“I’d be careful round Raya’s mom,” Billy whispered to Elijah as the two of them and Elizabeth filed into the reception hall. “She doesn’t like Americans. You’ll want to put on your wonderful award-winning British accent for a bit.”

“It’s not award-winning,” Elijah replied, looking around the room at all the people. Orlando and Raya hadn’t arrived yet, nor had any of the rest of wedding party. “Are you really drunk or are you being serious?”

“A little of both, me thinks,” Billy said, giggling a little and grabbing a glass of champagne that Elizabeth held out to him. “We’ll see you later. We’ve got to go to the head table.”

Elijah saluted and watched the two of them stumble off. It was obvious Billy had had a few drinks and Elizabeth was trying to help support him so he wouldn’t fall all over the place. He shook his head, laughing.

“Hello, dear boy, have you seen my daughter? I know you’re a good friend of the grooms…”

Elijah turned to see Claire standing beside him, peering at him curiously; Richard was standing beside her, also looking curious.

“Hullo!” Elijah hollered, “Good to see you, old chap! How are you!?” Claire and Richard stared at him oddly and didn’t reply. “I haven’t seen Raya,” he said, lowering his voice, but still keeping with the British accent.

They nodded and walked off, Elijah yelled, “Cheerio!” at their retreating backs. To himself, he added, “Maybe I’m overdoing it a tad.” He saw an older couple passing by him, unmistakably they were in Raya’s family. He yelled at them, “BONJOUR!” and they scurried away from him as fast as they could. He made a face and muttered to himself, “That’s French! I’m not French! I’m British!”

Liberty and Dom arrived a few moments after that; Elijah was standing near the entrance way waving at people and making British remarks. “How about that Tony Blair, eh?” he asked Dom and Lib, who gave him odd looks.

She took a step towards him, laying a hand on his arm, “Elijah, how much have you had to drink? I mean, I know it’s okay for you to drink over here, but still.”

“I haven’t had any yet, actually. Billy told me to speak with a British accent around Claire.”

“Claire’s mingling with the guests up in the front, there,” Liberty replied, gesturing towards Claire.

“Well, yes, I was trying to make a believable scene.”

“You’re not acting, Elijah. There’re no cameras,” Dom glanced to his right where Viggo was prancing about snapping photos of all the guests. Anaka was running along behind him, handing him film. “Except of the photograph variety. Hey, are Anaka and Viggo…”

“No,” Elijah said quickly. “She’s just following him around. Apparently she’s realized she can’t have you, so she’s moved on to greener pastures.”

“I’d appreciate if I weren’t compared to a pasture,” Dom remarked dryly. “Also, it’s just us, you can stop speaking like a pompous British man.”

Elijah‘s eyebrows rose, “Like yourself, you mean?”

“Oh, look! I think Orlando and Raya are coming! We better get to our tables so the food can start being sent around!” Liberty grabbed Dom’s elbow before he had the chance to clock Elijah in the face; Elijah pounced off to his own table, nodding and smiling at everyone he passed and tipping his imaginary hat.

“Honestly,” Dom muttered, sitting down beside Billy, “Elijah’s gotten as bad as you have.”

“I doubt it,” Billy replied, slurring a little. Liberty raised her eyebrows at him and then took her seat beside Dom. The four middle chairs were left vacant until Viggo and Anaka sat down, leaving just two middle chairs open.

Orlando and Raya came in looking pleased with themselves moments later and sank into their chairs. The boys noted that Raya’s tiara had gone askew.

“Where have they been? The broom closet?” Dom whispered to Billy.

Billy shrugged, “Beats me. We all know Raya always gets her man.

“Billy,” Liberty chuckled. “They’ve just gotten married.”

“Oh,” Billy replied, smiling bashfully. “Right.”

*

After the food was served, and before the first dance and cutting of the cake, Billy swaggered up to the stage and jumped up next to the lead singer of the band, grabbing his mic. The band all stared at him in bewilderment. “Can I haff everybody’s attentionses, please?” The hall quieted and Raya put a head in her hand; Orlando was watching Billy nervously, his arm around her. “Thanks you muchly. I would like to sing a song and dedicate it to…” Billy looked around the room and locked eyes with Elijah, “the most lurvely bloke in the WHOLE wide world. This one’s for you, Lijah.” He turned to the band and muttered something; they began to play.

