AUTHOR'S NOTE:

In Pt. 1 of this chapter, Jean and Mitchell returned to a semblance of normal life - apart from one another. Will it take a crisis to bring them back together?  If so, there may be one looming on the horizon.

Enjoy part 2 of Chapter 25 of DUBY'S DOCTOR.

~o~  ~o~  ~o~  ~o~  

In the small South American country of Mirador, the citizens were establishing new normalcy as well. A new, democratically elected government was daily becoming more organized and efficient. Citizens were hopeful for the future, after several years of civil strife—strife that had ended when the CIA-backed rebels achieved victory over the man who liked to call himself His Excellency.

A colleague of His late Excellency, the man named Iglesias, was seeking a new life, and a new identity, in the United States. And, he was seeking revenge upon Carinne Averell and her bodyguard, the man who had humiliated Iglesias under a midnight moon on the beach at Mathieson Hammock nearly two years ago.

In Iglesias' mind, that night was the beginning of the end for him. After that night, it was just a matter of time before the Averell arms deal was broken up by the DHS. Those weapons would have turned the tide in Mirador and defeated the rebels, and their CIA helpers. His Excellency's wedding to Carinne had been ignominiously thwarted as well—not that Iglesias particularly cared who or what might have shared His Excellency's love nest. The girl, Carinne, had undoubtedly laughed at His Excellency's failures, and, if she had laughed at His Excellency, she had laughed all the more at Iglesias.

For a while, Iglesias had at least been gratified to know that the insolent bodyguard had been executed by Averell for his part in Iglesias' degradation on the Mathieson Hammock beach. Since then, however, news had reached him that the bodyguard somehow survived.

This was unacceptable. No low-level thug would be permitted to insult and attack Señor Iturralde Iglesias and live.

So, while he had long-range plans to retire to the South of Spain, Iglesias temporarily resided—under another name—in Coconut Grove, Florida, USA. There, he kept watch on the mansion compound where Carinne ran her new business empire, and he frequently observed the sailboat where the surviving ex-bodyguard lived.

Often, after mass on Saturday night, Mandy Stone would pick Jean up at the church and drive them to a restaurant, where they enjoyed dinner together. Neither of them mentioned former-agent Frank Stone. Occasionally, Mandy would ask if Jean had seen or spoken to Mitchell Oberon. The answer was always no.

One Saturday night, when they had finished their entrees, Jean was surprised by a sudden parade of waiters, singing "Happy Birthday" and carrying an absurd ice cream concoction the size of a football, with fiery sparklers fizzling on its top. Even though the waiters sang "Happy Birthday, dear Duby," Jean was very pleased with the spectacle.

He stood and circled the table to give Mandy a kiss on the cheek.

"Is it really my birthday today?" he asked, resuming his seat behind the ice cream mountain.

"Didn't you know, dear?"

"I looked at the papers Captain Crockett—"

"Boone," she corrected.

"Oui, Captain Boone. I looked at the papers he gave me, but I did not care about the day. I only wanted to know the year. It said I was thirty-one this year." He had only looked that far because knowing his age was important to Mitchell.

"You turned thirty-one years old today," Mandy said. "Happy birthday, dear."

"Merci, Maman. Merci beaucoup. Here, there's an extra spoon." He pushed the ice cream monolith closer to her and handed her a spoon.

Mandy spooned up her first taste of the dessert and looked at Jean with a "Hmmmm" of delight. "German chocolate," she said. "Your favorite."

"It is?" he said. "I have very good taste, don't I."

"Indeed you do. Oh, I almost forgot. I hope you won't be angry, dear." She leaned down to the tote bag beside her chair and pulled out a silvery metal box. "Francis sent you a present. He said he had always planned to hand it down to you when he retired, so...."

She trailed off. There was no need to say that the retirement had not been voluntary, and there was no need to remind themselves that Frank's abuse of Duby (and others) had devastated many lives and forced Frank's resignation from the DHS.

Quietly, Jean accepted the metal box, set it on the table, and raised the lid. It contained Frank Stone's service revolver.

"I know this gun," Jean murmured. "He brought it to Michel's house that night. The night he brought the pictures." He looked up and met her eyes. "When he told me about Dubreau. About who I was."

"You don't have to use it, dear. Frank wanted you to have it, because it's the kind of thing he would have passed down to ... a son, ... if we had one. Just put it away where it can't harm anyone. What he doesn't know won't hurt him."

