Hey everybody,
I'm sorry it's been so long since my last update. I spent two weeks in the woods with the Marines where I couldn't do any writing and when I got home things have been hectic with the new semester starting, looking for a new house, etc. That and this part ended up taking longer than I thought. Originally I meant to squeeze it into one chapter but eventually I saw I wouldn't be able to do it justice without making it longer so I split the next part into two chapters. They're going to deal with Rory Swann and establishing the backstory and setting for Meinhoff. As well as setting up some characters that will play big parts as the story continues.
Here's the first chapter. The second chapter is done so I'll post it in the next few days. Read, review, and enjoy!
-James
Chapter 6: Life Was Good
The walls around Rory Swann vibrated slightly as the hovertrain sped through the grey wasteland that was Meinhoff. The walls of the train were a bland grey and were home to few windows. There wasn't much to see anyway. Just canyons, craigs, mountains, rocks, and endless piles of grey dust. The interior of the train's passenger compartment didn't add to the luster much. The seats were uncomfortable metal contraptions with only tight rubber straps for cushioning, and no armrests. The train was mostly used for transporting ore and crystals between the various mining settlements on Meinhoff and the few larger trade hubs that were where the materials were stockpiled and then shipped off world. In typical Kel-Morian fashion the train had been designed for efficiency not comfort. The only blessing was that it wasn't crowded. There were only six people in the compartment and none of them were seated anywhere near Swann. The air of anger and frustration he gave off discouraged even the most cheery of conversationalists.
Everyone in the compartment could tell that this man was having a bad day, and anyone who knew the scruffy miner could've told you that he was having a really bad day. For one he was squeezed into a dark suit with a dark grey shirt and an old tie. It didn't sit right and was too snug across his broad shoulders. Those that knew him would say that the effort it took to convince him to put on anything besides worn coveralls over a sweat stained shirt was frustrating enough that it was usually avoided for anything short of weddings and funerals. Aside from that there was the fact that he had his face buried in his right hand, obscuring all his features except for his clenched jaw. His left hand gripped the seat in front of him so hard it was a wonder he wasn't tearing through the plastic. His breathing had the ragged sound of someone on the very edge of control.
It had been a very bad day.
Rory Swann's emotions were an unstable tempest of anger, regret, and sadness. It was all he could do to keep himself from letting loose a howl of anguish and tearing the damned Kel-Morian bastard's train apart. Everything was coming apart. All the money, sweat, and blood that had been spent were coming apart and he didn't know how to stop it. They were taking it all. He was taking it all. As the events of the last few years replayed themselves over and over in his mind one thought kept resurfacing in Swann's mind. A thought wreathed in rage long held in check.
Damn them!
0000
It had all begun two and a half years before the train. It was night on Meinhoff, which wasn't saying much since it was usually night. The planet had a short day cycle. Hot during the day and freezing at night. Any food that wasn't imported from offworld was grown in big biodomes that kept out the harsh elements and ever-present dust. Terraforming had made the atmosphere breathable but only barely so. It was a harsh planet and the Terrans who live on it were equally harsh as a result. The only real wealth on Meinhoff was buried in its endless mountain ranges and canyons. Mining towns had been springing up at a steady rate for years now and prospectors still wondered at the wealth that was being found buried in the grey rocks of what most civilized Terrans would call a barren hell hole.
On this night twin guttural roars echoed off the rock walls of a mountain range near the edge of the Terran settled territories on the Kel-Morian controlled world. Two vultures sped through the dust, weaving around the many rock formations. The two hoverbikes kicked up great plumes of grey dust in their wake that caught the blue light reflecting off the planet's two orbiting moons. The riders themselves wore jackets over dark blue coveralls and goggles covered their eyes protectively. They had large bandanna-like cloths wrapped around their necks to keep the fine dust out of their faces.
"How much farther Eddie?" Rory Swann used his hand to cup the mike of his comm headset so that his friend would hear it over the roar of the vulture's engines. He didn't waste any time getting the hand back onto the bikes controls however. He hated these damn things. But they were a fast and easy way of moving around the Meinhoff mountain ranges.
"Just a bit farther brother. Lizzie says she found the crystals just a bit farther into the mountain range!" Eddie's voice sounded excited as he shouted his reply back over the comm. Rory could see him maneuvering his bike about a hundred meters ahead of him.
"Lizzie bein' that pretty marshal lady that almost broke my arm back in Jorgenton?"
"You got drunk and slapped her ass."
