Bryce and Annie (Bryce Tale 3)
(from alt.tv.max-headroom)

Edison Carter welcomed his guests as they arrived for the Christmas party. Theora, Max, and Murray were the first to arrive, Reg and Dom showed up next, and Blank Bruno showed up with Bryce's parents. Edison hadn't told Bryce he'd contacted them, wanting the reunion to be a surprise.

Bryce made a stop on the way to the Christmas party. He had a surprise of his own in store for everyone. Murray's ex-wife let him in when he arrived at her door.

"Annie's just doing her hair." She told him. "She'll be ready in a moment. So, tonight's the night for your big announcement?"

Bryce nodded.

Annie walked into the room. She was utterly beautiful and Bryce smiled, shyly, at her.

Looking up for a moment at Annie's mother, Bryce reached into the pocket of his coat and took out a small box which he handed to Annie.

Annie openned it. Inside was a diamond engagement ring.

"You did get it." Annie gasped. "Oh, Bryce! I..." she wept joyfully, as Bryce slipped the ring onto her finger while her mother watched, approvingly. Bryce had proposed a week earlier and she'd accepted, but the ring she had wanted had been out of stock, so he had waited for it to come in rather than get her a substitute.

Bryce and Annie told Annie's mother goodbye then left. They arrived at Edison's apartment fifteen minutes later. Annie hid while Bryce knocked on the door.

Edison was about to answer when Bryce's mother stopped him.

"Let me." She said.

Edison smiled and nodded.

Annie hid, waiting for Bryce to give her the signal to go in.

Bryce, expecting Edison, was pleasantly surprised when he saw his mother standing there.

"Mom?!"

Bryce's mother hugged her son, weeping tears of joy at seeing him again. "I've missed you." She told him.

They went inside.

Everyone opened their presents. Bryce's parents weren't expecting anything from him since he hadn't been expecting to see them, and they didn't have a lot of money, so they had simply got him a card.

It was enough. After reading the card, Bryce hugged both of his parents.

"Don't feel bad about not getting us anything." His mother told him. "You weren't expecting us."

"True." Bryce smiled. "But I do have a present for you." He stood up and left the room.

Edison and Theora exchanged glances, both of them wondering what present Bryce was talking about. Everyone continued openning their presents.

"Mom," Bryce said, having returned.

Bryce's mother looked up and saw Bryce standing there. Beside him was a lovely young girl about his age.

"Annie," Bryce told the girl, "this is my mother."

"I can see why your son is so handsome." Annie said warmly.

Bryce's mother smiled. "Thank you." She said.

"And mom," Bryce continued the introductions, "this is Annie."

"She's your girlfriend?" Bryce's mother asked.

Edison sipped his egg nog. Girlfriend? Bryce would never admit to that even if it were true, he thought to himself, he'd probably tell his mother she was a lab assistant or something.

"She's my fiancee." Bryce replied.

Edison spluttered in surprise. "What?!"

Murray walked in from the kitchen. "Annie! When did you get here?"

"I came with Bryce." Annie replied.

Murray looked over at Edison who still looked surprised. By the time he turned to ask Bryce what Edison was looking so surprised at, Bryce and Annie were kissing.

Annie wrapped her arms around Bryce and Murray saw the new ring on her finger.

Jayce Lynch walked into Edison's apartment ten minutes later. He neatly deflected his father's disapproving comments about his hair and mother's enquiries about why couldn't he be more like his brother, and hugged Bryce. "You should call more often." He told him.

"I'll remember that in a few years when Annie and I have four or five kids and need a babysitter." Bryce laughed.

"So," Jayce asked, "how far has she got?"

"What?" Bryce asked.

Jayce smiled. "Not very far apparently. So, where is my future sister-in-law?"

Annie walked in from the kitchen where she and Theora had been getting little bacon and scallop snacks out of the oven.

Jayce noticed her and smiled in approval. "Not bad."

"Get your own." Bryce replied.

Jayce laughed, happily.

Edison served spaghetti for dinner, it wasn't exactly traditional, but it did a wonderful job of keeping dissention down by eliminating the old "he got a better piece than me" argument. Theora sipped her wine, Murray ate his garlic bread, Edison tried not to be distracted by how beautiful Theora was, Bryce's parents and brother ate their meals and discussed Bryce's upcoming wedding amongst themselves, and Bryce and Annie, sitting side by side, were having endless fun doing "Lady and the Tramp" imitations.

"More wine?" Edison offered.

Theora nodded.

Edison started to pour but was distracted by Bryce and Annie and accidentally chipped Theora's glass. He excused himself and went to get a new one.

In the kitchen, Edison slipped a diamond engagement ring into the glass and poured a cup of white wine into it. Then, he brought it out and handed it to Theora. "Sorry about the delay." He told her.

Theora nodded and brought the wine glass to her lips. Then she saw the ring. "Edison!"

Edison took Theora's hand. "Theora," he asked, "will you marry me?"

Theora's eyes were sparkling almost as much as the diamond Edison had given her when she said "Yes."

---

To Cheviot's delight, Edison and Theora decided to have their wedding live on the "What I Want To Know Show". It would be done as a Valentine's Day special, this would ensure a ratings peak.

Bryce and Annie spent the next few weeks getting ready for their own wedding. Theora ran into Annie at the Zik Zak Know Brides boutique and each woman made the other keep her dress a secret.

Bryce was happier than anyone had known him since they'd met him, he and Edison ran into each other at the tuxedo shop a couple of times. Bryce had tried going with his father and brother, but they kept arguing about how he should look until finally he told them he'd go with Edison.

To nobody's surprise, neither Bryce's father nor his brother objected to this and Bryce suspected they were just arguing to get out of going in the first place.

