I'm baaaaaaack! The Sequel to Peace, Love and Time Travel. If you haven't read PLTT, I would REALLY recommend it, because you'll be confused. It's good, I promise!
THANK YOU to all of the wonderful reviews i got for that, by the way, and hopefully more will come with this one. It started off as just a sweet little one-shot, but then, of course, i got an idea that turned it into a five-parter at least, possibly more.
'Til Death Do Us Part, Unfortunately starts about six months after PLTT left off, on the weekend of Ethan and Rochelle's wedding. Isabel's got this wedding down perfect, but you know what they say about even the best laid plans...
Disclaimer: I own only Gabe and a few future characters. The rest belongs to Marianne Curley.
"It feels like the next stage of the X-Men movies. It doesn't feel like a sequel. It feels like a new episode."-James Marsden
Isabel
"So, I need to know…what color is the cake?" Dillon plops down on the couch to my right. The girls are here at Rochelle's house discussing the final wedding plans. Dillon is here because…
Well, he's Dillon.
"The cake! We forgot the cake! Oh I knew something would go wrong-" Rochelle sinks her face in her hands in despair and wails. Her wedding is on Saturday-three days from now- so it's understandable that she's freaking out right now.
Good thing she's got such a good wedding planner. (Me! Also the Maid of Honor. Neriah said she'd let me do it, because I was bossier. So now Rochelle actually has two Maids of Honor.)
"Rochelle. RELAX. We did not forget the cake; I ordered it from Entenmann's weeks ago. Remember, you picked out the topper?"
"Oh," she sighs. "Right."
I exchange a smile with Neriah. It's funny to see the usually calm, collected Rochelle freak out over a pastry product. Considering the number of monsters and horrors we've faced before, I mean. It's probably a good thing Arkarian and I can't get married. "Hey, Dillon…why do you need to know?" I asked curiously.
"Oh, because Matt and I are renting tuxes today, and I need to know what color," he explains, as if this is the most obvious thing in the world.
He rolls his eyes at our blank stares. Rochelle even raises her head from her hands to stare at him. "Well," he starts. "If there's a white cake, you sure as hell don't want a black tux because if you accidentally get some on you, it'll show up, whereas with a white tux it's less noticeable in pictures. However, if it's a chocolate cake, the white cake is not a good option."
There is a silence while this is considered.
"I think I might have been here too long, but Dillon's ideas are actually starting to make sense." Neriah says with some astonishment in her voice.
"Except the cake is a marble one," I say reluctantly. Dillon looks confused.
"Um, Izzy? Won't that kind of…break people's teeth?"
I sigh and roll my eyes. "Not the hard kind of marble, idiot. It's a word for chocolate and vanilla combined. It was a compromise, since Ethan is a chocolate junkie and Rochelle's favorite is vanilla. And don't call me Izzy."
"Oh." I can see the wheels in Dillon's head turning. So, unfortunately, can Rochelle.
"Dillon." She says in a dangerous voice. "I swear, if you wear a zebra-skinned tux to my wedding, it will be the last thing you ever do."
"Relax, relax…don't get your panties in a bunch," he says sullenly, crossing his arms. A shriek is heard from the other room, announcing the waking of Gabe from his nap.
"It must be a flying insect." Rochelle mutters, rising lithely from the chair and making her way into the bedroom. Since Neriah's moved out, Ethan moved into Rochelle's room, giving Gabe a room of his own.
He has a real fear of those. Flying insects, I mean. If it crawls, he can handle it with no problem (believe it or not, I've seen him try to catch 4 inch spiders with his hands), but if a fly buzzes in his ear, boy does he freak. Usually he claps his hands over his ears, ducks his head, and hollers.
"This is the kid that's going to lead the battle against evil someday." Dillon cracks. I hit him, even if he's got a small point.
Gabe is part of the Chosen, sort of the next generation to fight the order of Chaos. Like a sequel to the Named.
Even though sequels are never as good as the originals. But whatever.
Part of the reason Gave is special is because he wasn't born here. He was born in France. Eighteenth-century France, to be exact.
Ethan, Neriah and I accidentally brought him back from a mission where we were saving Napoleon Bonaparte's great-grandfather. Only as it turns out, Lucien Bonaparte was fine, it was just where Marduke was keeping his Wrenbeasts. And bringing Gabe back was just a part of the New Prophecy.
But that's a whole other story.
"Here he is…" Rochelle comes out holding Gabe, even though he's almost four. "Usually he's not so tired, but he and Ethan had a Bob-the-Builder marathon last night, so…"
And even though she rolls her eyes as she says this and tries to look annoyed, I know the black-haired girl well enough to know that she thought it was the cutest thing in the world. And it was. Ethan's a great dad already, and a sweet fiancé to Rochelle. And however tough she may try to act, Rochelle adores kids, and is crazy-in-love with my best friend.