"I wasn't drunk! And I was just joshin' around with her anyhow!"
"What can I tell ya brother? They call her Hard Ass for a reason."
"More n' one reason ya ask me." Rory grinned behind his protective wrap, remembering the pleasant hourglass figure of Marshal Elizabeth "Hard Ass" Pinton. "Wasn't an ounce of fat on that thing."
"Ha! You'd know brother. Didn't seem to be an ounce of fat in that left hook either."
Rory Swann grumbled something that might have been an affirmative. Up ahead he saw the entrance to another one of the many canyons littering Meinhoff's surface. Slowing the bike's speed he cautiously followed Eddie into the canyon. The walls were large, with bits of rock debris littering the surface. The two friends guided their bikes carefully around the obstructions and for a few minutes neither spoke as they focused on the path in front of them. After a little more than a mile the canyon crisscrossed with another canyon, this one even larger. Eddie brought his vulture to a stop at the intersection and Rory brought his own bike up alongside him. Both hoverbikes vibrated softly as their engines idled. Eddie looked over at his friend and grinned.
"This is the crossing. Cut 'em."
Both men shut down their bikes, the hoverbikes settling to the canyon floor, which thankfully was more rock than dust. Swinging his leg over the seat of the vulture Rory stepped to the ground, wincing at the stiffness in his lower extremities and stretching his sore muscles. Eddie stepped off his own bike and watched his shorter friend with amusement.
"Lizzie kick ya in the ass too?"
Swann shot the taller man a glare, but after a moment it broke down into a grin.
"You're a riot Burkey. Why don't you kiss it an' make it better?"
Eddie grinned back, stretching out himself as he replied.
"Aw hell Rory. Been on that bike like three hours now. I'd get a cramp in my back bending down that far."
"Harharhar funny guy."
Rory Swann was not a tall man. Standing no taller than five foot four it was no secret that he was short. While many men would consider this a touchy subject Rory took it in stride. He was bulky for a man of his size, with broad shoulders and a barrel chest. Getting into his mid thirties he was just starting to show a little paunch at his belly but all in all he figured he cut a good figure for a man his size. He wore his brown hair in an unruly mess held back by his goggles but kept the long beard that came down his cheeks and over his lip well trimmed.
Edward "Eddie" Burkey, on the other hand, was a tall man. Standing well over six feet many of his fellow miners had joked over the years that eventually he'd hit his head on cavern ceilings enough that it would knock off a few inches. All joking aside however, he had more than pulled his weight in the mines. His body was lean and hard from a lifetime in the harsh tunnels beneath Meinhoff's surface. Clean-shaven with a head of close-cropped brown hair and dark green eyes Eddie had a lean face that became surprisingly soft when he cracked one of his many smiles.
He cracked one such smile as he looked around, taking in the crisscrossing canyons around them. The smile even held when he saw Rory eyeing the canyons as well, though the expression on his friend's face was skeptical.
"Cheer up Rory. I've got a good feelin' about this one."
Rory Swann turned his doubtful gaze on his friend.
"You've always got a good feelin' Eddie." Despite himself Rory cracked a smile of his own, unable to completely resist his friends enthusiasm. Turning, he opened his vulture's storage compartment and began rummaging around inside.
"So run by me again what makes you so sure this marshal lady's on the level Eddie," Swann called over is shoulder.
Eddie's eyes narrowed in exasperation but he sighed and responded.
"I told ya Rory. She's Molly's sister. She's good people."
Swann considered his next words carefully as he found the object he was looking for. A four-foot rod that held a sharp point at one end and an array of powercells and sensory equipment on the other, topped by a flat metal stud. He turned and gave his old friend a steady stare.
"You meet this girl what? Three weeks ago? And now we're runnin' out here to the middle of no friggin' where cause her sister says there might be an unclaimed strike out here? And didn't you say this Molly chick used to work for…"
"Well she don't anymore Rory!" Eddie snapped as his eyes took on a hard glint that Rory Swann wasn't accustomed to seeing from his friend. "When she figured out what a creep Kerr is she got out and she's been scrapin' by working in that bar ever since!"
"Woah hotshot! Calm Down!" Swann held out his free hand in a placating gesture. "Look Eddie all I'm saying is that we've been burned before and I don't wanna go gettin' our hopes up 'fore we even find anything. I really do hope this gal is the dream woman you think she is buddy. I do."
Eddie Burkey's expression softened as he looked at his oldest friend. He let out a breath and ran his hands through his short brown hair.
