trans_9 | Dearly Beloved...

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Dearly Beloved...

The City didn't have weather as most people knew it, but it was nonetheless a beautiful day - warm weather with a nice breeze, Stacy's sun-equivalent shining in the sky... almost as if it was reflecting the emotions of at least one of the ship's crew. In the middle of the Park, someone had set up a little white lattice archway amongst the hedgerows, decorated with ivy and roses and lilies that looked remarkably real (if they were, in fact, synthetic). In front of the arch were several rows of white chairs, more than enough for anyone who cared to show up.

It was a beautiful day for a wedding.

And frankly, Nanoha needed it. After the chaos and confusion; the rage and terror on Galilee... she didn't think she could ever forget that horrible sense of loss and emptiness when she'd thought that Fate was gone, if only for a day or so. But this would go a long way toward exorcising those demons - a day that she'd dreamed of for years.

Of course, she couldn't go greet anyone yet. She was in her wedding dress, after all! These things needed to be proper.

(ooc: Tag the respective subthreads, please! Mingling is highly encouraged.)

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"Aye," Jamie says softly, his attention seemingly on the decorations. Really, though, he's thinking about what she's said. A love that powerful deserves to be protected, surely. "Seems to me that if you've found something like that, ye could do nothing less."

Realizing who he's talking to, though, he winces internally, not knowing if the subject is causing any pain. He saw a glimpse of Aang with someone at the meet and greet who looked a bit like Kaya does, and he knows it hasn't been that long since Matt went back to sleep. At least, he doesn't think it's been that long. It's so hard to tell, sometimes.

"I'm sorry, Kaya. I'd not thought...I didn't mean to bring up something that might hurt ye."

"Yes, exactly," she said. "It takes a lot to be together with someone on the ship. There's all these missions, all the dedication to whatever position you have on the ship, and then if someone or something attacks the ship, then you have to worry about how much time you put in fighting it without upsetting your partner. There's a risk every time you time around, and if they can weather through that and the war, they can get through anything."

At this, she only gave Jamie a gentle smile. "It hurts only when I think of all the time I spent pining for Aang. It was a long time, you remember. But Aang's been through a lot himself, and if there is one thing I want, its for him to be happy with the one he loves. That hasn't exactly been an abundant feeling for our group, so I'm happy for him. Besides, all that means is that I get to rediscover those feelings I have in someone else, and I think I'm up to it."

It's not something that's easy to forget, all that time Kaya - thinking she was Katara - spent waiting for him to wake up. She truly believed he was there, but then when he did... Jamie nods. "I do remember."

Something about her seems different now, though, he thinks. More balanced. Maybe those experiences she had were good, in a way, even if they hurt at the the time. And maybe now she can really find someone to care for. He hopes she can. She's his friend, after all, and he'd like for her to be happy. Reaching out to lay a hand on her shoulder, he gives her a small, crooked smile of his own. "I think ye deserve happiness as well, Kaya. I hope ye find someone who will make give ye some of that."

"I hope I do too," Kaya said. "But I know one thing: I'm not going to find happiness moping about what I don't have. I was never meant to be with Aang, and Matt...Matt will fine his way to Will eventually." The last part was something she swallowed, but knew was truthful. Will had loved Matt more than she knew she ever would, and had seen the lo on the girl's face whenever he spoke of him or was with him.

She smiled. "But I think you ought to get it yourself, Jamie. It's why I'm glad the Doctor and Victoria are on the ship now. I couldn't imagine the reappearing of the people most important to you better than how things are now."

But she should make sure. "Things are going well, aren't they?"

"Aye, I'm glad they're awake as well." Especially Victoria. As strange as her being from a time so soon after he first met her is, and as confused as it makes him that she's awake, having her here is a bit like getting something back that he hadn't truly realized was missing until it was there again.

Even now, thinking about her causes some of the fondness he feels for her to surface, bringing about a gentler undertone into his voice when he continues. "I knew the Doctor would wake up, but I thought I'd not ever see Victoria again."

