Snip

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12:00 PM Reception Hall
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“Well I think Chris is crazy and I am the one agreeing to marry him like this,” Lexi pushed the door open with her palms expecting to see what she had explained in detail. The theme had been starry night. Everything was supposed to be hues of midnight blues against crisp whites. The tables were to have midnight blue linens with bright white china and sparkling crystals that refracted the light from the centerpieces so that one felt like they were among the stars. The ceiling was the holographic image of the Nepalese sky where Chris tried to get Lexi to focus on something other than the fact they were lost. In one corner a five-tiered wedding cake stood almost as if it were a piece of art. The icing was midnight blue. The layers were encrusted with edible sugar crystals so that when one ate it they could eat a piece of heaven The crystals cascaded down the tiers becoming more sparse so that the night sky imagery could be seen. A top was a calligraphy S symbolizing the martial name. Everything was supposed to be breathtaking and while it was not what Lexi expected, it did take her breath away.

“Oh my god,” Jaime said slowly surveying the room. Since she had no idea what to expect, the sight was hard to comprehend.

“Oh Lexi,” Meghan put a hand on what was supposed to be her future sister-in-law’s shoulder. “Maybe we could,” she tried to be positive but this was one of the few times even a miracle could not save the day.

“Ahh hmm,” the maitre d’ cleared his throat announcing his arrival behind the trio of women. At least for the moment, Ms. Garfield seemed to be taking the news much better than he anticipated. “I am so very sorry Ms. Garfield. We did not think anything of Mr. Schmidt entering the room. He told the staff he wanted to make a few last minutes changes for you. We thought you would be surprised. Unfortunately, as you can see the room is now unusable. Since he only tampered with the items you supplied there is not much we can do, however, if you choose to press legal charges we have him at least entering the room. I am truly sorry,” the maitre d’ apologized as he gave a slight bow and backed out of the room. While he felt sorry, there was little he could do except clean up and set up or the next reception that was scheduled for eight hours from now.

Stunned, Lexi put her fingers to her lips as if to stifle any reply attempting to come out as she looked at her dream. The room looked as if a full on brawl had occurred here.
There was so much to take in that Lexi started with the tables. The flower centerpieces had all the blooms ripped off and strewn about like blood spatter in a homicide. The crystal vases within the flowers were shattered at varying heights indicating they were struck with something like a baseball. Jagged hunks of glass rose from a bed of stems making it appear like a splintered bone rising from some macabre grave.

“Lexi maybe we should call Chris,” Meghan said as Alexandra took a tentative step into the room. Looking at her other sister in law, Meghan had no idea what to do as Lexi seemed to be in a daze.

“No,” Lexi said sharply cutting her off as she moved into the room more. The crinkle and crunch from the shards of glass beneath Lexi’s feet echoed off the walls and floor. To Jaime, it sounded like a re-enactment of the initial destruction with each step Lexi took. Leaning over, Lexi picked up a hand-etched crystal wine glass of the night sky. “This was the wedding favor. At the top here,” Lexi pointed to the top of the little dipper, “is Polaris. It is in the constellation of Ursa Minor. Ursa Minor is also called little bear because Pooh is just a little bear,” Lexi’s voice caught in her throat. She set the glass down gingerly on the table knowing it might be the only one left.

“Honey it is going to be okay I promise,” Jaime came up behind Lexi and hugged her shoulders. The state of the room left many questions but the one that burned the brightest was why Lexi was marrying Toby when everything about this room screamed Chris. There would be time to find out more. Right now her heart went out to Lexi. The cake in the corner had obviously been sampled with someone’s fist having each tier smashed and the center cored out. The final insult was the holographic display of the night sky flickered on and off with an obscene message about Lexi’s virtue scrolled in bright red.

Turning her face around Jaime mouthed for Meghan to get Chris. No one but him was going to have a chance of fixing this and there was no chance at fixing anything. The maitre d’ was correct. Nothing could be salvaged for the reception Lexi and Chris had planned to have here even ten hours from now.

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Outside the reception doors
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As Chris and his brother’s turned the corner to enter the room, they would see Jaime and Meghan pacing outside the door. Meghan was wiping her eyes with a tissue indicating she had either been crying or was just trying to stave off tears. Jaime took a deep breath as she saw Chris approach.

Lexi

“Chris!” Ian could be heard as he came up to the trio as he peeked into the room as he took a deep breath. Part of him felt responsible as he looked at the mess. So much of the day had been ruined but Ian couldn’t help but feel like everything was also being righted. “Before you go in there, I have an idea…” he said as he motioned for him to follow him over as Paul and Nathan made there way in.

