Jax's eyes slowly opened as shafts of winter's sunlight hit his aquamarine eyes. He opened his eyes to find Scott sitting across from him on the coffee table, watching him.

"Touching," Scott said with a little smile.

Jax gazed down and saw Brenda curled up in his arms fast asleep. He was intoxicated by the memory of kissing her. The freedom he felt. The freedom and the fire. And what a fire it was. Fire that barely missed igniting into an all out explosion,save for the knockout effects of her flu medication, which had slowly put out the fire. No, it wasn't out, he realized. The embers were still burning within him. He could feel it like electric currents shooting around inside of him. It wouldn't take much to fan those embers back into wildly dancing flames again.

"You have no idea how perfect this feels," Jax said, looking somewhat mystified.

"Holding her like that, you mean? Or waking up with her like that?"

"Both."

"Well, it looks perfect, too, if that makes any difference," Scott told him. "So, does this mean you're finally ready to admit it?"

"Admit what?" Jax asked, touching Brenda's forehead and feeling that it was warm.

"That Ariel is not the one. That Ariel is history."

"She's not history," Jax said.

"Well, then at least admit that you're some kind of a masochist," Scott decided.

"I promised her, Scott. An engagement is a promise - a commitment to get married."

"Noooo," Scott disagreed, "The marriage is a promise. The engagement - that's just, you know, like some kind of a trial run thing. You're allowed to back out of that, Jax. People break engagements all the time."

"I don't break the promises I make to people. You of all people know that about me."

"Well, you might want to break just this one. I mean, this is your whole future you're talking about - your life, Jax. Think about how you're going to feel when you're married to Ariel and you finally admit that you're not in love with her. There you'll be miserable as miserable can be, and maybe you find out that Brenda has gone on with her life - maybe gotten married herself. Maybe to that frat boy you hate so much. Maybe her eyes light up every time he enters the room, the way they do everytime you enter the room. Maybe her heart races every time he's near her. Maybe his kisses make her want to melt right into him. Maybe since she couldn't have you, she's fallen in love with him, Jax, and has given him her heart, her soul, her body. And she's lost to you forever. What will your promise be worth then? Watching another man have a life with, and the love of, the woman you know was meant for you. Assuming you do know that she is meant for you, that is."

"Why are you doing this?" Jax asked, feeling slightly frustrated by the absurd, totally unfounded sense of panic Scott was able to stir within him.

"Because you're the best friend I have, Jax. More than that, you're like a brother to me. Do you think I'm just going to sit by and watch you make the biggest mistake of your life? Nope."

"Oh, you are so noble, Scotty. You're sure it's not just because you want my boat so badly that you would do anything short of murdering Ariel to convince me to stop my wedding?"

Scott grinned and then grew serious. "Have I convinced you to stop your wedding?"

Bastian Reese stood gazing out of the window of his hotel room watching the snowfall, his thoughts distracted. It was barely six a.m. but he was already dressed and ready to mobilize.

His partner in crime strolled in from her connecting suite. "Hey, are you decent?" she asked, walking in and twirling a dazzling emerald and diamond choker around her finger. "Look what I found in the safe of the guests in suite 1014," she bragged, flashing Bastian a pretty smile.

He looked at her and shook his head. "How many times have I asked you to stop it with the petty theft, Jenna?"

"How many times have I asked you to stop calling me, Jenna? And this is not petty, Bastian. This is worth four mil easy."

"You know breaking into hotel rooms and stealing jewelry is beneath us. Well, me anyway. I have a reputation to keep up, you know."

"Spare me. And what's with this strange mood you're in? Are you kicking yourself over the fact that we don't have the bank account numbers back yet and therefore can't touch our money? Or are you just blue because you didn't get to lay eyes on Brenda Barrett? I know you have a thing for her, Bastian."

"You know nothing, Jenna. Get your things together. We're leaving."

"Going where?"

"Back to England."

"Absolutely not! We're not leaving until we get those bank account numbers," she said, glaring at him with her flashing green eyes.

Her tantrum did not phase him. "Let me worry about retrieving the numbers, will you?"

"Why, because you've done such a bang up job so far?" she asked sarcastically.

"Because now that I know who has them, getting them back will be like taking candy from a baby," he said.

Jenna was intrigued. "You do know those two agents, don't you? How?" she asked excitedly. "Were you once a colleague of theirs?"

Bastian smiled at her. His smile was very attractive and secretive. "No comment," he said.

