[three days later]
“Thanks for picking me up. This is most unexpected,” I said as I embraced Sylvie at Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix.

She grinned.
“It is all your fault you know!”

“Me? I know nothing!” I replied grinning at my feeble joke.

“Getting me to confront my idiot boss was noticed by his boss, and I've been transferred back here until I quit. I'm not doing anything that productive, but it is regular hours, and that beats playing who blinks first with him. The grapevine says that forcing agents to work silly hours just to satisfy his vanity is just not on, and he was sent back to Yuma with his tail very much between his legs. The head of operations has sent out an email to all staff telling them that his practice of making everyone wait until he leaves is not allowed. If HR get involved, then that's his career over, and if it is, a lot of my fellow agents will be very happy.”

I grinned.
“Glad to be of some service.”

We walked towards the car park holding hands. It felt a little strange but nice. There were so many things that a normal teen does as part of growing up that I’d missed out on that something as simple as holding hands with someone special gave me a warm gooey feeling inside. Sylvie noticed this.

“What’s wrong?”

"Nothing… Nothing is wrong at all. This is the first time that I've held hands in public with someone other than my mom, and that was a long time ago."

Sylvie did a bit of a double-take but stopped herself just in time.

"I will need to remember this moment. All that work that Amy and I did on you missed out on some very basic things about how we develop as people."

“Eh? It won’t be an issue in a couple of months, will it?”

"It is not that, but I'll need to update my report on what we did so that in future this sort of thing isn't missed."

“Oh. I get you… I think.”

When we reached the car, we kissed.
“I missed you,” she whispered into my ear.

“Same here.”

We kissed again before getting into the car and leaving the airport.

On the drive to her apartment, Sylvie asked,
“You didn’t say if your trip was successful or not?”

"Oh… I was going to leave it until this evening, but the simple answer is that in the end, it went better than I ever thought it would be but it was far from plain sailing, but that can wait. I'm just enjoying being back with you."

---

[Later that evening]
“Ok, what did you mean ‘not plain sailing’?” asked Sylvie after we’d eaten.

I smiled back at her. I’d spent hours trying to decide how I would tell her about my little adventure in Portland.

“Everything went well until the plane came up to the gate in Portland. For some reason that I was unaware of at the time, the door at the front was not opened for a good ten minutes after the gate thing moved into position... Many of the passengers were getting rather impatient. I sat in my seat mainly because I was in the very last row so I’d be the last one off anyway. I learned a long time ago that being impatient generally gets you nowhere.”

“Did anyone explain the reason for the delay?”

I shook my head.
"I couldn't see very much, but I saw a bunch of cop cars come and pretty well surround the plane. That told me that someone was going to get arrested. There was no way that I ever thought that it would be me!"

“You? Arrested? Why? Was it related to what happened with the Judge?”

I shook my head.
"As far as I was concerned, I have done nothing illegal in the past year in the state of Oregon other than the incident that led to me meeting the Judge in the first place. Three cops cuffed me when I tried to get off the aircraft. They would not answer any questions, but I didn't press them. The look in their eyes, and the hands-on their guns said 'don't mess with us', so I didn't. I learned a long time ago that protesting my innocence would be futile and only serve to irritate the cops."

I swallowed hard and continued before Sylvie could interrupt.
“They took me in one of the cop cars to another part of the terminal. I assumed that it was an airport police station, but I was mistaken as I found out when I was taken inside."

I managed a smile.
"Waiting for me were Jared and Amy."

"I'm at a loss here. Why were they there, and why did they have you arrested?"

"It was all a diversion. At the request of the DOJ, the FBI has been monitoring any chatter relating to my father and half-brother. Because Amy was familiar with the case, she was given the job. She soon picked up that my dear half-brother had four visits from his lawyer in the last week. At the time of the last visit, the lawyer was accompanied by a known hit man, David 'Blue' Taylor, who was posing as a paralegal. The FBI identified him from a mugshot he had taken when he was arrested for a DUI in Orlando five years ago. He slugged a cop in that arrest but he was as they say, a ‘person of interest’ in other cases. That was enough for her to alert the DOJ, who in turn, assigned Jared to handle the case. I soon realized that Jared and Amy. Had my back."

