September fourth found Dylan sitting in his car at the high school. Jade sat in the passenger side seat, looking at him with a well of uncertainty in her eyes.
"Ready?" he asked softly, knowing full well she was thinking of the final, hellish days of their previous school year.
She shook her head. "No."
He smiled sadly and took her hand across the console. "It'll be okay. Derrick is old news, you know that."
"I still don't have any friends." Jade pointed out. "Not here in school."
"Times and people change, you'll find some friends. And you still have me. I seem to recall something about 'For better or worse'."
He was glad to see her smile at that. He hadn't had reason to reference that promise for a while, so he figured that bringing it up now had surprised her.
"Do you want me to pray before we go in?" he inquired.
She nodded and whispered, "Please."
So he did. When he said amen, he gave her hand a squeeze before getting his backpack and getting out of the car. He walked around the front of the car and reclaimed it when she got out of the car. She gave him a smile, but her eyes said that the gesture was a lie.
They needn't have worried though. Sure, they didn't really have any other friends, but they weren't bullied, like they had been the year before. They were just… invisible.
But, as promised, they had each other.
"Huh."
Dylan looked over at Jade later that night. They were sitting in their normal spot in the living room after the children had gone to bed, along with everyone else, and Jade was on the laptop, checking her email.
"What?" Dylan asked, sneaking a glance.
"Aunt Tina forwarded me an email."
"Oh?"
Jade nodded and began to read the email, "The forwarded part says, 'I saw a strange sight while I was jogging today. A teenage girl and I couldn't help but notice her jewelry - two rings, to be exact. A purity ring on her left hand and a claddagh ring – turned inward - on her right. It made me think: about the girl herself and about the boy who was the reason that it was turned in.
What did he think about that purity ring? Which ring did he think was the more important one?
I have no grounds for this, but I think that those two – whoever they are – are going to last.'" It ended with a question. "'What do you think?'"
Dylan had frozen halfway through Jade's reading, half way awed, half way horrified.
He wasn't even surprised when David nudged him with his foot from his place on the couch and asked, "Quick, knee-jerk answer. Which one is more important?"
So Dylan gave it to him, hoping that David would let him off the hook with the barest answer, and trying to ignore the fact that the whole room had paused to hear his answer. "The purity ring."
"Why?" David asked, leaning forward a little.
Dylan paused thoughtfully, trying to find a way to phrase it. "The… purity ring, that has a set purpose. A claddagh can take many forms. It could mean 'I'm single', 'I'm in a relationship', 'I'm engaged, and it could even be used as a wedding ring… And since there are those variables there, that means that it can be changed. If you break off an engagement, you can switch it around and go on, meet someone else, and start all over again. The purity ring… that symbolizes something you either have,… or you don't… And that is something that you can only change once. Once it's gone,… it's gone. And," he paused. "And in my opinion – an opinion I am about ninety-nine percent certain you share," He raised his eyebrows, though he was studying his hands. "despite yourself –" He took a deep breath before he met David's gaze. "That is something that you… save. For your spouse." He shrugged, highly uncomfortable with Nathan's gaze burning a hole in the side of his head. "My opinion."
David nodded, satisfied with the answer, and sat back against the couch. "Good answer."
Dylan risked a glance first at Nathan, and was rewarded with a nod from the man that he knew was going to be his father-in-law. He saw the soft glaze Kayla was giving him, and he knew that she knew it too. One look at the faces of his parents, filled with parental pride, and he knew that they were wondering when exactly he had become a man.
Funny thing, he wasn't sure of the answer.
The evening of October twenty-sixth was met by a very serious, rather upset group of children and their parents, who were in noticeably better spirits than the children. While all the current residents of the Mitchell house watched, Javier shoved a final bag of clothes onto the floorboard of his family's car.
The Martinez family was officially moving into the house that they had found.
Javier shook hands with people and Carmen doled out hugs to the women while everyone from Dylan to Marcos stood clustered in a group in a far corner of the yard.
Olivia and Isabel were clinging to each other and Marcos had a death grip on Dylan's leg. Dylan looked at Jade over the heads of the children, knowing that one of them had to say something to get them to cheer up. The look that she gave him informed him that she considered that his job.
"Hey, listen." He demanded, prying Marcos off of his leg and picking him up, catching the eye of each of the kids in turn. "It's not like Isabel and Marcos are leaving forever and we're never going to see them again. They're only moving across town. We'll still see them at church and probably lots more besides. It'll be okay, I promise." Again he caught each child's eye as he asked, "Do you believe me?"
One by one they all nodded solemnly.
"Good." He smiled at the group. "Then let's see those smiles."
They each complied.
He looked at the boy in his arms. "Now give me a hug."
Marcos did, and Dylan got down on one knee and stood him carefully on the ground. He reached an arm out to Isabel and she came to him, hugging him long and hard. Over her shoulder he nodded for the other kids to join in and he found himself on the edge of a six-person group hug.
Javier cleared his throat from behind Dylan and asked, "Are you ready?"
Dylan nodded and Isabel and Marcos copied the action. Each child took one of their father's hands and he led them to the car.
As the Martinezes drove away, Isabel and Marcos waving until they were out of sight, Jade and Olivia both sidled up to him. Dylan hefted Olivia into an arm and put the other arm around Jade's shoulders.
She leaned her head onto his chest and asked quietly, "Has anyone ever told you that you would make a great daddy?"
"Nope." The question had him mildly surprised.
"Well, it's true."
"Thanks."
"You got anybody in mind?" she asked vaguely, lowering her voice so that even Olivia couldn't hear her, not that the four year old particularly cared to pay any attention.
Dylan tightened his grip on her shoulders for a second in a half-hug, smiling. "What do you think?"
This is the last story in my Dylan/Jade trilogy. Please review! Thanks! And thanks for sticking with me throughout this trilogy!:)
