Who: Jess & Lucas Hendrie + ALL OF CAMELOT & PLUS ONES (whoever wants to tag into the reception) What: Their wedding reception! And a brief glimpse into the ceremony Where: A private venue in Glastonbury When: Sunday evening, March 22nd, 2015 Warnings: Uh. Camelot party? Notes: No official posting order. Also, time is fluid. Feel free to jump around.
As promised, Camelot had put on a great wedding. Maybe a little fancy for their tastes, but Camelot had offered to pay for it all. Jess wasn’t about to complain about the wedding being fancy if it was basically a giant, day-long gift wrapped in flower arrangements and crab cakes. Jess wasn’t sure what a crab cake was, but everybody seemed to have them at their weddings, so she assumed it was on the menu. To be honest, she hadn’t paid much attention to the food except for making sure there would be cake. Which Ryder had dutifully taken care of, so she hadn’t bothered to worry about anything else.
Well. Almost anything else. The wedding had gone pretty smoothly. All the guests were in attendance and the wedding party was all accounted for. Daniel, Zach, and Christian were all looking sharp in their suits and Haley, Lana, and Libby in their sage green dresses on the other side of the alter. Jess had managed not to trip and fall on her way down the aisle, which had been a serious concern. The heels she was wearing weren’t very high, but it was an outdoor wedding, which meant walking on grass and soft earth, so it felt a little like a baby deer first learning how to walk. When she finally made it to Lucas she actually forgot what she’d been worrying about all week, at least long enough to grin at him. Lucas always looked good to her, but now he was looking very James Bond, and she was thinking of all the things she was gonna do once those clothes were off. Part of her motivation for that was just to get out of this dress, which she was currently standing there fidgeting in, but mostly it was about getting them both naked.
… Right. Probably shouldn’t be thinking pornographic thoughts about her husband-to-be while she was standing up in front of everyone in a wedding dress, that while a nice shade of ivory, was still whiter than Jess’s non-existent virginity. Husband, that was still weird. Jess had never been the most traditional person. Jess had never given marriage a second thought, even after she and Lucas got together. Not that she wouldn’t have considered it if they hadn’t had that conversation while hopped up on truth serum, but being with Lucas had always been enough for her. She hadn’t felt like she needed anything else, she was pretty content with her life, living with him and Maddie. Then they’d decided to get married, and suddenly everything felt a lot more real. They weren’t just playing house, they would be husband and wife. She would technically Maddie’s mother, even though she kind of already was, and she definitely loved the kid like one. Somehow the title didn’t mean the same thing without the marriage certificate, which was stupid. You didn’t have to be married to be a mother. Was she ready to be a mother? Jess soon realized it wasn’t being a mother to Maddie that she was worrying about.
“Huh?” Jess blinked in confusion, realizing the officiator was staring at her, and she had just seriously spaced out. At her own wedding. That was bad, wasn’t it? She wracked her brain frantically to remember the last thing that was said, something about a vow? No, vows. It was time for the vows. Okay, she could do this. Jess glanced at Lucas, feeling stupid with a bouquet in her hands, but she took a deep breath and started on what could only be described as a string of word vomit. She was just really nervous. “Yeah. Okay. I’m not… good. At doing the things that normal people do. Like this. Pretty sure I’m really bad at this. But. You don’t seem to mind how bad I am at the normal people things. You get me. Most people don’t get me, but you always do. I didn’t have to think twice about marrying you, because I love you and I love Maddie, and I love our weird little family...”
Jess was losing her momentum, choking out words when what she really wanted to say to Lucas right now was something she’d been keeping to herself all week. Maybe this would be the wrong time to tell him, but they still had to say the ‘I do’s’, so he had time to back out if he wanted. That thought made her sick to her stomach, at least she hoped that’s what it was, and she wasn’t about to get morning sickness in the middle of the afternoon. She paused, making a frustrated noise at herself, squeezing her eyes shut for a split second before opening them and just blurting it out. “... Ah, screw it. Luc, I’m pregnant.”
