"Can I get you a drink?" Dave offered speaking to Alex.
"Sure a brandy would be good," Alex said.
"Coming up," Dave said going over to where the bar was and getting a clean glass before pouring a dark liquid into it. Dave didn't bother to ask the others what they wanted Alex noticed. It was curious, but that didn't mean that Dave wasn't very busy for the next few minutes, as he poured the other drinks and delivered them very professionally. Dave obviously knew what everybody preferred to drink except for her and so didn't have to ask anyone else. He even poured two more drinks and set them in place, one beside Aaron and the other where he was sitting and Alex took that to mean that the drinks were for Jazz and Shonda who were still busy in the kitchen.
Of course, he would know what kind of drink his wife preferred but as for everyone else...Alex supposed that since the families were close it wasn't so surprising that Dave knew everyone's preferences for after dinner drinks. That was the logical explanation.
The two ladies finally came in Shonda carrying small dessert bowls and the silverware while Jazz had the desert and a stack of napkins.
Shonda put a bowl before each person and then Jazz with efficiency put some banana pudding in each bowl.
Alex noticed the teamwork between the two women, which told her that they had done the same sort of thing many times before.
"Everybody dig in," Jazz said once spoons had been passed out.
Everybody dug in to the banana pudding and Alex enjoyed hers very much. It was probably the best banana pudding she'd ever had and she wasn't sure what made it so different. Jazz had apparently added something extra to the recipe, but what that was Alex couldn't identify.
"Delicious as always sweetie," Dave said once he had finished his, even licking the spoon until it was clean.
"Yes, it was very good Jazz," Aaron agreed. "It was a great day when I met Shonda, but also excellent in another way when I learned her best friend was a baker."
"One of the best bakers I've ever known," Shonda said loyally.
"So I take it you to of known each other for a long time," Alex spoke up.
"Since we could walk," Shonda answered.
"We grew up in the same town, were the same age and went to the same schools," Jazz added.
"So where did you grow up?" Alex asked.
"Oh, it was just a small town," Jazz said. "Around 10,000 people."
"Moonlight Gorge," Shonda added her tone reminiscent. Her eyes were soft, as she remembered where she and Jazz had grown-up.
"It's kind of curious that you both moved in New York," Alex said with curiosity on her face.
"Not really," Shonda denied. "I run an antique store and I always knew I'd make more money in a big city but couldn't leave Moonlight Gorge until my father passed, as he was ill and he needed me. I promised him before he died that I would keep Walter's Antiques running for a long time. I'm not one to brag, but I have managed to do that and quite well I might add. I think dad would be quite proud that I have managed to keep it running, as it's been in the family for generations."
"As for me, I owned a bakery in Moonlight Gorge, but I passed that on to someone in the family, as like Shonda I always knew I could make more money in a bigger city and once my parents passed away there was no reason for me to stay around. My oldest brother Brian inherited the house I grew up in and even Keith found a girl to marry."
"Youngest brother," Perry told her softly and Alex nodded in understanding.
"Yes, Keith was the baby of the family," Jazz agreed having heard Perry's comment to Alex.
What Jazz didn't say was that all of them had had to leave Moonlight Gorge before people realized that they hadn't aged a day in decades.
"Now we have something serious just discuss with you Alex," Dave begin after she had finished her banana pudding and even scraped the sides to get the little bit that remained.
"Why do all of you suddenly look so serious?" Alex said looking at the Hotchners and the Rossis and then at Perry who looked just as serious and was that just a hint of worry Alex thought, as she studied Perry's expression and saw the flash of worry in his green eyes, eyes so much like his mother's before it disappeared.
"You see Alex, there is something rather unusual about our family," Perry began.
Alex listened, as Perry explained about immortality and magic and her mind didn't want to accept what she was hearing. She noticed that the other four adults in the room were nodding along with Perry's explanation not looking at all disbelieving.
