Chapter Text
Exactly five minutes later, Eve and the Slaters get to the registry office. They jump out of the taxis and hurriedly run up the stairs to the entrance. They burst into the registry office, startling another wedding party, who are getting impatient because their wedding is now running late, thanks to Eve beimg unable to get there on time, and they gawp at them.
"What you boggin' at?" Kat swipes at the bride.
"Kat!" Stacey begrudges her cousin.
"What? She was looking down her nose at us, snooty cow!"
"Come on; it's down here." Eve shouts, pointing down a corridor, remembering where to go from when she and Suki booked their wedding.
The first thing Eve sees when she walks into the ceremony room is Suki smiling back at her at the other end of the aisle. It takes her breath away. It's the first time she's seen the dress Suki's wearing, a little tradition they'd kept. Everyone in the room turns round and stares at Eve, relieved Suki hasn't been jilted at the altar, but all Eve sees is Suki. She walks hastily down the aisle, acutely aware of her lateness, with the bridesmaids and Arthur following behind her and the guests watching on happily, while the rest of the Slaters find seats to watch the ceremony, Lily giving a babbling Rose to Jean to hold while she does her bridesmaid duties.
"Hey you." Eve says when she reaches Suki.
"About time." Suki gripes jokingly.
"I like to make an entrance." Eve chuckles. "You look incredible by the way."
"You don't look so bad yourself." Suki flirts, making Eve giggle.
The bridesmaids are met by Ash at the altar who gives them all a bouquet of flowers to hold while they stand up at the front, Stacey, Lily, Arthur and Hope going to stand on Eve's side, while Ash stays on her mother's side with Kheerat, Vinny and Nugget.
"Right, are we ready to get started?" The registrar asks Suki and Eve lightly.
"Yes!" Eve and Suki answer in unison, facing each other and taking each other's hands, their smiles beaming.
"Very well," the registrar says, before addressing the whole room. "Good afternoon, my name is Carol and I will be conducting the ceremony today. I would like to wish you all a warm welcome to Walford registry office for the marriage of Sukhwinder Panesar and Eve Unwin…"
"Please repeat after me," the registrar says, turning to face Eve first, "I, Eve Unwin..."
I, Eve Unwin…" Eve repeats confidently, looking into Suki's eyes, though inside, she's a bag of nerves, because this means so much. This is the biggest and most important moment of her life. She feels how sweaty her palms are in Suki's hands and feels slightly embarrassed, not that Suki is at all bothered by this.
"Take you, Sukhwinder Panesar…"
"Take you, Sukhwinder Panesar…"
"To be my lawfully wedded wife."
"To be my lawfully wedded wife."
"And now it's your turn, Suki." The registrar says quietly to Suki, turning towards her.
"Okay." Suki whispers back with a nervous giggle.
"I, Sukhwinder Panesar…"
Suki is overcome with nerves all of a sudden and when she goes to open her mouth to speak, nothing comes out. Eve, sensing Suki's nerves, gives one of her hands a gentle, encouraging squeeze. Suki looks deep into Eve's eyes then, and Eve gives her a little wink, as if to say, "you've got this."
"I, Sukhwinder Panesar…" Suki repeats, finding her voice again, because Eve makes her feel still.
"Take you, Eve Unwin…"
"Take you, Eve Unwin…"
"To be my lawfully wedded wife."
"To be my lawfully wedded wife."
"Now, I understand you've both written your own vows to say to each other?"
Suki and Eve nod.
"Okay. Eve, would you like to go first?"
"Yeah, erm," she clears her throat nervously, "it's been two years to the day since our first kiss, and it didn't exactly go to plan…" Eve jokes to the guests, making them laugh, and Suki giggles shyly, putting a nervous hand over her face. "But we've come such a long way since then, and I'm so proud of you," she says, turning serious. "Suki, you're the most beautiful, bravest, strongest person I know," she breathes, getting emotional. "You're my soulmate, and I didn't think it was possible to love someone as much as I love you and for someone to love me that much back. And I promise to love you and take care of you, always, in sickness and in health, through the good times and the bad, forever and ever."
