Learning to be Beautiful

Bonus Scene: ~The I Do's~

Huge oak trees stand near the small white church, their large boughs spreading out and towards the sky like gnarled fingers covered in thick, low-hanging moss. Guests move slowly towards the wooden doors of the building, little smiles of anticipation on their faces. Small children dart in and out from between the trunks of the old, woody giants giggling with glee as they race after each other in an exciting game of 'tag'.

I watch them all from the only window in the upper room of the church and smile as a little girl twirls as fast as she can in the grass so that her green skirt will flare out around her legs.

"Aislyn Palmin you get back here so that I can finish your makeup or I will drag you here myself." Pierre's voice cuts sharply through the serene atmosphere and I find myself giggling as I turn to face the short blond man.

"Oh, calm down, Pierre," I laugh. "I look fine."

Throwing his hands into the air dramatically, Pierre rushes towards me and grabs my hand to pull me back over to the full-length mirror he had set up in the room. " 'Fine' is not enough." He smooths the sides of my veil down a little. "It's your wedding day, and you are going to look absolutely perfect." As he speaks, he pushes me down gently into a nearby chair and starts tugging at my eyebrows with a minuscule pair of tweezers. "I want your outside to mirror your inside."

"So you want me to look like a jumbled mess of guts?" I joke lightly.

Pierre isn't amused and flicks my nose lightly. "No, twit. I mean I want you to look beautiful. Now hold still or I'll have to draw your eyebrows back on."

Obediently, I stay as still as possible as he finishes up my eyebrows and lightly dusts my face with powder.

"I'm so proud of you, Aislyn," he murmurs, coating my lashes in mascara. "You've come a long way since that first summer."

I smile silently. I have come a long way. That summer I was much less confident in myself than I am now--not to say that I don't still have little moments of self-doubt. I had graduated from college four years ago, and had gotten a job at my mother's agency as Pierre's executive assistant. I hadn't studied for such a job, of course, but Pierre had insisted and it turned out to be much more fun than I imagined a dental assistant's job would have been.

"There, you're all done," he declares, swiping my lips once more with color.

The door opens behind us and my mother steps in. Her blond hair is showing streaks of grey and the laughing lines around her eyes and mouth have deepened, but she is still the most beautiful woman I know. 

"Oh" is all she says as she takes one step towards me before covering her mouth with her hand. "The ceremony hasn't even started and the waterworks have already started."

"No, no, no!" shrieks the designer, quickly grabbing a tissue and thrusting it in my mother's face. "If you're going to hug the bride you will do it with a dry face. I will not have you ruining my most wonderful creation."

Pierre is terribly protective of my wedding dress--it was a one-of-a-kind design, made especially for me.

Mother hugs me quickly before taking my hand and squeezing it gently. "Come on, it's just about time."

Together we head down the wooden steps. Pierre walks into the sanctuary and takes a seat near the front of the room, a huge, proud smile on his face. Mom walks down soon after on the arm of one of the handsome young ushers. Callie is whisked down the aisle by the same usher and before long and her little three-year-old daughter toddles after her, tossing flower petals onto the ground as she walks.

Gavin appears beside me and gives my hand a reassuring squeeze. "Breathe, Ais," he says, winking. "You look amazing."

I release the breath I had been keeping trapped in my lungs but can do nothing for the pounding of my heart. "Cherie looks adorable," I choke out, referring to the flower girl. Gavin and Callie had named their daughter for our lost friend.

"I swear she looks more and more like her mother every day," he replies, a sort of wistfulness clouding his voice.

From the sanctuary, I hear "The Man From Snowy River" begin to play and I swear my heart starts trying to escape my chest.

"I'm nervous," I admit quietly to Gavin, who is walking me down the aisle in the place of my father.

"Don't be," he laughs in my ear, "You look amazing." He carefully reaches up and lowers my veil to cover my face.

The doors open and I clutch at my best friend's arm. "What if I trip and fall on my face?" While the odds are against it, I can't help but see myself doing it.

"I'll be there to catch you."

The feel of Gavin's strong arm under my hand is reassuring as we step towards the wooden doors and into the sanctuary. I feel everyone's eyes on me, staring. My mother has tears in her eyes, and so does Pierre. Callie's grin is threatening to split her face in half, and Linc--

Linc stands at the end of the aisle, looking dapper in his black tuxedo. A single red rose is attached to his lapel, and his dark hair is slicked back neatly. But the thing I notice most of all are his eyes. Their green irises are visible to me from halfway down the aisle and I feel myself losing my nervousness as I stare right back at my husband-to-be. A small smile has appeared on his face, and the emerald orbs twinkle brightly.

"You look amazing" he mouths to me, and I blush from beneath my veil.

"Who gives this woman to be wed to this man?" The reverend asks in his deep voice.

Gavin sounds very solemn as he says, "I do."

Carefully, he slips his arm from my grasp and kisses me lightly on the cheek before stepping back and joining my mother in the front pew. I don't have time to feel frightened because as soon as my contact with Gavin ends, Linc takes my hand and walks with me up a few short steps to stand before the ancient minister.

The ceremony flies by much more quickly than I could have imagined. My heart is pounding the entire time, and I think I giggled a few more times than was strictly necessary during my vows, but before I know it the reverend is asking me what token I give to Linc as a symbol of my love.

"A-a ring," I choke out nervously, blushing as I stutter. Callie steps forward and places a simple golden band in my hand and I clutch at it as if for dear life, frightened that I might drop it and make a fool of myself.

Rev. Michaels has me say a few more words and I am soon slipping the band onto Linc's ring finger with shaking hands.

"And now, by the power vested in me by God and the state of California, I hereby pronounce you man and wife."

Linc grins at this winks at me before mouthing 'Here comes my favorite part'.

"You may kiss the bride."

He kisses me quickly before pulling back and smiling hugely at the congregation. Cheers and applause surround us as the Michaels introduces us as "Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln Kingsman". With our fingers intertwined, we run down the aisle to the church doors. He pauses for a moment.

And in that one moment, when I am least expecting it, Linc closes the spacial gap between us and kisses me.

///

This could also be considered an alternate ending... but it really wouldn't make sense without the college-scene. :P Ahaha, anywho. Because I wrote this, there will not be a sequel. I thought about it for a while then decided that this needed to stay the way it was; I've read too many good books that were slightly marred by a sequel.

This is the offical LtbB goodbye.

Bai(':