Nathan put his arm around his wife Meghan as they all looked around at the carnage. “Who does this? Hurt or no… this is some psycho shi…” Nathan stopped as he looked over at Lexi and stopped cold. He could tell how much she put of herself into this. Lexi had always been part of the family in many ways, so many adventures in the outback with her, or treks through Israel. Between her and Ian’s family the three seemed to all kind of meld, it wasn’t uncommon to find Ian, Lexi and Chris all at someone’s home during their off time.

“I need a tissue,” Meghan said to Nathan feeling more tears overwhelming her eyes. “And this is not because I am pregnant and horrrrr moannnnn allll,” Meghan began to cry enough for everyone in this room. Someone’s wedding day was always special but the details that went into this showed Lexi had thought of Chris for it all. The colors were more on the masculine side and every detail in the room shouted about how Lexi dreamed of being a Robins. While the familial name was lost on some, it wasn’t on Lexi.
Lexi sat stunned in a chair just staring at the single glass still intact. She would be crying like Meghan however sometimes shock was far more powerful than sadness.

Paul came over as he hugged Lexi tightly before he began to inspect more of the room as he seemed to be taking it all in. As a Commander and XO on his father’s ship he had an eye for investigation as he seemed to be piecing together a crime scene. “Maybe we should all take a crack at hitting him…”

“Three times a charm,” Lexi’s voice seemed to crack like a thunderbolt in the near silent room. “Chris has already done it twice and Ian once.” Her tone was not angry or vengeful. It was pure defeatism. “Thank you though,” Lexi reached up patting Paul’s hand.

Meanwhile…

“I don’t know if she is going to buy that… this place… she made it for us even if she didn’t know it at the time, you saw in there. It was destroyed. Just changing venue isn’t going to help that. I need to pull a miracle here bud.” Chris sad as he had a defeated look to himself as he talked with Ian. He had been working so hard to make today fit and every turn he was having a giant pitfall on him.

“Trust me… I will get my dad and this will be great. Lets go in there and tell her, it’s your only option and I have never let you down.” Ian said as he seemed to be almost desperate to make this work. He needed to fix this for them, he couldn’t chance one of the chickening out again and he become left in the middle again.

“Fine fine… we can pitch it to her, well you can I will nod and go mm hmmm a few times.” Chris said as he held his arm out for Ian to begin back to the reception hall.

Back at the Hall…

“Good news everyone! I have a plan!” Ian said as he entered, followed closely behind by Chris.

Christopher Robins

“No plan,” Lexi said standing up and turning to face Ian. “We are not doing this. I am exhausted. Do you know how long I worked on this” Lexi finally got past the shock of what had occurred.

“A few months?” Ian asked, he knew it was no more than six months ago she had gotten engaged. He knew how much this place had been centered around Chris and her even if she hadn’t admitted it but he always assumed this was something she put together recently.

“Years Ian, years,” Lexi could feel her chest burning as she felt the crushing sadness of what Toby did. “And yes, I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life. I want this dream,” she gestured around her, “so badly I was willing to settle on anyone to achieve it. Only without you,” she gestured to Chris with an open palm as if she wanted him to take her hand. “Without you this was never anything I wanted.” Pulling the veil off from the back of her hair do, Lexi threw it on the ground. “Paul, Nathan, Jaime and Meghan I am so so sorry for dragging you all down here.” Lexi’s voice was shaking. It was easy to see that this apology was heartfelt but killing her inside. “I love your brother. I always have and always will. I just can’t do it today. Not with something like this marring the day. He deserves more. He deserves to come in first. He deserves to be picked first and not have some sloppy second. I am sorry,” Lexi said heading towards the exit.

Lexi

Lexi felt Chris take her hand. She started to talk before he did mainly because Lexi knew if Chris began to talk, she would probably cave. “Baby everything you said at the tree made sense. I have put you second our entire life. I want to make you first. I want you to know without a doubt that you and you are the only one I want and the only one I will pick first come what may. I planned this,” she gestured about, “for you. And even if I was going to use it all on Toby its because some part of me would still have this day with you. Hell Polaris was watching over me so it was like you were watching over me and yes I was a conniving and manipulative,” Lexi used the back of her hand to wipe her nose. It wasn’t running yet but if she said much more it would. Right now it was just muscle memory of what to do in this situation. “I contacted you because I was looking for that one reason to not go through with marrying Toby. Yes, it was cowardly and pathetic but I had to know you wanted me and then you did,” Lexi smiled, “but this,” she gestured with her free hand about the room. “This is not how I want you to ever feel or think about our day.”

“Huh so that is why she did it,” Jaime whispered to Paul. “Still doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. She created a dream wedding so that she could have that with a man that was not who she wanted to marry so the stuff in it would remind her....of what she could have had,” Jaime’s tone was questioning. She really didn’t care about the answer. It was more about the curiosity factor.

“Honey, our life has always been messy… listen to Ian. He… might just have an ace up his sleeve.” Chris said as he took her hand as he came over to her.

