A/N: I decided to finally answer dwparsnip's song challenge with this epilogue. I have two songs so I'm doing 1000 words ;-)
Jen smoothed the satin dress and stared at her reflection. "I can't believe this is happening."
"Isn't this what you dreamed about?" her matron of honor said.
"Getting married on a space ship with a Marine as my witness?" Jen chuckled.
"Let me fix that," Miko said as she swatted Jen's hand away from the elaborate comb holding her hair up.
"Something like that," Sergeant Shyan Davids replied. "Do you think I should lose the sword?"
"Yes!" Jen nearly shrieked. "Rodney'll think you're…"
"Going to castrate him?" A new voice questioned.
"Hey, get out," Shyan scolded. "Sir." She quickly snapped to attention.
"At ease and today I'm just Evan Lorne," the Colonel said. "Mind if I come in?"
"You're already in," Jen replied as the handsome man was reflected in her mirror.
"I…" He glanced at Miko and Sergeant Davids. "Could you excuse us a moment?"
"Yes?" Jen turned to face him in full dress uniform and had to catch her breath. She might be marrying Rodney in twenty minutes, but Colonel Evan Lorne was still nice to look at.
"I know this is totally unorthodox, but…" He glanced at the floor and then into her eyes. "If you'd like… maybe I could walk you down the aisle. I know you can never contact your… Jennifer's dad, but I… I did deliver you to McKay… sort of."
Jen rushed forward to hug the man who became a brother to her the last year. "Yes," was all she could manage before her tears fell.
"The search is over, McKay," John said, slapping his best friend on the back.
"In more ways than one," General Ellis added. "I can't believe you found a way to defeat the Replicators. I always imaged that you'd do it, but… finding the idea in another universe was beyond even your typical genius."
"Did he ever tell you why he started searching other universes, sir?" John said only to be met by a growl from McKay.
"Because he met all those other McKays?" Ellis replied.
John decided not to torment Rodney too much on his wedding day, especially since he got his girl in the end. "Something like that, sir."
"I was just about ready to trade you in for Lorne as my best man," he muttered under his breath when Gunnery Sergeant Chris Raven came in to announce that the bride was coming.
It was a small gathering in the mess hall on the Sun Tzu to watch the union of the ship's CMO, Jen Keller, and its head of engineering, Rodney McKay. General Ellis, Colonel Sheppard, Major Teldy, Radek and Teyla were present from Atlantis along with Colonel Reynolds, Raven and Miko from the Apollo and most of the Sun Tzu's personnel.
Some noted the absence of the Dex family and assumed it was due to the fact that they just had a second child. Only those close to the couple knew that Jen and Rodney didn't want to add any more pain to Jennifer's life and wished her happiness as she worked at building a family with the man she chose as her husband.
Jen stood outside the doors on the arm of Evan Lorne after having to reapply her make-up with Miko and Shyan's assistance. She took a long deep breath and tried to steady her heart from beating out of her chest. Tonight she'd be Mrs. Rodney McKay and couldn't be happier.
After their quick encounter they decided to take things slowly. Meals turned into evenings of watching movies, which turned into spending all their spare time together. After Rodney's last experience he paid careful attention to Jen and their blossoming love made everyone around them nauseous. But that didn't mean their friends weren't insanely happy for them as well.
"Are you sure I can't lure you to my new ship?" Lorne asked after Raven went in to tell them to start the music.
"This is where I belong," she replied with a grin as the traditional bridal march began and Miko started her walk down the aisle where Samantha Carter waited to marry two of her crew.
Sergeant Shyan Davids preceded Jen and Evan in her dress uniform. It was the one request she made when Jen asked her best friend to become her matron of honor and Jen said she couldn't imagine Shyan any other way.
Rodney looked startled to see one of his closest friends holding his lovely bride's arm, but quickly offered Lorne a heartfelt thank you before his blue eyes landed on the woman he loved and never left her for the rest of the evening. The grin on his face lit up the room and was matched only by Jen's broad smile.
Samantha started the ceremony and when it was time for vows, Jen had only a few words in addition to the traditional promise to love, honor and cherish. "Rodney, after my journey across dimensions and through space, no matter where life takes us, you'll be in my heart and nothing can ever take you away from me."
A look of understanding crossed Rodney's face. No matter how badly he messed up in the past and might in the future, he was a part of her. Tears pricked his eyes, but he lifted her hands to kiss the finger with a golden band on it. "I love you, Jen."
Their kiss was a little longer and a lot more heated than was proper at a wedding ceremony but their friends only shouted louder and clapped longer because the McKays didn't care about anything except making their first kiss as husband and wife memorable.
The End or just the beginning for these two.
A/N: Thanks for indulging me and of course thanks to dwparsnip! I believe he owes the world a tag now that I'm done and he mentioned another little drabble about this verse too so keep an eye out for them.
The Search Is Over was a 1985 Top 5 Billboard Hot 100 hit song, originally recorded by Survivor.
You'll Be in My Heart is an Oscar winning song by Phil Collins, from the 1999 Disney animated feature Tarzan.