Sun of Zartha/24

Kay and Angie were in the hibiscus garden, seated on the stone bench. Most of the guests were leaving the palace by now.

“You win, Angie.”

“No, Kay, the universe wins.” Angie smiled at Kay. “So what are you going to do now?” She placed her hand in her chin and looked into his eyes, just they way she did when she was 18. Kay could not resist those damn eyes. There were times Jay would look at him with one of his little wisecracks and it was almost chilling, how that same look would be in jay's eyes.

“Well, I guess I go back to being a mailman now. My wife is gone."

"Good old Lizzie Matheson," Angie said dryly with a roll of her eyes and knowing chuckle.

"Yeah," Kay chuckled, "yep, that was CLEARLY the girl I should NOT have married. Too many years passed by, Angie. I didn’t know her anymore. I guess I never knew her - until it was too late.”

Angie looked down, and looked at Kay again. “You knew me.”

“Yeah, I suppose I did.” Kay smiled back.

“Kevin, I think you need to come home with me for a while. To New Orleans. The Post Office is always hiring down there," she said with a smirkly wink. "Besides, I know a quiet restaurant in 7th Ward that serves some good boiled crawfish.” She smiled at him with a red flash in her eye.

“Damn, I miss crawfish. You know, they don’t know how to make crawfish in New York.”

Angelique laughed and slapped Kay on his knee. “You are such a Texan!”

Kay looked at his old flame wistfully. Now was the chance. Now was the chance to ask her the question he had all these years.

"Angie...come on, tell me. Come clean. On our way back from that poltergeist case in Anniston. The Hi-Lite Inn, off of the 10 freeway in Mobile."

Angie smiled again warmly, and looked down at her lap. "I knew that memory would come back one of these days. Funny how Jason was the one to help it come back to you."

"Even before then. You were just a trainee, darlin', that was it, that was as far as it was ever supposed to go. Why me, Angelique? Why did you pick me?"

"What? to be the father of the Sun of Zartha? To be my Knowing mate for all eternity and beyond? To travel the four corners of the universe with? It's pretty damn simple, actually. I fell in love, Kevin. Girls do that."

"There's another reason," Kay said.

Angie went on. "I saw something in you, baby, something that, well, I wasn't expecting it from a human and I sure wasn't expecting it from an MIB man, but...it kind of hit me deep inside. You have a clean, pure soul, Kevin. You...I think you have some alien blood in you somewhere, you have to, 'cause, I don't know...you just have a clean soul - a soul that I can see some Light inside. Some real, good old Zartha-caliber Light. I saw it in you. I could tell you had no idea you have it, no clue, but that didn't matter. 'cause it sure the hell slammed into me.

"Now, maybe you don't quite have a clean conscience, but you do most definitely have a clean soul. There's a difference. That's why I got the Knowing for you. I felt your soul and it called out to me. That's why I had to make you mine. Once the process starts, that's it, baby.

"Look, how come you never got the balls to stand up and come out and just patch things up with me after the whole Iowa thing? Surely you didn't think I was gonna just forget about your ass!" Angie chuckled hard, but Kay wasn't laughing.

Angie noticed that and said, "Look, even if I had brought you up on charges they wouldn't have stuck at tribunal and you know that. You were doing your job. And you really stuck your neck out to protect the kids. You didn't have to do that."

Angie took Kay's hand. "Look, baby, yeah, after Serleena killed Lauranna I was pissed. I admit it, I was fuckin' pissed, but I was pissed at everybody back then. You gotta understand, I was tryin' to keep my planet from destroying itself from within. It didn't. My son - OUR son - and my goddaughter were safe. SAFE, baby. If it wasn't for you, Kevin, there might not even be a Zartha right now. We will ALWAYS be grateful for what you did for our people. Always. If you don't understand anything else, take that with you, at least."

Kevin replied, "Look, Angie...the thing is...I was scared, darlin'. After all that happened, I was crushed that I let you down like that. I'm a company man, Angie. I was sworn to do a job. I had a planet of my own to look out for, you know. It...it was hard as hell to decide, you know, when we were together, whether to pick you over the mission, but I picked the mission..."

"Kevin, first of all, you didn't let us down, you actually saved us. And just because MIB has a mission to protect Earth, that doesn't mean...well, it doesn't mean not follow your heart, and it definitely don't mean keeping perfectly good alien people - like ME - away from Earth, people who could help you guys! These planets, I talk to these people almost everyday and to a MAN, Kevin, they always say how they just can't understand why Earth won't officially acknowledge their existence! It makes absolutely NO sense! They keep coming and coming, and they come through MIB and you restrict their travel, and some of them have to sneak in.

