All you need is love, Jay!

[Julie Davenport]

November 11th, 11 am

Julie was unhappy. Which was a terrible thing to be on one's wedding day. However, she wasn't expecting there to be another wedding, not like this. She wished things had been different since no one should be so depressed to have to go through the motions of a ceremony. Again. She carefully adjusted the brown curls that her mother had helped spiral into the already wavy hair. At least that made her smile a little, knowing that her mother and father and even a few of her siblings were here to see the second wedding, supporting her through the split. The first time she'd been excited, nervous, but excited.

The man that had been waiting for her at the altar, well, he'd been everything she'd wanted in a husband. Kind, gentle, never pressuring her for any kind of contact she wasn't ready for. Not to mention his dashing good looks hadn't hurt in the least. It had been fun and exciting but now, well, it seemed more like a chore than her wedding day. Fresh from divorce and perhaps the smallest bit hung over (she'd had a final 'hurrah' last night at the bar), she was ready. As ready as she would ever be, Julie decided. She carefully slipped her feet into the heels that sat beside her, pulling herself up to give a final once over in the mirror. She could hear the footsteps of someone approaching outside her door, probably her father there to deliver her to her new husband. Julie did her best to put on a smile, and it was fairly convincing.

Maybe unhappy was a bit of a strong word. There was still that little bit of excitement as she slipped the ring that would belong to her betrothed onto her thumb to keep track of it. The grooms had it easy, they had pockets to stash the little treasure in but Julie? Well, she supposed she could have selected a dress with pockets in it but something about this one had caught her eye. The bounciness of the feathers, looking so light and airy along with the decorative 'bodice', well, it had been hard to resist and worth the money. At the time, she had only planned on wearing it once, a little splurge for her wedding day! The price tag had been a bit shocking for the woman's pay as a secretary but it was for a special occasion! It seemed sort of depressing to wear the same wedding dress twice but when it came down to it, Julie could have either purchased a new dress and a very inexpensive ring or a nice ring and the same dress...well it seemed selfish not to buy a decent ring for her new husband!

The husband she was about to meet now that she and her father were trekking their way down the aisle to the altar. Julie's smile was a little easier now, though her heart was pounding in her chest. Oh, she hoped that the man waiting for her would really be the one!

[Djavan Lansing]

"What would you do if I didn't show up?" Djavan asked his mother the evening before.

Nancy had settled him with a stern look that he hadn't seen since he was sixteen and told him, with no waver in her voice despite being on her third Guinness, "Jay, sweetheart, my pride and joy, light of my life? You're embarrassing me in front of your stepfather. Man the hell up, let's have a wedding."

-

That morning Djavan did something he had never done before in his existence, and that was get ready to be married instead of making a mad dash for the nearest airfield. Nancy made a joke as she helped him with his tie that oftentimes, in these quickly-planned blessed events, it was supposed to be the bride's family holding firearms in the groom's direction to encourage him through his vows, not his own; Jay had been too nervous to point out that they didn't even know each other. Maybe it was better that they didn't. Somehow, it seemed less justifiable to quit on something that he hadn't even given a chance than a relationship he knew wasn't going anywhere. How could he judge whether Julie Davenport wasn't the person he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with if he'd never met her?

Naturally, he'd wondered who she was almost nonstop since the letter arrived - whether she was short or tall or thin or curvy or blond or brunette or redheaded, whether he'd like the way that she laughed, if she laughed at all, whether she'd like the ring he'd picked out for her or if she'd throw it on the ground and stomp her feet like a four year old (the last scenario seemed a bit farfetched, but as a rule Djavan avoided weddings and wasn't entirely sure how this was supposed to go down. Weren't they supposed to be breaking glassware or something?). Wondering, however, didn't actually change the date and time and all it served to do was make him even more nervous. Ed, his stepfather, who had graciously accepted his position as best man on short notice but wasn't the type to say much, silently passed him a flask in the car in the chapel parking lot. While Djavan dearly wanted to down the whole thing in one go, he pushed it back without uncapping it. There were a million ways that this could start off wrong without adding another reason, and he doubted that throwing up all over Julie Davenport's shoes would especially endear him to her.

The rest seemed to fast-forward - he was out of the car, exchanging pleasantries with a few friends who lived close enough to attend and fill out the sparse pews, trying not to freak out, introducing himself to the officiant and explaining how to pronounce his name, trying not to freak out, taking his spot near the altar of unspeakable doom, making sure he had the ring for the ninety-thousandth time, and trying not to freak out. The minutes seemed to have taken a life of their own; before he knew it, it was 11. His last hour of being single had ended with a whimper.

