"Smile for the camera!"

There is a flash and everyone cheers as Mrs Marcella Behrmann and Mr Elijah Behrmann take their first picture together as man and wife. In the far corner of the wedding hall, Ridley watches her sister - now a wife-with a small smile on her face. It really only seemed like yesterday Marcy had dumped another of her boyfriends and had vowed to herself - and to Ridley-that she was absolutely, positively done with men. No more boyfriends! Certainly no future weddings either! And now here she is with the love of her life looking happier than she has been for years.

There are a lot of people here - mostly from Elijah's side of the family; uncles, aunts, cousins and nieces and nephews, friends of friends of friends, but Ridley can spot one or two familiar faces from her side. There is Marcy's maid of honour Vanessa who is currently flirting with the best man. Naturally, Marcy had wanted Ridley to be her maid of honour but Ridley declined the offer, knowing her role as maid of honour wouldn't really work because of the distance between them prior to the wedding, so the offer was given to Vanessa, who is Marcy's best friend and co-worker at the restaurant she works in. Christopher and Dee were invited to the wedding too but Ridley hasn't seem them anywhere since they first arrived for the ceremony. What must they be doing right now? She frowns and banishes all thoughts of Christopher and Dee out of her head. Actually, I don't really want to know what they must be doing right now.

Ridley feels a twinge of pain when she suddenly thinks of how sad it is that her parents have missed their oldest daughter's wedding, and how it will be the same when Ridley's time comes. She's been having a lot of thoughts about mum and dad these days, as anyone would do whenever one of the most important days that they will ever have in their life finally arrives; a day that most people get to share with their mothers and fathers. Yes, there has been that sense of loss other times, like when Ridley got all As and A*s in her GCSE results and the only family member she had to share that joy of achievement with was her older sister, or when Marcy passed her training for the cooking course she had taken. But there's something a lot more different about weddings. Marcy has entered a completely new chapter in her life and their parents were not here to see it, and that sense of loss feels even greater, more heightened somehow. But, strangely enough, mingled with the loss is a sense of pride. Pride that these two seemingly broken little girls have made it so far in life. No one had ever thought Marcella Denvers would ever amount to anything -- once a violent, bitter and angry child had now flowered into a successful young woman. And it was the same with Ridley too. Maybe they didn't need their parents to be there for them, after all. They had -- have -- each other and that's what is now important.

Ridley is abruptly startled out of her thoughts when glasses begin to get gently clinked with spoons, and the whole room goes quiet. Elijah Behrmann coughs awkwardly and pulls at his bow-tie before nervously getting up on the stage platform, announcing that his wedding speech is about to begin, and he fumbles with his coat pocket before taking a piece of paper out. Marcy watches with blushing cheeks as Elijah tells the room about the first time he laid eyes on her and how he knew, from that moment on, just how terrifying she was. The whole room laughs and everyone immediately bursts into a thundering applause afterwards, wolf whistles and all, once he is finished with his speech. Ridley watches with a warmed heart as Marcy wraps her arms around her husband's neck and kisses him sweetly on the lips.

The room grows noisy again and Ridley walks around aimlessly, deciding it is probably best if she starts searching for Dee and Christopher before they end up lost in Australia or something. The noise and the heat get too much for her so she decides to step out of the hall for a bit, just for some fresh air. When she steps out, she notices that there isn't anyone outside. Good. Ridley has had enough of large crowds to last a lifetime. When she has her wedding, she'll make sure it's limited to only fifty people. Why did Marcy ever agree to so many guests will forever be a wonder to Ridley.

She closes her eyes and lets the summer evening's air wash over her. Things are changing now and she isn't sure if she's quite ready to deal with it yet. Marcy and Elijah will be moving to Central London after their honeymoon, which means Ridley won't really have much reason to come back to this small old town for any holidays during her last two years at University. Yes, she'll probably like Central London better - it's a beautiful place, and she'll be living close to the biggest tourist hot-spots in England-but she'll really miss her childhood home. With a pang, she realizes she'll probably never see Ben again either. Coming back here during her holidays had become her only chance to see him around. Although maybe one day, he'll decide to move away too and Ridley sucks in a huge breath of air as she thinks of Ben moving on with his life-without her in it-he'll marry a wonderful girl and have beautiful children with her and...and...

"Perhaps," a voice suddenly says and her eyes fly wide open because she's heard that voice so many times in her life, she's replayed the sound of that voice in her mind on so many occasions. Ridley would know it anywhere. It's Ben. Ben. Ben.

He's here. Now. Standing right in front of her, in flesh and blood, wearing a tuxedo rather like the one Christopher wore and he's holding a piece of paper in his hand-oh, he looks so handsome. She gasps. It can't be. Ridley blinks, to make sure this isn't a dream but oh, of course it isn't! How can it be? He's really here.

