Ghost Bird... Do You Copy?

Nine Tales to Tell

Playlist at the bottom this time guys :)

When I turned around, all of my boys were down on one knee, each of them held a small box or in some cases a much larger box. I couldn't see if they were open or closed because of the tears that were trickling down my face.

"Before you say anything, listen to us." Owen almost looked like he was ready to cry. His eyes were so shiny. "We each want to say one or two more things to you. Silas?"

"In Greece, there is a tradition to give worry beads or Komboloi to our intended. I will show you how to use them if you wish. Aggele Mou, I love you." With that he stands up and walks up to me and places on me what looks like a circular connected string of off-white beads, and where the string connects there is a tassel. Silas gives me a kiss, and walks back to his waiting brothers.

"Remember when we sat out on the roof of your house and looked at the stars? I was starting to believe then that you were something really special. That I wanted to do just about anything for you... even give you the stars. I finally caught one for you." North, with his small box, walks up to me and places a bracelet on my wrist. It takes a couple tries, but he finally gets it to clasp. On the bracelet is two stars; one black and one diamond. I give him a slightly confused look. "He kissed me on the forehead and whispers, "One's a black diamond."

Gabriel looks up at me with tears pouring down his cheeks. This box contains something I never thought I would see off of him. "These have always represented what I have lost. I am going to focus on what I have now, which is you. Please take these, because they are part of my heart. Now you have it all." Just as the others before, he comes up to me and gives me a kiss. "We are going to have to add a few more holes to your ears. I love you Sang. With all of my heart."

"My mother always warned me to protect my heart. I did... until you." Victor takes the necklace out of its box, and lays the box down. He walks around to my back and whispers lightly to me. "Please lift up your hair." I comply. Mr. Victor has been conquered. I start giggling.

"Victory is mine!" As he clasps the necklace I turn my head around to meet those fire eyes, just as he takes my face in both of his hands and kisses me fully on the lips. Oh the passion he can give in the most chaste of kisses.

As the pattern must continue, I turn around and look at the remaining men before me. The only ones left down on their knees are Luke, Sean, Owen, Kota and Nathan. Sean smiles a wide grin, and almost bounces as he stands up.

"Pookie! My box is empty." He makes a show of dumping it out and looking around for whatever must have been in there at some point.

"This is serious Sean!" North bellows.

Dr. Sean blows him a raspberry and clears his throat. "As I was saying, my box is empty. I decided to give you my first stethoscope." I now realize it is hanging around his neck. "This way you can always find my heart. I'm sure we can find other uses for it as well." He wiggles his eyebrows at me as he walk towards my laughing self. Sean takes my hands, and makes me take it off of him. "Dr. Sorensen, we might have to play doctor later so that I can show you how to use this seriously. I love you." And he kisses me on the nose.

Honestly, I was starting to get worried. Things were so serious for a while, I kept thinking they were leaving me. Victor made me realize they were really, really just being sweet, and Sean brought all that playfulness back.

Luke looks at me for a long moment before saying, "Forever...well, that's a long time. I am sure that we will all be goofing off and having fun for much longer than that. You're going to need something blue to make that happen." With that, I am handed a box with a satin, and lace, baby-blue garter. On it is attached a small silver heart.

"Always?" He doesn't say another word, but rather reaches around me in a nice embrace and kisses my temple. Wait? What? How does that saying go?

"Hey Peanut. I guess it's my turn. I don't know if you still do this or not. I remember when we first really got to know you. You were so timid and alone. We found several journals of your writings. Well, of some sort of writing. You had written in a modified code. Once I learned it myself, I started writing in secret. I never stopped. I have been writing ever since then about our adventures. This is our book. I want you to have it to look back on. It's a piece of us. Maybe someday, when we have children, we can pass it down to them." The whole time he had been taking small step towards me. Before I knew it, he was standing right in front of me. "Here." He kisses my cheek, and turns around to head back to the others. I reach out to grab his hand and just barely grasp his fingers.

"Thank you Honey. This is... this is something I look forward to reading together." Nathan gives a big smile at that, and has a spring in his step now.

Kota and Owen are still kneeling. I keep eyeing them back and forth. Kota ends up being the one to stand up and walk towards me. "I have just a small gift, and a-a favor." He trips over his words. As I look up, everyone is eyeing him expectantly. Smiles all around the room. "Remember the first picture we took together, at my mom's house? She thought we were going on a date. I have loved and cherished that picture from the moment I got it printed. I put it in this locket so it can always be with you. I have one too." He reaches to the chain around his neck. There is a '52' charm, along with an oval locket. He opens it to reveal the picture of us from eight years ago. He takes mine, which has a '10' charm and a heart locket, and places it around my neck. I have to say, I thought I would feel odd with what little jewelry I received, but they all feel right. Like home.

"I will ask my favor in just a moment." Kota leans down and rubs our noses together, and steps aside.

"Sang." Owen commands the room. Please come here. I do as he says. Could I ever really NOT do as he commands? "This, belonged to my mother, and my grandmother before her. It's all I have left of her." He lifts the box up so I can see it. Inside the ring box is a 1920s era, art deco filigree ring. Diamonds encircle the band and the diamond solitaire is small enough not to overwhelm someone's hand, but large enough to be seen. "Sang, did you hear me?"

"I'm sorry Owen, I was admiring the ring. You've held onto it for so long."

"Sang. We are asking to marry us. Will you do us the honor of being our wife?"

I look at Owen, then at each of my boys. I have to have the biggest question mark on my face. I look at each of the gifts. I feel the bracelets, the necklaces... the ring before me. "How can I marry all of you? I mean, we are all together. We always will be.

"I can answer that. We really want a wedding ceremony. We want all of our..." he pauses to think, "families? To be there. 10, we don't know when or where the next strike will be. Obviously, you can legally only be married to one of us. We, as a group decided that since I am the first you met, it would be me... if that is ok with you, that is." Kota was stammering. I smiled. I had waited for this day for so long.

"Yes!" I shouted. They all cheered and shouted. Owen quickly placed the ring on my left index finger, and kissed my hand. I was being kissed and hugged and tugged in all directions. Before I knew it, our den and become the happy place it had been so many years ago. The laughter quickly broke out into a pillow fight, and as things usually did... happiness turned into the lightness and laughter I missed.

Playlist

Something Beautiful by The Outsiders