Heroes...And The Rest Of Us.

It's the day of the wedding. I'm at my house, in my bed and it's about 10 am. I roll over and see Liv laying on Adam's side of the bed. She's staring at me, looking a little to bright-eyed for my taste.

"Why are you in my bed?"

"It's your wedding day!" She says cheerfully.

"Liv, why are you in my bed?" I ask again.

"Easy there bridezilla. I was feeling a little tipsy after Daisy made me those jello shots, so I slept over." I vaguely remember all of the women in my bridal party, plus Janin and Rhonda, coming over for a bachelorette party lastnight.

"Ugh. That's why I have a headache." I say. I get out of bed and get some asprin from the bathroom. Liv is standing in the kitchen making coffee when I get back.

"Caitlin, Daisy and Billie said that they would be here at three." She says.

"OK." I sit at the kitchen table and thumb through the paper until I find the wedding anouncements. I smile at the picture of Adam and I that was taken by Rhonda when we were on the tour. Liv looks over my shoulder.

"I sent a copy of that in my last care package to Brayden." She says.

"Mmm."

"I cant believe you're getting married tonight!"

"I know, neither can I."

"I'm so happy for you two. You deserve this."

"When is Royston coming with Kya?" I ask.

"Around three. The limo's that are taking us to the beach get here at six, and the wedding starts at six forty-five." I laugh.

"You know more about this than I do."

"The flower people called at seven this morning, I had to give them some details."

We hang out for a while, drinking coffee. Then we both shower and wait for the others to get here at three. Janin brings Roo over at 2:30, so we hang out with them until Janin leaves to get herself ready. When Caitlin, Daisy and Billie arrive, and Royston drops Kya off, we start working on hair and makeup.

"I can't believe my brother is getting married." Caitlin says.

"Did you think that it would never happen?" I ask.

"I was wondering."

"I just can't believe that you chose not to wear a dress on your wedding day! What kind of woman are you?" Daisy asks me.

"A low maitenance one. I don't need a dress to have this be an amazing day."

I flat-iron my hair and scrunch a little gel in it and put my make-up on. I'm going to wear a slightly see-through white button down shirt with a little white camisole under it and faded jeans. All of my bridesmaids and groomsmen are going to wear black shirts like mine. Adam shirt is white like mine.

I help Billie and Liv get Roo and Kya ready to go, while Caitlin and Daisy get dressed and made up. Mike and my dad are supposed to be at Adam's getting ready. Before I know it, it's six o' clock and the limo that's taking us to the beach is in the driveway.

"Are you nervous?" Billie asks me.

"Not yet. Give me a couple minutes." She laughs and kisses my forehead.

"This is the first day of the rest of your life, baby. I'm so proud of you."

"Thank you, mom. I know that technically you're not, but ever since I can remember you have always been there for me, and I will always be grateful to you for that." I wipe a little tear from her cheek.

We load up into the limo and drive to the beach. When we get there, I see another limo that's already dropped the guys off. There are other limo's bringing the guests in.

"So what do we do now?" I ask. Starting to get a little nervous.

"I guess we just wait." Daisy says.

"Well, do we have a mini-bar in this limo? I might need a drink."

"This is a rented limo. No mini-bar."

"Damn." My dad knocks on the limo window.

"You can come out here, everyone is on the beach." We all get out of the limo and I give my dad a hug. I wave at my mother and step-father and they come over. I hug both of them.

"Here, give me your wrist." My mother says. I hold out my left wrist and she puts a sapphire and diamond bracelet over my tattoo. It hangs a little loosely.

"This was my grandmothers, she wore it on her wedding day. So this is your something old, borrowed, and blue all in one." She says.

"It's beautiful, thank you, mom."

"You just need something new."

"My wedding band is new." I say. I go back over to my dad.

"How's Adam?" I ask, playing with one of my rosaries.

"Good, really good. Mike hasn't left him alone for ten minutes. He's been cracking jokes and telling stories non-stop for three hours."

"Poor Adam."

"He said he couldn't wait to marry you."

The florist who was setting up all the flowers and lighting the candles that are lining the aisle comes up to us. She hands me my bouquet of black calla lilies and tells me that we're on in five minutes.

"Holy crap." I tell my dad.

"You'll be fine." We start to walk down to the beach, following a black carpet because we're all barefoot and I didn't want anyone to stop on something and hurt themselves. We meet up with the groomsmen and Adam's best man, his brother, Christian, and pair up. Mike and Daisy, Caitlin and Cale, and Liv will walk with Christian. There are candles everywhere, lining the aisle, behind where the wedding party is going to be standing and behind the guest's seats. There are some small speaker's behind the guest's seats so they can hear the music I will be walking to.

Adam is standing alone at the alter with my father's friend, Nikki, who is officiating. Mike and Daisy walk first, then Caitlin and Cale, then Liv and Christian. Roo and Kya are flower girls, they walk together and toss petals carefully, so as not to catch them on the candles and start a small fire.

The song that Adam wrote for me way back when, Lost In You, starts playing without lyrics, and my dad starts pulling me in the right direction. Adam smiles when he see's me, and I smile back. When we get to the end of the aisle, my dad kisses me, shakes Adam's and gives him a hug, then gives him my hand to hold onto. He then sits next to Billie.

"Dearly Beloved." Nikki starts. "We are gathered here today to join Sophie and Adam in holy matrimony. If any person can show just cause why they may not be joined together, may they speak now or forever hold their peace." I look deeply into Adam's blue eyes and squeeze his hands tightly.

"When you love someone, you do not love them all the time." Nikki starts again. "in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to . And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We insist on permanancy, on duration, on continutiy; when the only continuity possible, in life, as in love, is in growth, in fluidity, in freedom."

