Workings of a Happily Ever After, The Page 4

  Chapter Two:

  Requests

  "Hey, Sal gal."

  I looked up from my desk within the Security Section of Balamb Garden and smiled at the tall, gorgeous, and slender young woman with the spiked black hair and dark brown eyes. She had only been filling in for a few of Quistis' classes at first. Quistis had then been working at my older brother Zack's T.V. station part-time, until she could find and train a full-time Assistant.

  But then, just before my birthday party, Quistis decided to take a leave of absence from Garden and work at the T.V. station full-time--I guess work had picked up since she had gone on staff--and Janine needed to fill in for all of Quistis' classes. Janine Larabie seemed a part of the Balamb Garden family, and I loved having her there.

  "Hi, Janine. What are you doing down here?"

  Janine lifted a report. "Homework. Need to drop it off for H.O.S."

  I giggled, never prepared for when she called Seifer 'hoss'.

  Janine smirked and leaned a hip against my desk as she crossed her arms. "You set a date yet?"

  "Three months from my birthday," I reported.

  Janine straightened sharply. "...the hell! You serious? There's no way you can plan a wedding in less than three months!"

  I smiled up at her. "Selphie's planning the decorations for the Reception and the wedding, we're having Commander Squall perform the ceremony at the Training Center--Zell promised to ask him today--the Reception will be in the Cafeteria--Francine already said 'yes' to catering it--and there will be dancing in the Quad. Zell's taking care of the live band, Irvine said he would tend bar, and Rinoa will be helping me pick out the bridal gown and the bridesmaid dresses. Oh! Did you want to be my maid of honor?"

  Janine blinked. "You serious?"

  I smiled wider. "Of course I'm serious."

  Janine smirked and again leaned against my desk while crossing her arms. "I'm not exactly a 'maid', but hell. Why not?"

  "Oh wonderful!" I searched within the drawers of my desk for the notebook and wrote Janine's name down.

  "Why didn't you ask Selphie?"

  "I already have her doing so much for the wedding, so I told her I was going to ask you. I was already torn between you two. After all, you've both done so much for me." I tucked the notebook back away and looked up. Janine had an odd look on her face. "What?"

  Janine looked away while giving a slight clearing of her throat. "Nothing."

  "Oh. Okay." I worried my lower lip. "Janine?"

  She focused again on me. "Yeah."

  "Could you help me ask Seifer to be security?" She arched a slim eyebrow, and I hurried on. "Zell and I agree that having so many 'civilians' coming in will be dangerous for Garden, and so we thought Seifer and Marshal would be perfect to coordinate security, but..."

  "But you don't have the spine to ask."

  I playfully frowned. "Hey. I have spine enough to ask. I'm just sure he'll say 'no'."

  "So what am I supposed to do about it?" she pressed, smirking.

  I giggled. "Make him say 'yes'."

  Janine laughed. "Yeah. I figured it was something like that. Well, what makes you think I can?"

  "Zell says you got him to go to my birthday party."

  Janine's smirk twitched, as did her eyebrow. "Figures. That boy. I'll have to slap him around a bit."

  "No. Leave him alone."

  Janine shrugged. "Maybe."

  I giggled and then stood, my smile very quickly vanishing. "So, can we do it right now? Before I change my mind? I mean, you're down here anyway."

  Janine gave my arm a comforting grip. "Okay, Sal gal. I'll help you get the big guy to say 'yes'." She motioned toward his office with a jerk of her head. "Come on."

  I followed after her, wringing my hands as she knocked twice on the door with her knuckle and then opened the door before he had even said "Enter." Oh boy.

  "Got a second, sir?" she asked as she stepped inside. Then she motioned me in before even waiting for that response.

  Seifer looked up from his current project and raised an eyebrow. "Larabie. Regal. Problem?"

  Janine stepped forward, saluted--which received a smirk from Seifer--and handed him the 'homework' previously mentioned. "Here's that paperwork you wanted."

  He accepted it and set it aside. Then he gestured toward me. "Regal?"

