Who: Abby and Connor Temple What: Surprise! Wedding! When: Thursday Night/Friday Morning Where: Complex then beach on Oahu Why: Wedding planning freaked Abby out soooo, they got eloped Warnings: C for Cuteness Status: Thread | Complete
It was not the first time that Abby thought that Lois was insane, but seeing the list that was presented full of preliminary questions for the wedding? That had been it. Yes, ceremonies were nice and all that nonsense, a chance for friends to share in the special day but this was just complete and utter madness. And Lawrence was insane enough as it was. They didn’t need Lois adding her own special brand of insanity to the mix. It wasn’t a bad insanity, but it was insanity and Abby couldn’t handle it.
Which was why she said forget it. She and Connor were getting married, no one else. This was for the two of them, so why did dress colour and shoes and flowers and whatever else was on that list matter? Why did they have to stress over all of that and wait? They had already discussed just leaving. Or... Abby had been quite annoyed that it wasn’t a valid option because of Becker but preservation of sanity brought running away and getting married on their own terms back to the table.
Pacing in thought, the blond placed her hand in her pocket and felt the two wedding bands in it. She had seen some of Connor’s wedding band searches and the nerdy searches didn’t surprise her. And he probably thought she had no opinion on the matter because when it came to things like this? Abby just didn’t know and tried to contain everything before it came out in a mess of jumbled words and worries. Jess handled the arrangements for a reason. Because Abby could do girly when it had been trying to attract the attention of the wrong guy, but when it came to the deeper things, the dreams little girls had, Abby was better with her reptiles.
Blowing out some air, she nodded to herself and went in search of her fiance.
“Let’s do this. I already have the wedding bands.”
Which maybe she should have mentioned before this whole thing, about her wish to have the wedding bands her parents had worn. But better now than never at all? Sure. Abby would go with that.
Connor hadn’t been able to help the amused expression on his face when Abby had first seen the list of questions Lois had given her. Honestly, he felt badly for her. They were a laid back couple when it all came down to it. Frankly, he’d be fine getting married most anywhere at any time wearing anything so long as he was finally making Abby Maitland his wife. But one of them had to make some decisions or else they were screwed.
So he was doing as much towards the wedding as he could. Looking for potential locations, working out the wedding party, pricing out honeymoons. Oh, he couldn’t help with dresses and that sort of rubbish, he was only demoting his masculinity so far for this. But he knew his bride was far from the typical sort and would need a hand every step of the way.
Even if it did, occasionally, make him question if she really wanted to marry him at all.
That doubt was laid to rest in an abrupt manner when she burst into the kitchen with her declaration. Really? All he’d wanted was some tea and now this? “You went out and got wedding bands?” he questioned, his nose wrinkled in confusion. She’d put off difficult decisions for so long and now she’d gone out and picked bands without even asking his input? Talk about one extreme to the other.
Of course he would think that, it made sense because Abby’s mind had been elsewhere. More like how did she tell the guy she was marrying that she wanted to use her parents’ wedding bands? But just as the ring he always wore around his neck had been his mother’s to be given to the one he loved, Abby equated a stable relationship with her parents. And Connor. It was just voicing these things that was the issue.
“Sort of. Not really. The bauble.... Look, they were my parents and I mean if you want something else fine but I just thought maybe...”
Scrunching up her nose because Abby didn’t do the touchy feely thing, she just held her hand out and showed him the two wedding bands. She had managed to get them resized already on her own. They weren’t anything elaborate, but there was history and love and stability and that had to count for something, right?
Panicky definitely summed up how Abby was feeling about this whole wedding thing. She wanted to marry Connor, obviously. She wouldn’t have proposed the first time or said yes the second time thanks to the Seal and it’s messing of things, but all the insanity and planning and potential disasters and the list of questions? Not so much.
His eyes widened in surprise when he realized what she was showing him. And then he all but literally melted. Abby? His Abby? Had she somehow gone all sappy on him and wished for her parents’ wedding bands? For them? “The bauble?” he repeated slowly, stupidly, because she’d said the bauble and Abby didn’t screw around with things like that. But he was so surprised. “You wished for...” It occurred to him that he’d never asked her wish and he wondered if that was a bad sign. Something happily married couples would’ve done. Unless, of course, they wanted to allow a bit of privacy. He supposed he’d just figured she’d tell him on her own time. As Abby usually did about most things. Including her feelings for him.
