A/N: I apologize for the abrupt wrap-up, but I've been distracted from writing this piece and don't know if/when I'll be inspired to develop it, and I didn't want to keep it hanging unfinished for months. I hope you enjoyed it despite the rough conclusion!

[*]

November was a month of catching up, and Eric cherished his time with his sister, knowing that she would soon be married and on another continent. He enjoyed having her watch his games, join them for Thanksgiving, and tease him about his lack of driving skills during an unexpected snow the second week of December. "For Texans," she said, "snow is like liquid stupid falling from the sky."

"First of all," he told her, "snow is not a liquid, and second – don't you consider yourself a Texan anymore? I mean, you were born and bred here."

"I guess I consider myself a citizen of the world."

Eric met Angela's fiancé for the first time at the rehearsal dinner. He took the man for a drink at the bar after the formalities were done, and found him to be surprisingly serious and taciturn for his sister. They had trouble making conversation.

"I don't get it," Eric told Tami that night in the hotel bed, while Julie snored softly in the next bed over. "Angela's so…I don't know. Full of life, you know? Outgoing. Always trying new things. Adventurous. And he was so…"

"Grounded?" Tami asked. "Isn't that exactly what you want for your sister?"

"I guess," he muttered.

"You know, he's probably just an introvert like you. You can come off a little sullen yourself sometimes."

"Me? Nah. I'm all charm all the time, babe."

She chuckled and kissed his nose. "And he can't be unadventurous either, if he's going with her to Africa."

Eric rolled on his side and kissed her. "Julie's asleep," he murmured and wiggled his eyebrow.

"Nah uh," she said. "Not with our daughter in the next bed."

[*]

At the wedding, Eric watched his father give his sister away, and at the reception, he found himself defending her.

"So much potential," his father was muttering over his champagne as they stood in a corner of the reception hall. "She could have been a surgeon, and to take up with some impoverished foreigner – "

"- He's a doctor, Dad. He's hardly impoverished."

"Doctors in these countries aren't like doctors in America, son. When he and Angela move back to New York, he won't even be able to practice. He'll probably end up a janitor."

"I don't think that's true, but, even if he did, there's no shame in honest work of any kind."

His father shook his head. He looked around the room. "Have you seen my date?"

Eric had seen her, all right. A forty-three year old in a green, low-cut dress, with strawberry blonde hair a little too much like Tami's. It had made him a bit ill to see his father dance with her.

"Can I get dance with my big brother?" Angela asked from behind him, and Eric turned and smiled.

On the dance floor, he grumbled about their father. "Can't believe he brought a date to his own daughter's wedding."

"You're just jealous you can't be running around with younger women," Angela teased.

"Not at all. If I never have to date again a day in my life, it'll be a blessing."

"Tami is a blessing," she said as they whirled past Tami herself, who was dancing with one of their first cousins.

"That she is," Eric agreed, looking at her over Angie's shoulder. She was beautiful in that get-up. Cousin Jeffrey better not get too handsy with her.

"You know, this is goodbye for a few years." Angela's voice drew his attention back.

He looked at her, radiant in her wedding dress. "I know we haven't always been close, but I love you, you know. You're my baby sister."

She smiled. "Thanks, big brother. And thanks for taking me in when I was homeless."

He chuckled. "You weren't exactly homeless."

"It was good to stay with you. To see you o happy, so settled. You've got this stable family and all this love. I want that. But in my own way. My own style. I know you're not sure about Nijolas. And that you're not sure about Africa. But I know what I'm doing. This is right for me."

He nodded. "Okay. Okay. I get that."

"Do you?"

He smiled. "It takes all kinds to make a world."

THE END