"Well, what can I say about this one?!" Suki says to the guests, pointing to Eve, making everyone chuckle, including Eve and the registrar. "You've taught me so much. How to have the confidence to be myself and not care what anyone else thinks and to stand up for what I believe in. These last two years have been the happiest of my life. A lot's happened, but you've always been there to lift me back up and put me back together," she begins to get emotional, and so does Eve. "No matter what life throws at us, I know we can get through anything, together. And I promise to let you love me and take care of me, always, in sickness and in health, through the good times and the bad, and I make those same promises to you, forever and ever."
"Well, I don't think there's a dry eye in the room after that!" The registrar says, looking around at the guests and seeing most of them wiping a tear from their eye. This lightens the mood and makes everyone chuckle. "Are you exchanging rings?" She asks Eve and Suki.
"Yes, my son has them." Suki replies, pointing to Kheerat, who checks all of his pockets, making Suki and Eve panic for a second, before he gets the box containing the rings out of the inside pocket of his jacket and sighs in mock relief, pretending to wipe sweat from his brow. He holds the box open for Eve and Suki to take each other's rings. Suki goes first, taking the slightly bigger gold ring out of the box and placing it on Eve's finger above her engagement ring, Eve grinning with excitement the entire time. She then takes the other ring out of the box and takes Suki's left hand, holding it delicately in her palm, before gently sliding the ring down Suki's finger to sit on top of her engagement ring. Once both rings are on, Suki and Eve take both of each other's hands again and look at the registrar.
"Suki and Eve, you have now both made vows to each other and said the declarations required by law and have made a solemn and binding contract with each other in the presence of your witnesses and guests. It therefore gives me great pleasure to pronounce you are now married. Congratulations! You may now kiss each other!"
Suki and Eve giggle with pure joy and relief, before Eve embraces her new wife and kisses her softly and deeply on the lips, Suki's hands cupping Eve's face.
"I love you." Suki whispers.
"I love you, too, wifey."
They giggle and Eve nuzzles Suki's nose with her own as the guests erupt in cheers, claps, whoops and whistles, standing to further show their enthusiasm for the newlyweds.
"So what happened?" Suki asks Eve while they sit signing the marriage register to make their marriage official.
"Smile for the camera!" Lexi squeals excitedly, one of several guests holding out their phones to get a picture of the happy couple. Eve presses her cheek to Suki's and their smiles beam radiantly as Lexi captures the shot.
"Gorgeous! Thanks!" Lexi grins, looking at the picture she's just taken, making Suki and Eve giggle. before she runs back to Ben and Callum.
"Well?" Suki asks Eve.
"What?" Eve averts, trying to avoid the embarrassment of telling Suki she managed to lock herself in the bathroom minutes before they were supposed to be getting married.
"Come on, we're married now. We can't have any secrets." Suki teases, sensing Eve's embarrassment.
"Erm, I kind of got locked in the bathroom." Eve admits, reluctantly.
"What?!" Suki giggles in disbelief. "How'd you manage that? Was it one of the kids pranking you or something?"
"No, the door handle fell off, and Phil had to kick the door down."
Suki laughs. "You know I'm never going to let you live this down?"
"Yeah, I know. It'll be one to tell the grandchildren, eh?" Eve jokes.
"Grandchildren?" Suki blurts out, surprised but intrigued.
"I mean… you know, when Nugget has kids when he's older. It's just a figure of speech." Eve replies quickly and awkwardly, trying to cover up letting slip that she's thought about having children with Suki
"Uh-huh." Suki nods, Eve's 'figure of speech' giving her food for thought…
Outside the registry office, guests throw confetti over Suki and Eve as they come out of the entrance, both now holding a colourful bouquet of flowers. They laugh and duck to try and prevent confetti getting all over them, but it still gets in their hair and mouth and they help each other to brush some of the confetti off of them, while a woman in a suit holding a professional camera takes snap after snap, capturing this precious moment, including Arthur and Hope screaming and giggling excitedly and playing with the confetti as they throw it and it falls down on them.
"Right, we're going to throw the bouquets now!" Suki shouts to the guests as she and Eve stand facing away from them. The guests stand back, some of them gearing themselves up to try and catch one of the bouquets.
Eve looks at Suki and shouts to the guests, "Ready? 1, 2, 3!" And they both throw their bouquets over their shoulders at the same time. To her surprise, Stacey catches Suki's first. Kheerat looks over at her and raises an eyebrow suggestively.
"Don't get any ideas, you!" She warns, pointing a finger at him.