But then he looks a bit uncertain. 'Things' is a rather broad sort of category, and he's not entirely sure he understands where she's going with the question. "What sort of things?"

"As you ought to be: all the people from my world that are here makes things a little better for your own morale, you know? I always saw how happy you'd be when you talked about Victoria. I was really pleased to find out she was finally here."

That, and she had gleamed he might have had an eye for a certain chipper barmaid at Kang's, and knew that might not end well. From what she heard, though, it hadn't turned out well.

"Well, things with you and Victoria. I know its early, but she must have missed you, right? And what about you, the Doctors, and those companions of his? Is everyone all right?"

"That's just it, you see. She's not had a chance to. As far as she's concerned, she had been talking with me only a few moments before she woke up here."

He's gradually getting more used to the idea of Victoria being from an earlier time than he was, and he hopes that she's getting used to it too, but he doesn't know. And that makes it hard to figure out how 'things' are.

Those things, at least. The rest of it is a bit easier. "There's only one Doctor awake right now, and he's fine, as far as I can tell. So's everyone else, now."

"So things are moving pretty fast for her then," Kaya said, giving him a grin. "Well, who better to have her ease into it than you, hmm? That reminds me, I guess I never did ask: who was the first to meet the Doctor, you or her?"

It might not matter, but then, it might, right?

"That might be for the better then. If all the other doctors were repodded before, it might be because there was only one doctor meant to be awake at one time. What's this one like?"

"I was," he replies readily. "He was traveling with Ben and Polly then. Victoria didn't start traveling with us until after they left."

It's strange, really, realizing that he's in more or less the same position than he was a few years ago - helping her to adjust to a new life in a new place. This time, though, she has quite a lot more to deal with - including trying to get used to the fact that one of her caretakers seemingly changed his appearance overnight.

"Aye, well. He's not my Doctor, but there's things about him that are the same. They always are." Despite Five's insistence that everything about the Doctor changed when he regenerated, Jamie's opinion is that it's not strictly true. "He's taller than he was, and his hair is a bit floppier, but he still likes to wear that bow-tie of his and he's still able to find trouble no matter where he winds up going."

"So you have the opportunity to show her a whole new existence again," Kaya said. "She'll need that. I'm in a similar boat when it comes to that, actually, with Katara. She's been my teacher, but I was so used to being HER, and making my life on the ship, helping her is coming naturally. But she's adjusting really well, and she has Aang now. Hopefully she can repair the rift the guys sort of have: I'm hoping we can all be a family again."

Kaya laughed. "OK, I'm getting more and more curious about this kind of guy. He sounds like a zanier version of the old captain I knew on the ship. He was only around for a little bit, but she broadened my horizons about the world when was here. The Doctor helped prepared you for being on this ship, and look at you now!"

"Aye, wearing a suit with my kilt," Jamie replies, rather dryly. "That's not the Doctor's fault, though. Ye can thank Rachel for that one."

Of course, if he hadn't agreed to go along with her on that shopping expedition then he wouldn't have had anything quite as appropriate to wear to the wedding, so he supposes it worked out.

"What is with ye lasses and wanting to dress me up in things, anyway?"

"Rachel, hmm?" Kaya said, inspecting the boy with the kilt, wrinkling her nose. "I guess this works for the occasion, but I wonder if this suit actually works with the kilt. Maybe its just me: we don't wear suits where I'm from, after all."

At the question, she giggled. "Oh, girls just love doing that, I guess! I admit that I wouldn't mind shopping to get you something to wear for this if you had asked! Me, I was lucky to have Rein make this for me once I found out about those two getting married. Maybe its the girl in me, but I really like trying out new outfits! When else am I going to get the chance, with all that goes on on the ship?"

