Chapter 3: Slowly But Surely
"Happy Birthday" there was a kiss to Frank's temple. "To you."
"Happy Birthday," a kiss to his earlobe, "to you."
"Happy Birthday," Phil Cohen nuzzled and kissed that soft, sensitive part of Frank's neck. "Dear Fra-ank."
"Happy Birthday to you." Phil lightly grazed his lips across Frank's as the semi-conscious birthday boy smiled and wrapped an arm around his fiancé. Frank pulled Phil closer and deepened the kiss, lazily tracing the lines of Phil's bare back with his finger tips, mindful to keep his hands north of the equator. Phil ran his hands over the shoulder and sleeve of Frank's t-shirt, relishing in the feel of Frank's defined muscles and the warmth that permeated from beneath the cotton fabric.
Phil pulled way just enough to run his tongue over Frank's lips, and was rewarded with a moan rising up from Frank's throat. Phil's hand traveled further south down Frank's ribs and to a swath of exposed skin just above the elastic waist of his pajama bottoms. He immediately regretted the move when Frank's hips jerked slightly, and not in a good way. But before Phil could utter an apology, Frank recovered quickly and broke the kiss with a sheepish smile on his face.
"Good Morning, Love." Frank smiled as he looked into Phil's eyes. "That has to be my favorite way to wake up on my birthday. Thank you." He kissed his fiancé again and pulled him closer to his chest, but making sure to leave some distance between their hips. Phil sighed…
Damn those blasted vampires, werewolves and dark elves that did this to Frank! Phil loved Frank with all his heart, and he'd wait until the end of time if that's how long it would take Frank to be ready to be as intimate as they once were. But the rape, molestations, mental torture and nearly being sold as a sex slave months ago had taken its toll on Frank in a way that had eventually affected their relationship as well. Dr. Berber, Frank's former therapist, had been able to help to a degree, but then there were the new developments, like the awakening of Frank's supernatural heritage.
Yes, Frank could see dead people. Not only that, but because his mother, Laura, was a supernatural being as well, an Elf of the Light, Frank had inherited her gift of foresight, and his grandmother's gift to communicate with the deceased. These weren't great gifts as one might think. The oldest of the Hardy brothers was plagued by unwanted and poorly timed visits from those who still existed between death and the hereafter. And as far as his gift for seeing the future, Frank couldn't tell you who was knocking on the front door without looking. It was more like Frank would have visions of a possible, distant future. And from what Frank was able to tell Phil, theirs was destined to be a very long and happy one.
Frank just needed time. Time to get a better handle on his new abilities, and time to heal physically and mentally. So enter Dr. Jacob Eisner, or as Frank usually referred to as Dr. Hippy-Dippy. He was a short, balding man with a closely trimmed beard and half-moon glasses. But he came highly recommended by Dr. Bluma Schwartz while Frank was hospitalized in New Orleans, so he finally broke down and set up an appointment.
Most of their sessions were spent sitting cross-legged on papas an cushions doing controlled breathing exercises and discussing whatever Frank felt like talking about. The difference between Dr. Eisner and his former psychiatrist was that Frank was able to talk about the vampires, werewolves, Dark Elves, about his own half-human, half-elf discovery and Dr. Hippy-Dippy didn't bat an eyelash. Instead he would let Frank talk and he'd nod understandingly.
But he did agree with Dr. Berber in that Frank should hold off on being intimate with his fiancé for a bit longer, but for different reasons.
"Think of it this way Frank… Phil has so far been your only partner that you've ever truly loved and willingly been intimate with. Yes?"
"Yes."
"And how did your first time go?" Dr. Eisner leaned in to ask.
"Uh…well…" Frank's face flushed as he hesitated.
"Did he pressure you into it? Was it his idea?"
"No! I had thought long and hard about it. It was a gift, I gave my virginity to him." Dr. Eisner smiled at Frank.
"Exactly! You gave yourself to Phil. You were in control! Unfortunately you had no control over what happened to you while you were a captive. Take your control back! Let this time that you have before the wedding be like starting over again. Enjoy each other the way you did before you became intimate. So when your wedding night comes you are willfully giving yourself to Phillip again, and vice versa. Except this time you are also cementing your new life as husbands with the gift and joy of sex…"
Phil hugged Frank tighter in their bed as he thought back to when Frank told him what Dr. Eisner suggested and thus officially calling a time out on their sex life. True, it had been hard, very, very hard. Yet it was also a testament to Frank's love for him - that he wanted their wedding night to be as much of a gift of love as the first time Frank gave himself to Phil.
"I love you Frank." Phil leaned back enough so he could gaze into those chocolaty brown eyes as he said it. And a rare thing happened. A genuine smile that actually reached Frank's eyes curled across his face and he reached out to stroke Phil's stubbly cheek with his hand.
"I love you Phil. And I think that's the best gift I could ever receive."
"Oh? So does that mean I have to call off all the plans I've made for your big day? It's not everyday you turn twenty-five." Phil returned, but Frank smirked.
