Posted by Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in Going to the chapel....Chris and Lexi are gonna get married

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9:00 Starfleet Academy
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Snip

“Will you, Alexandra Zelda Garfield, marry me… Christopher David Robins, a known a fool and idiot who has taking far too long to realize he just need to step up and tell you just what his heart felt. I can’t do this anymore without you, and I refuse to continue my life without having you by my side forever and nor will I let a day longer without you by my side if you will have me.” he said in a soft low tone as he waited as time continued to seem in flux as what was mere seconds seem to stretch into eternities.

Christopher Robins

“Yes,” Lexi threw her arms around his neck kissing him hard and fast as she then pulled back her hand to look at the ring seated on her finger. While it was larger than a normal wedding ring, Chris had designed it perfectly so that it did not overpower her hand. “Yes yes yes,” she repeated her answer placing another quick kiss on his lips before admiring the ring once again. Sitting back Lexi looked at Chris and blushed turning her cheeks into various shades of pink and red. This was all she had ever wanted. The promise to be his forever and always. The rest they would just figure out as they went.

“You know they are all going to think we are bat snot crazy,” she warned him. “They are going to call us crazy and impulsive but,” she leaned forward kissing him slower this time. Lexi let her lips linger on his until the urge to continue the kiss grew too great. She was not going to let him kiss her like that until they were alone for fear of not being able to control themselves to stop. “But I don’t care. As long as I have you that is all I will ever need.”

Lexi

“Good, now… here is the thing though… I am tired of waiting and you have a chapel… that if I am honest feels like you made it for us. Why should we wait, I have two weeks before I need to report to the Atlantis… I don’t want to wait… and if go down an aisle I can hoard that over Ian that we did it the right way.” Chris said with a small smirk as he pulled her close as he cuddled up with her.

Christopher Robins

“You....you, you wanna get married to day,” Lexi pulled back so she could face him. For the umpteenth time today Alexandra Garfield felt like there was no air. “No,” her answer was not only firm but set in concrete firm. “Christopher…baby I love you. God, I do and I am not saying we take forever but we have so many things to think about like where we are going to live. How is Ruth going to handle it? I can’t just jump from one weh din…oh my god the wedding.” Lexi stood up and brushed off her dress. She knew the actual event was called off but that did not mean the reception had caught up with the headlines. There were caterers and flower deliveries. Table centerpieces that needed to be assembled and thank you gifts to hand out. The large frame which the guests were to sign instead of a guestbook sitting at the door along with small cards that had taken hours of time to chart out where they were to sit. The church part of the ceremony was over but that did not mean the reception was not still not being set up.

“Hon I have wasted twelve years not being with the woman I love… I am not going to waste another day with your name still Garfield.”

There was no way Lexi could not feel like a teenager in love when Chris brought out the romantic one-liners. She knew the man well enough to know it wasn’t a real line but is still sounded like something from one of those sappy love comedy shows which made her blush.

” The wedding is gonna happen today if I have to move heaven and Earth for you. I don’t know how but… I am going to make it work.” he said as he looked at her with squint almost as he tried to gauge just all the things she might be thinking. He wasn’t going to back down when he had mustered all the courage to stop fighting himself and just reach for the one person he wanted in the whole galaxy.

You are never going to know how much I love you and your determination right now Lexi heard Chris’ words but didn’t actually listen to the meaning. Typically Chris didn’t care one way or another about things so Ian and Lexi were the planners and Chris just went along for the ride. His expression was bordering on comical to make her grin yet his wording was far more authoritative than he typically used. She wondered if Chris was just being verbose so that she knew how excited he was about them getting married. There was no possible way for it to happen so the conviction in Chris was displaying was rather endearing.