"Well, aliens fall in love, Kevin. We eat, sleep, breathe, go to the bathroom just like humans, well, with some teeny tiny variations, but you know what I'm talkin' about! ALL we want is to be a part of you guys and it's high time you guys be a part of us! Together we can handle the "scum", baby. We can handle the crooks. We can handle the tyrants. We can have peace. That's all most aliens want. Just the basic shit, just to be happy!

"Look, 30 of Earth's population born in the last 25 years alone is either full-blood alien or hybrid anyway, not counting centuries, centuries, Kevin, of previous contact on the record, every culture on Earth, no matter how advanced or how primitive has stories, old, old stories, thousands of years old, about kings, queens, princes, angels, fairies, demons, elves, leprechauns, little green men, whatevah, all of them being a part of the human world - CREATING the human world, when you stop and think about it, and they didn't just come of outta nowhere, they came on ships. Space ships. I've flown some of 'em. So what the hell's the holdup, baby? Earth has so much to offer to the universe! Everybody loves you guys! They always have. You know that.

"Kevin...even though I was mad at you, I really, really feel that you still could have been a man and came to me and we would have talked it over, we could have worked it out, baby. I was still in love with you!"

Kevin said, "But Angie, you are one tough ass bitch."

"That is NOT an excuse, Kevin. Every woman is a little bit bitch, baby. That's how we're built. Come on, you of all people know how to handle me. The toughest, baddest, most terrible criminals in three different galaxies freeze in terror if you so much as show your face, and you can't even CALL me?"

"Yeah, but come on, Angie, you're different. You can blow planets up. All most women do is throw a vase at you. So I was scared to even look at you. That's why I left MIB. I wanted to just get the hell away from all that - I thought if I could train Jay just right, get him goin', ya know...I knew you'd send for him and Laura one of these days..."

Kevin Brown looked now at Angie with an intense look in his eyes that showed the most emotion and vulnerability they ever showed. Ever.

Angelique replied, "Your fear did make a lot of shit go down, baby, when it could have all gone so, so much easier. Your fear kept us from having the life together we were supposed to have - the family we were supposed to have. Jason would have grown up with you as his dad.

"But maybe this was all for a reason. I wouldn't have been the mother, or the queen, I was without all that."

Kay turned and looked Angie in the eye. "Will you really take me back, Angelique? After all these years? After everything that happened..." Kay now looked straight ahead and tears began to form. Angie sat, smiling, almost chuckling, shaking her head slowly. Why do men take so damn long to come around? "Lizzie didn't give a shit about me, you did ALWAYS had my back, Angie..." Kay sighed again. "If I had just stayed with YOU, not chickened out and gone with Lizzie, all this shit would have never happened. Lauranna'd still be here..." He lowered his head down.

Angie reached out and hugged Kay, who was trying to keep from sobbing. She almost cradled him, and at that moment, for a brief instant, it was just like Mobile all over again. Angie almost forgot how special that was.

"It's OK, baby. It's all OK. Lizzie is who Lizzie IS, baby. I could have told you that in 1968. She was planted to KEEP us apart and try and prevent Jason from being conceived."

Kay sighed a deep sigh and nodded his head. "You tried to tell me, but I was a damn fool," he said, his voice showing the pain of hindsight and his eyes showing the sting of embarrassment.

"Yeah, and I could have told you more, but after you let Zed break us up, you never asked and you never ONCE thought to look her ass up in your own database, so as far as SHE's concerned, what happened between you and her afterwards, it's your own damn fault. But as for ME, I never stopped loving you for a second. I knew she'd be gone sooner or later. I was just fine waiting for that," and she lifted his face up and kissed him on the lips.

Then Kay kissed her a little harder, a little longer.

Angie held Kay's hands and looked straight into his eyes. Her eyes flashed that bright T'ola'a red, and her smile was deep and sincere. It was like the warm comprehensive love of all creation was in that smile. Kay thought he felt the same way, now, that he felt sometimes when he looked up at the stars.

"You damn straight I'm gonna take you back, Kevin. I have to."

Kevin stared at Angie's glowing, radiant face, and here itactually did begin to radiate some of that bluish-white angelic light. There was still inside of Angelique, after all these years, these trials, these difficulties, still so much innocence, yet so much wisdom at the same time.

"Your son - our son - is just as beautiful as you are, darlin'. I cannot believe you still love my ass, Angelique."

"Just because you don't believe it, don't make it not true. Kiss me again."

- end of chapter -

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