He remembered the shin-dig Phil's parents threw for his twenty-fifth birthday last Fall. It sort of reminded him of Phil's bar mitzvah, except without the Torah reading, awkward teenagers and there was much, much more alcohol.
"So what's on the agenda?" Frank propped his head up with this elbow.
"Well… since you were lucky enough for your birthday to land on a Saturday this year, you can sleep in as long as you like… Mama Hardy, your dad, Joe and Van want us to swing by for a late lunch and to give you your birthday presents. And I've got a table reserved at Pasquale's for eight o'clock. You me, Chet and his lady friend, Biff and Amy. Some dinner, slow dancing…"
"Sounds like a nice day you've got planned there." Frank smiled and kissed Phil again.
"Of course, it's your day, you can do whatever it is you want." Phil suggested as he ran his hands through Frank's soft, chestnut colored hair.
"I like your idea more." Frank smiled sleepily.
…..
Laura Hardy sat in the window seat of her bedroom, admiring the pages of one of the two baby books she had so faithfully kept up. The pages were a bit tattered around the edges, the tape holding pictures and little mementos were starting to yellow and give way. But each book was precious to her. And if the house were burning down and she could only grab two material things, it would be these two albums.
She remembered Frank's birth so vividly - the shock on the doctor's face when he first saw her son's ears. The emergency call to a specialist her father, Elwood Lewis, knew of to take care of the matter quickly while she and Frank were still in the maternity ward. The good doctor took care of it and the circumcision at the same time. Thank goodness it had been a cool April when Frank was born, those little knit newborn caps came in pretty handy as she kept her baby's ear's and head covered. And no one would dare question the new mother's over-protectiveness.
Fenton, bless his heart, had been overseas working on a special operation with Scotland Yard when she had gone into labor two weeks early. Thank goodness for her quick-witted and doting father. By the time Fenton made it back stateside, baby Franklin's ears had healed to mild pink marks on the top of each ear.
"It was just the way his head was laying against Laura's pelvis, Son. The pediatrician said they could either fix it now or his ears would be like a Scottish Fold's*, and a the scarring would be obvious" Elwood Lewis had told his son-in-law when he took the panicky young father to the side for a talk. "Twas a simple procedure, like removing a superficial sixth finger or toe. The lad barely cried."
Laura and Elwood had lied through their teeth. But what else could she and her father do at the time? She'd never told Fenton the truth about her own true heritage and she didn't want to start. There was a saying Laura had learned quickly when she and her father came to live in the human realm: "Truth is stranger than fiction". And when she had met Fenton Hardy, a young, up-and-coming police officer, and heard the hair-curling details of some of the cases he had been working on, well… Some things were just better left unsaid. If Laura was guilty of anything, it was the sin of omission.
She ran her delicate fingers over the taped photos, but then turned to the very back of the album. Laura lifted the paper edge of the book's binding to a little nook she had created over the years to hide a few pictures. Pictures she never intended to show anyone in her lifetime, but she couldn't find it in her heart to destroy them. That was, until Frank's injury, and the need for a transfusion. Not just any transfusion, but a transfusion of her blood to fight a deadly, supernatural bacteria. And that act alone had led to the revelation of a past Laura had long wanted to forget, but a place, given the chance, that she would return to without a moment's hesitation.
A knock at the bedroom door pulled her away from her little trip down memory lane. She closed the album shut with a loud slap and turned to see her husband of over thirty years standing in the doorway.
"Hey." He said softly as he entered their bedroom. Emphasis on their bedroom. Accepting his eldest son being gay was a piece of cake compared to learning the truth about his wife. His wife who he'd trusted unfailingly for the past thirty some years until… Well, once the dust had settled, Frank was back home and healing, and Vanessa's pregnancy was progressing normally, Fenton and Laura had sat down together and had a long, long talk, that turned into a shouting match, that turned into Laura kicking Fenton out of their bedroom. And because Fenton was as stubborn as his sister Gertrude was sharp tongued, Fenton spent many nights, at least two months, sleeping in Joe's old bedroom.
It took a tongue lashing from said sister to get Fenton to humble himself and set aside his foolish pride, to try to see things through Laura's eyes. He sat down with Laura again and got her to open up about what she could remember of her childhood, the loss of her mother, learning to fit into human society in Ireland until she and her father's ears healed. About coming to the United States, being a latch-key kid while her father taught at the local high school all day, came home for dinner, and taught at the community college at night. Going to high school, a shy and timid Laura Lewis found every day tortuous, knowing which kids enjoyed teasing her endlessly, and which would eventually try to stab her in the back. Then she met Fenton one night at a friend of a friend's party just after she had graduated from college. And at first the future she saw scared her to death. The risks he and her future sons would take, the dangers. But there was love. A lifetime of love that lay ahead if she'd open herself up to it.
