Paradise, Ohio
Big news never really dies in small towns. The tale of a single murder can linger for generations. So it was no surprise that when Betty (Five) and Katie (her Cepan) arrived in Paradise the entire town was still talking about the events of the last few months and the people involved.
Jack Collins had been the regional high school janitor and he had died the night terrorists had attacked the school after hours. It was generally assumed that there had been at least one couple, if not more, of students there after hours as it was one of the few places in town where a young couple could have a little privacy. It was universally agreed that the man had died a hero, saving both half of the school and the teens, although no one alive would admit to having been there that night.
Two of the teens that the town was talking about were John Smith and Sarah Hart. John had blown into town with his single father and swept the town's ex-princess off of her feet. Any hope of reconciliation between the high school's quarterback, Mark James, and Sarah had died the moment she'd met John. The town was split over whether or not this was a good thing. Some claimed that Mark was a spoiled brat who didn't deserve a sweet girl like Sarah. Some maintained that Sarah was a total bitch for dumping Mark and then taking up with John the minute he showed up in town. She had also just received an all-expenses paid trip to Vegas, which some people regarded as highly suspicious as no one knew just where the trip had come from.
But it was the Smiths, John and his father Henri, that really had the local gossips in a frenzy. Henri had claimed to be a writer, but it was claimed by the sheriff's deputies that he'd been tortured by the same terrorists who had blown up the high school. From there the gossip devolved into a complicated mess.
Henri had been working undercover for the feds to track down the terrorists and had gotten caught. He was a writer working on a book about alien nut jobs and had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, because the local quacks were also dealing in illegal weapons. He was widowed, divorced, had an ex-girlfriend dump John on him, he'd rescued John from the ex-wife/girlfriend who was one of the terrorists and they were running from her. Henri had escaped from the hospital and had taken one of the nurses hostage because he was one of the terrorists, he'd just been caught in an internal feud. He'd had a sick bed romance with the nurse and they had run away together to get married.
John was either a witness, child of one of the terrorists, or an ex-terrorist himself and Henri was his bodyguard for the witness protection program. He was Sarah Hart's love slave. He was best friends with Sam Spellman because his father was writing a book and needed to include Malcolm Spellman in it and no one could find him. He was involved in a love triangle with Sarah and Sam. He had run away with Sam because Henri was dead and the terrorists were still after him. He and Sam had run away together because neither boy could admit to anyone that they were madly in love.
It was the last few about John that had Betty drawing the line at listening to any more of the rubbish the locals were obviously making up. John was only seventeen, far too young to become involved with anyone, much less get into a situation as ludicrous as the rumors were claiming. "How can you listen to that drivel?" she asked Katie quietly across the table. They were eating dinner at one of the local bar and grills, listening to the various conversations going on around them. "None of them are even remotely possible, much less true!"
"Even the most outrageous of stories often have bits of truth to them," Katie instructed. "You have to learn how to sift through the dross to find the truth. For instance, it sounds very true that my little brother got himself hurt bad enough to need a hospital and that he's not there anymore. There is a possibility that he's with the nurse and personally I'm hoping that the romance story is true."
"How would that even be possible?" Betty wondered.
"He never found his one back home," Katie answered with a sad look.
Betty wondered whether the look was for her own lost mate or for her brother's long loneliness. "Well, I'm guessing that the story about Sarah and John being together is true after all," she said. "She and her family just sat down to my right and she's wearing his crest." Betty fingered the necklace chain that her own crest hung from.
They were one of the very few things that the children had managed to take with them when leaving Lorien. A few had managed to take chimeras, favored pets of the Garde children mostly because the shapeshifters had been in small forms, or a few trinkets they might have been playing with when their Cepans had run into where ever they had been and snatched them up to whisk them off to their escape ship, but all of the children had been wearing their crests. Five's chimera was currently in her pocket, in the shape of a tiny kitten. It had learned that the shape of a mouse was not a good thing, especially among Human females, the hard way. The crests marked which family the children had been born to, as their birthmarks (which looked like random geometric tattoos to the Humans) marked them as Loric Garde. "I think that would make a far better promise symbol than a ring for one of us, don't you?"
"And if he and Henri are gone, which all of the rumors seems to agree on, then it would be child's play to set up a trip as a way to get Sarah out of town to be able to meet with them," Katie pointed out, a little cheered at the prospect of finding a clue as to where John and Henri had gone.