Jax never did answer Scott's question. They were interrupted by Brenda's awakening with a sneeze and finding herself intimately enveloped in the warmth and strength of Jax's arms. Her body so totally relaxed and affectionately entangled with his. Embarrassed by the intimacy of their positions Brenda had bolted up and away from him so fast that she'd banged her knee into the coffee table. And as she was hopping around yelling "ow, ow, ow" Jax tried to help her, but she retracted from his touch, angry at the way his touch made her want to melt at his feet. She reached out to Scott instead who helped balance her and then got her into her bed, where she soon drifted back off to sleep again.

"I knew she would hate me again in the morning," Jax said when Scott returned to the living room.

"I think what she hates is the fact that she's so wildly attracted to you. Plus she swears you led her on."

"Well, I'm not exactly jumping for joy over my extreme attraction to her either," Jax muttered. “And how the hell did I lead her on?”

“Oh, I don’t know. . . maybe it had something to do with the way you kissed her.”

“She kissed me,” Jax corrected.

"Well, in two days arguing over who kissed who will be irrelevant cause we'll be off this assignment, and she'll be out of your life for good," Scott said. "We'll be back in Virginia, and you'll be back in wedding planning hell with the your mother, your grandmother, your future mother-in-law and, of course, the woman you love so verrrry much," Scott drawled.

Jax scowled at is friend's sarcastic tone. "I wish you would stop questioning my love for Ariel."

Scott shrugged. "I wish I believed you loved her. Cause if you do, you're not very convincing about it. Your approach to this wedding is like that of a man going to the guillotine, quite frankly."

"What?" Jax asked, surprised. He knew he was turned off by this wedding mania, but did he really act as if he were preparing to face a death squad?

"Jax, you know she doesn't make you happy now. What makes you think that's going to change if you slip a wedding ring on her finger? Maybe you do love her on some level, but you know that you're not in love with her. You're just too stubborn to admit that. Sometimes I wonder if you even like her."

Jax paused. "I asked her to marry me for god's sake, Scott. And you're saying that you don't even think I like her?"

"Actually, I'm not saying anything on this subject ever again," Scott said, getting up. "I'm going to go shovel out the driveway."

"Why?"

"Because there's two feet of snow out there."

"No, why are you suddenly deciding to stop trying to convince me that marrying Ariel is a mistake?" Jax clarified.

"Because I think I just figured this out. You know you don't love her. You've always known that, haven't you? And that's the way you want it. You don't want to be in love with anybody. You don’t want to give anyone the power to rule your heart. That's why Brenda scares you so much."

"She does not scare me," Jax dismissed.

"Yet I notice you didn't deny my deduction that you don't want to be in love with anybody."

"Scott, I don't even know what you're talking about," Jax said.

Scott grinned a little bit "Yeah, you do, Jax. But the thing is I shouldn't have to convince you of it. And so I'm not going to do that anymore. Besides, you're too stubborn to be convinced of anything anyway. You have to just feel it yourself and know it yourself. And eventually, I think you will. I just hope that when you do, it's not too late."

Scott tossed on his jacket and went outside to start with the snow while Jax sat there annoyed beyond belief at the way Scott could get to him and the way Scott could always uncover truths about him that Jax thought no one would ever know.

Jax barely saw Brenda at all during that Friday after Thanksgiving. She determinedly distanced herself from him despite being haunted by the exquisite passion they had shared the night before. She longed for him in secret, but outwardly she was cold and distant with him, setting up barriers to protect herself from his devastating affect on her and trying to think of ways to put him out of her mind for good. She built her walls high, and Jax was having a hard time scaling them.

Jax stared at her all though dinner, finding that he was not as immune to her rebuffs as he thought he could be. Never once did she look at him as she exchanged brief conversations with Scott, sneezed, coughed, and then stared at her food, while trying to think of something she could do that would end this agonizing longing she had for the engaged Agent Adonis.

"How are you feeling?" Scott asked her, reaching across to touch her forehead.

Jax was perplexed to feel a sharp pang of jealousy rip through him as Scott's fingers glided over her skin.

"Not so good," Brenda sighed. "But please don't try to talk me out of performing tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay," Scott said. "But if you look like you're going to pass out or something I'm going to take you off that stage, Brenda. Even if I have to carry you off of it."

She smiled a little at him. "I'll be fine, I promise. I'm only a part of two numbers. One with the girls and one with Drew."

