Work Text:
"What the fuck?" Patrick whispered, reading over the card again.
Was this a prank?
Rachel and… Will? Engaged?!
"Ooh, what's that?" David asked, flitting through their kitchen. He paused, hooking a chin over his husband's shoulder as he wrapped Patrick in his arms.
"We were invited to my cousin Will's wedding," Patrick said flatly. "To Rachel."
"Wait." David pulled back a little. "Like, Rachel Rachel?"
"Unless there's another Rachel McBride in Thunder Bay."
Patrick couldn't draw his eyes away from the invitation. Was Rachel, his ex-fiancée to whom he hasn't spoken in two years, seriously marrying his cousin?
None of this made any sense.
A tapping noise pulled Patrick from his head, and he looked over to see David typing on his phone.
"What are you doing?"
"Texting your mom," David shrugged.
"No, don't do that." Patrick sighed, and David lowered his phone. "I'd better call Rachel."
"Not Will?"
Patrick chewed his bottom lip as he scrolled through his phone. "I'm afraid if I do, I'll find out something I don't want to know."
The phone rang three times before Rachel picked up.
"Patrick!" She exclaimed in a sing-song voice. He was surprised to find he'd missed it, the tight hand of nostalgia gripping his gut.
"Hey, Rachel." Her name sounded foreign in his mouth; he almost never used her full name when talking to her. But it didn't feel right to call her Rae.
"How are you?" She asked, and he could hear the smile in her voice. "I've been meaning to call you."
"Yeah, uh…" he cleared his throat.
"Patrick?" Her voice was smaller, cautious. "Is everything okay?"
He needed to just say it.
"Are you marrying Will?"
There was silence on the other end.
"Rachel?"
"I am," she said, soft but sure. "How did you find out?"
"I'm looking at the invitation!" He snapped. Did she think he was that fucking dense?!
"Shit."
He could hear fumbling in the other end of the call, Rachel moving swiftly.
"Shit!" She said again. "My mom must have sent them out. I didn't mean–"
"To invite me?" Patrick finished.
"No," she said firmly. "I didn't mean for you to find out this way!"
Patrick paused, his anger dissipating.
"We wanted to tell you," she continued after a beat. "He was going to bring me to your wedding, and we'd tell you then. But he couldn't get time off of work, so we couldn't make the trip. And then I was out of town at Christmas, and… the longer it went, the harder it seemed to just tell you."
Well. Patrick could understand that.
"I was planning on calling you before the invitations went out," she said. "I wanted to be the one to tell you."
"Okay," he said cautiously. "But that still doesn't explain Will."
Rachel laughed. "You know I've always liked him," she insisted. And he did. They always got along great at family functions. He also knew Will had harbored a major crush on Rachel, at least while they were in college.
Patrick supposed the crush never really went away.
"I ran into him a few days after I got back from Schitt's Creek, and he asked me for coffee. We just spent hours talking, and he told me that I deserved someone as dedicated to me as I was to you."
Patrick smiled to himself. He'd told her the exact same thing, that awful afternoon in the motel.
"I told him that you'd said that, too," she giggled. "Anyway, we just kept hanging out. As friends, at first. But I realized that he was the one initiating conversations, the one asking me out. He wanted to be with me."
She went quiet, and Patrick knew why.
Because he'd never been the one to pursue her.
"Yeah," was all he could say.
"And he makes me so happy," she said, that shine back in her voice. "He's funny and sweet and kind and…"
"He's Will," Patrick finished. If Patrick could have hand-picked the person to love Rachel in his stead, it would have been Will.
"He's Will," she agreed.
"Do, uh...do my parents know?"
"Yes!" She answered quickly. "They've known for a while. I may have asked them not to mention it? Only because I wanted to tell you in person."
"I can respect that," Patrick assured her. "I mean, I asked you to to keep my secret, which you did. Even when you hated me."
"I never hated you," she laughed. And he knew she was right. They had too much history between them. Too much love.
"I'm so happy for you," he breathed. And he was.
There had been many nights where he was wracked with guilt over how things ended. Patrick had felt like he'd strung her along, wasted her time. He didn't treat her the way she should have been treated, because he couldn't. And that wasn't something he realized until David, until he had someone he loved deeply.
"Thanks, Pat," she said. "I really wanted to tell you."
"I know," he insisted. He understands more than most.
"So… do you think you and David will be able to make it?"
Patrick looked back down at the invitation in his hand and smiled.
"I wouldn't miss it for the world."