"Well," Isaac said with a pleased look on his face. "That was a very productive session, even if I do say so myself."
Zac nodded.
"Two songs down pat in six hours. That's pretty good for us."
"Six hours? Has it been that long already?" asked Isaac, looking at the clock. "Egads, it has!"
Zac chuckled.
"Yeah... and I know I should be going, but we're on such a roll at the moment, I don't want to."
Isaac grinned.
"Well, we should probably have a break anyway," he said. "I'll get started on, umm, afternoon lunch?"
Isaac departed the music room and headed to the kitchen, Zac close behind. On his way, Isaac noticed the light on the answering machine blinking.
"Hey, we were so caught up in playing, we missed a call," Isaac mused.
He hit the play back button.
"Hi Tay!" began the recording. "Natalie here. Umm, I was just calling to let you know that the Church is pretty booked out - very popular. So we can either wait a few months, or get married in the middle of the week in the next couple of weeks. Let me know what you'd like. Love you. Bye."
Isaac and Zac looked at each other. Then turned to look at Taylor.
Taylor
Taylor folded his arms and stared at the machine, then looked up and saw his brothers staring at him.
"What?"
Isaac and Zac
"You did hear the message right?" Isaac said. "That was Natalie. Apparently you're getting married? She wants to book the church?"
"And she looooooves you," Zac teased.
Taylor
"Yeah it's a church in Georgia... I said we could use it. She said she's always wanted to get married there," Taylor shrugged, ignoring Zac's comment.
Isaac and Zac
"Taylor, you dawg you!" Zac exclaimed, giving Taylor a friendly punch in the shoulder.
"And just when were you planning on telling us?" Isaac asked, with a raised eyebrow.,
Taylor
Taylor grinned, stepping back a little as his face flushed red.
"When we decided the bridal party I guess," he reasoned, "and well... we don't want too many people to know. You know what happened with Jane, we had paparazzi following us the second I put a ring on her finger."
Isaac and Zac
"Fair enough," Isaac nodded, then held out his hand. "Congratulations."
"So when's the big day? Oh... that's what Natalie was calling about, huh?" Zac mused.
Taylor
"Yeah, I guess it was," Taylor replied, shaking Isaac's hand.
"Well... what do you guys think? About what she said?"
Isaac and Zac
Isaac and Zac looked at each other.
"Well, Faith and I got married without much planning," Zac mused. "Actually... so did me and Sari-Lyka. So you could get away with just a couple of weeks."
"Yeah," Isaac nodded. "But if Natalie's got a lot of plans, and finicky stuff that she wants, you'd probably want the exra months."
"Unless there's some special reason to get married earlier. Like her visas up soon and she'll need to go back to her own country before - oh, wait, she's already an American citizen, huh?"
Isaac whacked Zac upside the head.
Taylor
"Guess I'll have to talk to her," Taylor sighed, before going over to the phone.
He dialled Natalie's number, then put the phone on speaker.
Isaac, Zac and Natalie
Zac hefted himself on the counter as Natalie's voice came out the speaker:
"Hello?"
Isaac shufled closer to the phone also.
Taylor
"Hey Nat it's me, and we have some eavesdroppers," Taylor began in a serious tone, then chuckled.
"Ike and Zac heard your message."
Isaac, Zac and Natalie
"Oh, okay," Natalie replied.
She hadn't thought of that, but she supposed they'd have to find out sooner or later.
"Hi Natalie," Isaac and Zac said together.
"Hi guys," Natalie giggled.
Taylor
"They've mentioned the possibility of having the wedding in a couple of weeks..." Taylor began, giving Zac a glance.
"But obviously it depends on details and how much you want to put into the whole thing. So... do you have anything in mind?"
Natalie, Isaac and Zac
"Well, I don't know," Natalie replied. "I mean, as any girl of course I've thought of things I'd like... but when I said waiting a couple of months, I mean months. October, Novemeber, around there. And I imagine I'd be a bit big by then. I think I'd rather have wedding photos taken before I'm showing too much, and I think I'd rather get marred before the baby is born."
"Baby?" Isaac repeated.
"You're pregnant?" Zac asked at the same time, a silly grin on his face.
"Oh..." Natalie was quiet for a moment. "You didn't tell them, Tay?"
Taylor
Taylor slapped his forehead and covered his eyes.
"No. I hadn't," he said.
"What can we do for next month?"
Natalie, Zac and Isaac
"Oops sorry," Natalie replied. "But I think, much like the wedding, they would have found out eventually."
"You bet," Zac nodded. "Aww, so I'm going to be an uncle."