"Drew?" Scott asked, glancing over at Jax who was trying to act totally uninterested in their conversation.

"Yeah, he's part of the last number with me. And guess what? The Back Street Boys are going to be there,” she smiled. “That's the big surprise at the end. They're going to be singing this really funky version of "Winter Wonderland" and while they do that we'll be showing all kinds of winter scenes associated with the song. I'm in the part where the snowman that they call 'Parson Brown' marries the two lovers."

"And let me guess Drew Roberts is the one ‘Parson Brown’ marries you to," Scott said, again glancing over at Jax.

"Right. It's really cute. Professor Bradshaw is dressed up as the snowman, and they do this short, cute little ceremony while these huge, fake snowflakes are falling down on us and Drew and I are dressed like Santa's helpers in red and white. And the snowman holds this mistletoe over us at the end. In the first number I do, I'm actually an elf in Santa's Workshop, so I have to wear this green velvet costume that makes me look like a really hip, female version of Peter Pan," she laughed.

Scott laughed too. "And the Santa's helper costume makes you look like Mrs. Claus?" he guessed.

"Oh, no, not at all. Actually, that outfit is great! The only thing 'Santa-ish' about it is that it's red and white, but it's really pretty."

Scott nodded. "And do we actually get to see the groom kiss the bride under the mistletoe?"

"Yeah, I guess," Brenda said absently, as she sipped her chicken noodle soup.

The sound of Jax's chair pushing back as he abruptly walked away from the table got their attention. Brenda watched as he grabbed his jacket and went out the front door, not saying a word about where he was going to either one of them. Not even glancing back at them.

Brenda smiled as if she were relieved that he was gone. But her heart was crumbling inside. "I guess I was boring him," she said softly, and Scott easily heard the sadness in her voice that she was trying so hard to mask.

"I don't think so," Scott said.

"Please tell me that it gets easier," she said, putting her spoon down and sinking her head into her hands.

"What gets easier?" Scott asked.

"Getting over him," Brenda said. "Because I have to do it. I will do it," she vowed. “I am going to obliterate every memory of him if it’s the last thing I do.” And then, feeling lousy from the flu and heartsick over Jax, Brenda excused herself, took her medicine and went to bed early. Before closing her door, she turned back to Scott. "If . . umm . . . he doesn't come back soon, you'll go and look for him, right?"

Scott would never leave her alone there, and Jax - wherever he was - was perfectly fine, but to ease Brenda's mind Scott nodded.

Brenda gave him a halfhearted smile and then shut her bedroom door.

Later that night…

At 1 in the morning Jax was still awake. Staring at the ceiling. His mind obsessed with the thought that tomorrow would be the last day he would ever see her. Sunday the new agents would be there, and he would be on his way back to Virginia. Back to his home, his life. Back to Ariel.

And Brenda - she would be out of his reach. Out of his life. But she would never be out of his mind, would she?

When he finally did sleep, he dreamed of her that night.

Endless, heated dreams of warm intoxicating passion and happy, carefree laughter. A feeling like magic…. and mystery.

They were in a ballroom. The floors were white marble. The walls were white marble. The chandeliers were ice white. She wore a white, ultra-feminine satin slip dress. He wore a white tuxedo. They were all alone. A sensual tango was playing. They were dancing slowly and very, very closely. Everything echoed in the large room. The song, their laughter . . .

Jax awoke with a start from his strange nightmare, feeling cold inside and yet sweating outside. A feeling of bizarre desolation haunted him, and his heart was racing. He gazed down at his hands -- unshackled for the moment -- and felt relief wash through him. He sat up in the bed and ran his hands through his blonde hair, trying to make sense of everything. He'd promised himself a long time ago that no one would own his soul, that no woman would ever rule his heart. But this one could do that, couldn't she? Yes, she could. And the fact was that he'd promised his heart to one woman while that same heart yearned for another. Yearned for her so badly that now he was actually having nightmares about losing her. Yet how could he lose something that was not even truly his?

But she can be mine. I know that as truthfully as I know my own name. And I want her.

"Great. So . . .what the hell am I going to do?" he murmured into the dark room.

He only had one day to decide.

