Straight From the
Heart
Chapter 16
Jax was pacing in the grass off to the side of the park gazebo the
next day, his wedding day. He was fully
dressed in his jet black tuxedo and crisp white shirt. The tie was perfectly tied and his shoes
were perfectly shined. The sky shone a
brilliant shade of blue. Nothing could
have been more perfect.
“You know, if you don’t stop that, you’re going to end up with mud
on your shoes from where the grass is wearing down, Jax,” Lady Jane said as she
approached him from behind the bushes.
She was wearing a pale blue suit and heels that matched exactly. She was carrying his boutonničre in her
hands. Carefully, she began to put it
on his jacket lapel. “Are you ready?”
He removed his wedding ring from his left hand and held it to give
to Ned who was serving as his best man when he arrived. “I’ve been ready for this my entire life,
Mum,” he said.
“I know that,” she said, smiling and trying to keep her tears at
bay. It wouldn’t do to cry before the
wedding even started. “And I’m sure
Bren—“ she broke off as she heard someone coming.
“Jax! Are you ready?” Ned
called as he approached. “Everyone is
almost seated now.” He appeared in a
tuxedo matching Jax’s from the corner nearest the guest seating.
Jax nodded, handing his ring to his best man. “I am so ready,” he said.
“Brenda, stand still!” Robin exclaimed for the fourth time that
afternoon already. “I can’t finish the
buttons on your dress if you’re going to keep moving around like that.”
“Sorry, Robin, I just can’t help it,” Brenda apologized. She adjusted the headpiece of her veil one
more time. The tiny white roses that
adorned it had shifted just slightly and she put one back in its place. The blusher in front of her face waved
gently in the breeze from the fan in the corner of the room. She felt Robin finish the last button and
turned to look at her friend. “So, what
do you think?” she asked, finally completely dressed.
Robin took a moment to breathe and grinned widely. “You are the most beautiful bride I have
ever seen.”
“Even if I’m already married to the groom?”
“Even if,” Robin agreed, laughing.
She stepped back into her lilac sandals that matched her sleeveless gown
perfectly. She could hear the string
quartet finishing the last song. “Now,
if you’re ready, Mrs. Jacks, your wedding is about to begin.”
Brenda grinned and laughed giddily. “I am so ready for this, Robin!”
She handed her friend her wedding ring and picked up her white rose
bouquet to go out to the gazebo and marry the man of her dreams again.
Lady Jane was just sitting down when Robin appeared at the back
aisle way. Jax and Ned were already
standing at the front by the steps of the Gazebo. The minister was standing in the gazebo waiting for the bride and
groom to join him. All eyes in the park
area were turned towards Robin to see who was going to be coming behind her.
Still, no one had any idea.
A few were curious who it could be if Robin was going to be the Maid of
Honor and Ned the Best Man, but none had hazarded a guess that even came close
to the truth. Even Lois Cerullo, one of
Brenda’s best friends and one of Jax’s biggest helps in the years after the
death, had no clue. She had come to
support Jax.
The string quartet switched over to the Canon in D as Robin started
slowly down the aisle. It wasn’t until
she had reached the very front and taken her place that the guests even saw
their first glimpse of a white dress.
The bride came into full view and a gasp came from the group.
“Oh…my…GOD,” Jax heard Lois whisper quite loudly. It was the only thing anyone spoke. Everyone remained speechless as they watched
a woman they had all thought was dead walking down the aisle. She walked slowly to remove any doubt that
it was her beneath the veil. The only
person she made eye contact with was Jax.
Brenda was biting back the biggest smiles as she walked towards her
husband. She had seen everyone’s
reaction at once and had even heard Lois’s whispered gasp. When she finally stood at the front of the
aisle with Jax, he offered her his arm and they walked slowly up the steps to
where the minister stood.
“Dearly beloved,” the minister began, “we are gathered here today
to witness the joining of Jasper Jacks and Brenda Barrett in holy matrimony.”