Moments later came the bang.

As the first strains of music permeated the church, Jay's nerves kicked into overdrive, screaming at him GO GO GO RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN WINDOWS CAN TOTALLY BE REPLACED. Sensing this, Ed clapped a comforting hand on his shoulder that could, in a pinch, probably double as a Darth Vader-style death grip in case it became necessary - Nancy had made it clear the night before that while she loved him very much, they were here to be in the bride's corner, not his, because whoever she was, she was likely to need the backup. His limited side of the congregation rose in respect to the woman in white; taking the cue, Djavan turned to get his first glimpse of her.

As it turned out, Julie Davenport was more beautiful than he could have possibly hoped. The sight of his bride wasn't enough to wash away the dreading apprehension of what they were about to commit to, but... oh wait, it actually did for a minute. Oh, he was still feeling a bit like a caged animal, but the thoughts of doing a stunt-man jump out the window had evaporated. How could he screw things up with a woman he legitimately wanted to get to know over a cup of coffee just because she was supposed to be his wife in five minutes? Ed nudged him in the ribs to remind him that he was staring, and he replaced the momentary slack-jawed look with a valiant attempt at his usual fearless smile as she approached.

The officiant cleared his throat once she had made it down the aisle, and announced, "Who gives this woman to be married to this man?"

[Julie Davenport]

Julie had never felt so nervous and she was doing her best to not seem obviously tense but her father, Joseph, had squeezed her arm as if to try and soothe her. It worked a little bit but every step she took closer to the altar where her soon to be betrothed stood, the more she realized that she was really going to do this again. Why had the first time seemed so much less terrifying? Maybe it was the air that Gregory had, or the fact that she was so very much ready to be married, trade in her single life for a white picket fence and the man that the company seemed to think was the man of her dreams. All that negativity and failed dating games that she had participated in would be no more, there was no stress about it, no hunting for the right man. All she had to do was show up.

But that hadn't worked. Julie really, really did just want to be married, to find that faithful spouse and live happily ever after. But life wasn't a fairy tale, she was finding. Maybe that was stupid anyway, what twenty seven year old woman didn't know that life wasn't a fairy tale, that not everyone was guaranteed to get a happy ending. Really, that should have been obvious a long time ago when her first prince charming turned bad and she flew the coup but it took a second failed relationship and a first failed marriage to instill this fear that things would never work out.

Somehow through the belated panic attack, Julie had managed to keep the smile plastered on her lips. Green eyes flickering to the groom's side, which was about as full as her own. That was oddly comforting, not too many people. She supposed she just liked the small ceremony. Eyes turning back forward in time to catch her groom, her very handsome groom, staring at her in...well, amazement. A faint blush flowering on her cheeks, finding that the smile on her lips was perhaps a little more natural now. Maybe keeping the dress had worked out after all, since it seemed as though the man had approved.

Better yet, she approved of the man so far. He wasn't bald, which was always a plus. And the nervousness that she felt within herself, she could sense in him. So maybe she wasn't so crazy after all. And that jawline? Oh yes, she could work with that. Lost in her own daydreams for a moment, she jumped slightly when her father spoke up beside her with an "I do." Oh right. The ceremony. The woman kissed her father on the cheek, nodding to her mother, Amelia, who was sitting rather proudly in the front pew before reaching her hand out for Djavan's, gently taking it in hers to make the final step to the altar.

At long last, Julianna Davenport was standing in front of Djavan Lansing. The man that was supposed to help her fix her life but just...being there. She could do this, right? She took a deep breath before gently squeezing his hand, once again urging herself not to be too tense.

"Hello." She whispered, laughing softly. It was a bit odd meeting the man that she would be tied to through sickness and health for the first time at their wedding...but second time was the charm?

[Djavan Lansing]

She greeted him, and the first thing that sprang from Djavan's mouth was a wryly hushed, "Hi. So what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like that?" as his digits laced with hers for the first time. She seemed almost as nervous as he was, and that was when the machismo kicked in; he had to be the man here, so the smile he directed her way was wide, bravely belying the fact that he'd spent the evening before as an inebriated mess of incoherent nerves. Everything was going to be okay. Right? Right. The world wasn't going to end. The sky wasn't going to fall as soon as he slipped a wedding ring onto those pretty little fingers belonging to his pretty little bride whose name he'd known all of a few hours. He'd canoed a hundred miles in the Amazon, eaten balut, walked a chunk of Great Wall. He sure as hell could get through a non-denominational ceremony without having a brain aneurism, right?

