"All these years, always with you?" Her eyes remained glued to his. Oh God, not again, she groaned inwardly as the tears threatened to appear in her eyes. She'd never laughed or cried or felt so many emotions in such a short period of time in her life as she had with him in the past five days. It was like an emotional rollercoaster, but it was good.
His face reddened further and he cleared his throat. "Yeah." He shrugged. "You know... It..."
She nodded. "I know. Damon-"
A knock at the dressing room door interrupted them, spoiling the moment. Damon stepped away from her and opened the door for the sales clerk. "We'll take the dress, can you have a couple of alterations done by seven tonight?"
The clerk beamed. "Of course! We have a stunning matching veil."
"Then by all means, let's see it."
*****
Damon pulled Katrina against his side and kissed the top of her head as they waited their turn at the Graceland Wedding Chapel. "Last chance, we can have our wedding in Bangor if you want."
She shook her head and looked up at him. "Not a chance."
Katrina looked radiant. Happy. The look of love and admiration in her gaze filled his heart. There was no doubt in his mind this had been the right decision. In fact, it was easily the best decision he'd ever made in his life. He'd fucked up when they were young, but at least they were able to make it right. He just had to win this cancer battle. She deserved more than a year. She deserved a lifetime of happiness and he'd do whatever treatment traditional, non-traditional or otherwise to give her the life she deserved.
The chapel doors burst open and a young happily married couple that was lucky to be over the age of twenty burst through the doors. Music flowed from the chapel and the Elvis minister followed behind the couple, exiting the chapel. The Elvis minister who looked nothing like the real Elvis approached Damon and Katrina.
Oh Damn, this is so tacky, Damon chuckled to himself, but glancing down at Katrina it didn't matter. She was smiling ear to ear, embracing the tackiness of the situation.
"Katrina and Damon," the minister asked as he approached.
The nodded in unison.
"You kids ready to get hitched at the Graceland Wedding Chapel?"
They nodded in unison a second time, and then looked at each other, both fighting to keep from laughing out loud at the craziness of it all.
"Then follow me. You got the plus package right. The plus package includes photos of your glorious union into marital bliss and photo key chains."
They exchanged amused grins behind the ministers back as they followed him. Katrina's arm linked with Damon's as they walked towards the wedding arch, walking to an alternate fast tempo beat of Here Comes the Bride.
"Are you sure you want to do this here?" Damon whispered to her as they approached the arch. She nodded enthusiastically.
Laughing, Damon shrugged. "Okay. You're the boss."
"Ooooh, I like the sound of that," she whispered back.
****
Katrina didn't hear much of what the Elvis minister was saying; her focus was on Damon. Her heart was racing and she felt like a giddy schoolgirl. This was easily the craziest thing she'd ever done and she couldn't be happier about it. He looked so handsome and, from time to time, he'd looked down at her, catch her eyes and give her a sexy heart-stopping grin or wink.
"I'm told that you both have written your vows," Elvis stated glancing from one to the other.
"We have," Damon confirmed.
"Then by all means, Katrina would you please say your vows."
Once they finished with getting their marriage licence the previous day, they'd separated to different parts of the house and took several hours to write their vows. Katrina had gotten up several times during the previous night to make adjustments to hers while Damon slept. There was so much that she felt and wanted to say, putting it into a few lines of prose seemed to be an impossible task.
Damon lifted her veil and pushed it back so they could look eye to eye without the thin white barrier and then took her hands in his. As their eyes locked, to her horror she realized that she'd forgotten her lines. She hadn't brought her lines with her and with a silent curse she realized she was going to have to wing it.
He frowned, "Are you okay Kat?"
Katrina nodded and gave him a nervous smile. Taking a deep breath in, she slowly released it and began. "Damon, I spent years looking for the one person I was meant to spend my life with, but he never showed up. I realized when we reconnected at the reunion that the reason he never showed up was because I'd already had him - he'd been you all along. You knew me better than anyone when we were young and that hasn't changed despite the years that have passed. I loved you back then and I love you now and I'll love you on our fiftieth wedding anniversary. I know we have a rough road ahead, but fate brought us back together for a reason. You're my Price Charming. You always have been and always will be. I love you."
Oh God, that was awful, she groaned inwardly.
Elvis smiled and nodded towards Damon. "And Damon, please give your vows."
Katrina could see the nervousness in him as he took a deep breath in and released it. She squeezed his hands in reassurance. "Katrina, you know that I've spent years being consumed with all the wrong things. It has taken me a long time, and a huge wake-up call to see that I had what was most important in life a long, long time ago. You mean more to me than anyone on this earth ever has or ever will. I feel fate jumped into our lives to bring us back together and do now what we were meant to do a decade ago. I promise that I will devote the rest of my life to making you happy and giving you the family that you want and deserve."
His eyes were so intense and so sincere that it made her eyes tear up. Releasing one of her hands he wiped the tears away as they ran down her cheeks. "Baby, I'm going to get through this. We're going to make it through. Now that I've found you again there's no way in hell I'll leave you so soon. No way. We're going to grow old and grey together, no matter what it takes. I promise you Kat."
The tears began to flow freely and a confused Elvis stepped back as she threw herself into his arms and buried her face into his neck. "I can't bear the thought you losing you Damon. I can't. It's too soon. It's not fair. I won't let you go, I won't!"
Damon pulled her tight, placing a kiss at her temple, attempting to soothe her. "I'm not going anywhere sweetie. Nowhere. I mean what I said. We're going to beat this and we'll be spending the next fifty years fighting, and making love and creating babies. There's going to be years of good and bad and everything in between and we're going to be going through it together."