“Someone has put out a hit on you?”

"Yeah, and not for the first time, but not now. Following Amy's tip-off and the visitor logs, Lane went to a judge and got a warrant."

“Hold on there a moment sunshine! You seem very blasé about this?"

I took her hands in mine and smiled.
“I have lived with the threat of being ‘hit’ for years. I came to terms with that prospect a long time ago. If it happens then it happens and until I met you and Amy, there was nothing I could do about it. I have to admit that this one did worry me because of you. I’m not on my own now, but Jared assured me that it would not happen.”

“How?”

I took a deep breath and carried on.
“They… as in Jared and Amy, had followed David Taylor from DC to Portland. He flew with a four hour lay-over in Chicago while they flew direct to Seattle and had a quick connection to Portland. Thanks to his name being put on an FBI watch list, they were alerted to his booking. If it had been on the homeland list, he could not have flown. Anyway, Jared and Amy were waiting for him when he arrived in Portland, but didn't arrest him right away."

"Wait a minute… How did they find out about you going to Portland?"

"Someone was illegally watching your credit card. They don't know who, but within two hours of us booking my flights, Mr Taylor had booked his flight west as well as making some phone calls to three well known suppliers of illegal weaponry in the Portland area."

“Then it is time for me to get a new card.”

"I think so too, but to continue, when I arrived, Mr Taylor was under surveillance by Agents from the local FBI field office. He was tracked to one of the dealers he’d called, where he bought two Glock 19s and five hundred rounds of ammo. Then he was tailed to my hotel where he checked in and dropped a Benjamin to the clerk at the front desk for her to inform him of my arrival."

“You didn’t…?”

I shook my head.
"No. One of the local FBI agents took my place, and went to the Hotel. I was taken to a different hotel with Amy as my bodyguard. At the original hotel, Jared and two other agents slipped into what would have been my room, and waited for Mr Taylor to make his move. He made a move a little before 02:00 this morning. He was arrested after a small scuffle, and will be charged with conspiracy to murder along with the lawyer who represented my half-brother. The FBI broke down the lawyer’s door just before 07:00 DC time this morning and carted him off to FBI HQ. Mr Taylor will be extradited within a few days to face Federal Charges in conjunction with the Lawyer.”

Sylvie sat there shaking.
"I'm ok, and so is everyone else."

"I know, but just when we thought that it was all over…?"

“It is now. From what Lane said on the phone just before I flew back from Portland, the judge who sentenced my half-brother after his plea agreement is not happy, and wants to send him for trial on the conspiracy charge. That is still up in the air, but for the moment, we are free and clear. Lane also said that the DOJ is seriously considering applying to formally negate the plea agreement for my half-brother. That will mean a trial but Lane assured me that they have more than enough evidence to put him away for life without my direct testimony. The statements he made when accepting the plea deal are in his words, the ‘winning touchdown at the Superbowl’. The trial for that would be in Oregon which may explain the delay in extradition."

I squeezed Sylvie’s hand.
“We owe Jared and Amy a lot. Even Mr Lane as much as I hate lawyers… Without them and you would not be here today."

Sylvie looked at me.
“And? Out with it. I know that there is something that you are itching to tell me.”
She could read me like a book.

I grinned.
“Jared and Amy are an item. She’s put in for a transfer to the Marshall’s Service with his recommendation.”

Sylvie just shook her head in bewilderment.

“But… what happened with the Judges daughter? That was why you went to Portland wasn’t it?”

I went into some detail of the discussions that I'd had with Naomi Francis about the distribution of assets identified in her father's will.

“Are you saying that this Naomi woman has found a buyer for the land that the cabin was on?”

“Naomi as you know is the daughter of the judge. He left her his whole estate other than the land where the cabin was and the insurance pay-out which came as you know to me. I saw the figures, and her part of the estate is worth well over six million. Much of that came from his wife's family, and he lived a pretty frugal life both here and back east. The land is less than one-tenth that. Add the insurance, and it comes to just under three-fifty thousand. That made me feel a lot less guilty about the land, but I wouldn't budge on selling it. Enter a colleague of hers armed with cash.”

