Strange Place to Live:
Holy Matrimony
by Cynamin

"There you stand in your wedding dress
You’re so beautiful that I must confess
I’m so proud you have chosen me"
~Dreams Go By
Harry Chapin

Buffy smiled contentedly as she rode in the car with her father. Things were going even better than she had hoped when he’d invited her and Angel for lunch. He actually seemed to be okay about everything. This was the way today was supposed to go - absolutely normal.

"You’re very quiet," Mr. Summers said after a moment.

"And you’re awfully calm," Buffy replied. "I keep expecting that any minute you’re gonna get angry or something."

He glanced at her for a moment. "Why would I be angry?"

"Because . . . I’m young, and still in school, and I don’t know what I’m getting into . . . or something."

"I could say those things, but we both know they’re not true," Hank said.

Buffy looked at him in surprise.

"You’ve grown up a lot since I saw you last, Buffy. More than just age. And I think you do know what you’re doing. It’s not really my place anymore to pass any sort of judgement. That’s your mother’s job. I only wish I’d been around more so this didn’t come as much of a surprise."

Buffy chuckled slightly. "What?"

"You’d probably still have been surprised," she explained. "Just about everyone was. Mom didn’t even know I was seeing Angel until I’d already known him for a year."

"Speaking of your mother, what’s she think of this?"

Buffy shrugged. "She’s okay about it, I think. She was surprised, but she’s dealing." Suddenly, Buffy sat up straighter and looked out the window. "Ooh! We’re here!"

There was no more conversation as Hank Summers pulled into a parking space in front of the bridal shop. Buffy practically jumped out of the car. Cordelia waited for her just inside.

"Hey, Buffy," she said with a small smile.

"Hi Cordelia." Buffy smiled. "How are you?"

"I’m doing good. And you?"

"Good." Buffy gestured to her father. "Cordy, this is my dad. Dad, this is Cordelia. We went to high school together.

"It’s nice to meet you, Cordelia," he said.

Showing an unusual amount of restraint, Cordelia glanced at Buffy. "Does he know about . . ." she made a gesture that vaguely resembled staking a vampire.

Buffy shook her head. "So, she said finally, "are we gonna hang out in the doorway or are we going shopping?"

"Shopping," Cordelia replied with a grin.

What followed was a parade of wedding dresses, most of which blurred one into the other. The sales woman was most helpful, but mostly it was Cordelia who found dresses she thought Buffy would like. They chatted at the same time, catching up on each other’s lives.

"So," Buffy said as Cordelia helped fasten the who-knows-what-number dress she’d tried on, "what have you been doing?"

"Well," Cordelia said, "you know how I got that small acting job right after Angel left?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I made friends with the wardrobe lady. She took me on as an assistant. I go to all the local shops and find things for her." Cordelia was smiling. "So you basically get to shop for pay," Buffy said with a grin.

"Of course," Cordelia replied. "That’s also how I knew you’d like this store."

"Thanks Cordelia."

Cordelia didn’t say anything for a moment. "There," she said, "what do you think?"

Buffy looked at herself in the small mirror. "I want to look at this in the large mirror," she said with a smile. Already she knew she liked this dress. She left the small dressing room and stood on a small platform in front of the three-way mirror. Cordelia and the saleswoman arranged the skirt so she could see it best in the mirror, all spread out. The dress was relatively simple, white satin with thin straps. The skirt wasn’t as full as some of the dresses she’d tried on and ended in a slight train. Buffy looked at it and grinned from ear to

ear."Well?" Cordelia said expectantly.

"I love it," Buffy replied. "This hardly seems real. The fact that I’m actually getting *married* kinda just hit me." She turned her head away from her reflection to look at Cordelia. "What do you

think?""Gorgeous," Cordelia said, then smiled. "I think Angel’s going to faint when he sees it."

Buffy laughed. "God, I hope not. That would be embarrassing."

"Hold on just a moment, dear," the saleswoman said to Buffy, hurrying out of the dressing rooms. A moment later she returned with several veils. She looked at each of them in turn, finally selecting one and positioning it on Buffy’s head so the thin fabric draped down her

back.Buffy stared at her reflection, wide eyed. Cordelia said nothing, only grinned. After a moment Buffy called out, "Dad!"

Hank Summers was behind her quickly. Buffy watched him in the mirror as he saw her standing in the wedding dress. He looked completely shocked.

"What do you think?" Buffy asked softly.

"I think if I was your mother I’d be crying right now," her father replied.

"Well," the saleswoman said after a moment, "I take it everyone is pleased with this dress?"

"Definitely!" Buffy exclaimed.

About 15 minutes later they were leaving the bridal shop again, this time carrying their perfect find out to Hank’s car. Cordelia and Buffy said their goodbyes - or "see-you-soons"- and went their separate ways once again. Mr. Summers was driving Buffy back to the hotel she and Angel were staying at. Buffy was still grinning from ear to ear.

Buffy’s father pulled the car up in front of the door as the sun set. He helped her get everything out of the car and to a hotel employee, then just stood there and smiled at Buffy for a moment. "I didn’t say it before," he said finally, "but I’m happy for you. You’re going to be a beautiful bride."

Buffy smiled. "Thanks Dad."

Hank gave her a hug. "Be happy, alright?"

"I am."

