Warning!!!!  This is a very draft version I rushed through before Christmas.




                       Nabiki - New Horizons
                   Part 5 - Matrimony, Tendo Style
                          By Uncle Fester

Nicely done, as usual.  I particularly like how Kasumi handled the "Shampoo
Situation" <g>

However, there are several inconsistancies (to be expected for a
self-proclaimed rushed "very draft"), and a couple other questions were
raised in my mind.



[Nabiki's post-wedding garb]

    "Honestly, Nabiki.  You make this sound like you're making some
great sacrifice or something." she scolded.  "It's only for a few
hours.  Then you can get back into whatever you want."
    "What about the hirooen - the reception?" Nabiki sniffed.  "You
know I have to appear there still dressed like this."  She shook her
head again.  "A couple of hours."  She snorted more disdainful than
before.
    "Nab-chan, a change of attire between the ceremony and the
hirooen is not considered a breach of tradition." Kasumi sighed as she
went back to pinning Nabiki's wedding kimono.  "Just don't appear at
the hirooen in jeans."

So they have the hirooen, and then....

    Soon after the wedding couple had disappeared to do their final
clothes change, Akane and Ranma took charge of handing out the wedding
couple's gifts to the guests.

So they've apparently changed clothes at least once since the wedding.  So...

    "Have any of them opened their envelopes?" Nabiki asked as she
wandered into the room to stand by her husband.  She had finally been
able to change out of her annoying wedding kimono and back into the
casual Western clothes she was most comfortable with.

How come here Nabiki has just changed out of her wedding kimono?




[Jeff's Wedding Gift to Nabiki]

However, Jeff had to give Nabiki control of two small corporations and
agree to allow her to use Tendo-Lawrence in all Japanese business
dealings.

2 companies...

    "Do you remember what you gave me as a wedding present?" she
smiled, her eyes shimmering in the faint light of the room.
    Jeff quickly ran through the many things he had given his wife
before the wedding.  He slowly turned his head to look at the milling
guests outside as the realization of what his wife had done hit home.
    "Tiger Electronics." he said absently.

What happened to the other company?  (unless the 2 companies mentioned at
the beginning were not wedding presents?)



[Nabiki's pregnancy]

    The wedding day dawned as usual in the Tendo household.  Kasumi
cooking, Akane working out, and Nabiki in the toilet throwing up. 
Jeff was more than a little concerned about his wife's repeated
morning toilet activities.  Kasumi kept assuring him that Nabiki was
just nervous, but Jeff was certain he knew the truth; his wife was in
the first stages of pregnancy.  Still, he declined to confront her
with the facts.  No point in starting a war on his wedding day.

I find it very difficult to believe that someone like Nabiki wouldn't
realize she was pregnant (assuming she is - Kasumi could be right, after
all).  That Jeff doesn't know this makes me wonder about his relationship
with Nabiki.



[Nabiki's Gift to Classmates]

    That wasn't Nabiki's plan.  She had grown since graduation.  Both
marriage and the recent 'shinobi' trouble had aged and matured her. 
Still, she had one more step to take before she could fully cut loose
her petty past.  She would use the wedding to restore her honor among
her contemporaries and establish, once and for all, the kind of woman
she wished to be.  All she wished from them now was their respect.  If
she could just survive this damn kimono.

Restoring her honor?

    "Jeffery, when I left that school, people thought I was a cold,
heartless, daughter-of-a-yakuza.  I wasn't liked by anyone, much less
loved.  Everyone believed I was only interested in myself... and what
I could get from them."  

<snip>

    "What I gave them is a future; the chance at a home of their own,
a secure retirement, something for their children, help when they get
sick, maybe even the chance for some girl to find a husband of her
own."

Perhaps, but when you get down to it, Nabiki actually bought these people
off. ('you didn't like me in school, so I'll invite you to my wedding to a
rich guy, give you stock, and then you'll like me')  That's my take on it,
anyway....

Ah, well.  I'm sure other people will have a different take on this.




Jeanne Hedge

http://www.accsyst.com/jhedge/
                                 *   *   *
"Nobody ever committed suicide while reading a good book, but many have
while trying to write one."

                              -- Robert Byrne