Where Does My Heart Beat Now- Epilogue

Disclaimer: The song in this chapter is All I Want To Do Is Make Love To You by Heart

Epilogue

With the trailer door shut and the latch locked securely into place, Gabriel turned around to take in the scenery around him the following morning. The time approached 10:30, which meant they would need to get on the road fairly quickly if they were to make it halfway through Virginia that day. It was still hard for him to believe they would be leaving such a beautiful place. Everywhere he laid eyes re-enactors were loading their trailers after taking down their tents and the rest of their camps. Across the road near the large barn he could see the small forms of Ellen, Faye, and Tobi folding one of their tents and packing it away in a plastic tub. They, too, would be making  the long journey back to Texas, and quite possibly their drive would be longer.

Turning his eyes away from the civilian campsite, Gabriel made his way along the side of the trailer to go help Sean and Ava with the poles of their tent, but halfway down the trailer something caught his eye. At first he thought it was nothing out of the ordinary, but then he did a double take; the gold lettering of ‘Colonel’ on the side of the trailer had been crossed out with black paint, and written above it in the same paint was the word ‘Ginral’.

Casey. Gabriel rolled his eyes and kept walking. His cousin was the only person crazy enough to paint on his trailer… or spell that atrociously. Upon arriving at the spot where the others were disassembling his best friend’s tent, he chuckled at the sight of Kate giving orders to the other men on how to get the job done. “Looks like you have them trained, a mhuirnín. How’d you manage that one?”

A sly grin appeared on Kate’s face, “I told them that if they did this quickly there was a possibility of getting another strip show out of me in the near future.”

Dear God, no. Not that Gabriel didn’t enjoy his wife’s distraction during the night raid he just didn’t want anyone else to see her like that, again. “Well, when you guys are done there let’s go see if Ellen and Faye need any help.”

Kate gave him a thumbs up before going over to gripe at Casey for folding his side of the tent wrong.

 

Having pulled her thick hair into a high ponytail for a little relief from the heat causing it stick to her neck, Ellen climbed into the bed of her truck to carefully position the wooden washstand where it wouldn’t get damaged on the drive back. All morning her work had been slowed by the constant thoughts of the man she had fallen hard for. The only thing keeping her on track was Faye tossing items up to her to be loaded. As soon as they got their cots loaded then she’d pull her aside to apologize for her behavior at the ball. After making sure the cots were secured in the bed of the truck, she jumped down to help Faye put their duffle bags into the cab. The two women worked in silence for some time until Ellen touched Faye on the arm, making her best friend look her way. The younger of the two women didn’t understand why her friend wanted to take valuable time away from their packing.

“Faye, can I talk with you?” Ellen spoke up.

Faye kept her eyes focused on the other woman, unsure of what she wanted to talk about. “What about?”

“The ball.” Ellen replied, and then sighed, “I’m sorry. There was no reason for me to get so upset with you, especially since you didn’t know why.”

“What upset you that much?” Faye asked, “I don’t mean to be pushy or anything, but I’d like to understand you a bit more.”

“It’s very personal,” Ellen said, “I don’t think anyone knew until now except Mom.”

“Take your time,” Faye said, understanding that it wasn’t easy for her friend.

Ellen smiled sadly at her, thankful that she had been given a moment to find her strength. It was hard enough for her to open up to Seamus the night he had found her outside of the ball, and it appeared that she’d have to do it again. Taking a deep breath, she started, “Remember that I told you that my mom remarried?”

Faye nodded; that was about all she knew about Ellen’s home by then. That her father died and her mom married a second time. But she wondered what that had to with anything.

“Well, things weren’t as perfect as it looked back then,” Ellen said, lowering her eyes as the memories surged back to her, “My stepfather lost his job somewhere along the line. Mom had to give up nearly all her time to keep us going.  And after I turned seventeen…well…” She reached up and revealed the scar that ran across the joint between her neck and shoulder.  Tears started to pool in her eyes once more, “This is what happened.”

