Jo sat up, yawned, and looked around. A parade of brightly coloured boats sailed around the walls on a sea-blue background, and she smiled. This was Uncle Jonny's old room. His ratty old green teddy, Frankenbear, was still sprawled on the dresser with a resigned expression in his one beady eye.

She slid out of bed, wincing a little as her scars pulled. They were still a little sore, but most of the pain was gone now, and they were taking on a funny kind of shape, like flames licking up her arm... but she didn't like to think about that. Instead, she skipped towards Uncle Jonny's room, intent on dragging him out of bed. He'd promised he would take her ice-skating today, and he ALWAYS kept his promises. The trick was to remind him real early-like so he couldn't put it off until afternoon.

He wasn't there.

He couldn't *possibly* be up on his own yet. It wasn't even *light* yet.

Of course, it was pretty much winter now, so it was dark until quite late, but still.....

Then she brightened. Was it possible.... she scampered towards her mother's room, and peeked around the door very, very quietly. There they both were, curled up together with happy smiles on their sleeping faces.

Jo bounced joyfully. They were in bed together! Sleeping! That *had* to mean they were going to get together, it just HAD to! Of course, they looked kind of like they didn't have any clothes on, which was *horribly* rude, but still. It took what it took. She raced down the stairs, and punched the third button down on the speed-dial.

"Angelo's House of Diaper Related Skin-Conditions!"

"Guess what, Unca Angelo!" Jo squealed, still bouncing up and down. "Unca Jonny's asleep in Mommy's bed!!"

"Really? That's great- wait, is she in there too?"

"Yup!"

"That's great!" Angelo whooped quietly. "Tora, guess what? Jon's asleep in Jubilee's bed... how do I know? Well, Jo called and told me, duh.... Jo, Tora wants to know if they're snuggled together."

"Like bugs in a snug," Jo said proudly.

Angelo chuckled. "I knew it! I knew that Ev finding true love was a sign!.... and the calling me and asking me for advice was a clue too, of course...."

Jo giggled happily. "Do you think they'll get married?"

"What, Ev and Jeff? Nah, illegal in this benighted country.... oh, you meant Jon and your mom." He laughed. "Yeah, probably."

Jo bounced some more. "Should I go wake them up?"

"No! No, don't go wake them up. Just play quietly and whatever you do don't go back in." He lowered his voice confidentially. "It's probably best not to get them all embarrassed about it right away."

Jo sighed deeply. "Oh, okay. Can I wake them up when it gets light?"

There was a slight pause. "Jo, what time is it there again?"

"Eleven minutes past four. Why?"

* * *

Jubilee woke up with a slight feeling of stiffness, a large feeling of happiness, and a rather localised feeling of warmth where a long arm was draped around her and holding her against an equally warm side. The arm she was lying on (her arm, that is. She couldn't speak for his) was asleep, but she didn't care just now. Instead, she snuggled down a bit and nuzzled a bit. Jon twitched a bit. "You awake?"

<*Am now,*> he agreed groggily. <*That you, love o' me life?*>

She chuckled, running her fingers down that ticklish left side. "Who else would it be?"

<*Nobody, but it was a good opening for that 'love o' me life' bit,*> he said proudly. <*That was the important bit.*>

"Oh." She propped herself up on one elbow and kissed him seriously. "Well, I did like that part. I love you too."

<*Good.*> He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. <*Still wanna marry me?*>

"Lemme think... yup." She giggled happily, snuggling a bit more. "Remember our first date?"

He nodded, looking a little puzzled. <*Like it was yesterday. Why?*>

She sighed softly, a dreamy little smile on her tiny face. "I feel even more sickeningly happy now than I did then. I may send myself into sugarshock."

He looked pleased. <*Oh, good. When you faint I can give you mouth-to-mouth to wake you up again.*>

"You think you'll be able to wake me up, huh?"

<*I did last night,*> he returned smugly. <*You remember, when-*>

"Vaguely. I wasn't really coherent." She snickered happily and tickled him some more. "You're very good at that."

