Part 3

New York

Home of Taro and family

"Welcome to our home," greeted Taro's wife Aiya.

Aiya was a pretty Japanese woman who still had plenty of black in her long hair, but their was also still plenty of thick strands of gray.

Taro, of course, had warned his wife that he was bringing two guests, so guestrooms could be prepared.

Aiya had greeted her husband enthusiastically making sure that he was really alright, before scolding him in Japanese. Taro had taken this with good grace, as he know he probably deserved it. Dave and Aaron had had to hold back the laughter, at the scolding that Taro's wife was giving him. Taro hadn't defended himself, as he knew he would lose and simply let his wife run down.

After Taro's wife had finished scolding him she had turned towards Dave and Aaron to thank them for saving her husband's life.

Both Dave and Aaron had accepted her thanks and said that Taro was a good friend of theirs and they wanted him to live a little longer. They had known he had a wife and eight children plus numerous grandchildren. The two of them were then shown to two bedrooms side-by-side.

"So what are your plans for New York?" asked Aiya.

"Nothing really," Dave answered. "We might see some of the sites while we're here. We've been to New York before, but it's been awhile and we never had a chance to see all the sites that the tourists go too."

"After that, we'll see. We'll stay out of your hair as much as possible," Aaron said.

"Don't be silly, Aaron-san," Aiya scolded him lightly. "You'll always be welcome here. You've been a good friend to my husband for years and the fact that you saved his life means I owe you a debt I can never repay. You saved him from possibly becoming a corpse or at least where he would've been more severely injured. The least Taro and I can do is offer you houseroom until you're ready to leave."

"I have to agree and that's something I've already told them," Taro said. "They'll always be welcome and they can stay as long as they like."

"Alright, alright," Dave said holding his hands up in surrender. "Aaron and I will stay for a few weeks at least before we move on.

"Let's just enjoy dinner and Dave and I can discuss what we want to do while we're here," Aaron said.

The four of them enjoyed dinner talking quietly together.

It was around 10 when Dave and Aaron retired for the night, as both had enjoyed the pleasant company so much that they hadn't wanted retire, but knew it was time to go to bed for the night. They knew that the Kurosawas wouldn't go to bed while they were still up and the couple were considerably older than they were.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~

"So what do you think about me introducing both David-san and Aaron-san to some of my female acquaintances?" Aiya asked her husband. "And that's only if they're not together. If they are they're not obvious about it."

Taro laughed heartily at that. "No, they are only best friends," Taro promised. "They met as young men. The reason I was laughing was they explained to me that they've had other people think they are together sexually and trying to explain to those people they aren't is often impossible. They've had a few problems over the years, because they are perceived as in a relationship, instead of just being the best of friends and brothers in every way."

"Ah," Aiya said understanding why her husband was laughing

"As for doing a dinner party, I don't know if that's a good idea or not Aiya-chan," Taro said seriusly. "I won't say they couldn't use a little female companionship permanently, but it is up to them, not us. Perhaps, all they need is each other. I'm sure they've had women in the past, just never found anyone to permanently settle down with. We don't want to offend them by assuming that they even want permanent female companionship. Perhaps, they are content with just their friendship."

Taro could guess why the two hadn't settled down, as it would take a special female to believe their story and it would have to be someone that they truly loved. Settling down would require a lifetime commitment and for his two friends that would be measured in centuries, not just decades. Taro was sure that neither Dave or Aaron would mind settling down if they found the right people, but considering how old they supposedly were this was not easy. It wasn't impossible of course, just hard to find the right kind of woman that would accept such an outrageous concept as immortality.

"I suppose. I just want to see them happy, because not only did they save your life, which I will always be grateful for, but because they're getting older and should have settled down long since," Aiya admitted. "They've got to be at least in their late 40s though they don't look it if that is the case."

Taro didn't bother to tell his wife how old his friends really were, as it was a secret he would take to his grave.

"We'll just have to leave things as they are, Aiya-chan," Taro said gently. "I know it's rather painful to see them still by themselves, without permanent companions, but not everybody settles down and neither Dave or Aaron are the type to do so unless they are truly in love. This might be why the two didn't accept staying with us, as they've had multiple invitations."

Aiya nodded at this, knowing it was true.

"They might very well have guessed that you would try to set them up and they wouldn't have wanted to offend you when they turned you down," Taro said. "By offending you they would've offended me too, which is likely why they stayed away, as they wouldn't have wanted to wreck our friendship."

Aiya sighed knowing everything her husband said was true. Taro's two friends might very well have avoided staying with the family in the past for the very reason her husband had stated. They were both intelligent men and they must've known that females in particular tended to meddle in other lives. They probably hadn't wanted to insult Taro and her by turning down female attention, even if it was done politely. She suspected that if they wanted to settle down they would do so and didn't need any help in finding a woman to do that with.

Aiya sighed and give in.

"Alright, fine, I'll stay out of it," Aiya said.