Turning the kettle off, he moved towards her, placing his hand over hers, the one that held the rings. “You’re sure?” he questioned, meeting her eyes. He turned their palms over so he was holding the gold bands in his and then pulled away enough to look down at them. They were shined up, whether by her or the Seal or someone else, he didn’t know. They were simple enough, nothing overly fancy, but they were classic and timeless. Which, really, wasn’t that what love was supposed to symbolize?
“They’re perfect,” he told her, placing a kiss on her lips. But the actual point of her intrusion of his tea making was still lost on him. ‘Let’s do this’ could mean lots of different things. And he was taking it as they were okay to get married, there were rings to be had.
Perhaps Abby should have expected the confusion, Connor was the one who tended to do the planning thing and forthright emotional thing. Abby, while feeling things like that just as deeply, love and trust, she didn’t voice them and it was mostly seen through her actions. So she merely just nodded at the question in term of how she had gotten the rings. She was still nervous, which was evidenced as she chewed on the inside of her cheek some. At least until the question on if she was sure.
“Of course I am, I mean, my parents always had a stable and loving relationship and we have that, or stable as stable can be when there are anomalies and apocalypses and what not.. Okay, maybe this was stupid we can just--”
Or he could say they were perfect and kiss her. That worked. Because really, Connor was the one who did the rambling, not Abby, but there were feelings and expressing of them and since Abby rarely did as such in this manner, rambling it was. As well as thinking she was being completely idiotic.
But that was done with. Now the whole... leaving bit and getting married now. Because screw the waiting, screw the planning and colours and mental scarring.
“Good. Okay. So. Let’s go. Let’s just... get married.”
Because it was the most logical decision ever. Or. Not. Really not, but Abby was now set on the getting married now thing instead of letting something ruin it. True, there probably wouldn’t be an anomaly and dinosaurs interrupting their wedding. Probably. But Abby’s sanity? Eight months of planning? No thank you.
She was rambling. Heaven above, Abby Maitland was rambling. He never thought he’d see the day and he couldn’t help but smirk. Because, quite honestly, she sounded like...well, like him, really. Desperately trying to convey emotions and get his point across and wanting so badly for her to see things the way he did. But it wasn’t needed because this, this he did see the way she did. But she was actually speaking about it, and telling him she thought they were a stable and loving couple and what a change that still was for him. Last he knew, she’d been keeping him at arm’s length. Now, in the span of not quite a year, he’d fallen as head over heels for her as he had been all along. Only now, by some strange trick of nature, she’d fallen for him, too. And she was still his feisty, independent, pixie of a blonde, but she was all of that with a side of loving him. Something he would forever be amazed at and grateful for.
But then she kept talking. And, as she so often did, she pulled the rug out from under him. Connor blinked for a moment, then tilted his head in confusion. “Let’s go? Wait. You mean right now?” This woman was going to be the death of him. Not a doubt in his mind.
He didn’t mind, exactly. Hell, he’d suggested it, after all. If it was so traumatizing planning a wedding, run away together. It had made perfect sense to him. So long as at the end of the day she was with him, they could get married in banana costumes on the foot of the Eiffel Tower in the middle of a rainy day in July.
July, however, was much further away than, say, right then and there as she’d suggested. “I thought you said everyone would kill us,” he asked, but the question was worded slowly, carefully. Because, honestly, he would do this. If it was what she wanted? The wedding, the big fancy party, all of that was secondary to him. His primary concern was making sure the world knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with this woman.
Okay, yes, she had been the one who was convinced everyone would kill them if they did it this way, no matter how much easier it would be. Especially with Becker on board with making them go to the engagement party she never should have agreed to, because what had she been thinking?
“Well, if they kill us, at least we’ll be married by then?”
It was a valid answer. Sort of. Shrugging, Abby rocked back on her heels some as she started in on her whole reason for the decision. Beyond the fact that the planning was terrifying.
“But really, Connor. They’re not the ones who are getting married, we are. What do all of these minor details really matter? Yes most girls seem to plan these dream weddings but I just.... I want to be married and churches and dresses and flowers and all that? It doesn’t matter. What matters is you, me and getting to be together. All this planning just... Let’s just get out of here, get married and yeah.”
He grinned at that. Partially because it was a hilarious image, Lois chasing after them with a Clipboard of Wedding Planning Hell shouting obscenities and Becker knocking them over the heads and dragging them back and Rose looking very stern and Kon giving them big puppy eyes. But he couldn’t help grinning because it was kind of nice thinking she wanted to be married to him before their closest friends killed them.
