Current mood:	blank
Entry tags:	actual plot, blink, blink/mush, mush

Aftermath: Conclusion
The decision was easy to make: the wedding would happen in the hospital, as soon as the paperwork could be rushed through. Michael had a whole slew of contacts in DC, and one of them turned up a judge willing to come out to the hospital to marry them.

As it happened in Michael’s new room (finally out of the ICU, he’d been given a lovely, large room that overlooked a courtyard with a garden), it was a very exclusive guest list. As witnesses, Ryan and Michael had selected Sean and Tony respectively. Dutchy, Itey, Isabella, Sophia, and Ryan’s dad crowded inside, leaving next to no breathing room. Diedre and her parents waited outside. The only other spectator was Spenser—Ryan and Michael had asked him to take photos.

Even decades later, the photos were iconic. Spenser, Ryan, and Michael had agreed to make them freely available for reprinting; every newspaper in the country, every magazine, every news show displayed them over and over again. A series of black-and-white photos.

Michael was still wearing a hospital gown, still hooked up to an IV and breathing tube. He was propped up on a pile of pillows, leaving him sitting. Ryan sat on a plain wooden chair next to him, wearing a pair of jeans a plain button-down shirt. They were holding hands. The judge stood in front of them, back mostly to the camera. In some of the photos, Tony and Sean were visible; in others—the most famous—the photo was too closely framed, focused on the Ryan and Michael and the judge.

It was a short ceremony, but that seemed appropriate. After all, it was only making legal what had already been fact for well over a decade: Michael and Ryan were married.



I called this "conclusion" but obviously it isn't, really. Just a convenient stopping point for using the title "Aftermath." *g*

But if you're curious enough that you clicked the cut, the next part (whenever it's written...) is more about Guy and Spot, so there you go.