**Sorry about the delay. I posted as usual early Monday morning but the chapter never appeared on-screen even though it shows as posted in my publishing account. I am reposting it now with hopes that it will show up for you. If this doesn't work, I'm not sure what to do as FF has never replied to any of my emails. Crossed fingers. S/P**

Part 2 of 3

Dwayne swallows but forges ahead, "Here now, I'M tellin' this story and it's all about you and me and Camille, nuthin' else!" He turns back to a brightening Fidel, "So, anyway, Camille was about 9 years old and gettin' wilder and wilder. Oh, she was fearless. There wasn't nuthin' she wouldn't try and no dare she wouldn't take. By the time she was 14, nobody could do nuthin' with her, not the priest, not the nuns, nobody. About the only person she'd listen to was me and I didn't know nuthin' about raisin' young girls, so…" he looks to Catherine.

Catherine sighs sadly, "So… I had to take drastic action. She was always a beautiful child but now she was growing up into a beautiful young woman and starting to attract the wrong kind of attention. I had to ban her from La Kaz because she liked to dance with all the young men. I was at my wits end. So, finally, I had to send her away."

Fidel thumps both hands down onto the table and bugles, "Send her away? You mean off-island?!"

"Oui," Catherine sighs, "to The School of the Sacred Heart of the Brave Little Mothers on Marie-Galante. She boarded there and it cost every penny I had but it was worth it. She settled down, discovered books and then the world." She nods to Dwayne, "And something you said or did must have stayed with her because she went straight into the Guadeloupe College law enforcement program. She graduated at the top of her class and Selwyn arranged for her to be assigned a rotating placement all through the Leeward Islands. From there she was hand-picked to go to Paris where she made her name in undercover operations. For years, all I ever got were postcards and the odd phone call. I really thought she was punishing me for abandoning her like her father had."

Two strong hands clap down atop Catherine's as she sniffs away a surreptitious tear, "La, listen to me, prattling on like a broken record." She pats the hands with thanks and returns them to their owners, "I know now that she wasn't blaming me but only trying to prove to the whole world that Camille Bordey was someone to be reckoned with, someone who didn't need anyone, someone who was going to make a difference."

Dwayne grumps, "I'll say! When she was assigned to Guadeloupe, all I ever heard was the latest danger she'd been involved in. How that girl could weasel her way outta trouble was a miracle! Good thing, though. We needed her here with us, didn't we, Fidel?"

Fidel nods sagely, "Oh, yeah, we needed her a'right. We needed her an' the Chief needed us an' they needed each other so it all worked out for the best, didn't it?"

Dwayne smiles, "Yeah, it did, but here's somethin' I never told anybody before. Catherine, don't you laugh now 'cause it's kinda embarrassin'…"

Catherine smiles, "I think I already know. Camille told me about that moment on the yacht. She recognized you as soon as she saw you. She even says she nodded at you… but you obviously didn't recognize her because she said you went all 'Main Dwayne' on her and the Chief had to keep things on a mannerly level with an old shirt he found in the bottom of some little rowboat that smelled of fish."

Dwayne lowers his eyes, avoiding Fidel's scandalized look, "Yeah, well, in my defense I hafta say all I really saw was the bikini. The thought that this beautiful woman had been skinny frizzy-haired little Camille Bordey never even entered my pea-brain. It wasn't until I was helpin' the Chief hoist her inta the boat that she told me who she was and swore me to secrecy. I'm tellin' you, I almost sank right to the bottom of the ocean, I was so embarrassed! Then I hadda put up with the Chief bein' all sniffy with me over that shirt business. Oh, it was hard hard to keep my lip zipped."

Catherine pats his hand, "But you DID keep her secret, like the good friend you are."

Dwayne smiles, "It was easy, she had me so tongue-tied that I couldn't say a word around her. Soon as we got her inta the cell I took off on patrol. I didn't dare show my face again until I knew she was gone. It was pretty neat how she talked herself outta the Chief's care."

"Yes," sighs Catherine, "and I had to listen to her complain non-stop about the new DI blowing her cover. She was on the phone almost all day trying to explain herself to her superiors and try to get re-inserted into the case. Oh, she was so angry! I worried she was going to march up the hill and throttle that man with his own tie."

Fidel laughs and Dwayne snorts, "Yeah, we was kinda worried too when the Commissioner introduced her as his new DS. I thought the Chief's head was gonna explode!"

Fidel guffaws, "Yeah! And do you remember what they both said then?"

The men stare at each other with glee then blurt out in unison, jerking a sassy thumb at each other, "I can't work with him/her!" then laugh uproariously.

Catherine smiles, "Yes, I heard all about it, all that night and the next night and the night after that. Oh! She went on and on about him for weeks! Months! And then…"

The table quiets as they all muse silently. Finally Fidel breaks the silence, "And then they fell in love."

Dwayne nods small, "Yeah, but not right away… an' not at the same time, I don't think."

Catherine agrees, "Oui, I think he fell first. Men like him; lonely men, shy men, men without much experience…" the officer's eyebrows are climbing but she carries on regardless, "… they never trust themselves, do they? He could never quite believe that someone like my daughter could find something to love in him. He just couldn't accept it. I know he fought it for a long time."

Dwayne's eyebrows are still up, "Did he? How do you know that?"

Catherine shrugs, "Oh, by the little things she told me… then by all the little things she DIDN'T tell me. She stopped talking about him maybe 6 months after his arrival. That's when I knew things were getting serious. Also by things I heard in town. People reported back to me. At first it was with a kind of glee, like Camille was making a fool of herself… but then the mood shifted and people seemed uncertain what was going on… but I already had my suspicions so I kept quiet."

Fidel has been musing, looks up, "You really think the Chief didn't have… um, I mean… he wasn't too used to… er, that is… maybe he is just too… too much of a gentleman?"

Catherine huffs contentedly, "Oh, he is a gentleman, certainement, but, more importantly, he is a gentle man, and that makes all the difference in the world."

Now the men glance to one another. Fidel holds up a finger and takes a breath but Dwayne quickly shakes his head. Fidel swallows his question and a good thing too because the subject of their conversation picks that exact moment to stroll in from the street, hand in hand and smiling like newlyweds. Which they are. Technically. A month isn't very long, is it? Not when it's spent in heaven?

END – part 2