5.6: Thoughts About the Future/Past

"To our future," Lex said grandly, as he and Rebecca clinked their glasses together.

"To our future," Rebecca echoed, with her beak split in a wide grin. This was the happiest night of her life!

After the proposal, Rebecca and Lex had dropped by the safe house to tell everyone there the good news. Martin and Cecilia had been the only ones there, on break between patrols, but they'd been delighted for her and promised to spread the word to everyone else. Martin had called the patrollers while Lex and Rebecca were still there, and even as Robert was giving them his congratulations via radio, Cecilia had announced with a grin that she'd just contacted the clanfolk working at Tujage's, and they insisted the two lovebirds come by for an engagement dinner!

Rebecca was only too happy to accept, Tujage's was one of her favorite restaurants, and the Rousseau brothers who worked the night shift there were two of her favorite human clanfolk. She brought Lex there at 10:30, just after the last regular patron had left for the night, and they snuck in to find a table set for two, with candles lit and a basket of piping-hot French bread waiting for them. Tujage's normally served only tea and coffee for beverages, but either Evan or Brian Rousseau must have dashed out and picked up a bottle of champagne just for them, because there was a bottle of bubbly in a bucket of ice sitting on the table.

Lex had deftly hooked a talon into the cork and popped it out before pouring drinks for them both, and just after they toasted each other, Evan came up with a wide grin, bearing a platter. "We begin with Tujage's famous Shrimp Remoulade! Bon appetit!"

"I've never had anyone waiting on me before," Lex admitted with a sheepish grin, as the platter of shrimp covered with remoulade sauce was set between them.

"Hey, you make our Becky happy, and we'll make your evenings special every night you're in town!" Evan said with a smile.

Then Brian stepped out from behind his brother and said with a wink, "But then if you make her unhappy, we make your life hell, eh?"

"Brian!" Rebecca protested, but Lex only laughed and said he had no intention of ever making her unhappy; that she was the best girl he'd ever met or could ever hope to meet. Rebecca just knew she was blushing copper-red again, but who cared? This was all so wonderful; she was so happy!

Brian and Evan went back to the kitchen to prepare the soup du jour; tonight, that was eggplant and tomato soup (excellent if it was done right, and the cooks here knew how to do it right!) That would be followed by Tujage's famous Beef Brisket with Creole Sauce, and they'd have pecan pie for dessert. In the meantime, Rebecca and Lex munched on the shrimp while chatting about what life would be like for her in Manhattan.

"I know you probably didn't get a good first impression, considering you were shot by a Quarryman your second night there," Le said ruefully. "But really, New York's a great place to live, and our friends in the P.I.T. are making it more friendly for us all the time!"

"It'll be great to meet Bugjuice and Riffraff in the flesh," Rebecca agreed, thinking of what Lex had told her about meeting one of their online buddies at a P.I.T. meeting. "And before I got shot, I was already impressed by a lot about New York. But even after your city becomes home, I know I'll want to come back here from time to time for visits. At the very least, for Mardi Gras; you just have to experience Mardi Gras!"

She wasn't a total showoff like Marie, but Rebecca never wanted to miss a chance to openly walk the streets with her clan, amidst all of Humanity; part of what made the Mardi Gras celebration so special. But she knew she'd also want to come back here just to visit her old clan, her family; Marcel, Brian, Evan, her sisters, Robert…

Especially Robert. She and Robert had been best friends since they'd hatched together. Even before he'd matured enough to realize his sexual orientation, Robert had never really fit in with his rookery brothers, just as Rebecca had always felt like she didn't fit in with her rookery sisters. So the two of them had clung to each other, and been there for each other through thick and thin. When Marie had gotten too nasty and reduced Rebecca to tears, Robert had comforted her and shown her the best and sneakiest ways to get even. When Robert had been left behind out of the other males' games, Rebecca had played tag with him, and challenged him with puzzles and other brainteasers that would keep them occupied together until dawn.

When the elder had begun making pointed queries about why Robert wasn't doing what his rookery brothers were doing, Rebecca had defended him fiercely enough to get everyone to back off for a while. And when Robert had finally "come out of the closet" and faced the consternation and even anger of the rest of the clan, it was Rebecca who'd stood by him, almost in tears but insisting that anything they might do to him, they had to do to her too, even banishment if it came to that. Though thankfully it hadn't, and nearly all the clan had accepted him eventually. As Adam had pointed out repeatedly, "We are what we are, whether feather-wing or leather-wing, male or female, gargoyle or human… or something in between. Some things simply can't be changed; only accepted."

