One Heart

Brian's POV

For the next two weeks Nathalie seemed to be getting better despite what she said about the doctor's prognosis; it was almost as if she was pushing herself to defy them, to prove that she didn't have to live to their guidelines of when she was going to die. However in the third week, she took a turn for the worse. Jimmy and I managed to convince the rest of them that it was just a bout of the flu, but I don't know how long that will hold up. Especially when Chloe was always sceptical about it and we could only use the excuse 'she just needs rest' so many times.

“Hey babe,” I said soothingly, sitting on the edge of the bed and pushing some of her hair behind her ear. “How are you feeling?”

“Better now that my fiancé is here,” she replied as a small smile graced her lips. “Where is Jimmy?”

“Keeping the girls busy by sorting out the last of the arrangements.” I sighed. “Chloe wants to see you.”

Her face fell. “She'll find out sooner or later.” She sighed, pushing herself to an upright position. “Maybe I should just tell them. It's only time until they figure it out- or I die.”

I turned away, staring at the floor. “I hate it when you speak like that.”

“I'm sorry.” Moving her legs from underneath the covers she crawled up behind me, resting her head on my shoulder and her draping her arms loosely around my neck. “It's just hard to look on the bright side all the time.”

I reached up and held one of her hands in mine, running my thumb across her knuckles. “It's not your fault.” Footsteps echoed upstairs as the door opened and closed, meaning only one thing. “Looks like everyone is back.” Her eyes flickered to mine. “Want me to tell them to go?”

“No, it's alright,” she replied, sliding slowly off the end of the bed and turning to face me, holding her hand out. “It's going to take both of us to stop Chloe from killing Jimmy.”

–

“Jimmy, you better fucking tell me what is going on-”

“Chloe let me-”

Despite asking him a question, she didn't let him reply, becoming more frustrated as time wore on. “JUST FUCKING TELL ME! It's her fucking wedding tomorrow!”

“Clo, could you try and be a bit quieter?” Nathalie asked as she walked into the front room with me, her arms wrapped around one of mine not just to show affection, but for support as well. However unless you knew everything, no one would know the latter. “We're not trying to wake the dead. Not that I wouldn't complain about meeting Mom and Dad again.”

“Nat!” Overjoyed at seeing her after not being told anything she couldn't resist drawing her into one of her famous bear hugs, albeit this time taking into account her friend's frailty. “I haven't seen you in ages!”

Nat raised an eyebrow. “You saw me last week. You know, right there, on the couch? You were sitting on Zacky, everyone else was round? Remember?”

“You know what I meant,” Chloe said with a light pout. “Plus it is the rehearsal dinner tonight. Or did you forget?”

“Of course not,” Nat answered, sounding as if she thought Chloe was mad to even suggest it. “You are early- you haven't given me time to get ready. However I thought I should tell you that the dinner at the restaurant has been cancelled.”

They all looked at each other, exchanging looks of disbelief and shock, especially the guys who had been forced into tuxedos for the evening by their partners. Chloe led them as their voice. “What? Why?”

She smiled. “I thought I would cook for you instead.”

–

Nathalie's POV

For the dinner I slipped into a periwinkle chiffon dress that flowed with the curves of my body, a single split rose from where it stopped at the end of my leg rising all the way to my thigh. Accompanying this was a pair of silver stilettos, matching the colour with the silver chain which Brian had given back to me a week ago and a pair of long, silver butterfly earrings that just dusted against my shoulders. I had even gone as far to clip a tiny silver butterfly into my hair, having found the delicate piece hidden amongst my other things.

I had instructed everyone that I didn't need help, but of course Brian didn't take notice of this.

“That doesn’t look like cooking,” he stated as he walked into the kitchen, looking as handsome as ever in a black tuxedo, complete with tiny butterfly cuff links he had picked up especially for me. “If you are drinking, then I think you should at least let everyone know so they can join you.”

“I don’t think this is the kind of stuff everyone wants to drink,” I chuckled. “It certainly isn’t the nicest of things.”

He walked over to my side, inspecting the drink in my hand before taking a sip, only to then quickly pull a disgusted face and hand it back to me. “What is that?”

“A variety of energy drinks,” I answered, gesturing to the discarded cans on the side. “I wanted to make sure that I could last the night.”

“You don’t have to force yourself Nat,” Brian said, his reply laced with worry. “If you don’t feel up to it-“

“No, no I do,” I interrupted, placing the half-full glass on the side and walking over to his side, taking hold of his hand and pressing it to my cheek while looking up at him. “I don’t want the most important time of my life to be dragged down by anything.”

“I love you Nathalie. Forever, I will.”

“For forever,” I agreed.

As if on cue to ruin the moment, Chloe barged into the kitchen, her cell in her hand and a look of annoyance crossing her face. “I just called the restaurant and they said no one had called to cancel tonight.” She looked between the two of us, standing defiant. “What the hell is going on? I know you are keeping something from me.”

