There would be no one seated in the pews, but that had never been important to her. No fancy wedding cake would be waiting for them in a reception room filled with their family and closest friends, but what was a cake to a wedding, anyway? It was a symbol, and the only symbol that Alex needed was the ring that she could practically feel imprinting the palm of her hand. Releasing the vice grip with which she held it, her eyes fell down to it, her opposite fingers tracing the perfect circle that stood for an unbreakable infinity. Forever. It had seemed like such a silly notion to her a matter of months earlier, and now she was promising it without hesitation to someone that had irrevocably changed her life for the better. Her fingers closed back over the ring and, with one last smooth of her palm over her dress, Alex lifted her eyes to her reflection in the mirror. No, this wasn't going to be a wedding worthy of bridal magazines, but it was going to be theirs, and that was something.
Her fingers wound around a small bouquet of blue carnations - her something borrowed, gifted to her by the very same elderly woman that had crowned her hair with simple white flowers - and she clutched them against her stomach as if they were the one thing that kept her on the ground. In truth, the closer that she stepped to the doors that separated her from Morde (and his tie) on the other side, the greater Alex felt the probability was that she would float away. It was the sight of him that kept her grounded. It was the sight of him that already had tears stinging the corners of her eyes. It was the sight of him that had Alex struggling desperately not to sprint the remainder of the way to the altar. If anyone else stood with him, she didn't notice. All that she saw, all that she ever saw, was Morde. And as she slid her fingers over his palm, as the officiant broke into the spiel he was required to give, her eyes found his, and Alex knew that was one thing that would never change.
"Abel Mordecai Wolff, there are a lot of things that I can't promise you. I can't promise you a fairy tale or a happily ever after. I can't promise that I won't say stupid things that hurt your feelings or that, sometimes, I'll get irrational to this point that's irritating. I definitely can't promise that this will always be perfect, because we're imperfect people. But there are some things that I can promise you. I can promise to love you more than any other person ever will, with my whole heart and every other piece of me that belongs to you, in this life and every other life beyond it. I can promise to accept you, every part of you, but especially those parts that you maybe don't like that much. I can promise to follow you into the darkness, and I can promise that I will always bring you back to me, no matter how far away you seem. I can promise that every step you take from this point forward will be one that we take together. Every fight that you fight, I will fight with you. When you hurt, when you think that the world is cruel, I'll be right here to remind you that you have something real, something worth living for, something to keep. I can promise to serenade you every time you get a headache, to save the last of the Sour Patch Kids for you no matter how much I want to eat them, and to forever pander to you when we play Cards Against Humanity. I can promise that I will keep making you laugh with the crazy thoughts that run through my head. I can promise to be an expert at writing my first name with your last. And I can promise that I will never forget what you mean to me. I will never get so lost that I can't find my way back to you. You, and your heart, this is where I belong. I have never been more sure of anything in my life than I am of being with you, because you are every piece of me that I didn't even know was missing. You made me believe in forever, because now it doesn't feel like that would ever be long enough to show you how much that I love you. So I promise, today and for the rest of our lives, and those lives when we're fireflies and cows and whatever else we become, that I will love you at your best and I will love you at your worst. I will love you even when you can't find it in you to like yourself. And I will spend the rest of my life next to you, arguing over which one of us is the luckiest, as your wife, as your best friend, as your soulmate. I love you, Morde, and I always will."