Lucas was nervous. Okay, no, Lucas was terrified. It wasn’t about marrying Jess like it was for most people; in fact, he’d pretty much been born to be a family man. It was just just a matter of time before he found the right person to allow him to come into his own, and he had absolutely found that with Jess. He was in no way worried about being married to her, officially or not. He loved this woman with all of his heart, and this was just a step to make what they were already doing legally accepted. No, it was the vastness of the entire procession that was scaring him.
Lucas stood in front of people constantly. He was in charge of training all of Camelot, after all, he had to have the ability to speak in front of a crowd, and it was usually with the woman he was standing across from right then. It was different in training, though. They were both in their element, wearing normal clothes and teaching people how to fight. The spotlight wasn’t on them so much as the people he was training, and he was confident in the skills he was giving to them in those sessions. Up here he was staring at Jess--who looked absolutely stunning--in a dress she’d never wear otherwise, while he wore a monkey suit that was choking him and felt tight in all the wrong places despite being reassured fifty times that it fit the way it was supposed to.
Now he was expected to bear open his soul in front of so many people, and it was the complete opposite of how he was. He was so private with his personal life because he always took Maddie--and to some extent, Libbie--into consideration. He didn’t want spotlights on any of them in his line of business. It was a little easier having Jess go first, though he was only half-listening, the pounding of his heart in his ears drowning out most of the words from everybody else there.
“Jess,” He starts, taking a deep breath. He didn’t notice the shocked looks from everybody around him, or register her words at first. “I’ve always been afraid of dating because I didn’t want Maddie to get attached and lose another mom, but you’ve made me feel so comfortable, and she absolutely adores you, and to me that’s the most important--” He cuts off into a stutter, face screwed up in confusion. Wait. Rewind. He looked up like he was physically rewinding what she said in his head, and suddenly his eyes widened comically.
“Holy fuck, you’re pregnant?” His face breaks out into a grin, and then he backpedals. “Crap. Maddie, pretend you didn’t hear that from daddy. That’s a bad--fuck it. Oh my god. We’re having a baby.” He pulled Jess into a tight hug, and then despite it not being time yet, he kissed his bride.
At first Jess was worried that Lucas hadn’t heard her. Or maybe he had and he was just about to have a psychotic break or something. She was kind of prepared for that, because they’d had the conversation about kids before, and she’d remembered him saying that he didn’t need anymore kids after Maddie. What if it wasn’t just that he didn’t need them, what if he didn’t want them? That thought paralyzed Jess a little while he rambled, and she barely heard his rambling as she waited for realization to finally dawn on him. If this wasn’t good news to him, she wasn’t sure what she was gonna do. Jess had never thought she’d be in this kind of position with anyone, but now that she was, everything was different somehow. Including how she felt about having a kid herself. Jess fidgeted, feeling everyone’s widened eyes and gaping mouths on her. Everyone else had definitely heard what she’d said.
Jess was starting to feel like an idiot, and then Lucas finally stopped, and… swore. Not just swore, he’d said the mother of all swear words. Not in a church, thank god they weren’t in a church, but they were at the alter. In the most formal clothes they would ever be wearing, in front of all of Camelot, their friends and family, and Lucas had just blurted out the ‘f’ word. Twice. Jess couldn’t help the grin that split across her face too, half from amusement and half from pure relief, because he didn’t seem mad. He didn’t even seem disappointed. He seemed… happy? Please god let him be happy about this.
“I’m pregnant,” she echoed, grinning as stupidly as he was, and the wave of relief that washed over her in a split second was enough to get her to relax entirely, just as he was pulling her to him. Jess barely even registered anybody else as soon as he kissed her, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him back passionately enough that it probably made some guests a little uncomfortable. Jess and Lucas had never been very good at filtering themselves around other people. She didn’t even hear the officiator loudly protesting to their public display of affection because ‘it wasn’t time to kiss the bride yet’, not that she would have cared if she’d heard. After a long moment Jess pulled away, still grinning at him and a little breathless, because that was pretty much the best reaction to her news that she could have hoped for. Also, it was a hell of a kiss. “That was a good thing, right? ‘Oh my god, we’re having a baby’ is a good thing, not ‘oh my god, we’re having a baby, gonna go play in some traffic’?”