The outfits chosen were like night and day, Edison looked like a butler and Bryce looked like a magician.

"Hello, Jeeves." Bryce smiled.

Edison laughed. "Hello, Mandrake." He replied.

Both of them smiled, happily.

"You getting the hat?" Edison asked.

"I can't decide." Bryce admitted. "It would complete the ensemble, but I might be expected to pull a rabbit out of it afterward."

"Just make sure its a live rabbit." Edison smiled.

"What?" Bryce asked.

"Never mind." Edison smiled. "You'll find out what it means sooner or later."

Annie stood on the pedestal at the bridal shop while a Japanese woman fixed the hem of her dress. Theora stood by with her own dress in its box. Theora had selected a ballroom-style dress with leg-of-mutton sleeves and a princess collar and a long veil with tiny flowerbuds trailing down the front hems. Annie's dress had no collar and the sleeves stopped halfway up the elbows. It had a princess waistline and a sequinned bodice with a long flowing mother-of-pearl gown. Her veil was a simple white veil which stopped halfway down her chest. Both her mother and Theora thought that Annie looked beautiful.

---

Edison stopped by Bryce's studio after work the night before Bryce's wedding day. He found Bryce lying in bed, crying. "You okay, kid?"

"I'm scared." Bryce admitted.

Edison nodded. "About tomorrow night?"

Bryce nodded. "Will it hurt?"

"The first time is usually less than great if there's two virgins involved." Edison explained honestly. "She'll suffer a little because she'll be so tight and nervous and if she has a hymen she'll be hurt for a moment when you break it, but they'll be no permanent damage. Since this is going to be your first time, you probably won't last long, but each time the two of you make love it will become more comfortable and last longer."

Annie was having the same conversation with her mother.

"Is he a virgin?" Her mother asked.

Annie nodded. "He's shy." she added. "As far as I know he's never even..." Annie blushed and let the sentence die in her throat.

Her mother smiled. "Just treat him with respect." She told her daughter. "He sounds like he deserves it."

---

Annie woke the next morning and gazed at the dress hanging on her door. Her wedding gown. She wondered what Bryce would be wearing.

Bryce got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around himself. He walked into his bedroom and started to get dressed when the door swung open. To his utter shock, Jenni, his former classmate, was standing there.

"Jenni!" Bryce gasped. "You shouldn't be here! I'm getting ready for my wedding."

"To the wrong girl." Jenni told him. "You were supposed to marry *me*!"

"Why?" Bryce asked.

"Bryce," Jenni moved over to Bryce, and he backed away from her stumbling and falling onto the bed. Jenni laid down next to him, caressing his face.

"Jenni, stop." Bryce pushed Jenni's hand away. "Jenni," he said, as he sat up, carefully, holding the towel closed around himself, "listen, I'm not trying to be cruel, I just want to be honest. Jenni, I don't love you. I love Annie. I've never been in love with you."

It was more than Jenni could stand. With a scream of rage she attacked Bryce, smashing a waterglass on a stand near the bed and cutting his face five times, then pulling the towel off and raping him while he cried.

Jenni stood up, panting. She leaned over and whispered in Bryce's ear: "Nobody will want you now."

---

Bryce sobbed into the pillow, tears and blood staining the white pillowcase. He lost track of time as he lie there. He didn't care that he was naked, his virginity, which he'd been saving, was gone now and his dignity was shredded.

Edison walked in and saw him. "Bryce!" He gasped. He ran over and saw the cuts in Bryce's face. "Who did this to you?"

"Tell Annie I can't marry her." Bryce sobbed.

"Doctor Duncan can have these healed in five minutes." Edison told Bryce. "We've got plenty of time."

"Its not the cuts." Bryce sniffled. "Edison, I was raped." He knew this is what had happened because Jenni had told him she was going to rape him just before she did it.

Edison put his hand on Bryce's shoulder to comfort him. Bryce, hurt and confused, lashed out, shoving Edison away so violently that Edison fell back and hit his head on the wall hard enough that he was dead before he hit the floor. Bryce, overwhelmed with remorse over Edison's death and shame from the rape, swallowed a bottle of headcleaner and lied down to die. He slowly felt himself lose consciousness...

---

...a hand shook him, gently. "Bryce?" Edison asked.

Bryce woke, fully dressed, no cuts or abrasions on him.

"Bryce," Edison told him, "Jenni from Network 66 is on line. She wanted to talk with you."

Bryce realized he'd been dreaming. Edison wasn't dead and he hadn't been assaulted.

He went over to the viewphone.

"Jenni?" He asked.

She was smiling. "Hi, handsome." She laughed. "So, today's the big day, huh?"

Bryce nodded.

"What's wrong?" Jenni asked.

Bryce told her about the dream.

"I think it was just your fear about tonight manifesting itself." Jenni told him, gently. "Look, I'm sure Annie will be very gentle with you tonight. Good luck and congratulations."

"You're not jealous?" Bryce asked.

"I'm very jealous." Jenni admitted. "But I'm also very happy for you. I love you, Bryce."

Bryce smiled. "Thanks, Jenni." He said.

Jenni nodded and was about to hang up when Bryce stopped her.

"Why don't you come to the wedding? There's plenty of room."

Jenni smiled. "I'd love to. I'm curious to know what you're going to be wearing."

---

Jenni sat with Edison and Theora, Bryce's mother and father joined them. His brother was nowhere in sight.

"Jayce will be here soon." Bryce's father explained, "He had to make a stop at the reception hall to get the band set up."

Theora nodded.

Jayce walked in and joined them. Jenni looked up as his shadow blocked out the light. She was amazed at how like and unlike Bryce he looked. She smiled and Jayce smiled back.