Thank You

Austin gently tugged a sleepy Jessica down the hallway, the stairs and through the living room until they reached the kitchen. She wasn’t happy with how early her dad wanted to have a family meeting and she definitely wasn’t happy with how annoying Austin had been waking her up after he groggily answered her cellphone and had a conversation with her dad.

She plopped down on one of the chairs surrounding the kitchen table that her family had had since she could remember. They were the first ones to the designated meeting place, which was odd since Jessica was usually the last one to everything. Austin was watching her from the seat next to her own, a look of concern draped across his face. She pulled one of her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on it.

“I’m fine,” she answered before he could ask, shooting him a tiny smile. He smiled and nodded, reaching over and rubbing her back, a gesture that comforted her. It wasn’t long before Peyton strolled in, practically throwing herself into the chair across the table from Austin.

“The sight of you two together makes me want to swallow knives,” she spoke up after watching them for a minute.

“Do you still know where the knife drawer is or would you like me to refresh your memory?” Jessica retorted, earning a pinch from Austin. “Ow,” she whined, glaring at him.

“Look,” Austin sighed, breaking contact with Jessica and sitting back in his chair. “Whether you like it or not, Pey, we’re engaged. Your sarcastic remarks aren’t going to make this any less real. I never once butted into any of your relationships and lord knows I wanted to. So back off of mine,” he paused and took a deep breath, surveying her slack posture and her lack of interest. “You’ve been my friend for what, 5, maybe 6 years?”

“Yeah,” Peyton nodded and then glanced at Jessica. “But I’ve been her sister for 23 years. So you can preach all you want, Austin, but nothing you say is going to make me convert into this sick idea that whatever you guys have is healthy.”

Jessica sighed and dropped her head onto the table, wanting nothing more than to go back to bed. Austin chuckled and shook his head, reaching out and resting his hand on Jessica’s leg. “You found your happiness, Pey. Let us find ours.”

And that was it. Peyton didn’t say another word. A few minutes later, Jessica’s dad entered the kitchen and set down the grocery bags he had been holding.

“Sorry, guys. I haven’t really been home in a few weeks so there’s no food,” he informed them. Jessica lifted her head off of the table and studied him. His tall build looked unhealthy to her for the first time she can remember. He had dropped weight and the bags under his eyes were prominent. She stood up, letting Austin’s hand fall off of her leg and walked around the table to help him. He waved her off and insisted she sat back down, making her feel useless.

“We need to talk,” he said, finally sitting down at the head of the table. Ted Clark wasn’t one to talk about anything, really. He was quiet. He usually sat in the living room and watched old Jeopardy reruns. Since he wasn’t Peyton’s real dad, they never really connected, no matter how hard he tried, she just wasn’t interested. She had her own dad, and she let everyone know that she thought that he hung the moon.

“The doctor’s told your mom that she may not have as long left as they had originally thought.” He looked calm, cool and collected as he delivered the news. Knowing her father, Jessica figured that he probably practicing delivering the news on the way over. “With that being said,” he sighed, looking at Austin and then at Jessica “Your mom wants nothing more than to see you get married.”

“I know,” she spoke up, her voice sounding foreign and week to herself.

“And your mom wants to meet your family,” he sighed, focusing his attention on Peyton. “She wants to at least meet her grandkids, Peyton.”

Peyton just nodded and then focused on Jessica. That was when Jessica finally saw it. A moment of weakness, which was something Peyton tried not to show people too often. It was real. It was happening. So many close calls and kidney transplants and rejections, and this was it. This was how it was going to end.

“How long does she have?” Jessica spoke up again, hearing her voice crack. Austin reached under the table and grabbed her hand, lacing his fingers with hers.

“Days,” he spoke up after taking a moment to try to collect himself. Nobody said anything because nobody could find their voices, save for Austin. He cleared his throat.

“So the wedding should take place…”

“As soon as possible,” Ted answered. “Like today, if at all possible.”

“Dad, how are we going to put an acceptable wedding together in the span of a few hours?” Jessica asked, wiping her eyes.