The campus theater at PCU was packed. Word had leaked out that The Back Street Boys would be surprise performers, so lots of teenagers packed the audience and security was tight. The group had their own security. Campus security was also there and a few PCPD police officers, as well. Scott was backstage, keeping an eye on Brenda, while Jax was in the front row, doing lookout duty from the audience. To Jax and Scott's mutual annoyance, Agents Leon Warchester and Doug Flanagan had arrived that morning, wanting to get a feel for how it would be to protect Brenda on campus. And so now Warchester stood next to Scott on stage, while Flanagan sat next to Jax.

"Bad move," Flanagan was saying to Jax. "Why is one of you up there and one down here? You should be flanking her on both ends of the stage," he criticized. Both Flanagan and his partner were twice the age of Jax and Scott, and they were obviously not pleased to discover the youth of Agents Jacks and Wilkie, but were even more soured by the fact that the young agents were a part of an elite unit of the FBI that was so secretive as to be thought a myth by those out of the loop. Agents trained all their lives to be a part of that sixteen man Special Forces FBI unit, and it was infuriating when kids like Wilkie and Jacks would get in with ease just because they happened to have Navy SEAL training, which made the bureau practically salivate over hiring them.

"Your assumption is that if someone were going to make a move for Brenda they would be coming from the audience, so if Scott and I were on the stage we'd have no problem seeing them," Jax said, tolerantly, although he couldn't stand this guy. "But someone as clever as Bastian Reese could easily pose as a student and get her from the stage, in which case the best vantage point would be right here."

"Bull," Flanagan muttered. "I've got twice as much experience as you, Agent Jacks. So don't tell me."

"You're going to end up getting her killed, you imbecile," Jax said, never taking his eyes off of the stage.

Flanagan was spouting off some more of his garbage, but Jax was attuned to Brenda's performance and was easily able to tune him out. Dressed in a green velvet bodysuit and looking like the sexiest elf ever known to man, Brenda sat behind a desk in Santa's Workshop with fellow elfettes, working on toys as the music began and the number commenced.

Haul out the holly
Put up the tree before my spirit falls again
Fill up the stockings
We may be rushing things but deck the halls again now
For we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute
Candles in the window
Carols at the spinet
Yes we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute
It hasn't snowed a single flurry
But Santa dear, we're in a hurry so
Climb down the chimney
Put up the brightest string of lights I've ever seen
Slice up the fruitcake
It's time we hung some tinsel on that evergreen bow
For I've grown a little leaner
Grown a little colder
Grown a little sadder
Grown a little older
And I need a little angel
Sitting on my shoulder
Need a little Christmas now!

The number was delightful, fun, upbeat, full of energy and holiday spirit, and excellently choreographed. It ended with the stage decorated for a merry holiday indeed, as the lady elves danced around the room they had decorated for Christmas.

The audience loved it, and the applause went on for several minutes. Brenda left the stage, sneezing and coughing, as Scott followed her back stage.

"Brenda, you were fabulous!" he said hugging her. He was really proud of her.

"Thanks!" she said, and then sneezed several times.

"But you look ready to drop, Brenda. Can't you pass on your last number? You really are sick, and you're pushing yourself too hard."

"Pass up being on with the Back Street Boys? Scott, you're kididng me, right?"

"I think you're too weak to do any more energetic prancing around stage," Scott told her seriously. He felt her head. "And you're burning up again, by the way."

"I'll be fine. I promise. There’s not much prancing around stage in the last number. And I'll just double up on my medication to make sure I can make it through it," she said, going behind the screen to rest because she was incredibly dizzy, nauseous, and lightheaded. After a few moments she began to change into the outfit she would need for the finale. "Scott?"

"I'm right here," he told her.

"Do you know what Jax wants to talk to me about?" she asked.

"Jax wants to talk to you?"

"That's what he told me as we were leaving the safe house this morning. He said, 'could I talk to you later?'"

"And you said?"

"I didn't answer him at all. That’s kind of my best defense against him -- ignoring him the way he used to ignore me all the time. What do you think he wants to say to me?"

"I have no idea. Maybe just good-bye. This is our last day with you, you know."

He heard the silence on the other side of the screen and could imagine that her eyes were filling with sorrow and regret that the three musketeers would likely never see each other again after today. He knew that he and Brenda had become pretty close friends during this ordeal. And as for Jax -- well she might be trying to ‘get over’ him, but Scott knew she wouldn’t be able to.

"Why would he want to talk to me alone just to say good-bye though?" she was asking.

"Maybe he wants to apologize for. . .you know . . . everything."

"Oh," she said, disappointed. That made sense. She had been hoping that he might want to...oh, when would she stop being the fool! "I don't really like them - these new guys," she told Scott.

