by W. J. May
“What’s up?”
Beth took her warmly by the hand. “Come with me. I want to show you something.”
Rae followed her to her room and then sat patiently on the bed as Beth disappeared into the adjoining bath. At first she waited with nothing to do but envy the fifty square feet of privacy space her mother had been able to secure. Then, a sudden thought struck hold and she almost fainted dead away.
What if Beth…knew?
Rae’s eyes locked onto the closed bathroom door with near tunnel-vision, suddenly absolutely certain that was the case.
Of course she knew! It had taken Julian—what—all of four minutes to figure it out?! And that was just Julian. This was her mom! Granted, the guy had this uncanny knack of reading the future, but what about mother’s intuition?! Surely that matched any amount of ink!
Devon said he’d already asked her. He said he asked her ages ago, and she said yes.
Like flipping a switch, Rae’s personality split securely into two separate entities: The one that believed in the promises of the past and the promises of the future, and the one that thought maybe Devon was an idiot who just got the whole thing wrong.
He’d probably downstairs right now, online shopping for hypoallergenic blankets for a baby he’s not supposed to know about. The guy doesn’t have a clue. Whatever Mom said, he probably only heard half of it, or misinterpreted the entire thing the wrong way—
“Alright, so…brace yourself,” Beth called quietly from inside.
Rae did just that, angling her shoes towards the door in case she needed to make a quick exit. Of course even this part of my life can’t be normal. Of course I can’t have the obligatory ‘awkward’ talk with my mom that I want to get married as a teenager. Of course I have to add a devastating potential of ‘death by blue flames’ to that equation. Maybe all those Knights have a point. Mom’s lethal… there’s no two ways about it.
As if to bolster matters, Rae’s body automatically switched tatùs to whatever would best serve her interests. The message was quite clear. She became invisible.
The door creaked open. “Now, I want an honest opinion out of…Rae?”
A second later, Rae reappeared with a gasp, staring at her mother like she’d never seen her before. “Mom…it’s beautiful!” She had no idea when her mother had the time to go out and find a wedding dress, but super powers or not, she couldn’t have found a better fit.
It was a simple sweetheart bodice that cascaded down in silken folds of ivory all the way to the floor. She had quickly pinned up her hair just to give Rae an idea of what it looked like, but the effect was lovely. Both mother and daughter had the same dark tendrils that touched lightly upon their collarbones as the rest traced lightly down their backs.
But more than the dress itself, it was the look on her mother’s face that caused Rae’s eyes to well up with tears. For the first time in longer than Rae cared to remember, her mother looked truly happy. And hopeful. Hopeful for better days ahead. For a better life for her and her entire family. A life they deserved. But there was something else there as well, something that was just as out of place on Bethany Kerrigan’s face as the rest.
Fear.
“Do you really think so?” She smoothed it down nervously, before her eyes flicked back up to Rae’s face, searching them for any trace of a lie. “Because I can always get another—”
“Mom, seriously,” Rae lifted herself off the bed and walked forward to take her mother’s hands, “it’s perfect. I wouldn’t change a single thing.”
They shared a radiant smile, standing side by side as they stared into a full-length mirror, before Rae cocked her head suddenly to the side.
“Actually, I take that back. I’d add on one thing.” She swirled her hand through the air, and the next second, a long, feather-light veil appeared from nowhere. She caught it with a grin, and tucked it gently into her mother’s hair. “There.” She bit her lip and took a step back to admire the effect. “Now it’s perfect.”
As Beth stared into the mirror, she looked ten years younger. Like the woman she had been before the brainwashing and relocation to France. Like the woman she had been before she married Simon Kerrigan and started her life down a dangerous and lethal trajectory.
“Well, there you have it. Something old, something new.” She smoothed down the dress again and turned to Rae with a smile. “This was your grandmother’s. I had to take it in a bit; she was a hefty woman, but the concept and the fabric are still there. And with this,” she tugged lightly on the veil, watching as it gently blanketed her curls, “we’ve made it a multi-generational affair.”
