Chapter 24: Rise

Jack's house had never looked so beautiful. It was bedecked with white and yellow flowers as well as bright white banners declaring the marriage of the happy couple. Tina and Crispin were standing in the living room, setting out champagne glasses for the guests that were due to be arriving any second now. They had left the wedding earlier than everyone so that they could set up.

The small church that had held the ceremony had been quaint and simple with more emphasis placed on the couple than the wedding itself. As such, the style for clothing had been more casual than formal. Crispin had only worn a pair of khaki pants and a white dress shirt that was rolled up at the sleeves. After much protest, Tina had finally agreed that the occasion did indeed call for a dress. After more protest, she had agreed to buy a new one instead of going to her little black standby. That was how she came to wear the baby blue, thigh length number she was wearing now.

“How much time do we have?” Tina asked as she placed the bucket of champagne on ice on the middle of the coffee table.

Crispin checked out the window and said, “About twenty seconds.”

“Perfect.” Tina checked everything once again and wiped her hands on her dress. “Who's bringing Jamie?”

“Jack has him.” Crispin began adjusting the little finger sandwiches on one of the silver trays that were placed all around the house.

Tina rolled her eyes. Who would have guessed that her father had wanted grandkids so badly? He doted on the baby boy far more than Tina could ever remember him doting on her.

Twenty-three seconds later, the door opened as the first of the guests, Dallas and Ilia, came in. Dallas had worn his best cowboy hat for the occasion and Ilia had needed to dress down so that she didn't outshine the bride. As she herself said, there is no one more beautiful than a bride on her wedding day. Still, she looked fantastic in the stunning red dress, even with her belly starting to stick out with her pregnancy. Tina could hate her for that alone. Already five months pregnant and the fairy had only gained the textbook amount of weight. If you looked at her from the back, she didn't even look pregnant.

“We first?” Ilia asked eagerly, looking around at the empty house.

“I have apple cider here, just for you.” Tina grinned holding up the specially prepared glass.

Ilia frowned. “I'm allowed to have a single glass of champagne.”

“Apple juice only, preggers.” Tina pressed the flute into her hand and couldn't stop herself from smirking. Ilia had adjusted her diet with her pregnancy accordingly but she really didn't like it. She took every opportunity to complain.

“Only four more until we hit our goal.” Dallas comforted her, rubbing her belly as he did so.

The next people in were various friends and family members that were all greeted and directed towards food and dancing. Children were shown either to the bathroom or the playroom as needs demanded.

Then Joe and Kai came in. Kai looked as happy as he ever did but that was probably due more to the newborn in Joe's arms than the wedding. The darling demi baby girl was formally named Persephone but everyone called her Sephie. She had only been in the world for a few weeks but her bright tawny brown eyes took in everything around her. As Kai explained, merfolk babies were considerably quicker to adjust to the world than human babies. Because she was a mermaid demi, her body needed to be kept moist for the first few years of her life. Her swaddling blankets were always kept wet with salt water and those were wrapped in a waterproof shield so her mother didn't get the water all over her pretty yellow dress.

Tina hugged Joe happily and even held baby Sephie for a few moments before she had to turn her attention to the rest of the guests. It was annoying but all of her friends having babies was giving her baby brain. Crispin wasn't helping at all. He never brought up anything about it but whenever she held Jamie or Sephie he would get this look in his eyes that Tina, as always, could easily read.

After a few more friends, Jack himself came in holding baby Jamie. The haltija demi was already far above what a baby human would weigh at his age but he was right on track for a haltija child. He looked at everything eagerly, like he couldn't get enough of the world. Tina didn't have time then to hold him but she did kiss his plump cheeks and hug her father.

She couldn't do much else because, at that moment, the bride and groom came into the house.