He pretended to pout, sticking out his lower lip considerably. “I was looking forward to powder blue cummerbunds and matching carnations for them. You’re going to deprive me of that?” Despite his teasing, Connor knew what it had taken for Abby to be that honest with him. Oh, he loved her and told her often. It wasn’t nearly as easy to get the words, or any words of deep emotion, out of her. So for her to come to him, baring her soul as she had, he couldn’t help but be awestruck.
Impulsively, he reached out, pulling her up and into his arms in a rather impressive but gentle bear hug. “I love you, you know that?” he questioned, eyeing her as he settled her back down on her feet. “Where and when, Abby, I’m your guy. All you ever had to do was say the word.”
It wasn’t that Abby minded the teasing and it was very much them, but she was already feeling uncomfortable with the whole opening up in such a way, and not in one fell swoop as she normally did when things like this happened. Which meant that she shot him a look but at least managed to keep from saying she took it back like she had tried when he had teased her back home once the future was saved in terms of the first proposal.
As she felt herself pulled into the bear hug, the blond returned it and finally relaxed enough to smile faintly in return.
“Yeah, I know.”
Normal people returned the words of love but Abby wasn’t normal and had already said more than she usually did on emotional topics. She was emotioned out. At least for now. She was still nervous but she knew that she needed to say what she had and maybe, just maybe, it gave Connor insight into why she had been responding as she had in terms of the whole planning thing to begin with.
“Hawaii is nice?”
It was where they had first gotten together, at least in this world. Cretaceous Era didn’t count for him and well, it wasn’t like you could just hop a plane and fly into the past or something like that.
Hawaii. Where Kon had quite physically dropped them on a beach and told them to enjoy it. Where he had finally kissed her, surrounded by humpback whales and volcanoes and sand and surf. Where she had surprised even him by hopping on the internet and declaring that her boyfriend was a terrible surfer. Boyfriend. Words he had never thought he'd hear from her, not in Lawrence or anywhere else. And now that's where she wanted to get married.
There were reasons he loved this girl. This was one of them.
He considered calling Kon. Taking the Kon-El express and getting there quickly. But there were reasons he couldn't. What if Kon told Lois? Who then told Becker and with their powers combined, stopped the elopment in the vein of all the classics like Saved By the Bell and Eastenders and Boy Meets World. In more practical reasons, Kon had a nasty little habit of wanting to quit school and stay forever when presented with Hawaii as an option.
So he didn't answer. He pulled his laptop from its spot on the kitchen counter and pulled out Expedia.com.
While instantaneous arrival would be nice, Abby wasn’t that big on the flying thing and the fact that it would get back to the others before it happened. The whole point was to be married before their collective friends decided to kill them for going about it this way as opposed to the whole wedding thing. Really, Abby was pretty convinced the others were more into the planned wedding thing than she was. Which to be fair wasn’t all that difficult since she just wanted to run away and do it, but still.
Walking over to Connor, Abby kissed his cheek before going to their room to pack their bags. They wouldn’t need much so that was good. And between the two of them, they had the finances to make this happen even with the very short notice.
Finishing the packing, Abby looked through the process of marriage in Hawaii. Between time zones and everything, she didn’t have to worry about offices being closed and was able to get in hold with someone, as well as get the basic information they would need. Besides, if Lester could marry Jenny over the computer.... Too bad they didn’t have him to just call up and deal with his annoyance at them asking him to marry them but doing it anyway. Because he wasn’t all that bad and Connor was convinced he actually liked Abby best of them anyway.
Okay. The details she needed were written down and hopefully Connor through his technical prowess had the flight and everything figure out and they could make this happen. On their own terms. The way it should be anyway.
Oddly, he didn’t have to ask where she was going. He knew her, and well, and knew she was doing her part in making sure this actually went off without a problem. So by the time she was packed and ready and had the details worked out, he’d booked two tickets and a few nights at a small, beachside hotel on one of the smaller islands. Because hey, if you were going to get married in the ultimate honeymoon vacation, then why not just stay there and do exactly that?
“We’ll have to see if we can get Henry or Kon or someone to watch the kids,” he said casually, referring to the dinosaurs of course but by then it was just common nature to refer to them as the children. Why not, everyone else in the city did? “Maybe just say we’re taking a couple of days away to escape all the planning. Which...” He grinned, a bit wickedly, actually. “Isn’t all that far from the truth, now is it?”
