To Have And To Hold

21 - Needless Nerves

"Good morning," Joey murmured to Lauren, his voice thick with sleep, as he pushed himself up onto his elbow to kiss her. Getting to wake up to Lauren every morning remained one of his favourite sights in the world, and even though he was sure it was in his head, he thought she looked even more radiant that morning.

"Morning," she replied. They looked into each other's eyes, before breaking into simultaneous grins.

"You look beautiful," he said honestly.

"Well you are gonna have a heart attack when you see me later," she smirked, but she patted his cheek to let him know she appreciated the compliment.

"Don't even joke about that, because it's true," he laughed. 

"We waited long enough for this, you better not die before the ceremony's over."

"I'll try," he said, giving her a lopsided grin.

"And no crying," she said severely.

He reached out to brush a thumb along her jaw. "No promises."

She narrowed her eyes at him, but Joey wasn't going to make a promise to Lauren that he couldn't keep. And of course he was going to cry.

"We should have just had the wedding here," she mumbled, rolling over into his chest.

"What, in bed?" he chuckled as his arms automatically wrapped around her.

"Mm."

Her phone rang and she groaned, rolling back away from him to pick it up.

"Hi."

Joey could hear a faint voice on the other end of the phone. He didn't know who it was, but Lauren rolled her eyes at him and he grinned.

"Yeah Jaim, I'm about to leave right now," she said, forcing herself out of bed. Joey shook his head at her lie, figuring now was as good a time as any to get out of bed himself. 

She put the phone on speaker while she pulled out clothes to wear over to Jaime's, where she was going to finish getting ready with the girls.

"Relax, it's not gonna take me long," Lauren said as Jaime's voice steadily increased in volume and pitch.

Joey went into the bathroom to start the shower for Lauren, figuring that was at least one less thing she would have to stress about.

"Okay well your parents are almost here and they'll want to take photos and we need to be at the venue by 11 and it's at least half an hour in traffic so don't be long," Jaime said, stumbling over her words in her impatience.

"I got it, see you soon," Lauren said, ending the call. Joey came back into the bedroom to see her huff out a breath, throwing the phone down onto the bed. 

"The shower's running honey," he said. She pressed a grateful kiss to his cheek on her way into the bathroom.

"Why did we decide to put ourselves through this stress?" she asked.

"Because we love each other," he replied with a laugh, but she'd already shut the bathroom door behind her.

Joey went into the kitchen to get breakfast, not having anything else to do until Lauren was gone and he could start getting ready himself. As he ate his toast, he got Lauren's makeup bag and put it by the door with her keys and phone so she was set to go.

She rushed into the living room, pulling a t-shirt over her head, and shoved her feet into her shoes. "Thank you," she said over her shoulder, noticing her stuff piled together on the side.

"I'll see you soon," she grinned, blowing a kiss to him on her way out the door.

"I can't wait," he said, smiling dazedly after her.

Brian and Corey arrived shortly before it was time to leave. With Lauren gone Joey was starting to feel his stress levels creep up, so he scooped Diane into his arms to give her a quick cuddle before they set off. The drive there was over in the blink of an eye, and then Joey was greeting his parents with a hug as they waited for Lauren to arrive.

They tried to make small talk with him, but must have picked up that he was distracted.

"Nervous?" his dad asked.

Joey shook his head, then hesitated. "Not about marrying Lo. But maybe a little about marrying her in front of people."

"Joey, you've practically made a living out of performing in front of people," his mom laughed, placing a reassuring hand on his arm.

"This is a little bit different," he said with a half-hearted laugh, tugging at his collar.

"Everything will be fine. We all just want to see you two happy," she said.

His dad nodded at someone over Joey's shoulder, and he had to remind himself to breathe.

"You okay?" Bob said. Joey nodded certainly. "Good man." His parents took their seats, and Joey slowly turned around. 

He saw Lauren walking towards him, her parents on either side of her, and felt the tears begin to flow from his eyes even as he smiled at her. She blinked frantically, trying to stop him from setting her off, and Joey inhaled deeply. She hugged each of her parents in turn, before taking the last few steps to join him at the start of the aisle.

"Lo," he choked out once she was in earshot. His gaze travelled down her hair cascading over her shoulders to her elegant dress - feeling suddenly very glad that he hadn't seen it before now - and then back up to her eyes. "You look-" There weren't even words to encapsulate her. He swiped the back of his hand over his cheeks frustratedly. "Fuck, I'm not supposed to be crying." 

She giggled, her eyes shifting from him over to their family and friends sat waiting to watch them get married. Joey was sure she was nervous, knowing she'd hate having so much attention on her, but she hardly showed it.

She reached out for his hand, her fingers curling around his. "Ready?" she breathed.

"So ready." And they began their walk down the aisle hand in hand.

A/N It's finally what we've all been looking forward to!!! Also hbd Lauren or w/e (literally the only reason this is being uploaded so late is because I've been obsessively refreshing Instagram for a certain someone's birthday post and I'm rapidly losing my mind)