Blood Wild

"The night before we left... to come here... you... we... heard my nephew propose to that young lady I hired to be our new dispatcher." Gerald said steadily.

"Yes. It was so romantic, wasn't it?" Annie reflected with a hesitant smile.

"Huh... I guess it was romantic... I thought it was ballsy, myself. That young man can be so full of himself some times." Gerald remarked with a grin and a shrug.

"I didn't know he was even courting that girl. Trina. She's the gal who was driving the car that wrecked on the bridge the night of the Wilding. The one that, or one of the girls that Tom and Richard saved." Gerald stated thoughtfully.

"And you! Don't forget that you helped save them too." Annie interjected with a prideful smile and rubbed his arm gently again.

"Yeah, I guess I was there too." Gerald said with a sheepish grin before continuing. "The thing is... I know it was sudden, and a shock to lose your... your late husband. And... It might seem inappropriate to some for me to start dating you so soon after that... Even more so for me to... to..." Gerald again, wound down to an uncertain stop as he searched Annie's eyes trying to determine if he should proceed or not.

Annie's heart was racing again, she could feel Gerald trembling even if ever so slightly beneath her touch. What could possibly have him so unnerved?

"To?" Annie asked, her voice barely a whisper.

Gerald looked intently into Annie's eyes again. He unconsciously licked his lips as his fingers again caressed that little box in his pocket. Thinking again of his nephew Cam and the ballsy move he made in proposing on an open mic at the station the other night... "Man up" he berated himself.

He then gave Annie a soft if somewhat worried smile as he withdrew his hands from his pockets. One hand holding the tiny little box, still unseen as of yet. Gerald cleared his throat and took a deep breath before launching into what he had been struggling to say.

"Annie. I'm an old man. Maybe the best years of my life are gone by already but... I could only imagine one thing making the rest of my life... the best part of my life..." Gerald began quietly and earnestly as he reached out with his left hand and took Annie's left hand in his.

Gerald slowly sank down to one knee in front of one very surprised woman. Kneeling in the sand at the edge of the surf as the sun began to set on the horizon and seagulls cried and circled overhead. Looking up into suddenly tear-filled eyes as Annie covered her trembling lips with her free hand. The breeze blowing her hair about playfully.

"The one thing to make the rest of my life the best, would be if you would be my wife. Annie... would you do me the honor or taking my hand in marriage?" Gerald asked solemnly as he thumbed open the little box revealing the shiny, sparkly little ring nestled inside on the pillowy interior.

Now Gerald could feel Annie trembling in his hand. Still the surf washed in rhythmically, and the seagulls cried and circled... and she began to slowly nod her head. Slowly, but then it began to speed up until she was excitedly nodding in the affirmative as her voice didn't seem to be working at the moment. She was choked on the powerful emotion surging through her heart and mind.

Gerald released Annie's left hand so that he could extract the ring, with shaky fingers, from the box and then gently slide it onto her ring finger. He looked up into her tear-filled eyes to see her smiling. Annie then dropped to her knees as well, in front of Gerald and wrapped her arms around his neck and began to smother him with kisses. Sloppy, wet, tear salted, happy kisses separated by one word, over and over.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!"

***___***___

"So, what do you think? Can you use these to make two rings?" Deeny asked her father as she handed him two Morgan silver dollar coins.

Duke accepted the two big coins in an open palm and tossed them gently up and down to get a feel for their weight and to hear them clink like little bells. He rubbed his forefinger and thumb over them and turned them looking them over.

"Yeah, I think I can work with these. Come on, let's go out to the shop." Duke said with a smile and wrapped an arm around his oldest daughter's shoulders giving her a fatherly hug.

"You two go ahead, I'll be along shortly. Someone has to do the dishes after dinner." Caroline said with a bemused smile as she wiped her hands on a kitchen towel that hung from her apron.

Caroline leaned against the kitchen sink as she watched her husband and eldest daughter walk across the yard towards his workshop. "Rings" she thought... "Both of my babies are all grown up and in love."

Duke set to work fashioning rings out of the two silver coins Deeny had brought to him. He first annealed the two coins by heating them with a torch then let them cool back down slowly while he got out his punches and dies and hammers. Deeny sat on his workbench stool off to one side of the bench watching her father work his magic. She had always liked watching him craft furniture from wood, he truly was an artist.