He shrugged. <*I try,*> he said with mock-modesty. <*A humble student of the female body, that's me.*> Slightly shaggy eyebrows wiggled in a suggestive manner. <*Wanna try it again?*>

She sat up with a regretful sigh. "Yes, but not now. Jo's gonna be up soon, and you know the first thing she does is-"

<*Grab one of us to make her breakfast,*> he sighed. <*We're gonna have to work on that.*> He pulled the love of his life into his arms for one more lingering kiss, then rested his forehead against hers, eyes meeting hers with a questioning look. <*How do... uh... yer wanna tell her about this? Us?*>

"I thought we'd sit her down and say, 'Jo, honey, we finally figured out how we really feel about each other, and now we're gonna get married. Would you like to give me away?"

Jon blinked. <*You want *Joanie* to give you away?*>

"Why not?" Jubilee said reasonably. "I belong to her more than anyone else. She's the only one entitled to hand me over."

<*...Okay, fair enough.*> Reluctantly, he dragged himself out of bed before he did something he really shouldn't. Well, not right now, anyway. <*Pants, pants... ridiculous social custom, pants.*>

Jubilee stayed where she was, admiring the view with the cutest little leer imaginable. "But they make your butt look so cute! Not that it ain't cute anyways..."

Jon grinned at her, dragging a faded old t-shirt over his head. <*Watch it, missy, or I'll forget me manners.*> He paused. <*Shouldn't we shower?*>

"Yup." Jubilee scooped her disgarded nightgown up off the floor and slithered into it, never mind that it made her lover's mouth metaphorically water like mad. "But were you planning to walk to the bathroom naked?"

Jon thought. Joanie. Only ten. Already traumatized as it was. <*No...*> He kissed the tip of Jubilee's nose. "I love you," he said aloud. Aloud. He was talking. He could tell her he loved her. He could... he savoured the thought... make his vows aloud. For some reason that seemed terribly important.

"I love you too." She smiled. "Very much." Pulling her robe around her with one hand, she opened the door with one hand... and stared. "Jo?"

Jo sat crosslegged on the hall rug, her fuzzy pink dressing-gown swathed around her and a book in her good hand. "I've been waiting AGES for you to come out," she announced with a little pout.

The two adults stared at her.

"Uncle Angelo said I shouldn't wake you up," she explained.

"Uncle... Angelo... said?" Jubilee asked weakly.

"I called an' told him you were sleeping together. He said to wait until you waked up on your own." She smiled hopefully. "Are you guys gonna get married now?"

<*Uh...yeh...*>

"Yay!" He was hit with a ballistic kid missile at waist height. "Mommy was right!"

<*Oh, she was, was she?*> One eyebrow rose inquiringly. <*Right about what, exactly?*>

"She said that if you make a wish on your birthday candles, then it comes true." Jo thought about it. "Eventually."

Both adults awwed, going all mooshy inside. "You wished for me and Jon to get married?" Jubilee joined in the hugging, ruffling her daughter's hair gently. "Which time?"

"All of them," Jo returned promptly. "Well, since I was two. That's when you told me about the wishing."

<*Y' used every single birthday wish up on me?*> Jon nearly melted into a puddle right there.

"And first stars, and shooting stars, and lucky pennies, and that time I got the wishing star in the christmas pudding..." Jo found herself cut off by a double hug so enthusiastic that she could hardly breath. "Well, I wanted it a lot," she finished in a squished voice. "Guys, air..."

They let go, and Jubilee dabbed a stray tear from the corner of her eye. "Sorry, sweetie. Would you... uhm... like to give me away?"

Jo opened her mouth to answer, then narrowed her eyes. "Are you gonna make me wear a stupid frilly dress?"

* * *

It was going to be a small wedding, they'd agreed that right off. No huge extravaganzas, no casts of thousands. Just close friends, which in their case was essentially the same thing as family. And lots of very nice food, because small crowd did not have to equal cheap wedding banquet.