The whole thing is just so perfect it makes me want to either sigh or throw up.
As if on cue, Ethan opens the front door. His dark hair is tousled from the autumn wind, and his blue eyes light up when he sees Rochelle standing there. "Hey," he breathes. "Miss me?"
He and Rochelle both take a few classes at the local university. Technically, they're freshmen. Out of all of us, they're the only ones who can have a "normal" life, with jobs and taxes. At 18, I've stopped physically growing. I don't have the blue hair yet, but Arkarian assures me it'll get there.
"Always," Rochelle says with a grin.
"Oh, please. It's been like an hour." Dillon mutters.
"Hush." I say with a glare. "It's cute."
"Cute, my ass."
"Your ass is not cute."
Dillon is saved from having to think of a comeback because Rochelle hands him Gabe. Dillon is actually surprisingly good with kids (well, maybe not so surprising-they do have the same mental capacity.) Ethan kisses Rochelle now that her hands are free.
"Hi, Ethan, nice to see you too." I say in a gently teasing way.
"Oh, hey Isabel," he says unashamedly. "Hey Neriah. And Dillon." He pretends to look around. "And let me see…who did I forget?"
"Me!" Gabe giggles in delight.
Ethan pretends not to hear him. "I know there was someone…where could he be?"
"Here!" Gabe yells and jumps up and down "Gabe is here, Daddy!"
There you are!" Ethan smacks his own head in astonishment, making Gabe squeal in amusement. Then he picks the little boy up and swings him. "How's my boy today?"
After Gabe is done describing a particularly violent game of toy soldiers and goes off to watch Barney, Ethan sits down. "Hey, guys, what's the good word?"
"There is none. The Coliseum was booked for the weekend, so the wedding is off." Dillon says with a perfectly straight face. The Coliseum is what the immortals built to replace the Citadel. It's much the same thing, we just felt funny calling it the same thing as Lorien's home. Ethan and Rochelle decided to have their wedding there so that the Tribunal and Dartemus and Arkarian can come. King Richard will perform the ceremony, because we could never get a real priest up there. Plus, being King of Veridian gives him matrimonial powers anyway. So Dillon's comment was just a way to rile Ethan.
And it is funny to see his eyes go really wide and hear his gasp.
"He's joking." Rochelle hurries to assure him. "But the response is gratifying."
"How's your mom?" Neriah asks. Since the wedding is at the Coliseum, and the Tribunal gave us special permission to bring Laura, she had to be told about the Guard. Not all of it, such as the Marduke part, and how he was responsible for the death of her daughter Sera 15 years ago, not a rare brain aneurysm. Or the part about her husband, Shawn, chopping off half of his face and almost dying, and Rochelle almost dying. Twice.
Just the bare, watered-down essentials.
"She's good," Ethan says with a smile, and I know how happy he is to be able to say it. It was not too long ago that Laura was suicidal, driven to grief-induced insanity because Sera was trying to contact her from the other realm. Now that she's better, I think Ethan worried that this new information would send her back into a downward spiral. But so far, so good.
My mom hasn't been told yet, and probably won't be for a long time. I don't think she could handle knowing that the three people closest to her-Matt, me, and Jimmy- are all in mortal peril every day. Or that Matt's father is actually the most powerful immortal in the universe. And that he sent Jimmy as her Protector.
Therefore, she just thinks that I have extensive extra-curricular activities. Which I do. She just could never imagine how extensive. Thankfully, Jimmy and the Tribunal have arranged for her to have a mandatory business trip to Sydney this weekend.
They never do that for me when I have a math test, even though I ask them every time.
Neriah and I leave, dragging Dillon, agreeing to meet in Athens tomorrow. We're all going there for the weekend. The bachelor/bachlorette parties are tomorrow night, with the rehearsal dinner Friday, and then finally the big day Saturday.
"Something's bound to go wrong…" Neriah says.
"Oh, stop it." I reply. "It'll all work out smoothly."
"Please. Isabel." Dillon interrupts, rolling his eyes. "This is Ethan and Rochelle we're talking about here. When has anything ever worked out smoothly?"
Yay for first, and possibly the last chapter if i don't get some feedback telling me to continue. I do have the first few chapters typed and the rest written, so the faster you review, the faster they come!
Also- I haven't read Marianne Curley's books in awhile, so I might have lost her writing style. If that's a problem, sorry. I think it's not like what she would write anyway. Just something for us nerds who believe in happy endings :)
Until next time,
HaLo AnGeL