Rae took a deep breath, trying to keep it all together. Now, more than ever, she wanted to tell her mom what had happened. She wanted to share this most important moment of her life with the mother who’d been lost to her for most of that life, but had finally returned.
But now, more than ever, she knew she couldn’t.
This was her mother’s day.
Her mother’s happiness.
Her mother’s dress.
Rae’s day would come. In its own sweet time. Until then, she’d just have to hold her tongue and bask in her mother’s euphoria with a smile. “Do you have any idea when you want it to happen?” she asked curiously, sitting back on the bed as Beth returned to the bathroom to change back into her usual clothes. “I mean, I know Carter’s still back at Guilder, taking point, but I’m sure if you asked him to—”
Beth cut her off with a laugh. “I think we have a bit too much going on right now to add a wedding into the mix. It’ll happen whenever it happens.” She walked back outside with the dress folded carefully over her arm. “Until then, I just want to be prepared. I needed your opinion,” she added lightly. “And I was wondering if my maid of honor would approve the dress.”
“I’m sure she will—Oh! You mean me?!” Rae blinked, trying to collect her thoughts as the unfamiliar word hit home. There seemed to be a lot of those floating around these days. Wife… Maid of Honor… Mother… Fiancée… “Are you sure?” she asked in a squeak, her voice shaking with delight. “I don’t want to take it away from—”
“Honey, don’t be ridiculous!” Beth laughed again. “Who else would I possibly ask? No,” she took her daughter’s hands, “it was always going to be you. That is, if you’d like to.”
“Yes!” Rae exclaimed, practically squealing with excitement. “I’d love that!”
“It’s settled then,” Beth said casually, but her eyes were twinkling in matching delight. “Now if I can just get Andrew to get things set up with his best man.”
“Who’s it going to be?” Rae asked curiously, running through a mental list of any possible candidates. She hated to say it, but most of the people Carter would have asked in the past were no longer alive to celebrate. It was a dangerous job, President of the Privy Council, and she could think of no one in his day to day life who really fit the bill.
“Actually,” Beth turned to her intently, studying her face, “if it’s alright with you, he was thinking about asking Devon.”
Rae’s jaw dropped to the floor. “Devon? Really?!”
Beth nodded. “I know it seems like a kind of strange choice, but the thing is, he and Devon have spent the last few years working side by side risking their lives together. Protecting you and the country. He’d never say it, of course, but I know he cares about him like a son. And now…it just so happens…that Devon’s dating his soon-to-be daughter. Stepdaughter,” she added quickly as Rae’s face locked into place.
“No qualifier necessary,” she laughed softly, wondering at the strange series of events that had seen fit to shape their lives. What seemed like just yesterday, Carter had admitted to breaking into Devon’s mind and she thought the two of them might actually tear each other to pieces. Now he was going to be Carter’s best man.
And soon, unbeknownst to either adult, they were going to be family.
“I was just surprised, is all,” she added, smiling and gi
ggling. For once, things felt kind of… normal.
Beth smiled, taking her once again by the hands. “Just think, you’re going to be walking up the aisle with Devon Wardell even sooner than we all thought!”
Rae turned a deathly shade of white. “…What? What does that mean—”
“Relax!” Beth rolled her eyes with a grin. “I’m just saying, you know it’s bound to happen sooner or later, don’t you? Only a matter of time!”
She exhaled with a shaky laugh. “Right. Only a matter of time…”
* * *
Rae headed back down the hall to the room she and Molly were scheduled to share, feeling as though her feet were barely touching the ground.
Too many secrets. In too small a house. With too many people who were bad at keeping secrets. There was only so long they could all keep this—
“Did you tell Devon that I’m pregnant?” Molly demanded the second she stepped inside.
Rae stopped dead in her tracks. “What? No. Why?”
It might have sounded more believable if they weren’t all strung together in one breath, but Molly was so amped up that she didn’t really notice.
