August 2027: A Truly Marvellous Monday.

Pam closed her eyes then for a moment, then accepted the inevitable. "I suppose that I could give writing the column a try; perhaps have me advertised as just a guest contributor until I am certain I could do it every month…"

She heard a whoop of delight from Blaine almost at once, followed by the laughter of both Carole and Isabelle, and a sigh of disapproval at her son's behaviour from Kurt. She opened her eyes, and saw that he was shaking his head and rolling his eyes as her son tried to master an expression on his face which was the perfect crossover of excitement and innocence…

That was when it hit her.

She could see them.

She closed her eyes and tried to decide which option she wanted; to see them or not.

She reopened her eyes and what she had seen just a moment ago was still there. Her jaw dropped open as she just stared at the two angels that were sitting side by side on the window seat. She opened her mouth, and at first nothing came out. Carole noticed that, and wondered what was happening, but before she could speak, Pam tried again and succeeded.

"You still like wearing bowties… I always thought that they looked so sweet and perfect on you, but your father did not approve of them at all. Maybe that knowledge was why I allowed you to keep on wearing them and buying so many of them; the fact that he didn't approve…"

Carole gasped then, as across the room on the window seat Blaine's expression moved from shock to absolute delight, as he realised that finally his mom could see him again…

"You look so young; I take it that once you become an angel, you cease to age?" Pam continued. "That actually makes this all the more emotional for me, because you are still the young man that I remember, the boy that I thought I might lose forever after that awful dance… You came back from that, but then I lost myself and then I lost you later anyway, when that awful boy orchestrated the death of the young man that you loved so dearly, and you fell apart. I failed you then, and Cooper too; I should have been there for you both, but I was too far down the rabbit hole of alcoholism at the time, and I'm ashamed to admit it, but the event barely registered at the time…"

Pam's eyes were filling with tears, and as Carole put an arm around her, Blaine spoke to her softly. "That is all in the past now mom. The truth is that my death was part of some great heavenly plan and could not be avoided; I was actually supposed to die in the alley with Kurt, but someone made a mistake, and an event happened that spooked the posse that were charged with beating us both to death. I lived, but my soul was dead; Cooper has told you what I was like those last days, how horrible I became. For that reason, I was allowed to end my life at my own hand, because it corrected the mistake and put everything back on track…"

"I must confess that I was wondering a little how you could be an angel when you committed suicide, as I was brought up to be told that it was a mortal sin that would deny you a place in heaven…"

"It usually is, and I was only granted an exemption because it corrected the error," repeated Blaine a little. Pam nodded, and wondered just how extensive the plan that her son mentioned was, who was in charge of it, and how much of her own future was already mapped out in it…

"Now I see that Kurt is as fashionable as ever," she went on, and then she noticed them. "Wait, is that a wedding ring I see on both your fingers? You did manage to get married then in the afterlife?" The two young men nodded, and Pam grinned. "Well, that is absolutely wonderful! When your father heard that you were engaged to Kurt, he flew into a terrible rage, told me that when he discovered where and when the wedding was to be, he would storm in there, tell everyone that you were mentally ill, and have you placed in a facility… I hated him at that moment, but I was too scared to act. Knowing that you are married also explains something else to me; Cooper chose his new surname to be the same as your married name, didn't he? That is the ultimate tribute in so many ways… Speaking of your brother, can we keep this to ourselves for a little while?"

Before anyone could ask her why she wanted to keep it to herself for a bit, and before Kurt could point out that Blaine would tell his brother that evening probably as he was useless at keeping secrets like that, they all felt a draught from the direction of the door. Their heads all turned in that direction and they saw a figure walking in. Pam regarded the angel that stood there, and said, "You must be Wes, the judging angel himself. It is nice to finally meet you, as I should have done so when you were alive. I must take this opportunity to thank you for taking such good care of Blaine at Dalton; in my opinion, you were the perfect thing to have happened, just what he needed at the time. At that point in his life, you were more of a brother to him than Cooper was…"