"We can demonstrate, as I know seeing for yourself will stop the disbelief," Shonda said seriously worry in her green eyes. Worry for her son, Alex suddenly realized in a blinding moment of insight. It was probably important that she accept Perry's explanation and if she didn't she could imagine that Perry would likely be miserable.
"I've got it mom," Perry told his mother and simply flicked his wrist until a blue light appeared over his right shoulder.
Alex stared at the blue orb and tentatively touched it. When it didn't burn her finger she took it in her hand.
"What..." Alex began the disbelief in her voice obvious to everyone in the room.
"Witch light," Jazz said speaking for the first. "It's basically a flashlight except one produced by magic."
"A witch light is very simple magic and every magical child can produce one by the time they're five or so," Shonda added producing her own light. "Perry produced one by the time he was three, which is really early, but it does happen."
Shonda's tone was proud.
"As for the immortality we can demonstrate," Perry said.
"How?" Alex asked immediately.
"Just like the lady's magic it's fairly simple," Aaron said. "We simply cut ourselves usually on the back of the hand and it will of course, heal in a few seconds."
Alex instinctively wanted to protest, but something prevented her. What this family was suggesting was impossible, but on the other hand, she had seen Perry produce a little globe of light out of nowhere and then his mother had done the same, which also should've been impossible. There had been nothing that could have produced that globe of light in Perry's hand or Shonda's since they had both been empty and she had watched both lights form out of nothingness. Yes, this was a very technological time, but still Alex couldn't come up with an explanation for those globes of light just appearing unless it had been, as Perry had told her, magic.
"I'll do the demonstration son. I doubt Alex wants to see you cut yourself until she knows that you'll heal really fast. Telling her we do and her actually seeing one of us heal are two totally different things," Aaron told Perry who nodded.
"As that old saying goes, seeing is believing," Dave said by way of agreement.
Alex said nothing but watched as Perry's father took the knife that his wife handed him and also watched, as he cut himself on the back of the hand deeply enough that he would've needed to run a healing wand over it several times, over several days and then in between treatments wrap it up until it had healed completely.
Alex watched in disbelief as Aaron's hand immediately healed and the wound was gone in under 10 seconds. Aaron flexed his fingers to show his hand was back to normal and Alex saw the bones in his fingers and the backside of the hand flex at the motion. Aaron showed no signs of continued pain and simply wiped off the blood on the back of his hand with one of the paper napkins already sitting on the table next to his empty bowl of banana pudding.
"That was amazing," Alex said finally been able to speak.
"I'm glad you think so," Perry grinned the worry leaving his eyes at Alex's positive reaction.
"My question becomes why tell me? It's got to be one of the greatest secrets in the universe. Two if you count that display of magic."
"There is a reason," Jazz said looking at Perry who seemed to understand what his aunt was asking, even though a word hadn't been spoken.
Alex watched the interaction in fascination, as everybody seemed to understand each other even without a word being spoken. That meant that all of them were close and knew how each other would react in at least most situations. If they'd been around for centuries though and been friends for all that time that sort of made sense.
"You see every immortal has a mate," Perry explained calmly. "Someone to be with them throughout their eternal life. Someone they can build a life with, that they can be completely honest with. Someone that they don't have to hide anything from. While immortals are basically humans with a few extra gifts we're never able to act fully ourselves except with others that are exactly like us, which is usually only ones own family."
"So if I'm understanding you right I'm your mate," Alex said thinking back to how Perry's eyes had widened when he had rescued her from that mugger in Central Park and saw her face to face for the first time.
"Exactly and it's not exactly very common for an immortal to meet their mate, though it has happened a few times in our family," Perry said.
"I met Jazz first, in that small town that Shonda mentioned earlier in the late 20th century," Dave said.
"Moonlight Gorge," Alex remembered.
