by M. K. Easley
Tristan fought to keep a straight face. She had seen this coming years ago, though she had never told Olivia, and she certainly wasn’t going to tell her now. It wasn’t often she got to see her baby sister squirm like this.
“Thanks for letting me know?” Tristan looked at Beckett, who was staring at Olivia like she’d grown another head.
“Uh, so there’s just one small thing.” Olivia waved her hand, her look of panic intensifying. “No big deal really, it’s just th--”
The front door opened behind her, and Celes stepped out onto the porch, not looking surprised in the least to see Tristan and Beckett. Olivia looked like she wanted to die on the spot, and Tristan gave Celes a knowing smile.
“Hi Celes.”
“Trinity. Beckett.”
“Hey man,” Beckett shook Celes’s hand, but was looking at him somewhat guardedly.
Celes put his hand on Olivia’s lower back, and Olivia smiled up at him faintly before turning her big, nervous eyes on Tristan.
“Your Mom was wondering where you went,” Celes told Olivia, who nodded.
“I’ll be right back in.”
Taking his cue, Celes nodded at her and went back inside.
“Are you mad? Do you hate me? Do you want us to leave? You’re not going to leave now, are you?” Olivia grabbed Tristan’s hands, still looking one second away from a panic attack.
“No! No, no, and no,” Tristan exclaimed, shaking her head. “Oceana, it’s OK. Really.”
“I don’t know how it happened.” Olivia shook her head, searching Tristan’s face as though she was trying to make sure Tristan wasn’t lying. “A few months after you deflected he and I hit it off at a gathering, but it made both of us feel really weird and I was dating Tyler Daniels at the time, so we sort of avoided each other after that. And then fast forward and I had graduated, and then joined the community, but then I was doing school and working and not really going to the gatherings too much, and then about a year and a half, maybe almost two years ago now, I went to one because Dad said I was making them look bad by not showing up, and…”
Olivia trailed off, a faraway look in her eyes as she shook her head once again.
“We started hanging out after I moved to Metairie. We went to lunch a couple of times, we’d go on runs together, we became friends. And then I went as his date to Sanguin’s wedding over a year ago and…” Olivia lifted one shoulder.
“You don’t need to explain any of this to me, Oceana,” Tristan said gently, reaching out and squeezing Olivia’s hand.
“I think he’s going to ask me to marry him, Trinity,” Olivia blurted, covering her mouth with both hands. Removing her hands, she added, “Well, either that or he's getting ready to break up with me, with the way he's been acting.”
Tristan smiled, hugging Olivia.
“I’m so happy for you, and while I have no insider knowledge, I'm positive he's not breaking up with you. Also, I knew this was coming long before you did.”
Olivia pulled back, looking at her in amazement.
“What do you mean?”
“You wouldn’t remember if I told you, but there was a moment, very quick, a long time ago between the two of you, and I just knew it would end up being relevant at some point. Plus, there was that little premonition I had of my own demise and in it Celes was in love with you.”
Olivia opened and closed her mouth, not used to not being the one to know things before anyone else did.
“So you don’t think it’s weird?”
“I mean, it’s a little weird,” Tristan replied. “Considering on another path Celes would have been the one to send me to my execution, but you know. It’ll be OK.”
Tristan laughed then, and Olivia laughed as well, while Beckett looked on, still mystified by these strange sisters he loved so dearly.
“Let’s go in before everyone comes out here instead,” Olivia said, turning. She turned back. “Oh, one more thing. Ember brought someone home with him this year, too.”
Tristan nodded, looking at Beckett, who raised his eyebrows.
“The fun continues. Maybe it'll be Emmeline Strandquest,” Beckett said, good-naturedly, and Tristan laughed again.
They followed Olivia into the house, greeting everyone, who looked up as they entered the living room. Olivia went over to Celes, who took her hand, looking down at her in adoration, and Tristan smiled. Celes had hit the jackpot with Olivia, and Olivia would be in good hands for the rest of her life.
“Hey Trinity, Beckett, Happy Solstice.” Evander approached them, smiling, and Trinity hugged him in greeting, noticing a man lingering a few feet over his shoulder. Beckett shook Evander’s hand, and Evander turned, beckoning the man over to them.
“This is Lios Fodor. Lios, this is my sister, Trinity, and her boyfriend, Beckett.”
“Nice to meet you,” Lios greeted, shaking their hands before smiling over at Evander. “I’m Ember’s boyfriend.”
His voice was pleasantly deep, his hair sandy blonde, eyes light brown. His face was friendly, but there was a wary look in his eyes that Tristan couldn’t blame him for, living in the deep south and all.
“And a Yankee?” Tristan asked delightedly, grinning, and Lios nodded.
“Guilty. I’m a Rhode Island transplant.”
“Well, welcome to Lavelle,” Tristan replied. Then, exaggerating her accent, “And good for you! We need more’a you dem dere Yankees down here in our little ol’ southern town.”
“Will you ever not be embarrassing?” Evander asked, as Beckett and Lios laughed.
Tristan shook her head.
“No, probably not. What other function do I serve as your sister?”
“Trinity!” Sol approached, arms out, and Tristan hugged her. Sol turned and hugged Beckett next. “Beckett. We’re so glad you could make it.”