"It was my honour and privilege to take care of him; he had a talent that needed to be nurtured and brought out, and in doing so, he became a great boon to the Warblers… I have to be honest; I wasn't being entirely philanthropic when I took such good care of him. To the purpose of my arrival; I came to point out to him that in all of his excitement that you can finally see him, he has forgotten one thing. He has forgotten what you will want to see subconsciously, and that is his wings…"

Blaine smiled then, and let his wings unfold; moments later Pam's tears were flowing freely, and Carole was hugging her close, her own eyes moist, as were Isabelle's for that matter. "I cried the first time that I saw Finn's wings too," Carole said softly. "When I first saw him, he was still my son, still my child; the moment he unfurled his wings, he became an angel. Even though he has been gone for a long time, the wings are the sign that they are really no longer mortal, but raised to something more heavenly…"

Pam knew exactly what Carole meant; seeing those wings had confirmed that Blaine was not her little boy anymore and had altered in a most wonderful way. She was slightly confused though, as she had always expected an angel's wings to be pure white; then again, the teachings of the church when she was a girl had also told her that angels wore robes, had halos, and were usually playing harps…

"Robes are quite impractical really for all the work that we do; you only need so many harp players, even in the heavenly realms; and although we do have halos, we keep them to be worn only on very special occasions…" said Wes, which made Pam jump a little and then stare at him in wonder. "Oh, don't worry, I'm not psychic, it is just what everyone wonders when they first see one of us. Now, I think maybe I should show you my wings next, just to confirm what you have also wondered about…"

Of course, the three angels could not stay forever, as they had work to do; indeed, their departure was hastened by another draught, which heralded the appearance of Seth, who had an urgent memo that he had to give to Wes. His arrival was even more poignant for Pam as she had seen him from time to time in his final days in New York; had watched as his body had been taken over by MND. Now he was young and healthy once more, and she rejoiced in that. Before they left, however, Pam had a question to ask; she turned to Wes, and said, "Blaine made a suggestion that Kurt should ghostwrite my new column in Vogue for me every month. Would he have the time to do that, given all his other duties? Indeed, would that even be allowed?"

Wes smiled, and said, "If he wanted to do it, then I am sure that we could find time for him to do so."

"Well, in that case, if he is willing, then I will accept Isabelle's offer with Kurt as my writer, if she is happy with that."

"I have absolutely no issue with it at all; it will be a pleasure to have Kurt back on the staff. We can arrange for you to send in your column by e-mail and that way Gideon will not wonder what is going on. He is not one of the blessed circle, so to speak, although his husband is, which does tend to make for complications! What I suggest is that when you get back to New York we can have you come into the office and make it all official. We can do a proper interview, have a photo session, and of course, let you have a tour of the closet…"


As Pam accepted her new role, Burt was making his way through the airport terminal at Heathrow in the direction of the plane that would convey him and the Sterling-Duval family back to the United States. He had Wes by his side as he walked, the boy animated by the thought of getting back to his home and by the fact that he was going to be the star of the class at school when the new term began and the perennial topic of what they had done during the summer was discussed. No matter what other excitements and adventures his classmates had enjoyed, his attendance at the Coronation would sweep all else aside. Wes had confided all of this to Burt but had then assured him that he would not be boastful about it, nor would he scoff at the things that others had done.

"I know that one of the other boys in my class was going to visit his grandparents in Hawaii, and they live right next to a volcano; that would be really exciting too, especially as my dad says that it is an active one with lots of steam and lava coming out of it. That would be equally as thrilling as seeing King Charles III being crowned…"

Burt had nodded in agreement to that statement, although if he had been given the option of the two, he would choose London every time; his visit had been enjoyable and memorable, even with all the unfortunate business with Mr Anderson. He would be having a conversation with the President about all that had taken place whilst he was in London representing the nation the following day at the Oval Office, and he knew already what he wanted to say; that something needed to be done once and for all about Jonathan Anderson.