Ohgodohgodohgod maybe not.

"We are gathered here today to witness the union of Julianna Davenport and Djavan Lansing in the bonds of Holy Matrimony. If anyone has a reason these two should not be wed, the time to speak up is now. Not after I've started up again, not after she's started talking, not after he's started talking. Now." Jay couldn't help but furrow an eyebrow in suspicion that the last ceremony to occur where they were standing right now had run into a couple bumps. The thought made him feel a bit better, and he grazed his thumb against the smooth flesh of his soon-to-be-wife's hand in a gesture meant to calm himself as much as an attempt to do so for Julie. "And most definitely NOT after the wedding." He silently looked over a shoulder at the assembly, which, fortunately, contained no ex-girlfriends of his and he really-couldn't-tell-if-Julie-had-any-of-HER-ex-paramours there, but it seemed quiet enough in the chapel that they must have been either absent or especially well-behaved. And as the priest launched into a succinct lecture about the importance of fidelity and harmony, he allowed his eyes to shift around the room, taking in Ed's very serious 'Your mother has given me permission to use this taser on you if you even THINK about stepping a foot from that altar' expression and Nancy's fairly intense behind-a-digital-camcorder-do-something-entertaining look, and redirected his attentions to something far more fair to look at. We're totally talking about Julie, because she's a babe. Why would she be needing this service in the first place? he wondered, and was struck with sudden panic that he wouldn't be good enough for this woman. After all, he knew nothing about her, other than that she was clearly very beautiful and looked smashing in white (he had a sneaking suspicion that she looked smashing in nothing too, but HEY MISTER THIS IS A CHURCH, SMARTEN UP). "I'm going to ask you to please face each other and hold hands."

Fighting back a decisively sinking feeling in his gut with the promise to himself that at least he was getting married to a very pretty stranger, he shifted to offer his other hand.

"Do you, Djavan, take Julie to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

Having done relatively well until this point, Djavan's nerves chose that moment to freeze before his stepfather cleared his throat. Upon realizing the tragic derailment of his train of thought, Jay laughed shortly and gave an apologetic shake of his head, managing a quick, "Sorry. Yes, I will marry the heck out of this lady." You hear that Djavan? That's the sound of your freedom sailing away... up overhead... far, far away, until either (Heaven forbid) the end of your lives or lengthy divorce proceedings. And yet he didn't feel the brevity of its absence yet in the rather unique, strange limbo between the land of the living single and that of the married. It felt oddly all right.

"Do you promise to cherish her in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer, until death do you part?"

"I do."

In the front pew of his side, Nancy gave him a cheery thumbs up and made a mental note to smack him upside the head later for being stupid on camera.

"And do you, Julie..."

[Julie Davenport]

What was she doing in a place like this? Was it bad that was the only thought that Julie had in her mind at the moment. And of course, all the reasons that a nice girl like her was currently standing at the altar with a man she'd never even met...again. She wasn't really sure if 'nice' was a good way to describe her. She was the woman who left the man she had loved just because she could handle how much he changed. And the change wasn't his fault she just...couldn't deal. And then on top of that, she was the woman who wouldn't even follow her husband out of the country to a job that he probably only agreed to because it was better pay to support the both of them. But whatever the reasons of her past digressions, Djavan didn't know about any of them. It was a blank slate and to him, she really was this 'nice girl'. And to her, Djavan seemed like a 'nice guy', which was at least a bit comforting since that meant that maybe it could work this time. Julie wasn't really a fan of the 'bad boy' type and while Djavan was manly, he wasn't too rough around the edges for her. Not that looks were super important. But it didn't hurt that he was easy on the eyes. Very, very easy on the eyes.

It was sort of odd, really, hearing someone use her full name, especially in front of the gathering of people. it always made her flash back to when she was younger and doing something she wasn't supposed to do. Julianna Davenport, you get your hand out of that cookie jar! Julianna Davenport, who have until the count of three to put that dirty grasshopper back in the yard where you found it and don't you dare track mud back into this house! Would she sound like that some day, too? of course, all that made sense to her now but back then, she never understood what was so bad about bringing in bugs (all accept for those terrible spiders) into the house was or even having a cookie before lunch. So maybe the past relationships, the failed ones, would make more sense to her, too, as she grew older. Of course, her random thought tangents were growing to an end as the ceremony progressed, though she looked a bit puzzled and a bit amused when the minister hired to wed them went on a tangent of his own. Clearly, someone had a rough ceremony the time before them and Julie was glad that there would be no one to object to their wedding.

