Chapter 78 - We'll Make It, I Swear

When Beth can focus and see who it is, the evening sun blinding and right in her eyes, her knees buckle and down she goes.  Jon is right next to her, helping her down, knowing what is coming next.

Doing as he's paid and doing as he's trained, in true Bon Jovi fashion, the head of security kicks into motion and made his way around the crowd to the protester, unaware of who he really was. It was that moment that the crowd, their closest family and friends stood to watch Matt in action, with Tony at his side.  It was a spectacle to say the least, "Excuse me sir, you need to leave right now."  Matt says to the intruder, the uninvited guest, as he grabs him by the elbow - gently leading him away from the crowd.  The guests pay attention to what Matt is doing, unsure of who the man is and unsure of what Matt will do.

Beth, on her knees in her wedding dress is in shock.  Jon can see by the look on her face that she is going to need some help getting through this one.  He can see, and he knows that this is one thing they never expected on their wedding day.  Tears streaming down her face, slightly hyperventilating she mumbles to Jon, "When is the past going to be the past?"

"Let's get you in the house, you don't need to be out here."

"I can't move, Jon."  Her face tells him that she is stunned and telling the truth.  "I can't move a muscle."

Jon stands and tries to get her to her feet, with Father Anthony's help.  She's dead weight.  "Come on."  he mumbles to her.  He knows that he needs to get her inside and away from the madness that was about to ensue.  He looks out over the crowd and sees that the guests are at this point more interested in what Matt is doing with the mystery man.  "Babe."  They get her to her feet and Jon slowly escorts her into the back door of the house.  Father is right behind them, mumbling incoherent words to Jon, he's no paying attention.

On the back of the lawn, under the beautiful white tents with the soft lights, Matt is having to get a little firmer with the uninvited guest, getting resistance and demanding that he see Jon and Beth.  "Who do you think you are coming here and disrupting their wedding like this?  Don't you know that that was a fucking stupid thing to do?"  Matt pushes him a few feet.  "You have got to go!"  Matt gives him one more shove and he falls into Tony, putting Tony on the defensive.  As soon as Tony was able catch his bearing, without thought he hauled off and decked the uninvited, unwelcome guest and a fight broke out.  For a few minutes, the guests watched the grown men roll around in the grass - knocking place setting off off tables and breaking the fine china and crystal that was displayed for all to see and use.  Finally, when Matt decided that he should do something, he stepped in and broke the two men up, after being told to by his mother. 

"Get in there and break that up.  This is Jonny's wedding day, god damn it.!"  She yells at the youngest of her sons, "Make it stop."  

With a pissed off look on his face, Matt walks over and reaches for Tony, stopping him from pulverizing the guy that laid lifeless underneath him.  As he stood up and straightened his jacket, he looked around and seen that the guests were taking pictures and videos and that pissed him off.  "Seriously, can we not have one thing in the fucking news?"  And he storms off, toward the studio that he's all too familiar with, he helped Jon build it when they moved out onto the peninsula.  

"Well, it looks like there is nothing to see here, folks."  Matt yells as he picks the injured man up off the ground.  "Looks like they got married just in time, thank you for coming."  Matt drags the intruder toward the driveway, pulling his phone out of his breast pocket on the way.   When he reaches the pavement, he lets the guy go and he slumps onto the ground, Matt dials 911 and requests that an officer respond.  One is on the way.

The guests, family and fiends, file out one by one.  Some stopping to ask Matt is everything was okay, some asking if there was anything that they could do.  Matt just shook his head as they walked by, in major disbelief that this guy had the nerve to show up, the nerve to speak up and he's having an even harder time believing that Tony just beat the guys ass.

-- 

In the house, Jon leads Beth into the family room.  None of the windows face the yard, he knows what he's doing.  She doesn't need to see her tents and her beautiful reception location destroyed by the fight and she doesn't need to see that everyone is leaving.  She sits on the couch, with her head in her hands and cries, all she can think of is, "Are we married, Father Anthony?  Did we get that far?"

Father Anthony takes a seat next to Beth on the couch and says, "Legally, the two of you are married - but in the eyes of God you are not because someone objected, I'm sorry."  That makes Beth cry even harder knowing that in the eyes of the Italian family that she just tried to marry in to, her and Jon are not married.  "Who is this person?"

Beth looks up at Jon, and he shrugs is shoulders, telling her that it was okay to tell the Father if she wanted, he wasn't going to.  "I'd rather not talk about it, Father, I'm sorry."  She stands up and walks to the windows, seeing nothing that was going on she turned to ask Jon, "did you see where he went?"

Jon walks up behind her and wraps his arms around her waist, kissing the back of her head, "I think my brothers took him out front.  I'm sure Matt called the cops."

The lawn door opened and in walked Jon's parents, "Beth dear, are you okay?  Jonny, what about you?"  His mother asks as she hugs them both, "I'm sorry that this happened.  We'll schedule another date, dear and we will get you married."

Beth snapped, "We are married."  And she walked away.  Jon could see that she was headed toward the front door and he was quick to follow her.  He had no idea what was going to go on out there.  On her heels, they walked out the front door and made their way through the staggered guests, trying to not engage any.  When Beth found Matt, she walked around his car and asked, "Where is he?"

Matthew pointed to the ground, letting Beth know that he was sitting on the ground next to his car.  As she rounded the front of the car, there he was.  He had a black eye and a split lip.  When Beth see the injuries, she asked, "Who did that to you?"  She looked at Matt, with disgust?

Matt threw his hands in the air and said, "It was Tony."

Beth dropped to her knees in front of the man that laid there in pain, hoping the cops would show up so he could leave the hostile environment.  Jon was at her side, with his hand on her shoulder.  He had nothing to say to the guy, but he could see, he could feel that she needed too.  Her wedding dress is destroyed, with dirt and tears and that was the least of her concern.  She reached up and caressed the guys face, with an unfamiliar smile on her face.

"Don't touch him, he's unstable."  Matt barks at her.

Jon holds up a hand and says, "Let it go.  She knows what she's doing."

"Do you know who this dumb ass is?" Matt asks, his blood pressure through the roof and his nerves on edge.  

Jon looks at him and just shakes his head yes.  

For a few minutes, Jon and Matt watch Beth.  She sits there and doesn't talk.  She cannot believe that she is looking at who she is.  So much pain resurfaces and she can't contain it.  Her words are jumbled, her hands are shaking and she's starting to get angry.  Of all people on all days........she takes a deep breath and says, "I thought you were dead."

Matt looks at Jon, "Dead?  Who the hell is this guy?"

Jon moves in closer to Matt and whispers, "She was going to marry him."

"THAT'S BRIAN???"  Matt blurts out, starting to fell bad now that Tony had just beat him practically senseless.