“We can do it,” Peyton spoke up, shocking Austin, Jessica and even herself. She may not have agreed with them being together, but this was more for her mom and really had nothing to do with her. Austin was one of her best friends, but he was a grown man. He could make his own decisions. “I’ll call Kennedy and see if he can get the next flight out of Phoenix.”

//\\//\\//\\

An hour later, Jessica and Peyton found themselves in a vintage thrift store, digging through racks and racks of hideous fashion statements from decades past.

“This is ridiculous,” Jessica laughed, holding up a dress that should have burned long ago. “I’ve never really envisioned my wedding or anything, but I always thought that I would have more time to prepare than a few hours.”

“How long have you and Austin been engaged?” Peyton asked, not bothering to look up from the rack.

“Please don’t start this,” Jessica breathed, shaking her head.

“I’m just curious,” she defended, picking up a white dress and having Jessica wrinkle her nose at it.

“Not long,” she shrugged. Peyton waited for her to elaborate, but she never did, so she dropped it. “Well, at least mom will get to see one of us get married.”

“Yeah,” Jessica nodded. “Why didn’t you invite any of us?” she asked after a moment of debating whether or not she should bring it up.

Peyton didn’t answer her, just kept digging through the racks. Jessica decided to drop it. She didn’t need anything else to go down right now. She didn’t think her family could take anything else on top of everything that was going on.

“What about this?” Peyton asked, holding up an off-white dress that made Jessica smile.

“I think that’s it,” she nodded. “It’s perfect.”

“I wonder what Austin picked out,” Peyton laughed.

“God, I can only imagine,” Jessica rolled her eyes.

//\\//\\//\\//\\

She wasn’t involved in any of the planning, really. She didn’t care what it looked like, where it was at or who was invited. All she cared about was that her mom would be there. She curled her hair, did her make-up and slid into her dress. Her part was done.

She thought about Austin. She wondered if he was nervous or if, since this whole thing was fake, he was treating it like a game. That’s practically what it was; they were playing people. She’d never known someone who was willing to do something like this for her. He was willingly entering into his first marriage with a woman he wasn’t in love with. Hell, it was even his idea. She sighed as she thought about what people would think when they split up. Would they tell everyone it was a sham wedding? Would they lie and tell people that they fell out of love or use some other lame excuse?

She heard a knock on her door and called for whoever it was to come in, thankful for the distraction from her own thoughts. Turning around, she saw that it was Peyton, carrying one child on her hip, one was tugging on her hand and the other, and a slightly older girl, following behind her. A guy with messy brown hair and facial hair slid in last.

“Jess, this is Lucas, Piper, Olivia and Kennedy,” she said, motioning to each of them. “Guys, this is your Aunt Jessica.”

“You look really pretty,” Lucas spoke up, wiggling away from his mom.

“Thank you, handsome. You look pretty good yourself,” she smiled at him, squatting down so that she was on his level.

“I can’t believe you’re marrying Gibbs,” Olivia spoke up, her brown curls bouncing as she animatedly engaged with Jessica. “Does his mustache tickle when you guys kiss?” she asked. Jessica laughed as Peyton got onto her.

“We’ve gotta go soon,” Peyton said, handing off Piper to Kennedy. “Ready Jess?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she smiled.

//\\//\\//\\

They didn’t drive far, a few miles at the most. Kennedy told her that it would be a walk once they parked the car, but that didn’t bother Jessica. She slipped her heels off and sank down into the grass. Peyton led the way as Kennedy and Jessica trailed behind.

“Austin told me,” he started. These were the first words he had spoken to her and she was already confused, so she didn’t say anything and waited for him to continue. “About this all being fake.”

“Oh,” she nodded, catching on.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell.”

She didn’t say anything. She just followed Peyton, still dangling her heels from her fingers, loving the feeling of the grass tickling her toes. The grass stopped as a path came into view. Jessica slid her heels back on followed the path, which led into the woods. She knew where they were going. Whenever Peyton came to visit in the summers, they always came to this little clearing. The It seemed like they had been walking forever when finally a little clearing came into view. Peyton stopped walking and turned around, making Jessica wait. She disappeared into the clearing and brought Ted back and he instantly smiled at the sight of Jessica.

