Jackie turned beet red. She and Emil had mostly just talked during their time alone in the kitchen, trying to figure out what and how to tell the rest of the guild about what had happened between them. One of the things they decided was that they'd go back to the party separately. But it wasn't the talking that Jackie was blushing about. In between talking, the two had shared soft, tentative, searching kisses, in an attempt to fully understand their feelings.

"In de kitchen, duh." Jackie replied cheerfully, hoping her bright smile would take Mercy's eyes off her flushed cheeks. It didn't work.

"An' you bein' in de kitchen is a reason to get all flushed an' nervous?" Mercy commented.

"I'm not nervous. Why would I be nervous?" Jackie replied, wishing the floor would open up and swallow her. She was nervous, but it was due to the fact that the others had to be told. She wasn't ashamed or nervous about what had happened.

"Mercy, maybe de girl doesn' want to tell you." Tante Mattie scolded lightly.

"Why wouldn't she tell us?" Zoe wanted to know. "We won't bite. Come on, Jackie. What's up?"

Jackie sighed with the air of a martyr. "If you must know, I was in de kitchen wit' Emil an' we were talkin'. Dat's all. Sheesh, give me a break, would ya?"

"Yeah, okay, Jackie, whatever you say," Mercy replied. She and Zoe moved off to sit on the couch as Emil made his entrance and headed over to Genard, Claude, Theoren and Jean-Luc. Tante Mattie watched Jackie for a moment as Emil joined the other guys. The young woman's face changed, a soft smile crossed her lips and the flush that had begun to fade from her cheeks returned with a vengeance. And she couldn't take her eyes off him. Nor did she try to hide any of it. Until Mattie spoke, that is.

"Jus' talkin' huh?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Jackie's eyes snapped back to her friend with a start. "Huh? Oh. Yeah. Jus' talkin'. Dat's it, yeah," she stammered in reply.

"Don' lie to me, child. It won' work, but not jus' b'cause I can tell." Mattie reprimanded softly. "Do you want to know de truth?"

"'Bout what, Tante?" Jackie asked, willing herself to get a grip. Glancing at Emil, she saw he was having just as hard a time as she was, and it made her feel a little better that she wasn't alone in this.

"Your papa an' I followed you to de kitchen. We both saw de first five or so minutes of what happened between you an' Emil. Den we left. I'm sorry. We shouldn' have, but we were curious. We both knew you were hidin' somet'ing an' we wanted to know what it was."

"You what?" Emil demanded, pretending to be appalled, but secretly relieved beyond all measure.

Jean-Luc sighed. Like Tante Mattie, he waited until the other men were out of earshot before telling Emil what he and Mattie had done. "I'm sorry, Emil. It was wrong of us, we shouldn' have done it."

Emil merely shrugged. "Why'd you do it? I mean isn' dat kind of an invasion of our privacy? No one was s'posed to hear dat conversation or see…no one but us."

"De truth? Curiosity. You were both actin' so weird, like teenagers, an' we knew you were hidin' somet'ing, 'specially from each other. We wanted to know what it was, dat's all." Jean-Luc confessed. Emil nodded.

"Do dey know?" he asked quietly, tilting his head over to where the other thieves were sitting on the couch, talking.

Jean-Luc shook his head, his ponytail swinging. "Non. Mattie an' I may be guilty of eavesdroppin' on you, but even we know better den to tell dem somet'ing dat only you an' Jackie have de right to say."

"Are you mad? I mean…" Emil faltered, unsure of how to say what he was thinking.

"Non. Why would I be?" Jean-Luc questioned. "I love you both dearly, an' all I want for everyone in dis guild is happiness. An' if anyone here deserves to be happy after everyt'ing dat's happened in de past, it's you an' Jackie."

Emil smiled, showing his relief finally, as Tante Mattie and Jackie joined them. "Merci, Jean-Luc."

"You still have to tell dem, though." Mattie said cheerfully but firmly. Neither she nor Jean-Luc was about to let the young couple get away without coming clean to the entire guild. And that also meant a phone call to Remy in New York. Remy was Jackie's brother, after all, and Emil was one of his closest friends. He had more of a right than any of the others to know what was going on.

"Not tonight!" they protested in unison, which made them laugh.

"Not tonight, what?" Claude asked from the couch. He and the other four thieves had been watching the proceedings in front of them in silence, but enough was enough. They wanted in on the secrecy.

Jackie and Emil looked at each other, eyes wide with horror. They had no choice now. The phone call to Remy could wait until tomorrow, but this could not. They both knew they wouldn't get out of the room without telling their new secret.

"Jackie?" Mercy asked, poking her head into Jackie's room later that night.

Jackie looked up from the entry she was making in her diary. "Huh? Oh, hi, Merce. Come on in if you want."

Mercy closed the door behind herself and sat on the bed. Jackie swiveled in her chair so she was facing her sister-in-law and waited.

"Jackie, are you okay?" Mercy got right to the point. One thing she had learned about the newest member of the LeBeau family was that Jackie hated beating around the bush.

Jackie fiddled with the pen in her hand and sighed. "Oui. I guess. I mean, why do dey have to be such jerks?"

Earlier that evening, before Jean-Luc had deemed it necessary to end the party before someone got physically hurt, Jackie and Emil had told their friends what had happened in the kitchen. Mercy, Zoe and Genard had all been happy for the couple, and were delighted with the news. Love and happiness did not come easy for members of the guild, and when someone was lucky enough to get those things, they didn't take it lightly. Theoren and Claude, who had been in the guild almost as long as Jean-Luc, and had, as Zoe commented one more than one occasion, lost their senses of humor somewhere along the line, had not been so happy about the news.

