Ta-da! At last, the long awaited 'reveal' chapter!

After all the build up, I must admit I'm a little nervous about posting it. I hope it meets your expectations...it was certainly fun to write.

Edit: Made some minor changes in response to Domi and Theodur's comments.

Chapter 9

Dani noticed that Jaheira seemed very preoccupied at breakfast that day, so she was not surprised when the druid caught her arm on the way out of the room.

Jaheira said in an undertone, "Could I speak to you in private for a moment?" After Dani waved Kelsey on to return to their room without her, the two women started for the common room to find a place to talk.

Dani was startled by Anomen's deep voice behind her. "Actually, Dani, we both would like to speak to you."

Before she could inquire what they could possibly have to talk to her about together, Dani was surprised into silence by Jaheira's reaction—she laid her hand on Anomen's broad arm, gave him a warm smile, and said, "That's right, Dani, we both do."

Dani sat down heavily in the first chair she could find, and Jaheira and Anomen sat down across from her. Her mind was in a whirl. What could this mean?

Her face must have revealed her bafflement, because Jaheira and Anomen glanced at each other questioningly before Jaheira spoke. "Dani, I know this will come as a surprise to you, but as the leader of this group, as well as a good friend to both of us, we wanted you to be the first to know that Anomen and I have become very…close over the last few weeks."

Dani was so stunned by the implication of Jaheira's statement that it took her a few moments to form the words for a suitable response.

As it was, her voice came out in a very undignified squeak. "Close, as is 'more than just friends' close?"

Anomen's large hand reached over to engulf Jaheira's slim and delicate one. His voice rumbled with a suppressed chuckle as he replied, "Yes, you could say that."

Jaheira snorted. "We are all adults here, there is no reason to mince words. Anomen and I are lovers." She glared at Dani as if daring her to disapprove.

Despite having had a few moments to adjust to this new and completely unexpected reality, Dani couldn't help but stare in bewilderment in response to Jaheira's bald statement. Jaheira and Anomen lovers? How could it be? They didn't even like each other! As she watched them, Anomen put his arm around Jaheira and pulled her close, which seemed altogether to Jaheira's liking since she settled herself comfortably against his chest. I guess they got past that problem somehow. Dani thought, suppressing an urge to giggle.

Questions thronged Dani's mind, and she finally ordered her unruly thoughts enough to exclaim, "How did this happen? When did this happen?"

"How is not important" Jaheira said shortly. Jaheira glanced sidelong at Anomen, who gave her a knowing smile. Jaheira reddened and hurriedly continued, "As for when, well, we have been lovers for some weeks now—since shortly after Irenicus was defeated."

"Weeks?" Dani burst out. "You've been lovers for weeks without anyone knowing about it?" By this point, Dani was feeling a little wild-eyed, and she must have looked it too. When she glanced at Anomen, she noticed that his face was rather suffused, as if he was trying valiantly not to laugh out loud. Jaheira followed Dani's gaze and gave Anomen a look that could be best described as 'fond exasperation'."

"That's correct." Jaheira replied. "We had our reasons for keeping our relationship a secret. But the important thing is that we no longer wish it to be a secret."

"So you're going to tell the others?" Dani asked.

"Yes, we'll tell them as the opportunity arises. You are welcome to tell Kelsey yourself, of course."

Feeling she should have some further response, Dani stammered, "I'm really happy for you both." Then, realizing what an inadequate reaction that was to such stupendous news, she collected her wits enough to exclaim, "Oh, this is wonderful! I'm sorry I'm acting like such an idiot, but I'm just so surprised!"

"So we gathered." Jaheira replied dryly.

Unable to contain her excitement, Dani hugged each of her friends in turn. When she embraced Anomen, he murmured, "This would not have been possible without you." She looked in his eyes she saw in them the happiness and contentment that she had almost despaired of seeing after he had learned that she loved Kelsey. Dani blinked back tears.

Dani decided she'd better leave before she lost control of her emotions entirely. She said briskly, "Well, I'd better go. I've got a meeting with Queen Ellesime later. What are you…?"

