SEPTEMBER 14th, 1991, SEATTLE, WA

          REAGAN WOKE UP feeling significantly colder than she originally had when falling asleep. Of course, the fact that she was naked and had drifted off in Dave's arms the night before gave reason to the convulsing shivers wracking her body, but it was still nonetheless an unfortunate way to be roused from sleep.

She squinted to her right, catching sight of Dave swaddled in the sheets. He'd stolen them all from her in the middle of the night. She shouldn't have been surprised.

In an attempt to stake some claim in his bed, she tugged at the sheets, pulling some back over to where she laid. She shivered again, cursing under her breath.

"Who steals sheets from their pregnant girlfriend?"

Although she'd only whispered, her question seemed to wake Dave. He let out a muffled groan, obviously feeling the aftershock of a long night of drinking. Somewhere along the line of the endless night, the band had dispersed and he and Reagan had ended up back at his apartment, but that didn't necessarily eradicate the copious amount of liquor he'd consumed at the club.

"Good morning," Reagan said brusquely, yanking more of the sheets up to her chin. She still hadn't quite yet forgiven him for leaving her to freeze.

Dave rolled over and moved closer to her, draping an arm over her torso. He smiled contentedly before opening his eyes fully. She looked down at him, cocking an eyebrow as if to ask if he was happy with himself.

He stared at her for a passing minute, drinking in the sight of what it was like to wake up next to her in the morning. It still felt like the best present in the world, one in which he had not grown accustomed to yet.

She felt her tightened gaze dissolve when he she stared at him. He turned his face inwards to kiss her bare shoulder. The feeling made her sigh with happiness. Waking up cold could hardly deter her from loving him, even if he was a sheet-stealing culprit.

"Let's get married today," he suddenly said very quietly.

Reagan glanced down into his eyes, still gripping the sheets against her chest. Just in looking at him, she could feel what he felt — the sheer joy of knowing that they had their whole lives to steal sheets from each other and wake up together in the same bed.

"Okay," she whispered back without a second thought, sinking lower down into bed to curl her fingers around his face and kiss him.

________

"I can't believe we're doing this now," Kate exclaimed from the passenger seat of Reagan's car. They had just pulled up outside of the King County Courthouse, a light rain dousing the the scene and lowering the temperature significantly. Contrary to popular superstitious belief, Reagan did not take the downfall of rain on her wedding day as a bad omen.

"Me neither," she admitted, shutting off the engine to her car. She couldn't exactly define how she was feeling as she sat there, staring out the windshield. Excited most definitely, but still numb. Still in disbelief that her time to get married had finally come on that rainy September day.

Arrangements had been made speedily. Reagan had known that above anything, she wanted Kate there, not only as a second witness to the union, but as her support system. Her younger sister would have never forgiven her if she hadn't received the invite.

After deciding that they would make things official, Dave and Reagan had made separate plans to retrieve their respected companions. He'd gone into Olympia to grab Kurt while Reagan had tentatively driven onto UW's campus, mentally preparing to tell Kate the news. Naturally, Kate had gone berserk when she'd heard what they had suddenly planned.

"What about Mom and Dad?" Kate had demanded as Reagan had started to force her into getting ready, steering her towards her closet.

"Not today," Reagan begged, pleading with Kate through a look in her eyes.

"But Dad would want to be there . . ."

"I know. But if he's there, Mom will throw a fit. And it won't be pretty. So just get ready fast, okay?"

It hadn't been easy to glance over Richard's absence. Reagan could already feel the dread of knowing that eventually, he would find out that he'd been excluded from his oldest daughter's wedding day. He didn't deserve the cold rebuff, but at the same time, she wasn't sure how to fit him into the framework of the day with Kimberly looming closely behind him. It would have been impossible to include Richard without facing some sort of unspeakable wrath on Kimberly's end.

And besides, the whole thing was meant to be small. Reagan loved Dave more than anything else in her tiny world, but she was nowhere near accepting of a bigger wedding party than just Kurt and Kate. They were doing this for them. Not for the sake of putting on a show for a bunch of watching eyes. All that mattered was that Dave would be leaving for Nirvana's tour as a married man, and that was not solely meant to be used as a vehicle to steer him clear away from the eyes of other women. It was just nice to know that they were truly and absolutely together.

She wondered if she would feel any different. Would there be a weight lifted from her chest? Would she feel more mature, more worldly than she ever had before? She hoped, in all honesty, that there would be no change. She didn't see herself as becoming someone's "wife." She was merely tying herself to Dave in the most permanent way available to them both. It's not like she'd be any different.

And if she really was worried about change, she knew she ought to have first addressed the growing baby in her womb. Being someone's mother sounded far more daunting than being someone's wife.

"Your face is green," Kate commented. She was fully facing Reagan in her seat, an anxious set to her body as she watched her sister stare absently out the windshield.

"Just nervous," Reagan managed to explain, taking a deep, unsettling breath.

"You shouldn't be. You guys have chosen the easiest way possible to do this. Imagine if you had to walk down an actual aisle."

