Chapter 21

It was raining on the wedding day and it made Rowen smile and announce for everyone to hear that it was a sign of good luck. She was beautiful in her dress and she had decided to go for pink lipgloss and light blue eyeshadow with black mascara. Her hair was done up and there were white lilies amongst her brown locks. Ryan didn’t think he’d ever seen her look so beautiful.

Horatio had looked stunned for several minutes until he’d smiled broadly and taken her into his arms. The Lieutenant looked quite handsome as well, in a black suit with a white shirt and grey tie striped with silver.

Two weeks before the wedding Rowen had taken Ryan out shopping again and had convinced him to buy a navy blue suit with a soft sky blue shirt and a white tie. Eric had decided to put on a black suit with a pink shirt and to forgo the tie.

A week before the wedding, she’d showed up at Ryan’s place, in a state of complete panic.

Ryan had tried to calm her down as much as you could calm down Rowen, but she wasn’t listening to him and she was wailing about how Horatio had to be crazy to marry her and that he’d demand a divorce after the first week.

“I know we practically live together and everything but we’re gonna get married! And I’m crazy and I leave my paperwork till the very last minute and I suck at cooking anything besides waffles or maybe pancakes. And I cackle and I watch cartoons and silly movies and I read corny books and he’s going to see all of that!”

Her rant left her slightly breathless as she was sitting on his couch with a bucket of ice cream in her lap. He’d sat down beside her and had allowed her to cry on his shoulder and go nuts. After a while, he’d wipped away her tears, had smiled and said: “He loves you, Rowen.”

The ceremony at city hall had been quiet and simple and beautiful and Rowen had been grinning and glowing and Horatio had smiled widely when he kissed his wife. They had rented a ballroom in the Miami Shoreline Hotel for the party and there were waiters going around carrying drinks and empty glasses back and forth.

There were a few people there already, people from the lab and from Rowen’s job at the CHP, including Amanda Damien, who was Erica’s gynaecologist. There were also a few friends out of work and a few family members. Yelina and Ray Junior, who had returned from Rio when Ray had died, for real, had already said their congratulations and if there had been some strain on Yelina’s smile Rowen had ignored it.

At the moment, the happy bride was not quite so happy. She was chewing on the nail of her pointy finger and was nervously tapping her foot on the hardwoord floor. Horatio smiled softly and took her hand, forcing it away from her mouth and tangling their fingers together before kissing the back of her hand.

“It’ll be fine.” He assured her, softly, his eyes shining.

Rowen groaned and buried her face in his shoulder. “That’s what you think! But you don’t know them like I do, you’ve never even met them. They’re horrible, I haven’t spoken to them since they left Miami and moved to Fort Lauderdale.”

Horatio rubbed her back and Rowen sighed. “They hated Ryan ever since they met him, thought he was a freak with his OCD and then they hated him even more when we broke up because he was gay. They hated me because I wasn’t polite and nice and quiet-like, they hated me even more when I smashed their dreams of having a famous brainsurgeon as a child. They even wanted to be to become a lawyer at some point so that I could become a judge or something.”

Horatio chuckled and Rowen pulled away and smacked his shoulder lightly. “This is no laughing matter, it’s the truth! And they’re going to hate you because I love you, it’s what they do.”

“Rowen.” Horatio murmured and he pulled her closer for a kiss. She went willingly and wrapped her arms around his neck.

They broke apart by someone clearing their throat and Rowen muttered; “Figures.”

They faced an elderly looking couple. The woman was dressed in an elegant and simple dark green dress, she had a kind face although her mouth was set in a thin line. She had black hair pinned up in a knot in the back of her neck. The man was dressed in a charcoal grey suit with a white shirt and a black tie. He had light blond hair and a smile on his face which could or could not be fake. The man was tall, definitely a head taller than Horatio and the woman was short, like Rowen.

Rowen plastered a wide and fake smile on her face. “Mom… Dad.” Her voice was strained and she reluctantly left Horatio’s arms to hug her parents. They hugged her back stiffly.

“Mom, this is Horatio. Horatio, this is my mom, Elaine Descamps. Dad, this is Horatio. Horatio, this is my dad, Robert Descamps.”