“Turn around,” Billy sang, in a hushed voice. “Every now and then I get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my TEARS!” He belted out the last word, sounding lethargic and sad…and overly dramatic. “Turn around…every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you never come ARRRROOOOOOOUND!”

Dom snickered and Liberty had to use all her control not to burst out laughing. Elijah was turning beat red at his table and gulping down everyone’s drinks. There were already several empty glasses littering the table. Sean put a hand out to stop him, but Elijah pushed it away. Liv was speaking in hushed tones to him, but he was ignoring her. Christine was biting her lip to keep from laughing. Sean Bean and Viggo’s on, Henry, were egging him on.

“Tuuuuurn arrrooooooound,” Billy whined on the stage, holding onto the mic stand like Steven Tyler, who was incidentally sitting with his daughter and bobbing his head along with Billy’s words. “BRIGHT EYES!”

He pointed to Elijah, who swallowed the mouthful of wine and managed to produce a fairly believable smile. “Turn around….EVERY NOW AND THEN I FALL APART!”

The song picked up and Billy held his fingers out in the peace sign, while head bopping the best he could. “And I NEED YOU NOW TONIGHT, and I need you MORE THAN EVER! Turn around. Every now and then I fall APART! Turn around, BRIGHT EYES!”

“Does he even KNOW this song?” Liberty asked, smirking.

“Well, it seems like he knows some of it. Though it doesn’t seem like he knows it all,” Elizabeth replied evenly.

Billy finished the song with a very dramatic arm movement that sent him falling off the stage and into the lap of woman who screeched rather loudly and pushed him to the ground. He stood up and bowed before making his way over to Elijah’s table. Elijah was slowing drinking himself under the table, literally; he was shrinking down with every drink he took.

“Elijah,” Billy cooed, sitting on the floor beside him and staring up at him adoringly. “I told you I’d get you back.”

“W---when?” Elijah croaked out.

“A year ago. When you kissed me to shut me up.” Billy stood and kissed Elijah soundly on the cheek before proudly strutting up to the head table.

“How on earth did Billy get to be the chosen one?” Liberty asked Raya, who was now sitting beside her, nibbling on a tomato garnish.

“Look at him, he’s the life of the party,” Raya replied honestly, jabbing her chin towards Billy, who was strutting up to them.

“I believe she wants to know how you are such good friends,” Anaka explained, leaning over Dom, who looked quite taken aback at the sudden woman in his lap. She pulled back and continued picking at her food.

Liberty stammered, “Well, no, er, yes. I suppose so.”

Raya laughed gleefully, “When I first started dating Orlando, I was walking up to his door, in the driveway, and Billy pulled up and his headlights washed over me and he stopped the car and didn’t run me over.”

“For some reason I figured it’d be something more than that. Like, Billy jumping off a bridge to save you or something,” Liberty shrugged.

“I thought she was a prostitute,” Billy said, sliding into his chair. “A high class one,” he added to Raya, who smiled genially at him.

“Yet, he was gentlemanly and didn’t try to have his way with me.”

Liberty and Dom exchanged glances, “So if I were to do that---”

“I assure you, Dominic, there’s no way that you and I will ever have the same sort of relationship Billy and I have,” Raya nodded happily at Billy and then the band announced it was time for the newlywed’s first dance so she took Orlando’s hand and he led her to the middle of the dance floor.

“I wish she’d give me a chance,” Dom sulked.

“You don’t really,” Billy replied. “I know you. You just hate having someone not like you. You could care less if you were really friends with her.”

Dom stuck his tongue out in a very childlike way and then turned to watch Orlando and Raya dance. “You’d think that since now she’s married to my friend, she’d at least TRY to be civil to me,” he commented to no on in particular.

“Dom,” Liberty laughed. “She’s ALWAYS civil to you, no matter what. It’s you who is always egging her on.”

