Okay, I know I promised a wedding, & a wedding there shall be, but before the wedding, there needs to be the fun, frantic 'getting ready for the wedding' stuff...
(which I kinda got a little carried away with)
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It was four days after Christmas; exactly three years to the day since Dawn and Kate had shared their first kiss; and the Summers, Rosenberg and Harris households were in complete chaos as everyone rushed around trying to get ready for the wedding.
Buffy and Anya were at Buffy’s house helping Dawn and Ryan get ready…
“Ryan, stand still and let me button your shirt up.” Anya was beginning to get a little impatient with the tot who kept racing around the living room excitedly.
“I can do it by my own Mama.” Ryan escaped from his mother’s grasp and fumbled clumsily with the shiny black buttons.
“Okay, you do it, but don’t pull any of the buttons off.”
“I won’t.”
Five minutes later Ryan proudly announced that he was all done. Three out of seven buttons were indeed fastened, but only one of them was actually in the correct button hole.
“Great try sweetie. Do you want me to fix it a little bit now?”
“Yes please Mama.”
“Oh look at you, aren’t you just the most handsome little boy in the world?” The slayer complimented her nephew as she passed through the living room in search of curling tongs.
Ryan beamed at his Aunt Buffy proudly.
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Kate and her mother were at Willow and Tara’s house where Kate and the twins were getting ready.
“How come auntie Anya doesn’t have a special thing to be?” Lydia asked Tara, who was delicately helping the youngest twin step into her lilac bridesmaid dress.
“What kind of special thing?”
“Like a bridesmaid or a maid of horror.”
“Maid of honour honey, not horror.” Tara corrected, chuckling lightly at the youngster’s error.
“Right, but how come auntie Anya isn’t anything like that?”
“Uhm, I think your Aunt Dawn and Aunt Kate have enough special people, and Auntie Anya will be busy looking after baby Alicia.”
“Oh, that makes sense.”
“Turn around.”
Lydie turned and lifted her hair out of the way so that Tara could fasten the little hook fastenings on the bodice of the satin dress.
“Okay, all done. Now where’s that sister of yours? I need to braid her hair.”
“I’m here Tada, I was just helping Kate’s mommy.”
“You weren’t getting in the way were you?”
“No, I was holding Kate’s pretty hair grips for her.”
“And do you know where your pretty hair grips are?”
“They’re in the little bag that’s tied to my dress hanger.”
“Okay then. Lydie, can you be putting your shoes on while I do Julia’s hair?”
“Okay Tada.”
A frantic looking Willow appeared in the doorway, just seconds after Lydia had walked out of the room.
“I’ve lost the rings, Xander asked me to look after the rings for him and now I’ve lost the rings. What am I gonna do? They can’t get married if they don’t have the rings, they’re like, the most important part of the whole ceremony, well okay, maybe not the most important part, but they are very important and now I’ve lost them and everyone’s gonna be mad at me and this is the worst thing that could have happened.”
Tara stood up and walked over to the fraught redhead; she took Willow’s hands in her own and placed a soft, calming kiss to the tip of her nose.
“They’re in your side table drawer in a red velvet box. Calm down honey.”
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A crisis of another nature was occurring at the Harris residence, where Xander, Giles and Kate’s father were getting themselves ready and looking after Alicia.
“Oh no, Alicia, why did you have to sick up all over my white shirt? You were just waiting until I was all dressed up weren’t you? Giles, what gets out baby sick?” Xander asked as he handed his daughter to her grandpa.
“I’m sure I have no idea.” Giles answered as he gently wiped the infant’s mouth.
“I’ll call Willow, she’ll know.”
Xander made a quick phone call and was informed, by Lydia, that - “Tada always uses club soda to clean up little spills and things”.
“Disaster averted?” Giles enquired as Xander emerged from the kitchen refastening a now clean white shirt.
“Yep, all white again.”
“Very good. Now, might I advise that in future, you refrain yourself from lifting the child up into the air immediately after you feed her?”
“That’s some pretty good advice G-man.”
“Must you call me that?”
“Indeed I must.” Xander smiled at the familiar banter then tenderly took his daughter back from Giles. “Come on baby girl, lets get you all changed into your pretty little dress.”
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Just after 10am, Giles, Xander and Kate’s father made their way (with Alicia too, of course) to Buffy’s house.
“So what’s going on with the limos?” Xander asked, having not been paying attention when it had all been arranged the previous day.
“Okay, one limo is coming here for Dawn, Giles, you, me and Ryan. Anya’s gonna take Alicia now and walk Kate’s dad to Willow and Tara’s place, the second limo is going there for Kate and her dad and Willow and the twins. Then we’ve booked a cab to take everyone else.”
“Everyone else being?”
“Anya, Tara, Alicia and Kate’s mom.”
“Wouldn’t they fit in the limos?”
“They’re not part of the bridal party.”
“Oh. Surely Kate’s mom is part of the bridal party?”
“Xander, don’t worry about the cars, it’s all sorted.” Xander’s incessant questioning was beginning to exasperate Buffy.
“Okay.” Xander conceded sheepishly.
“Daddy, when is the big car coming?” Ryan asked as he kept watch at the front window.
“Soon.”
Ryan’s bright eyes widened in awe as a silver E-class Mercedes-Benz stretched limousine pulled up outside the house.
“Is that it daddy? Is that the big car that’s taking us to the wedding?”
“It certainly is Ry.”
“Wow!”
Meanwhile at the Rosenberg-Maclay residence an almost identical limo had arrived and the twins giggled and babbled excitedly as they daintily climbed into the back of the vehicle.
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As she settled into the back of the limo, with Giles sat to her left, Buffy to her right and Xander and Ryan playing with all the gadgets they could find; Dawn gave an eager, beatific smile.
“All set?” The chauffer enquired, smiling as he watched the bride in his rear-view mirror.
Dawn nodded with absolute certainty.
“Yeah. Now let’s get moving; my girl is waiting for me.”
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Sorry if the jumping from house to house got a little confuse-y, there were far too many scoobies to write about
I promise, the next upadte WILL be the wedding, & will be rather long too
Hugs
Jeanne
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Tara: “Let me guess – you want me to lie on your lap while you feed me grapes, but my sweet, shy, precious, honey you’ve been too shy to ask – yes?” - GROWW by WannaFriendsBe
My very own Willow & Tara website
And Dawn and Kate talking about kids some day awww... You had so many great things going on in this chapter, best line though;
. I have assignments due in the next couple of weeks, then I have exams coming up next month. So, I'm a very busy little kitten 
right now and I'm not gonna get chance to work on an update for a while.
.
) bounce back into the thread happily - much like one of these little guys 
- & yes, I'm aware that she's been in labour for over 2 months. 
oh okay, here you go 
it's almost as much fun as the little bouncy guys 
<------- Bob. 
. T/W have settled into each others lives perfectly 
.
him for interrupting our girls. He always has a bad timing thing just like now it was becoming really warm in that kitchen and bam cold air grrrrrrrrrr.
WFB 
). I'm sure things will start to look up for you soon, 'cos you're a sweetie, & you deserve all good things. 
willow much