I set down the final bottle of booze and stepped back from the table where I had just set up the bar. I smiled, it looked good. The food was going to be here in half an hour, and the guests would arrive in an hour. Cristina was upstairs getting dressed and ready, and everyone else who lived in the house was as well. Besides Derek. As Owen's best man, Derek had left earlier to go to Cristina and Owen's apartment to get Owen ready.
I made my way up to the master bedroom. Cristina was in the bathroom so I slipped on my dress and knocked softly at the door before opening it. I frowned when I saw my person sitting in the edge of the bathtub, not ready at all.
"Cristina?"
"I never gave you any crap about your Post-It," She said, not looking at me.
"What?"
"When you wanted to marry Derek, on a damn Post-It note, I supported you. When I want to marry the man that I love, what do I get from you? Crap. You try to convince me not to do it,"
I was silent, and sunk down to sit beside her on the bathtub.
"You're my person. I need you to support me in this. This is huge. I care what you think, Mer. If you think this is an absolutely horrible idea, maybe I need to rethink it too,"
"No. Listen, I was out of line. You're right, I need to support you. I just wanted to make sure you're okay. I'm sorry, Cristina, I'm sorry,"
She finally looked up at me, a hint of a smile flickering at her lips. She reached down behind the tub and pulled out a bottle of tequila, which looked like had already been drunken out of. She handed me the bottle and I took a swig before handing it back to her.
"So, are you ready to get dressed?" I asked.
She stood up and pulled her dress of the hanger, which I helped her change into and zip up. For the next thirty minutes I pulled her hair into an elegant yet simple updo, and brushed light makeup onto her face. In turn, she curled my hair while I did my makeup.
"The food should be here any minute, then people will start getting here. I'm going downstairs to make sure everything gets done,"
Cristina nodded, putting final touches on her appearance and pulling out strand of her curly hair here and there.
I went downstairs and had the caterers set up food, playing hostess when people started arriving. Alex, Lexie, Jackson, April, and Carolyn came downstairs soon after the food arrived.
I had been tasked with introducing my mother-in-law with all our friends from the hospital, while waiting for my husband to arrive with the groom. That was truly awkward.
Luckily I only had to do it for twenty minutes, when I heard the front door open and my eyes were met with the gelled, dark hair of my husband followed by the orange of Owen's. Sighing in relief, I made my way over to them.
"Thank god," I whispered to Derek when I reached them.
He leaned down to kiss me. When we pulled away, we stood for a minute, taking each other in. Damn, that man looked really really good in a tux.
"You look stunning, Mer," He observed.
"Thank you. And you look very sharp in that suit," I replied, reaching up to straighten his tie.
He was about to kiss me again, but I stopped him with a hand on his chest.
"Listen, I left your mother over there all alone, you need to go talk to her. And Cristina's ready when you are, so I need you to help me get people into their places,"
"You seem really stressed, relax, it'll be fine,"
I snorted. "Just help me,"
I gave him a peck on the cheek before getting Owen in the right place and leaving the rest to Derek as I dashed upstairs to get Cristina.
Her hair had fallen out a bit, giving it a very natural look.
"You look amazing," I complimented when I opened the door to the bedroom, "Are you ready?"
She faced me and took a deep breath.
"Let's get this over with so I can eat. You know, I've been starving all day but I was afraid I wouldn't fit in the damn dress,"
I laughed, linking arms with her as we started our decent down the stairs. Cristina deflecting and talking about food and booze was just her. The look in her eyes and face changed when she talked about Owen, or anyone did for that matter. I knew Cristina well enough to know she was in love with this man, so it was my honor to walk her down the isle.
The ceremony was short and right to the point, and the party really got started afterwards. I was already a little tipsy from the bottle of tequila I split with Cristina earlier, but by the end of the night, most of the people there were drunk, including myself and my husband.
Carolyn turned in early and hours later, when the place started to clear out, Derek found me. He approached me from behind and wrapped his arms around my waist, kissing my cheek and whispering into my ear from behind. Scotch was strong on his breath.
"Party's not over yet," he whispered, "we could make this party last all night,"
I turned around, the sort of glassy look in his eyes matched my own. We were both very drunk. I laughed and kissed him.
"You taste like scotch," I giggled between kisses as he grabbed me and carried me upstairs.
"And you taste like tequila," he whispered back, getting into our bedroom and locking the door behind us before putting me on the bed.
Then it happened. Clothes were off, and we had hot, dirty sex for the first time since the shooting. Drunken sex. So drunk, it barley registered in my mind. After what seemed like hours together, we fell asleep in each other's arms.
I sat up in bed the next morning, overcome with nausea and the burning headache of a hangover. Quickly I got out of bed, only to realize I was completely naked. I stood there, trying to think back to last night, despite the headache.
"Ah, that's a nice way to wake up," Derek smirked from the bed beside me.
I ignored him, and quickly went to pull on panties and a bra, I barley had time to get pants on before I had to run to the bathroom to puke. Hangovers were fun.
Not long after, Derek joined me over the toilet bowl, and the two of us sat there in silence for half an hour puking and drinking water to try and end the hangover.
It was still early in the morning, I wasn't working today, I had therapy that afternoon. So a few hours later, with the hangovers cleared up, I left the now gross smelling bathroom and threw my favorite Dartmouth t-shirt on.
"So, last night..." Derek started as he followed me out of the bathroom.
"We had sex," I finished for him, my voice wavering, "A-and we...we didn't use anything,"
"You remember?"
"It's fuzzy. But I know there was a lot of sex last night Derek. And we didn't use a-anything,"
Derek shot me a confused look and sat down on the bed.
"Is that such a big deal?"
Inside, I was a wreck. Completely. My emotions were all over the place, my mind was racing and I had been struggling to even remember the previous night all morning.
"W-what if...Derek, what if I'm pregnant again?" I voiced my fear. The question had been huge in my mind all morning. I didn't know if I could deal with another pregnancy, but at the same time I think I might still want a baby.
Derek smiled, clearly not picking up on my terror.
"Then we'll celebrate, right?"
When I didn't answer, he studied me for a long minute. At this point I was shaky and near tears as I paced the room.
"You're afraid?" He asked.
"Yes! Damn it, yes! I'm so afraid! I-I can't even tell you how scared I am, I don't even know how to feel right now! I just, I don't," I continued to pace as I struggled to find words to express myself.
My pacing was stopped by my husband, who gently grabbed my shoulders and forced me to look at him.
"It's okay," He whispered as he wrapped his arms around me in a hug.
The tears I had been fighting back threatened to overflow, but I blinked them away, forcing my emotions down to try and collect myself.
"I uh, I have therapy in an hour," I murmured, pulling away from the hug.
"Do you want me to come with you? I mean, I can rearrange my schedule or-"
"No. You stay, go to PT. I'll be fine. I always am,"
With that, I walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen to find something to eat. Despite my puking not to long ago, I was starving.