"That's a change from being a father, huh, Zac?"
"Yep," then he started singing: "Taylor's having a shotgun wedding! Taylor's having a shotgun wedding!"
"I assure you, my father will not be following Taylor down the aisle with a shotgun," Natalie put in wryly. "Okay, well, the first date next month is the 8th. We also have the 15th and the 22nd. That's it. They're all Wednesdays."
Taylor
"He might yet," Taylor considered, "he wasn't too happy when he found out."
He started tapping his fingers on the table, mind ticking over.
"There isn't really anything we need that can't be organised before the 8th, right?" he murmured.
Natalie
"Umm, not really, I don't think. Clothes are easy enough to figure out - especially when you have atom manipulation and can fix all the little annoying things ulike human girls," Natalie giggled. "As long as we all have something to begin with. Umm, I'm sure that we know someone who wouldn't mind doing the photography. My Uncle runs a restaurant here, and he's already said he'd host the reception there, and at a discount, so that's no problem. I'll just have to make sure that the 8th is okay."
Taylor
"Sounds good," Taylor nodded.
"I think you should go ahead and book the church for the 8th. We should be fine."
Natalie, Zac and Isaac
"Okay, I'll do that. So, what about bridal parties?" Natalie asked.
"I claim being best man!" Zac declared.
"You've already been the groom at two weddings," Isaac pointed out.
"Well, yeah, but you've been the best man for, umm.... one."
"Yeah, I got gypped being the best man at yours and Faith's wedding."
"So there. Ha."
"You two are weird," Natalie chimed in.
Taylor
"Would you ask Matt if he'd like to be a groomsman?" Taylor asked, rolling his eyes at his brothers.
He didn't say anything about best man. Let them fight over it a bit longer...
Natalie, Zac and Isaac
"Sure," Natalie replied.
"I would look sexier as a best man than you would," Zac nodded.
Isaac patted Zac on the head.
"It's not about looking sexy. It's about responsibility. You have to keep the rings and make a speech. Neither of which I could ever trust you with if I were the groom."
"Hey, I can make a speech."
"Yeah. But what would you say? That's the point."
"And would Zoe like to be the flower girl?" Natalie asked Taylor, deciding to take his cue and ignore Isaac and Zac. "I don't know too many young girls the right age. How many bridesmaids and groomsmen do we want? I need to figure out when of my girl friends I'm going to ask. Y'know, once they get over the shock of me getting married to The Taylor Hanson, and never even telling them that I knew you."
She giggled as she imagined the looks on their faces.
Taylor
"I'll ask Zoe, sure," Taylor agreed.
"How's three? I can have Ike, Zac and Matt. Mackie can be my page boy, I don't think he's too old..."
Natalie, Zac and Isaac
"Sounds good."
"But who gets to be best man?" Zac asked, giving Taylor puppy-dog eyes.
"Y'know what Tay? I think you should ask Matt," Natalie suggested.
"Awwwww!" Zac complained. "But Matt doesn't know anything about you! He couldn't make a good speech."
"I dunno," Natalie mused. "I think he could make one. It may go a little something like this: I remember hearing Taylor's voice floating out of Nat's room all the time. And that was before they met. She used to play Hanson CDs that loud. Very annoying. Plus, if that wasn't back enough, she and her friends used to have Hanson Tour video marathons. The good news is that there is only two of them. The bad news is that they kept repeating them. All. Night. Long."
Isaac chuckled.
"Of course," Natalie went on, giggling, "that would be a lie. But he'd still say it if he thought of it. And then he'd probably end it by asking Taylor if he's sure he wants to marry one of his obessed fans."
Taylor
Taylor pretended to consider it.
"Even if it's not Matt, someone's bound to come out with it," he chuckled.
"But no, I plan to keep an earlier promise."
He grinned at Isaac.
Isaac, Zac and Natalie
Isaac grinned back.
"Thanks," he said.
"Drat," Zac added, not really disappointed.
"Aww, yay. All settled now," Natalie said. "Oh, we'll have to get everyone here a few days early so that our respective families can meet each other. And when I book the church, I'll have to make sure that we can get some rehearsal time at least the day before... Although if we can't get any I'm sure it won't be the end of the world - it's a pretty stock standard church layout, so I'm sure that everyone can figure it out. And the church is so beautiful it doesn't need any decorating, so that's that out of the way..."
Taylor
"So it's just the reception hall to worry about," Taylor nodded.
"I'll try and get to Georgia in the next few days. We can go looking at things, and I can see this church. Do you guys want to come?"