“Chloe-“ Brian began, but I cut him off, knowing she wouldn’t believe anything he said, even if it was the truth, She would rather hear something from me. The friend who has been keeping secrets from her.

“Is it so hard for me to ask for time alone with my future husband?”

This was an answer neither of them expected.

“But Nat, you’ve had time with him-“

“Only because I forced Jimmy and Brian to lie for me, to say I was feeling ill. All this time it has been wedding preparations with you and the rest of the girls, you haven’t given me time to spend with the man the rest of my life will be dedicated to.” Which incidentally, the ‘rest of my life’ wasn’t that long.“I’m sorry I had to lie, but it was the first thing I thought of.”

From this revelation she instantly felt guilty, even though it was for another lie. “Nathalie... I...” She couldn’t answer. “I didn’t know that was how you felt...”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said with a smile, moving away from Brian and taking my friend into an embrace. I felt horrible for lying to her, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her… not after all the effort she put into organising the wedding. Telling her would just put a dampener on everything. “I know you just wanted to give me the best, like you have done all these years.” I pulled back and hooked one of my arms around hers and grabbed Brian’s hand in my other, looking between them both as I walked them to the door. “How about we all go get some food then? I’m sure Zacky’s stomach by now must be ready to eat somebody.” Chloe stopped, making me look back at her. “Clo?”

“Babe, I have to say something.”

“What’s that?”

She grinned. “You look amazing.”

--

Brian’s POV

“This is why we leave this stuff to the girls,” I remarked as Nathalie and I walked underneath a balloon archway at the start of a red carpet running from the restaurant entrance to the sidewalk. “If you left it to us instead you would have ended up with a strip club.”

“Not that you would have minded, eh, Syn?” Zack piped up from beside me, nudging me with a wink. “Last night of being an untied man.”

“You’ll be an untied man soon if you don’t be quiet Baker,” Chloe growled, glaring at her boyfriend. “It won’t be hard for you to be a free man as well.”

“Lighten up Clo,” Zack replied, draping his arm around her shoulders and drawing her close. “It’s a happy occasion.”

“It is, but I have to thank Chloe and the girls for it.” Nathalie seemed to be sharing my shock, still lost in the awe of how magnificent they had made the place look. “We couldn't have asked for anything more.”

“Oh don't think this is it,” she replied, calling back as Zacky pulled her inside after the others. “The best is inside!”

This left just the two of us alone. I squeezed his hand as we stopped on the other side of the door, my gaze sliding to his. “Tonight is your night Nat. Enjoy it.”

She shook her head. “No, it's ours.”

--

Chloe was certainly right about the inside- the girls had really gone all out. The walls of the restaurants were completely covered with balloons, banners, streamers; you name it, as long as it was related to a party, it was here somewhere. There was even a game of Twister set up in the corner, something I was pretty sure was going to get used a lot after a few drinks. Along with this another surprise waited inside, this time in the form of the guests. We had let Chloe handle the guest list, so we all just assumed that it would just be the ten of us for the rehearsal dinner and then everyone else tomorrow at the wedding. We were wrong.

“Matt!” Just then I caught a glimpse of the old Nathalie, something I rarely saw now. Her eyes just seemed to light up as she ran across to him, swinging her arms around him and laughing from pure disbelief. “What are you doing here?! I thought you were on tour somewhere?”

The lead singer of Bullet For My Valentine chuckled. “How could I miss the wedding of my dearest Talie?” He squeezed her close to him. “I've missed you.”

“I've missed you too,” Nat echoed. “How have you been? Where are the others?”

“They had to stay behind, but they send their congratulations. And you know me. The usual.”

She cocked her head to the side. “So recording, touring, drinking and partying?”

“You got it,” Matt replied, grinning. He then turned to me, directing his next question my way. “So what took you lovebirds so long to finally tie the knot?”

“What took us so long?”

He raised an eyebrow. “You've been together like six years, right? It was five and a half since Taste of Chaos, and you were already together for like six months, weren't you?”

“Oh, right. Well...”

Nat cut me off. “Matt, it's only been a few weeks since we got together again.” She quickly added an explanation, “A few months after we left you on the tour we split up. For four and a half years, I lived with my daughter in Phoenix. I came back seven months ago. A few weeks ago Brian proposed- and now we're here.”

“Hold up.” Matt held his hands up. “Okay, I get the whole relationship-split thing, but a daughter?!” He pointed at me. “His?” She nodded. “Fuck.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “Well, I hope she took after you Talie because she has one ugly fucker for a father.”

She punched him in the arm. “Be nice.” Moving away from him she crossed to my side, taking my hand and leaning her head against my shoulder. “That's my future husband you are talking to.”