"We'll stay here a while longer, I think." Jaheira replied, leaving the still slightly stunned Dani to make her way to her room to impart the morning's startling news to Kelsey.

Danira entered the room she shared with Kelsey and silently sat down on the couch next to him. She had an expression on her face that he had never seen before, one which seemed to be composed of equal parts surprise, bewilderment, and amusement.

"Hey Dani, what's up? If you don't mind me saying so, you look a little dazed. Did Jahiera have new information about what the other Bhaalspawn are doing in Tethyr?"

Dani's giggle in response to Kelsey's question had a slightly hysterical edge to it. "No, she wanted to talk to me about something entirely different. Kelsey…" She began, and then fell silent. She started to speak again, and again words failed her. Finally, she managed to get her words out. "Kelsey, I was just told the most surprising thing I have heard in my entire life."

"Well, it has to be pretty stupendous to have somehow rendered you speechless, even temporarily." Kelsey responded. "What is it?"

Dani glared at Kelsey. "I'm serious, Kelsey, this is big—huge! This even beats out Gorion's "Ooops, forgot to tell you that you're a Child of Bhaal" letter."

"Honey, you know that I love you, but I'm going to have to do something drastic if you don't tell me what you're talking about!"

Danira took a deep breath. "Okay, listen to this. Jaheira and Anomen just sat me down and told me that they are lovers. That they have been lovers for weeks. Weeks!"

"What? Anomen and Jaheira? No!" Kelsey's expression changed from surprise to one of great skepticism. "Oh, I see what's going on here. You must think I'm really gullible to fall for one of you and Imoen's jokes again. So what is it this time, 'convince Kelsey that a crazy story about Jaheira and Anomen is true, so he'll look like a jackass when it's not?' Nope, uh-uh, not gonna fall for it. The last time you pulled something like this, I had to hide from Jaheira for a week!"

"Kelsey, it's true! I promise! I'll swear on whatever you like, I promise it's true. I was just as surprised as you are; I wouldn't have believed it either if they hadn't sat in front of me, holding hands, mind you, and told me that they are lovers."

"Assuming that I accept for now that you're telling me the truth," Kelsey responded as Dani rolled her eyes in exasperation. "You are saying that Jaheira, who is still grieving her dead husband and treats all other men like they are 5 years old and feeble-minded, and Anomen 'Who cares what those old farts in the Order say!' Delryn told you they have been having a secret love affair for weeks."

"Yes!"

"Well, maybe they're the ones who are playing a practical joke. You said yourself that Anomen has developed a sense of humor in the last few months."

"If had just been Anomen telling me something like this, or Anomen and Imoen, that might have been my first guess, too. At one point, it did seem that Anomen was trying pretty hard to keep from laughing, but I think that was because I must have gaped like a hooked fish when they told me." She winced slightly at the memory. "But we're talking about Jaheira here, Kelsey. Jaheira. Can you honestly say you think she'd participate in a practical joke where she had to pretend to be Anomen's lover?"

"Is that any less likely than believing that she actually is Anomen's lover and has been for weeks?" Kelsey retorted.

"Fine, be that way. If you don't believe me, go down to the common room, they're probably still down there together. They said they didn't want their relationship to be a secret anymore, and they were looking pretty cozy when I left. You know, Kelsey, that was one of the things that convinced me it was true. They weren't all over each other or acting icky sweet 'in love', but they were really comfortable together, and acted like they respected each other, and well, liked each other. To be honest, it was kind of sweet. I don't think they could have faked that."

"So they seem happy together?" At Dani's nod, a slow smile spread over Kelsey's face. "Who would have guessed? Well, good for them." Then his curiosity won out over his surprise and he asked. "So did they say when they got together, or how they got together?"

"I guess they got together soon after we defeated Irenicus." She shook her head. "I still can't believe this has been going on for weeks without any of us knowing. As for how they got together, they were pretty vague about that. Jaheira blushed a lot when the subject came up."