Faye stared in complete shock at the scar. No wonder Ellen hated men! And always wore shirts with high necklines. If the last time she had let a man near her was when she had gotten her scar….

Noticing Faye’s shocked expression, Ellen added, “The other one’s worse.”

“Other one?”

Ellen nodded, tears running freely, “I thought I was going to die…there was so much blood. Everywhere. I can’t remember much except the red, but Mom said she came home early, just in time to save my life. And the rest is pretty much obvious. I woke up in the hospital a week later.”

Faye didn’t know what to say. It was evident that it was the first time Ellen had spoken about her secret in a long, long time. Hugging her best friend, she said, “Please tell me that a*****e is rotting away in some prison for this.”

Ellen chuckled a little, “As we speak, yes. Mom also filed for a divorce.”

“That’s good,” Faye said, pulling away, “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“Well, first off, I was scared,” Ellen said, “And I just wanted to leave the whole episode behind me. It’s not that I didn’t trust you, I just wanted to forget.”

“But you can’t just forget, Ellen.”

“Yeah, I know that, now. And holding it all in was doing more harm than good.”

“Next time you need to talk about something like this, you come to me, okay?” Faye hugged her best friend tightly and smiled when she felt Ellen do the same in return.

“Deal, I don’t want to handle this on my own anymore anyways.”

Returning to the truck, Ellen and Faye found Tobi in the cab of the truck pushing different buttons on the stereo as he searched for a suitable song to listen to while they finished loading their belongings. The flamboyant male eventually landed on a song that all three of them found worth singing along to, especially Ellen, who made a huge show of it by throwing her back up against the side of the truck and grinding along the side while hanging onto the top edge of the truck bed once the song headed into the chorus.

“All I wanna do is make love to you. One night of love was all we knew.” A laugh escaped her lips when she noticed Faye standing on the hood of the truck, equally involved with the song seeing as how she had found a plastic soda bottle to use as a microphone, “All I wanna do is make love to you. I’ve got loving arms to hold on to.”

Meanwhile, standing only ten feet away from the display was the Dawson’s. The men were rather enthralled by the show, evident by the way they stood there with their arms folded over their chests and eyebrows arched. Kate and the other women couldn’t help but move their hips in time with the music, completely oblivious to the hungry looks in the men’s eyes. The one most intrigued by the show was Casey, for he couldn’t remove his eyes from his fiancée, who had gotten down on all fours while still using the truck’s hood as her stage. Not long afterwards, he noted something odd about what he was watching.

“There were three of them earlier this week.” Casey stared long and hard at the scene in front of him, thinking Tobi might have been occupying the cab.

“What?” Gabriel pulled his attention away from the women to look at his cousin.

“Where’s the queer one?”

He got his answer moments later when the man in question slid up right behind Casey, running his hands up the outside of the Irish male’s thighs as he continued singing along with the song close to Casey’s ear. “I said ‘please, please understand I’m in love with another man. And what he couldn’t give me was the one little thing that you can.’”

Upon realizing who was touching him rather inappropriately, Casey quickly sidestepped away from Tobi, throwing his hands out in front of him to ward off any sudden attack, “No, no, no! If anyone needs me I’ll be at the truck.” He pointed his finger at the gay man staring longingly after him, “And you… stay over there. In case I wasn’t clear the first time, I like beautiful, round boobies; you can motorboat them. That’s not something you can do with what you have. Thank you, have a nice day!”

The others watched Casey disappear around the side of the trailer after taking his daughter from Moira to get her strapped into her carrier. There was only minutes left before it was time to get on the road, which meant Ellen and Faye needed to finish loading the rest of their items. After the rest of his family went back to double-check they hadn’t missed loading anything, Seamus took the time to help Ellen load some of her heavy bags in the bed of the truck, and to properly say goodbye to her.

“Ellen, let me help you.” Seamus spoke to the scarlet woman while she had her back turned toward him. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see his cousin kissing Faye goodbye on the other side of Gabriel’s truck. “Ellen… are you okay?”