Caroline finished cleaning up after dinner in no time at all, but she was not done yet. She had a mission. Her daughter had asked Duke to make a couple of rings for her and her lover... Yvonne. Caroline chastised herself for that. Call the woman by her name, she is and will be part of the family after all. If Deeny was sure enough to want to give the woman a ring, then it needed to be done right.

For most of her life, Caroline had been a bit of a mother squirrel in that she like to save and hang on to pretty things, trinkets and knick knacks that had special meanings for perhaps only her but they were still special. And rings, particularly a ring to be given to a woman needed to have a box. Caroline knew just the thing. It was the small blue velvet covered and satin lined ring box that had originally held her high school class ring from many years ago. It was just large enough to hold two rings side by side for a special presentation.

Digging to the back of a dresser drawer in her bedroom, Caroline found the blue ring box she was seeking. She opened it and looked at her class ring from school. She pulled the ring from the box and slipped it onto her finger... it still fit... of course.

Smiling, Caroline slipped the ring box into the pocket of her apron and then closed the dresser drawer. She then went to her make up vanity and pulled a couple of drawers out till she found what she was looking for... some silk ribbon... in electric blue.

Caroline measured out a length of ribbon long enough to wrap around and tie the box with a bow, then cut it and slipped that into her apron's pocket as well. Glancing up at her reflection in the mirror, Caroline paused a moment looking at the woman there. A hand rose and pushed a few stray locks of hair from her face back over her ear.

A warm yet somehow sad smile spread on her face. She saw herself in both of her daughters, and looking at her own reflection, she also saw her own mother from long ago. She missed her mother, gone for many years now. "Enough of that." Caroline scolded herself and turned to leave the bedroom and find her husband and daughter.

"I never realized that it was so much work." Deeny said in awe as she watched her father using a ring press to turn the coins edge.

Before it was all the way turned, he stopped again and heated the coin/ring with the torch then set it aside to cool down once more. Meanwhile he placed the second coin that had been punched into the ring press and started turning it as well.

"The trick is to work slowly and let the metal rest so that it doesn't stress and crack. That's why I heat it up several times, it makes the metal more malleable so that it will bend rather than break." Duke explained as he removed the second coin/ring from the press and turned the torch on it to heat it up again.

"Why do I sense words of wisdom about to be said?" Deeny said with a smile.

"Well, if you sense them, you probably can figure it out for yourself." Duke said with a single raised eyebrow as if challenging Deeny.

"Trial by fire?... Tempering? Not being in a rush?" Deeny posed reflecting his one raised eyebrow with one of her own.

"You always were a little spitfire!" Duke smiled at her nudging her with his elbow.

"You mean hard headed, stubborn and opinionated?" Deeny teased back with a smirk.

"Yeah... that too. You know, I thought you and that Cam hit it off pretty good years ago. I liked that boy. He reminded me of his uncle when he was that age." Duke confided in her as he pressed the ring he was working on in a slightly smaller tighter press.

"Cam was a nice guy, don't get me wrong. We're still friends and probably always will be, but... we just didn't work out... then he went off to school. Did you know that he's engaged to be married now?" Deeny confessed then asked of her father.

"Married?" Duke asked, on eyebrow hitched high on his forehead as he looked at Deeny.

"Seems to be... catching... lately, huh?" Deeny said with a smile.

Duke smiled back at her before placing the second ring in the press to further shape it, turning it in on itself. Both rings were nearly completely formed now. All that remained was to size them and then polish them on the polishing wheel. Deeny held the first as her father finished shaping the second ring.

Deeny chose to use her finger as the size for both rings as both she and Yvonne had similar sized fingers. It took a couple of more passes in the form press to reduce them both to the proper size. Then all that was left was to polish them to a bright gleaming sheen. A little polishing compound on the cloth wheel hastened that end.

Duke was just finishing polishing the second ring when Caroline came into the workshop. She stood behind Deeny who was still sitting on the stool, holding and admiring the first of the two rings. The rings were a lot heftier than what she had imagined they would be but she liked them all the more fore it. They were substantial and the silver gave them some heft as well.

"They are very pretty." Caroline commented admiringly.