"Good, Aiya-chan," Taro said, hugging her gently. "It is for the best, trust me on that."

"I suppose so," Aiya said. Not that she entirely agreed, but she would stay out of it like she had promised her husband. "Are you going back to Chicago?"

"I have to, my dearest one, you know that," Taro said. "I am even more determined to see this project completed. It will help so many people Aiya-chan. It will give people decent jobs with decent pay and you know very well that the mob doesn't like that, as people who have hope won't do drugs or at least they are less likely to, as someone with no hope at all."

"At least hire a couple of bodyguards," Aiya begged.

"I already told, Dave-san and Aaron-san that I will not do that, as they made the same suggestion. They will only get in my way and likely prevent me accomplishing what I must."

Aiya sighed and gave in as she knew her husband was a stubborn man.

"You be careful, very careful. You've already nearly died once, before the project even got off the ground floor," Aiya tried.

"You know there are no guarantees in life," Taro told his wife. "I hope to live another 20 years with numerous grandchildren around me, but it might not be meant to be Aiya-chan. You said you accepted this when we got married over 30 years ago."

"I just don't want to loose you Taro-kun," Aiya admitted. "Hearing that you had been hurt, even if it was just a flesh wound, thanks to Aaron's intervention, scared me more than I've ever been scared in my life. I knew intellectually, that what you did to help the poor could be dangerous, since there are plenty of criminals that don't like that, but I never imagined somebody would try to kill you, before the project is even really in the beginning stages."

"Dave and Aaron also think that they were rather preemptive, and while they agree it might be the mob, it could also be another one of my many enemies. I have plenty like that that are less than honest. They want to build cheap and pocket the difference or they simply don't want to give people decent pay. The only trouble with that is when you do that then buildings don't last as long as they should when you use such shortcuts. Innocent people have been hurt in the past because less than honest people do shortcuts instead of doing it right."

Aiya knew this, so nodded. She knew enough about business to know her husband was right and she was proud of him for always doing the right thing, even if it was dangerous occasionally. She was so proud of him for refusing to be bribed by those who wanted to use cheaper materials just to make more money, materials that wouldn't last as long. That was probably why the mob or whoever it had been had gone after him in the first place. They had to know that her husband was simply too honest to accept a bribe. She knew that Taro came from a poor family and he had escaped from poverty with a scholarship to a good college, where he had excelled in business. It had been years of hard work and a lot of overtime, but now they were among the richest families in New York. She didn't care about that though, so long as her husband came back to her.

The two of them went to bed and fell right asleep in each others arms.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~

"I tell you Dave, I recognized her," Aaron told his friend. Aaron was waving his hands in the air to emphasize his words. It was several weeks later. Dave and Aaron had been out exploring New You and they had just gotten back from such a trip and were sitting in Dave's room in a little seating area that was part of the suite.

The two of them were just getting back from their day of sightseeing and Aaron was all hot and bothered. He could have sworn he had seen Berenice in the crowd. Really, all he had seen was a profile and the back of a dark head before she was gone. However, it had struck Aaron like lightning. He had been so sure that it was his Berenice comeback to him.

"I'm not saying you're wrong, Aaron," Dave said calmly placing a friendly hand on his arm. "Just finding this lady, that you're so sure is your former wife, is going to be difficult at best. Do you know how many dark haired ladies live in New York?"

"Thousands," Aaron said dispiritedly, slumping down in his chair. "I can also be wrong and she might just look like my wife from so long ago. A lot of people share similar facial features and the same color hair or eyes. It just struck me, you know? I have never seen anyone that resembled my wife so closely before now. Some have shared the same eye color or the shape of them. Some females have had her nose, and there's been a few that have had the shape of her jaw and her lips, full and luscious, but I know these are just common features that show up from time to time."

"Or your wife could very well be reincarnated and just waiting for you to discover her," Dave suggested.

Aaron had never been sure if he believed in reincarnation, but he had never seen anyone so closely resembling his wife that had died of influenza so long ago. It could very well be coincidence or it could be finally his wife come back to him. To have his wife by his side again...

"I want you to be honest with me. Do you think it was Berenice? Or is it just a coincidence that she looks so much like the woman I loved so many centuries ago now. I only got the briefest of glimpses of her face, so I know very well I could be wrong," Aaron asked his friend.

Dave knew despite their tight friendship that Aaron had never forgotten his wife or his children that had died so long ago. Nor should he be expected to, though he didn't often mention them, as it was simply to painful. He tried to answer his friend as honestly as he could.

"It's quite possible that your wife has been reincarnated," Dave said. "Immortals, at least if one was born that way, often believe in reincarnation, though those who are made don't necessarily. However, despite this age of technology it's not going to be easy to find someone, if that's even possible. New York alone has millions of people and it's possible she could be a visitor here. It's also very possible that this is her home, but even if it is, it would take years maybe decades to find her, since we don't even know her name, first or last. She is more than likely mortal, which means she will age just like they all do, just like Taro and his wife have, so spending the next few few decades looking for her would be fruitless and a gigantic waste of time. Besides, if she was immortal we tend to do a lot of traveling, as you know."