They were really going to do this. He had a moment of panic, but the moment passed almost as soon as it started. He’d never been more sure of anything than he was of wanting Abby as his wife. He’d known, almost immediately on meeting her, that he wanted her in his life. As he grew to know her, he knew she’d make an intense impact on everything about him. But now, now he knew he didn’t want to live without her. And with the whims of the Seal and an upcoming battle against Lucifer to fight, he couldn’t take the chance that he’d lose her without her knowing with certainty that he wanted to be with her for the rest of her life, or his, or whoever decided to go and take off first.
So with a nod of finality, he grinned, closing the laptop and packing it in its case. “You ready?”
As much as she would love to bring Stevie and Rex, Abby knew it was impossible, so Kon or Henry were the most logical options on who should watch them beyond Becker. But Henry liked watching them, so it worked.
“Easy enough to manage, between them or Becker, someone will be able to watch them.”
No one would leave the two unattended. Abby didn’t even blink at them being referred to as the kids, it was just how it was and why let something like that freak her out when they were already planning to run off and get married? Exactly. And it was also something they could figure out from the car.
“That I am.”
And as much as the whole planning of weddings was mind numbing and panic inducing? Abby actually was excited, especially now that they had a plan and they were doing this. Eight months of stressing would have made her panic like Jenny had been when they showed up and the anomaly and everything she worked for. Really, it was just better this way.
Which is how they ended up, surprisingly uneventfully, in Oahu. To be honest, he kept expecting disaster to crop up. But they’d found a dino sitter, left the key and the cash for him in the security room, and taken off. They’d made it to the airport on time, they’d arrived at their terminal with no issues, and they’d gotten safely and comfortably on the plane.
Because it was Connor and with his luck, everything had to go wrong, he was pretty well determined the plane was going to crash. But they arrived easily and checked in properly and god, what even was happening?
It was the next morning when he dressed in neat but comfortable slacks and a button down shirt and a fedora (because it was Connor and that was that) and stood in a gazebo on the beach with his bride-to-be. It was casual and beautiful and private. It was them. For a couple who’d survived all they had, including a jump in dimensions and a huge gap in time separating them, they didn’t need over the top. He had her, and frankly, that was enough for him.
The justice of the peace they’d found read a few simple words about uniting in spirit as one and he found himself actually listening as he met a pair of beautiful blue eyes with his own. She was everything he ever could have wanted and more, and he was still surprised when he woke up and saw that she wanted to be with him, too. But there were no arguments from him and he took her hand in his at the prompting to do so and slipped her mother’s wedding ring on her finger next to the engagement band he’d given her only a few months ago.
For once it seemed as though the universe was working in their favour instead of against it. Which was odd. And if Abby let herself think on it too much, then she knew she’d be waiting for the next big thing to ruin it. So no. She was just going to accept the fact that there were no anomalies or disasters and she was going to get married.
Having packed a simple sundress (because yes, she does own a few dresses thank you very much), Abby did minimal make up and left her hair as it was. It wasn’t lazy, it was just her. Nothing over the top, it was about the two of them, who they were. Doing something insane like intricate hairstyles? No thank you.
She wasn’t going to cry, though. Even though she had been pretty convinced that this wouldn’t happen. Fears of change, being left behind or died on. But here they were, where they first got together in this world. Smiling as he slid the wedding band which had belonged to her mother onto her ring finger, Abby mouthed ‘I love you’, and when prompted herself, slid the matching band onto Connor’s ring finger, taking a breath that she may or may not have been holding as she honestly didn’t know which it was.
They could deal with the others when they got back. For now, it was just them, the way it always was meant to be even for people who didn’t believe in fate and destiny and things of that nature.
It was subtle and simple but the mouthed words meant more to him than he could begin to say. Because Connor was a man with very little confidence on a regular basis. He faked it well, but he was easily hurt, heart on his sleeve and all. Her constant rejections had weighed on him and even then, with the rings on their fingers, a tiny twinge of doubt nagged at him. Her reassurance that she did, in fact, love him despite her inability to say so regularly, helped put him at ease.
The problem with getting married so spontaneously was that they hadn’t had any time to prepare vows. They repeated the traditional ones easily enough, and then he was asked if he had anything to add. The joys of a quiet, one-on-one wedding, after all. Frankly, they could do whatever they wanted.