Deeny looked over her shoulder at her mother and smiled almost tearfully, she was so happy. She leaned back into her mother's midsection as her mother wrapped her arms around her from behind.

"I have something for you... for your rings." Caroline murmured in Deeny's ear.

"Mom? What have you done?" Deeny asked warily, her heart skipping a beat.

Caroline pulled the little blue velvet covered box from the front pocket of her apron, and showed it to Deeny.

"A ring needs to be presented as the treasure that it represents. It's special, it's part of your heart." Caroline said solemnly as Deeny took the offered ring box from her mother's hand.

Deeny opened up the little box to see the lighter blue satin lined interior. She took the first ring that was in her other hand and settled it into the pillowed slot in the middle of the box. It fit nicely of course but there was room for both rings. Her father handing her the finished second ring at that moment. She nestled it in to the pillow alongside the other ring and held it at arm's length to admire them.

"Wait... there's more." Caroline spoke quietly, still grasping Deeny's shoulders.

Caroline pulled the length of electric blue silk ribbon from her apron and held it by one end to dangle in front of Deeny. Deeny looked at the ribbon and then looked back over her shoulder at her mother, not quite understanding what the ribbon was for.

"Mom?" Deeny asked.

"It's symbolic... many cultures view marriage as a bonding or binding of two people to form one. You've heard the old saying 'tied the knot'? Anyway... bind those two rings with this ribbon to symbolize your... joining together. Keep them tied until you both wear one of the rings, then untie them to remove the ribbon." Caroline told Deeny.

She motioned for the box with the two rings and Deeny held it closer to her mother to inspect. Caroline took one ring from the box and held it up to the light to admire it for a moment and smiled at Duke who smiled back at her. Holding the ring in the fingers of her left hand, Caroline threaded one end of the silk ribbon through the ring and tied a pretty little bow. One tag end of the bow was much longer of course. It was this longer end that Caroline threaded through the second ring and tied a second bow with it as well... leaving about six inches between the rings but linked by the ribbon. She then took both rings and re-nestled them into the little satin pillow slot in the box, and showed Deeny how it could close on both the rings and little ribbon bows.

Deeny marveled at the ingenuity of her mother's idea and began to tear up again. Between her father making the rings in the first place then her mother's idea of the box and the ribbon. She was feeling loved by both of them and supported in her own love for Yvonne. She was so very happy, she just had to cry.

"I don't know what you had in mind, for when you go to give the ring to... Yvonne... but here's an idea..." Caroline said to her teary-eyed daughter.

"Make whatever speech or vows that you had in mind, that's up to you... but then when you present the rings... take them both out of the box together, holding them in one hand. Place and slide the selected ring onto her finger with the ribbon bow still on it. Then have her place the second ring onto your finger. Then each of you take the loose tag end of the ribbon and pull to untie the bows... giving you both the freedom of love... to love." Caroline finished, tears now falling from her own eyes as she looked from her daughter to her husband and back.

Duke stepped close to both of them and wrapped both Deeny and Caroline into a massive hug. Both women laughed and cried at the same time.

"Thank you, daddy... thank you mom... thank you both so...so much." Deeny sobbed happy tears into their hug.

***___***___

Tom held the door for Lee as they entered the diner, both laughing as they ducked in out of the rain that had began falling just as they got out of Tom's truck. The jangling of the bell over the door drew the attention of everyone in the diner of course, not just Deeny and Yvonne who happened to be making rounds with the coffee pot for refills. Deeny smiled at her little sister and Tom as they made their way to the counter and took a seat on a pair of stools.

Yvonne beat Deeny to their sides giving both the newlyweds one-armed hugs with her free arm. Deeny had raced around the counter and to her sister's side who squealed when they tangled arms in a frenetic sisterly hug. After about a minute of this, Deeny peeled herself out of Lee's arms to turn and wrap her arms around Tom's waist and give him a peck on the cheek and a brief hug.

The bell rang on the passthrough window and Hank yelled "Order up!" Deen sighed and smiled before going to the end and around the counter to the window to collect the order and take it to the waiting diner. Meanwhile Yvonne had replaced the coffee pot on the machine and leaned on the counter in front of Lee and Tom and folded her hands and forearms in front of her and smiled before starting to ask questions.