Confirming what everyone already knew, there was a sudden murmur
through the guests as reality was hitting them. They were truly witnessing the wedding of these two people, one
of whom was supposed to be dead. No one
voiced their thought that this woman was not the real Brenda Barrett or that
Jax was insane. For some reason, no one
was saying what everyone was thinking.
They were all too stunned.
The minister continued with the ceremony even as people were
whispering to each other. Jax and
Brenda said and did nothing. They were
waiting for their vows to prove to the citizens of Port Charles, their friends
and families, that the woman before them really was Brenda Barrett and that Jax
was not insane.
Finally, it did come time for the vows. Jax and Brenda turned to each other, holding their hands tightly,
as Jax took his turn first. He took a deep
breath and smiled only into her eyes.
“Brenda, you have no idea what this day feels like to me. I have waited for this moment since the day
I met you and probably even before then.
It’s amazing to think what we have survived together and that it has
still led us right to this place. For
three years, I thought you were dead.
No one knows just how much I missed you. I missed seeing you smile and hearing you laugh. I missed every little touch you had in my
life. Even when I was tempted to find
someone else, I still couldn’t let go of you enough to do it. And for all that brought us to this point, I
am eternally grateful. If I had to
spend three years of my life in the darkest places I could ever know just to be
able to stand beside you for the rest of my life, I would gladly spend another
three years there. Because it means
that I have you here with me, forever.
I will not let you out of my life for anything now. I promise you that I will love you and honor
you and keep you with me for all the days of my life.”
He reached under her short veil and brushed the tears that had
started to fall from her eyes as she smiled at him. Her hands were shaking in the excitement of the moment. She gripped his hands tightly as she started
to speak. This was her chance to
explain what had happened and how grateful she was to Jax to have him back in
her life.
“Jax, before I walked down that aisle to you today, I was standing
with Robin and telling her I was ready to do this. The truth is, though, I was ready to do this nearly five years
ago. I don’t know if it was young love
or blind love that stopped us, but I know that nothing will ever stop us
again. Circumstances beyond our control
kept us apart for three years and I will never fully know what it was like
because I didn’t remember you during that time. You were alone and I didn’t know I was. But I did always have a feeling deep within me that I was missing
something huge in my life. I just didn’t
know it was you. Then, when I read the
letter that you had written to me, I knew, without even knowing it was you,
that I had to find the man who had written it.
I don’t know how, but I knew I had a connection to the person who had
written it, and I did because it was you who had written it. So, even when I couldn’t remember and you
were in the worst of times, our love kept us going towards each other. Now, as we stand here today and say these
words, I promise you that you will never again have to doubt my feelings or my
presence in your life. And I will never
doubt you or your feelings either. If
our love was strong enough to get us through everything we’ve been through and
still bring us here, I know that it will get us everywhere else in our
lives. It’s that strong and it’s that
real. I promise you now that I will
love you and honor you and keep you with me for all the days of my very long
life to come.”
She grinned up at him and did to him what he had done to her. A tear had started to fall down his cheek
and she gently wiped it away with her thumb.
She was fighting every urge in her body to kiss him right then. She knew she had to wait until it was all
said and done, but the look in his eyes was her undoing.
The second the minister pronounced them man and wife and told Jax
to kiss her, the veil was over her head and his lips were on hers. Even though they were already married before
this, it felt as though it were for the first time. Their friends and family that had gathered without knowing why
were all standing to receive them. Most
of them were crying tears of joy and surprise.
Some of them were still shaking their heads in bewilderment. They’d heard a little of the story of how
Brenda had come back, but they all wanted answers to their thousands of
questions.
Jax and Brenda turned to face the crowd with triumphant smiles on
their faces. They knew they had a
hundred questions to answer and they knew those questions were all going to be
asked very soon. But for this moment,
there was nothing but pure joy in them.
And it was all coming straight from their hearts.
The End