It had been bad enough that he had made the lives of his two sons, and his wife for that matter, miserable for so many years, but this time he had gone too far, almost damaging the reputation of his entire nation in his quest for revenge. His passport had been taken from him and Burt fully intended to tell the President that in his honest opinion, it should never be returned to him. He also wanted a covert investigation into the man's activities as well, starting with seeing if he still had connections to the sort of conversion camps Nick Duval's father had threatened to send his son to for a start; then they could see what other intolerant right-wing rubbish he was involved with…

He had also come to the airport that morning with a hope that he would have an opportunity to talk to Nick in private at some juncture. Although he knew that initially everyone that was aware of the plot with Jonathan Anderson had wanted to keep the fact that his father's name had been pulled in to the conspiracy from Nick, after much consideration Burt had decided that it would be a grave mistake to do so. His sister was aware, as indeed was Cooper and that meant that the risk of an unguarded moment leading to a slip up was much too great. Burt was certain that the brunet could handle the news of his father's unwitting involvement; he would not like it one bit, but he would like it even less to find out eventually and realise that he had been kept in the dark by both his sister and worse still, Trent.

The chance had come in the lounge; Burt had watched as Nick got up and left his husband and son engrossed in something on the blond's phone and headed over to a quiet corner of the vast space. Burt had followed quietly, but as he rounded the corner that Nick had disappeared round, he was shocked to see Nick swallowing some sort of pill, obviously thinking he was unobserved by anyone he knew. He had not thought to glance around before he took it, but as he washed it down, he saw Burt standing there. He went bright red and looked at once both guilty and flustered all at once. That made the congressman very worried indeed, until without meeting his eyes, Nick spoke…

"It's a sleeping pill, nothing else. I didn't get all that much sleep over the last few nights and I went to see a pharmacist; they assured me that this is a very mild tablet, works within an hour, and once it does, will give me around seven, maybe eight hours undisturbed sleep. That is long enough to cover the duration of our flight home."

"I didn't think for a moment it was anything untoward, but it still seems a little extreme. Surely if you are tired then you would drift off naturally without any assistance…"

Nick sighed then, and very quietly said, "Please don't tell Jeff but the real reason that I obtained the sleeping pill is because I find that long-haul flights are giving me a headache every single time, and I felt that maybe if I was asleep…"

Burt could see the look in Nick's eyes as he admitted the truth, the pleading in his gaze that Burt remain silent. "Well if that is the case then taking a pill to make you sleep does seem like a sensible idea. I take it that you actually told the pharmacist that was the issue, and they gave you it solely to assist with that?"

"Yes, I went to see them on Friday, before I wasn't sleeping on top of the rest."

"Very well, your secret is safe with me," Burt replied, and Nick managed to smile again, and relax. That made what Burt had to say next seem a little cruel to the older man. "Now, I followed you because I need to tell you something that Jeff does not need to know, but you do. I am afraid that you will not like what I have to say, and I should also point out that the fact that you are only being told now is entirely down to the decision I made at the time the issue emerged…"

As he settled down in his seat on the plane beside Wes, Burt contemplated what Nick had told him in confidence after he had informed him about Jonathan's plot and how his father's name had been used as part of it. His first sign that there was something else going on had been the brunet's response to his words, which was, "Is that all? That is nothing compared to the other stuff that Trent has been keeping quiet about over the weekend!" Nick had then proceeded to inform Burt all about the packages that could have ruined the reputations of himself, Sebastian and worst of all, Jeff; how he had personally been responsible for embroiling the Princess of Wales in the situation, when he had asked for her help in stopping the plot from hitting its targets in the United Kingdom…

"Thankfully it is all sorted now," Nick had concluded in hushed tones. "That is largely down to the fact that Thad found the initial letter that was sent to me by the lady that was responsible for sending out the DVDs. In the circumstances, what she was requesting was not all that bad. Had the mailman been more observant and delivered the letter to the right house and had Thad then opened it and acted on it on the day that it arrived, then all of the intrigue could have been avoided."