"Ben, what the hell are you-"

"Perhaps," he repeats, silencing her immediately, "Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one's life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down-"

"What--?"

"Perhaps it crept to one's side like an old friend through quiet ways-"

"Is that from-"

"Perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose-"

"You should know that this is the cheesiest thing you will probably ever come to do in your life."

"God damnit, Ridley!" Ben laughs and nervously runs his hand through his hair and Ridley feels that swoopy sensation in her stomach. It's all the same. They've changed, but the feelings haven't. Not at all. "I fly all the way here to a bloody wedding," Ben says as he strides towards her. "I fly all the way here from Canada and I have to borrow a bloody tuxedo from my dad that is two sizes too big, and I show up at your sister's wedding, ready to proclaim my undying love to you in the most romantic way possible and you just have to and ruin it by interrupting me! That is just so like you, Ridley Denvers!"

They both laugh and he grabs her by her waist and draws her close to him. Ridley flushes. "I can't believe you were just about to quote from Anne of Avonlea," she murmurs with a small chuckle. "You dunce."

"I read your story, you know."

"WHAT?!" Ridley pushes Ben away and her cheeks flare up in embarrassment. "What-like-my-which story?"

"Finding Gilbert Blythe." Ben shrugs as if to say 'well duh'.

"How did you know about it?" Ridley cries, burying her face in her hands so he doesn't get to see how embarrassed she feels right now.

"Hey, hey," he says and he's pulling her close to him again, and he gently takes hold of her hands and moves them away from her face. "Don't be embarrassed." He smiles. "It's what got me here to you."

"You didn't answer my question!" Ridley snaps anyway. Ben laughs.

"Ridley Denvers, you are truly the most incorrigible human being I have ever met." Ben smiles, though. "Roland told me about it. He's my friend. I think I mentioned his obsession with Anne of Green Gables to you, before. He kept going on about this story for ages and I finally read it after he told me about the e-mail."

"The-The e-mail?" Ridley frowns and suddenly, it all falls into place for her. "Roland was the one who sent me the e-mail? The one about his friend who was heartbroken and-and-"

"He showed me the e-mail," Ben explains, "and I just got this feeling that...that...it was you. And when I read that story of yours, I knew it was you."

"You came for me," Ridley says softly.

"Well, I love you." Ben leans in and kisses her cheek. "I thought that had been pretty obvious."

"Well, what about that Mary girl then?" Ridley counters back, months of hidden jealousy and anger suddenly flaring up again. "And-and Jenna. What were those two all about?"

"Jenna was my failed attempt at trying to move on," he says very calmly. He tucks a stray curl from Ridley's hair over her ear and Ridley feels all light and fluttery again. "And Mary?" He giggles. "Mary was supposed to be just a friend, but she clearly didn't feel the same way as I did. When she invited me to the Christmas party all the way to Oxford, I only came because I thought I might run into you. And when I did I wanted to talk to you but...but...well, you never gave me a chance to explain." He grins slyly. "So you are jealous, aren't you?"

"Well, I love you." The surprise that flashes across Ben's face is replaced with a blush when Ridley stands on her tip-toes to kiss him on his cheek. "I thought that had been pretty obvious, too."

"Oh." Ben bites his lip. "Marcy also e-mailed me about your dad just a few days before my flight. You idiot Ridley, do you realize how quickly our fight would've ended if you'd just told me?"

"Yeah, that was stupid of me to hide it from you." Ridley shrugs. "I just wasn't...wasn't really ready to tell you, and I thought if I did you'd only take me back out of sympathy."

"Idiot," he mutters again with a roll of his eyes, before pressing his forehead against Ridley's. "Misunderstanding after misunderstanding after misunderstanding. We've both been massive idiots. It's like fate purposely tried to keep us apart."

"Maybe it was just testing us," Ridley replies. "Just to see if we could withstand it."

"I'd like to think we sort of did," Ben says. "Yeah sure there was all that drama in between but if Gilbert Blythe could fight scarlet fever to stay for Anne Shirley then I sure as hell can fly halfway across the world for mine."

"I thought you said you couldn't be my Gilbert Blythe," Ridley teases him with a smirk.

"Yeah, well, I was wrong there wasn't I?" Ben smiles. "It's like how you wrote it in that story of yours. Gilbert Blythe wasn't perfect either. He had his own flaws. He was human too. And maybe I can't always be the way Gilbert Blythe was, but I know I love you as much as he loved Anne, so I think that totally makes up for it."

"Ohhh, I don't know," Ridley teases. "It would be nice to be rescued on a boat every once in a while."

"Don't be cheeky," Ben breathes before dipping his head down to capture Ridley's lips with his.

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