Waves of emotion: anger, despair, sadness, guilt and rage, were all quelled after leaving the house. Like suddenly entering the eye of a storm.

After the rushing of serenity came enlightenment.

Although the look on the girl’s face might haunt him for some time.

Beau’s mind drifted to a few things. The first was something he was surprised about.

Watson’s face and very specifically that black dress that she had worn during that first date. ‘Seems like she means a lot more to me than I initially thought.’ He pondered internally.

Next came his shop, and Sheila and Marianne waiting for him to come home. He shook his head, failing to realise what he already had was a great crime for a man. He had done nothing but shy away and neglect them.

However, this was necessary, if he had never confronted James he would have never come to this conclusion and would be left with a life filled with regret.

He donned his hat and took one last look at James’s house. He faintly saw the family hugging each other in the sitting room through the window. James seemingly completely at peace with the fact that he had lost an arm.

A bumpy carriage ride marked the start of his long journey home.

Along the way, he was stopped only by the need for food and sleep.

Multiple nights at B&B’s and several conversations with streetwise travelers that told riveting stories of their experiences, Beau chimed in with a few of his own, keeping them safe for children so as not to dampen the mood of the participants.

He caught the attention of a middle-aged couple who brought him for a drink while they were somewhere between Swindon and Bath in a smaller town called Chippenham. Sharing a drink with them reminded them of Sheila and her husband who were no doubt worried sick about him. He felt more apprehension when he thought about the lecture he would receive from all of them when he got back.

He was also dreading revealing the truth to them.

Although, he did not plan to reveal everything. There was still one more thing he had to do as the White Demon.

That was the complete eradication of The Creed.

Beau’s overcoat blew steadily in the evening wind. His gaze locked on the sign above his shop. It was dark so there was no one on the street. Entering the house he immediately realised just how tired he was after the debacle in London and the travel home.

He fell asleep wondering how exactly he was going to approach the ladies in the morning.

There was also the question of whether or not to get Watson involved with the Creed’s dubious plan involving the Queen.

On the subject of Watson, how exactly was he going to go advance his relationship with her, from what he thought there was no way that she still had a good impression of him, he’d been away far too long. 4 weeks seems like not long when said in a sentence, but 4 weeks when living every day in anticipation makes it feel like years have gone by. Especially when you consider that all he told the ladies was that he was going to London, a month was too long.

--------------------------------

Marianne had finished school for the day and was planning to open Beau’s shop for the evening. It gave her a nice release from the stress that the school and her parents provided. It also meant she could hang out with Watson who she had never had a boring conversation with.

Today, however, when she put the key in the door, it turned out it was already unlocked. After a brief pause realisation hit and she rushed inside to find a man with blue hair facing away from the door with his head down tinkering on something, no doubt trying to restock the almost empty shelves.

“Beau!”

He snapped his head around at the sudden shout.

“Beau! You’re back!”

“I’m back, I’m back!” He tried to reason with her but she had already rushed round the table and given him a big hug. The age difference meant that she was not too embarrassed to do such a thing.

“Hello, Marianne. How had it been whilst I’ve been gone?”

“Fine, fine! Have you gone to see Sheila yet?”

“OH! I forgot! I got so absorbed in making magic items, as soon as I saw the empty shelves I just started making stuff.”

“Beau! Quickly go, she’s been worried sick!”

“Okay, alright, I’ll go, look after the shop in the meantime.”

“Of course!”

Beau quickly rushed to Sheila’s shop on his trusty steed.

Pushing the door open to enter the wand shop he found a familiar face looking down at some papers.

“Good evening Sheila, sorry for taking so long.”

Sheila’s eyes moved straight to the origin of the voice and immediately started tearing up.

“Oh Beau! You’re finally back!” She rushed to him and gave him a hug, almost crushing his spine in the process.

“I’m back, sorry for making you worry.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine now.”

“Yeah, it is. More than you think, I won’t leave like that again.”

“Oh Beau, you better not!”

After a conversation with Sheila for half an hour and a brief one with her husband they said

their goodbyes and Beau found himself back in front of his shop.

“I’m back, again, Marianne?”

Finding the interior quiet when he asked he slipped inside only to stop again.

“Ms Watson.”

“Hello Beau, you’re finally back. You look like you’ve sorted some things out as well.”

Beau went wide eyed for a second. How could she possibly tell?

“Something like that, I’ll talk about it tomorrow when Sheila is here as well.”

“I don’t mind if you don’t want to say.”

“The fact that you could tell means you’re exactly who I thought you were.”

“And who’s that?”

“The woman I fell in love with.”

Watson’s face flushed into full bloom. She’d had multiple people claim their love for her, but had never experienced it when she returned the feelings.

“Do you wish to court me, Beau?”

“I do. It would be my honour to live the rest of my life with you. So, you understand, of course I would want to share my past with the woman I love. All that I am, is yours”

He said this as he walked towards her and went down to one knee. Taking her bare hand and planting a kiss on the back of it.

“You are confident in my answer?”

“I only do things I am confident in.”

Watson pulled Beau up from the ground and laid her arms on his shoulders, around his neck and pulled him close for a kiss.

Their lips locked and parted slightly before breaking. Watson staring into Beau’s eyes was all the answer he needed. Just in case, she added:

“I accept, never betray me.”

“Not even in death”

They kissed again, this time more passionately. However, before it could escalate to anything beyond that, they were politely interrupted by a slight cough from Marianne who had just re entered the room.

