Baby Just Say Yes

"Okay, everybody's here and accounted for, right?" Rayleigh asked everybody who was sitting around the very crowded hospital room. Everybody looked around, and then a few minutes looked back at her and nodded.

"Yep." everybody replied at once. She laughed.

"Roll call, then. Nobody can miss out on this." Brian said from the hospital bed.

"Jimmy."

"Here and present." Jimmy said from the back corner.

"Matt, I know you're here, you don't have a choice. So Johnny and Zacky?" Rayleigh called.

"Yeppers." They replied at once.

"Suzie and Papa Gates are right there, my mom's over there...Val?" Rayleigh called.

"Matt's hiding me behind him, but I'm here!" She called out happily.

"Uh...How about Gena and Leanna?" Brian asked.

"Present." They replied.

"Lacey?" Rayleigh asked. There was no reply, and everybody looked around the room to see that she wasn't there.

"Where's your girlfriend, Christ? The suspense is killing me!" Matt asked Johnny, who looked as surprised as everybody else.

"She was here a minute ago." He said.

"I'll check the bathroom." Val and Leanna said, getting up to go check. A few minutes later, they returned with Lacey in tow.

"What were you doing in there?" Jimmy asked her.

"You really don't want that answer." Val said. "Trust me."

"Anyways, everybody's here now, so spill." Matt said anxiously. Ray laughed and Brian chuckled.

"There's going to be a wedding." Rayleigh announced. Everybody beamed, and Val squealed, jumping off of Matt's lap and running to hug her.

"EEEK! I'm so excited!" She said, squeezing Ray. "Oh, sorry. I forgot about--"

"Don't worry about it. I don't." Ray laughed, hugging her friend back. Lacey and Leanna got up to hug her as well.

"My baby's engaged?" Her mother asked from the corner of the room, slowly walking over to hug her daughter.

"Yeah. Where's Adam, by the way?" Rayleigh asked, looking for her brother.

"I'm here. I just didn't get called on roll call." He joked. She laughed when he came forward and picked her up in his arms.

"Thanks, Adam." She said sarcastically. "Just what I always wanted. To be hoisted off my feet in a room full of my friends."

"It's not like you have any pride anyway." Adam joked back. "I mean, you're Rayleigh."

"Damn straight." She said.

"So who's planning this wedding?" Val asked, the question just waiting in her mind. Rayleigh smiled.

"I was going to ask you, but if you don't--"

"I'd be glad to." Val said, very business like. "We'll have to talk about payment plans, though."

"I'll give you chocolate." Rayleigh bursted out laughing. Val did as well, and as laughter is a contagious thing, everyone in the room was soon laughing too.

"It's a deal." Val said, hugging her friend.

"So where's the wedding taking place?" Lacey asked.

"Do I have to wear a tux?" Zacky asked.

"Can I not be a bearer of any sort?" Johnny asked. "I always lose everything."

"Can we ride camels up the aisle?" Jimmy asked. Everybody turned and looked at him, puzzled, then burst into laughter again.

"No, I'm serious." He insisted. "Rockstars get married all the time. They never ride up the aisle on camels. And we could have blow up palm trees, and a giant blow up pool, and--"

"I'm glad he's not planning our wedding. It'd be like a second-rate porn movie." Brian muttered to Ray, who agreed.

"Can you settle if I give you a stuffed camel?" Ray asked him. "I'm sure the preacher wouldn't like camel turds in the church."

"Well...I guess so..."Jimmy said, his voice coming down a couple of decibels. Everybody smiled.

"I actually like him, Ray." Adam said from Rayleigh's side. She smiled, and hugged him.
"I know you do."

"And so do I." Her mother said. She looked at her mother incredulously.

"You do?" She asked.

"Yes. I do. He's not as bad as I always thought. None of them are." She smiled, hugging her daughter.

"So where's the honeymoon going to be?" Zacky asked.

"Don't know yet." Brian shrugged. "But nobody's coming with us."

"Just stay out of the Bermuda Triangle." Zacky clued them in. "Bad things happen to good people there."

"You don't have anything to worry about, Zacky." Rayleigh laughed. Then she joked, "I was actually thinking more along the lines of Hong Kong."

"Honey," Brian started. She smiled sweetly and looked at him.

"Yes, sweets?" She joked back, earning giggles from everybody in the room.
"We are not going to China for our honeymoon."

This earned a laugh from everyone in the room.

"Good." Rayleigh laughed. "I actually thought you might take me up on that. They eat squid over there, Bri. Squid."