Disclaimers:

We don't own any characters although it would be nice to borrow them sometime.

This is not really a science fiction, so the effects of any future technological advances are minimized - for all we know, Katie could have cloned Jessie.

Rating: A couple of love scenes, but nothing really smutty

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CHAPTER 14: The Red Sox Fan

CAMBRIDGE, MA

5 Months Later

Katie just finished in-line skating along The Charles, and she sat down on one of the benches to rest and watch the BU and MIT rowing clubs dot the river. It was only 4:30 but the dark was ready to set in anytime. Benjamin Franklin had it all wrong when he thought that Daylight Saving Time should even end at all.

But the leaves were turning and the autumn air was crisp. If there ever was one thing that New Englanders were really proud off, it wasn't their baseball team – it was their autumn and the magnificent show that the trees put up every year. No directors, no scripts, no costume designers – just nature at its grandest. Luckily, it also coincided with the end of the baseball season and long-suffering Red Sox fans could nurse their sorrow once more until the Boys of Summer come back the following spring to give them yet another glimmer of hope of ever seeing a World Series Championship. It had been over a century since the pennant called Boston its home, and 3 generations of frustrated New Englanders could only chant their annual mantra every April: "This is going to be The Year."

And Katie had joined this fraternity of Red Sox masochists who made sure that their counterparts down south from the Bronx would always encounter a most terrible fate whenever they traveled up to Fenway for yet another showdown. The Yankees still won, they usually did, but they sure got booed, and that wasn't a very pleasant thing now, was it? She had season tickets, dammit! She was allowed to boo with the best of them! And Dr. Garrett and Dr. Ribizi were always there to join in the mayhem. Just like Tad and Russell were, 20 years ago.

After Jessie's accident, she and Katie did the long distance thing for a while. And for a while – like a month – it was okay. But Katie did not come this far just so she could have a Girl Friday, and Saturday, and Sunday… she already had plenty of those during her "Slutty Years", as Jessie playfully referred to her 20 Jessie-free years. And that was not the same because back then, she couldn't wait for Mondays to come so whoever her weekend guest was could leave and allow her back the comfort of her daily life.

But it was different with Jessie – she hated Saturday nights because Jessie would be gone the following day. She couldn't wait for Fridays so she could drive up to Boston and be with Jessie. After a while, it wasn't really practical anymore. Just exactly how many toothbrushes and toiletries could you leave in your weekend jaunts without thinking that maybe you should start paying weekend rent? How many miles could you travel back and forth before realizing that you spend so much time either on the train or in your car that you could actually put invisible mileage markers along I-95 and really, just cruise on auto pilot.

So Katie met with Rick when she went to Chicago on business sometime last June. She then took Karen out to lunch before she flew back to New York. And on the 4th of July, after she and Jessie staked their claim along the Cambridge side of The Charles to watch the fireworks and listen to the Boston Pops, Katie took Jessie's hand and gave her a real simple platinum ring with the bluest blue sapphire you could possibly imagine. As the fireworks brightened the sky over Boston and the Pops played the 1812 Overture with cannons and all, Katie held Jessie's hand and mustered with all her love what she had been rehearsing to say the whole week.

"Jessie, I want to spend the rest of my life with you," she said, tears starting to form in her eyes as Jessie stared at her with her mouth opened, surprised at this revelation.

"Katie…" Jessie started saying something, but Katie interrupted her.

"Please let me finish, okay?" Katie said, still not letting go of Jessie's hand. "I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you because the rest of my life just would NOT BE without you in it … " Katie trailed as more fireworks displayed its magic, the distant sound of the Pops still making Tchaikovsky proud.

And then Katie started blabbing… "Plus really, it isn't convenient anymore, we spend so much time coming and going. And frankly, I am tired of Connecticut. They have been doing construction on I-95 for the last 50 years and I suspect they would never get done. I really think the Union only let Connecticut in just so the travel between New York and Boston would be a lot more hellish that it actually is. Do you realize that 75% of the distance we travel is actually within the Connecticut stateline? It's not really the nutmeg state, it's the numbnut state! Because it goes on and on and on and by the time you make it out, you have disintegrated you have actually morphed into a NUMBNUT!" Whenever her emotions became too much, Katie either dissolved into silence or rambled on like a 3-year old to mask the enormity of her emotions.