They shook hands and there was a brief moment of akward silence until Rowen cleared her throat nervously. “So how was the ride over here? Not to many problems with trafic or something?”

Horatio was slightly surprised at his wife’s attempts at small talk, Rowen wasn’t the person for it. And it seemed that neither were her parents, because the conversation died again with one short answer.

“Mr. and Mrs. Descamps.” A voice said and the couple turned around to see Ryan, who had a disarming smile on his face. He had adopted an odd stance, with his hip sticking out to one side and in his hand in his waist on the other side. There was something eerily queer about him that Horatio had never seen before.

Robert stiffened slightly and nodded. “Mr. Wolfe, how…nice to see you again.”

“Why, it’s nice to see you to, Mr. Descamps and Mrs. Descamps, always a pleasure.” Ryan winked made an odd move with his hips and then promptly stepped forward and grabbed Horatio’s arm.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, Horatio’s presence is demanded elsewhere. I’ll see you later Rowen and, congratulations again.”

And with that he pulled Horatio along until they were standing near the bar. Ryan shook his head and seemed to go back to his normal self. “Sorry, H, but Rowen made me promise to come and save you when things got too akward.”

Horatio shrugged. “That’s alright. Have things always been so awkward between Rowen and her parents?”

They idly watched as Rowen and her parents conversed with each other, Rowen making elaborate gestures with her hands and her parents talking quietly, seemingly trying to calm her down.

Ryan shrugged. “Ever since I can remember, Rowen hasn’t gotten along with her parents. Her parents are too uptight and Rowen is too wild in comparison. They’d written her entire life out for her and when Rowen refused to play the part… well, it wasn’t pretty.”

“But they’re not really that bad you know, they’re just really old-fashioned and Rowen doesn’t know how to deal with that. They clash horribly. I’m sure they love Rowen verry much, but they just don’t know how to deal with her. Family relationships are complicated, and I’m not going to pretend that I know exactly what the deal is between Rowen and her parents.”

“But I do think that she exagerates at some point. It’s true that they don’t like me very much because of my sexual preferences and before that they never like me because of my OCD. It’s just that they don’t know how to deal with anything that’s not normal and Rowen is the complete opposite.”

Horatio nodded as Rowen seemed to work herself into a royal snit and than stormed off, towards them. Her cheeks were flushed and her hands were curled into fists. Horatio quickly pulled her into his arms and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

“I hate them.” She whispered.

Ryan grimaced to Horatio behind her back. She pulled away and sighed. “They were all, ‘he’s too old for you’ and ‘do you really want to marry a cop?’ and ‘Red hair? What were you thinking,’” She bristled. “I love you, shouldn’t that be enough?”

Horatio smiled and kissed her gently. They leaned their foreheads together. “It should be.”

Ryan smiled at them.

“Hey guys save some for the wedding night.” Eric said as he came to stand next to Ryan, a glass of champagne in his hand. Rowen grinned and Horatio chuckled.

The party went on for several hours, with Robert Descamps cornering Horatio at some point. Rowen observed their exchange from the other side of the room with Eric holding her back. The red-haired man seemed to handle himself fine and Eric knew that this was something that they had to get out of way.

When ten minutes later Elaine joined her husband and Horatio, Rowen almost panicked and Ryan had to step in to calm her down. Horatio quickly returned after, failing to omit what had been said between Rowen’s parents and himself and merely kissed her deeply to stop her from asking.

After that they didn’t see a lot of Rowen’s parents, who seemed to be touring the ball room, talking to people from the lab and from the CHP. Standing near the bar, Rowen, was holding Horatio’s hand and talking animatedly to Ryan and Eric. She and Horatio had just retourned from the dance floor to find Eric and Ryan talking to each other, which was a good sign.

“Rowen, dear.” Elaine Descamps said, suddenly popping out of nowhere beside Eric. “Your father and I are leaving, we want to get back to Fort Lauderdale before dark.” She then stepped up and hugged her daugther. “I wish you the best of luck, you as well Lieutenant Caine.” And then she was off, disappearing back into the small crowd gathered.

“Well,” Ryan said, “it wasn’t as bad as you imagined, huh?”

Rowen grinned and turned towards her husband, lying her head on his shoulder. “Not bad at all.”

THE END!!

Author’s Note: this story will have a sequel, don’t worry.