Disclaimer: This is a mix of historical fact and the events of the anime Le Chevalier D'Eon. The characters of Le Chevalier D'Eon do not belong to me.

Absolution

If someone had told him he was going to spend decades living as and die as a woman, young D'Eon de Beaumont would have gladly punched his lights out. Now he was on his deathbed, clad in a woman's nightgown, his own, complete with a ribbon-decked mob cap on his head. He had long left his post as a lady-in-waiting at the English court. Only the late Queen Mary (or Queens) could accept his cross-dressing.

His loyal housekeeper, God bless her soul, was busy reciting the rosary as she waited for him to breathe his last. She now launched into the Lord's Prayer with religious fervour. D'Eon wondered if she was praying for his soul in the belief that he had transgressed some heavenly law about cross-dressing and was damned to eternal hellfire. His manservant had gone for the priest despite the pouring rain and the likelihood that the said priest was probably unconsciously drunk in the local tavern.

London was a nice place to live out his life, but it was still an alien land. His home he knew was long gone. The France his sister and loved ones served and died for had crumbled. He did not desire to see the ruins left by the revolution. He was old and worn out. Will they be there? His teacher, Durand, Lia, even Robin, who had been guillotined? And sweet Anna…

"How long do you intend to keep her waiting, D'Eon?" Lia's voice chided as she almost thrust the flowers at him. "What are these for?" 18-year-old D'Eon asked. "For Anna, you dolt!" Lia rolled her eyes. D'Eon was always clueless when it came to matters of the heart. "Aren't there better flowers at Versailles? She doesn't need such flowers from us… OW!" D'Eon yelped as his sister's patience ran out and she smacked him across the head with the bouquet. She stormed off muttering something about dense little brothers.

"She's still waiting, Sir D'Eon," a boy's voice piped up at his bedside. D'Eon turned his head to the side. Instead of seeing his housekeeper, he saw Robin. Not as he last saw him at the guillotine, a spent husk ravaged by the ordeals of his imprisonment, but as the bright-eyed page who served at his side. D'Eon smiled. His mind must be going.

"On your feet, boy! Look sharp!" Teillagory's voice barked. D'Eon leapt up and dusted the seat of his pants. He forgot he was still engaged in a fierce sparring match against his elder sister. Lia's rapier slashed the air beside his right ear. "D'Eon, pay attention!" Lia scolded. "You could get killed if you start dreaming in a real fight!"

"They are all waiting there, even Master Teillagory…" Robin's voice wheedled. The small hand that took his old one was warm and reassuring.

"Robin, let's just haul him to his feet and drag him out," Durand's voice cut in impatiently. "Time's a-wasting." He held his watch in his left hand. The same one he lost prior to his death. That old timepiece should not even work. D'Eon sat up. He pulled the covers to his chin, painfully conscious he was still wearing a nightdress.

"What are you waiting for?" the smiling pair asked. "Lady Anna's waiting…"

"But I am wearing a dress!" he squeaked. The pair exchanged mischievous glances. "Really?"

"Wait!" Too late, the page and older knight each grabbed a corner of his blankets and yanked the heavy quilt off him. D'Eon scrunched his eyes close, expecting some ribbing from Durand at least. "Are we having cold feet?" Durand asked. D'Eon was not wearing a dress. Instead, he was wearing man's clothes and a bridegroom's clothes at that, complete with a small posy in his lapel.

Shakily, he got to his feet. He was not in that dingy London bedroom. Instead, he was in a sunlit bedroom, his own from his childhood home. He stole a glance at the full length mirror and touched his face in wonder. The lines of time were gone. He was looking at the young knight, Sir D'Eon.

"Come on!" Robin grabbed his hand with a laugh. He was hurriedly whisked through sunny corridors into a lovely rose garden rivalling that of Versailles. He almost ran into Bernie and a number of old friends he recalled from his younger days on the stairs. "D'Eon! Congrats on your wedding!" Bernie waved before rushing off with the others.

"Robin, you have the rings?" Durand called out. Robin nodded. At the centre of the garden, a gazebo had been erected.

Lia stood at the foot of the stairs, dressed in her favourite red gown. He was slightly perturbed to see that the man at her side was none other than Maximilien. Lia had her hand firmly on his elbow. They made a handsome pair, he had to admit. Maximilien was dressed as a knight, with a sword at his side. He held an open book in his hand and both he and Lia were happily discussing the contents. Lia gave her lover a mischievous kiss on his cheek, causing him to drop the book. She giggled and grabbed it before it fell into the roses. "D'Eon! Come on!" she waved to D'Eon. "She's waiting there!"

Then he saw her.

"D'Eon?" Anna shyly stepped out from the knot of friends and family. "A-anna?" D'Eon stammered. She was breathtakingly beautiful in her white bridal gown.

"Anna's getting married!" a young Dauphin Auguste clapped his hands in delight. "Yes, Your Highness," Teillagory replied as he gently steered the prince out of the way and back to where Queen Marie sat regally among the roses. Auguste, King Louis XVI had been guillotined during the Revolution. Yet, the boy Dauphin sitting on his mother's lap was very alive and happy.

"Is this Heaven?" D'Eon gasped. Anna stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on his lips to the applause of all present. Yes. He was in Heaven. That was enough…

"Damn, he's gone…" the manservant cursed as the sobbing housekeeper arranged the dead man's hands on his chest and placed the rosary in his fingers. The half-drunk priest stumbled through the Last Rites, mispronouncing most of the words. He reeked of cheap ale.

The housekeeper shook her head. The doctor would probably want to poke and prod at his corpse to figure out how he died. Still, they needed to see to his funeral and accord him as much dignity as possible. "Here're the clothes…" she opened a box and took out a set of men's clothes, a bridegroom's clothes.

Author's Notes:

I wanted a happy ending for the show… but it was not to be.

This is the best case scenario where D'Eon gets married to Anna in Heaven.

I read somewhere that it was a French tradition to bury the dead dressed as if for their wedding. Not sure if the practice was carried out in that time de Beaumont lived. King Louis XVI (formerly Dauphin Auguste) was guillotined during the Revolution, as was his Queen and his sister. His son died of illness in prison. Only his eldest daughter survived the Revolution.