Sylvie shook her head.
“Talk about landing on your feet smelling of roses!”

“That’s not all,” I said calmly.

“Out with it!”

“Is over three hundred big ones enough? But… this is nothing to do with the judge. Naomi put me in contact with a lawyer who deals with compensation claims.”

"Blood-sucking leeches then!"

“Yeah but… It seems that I have a claim against my father’s estate for compensation for the loss of my mother. That could end up in the millions if his last tax return is anything to go by. We looked it up on the internet. If I get even a bit of that, then I won't regret paying the lawyer his fifteen per cent."

“Only 15%?”

"He and Naomi are cousins so with a bit of arm twisting, he agreed to the lower rate."

Sylvie sat back grinning. Then she said,
“What did I say about coming up smelling of roses?”

“With the IRS hot on my tail…Those bloodsuckers will want their pound of flesh…” I said half-joking.

Then I said,
“There is more. Something that could help both of us.”

Sylvie sighed and after crossing her hands on her lap she looked me right in the eye.
“Ok, so what other deal did you cook up in Portland?”

“Naomi is going off on assignment at the end of the year with the Diplomatic Service.”

“Yeah, you told me that the other day. How does that affect us?”

“She’s looking for some long-term house sitters.”

Sylvie looked at me with total surprise in her eyes.

“You didn’t agree, did you?”

“Do you think I am a simpleton? No, I didn't. All I said was that I would discuss it with you and would let her know in a couple of days."

Sylvie closed her eyes. This was her way of thinking things through on the spot. It had worried me at first, but I'd grown used to it.

A broad smile appeared on her face as she opened her eyes.
“I think it is a great idea. It solves one huge problem in where we are going to live when I leave the Bureau. I wasn’t looking forward to going back to Maine with my tail between my legs.”

I laughed.
“Have you told them yet?”

Sylvie’s body language told me the answer. I reached over and held her hand.
“I know that you will find the right time but don’t leave it until the day that you leave the bureau.”

She smiled back at me.
“Yes, Mrs Boss!”

---

[Maine. Three days before Christmas]

“Ready?” asked Sylvie.

“Ready to step into the lion's den…”

“I’m sure that it won’t be that bad.”

“I don’t know. Falling for a woman is bad enough but falling for a woman of color is beyond the pale for many parents. This feels like a scene from ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’.”

“Let’s get this over with and if it all goes sour, we can head south and spend Christmas with Queenie.”

“Queenie means well but she does not have the room for both of us as I’m not throwing her out of her bed.”

“I’m sure that it won’t come to that.”

“Lets’ get this over with before I freeze to death. That wind is reaching the parts of me that it shouldn’t!”
I'd worn a dress for the first time in ages after a good deal of nagging by Sylvie. It was all part of wanting to make a good impression on her parents and my future in-laws. That had given me a few sleepless nights until Sylvie took charge and calmed me down. We’d treated each other to the outfits that we were wearing but I was already regretting getting a standard shoe fitting when a wide one would have fitted better.

Sylvie laughed and gave me a peck on the lips.

“Mom, Dad, you have met Tiffany before but things are a bit different now. We are engaged to be married,” announced Sylvie almost as soon as we got inside her parents’ house.

Her father just grunted and smiled. That wasn't the case with her mother.

“What? How could you do this to us?”

“What do you mean ‘do this to us?’ It is our life,” said her mother.

Her father, Ralph came to our aid.
“Dorothy, calm down. Just because those nosy bitches at the Golf Club will not like this and your bid to get on the committee has just been flushed down the toilet does not mean that we cannot accept the choices our daughter has made. We did it before, when she joined the Marines and again with the FBI and we can do it now.”

Dorothy glared at her husband. He took his chance to own the scene.

“Welcome to our home Tiffany. Please ignore my wife. Our daughter has a long and very checkered history of putting her mother’s nose out of joint.”

Another even sterner glare went from Dorothy to her husband.

“Mom! Calm down or you will have one of your turns,” said Sylvie.

“I will do no such thing.”

“Mrs Marshall, I do not mean to cause offence. If I am such an embarrassment to you then I’ll go. I love Sylvie and strange as it seems to you, she loves me.”

