Elizabeth moved back into her house the evening after Tarquin snapped. Vincent knew that after Hyacinth's episode, she would be fine. There was no damage to that thing pounding away in her chest, but that other 'heart' was hurting and sore. Elizabeth knew it too. She knew that Richard was also hurting.

She, Liz, wasn't sure if their marriage could survive. She was in no position to judge them either. She always called herself the 'married spinster', privately that is, and the person with whom she shared her house was divorced. But she knew what a divorce could do to a man. She'd seen the look on her brother's face when he came to live with her a few years ago. But, for the life of her, she didn't understand how Richard could live with that attitude. How could he live with being ignored by the one person who was to pay him the most attention? Why did he do it?

She didn't know.

She knew this, though. He would sit down and talk to her if he had to. "If Tarquin's going to force Hyacinth to be human tomorrow evening, I'll do it tomorrow, in the morning, with Richard," is what she thought out loud. Emmet, whose presence she vaguely aware of, spoke, "I know you mean well, but is it right to put them back together? That man was miserable with her."

"I have it on good authority that he's miserable without her." She retorted, not upset with her brother, but with his true sentiments.

"I don't know. I just think that—" Something clicked, "You're right, he's a grown man and he ought to be able to make his own choices. He's walked away from that, hasn't he? That proved that she didn't hen-peck his spine completely." Emmet changed his mind rather quickly.

"What made you flip so quickly?" She asked, a knowing smile on her face.

"This is going to sound selfish. He's like the Maginot Line. He's the first defense against her singing."

"I'll go over for coffee and Richard will be with me."

"Thanks for coming Richard." Liz was grateful that he even came.

"I don't know why I'm here." He was lying and Elizabeth knew it. She also detected something new in his voice. There was some power behind it, a little strength and vigour. She found it to be refreshing and somewhat attractive, in a friendly sort of way.

"Well, you're here and that counts for something." She rang the doorbell.

Big Ben Chimes.

"Eliza— Richard, come in, come in." Richard walked into the kitchen forthwith.

Hyacinth grabbed Elizabeth and whispered in her ear, sounding like a schoolgirl around her crush. "How did you get him to come back to me?" It would have taken four Pinkerton guards to restrain this fidgety Hyacinth. That's what Elizabeth thought.

"I got him to come back here, Hyacinth. It's up to you to get him to stay." Elizabeth whispered back.

"Oh, I see, let's have coffee." Hyacinth said, with that same look in her eye, when she had a scheme. She walked airily into the kitchen. Richard was sitting in the seat that that made him face away from the entrance to the kitchen. Hyacinth could tell by the lines and folds on the back of his bald head that he was deep in contemplation. It made her shudder, but Liz, gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

"Would you like some coffee, Richard?"

"Yes, I think I'll have some." His answer was quick, but not disrespectful in its tone.

"I'll have a cup too." Elizabeth could feel the tension in the room and was trying her best to wade through it.

Hyacinth did all of the preparation and put the coffeemaker on and waited for the brown liquid to come appear.

She was very direct, "Richard, move back in. I can't sleep without you."

"And I'm not sure that I can sleep with you." Richard must have been thinking about what to say. At least he wasn't raising his voice. Elizabeth was petrified, in the truest sense of the definition. She could. not. move.

"Ri—"

"Our son is going to disown both of us." Richard said.

"Why?" Elizabeth asked, not being able to comprehend why Sheridan would…

"If I stay married to you," he was talking to Hyacinth, "it'd proof that I have a problem with him. It says that I agree with the way that you think. I don't agree."

"Look, the last few days have been enlightening. I've learned that my son is just different than I would have expected. I've learned that Tarquin loves my son very much."

"He does very much. I dare say that if it were legal, they'd get married." Elizabeth thought about it and was astounded by that truth.

"I don't think I could accept that, yet."

"I'm not asking you to, but you have to accept that your son is gay. Your son is in love with someone. That's all you should see. He's in love with someone."

"I get that now." Her voice was apologetic.

"Things are going to have to change if you want me back around here—"

PING! The coffeemaker was done.

"Wait, wait, wait. Don't you go and attach your grievances to this situation, Richard," Hyacinth said, while pouring a cup.

"I am not!" He didn't shout or even raise his voice. It was the force with which he spoke that startled Elizabeth and Hyacinth. "My grievances are true."

"Like what?"

"You never, ever listen to me. You just care about you. Hyacinth wants this, Hyacinth wants that," He spoke on, voice sounding increasingly bitter, "And I just let you. I stopped caring and you just kept giving your orders."

"Elizabeth, is that true?" Hyacinth's gaze turned to her neighbor. Richard looked at her to. They both looked angry. Liz wished she could just die right then.

"I don't think it's appropriate—." The woman who was being interrogated stammered.

"Tell me the damn truth Elizabeth. DO I order this man around?!" Hyacinth was seething.

"Don't you bring her into this. Don't you see that right now, right this instant, you're scaring her, ordering her to answer a question that you know the goddamn answer to." Now, Richard had raised his voice.

Her voice became meek again, "I'm sorry."

"That is not going to cut this time. I have found my voice and I like how it sounds. I like what it has to say. You are going to hear a lot more of it."