Warren was probably the reason the dress code was so casual. As he told Crispin, he hated wearing monkey suits. He did wear khaki pants for the occasion but he had drawn the line at a sport coat and had opted to wear a simple dress shirt. The only thing that set him apart from Crispin, Dallas, and Kai – his groomsmen – was the tie he had been wearing. But that had managed to get off on the ride from the church.

Beside him, very nearly glowing, with Brooklyn. She had opted for a traditional white dress with lots of dreamy lace and a flowing skirt. Instead of a veil, she had worn a glittering crown on top of her shinning brown hair. The normally plain Brooklyn had never been so beautiful. Her three bridesmaids - Tina, Ilia, and Joe - had all worn different colors by her request. The only thing that matched was the cut of the dresses. The effect was that it looked like the white of Brooklyn's dress had fragmented into the different colors of her bridesmaids.

Even though they had all been met and congratulated at the church, they were still converged upon by the guests once again. Tina and Crispin went first because they had left before they could greet the new couple.

After that, they were passed on to each others family and friends. Warren looked proud and elated, Brooklyn was stunning and regal. At one point, she requested her son and baby Jamie was passed happily over to her. They made quite the pair. Jamie was clearly over the moon for his mother. Brooklyn didn't even care when he dribbled on her bare shoulder.

Maddie was kept running back and forth between the front rooms and the kitchen. She had been at the ceremony too but upon reaching the house she went right to work serving the party goers.

Tina wanted to have imagined it, but she could have sworn she saw her father paying a little more attention than usual to his housekeeper. When he said something to her that Tina couldn't hear from across the room, the woman blushed like a schoolgirl and grinned.

“It's cute. Right?” Crispin asked her with a smile.

“If by cute you mean creepy and deeply disturbing, then yeah.” she crossed her arms.

Crispin chuckled silently. “How is that possibly a bad thing to you?”

“I was practically raised by those two. It's like watching your parents flirt.” she shuddered for effect and Crispin laughed harder.

To take her mind off of that, he took her by the hand and pulled her into the next room to dance.

Halfway through the party, Jamie was passed back to Jack who took him happily. Jack was Jamie's official babysitter. He had plenty of time to do it these days as the new mythic company was still in its early stages.

Then Warren and Brooklyn were happily hugged and kissed goodbye. They lingered for a while, Brooklyn unwilling to leave her son for so long. But Tina finally pushed the out the door. The honeymoon, she told them, was only a week long. They would be back and buried in diapers before they knew it. Then they were gone.

They hadn't told anyone where they were going. Most people had a vision of an exotic beach or romantic mountain retreat in their heads. Everyone would have been surprised to learn that the two were simply going back to their cottage. They were happiest there, in the fairy tale spot they called home.

After they had departed, the party only continued. If anything, it got more raucous after the new couple was gone.

After they left, as the maid of honor, Tina could finally relax and enjoy the party more herself. The last of her duties was done an she seriously considered running upstairs and changing into something besides the dress she had been made to wear.

She was stopped by Crispin. It wasn't on accident either. He deliberately stole her attention just so she wouldn't change from the dress into something more comfortable.

He did it by pulling her into his arms and kissing her thoroughly. He even moaned into her ear, sending fire shooting up her body. They had been living together for months now and still, Tina couldn't get enough of him.

They were interrupted by Joe who was coming to her with the phone.

“It's Senator Corman.” she said apologetically.

If it was the senator, then it was important. Tina eagerly took the phone.

Once they got home, each of them had decided that MCRC and their hunt for revenge was part of their past. And, as their past, they were going to leave it all behind. Instead, they had turned their eyes to the future.

The future was called MARS.

The Mythic Advancement and Regulation Society. Joe had come up with the name. She had wanted something strong and unconquerable. MARS, the Roman God of War, was what she had come up with. Tina didn't care about the name though. What she cared about was how well MARS was going to function and if they could even get it started.

