She rested her forehead against his and smiled again.
"Do we get off here?" She asked. "Or are we going to manage to hide the fact our armrest is broken a bit longer?"
"Well, you're worth it." He said and grinned. "And not only are we going to have to move, we should make a break for
it before they decide to charge me with petty vandalism or something." He said with a chuckle and as soon as
everyone started getting off the plane, he stood up, taking her with him, and pulled their carry ons down.
Andi liked the way he drew her with him automatically. Liked the shelter of Hector's arms and being close against him
in the crowded aisle. He was her protection and her shelter. And she still felt a bit shaky. She hadn't expected - that.
With - the hands and the - the everything else. Hadn't expected to fall apart like that.
It would have been embarrassing in front of anyone else.
She couldn't believe he'd managed to break an arm rest.
The crowd got moving eventually and they were out in the terminal and the sudden difference between Egypt and
Paris was a shock. Continent hopping without any time to adjust to the differences. She slid her arm around Hector's
waist, one of the only men she could match step with without having to adjust her own stride and looked around as
they walked. Asked the important question:
"Do we have time to grab some food before we need to board our next plane?"
Hector looked at his watch, then did the time change calculation. "We've got an hour." He said. "So we can't go too far
from the airport, but we can go get some real food. If there is real food here. I'm starting to get a hankering for
McDonald's myself." He said with a chuckle. He always did, the closest he got to home. Because there was never a
McDonald's wherever he was stationed, so it had turned from fast food into a luxury for him.
Even if it was grease filled, completely bad for him, and contained unknown ingredients they weren't disclosing!
"Though I bet Suzette recommended a few places before we left."
"MacDonalds isn't real food." Andi protested with a soft laugh. "I don't even think it’s real meat." She looked around
them as they walked. All she really wanted was something fresh. And simple. Fruit or bread or - something. She
smiled and glanced up at Hector from the edges of her eyes. "And Suz was far too busy batting her claws at Swanson
to recommend anywhere." In a way she regretted that. It hadn't been the note she'd wanted to leave on. But more...
She didn't think Hector often had a chance to sit and simply relax with family and friends. And she wanted that for him.
"So," she asked cheerfully as they stepped outside and she blinked against the sun. "Does your Southern charm
work in France too?"
Hector had to laugh. "Not really. Might if I spoke passable French, but I really don't. What French I do know is a
corrupted version, at least according to them." He said with a grin. "Louisiana French is a whole mix of French, Cajun
and Creole. Can't really speak it anywhere outside of there. Besides, I can barely speak it there. But I can swear
fluently."
Andi chortled a laugh.
"Ahhh, yes. Learning the most important phrases of a language first." Which wasn't to say that she didn't do the same
thing and he knew it thanks to a certain basketball game they'd played. They'd paused in their walking a little to the
side and Andi turned to tuck into him, resting her free hand on his chest. Hopping he didn't mind the clinging, but
needing the closeness. She had an idea that his presence was the only thing that was keeping her both calm and
focused.
The air out here, even full of car fumes and noise, still felt good after all that air conditioning recycled air.
"We could catch a cab and maybe find a market if we hurried." She sorted options. "But they've got food back inside
too. We could find something there instead and bring it out somewhere where there's sun. It would give you time to
buy something for your sisters too."
Hector laughed. "Like I said, I don't fly commercial too much. Usually I get off a chopper and head toward a mess
hall...." He said and guided her back inside. "That place looks decent." He said, about a sandwich shop, or croissant
shop, or whatever it was called here.
Ordering for himself was quite an adventure. Finally he looked at Andi. "Roast beef with Russian dressing and
tomatoes." He said with a chuckle.
Andi gave a soft chuckle.
"I should refuse just so you have to eat what you were ordering." She teased. Then she turned back to the older
woman behind the counter - who she suspected probably spoke English quite well considering where she was working
- and started up a pattering conversation that included a lot of quiet laughing, hand motions, gestures that probably
had nothing to do with sandwiches and, at one point, Andi's cheeks and ear tips getting a bit pink. The food on the
counter grew to include Hector's sandwich, another corn beef one for Andi, a couple of chilled pears, their drinks, and
a small box of pastries that had been out of sight behind the counter and got added right about the time Andi's ears
were pink. Andi forked over a Swiss bank card.
"She says there's a nice café just around the corner and if we tell them that she sent us, they'll let us sit outside at
one of their tables. The duty free shops are just a level down. And she says you have a very cute accent and it’s a
good thing you're escorted or she'd be forced to snatch you up and take you home with her."
The woman behind the counter smiled cheerfully.
"Okay. Merci." Hector said with a chuckle. "Another day of traveling and I might take her up on the offer."
"I make a good hamburger." The woman said in accented, but clear English, making Hector raise an eyebrow.
"I've been had."
"Indeed." The woman said with her cheerful smile. Still chuckling, they headed outside toward the café, and told a
waiter who had sent them.
"This is good."
"Mm." Andi settled in her chair and started on her sandwich. She didn't see how she could eat the whole thing but she
thought she could make a good attempt.
"She said we should come back when we have time to spend. She was very supportive of Paris being the city of
lovers." Andi, heavily, summarized the conversation and skipped one part entirely. "But she says the south of France
is the best place for visitors. We've got an offer of her family home if we ever come back this way."
"And Suzette said the French are hard to charm." He said with a chuckle, eating his sandwich. "You managed well,
because I don't think me and my bungling French got us an invitation to the family house. Maybe next vacation, who
knows." He sat back in the chair and stretched his legs out, the next flight, to NY, would be long, with no breaks.
