Chapter 21

Bog looks down at their guest with surprise. Of all the things he was expecting when he gathered his courage to open the door, the young man blinking owlishly up at him with his mouth dropped open in surprise, was not it.

"Who are ye," Bog asks?

"Is...is this the house of Bo...Bogart Mcgallrigh," the man stammers, looking at the paper in his hand before returning to stare at the tall man?

"I'm Bogart, now what do ye want with me at this hour of the day," Bog questions?

"You see, it's like this," the man starts before spotting Marianne walking into the living room. "Marianne!"

Bog blinks in surprise as the shorter man disappears from in front of him, zooming past him, and collides against Marianne in a hug. Closing the door, Bog watches as the rest of his family peeks out of the kitchen at the familiarity of the pair.

"Sunny," Marianne yells in surprise before returning the embrace! "You've grown!"

"Haha," Sunny chuckles dryly.

Marianne snickers as Sunny motions to their height difference with him barely making it to her shoulder, minus the spiky brown hair jetting from the red bandana wrapped around his head. Hard to believe this twenty-five-year-old man is the same teenager she last saw protecting Dawn from her make-believe fairies back at the failed wedding venue. The beaming smile from which he got the nickname Sunny is still the same though, as well as the freckles dotting his mocha skin, and she can feel her heart warming at the same hero-worship for her reflecting in his brown eyes.

"You're still the same Marianne," Sunny remarks.

Sunny yells in terror after Puck and Plum fly onto Marianne's shoulder and hiss in his face. Quickly releasing Marianne from his hug, Sunny runs to hide behind Bog and stares at the angry birds from a distance.

"What is that," Sunny whimpers?

"Sorry, Sunny. This is Puck and Plum," Marianne snickers. "They don't know you and you touched me without their permission. You committed an unpardonable sin according to them."

Sunny tentatively waves to the two birds only to shrink back behind Bog at their responding hiss. Bog snickers as the man's fear turns into awe as Marianne coos and pets the upset birds before placing them in their cage. Puck and Plum complain at the imprisonment and bite at the locked padlock.

"I guess you have changed some," Sunny amends with soft laughter. "You were always too busy for a pet before, even for an American iguana like Lizzie."

"I still don't know what Dawn was thinking when she bought me Lizzie instead of giving her to you in the first place," Marianne remarks. "Lizzie liked you better anyway."

"She still does," Sunny comments, blushing as he notices the curious stares as everyone else enters the living room. "I'm sorry for showing up like this. I'm Samson Fritz, though everyone calls me Sunny. I hope I haven't bothered anyone."

"Ye've more shocked us than anything," Griselda mentions. "I'm Griselda Mcgallrigh. Ye've met my lad Bogart and these are his lads, Bhaltair and Beathan."

"Now that the formalities are finished. How about ye answer why ye're here," Bog asks?

"I went to Marianne's apartment but her neighbor said that she was here, so I came here instead," Sunny answers.

"That doesn't explain why you're here in Scotland or how you even knew where I lived in the first place," Marianne comments.

"Right," Sunny chuckles, scratching the side of his neck. "Okay, it's like this. Yesterday, Donald got a call from a lawyer claiming that you had gotten into a lot of legal trouble. He said that he was looking for character witnesses to prove that you were mentally unstable. Donald told him that he would act as a character witness but he needed more information about the case. The lawyer told him that you've been in Scotland for the past nine years, so Donald booked the first flight available to come here and talk to the lawyer in person."

Bog watches worriedly as Marianne seems to shrink under the news. He couldn't imagine the hurt at hearing that your own father was willing to testify that you were mentally unstable. Sunny's obliviousness to her distress makes Bog want to smack to shorter man but from his animated gestures during his tale, it seems more like he is oblivious to everything at the moment.

"Neither Annabelle or Dawn thought it would be a good idea for him to travel alone and so I came with him to keep him out of trouble," Sunny continues before wailing softly and placing his hands on his face. "They're going to kill me, I just know it! Goodbye, cruel world! Here lies Sunny, killed by fiancee and going-to-be mother-in-law!"

Everyone starts laughing as he gets distracted by lamenting his short life equal to his short stature. Marianne shakes her head at the familiar quirk and shakes Sunny's shoulders to snap him out of his trance.

"Sunny, focus," Marianne orders through her laughter!

"Huh? Oh, right," Sunny mumbles. "Where was I?"

"Dad took the first flight to Scotland and you came with him," Marianne offers.

"Okay, so after we got here, we went straight to the lawyer's office," Sunny remarks. "He gave us the address to your apartment and told us that the courts would be far more lenient to you if you didn't fight the charges and that we, out of our love for you, should convince you to not fight them but admit your wrongdoings. Slimy guy that he is, offered us all the details of the charges against you and even had the nerve to tell us that you were selling drugs and also using them."