"I'm tellin' ya Rory… I've never met anyone like her. She's so damn real ya know? She makes me feel good. Best I have since Pop died…"
Jack and Patricia Burkey had been well respected in the mining town where Eddie and Rory grew up. When Rory's own parents had been killed in a mining accident the Burkey's had taken him as one of their own and raised him alongside their own son, Eddie. They hadn't led an easy life but they'd gotten by and given Rory more love and support than he figured anybody had a right to. Three years past Patricia Burkey had passed away from a wasting illness and not two years after Jack Burkey had followed her. Before he'd passed he'd shown Eddie and Rory what he and his wife had worked so hard to give them. An inheritance. Not enough to make them rich to be sure, but enough to strike out on their own and start their own operation.
The vast majority of the mining operations on Meinhoff were owned by the Kerr Mining Company. The company kept its workers on a tight leash. Pay was low and taxes were high. People kept food on the table, but aspirations for a better future were usually outside of a miner's price range. Jack and Patricia Burkey had scraped the bottom of the barrel for most of their lives to give Eddie and Rory the chance to break free of the Kerr Company's oppressive hold. The Burkey's deaths had hit them both hard, but despite that they'd left their jobs as miners and struck out on their own.
It had been nearly a year since Jack Burkey's death and Rory and Eddie had not had much luck. They had enough money to get a mining operation started, barely, but they hadn't been able to find a strike. Except for once. Three months ago they'd followed up on a tip that led them to a mountain range a hundred and thirty miles outside of Jorgenton. There'd been enough raw crystal to get a modest operation going. Nothing huge, but enough to at least get things rolling. When they'd sped back to Jorgenton to stake their claim they'd found out their source had sold the same information to the Kerr Company, who had flown a team out to investigate the strike, returned, and claimed it while the two friends had been speeding back across the dusty wastelands.
All this ran though Rory Swann's mind as he looked at his friend. Forcing a grin onto his rough face he stepped up and gave Eddie an encouraging slap on the shoulder.
"Hey forget I said anything Eddie. She sounds like a classy lady and I bet it's a good lead. Hell I might even have a good feeling about this one." With that Swann turned his attention to the device in his hand. Flipping a few switches he heard a satisfying tone as the sonic mapper charged up. The device was a common surveying tool that used pulses of subsonic waves to map out large areas.
"See bud. New girl, new lead, new toys. Things are lookin' up." Eddie cracked a grin, though Rory could still see the shadow of pain in his eyes that the memory of his parents always brought up. But his taller friend was ever the optimist. Gesturing down at the sonic mapper Eddie winked at him.
"So what's the latest update genius."
Swann grinned back at him, then rotated the mapper to show him a blocky contraption that he'd added to the device a few days ago.
"I hardwired a geo-survey unit into the mapper. Leastways the important parts of one. Won't give us a detailed read on the mapped area since it's not designed for this but it'll pick up on big concentrations of particular elements. Might clue us in on a crystal vein or somethin' like." As long as either of them could remember Rory had had a gift for technology. Mechanical things just made sense to him and he'd been taking things apart and rebuilding them better than new since he was a boy.
Eddie whistled.
"That's great brother! I'm tellin' ya things are lookin' up!"
Rory shook his head but couldn't repress a laugh. Walking to the middle of the canyon crossing he examined the hard packed earth of the canyon floor until he found a spot to his liking. Then he raised the sonic mapper and with a grunt slammed it back down, thrusting the pointed end deep into the ground. Stepping back he examined the mapper's placement critically. "Needs to be a little deeper."
Eddie reached into his own vulture's storage compartment and procured a hammer. He tossed it to Swann with another one of his crooked grins.
"Getting' old brother? Next time I'll be sure to pack a Can-O-Man."
Deftly, Swann snatched the hammer out of the air.
"Keep talkin' wise guy and you'll need to pack a Can-O-Bandages." Grasping the hammer firmly he delivered three strong downward blows to the metal stud at the top of the mapper. Each strike drove the spike-like apparatus several inches deeper into the ground. Finally Rory stepped back and nodded, satisfied. "That'll do. Here goes nothin'."
Pulling a datascreen from his coverall pocket Swann thumbed it to life and connected it to the mapper. Reaching down he flipped a switch just below the stud and several high pitched tones echoed through the canyon as the device sent out its subsonic waves into the ground around them. Rory felt a tingling in his skin and watched his arm hair stand on end. Moments later images started taking shape on the datascreen. Eddie moved up and examined the results over his shorter friend's shoulder.