"You're not the only one," Scott murmured as Warchester came up behind him, yammering criticisms to Scott much the same way his partner was yammering criticisms to Jax.

When it came time for the final number of the performance, mostly everyone was on their feet, straining to get a better glimpse of the Back Street Boys. Jax and Scott were on the alert as the audience standing made it more

As Brenda's segment came on, Jax's eyes gazed at her thinking she seemed awfully perky and full of energy. A little bit out of it actually. She looked incredibly beautiful and was definitely the main attraction on the stage. His eyes moved to Drew Roberts, who was next to her while the 'snowman' was 'marrying' them,and Jax was very irritated with the intimacy with which the frat president held Brenda about the waist.

He was even more irritated by Brenda's laughing and smiling and acting so damned happy about it. Behind him Jax heard the loud laughter of two males. He would have ignored them had he not heard them talking about Professor Bradshaw, whom Jax recalled was supposed to be the one under the snowman's suit performing the winter wonderland wedding ceremony. The boys, who Jax saw were members of a rival fraternity to Phi Beta Kappa, were laughing and exchanging high-fives about how they had punctured all the tires of Professor Bradshaw's car, making sure he could not show up for the performance. They had done this so they could insert their own 'snowman' on stage, one who was a real priest they had conned into performing a real wedding ceremony.

"Can you imagine the look on Drew's face when he realizes he's really married?" one of the boys laughed, slapping his thigh. "And no prenup. She can take him for everything he's got if she's smart! His father’ll disown him for being so stupid. Man, those Kappa's are never going to be able to top this prank!"

Prank? They thought this was a prank? Inserting a real priest under that snowman's costume and letting Brenda blindly become a casualty of this idiotic pissing contest between two rival fraternities?

Jax took out his radio. "Scott?"

"Yeah, what's going on, Jax?"

"Get Brenda off that stage. Just get her off now."

"Why? What's wrong?" Scott asked, glancing around for any sign of anyone who might be making a move for Brenda.

"It's not Bastian Reese. This is something else. You have to get her off, Scott," Jax said. "Now, okay?"

"What is up, Jax?" Scott demanded as he began to move through the crowd.

"That snowman up there is not Brenda's professor. It's an actual priest."

"What?"

At that same moment the Back Street Boys began taking some teens from the audience up on stage and it was becoming chaos. Jax saw Scott trying to make his way across the stage over to Brenda, but with the human traffic up there, it was not an easy task. Jax was not about to let Brenda say any "I do's" up there not knowing what she was getting herself into. Hell, he was not about to allow her to say any ‘I do’s’ at all. He might not have been able to stop her in his weird dream last night, but he could sure as hell stop this.

Jax began to make his way up to the stage and seeing him doing that a bunch of excited, screaming teens thought it would be a great idea to rush the stage. In a matter of seconds all hell was breaking loose as the security guards tried to stop Jax, and the kids and everyone on stage kept trying to stick to the performance.

Brenda was aware of some kind of commotion going on, but she was flying pretty high with her double dosage of flu medication, and she didn't even hear both Jax and Scott shouting at her.

Brenda was swaying to the beat of the music and aware of Drew's occasionally wandering hands, but she didn't mind so much. Nothing could really bother her right now, she thought as she laughed at the great Irish accent Professor Bradshaw was putting on.

"I do," Brenda laughed as she was asked if she would love, honor, and cherish. She tried to remember the rest of the performance. Oh, yes, after Drew said ‘I do,’ Professor Bradshaw would hold out the mistletoe over them, and they would kiss and then move off the stage so the next winter wonderland scene could be performed.

Jax evaded the lunge of a bulky Back Street Boys bodyguard and jumped up onto the stage, making his way through dancing bodies and lunging bodyguards toward Brenda. Drew saw him, and saw the look in Jax's eyes, and was scared out of his wits. He withdrew his hands from their overly familiar touching of Brenda and when asked if he would love, honor, and cherish, he just took off across the stage without saying the required ‘I do’ to seal the ceremony. Seeing Jax mere feet away had been the catalyst to send him running with the vow left unanswered. He had no idea he had just spared himself from being a legally married man.

"Stop this right now!" Jax said, directing his words to the snowman as he pulled Brenda to him with one arm. "What is the matter with you anyway? Can't you see that this girl is spaced out on flu medication? What kind of a priest are you that you would actually consent to marry a person in this condition?"