Jessie smiled, bemused, not really knowing what to think.

"So, what do you say, Billie, should we have a go at it?" Katie asked, not really wanting to hear the answer if it would break her heart. Although she had already analyzed the worst-case scenario – Jessie saying "no" and breaking up with her – and she was ready to implement Plan B. Which involved some serious packing and some serious moving. She had not decided where, but Tibet was on top of the list that also included Siberia and Afghanistan.

After some silence, which felt like an eternity for Katie, Jessie turned to her and quickly kissed her and said, "I will be honored to have you in my life. For keeps."

As they both sat on their blankets, mystified by this non-stop burst of color in the sky, amused at the occasional car alarm going off because of the intensity of the fireworks, Jessie put her head on Katie's shoulder and continued to enjoy this warm summer night.

Oh, they discussed who should move where, Katie walked Jessie through her risk and return analysis for all possible scenarios, while Jessie assessed the quality of healthcare in both cities and really, which one had healthier and fresher vegetables. And the school system – they should not forget the school system. For if they were going to start a family together, they wanted to make sure that the school system was prepared for their soon-to-be-born extraordinarily intelligent, beautiful, sensitive, kind, athletic, DNA-gifted Super Baby.

But one evening, as they were both in each other's arms at Katie's Sutton Place apartment, listening to the distant sound of the Coast Guard sailing into New York Harbor, Katie announced to a startled Jessie, "They have a tenured professor seat that was just vacated at the JFK School of Government, and they wanted me to start a Middle East Economics Research Center."

"But Katie, Harvard will be paying you a third of what you are making at the UN and NYU right now," Jessie exclaimed.

"It's okay… I can sponge off this really good friend who lives in a real trendy condo on Beacon Hill…" Katie said as she turned to Jessie to stroke her cheeks and caress her hair. "And I can always lease a little stall at Faneuil Hall to sketch portraits of ugly, unsuspecting tourists… that will be good for my food money, right? And if all else fails, I can always move up to this really nice place in Vermont and start milking for maple syrup. I think Vernon will be happy to have me as his assistant…"

"Oh Katie," Jessie said, recognizing that Katie was willing to leave the comfort of her NY life to be with her. This uncompromising, stubborn, smart-ass Katie. Her Katie.

"Besides, I get to go back to the academic world, and you know what I like about it most?" Katie asked Jessie.

"What?" Jessie did not really know the answer.

"I'm already tenured, I don't need to play the "publish or perish" game anymore," Katie smiled. "Plus, UN is putting me on retainer…"

"You schmuck! You will still earn more money than I ever will in this lifetime!" Jessie joked as she pulled the pillow from under Katie's head and pretended to smother her with it.

They were both joking. Money was not really their main preoccupation. They already had everything they would ever need. They had each other. And they still did not know how far the Emerald City was, but it didn't matter – they were skipping and jumping on their way there and they did not even own ruby slippers!

And when the world would have forgotten about them, it would still be okay. Life had happened to them when it pulled them apart. Now they were ready to make life happen. This was The Long Run that mattered… not some class they could ditch or some planets orbiting the sun while the moon and the stars were reflected in their soulful, dreamy eyes… only high school kids think of those things.

After a long wait, Karen finally planned her daughter's wedding. It wasn't conventional, because the cake did not have a bride and a groom on it. It had 2 hearts made of candied raspberries nestled where the tiny dolls should be. And that was really what this wedding was all about – not to satisfy the government definition of who was entitled to love – but to celebrate two hearts that traveled the world in search of its other self only to find that they were exactly where they were entrusted to 20 years ago.

Lesbian wedding? Same-sex commitment ceremony? Karen didn't quite know how to call this event she was excitedly planning. Because Jessie and Katie were always Jessie and Katie – they have always loved each other unconditionally – and the gender issue was somehow lost in the details. So in the end, she just referred to it as A Celebration. Because really, that was what it was.

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