"So what we got?"
Rory examined the screen thoughtfully.
"Looks like there's a couple cavern systems that run through the canyon walls."
"Your new doodad pickin' up any minerals?"
Swann glanced at the information coming out of the geo-survey unit.
"Might be. I'm picking up a lot o' traces of dorium and iron."
Eddie's eyes widened.
"Dorium… like in neosteel?"
Rory shrugged noncommittally.
"Might be. That's what it's saying."
Dorium was one of the chief elements used to create neosteel. An exceptionally durable metal used in the making of warships, military vehicles, and anything else that required a tough metal skin. A good enough vein of Dorium could produce enough income to start a good size mining operation.
"Rory… do you realize what this could mean…"
Rory put a hand on his friends shoulder and looked at him earnestly.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves brother. I'll celebrate when we've got a strike and claimed it. For right now let's just check it out."
Eddie nodded, though the glint of excitement remained in his dark green eyes. Quickly he retrieved his own datascreen and downloaded his own copy of the data created by the sonic mapper. Meanwhile Swann took a closer look at the digital map.
"Looks like most of the dorium concentrations are in the caverns just northeast of the crossing," he pointed to their left. "Let's split up and check 'em out."
Both men retrieved smaller geo-survey units from their bikes, as well as illumination lights that attached to their comm headsets. Together they trudged off toward the northeast branch of the canyon crossing. After a minute of searching they found several entrances to the caverns shown on their datascreens.
"See ya on the flip side brother," Eddie called as he disappeared into one of the caverns. Rory nodded absently and moved into another entrance thirty meters away from Eddie's. As he rounded a corner in the tunnel, moving slowly to avoid tripping on the loose rocks of the cavern floor, he switched on his illumination light. The bright head light illuminated the dark grey rock wherever he looked, though it seemed to cast everything else in shadow. Dark shapes stretched into the area illuminated by the light like the fingers of shadowy ghouls reaching for those foolish enough to enter the dark caves. Rory Swann had long since conquered any fear of the dark however. He'd been running around in caverns like these his whole life. He moved with a practiced ease, stepping around and over any obstructions and sliding easily though the narrower portions of the tunnel.
"Hey brother. What does Dorium look like again?" Eddie's voice crackled slightly over Swann's headset. Caverns usually interfered a bit with comm systems.
"Seriously? You've been walking around in there for five minutes and you don't even know what your lookin' for?"
"Don't hate. I was enjoyin' the scenic vistas."
Swann grinned despite himself and replied as he squeezed through a particularly narrow portion of the tunnel.
"It'll be a tight packed greenish ore. Lot's o' folds in the rock. Want me to tell you how to tie your boots too?"
"Maybe later. I…"
The rest of Eddie's reply was cut off by a mix of yelling, cursing, and what sounded like the dull thud of someone or something banging of rocks.
"Eddie? Eddie!"
Swann called out worriedly over the comm but got no answer. Realizing he could actually hear some of the thuds and the sound of sliding rocks coming out of a tunnel to his left he took of at a quick pace in that direction, cursing and calling out over the comm.
Finally he found a set of boot prints that disappeared into a sharp downward sinkhole from one of the tunnels. Kneeling down he could faintly hear muffled cursing coming from the darkness of the hole. Cupping his hands to his mouth he shouted down into the opening.
"Eddie! You clumsy bastard are ya there?"
The cursing stopped for a moment and Eddie's voice echoed back up out of the hole.
"Yeah I'm here. Part of the tunnel floor gave way and I slipped down this fekking hole. Now my damn light's fritzing out."
"Crimony Eddie! Thought you'd fekking killed yourself. I remember my first time in a cave…"
"Funny brother. Real damn funny. You wouldn't be laughing if you was… hold up I think I fixed my light." There was a moment of silence followed by a steady burst of laughter. Rory listened, puzzled. Finally puzzlement gave way to annoyance and he shouted down into the hole.
"What the hell's so funny Eddie? You hit your head on the way down?"
The laughter cut off as Eddie shouted his reply though it was broken by more laughter.
"That's besides the point brother. Hehe get down here. You gotta see this."
Letting out a few curses of his own Rory pulled out a grappling line that he had coiled around his shoulder. Taking the sharp metal spike at one end he slammed it point first into the rockwall behind him, then twisted it so that three sharp metal hooks extended from the main point and embedded it into the rock. Giving the line a few sharp tugs to make sure it was secure he started to slowly move down the steep slope of the sinkhole, using the strong cord to steady himself. After a few moments he glimpsed the flashes of light from Eddie's illumination light and a moment later he let go of the line as he stepped down into a long cavern where his friend stood grinning at him.