"So what can we do?" Aaron asked anxiously.

"Well, let's think about this logically," Dave suggested. "We don't need to go around like chickens with our heads cut off or like Chicken Little that told everyone that the sky was falling," Dave said with a small smile.

Aaron chuckled at that for he had seen the movie and it had been very amusing.

"I say we be seen around New York for the next week or two at least. If you were meant to find each other, if this really is your wife that passed away so long ago, then you will bump into each other again, because it will be fated. I don't want you to be disappointed if that doesn't happen, or that it doesn't turn out that she's your long dead wife come back to you," Dave cautioned his friend.

"I might be a little disappointed if that happens, but I'm half expecting that this lady is going to turn out, just to look like my Berenice. It is genetically possible for someone to look nearly exactly like an ancestor, no matter how distant that relationship. It's also quite possible that some of my wife's nieces or cousins or even her sister survived the influenza epidemic bringing the family into the future by having children each generation until today. She also had at least one brother, though she didn't talk much about her family, which was very strange for the time actually, as fathers usually had to give permission to marry one of their daughters and I was so dirt poor I doubt he would've done so no matter how much we loved each other."

"He might have been dead," Dave suggested. "People died really early in those days, even those that were in the best of health."

"That's possible actually," Aaron considered thoughtfully. "Still, I should've at least met the rest of her family."

"She might've just have broken off from the rest of her family because her parents might have wanted her to marry someone that she didn't even know, except vaguely. He might've been cruel or 20 years older than she was, as that happened often back in those days."

"She certainly had a very strong will, strong enough to do exactly what you suggest," Aaron smiled in remembrance of his late wife. "If that's what she did she never said anything to me. I just know I met her when I was going to the market to get a few basic supplies, that I had to get to know her better. I had been living on my own for years before I met Berenice. The first time I saw her it was like being struck in the back of the head with a hard blow. I was awestruck by her beauty. I just had to get to know this lovely lady, though I was well aware that she might have a boyfriend or fiancé, or even a husband."

"What would you have done if she had?" Dave asked curiously.

"I probably would've mooned for her from afar," Aaron admitted causing Dave to chuckle. "I did pretty well living by myself, but I wanted a wife and children eventually. Luckily, for me, she was basically living on her own, though she told me that she had siblings. I suppose I should've wondered about it at the time, as females just didn't do that, live on their own I mean, not unless they were a widow, but it never even occurred to me back then. Times were often hard, but we loved each other so much."

"You have to remember that times were very different back then," Dave reminded Aaron who nodded.

"Yeah, I know times are so different right now, then when I was born and even more different from when you were," Aaron admitted. "Now, I don't have to ask her father for her hand, if she is my love come back to me. Her father may very well be dead for all I know."

"Let's not worry about that right now for us we need to learn her identity," Dave said. "We can worry about the details once we find her."

"What will happen to you if this woman turns out to be my loss love?" Aaron asked suddenly. "Honestly, we are brothers in every way and I don't want to lose that connection."

"I don't see why we can't travel together if this woman does turn out to be the wife you lost. I promise I'll give you plenty of alone time when you need it," Dave said calmly with a smile. "I won't abandon you, I promise, as you have been my companion and my best friend for far too long. Let's think about that later though, as this lady might just turn out to be a close duplicate of your former wife Berenice."

"Well, at least I have money this time," Aaron mused. "I won't have to struggle to pay the bills, like I did when I was originally born. You've helped me build a fortune that's enough to last me probably for the next 500 years, even if this woman and I have 100 children. You've taught me how to invest. I always worried where my family's next meal was coming from back then, you know. Finding work was hard, especially steady work, since we didn't live in a big city."

"Let's worry about that later," Dave said. "If you find out that this woman is your wife reincarnated then I'll be very happy for you and hopefully, I can find someone for myself."

"Well, as you said that's for later and I think it's time to have some lunch. I'm starving!"

"You are always hungry," Dave chuckled. "It's a good thing you exercise like you do or you'd be extremely overweight."

"Call it a holdover from my near starvation conditions when I was originally born. It was hard to feed my family and myself and I often went hungry. I certainly never got enough to keep a body of my size from being half starved all the time."

"Trying to take better care of your family when there's hardly any money is always hard my friend," Dave said soberly. "Even if back then, it was mostly bartering, especially among the lower class."

The two men fell silent and headed for lunch, which they knew would be soon, as they'd been here for over a week and knew when the meals were. Lunch was usually in the kitchen, because there was no one present, except the servants, Taro's wife and themselves, so there was no reason to set places in the big dining room unless you wanted to be formal all the time. Once he and Aaron had assured Taro's wife that they didn't mind informal meals, they didn't use the dining room for lunch at least.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~