Burt shook his head at how the misdirection of one individual letter from Mexico could have sparked a crisis that had pulled in British royalty. He then realised that had it not been for the filming of an episode of a certain sitcom on location in London, the crisis could still have been averted. If Adam had been at home, then he would have spotted the rogue letter and passed it to Thad… Of course, the English actor would never know that…

As he looked around the cabin, Burt noticed that on his other side, Nick was already asleep, his last act before dozing off having been to fasten his seatbelt so as to avoid the attention of the cabin crew when they checked them. Burt smiled, and then glanced to his other side, where beyond Wes, Jeff was sitting, blissfully unaware that his husband was asleep. He smiled, and wondered if it would be possible to put Nick's seat into the lie flat position once the plane had taken off; he would ask the cabin crew later, as now they were preparing for the moment of departure…


As the flight to JFK took off from Heathrow, in Paris Adam and Lawrence were passing through the passport control desk at the Gare du Nord. They had already enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in their hotel room that morning, sat outside on the balcony that gave them panoramic views over the city, the sounds of the morning having grown in intensity as the sun rose higher in the sky. The sounds of a city in the morning were not new to either of them, used as they were to the sounds of Manhattan, and in Adam's case, of London, but here in Paris the sirens of the cars of the gendarmerie were very different to those of the police in those other two metropolises.

Both had enjoyed every moment of their weekend and it had just cemented the love that they had for each other. It had been all of the small gestures and the little touches that had made it special for them; as they had walked through the moonlit winding streets of Montmartre on their way back to the hotel the previous night, they had heard snatches of love songs coming from the little bistros that they passed, and also from the open windows of the apartment buildings. They had walked along hand in hand, not worried that they would attract negative attention, as in Paris in August, everyone seemed to be in love, whether they were young or old…

On a whim Adam had suddenly pulled his fiancé into the doorway of an apartment building and had kissed him passionately, until the concierge of the building had appeared and had begun to chide them – then she had recognised Adam and called him by his character name. A moment later, trying not to giggle too much, Lawrence had found himself taking a photograph of Adam with the lady on her cellphone, an image that she then assured them both in her broken English that her grandchildren would be most envious of. That turn of events had shown Lawrence only one thing, and that was that his future husband was famous far beyond the bounds of the English-speaking world.

On arriving back at the hotel, he had turned on the television whilst Adam was in the bathroom and had discovered from the program guide that the sitcom was actually airing at that moment. He changed to the relevant channel and discovered that it had been dubbed into French. Adam came back into the room to see himself on the screen, but the fact that he was not talking with his own voice was more than a little unnerving…

If the UK Border Agency staff on duty in Paris recognised him then they did not say anything, and they made their way into the lounge to wait, where once again they were left alone. "Well, I am glad that I can still be incognito in here at least," remarked Adam, as they waited for the platform number of their train to be shown on the departure board. "I always feel a little guilty when I am being mobbed by fans when I am out with you. Not everyone would be quite so tolerant of it…"

"I knew what I was getting into when we first met, even if it wasn't on the same scale then. I knew that there would always be a Broadway fan that would come up and ask for an autograph wherever we went. It might be a heck of a lot more now, and in every corner of the globe it seems, but I know one thing; you love me. People only mob you the way they do because you are so talented. I'm proud of your success, and heck, if I have to share you with a few million people, then so be it. I will always be the one you come home to at night…"

Adam blushed at the words of his fiancé and countered back quickly. "I might be a talented actor, but you are the one with the real skills; you are the one that will be saving lives each and every day of your working life. In my opinion, the people that do what you do deserve just as much, if not more, adulation from the world."

"That is as maybe, but I am more than happy to do what I do in private…"

"Your modesty is actually one of the things that I most adore about you. Shall we just settle for me saying that I am in awe of you and all that you do every day, and I still will be when we are both old and grey, and I am playing all of those grandfather roles on the television, in films and on stage, if I still have a career at all."

