Below the Mythical Surface (Completed)

A New Start

"My boys!" Sue gasped, hand clutched desperately at her heart. There were tears in her eyes already, though she stood rooted firmly in place as if she were to move, they'd disappear before her eyes.

"Surprise, mom! You just gonna stand there or are you gonna come hug me?" Link laughed, but stepped up to close the gap between them before she can even think of expending her own energy.

"I'm so happy to see y'all," she murmured as she pulled away from him, quick to dab at her eyes before she turned to give Rhett an equally tight hug. "Come on in, come in." She held the door open and swatted at them to go faster, put their long legs to use.

"We're happy to see you, too, mama," Link told her sincerely and couldn't stop himself from giving her another back breaking embrace.

"To what do I owe this pleasure, boys?" She motioned toward the couch for them to sit down, squeezing in right next to them as they went.

"I was feelin' a little homesick and drug Rhett out here. Not that he put up much of a fight, or anything, but still. Sometimes ya just gotta go home, ya know?" His lopsided grin. Could always melt his mom's heart, and seeing it now, even though he was nearing fifty did nothing to lessen its effects on her.

"Well, I sure am glad to hear that you still think of this as home, baby." And it was true, he did. Though he'd built a life with Rhett on the other coast, his heart still bled for fresh country flowers and dirt roads. And he was thankful that Rhett's did, too.

The two previous years hadn't flown by, but the pace had moved fast enough to not keep either man from dwelling too long. They had their fair share of stressful times with getting the divorces settled and their new lives melded into, but with time and love overall they were doing fine. The most important thing were their children, and even last week progress had been made. Link just wished he hadn't been cutting some fresh fruit with a knife when Rhett had told him that he had gotten a letter from Lily and the boys. Link was still sporting a bandaid from the surprise of it. Luckily the cut wasn't very deep, and the long letter, written by his daughter and signed by all three, had been full of words about how much they all loved the both of them so very much. If that wasn't a great day, Link didn't know what was.

Even Rhett's father had given them a gift of a bottle of wine when they had moved into their new house this time around. The rooms much bigger, and in a more convenient location for the kids to be picked up and dropped off. As far as the fans, the majority of them took the change from friends to lovers fairly smoothly, with other than the occasional hand holding there was no real additional shift in the show.

Sue didn't let either one of them escape her house without at least second and third helpings of food. Her meals were always delicious, and Rhett wondered if there were some of her cooking skills that may have been somehow passed off to her son. Perhaps he would just need to find a way to awaken them with a code word like Link was some sort of culinary sleeper agent.

"I've told you tons of times that Lily got all of the baking talent," Link said, shaking his head and chuckling at this new theory. "Skipped a generation."

After the meal and with promises that they wouldn't leave until they at least tried Mama Sue's banana pudding, both Rhett and Link headed out towards a few of their favorite places they went to when they were so much younger and still not realizing that they were bound to be something more.

Link mentally yelled at himself for again not planning ahead for a hike. His skinny jeans weren't made for braving the thick trees and giant bugs of the woods of their childhood. Rhett faired better do to his much more relaxed fitted khakis and of course his much longer legs.