“He just insisted on carrying my purse inside, after handing me a cup of what he deliberately told me was decaf coffee. I swear, Rae, he said it with a wink.”
It’s official. My fiancé is the worst liar in the world. It’s a miracle that he ever became a spy. “Weird…” Rae mused, taking a seat on one of the twin cots, trying to slow the pace of the conversation. “Well, he’s been under a lot of stress lately—”
“Maybe Julian told him!” Molly gasped suddenly. “Maybe Julian knows!” She sank down onto the bed beside Rae, covering her mouth in shock. “Of course he would have figured it out! What have I even been thinking?! It’s Julian. I just thought, maybe since Luke and I obviously didn’t plan or decide to get pregnant, that—” She cut off with a sudden look of rage. “Oh, that little psychic sneak. I’m going to shock the ink right off of him.” As she spoke, little sparks shot from her fingers, and Rae slid a few inches away.
“Now, Molls,” she cautioned nervously, “what did we say about shocking people first, and asking questions later? I’m sure Jules doesn’t know a thing. He probably just—”
“Oh, he totally knows,” Molly seethed. “And he totally told Devon. Why I have no idea. We all know Devon can’t keep a secret for his life. What kind of idiot would entrust him with valuable information?”
Rae bit her lip, dropping her eyes to the floor. “…seriously.”
“I’m just going to have to confront him.” Molly stood up suddenly, yanking Rae up with her. “I’m just going to have to say, Julian—”
In what had to be the worst timing ever, the door opened and Julian himself walked inside. “Hey, guys, I have no idea why, but Devon wanted to know if Molly had enough…” He trailed off, his eyes flicking between Molly’s death stare and the ‘run!’ face Rae was making behind her back. “Am I…Am I missing something here?”
“No,” Molly growled, stepping slowly forward, “but you’re going to be.” Her eyes swept him up and down. “I just have to figure out where to start…”
He gulped and took a nervous step back. “Molls, what—” His eyes paled to white at exactly the same moment that the door burst open again.
This time Devon came rushing in, balancing an armful of pillows.
Rae closed her eyes and sank back onto the bed, as Molly rotated slowly to face him.
“Hey,” he said slightly breathlessly, obviously having run the whole way, “I just wanted to come by and drop these off for Molly, in case she needed them. You can have one, too, Rae, if you want,” he added as an afterthought.
A bolt of lightning shut the door behind him.
“You little bastards!” Molly cried. “I know you know! I knew it! Now we all know together! You can drop the freaking act!”
Devon paled as he looked between her and Rae, who by now was shaking her head back and forth so fast there was a danger it could detach completely.
“You know?” he asked in a murmur. Then, “Wait…what?”
“Who knows what?” Luke asked, slipping inside after having heard the commotion.
Devon turned to him guiltily. “That’s what I was just—”
There was another bolt of lightning and Molly folded her arms across her chest. “Why the hell didn’t you just come and talk with me? The second it happened! I’m supposed to be your best friend! Instead you go tip-toeing around, acting like I’m not—”
“You’re pregnant?!” Julian gasped, opening up his eyes.
At the same time, Devon burst out, “Fine! We’re getting married!”
The smell of scorched pine filled the air as Rae got to her feet and slowly crossed the room to shut the door once again.
Well, that didn’t last long…did it?
Chapter 4
The silence inside the room erupted suddenly. They could have heard a pin drop. The rest of the house was locked in a chaotic flurry of constant noise, but in that room it was dead quiet.
No one knew who should speak first. Rae figured no one knew what to say; she sure as heck didn’t. As it stood, they were unaccustomed to keeping anything from each other, no matter how small. Between practical necessity and profound bonding, their gang had become one of absolute inclusion. And to have kept secrets such as these?
It felt a bit like they’d waded out onto a frozen lake, and were just staring at each other, waiting for the ice to crack.
Finally, Rae decided she had to make the first move. “Devon proposed to me last night,” she said softly, locking eyes with Molly. “We’re going to get married.”
