Best Man - PR1

Rafe, Brown, Taggert and Banks all sat around a table and began discussing who would be chosen for Jim's Best Man.

"Well, who is going to be Sandburg's?" Rafe asked.

"I don't know, but I do know that Jim said yesterday that he had been chosen by Sandburg and the guy accepted," Simon informed them.

"So, who do you think Ellison will choose?" Joel asked Simon.

"I have no idea. He has a brother that he might want to ask," Simon answered.

"Well, fuck. That leaves us all out," Brown said, sounding sorrowful.

"We all wanted the job," Rafe said.

"We'll still be going to the ceremony, right?" Joel said, trying to be upbeat.

Simon laughed and said, "Of course we'll be there."

"Where is Jim? He's the one that called for this Best Man meeting. So where is he?" Brown started to pace, a lot like Sandburg did.

"He probably wanted to let us down nicely." Joel couldn't imagine Jim thinking this would be funny.

"While we're here, what are you all giving them for a gift?" Rafe asked.

"I got them a set of goblets to toast with. It has the date and their names on it." Simon was proud of his selection of a gift.

"That's a great gift, Simon. I bet he chooses you to be his Best Man." Brown tried to sound happy.

"The gift doesn't have anything to do with who he chooses. He doesn't know anyway," Simon corrected him.

"I got them a new afghan for the back of their sofa. That other one was beginning to show its wear and tear. The woman put their names and the date on it. It's really nice. Wait until you see it." Joel beamed while talking about it.

"Great idea, Joel," Simon said.

"Okay, now tell me if this is a stupid gift," Brown started, "I just don't want to be embarrassed. I bought them season tickets to the college Hockey team. They went once and said they really loved it."

"Another great idea," Simon said.

"Henry, they're going to love that," Joel said.

Simon looked at Rafe and said, "So, what did you get them?"

"It's stupid," Rafe said blushing.

"Tell us," Simon almost ordered.

"I put in to work for the next month on weekends so they'll be off together. I couldn't think of anything else," Rafe said hurriedly.

"Why would you be embarrassed about that? That's a wonderful idea. They're going to love it." Joel hugged Rafe to let him know that he really did love this idea.

Jim was standing out in the hallway listening to everyone and was getting quite worked up over everything said. He calmed down and then knocked on the door and walked in.

"Hey guys. How ya doing?" Jim beamed at all of them.

"We've been waiting here for over an hour, Ellison," Simon grumbled.

"I'm sorry. The arrangements aren't going as smoothly as I thought they would."

"Anything we can help with?" Rafe asked nicely.

"No. I just came by to talk to my Best Man." Jim watched all of them as they got quiet and heartbeats going faster.

"So tell us, who is it?" Simon finally asked.

"Well after much consideration, I've decided on all four of you." Jim smiled at all of them and waited for them to answer.

"We all are your best men?" Rafe asked.

"Yup."

"Who is Sandburg's?" Simon asked.

"Conner."

"Megan Conner?" Simon laughed.

"Yup. And I don't want a word said about it," Jim said quietly, but they knew he meant it.

"So we all need tuxes now, don't we?" Joel asked.

"Want to go after work?" Simon replied.

"This is going to be so damn fun," Brown said pacing again.

"Thanks, Jim," Rafe said.

"Yeah, thanks," the other guys replied.

"You're welcome and thank you for being our friends." Jim walked out the door and could hear all of the men talking about what they needed to get and how long they had to do it. Jim smiled all the way to the parking garage. He couldn't wait to tell Blair about all of them being in the wedding.

Jim felt like he was doing this wedding right. He loved Blair more than life itself. And look who they had behind them? Jim felt very blessed.

The End