  I cleared my throat and stepped forward, standing in front of one of the chairs so as to use it for support. "Personal question, sir."

  "And?" he pressed while sending Janine a sidelong glance.

  She stood at ease with her hands clasped behind her back, watching me with a slight smirk.

  I cleared my throat again, intercepted Janine's encouraging motion of head toward Seifer, and blurted, "I wanted you and Marshal in charge of security for my wedding."

  Seifer's eyebrow lifted and he sat back in his chair, arms crossed. "Mind saying again?"

  "I. . . I want. . . ." I swallowed hard. "I know that inviting friends and family will make it so that a lot of new people will be coming and I didn't want to put Garden or the SeeDs or candidates at risk, so I thought that if I had you and Marshal on Security that would make everything safer and you would know what was going on and so you wouldn't think that anything bad was going to happen--as Head of Network Security--and if you didn't have time to do it I knew that you could assign someone else that you trusted to get the job done right--"

  "Regal," Seifer interrupted, hand raised. "Calm down."

  I flushed. "Sorry," I whispered, sending Janine a sidelong glance. She shook her head, lips smiling with her withheld laughter. I reluctantly smiled and focused again on Seifer.

  "So you want me on security detail, do you," he repeated.

  I nodded. Please oh please. "Yes, sir."

  "How much control do I get?"

  I blinked. "Control, sir? All of it, sir."

  "Uh, Sal gal," Janine interrupted. "That isn't such a wise idea." She focused on Seifer. "No offense."

  "Hm."

  She looked again to me. "Why don't Dincht and you keep the final say. After all, it's your wedding."

  "Oh, but I tr--"

  "Trust me," she insisted.

  "Regal. It's fine. I'll give you final say," Seifer said, drawing my attention.

  I blinked, totally and completely unprepared for the ease of the conversation. Of course, I had noticed him to be a lot less stressed. I wonder if it has anything to do with the black market ring being found and dispersed?

  He leaned forward and again took up the perusal of his reports. "Anything else? Or can I get back to work?"

  "That's all, sir. Thank you."

  "I've got a problem, though, sir," Janine spoke up. "If you've got a moment."

  Seifer sighed and looked back up from his reports. "Fine. Regal, dismissed."

  "Yes, sir." I smiled at Janine, to which her expression responded 'You can pay me later,' and then turned to leave. Wow, I thought as I closed the door behind me. And my life seemed to have turned into a collection of those.

  I pushed from the door and headed back to my desk, my dreamy and silly smile returning full force. Now I just had to ask Marshal. I was almost positive that he would say 'yes'. Zell had even said that Marshal would ask me to ask Ahndra to help out. I certainly hoped so. I wanted both involved.

  I typed in Marshal's ID, waited for the search and then the connect, and then smiled when his face came onscreen. "Hi, Marshal."

  Marshal sat up from his desk at Galbadia Garden's Security Section and smiled, his silver eyes twinkling. "Yo, Meg. How's life?"

  "Wonderful."

  Marshal smirked and set aside a report. "I bet. What can I do for you?"

  "I was hoping you and Seifer would be security at my wedding."

  His smile vanished and then immediately returned. "No kidding?"

  I smiled and shook my head. "No kidding. I already asked Seifer and he said 'yes'."

  "No shit?" Marshal chuckled a
nd shook his head. "The dickhead's going soft."

  "Marshal," I hissed, scolding.

  "Oh. Sorry." He cleared his throat. "Sure, Meg. Not a problem. Can I ask Ahndra to help out?"

  I nodded. "Of course."

  "Great." He motioned toward me. "Hey thanks, Meg. Thanks for asking."

  I smiled brighter. "Sure, Marshal."

  "I better get off. If Seifer finds out you're using company time..."

  "Oh. Right." I checked behind me and then did a finger wave and a whispered, "Bye, Marshal."

  He chuckled, shook his head, and said, "Bye, Meg."

  Then the window disappeared and I brought up my activity window to go back to work. But my mind had already wandered to wedded bliss... I shivered and giggled.