He looked to his brothers.
Isaac, Zac and Natalie
"Sure," Isaac said.
"Yeah... I should be able to do that," Zac considered. "Can the kids come? Or just Saku? Or not even Saku, who would probably sneak there anyway if he really wanted to attend?"
Natalie giggled.
"It's fine by me if they all come. Just bear in mind that there will be humans at this wedding, so if you don't want to explain why you have children the general public doesn't know exist..."
Taylor
"We really need to keep it small," Taylor insisted.
"We don't need anything that's going to cause a stir. The press will want every single detail and you know it."
He looked between Isaac and Zac.
Zac, Isaac and Natalie
"This is true..." Zac mused. "Okay, it'll just be me. And I'll give Saku the option but inform him that he has to pick one shape only and that he'd better not call me Dad."
Isaac chuckled.
"Saku takes great delight in getting permission to call me by my first name."
"I can imagine."
"I have a friend who calls her parents by their first names all the time. For some reason they didn't wnat to be called Mom and Dad," Natalie mused. "It's very weird. Let me know if Saku comes or not."
"Will do. And will let you know whether you need to worry about human food or cat food."
"What difference would it make?" Isaac asked. "He'd eat the human food anyway."
Natalie giggled.
"I think human form would be less conspicuious than cat form," she said. "Hmm, I see that there are going to have to be two invitation types: human and non-human. The non-human expressly stating: no powers allowed."
Taylor
"Good idea," Taylor agreed.
"And just hope we don't send people the wrong invitation."
He chuckled.
Zac, Isaac and Natalie
"Now that would be funny," Zac mused, then put on the voice of a confused person: "Umm, Nat, honey? What does this mean about not using powers?"
"Aternatively, you could always make all the invites the same, just put in a little warning saying you're expecting the media to sniff out the wedding. Any of us aliens would get the hint," Isaac suggested.
"I wouldn't make general statements like that," Natalie advised. "I have a cousin who wouldn't know what the smoke meant if his back was on fire."
Taylor
"Great," Taylor rolled his eyes.
"So what days are you happy for us to come down?"
Natalie and Isaac
"Umm, well, if we assume there aren't any problems booking the 8th, umm... I don't know," Natalie giggled. "I guess not Monday or the Friday before. Sunday might be a bit awkward, but it's doable. Oh, that reminds me, I should arrange to have the 8th off work..."
"Say, what are you doing about work? Y'know after you get married?" Isaac asked. "You going to continue in your job, or are you going to move in with Tay?"
"I'm going to stay at work," Natalie replied. "I may as well as long as I can."
Taylor
"I meant this week or next," Taylor corrected.
"For the three of us to come over and check everything out."
Natalie
"Oh sorry," Natalie giggled. "Well, umm... next week will probably be better. We don't have a lot of room and I think if people are cramped together for too long no one will be happy. Although, if you guys want to rent out a hotel room you could come this week. I don't know, whatever you'd prefer."
Taylor
"We could stay in a motel or something," Taylor looked between his brothers for confirmation.
"Just let us know the closest one. How's this weekend?"
Natalie and Zac
"Fine by me," Natalie replied. "Lemme see... I'm just grabbing the phone book..."
They heard a thump.
"The nearest one is the Riverside Inn... I'm just looking up their number."
"Is Riverside Inn near a river by any chance?" Zac asked cheekily.
"Nope."
"It isn't? Then why is it called Riverside Inn?"
"I have no idea."
Taylor
Taylor copied down the number as Natalie relayed it.
"I'll see if I can get Tony to drop us off," he said.
"We'll probably come down Saturday morning. I'll call you as soon as we get there."
Natalie, Zac and Isaac
"Okay, sounds like a plan," Natalie replied cheerfully. "So, anything else you guys wanted to talk about?"
"Yes," Zac said seriously.
"What?" Isaac asked, eyeing Zac suspiciously.
"What do you think of stuff? I think that stuff has a vital importance to life, the universe and everything."
Taylor
"We're done," Taylor held back a groan.
"See you Saturday. Love you."
Natalie, Zac and Isaac
"Love you too," Natalie replied.
"Bye Natalie!" Zac said cheerfully.
"See ya," Isaac added.
"Bye bye," Natalie returned, and then hung up.
"Awwwwwww..." Zac said the moment he head the click. "My big brother is getting married and going to be a Dad and he didn't tell me!"
"Or me," Isaac smiled. "Hey, did you even mention it to Mom and Dad? Or anyone?"
Taylor
"We haven't mentioned it to anyone," Taylor shook his head.