"What brings you two in here on a Tuesday? We didn't expect you'd even come up for air till at least Thursday." Yvonne said with a sly grin that grew even bigger when she noted that both Lee and Tom started blushing.

"Um... we needed to... take a break." Lee said bashfully and bit her bottom lip before glancing affectionately to her right at Tom who had half hung his head and was looking back at her a little sheepishly.

"Yeah... that tends to happen on honeymoons... so I'm told." Yvonne said teasingly.

"Well, we had started out today to go fishing, but... the rain." Tom offered by way of explanation.

"And since we were both hungry, we thought we'd stop by and see you and Deeny... and eat." Lee added with a smile turning back to look at Yvonne.

Deeny nudged up against Yvonne, grabbing her butt out of sight below the counter. Yvonne jumped slightly with a start but hid the surprise well enough, giving Deeny a questioningly raised eyebrow and a sidelong glance. Deeny saw the joy in Yvonne's eyes despite the theatrics, and just returned an innocent smile and a wink.

"Have you talked to Mom and Dad? Or Annie?" Deeny asked as she propped her elbows on the counter and settled her chin in her upturned palms, looking inquisitively at Tom and Lee.

"No, not yet." Lee admitted, again blushing a little to match the shy smile.

"My mom is in Florida with Sheriff Potter... I mean Gerald." Tom added.

"Oh! I'm just pulling your leg, Tom. Don't worry about calling anyone. Enjoy your time. It's your honeymoon." Deeny said smiling at he and Lee.

Deeny looked pensive for just a moment then pushed back off the counter and wiped her hands on a bar towel, catching her sister's eye and giving her a little subtle head flick towards the end of the counter.

"Y, I'm going to run to the restroom for a moment, could you take their orders?" Deeny said while never letting her eyes leave Lee's so as to emphasize her intentions.

"Sure, I take care of it." Yvonne said, still smiling at Tom.

Lee took the unspoken hint and leaned over to Tom as she slid off her stool to stand.

"Tom, honey, could you just order something for me, whatever you're having. I'm going to go to the restroom too." Lee said sweetly.

"Okay, babe." Tom said with a smile as Lee leaned in and kissed his cheek before heading towards the hallway at the end of the counter.

Deeny opened her arms and swept Lee up into another long sisterly hug as Lee came into the restroom. They held one another and rocked back and forth sighing and murmuring how much they had missed one another. Deeny laughed a little at the silliness of that statement but it was heartfelt nonetheless.

"So? What is it? You look like you're about to burst." Lee said finally as she pushed Deeny back to arm's length and studied her sister's face and eyes.

"I can't get anything by you, can I?" Deeny said more than asked with a smile on her face.

"No more than I can from you. So? What is it?" Lee persisted, turning her head ever so slightly and giving her sister a suspicious sidelong gaze.

"Oh, Lee! I'm so lost." Deeny said dreamily, her gaze drifting to some unseen reflection of her inner thoughts.

"Lost? How so?" Lee asked, puzzled, this was unlike her normally stoic and wizened older sister.

"Love! Lee, I'm so in love I can't stand it!" Deeny said happily and then giggled seeing the confusion on her sister's face.

"Love?... with wh... NO! With Y?" Lee said excitedly, then giggled too.

"I knew that already! So, what or why are you lost?" Lee asked more seriously, tilting her head to the other shoulder still studying her sister's face.

"Well... I love her... and I know she loves me. I feel it and she's told me... I've told her..." Deeny all but babbled trying to explain.

"And...?" Lee nudged verbally, sensing there was more.

"And... I want to..." Deeny sighed and seemed to deflate in Lee's arms as the look of joy on her face shifted into something more like worry, or at least concern.

"Want to what? Talk to me Deeny, you're not making any sense." Lee almost pleaded, but tried to remain calm.

"I had daddy make me a ring... two rings actually. One for me, and one for... Yvonne." Deeny explained.

"I want to... I want to give Y a ring to... marry her. Oh, I know we can't really get married, not legally or anything, but it will be real to us..." Deeny said in a rush.

Lee stood there looking into her sister's eyes and her sister stared back, almost as if she were holding her breath awaiting Lee's response. Lee's puzzled expression gave way, slowly to a warm sisterly smile full of happiness and joy. Deeny's eyes lit up again and her smile returned with full intensity.