Quoth Hyacinth, the shrinking violet, "I like how it sounds too."

His voice came down to a gentle murmur, "I am not saying that I don't want to hear you, but let's just listen to each other."

"I can do that. And I'm sorry, Elizabeth," said Hyacinth. Elizabeth now realized that Hyacinth never stopped looking at her as she was being chided by Richard.

"I dare say changes are afoot," Richard got up from his seat and pecked his wife on the cheek.

"You know what Mister Bucket," Hyacinth said, almost making Elizabeth shudder at the correct pronunciation on their last name. Liz could tell by the way Hyacinth spoke that this would be a long speech. "I dug myself in a hole with you and Sheridan and I have to climb my way out with the both of you. Rome wasn't built in a day and I don't think relationships can be fixed that quickly either."

She moved over to her normal seat that faced the window. Richard sat where he usually sat. Elizabeth finally relaxed, having come to the realization that her neck was turned almost painfully away from her body for the length of that argument. Liz looked back at Hyacinth, who continued her reflection.

"You know, I think I turned into a monster. In a way I made this world for myself where everybody loves me and where reality on centered itself around my pursuit of maintaining that strange idea. In that time, I suppose that I… that I let bigotry slip into my heart. I allowed myself to block out what I thought was unseemly. I don't know why I had a problem with him being homosexual, I don't. I wasn't raised that way. I wasn't raised at all, I brought myself up. It didn't behoove me back then to have any ill-will or any disgusting views about different people. There was no time."

She took a sip of coffee and continued, "There was not a second that I could waste even caring about the stupid thing that people squabbled over. Let alone, actually acutely dislike them. I was made fun of much to much. My mother was a Yank and I lost friends over something that stupid."

"Why didn't you ever tell me that your mother was American?" Richard asked. Elizabeth wondered too.

"That was the reality I tried to escape. I had no true friends until I met Richard." That statement made the two listeners aware that the speaker was talking only to herself.

"I made up this world for myself to escape the prejudice. That world would come crashing down on me every night before I went to bed and every time I woke up and every time I went to the water closet and every time I looked at a clean piece of glass and into a mirror. I look just like my mother."

"Yes, you do." Richard said.

"Every time I saw my face I saw the reason why I had no friends. You know, Violet always was away escaping to another neighborhood, by the time Rose and Daisy were in school those kids didn't care about who you were or where your parents were from, but it was shoved in my face every time.

"The first time I saw Sheridan and held him in my arms, I saw Richard Bucket looking back at me. I thought it was perfect, my son was perfect. My silly little dream was furthered and I think I went over the edge after his birth. I turned into this monster that only saw what this stupid dream could make me see. I started competing against others to have a perfect life. We had to be just perfect or at the very least keep up our Appearances. I took all of that time to be perfect…" She started sobbing violently, but was managing to continue her soliloquy, if choppily.

"For his whole life, I'd been ignoring him. All last week, while Elizabeth was here I was still lost so I went on the net, I don't know what possessed me to, but I did" Yes, Hyacinth has a computer and knows how to use it. Sheridan had showed her a few years ago, "I read that a lot of parents of gay children knew deep down in their hearts that their children were different from the other children on the playground. I didn't see it. I did not see it because I ignored it. I ignored him. Now, I shudder to think of what else I missed. I just want to apologize so badly. I just want to tell him how sorry I—"

The door to the kitchen burst open dramatically and a weeping Sheridan was on the other side of that threshold. He was standing straight up and he instantly looked his mother in the eye.

"Sheridan, I'm so sorr—"

"You don't have to say it."

"How long were you standing there?" Hyacinth asked, tears running down her already wet cheeks.

"I was here long enough to hear all of what you said." He reached his long arms out and wrapped them around his mother. He rested his chin on top of her head, mussing her hair. It's not like he cared. His face was glossy with tears "Tarquin was acting strange, so (GASP) I asked him where Daddy was, and he wouldn't tell me. So I got him to tell me and he told me dad was here. I wanted to know what the hell he was doing here so I came."

"How—"

"Mum, you didn't lock the front door."

"I always lock the front door."

"Well, you didn't Mrs. Bucket, not this time." Tarquin said emerging completely from behind his tall boyfriend, "It wasn't open, but it was unlocked. We walked in and the first thing I heard was you asking Mrs. Warden—"

"Call me Liz."

"…asking Liz if you order Mr. Bucket around."

"SO you listened to us?" Hyacinth inquired.

"I'm nosy, just like my Mummy."

"The word's 'inquisitive' dear." Hyacinth said, still latched on to her son. They laughed a throaty laugh, mother and son.

"So what are we going to do now?" The question came from Richard.

"We," Tarquin started, "can tell my father, that he can stop hating you." Hyacinth laughed again, though she knew how honest that statement was.

"Let's all go out and get something to eat, my treat," declared Richard.

The indistinct chatter that followed was the epitome of elation. Liz watched as the two couple embraced. They both had that loving look in their eyes that she missed having with her husband. She would amend that later, but it looked like Easter 1998 was going to be just fine.

Thanks for reading! I hoped you enjoyed reading it as much as I delighted in writing it. Thanks to all of those who've reviewed and followed.

-Wherenwhy