“You look beautiful.”

“Thank you, daddy,” she smiled, linking her arm through his. Peyton thrust handful of flowers into her hand and shooed Kennedy and the kids through the entrance of the clearing.

“Well,” Peyton sighed, shooting Jess a smile. “I forged your signature on the marriage license, so don’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t,” Jessica laughed, leaning her head on her dad’s shoulder. “Thank you, Peyton. For doing all of this.”

“It was nothing, ”she shrugged. “You ready?”

“Let’s do this,” Jess smiled, with a nod. As soon as Peyton disappeared into the clearing, she held onto her dad’s arm tighter. This was it.

They took a few steps and rounding the clearing. It was beautiful. There were white paper lanterns hanging from the tree branches as well as some lights. She was so caught up in looking at it all, that she basically stopped walking and felt her dad continue to tug her arm. She looked around at all of the people standing on either side of the aisle, which was comprised of white flower petals. She saw her mom, tears streaming down her face, tubes and wires sticking out of her body that were all connected to bags of fluids, which made her sad. She saw some aunts and uncles that she hadn’t seen in years, some friends from high school. There were some people she hadn’t recognized, but she figured they were friends of Austin’s. A man that she had never seen before was standing next to Austin, who finally caught her attention. He was wearing black dress pants and white button down shirt with black suspenders. He looked amazing, if she did say so herself. She had never seen him look at her the way he currently was. To anyone on the outside, it probably looked like love. But to her, it was misplaced. It wasn’t love, it was probably just some generic look of affection mixed in with a little bit of acting. She smiled at him and continued her walk down the aisle until she was standing in front of him. He shook her dad’s hand and linked both of his hands with hers, leaning in and whispering into her ear, “You look gorgeous.” She smiled and mouthed, “So do you.”

The wedding wasn’t totally traditional, considering Kennedy was the one marrying them.

“Family and friends,” he started, looking around the clearing. “Thank you for joining us today to witness these two individuals become one through the sacred vow that is marriage.” He paused and racked his brains. “I’m not entirely sure how this goes, because I was just ordained online a few minutes ago, but bear with me.” Jessica chuckled, as did most everyone else. He rambled on for a while, saying things that he had probably heard in other people’s weddings. It was very humorous to Jessica and she was glad that he was light and not formal. It made her feel more comfortable.

“Do you, Jessica May Clark, take thee, Austin Chandler Gibbs to be you lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, forsaking all others until death do you part?” She looked at Austin, looking deep into his eyes and etching the way he was looking at her into her brain. He gave her hand a squeeze and his lips twitched into a smirk. She took a deep breath and smiled back. “I do.”

“And Austin? Do you do the same?” he asked, not repeating the mouthful he had previously spit out. Jessica giggled and looked up at Austin. “I do.” He nodded, rubbing his thumb over Jessica’s knuckles.

“Alright, then by what little power vested in me and the state of Alabama, I pronounce you husband and wife. Austin, you may now kiss your bride.”

Austin leaned in and rested his hands on her waist, pulling her body into his. He smiled at her before attaching his lips to hers. She heard claps and cheers in the background but she blocked them out. As soon as they pulled away, she looked to see if there was any regret or annoyance written on his face, but she didn’t see anything there. Just happiness. Maybe she needed to stop thinking that he was going to regret this. It was his idea. It wasn’t as big of a deal as she was making it out to be. He grabbed her hand and then thrust their linked hands into the air.

“Mr. and Mrs. Austin Gibbs, everyone.” Kennedy spoke up and the cheering got louder.

That was it. She was now, legally, Mrs. Austin Gibbs.

