The Scottish Thistle and The English Rose by HaylsValo

Chapter 40: Pay The Reaper In Love Only

Chibs, Boo and Kerrianne arrived in Las Vegas late that night. They immediately booked into a two bedroom suite in the Paris-Las Vegas Hotel. Chibs and Quinn would stay in one room while Boo and Kerrianne would stay in the other, since Boo really was of the belief that it was bad luck for the groom to see his bride on her wedding day. The bridal suite was booked for Boo and Chibs for the next night – after a lot of cash was offered to the couple who'd already booked it for that night – while Kerrianne and Quinn would remain in the two bedroom suite from the night before. Kerrianne went straight to bed, shattered after a long day traveling, while Boo and Chibs went and obtained a marriage license. They searched the strip for the best place for their wedding and were able to make a booking for the very next evening at 7pm at the Tuscan Garden Chapel which often hosted Celtic and Irish weddings. They'd arrange everything else the next day. Before they returned to the hotel, Boo and Chibs had a romantic meal under the stars, they're last together before they were married. When they kissed and said goodnight outside of Boo's bedroom on their return, they knew the next time they saw one another would be at the ceremony itself.

Early the next morning, Quinn and Chibs headed out into Vegas. The Nomad president wanted to give the Scotsman a good sendoff into married life and after promising Boo he wouldn't keep her husband-to-be from the altar, he and Chibs headed out for a long ride around Vegas – the Scotsman on a loaner bike – a ride that ended with lunch, drinks and a lap dance at a strip club that Quinn was part owner of. Chibs then sorted out his and Quinn's outfits for the ceremony before heading back to the hotel with the Nomad president for a few hours sleep before the wedding knowing full well that Boo was organizing everything else. He hoped she was able to do so in such a short space of time. And that she didn't go overboard… He and Quinn would have overslept and missed the ceremony had it not been for the fact that Quinn had had the foresight to set an alarm. Chibs was groggy and slightly hung-over when they awoke but as he and Quinn dressed and readied for the wedding, Boo and Kerrianne could be heard giggling and talking in the next room and suddenly his hangover was all but forgotten.

Kerrianne and Boo spent the day preparing for the wedding. They spent the morning at a spa together, getting their bodies preened, plucked and polished in preparation for the wedding. The found Kerrianne a bridesmaids dress – a strapless white, floor length, silk gown that had a deep blue, taffeta tie around the waist, the ends of which reached her knees - before heading to lunch and then proceeded to the florist where they were able to arrange the flowers Boo wanted for her and Kerrianne's bouquets, despite how late they'd left it. White and specially dyed blue roses for Boo and white daisy's and blue forget-me-nots for Kerrianne. While Boo shopped for her wedding night underwear, Kerrianne found a store that sold makeup and hair products and brought everything she'd need to make Boo look beautiful for the wedding (one of the many things she'd done to occupy her time during the endless hours of nothingness at Jimmy's compound was to practice her hair and makeup again and again, trying new styles each time she'd perfected one). As neither Chibs nor Boo wanted any sort of fancy reception, they merely booked a table for four at the Eiffel Tower restaurant in their hotel. They didn't have to organize a photographer, flowers of anything of the sort for the chapel itself as everything was included in the booking which left Boo and Kerrianne with an afternoon with nothing to do. Since Kerrianne wasn't old enough to do much on the strip, they decided to return to the hotel.

Back in their hotel suite – remaining in their bedroom so that Chibs would not see Boo – Kerrianne emailed her mother to update her on her trip while Boo managed to get through to Tig in Stockton. He wished his little girl the best of luck in her wedding, told her that he was proud of her, that he loved her and that she shouldn't feel guilty for getting married without him because he knew she'd been dreaming of marrying Chibs since she was 16. When Boo informed him that she and Chibs were going to renew their vows in Charming simply so that he could walk her down the aisle, he was so overcome with emotion he couldn't even speak – mostly because he didn't want to show how touched he was in front of the other inmates using the phones – and Boo almost hung up the phone, thinking he'd been cut off. In the end, when Tig finally found it in himself to reply, he promised her that her vow renewal would be 'whatever she wanted it to be, no matter what the cost' because he was just so touched that his daughter was going to have a second wedding, just for his sake. After that, Boo borrowed Kerrianne's laptop and burnt a few songs onto a blank CD; the song she was to walk down the aisle too and the song she and Chibs were going to have their first dance too at the end of the ceremony. Finally, in the few hours before the wedding, Kerrianne did Boo's hair and makeup before helping her into her dress. She finished her own hair and makeup with just minute's to spare before they had to leave. In fact, just as she was slipping into her own dress, they heard Chibs and Quinn leave the suite. Before the Scotsman walked on the door, he knocked on Boo and Kerrianne's bedroom door. He told them both that he loved them and then told Boo that he would see her at the altar and that he could wait to see her walking down the aisle.