(This was originally a gift from me to Leary, and was meant to be a stand alone story.)
The flight out to the treatment center had been long and very tiring. But the two sisters had taken the chance to talk unguardedly for the first time in months. And Celeste had discovered the meaning behind the saying, truth and roses had thorns.
The conversation had been eye-opening and hurtful but, for the first time in months, Celeste knew how her sister really felt. And Ariel knew how Celeste felt. They had walked off the plane closer than they ever had been.
Now, though, Celeste had a hard time looking at herself in the mirror. Her sister's words would echo in her mind. _When did I ever do anything solely for myself?_ She had been expected to be wild by her parents and to be a virgin by her grandparents, so she had tried to make them both happy by being a tease. She was expected to be Madre by the students, run a Mutant Underground by Emma, and be mother of the year by her sister. She couldn't do all three.
But that was going to change. She would reclaim the right to look herself in the mirror by forever denying herself the right to hold her head up tall. Tomorrow, she was going to sign the papers to turn her sister's care over to a private school after Ariel left the rehab center. Then, she was devoting herself exclusively to the mutant underground.
It was guilt over what happened with Nina that made her want to be so protective of children, and soon too many mutant children were going to be in great danger. As much as she would like to think that her life was her own, she could never turn her back on a thousand hands reaching for hers. For all she knew, one of those children might be her own daughter.
Suddenly, with a giggle, she had an urge for something that she had never allowed herself- a decadent chocolate, chocolate fudge brownie sundae. Making her way down the ranch restaurant, she reflected that, for once, she made the decisions in her life.
***
Tony picked the brandy up and swirled it around in the glass, watching as the golden liquid hit the sides and trickled down. He wanted it, like he wanted a warm and willing lover in his bed. He wanted to submit to it, allow it to dominate, subduing his will and tormenting his soul.
Despite the siren song he heard, his pride was strong. He had won the battle once but, if he were to give in, he could lose the war. And that lover was a demon in disguise.
The need to punish himself was almost as strong. He couldn't get past the fact that Jubilee had managed to get through his security system undetected. And because of that, she had been brutally murdered, because of him and his shortsightedness. Cindy, his little sister, had been killed in the same manner, because of him and his ambition. Celeste had been raped and a tape made and sold, because of him and his greed. And he had never been punished.
_God, if you are there, then you are the only person to stop me,_ he thought as his fingers wrapped around the glass. It was time that he gave up everything and punished himself.
"Tony?" Celeste smiled as she sat down next to him. "I never thanked you for giving up everything else you had planned and coming down here with me."
Tony set the glass down and turned to her. She had a warm and inviting smile. Watching as she dipped her spoon down in the bowl of ice cream, he started to return the smile. A stray thought popped in his head that she could forgive him for his actions. He didn't have to give in. "I owe you so much that it was the least I could do."
"Look, Tony, that was way beyond the call of duty." Celeste held up a hand. "And so much you've done has been like that." An infectious grin spread across her face. "And, I want you to know I appreciate it."
"Can I ask you for a favor?" The words tumbled out of his mouth without his mind kicking in. "Walk me out of this bar and don't let me come back."
Hearing the urgency in his voice, she nodded. "Of course." She grabbed the brandy and poured it over the half-eaten brownie delight, before looping her arm around his. "Are you a friend of Bill W?" she asked as she escorted him out of the bar.
Once away from that den, Tony felt a little better. "Yes." It was a term one recovering alcoholic used to identify another. "Are you?"
Her grandmother had been, her father had been, and her sister was becoming one. If she hadn't forced herself to put the booze down, she could have been. "A distant one."
"I just feel---" his voice trailed off. "Jubilee, I feel her death."
"So do I." They were out by a pool, one of several in the dude ranch complex. This one was half way between their rooms. "I hadn't had nightmares about my attack for weeks until she died. And then, I saw her face where mine had once been." They walked away from that pool and into a garden.
Reaching up to touch a branch, Tony decided to gamble that he was forgivable. Recently, his soul knew his failings and shortcomings. "That tape--" Celeste nodded. "It was sold by the Network. Some of my men..."
"I remember everything...." She remembered every detail from the time she felt her body freeze until the men finished with her. "The drugs didn't work."
_Shit!_ "There was a trial drug, Celeste. It did work." With that, he turned away from her and started to walk away. There could be no forgiveness for him. "I didn't know it would happen, but you must hate me."
_Lord, help me._ Celeste grabbed his hand. "Tony, that's in the past. I've dealt with it." The firmness in her face showed that she believed every word she said. "For what ever miniscule role you played in that attack, I forgive you."
A thrill of joy rushed though him as he heard those words. If she had said, 'I love you', he couldn't feel any better. "Yeah, but can Jubilee?" Celeste was the only person alive that could forgive him, but not the only person that his actions had affected. "Or my sister?"
"Jubilee was headstrong and stubborn. Her friends were in danger and she went to help them." Tony's dark eyes showed how much pain he had seen in such a short time.
A few weeks later, Celeste would look back and know the moment she looked into his unguarded eyes and saw his pain and resolve was the moment she started to fall in love with him.
"Maybe." Not understanding why, he reached out and brushed a strand of hair off of her face. Celeste was a study in contrasts, willowy but a backbone of steel, adrift and anchored. "Baby, when did you get so strong?"
A few weeks later, Tony would know the moment he saw Celeste as fragile and strong and needing to be protected and needing to protect was the moment he started to fall in love with her.
"The moment I stood on my own two feet." Yet at the same time, Celeste felt the weakness of that statement. She could be strong on her own or stronger with someone else as her foundation.
A charged electrical bolt known as lightning shattered the stillness of the moment. Rain started pouring down in buckets as they both started to laugh. "Come on," she offered with an outstretched hand. "It's going to pour for a bit. Might as well wait it out in my room." To the careful ear, the thunder almost sounded like cupid clapping.
***
The next morning, Tony woke with a start because he didn't know where he was. Then looking down at the sleeping Celeste, he smiled. The cloudburst had lasted hours, effectively trapping them in her room. They had talked about family, friends, and current events. He had told her about Paul and Cindy, she told him about Nina and Stella. He confessed a secret love of powdered kool-aid and was surprised to discover she shared it. She confessed to love of musicals, a passion he shared.
They had so much in common that it was easy to forget that he was a bad guy and she a good girl. They were more than the labels and as Celeste called it, "wore the gray hats". In another lifetime, had they been born in the same city, gone to the same schools, played on the same teams, it would have been unavoidable that they would have gotten together. But they weren't from the same background, which made them getting together even more amazing.
At four a.m., she decided it wasn't going to stop raining and invited him to sleep above the flat sheet as she slept under it. He had gratefully accepted the offer. Somehow, during the night, he had moved under the sheet and was holding her in his arms. And he knew that she was the only woman in the world he wanted to hold like this for the rest of his life.
Celeste's first thought as she woke up that morning was that she had must have had the world's worse morning breath. The second thought was that Tony better not complain about it. She fluttered open her eyes as she looked at him. "Good mornin'"
A butterfly kiss crossed Tony's lips and he smiled. "It is now." He smiled and then returned the kiss, careful to keep it gentle and tender. The last thing he would do was force her to move faster than she was ready for. "Thank you."
"What time is it?" She had to sign the papers for her sister's treatment, and then she was going to start a new life. A life she knew that Tony would play a major part in.
He pointed to the blinking clock and then turned on the television. "9:12. What the?" He was quickly focused on the scene on the screen.
A wave of nausea hit Celeste as she sat up. A group of mutants were being rounded up and forced into a truck outside a hospital in New York City. "It's started...."
To be continued in Second Hitler...