Chapter 13: "The Trip"

Becky called Dr. Jennings and explained what had happened. The doctor was very understanding when she told to him that she wouldn't be returning to the clinic any more. He told her that he had expected nothing else and not to worry he would find a replacement.

Becky looked at Ethan contently as she ran her fingers through the curls in his hair, "Well, what do we do now?"

"Get shots!" He replied abruptly.

Confusion in her voice, she asked, "What?"

"Vaccinations. You know, the ones required for overseas travel. You don't happen to have them here do you?" was his response.

She sat up suddenly, "Planning a trip?"

"More like a honeymoon followed by an extended vacation; say until we both get tired of traveling. Where would you like to go first?" Then he added, "I don't care as long as it's as far away from here as I can get."

"Did you just propose to me?"

"Actually, no, I did that fifteen years ago. You do still want to marry me don't you?"

Becky began to speak softly, "Before I answer that I need to tell you something. A few years ago I developed cysts on both of my ovaries. The doctor had no choice but to remove them and I had to have a full hysterectomy." Then Becky paused hesitantly as tears began to flow from her eyes, "Ethan, I can never give you any children."

"I gave up on the idea of having children a long time ago. If you have your heart set on raising a child we can always adopt one." He told her as he started to wipe the tears from her eyes with he hands and then kissed her softly.

She settled down "If you don't mind, I think I'll pass. I'm too old to get up in the middle of the night and change shitty diapers."

They both laughed.

"So, is that a yes?" Ethan looked at her expectedly.

She nodded and kissed him again.

The prison had given Ethan a copy of his medical records before releasing him. Becky looked through them trying to determine what shots he might need and was shocked by what she found.

She tried hard to fight back the tears when she saw the number of times he had been treated by wounds inflicted by the beatings he had received in prison. They had told her that he had had a pretty bad time of it but she had no real idea just how bad until then. Ethan ended up spending several minutes trying to calm her down.

Finally, when she was calm enough, they decided to return to Columbus and file for their passports.

From there, the couple flew to Atlanta, then to Las Vegas, where they got married and spent two weeks honeymooning; it took them that long to tire of the place. They rode the Amtrak from Atlanta Georgia to Amsterdam New York and then drove to Niagara Falls.

The couple was in San Diego six weeks later when they got a call from Howard Booth telling them that the rest of the settlement money had been deposited in their account. He had also petitioned the Army to change Ethan's discharge status to that of Honorable. The army could have called him back to active duty but decided not to. Instead, Ethan was granted full back pay and benefits. The amount was about $300,000.

Howard had quite generously agreed to accept that amount as payment for his services. When Ethan insisted he take more, Howard refused telling Ethan the publicity from his case had generated him more business than he could handle.

Five months later, word reached them that their passports were waiting for them back in Columbus so they flew to Atlanta and then hopped a shuttle flight back to Columbus.

Becky and Ethan spent the next week calling on old friends and catching up on current events. At the end of which, passports and luggage in hand, they caught a shuttle flight to Atlanta and spent a week visiting with Doctors Jennings and Mercer before they started their round the world trip together.

Epilogue

In was in September two years later and they were both tired of travel. The couple decided to make one last trip before settling down for a while. They chose, of all places, as their last stop their home town of Magnolia. Their intention upon leaving was to start driving and when they found a place they liked, stop there and set up housekeeping.

When they got there, it was to find that the little town had changed a great deal since they had last seen it. It actually looked vibrant and new. It seems that the town father's had spent the money wisely and had actually brought life back into the tiny rural community.

Just when the poultry processing plant was about to close down, they managed to get an outside investor to build to small call center in the town. It seems that the investors had taken another look at the cost-benefits of their current off shore based call center and realized that it wasn't as cost effective has they had first thought. Since they were looking for an inexpensive way to bring the service back to the states and didn't require a very large work pool, Magnolia was perfect for them with its near empty hospital and soon to be unemployed population.