"Exactly," Jazz agreed. "I owned a bakery then to, except I'd only been open for a few years at that point in time. When I met Dave, I was just as mortal as you are now. I was rather leery about getting involved with anyone, as I'd already had one really bad experience with a guy and there were also other complications. Dave broke down the barriers I had built around my heart seeming to have absolutely no trouble doing so. Like immortals magicals also have a mate and it didn't take me long to figure out the Dave was mine. When Dave finally came clean about being immortal I was shocked, as I had never heard of such a thing at that time, but after that I accepted it, just as he accepted I was a witch and that our children would also have magic, along with his immortality. Let me assure you, I have never once regretted getting involved with Dave, my bad experience in college aside, which was bad enough to qualify as a national disaster."
"My story is similar," Shonda said. "I had been wanting the same thing that my best friend had and that was to find my mate and start a life together. I knew it was unlikely that I'd meet my mate in Moonlight Gorge, not with such a small population. Jazz was simply lucky to meet Dave, who was just passing through, at that time. It didn't help that my father was very ill and had been for several years at that point in time. I also traveled a great deal to go to auctions and flea markets all over the country to get items for Walter's Antiques.
"I met Aaron in Houston on one of my trips and we became close very quickly. It didn't take me long at all to realize he was what I had been looking for ever since my best friend had met Dave. I knew Dave was immortal, because Jazz had told me with his permission and all I wanted was that same happiness that my best friend had found. The thing was, I knew I had to go back to Moonlight Gorge, as not only was my father very ill, Jazz was pregnant with her and Dave's first child and I had been named the godmother, so I absolutely had to be back before the baby was born. She was only a few months from giving birth when I went to Houston for an important auction, one where they were selling all kinds of antiques, both small and large."
"It seems kind of odd coincidence that both of your mates were immortal," Alex said.
"It was," Aaron acknowledged looking at Dave who nodded seeming to understand what his friend was thinking without Aaron having to say a word. "Really, there aren't that many immortals out there or at least Dave and I haven't met that many. On the other hand, we're basically human, so there might be more immortals out there then either Dave or I know about. I mean, we're good at acting normal, because we are normal, except for a few differences."
"Also, something you don't know is that both Jazz and Shonda took a magical oath to always be best friends back when they were young and that bound them in a way that can't be broken," Dave said continuing Aaron's explanation.
"I wasn't looking forward to Shonda dying in a few decades while I lived on," Jazz added. "I mean we're basically sisters as we really are that close and while Shonda was an only child, as you know I wasn't."
"You mentioned two brothers," Alex said.
"Yes, and an older sister, Chrystalla," Jazz said. "I was the second girl and third child."
"There's no point of going into the whole story now though I'm sure you'll get all the details at some point, but we all know you have a lot to absorb," Shonda said. "Perry can tell you the details when you're ready."
"So if you're immortal do I even want to know how old you really are?" Alex asked Perry.
"I'll always look 30, because an immortal stops aging around then unless like Uncle Dave they are changed into one and I'll explain how we manage that later."
"I was 33 when I met Aaron and nearly 34 when I was turned immortal," Shonda added.
"I was 30 when I met Dave and 31 when I became immortal, which is why I still look that age," Jazz added.
"As for my actual age," Perry said, "I am around 200, so really I am a mere babe in the woods compared to everybody else. Really though, that makes sense since I am Aaron's and Shonda's son."
Alex blinked at how old Perry really was, even if he didn't look it. He should be approaching the end of his life span now, but instead he would be alive for many more centuries. She could see herself at his side, as she had come to love him with her whole heart. That meant watching her family eventually die while she was still young. Really though, that was life, no matter how you looked at it. Her parents would pass before her anyway, as they were older in their earlier 70s and retired.
She wasn't entirely sure what was making her accept this explanation of immortality not to mention magic so easily, as normally, she was very skeptical sort, especially about this type of thing. Really though, what other explanation was there for Perry being able to produce a little light just by a flick of his wrist or his mother to do the same a minute later? Also, she had seen Perry's father cut himself and watched as the wound disappeared in a few seconds. Normally, she was a skeptic but she could think of no explanation for what she had seen other than the ones that had been given to her. Either that or she was delusional and she preferred to believe the latter.