He holds his hands up. "I didn't say anything…" He teases as she goes over to him. He puts his arms around her, kissing her head as they both chuckle.
Linda catches Eve's bouquet next and laughs triumphantly, but then gets a little embarrassed and blushes as she realises everyone is looking at her and cheering. She catches Alfie's eye who gazes at her lovingly as if he's pondering the possibility of proposing to her. She looks down, smiling nervously, unsure of how she feels about the idea of remarrying after Mick.
.
"Right," Kheerat calls out to the guests to get their attention. "If you all want to start making your way back to the Square where you can help yourselves to drinks and food at The Albert and outside at the street party. My mother and new mother-in-law–"
The guests interrupt Kheerat with cheers at him calling Eve his mother-in-law, and Eve pulls a face of mock dread and then laughs.
Kheerat chuckles. "My mother and mother-in-law are just going to have a few more pictures taken before joining us back at the reception!"
The guests cheer again and begin dispersing to make their way to the Square.
Suki and Eve stand close as the wedding photographer they hired captures picture after picture of them. Suki smiles brightly at the camera and Eve looks down at Suki lovingly, as directed by the photographer.
"I love you so, so much." Eve whispers to Suki, almost tearfully.
Suki looks up at Eve adoringly, ignoring the photographer's directions, but she continues to take pictures anyway, capturing this natural, loved-up moment.
Suki rests her forehead on Eve's. "I love you so much too. More than I could ever put into words." She whispers back.
The photographer stops snapping for a moment and just watches on at how in love Suki and Eve are. She puts her hand on her heart, hoping that, one day, she, too, will find a love like theirs.
The street party is in full swing, with the residents of Albert Square chatting and laughing whilst tucking into Indian street food. Indian music plays, and some residents dance along to it, including Freddie and Bobby, who drags his reluctant gran and Rocky up to dance with them. Meanwhile, Linda, Alfie, Zack and a heavily pregnant Whitney stand together talking and drinking out of champagne glasses, Alfie and Zack with champagne in theirs, while Linda and Whitney have orange juice.
"Aw, it was a beautiful ceremony weren't it?" Linda says, before taking a sip of her orange juice.
"Yeah, not a dry eye in the house." Alfie agrees.
"Yeah, I was worried for a second that Eve weren't gonna turn up, though!" Whitney exclaims.
"Oh, it was absolute chaos back at the house." Alfie remembers.
"It was kind of funny though!" Linda giggles.
"Fancy getting yourself locked in a bathroom minutes before you're getting hitched!" Zack chuckles.
"It was so tense at the registry office, I thought it was gonna send me into labour for a second!" Whitney says, holding her bump. "I hope nothing like that goes wrong on our wedding day." Whitney says to Zack.
Zack touches Whitney's bump adoringly. "Yeah, well we've got to get this one out of you first, ain't we?" He says, both of them smiling down at her bump with excitement and anticipation at the birth of their first child.
A car bib startles them and they see a white taxi with a "Just Married" banner stuck to the back pull up on the Square. Suki and Eve get out of the car, Eve getting out first. She holds her hand out for Suki to take to help her out of the cab, Harvey holding the door open for them. The guests cheer and give Suki and Eve a round of applause as they get out of the cab.
Rocky goes over to them. "Suki, Eve, if you'd like to make your way over to The Albert, we've got a very special surprise for you."
Suki and Eve look at each other, bemused.
"Come on, don't look so scared, ladies it's a good one; I promise. Very good." He assures, rubbing his hands together and grinning cheekily, before leading the way. "Everyone, come over to The Albert; you don't wanna miss this!' He shouts out.
"I wonder what's going on." Karen says to Mitch, nosily, as they make their way over to The Albert.
"I have no idea, babe." He replies.
When everyone gets to The Albert, there's nothing there, except what you'd expect at a wedding reception: food, a cake, tables and chairs, balloons, a sound system etc. Everyone who's already in The Albert looks up.
"Oh, yay, Suki and Eve are back!" Jean shouts excitedly from a table, gesturing with her arms out and swaying tipsily.
"Where's this surprise then?" Eve asks Rocky, impatiently.
"Er, well, hang on a minute." He says, going around the bar, like he's looking for something. "Where are they?" He says to himself.
"Oh, they're outside." Kathy answers.
"Who's outside?" Suki asks, as Rocky gestures for them to come in now.
