Before The Beginning

Chapter 32: Best Friend Reunion

Begin!

~Beatrice's POV

Karrie gave us both a very enthusiastic hug, and her eyes had gone misty. She clearly missed us. I missed her too; we had so much to talk about and so many preparations to make. She pulled us inside quickly and was damn near jumping up and down with excitement. She was always the more energetic of the two of us.

"Bea you missed so much! I'm so happy to see you're back! You look great and-" She stopped herself mid-sentence when she took a second look over of me. "And you... QUINTEN! GET IN HERE!"

Bertie was holding back giggles. Quinten came out of the kitchen upon hearing Karrie shout. He gave Bertie a bro-hug and gave me a friendly hug.

"B, you have no idea how happy I am to see you're alive," Quinten said.

"It's good to see you too, Q," Bertie replied grinning.

"That's not the only news, honey," Karrie added.

I saw Quinten's jaw drop as it registered in his head how different I looked.

"You- Bertrand you dog..."

"You're having a baby?!" Karrie shouted excitedly.

"Yes we are, and no we don't know what it is yet. And we're engaged," I added showing Karrie my ring.

Karrie grinned at me, "Well actually Bea while you were gone..." She showed me a beautiful sapphire ring on her hand, "We got engaged too..."

"Oh! Congratulations!" I replied.

I suddenly hoped I didn't make her feel inferior since I was already going to have a baby. Karrie was sensitive about that topic. She seemed excited for me nonetheless. She wasn't the type to lie.

"Wait you're getting married too," Bertie asked.

"Yes, I asked her just a few days ago actually," Quinten answered.

"We almost got in trouble over it..." Karrie added with a little smirk. I'll ask her how that happened later.

I then saw Bertie start thinking about something. And he answered my question about such before I could even ask it.

"I've got an idea... Bea and I were going to get married after the baby gets here. If you two are willing to put off your wedding for a couple months we could have a double ceremony, and get married at the same time. That way we don't have to wait for the other to do it first!"

"That... sounds like a wonderful idea," I said, "What do you guys think?"

"I like it! That way we can be each other's maid of honor at the same time," Karrie said.

"And all we'd have to do is wait for you to have the kid first," Quinten added, "I like the idea, and if Karrie wants to do it then who am I to argue?"

We then spent the rest of our visit telling them about our work on the island. We even had dinner together and they told us about how their encounter with Olaf went. I thanked Karrie multiple times for having the idea to tell him I was dead.

"It was an on the spot decision," Karrie replied, "I don't know if he really believed me."

"He knows you though," I said, "He knows how close we are. If I was truly dead you would be one of the first to know. And he does believe you; we rode to Briny Beach in the Queequeg and Sammie told us he tried to steal it recently because he wanted to look for my body."

Karrie and Quinten looked dumbfounded at this information.

"He must be desperate," Quinten remarked, "Even if he had taken it, he'd spend the rest of his life searching if you actually were dead."

I shrugged. "That's true. But Olaf always was stubborn. I never really understood how Lemony put up with him all those years."

"Anyway let's switch to some more pleasant topics. Where are you guys planning on living?"

That was a fair question. When we were driving through the city, I noticed there were some places available not far from Dark Avenue. They looked quite nice and Bertie and I had more than enough between our family fortunes to afford them. Upon saying this out loud Karrie mentioned that they were looking for a spot out of town. That was a downside to living as a volunteer, we were encouraged to live far from each other if we decided to settle somewhere permanent, and had to make our visits carefully afterwards. It was a safety precaution to keep our enemies from finding us too easily. I'm sure we could work something out in the future.

Karrie then told us that we'd have to stay with them for the night in what used to be Bertrand's room when he lived here. When asking why she replied that since we were gone so long my flat had been given to someone else. There weren't that many flats in the headquarters and it was generally accepted that an empty flat was an empty flat, regardless of if someone else owned it still. I was fine with that and so was Bertrand, we didn't mind staying with our friends until we found a house in the city.

"We'll work on that first so we don't take up too much of your generosity," Bertie said.

"Oh there's no need to rush, we don't mind." Karrie replied smiling, "After all, it's what friends are for."

That was a saying that Karrie particularly liked. I'll be sure to teach it to my child and any future children we might have someday. Knowing who your true friends are is an invaluable skill that everyone needs. And it warmed my heart to know that I had such caring and supportive friends as Karen Denouement and Quinten Quagmire.

~End of Chapter!

Sorry that this chapter is a little shorter than normal, I'm doing my best, but there simply wasn't much that needed to be said here. :)