The answer was: sort of. It would take years for MARS to have the same kind of scope that MCRC had. That, however, was not enough for Tina. She wanted something better than MCRC. She wanted something so amazing that MCRC wouldn't even be remembered. If she could, she wanted to completely bury the memory of Victor Ozera.

Senator Corman, the only mythic senator, was an elf demi. He took more after his human mother and had joined the political game with the hopes of making a difference. Corman had never really been a big supporter of MCRC mostly because he disagreed with the way mythics were handled there. It was more like an organization to keep them out of trouble then to help them. Winning them over to their side and having him support MARS was a big coup.

So when he called, someone at MARS would always answer.

More often than not, it was Tina. Corman liked her. He said he enjoyed her brutal honesty, that it was refreshing after spending all of his time around the false smiles and dodging answers of his fellow politicians. So Tina did most of the talking with the senator despite the fact that it was Jack who was technically their leader.

Twenty minutes later, Tina hung up the phone with a neutral expression on her face.

She turned and saw everyone looking at her, waiting.

“Well?” Ilia asked impatiently.

Tina grinned. “We've got Corman.”

The others let out a victorious shout and hugged each other joyfully. Senator Corman would be their voice in Washington. He would see to it that MARS got the chance they desperately needed.

However, it was up to all of them to earn the respect of everyone.

Already, they were well on their way. Brooklyn had already begun expanding the new MARS library. Most of it was books from her private collection but that didn't matter. With her contacts throughout the mythic academic world to help contribute, they were already becoming known as the foremost in mythic knowledge. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

Joe and Kai, after returning from their own wedding in Greece, had thrown themselves into working in MARS with a passion. By promising him a steady supply of merman blood and Joe willing for him to test his still new DCBIs on her as well as anytime access to Crispin's voice, they pulled in the most famous of mythic scientists into their organization; Dr. Daun. Even MCRC hadn't had him on its side.

Ilia, who had a rather large family of mythics and demis and who all had friends of the same nature, managed to pull in a base of support. She herself was technologically savvy and that was important to have all on its own. But with her very extended family and all of their friends, MARS had supporters willing to help them whenever it was needed.

Warren managed to get his haltija family to do the same. But his biggest contribution was that of muscle. There was no other word for it, Warren had become a grunt. He was needed and Tina couldn't deny that he was useful but he didn't have a glamorous job like the rest of them. As he told Tina, that was just fine with him. All he wanted was to make a living for his family and return home with his new wife every night.

Dallas, who no longer needed to hide from Dora, was free once again to travel around the world. He had just as many foreign friends and favors as Tina had if not a few more. He pulled those in to get more support for MARS. His partner Jason, who aligned himself with MARS the moment he heard about it, got them international attention. That meant they were growing all the time.

So Crispin had found them a new building, a base of operations. The MCRC complex had been taken over by the government, the likelihood of ever getting it back was pretty much nothing. Which suited Tina just fine. She didn't want anything to do with MCRC.

The building he found was smaller than the complex but better looking on the inside. It would suit their needs for now which was all Tina needed. Donations from the public, mostly mythics and Ilia's father, was what kept them going. As Ilia said, her father was loaded and willing to pay good money to never have to spend time with his children. All it took was a phone call to get a new donation by him. Tina had joked about naming a room in the new MARS building after him. Ilia had voted that it be a broom closet.

Crispin also did exactly what he did best which was serve everyone he met with a smile. There was no task too difficult or too menial for Crispin. He did everything from following Jack and Tina to meet with the senator to unclogging the toilets of the MARS building when the pipes failed. He stayed up late everyone time someone else did. He was the last to go to sleep at night, the first to wake up in the morning.

Still, he was never too tired to spend time with Tina. Whenever she reached for him, he was there. Whenever she wanted him, he was willing.

Not that she wasn't too tired sometimes. Making MARS out of nothing was very difficult but it was worth it. Tina felt great every time she went to bed at night. She woke up each morning willing and able to tackle the day ahead. She was even going on her first real research trip for MARS in a few months. It was going to be small, to the Amazon rain forest and only for a few weeks, but it was still a trip and she was going back to something she loved.