"You accepted our explanation rather well," Dave said studying Alex. What he didn't say, but was thinking was that his wife's magic had again made someone accept their explanation for immortality and magic without the disbelief he normally would have expected.
"So I did and I'm not exactly sure why. Perhaps, it's as you said earlier, seeing is believing. I don't know how you can fake just making what you call a witch light appear over your shoulder. I suppose it can be a trick of some kind, but I just don't see how, as I know Perry's hands were empty when he made that light appear and the same goes for his mother. As for the immortality, I don't see how you can fake that either. I won't say my mind isn't still reeling, but I'm sure that will fade probably by tomorrow. My entire world view has just taken a dramatic shift."
Everyone of the immortals winced at that, as they knew how hard it was to have your entire world shift like that. It was paradigm shift, where your entire view of how the world worked shifted dramatically to one side.
"It's like a paradigm shift on steroids," Shonda commented in a sympathetic tone.
"Exactly like that," Alex admitted. "I'm sure I'll have questions sometime in the next few weeks."
"Perry can answer most of them," Aaron said, "and if he can't he can always ask one of us or you can and we'll answer. Right now though, we all know that you have a lot to think about and we don't want to overload your brain."
"That's very kind of you and I take it you've gone through this sort of explanation before," Alex said.
"Multiple times now, as you aren't the first one we've had to give this explanation to," Jazz said.
"Nor will you be the last," Dave added. "Jazz and my oldest daughter Shawnda was the first to meet her mate well over 100 years ago now."
"Aaron's and my oldest son Michael, also met his mate not long after Shawnda met hers," Shonda added.
"Then one of our sons Brian met his mate," Jazz added. "Yes, our son is named after my brother, who's been dead for a very long time." Jazz seemed to anticipate the question Alex was about to ask. "We also named one Anastasia after my mother, one Chrystalla after my older sister and another Keith after my youngest brother. As for my father he disliked his name so we didn't name any of our children after him, as he would've been horrified if we had. His name was Sinclair. He never did like the name that his parents gave him."
"There have been several others that have found their mates and Perry was just next for it to happen to," Aaron said. "We've all gotten quite good at giving this explanation, but then again, we've all had a lot of practice."
"It's always a joyous occasion when it does happen, because no immortal can ever be truly happy without their mate. No other relationship will compare," Shonda said.
"That's not to say they don't date before they meet their mate they just don't settle down until they do," Jazz added.
"I'm looking forward to learning more, but as you said my mind feels overfull right now, so it's probably better to give me time to absorb your explanation," Alex said.
"The human brain isn't wired to absorb so much information at once," Dave said. "Of course, everyone has a different capacity for absorbing information depending on the person."
"I think it's time I took Alex home, as I know she has a lot to think about," Perry said.
"You're welcome back here anytime Alex, whether you bring Perry with you or not," Shonda told Alex.
"You're now one of the very few that knows our secret as you'll be family soon enough," Aaron added giving his son a look.
Perry said nothing, but nodded at his father letting him know that he understood the silent message. He would fill in any blanks for Alex when she asked and if he didn't know the answer they could always came and ask one of the family.
"I'll take you home now, Alex," Perry told her. "When you wake up tomorrow you can call me at any time. We don't discuss this kind of thing over the link though, as you never know who might be listening in."
"It does pay to be careful, just in case," Alex said. "It's not that hard to listen in on a supposedly private conversation, though why anybody would want to do that in my case I don't have a clue. I mean, I'm simply a teacher at a private school and until tonight I had no major secrets."
"There's no reason for anybody to listen in to our conversations either, but it doesn't hurt to be careful," Perry said.
Perry told everyone good night and then escorted Alex out to his car. It was going to be a long drive home thanks to his parents living in Bronxville.
~~~Perry and Alex~~~