Okay, so Lucas had to admit, he was a little more open and comfortable with the physical PDA. He and Jess never had a problem with making out in the training room (or really, uh, other things that other people didn't need to know about, nope). It was the emotional stuff, the speaking and baring his soul, that was harder. He spoke to Jess all the time, was constantly open and honest with her, but he needed minimal words for her to get what he was saying. This wasn't just baring his soul to her, but all of Camelot, and reporters, and... was that an iPhone in the audience? Crap.
He pulled away from Jess when he needed to come up for air, and not at all because the officiator was protesting. To Lucas, they weren't the traditional type as far as anything went, so following the rules of the order of a wedding just seemed like something they'd naturally break. Honestly, if nobody in Camelot was expecting this when they signed on to put together their wedding, he was highly disappointed that they didn't know him better. Especially the Morgans. The Morgans absolutely should've known.
"No, the good one. Definitely the good one," He laughed, internally groaning when he heard Maddie whisper 'fuck' to somebody. Great. He was turning his kid into a sailor mouth at the exact moment he was finding out he was getting another one. Practice made perfect, right? He totally could have learned from the mistakes that he made with Libbie and Maddie. Absolutely. "But, by the way, it's usually the kids that try to play in traffic and then we're supposed to stop them. It's a whole thing." He chanced a glance at the sea of faces and cleared his throat. "Right. Not the time. We'll uh. We'll talk later." He nodded, then looked over his shoulder at Daniel to wink dramatically and hold up the 'okay' hand symbol. It was dorky, but like he'd been saying all night, fuck it.
By now there was a very distinct buzz coming from the seats, excited whispers and conversations amongst the guests, but again, Jess barely noticed. Up until now she hadn't really let herself feel one way or the other about being pregnant, aside from the general feeling of being pretty freaked out. Now that she knew how Lucas felt, it was easier for her to feel good about it, even if it was still a little overwhelming. It was a scary thing, knowing that there was something living inside you that in approximately eight months, would be coming out of you and you would be solely responsible for its existence at least until the age of eighteen. Stop calling the kid 'it', Williamson, moms-to-be don't call their future children 'its'. Also stop calling yourself 'Williamson', that's not gonna be your last name in the next five minutes. Jess shook her head, still a little shell shocked but for the most part, happy, and miraculously feeling a lot more relaxed than she had been a few seconds ago. She'd even stopped fidgeting in her dress, which no matter how comfortable Bishop had made, still felt awkward on her. She just wasn't a formal kind of girl, never would be, so thank god Lucas seemed to like that about her.
"Yeah, we can... we can talk about it later." Because right now they were getting married. They would have to put their 'having a baby' conversation on hold until after they got hitched. When the hell did her life get so domesticated? Jess was pretty sure Lucas was the only person on earth who could make her feel one hundred percent okay with that, and she did. In fact, she'd never been more okay with anything in her whole life, and maybe it was stupid to plan on your whole life when you had the kind of dangerous job that they did, but Jess didn't care. Her whole life was standing right in front of her, so how could she not want to bet on it? She grinned at Lucas, rolling her eyes at the very obviously put out officiator and squared her shoulders like she was getting ready for a training session. "Okay, okay, we're ready. Let's do this thing."
Daniel, who was standing just behind Lucas as his best man, was very tactful about taking the small step forward and not so subtly pushing the rings into Lucas's free hand while smiling his knowing smile, gently reminding them that they still had to get through one more wedding hurdle. They had pretty much derailed the vows, but that was okay. They wouldn't be them if they hadn't derailed something in this whole procession. Before Jess knew it, Lucas was slipping a ring onto her finger and she was putting one on his, and they were pronounced man and wife where Lucas was officially prompted to kiss the bride, even though he already had.
***
An hour later, and the wedding reception was in full swing. It was held in a separate hall from the wedding ceremony, and private, of course. Even for a wedding, Camelot had to be careful of word getting out to the wrong people, so the location of the reception had never been disclosed to the public during all of the PR department's press about the event. The place was beautifully decorated, there were food and drink tables everywhere, and there was music playing for people to dance to. In the end there was nothing very conventional about this wedding, and you know what? It was perfect.