"Are you nervous?" Viv asked. She glanced up from over Posey's shoulder to meet her eye in the mirror before ducking back down and continuing with her work. "I was nervous when it was my turn."
Posey breathed a laugh, trying to focus on the gradual progression of Viv's hands up the buttons on the back of her dress as she fastened them. "Yes," she admitted, gazing into her own eyes and taking in her appearance while she still could. "But excited, too."
"As well you should be," Ellie said, entering the conversation with a flourish the moment Viv had finished with the buttons. "Nerves are normal but this is a happy day, darlin', and I couldn't be happier for you, honest."
"Me neither," added Viv, giving Posey a quick side hug and a smile through the mirror.
"Ready, honey?" Ellie asked, laying a hand on Posey's shoulder.
Posey smiled, forcing it at first and then feeling it come as naturally as breathing. She was ready. More than ready. She was practically bursting at the seams with eagerness. "Ready," she confirmed, looking at herself long and hard before casting her eyes down demurely.
As Ellie secured the veil in amongst her hair Posey felt her heart stutter. She reached out a hand for Viv, who was ready and waiting and took it immediately, and smoothed her other hand down the skirt of her dress. She was getting married. Married. It was her wedding day and she was a bride. She laughed to think of what she would've said if someone had told her back in boot camp that she'd end up marrying Bill Guarnere - she might have done any number of things, but nearly cry with happiness was not one of them. The version of herself that existed now, though, was on the verge of weeping - happy tears, of course. Always happy tears now.
"And there," Ellie said, finally finished with securing the veil and adjusting the way it fell over Posey's face. She nodded once with a grin, pleased with herself, and stepped back to admire her handiwork. "Absolutely stunnin'," she declared.
Posey giggled, watching her reflection through the white tulle and unable to keep from swishing her dress around her legs.
"You look so beautiful," Viv said on a dreamy sigh.
Posey smiled softly. "I look like my mum."
"She must've been very beautiful, then," Viv replied.
"She was," said John from the doorway, one hand holding the door ajar and the other holding up the pretentious pocket watch Posey had begged him not to wear. "Are you ready?"
Posey turned back to her reflection and drew in a deep breath. Exhaling slowly, she nodded. "Yes," she said with conviction, ignoring the butterflies wreaking havoc in her stomach, "I'm ready."
"Oh, wait!" Viv exclaimed suddenly. She ran across the room - or tried to, at least, in a pair of heels she'd insisted on wearing even though they were much too high for her to walk in properly - and returned with a bouquet of flowers. "Your bouquet! I almost forgot!"
Posey took the flowers from her and smiled down at them. Irises, her mother's favourite. She'd be with her in every way she could be.
"Okay, now she's ready," Viv declared, and shared a grin with Ellie as Posey turned away from the mirror and stepped forwards.
This is it, she thought, making her way towards John. She looped her hand through his arm when she got close. My last few moments as a Wells.
"I'm ready," she said aloud, as much to reassure herself as to let the others know that she was good to go.
John patted her hand where it rested in the crook of his elbow and offered a tiny smile. He spared a glance back at the two bridesmaids, making sure they were ready, before beginning to lead them all to the entrance of the church.
Just before they got there Viv tugged at the skirt of Posey's dress and Ellie adjusted the veil a final time before racing ahead, Ellie a lot more efficiently than Viv. They reached the church doors and turned back to flash two of the brightest smiles Posey had ever seen. John and Posey stayed back, remaining out of sight whilst the doormen pulled open the doors and Viv and Ellie walked the aisle, their arms hooked together and their smiles glowing.
Bill hadn't wanted any groomsmen, not with how many brothers and friends he had who might all be expecting the offer, and he'd said it wouldn't feel right with one of his brothers missing anyway - Henry, the one who had died in the war. So, now that Viv and Ellie were gone, next in line to walk the aisle was the bride herself, accompanied by the man who would be giving her away. As a little girl she'd always imagined her father smiling down at her, but now she knew she wouldn't have wanted anyone else by her side.
"Mum would be so proud," John whispered, leaning into Posey a moment before standing up straight again.
Posey smiled. "She'd be fussing over everything if she was here, suddenly doubting every decoration and every bit of makeup on my face."
"No, she wouldn't," John said, smiling to himself. "Everything's perfect. She'd have nothing to fix."
"I'm nervous," Posey confessed, looking up to her older brother and seeking reassurance. "I don't know what their reactions will be. They might be angry. I could take them being angry at me but at Bill -"
"They won't be angry," John said. He shook his head softly as if to insinuate that she was being terribly silly for even thinking that, let alone saying so. "They'll be thrilled."
"Do you think so?" she asked hopefully.
"I'm certain of it, and I know everything."