So with the wind blowing her hair gently, he reached out and tucked it behind her ears. “I think a part of me has always loved you,” he began quietly, just audible over the waves. “From the moment I met you, I knew I wanted you to be a part of my life. But the more I got to know you, the more I realized I didn’t want to be without you. Ever. And here, now, I have that.” There was so much meaning in ‘here’ and ‘now’ that he couldn’t explain in front of the Justice of the Peace, but Abby would understand it. Just as she understood him. And always had. “I don’t want to be without you. I know you’ve had your doubts, not just in me but in men, in people in general. But I will never let you down, Abby. When you need me, I’ll be there. I’ll support the things you want to do in your life and I’ll fight for you and with you when life gets too difficult.” Again, more meaning than he could say out loud, but he knew she got it. His smile was shy, even bashful, but it was honest and genuine. “Abigail Sarah Maitland, you are my entire world. And I love you. And I am more proud than I can even put into words to stand here and make you my wife.”
And he knew, in his heart and in his soul, that somehow, in some way, Nick Cutter was watching proudly. His two little misfits, proving that maybe it truly was possible for love to conquer all.
Vows. Those weren’t something she was really planning on. She should have, but she had sort of already exploded with rambling the day before when they decided to just run away and get married instead of deal with the questions and panic and stress. But she knew there were things to say and there was a lot in her that she did want to say. Things she couldn’t say in front of a lot of people, things that she could barely get herself to say to Connor anyway.
Stupid Connor, making her cry. Briefly, and she wiped the offending tear away and took a breath as she tried to collect her thoughts to be coherent.
“And here I was expecting something nerdy.” She laughed through the tears that wanted to take over because even though it was a good sort of crying, she wasn’t going to. She was the collected one, the one who always remained strong in the face of everything. Except feelings. Never feelings.
She knew what he was saying, though. She knew what the words meant that seemed general but held so much more weight not only in this world, but back home as well.
“You have been the one good thing in my life for so long now. And I know I’m bad at saying it, I know the words but saying them is still something completely different. You’ve stuck by me through so much, and honestly I wonder why you have but I am thankful for it every day.”
Stopping, she shook her head.
“I’m complete rubbish at this, you know. But... you make all the crazy in this world make sense, you keep me grounded and I can only hope I can do the same for you when things get crazy. You’ve been my partner, my flatmate, my best friend... and now you’re my husband and I don’t think it really could have ended any other way no matter how much I may have tried to run. Because you were always there beside me...”
And then her voice cracked and she gave up on speaking because speaking and feelings weren’t her thing. But she got out what she had wanted to.
“I could’ve asked you to be the Leia to my Han?” he teased gently at her comment about expecting nerdy. “But I feel like for us, that’s just weird. So I’d rather you just be the Abby to my Connor.”
He didn’t comment on the tear that had spilled or the remainder in her eyes. He didn’t mention her voice cracking and emotion building up to the point where it was obviously too much for her. There were things he teased her about, and happily. But not that. Not now. Not when it had taken him years to peel back those layers of her. Oh, they shared secrets, those late nights alone in the flat, or waiting out an anomaly site. But the more recent things, the more intense things, those he could never tease her for. Because he knew what it meant to her to reveal that part of herself and he would never do anything to damage that trust she had in him.
The officiant smiled at them, shaking her head slightly in amusement, and then said a few simple words to wrap things up. And, when ‘you may now kiss the bride’ left the woman’s lips, of course Connor was more than happy to oblige. Because he’d waited that long to kiss his wife, he wasn’t going to wait any longer. And it wasn’t some over the top deal, one of those ridiculously passionate kisses like in the films. He simply pulled her closer and pressed his lips lightly against hers, holding her there for perhaps a beat longer than they usually would. As far as he was concerned, that was allowed when sealing a commitment meant to last a lifetime.
There was a reason the two worked as well as they did. It was the knowing what they could tease about and what was better left noted but not commented on. Such as Abby whenever she actually got visibly emotional. In front of people. So she simply rolled her eyes at the Leia and Han comment because it would have been expected despite the fact that he was friends with the granddaughter of the two. Things officials shouldn’t really hear.
And given it really was just a simple ceremony, just the two of them and the officiant, it wasn’t that long so as they wrapped things up, Abby just smiled into the kiss and didn’t mind the beat longer than it normally would be. Because they were making this official. It totally fit the situation. Because as far as Abby was concerned, this would last a lifetime. Back home. A short life time? Sure, it was possible with the dangers they faced in both places, but it was still a life time.
Smirking as she pulled away, Abby quirked a brow.
“Penguins mate for life.”
Because he had proposed in front of the penguin exhibit.