Jean nodded, closing the box securely. "Dubreau would thank him," he said. "Dubreau would understand the importance of such a gift."

He took a deep breath and let it out. He looked at Mandy with half a smile. "Tell him 'thank you' from Dubreau. You and I will know that I am not Dubreau, and I do not deal in death the way he did."

"Thank God," she said.

"Oui," he said. "Hurry up and eat! If this thing melts, we will all be washed away in a chocolate tsunami!"

Between bites of German chocolate ice cream, Mandy said, "Speaking of 'washed away,' did you ever finish reading The Pirate's Flaming Heart?"

"Ah, oui," he said, grinning. "Nurse Erskine gave me another book after that one. I'm learning a lot. Reading is a good way to learn things."

"I'll bet!" Mandy said with a chuckle. "Dare I ask the title of the one you're reading now?"

"Oui, it's called A Pirate's Kiss."

"Ah!" said Mandy, her eyes twinkling with mirth. "I believe I sense a theme developing here. Does Nurse Erskine read only books about piracy?"

Jean winked at her. "I'm sorry to tell you, Maman, but these books are not really about pirates."

Mandy laughed. "I thought not," she said. "I expect that's why you find them so ... educational. And, please do not tell me anything more specific about them."

"I will not tell you exactly what I am learning, Maman. But, I can tell you that this learning will be very helpful to me when I begin phase two."

"Phase two?"

"Oui. Doctor Goldberg calls it 'phase two.' I call it 'winning Michel.'"

She nodded, and they spent the next few minutes enjoying one another's company and quietly devouring a melting mound of German chocolate ice cream.

Eventually, Mandy asked quietly, in French, "Do you think you will ever forgive Francis?"

He remained silent so long that she thought perhaps he had been daydreaming and had not heard the question. Finally, he answered her in their native tongue, "Sister Elizabeth says I have been forgiven by God, and so I must forgive others. Even Frank Stone. I told her I do not remember most of the bad things I did that God has forgiven me for doing. But I remember the bad things Frank Stone did to Michel and me."

"Maybe if you forgive Francis, you won't have to remember the bad things so much any more."

He nodded. "Like the Sea of Forgetfulness."

"Is that from a pirate book?"

He smiled and wagged his head, no. "Sister Elizabeth said that when God forgave me, he threw all my bad stuff into the Sea of Forgetfulness, and He does not remember what I did, anymore."

Mandy smiled, too. "Then, perhaps there is hope that one day you will forgive and forget Francis' mistakes?"

"I don't know, Maman. It still hurts when I remember the things Frank Stone did. He could have gotten Michel killed, and me, too."

"Yes, my love, I know. But, the more you remember those wrongs, the more you will hurt. It is for your wellbeing that you must forgive, not for his. Let Francis deal with the pain of his memories; he deserves to suffer for what he did. You do not. Don't let his evil fester and sicken your heart. Forgive. And, then you can forget."

"We'll see, Maman," he murmured, in English now. "We'll see."

"Let me see your cellphone for a minute."

"My cellphone?" he asked, even while he was pulling it from it pocket and handing it over.

"Thank you," she said, and she tapped a number into his contacts list. When she was finished entering the name to go with the number, she handed the phone back to Jean. "There," she said. "Now you have Francis' number. When you feel like it, you can talk to him."

"I do not promise, Maman."

"I know, I know. I just want you to have the number ready if the day comes when you want to use it, cher."

Mandy lifted her round posterior from her chair just enough to lean forward and plant a kiss on Jean's cheek.

Over the coming days and weeks, Jean sometimes looked at his contacts list and tapped Frank Stone's name. Then, he would look at the number, and sometimes even lift his finger over the phone's screen as if he were going to tap the number and make the call.

Early one morning, after a restless night spent thinking too much, instead of sleeping, Jean actually tapped the number and listened to the ringing at the other end.

He listened to Frank Stone's gruff voice answer the phone.

And then, Jean hung up.

A moment later, his phone rang; Frank Stone was trying to find out who had hung up on him.

Jean didn't answer.

Later that day, IturraldeIglesias stepped back into Dubreau's life.

~o~  ~o~  ~o~  ~o~  

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

What sort of crisis will Iglesias bring?  How will it bring Jean and Mitchell together? Will everyone survive?

Watch for next week's update of DUBY'S DOCTOR:  Chapter 26: "Reconnection."

Thank you again, dear readers, for your votes, comments, and especially for those award nominations.  You're the best.

Iris