That seemed to calm Dorothy down a bit.

“How did you two meet? in the first place I mean?” asked Ralph.

We’d been very circumspect about why I was with Sylvie when we were in Maine the last time.

“Are you with the Bureau? Neither of you would say much when you were here before but now that… Things are different aren’t they?”

I looked at Sylvie who nodded her head.

“We met when Sylvie was assigned to guard me before I testified to a Grand Jury.”

“What?” exclaimed Dorothy.
“Are you a criminal?”

“I am not. I was there to testify against my father, the former Governor Boyd for the murder of my mom.”

It took a few seconds for what I’d said to sink in.

“That man was dirty. The whole world has known it for years,” said Ralph.
“Good for you. Taking him down was long overdue wasn’t it, Dorothy?”

I loved the way he’d put his wife on the spot. She had been looking at me and then at Sylvie while her mouth did the drowning fish impression.

“Mom! Swallow!” said Sylvie.

“I had never met anyone like Tiffany before. I tried to resist but we went through so much together that we just bonded. When it was all over with the Grand Jury, we tried to stay apart but it failed and we fell in love. Now that I’m not with the FBI, we can be ourselves.”

Dorothy seemed about to explode.
“You had such great prospects with the Bureau but you have thrown it all away.”

“Prospects my ass,” said Sylvie.
“I got about as far as I was ever going to get in the Bureau unless I sucked up to my bosses who loved putting me in my place with their Ivy League Frat or Sorority rings. Those jerks would not have passed boot camp in the Marines so they can keep their pinkie rings. Besides, I’d been thinking about quitting for some time but I didn’t have a plan ‘B’. Falling in love with Tiffany made the decision very easy.”

Dorothy sat down looking a bit forlorn.

“Mom, there is something else that you should know. We are expecting a baby in June.”

Sylvie’s mom went into overdrive. I felt a hand gently touch my shoulder. It was her father. He motioned me to follow him out of the room. I didn’t want to go but Sylvie saw what was going on as Dorothy started on another tirade of indignation and horror that was aimed at Sylvie. Sylvie nodded in my direction and smiled.

I followed Ralph into what was clearly his den. He shut the door behind me shutting out Dorothy’s ranting.

“She’ll burn herself out in a few minutes,” he said smiling.

“I hope so.”

“Take a seat and we can have a talk.”

For a moment I felt like a prospective groom asking permission from a father to marry his daughter. Then it hit me. That was pretty well what I was doing.

“I read a report about your father when Sylvie told us that you were dating. It said that you were his son. Is that correct?”

“I am but I knew from an early age that I should have been born a woman.”

He smiled.
“That is good to know. My dear wife does not need to know this. She might be able to accept that her daughter is a lesbian but to be in love with a transwoman would be way too far out there for her. We have been married for over thirty years. We decided early on that politics was forbidden in this house. She’s a Republican through and through but… don’t say that I told you this, she voted for Hillary because Trump is a crook just like your father.”

“That’s good to know. Sylvie and I have talked about this whole thing. We decided that if we are asked, we will tell the truth.”

“I think I’m going to like you. What Sylvie has told me about you is a pretty fantastic story. Dorothy will move on to saying that our daughter is too old for you but you had to grow up pretty quickly. From what I’ve seen so far, you two are clearly devoted to each other so no matter what my wife says or does, I’m on your side.”

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. Sylvie and I were literally thrown together, and after all we have been through together, we… we just felt right to take our relationship a bit farther. I didn't set out to fall in love with anyone, let alone one of the FBI agents assigned to keep me safe. Things and events conspired to throw us together. Adversity can have strange effects on people. After the incident with two rednecks, I knew that she was the one for me.”

Ralph grinned.
“Sylvie told me what you two did. I saw the posts on Facebook. From what she said, they deserved it. The comments from locals seem to echo that.”

"It sort of just happened, but after that I trusted her implicitly."

“Good for you. Sylvie deserves someone who can make her happy, and since you came into her life, I’ve never seen her so happy. That is a win in my eyes.”

“She makes me happy, so it kinda rubs off on each other.”

