John has been to weddings before, but this? This is a circus. There has to be the better part of three hundred people around, the vast majority of them from the groom's family, with the poor Stewarts lost among the crowd. A disproportionate number of them are in uniform like John: Air Force, Marines, Army, Navy, even a lone Coastie, with styles dating back to WWII. All but a handful are family, which still freaks John out even after a couple years.

Somehow he finds himself dancing with the bride, who looks absolutely exhausted.

"You know," he says with a smile, "it's still not too late to escape."

Cindy Lou smiles back. "I seem to remember saying 'I do' a few hours ago."

"I'm serious. You and me, we could duck out right now and be halfway to the airport before anyone realized it. I could fly us somewhere they'd never find us. It'd be quiet. Empty. Peaceful."

She laughs and shakes her head. "Can't say as that I'm not tempted, but we had our chance to get out long before now. It's too late to save ourselves. Best we can hope for is to scare off any other unsuspecting souls."

Someone else laughs off to the side and says, "Sheppard, are you trying to run off with my brother's girl before they've even had their wedding night?"

John grins at Cam, completely unrepentant. "Just trying to save her sanity."

"She married Ash, I think there's not much to save."

Cindy Lou smacks Cam on the shoulder, a sure sign that she's already been assimilated. "At least I managed to snag the good-looking brother. Poor John here's stuck with the leftovers."

"I don't know how I manage," John says.

"Real funny. If you don't mind, I'm going to cut in."

It's not Cindy Lou that Cam tugs away, though. John's had enough champagne, not to mention enough of Jock's special brews, that he goes along with nary a protest. Uniforms or no, everyone's family except for Carter and a few of Ash's buddies, and they're close enough to count. They make absolute fools of themselves, of course, because neither of them can dance worth a damn, but that's really pretty much par for the course.

"I'm just going to say right now," John says, "that not matter what Momma wants, I'm never having one of these insane affairs. Small and quiet, okay?"

Cam's eyes go wide for a moment. "John Sheppard, was that a proposal?"

"Don't be stupid, Mitchell. I think that'd count as telling."

"Oh. So could I get a rain check, then?"

"I suppose so."

"Cool."

Thanks!

*grin*

Yep, that's him.

He loves it too. He just wished they weren't quite so scary. :D

It's not so much the number of people - he's fine at, say, football games or on base - but rather that they're all related. I mean, sure, that person over there is Skipper's Mother's Great-Aunt's Italian Husband, but they're all part of the horde somehow.