Seamus wasn’t prepared for Ellen’s reaction, because the second she finally turned around to face him, he could see the tears pooling in her dark cobalt eyes. The next thing he knew, she had thrown herself in his arms, burying her face in his warm chest.

“I’m not ready to say goodbye, Seamus.” Ellen managed to turn her gaze up to meet his, the tears trickling down her cheeks. Damn me for crying. “This week has changed me for the better… That, and I’m not ready to forget you, not after this week.”

“I don’t want you to forget me. And what’s more, Paris is only an hour or so away from Jefferson. I can pop in to see you any time.”

Without saying anything in reply, Ellen pulled his head down closer to hers and took the moment to search his eyes for the truth of his word. And there she found it, hidden in the depths of blue; he would return for her. There was no doubt about that. Choking back the rest of her tears, Ellen hungrily covered Seamus’s lips with hers one last time until he returned for her. She would cherish the moment forever.

Elsewhere, Faye was leaning across the backseat of the green Dodge Ram, stroking Tate’s soft curls while the baby napped peacefully, unaware of the woman hovering over her. Behind Faye, the baby’s father beamed happily at the sight. At last Tate would have a mother who deeply cared for her.

Only a few weeks until you become my wife, a stór. That day can’t come soon enough. Casey thought, until he saw Gabriel rallying everyone together to load into the trucks. Their time was up. Once Faye turned around to face him he gave her a quick kiss before ushering her along toward her own ride. “I’ll see you in a few days, Faye. You ladies… and Tobi be safe.”

“We will, and all of you do the same.”

Still standing beside Ellen’s truck "and being honked at to get into Rob’s truck" Seamus held onto Ellen’s hand as she climbed into the driver’s seat and hugged her tightly, savoring the feeling of her gripping onto him, “I love you, Ellen. Text me when you guys stop for the night to let me know all of you are all right.”

“I will.” Allowing him to kiss her cheek, Ellen shut the truck door afterwards and watched him walk over to the silver truck where he disappeared inside. A few more tears ran down the apples of her cheeks, which went unnoticed by her friend sitting beside her in the passenger seat.

“It’ll be okay, Ellen. The time until we see our men again will pass faster than we know it.” Faye clicked her seatbelt over her body as the truck began to pull away toward Pumping Station Road, “We have something to live for.”

Inside of Gabriel’s truck, Kate squeezed her husband’s hand when they followed behind Rob’s truck, passing by other re-enactors on their way home. It was hard for her to believe they were finally going home after the week they had in the beautiful town. There would be plenty more adventures in their future, and each one would be enjoyed to the fullest, no matter what they faced. Whatever lay waiting for them on the horizon she didn’t have a clue, but she couldn’t wait to discover it along with the rest of her family. The Irish spirit flowed through her, that was for certain.

“Well, let’s go home, everyone.” Gabriel said with a smile on his face. “A lot has come out of this event. I’m pretty sure all of us are a little stronger, now.”

“Speaking of stronger,” Casey spoke up from the backseat, where he was slouched back with his feet resting on the headrest of Gabriel’s seat, “Can someone roll down the window?”

“Why?” Kate questioned.

“I just ripped a good one,” The light green male laughed.

Gabriel fought the urge to slam on the brakes and kick his cousin out, but he knew that wouldn’t get them anywhere. “Dear God, give me the strength to make it back to Texas without strangling him.”

Turning onto the road leading toward South Mountain, Gabriel glanced into the rearview mirror to see the domed peaks of The Round Tops growing smaller and smaller, eventually disappearing behind the trees. They had survived the event of a lifetime and that was something he’d hold onto for the rest of his life. Silence filled the truck after a while, except for a strange sound he didn’t recognize, and then it dawned on him. It was his heart, a heart that had been quiet for long after losing the one he loved most dearly. With a glance beside him he saw Kate gazing out of her window at the passing landscape. She was the reason for his heart beating once more.