"You will definitely have a career; I can actually see you as King Lear, or as one of those two old men in a traditional version of Waiting for Godot. Don't get me wrong, both Sebastian and Russell Tovey were good in those roles, but I think that you might perform it better in years to come. Maybe you could do it with Sam and remind people of your triumphant sitcom past…"

At that moment, before Adam could think of a way to reply to that, their train was announced and they made their way to it, taking their seats in the same class of coach and being offered drinks as soon as they sat down once more. They were then handed the menu, which this time was of very British food, which made Adam laugh at the contrast to the very French menu they had been given on Saturday coming to Paris. As the train moved off, he also began to think about what lay in store for them that evening, when they would no doubt face a barrage of questions during dinner at his parents. At least Sam had been invited to join them, which would take some of the attention of them…

As for Sam, he had spent the previous day on his own, a personal choice he had made. He had been invited to join Artie and Kitty for lunch, but he had declined, having spent much of Saturday with them. Instead, he had decided to explore the city on his own, just as Peter Smythe had done. He had decided that he wanted to experience British life and that was how he had ended up in the stands at The Oval, watching a cricket match. He concluded that it wasn't quite like baseball, as someone had once said to him in an off the cuff remark. Yes, they had runs, there was pitching (although it was referred to as bowling) and there was someone that did much the same as the catcher standing behind the man that was batting…

However, the pace was much slower, there were only ever two batsmen in play, as the runs took place back and forth in one line, not a quadrant, there was no music playing and in the stands, the spectators were watching play, not just gorging themselves endlessly on food from concession stands.

What helped him to understand the came was the fact that there had actually been a scene in the show a few months back where Darrin and Clive had discussed the game, and to ensure that there was no adverse comment, both he and Adam had read up about the rules of the game, as even the Englishman was a little hazy on some of the terminology and the actual course of play. He knew that he would be recognised, and thus he ended up in the company of a group of young men, old schoolfriends it seemed; they had been most impressed with his level of knowledge of the game. After the match ended, he had decline to join them in the pub, and he had taken the tube back into the city.

Alighting from the Northern Line at Leicester Square, he had strolled through Covent Garden and the area known as Theatreland; it surprised him that virtually every theatre was closed, as it would surely have been a busy day for audiences. He knew that it probably dated back to a time when the influence of the church was much stronger, but it seemed odd that only a few shows had challenged that, and that back on Broadway, in a nation where religion was much stronger, every show played to full houses on the day in question. It also seemed odd to him that the big supermarkets and other stores all traded for very short hours, but he knew that too was down to the same church influence. He was glad that Lawrence had had the foresight to lay in a stock of food for him…

He called Rachel in the early evening, knowing that he would catch her just before her performance began. He had not had the opportunity to call her the previous day; in any case, she had not seemed all that interested in the Coronation when he had spoken to her earlier in the week. Thus, it came as little surprise to him when their entire conversation ended up being dominated by what she had been doing and how her two performances had gone down the previous day. Sam did not get upset as some men might have done when she talked about how pleased Jesse had been with her performances too, despite the audiences being smaller than normal for a Saturday at the matinee; she seemed oblivious as to why that might have been the case.

Then she told him that Jesse had been shortlisted for a membership of the committee that helped to decide the nominations for the Tony Awards on an annual basis. "Of course, it is such an honour to be so highly regarded amongst your peers that you are given the opportunity to judge them all. I know that it is only a matter of time before I am asked to join the committee, but until then I am just really pleased for him."

"Yeah, I am sure it will, and I agree, Jesse has certainly made a name for himself as a director, creator and performer," replied Sam, whilst secretly thinking that membership of the committee was no honour at all, as it meant that he could no longer be nominated for a Tony Award himself in any category, as there would be allegations of nepotism. It also meant there was much less chance of his wife being nominated too, for exactly the same reasons. She would work that out for herself eventually, but it wasn't in his interest or anybody else's for that matter to tell her that yet; he suspected Santana might though if Jesse was actually elected.