“What are you two going to do for money now that Sylvie is no longer with the agency?”

“As you know, we are house sitting in Portland for a friend. That gives us free accommodation for the next three years should we need it.”

“That’s a long time for a house-sit?”

“The owner is away with the Diplomatic Service.”

“Ah, I get you now. What about jobs?”

“Sylvie was going to tell you tonight but we got a bit diverted by other matters. She has a position lined up with the local Medical Examiner as an investigator. She starts on the 2nd of next month.”

“Good for her. What about you?”

“I’m going back to school next month to get my GED. The last formal schooling I had was at the end of the 7th grade.”

“That will be hard work. Are you up for it what with the baby coming?”

I nodded.
“If the doctor is right then I should graduate two weeks before the due date. Then I’ll stay at home and look after our child.”

"Don't you want a career of some sort?"

“Perhaps one day and if circumstances permit it, I’d like to go to Law School.

“From what my daughter tells me you should be teaching at law school or even at Quantico?”

"That's for the future. In the short term, I will be a stay-at-home mom. It will be a nice change to put down some roots at least for a couple of years."

The noise from the other room seemed to have quietened down.

“Shall we go and see what has happened? I hope that they haven’t throttled each other?”

He laughed. I was going to like having him as my father-in-law.

Sylvie and her mom were discussing marriage. As soon as I heard that I knew that we were on the home stretch. Dorothy wanted us to get married in Maine but Sylvie was standing by her guns.

"Look, mom, we are not having the wedding here for many very good reasons. Mainly because you'd never hear the end of it on the local gossip system for one thing. We are going to get married in Oregon. We have a lovely place already picked out. It is right by the river east of Portland. There is even a lovely waterfall that would be perfect as a backdrop.”

“When is this going to happen?”

“Relax mom. We are thinking of around Labor day. An FBI friend of mine, Amy, will be my matron of honour and my old CO from the Marines will give Tiffany away. They have just gotten engaged to marry. It was working on the case that brought them together in the first place just like it did with Sylvie and me.”

“Tiffany, I hate to say it but you are just the person that my daughter has needed in her life for years and thankfully, you two have found each other. At least, Sylvie already knows all your deepest and darkest secrets…?” said her mother.
It seemed that the little talk they just had did the trick.

I smiled.
There was a lot of detail about my life on the run that I had omitted totally or had glossed over its importance when asked. There would be plenty of time for all that to come out but we need to be a real couple first.

[New Year's Eve]

To my surprise, both Dorothy and Ralph came with us to the local Airport where we were taking a short ‘puddle jumper’ flight to Boston.

“Look after our daughter Tiffany,” said Ralph as we said our goodbyes.
“She will need it with a baby on the way.”

“I will Ralph, I will.”
I gave him a big hug and wished that he had been my real father rather than my prospective father-in-law.

Dorothy hugged Sylvie and then she did the same to me. Sylvie looked happier than I’d ever seen her.

My quest for justice had been sorted now it was time for me to find peace and love and in time, a settled home life. Those desires just happened to match those of the woman that I loved. Isn’t karma great!

[the end]

[Authors Note]
This tale came about because of a stinking cold and head over the Christmas and New Year period of 2021/22 prevented me from going out with friends.
I used a number of sources for the legal and current affairs backgrounds of this story. In particular, I'd like to give a shout-out to the following YouTube Channels.
The first is ‘Justice Matters’ with Glenn Kirschner.
The second is ‘Lehto’s Law’ with Steve Lehto.
Next comes ‘Beau of the Fifth Column’ with Beau.
Finally, Farron Cousins ‘Farron Balanced’ and ‘The Ring of Fire’.

The Steve Lehto channel, was especially helpful with the practice of Civil Asset Forfeiture. Glenn Kirschner gave me a lot of insight into how depositions and Grand Juries work. Being a former DC Federal Prosecutor, I would have not liked to have come up against him in court. He takes complex legal arguments and turns them into plain English. That is a skill that many lawyers simply do not possess.
Beau of the Fifth Column might look like a hillbilly but his thoughtful arguments deserve to be heard by a much wider audience. IMHO, he would be a very worthwhile member of Congress.