. It was obvious that he had put a lot of care and thought into his words, and she would cherish them forever. Even as he wiped his own eyes, she fanned her own face a little bit as though it might dry her tears and make her suitable for delivering her own vows. She wiped very carefully at those tears with a little hanky that she produced from her pockets, embroidered at the corner with her not-yet initials. Still weepy, she looked up at Dahlia poutingly, “Can I kiss him now?” Her friend seemed to consider and then consented, “Just not on the lips.” So, Embry had stepped forward just a little and reached up to brush a few of Gideon’s tears away with her own hands, pressing a kiss to each of his cheeks, still sniffling a little when she stepped back. Clearing her throat, Embry fished into her pocket again and pulled out those note cards of her own. The very front one towards her said exactly one word in red ink while the back said: You’re stuck with me forever. She’d doodled a few hearts after it, even filling them in with that red ink. “Okay, here we go,” she let out a shaken breath and looked back up at him with those shining eyes and declared, “Ditto.” It took her just a second or two before she cracked a smirk, though more laughter was echoing up through the crowd and she turned around that front card to him to show that it did - indeed - declare their agreement word. However, she fanned herself just a moment more with those cards and wrinkled her nose at him playfully, “Okay, simmer down everyone. I have real vows.” She took a steadying breath, and smiled...then, she began. "I’ve been an academic for as long as I’ve breathed, it seems, and for me, the start of the paper is always the hardest part. It’s sitting there with a blank page in front of me, and a pen in hand; or staring at a screen with that condemning, blinking cursor just daring me to find something worth saying. This isn’t like that. Writing these vows may be the easiest thing that I have ever done, Gideon, because my mind and my heart are so full of love for you that it is practically overflowing...out of me and onto this page so that I can stand before our loved ones and declare that I am wholly, enthusiastically yours now and for the rest of eternity." There were moments in which she stumbled over a word, or had to restart a sentence because her voice was failing her as the emotions weighed upon her chest, but she gave the majority of those vows looking right at him, only occasionally glancing at the cards that she held in her hands. When she finished, Embry stowed her own cards away, her cheeks damp with tears that she hadn’t bothered with wiping away while she was talking, though she took just a moment to dab at them now. -- Gideon's eyes had closed as Embry kissed his cheeks, but that simple gesture seemed to steady his breath, at least for the moment. He wasn't as ingrained into touch as she might have been, but he had certainly gotten accustomed to the ways she sought it out. But when she spoke that one little word, the same one he'd had engraved onto a necklace for her birthday, Gideon just burst into bright, clear laughter. Leaning over, he pressed a playful kiss to Embry's cheek- he wouldn't tempt the wrath of Dahlia. Her proper vows followed, and Gideon's tears came, as he'd known they would. When Embry finally stored those note cards, Gideon reached for her hands, not even caring to wipe his tears away this time. He squeezed Embry's hands in his own, taking half a step closer, just so they might... breathe some of the same air, for the next few moments. Dahlia had to wipe her own eyes, too, before she finally spoke up again. "Right, well, now that we're all emotionally compromised..." "Gideon, Embry. You fell in love by chance, but you're here today because you're making a choice. You've chosen to be with someone who enhances you, who makes you think, makes you smile, and makes every day brighter." "There's a simple premise to all of these words that you've written. You're vowing to be there. You're teaming up and saying to one other, 'Every experience I am going to have, I want you to be a part of it.'" Dahlia held their two wedding rings out in an open palm, then finished, "Gideon, Embry, will you be each other's partners from this day forward? Will you bring out the best in one another and love each other for the rest of this lifetime and for whatever may come next?" Gideon took up Embry's ring- now matched with its wedding band- and slipped it onto her left hand. "I abso-fucking-lutely will." -- It was true, that it seemed like there was a whole chorus of sniffles and quiet crying going on, but Embry thought that was a good sign. It meant that they’d proven to everyone here their love...that they had shone just a little bit of light on it, even though the finer details were just for Gideon and Embry to keep. She squeezed Gideon’s hands a little along with Dahlia’s words, looking up at her friend and nodding a little in agreement. As she continued, however, Embry’s gaze fell just onto Gideon and it seemed like the rest of the world just faded somewhere into the background. She could hear those words, and felt the sentiments of them deeply, but Gideon was her only focus. She was smiling brightly as he picked up those rings and put them back into place, the fit of them feeling a little different now with the band accompanying the ring she’d worn the last two and a half years. Embry’s cheeks ached from her smile at his words, and she picked up his ring next, sliding it back into place where it belonged on his hand, “Hell yeah, I will.” -- Once those rings were in place, Dahlia looked between Gideon and Embry both, nodded once, and offered those final sealing words. "Then, Gideon and Embry, in the presence of this good company, because you have exchanged vows of commitment, we now recognize you to be legally married. Though you should probably seal this whole thing with a kiss, just in case." Gideon grinned, brightly, his hand slipping from Embry's to instead rest at her waist. He closed what little distance there was left between them, his lips meeting hers