“Yes please doll, I will make this right. I should have stopped Toby from coming in here… after us hitting him twice,”

“Three. Chris hit him twice and you once,” she corrected a point in the story that wasn’t needed except to be filler for nervous rambling.

Shaking his head Ian continued. ” I figured he would slink away but he didn’t…” Ian said as he looked around the room continuing his thought after Lexi’s interruption. So many faces he had become friends with over the years, he had to make this right.

“My family ranch has a restaurant with a reception area and everything. I have the ability to get what I can here, and I even have the man for the job… at least Kelly is getting him. Just give me four hours, we can even try to get you married under the stars doll.” Ian said as he came over to Lexi and took the glass that she had as he looked over it. “I will make this perfect, there was even a delivery for Chris I accepted… some flowers. I think those and this glass are all we need to get Jacen to finish your dream.”

“Jacen?” Chris said as he looked over at Ian, there was no Jacen in this plan before. “The Chief of the Atlantis? Is the Atlantis here I thought you guys shuttled over.”

“Well he was here to visit family as well, lot of shore leave for the crew… he should be off the phone with Kelly soon but trust me, he is a miracle worker.”

Meanwhile…

“Jacen I know I am asking you to do a lot but by darn every time I ask you something you find a way to do it. This is kinda your fault,” Kelly held the phone away from her ear as Jacen began to point out how round tables and playgrounds were not in his job description. Kelly knew the man was right but if he actually never came through then maybe Kelly would not just assume he was super mega engineer. “So I need to hear a yes from you Drayke.”

“Ma’am with all due respect, hell no. I was here to just enjoy some time away,”

“You’ll get it and more. I will throw in four extra days under the table. I am only looking for four hours. An hour for each day,” Kelly already was authorizing the extra four days on paper as they spoke in case Jacen wanted it in writing. The reason would be called Engineering Consortium Inservice. What happened on the way to the Consortium would be the fudging of the free days.

” I couldn’t have my wife and kid here but I figured see my family. I can’t keep pulling these out of my ass like some perverted magician.” Jacen said emphatically as he shook his head at the holo. His beach adventure with his family had been something he had been looking forward to for some time.

“Then next time stop being an over achiever,” Kelly spat back rapidly. “Hence I said next time. Right now I need Magician Jacen so don’t start the ‘I can’t do it’ until after you pull this off,” Kelly laid down the ground rules. Lucky for her, Jacen might complain but his pride and curiosity to be the best would have him doing impossible tasks like this for the foreseeable future.

“Four hours? All you want from me is four hours of work? In New Orleans? I… fine… but you owe me the good stuff. None of that cheap swill you give Mardusk and the other, I want that West Virginia stuff that O’Neill girl gave Ian when he left a few years back… you know the good stuff.”

“Sold,” Kelly called out like an auctioneer.

“Fine fine… I am coming, tell Ian I swear if this is a prank to get me at his family’s estate I will turn his replicator to make only gruel.”

“Wait you mean only Ian’s replicator not mine,” Kelly confirmed right before hanging up on him.

Saphire Room…

“Okay it’s all started, you just have to agree.” Ian said as he came back into the room, he had left to talk to Kelly as he looked at the group to gauge their responses.

“Go for it Lex, we all will help.” Nathan said as Paul and the rest all nodded in agreement as they all seemed to be eyeing Chris and Lexi to see what they decided.

“This is ultimately your dream wedding, my dream wedding is just getting to say I do… as long as I get that I am happy, though… sentiment that you put into this is beyond lovely and I won’t lie and say it hasn’t touched me dearly. I just want you ultimately in the end happy, do you wanna run the gambit?” Chris asked Lexi as he put his arms around her as he made her face him.

Christopher Robins

“I don’t want to do it,” Lexi said softly looking at Chris. He would understand why. For that, Lexi felt even more in love with him. It was then she felt it. A sharp slap to the back of the head. “Owwwwww,” she put a hand up only to see her mom coming forward so that they could speak looking at each other.

“Stop talking and listen,” Ester said in a firm tone. ‘You want to marry Chris. He wants to marry you. Ian said he has all the details arranged,” Ester put a hand on her daughter’s cheek. Breaking the tender moment for half a heart beat she looked at Ian. “You do have the arrangements correct?”

“Yes ma’am,” Ian replied immediately.

Looking back at her daughter Ester kissed her forehead. “You marry the man, not the pomp. So let’s go get you married to the one man you only have ever wanted. Mr. Robins,” she addressed Paul, “are you able to get us to Lousiana?”

“Yes ma’am,” Paul replied with a smile

“Good,” Ester took her daughter’s hands in hers. “We are gonna need all four hours just to get you back to looking like a bride,” she tucked a lose strand of hair behind Lexi’s ear.

Lexi