They left Jackie alone for the most part, because she was Jean-Luc's adopted daughter, plus she was the newest member of the guild. On the other hand, they let Emil have it, berating and blaming him in front of the others for what was going on, even stooping so low as to call him a cradle-robber because Jackie was so much younger than him. Emil defended himself, but it wasn't until Jackie stood by him, patiently explaining in an angry voice, purple eyes glowing, that it was something the two of them had brought on, not just one or the other, that the older men began to back down.

After seeing the hurt in the eyes of the couple, Jean-Luc had sent everyone home, saying that they would meet there in the morning and, if need be, discuss the situation without fighting about it. Claude and Theoren saw very plainly that they were seriously outnumbered, but they couldn't resist taking more jabs at Emil after they were out of Jean-Luc's earshot. Jackie had heard them though, and she was furious with them for treating Emil like that.

"You don' know dem as well as de rest of us, Jackie, even now. But you're learnin', I t'ink. I'm jus' sorry you're havin' to learn de hard way." Mercy explained, reaching over and taking Jackie's shaking hand as the younger woman began to cry in anger and frustration. "Dat's jus' de way dey are. Dat's how dey express demselves. Dey don' like change, an' in spite of what you might t'ink, dey do care."

"What? No way! If dey cared, dey wouldn' treat Emil de way dey treated him tonight. Dey would have supported us de way de rest of you did." Jackie scoffed. She didn't believe for one minute that what Mercy was saying was true. Yet, when she looked into her sister-in-law's eyes, she saw that Mercy was telling her the truth.

"Dey do care, Jackie. Dey do support you. Truth be told, dey're scared. So are Jean-Luc an' Tante Mattie, though dose two would never tell you dat."

"Why? Why are dey scared? If anyone should be scared, it's us, not de rest of you!" Jackie wanted to know.

Mercy sighed. "Jackie, dey've seen what's happened in de past. Henri an' I, we were so happy, so free, if you will. Den de Assassins killed him. It tore me apart; it tore us all apart. An' dat ain' de first time somet'ing like dat happened. We're scared…we're concerned…dat somet'ing will happen to ruin your happiness too. We don' want to see dat. We care 'bout you two a lot, we don' want anyt'ing to happen to destroy what you have now. Do you understand dat?"

Jackie stopped crying and blew her nose. "Oui. I understand. I jus' wish Theoren an' Claude could express demselves a little more civilly!"

Mercy laughed. "So do de rest of us, petite, trust me."

The next morning, Emil and Genard arrived at the LeBeau mansion at the exact same time Theoren and Claude got there. Emil groaned as they got out of their cars. "Jus' relax, Red," Genard said under his breath, using the nickname he and Henri had given Emil when they were children. "Stay cool." Emil nodded and they met up with Claude and Theoren at the door.

"Genard, could you go in ahead of us?" Theoren asked. "We'd like to talk to Emil for a second b'fore we go in."

Genard looked at Emil, who nodded again. Once Emil gave the sign that it was okay, Genard opened the door and entered the mansion, saying a silent prayer as he shut the door and joined the others in the living room.

Emil looked at Theoren and Claude expectantly. He had no idea what they wanted to talk to him about, and he was still more than a little sore at them for the things they had said the previous night.

"We want to apologize for de way we b'haved last night." Claude began. "We know we were out of line an' we're sorry. We shouldn' have said dose t'ings."

"Oui." Emil encouraged shortly.

"We're jus' worried, dat's all." Theoren continued. "We really are happy for you two, an' we want to make sure not'ing happens to jeopardize what you have. We jus' don' really know how to say dat."

Emil raised an eyebrow and grinned. "You jus' did, silly. An' t'anks. It means a lot. Havin' de entire guild b'hind us, supportin' us, I mean. C'mon, Genard's probably freakin' out in dere, wonderin' what's up," he said, opening the door.

"Don' you t'ink, though, dat de age difference might…?" Claude inquired with a raise of his own eyebrows. Emil's grin broke into a full smile.

"It's only eleven an' a half years, Claude. I t'ink we can handle dat."

"Whatever you say, Emil." Theoren laughed as they entered the living room. Claude and Emil joined in his laughter as they saw Genard breathe a huge sigh of relief over the knowledge that his three friends hadn't killed each other on the front steps.

Jackie made the phone call to New York that morning. That was the main reason for the meeting, so that the whole guild would be there, backing them up.

"Here goes nothin'…" Jackie whispered, picking up the phone and dialing the number. As she waited for someone to pick up, Emil grinned at her and showed her that he had his fingers crossed. She giggled and suddenly felt better about calling her brother.

"Xavier's School." The elegant voice on the other end of the phone interrupted Jackie's giggling.

"Ah, um, Storm? This is Jackie. Is Remy around?"

"He is. Please hang on a moment while I get him for you." Storm replied.

"Thanks." Jackie said, and waited a few more minutes while Remy came to the phone.

"Jackie? What's up?" Remy asked.

"Remy! Hi! Um not much, really. I just have something to talk to you about…it's kind of important…"

"Well, what do you t'ink?" Jackie asked a little while later when she and Emil were sitting across from each other at the picnic table in the backyard.

"'Bout what?" Emil replied, knowing full well and teasing her for the fun of it.

"De past couple of days. Everyt'ing."

"It's been…interesting. All in all it went pretty well. Remy didn't threaten to kill me, although he did warn me to take good care of you. Claude and Theoren apologized, which was nice of dem." Emil told her. "An' you know what else I t'ink?"

Jackie shook her head, her hair falling into her eyes. "Non, what?"

Emil smiled and stood, leaning across the table. "I t'ink you're de most beautiful women in de whole world," he said, taking her face in his hands and kissing her deeply.

Heart pounding, body trembling, Jackie closed her eyes and returned the kiss. As the kiss grew more intense, time stopped for both of them and they were sure they were the only two people on the planet.