Now thirty some years later her silence had come back to bite her in the butt. In the ensuing argument, her feelings had been hurt and so had his. But no marriage with without it's ups and downs. So now they were reconnecting. Sleeping in the same bed again, Fenton bringing home flowers, Laura encouraging Gertie to go on those senior citizen bus tours to free up the house for the weekend. It was slow going, but they were getting there.
"Reminiscing over the Birthday Boy?" Fenton asked as he pushed himself away from doorframe and sat at the opposite end of the window seat. Laura nodded.
"Do you want to see "the" pictures?" she asked her husband, referring to the ones that had been hidden in the back of Frank's baby album. Fenton took a breath to steady himself and nodded in return. Laura opened the back of the baby album and peeled away the loose paper corner that hid a few photographs Fenton had never seen. At first glance, they weren't dissimilar to the ones that were already in the album. A younger, exhausted but glowing Laura was holding a small, red and screaming infant. His son, the child that made him a father. There was just one glaring difference… Frank's ears.
It was a good thing Laura had refused to show Fenton the pictures months ago when they had argued about the past. Back then he probably would have abhorred them. However, now that the he'd had time to become accustomed to Laura's elfish heritage, and the legacy that had been passed down to her sons, Fenton could appreciate these old photos for what they were. Pictures of his newborn son, precious and innocent in all of this, pointy ears and all.
"So, the Scottish Fold story?" Fenton smiled.
"Ada… um, Dad, it was his invention to justify the surgery. Dad and Dr. Wheeler were friends from when we first arrived in the human world, he did our ear surgeries."
"Dr. Wheeler? Martin Wheeler? The medical examiner?" Fenton raised an eyebrow. He could never imagine quirky Dr. Wheeler having hands steady enough to perform such a delicate cosmetic surgery.
"Yes, he did almost all the ear modifications for the Elves who escaped the Middle Kingdom." Laura said. She looked at another of the old pictures. "Look at this one with Dad holding Frank. He knew Frank needed his ears fixed, but he was so proud Frank had a little something that reminded him of Mother. He said the little points looked like mine and Mother's. And oh, when Joe came along looking so much like our side of the family even though he didn't get the ears... He loved our boys so much." Laura's eyes became misty as she thought about her lovable father.
"So, how old was Elwood when he died? Really. Because from what you told me… your people live for quite a while."
"They live a lot longer in the environment of the Middle Kingdom than they do here in the human's realm. Less disease, cleaner environment, just… different. And it's not so much we live longer… we… they age slower. Dad was seventy seven when he died. But if he had been able to live out his years in the Middle Kingdom, even at seventy seven he wouldn't have looked a day over fifty. Would probably still be alive with another fifty some years to go." Laura dabbed her tearing eyes with the back of her hand and sniffed. "I wish Mother could have made the journey with us. But she sacrificed herself so I would have a safer future…"
Laura found herself enveloped in Fenton's strong arms as she nuzzled into his shoulder, letting decades of pent up emotions escape. Laura shook as she sobbed for her lost mother, her father, and the guilt of keeping those secrets hidden from her family for so long. She didn't think she'd cried this hard since she was a child.
"Laura, I'm so sorry we argued. And I'm so, so sorry you didn't feel like you could talk to me about all this. You've shoulder this burden long enough. But like I told you months ago, nothing you've told me changes the way I feel about you. You have been the most patient wife, and the most wonderful mother to our boys." Fenton said gently as he stroked the back of Laura's head. "And you're going to make one Hell of a grandmother."
Laura sniffed and sat back, a watery smile on her face.
"And I'm sorry I've been such a hard-headed pain in the ass. With all the strange things we've… I've… had to learn to accept in the last year, I just never thought…" But Fenton let his weak voice trail off. There was no use rehashing what all he'd gone through, because it was nothing compared to what his sons and wife have had to live through. With Laura's foresight, she probably had visions of the vampires, witches and werewolves that their sons had dealt with. Fenton had spent his life trying to keep the world safe for his wife and sons, and now they were doing the same for him.
Just then his sister Gertrude passed the door and stopped, noting Laura's tear-streaked face. She shot her brother a look, one that the younger Hardy brother knew meant "You've don't again, haven't you?" But Fenton pulled his wife into his arms again and planted a kiss on the top of her head, all while glaring at his sister with a look that read "Scram!"
Gertrude shook her head and quietly padded down the hallway with her armload of table linens for Frank's lunchtime birthday celebration. She allowed herself to sigh loudly as she unfurled the table cloth and draped it over the dining room table. She was so glad Fenton and Laura had finally made amends. Joe and Vanessa were learning to become terrific parents. And Phil was doing an amazing job helping and being patient with Frank as he healed from his injuries, on the inside and out.
Yes indeed. Slowly but surely, things were finally starting to get back to normal. However, when you're a Hardy, normal held a very wide definition.
*Scottish Fold: a breed of cat that as a dominant gene mutation that causes it's ear cartilage to fold.
Author's Note:
Once again, my family has experienced grief and loss. You can check the bottom of my profile page for the details.
Thanks for your faithful readership and patience.
