Laura could not escape in spite of her having lured Zeb King by posing as an U.F.O. Xavier Davenport married Sandy as he thought he was dying to keep his predatory children from inheriting his pet project. Derek gave part of of life force to Xavier and is no longer a vampire. George promised Iris that he would make Violet give up custody of Peter. Hallie is pregnant. Barnabas tried to get Nunez to face himself by bringing thim to Munsungan, but he Nunez was not ready for it, and he is catatonic now. Megan read the riot act to Carolyn.

WEDDING IN BLOOD

Chapter 1

"Don't stay too long in the sun" George told Derek. "Or you'll end up doing a great boiled lobster imitation."

Derek grinned sheepishly. "I know. But I have been away so long that, well, I want to make up for all that I missed."

"Same way you got sick from eating all that chocolate?"

"Well, I wasn't that sick."

"You were. I got quite a description from your landlady."

"She..." Derek blushed deeply "She had no right."

"No, she didn't. But that's what landladies are for, to gossip, and keep the police informed on every little thing. And then you are now a local celebrity, kind of."

Derek made a face "I wish they did not act as if I was...God knows what. Maybe I should be grateful they did not make me into a tourist attraction."

George grinned. "If they made you into a tourist attraction, you'd find a way to make money out of it."

Derek had to agree. "Well, I do have expenses. Grocery prices have gone up astronomically. How's anyone supposed to live?"

"Actually, they are kind of stabilized in the past months."

"You call that stabilized:? The last time I shopped..."

"The last time you shopped was in Richard Nixon's first term. You are still thinking of those prices."

"Well..."

"I am afraid that you'll just have to learn to manage your money differently now that you have other expenses."

"Maybe you could give me a raise. A cost of living raises, since my cost of living has gone up."

"I'll see what I can do. But, Derek, don't try to tell me that I am your only source of income. I an not that credulous."

"All right. I have other sources of income. But there is something that I thought I could do, and now I have to postpone it."

George understood. "Your salvage plans for the Russian ship?"

"Yes. I already got a serious investor"

"You actually managed to get somebody to believe you?"

"Yes. And it is true. There are jewels down there. And if you were not so skeptical, you could invest in it, too."

George shook his head. 'No dice. I read my horoscope today and it said to hold on to my savings. Which means, do not buy Florida swampland, and don't try to salvage Russian ships."

"But where is your sense of adventure?"

"I got more than my share of it in this town.. Seriously, Derek, how would it look if I got taken by you? I'd be the laughingstock of the town."

"But it is true! I can show you proof!:"

"Maybe another day. Now I have to go. Got an errand to run."

Violet paced. They were going to take Peter away from her. Mental incompetence or some such excuse...

And if she didn't, she would be jailed for kidnapping, for, as Brant had explained to her, her nervous breakdown came after she had committed the crime, so the insanity defense might not hold... She could be made to have been sane enough when she kidnapped Iris and Tammy...

And they meant to give Peter to Iris! Iris of all people! So that she could rub it in, as he always did...

Iris always made her feel inadequate... How she hated her for that!

But she had to give in. If she wanted to be free, she had to give up Peter...

Not that he cared that much about him. But to have Iris beat her thus...

Suppose she fought it. Suppose...

Suppose she ended up in jail, and lost custody of Peter anyway...

Jake watched her, aware of the rage smoldering in her. Burning as bright as his own rage...

How cold Tammy throw him over for a honky? The bitch... he would make her pay...

"Somebody did you dirt, didn't they?" he asked Violet.

Violet nodded. "They are taking my son away from me. Saying that I don't care for him, that Iris will be a better mother than I... Always Iris!"

"And Tammy won't have me, the bitch." Jake said "I am not good enough for her."

Violet kept pacing, more and more frenetically.

She turned to Jake. "You help me and I'll help you" she said.

"How?"

"Let me out, and I'll punish Tammy for you."

"Tell me " Julia bent over a miserable Zeb, who was there under threat of divorce from Jessica. "Where you sexually assaulted as a child.?"

"What...?" he stated at her. "How do you know?"