"Oh, it normally comes with trousers, but why would I need those when I've my kilt?" In other words, that part of outfit was all Jamie, stubborn as ever about actually getting rid of his kilt. He knows, though, Kaya knows his reasons for his refusal to budge on that particular issue.

At her own statement about outfits, though, his eyebrows go up, just a little. "Well, I know you do quite a bit, Kaya, but there's still times when you've not got anything going on. Why do ye not just try on outfits in the Sensoriums or something?"

Maybe if more lasses did that, then he wouldn't find himself in a shop somewhere every single shore leave wondering what new outfit he'd wind up in this time.

Kaya chuckled. "You know, somehow I should have known that it had more to do with you than something Rachel would have preferred you to dress us. But at the very least, you still did look very good in the suit anyway!"

She shook her head. "It's not the same thing, anymore than bringing about your actual world or experiences in the Sensoriums. It's just not the same thing. It would be like you imagining the Doctor in the Sensoriums if he weren't here to recreate the feel of him being there: you know its not him, even if it looks and acts and sounds like him. It's why I get excited when we can dock in a world. Find clothes, dressing up: it at least makes me feel like we're still have some things that aren't artificial on the ship."

Jamie is about to protest that they're just clothes, and it doesn't really matter all that much about them, but what she says then gives him pause. While he thought up the TARDIS a few times while in the Sensoriums, he never did think of the Doctor - not even when they had found their universes were destroyed.

Part of it was that he had hoped the Doctor was in the pods, but part if it was because he knew, deep down, it wasn't going to be the same. So while he still doesn't think not wanting to imagine clothes as being on the same level as not wanting to imagine people, he can understand enough of where Kaya's coming from for it to make sense.

"Aye, I suppose you're right. And it is nice when we get to get off the ship, even if ye don't wind up going clothes shopping." There's a pause, and he adds, sounding a little thoughtful, "Do ye really think I look good in the suit?"

Kaya thought that even small things like clothes had a way of marking you, making you remember where you were from: they were a way of distinguishing yourself. After being on the ship this long, how could she not think that?

"It's always nice to get off the ship and be able to stretch your legs a bit," Kaya said, "see what the world we're in has to offer. The Doctor did that with you a lot, didn't he? Granted, I wish our circumstances weren't so bad, but you can't have everything."

She stared at him a long time. Suits were a new thing to her, probably more so than Jamie since they likely wore them in his world. "Well, despite the color clash? I like it: it mkaes you look distinguished, older somehow."

"Hey?" While he's glad she likes it, he's not quite sure how the colors aren't working, and looks down at himself in confusion. "How's the color clashing?" Black jacket, red tie, black and red kilt - makes sense to him. Unless...

"Oh, did ye mean the shirt?" Okay, that part might be slightly off, but he didn't think to buy a fancier one when he got the jacket and had to borrow one from the wardrobe. "Aye, well, I suppose it doesn't quite go, but it's the nicest one I could find."

"Like I said, it still looks good!" Kaya said, laughing. "It's only a small thing, and we're on Stacy anyway, so its not as if we can afford to be picky, you know? You take what you can get. Besides, you make it work well!"

She smiled. "Marriage. Who knew we'd be having one, after all of this time? Though now that I think of it, maybe I should be surprised it hadn't happened sooner?"

Jamie doesn't really think she should be surprised, as he has is own ideas why the marriage took as long as it did. "Stacy has a way of making that sort of thing difficult. Especially when ye never really know when she'll call you away on some mission."

He shrugs. "Aye, well. Maybe we should see about going to find somewhere to sit before it gets started. Unless you're waiting for someone, that is."

"Yes, I guess that is true," Kaya said. "Most of the time, I think people just get thrown into random circumstances without meaning to, you know? But even then, I think that it's great when you find someone you never expected, not from your world, and you find you're a match anyway."

She smiled to herself, thinking of a certain someone. "No, I'm not, although there is someone I sort of wish were here. Let's go find a place to sit."

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Dearly Beloved...

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