The beautiful blonde lady was plastered onto the sharp blue haired man with her arms round his neck. His arms were round her waist with stray hand resting on her backside that had managed to sneak down there amidst the kissing and the proclamations of love.

Marianne’s face went a dark shade of red as she turned away, Watson just smirked and moved Beau’s hand up to rest on her waist.

“We’re better now.” She said with the same smirk on her face.

“YOU’RE NOT BETTER AT ALL!” Marianne shouted as she glimpsed their barely changed positions.

Watson and Beau laughed hard whilst they dislodged themselves.

"Beau, I think you have a lot to do.”

“I do?”

“Well of course you do, you will have one more person living here starting tomorrow.”

“Ah, you’re moving in immediately?”

“Well of course.” Then added with a seductive whisper right next to his ear. “Unless you think you can wait.”

“It’ll be ready by noon tomorrow.”

“Let’s go Marianne, we’ll see this rascal in the morning.”

“Oh of course, it’s Saturday tomorrow! See you tomorrow Beau!”

“Goodnight Marianne.”

“Goodnight Beau.”

“Night Ella-Mae.”

The sudden use of of her first name caused an unexpected blush to surface. She had been so used to calling her Ms. Watson she was completely unguarded to this type of attack.

She quickly shut the door behind her so that he couldn’t poke fun at her.

Walking down the now dark street Marianne sparked a conversation.

“What’ll you do now?”

“Same thing as I have always been doing. Just, with a whole lot more Beau.”

“Well, that makes sense. Your case has hit a standstill though, what if you get moved out of town?”

“Thanks to my promotion I can choose where I serve, I am not head of that case anymore, Spencer, my old assistant, is. I’m the head of the Bath MCR branch, so there’s no chance of me leaving anytime soon. It also means I’m kept busy seeing as I now run every case the Bath MCR have to deal with.”

“That sounds like a lot of work”

“Well, it’s a relative amount, but most of it I can hand off to my subordinates. My secretary is great as well, a perky new girl called Abigail who does a great job. I love being the boss.”

They giggled and laughed as Marianne was walked home then Watson returned to her soon to be empty house. She had a lot to pack up. Unfortunately she would have to leave quite lot behind, but, she’d been into Beau’s house above his shop before and with a few changes could become perfectly liveable. Not to mention the added bonus of the husband that comes with it.

She smiled at the concept before going to sleep.

Meanwhile at Beau’s, he was also drifting off to sleep, dreading explaining his past to Sheila and his future wife. Sheila would not take it well, and he did not want pity from either of them, although, he trusted Ella-Mae to act appropriately and consider his feelings. She probably knew more about himself than he did. Despite being in the dark about almost everything. It would be quite scary once she knew everything, he’d never be able to hide anything. Not that he would want to.

------------------------------------

The sun blazed through the wispy clouds with a vengeance like no other. It was a miraculous day, weather like this in England was literally going to be talked about for weeks on end.

Beau fell immediately back into his old routine of opening the shop and restocking the shelves. He also had to place an order for the more easily mass produced magic items.

Not only was he glad the shop had reopened but now that he had left all his anger at James Fillmore’s house, he found the process more enjoyable than ever. He found ideas flowing out of his head unceasingly and time flew by, corroborating nicely with the phrase.

Midday rolled around with the still blazing sun at its apex. Marianne arrived first, with a light dress so as to avoid sweating and her hair tied up in a neat bun for the same reason.

She helped Beau deal with the customers so that he could focus on his tinkering and creating.

A little later on a knock on the door signalled the arrival of Watson. Beau jumped off his chair at the speed of light throwing open the door and taking the woman into his arms.

“Woah, Beau! What’s wrong?”

“I’m just so excited, where’s all your things?”

Watson gestured to the carriage behind her where the driver was carefully taking out some heavy looking bags.

Beau rushed beside him to give him a hand. Watson just smirked at both of them who were putting in so much effort. Her answer was to wrap a tendril of mana around each of the cases and lifted them up effortlessly. Well, all apart from one which Beau stubbornly refused to let go of, seemingly set on being some sort of help in the moving process.

Watson cracked a smile and rolled her eyes coyly and allowed him to move that one bag if it meant that much to him.

The jumble of bags were taken into the building and up the small staircase to Beau’s modest living room.

Seeing the bags placed around his room and the beautiful lady standing in front of him, Beau’s nerves started to bubble to the surface. She approached him amidst his hesitation and caressed his face.

“I know it’s all going very quickly but this was your idea too.”

“I know, it’s not that, and it’s not that I’m having second thoughts. It’s just the feeling settling in.”

He countered the caress with his own and clasped her waist.

“You are mine as I am yours from now on. It’s a pretty daunting concept, I’d be terrified of the commitment if this was happening a few days ago.”

She attacked again with a swift kiss on the lips before leaning back into his gentle hold.

“I’m a bit scared as well, but I couldn’t wait, sorry.”

She said whilst bashfully looking downwards, a faux blush on her face. Beau shuddered at her power over him, if she used this move it would be an instant loss for him.

“He recovered from her quick combo of attacks and decided to finish the fight with a long passionate kiss that made Watson’s knees tremble. Satisfied with it’s effect he released her from his hold and went back downstairs to finish the day’s work and wait for Sheila’s arrival so that he could break the news to her.