“That’s true,” Billy agreed, popping a cherry tomato into his mouth and swirling his salad around with his fork. He’d already eaten his crab stuffed mushrooms, soup and main course; he was always one to leave the vegetables to the end, if he was forced to eat them at all…which Raya insist he did. She didn’t like the thoughts of food so flawlessly prepared going untouched. “Maybe be civil to her and she’ll catch on and be overly friendly to you like she is to me.”

“Overly friendly?” Dom repeated blankly. “What do you mean?”

“You know, treating me as a friend instead of friend-in-law.”

“I rather like that term,” Anaka said randomly, still picking at her food.

“Do you actually eat?” Elizabeth asked her. “In all the time I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you really eat anything.”

“I eat lettuce,” Anaka replied defensively, turning her back on the other girl and glancing around the room for a sighting of Viggo.

“I like a girl who can eat,” Billy remarked, smiling at Elizabeth, who was just polishing off her main course.

“Can we please get back to the subject?” Dom requested, sounding a little put-out.

“I’m sorry, dearest Dominic,” Billy cooed, holding back a huge grin. “Do we need to brainstorm ideas as to how to get Miss Raya Bloom into your good graces.” Billy glanced at Liberty, laughing. “It’s very odd to be calling her Raya Bloom.”

“That IS her name now,” Liberty replied evenly.

“No, it’s not,” came Raya’s voice from in front of them. “My full name now is Raya Scott-Spencer Bloom.”

Billy put his hand up, “Plus all your middle names. Which is really excessive, may I say. I mean, how many names does a person NEED?”

Raya ignored him, as per anyone’s custom where Billy was concerned, “If you’ll kindly direct your attention the band leader, he’s been calling you for quite sometime. We’re supposed to be dancing.” She motioned to Orlando who was standing in the middle of the dance floor by himself, looking amazingly happy.

The leader of the band was tapping his toe impatiently against the wooden stage. “Now that the wedding party has stopped talking, would they care to join the groom on the dance floor to commence with the dancing?”

Partnering up, Liberty and Dom, Billy and Elizabeth, then Viggo and Anaka, all joined Raya and Orlando in dancing around, beaming at all the guests.

“How are you such good friends with Raya?” Dom asked Liberty the second the music started.

Liberty shrugged, “I don’t know. I used to be intimidated by her, you know, but she’s so nice. She’s very sweet and she did everything in her power to get us together, and then KEEP us together. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she wanted desperately to marry you off so that she wouldn’t have to worry about your attraction to her.”

Dom’s eyes bulged, “Really?”

“Well, either that or your attraction to Orlando. Maybe she considers you competition.”

“You’re not funny,” Dom deadpanned, though a smile quirked his lips.

“I think I am,” Liberty laughed.

He dipped her back and then pulled her up, “Maybe she’s worried about YOU being her competition.”

Liberty let out a rather loud snort and tried to cover it up by coughing; Dom pounded her back until she hit him in the arm to stop him, “Em. I really don’t think she’s worried about me and Orlando.”

“He has wandering eyes.”

“HA! HA HA HA HA!” Liberty cleared her throat and said sincerely, “Sure. Yes. Right. And anyway,” she gestured with her hand vaguely. “If that were true, she wouldn’t have BEFRIENDED me as she hasn’t you.”

Dom winked conspiringly, “Keep thy friends close, keep thy enemies closer.”

“That’s rubbish,” Billy said, waltzing by with Elizabeth. “Everybody knows that the enemies all die at the end because of all the bad they’ve done. They all go straight to hell. That goes by that lovely saying of, em, the bad things come back three fold or something or other.”

“I think that’s a witch’s motto,” Elizabeth replied thoughtfully.

“Are you calling Raya a witch?” Billy gasped. “That’s an outlandish accusation!”

Liberty rolled her eyes, Dom chuckled and Elizabeth just gave Billy a playful little slap across the back of the head.

Once Billy and Elizabeth were out of earshot, Dom pouted, “No one is ever concerned with my problems.”

“That’s not true,” Liberty answered seriously. “We’re concerned when there ARE actual problems.”

“Raya loathing me isn’t important?”

“Not to us. You obviously deserve it.”