Molly teared up immediately, bringing her hands up over her mouth. It was a testament to how truly stunned she was that she didn’t immediately digress into her usual bouncing and squealing. For once, she was the one who’d been shocked into silence. “He did?” she whispered through her fingers, her eyes shining with a watery smile. “You guys are—”
But she didn’t get to finish, because the next second she was in Julian’s arms.
“Molls!” he gasped into her hair, rocking her slowly back and forth. “I can’t believe it! How far along are you? How long have you known?”
Between Rae, Devon, and now Molly, it was becoming clear that when Julian got excited, he didn’t freeze; he got adorably handsy.
His sincere astonishment was enough to convince her he didn’t already know, and her face burst into a grin as she wrapped her tiny arms around his neck, giggling excitedly. “Actually, I found out the day we woke up at the Abbey. That ‘never-smiles’ doctor told me. Not my finest moment, let me tell you.”
Julian set her carefully back down on her feet, glancing automatically at her flat stomach, before looking up with a twinkling grin. “You know…it doesn’t look like you’re pregnant. Are you sure?”
“Are you sure,” she countered, putting her hands on her hips, “that’s the question.”
His eyes flashed momentarily white, before he gave her and Luke a beaming grin. “You guys want to know the sex of the baby?”
“YES!” Molly gasped.
At the same time, Luke cried, “NO!”
“Luke!” She smacked him in the chest. “Of course we want to know! How else are we going to know what clothes to buy and how to decorate?!”
He smiled indulgently, but shook his head. “Says the girl whose best friend has the ability to conjure anything we’ll need within seconds.”
Molly turned to Rae slowly. “Not if she’s too busy…being a wife and all. Maybe making babies of her own.” She giggled and winked at Rae.
In a flash, the two girls came together in the middle of the room, wrapping their arms around each other and sobbing just as they had when Molly told Rae her baby news. The guys cleared their throats and looked away awkwardly, until they were finally finished.
“I just can’t believe it,” Molly whispered, wiping her cheeks.
Rae shook h
er head. “I know! I didn’t even know what was happening until—”
“No, I mean I can’t believe Devon didn’t ask my permission.” Both girls giggled as Molly turned to Devon with a stern smile. “Kind of a big thing to have slipped your mind?”
But Devon just made a bee-line right for her, finally allowed to come clean. He scooped her up just as gently as Julian did, crushing her delicately against his chest. “Molly Skye,” he grinned, twisting them back and forth so her feet danced in the air, “look what you’ve gone and done.” He set her down and rumpled her hair with a fond smile. “You’re going to be a truly spectacular parent. Both of you are,” he added, shaking Luke’s hand with almost big-brotherly consent. “Congratulations, guys. Really.”
“Congratulations to you!” Luke exclaimed, throwing Rae a wink. “Guess you guys are doing it in the more traditional order, huh? Unless,” his entire face changed, “unless you’re pregnant, too?”
Julian’s head whipped around and Devon turned the exact same color as the ivory walls. Rae let them stew in it for a second, before she shook her head with a grin. “Nope. Not me.”
“Enough talking!” Molly shrieked, grabbing her hand. “Let me see the ring!” When nothing was there, she turned back to Devon with a withering glare. “Oh, Wardell, you have gone about this completely the wrong way. If you had consulted with me first, I would have told you that you typically get the girl a diamond to seal the deal—”
“Like this diamond?” He pulled it out of his pocket, and held it up for all of them to see. Rae blushed as Julian and Luke nodded approvingly.
Molly, however, bounded across the room and snatched it right out of his hand, turning it over and examining it like a professional. “Two carats, unique cut…” she murmured, squinting as she held it up to the light. “Stunning clarity…” After a second or two, she finally handed it back, looking satisfied. “Well, Rae, you’ll be happy to know that I approve. That’s going to make a fine first offering.”
Devon raised his eyebrows as Julian snickered behind his back. “First offering?”