"Seriously," Beathan mutters? "And ye believed him?"

"Of course not," Sunny scoffs. "But how else would we get that slimeball to pay for two plane tickets from America to Scotland and find out where Marianne is if we didn't make him think that we believed it? There is no way that Marianne would do everything he said that she'd done."

"You didn't believe him at all? How come? I mean, nine years is long enough for someone to change," Bhaltair comments.

"Not Marianne," Sunny insists, looking back to Marianne with admiration! "The lawyer kept droning on about everything you're being accused of and stating the evidence against you. He wouldn't shut up until Donald asked him how he managed to contact him. He tried to say that he got it from the cops but there is no way that was the truth since the number he called isn't public knowledge."

"He called the family number," Marianne mutters, her eyes lighting with understanding. "Sunny, what was his name?"

"I think it's Jock Tavers," Sunny comments.

"That's Mum's solicitor," Bhaltair exclaims!

"Bingo," Marianne smirks. "Sunny, continue with your story."

"Well, Donald was getting really angry with the lawyer's attempts to avoid telling the truth and then I spotted your address book on his shelf. He tried to deny it but I know that book," Sunny defends! "Dawn and I saved all our money to get you that for your eighteenth birthday and even got it personalized with Nessa Zephyr on front."

"Nessa Zephyr," Bog interrupts?

"That's her birth name," Sunny explains. "Nessa Marianne Zephyr."

"Marianne Nessa Zephyr," Marianne corrects, a blush staining her cheeks. "I got it legally changed after my eighteenth birthday."

"And made me and Dawn cry for a week because our perfect birthday present wasn't accurate anymore," Sunny mutters. "But, hey, now we can call you the Loch Nessa Monst...OW!"

"Enough wisecracks, Samson," Marianne comments coolly.

Sunny rubs his hurt shoulder but can't contain his grin as he joins the resounding laughter. Marianne hadn't changed at all.

"You're here, so where is Dad," Marianne questions?

"I managed to grab the address book before the lawyer did and confirmed that it was yours. He then tried to say that he got it from you but by that time Donald had enough," Sunny moans, his hand returning to his face. "I can't believe he did it again! He's seventy-four for crying out loud! The cops took the address book when they arrested Donald..."

"What! Dad's in jail," Marianne yells, grabbing Sunny's shoulders in a panic!

"Yep," Sunny groans. "He beat-up the lawyer pretty bad, enough that they sent him to the hospital, and the cops laughed about it first before arresting Donald. I went looking for you because I don't have enough bail money this time."

"This time," Marianne repeats?

"Right, you don't know about the Roland Incident," Sunny remarks. "Boy, we are all glad you didn't marry that sleazeball! It's hard to believe that he fooled everybody. When you left, Donald said to believe in you and that you'd come back when you found what you were looking for. We all knew that you'd come back when you were ready but Roland took your disappearance pretty hard. He worked harder than ever at the company and we thought that he was just burying his grief, so we all consoled him. Then after Dawn graduated high school, they started dating."

"What," Marianne growls?

Bog moves quickly to rescue Sunny from Marianne's unconsciously tight grip. Not that he blamed her rage but no need to take it out on the messenger. He wraps his arms around her front and grins softly as she rests her hands on top of his.

"They explained that they got close while they were mourning your absence but waited because it wouldn't be right," Sunny explains, the previous happiness missing from his voice. "Everything happened so quick. One minute they were dating and the next they were engaged. Dawn didn't even have time for me anymore because best friends weren't as important as fiances. Then Roland confronted me and told me that after they are married that he better not catch me around his wife. He said that Dawn was his and she had no need for male friends to tempt her to be unloyal to her husband."

"What an arse," Bhaltair mutters.

"I tried to be happy for Dawn since she was happy but I couldn't help being worried about her with how possessive Roland was. He wasn't that way with you, was he, Marianne," Sunny asks?

"I was too busy in my studies to have close friends, remember? Although, I can't argue over how possessive Roland was," Marianne remarks. "Then what happened?"

"Well, I knew that Donald and Annabelle were a little uneasy of their union themselves. Probably because they were worried about what would happen when you returned," Sunny comments. "I figured that if I found enough proof that Roland wasn't a good match for Dawn then they would be able to convince Dawn to stop the wedding. I found it, all right. I followed him on one of his so-called business meetings and found him wrapped around someone else's wife. Though, maybe I should've taken a picture instead of calling Donald because he went to jail and Roland went to the emergency room."