Out of the Black - Lee Doty [180]
Elena and Kyle Mendez sat in a small booth as far from the lights of the dance floor as they could find. They'd left the others at the larger banquet tables soon after dinner.
"I still don't feel right being here." Kyle said, looking uncomfortable in his suit. "You know- celebrating."
"I keep expecting to turn around and see Derry and that annoying party high-five of his." Elena nodded. She slipped her arm around Kyle's shoulders.
"Maybe because I didn't see... it just doesn't feel real."
"Believe me honey," Elena said, staring across the sea of reveling college kids and off-duty cops, "Seeing didn't help."
After a thoughtful pause, Kyle asked, "Are we going to be all right?"
Elena turned to him. She felt the urge to say something profound, but then she saw him. He just looked so earnest. She smiled just like she loved him- big and stupid. "Well, we did save the world, which aint too shabby." Their lips met.
Across the room, Issak stood apart, at the intersection of the bar and the wall of the reception hall. He felt alone, or at least like he should be. Anne had been by just a few minutes ago for what seemed like her hundredth check on him. She took her new body-guarding quite seriously. That, or she rightly feared that he would bug out of here the first time she wasn't looking. She was desperately focused on making him comfortable.
"And how are we doing?" She asked brightly from over his shoulder. He'd lived far too long with Dek to be surprised by these little ninja surprise moments. Bittersweet memories closed in on him.
"Anne. What a pleasant surprise." He said with British butler irony.
"So frumpy." She gave his shoulder a smack. "You know, there's dancing to be done."
"Anne, I am the oldest man in this room by well over a thousand years. You'd probably hed etter luck with Ping's grandad... wheelchair and oxygen tank notwithstanding."
Anne made no response other than a finger imperiously leveled at the dance floor. At first he thought she was ordering him to boogie, but then she flicked her eyes to follow her finger and he got the message. Reluctantly, Issak turned from the isolation of the drink he'd been nursing and let his gaze follow her finger to the dance floor.
As he'd feared, there was Sean O'Bannon, standing shakily behind his walker, shuffling slowly around the dance floor, shaking his hundred-year-old butt. Near him, looking much better preserved, his wife risked all by dancing over and giving his unstable frame a playful bump with her hip.
"See Issak?" Anne said in mock awe, "They fear not even the booty bump! What's your hang-up?"
Though he tried to hold on to it until it turned to love, he couldn't help the laughter that spilled out of him.
In the middle of the banquet tables, Miranda Todd smiled and shook her head. "That your old man?" Miranda pointed to the old man shuffling across the dance floor in the wake of his walker.
Ping shook his head. "Nope. That's Grandpa Sean. Dad's around here somewhere... probably hitting the food line again."
"Boys! Look!" a middle-aged detective one table away shouted. All eyes moved to the bandstand, where the newlyweds had finally appeared. The groom looked uncomfortable in his tux, but the bride was radiant in a shimmering white gown. "Can you believe that's our little Rae?"
"All growed up." A hard woman of about forty said, "Now don't start getting misty on her big day, Cliff."
"Aw... Let's fill her locker with shaving cream." Cliff said.
"Cops." Miranda said in disgust. "You ever considered applying at the Bureau?"
"They don't know I already filled it with marbles." Ping smiled back.
"Gotta steal you for a dance, babe." Miranda's husband interrupted from behind.
"I'm pretty sure there's some kind of federal requisition you need to fill out in triplicate to get that kind of thing." Ping said.
Miranda's eyes sparkled as she departed into the crowd.
Ping turned to his right, and to more weighty matters. "So, Jerry, I need further assurances of my privacy." Ping said with his most grave face.
Jerry's wife giggled.
"I assure you