"…and I think to myself…
.
.
.
. "…'what a wonderful world'."
This number by Louis Armstrong was all that was playing on the staticky radio in the vehicle that Emporio now found himself sitting in. He nervously sat in the strangers' car as they approached a rogue hitchhiker in the distance. Emporio looked around and couldn't believe that Jolyne, Anasui, and Hermès, his friends he had become so close to, were now completely oblivious to their shared past. The universe and time itself had now been successfully reset, and Emporio was the only one left who had any prior knowledge of how things were. He couldn't fully grasp this new reality he was currently living in, and there was a strange, almost unrecognizable numbing sensation that was starting to develop in the pit of his stomach. The people in the car with him thought he was only a small child sniffling and silently crying because he was lost and away from his parents, not because he was mourning the loss of his friends from Green Dolphin St. Prison. They really had no idea of how they used to know each other or who they used to be to one another. They didn't even know his name. Emporio knew he couldn't tell them about the reset without sounding absolutely insane, and he knew he eventually had to accept the new reality that he had been given.
The group soon spotted a hitchhiker from a distance, and Emporio recognized the hitchhiker as Weather Report, but he wasn't expecting Weather to go by his prior name or to recognize him at all. As the car stopped and "Irene" began speaking to the hitchhiker through the car window, Emporio carefully studied his features. He had the same wooly hat and steely expression, but his eyes brightened up when Irene offered to give him a lift. The rain began to steadily pour down as the hitchhiker sheepishly nudged his way in between Hermès and Emporio, averting his gaze as he did so. Hermès exasperatedly let out a sigh as she and Emporio became uncomfortably squished against the windows in the back seat, Weather Report ignoring their pained reactions since he had no control over his towering stature that took up most of the already limited space. As he turned towards Emporio, he met eyes with the boy and gave him a small half smile, something that calmed Emporio's nerves. Emporio returned the gesture as the car took off into the distance.
"So, where's everyone headed to? We need to know where to stop on the way, so we'll start with you, miss..." Annakiss stayed, "Hermès" rolling her eyes.
"I'm just headed to Cape Canaveral for the time being...hopefully I can contact my sister there. And just so we're clear, my name's 'Hermía'. Just so there's no confusion..." She stated as Irene turned around, smiling at her a bit.
"It's nice to meet you, Hermía. I wish I had a sister... I bet she's really nice."
"Eh, she can be, at times...she nags me a lot, though...it gets old."
"I bet." Irene concurred as she turned her gaze to Weather Report, who was staring at the floor of the car.
"Okay, so we've got one headed to Cape Canaveral...how about you, Mister?" She asked as Weather looked up at her, his piercing blue eyes coming to life as he stared at her with very little emotion.
"I'm just headed south to Everglades City. It may be out of your way..."
Irene turned to Annakiss as they exchanged knowing looks, as if something clicked for a second.
"No, we can definitely get you there. It's just...that bad hurricane hit there a couple of days ago. I don't know if it's all that safe there..."
"Yeah, I know what happened there. I'm going there to check on my wife and see if she's okay. She was caught in the middle of it and I haven't heard back from her, so I'm going to see if she's alright for myself." He said as he looked out the window, a worried glance crossing Irene's face as a confused expression made its way onto Emporio's.
"Weather Report is married in this universe? Who'd have thought?" Emporio wondered as Irene continued staring at Weather Report, a light going off in her head when she finally seemed to recognize him.
"OH MY GOD! I finally know who you are!" She said as she slapped the back of Annakiss's car seat, everyone flinching in the process.
"ANNA! Don't you see? We've just picked up a celebrity in our car right now!" She exclaimed as he eyed Weather Report through the rear view mirror.
"Ah, you're right. It's an honor, Wes... hope you enjoy the ride..." he said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"Wes?" Emporio asked, confusion filling his mind as Irene turned to him and eagerly nodded, Weather Report sinking into his seat sheepishly.
"Mhmm! Don't you recognize him? That's Wes Bluemarine! Tallahassee's top-rated meteorologist. I guess you're not from Florida since you don't recognize him...he's kind of a big deal to native Floridians here. The best part of the ten o'clock news, in my opinion..." she gushed as Weather Report, now known as "Wes", was blushing wildly.
"That's very kind of you...I'm glad you enjoy my weather segments..." He stammered as he nervously fondled the bag he was carrying.
"Say, you seem kinda nervous...what's up?" Irene asked him as Hermía huffed in the background and turned to the group, slight anger filling her eyes.
"He's nervous because his marriage is on the rocks!" She snapped as everyone stared at Hermía in shock.
"Well, I'm not wrong! Don't play dumb and act like it hasn't been all over the news the past several weeks. He fucked up." Hermia reasoned as she turned to Wes, staring him dead in the face.
