Livvie peeked into the main room. It was a full house already. She walked down the aisle and got a few glances.

"Um, everyone!" she hollered out, but not everyone had heard her.

Jack stepped up to the front and whistled shrilly to get their attention.

"Thanks, honey," Livvie said. "Okay, everyone, can I have your attention? I'm sure you've probably realized by now that we're running a little late. Don't worry, there will be a wedding today, I promise you. But it's just that the reverend is having car trouble and with the rain being so bad, it could be a while. So just sit tight."

~*~*~*~

Alison took a seat at the vanity table and admired herself in the mirror. She inspected herself closely to make sure her makeup was still fine. It just needed a slight touch-up.

As Alison put a little powder on her face, she heard a soft knock on the door.

"Who is it?"

Alison waited for a response. Nothing. Maybe whoever it was didn't hear her. "Who is it?" she repeated.

When no one answered again, she looked at the door. Alison smiled. The door was open just a tiny crack, and someone was sticking a pink rose through that crack.

"Rafe!" Alison jumped out of the chair and ran to the door. She laughed. "What are you doing?"

"I just remembered I wanted to give you this before the ceremony."

Alison smiled as she took the rose. She smelled it. "It's beautiful."

"Can I come in?"

"Close your eyes first."

Rafe did as he was told and Alison led him into the room.

"Keep them closed."

"I am."

Once Rafe was finally in the room, Alison closed the door behind them. "Okay, now you can open them."

Rafe slowly opened his eyes. In his mind, he had all sorts of visions of what Alison would look like wearing a wedding gown, but nothing in his mind compared to the vision he was seeing before his eyes now. "Alison…"

Alison beamed. "You like it?" She turned around, showing off the dress.

"You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen."

Alison kept smiling.

"I had all sorts of images in my mind about how you would look at this moment, but nothing in my mind was ever this good." Rafe inched closer to her. And at the moment, the only thing on his mind was kissing those lips…

"Uh-uh," Alison said and backed away. "Not yet."

"Aww," Rafe pouted.

"Sorry, you'll just have to wait. And besides, I just fixed my makeup."

"So, I guess we'll be waiting just a little while longer."

Alison took Rafe's hand and led him the couch in the corner. "Well we'll just have to find some way to pass the time." Alison smiled at Rafe and moved a lock of his hair behind his ear. "By the way, you look pretty wonderful yourself. That tux is great."

Rafe laughed.

"Rafe Kovich!" Livvie scolded as she stormed into the room. "I told you to stay out!"

Rafe looked at Alison. "Uh-oh."

"She caught us," Alison laughed.

"Alison, I told you not to let him in."

"But I had to. He had a pink rose!" Alison laughed and held up the rose.

"Well, so much for keeping up with tradition these days," Livvie sighed.

"Oh, Livvie, any updates?" Alison asked.

"Not yet. Reverend Lovejoy said he would call me back though in a little while. I'll let you know when he calls. Well, I'm going to go check on some things." Livvie headed out the door. "Oh, and Rafe, don't mess up her makeup," she warned, and then left.

~*~*~*~

Out in the church lobby, Kevin met up with Lucy.

"There you are," Kevin said, walking over to his wife.

"Yep, here I am!" she said cheerfully. "I had to make sure Rafe was ready."

"Is he?"

"Oh yeah, and he's excited too. Now, if only that Reverend Lovejoy would hurry up and get over here, we could have a wedding."

"You know, I guess it's actually a good thing that the reverend is late because I see the father of the bride is late as well. That storm must really be bad."

"Oh, Doc, you don't know yet, do you?"

"Know what?"

Lucy frowned. "Alison's father. He's not coming."

"What? Why not?"

"He had a business meeting."

Kevin was stunned. "You mean to tell me that Alison's father is going to a business meeting instead of his own daughter's wedding?"

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Pretty rotten thing to do, isn't it?"

"Men like that make me so angry," Kevin fumed. He looked across the room at Livvie. "You know, Lucy, if there is one thing I wish I could have the most, it would be to have been there for Livvie when she was growing up."

"But, Doc, you know that's not your fault."

"I know it's not, but I still wish that I could have watched her grow up. I wish I could have taken her out for ice cream on Saturdays when she was seven. And I wish I could have been there to scare all of those boys that came knocking on the door when she was a teenager."

Lucy laughed at that last one.

"I missed so many years with my daughter, Lucy, all because I didn't even know she existed. And then you have guys like Derek Barrington who know they have a daughter but don't even give a damn. It's just not fair."

"No, it's not."

"Well whose going to walk Alison down the aisle now?"

"She said she's going to walk down the aisle by herself."

"No, she shouldn't have to do that. I'll right back."

"Doc, where are you going?"

"I'm going to go find Alison," Kevin replied, and Lucy didn't have to ask what he was planning to do.

Kevin walked over to his daughter. "Livvie."

"Yeah, Daddy?"

"Where's Alison?"

"She's in that room with Rafe," Livvie said, pointing him in the right direction.

"Thanks." Kevin started to walk away, but then he stopped and turned back around.

"Livvie?"

"Yeah?"

Kevin walked over to his daughter and gave her a kiss on her forehead. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you, Daddy." Livvie smiled and watched her father walk away. She wondered what that was all about.

Kevin gently knocked on the door.

"Come in," he heard Alison say.

Kevin walked in and smiled. There was Alison, all dressed in her beautiful wedding gown. He thought about how unfair it was for such a nice young girl to have such a jerk of a father. He was really missing out on something special today.

"Hi, Kevin," Alison beamed.

"You look beautiful," Kevin smiled.

"Thank you." Alison blushed for about the hundredth time today. Everyone kept telling her how beautiful she was.