Brenda was laughing hysterically. "Jax! This is no priest! This is Professor Bradshaw!" she said, laughing harder, her hands resting on Jax's arm which was wrapped around her waist.

"No, it isn't, Brenda," Jax said.

"You've got a lot of nerve bitin' me head off lad!" the insulted priest shot back at him. "All I was told was that there were two young folk in love who wanted to be married today out here on stage, and I agreed last minute to do the deed -- me dressed up in this ridiculous get-up at that! And I said all righty I would do it, for the sake of true love. And all I need is the "I do" of the lad to be done with me job here, and you've gone and run the poor boy off, you ruffian!"

"Are you for real?” Jax asked incredulously. “Hello! This whole thing was some fraternity prank gone way out of control," Jax said. "And only an idiot wouldn't see that! How could you not question someone asking you to marry them, dressed as a snowman, for god's sake?! And on a stage in the middle of a performance? Didn't any of this seem just a little bit strange to you?" Jax asked sarcastically.

"Young man, if you just called me an idiot, I'll have you know them is fightin' words to me Irish blood!"

"I want to know your name and what parish you're with," Jax insisted. "You need to have your marrying privileges revoked or something. I can't believe you were really going to marry an obviously intoxicated girl to someone she barely knows! Don't you ask questions? Don't you check things out? Do you realize what almost happened here?!"

The priest took off the snowman's, head revealing snowy white hair, very blue eyes, and a glare of fire for Jax. "My name is Father Shamus O'Malley. And if I were a bit younger I would knock your insolent head off!" he said.

"Oh, that's very priestly of you. Are you always so violent, padre?" Jax asked, taking Brenda by the hand to lead her away.

Suddenly campus security was all over the stage trying to get the teens off and protect the Back Street Boys. Thinking Brenda was a drunk teen, they grabbed hold of her.

"No, she's with me," Jax said.

"And who the hell are you?" the security guard asked. "This girl is drunk!"

"No, she's not drunk," Jax said.

"Ha! He's a lyin' varmint!" The priest said. "He just told me not more than two seconds ago that the lass was intoxicated!"

Jax glared at the priest. "Will you just butt out? She got the flu. She's taking some heavy duty flu medication, that's all," Jax tried to explain to the security guards. "Look -- I'm with the FBI," he added showing his credentials which Father O'Malley scrutinized to memorize the insolent blonde lad's name.

The PCPD were up on stage, too, trying to clear it and one of them grabbed hold of Brenda. "Here's a drunk one," he said.

"Will you let her go? I'm with the FBI, and she's with me," Jax said. “Nobody touches, her okay?”

"Well may the good lord above help this poor girl if she's with you. And who are you to be orderin’ people around left and right? Why, yer just a boy!," the priest muttered, still in an awful snit over Jax's disrespectful treatment of him.

Jax glared at him again. "You know the only one who should be getting put under arrest here is you for what you nearly did here tonight with your irresponsible negligence."

"Well, if they could arrest for impertinence you would be locked up in the paddy wagon as we speak, I tell ye!" Father O'Malley sputtered.

"You takin' responsibility for this girl then?" the PCPD officer asked, Jax.

"Yeah, I do," Jax said.

Suddenly the priest's eyes lit up, and he let out a belly laugh. This was too perfect and would serve this discourteous young lad right! "'I do,' did you say now, lad? Well, interestin' choice of words, me boy. And now I've got a few words for ye too. And they are as follows," he said. "By the powers vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife!" he snapped with a taunting smile.

Jax looked at the man as if he had lost his mind. Father O'Malley's gloating smirk unnerved Jax. "You - - - didn't - - - just - - - "

"Yes, I did! Congratulations and happy bloomin' holidays to you, you arrogant pain in the rear!" Father O'Malley said, snapping his bible shut and marching off in a huff, trying to make his way through the building pandemonium happening on the stage.

Brenda was laughing and Scott, who was behind Jax now, and had witnessed the last little scene stared at his friend wide-eyed. "Ahh, what is going on here?" Scott asked.

Instead of answering Scott, Jax reached out to stop the fleeing priest. "For the record, you are insane!" Jax told him.

"And you are rude!"

"This can't possibly be legal!" Jax yelled.

"Would you like to wager your eternal soul on that one, sonny boy?" Father O'Malley chuckled. "I told you when you first barged up here, spoutin' off yer accusations, that the only thing missin' from completing the ceremony was the groom's 'I do.' You just provided it."