Kate wasn't wrong. Reagan was indeed imagining herself walking down the length of a stark white aisle with Dave, donning a suit and tie, waiting for her at an altar. Strangely, as scary as the whole debacle was, it was a relatively nice picture. At least they would have had some aspect of tradition to their relationship if they had gone with that route. Didn't everyone deserve a big, white wedding at least once in their life?

"I could be walking down a real aisle next year," Reagan said, beginning to babble. "Dave told me that his mom is going to be so pissed that she missed this. We'll have to make it up to her, he said. And his sister, Lisa, she's not going to like it either. But we had to do it. We both want it to be official before he leaves and I can't stand the thought of —,"

"Have you always been this much of a nervous-wreck, or am I imagining it?" Kate speculated, flashing Reagan a look of scrutiny.

"Like I said," Reagan sighed. "I'm nervous. I'm about to be married, Kate. Married. Last year around this time, I didn't even have a boyfriend."

"Well, you've both insisted on doing this speedily. And not only just because of the baby."

Reagan glanced down at her stomach, still obviously flat and giving no sign of change. It struck her again, the intensity of what was happening, but she pushed that version of her internal arguing back down.

"I wouldn't do anything that I thought was stupid," she said softly. It wasn't a hard statement to make. There was firm truth behind it.

"I know you wouldn't," Kate agreed. She was silent for a passing moment before speaking again. "Do you have Dave's ring? Now there's something to actually worry about."

"Yes." Reagan slid her fingers into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out Dave's ring, twisting it between her fingers. That was one thing she had made sure to do that morning.

"Good," Kate said, nodding in relief. She flickered her stare up and down, surveying Reagan's outfit choice with a growing frown. "You know, you could have dressed better. It's your wedding day."

Reagan inspected her clothes, holding out her arms as she did so. "What? What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"

"Jeans, Reagan? For a wedding? You're supposed to be the bride."

"It's in a courthouse. I wasn't about to wear a big white gown."

The last thing bothering Reagan that day was her ensemble. She'd always known, from the moment that she and Dave had decided to do their wedding simply, that she wouldn't have dressed for the occasion. Wearing a wedding dress in a court room would have mortified her half to death. She was much more comfortable in her old jeans and long-sleeved v-neck. Tucked into her shirt was the locket Dave had given her, relatively cool against her skin.

Kate rolled her eyes. "You're so strange. Only you would randomly pick today to get married. And then go ahead and do it in jeans and a t-shirt."

"Dave's the one who suggested it. And yes, you're damn right that I would."

"So let's go, then."

Reagan hesitated, looking out of the hazy, rain-spattered windshield again. She was sure that Dave was already in there with Kurt, probably waiting for her within the lobby. Once she crossed through the front doors of the courthouse, she would exit the same way, except with a new last name.

"Are they inside?" Kate asked, nodding towards courthouse, attempting to coax Reagan into making the first move to get out of the car.

Reagan bobbed her head up and down. "Yeah, I think so. I wouldn't doubt that they got here first. You took so long to get ready."

"It's a wedding, sheesh! Am I the only one who sees it for what it is?" Kate cried. She had spent a little over an hour primping herself in typical Kate fashion before selecting a blue dress and heels to wear.

"Probably," Reagan agreed absent-mindedly. She passed along Dave's ring, placing it into Kate's hand. "Will you hold that? Until I have to give it to him?"

"Just call me the ring bearer," Kate grumbled, though the flush of pink across her cheeks was a dead giveaway of her delight with the responsibility she'd be given.

The two girls finally got out of the car, abandoning the swirl of heat from its air vents as they stepped into the dreary afternoon. Futilely, Reagan raised her hands above her head to shield herself from the misty downpour, but then she remembered that she hadn't even done her hair. It hung down in her back in it's usual ruler-straight fashion.

"Does anyone besides myself and Kurt know about today?" Kate asked casually as she and Reagan began a brisk walk towards the courthouse.

"Krist and Shelli do. I haven't told Chris, but I'll probably call her and tell her about it tonight. But that's it. You obviously know I didn't tell Mom and Dad."

"You can tell them when you're ready," Kate said softly. She squeezed Reagan's hand, a sisterly encouragement.

"It's really not a big deal, Kate," Reagan said. She couldn't decide if she was lying to herself. "Mom wouldn't have cared anyways. I feel a little bad about not telling Dad, but . . . what can I do?"

"You can tell him when it's all over with," Kate assured her, eager to simmer any doubts and fear that Reagan had before they stepped foot into the courthouse. "He'll understand."

Reagan mashed her lips together, ending the conversation abruptly. She had to stop thinking about her dad if she was going to make it guiltlessly through the day. Of course she had always hoped that he would walk her down the aisle as any traditional father would do for his daughter. But for Reagan, nothing was as traditional as she'd imagined it to be.

"You know . . . you know I wish he was here," Reagan admitted with a quavering breath. "He'd want to walk me down the aisle. Even if it's not a real aisle. He'd want to be the one with his arm through mine."

"Things sort of complicated that, though," Kate reminded her sadly. She managed a half-smile. "Hey, but if Dave's mom really wants a re-do, you can have Dad walk you down the aisle then!"