"He is also writing another show just now, and of course, he intends to cast me as the female lead. It is a musical based on the life of Joan of Arc. He has already run the concept past a few of the big names in Broadway production, and according to him, they are on fire with enthusiasm over the idea; just burning to take a stake in it…"

Sam had to stifle the urge to laugh at that point and made an excuse to end the call so he could let out a guffaw. He did not know which was funnier; the exact words she had just used or the fact that she did not even see the irony in them…

On Monday morning he was up reasonably early for breakfast before he headed across town for a brief meeting with Ms Kudrow at her hotel. They would discuss the upcoming filming schedule once they returned to New York and the future direction of a couple of story arcs before they settled down to watch the rough cut of the scene they had shot on The Mall on Friday, both agreed it was perfect and there was no need to reshoot anything. That done, he had not been able to stop himself telling her what Rachel had said to him verbatim the night before…

Once she had stopped laughing, Ms Kudrow had become slightly more serious. "If they are really going for historical accuracy, then I fear your wife is a little too mature for the part, as Joan of Arc died at the age of 19. Then there is the fact that she is a national hero to the French, who are easily offended… Just how good is Rachel at a French accent?"

Sam thought for a moment, then said, "Honestly? I think that she would be to a French accent what Dick Van Dyke was to a cockney one…" Ms Kudrow laughed then, so he paused. Before continuing, "I fear she would be like the policeman in that old British sitcom that Adam is so fond of and got us all watching on set; the one about the French resistance in the Second World War…"

"If it turns out that Rachel is the female equivalent of Officer Crabtree in 'Allo, 'Allo!, then please book me a seat for the opening night. Not at the front, because I can't promise that I wouldn't be laughing hysterically every time she opened her mouth…"

Sam nodded, because the more he thought about it, the more he would be sitting there laughing too…

With the words of Ms Kudrow in his head, he headed in the direction of Foyles bookshop and managed with the help of the staff to find a book that was both a history and biography of the lady in question. He then added an audiobook French language course, which claimed to be easy to grasp, swift to learn and better still, leave you with an accent like a native. He then recalled that Cooper had spent time with the Austrian delegation at the UN to perfect his accent as Captain Von Trapp, so maybe Nick could find someone patient and understanding in the French delegation to teach Rachel. He decided too that he would say that he had bought the audiobook so that he could learn French, but would leave it lying around, knowing that Rachel would use it to when she thought nobody was observing her.

On arriving back at the apartment, he went to the website indicated in the language course and was pleased to see that he could download the lessons on a tablet or smartphone; he did just that with the first lesson and with his headphones inserted into his tablet, he started it up. It kept him occupied as he packed his bags ready for their trip home the next day. He was in the middle of a conversation about the weather when Adam and Lawrence walked back in, both initially confused as to what exactly Sam was up to…

He explained, left Adam in hysterics when he repeated Rachel's words to him, and then returned to his packing; Adam and Lawrence did the same, although they had less to do. They were booked onto an early afternoon flight, so they did not need to be up too early. With that done, they made their way across town towards London Bridge station, from where they caught the train to Adam's home village, where his father was waiting in the car for them outside the station.

As they drove the short distance to the house, Mr Crawford asked them about the shooting of the show, and about the trip to Paris. Adam knew that he was doing so now as his son would be wanting to have a long conversation with his grandmother. Adam had considered pretending he was unaware of her intentions and announcing at dinner that he would be filming for the show in Las Vegas for the next fortnight; not an issue as Lawrence was going to be on a medical secondment up in Maine at the same time. However, when he had run it past his fiancé, he had told him that he would not go along with it, and that he needed to face the issue head on and confront her with her audacity…

After greeting his mother at the front door, Adam headed straight for the sitting room, and as he entered he greeted Joan with the words, "I hope that all your documents are in order and that you have a good book packed, as Lawrence is going back to day shifts and I am working every day of the week you are coming over."

"That isn't what you told your mother two days ago; you told her that you had three days of shooting once you were back in New York, and then a fortnight off. I doubt that your Ms Kudrow changed the schedule whilst you were in Paris, and even if she has, I am sure that she will understand that I have come a very long way…"

"She will, but the fact remains that you should have asked first if it was okay before you went out and booked flights!" said Adam firmly.

"And have you and your father make up dozens of excuses why I shouldn't come? No, this way was much better. Right, whilst I have your attention, I have prepared a list of all the things I want to see from a guidebook they had in the public library…"

Adam sighed, then groaned as he saw the length of the list. Meanwhile, Lawrence watched from the doorway and tried not to giggle. Joan was a strong woman and he loved her so much for it…