"There's a reason she fled to that vacation home in Everglades City, and if you had paid attention to any of the celebrity gossip shows or current events in general, you'd know why...She's done with him, and for a good reason, too. I'd have dropped his ass ages ago if he had done to me what he did to her!" She said as Wes hung his head in defeat, everyone going silent. Emporio couldn't take it anymore, so he asked Wes who he was married to.
After a few moments of silence, Wes explained to him that he had been married to the famous ballroom dancer/performer "G.G.", which stood for "Gia Gilberto". She had immigrated to Florida from Cuba after competitively dancing in her teens and made her name through dancing in various clubs and performances, but she finally got noticed when she went on a variety talent showcase program in Miami and caught the eye of Tila Una, ("Trish Una"), who featured her as a dancer in all of her shows in tours she did. G.G. was known to wear all green in her performances, even her hair was a signature lime green. She always elected to wear fringe since it moved with her so freely, and she was an international favorite amongst fans. She had famously originated the "plankton" dance which consisted of a series of bodily shakings and gyrations, the style of which many ballroom dancers attempted to recreate in their routines. Wes explained that they met one evening when G.G.'s car broke down during a rainstorm and he helped get her back on the road. She said she had always watched him on the news and confessed that she had a crush on him, and they ended up pursuing a relationship that resulted in them marrying a few years later. Wes admitted that G.G. had loved him with all her heart, but that she was also relentlessly pursued by all sorts of men while she traveled for various performances, and this caused him to become paranoid and increasingly insecure. He would sometimes accuse G.G. of having affairs or desiring other men, and even though she would reassure him that she had no intention or desire to do such things, he still wouldn't believe her. He was especially suspicious of her main dance partner, Mikitaka, and would often pick fights with him and threaten him with physical violence if he touched her in an unprofessional way. Wes describes how G.G. became embarrassed of his irrational behavior, and she found herself confronting him about these things on a regular basis. Wes said their conflict didn't peak until G.G. caught him drunkenly cozied up with a few of her backup dancers backstage, and he admitted that they had obviously been exchanging more than numbers by the appearance of lipstick marks all over his face, neck, and body. Humiliated by her husband's bold display of disrespect, G.G. gathered her things up and left without a word, vowing that she'd never speak to him again. Word got out to the press about Wes and G.G.'s separation, and soon he was asked to take a leave of absence from the news so he could patch things up with her to clear up his name.
"...and that's why I'm here." He concluded, Irene hanging her head in silence as Hermía rolled her eyes and scoffed. Emporio was still trying to put two and two together.
"So, if her name's 'G.G.', which comes after 'F'...and her colors are...green...then that means...Oh. Oh my God..." Emporio muttered as he came to the realization that F.F. and Weather Report were a married couple in this universe.
"...Oh my god..." he thought as he tried to stifle back laughter for Weather's sake.
"That's so terrible..." Emporio responded as Wes shrugged his shoulders, trying to play things off.
"It's honestly what I deserve for acting like a complete jackass to her. I don't expect her to come back to me after the things I did and the way I treated her...but I can't sit back and not check and see if she's alright. I've been worried sick about her. I tried to get there before the storm hit, but I was too late. I guess this is my punishment for being a bad husband..." he said as he felt slight tears stinging his eyes, Hermía feeling a bit guilty as she handed him a small tissue, averting his gaze as she did so. Wes gave her a warm smile and thanked her.
"You'll be a lucky man if she made it out of that storm okay."
"Yes. I will be. I just...have to see if she's alright. I can deal with whatever life throws at me next, just as long as I know that she's okay."
"And what happens if she's not?" Hermía countered, her head snapping in Wes's direction as Emporio's eyes went wide with shock.
"THEN THAT'S MY PUNISHMENT, OKAY? I'LL HAVE TO LIVE WITH THAT GRAVE MEMORY FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE." He yelled as Hermía wiped off the spit that flecked onto her face from the impact of his yelling, Irene placing her hands on his shoulders in order to calm him down.
"Now, now...Hermía, please don't antagonize him like that! He's going through a rough time right now and is probably on edge." She reasoned, Hermía rolling her eyes once more.
"Psh. It's his fault for being a shitty husband to her in the first place..."
"Be that as it may, he obviously still cares about her and wants to make things right. Don't worry, Wes. We'll make sure you find her, okay?" Irene reassured him as they continued down the road in silence.
They neared Everglades City a few hours later, and everyone in the car began to see all the debris the storm left behind. As they saw more houses and various buildings and vehicles destroyed along the side of the road, the more nervous they became. Irene asked Wes for the address of the house as they continued to search for it, the rubble and debris worsening as they traveled. It would take a while until they'd be able to find G.G.'s whereabouts...especially since Wes couldn't contact her via cell phone call. He still had to know, and he was determined to find her, even if it meant finding her corpse and living with regret for the rest of his life.