"So, are you two nervous about the wedding?" Kevin walked over to them and pulled up a chair.

"A little," Rafe laughed. "And also a bit anxious. I'm beginning to wonder what's keeping Reverend Lovejoy."

"Well I'm sure he'll be here as soon as he can. Alison, I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Sure."

"First of all, I heard about what happened with your father. I'm really sorry about that. He shouldn't be missing this. If it were Livvie getting married, I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"It's okay, Kevin. I'm sorta used to it. My parents are never really good at keeping their promises, even for special occasions. I mean, they weren't even at my own graduation. But really, it's okay. I'm not going to let that ruin my wedding day."

"Well, I'll be honest with you, Alison. I don't think it's okay. I don't think a lovely young girl such as you should have to walk down the aisle by herself."

"Kevin, are you offering what I think you're offering?"

"Alison, if you would like, I would be honored to walk you down the aisle. You're my daughter's best friend, and well, I like to think of you as sort of a second daughter. Actually, fourth daughter," Kevin laughed.

Alison couldn't help but smile. She felt like she would cry but she tried to hold her tears back. "Kevin, oh my god, that's so nice of you. I would love it if you would walk me down the aisle." Alison leaned forward and gave him a hug.

Kevin looked at Alison and smiled. "Oh shoot, look at that. I'm making you cry; I'm going to make you ruin your makeup."

Alison laughed. "Kevin?"

"Yes?"

"I was thinking just now. You know, back with that whole Cedric situation, you were really there for me, and it meant a lot. My parents, well, they were never there for me. I guess what I'm trying to say is…I think I should have asked you to walk me down the aisle in the first place."

Kevin grinned. "Well, I'll leave you two now. Just let me know whenever you're ready."

"Okay," Alison smiled.

Kevin smiled back at her and walked out of the room.

"Well, it looks like everything is fallilng into place," Rafe said.

"If only Reverend Lovejoy would hurry up and get here."

Rafe put his finger on Alison's lips to silence her. "Shh, everything will work out, I promise you. Nothing is going to stop me from making you my wife today."

Alison laughed and she and Rafe hugged.

~*~*~

Fifteen minutes had passed, and the guests were getting antsy. No one was leaving, because the wedding hadn't been called off, and besides, the rain was so bad anyway. Some got out of their seats and walked around. Some talked and mingled. Some just sat there and found something to do to occupy their time. Chris, meanwhile, had other plans. He stood up and walked to the front of the church.

"What are you doing?" Doree asked him, but Chris ignored her.

"Everyone!" Chris called out to get their attention. The ones in the room looked in his direction. Chris cleared his throat. "Looks like we're stuck here for a while. So until then, anyone up for some wedding jokes? Hmm?" Chris had a questioning look on his face. He was going to tell jokes anyway. "You know, the only problem with weddings is that you never get to prove who the best man really is." Chris laughed to himself.

"Chris," Doree warned, not too pleased with his antics.

"Okay, okay, here's another one. So on the morning after their wedding night, the groom called down to their hotel's room service to order breakfast. For himself he ordered one pound of bacon, twelve fried eggs, and two gallons of orange juice to restore his fluids. For his wife he ordered a plain head of lettuce. The clerk was surprised by the latter and said, 'Won't your wife be wanting anything else?' And the groom said, 'Not at this point. I'm conducting an experiment to see if she eats like a rabbit, too.'" Chris laughed. "Get it? Because you know rabbits…" Chris saw someone laughing. "Yeah, he knows what I'm talking about!"

At this point, Jack walked over to Chris. "Okay, Chris, that's enough. It's not funny."

"Yeah, yeah it is funny. Okay, why does the bride wear white? Give up? Because it's always good for the dishwasher to match the fridge and stove!"

"Okay, enough of that, Chris," Jack said again. "May I remind you that Amanda Barrington is here?"

"You just can't please anyone these days," Chris said disgruntled as he walked away.

~*~*~*~

Livvie walked around the church looking for Alison. She and Rafe had left the room. Where did they go?

"Eve, have you seen Alison?"

"I saw her waiting in the lobby with Rafe."

"Okay, thanks!"

Livvie rushed to the lobby and found Rafe and Alison sitting over by the window. "Hey, what are you two doing in here?"

"That room was getting a little claustrophobic," Alison explained.

"Oh. Well I have some good news!"

"Good news?" Alison asked excitedly. She and Rafe got on their feet.

"Yeah. The reverend just called and said that somebody was on their way. And he wanted me to tell you two that he is terribly sorry he cannot perform the ceremony himself. He feels really bad about the whole situation."

"Aww, poor Reverend Lovejoy!" Alison said. "Rafe, we should send him something because that man is so nice. Being all worried about disappointing us when it's not like he could help the weather or his car."

"See, I told you everything would work out," Rafe said.

"Yes, you did." Alison smiled at Rafe.

"Okay, so I'm going to go talk to everyone and hopefully we can get this show on the road soon." Livvie winked and left the room.

"Not too much longer now," Rafe said as he took hold of Alison's hands.

"Nope. Ooo!"

"What?"

Alison laughed. "The butterflies in my stomach are going crazy!"

Rafe laughed.

"I feel all jittery and excited! We're getting married, Rafe!"

Suddenly, the two felt a little breeze. The door had opened, and someone had just walked in. Rafe and Alison turned to see who it was.

Rafe had to blink, because he wasn't sure if he was seeing things or not. "ED?!"

Alison stood there silently with her jaw dropped. It was that man from the park!

Rafe laughed. "Ed?! What are you doing here?" he asked excitedly.

"What do you think I'm doing here? I'm here to get you two kids married," he replied. "Oh, and by the way, it's Reverend Ed today."