Leaning down, Lexi grabbed Chris’ hand turning it so that she could see the time. 11: 00. Right now if the day had been going to plan, they would have been exiting the church and on the way to the reception. As wonderful as the brief respite had been Lexi had to get back to real life. “Okay, so we need to get back. I need to get to Ruth before Aubrey sends her to an orphanage. While the gesture was grand and perfect, we need to find Toby’s ring so that I can give it back to him. After you should go back to your hotel and wait for me there. I will be there as soon as I can.” Lexi’s mind was making to-do- lists. Several to-do lists to be most accurate. Extending her hand to Chris, she stood still bracing herself to get him up and on his feet.

Lexi

“No… to any of that. Well okay yes I kinda wanna get our daughter… and maybe we can take a second to wrap back around that. Feels like an elephant in the room we just have forgotten but honey Ian is in charge he will not let anything happen to Ruth and that Ring can be bird food for all I care. We have a bit more to worry about right this second than the small details, but I got this trust me. You have known me for almost half your life, when have I not been able to smooth over a bad situation, I mean I think I hit a fracking grand slam just now winning you back for Christ sake love.”

Christopher Robins

“It was more of a triple play,” Lexi teased him. “You always were going to get me so by the time you got to third it was just a leisurely stroll to the home plate.” She could not help but throw out some banter as she took another second to just enjoy the freedom to wrap her arms around him. Sure she had hugged Chris before over the years but Lexi never held him as he was holding her now and the way he held her under the tree. “As to Ruth,” Lexi took a deep breath, “it was just a complicated time. The only reason Ian was there was that I ran into him in a food court of all places. She wasn’t due for another two weeks. I randomly went into labor and there was some doctor and his girlfriend on leave passing through the same promenade. I had her and now you are up to speed,” Lexi knew this explanation was never going to fly. What she could hope for was that it was enough to stave off any real conversation until another time.

Lexi

“I’m sorry doll that is no where near up to speed. We have been on speaking terms, quite well for the past two years. I know… I know I made a fool of myself when I just left you the way I did. Baby… I mean, I called that day … Ian told me you fell. That wasn’t the first day we had talked since the convention either. I know I pushed but, it’s been 18 months. You didn’t tell me about meeting Toby even when we spent hours some night talking about our days. I think I am owed a whole lot more than whatever piss poor of an excuse you’re trying to shovel my way right now.” he said, his tone didn’t have any of that playfulness she had come to expect as he looked at her square in her eyes. He needed answers, it wasn’t going to change his love for her but he couldn’t in good faith start a marriage with someone who also wouldn’t tell him the truth on the events of their own child.

Christopher Robins

“Chris you have no idea how hard it was to figure out a way to say ‘hey remember that convention. I took home more than a t-shirt,” Lexi tried to bring down the seriousness of the situation with the sarcastic verbal banter they always fell back on. She wasn’t sure how he would take her flippant reply. If the look in his eyes right now were any indication though, Chris was taking on what Lexi would eventually refer to as his officer look.

“Lexi… come on. I need answers here, not jokes.” Chris said as he looked at her with an even more stern gaze.

Lexi nodded but did not reply. Her attempt at gauging how this conversation was going to proceed received a clear cut reply. Chris was pissed. He had every right yet until this trip, Lex had only seen Chris run the anger scale from mild annoyance to single barking rant against someone else. She had her first taste of how far you could push the man in the hotel the night before and the bulk of his anger was directed at Toby. That fight was only a casualty of Chris being mad enough to knock her ex-fiancee out. This possible fight, if Lexi did not get serious quick, would result in Chris not backing down or walking away and a pissed off Chris was not something she wanted to tangle with especially since she did not have a leg to stand on. This stern look he was giving her, more than anything else in the world, showed Lexi that Christopher Robins was not the same man she had known for the past twelve years.

Her Chris was laid back with a future as open as the stars he loved so much. The new version of Chris still had these attributes but honed into a maturer form. He was the head of stellar cartography. He had responsibilities. He had people who answered to him. He wanted to be a husband and father. He was also wanting answers. Lexi looked anywhere but Chris’ face as she thought about what and how to say it. She took his hand in hers and entwined their fingers. “Can we do this someplace less public?”