Rory looked around to figure out what had the clumsy idiot in such a good mood and then felt his breath catch in his throat. Slowly he gazed around, letting his light illuminate the walls and ceilings of the cavern. Stretching the entire length of the tunnel, and glittering a dark green in the light, were thick formations of Dorium. The ore was everywhere and Eddie held a big chunk in his hand as he smiled over at the dumfounded Swann.
"Rory ol' buddy… we fekking did it!"
0000
A year later Rory Swann clinked the glass in front of him awkwardly and stood, clearing his throat as he did so. All around the maintenance bay the guests quieted down and stopped eating to turn and look at him. They were all dressed in their best. For many of them this meant coveralls, jeans, or shirts that were simply clean and relatively free of dust. For Swann however, it was a dark suit with a grey shirt and tie that Eddie had bought him for the occasion. It was too snug and Rory itched to get back into his worn coveralls, but in the spirit of the evening's festivities he had finally given in to his friend's pleas to dress up.
He took in the people around him. Nearly three hundred men, women, and children. Almost the entire population of the growing mining town of Jackson. Tables were set up all around the middle of the bay. One large central table held dozens of dishes that the different families had prepared for the occasion. After a few moments all of the townsfolk turned their eyes toward Rory and he glanced down at Eddie nervously.
Eddie just smiled at him happily and Rory couldn't help but smile back. All the hard work and grief of the last two years was gone from his friend's face and Swann was glad for it. The reason for that happiness sat next to Eddie, and she was smiling at Rory encouragingly.
Molly Pinton, now Molly Burkey, was a petite woman with long blonde hair and hazel eyes. Getting into her early thirties she still looked ravishing in her simple white wedding dress. Her beauty was even more pronounced when she smiled, as she was now, and her dimples stood out on her cheeks. Beneath the beauty, however, there were wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and her lean, strong body spoke of a hard life.
Seeing his friend with his newlywed wife filled Rory with a profound sense of contentment, and just like that any nervousness was gone and he turned back to the expectant people of Jackson.
"Everybody I've got somethin' to say… If any of ya had told me a year and a half ago I'd be sitting here next to Eddie, him with a pretty wife and us with a up and comin' mining town of our own I'd have told ya to shut up cause you'd only encourage him."
Laughter echoed around the bay from the assembled townsfolk. Many of them were old friends or aquaintances of Rory and Eddie's that had come here when they put out the call for people to start a new mining operation, free of Kerr Company control. Joey Gatz, a cook by trade, ran the local diner and cantina. John and Melinda Falks who had run the ore warehouse in the town Rory and Eddie grew up in and were now running the warehouse here in Jackson. Then there were plenty of old mining comrades like Reggie Hernandez, Brent Fickly, and Victor Kachinski who had likewise come here to work for their old friends. Many of them Rory had only met in the last year but by and large he knew they were all good people and he doubted Jackson would've been half the success it had been without them.
After they'd found the Dorium strike the two had raced back to Jorgenton to make their claim. When they'd burst into the Mining Guild's claim office the clerk had listened to them wide eyed as they laid out their discovery and subsequently filed their claim, which under Kel-Morian law, was quickly approved. A Kerr company representative had subsequently found them celebrating in one of the city's many bars and asked if they'd be interested in having the strike inspected by Kerr Company with an interest to buy. They'd curtly declined.
A week later they'd put out the call for people to work a mining operation on the edge of Meinhoffs occupied territories and people had slowly but steadily answered, including many of the friend's old acquaintances. Using the inheritance that Jack and Patricia Burkey had left them they purchased equipment and immediately set to work building their operation. They hollowed out the tunnel systems at the canyon crossing and, along with their new workforce, began constructing a maintenance bay, living quarters, warehouses, and of course the actual mine. Many of the structures they constructed in the caverns themselves but over the next few months enough people came to join their outfit that they had to start setting up habitation huts in the canyon floor to support all the new personnel.
Over the next several months the operation had expanded rapidly and Swann had overseen the addition of a diner, cantina, and underground rec center to the rapidly expanding community, which he and Eddie had dubbed Jackson in honor of the late Burkey patriarch. Rory was particularly proud of the most recent addition. A biodome, built completely underground. He'd had his crew use a mining laser to hollow out a three hundred square foot cavern in the thick rock below even the canyon floor. There he'd built a self-contained chamber with all the equipment necessary to grow enough food to keep most of the town's population fed in a pinch. All protected by hundreds of feet of thick rock.