"Please welcome to the stage, Tara Misu and her backing dancers, Keanu and Finlay!" Rocky introduces, speaking into a microphone that Kathy has just handed him from behind the bar. Everybody claps as Tara struts into the bar also holding a microphone, accompanied by a topless Keanu and Finlay, who stand behind Tara, one either side of her, as their audience gasps, claps and a few of the ladies "whoop" at Keanu and Finlay's toned physiques. Sharon stares at her husband, open-mouthed, the surprise having been kept even from her. He gives her a little wink and she smiles, blowing him a kiss
Suki looks at Eve wide-eyed and open-mouthed, in complete shock. This is not what she expected, but she's smiling. "What the hell's going on?!" She asks her new wife.
"I have no idea!" Eve replies, smiling, looking impressed by the surprise already.
Tara puts the microphone up to her mouth and speaks into it, "It doesn't matter if you love him or capital H-I-M. Just put your paws up. 'Cause you were born this way, baby." She winks at Eve and Suki as the music to 'Born This Way' by Lady Gaga starts. Several of the guests let out more "whoops" and start dancing to the song, as does Tara and her backing dancers, who thrust their hips as they dance, sending the female guests into a frenzy. Ben wolf whistles, and Callum jokingly berates his husband for ogling other men in front of him.
Suki gasps, surprised and excited, as she watches Tara sing and the boys dance, while Eve cries with laughter.
"Oh, this is brilliant!" Eve laughs to Suki as she wipes tears from her eyes. Suki giggles in response and Eve gazes at her lovingly. She puts her hands on Suki hips from behind and Suki puts her hands over Eve's as they start to dance.
Karen sees them dancing and gestures and shouts over the music at them to move into the middle of the dance floor, as everyone starts forming a circle. Suki says "no", shaking her head, embarrassed, but Eve is totally up for it.
"Come on, babe." Eve flirts, making eyes at her wife, trying to persuade her.
"Go on, Suki!" A dancing Honey encourages.
Others start shouting, "go on, Suki" too, and Denzel starts a "Suki, Suki" chant. Suki puts a hand over her face and shakes her head, realising she's not going to get out of this, as Eve takes her other hand and dances backwards to the middle of the circle, pulling Suki gently with her.
The guests cheer as Eve and Suki hold hands and roll their hips to the music, checking each other out as they dance. Suki is tense at first, and doesn't move as enthusiastically as her wife, but then she starts to relax and enjoy herself. Soon she forgets everyone watching, and seeing Eve strutting her stuff even starts to turn her on a bit. She pulls Eve in closer and they feel the heat sizzle between them as they roll their hips together. They look at each other with a burning desire, thinking about what they'll get up to later on their wedding night.
Tara finishes singing and everyone claps and cheers her and her backing dancers and Eve and Suki. Suki giggles shyly, still feeling slightly embarrassed by all the attention and that everyone was watching her and Eve's sexy dance and wonders whether they got a bit too carried away with their dirty dancing as they got caught up in the moment. But Eve revels in the moment, taking a bow.
"Well, that's not exactly what I had in mind for our first dance." Suki giggles nervously into Eve's ear.
"Nah, that'll come later. This was just a little something extra." Eve reassures, holding her wife's face, sensing Suki's nerves. "You were brilliant. Very hot." She compliments, raising an eyebrow, making Suki blush.
"You don't think we got a bit too carried away with our dancing?"
"What?! No! There's nothing wrong with a bit of dirty dancing." Eve insists, winking at Suki teasingly, wrapping her arms around Suki's waist, holding her close. Suki giggles and relaxes into her wife's arms, resting her hands on Eve's chest and gazing up at her admiringly, her confidence in herself restored.
"Can I have your attention everyone, please?" Rocky says into the microphone he's holding, standing in the middle of the bar. The chatter quietens down a bit, but some people ignore him and continue with their loud conversations and laughter. "Oi, shut it!" Rocky shouts into the mic, looking sternly in Mitch and Karen's direction, who are still laughing raucously. He points his fingers at his eyes and then at them to let them know he's watching them, and they stop laughing.
"Sorry, man." Mitch apologises to his friend as Karen puts her fingers over her mouth to try and stifle her laugh.
"Thank you," Rocky says, looking away from Mitch and Karen to address the whole room. "It's now time for the speeches. Kheerat, best man, you're up." He introduces, gesturing to Kheerat to stand and make his speech, before going to stand with Kathy behind the bar to enjoy the speeches himself.
