Author's Note: I do not own any of the "Team Fortress 2" characters or locations. This is merely for entertainment purposes, and I am not looking to profit off of this piece of fiction. All characters/locations belong to Valve.
I now present to you, "Age Makes No Difference"! I hope you all manage to enjoy it!
Dell Conagher thought that he was the luckiest man alive.
He had survived a rough childhood in Bee Cave, Texas, had obtained eleven hard science PhD's, and had managed to avoid getting killed during his entire time with Team Fortress.
Now he was proudly holding the arm of a beautiful young woman that he had met two years ago. And oh, how she had blossomed into a beauty.
When he had met her, she had been eighteen, and he had been twenty-six. She had been a child back then, but whenever she had been around him, either watching him build his machines or just eating in the cafeteria, she had always been warm and kind towards him, always intrigued with what he had been doing.
Dell wondered if it had been by chance that he had met her while he was admiring some art at the local art institute back in Texas. She had been attending that art institute, and he had been more than surprised that a vast majority of the paintings had been done by her.
The paintings had been beautiful, but not quite as beautiful as her.
Her brown hair, which had been chopped short, had grown down to her middle back, where it curled slightly at the end. Her blue eyes had not lost their shine, her teeth pearly white as she smiled at him. And the next thing he knew, he had asked her if she would like to have lunch with him, and she had said yes.
During lunch, she had asked him about the Fortress. He remembered that she had left two years ago due to a massive injury inflicted upon her by the RED Sniper (he hadn't respawned until a week later, thanks to the RED Spy), and he had been more than happy to fill her in on what had been happening.
When he asked her what she had been up to, Sherry had informed him that she was close to graduating her art school, and she had been paid quite a bit of money for her art at the art auctions.
When lunch had been finished, she asked if he would like to have dinner with her next week.
Dell, of course, said yes.
And before he knew it, they had been going out for six months. Six months of getting to know this woman, and he liked what he knew about her.
Even though he knew that she was the sister of the former Scout, he didn't mind this so much; he and Scout had been on good terms when he left, so he saw no reason to fret.
Then she had asked him the question: Would he like to come up to Boston with her to meet her family?
Dell had thought long and hard about what he should do, and it had only taken him about five minutes to answer her. He had told her that he would be most delighted, and then they were on a flight to Boston a week later.
He had been quite surprised when Sherry told him that she had just now told her family about him. She explained that she wanted to keep it hush-hush until the six month mark, and he was fine with that.
Of course, he was quite amused by the look on Scout's face when he saw him standing there in his house, and the former RED Spy had quickly dashed upstairs, no doubt going to get his balaclava to conceal his identity.
This was going to be fun.
"…Sherry, isn't dis guy a bit old for ya?" Scott blurted from across the table after several minutes of silence. Instead of her fork clattering onto the plate and her screeching at him, Sherry locked her blue eyes onto his.
"Scott, he's eight years older than me. That's not much of an age difference." She said calmly as she cut a piece of roast beef with her knife.
"Son, there ain't no problem with a twenty year old being with a twenty-eight year old. So long as there's love in the equation, what does it matter?" Dell asked as he placed a piece of roast beef into his mouth. He chewed it and mm'ed in satisfaction.
"I do say, Ma'am; your cookin' is on par with my Mama, and she's the best cook in Bee Cave." Dell complimented as he took another bite of roast beef. Helene fairly glowed as she put another slab of roast beef onto Dell's plate.
To Scott and Emile, Dell looked fairly odd without his hardhat, goggles, knee-pads and single glove. Dell had put on a pressed, clean blue plaid shirt underneath crisp, clean denim overalls. He still wore boots, but these were the nice kind; not those ones he always wore on the battlefield. He had shaved, but some stubble still appeared to give him that handsome, rugged look.
"So, uh…" Dell began, looking over at Emile. Clearly, he didn't know if he was supposed to call him Spy or something else, but he was saved when Sherry whispered to him, "Emile".
"Emile, how have you been? I heard you quit the RED's at the same time as Scou- er, Scott and Sherry." Dell said politely, almost calling Scott Scout. Emile merely sniffed as he took a sip of wine. He was obviously not going to answer, but neither Dell nor Sherry seemed to care.
"Mom, we hate to eat and run, but we need to get back to the hotel. It's late, but if it's alright, we can all go out for lunch tomorrow; my treat." Sherry said as she and Dell stood up from the table, Dell politely wiping his mouth off onto his napkin.
Scott and Emile both looked at each other as Sherry and Dell both walked out of the house, their looks saying the same exact thing,
"Time to investigate."