"Her parents knew she was pregnant before I did though. And... Avie saw it in my head yesterday."
Isaac and Zac
"Well, I think they'd appreciate knowing before the invitation arrives in the mail," Isaac pointed out.
"Now that would be interesting," Zac chuckled. "Oh look! An invitation to Taylor's wedding... wait, he was engaged?"
Taylor
"Well I do kind of want them to meet her beforehand," Taylor chuckled.
"But you know Mom, she'll want in on the planning. And obviously when they meet her they're going to notice the rock on her hand..."
Isaac and Zac
"Not if she strategically has her hand behind her back," Zac replied. "Or wears gloves."
"Who wears gloves in summer, Zac?" Isaac asked.
"Gardeners. And other people whose proffessions and/or hobbies require them to do so. And Rogue."
"Natalie is going to be meeting our parents, Zac. Not gardening, or doing any other work requiring gloves. Nor is she a mutant with a parasidic power. And I might add that last I heard, she didn't need gloves any more."
"Details, details."
"I can understand Mom wanting in ont he planning, though. Hopefully not all her seven children will deprive her of the opportunity," Isaac went on, waggling his eyebrows at Zac.
Zac batted his eyelids innocently.
Taylor
"Well it is normally the bride's parents that organise it," Taylor grinned.
"And hey... when was the last time Mom went to Georgia? Probably when we first toured."
Isaac and Zac
"Sounds about right," Isaac nodded. "Other than touring, we never really needed to go to Georgia before."
"And Mom has three daughters," Zac put in, consideringly. "So that's at least three weddings she'll get to arrange. Ah ha!"
"Zac?"
"Yes?"
"I have this sudden urge to hit you."
Zac chuckled.
Taylor
"So..." Taylor began cautiously, leaning back against the bench Zac was sitting on.
"Be honest with me. What do you think of Nat herself?"
He looked between them.
Isaac and Zac
Zac shrugged.
"She seems nice enough to me. Bearing in mind that I don't know her as well as you two do," he said.
"I like her," Isaac replied. "She strikes me as a very loving, caring girl and I think you two will do well together."
Taylor
Taylor smiled and hung his head.
"Yeah, I think we will," he agreed.
"Just thought I'd better check. Seeing as how you guys will be related to her and all."
Isaac and Zac
"Well, that's very nice of you," Isaac nodded. "But you're the one who's going to be marrying her. I think that your opinion of her counts more than ours."
"Besides, I never got your opinion on either of my wives," Zac smirked.
Taylor
"Well that's you," Taylor pointed out.
"Personally I wouldn't be happy if either of you had an objection. Especially if she decides she's happy to tour with us and such."
Isaac and Zac
"Well, that is true," Isaac said thoughtfully. "But in any case, you two love each other, and whether or not Nat and I get along, that's good enough for me."
"Hmm, close quarters on the tour bus," Zac mused. "Now that's something that puts strains on even our friendships. Especially if we haven't had a shower in a few days."
"Yes, Zac. That's why we hosed you down when we got to the petrol station that time."
Taylor
Taylor chuckled at the memory.
"And of course if she does come, we're going to have a baby along for the ride too," Taylor added.
Zac and Isaac
Zac dismissed that one.
"We had Saku tour with us," he pointed out. "And we're going to have Ella, Saku, Dee Dee, Elektra and Brock with us this time. I doubt that one more baby is going to make any difference."
"See, unlike you," Isaac said, half teasing, "Zac doesn't bother to ask us if we mind extra people coming with us. And he's got three more than you on the list."
Zac poked out his tongue at him.
Taylor
"Yeah I know," Taylor smirked.
"We have to start looking at a second bus. We can't have everyone in the one bus this time. And that's going to cost us."
Isaac and Zac
"We had two tour buses on our first tours," Isaac pointed out. "I'm sure we can do it again."
"Plus, plus, plus," Zac said excitedly, "you know what else this means?"
"What?" Isaac asked suspiciously.
Zac rubbed his hands together gleefully.
"Water wars between buses!"
He laughed evilly.
Taylor
"I meant it's going to cost us financially," Taylor corrected.
"We actually had money back then. But I'm sure we'll work something out."
Isaac and Zac
"Umm, yeah, that's what I meant too," Isaac said. "It's just one more of those tour expenses. We can always compenstate by staying at more quaint motels."
"Quaint," Zac repeated, with a chuckle. "In other words, half-star accomodation."
"Can you even get half-star?"
Taylor
"Knowing us, we're bound to find it if we try hard enough," Taylor chuckled.