Kheerat stands up from the table he's sitting on, with Vinny next to him and then Nugget, with Suki and Eve in the middle, and Stacey, Ash and Lily on the other side, next to Eve. He's holding a microphone that Kathy had put on the end of the table for him a little while ago, ready for the speeches. The guests clap and cheer him on.
"Go on, Kheerat." Ben heckles in encouragement.
Kheerat gets the piece of paper that he wrote his speech on out of his inside jacket pocket and clears his throat, giving a nervous laugh before looking up at the guests' smiling faces waiting in anticipation to hear his speech.
"Firstly, I'd like to thank you all for coming to celebrate Mum and Eve's special day," he looks to Suki and Eve who each give him a little nod back in gratitude. "It got off to a rocky start, much like Mum and Eve, but what's a wedding without a few mishaps, eh?" He jokes, going off script. The guests chuckle, and Eve and Suki both look at him with mock disdain. He looks down at his speech to remind himself of what he's supposed to say next. "Mum and Eve have been through a lot over the years, separately and together, and I know my mum couldn't have got through the last couple of years without Eve, and neither could we." he says, turning more serious and gesturing to his brother, sister, Nugget and Stacey. "I don't know what I would've done without Eve when I got out of prison. You know, before I went to prison, I asked Eve to look out for my mum, and she more than followed through with my request. I'm just so glad, Mum, that you've found someone as great as Eve to love you and spend the rest of your life with. Because no one deserves it more than you do, Mum. You deserve to be happy." He says, sincerely, feeling a lump in his throat. Vinny, Ash and Nugget all nod in agreement, getting emotional themselves, as do many of the guests, making Suki feel emotional and blessed, and she smiles bashfully in gratitude. Eve squeezes her hand, letting her know that she agrees with them all. "They make an incredible couple, an incredible team. They really are the perfect couple, and the relationship they've built – the love, the trust – I look up to it every day, and that's what I aspire to achieve in my own relationship." He says, looking over at Stacey, who gives him a loving smile. "So please join me in raising a glass and toasting the happy couple," he says, picking up his champagne glass, the guests following suit. "To my amazing mum, and my equally amazing stepmum!"
"To Suki and Eve!" The guests chant in unison, raising their champagne glasses.
"Welcome to the family!" Kheerat says, enthusiastically, turning to face Eve and pointing his champagne glass in her direction before taking a sip. The guests give a round of applause and a few cheers, and Eve nods at Kheerat, smiling gratefully. "You're a Panesar now!" Kheerat shouts over the clapping and cheering.
"Er, Panesar-Unwin, thank you very much!" Eve clarifies as the clapping and cheering dies down, and she stands to make her speech.
"Sorry, sorry, Panesar-Unwin!" Kheerat corrects himself as he passes the microphone down to Eve.
"Well, I just want to start off by saying, doesn't my wife… I still can't believe I'm actually saying that, my wife … doesn't she look incredible?" Eve says into the microphone.
Suki smiles and giggles bashfully as the guests all agree, and Eve turns to her wife, telling her, "honestly, you look so stunning. I'm the luckiest woman on the planet." She takes Suki's hand and kisses it before getting back to her speech. "And she's an incredible woman, an incredible mother, and I feel honoured to have gained three new amazing stepchildren. I never had any kids of my own, and Arthur, Hope and Lily only ever really saw me as a fun auntie who let them get away with murder!" She shoots Hope and Arthur, who are sitting with Jean and Harvey, a mischievous look, and they giggle. The guests chuckle and Stacey rolls her eyes as she laughs. "And, as you all know, we've been looking after Nugget since…" she trails off, referring to Ravi's death. "And I don't really know what I'm doing; I'm totally winging it, if I'm honest, but I'm learning from the best." She says, turning to Suki again.
"You're doing amazing, Mummy Eve!" Nugget heckles, tipsily, holding up a champagne glass.
"Thanks, Nuggs. Go easy on the champers, yeah?" Eve advises her surrogate son.
"See, you're a natural." Suki encourages.
"Yeah," Eve giggles nervously, "anyway, so yeah, Suki, from the moment I met you… actually, no, scrap that, I thought you were a right bitch when we first met!" The guests gasp, but Suki laughs.