She didn't find out until yesterday, but her father had booked two tickets on the trip. One for her, the other for Crispin.

Jack hadn't consulted her on it. It had probably been Crispin's idea. Still, Tina didn't complain.

Ever since they left Ozera's dock, after Jack had given Crispin permission to seek out Tina's hand, she had been waiting for the marriage proposal.

She was going to turn it down. She was almost eager for him to ask just so she could have the satisfaction of doing so. She didn't appreciate that Crispin had asked her father for his blessing the way he did. It made her feel like the little woman being taken care of by the men again. So, whenever he asked, she was going to say no. She was going to take a great deal of pleasure in it.

To her frustration, he never formally asked her. Every now and then, he would get this sly smile on his face that convinced Tina that it was coming. But it never came.

Which only led her to wonder why he hadn't asked. What was wrong with him? Who asked a girl's father for permission to marry her then never came through with it. Part of her wondered if he had changed his mind.

But he didn't act like he had. He still kissed her like she was the last woman he would ever get to kiss. He still made love to her with all the fire and passion he possessed. If anything, he was becoming closer and closer to her. But he still didn't ask her to marry him.

It had gotten to the point where she was irritated that he hadn't. She wanted to shake him and demand why. Which, as the party started winding down she very nearly did.

Leaving their guests to enjoy themselves by themselves, Crispin led Tina up the stairs.

On the way, they passed Ilia and Dallas who were leaving against Ilia's will. She wanted to stay and party but the baby in her belly had tired her out already. Dallas was very close to carrying her out the door.

Joe and Kai had already left as they needed to put Sephie to bed. Her crib was specially designed with about an inch or two of water in the bottom of it. Joe had told Tina that she still wasn't used to laying her baby in a pool of water on purpose. It went against her human instincts to do so. But needing to sleep in such a crib until she had aged a bit meant that she couldn't sleep just anywhere.

On the second floor, they passed the open door of one of the guest rooms that had been made over into a baby room just for Jamie. Inside, Jack was putting the already sleeping baby into bed while Maddie watched them with a smile.

They continued on to the third floor and into Tina's room.

Inside, Crispin reached for her and pulled her close. There was nothing like a wedding to put love into the air. Even Tina could feel it.

Crispin backed her up until they fell onto her bed, his mouth never leaving hers.

Tina pulled him in closer. She couldn't seem to get enough of him. She hadn't complained overly much at hearing he was going with her to the Amazon because she wanted him to come. She wanted him to be beside her as she looked into the forest mythics. She wanted to travel with him not just to the Amazon but back to Egypt and to the forests of China and to study the sea mythics of each of the oceans.

And she wanted to take their children with them. Because of course she was going to have children with him someday and, as promised, she would teach him or her herself as she showed the baby the entire world.

And Crispin damn well better be beside her when she did it. She would accept nothing else.

But he didn't ask her to marry him so she couldn't deny him then force him to marry him herself. He just continued to smile and drive her absolutely insane.

Finally, as he caressed the soft skin of her thigh, she decided that she had had enough. She wrapped her legs around him then flipped them over so quickly that he was surprised and fell easily.

She sat up on his lap and glared down at him with her arms crossed.

“Problem?” he asked softly so his voice didn't carry out of the room.

“Yes. What's with you?”

He raised an eyebrow curiously and her eyes narrowed on him.

“Don't act innocent. You know exactly what you did.”

Crispin didn't respond. Instead, he stroked her thighs up under dressed and grabbed her buttocks.

She grabbed his hands to stop him. “Why haven't you asked me to marry you yet?”

“Because you would have said no.”

The immediacy of his answer surprised her. She had been expecting him to play dumb and pretend he didn't know what she was talking about.

“You don't know that.” she looked away when she said it because he was exactly right.