Posey rolled her eyes and nudged him playfully with her elbow. A moment later she felt her heart drop at the sound of a crowd getting to their feet.
"This is it," she murmured, her wide eyes pinned to the doors about to open for them.
"I love you and I'm proud of you," John said, his voice suddenly thick. He patted her hand again and when Posey looked up at him he was fighting back tears.
"I love you too," she replied, struggling to keep her own tears at bay. "Now stop making me cry and walk me down the aisle before I mess up my makeup."
The old bridal song started playing and the doormen opened the doors. John took that first step forward and Posey followed a second after, and that first step, she found, was the hardest. They were all easy after that.
When they turned the corner there was a quiet gasp from the crowd, and some hushed chatter from a section near the front on the right she'd been nervous about seeing. Her anxieties all faded, now, as did the rest of the room as her eyes found the man who was about to become her husband. She thought she could see the makings of tears in his eyes as he gazed back at her.
It was the longest walk of her life, making her way down the aisle, and she clutched the bouquet in her hand tighter with every step, reaching for the comfort her mum would have brought her if she was here and finding it in the certainty that she was close - far away but always close.
When they reached the altar John squeezed her hand a final time before unlooping it from his arm. He placed her hand delicately in Bill's proffered one and sniffled quietly as he stepped away.
Posey's eyes hadn't left Bill's from the moment she'd first laid eyes on him, but the moment their hands touched was the moment she saw the tears in his eyes properly.
She smiled as he helped her up onto the altar and John retreated to the front pew on the left. The only glance she allowed herself out to the crowd was to John as he took his seat, in between Mrs. Daniels and a teddy bear sat in a seat of his own.
Posey turned back to Bill and couldn't help but smile as he took his place before her. The room had either fallen silent or Posey's brain simply wasn't processing any sound - likely the latter, knowing Bill's chatty family - but either way, when Bill lifted her veil all she heard was his whisper. "Wow."
"You're crying," she said, the tears in her eyes returning with a vengeance now that she could see him properly.
"So are you," he shot back, swiping a quick hand under his eyes and then brushing away the single tear that had fallen onto her cheek. He took both of her hands in his a moment later and her heart gave a flutter. She would love this man for the rest of her life.
In a moment of impulse she pulled him towards her and pressed a kiss to his lips.
"Sorry," she said to the priest with a sheepish smile once she'd pulled back. She hadn't been able to help it.
The next thing she knew Bill was kissing her, longer and harder than she'd kissed him, and by the time they pulled back she was smiling and breathless. "I ain't," he said to the priest, earning a round of quiet laughter from the crowd.
The priest, a family friend of the Guarneres', smiled and shook his head, and henceforth began the ceremony. All the while, Posey couldn't help feeling silly for all the worrying she'd done whilst getting ready - whatever the reactions of those watching, up here and for the rest of her life she'd have Bill by her side, ready to face it all together.
Sooner than she could blink the vows had been said and she was gazing at Bill in anticipation, ready for those words that would change her name once more, for good this time.
"I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."
And kiss her he did, to the loud whooping and cheering of his rowdy family and John, all gathered together and almost as enthusiastic in their applauding as Bill was in his kissing. She blushed to think of doing the same in front of her own parents, but her own parents weren't here, so she kissed him back just as fiercely, smiling brightly against him as she did.
"You're my husband," were the first words out of her mouth when he pulled back.
He grinned. "You're my wife."
Forgetting all propriety, Posey flung her arms around his neck and drew him in close. "We're married!" she cheered, earning a fresh wave of appreciation from the crowd.
Bill lifted her and spun her around, wearing his prosthetic just so he could, ready to be put away for the rest of the day after this. When he set her back down she kept him close and took her first glance towards their gathered friends and family, her eyes automatically seeking out a group of faces she hadn't seen in a long time.
And there on the right, close to the front, sat a group of the men she'd once considered family, that she still considered family even though they'd thought she was dead until they'd seen her walk through the church doors. Johnny was there with the wife she'd heard so much about, half-smiling and half-glaring as she met his eye and grinned, and beside him was Bull, clapping and chuckling as her gaze fell on him. And then there was George, his smile the brightest of them all and his whistles twice as loud as anyone else's. When their eyes met he winked and she laughed, her heart swelling so much she was sure it would burst. Then beside George was Toye, who hadn't even been there when she'd been found out as a girl, and Heffron, who had been, both of them smiling and clapping too. And Gene, of course, the most loyal friend she'd ever had, who had done just about everything for her that a person could do and never asked for anything in return.
And it wasn't all of them. She wasn't sure enough time would ever have passed that it could be all of them. But it was enough.
Posey's mother's words were loud in her ears, as clear as though she was speaking them from right beside her on the altar: families have a way of finding their way back each other. And finally, after everything, they had.