And all the while the mining went on. The ore was mined from the tunnels in the northeast part of town and then smelted in the foundry into thick neosteel plates that were weekly trucked out to the closest train stop, a good hundred miles away, to be shipped back to Jorgenton and sold. The valuable metal fetched a good price and business was booming. Not only that Rory and Eddie paid their people good wages. Nothing extravagant but a fair bit more than what most Kerr Company employees made.
All this ran through Rory Swann's mind as he considered his next words. Turning to look at his oldest friend and his new wife he fought back the surge of emotion that threatened to overwhelm him and continued to speak.
"… But we did. And ya know what? Sitting here with all you folks I guess maybe I shouldn't have been such a grumpy old cuss and just let him have all his little hopes and dreams cause now I'm surrounded by 'em and they're real."
"Here here!" Molly laughed as she raised her glass and the call echoed around the bay as many of the other townsfolk took up the toast. Swann waved them down after a moment and turned to meet Eddie and Molly's respective gazes.
"Eddie… Molly… you guys are family to me and I've never seen two people so happy. If I had a way with words I'd say something somethin' fancy right now but I don't so I guess I'll just say I love you guys and…" He cast an amused glance at Eddie. "… I've got a good feelin' about this."
Another chorus of "Here here's" went up around the room and Eddie stood up and gave his shorter friend a fierce hug. Molly stood as well and gave Swann a kiss on the cheek that turned his face a fiery red underneath his beard. Molly's smile was contagious though.
"That was great Rory. Thanks."
Swann's blush became even more pronounced.
"Aw it was nothin' Molly really."
The festivities continued for several hours and at one point Rory Swann found himself sitting at a table with Molly's older sister Lizzie, who was more commonly known as Marshal "Hard Ass" Pinton of the Blue Outlands district of terran settled Meinhoff. Getting into her late forties Lizzie could've passed for a woman half her age with her slender yet curvy form and bright hazel eyes. Her blonde hair was worn short, coming down just above her shoulders and she had worn lines on her face that betrayed her age. Tonight she wore a well-cut dress, an occurrence even more rare than Rory Swann in a suit. She wore it well though and despite her age she still cut a fine figure and more than once she'd had to remind men that there was a reason she had been so successful in her role as a district Marshall over the last twenty years, a fact that Rory Swann remembered all too well. Tonight however she had a broad smile on her face as she watched her younger sister dance with her new husband.
"Hell of a pair they make," the older Pinton sister remarked.
"They do at that Marshal," Rory agreed.
Lizzie eyed him critically.
"Come along Swann. We're practically family now. You might as well lighten up and call me Lizzie."
Rory eyed her warily for a moment, but gave a tentative smile and held out his hand.
"Will do Lizzie. And you can call me Rory."
Lizzie shook his offered hand, her grip strong. A wry grin played across her lips.
"Rory huh? Seem to recall meeting a fella named Rory about a year back. If memory serves I had to belt him across the face for getting too friendly with my backside."
Swann turned bright red and mumbled an apologetic reply. Elizabeth let loose one of her rare laughs. A pleasant sound that seemed out of place coming from the hardened marshal. Reaching over she slapped Rory on the back reassuringly.
"I'm just yanking your chain Rory. Relax." Leaning back she eyed him for a moment then turned her gaze on her sister. "Did they tell you?"
Rory followed her gaze out to the dancing and smiling Molly Burkey and felt a grin tug at his beard. "They did."
"They seem excited," Lizzie remarked. "I think parenthood will suite them."
Swann could only nod in agreement. Remembering when Eddie and Molly had found him in his office a few days ago and excitedly shared their news. Molly was pregnant, and Rory had never seen a happier pair of prospective parents. Taking his eyes of the dancing pair he looked at Lizzie thoughtfully.
"Well Lizzie since we're practically family and all what do ya say to a dance?"
Lizzie eyed him back before giving him a grin. She stood and extended her hand.
"Why the hell not? Though I'm warnin' you Swann if you slap my ass again I'll even out the other cheek."
Swan grinned back.
"Fair enough Marshal. I've been lookin' for someone to pop it back into place after the last time anyway."
With that they rose and moved out onto the makeshift dance floor. Swann awkwardly tried to avoid stepping on the tall Lizzie's toes and all the while Molly laughed cheerfully at the pair of them.
Life was good.