Kelsey struggled briefly with a mental picture of Jaheira blushing, and then laughed. "Well, I'm certainly never going to question your matchmaking instincts again!"

Dani looked at him in puzzlement. "Why do you say that? I never dreamt that Anomen and Jaheira would fall for each other."

"I know." Kelsey responded, "But you did say that Anomen wanted a woman who would stand up to him, and with Jaheira, he certainly got that!" Kelsey grinned. "Maybe we should find Valygar so we can introduce Imoen to him."

Dani returned his grin. "Maybe we should." Abruptly, her eyes went wide. "Kelsey, Kelsey! Do you remember that time, shortly after we got here, when Jaheira was in a really terrible mood for a few days, snapping at everyone for no reason?"

"Sure, I remember it. I wanted to have meals sent to our room and you wouldn't agree to it."

"It was right after Anomen first introduced us to Elenelle." Dani continued.

"Yes, that's right, what about it?"

"I thought Jaheira was being particularly hard on Anomen—I even had a talk with her about it and asked her to be nicer to him. I knew there was more to that than it seemed!" Dani concluded triumphantly.

"So, you think there's a connection?" Kelsey asked. Before Dani could answer, the door to their suite banged open and Imoen swept in, her eyes wide.

"Imoen, you could knock, you know…" Dani began, but Imoen waved away her protest.

"Oh shush, sis, that's not important. Guys, I was just down in the common room and you would not believe what I saw…"

Jaheira looked at Anomen and shook her head, her expression a mixture of amusement and irritation. "I had no idea you had such juvenile sense of humor, Anomen." Anomen was convulsed with laughter, and her comment made him laugh all the harder. He had been laughing ever since Imoen had run out of the room a few minutes earlier.

Finally, he composed himself enough to speak. "But Jaheira, the look on her face was even better than Dani's!"

Jaheira had to admit that it was a rather amusing sight. Imoen had walked halfway across the room before noticing that she and Anomen were sitting close together, with his arm draped casually around her shoulders. When Imoen did notice, she stopped and stared for a few moments, eyes wide and mouth agape, before turning and bolting from the room as if pursued by demons.

Jaheira arched an eyebrow at Anomen. "I'm beginning to wonder if shocking our friends was the real reason you wanted reveal our relationship!"

Anomen grinned at her, eyes alight. "Nay, my lady, the real reason was that now I can do this," he pulled Jaheira close and kissed her eagerly, "without caring who might see us. But shocking our friends is an amusing bonus."

Their conversation soon moved onto other topics, and they were still sitting together, with Anomen's arms around her waist, when Minsc came up and sat nearby. It took them a minute to realize they were not seeing something they had expected; Minsc didn't look the least bit startled to see them together.

Instead, Minsc said conspiratorially, "Oooh, so I see that the secret is a secret no longer!"

Anomen looked surprised and slightly disappointed, and Jaheira replied, "And I see you have spoken to Dani or Imoen."

Now it was Minsc's turn to seem surprised. "Nooo, I have not seen them since this morning. Why do you ask?"

"You…you knew about us? How?" Anomen asked in astonishment.

"Oh yes. Boo told me." Minsc replied calmly.

"Boo?"

"Yes, Boo. Boo's eyes may be small and beady, but they are veerrry sharp. The others see what they expect to see, while Boo sees what really is."

"But…but you didn't say anything about it!" Anomen exclaimed.

"You did not tell anyone, so Minsc knew you wanted it to be a secret."

Jaheira and Anomen were still recovering from this startling piece of information when Minsc continued, "Oh, Boo told me to tell you that you may not trust your hearts just yet, but you will soon".

Minsc must have recognized the incredulous looks on their faces, because he added, "You should not doubt Boo! Miniature giant space hamsters know about love!"

Jaheira glanced at Anomen and began to laugh. He had reddened and struggled to speak, his face a picture of mingled shock, embarrassment, and outrage.

"Oh, Anomen, you should see your face now!"