"I don't know how serious she was about the house offer." Andi sorted between the pears. Cheeks going pink. "She
said I looked as if I hadn't been eating right and hadn't been getting enough sleep." She rubbed absently at the
scratches on her cheek. "And she said you were standing very protectively. In a very charming kind of way. Like a - "
she lifted her eyes to his and gave him a crooked smile. "Like a father to be. And so she said we could use the house.
If we wanted some quiet time. Before the baby." She chuckled softly. "I really didn't know what to tell her so I just said
thank you. I was afraid she might take back the pastries if I told her I wasn't." She added seriously.
"Really?" He said, his eye brows going up at th at revelation. "So when we walk by her on the way back to our flight,
should I rub your stomach or something?" They'd been through too much and had nearly lost it all for him to be
embarrassed by something like that. It was amusing, in a sweet misguided sort of way.
Andi exhaled her laugh, eyes dancing.
"It would probably make her day." She agreed with a grin. "Though then she might run after us with her address,
insisting on us sending her pictures once the baby's born. We could threaten to name our baby Astyanax. Just to
pass on the family tradition of sticking your child with awkward names. Hector," her face softened when she said his
name and her eyes lost some of their light. She touched the back of his hand with her fingertips. She didn't know how
far they were going, trying not to wish but knowing exactly what she wanted and not at all sure she was willing to live
without all of him anymore. But - he should know. Before things went further... "My family - on my mother's side -
sometimes we have a hard time. During pregnancies." Shadows far older than ghosts in the night moved through her
eyes. "Sometimes we lose them and sometimes, after the first one, if we can carry to full term, sometimes we can't
have any more afterward." She slipped her hand under his. Palm upward. "I'm not my mum's first child. I'm just the
only one left. And she couldn't have any more after me."
"And heavy drinking runs in my family." Hector pointed out with heavy eyes. "How about...." He said, smiling. "We get
to JFK, then New Orleans, then to a backwater bayou surrounded by hills, get some sleep, some nice hot gumbo in a
nice cool air conditioned living room...and maybe eventually talk about kids. I love you, you know that. And I don't
want to make light of anything. But right now, deep conversations about what may or may not occur - I just can't do.
Besides, we'd have to name him Scamandrius and nickname him Astyanax if you want to be fully correct."
Andi laughed quietly and curled her hand in his.
"Oh yes. Give the boy a name and then don't even let him hide it with an easier nickname." She leaned forward and
kissed him, letting her forehead rest against his afterwards. "You're the only man welcome in the secret places of me.
You know that?" Then she stood up, giving his hand a light tug. Smiling. "And because I love you, I'm going to save
you. From your sisters if we visit Paris and forget to buy them something."
"Okay....a lay over isn't really considered a visit..." Hector pointed out as he stood up. About to face his worst fear.
Shopping.
He hated it, but he loved her, so it looked like he was at an impasse.
Andi chuckled as she put the box of pastries in her pack Hector was carrying along with his own. She'd surprised
herself by finishing the sandwich, but it had been very good. Maybe it was because she was eating for two, she
thought with an inward smile. She was comfortable with Hector. He was her friend as well as her heart's desire. It was
when other people speculated on their relationship she felt - odd. Protective and yet proud and pleased and
surprisingly smug at the same time. She supposed it was one of those 'girly' things she'd never had much experience
with before.
God help her.
Now she handed one of the pears to Hector and kept one for herself as she cleared their table and threw everything
else away.
"We'll keep this fast and painless." She promised, looking over at him with a teasing smile. Knowing that look in his
dark eyes. If she wasn't careful he was going to slip over into 'little boy' mode and lure her out of it entirely. And she
wasn't about to make her first impression on his family empty handed. She slipped under his free arm again and
wrapped her arms around his waist in a quick hug. "Promise."
"I can't believe I'm doing this." He said. "I was just planning on telling them I flew home on a military air line." He said
with a chuckle. That would exempt him from all gift buying, for if there was a lay over, it was a quickie on a military air
strip. "Okay, four sisters, all pretty different. Even I don't know what they'd like, and I'm their favorite oldest brother."
He thought for a minute. "Beth's pregnant again, so something chocolate. Diane has a thing for dolphins, more like an
obsession. Sara spoils her dog, Sara likes little ethnic type things and Cassie...." He had to think on that one. "She
has a garden, her latest hobby."
Andi's brows wrinkled and she gave it some thought as they took the stairs down to the next level. Into a wide hall that
was probably something from Hector's nightmares considering it was lined with glittering shops on each side and
seemed to stretch on into eternity.
"Wow." Andi commented with a stunned blink. Then she shook herself slightly and straightened. Rested one of her
hands on Hector's chest where she could feel the beat of his heart. So many people...
"Right then." She inhaled. "Chocolates for Beth, bulbs for Cassie. Maybe a vase or something with a 'french' pattern
on it for Diane, a silk scarf for Sara and/or her dog. And - oh bugger - I don't know that Parisian airports are so
inundated with dolphins. Maybe we can get her perfume or something?" She suggested. Possibly as ready to do this
as quickly and with as little interaction with the crowds as he was.
"Hey, you asked." Hector said with a chuckle. "If we're lucky we'll find everything in one store then we'll be set and we
can go catch our plane." He looked at his watch. "We've got a half hour. This feels like Christmas every year." He said
with a chuckle as they headed into a store.
"I leave all my shopping until the 22nd, 23rd....it’s a mess every year and every year I promise not to."