"Nothing else fits. Others hate homosexuals, but to the extent to do what you did. To the extent of stepping into the same trap I stepped into years ago, when your uncle... died... It has to be something in childhood."

"Why in childhood?"

"Because anything that happen then has no context, no reference, no experience to serve as a cushion. You cannot put it into perspective, because you don't know what perspective is. It becomes the most important thing, the only important thing in your life... So when confronted with something that brings it back, nothing else matters, but settling that old wound."

'What was your wound?" Zeb looked at her curiously.

"My cousin leaving me. He was the most important person in the word for me. Even thought I was older when he left, I did not get over it. Nothing mattered but getting him back.."

"And Barnabas?"

"I tried to turn him into Richard. Or a Richard substitute... Oh, I told him I wanted him for scientific purposes. But if I had been that cold, that calculating, I would have kept better control of him. I would have confined him to his coffin the first time he stepped out of line. And I would have run very painful experiments on him... But that was not the reason... I wanted him to become Richard for me. And he never did.. But to me, nothing else mattered. I broke every rule I lived by as a doctor. And I refused to see what was obvious...Well,. I learned... And because I learned, and paid a high price for it, I can help you now. Thankfully, unlike me, you did not kill anybody. Buffy is alive."

"Not thanks to me."

"No. I take that Frank did beat you up badly."

"Frank beat me up, Both Barnabas and Megan bit me painfully, and now Jessica is threatening divorce."

"Well, you went over the line in a big way. I know. I went over the same line. And let me tell you, the way back is hard. But it can be done... "

"And how do we do it?"

"First we do something about your obsession with going after homosexuals, to punish them for the man who raped you... You know, most of them do not go after children. Both George and Barnabas would be horrified by it. But you look at them, and you see the man who abused you."

"Yes."

"Good, we have something to work on. We have to teach you to put into perspective, so that you won't again be tempted to help someone like Laura to punish your rapist."

They went on. It was painful for Zeb. And for Julia too, because she had to revisit her own pain. But, she thought, if she could help Zeb, then her own pain was worth it. And it paid her debt, in part...

After all while, Zeb got up, shaken, and left. He would be back. It was a painful way back, but as Julia said, it was worth it.

Julia sat alone for a few moments, composing herself. She had finally understood why she had done the things she did in 1967. It did not excuse her, but it made sense at last.

Richard was a the heart of it...

And now Richard was coming to see her, at last.

A knock on the door announced the entrance of George Brant.

"Was that Zeb?' George asked.

'Yes. He's trying to get his head together."

"Hope he does. I am tempted to charge him with something, just on general principle."

"There is no need. He knows how badly he crossed the line, and he is scared of himself."

"Plus the beating that Frank gave him. That must have hurt."

"It did. But no worse than his consciousness of his own failure as a human being."

"Well, I hope he straightens up. I would hate to think that I might have to shoot him in order to keep him from bringng any more disasters on all of us."

"You came to tell me that?'

"No. To tell you that I am admitting a John Doe to the clinic. "

'John Doe?"

"The same John Doe that you had a few months back... the one you tried to kill... I hope you don't try that again."

'You mean that Nunez... Comet.."

George told her of what Barnabas had done. 'Maybe Nunez was not ready for what Munsungan showed him. Maybe he would never be ready. In any case, he needs more care than Barnabas can give him at the Old House."

"And you expect me to heal him?"

"Do what you can. Just don't kill him. I am serious, Julia. I know that it is hard, but try to do your best by him."

"Damn it. Just as I was getting accustomed to Comet, Barnabas pulls this on me. And now I have to care for that... that fascist..."

"I am sorry. Julia. But I could not think of anything else to do with him."

Julia took a deep breath.. Why had Barnabas taken Nunez to Old Munsungan? Why complicate things? Why rush it?

She looked at George and understood. Because George could not leave well enough alone and had pressured Barnabas to Do Something...

Well, when Richard came, he'd probably have something to say about it. And maybe Nunez would die, without her being involved in it... Richard would do it, without being asked to.