All in all, it took nearly two months to round everything up... two months during which Jon and Jubilee mooked all over the place and Jo recovered her happy nature with astonishing rapidity. There were still crying spells and bouts of depression, but they were less frequent, and less severe.

* * *

"Take deep breaths. Slow ones."

<*Right. Breaths. I can take them now. Breaths. With oxygen.*> Jon puffed nervously on the air like a smoker on his very last cigarette. <*Oh christ I'm nervous...*>

Angelo, the best man, sighed and patted his friend's shoulder from across the room. "Why? You're madly in love with her, you get a ready-baked adorable daughter, Tora's making sure the party goes well, what's to worry about?"

Jon nibbled worriedly on his lip. <*What if she changes her mind? I couldn't stand losin' her now.*>

"She's not going to change her mind." Angelo rolled his eyes. "You two haven't stopped kissing and touching and holding hands and babbling at each other since I got here. Which, might I add, was two weeks ago."

<*Yeh, well, I'm surprised you've noticed, the way you and Tora carry on,*> Jon retorted, rather snippily. <*An' I can't 'elp noticing she's expecting *again*... this is number five, right?*>

"Yup." Angelo looked smug. "And number six, too."

<*SIX?*>

"Well, this time was an accident, really it was. We were going to stick with four. Then... well... no form of contraception is perfect... and they're twins." There was a decidedly smug note in his voice. "Boys."

<*Which makes four sons and two daughters. Good grief.*> Jon scowled, feeling more than a little envious. It would be nice... very nice... if he and Jubilee could maybe have just one baby of their own. Just one. It wasn't that he didn't adore Jo, he did, but he'd missed so much of her babyhood. He'd have liked to be 'daddy' right from the beginning at least once...

Angelo patted his shoulder sympathetically. "I'll go see how Jubilee's doing," he said quietly. This wasn't really something he could help with, and he knew Jon well enough that sometimes all you could do was leave him alone.

In a nod towards the 'Thou shalt not see thy partner before the ceremony' Wedding Commandment, Jon and Jubilee were getting ready on seperate floors. In a concession to convenience, the rooms were at the top and the bottom of the same set of stairs, which turned a corner halfway up. Angelo indulged himself in a bit of a skip up the first half, and nearly stepped on Jo as he came around the corner to find her sitting on the steps, wrestling with her tiny bow-tie.

"Need a hand with that?" He sat down beside her.

"Please." Jo lifted her chin, giving him the sparkling little grin she'd inherited from her mother. "But don't tell Mommy, 'cause I said I wanted to do it myself."

Angelo chuckled, his years of reluctant practice showing as he expertly twisted the bow into shape. "I won't breath a word." He patted the tie, and looked her up and down. She was wearing an adorable little white tux, which combined with gold tie and miniature cummerbund to make her look like a particularly snappily-dressed angel. "Very sharp," he approved.

"Thanks." She eyed him a bit suspiciously. "You don't think I should be wearing a dress?"

"You're not wearing a dress, I'm not wearing a dress, we both look good." He grinned and shrugged. "Why mess with it?"

Jo giggled. "Point." She eyed him thoughtfully. "Although you'd look good in a dress. You've got good legs."

"Well, yeah," he agreed, with a perfectly straight face. "But I haven't waxed." Jo giggled, and he grinned all the way up the rest of the stairs, then rapped politely on the door. "Jubilee? You decent?"

"Yup," came the slightly muffled reply.

"Damn. Too late again." He opened the door... and didn't gape, didn't stare, just smiled in gentle appreciation. "You look stunning."

"Really?" Jubilee smiled shyly at him, one hand rising automatically to touch her elaborately pinned hair.

"Would I lie to you?" He kissed her forehead gently, then winked and patted her behind. "Really, and I should know. I'm a connoisseur of beauty in women."