Maybe Wes would, if he were here. Though part of her just figured that he didn't care in the least what she did anymore and she was certain that Gregory would never talk to her again and her parents, of course, supported their daughter...so there would be no trouble from her side. But what about Djavan? What if he had some crazy ex girlfriend that would burst through the door at any moment to bring the proceedings to a screeching halt. Like Jane Eyre when it turned out that her soon to be husband was already betrothed to another and she ended up being crazier than crazy could be. But luckily for both of them, the room remained silent and so after the preacher finished up his explanation of when would be the proper time to object, instructed the two of them to join hands. Julie's heart picked up the pace a bit as she finally turned fully to face him, her fingers gripping the ones she found tightly. okay, so she was nervous but that was natural! Especially since the vows were coming.

The gentle touch of his thumb brushing against the back of her hand, well, it was oddly comforting. Julie didn't know this man. And yet he was still somehow able to calm her nerves in the slightest. Almost like a reflex, she squeezed both of his hands gently in hers, hoping that just maybe the gesture would have the same effect on him. Though, coincidentally, the squeeze coincided with the silence that followed the holy man's question to Djavan, the one that was essentially the entire reason they were there. Julie's heart sank when she detected the movement of his head...shaking it...no? he didn't want to marry her? Shit, was she defective or something? Of course, the words out of his mouth were quite contrary to the movement, and honestly rather unexpected.

Julie let out a soft laugh, shaking her head gently. This was already so much different than the previous ceremony. Maybe jumping back into the deep end wasn't such a bad idea after all! And then it was at long last her turn to speak. The same question was posed to her ad a smile pulled across her lips as she, too, shook her head, just imitating his earlier motions. "I'll marry the heck out of this man." She announced, following with the appropriate "I do". Did weddings always move this fast? Maybe the church had some kind of built in time warp or something!

[Djavan Lansing]

It was with no small amount of relief that Djavan was able to exhale, once he'd actually realized that he'd been holding his breath in the first place. While it wouldn't have been especially kind to the check he'd written out to the program, maybe part of him was vehemently insistent that one of them would start flailing around with the realization that this could be wrong, they didn't know each other, who in their right minds would agree to spend THE REST OF THEIR LIVES with a complete stranger? And if he or Julie didn't, wouldn't one of their parents? But no, Nancy beamed on as if they'd been dating for five years, and his sparse collection of guests seemed there mostly out morbid curiosity.

But you know - that didn't really matter. The rise and fall of doubts had reached a tentative plateau at her response - either she was funny, or down-to-earth, or had been through enough weddings that this was normal protocol - and he found himself grinning in return. The whole situation, oddly, felt like being called up to stand at the front of the class as a child, except now he was wearing a nice suit and it would have been neither funny nor appropriate to say that his contribution to show-and-tell that day were his Transformers boxers like that one time in second grade. At the very least he seemed to have been giving the right answers now - surely someone who humored him in front of half a room of strangers could only be well-worth the nausea of the night before. Even if she hadn't, Julie was still beautiful enough to be the exception. Because, you know, Jay is still a dude, and dudes oftentimes make an excessive amount of allowances for stunning young women that are willing to marry them.

Appeased by the answers (though, perhaps, mildly irritated by the virtue of this very breezy ceremony in conjunction with the apparently exasperating one before this blessed event), the holy man nodded over his open book. "The rings, if you please."

Jay was ready and mostly alert this time, and made little show of trying to retreive the small article of jewelry in his pocket; he'd already mucked up the first part of the ceremony by freezing up and had little intention of giving his poor bride a heart attack. His digits closed around it and he took Julie's hand in his, aligning the ring to the appropriate finger, and though his gaze and stance were nothing but steady, there was a slight shake to his hand. He silently issued a command to ground control to be the brave one - confidence had never been an issue in Jay and it rather frustrated him that now, of all times that he wanted to be utterly steely and stoic, his nerves were getting the better of him - and ground control retorted excuse me but are you STUPID, get that ring on there before she wises up, and say something nice while you're at it.

"Julie, I'd like to give you this ring as a symbol of my..." love and devotion? That was a romantic notion, but wasn't being in the Lord's house about the same as being in court? He couldn't lie. Effusive insincerity had to be the worst way to start a marriage, barring one of them being missing, or a sudden death. Jay didn't want to leave her hanging, nor did he particularly want to launch into a improvised spiel about how stunningly pretty Julie's eyes were while his mother was taping this very personal moment. "-promise to protect and honor you from this day forward."