//\\//\\//\\//\\

Hours had passed and the clearing turned into a reception party. Jessica’s mom had to go back to the hospital right after the ceremony, but she couldn’t stop crying and telling Jessica how happy she was for her. She met all of Austin’s friends who had flown in on such short notice for the wedding. She even met his best man, who happened to be his brother. She had countless glasses of champagne, which was the first alcoholic drink she had had in a while. She would be lying if she said it hadn’t gone straight to her head.

“Are you ready to go?” Austin asked, after their third consecutive hour on the dance floor. He’d had so many beers that he was using her as a crutch as they swayed back and forth.

“We can’t drive,” she laughed, playing with the hairs at the nape of his neck.

“Kennedy is driving us,” he laughed, pulling back to push her bangs out of her face. He looked at her and then leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Your dad bought us a room at the Wynfrey Hotel as a wedding present.”

“Wow,” she smiled, “That one’s really fancy. Let’s go.”

They sought out Kennedy and got him to lead the way to the car since they were too drunk to see. It wasn’t a long drive to the hotel, but they were sure it felt like it was for Kennedy because they were cracking bad jokes in the back seat the whole time. They thanked Kennedy and checked in, making their way to their room, where someone, she assumed Peyton, already had bags of clothes waiting on them.

“Mmmm, I hope she packed my comfy pajama’s.” Jessica slurred, digging through the back and pulling out nothing but clothes she had never seen. Some of the outfits made her blush at their lack of fabric. “Oh my god,” Jessica sighed, throwing the clothes back into the bag. “She’s impossible.”

“Here, you can sleep in one of my shirts,” he said, throwing a flannel button up at her. She smiled and stepped into the bathroom, taking the few bobby pins she had in her hair and slipping out of her dress and into Austin’s shirt. When she opened the door to go back out, she practically jumped at the sight of Austin leaning against the doorframe.

“I’m sorry, I just…” he trailed off, looking down at the sight of her in his shirt, letting out a low whistle.

“Oh shut up,” she joked, pushing his shoulder with her palm.

“Make me,” he teased, grabbing her hand and pushing it away.

“And how am I supposed to do-“ but that was all she was able to get out as his lips crashed into hers.

This was new. Unexpected and new.

She pulled away and he watched as her eyes danced around as she studied him.

“I’m sorry,” he sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I shouldn’t have done th-“ she stood on her tiptoes and reintroduced their lips, cutting off his apology. A feeling of familiarity hit her as she remembered that night in the grocery store, but this was different. They didn’t know each other then. It was just supposed to be one night of mindless fun. She didn’t know that a few years down the road, she would end up being married to this man, fake or otherwise.

Her fingers dug through his hair, biting his bottom lip and bringing his body as close to hers as she could. He ran his hands down her sides until they rested just under her bottom, connecting with the bare flesh just below her underwear. He slowly picked her up, anticipating the feeling of her legs wrapping around him, which instinctively happened. He leaned her back against the wall, attacking her neck with his lips, remembering exactly what set her off. It was familiar but it was also new. He took his time this time, exploring parts of her that he never thought he would ever get touch again. She laughed as he stumbled backwards until his calves hit the bed and he held onto her tightly as he fell backwards. The sound of her laughter ringing in his ears made him smile. It had been a while since he had heard it.

“Are you sure you want to do this Mrs. Gibbs?” he teased, running his fingers through her hair.

“It’s our wedding night, Mr. Gibbs,” she sighed, leaning down to reconnect their lips. “What are we supposed to do? Play Scrabble?”

“If that’s what you want to do,” he chuckled, sucking on the bit of sensitive flesh above her collarbone where the shirt had slid down.

“Ah,” she closed her eyes and tried to calm her breathing. “No.” Her fingers ran down his suspenders as she unfastened them from his pants. “Definitely not.” She continued, fumbling with the buttons of his shirt.

“Good,” he breathed, running his hands under the back of her shirt. “I’m shit at Scrabble.”

“Stop talking,” she demanded with a smile, assaulting his mouth with hers again.

Jessica heard her phone vibrating on the counter in the bathroom, but she ignored it. Nothing was going to interrupt this.

This was it. This was really happening.