And so the group continued on to Everglades City; they were only about half an hour away from their destination before Wes asked for them to pull over and let him out.
"Not to glom on or anything, but you're probably going to need help finding her. Why don't we tag along for a bit and form a small search party?" Hermía suggested as Wes gave her a small smile of gratitude, something she tried to shrug off and ignore.
"That's very kind of you. I'd be ever so grateful if you helped..." he replied as Irene saddled up to them along with Emporio and Annakiss.
"We can help, too. We'll cover more areas that way."
"When was the last time you heard from her?" Annakiss asked as Wes raised a hand to his chin.
"About three days ago. She told me she was going grocery shopping, and when she didn't come home, I found out from her dance partner Mikitaka that he had found her here and that she took the car with her. He couldn't resist rubbing it in my face." He said as he slightly glowered at the ground. "Anyways...everything looks pretty flattened out, so I imagine we'll have to dig around for a bit before we find anything."
"What kind of car did she drive here?"
"A 2004 Buick. It's dark green. I'll be able to spot it from the license plate number... but just be on the look out for one of those that reads, 'BCR-9284'."
And so they began searching around the area, calling out G.G.'s name, asking different store owners if they had spotted her or not. They searched for hours and made absolutely no progress, until Wes spotted the car about three miles from their original search spot. He ran over to the vehicle and saw that the windows were all cracked from the impact of the storm, but once he glanced inside, he saw the most unthinkable thing ever.
Through the cracked glass, Wes caught sight of G.G., lying face-down in the back seat. He couldn't tell if she was alive or dead, but he sprung into action. He began frantically pulling on the door handles, only to find that they had been locked. He began to shout to notify the others that he had found her, and as they ran over, Hermía told Wes to stand back as she struck the shattered glass with a pickaxe she had found lying around in the debris. Wes ran over to newly-broken window and began clearing the glass shards off of G.G.'s body, and he feared that he would touch her and feel nothing but coldness or rigor mortis. As he climbed into the back seat and unlocked the door, he grabbed hold of G.G. and carried her outside, feeling for her pulse or any signs of life left in her. As Wes cleared the rest of the glass off her, the group gathered around and observed as he felt for a pulse. She was still breathing, but she was completely passed out and covered in cuts and bruises. As Wes felt saw her in this state, he felt tears well up in his eyes as she slowly came to, her eyes fluttering open as she gave off a confused frown. She narrowed her eyes at Wes and rubbed them with her hands, and as she looked around, she looked back at him once again, and continued frowning.
"What the hell are you doing here, Wes?" She asked in a heavy Spanish accent.
The minute he heard her voice, tears began steaming down Wes's face. He wanted to reach out and hug her, but he could only stare at her with tears filling his eyes. G.G. looked at the rest of the group and met eyes with each person, giving them a confused expression once her eyes scanned them over. When she caught eye contact with Emporio, he glanced away and gave her a timid wave, something that she softened her expression at. Emporio never remembered Foo having such sharp features like she did now, and he wondered if she was fully human in this universe.
"Who are these people?" She asked.
"They're some friends of mine who gave me a ride here since I didn't have a car. I would have gotten here sooner, but I had to improvise..."
"...you mean you hitchhiked here?" She asked as he nodded, G.G. rolling her eyes in response.
"...ay, Dios mio..."
As she turned her gaze back to Wes, she stood up and looked down at him, wiping her hands off on her sides.
"So...did you come here to check on me or something?" She asked, slight anger stinging her voice as he looked up at her.
"Yeah, I did..."
G.G. scoffed at his brief response and turned away from him. She started walking in the other direction as Wes got up and followed her, the rest of the group slightly trailing behind.
They both began to speak to each other in Cuban-Spanish, something that Weather Report was seemingly pretty skilled at. Their conversation got a bit heated as G.G. gesticulations became more aggressive as well as her tone. Every time Wes tried to hug her or hold her hand, she would back away from him or swat his hand away. Hermía was listening intently, snickering to herself anytime G.G. would pop off something to Wes that seemed scathing.
"What are they saying?" Irene asked with curiosity in her eyes, Hermía smiling to herself smugly.
"I can only pick out a few phrases here and there since Cuban-Spanish is a bit different than what I know, but basically she's telling him she thinks he's a 'mother-grabbing bastard' and that he's crazy if he thinks she'll ever go back to him. You know, the average things women say when they're pissed at their man.." she said as Irene covered her mouth impishly, Annakiss rolling his eyes a bit.
"Damn, if I ever treat you like this, Irene...you have full permission to kick my ass."
"This is why straight people crack me up; they drive each other nuts over shit like this and waste so much energy." She said, laughing to herself and shaking her head a bit.
And so Hermía continued to observe and interpret the argument to the group, laughing a bit to herself at the pronunciation of certain words and phrases. She did seem to become more in tune with the conversation whenever Wes would say something, and Emporio noticed this when a small smile formed on Hermía's lips.