Oh god, hours of endless panic and pacing and that was the best he could up with? His eyes flicked up to search hers for a moment before the ring slid into place, hopefully to stay. And Jay, half expecting the floor to split down the middle and flames to swallow him up before he did any damage to this woman's life, was utterly surprised to realize how fine it felt. They were in this together now, weren't they?

[Julie Davenport]

Julie was nervous but not because of the fact that she was almost married. No, that was going to be a relief. And really, she wasn't even too concerned about her husband. She was worried about her. Evidently, her track record wasn't so great with men. Ditch one when he needed her, not committed enough to move with the other and now what would happen with this one? What kind of new baggage would there be? He probably had his own issues, so surely there would be double baggage. Okay, now this was just getting pessimistic.

The brunette woman gathered her thoughts, her eyes moving from the the crowd come to watch to the man in front of her. Maybe this would go better than the others. He was so different from the other two romantic interests in her life. Wes had been...no, she couldn't even finish that thought, still feeling guilty even thinking about his name! Let alone the happy bits of their relationship. And then Gregory had been absolutely perfect. Charming, handsome, the right balance of serious and sweet. And then there was Djavan. Now, just because he was different didn't mean it was a bad thing. But the maturity that Gregory had oozed from every pore in his body just didn't seem to be there. But Julie was actually alright with that. Different was good. Wasn't insanity doing the same exact thing over and over and expecting a different outcome? Well, with a different kind of man, certainly the outcome could be different. Besides, Jay was rather handsome! Hey, men weren't the only ones that could be shallow! And his eyes, gosh, they were gorgeous!

Oh! The rings. She fumbled a moment before carefully pulling the ring she had selected for him from the small pocket she'd added to the seam of her dress! She was a little bit crafty like that, though the pocket was just large enough to be a safe place to hide away the essential piece of jewelry. It wasn't anything fancy, and she prayed it fit! Instead of buying herself a new dress for the ceremony, she'd saved her small paychecks to purchase Jay's ring instead! That was more meaningful! Besides, she liked her feathered dress just fine. Though her heart all but stopped at the sight of the ring that he had struggled to pull from his pocket.

"Whoa," She breathed in surprise. Was that really hers? But she was a stranger and it looks so, well, lux. It definitely blew the tungsten and gold ring she'd struggled to buy out of the water! Julie's cheeks were stained a faint pink, embarrassment both at the inadequacy of her ring. Though she was a bit distracted since Djavan was putting that beautiful digit ornament into place. Hey eyes met his gaze evenly, smiling at the promise he attached the the ring now on her finger. Oh! She realized she'd been staring a bit, but there was no way she could have helped it. As cheesy as it sounded, she'd been a bit lost in his eyes! What, the were gorgeous.

Though it was time to pull herself together, seeing as the ceremony was commencing and those gathered to witness were still waiting! She carefully shifted the ring into a position easiest to slip it onto the proper finger. It would have been awfully embarrassing to drop it, her mind exploring that idea for a moment, even going as far to conjure up the sound the ring would have made hitting the floor beneath them. But instead, slightly shaking hands had managed to get the accessory into place, clearing her throat slightly. "Let this ring be a symbol of my promises to you and a reminder of my devotion to you. I am honored this day and always to call you my husband."

Julie was definitely not the kind to cheat and even if she was marrying a complete stranger, there was no way she was going to be anything less than faithful. Unless Djavan turned out to be some kind of cretin, anyway. But that didn't seem very likely!

The priest seemed to be satisfied enough with the ring exchange, adding in some frivolous bits, probably something the company insisted on. "May the sun bring you new energy by day. May the moon softly restore you by night. May the rain wash away your worries. And may you live the days of your lives in peace, love, and happiness." Before getting down to the important part and the part that brought most anxiety to Julie's heart. "Djavan and Julianna, having witnessed your vows for marriage with all who are assembled here, and by the authority vested in me, I announce with great joy that you are husband and wife. You may seal your vows with a kiss."