“Sure…” he said as he took her head as he looked behind her. He remembered there used to be some seats they ate at in between classes nearby. Moving her took her to the location as he looked around, the cadets all seemed fixated at this odd sight of a man in a tux and a woman in a bridal dress.

Following Chris’ lead, Lexi did not pay attention to where they were headed. She was more focused on coming up with plausible excuses Chris would believe to justify her action. The problem was all the time which had elapsed since their daughter’s birth. If the first conversation they had had since the conference was the one at the Northstar cafe, her explanation would have been simple. Since they talked at least two dozen times between reconciling after the conference and now, it made things far more complex and her actions intentional. Feeling Chris stop, Lexi looked around. They had not gone far enough to reach a vehicle or leave the campus.

“Honey I meant more of a private place when I said less public. Like a vehicle or your hotel room and not the place we ate lunch every Tuesday and Friday at for four years,” she tried not to fidget as he never let go of her hand but led her to the place she was to sit down.

Lexi felt hot as her uncomfortableness exploded with all the cadets looking at them. Deep inside Lexi recognized this was not some form of public penitence Chris was putting her through. He did not want to punish or humiliate her. He just wanted the answers to nine-month-old questions in the fastest fashion available.

Taking a seat at the small table on the patio outside the student union, Lexi breathed in an unsteady breath. “I had my reasons for not telling you but I think the what you need to focus on is legally I never denied you were the father.”

“Oh that’s what I should be taking here hon buttercup? So what my name is on her birth certificate? You took everything away from me, you and I doing this together… picking names, building a nursery… I didn’t even get to be at my child’s own birth cause you couldn’t take two efforts to tell me that hey you left a little surprise in me?”

His speech may have contained some biting sarcasm yet beneath the surface you could feel the anger boiling over at her flippant reply as to why Chris should be grateful for what little Lexi gave him. She shifted in the chair letting her eyes roam around them on the patio as she listened.

“I mean baby… I love you I do, but don’t throw this weak sauce at me here. You took so much from me with this, I only can be at my child’s birth once… now i only get to say I called your Uncle Ian and was lied about you being born is the story I am stuck with.” Chris said with a even yet firm tone. He didn’t scream, but there was an undercurrent of anger there as he looked at her. It was in all rights momentary, this hiccup didn’t change his desire to marry her in the slightest, but he couldn’t say I do without at least talking about what she had done.

Christopher Robins

“What do you want me to say,” Lexi spoke in a whisper that was barely audible. Everything Chris pointed out was correct. He may have walked out on her several times but every time found his way back to her.

Looking down at her nail, Lexi felt sick having to admit the truth. Guilt was the reason she could not make eye contact with Chris. Whatever she said was not going to change the course they had set in motion. Chris would not walk away from the promise he just made her. He just needed to know why.

“So you want me to say I was scared,” she looked at him and for the first time a flash of anger streaked across her eyes. “Is that what you want to hear?” Lexi felt her hands clenching into fists. “Fine! I was scared you would just do the honorable thing. See me through the pregnancy, attend the birth and then want to see my baby. I was scared you would come back for her and not me and I will never let her go. I don’t care if you are the father. She is my baby and if you weren’t going to take us as a package deal then you weren’t going to get either of us,” she finally blurted out the reason she never called or told him about Ruth.

Lexi

“Really? You were just going to keep my child from me? Lexi… this isn’t you. I may have my issues but you know I would have come, and you know I would have forgiving all and today… wouldn’t have been your wedding to some other man. You copped out here hon, not me. I have made so many mistakes and I know when someone is trying to run away when I see it. If you think for one moment I wouldn’t have moved heaven and Earth for you baby… you don’t know me well enough. You keep saying I took everything away but I never once stayed away. I always was there… and you lied every time I came to you, every apology I said, every time I tried to make us better you kept lying.” Chris said as he took a deep breath, he was trying to stay calm but he was getting more than a little agitated.