Reagan smiled gently back. "Sure. But today, you're filling in for him."

"Done deal."

When they walked inside the courthouse, Reagan immediately assessed her surroundings. She hadn't expected anything more than what she saw. Heavily-treaded wall-to-wall carpeting, padded chairs lined across either side of the room, and a big mahogany desk that harbored a bored looking, middle-aged female behind it in glasses. The whole place smelled like must, as if the last change it had witnessed had been in nineteen-sixty-something.

"Reags!"

Dave called out to her, standing up from one of the padded chairs. Kurt was beside him, his face alight with natural curiosity as his eyes roved the lobby and combed over each terribly boring aesthetic detail. When he saw Reagan and Kate enter, he stood up too.

"Hey," Reagan greeted, unable to not smile despite the jerking motion of her stomach. Dave looked just as dressed down as she did, still in his torn jeans and t-shirt from the morning. Before he could reach out to catch his hand in her eyes, Kate sidled between them with an aghast look on her face.

"This is breaking all the rules," she declared, completely horrified. "The groom isn't supposed to see the bride until it's time."

"I think the chance to follow tradition has gone out the window," Reagan said, recalling her earlier thought about the interesting pattern of steps her and Dave's relationship had followed.

"We should start," Dave insisted. Reagan almost swore that she saw a glimmer of nervousness in his eyes, like he was unsure if he had said that right thing.

"Do we get to watch?" Kurt asked lightheartedly, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Er, yes. Hence why you're a witness to the marriage," Reagan said. Kurt smirked at her and she resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him like a two year old.

"Let's go," Dave suggested. His hand clasped around Reagan's, alleviating the heaviness around her as she followed his lead.

Time was flowing fast around them. It had seemed like minutes rather than hours ago had they woken up together in bed, still unsure of when things would be made official between them both. They had woken up that day as a couple, but by the time they would leave the court room, their relationship would have taken on something entirely different.

Reagan felt wrapped inside of a dreamlike trance as she and Dave were shunted into a court room, complete with pew seating and a judge waiting in the very front. She was vaguely aware of two touches; Dave's hand, still coiled around hers, and Kate's fingers brushing lightly against the small of her back as a means to guide her forward. She wondered if she would have frozen up if not for them both, urging her along to what she guessed was her destiny. There was no other word for it.

But as she and Dave were instructed to stand in front of the judge, ready to exchange their vows, she knew without a sliver of doubt that she wouldn't have frozen up. She felt ready. All of the worries carving holes in her heart vanished when she understood that after it was all over, Dave would be hers. It seemed impossible that she could have gotten that lucky. How rare was it that someone could find their soulmate so quickly, without a single glance backwards over their shoulder?

She was no stranger to uncertainty. She knew it like the back of her hand. It was unfortunate that Reagan had spent such a long duration of her life pondering when something better would come along, but she'd finally found it, and the realization of that was enough to knock the breath out of her and make her dizzy with exultation.

As Reagan stared into Dave's eyes repeating the words given to her, she injected as much honesty into them as she could. She wanted him to know how seriously she felt for him — she loved him more than anything. She loved him enough to stand inside of a courtroom, exchanging vows with him as she carried their baby. She had a new definition to the word "crazy" in her life, but it didn't have the same connotations as it had before.

What would have been truly crazy, truly and undeniably despicable, was if Reagan had never met Dave, or never given him the chance to love her in the way that he did. What was crazy was to imagine that she was still working at Wilson's, doomed to fight off Tommy for the rest of her life as she grappled over the lack of love she had never come to know. But she had come to know it. And it was through the best person she'd ever met.

She didn't realize that she was crying until Dave gently caressed his thumb beneath her eye, swiping at a stray tear that had escaped through her lashes. She'd been too busy valuing him and admiring what they shared to hear that it was her cue to say the most vital part of the whole thing — 'I do.'

Kate cleared her throat pointedly and Dave laughed, more amused than nervous to see Reagan hesitate on the final vow. She sniffed, blinking rapidly to disguise the build-up of more tears. In no way had she planned on being a weepy bride.

"I do," she said. The ring that Dave slid on her finger — her ring — fit right into place as if it had been meant to be there for an eternity. When it came time for Reagan to do the same for him, he grinned at the band she wiggled it on over his knuckle. She took it as an approval for her selection.

It was so easy to forget that they were in a courtroom. They could have been anywhere, really, but Reagan still wouldn't have paid much mind to their surroundings. All that mattered was that Dave was standing there, holding on to her and pledging his love to her for forever. Nothing had ever felt so right in her life, never as right as things did then. It was like everything else was blurred; the only thing Reagan's vision allowed for her to see with absolute clarity was Dave and his boyish, proud smile as he made her his wife.

The judge said something — Reagan barely heard it over the roar of adrenaline in her ears — and Dave leaned in to kiss her. He tucked his hand around her neck and held her there for a moment, shaping his lips around hers softly and causing her to forget further any notion of time and place. All she was aware of was him. When he pulled away, she felt him whisper an "I love you" against her mouth.