"I was, to be fair." Suki agrees and the guests laugh.
"We were like arch enemies at first, but, I have to admit, I thought you were the hottest arch nemesis I'd ever had! Then I got to know you." She turns more serious. "And I found that underneath that tough, ice-queen exterior, was the softest, squishiest centre. Those aren't two words people round here might expect me to use to describe the formidable businesswoman, Suki Panesar, but–"
"Sssh, I've got a rep to protect." Suki whispers, interrupting jokingly.
"Yeah, the soft and squishy centre is only reserved for me. You lot will still get the ice queen."
The guests laugh as Suki gives them her best ice-queen glare before bursting into a fit of giggles.
"That's what I love to see the most – you smiling and laughing, and I'm glad that, since we've been together, you laugh and smile everyday, because you're happy and free." She and Suki's expressions switch to serious again. "And you're the sweetest, kindest, most caring partner, and now wife, and I can't wait to grow old with you." They both start to get emotional and Suki reaches out her hand for Eve to take again. "I really do feel like the luckiest person on the planet that I get to spend the rest of my life with you – my soulmate – the loveliest, most breathtakingly beautiful human in the world." She cries and Suki stands up to comfort her wife as the guests give Eve a supportive round of applause. They hold each other tightly for a second before coming out of the hug. "Anything you wanna say, babe?" Eve asks Suki, holding the microphone out to her and wiping away the tears that have formed in her eyes with her free hand.
Suki takes the mic with one hand and puts the other around her wife's waist, Eve naturally resting a supportive hand on Suki's back. "Kheerat, my dear first-born son, was right when he said our family have been through it in the last couple of years, and we definitely couldn't have got through all of that without you, Eve." She says into the mic, turning to her wife when she says her name, before turning back to their guests. "She's always been there to catch me, to pick me up and put me back together more times than I can remember. Whenever things were spinning out of my control, she made me feel still. She's taught me what true love really is. And when I thought I was going to lose her…" Suki becomes emotional and Eve rubs her wife's back to comfort and encourage her. "Well, it doesn't even bare thinking about.":Suki turns to her wife once again. "Taking the plunge with you is, by far, the scariest thing I've ever done, but it was the best. You've always been so understanding, so patient."
"You were worth waiting for." Eve interjects.
"So were you." Suki says back, without missing a beat. "When we first met, I never could've imagined that you'd be the one I was waiting for my whole life. We got off to a very rocky start," she says, turning to the guests, who let out the odd chuckle. "But even though we may have been arch enemies to start with, I didn't want to admit it to myself, but deep down, she'd got under my skin. Even from that very first meeting, I couldn't stop thinking about her. I can't believe how far we've come since then. You've changed my life so much for the better. I never knew life could be this wonderful. Every day with you is the best day of my life. It really does keep getting better and better with you, and I can't wait for the rest of my life with you. You're my first love, my true love, my only love." Suki says to her wife, who grins back at her. She strokes one of Eve's cheeks with her hand that isn't holding the mic and kisses her lips softly to a round of applause from the guests.
"Now, let's get drunk!" Eve says into the mic Suki's holding after they've finished kissing, the guests cheering enthusiastically, needing no encouragement from Eve.
"That was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. That brought a tear to my eye that did." Rocky says into his mic over the guests cheering, coming out from behind the bar, and everyone quietens down to listen to him. He wipes a tear away from his eye. "Reminds me of my own wedding day to my beautiful wife, Kathy." He reminisces, blowing a kiss to Kathy, who's behind the bar. She rolls her eyes and smiles back at him, giggling a little at the unexpected attention and thinking, "You old fool, but I love you."
"And we should definitely have a good, old-fashioned, East End knees up and get absolutely rat-arsed." The guests cheer again in agreement. "But first, Suki and Eve, would you like to make your way to the dancefloor for your first dance? Well technically your second after you threw some serious shapes to 'Born This Way' earlier!"
The guests laugh, cheer and whoop, remembering the brilliant performance earlier on in the day, as Eve takes one of Suki's hands and leads her to the dancefloor once again. Rocky joins his wife behind the bar once more, while Felix – still dressed as Tara Misu – dims the lights and points two moving spotlights onto the dancefloor. Eve puts her hands on Suki's waist and Suki rests hers on the back of Eve's neck. As the song starts, the guests watch on as Suki and Eve start to sway gently to the music. Eve moves one of her hands from Suki's waist and takes one of Suki's away from her neck so she can kiss it and then hold it against her heart.