Lexi put her head down on her arms and started to cry. She wanted to cry in the classic crossed arm position where she could bury her face but Chris would not let go of the hand she had given him back at the tree. She pulled at her hand in his or attempted to several times, yet his grip was unwavering. It was almost a metaphor of their life together up to this point. Something happened and a rift formed but true to his word, Chris had always been there. He just never until this moment had something physical to stop her from pulling away. Lexi had never run like Chris off on a shuttle or out a door. She had just run in place, closing the doors and windows so that when Chris returned he had to pull every plank from the entrances she boarded up. She had impeded any forward action in their relationship just as much as Chris.

“I know you know me better than that, when it comes to you all I have ever needed was you to tell me I was all you needed and I would come. You never did, outside of the convention I never once heard you say you wanted me… you loved me. I walked, yeah… and I regret that mistake when I misunderstood what Noah was doing there, but I at least took chances and tried to show you how I felt… I said I loved you in that ice cave as we almost kissed… right before they came. You brushed it off as Noah came by and we acted like nothing happened, then two years later I ask you out after you break up with Noah thinking all my waiting was paying off… I tried love… I tried so many times but… I know you love me now, I see it I feel it… and I thought I always felt it back then but you kept pushing away and going to find Noah every time. All you have ever needed to do to get me was to say you need me love and I was there, and I always will be.”

Christopher Robins

Lexi looked up at Chris with red rimmed eyes. “I don’t know what to say,” she repeated and sniffed back her nose. “I know I did not make things easy for you but I was scared, Chris. You see Ruth and she is happy and perfect and wonderful. You have asked me to marry you and live happily ever after. You see this life,” she held up her hand with the ring. “You have no idea what it was like finding out I was having a baby. We were not together. We had parted on really bad terms. Yes, it all worked out but hindsight is twenty-twenty. When I found out I wasn’t sure being a mom was what I really wanted. I sat for hours in the mess hall looking out the window just debating my options,” she blinked rapidly trying not to cry or drop again into hysterics in public. ” You are right. I agree. I should have called and said Chris I am having your baby. I didn’t. I honestly tried to tell you after that a hundred times but the longer the lie persisted the harder it became to hide. It started with me only showing you face shots as my pregnancy became more apparent. Then I only called you when the baby was sleeping. Then days passed, weeks past, months past,” Lexi could feel her defensiveness rising. “I mucked up and as hurt, as you feel about it right now, I have lived with that for nine months. It was not perfect and special because every time I looked at her I saw everything you were missing. Finally, it got to the point I was sure we would end up right where we are now. You made and me having no way to make it right. You can say you forgive me. That is fine but it will not replace what you lost and I will never be able to forgive myself for it,” Lexi did not hide her face as the first tear ran publically down her cheek. “I can say I am sorry a million times. You can hold me and accept it a thousand times over. It is still never going to fix what I took from you. know that. I was too scared you wouldn’t want the only life I was able to give to you. I was too selfish to tell you because if you didn’t take the life I could offer, you were going to take Ruth. I could not allow that. She is the only thing in my life,” Lexi hoped he understood or at least was trying to understand her reasonings even if he didn’t agree.

Lexi

“Baby… she isn’t the only thing you have, not now and not ever. I forgave you the second I decided to come and chase you down… because my life has never been whole without you. I can sit here and tell you I dated all those countless women cause I was some player but they were all to distract from that gaping whole not having you left in me. When Tiffany broke my heart, I didn’t think I could love again and God gave me you… I just needed time to get over my insecurities.” Chris said as he took both of her hands and placed them together as he kissed them softly as he held her hands in his, softly rubbing them with his thumbs.

“Neither of us has been perfect, but we have a chance to start fresh… our daughter… our live, our marriage. No more women, no Toby or Noah, just you and me. Time always heals wounds and I want to spend an eternity with you, but I will never need that long to be able to get over it all my love. You have my heart, my soul, my body… I give it all to you… you just have to be willing to give me all of yours in return. From there… nothing will ever stop us my love.”

Christopher Robins