Umbris wasn’t far behind with his own hugs and greetings, and Tristan looked around the room, smiling.
“The gang’s all here this year, huh?”
“And we couldn’t be happier,” Sol replied, her face and voice as serene as they always were. “You should know that the Crenshaws will be here later.”
Tristan nodded, trying not to grimace as Sol and Umbris walked off to talk to Olivia and Celes. Tristan and Celes had buried their hatchet a long time ago, and Celes had clearly moved on and was happier than ever, but Thera and Dune Crenshaw had never quite gotten over Tristan’s rejection of the community and, by extension, their son.
Beckett put his arm around Tristan's waist, careful to avoid her right side, which had never fully healed. Sol had done an excellent job on the burn imparted by Orion, and fresh skin had eventually formed over the wound, but it had never progressed beyond that, and was still tender to the touch all these years later. It was better than Tristan had hoped for, once Sol had voiced her concerns that the burn was not going to get better at all, but it was a constant, unfortunate reminder of Orion.
Orion. Tristan couldn't believe it had been over five years since the battle of her life; couldn't believe it had been four years since she'd told Beckett the truth. She'd held out as long as she could, after, but when Bayle had contacted her in the spring to let her know they'd lifted her ban, nearly a year after the confrontation, Tristan could no longer keep silent. The next time Beckett mentioned another “strange dream” he'd had -- this one about running through the woods on Evander's back -- Tristan had used it as her opening.
In his usual fashion, Beckett had rolled easily with the news that Tristan had to tell him something important, and had not even looked concerned when she'd told him she didn't want him to say anything until she'd finished talking. As Tristan had known he would, Beckett had looked amused and highly skeptical as she had filled him in, though by the time she restored his memories he'd begun to take her seriously. Tristan would never forget the way his brow had tightly knit as his hand had gone to the jagged, dark red scar on the front of his right shoulder, his fingers tracing the uneven skin as he remembered being stab
bed by the guards.
It had ended up being a weeks-long process, Beckett digesting the information and unpacking it mentally. While Tristan had been relieved that there were officially no more secrets between them, it had been incredibly hard for her to watch Beckett struggle and to know she was partly responsible for how he did. He'd been angry with her at one point, which Tristan had expected, though that hadn't made it any easier to deal with. He'd also been scared, shocked, grieved -- he'd run the gamut, and Tristan had waited patiently by his side through it all.
The turning point came when Beckett had told her, in bed one night nearly two months later, that his favorite piece of the new information he'd gotten was the part about his destiny connection with Tristan. They'd both begun breathing regularly again, after that, and Tristan had known they'd be OK.
And they were. They were more than OK. Tristan looked at Beckett, and he looked back at her, his eyes traveling down her face and body, his expression still giving her butterflies after over five years of seeing it with regularity. Beckett leaned in to whisper in her ear.
“I’m having very ill-timed and inappropriate thoughts about you in that dress.”
Tristan blushed, looking down at the blood red velvet skater dress she wore. It was long-sleeved with a scooped neckline and a short, flared skirt, and around her neck was the trinity knot choker Sol and Umbris had given her so many years ago.
“You were having them earlier, too, and that’s why we were the last ones to get here,” Tristan whispered back, and Beckett grinned, wiggling his eyebrows at her.
Indeed, Tristan had come out of their hotel bedroom, ready to go, and Beckett had walked her right back in, kicking the door closed behind them as Tristan had half-heartedly protested. It had taken his lips on her neck, however, for her to change her mind, and they’d ended up leaving for Lavelle nearly an hour after they’d intended.
“Beckett, how is the psychiatry program coming along?” Umbris asked, strolling back over to them, and Tristan hid a grin at Beckett's brief struggle to change the direction of his thoughts.
“It's coming. People who say the first year of medical school are soul-sucking are not kidding, is what I've learned so far.”
Umbris clapped him on the shoulder, a proud grin on his face.
“If anyone can do it, you can.”
“I appreciate your confidence, sir.” Beckett smiled back at him, and Tristan squeezed his hand.
“And Tristan, how is work?” Umbris asked, turning his gaze on her.
“Amazing,” Tristan said with a smile.
For the last year, she'd been working with an author who had decided to undertake, in earnest, an in-depth project on Atlantis and its possible link to the Bimini Road in the Bahamas. Prior to beginning working with him, Tristan had thought the topic had been covered to exhaustion, but she’d quickly learned how wrong she was. It had been an endlessly fascinating year of research, including a trip to the Bahamas, and Tristan was in her element.
“It's fascinating, the work they're doing,” Sol told the room at large, and Tristan quickly caught them all up.
“Can you imagine if your author blows open the lid on Atlantis? Remember us little people.” Evander grinned good-naturedly, and Tristan laughed.
Olivia suggested they go decorate that year's solstice wreath, then, and she and Celes led the way to the backyard. The group sat down at the table, chatting and laughing, and Tristan felt a completeness in her soul that she'd longed for her whole life. Things had worked out in ways she had never expected, and every day confirmed she'd chosen right when she'd taken Beckett's hand and joined him in the common world.
As she added laurel leaves to the wreath, Tristan sent up a genuine offer of gratitude to the universe, and somewhere, deep inside of her, Tristan could swear she felt the very briefest stirrings of pure, golden energy.