And when the other three males in their generations had chosen their mates, and Rebecca had been one of those left mateless… Robert had tried to be a mate for her. Even though they'd both known by then that he was 'gay as a daisy', he'd tried; that one time deep in the bayou where no one could see or hear them, they had tried… and it just hadn't worked. The mutual embarrassment and disappointment had almost torn their relationship apart, but not quite, and within a moon's time they'd been laughing together again.

When Robert had found Philip and fallen in love, Rebecca had been honestly happy for them. When the clan at first refused Robert's petition to make Philip a member, Rebecca had talked Isabel into staying in town and perching beside her and Robert in Phil's attic, for a full two months before the elders gave in. When Robert and Philip had sworn their vows to each other by the light of the Winter Solstice moon, Rebecca had been their witness. And she'd been the most frequent visitor to their home in town, until that awful night last March when Robert had woken alone. He hadn't known why Philip hadn't come home that night; no one had known… until the headline for next day's paper, seen on the newsstands just before dawn, lamented the loss of such a promising quarterback in a car wreck the day before…

Robert had almost gone to greet his last sunrise. Rebecca had literally wrapped herself around him to hold him back from the edge of a roof that morning, so he couldn't topple over and plummet to his death without taking her with him. When they'd awoken that evening, they'd been back out at the estate; Adam had heard the news, and had stayed awake long enough to find them, get them down off the roof and put them into the truck headed home. And he'd excused both Robert and Rebecca from all duties for a full month afterwards, while making sure they did useful things around the estate; anything to keep Robert occupied, and Rebecca with Robert. And Rebecca had stuck to him like a burr in his tail hairs, until he'd finally started smiling again.

Adam's considerate treatment of Robert during the trial to get Philip accepted, and years later when Philip died, made his most recent behavior all the more outrageous in Rebecca's eyes. How could he have made Robert stay out on patrol, solo, just because Robert was gay and he was worried about the new clan's reaction? That was implying that Robert was something to be ashamed of! And Rebecca would have let Adam have an earful, too, but they'd been in such a hurry to get to the estate before dawn… and Rebecca had been so worried that Brooklyn would take one look at her beautiful sisters and forget all about her… that she'd just let it slide. She'd personally apologized to her brother over the phone just before dawn the next day, but it was no wonder Robert was planning to stay in town after his patrol rotation was over; he must still be feeling hurt and betrayed by Adam. How could their clan leader do that to him? Up until recently, Rebecca had been convinced that Adam was the best leader their clan had ever had, but now she wondered…

But more importantly, Rebecca worried about how Robert would take it, when she left for Manhattan permanently. And she wondered if he'd be willing to change clans and protectorates as well… Didn't New York have its own population of gay humans? Maybe…

"Rebecca? Hello?" Lex snapped his talons in front of her face. "I'd swear you've been out of it for at least two minutes; what's on your mind?"

Should she ask Lex if his clan would accept Robert? No, not yet; first she should broach the idea to Robert. It was extremely hard for most gargoyles to leave their protectorates; Rebecca was okay with it only because she'd been contemplating it ever since they'd first heard about the new clan. She'd talk to Robert, get him to at least consider the possibility, before working on the Manhattan Clan. As Lex's mate and one of their very few females, surely she'd have some clout with them… and with his ability to keep a cool head in a crisis, not to mention his artistic skills, Robert would be an asset to any clan!

In the meantime, she smiled ruefully and spoke of something else that had been bothering her. "Well, if you must know… When I got shot by that Quarryman on the hovercycle, that was actually the first time I've ever been seriously wounded in a fight. And for a while there, before I found a good hiding spot and even for a little while after, I actually thought I was going to die. I'm a little ashamed of myself for running, instead of turning back and just throwing myself straight at the Quarryman, to take the enemy down with me. That's probably what the warriors of your clan would have done in old Scotland, wouldn't they?"

Lex hastily assured her that even the best warrior knew when to run instead of fighting, and if she hadn't hidden and survived instead of going out in a blaze of battle-glory, he and his clan would have been all the poorer for not having met her!

Brian agreed that it was a damn good thing she hadn't gotten herself killed, as he set the next course in front of them. "Now, no more talk of dying tonight! This be the Big Easy, cherie; Laissez les bontemps rouler!"

To be continued…