She smiled, smoothing her long, full skirts. It was almost winter now, in England, and cold enough that wearing long sleeves on her wedding dress was not just pretty, but practical. The ivory velvet was nice and warm, too. And, given enough time, she could probably come up with good reasons for the delicate pearls around the scooped neckline, the satin heels, and the misty veil, too. Yes, very good reasons. She wanted to look pretty. That was good reasons. "Thanks. You look good too." She grinned, and tweaked the red tie. "Tora?"

Angelo nodded, trying to look henpecked and only managing happy. "She said that the grey one makes me look like an old black and white photo. Then she said that I could either wear the red one, or wear a Charlie Chaplin moustache and bowler."

"And you went with the tie? Good choice." Jubilee chuckled, patting the red bow back into place.

"I look stupid in hats." He thought about it. "And, you know, there's the whole I-do-anything-she-wants-because-making-her-happy-is-my-life thing, but that makes me sound like a spineless mookyman."

Mother and daughter looked at each other and giggled. "Uncle Angelo, you ARE a mookyman," Jo informed him.

"Well, yeah, but do you have to spread it around?" He patted his red tie fondly, then smiled at Jubilee encouragingly. "Ready to formally entwine the rest of your life and your daughter's life with that of a man you've known for a mere fifteen years?"

Jubilee nodded, looked at him, looked at her daughter, and promtply lost the next half hour to a haze of sheer panic.

Soon, much too soon, she was pacing slowly down the aisle with Jo's small gloved hand tucked into hers. She passed Sean and Emma... she passed Logan, smiling gently... Ev and the tall, bespectacled man he'd introduced with a blush as Jeff... Paula, already sniffling... Tora with her brood of children lined up as neat and well behaved as angels... and then her vision filled itself up with a tall man whose wavy chesnut hair was starting to show a few threads of grey, but whose brown eyes had never before looked so young. there was a question and answer she barely heard, and her daughter's tiny hand slipped away, to be replaced by a much larger, warmer one that shook a little as it closed around hers.

Jon took the offered hand in his, feeling the small, soft warmth of it against his palm, and the psi-energy that made up his heart twisted in his chest. He loved her so much. And she looked so beautiful... her blue eyes aglow as the stained-glass windows of the tiny chapel that his ancestors had built laid a mantle of blue and purple light over her hair.

Jubilee felt his eyes on her, and looked up at him. His fingers squeezed hers tenderly as he smiled the tiniest bit, and she felt herself still into a statue of pure happiness. They stood there, lost in each other, for what might have been minutes or hours... then a small foot impacted her ankle. Jubilee's attention popped back to the ceremony just in time. "...you, Jubilation, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love and to cherish, to have and to hold, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, for so long as you both shall live?"

This was it. The moment of truth. "I do," she said softly and clearly.

The priest smiled. "And do you, Jonothon, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love and to cherish, to have and to hold, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, for so long as you both shall live?"

Sheer, unreasoning panic gripped him. What if he couldn't do it? What if he couldn't make them happy? What if he wasn't a good husband? What if... he met her eyes again and all the what-ifs faded away. "I do," he answered steadily, clasping her hand tenderly in his.

"Then by the power vested in me, in the eyes of God and this congregation, I now pronounce you husband and wife."

That..... was it? It was all over? They were married? Jubilee's mind raced in confusion even as she lifted her face for the first kiss of their wedded lives. It hadbeen so simple... so easy... then his lips were on hers, and for a long sweet moment there was no thought at all.

"And..." the priest said after a moment.

Everyone turned and looked at him in surprise. There was an 'and'? Since when was there an 'and' after the kissing?

He smiled that saintly smile again. "And I pronounce *you* two father and daughter."

Jon knelt, and solemnly kissed his new daughter's cheek. Jo threw her small arms around his neck and hugged tight. "Love you, Daddy," she whispered chokily.