"...I do have to hand it to Wes, though. He's being very patient with her and is asking her all sorts of sweet and caring questions, like whether or not she's eaten, if she's hydrated, if she got hurt or needs to go to the hospital...I can see how he'd be a good husband in a way."
"That's so...wholesome." Irene remarked as she watched them at a distance, noticing how G.G.'s pained expression softened whenever Wes pulled her close and placed a loving kiss on top of her head. She was still turning her head away from him, but tears began to fall down her face as he held her close for a bit, wrapping his long arms around her. She started to tremble from the cold air, so Wes pulled her close to him and asked if she needed a blanket from the bag he was carrying. G.G. stayed silent, so Wes compliantly pulled one out for her and gently wrapped it around her. He also set out a first aid kit for her to use and a bottle of water in case she wanted it.
"...you know by now that I deeply regret what I did to you...and I just couldn't let you leave without telling you how sorry I am. I hope you'll forgive me someday." He said as G.G. looked at the ground, her eyes still watering with heavy tears.
"I was so worried that I had lost you to the hurricane, but I'm so happy you're still alive, Gia. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't made it."
"Why did you come all the way out here, Wes? I thought we were through." She said as Wes looked up at her with tears in his eyes.
"...Because I love you, Gia. I know I haven't been doing a great job of showing that to you, but you're it for me. That outburst I had was my own insecurities at work. I am completely at fault for it and I'm not gonna blame you anymore for things that I need to work on and get straightened out. You're such a beam of light in my life and I shouldn't let my jealousy keep you hindered from the things and opportunities you want and need to experience. I've been slowing you down with my less-than-admirable behavior, and so all I can do now is ask you to forgive me. That's really why I came out here, to find you, make sure you were okay, and ask for your forgiveness. I don't expect you to come back to Tallahassee with me, especially after what I've done...but I do want to make sure you understand two things: I love you VERY much, more than I have anyone or anything in my life, and that I am very sorry for tarnishing our marriage in the ways that I did. I also came to give this to you for you to keep..." he said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pearl ring, something that maybe was her engagement or wedding ring. G.G. looked at Wes with tears in her eyes, covering her face as she began to silently weep at the sight of the ring.
"I saw that you left this behind on the counter the day you left...I'd like for you to have it back because I know how much you loved this ring. It'd be wasted if I held into it, it's your ring now... let it have whatever significance you want it to." He said as G.G. sheepishly grasped the ring, shaking her head as she continued to cry.
"Wes, why are you acting this way?" She asked, his eyes lighting up anytime she said his name.
"I just want to make sure we have a good talk before you take off for good. I'm going to miss you so much... but if I can do some damage control before you go, I'll gladly take whatever chances I can get."
And with that, G.G. threw her arms around Wes in a loving embrace and buried her head into his chest, sobbing as she did so.
"I could never leave you, Wes. These past few days have been absolute hell and I was so afraid that you had grown tired of me...my heart may be broken right now, but the fact that you came all the way out here for me just makes things so much clearer now. We may have some things to patch up, but I love you far too much to throw it all away just now. I've loved you since the day I met you, and I can't just leave knowing that you still feel the same way, too. I'm sorry I just left without saying anything, Wes. I shouldn't have done that when I could have talked to you about it...right now I just want to hold you close because I've missed you so much." She said as Wes placed another kiss on her forehead, and then on her lips.
The group watched them reconcile as Irene sighed and Hermía felt another smile coming on.
"I guess straight couples can be kinda cute at times, too..."
And so Irene and Annakiss's traveling party helped Wes and G.G. find a place to stay for the time being until they could travel back to Tallahassee. Hermía made it to Cape Canaveral, but insisted that Irene and Annakiss stop by on their way back to visit her and meet her sister. Emporio stayed with Annakiss and Irene for a bit and poked around town whenever it was time for Annakiss to meet Irene's father. When Annakiss was deemed as a worthy suitor for Irene and it was time to travel back, they stopped by Cape Canaveral and Tallahassee to check on their friends. Since Irene and Annakiss had to travel back home, G.G. and Wes offered to keep Emporio for the time being.
"We're on a hiatus with Tila's touring right now, so I'm at home most of the time and can keep him until further notice... that is, if it's alright with you, Emporio." G.G. said, Emporio blushing a bit.
"I know we're strangers and everything, but it would just kill us if you had to walk around the streets and fend for yourself. So why not come live with us for a bit? We promise not to bug you..." Wes said as he gave Emporio a small wink, something that he remembered the old Weather Report doing in the past.
They may not be their old selves or ideal parents, but Emporio still considered them as his own family, people who would always be close to his heart.
"Sure..." he replied as he gave them a small smile.
"I'd be honored. Thank you guys so much."