He moved away, about to get back in the car when someone knocked him over from behind. As her father fell, Buffy looked at his attacker in disgust. *Vampires. Of course.*

"Hey!" she called out, getting the vampire’s attention, "don’t you know it’s really stupid to attack my family? Don’t your Sunnydale cousins tell you anything?"

The vampire got off Buffy’s father, who smartly scrambled away from him. "They tell me enough," the vampire replied.

"Really?" Buffy asked in mock surprise. "Did they say ‘the Slayer’s in town, go commit suicide?’"

"No, they said don’t go against the Slayer alone." And then the other vampires appeared.

"Buffy, what’s-" her father asked, a bit groggy from his fall.

"Not now, Dad," Buffy said tensely. She had come to the frightening realization that she didn’t have a stake handy. She’d been trying on dresses all day, and so hadn’t kept her usual stake up her sleeve. Whirling around, Buffy was going to grab her bag which had her weapons in it, when she noticed that the man from the hotel had already taken her things up to the room. *Just my luck.* Buffy looked back at the advancing vampire. "I don’t suppose you’d like to call this off for another time?" she asked nervously. A low growl answered her. "Didn’t think so."

Buffy really didn’t want to take the battle into the hotel. She wanted to be welcome here, and massive property damage kinda didn’t fit that purpose. Maybe if she just kept them here long enough someone would scare them away, like the police. Maybe if she pummeled them enough they’d get tired of this and go home.

Yeah, right.

The only upside Buffy could see to this was that the leader seemed to be only interested in fighting her at the moment. They traded punched and proceeded to otherwise throw each other around. All the while Buffy could only hope that her father was staying out of trouble. His car wasn’t so lucky - it had several dents from either Buffy or the vampire getting thrown into the side. Buffy was doing just fine, weapons or no weapons, and the vampire was soon laying on the ground, unconscious from the thorough pummeling he had received.

Which, of course, was the cue for the rest of the vampires to attack. There were about four of them, which without weapons was decidedly bad odds. Buffy managed to knock the first one out of the way, but the second one knocked her down in his rush to attack. She kicked him in the stomach, but a third one was there before she could get off the ground.

And then he wasn’t there anymore, and Angel was there instead helping her to her feet before trading punches with vampire #4.

"Great timing," Buffy said as she kicked vampire #1 again, trying to rush at her.

Angel staked the vampire he was fighting. "You looked like you could use some help."

"You got anymore stakes?"

Angel tossed her one without a word. She caught it easily and turned to stake stupid running vampire, who essentially impaled himself on it as he ran at her a third time.

Several minutes later Buffy and Angel joined her father, leaning against the car and catching their breath. The final count - Angel 2, Buffy 3, with the final one being the leader who did not regain consciousness throughout the prolonged fight. The battle finally over, they breathed a collective sigh of relief, then Buffy helped her father - numb from shock - into the hotel for the requisite explanations.

Angel sighed in relief when Mr. Summers finally left the hotel room. It had been a nerve wracking day. He loved Buffy very much, and it had been strange to be marrying her without having even met her father. Hank’s approval had been important to both of them, even though he didn’t seem to pay much attention to Buffy’s life. That seemed to have changed today, however.

The last hour had been the worst. Mr. Summers had guessed he wasn’t being told the whole truth after having lunch with Buffy and Angel. After the encounter with the vampires he had been sure of it. So Buffy and Angel had found themselves having to explain things without any prepared story. At first, Buffy had tried the old "gangs on PCP" route, and then "Dad, you’re just seeing things," neither of which had any success considering they still didn’t explain why Buffy had been fighting them.

So next came the abbreviated story of "yes, vampires are real, those were vampires, I killed them." Works alright, and unlike last time Buffy had told that version she didn’t get kicked out of the house. Not that Mr. Summers was exactly happy at the news, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Especially not when he found out that Joyce knew and had come to a reluctant sort of approval.

Then Mr. Summers asked something that Angel hoped he wouldn’t think of what did Angel have to do with all this? Does one say to his future father-in-law that he’s actually 220-something years older than his daughter, an ex-vampire of the most vicious variety, twice cursed with a human soul, now returned to humanity in a case of pure accident? Not hardly. Instead Angel said that his parents were killed by vampires and left it at that. It was a half truth, actually - the guilty vampire had been himself.

Many vague answers and half truths later, Buffy’s father left, partially satisfied. As the hotel door closed, Angel slowly took a seat on the bed and hung his head with a relieved sigh. Finally, the very long day was coming to a close. Very long day . . . very long hour.

Buffy’s arm around his shoulders startled Angel out of his thoughts. He looked at her in response. She was smiling slightly, fondly, but she looked concerned as well. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Angel nodded. "Just glad that’s over," Angel explained.

"I’m glad you were there with me to explain this time," Buffy replied. "Speaking of, how did you know I needed your help outside?"

Angel shrugged. "The bellman brought your stuff up. When you weren’t right behind it, I came down to see if I could meet you."

"It’s lucky you did." Buffy sat beside Angel, leaning against him. Angel smiled. "You take care of everything you need to?" Buffy asked.

Angel nodded. "You?"

Buffy’s face broke into a wide grin. "Oh yeah," she replied. "It’s going to be perfect."

Smiling, they simply sat there and held each other. Perfect. That was exactly how it was going to be.

Part Nine

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