"Adam and Sophie have chosen to write their own vows. Adam, we'll start with you. He clears his throat before he speaks.

"Sophie, It became obvious to me a while ago that I really can't breathe when you're not around. Like I wrote in the song, I'm nothing without you. I've always loved the idea of being married. To have one person in your life who is always there for you, by your side forever through all of lifes ups and downs. I am the luckiest man in the world to have that person be you. You've always made me feel like I'm actually good for something other than singing in a band." The crowd laughs a little before he continues."I promise to make this worth it for you. To give you all of me, for as long as I'm here." He finishes and looks at Nikki.

"Sophie, you may now speak your vows to Adam whenever you're ready." He says.

"I remember the night we met. It wasnt that long ago, but I remember how you looked at me. Like you were actually listening to me when I talked. You told me I was beautiful and I never thought that I would see you again, after that. You've brought me back from the very dark place that I was headed, and I'm so grateful. I promise to be everything you ever need, to be strong for you, and to support you in whatever you do." I finish and look at Nikki again. He smiles at us.

"If I could please, have the rings. We will begin the exchange of the rings." Christian steps forward and hands him the rings. Nikki hands Adam mine and gives me Adam's.

"You may repeat after me, Adam." He goes on and tells Adam what to say.

"I give you this ring as a symbol of my love, with all that I am and all that I have, I honor you, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." He slides the ring on my finger. I say the same thing and slide his ring on his hand.

We each take a candle that Nikki gives us and light a larger unity candle. We blow out the individual candles and give them back to him.

"It is by the power vested in me by the state of Illinois, that I now pronounce you husband and wife. Adam, you may now kiss your bride."

"Finally." Adam says. Everyone laughs. I feel a tear fall from my eye as he leans down to kiss me. It's a soft kiss, kind of like our first, and it's kind of short. Adam isnt really into PDA kind of stuff, and that's fine with me. How awkward is it for people to watch some long disgusting kiss?

"Friends, I present to you, Mr. and Mrs. Adam Wade Gontier." Nikki says. All of the guests stand and clap, and we lead the recessional off of the beach back to the limo's.

Adam and I get into a seperate limo and are alone together for the first time in what seems like forever. We kiss and laugh and cuddle in the back of the limo.

"I missed you lastnight." He says.

"Me too."

"How much time do we have befor they wonder where we are?" He asks.

"Not enough for what you're thinking."

"Damn."

"I think you can keep it in your pants until after the reception, babe."

"I don't know." I laugh and we kiss again. When we get to the mansion, I take a couple of minutes to wipe my lipstick off of his mouth, giving the guest's time to get inside.

Nikki anounces our arrival to our guests, we sit with our parent's and listen to some music that Hinder is playing on a small stage in the corner. They mostly play covers because they don't have a lot of wedding appropriate songs. We eat and laugh as Liv, Christian and our parent's all toast us. Austin speaks up from the stage with a glass of champagne in his hand.

"We would like to dedicate this song to the bride and groom. I wanna see your skinny ass dancing Sophie!" He yells at me from accross the room. Mike is smiling big, he lifts his glass in my direction.

"Congrats Adam and Sophie, we love you!" They all say in one mic. "Cheers" Austin says and starts singing.

"You've got a way with me." He sings, I get up and lead Adam to the dance floor.

"Somehow you got me to believe, in everything that I could be." It seems weird to hear Austin sing a song that was made for a woman to sing, but it's really beautiful.

"You've got a way with words.
You get me smiling even when it hurts." He sings.

Adam holds my hand above my head and spins me around dramatically. I laugh and wrap my arms around his neck while we just kind of sway.

"Oh how I adore you
like no one before you
I love you just the way you are." Austin keeps singing.

When the song is over, Adam leans down and whispers in my ear.

"Babe, I wanna go home." He whines. I laugh at him loudly, the sound echoing in the large room.

We go back to our seats and talk to our guests. I dance with my Dad, with both of Adam's brothers, Adam's bandmates, and all of the Hinder guys, except Mike, that would be weird for us. I dance with Adam again to an Eric Clapton song and we take a bunch of pictures. Barry stumbles up to us a little while later.

"You guys make such a great couple." He slurs, wrapping an arm around each of us.

"Have you maybe had a couple of drinks tonight, bud?" Adam asks him.

"I might have had one or two. I love you guys."

"We love you too Barry." I say. Adam gets up and guides him back over to his table, where he had been sitting with Tobin, Daisy,and Sully and his girlfriend, Jessia.

"Babe, it's eleven thirty." He says when he comes back.

"Lets go." We sneak out quietly and I'm pretty sure no one even notices us leave. We have one of the limos take us to our new house. We have all of our furniture there, and all of our wedding gifts and some clothes there. All that's left is some knick knack stuff.

I go into the master bedroom and take off all of my jewelry, excluding my wedding rings. I put on a little white nightie that Liv gave me lastnight at the party and walk back out to the bedroom. Adam is lighting a bunch of candles around the room. He stops when I emerge from the bathroom.

He kisses me and then lays me down on our bed. He take's his shirt off and lay's down on top of me.

"Mrs. Gontier." He says teasingly.

"Thats what the paper says." He slips the nightie over my head.

"Well that didn't last long." I say.

"I meant everything I said in those vows."

"I know." We have sex and afterwards we lay covered by a large white knitted blanket.

"I could live with this everyday for the rest of my life." I say.

"I have a surprise for you, so if you could maybe make yourself hidden tomorrow for a couple hours, that would be great."

"Will I like the surprise?"

"I'm pretty sure you will."

"Well, I better since you're making me leave my bed on the day after my wedding."

"I'll make it up to you tonight, I promise."