[Djavan Lansing]

For some reason in all of his 28 years, Djavan had been under the conviction that weddings were supposed to long, drawn-out, solemn things. This assumption had only partially been quelled by the marriages of a few of his friends (a fair number had been terribly uncomfortable black-tie affairs with gushy, demonstrative vows that seemed to last decades, and the others might as well have been a tailgating party. His personal favorite had been the commitment ceremony of one of his photographer buddies in a refurbished warehouse in New Jersey), but never remembered when it came to his own marital status. It simply brought back recollections of stuffy Catholic ceremonies in his childhood - the parties afterward Jay liked, but he'd never done well when it came to solemn occasions. It might have been one of the reasons that every attempt at getting to the altar with a woman he otherwise was very much in love with at the time resulted in a mad dash to the nearest flight before the Doomsday Clock ticked towards the final hour. If he'd known how almost-painless this was years ago it probably would have saved him a hell of lot of heartache.

But then he wouldn't be marrying Julie Davenport now, would he, and that would just be a horrific shame. Or, well... Jay didn't know that. For all he knew, she could just be playing nice. Hell, she could be thinking that he was playing nice, and maybe he was (now that he thought about it - when else had he ever put so much care into shaving?). Who could tell? Maybe he was just psychotic for questioning the whole situation when it had been decided by the professionals that they could build a life together... or maybe, simply, he was psychotic for letting the professionals decide in the first place.

He'd heard somewhere that women decided whether a man was dating material within seconds of first meeting him. It had been more than the requisite number (seven? ten? fifteen seconds? the exact number evaded him on account of it being, you know, his wedding day and having far more important things to contend with, such as listening raptly to the bride and trying not to make it obvious that he was checking her out a little) and she'd still gone ahead with her I do - still was saying her sweet, concise, much-better-worded-than-his vows, still slipping that (very nice and manly STOP FEELING BAD ABOUT IT JULIE IT IS WONDERFUL) ring onto his finger. Let this ring be a symbol of my promises to you and a reminder of my devotion to you. I am honored this day and always to call you my husband. It made his heart skip a beat, the slight heaviness of the metal foreign but not unpleasant. It made everything seem so much more tangible than words and legal proceedings, and the fact that she had been shaking too made him feel slightly less goofy about the whole thing, so after their respective ornamentation had clicked into place he grasped her hand gently in his. Nancy, of course, honked once into a handkerchief in her front-row seat; Jay didn't feel inclined to spare her a glance. It was still somewhat hard to comprehend that this woman was, in a matter of seconds, his wife, since he still totally wanted to have a chat with her over a coffee. Or maybe legitimately ask her out to dinner, but that seemed like a moot point given their exchange. It was like that movie The Proposal, which he'd seen ONLY because the headphones were free and Sandra Bolluck was a babe: Marry me, so I can date you.

(OOC Jay would also like to mention that he didn't actually like that movie in an attempt to maintain his relative masculinity. Repeat: OOC Jay did not like that movie. IC Jay will verify this as well once he stops being in the process of getting married to a girl that makes Sandra Bullock look like a geriatric cow).

There had also been something in him that had thought that he would feel like a different person the moment someone proclaimed him wed, and there was, for the first time since the ceremony had started, that telltale discomfort at the base of his throat that was indicative of bile rising up the moment that they had been declared husband and wife. He swallowed it down and chalked it up to excitement; marrying Julianna Davenport was not going to be a mistake, he told himself. Repeat, rinse, and realize that it wasn't entirely clinched yet. Djavan looked almost apologetic as he turned his gaze from the minister to Julie, though his expression was the opposite of unpleasant or displeased. Sure, he had the go-ahead to kiss her from not only the man-in-charge, but apparently the man-in-charge-up-in-the-sky as well as the state, but habits along the lines of not kissing strangers when sober died hard, and maybe JULIE didn't care for men whose only words thus far had been marriage vows and a hushed pickup line slobbering all over her regardless of the brevity of the situation. Then again, what better excuse in the world did he have to do so now? If he didn't take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime-offer it was likely that he'd regret the hell out of it later!

Still gripping her hand, he leaned in to brush his lips against the soft contour of her mouth; while it was short-lived, it wasn't rushed, and there was something decidedly delightful about kissing a beautiful woman for the first time. When he drew back, he grinned at his new wife like he'd just gotten away with something.

Several church-friendly catcalls erupted from Jay's side of the chapel and he sent them a playfully dirty look - the gaze that refocused on his bride was far gentler. He seemed to take comfort in the rustling of people getting up from the pews, and took the opportunity to impishly inquire, "So that's it, huh?" as if it were no big thing. Of course it was a big thing. It was a huge thing. It was a huge thing and Jay actually felt good about it; he could only hope that Julie felt the same way.