"Love you too, baby," he murmured into her hair, knowing as he did so that there wasn't a dry eye in the place. With deliberate cheer, therefore, he stood up, taking his wife's arm on one side and his daughter's hand on the other. <*Right... everyone ready to eat, then?*>

Everyone, it appeared, was. There was nose-blowing, eye-dabbing, and then a general move to head back to the house, where the food was waiting in the lavishly decorated and rather enormous ballroom, along with the dance-floor. After the first rush had settled, it was time for the bride and groom to dance... which was also about the time that they realized that, what with one thing and another, they'd forgotten to pick a song.

"Uhm... what do we do?" Jubilee hissed.

<*'Ope the band planned something?*>

"Ahem..." They both looked around, to see Jo standing on the small raised platform with the hired band, holding a microphone and looking very small and cute and nervous. "It's time for my Mom and my new Dad to dance now," she said seriously. "And they forgot to pick a song. But that's okay, 'cause I picked one for them, and now I'm going to sing it for them too. It's called 'Broken Road." The band struck the opening notes of a slow, sweet tune, and Jo chimed in with her small sweet voice.

"I set out on a narrow way, Many years ago, Hoping I would find true love Along the broken road."

Jon slid his arms gently around his wife, cradling her against his chest as they began to dance. <*Clever little critter, isn't she?*> he whispered fondly. <*Got it just right.*>

"But I got lost a time or two, Wiped my brow, kept pushing through, I couldn't see how every sign Pointed straight to you."

"I suspect collusion," Jubilee whispered in return, nodding in Angelo's direction. Then, with a contented sigh, she laid her head on her husband's chest. "Now shh."

"Every long lost dream Led me to where you are Others who broke my heart They were just northern stars Pointing me on my way Into your loving arms. This much I know is true That God blessed the broken road, That led me straight to you."

They danced, alone in the center of the floor. The guests were forgotten, all the world had disappeared, and there was nothing for them but each other, the music, and the sweet, childish voice that sang all the words they hadn't known how to say.

"I look back on the years I spent Just passing through I'd like to take the time I lost And give it back to you. But you just smile and take my hand. You've been there, you understand, It's all part of a grander plan That is coming true."

Very softly, Jubilee began to sing along.

"Every long lost dream Led me to where you are Others who broke my heart They were just northern stars"

Tentatively, his voice still a little rusty, Jon joined in as well.

"Pointing me on my way Into your loving arms. This much I know is true That God blessed the broken road, That lead me straight to you."

Jo's voice soared on the final line, alone, as her parents stopped dancing altogether and their lips met. "Oh, straight... to you..."

* * *

A long time later, Jon sprawled on his... their, he exulted silently... king-sized bed, his head resting on his wife's soft stomach. "I love you," he said sleepily, apropos of nothing in particular.

"I love you too." She ruffled his hair gently. "Thank you, by the way."

<*Yer thanking *me*?*> he asked in exaggerated surprise.

She giggled, sounding more like the Jubilee of fifteen years ago than the mature, practical, slightly-over-thirty woman she pretended to be in daylight. "Not that, silly. The necklace."

<*Oh, that.*> He smiled and sat up, cupping her cheek gently. <*'s a family heirloom. Traditional gift for the bride.*>

"It's pretty." She grinned, and managed to describe a fortune's worth of diamonds and sapphires in a single word. "Shiny."

He laughed, pulling her into his arms and kissing the top of her head. <*Yeh, I thought you'd like it.*>

"I've got a present for you," she informed his chest with a happy wriggle. "A surprise present."

<*A surprise present?*> He smiled. <*For me?*>

She nodded, and squirmed away to flick on the lamp and rummage in the small drawer of the bedside table. After a minute, she came up with a tiny package and presented it to him proudly. "Here. Happy Wedding Day."

He took it, a puzzled expression settling over his usually withdrawn face. What had she given him, a pencil? It was just a light, slender stick-shaped thing wrapped in a scrap of tissue-paper. He pulled the paper off... yup, a little stick of white plastic. With a little window on the side. That had a blue symbol inside it. That looked an awful lot like a... a... he blinked, mind going completely and utterly blank.

Jubilee smiled fondly at him, curling up and resting her chin on her knees. "What do you think of Ethan for a boy?"

The End.