"I guess we have a bit of exploration to take care of then," Betty said with a grin. They got up, paid for their dinner and left. It was far too easy to find Sarah's house, even easier to break in, and as far as the search for information on the upcoming trip to Vegas, they didn't even have to look. The information was spread out all over the living room. "'Desert Jack's Graboid Tours'," Betty said with a grin as she waved a printed out advertisement. "This is the only thing that is out of place. Everything else is a typical resort type treatment for a family of four."
Katie came over and took the print out from her. "I guess we're going to Perfection then?" Betty nodded.
Perfection, Nevada
Henri found out that Burt was right the hard way. Mindy did know all about Nancy's plans for her wedding and was not at all pleased. Feeling rather like a deer that had been caught by a car on the road, he'd just followed as she grabbed his hand and led him away from the mother and daughter confrontation that he'd stumbled into. "I am so sorry about that!" she said as she dragged him into her room. She reached for his shirt, obviously trying to act professional and check his bandages.
"Hey, it's ok," Henri said, catching her hands and trying to get her to look him in the eyes.
"It isn't! There's no reason to pick on you just because she doesn't think I can get a husband on my own!" Mindy cried, trying to stifle her upset.
"That's not why she's doing this," he reassured her. "Your mom caught me staring and got me to admit that I'm in love with you. She insisted that Loric traditions weren't acceptable and that you would get a wedding - not that you couldn't find a husband on your own." He brought up her hands and placed gentle kisses on her palms. "I'm the one she thinks is an idiot because I still hadn't figured out a way to tell you that you're my one." He laughed softly at himself. "Actually that part isn't so difficult; it's trying to figure out a way to persuade you to let me be yours that's the hard part."
"Your one?" Mindy asked, losing the tension that had been caused by her misunderstanding of the situation.
"Loric only fall in love once," he said. He let go of one of her hands and gently brushed her bangs out of her eyes, tucking the hair behind an ear. "The only thing I want is for you to be happy. I've been trying to research the concept of dating trying to figure out how it works, but it really doesn't make sense to me. I've been on this planet long enough to get a general idea of what dating is, plus I am raising a teenager so I've watched the whole dating thing from a distance. By the way, that was scary and pretty much horrifying, but I still don't understand how a lifelong, loving relationship could ever come out of that."
Mindy giggled at the thought of Henri trying to guide his Garde through the horrors of the high school dating scene. "Yeah, laugh at the clueless alien," he chuckled, pulling her gently into his arms. He tucked her head under his chin. It felt so good just to hold her. "I've waited so long for you. I'd almost given up hope."
Mindy didn't quite understand that. "Even if Loric only fall in love once, don't you still have a choice?"
"It depends on what you consider a choice," Henri said with a shrug. "It was our belief that there is only one mate for each Loric out there. That's why we refer to our mates as our one. We fall in love the first time we see our one, and it either happens then or it won't happen at all. It simply happens in that first split second. When you add in that Loric love forever choice becomes kind of a moot point. We have absolutely no interest in anyone who isn't our one."
"How long were you waiting for me?" Mindy asked, slightly unnerved at the possibility that while she could have married anyone, he was stuck with her.
Henri blushed. This was one of the few things that could actually embarrass him these days. "Loric typically find their one when they're around twenty two. I was really, um looking forward to meeting you so, I uh began looking when I was eighteen," he admitted. "That was just short of twenty five years ago. Now though, I'm grateful that you're here instead of on Lorien."
"Burt told us what happened," Mindy said quietly. That knowledge made sense out of some of the things that he had told her; such as his tattoos having been the crests of the Loric Garde, past tense, while he still served his Garde. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."
"The worst part has been that my duty required me to run away from the fight," Henri admitted. "The Garde must be preserved, and my duty is to John first and foremost and always has been, but I never thought that doing my duty would come at such a price."
"I'm glad that you did," Mindy told him. It was her turn to hold him against the emotional storm, although she couldn't hold him as tightly as he did her due to his still broken ribs. "Every child deserves a chance to live, and you're not the only one who is glad that you're here now. So why aren't Loric traditions acceptable?" she asked in a deliberate change of subject.
Henri smiled; glad to get off that subject and on to a much happier one. "Because according to Loric traditions we're already married and the only thing that would happen after informing our families would be a party where they could get to know each other. We don't have binding ceremonies. Mates simply are."
"Crap," Mindy grumbled. "Now I'm going to have to apologize to my mother. She was right. Loric traditions are definitely not acceptable in place of a wedding."
Henri laughed and tilted her head back so that they could see each other. "I don't mind. As long as you're happy very little else matters to me." He kissed her gently, with her more than enthusiastic cooperation.