"So what?! I didn’t do it willingly.”

“Well that’s yer opinion. Yer welcome to it and I’m welcome to mine. In my opinion, ye were willin’ enough.”

“Look, you are a mental case! And you'd better just undo whatever it is you just did here, do you hear me?"

"I hear you loud and clear, lad. You're talking as loud as a fire engine! And there's no way in the dickens you'll be gettin' any annulment from me! Not until perhaps you learn some manners, and I get a lengthy apology from ye! When I see you in me confessional tellin' me how sorry ye are, I'll see about gettin' ye out of this mess, and not a minute before!"

"You cannot do this!" Jax said, growing more livid by the absurdity of this by the second.

"'Tis done already, lad. Maybe this will teach you to respect your elders."

"Respect my - - -"Jax looked as if were about to explode. "Undo this," Jax said with deadly calm. "Right now!"

Father O'Malley just smiled at Jax. "I don't believe I like your tone, young man," he sniffed. "You don't seem in the least bit repentant to me."

"Look, you lunatic leprechaun , I'll go over your head about this. I'll go to the other priests in your parish. I'll go to the archbishop. If I were you I'd just rectify this mess right now and save yourself a lot of embarrassment," Jax suggested, getting extremely frustrated.

"Let me tell you something, laddy. No priest in my parish, including me brother, the archbishop, will annul this marriage. I'll see to it! Now, until I see ye in me confessional full of the proper remorse and askin’ fer me forgiveness fer your terrible temperment, you have a nice life now, lad," he chuckled triumphantly, and whistling, he made his way through the crowd, leaving the stunned Jax staring after his back.

"That was a real priest, Jax,” Scott said fully comprehending the magnitude of what had just happened here.

“I know that!” Jax said, scribbling down the name Shamus O’Malley, fully intending to lodge a vitriolic complaint about the mad priest to the archbishop tomorrow and get this insanity revoked.

"And did he just . . .do what I think he did?" Scott asked next, in disbelief.

Jax nodded as he angrily shoved the paper he’d been scribbling on into his pocket and then just stood there for a moment, looking stunned by it all.

Oblivious to anything that was really going on Brenda was humming along to "Winter Wonderland" and laughing about how the prop ring was too big for her. She was leaning against Jax who was holding onto her, staring after the infuriating priest in disbelief.

“He is going to regret the day he ever messed with me,” Jax promised.

“Jax, he’s a priest,” Scott reminded him. “You can’t do anything to him.”

“He married me!” Jax erupted. “How low is that?!”

Scott laughed. “Well if he married you to Ariel I would agree with you, but I can think of a lot of worse things than being married to Brenda. Anyway, all you have to do is go to this O’Malley’s guy’s ahh...confessional, right? And tell him how sorry you are.”

“Sorry?! Hell will freeze over before I ever apologize to that lunatic!” Jax said. “He’s going to apologize to me. And then he’s going to un-marry me or I’ll have him . . . .ex-communicated!”

Scott laughed again. “Jax, you can’t do that. Only the pope can ex-communicate priests as far as I know.”

“He’s not going to get away with this,” Jax insisted. “He’s crazy! For all he knows I could be some serial killer and he just married Brenda to me! For all he knows I could already be married and he could have just pushed me into bigamy!”

Scott could not stop laughing. Jax, in his fury was saying the most hysterical things and it was just too too funny to think that Jax’s new mortal enemy was a little old priest.

"Oops. I think I'm gonna fall," Brenda said as the effects of the medication kicked in full force and she was seconds from being out like a light. Jax scooped her up into his arms.

"What is wrong with her?" he asked Scott, thinking that it was no wonder the police thought she was drunk. She sure was acting drunk.

"Oh, well, she was feeling really out of it, but she didn't want to miss the finale, so she doubled up n her medicine, I think," Scott explained.

"And you let her do that? Are you crazy? She's as good as bombed, Scott. She could have really hurt herself!"

"No, she'll be okay. I would never have let anything happen to her and risk having your wrath on my head," Scott said. "So..." he added with a grin as they headed off the stage and away from the growing mayhem. "Can I ask you a question?"

"No!" Jax snapped, still incredulous and infuriated over what had just happened and the bizarre circumstances in which he now found himself.

Ignoring his negative reply, Scott continued, his grin widening. "My question is, ummm . . . how exactly are you going to explain your wife to your fiancee?"