"I love you so much." Eve whispers to her wife, closing her eyes and touching their foreheads together, feeling their hearts beating as one.
"I love you so much, too." Suki whispers back and closes her eyes, blinking away tears.
The female vocalist on the song sings, "When I'm with you, love, I seem to come to life. So tell the skies above, that I've found the one I hope to call my wife. Oh, when I'm with you, oh woah, my heart is at home."
When the second verse of the song starts, Stacey and Kheerat get up and she takes one of his hands and leads him to the dancefloor, stopping near where Eve and Suki are dancing, but still giving them a bit of space to have their private first-dance moment. They stand close and he puts his right hand on her waist and takes her right hand with his left. She rests her left hand on his right shoulder, and they move slowly to the music. Eve and Suki look over at them, smiling proudly, and they smile proudly back, before both couples go back to gazing into each other's eyes in their own little worlds. The other couples of Albert Square gradually join them on the dancefloor, as the song progresses, to slow dance with the one they love. Ash and Vinny dance with each other, as do little Arthur and Hope, many of the dancing couples watching on adoringly as the two small siblings cuddle each other and sway, copying the adults.
"I think that's one of the most adorable things I've ever seen." Suki says to Eve as they look down at Hope and Arthur dancing with each other next to them.
"Even more adorable than me on morphine?" Eve sniggers, raising an eyebrow.
Suki giggles and then kisses Eve slowly as the song nears to its end.
The residents of Albert Square have been partying inside The Albert for a few hours now, as Suki and Eve sneak outside onto the balcony of The Albert for a quiet moment to themselves, away from the celebrations.
"What a day!" Eve sighs, leaning her back against the balcony before taking a swig of her beer.
"Yeah, and the night's still young…" Suki flirts, cosying up to her wife. Eve hums in agreement, holding Suki close and gazing into her eyes, completely mesmerised.
"Oi, Stace, where have Eve and Suki got to?" Karen drunkenly shouts to Stacey back on the dancefloor of The Albert, over the sound of 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head' by Kylie Minogue thumping from the speakers
"Oh, they've probably slipped off home to consemate the marriage, knowing them two!" Stacey answers tipsily.
"I bet they have! At it like rabbits those two!" Karen laughs.
"Oh, do you have to? That's my mum you're talking about!" Kheerat protests, a look of disgust on his face. Stacey and Karen burst out laughing.
Back outside, Suki and Eve kiss, but the sound of someone being sick kills the moment.
"Someone's had a bit too much to drink!" Suki chuckles, looking into Eve eyes. .
"Yeah, it's getting pretty messy back in there." Eve agrees.
"Shit, it's Nugget!" Suki panics as she turns to the side and sees him throwing up over the balcony.
"Oh, mate, I told you to go easy on the champers, didn't I?" Eve says with concern, as she and Suki go over to him.
"I'm fine." Nugget insists, before starting to be sick again.
Suki puts her hand on his back and looks over worriedly at Eve but also sees the funny side, knowing what teenagers can be like. She rolls her eyes, and Eve tries to stifle a chuckle.
"Come on, kiddo, let's get you home, eh?" Eve says to Nugget, putting her beer bottle down on the floor and then holding onto one side of him, starting to walk with him. Suki takes the other side, and they slowly walk him back to number 41, stopping once on the way to let him chuck up again.
Once they get inside the house, Eve lays Nugget down on the sofa and puts a blanket over him, while Suki gets a bowl from the kitchen.
"He's out like a light." Suki remarks, putting the bowl down on the floor in front of him, in case he needs to be sick again.
"Yeah, bless him." Eve coos, admiring a sleeping Nugget. "We'd better get back to the party." She says, going to head for the door.
"We did it." Suki says suddenly, grabbing Eve's hand to stop her. "We finally did it." She whispers with emotion, not wanting to wake Nugget up.
Eve strokes Suki's cheek with the hand Suki isn't holding. "Yeah, we did." She whispers back, beaming at her wife. "Maybe we don't have to go back to the party just yet…" she flirts suggestively.
"Hmmm, what did you have in mind?" Suki teases, stroking one of the lapels on Eve's jacket. They both giggle, and Suki leads her wife upstairs to their bedroom.