with every bit of emotion he held for her. His other hand slipped into her hair at the nape of her neck, and the kiss remained, sweet, slow, and lingering. -- She did not need to be told twice to kiss him. When he stepped in closer, erasing that distance, she let her hands lift to his shoulders. Her palm cupped his cheek, fingers stretching there to his jaw, brushing his ear. As they clung to one another there, reveling in that kiss and the fact that they were now married, a pop sounded and the confetti cannons that had been hidden went off, showering the both of them and many of their guests in a burst of colorful confetti. Embry was giggling then into their kiss, murmuring against his lips, “I love you, Gideon Fischer.” -- He'd known about the confetti cannons, of course, but Gideon couldn't help but laugh as they went off, that sound just caught in against Embry's lips. And though he shook his head, it was only in that perfect sense of amusement and delight at this new reality they had created together. "I love the shit out of you, Embry Fischer," he offered, before those simple and long-awaited words just segued into another kiss. -- She’d wanted to hear him say her name and it be true for so long that it almost felt surreal now. It filled her with a boundless sort of joy that she didn’t know how to contain. They likely couldn’t - shouldn’t - stay up there for a lingering time just making out in front of their guests, but...Embry was having a difficult time convincing herself to stop kissing him. Finally, with great reluctance she pulled back from that kiss, only to take his hand with a squeeze, hoping that they might be able to steal just a minute or two before they had to take pictures. Hand in hand, they walked back down that aisle, only pausing briefly so that her father could hand her flower bouquet back off to her which would be utilized at least a little in the photographs. Though it was all taking place inside the brewery, their guests would be entertained with music and some appetizers while they took pictures and transitioned to the reception. Embry led Gideon back through that door that she’d entered in through earlier, towards a back section of the brewery where their guests weren’t supposed to tread. A breathless laugh was on her lips, “We did it.” They still had some documents to sign, but the ceremony in itself was binding, too. -- This time, when Embry silently eased those kisses to an end, Gideon knew why. And he wasn't upset. He kept his hand in hers as they made their exit, friends and family on either side of the aisle clapping and cheering for them as they went. He hadn't been into this section of the brewery since their initial tour of the facility over a year ago. Today it had been prohibited for him prior to now, since he might have run into Embry before the ceremony orchestrated such a meeting. Now, though, the door shut behind them, and Gideon raised their joined hands to prompt Embry to give a little spin, fanning out the chiffon around her. "Hell yes we did." -- She laughed as she did that little spin, her skirt blooming a little around her hips as she did so, and then swishing as it settled back into place as she ended right there against his chest, hands still clasped. Her cheeks were flushed pink with happiness, feeling very much on a high with those emotions. “We’re super married now,” she held up her left hand, showing off that wedding band now nestled with the engagement ring she’d worn for so long. She knew he’d intended for her to wear both for a long time now, so maybe it was even more meaningful to see the two of those rings finally joined, “Also, neither of us absolutely collapsed weeping, so I’m going to call that a win.” -- Gideon wrinkled up his nose a bit with a playful smile, adding a little kiss, just because. "The most married, definitely," he agreed. "I'm personally reserving my emotional collapse for when we end up watching the wedding video together in pajamas two months from now." -- She happily accepted that kiss, laughing at his goal for some night a few months down the road. That they would already have at least one likely poorly shot video at least of what he’d missed of her coming down the aisle made her happy, but she’d save that for later tonight, “That’s a good goal. It’s going to be super emotional. I’m really glad that we sprung for the video.” It had been an option, and while pictures were wonderful, she already knew that she was going to cherish being able to go back and watch these moments with him. “I bet it’s our new favorite movie,” she teased gently, though time would tell how it actually turned out. -- "It'll only be our favorite movie if it's one you can watch without falling asleep on top of your husband-shaped pillow." Gideon never really minded that particular tradition, of course, though he did rather hope that their wedding video wouldn't cause that reaction. -- She gave a soft, happy hum and repeated, "Husband, " just because she could, leaning in to steal another kiss. She shook her head softly, nose brushing his in the process, "No sleeping during the wedding video. The ones I fall asleep during are always ones I've seen a ton already, and I'm always going to be emotionally invested in Dr and Dr Fischer's Wedding Day." -- Really, she could call him that all the time, even in absence of using his actual name, and Gideon didn't think he'd really mind it at all. He returned the favor, such that it was, with a grin and a simple, "Wife." (Referring to herself as Dr Fischer, even in the third person, certainly held some emotion, too.) "So will I," Gideon assured her, gently. "And every wedded day, too." -- They had been waiting so long to actually call one another husband and wife. It made her a little choked up just to hear that word without an almost in front of it. There was no more delay. They’d actually done it. Of course, she’d just been referencing the made-up title to their wedding day video, but she nodded along with a small smile, “That, too. Always emotionally invested in us...the quiet days and the exciting, adventurous ones and everything in between.” |