Benny stretched out in her bed, eyes slowly opening, her eyes wandered around her room, a room that soon wouldn't be her's - once she was married. Oh but she loved her room, of all the many rooms she had lived in, this had been her favourite, however Brax's private quarters were just as grand. Tomorrow she would be marrying Braxiatel. It all seemed to be almost liked a dream. How had they got to that point?
She pulled herself up from the bed, glancing at the dress hung up against the door. It was beautiful, not a typical wedding dress. It was more of a prom dress a red velvet dress with a white lace dress underneath.
She stood up standing at the window, watching the coming and goings at the collection. Various space craft's arriving and departing. Students gathering outside. And them, Narvin and Romana, pretending they weren’t a couple when it was obvious they should be. She smiled knowingly to herself. She would have to fix that
She glanced at the view surrounding her. It was quite a view. Her room overlooked the Garden of Whispers; it was one of the most impressive gardens she'd ever seen. A centrepiece was a small lake over which willows wept and oak trees towered. A perfect lawn stretched beyond the trees, bounded by the central driveway to one side and high hedges backing on to the parterres of the Small Trianon.
On the other there were statues positioned throughout the garden. Braxiatel had once told her they were 47 statues, not that she ever counted them. She trusted him that he was right. He also told her it was the best place to hear the whispers. It was more special to her now than ever, before after all it was where Braxiatel had proposed to her.
She pulled on her normal combat trousers and white shirt. It would be a while before she had to return to work. Six weeks in fact. After the wedding, sometime later Brax was taking her on a surprise honey moon, so much a surprise he wouldn't tell her anything about it, not even a hint. All he told her was that she would love it.
This wasn't her first wedding to Irving Braxiatel but it was the proper wedding. The one that counted. The first had been a drunken mistake, well; not exactly a mistake but they had been in Paris for a work thing, she remembered drinking, she remembered drinking a lot and then they had accidental got married. Brax had promised they'd do it properly once they got back home
A student barged in unexpected "Professor Summerfield." He was tall and lank, with narrow shoulders, wearing a terrible green sweater which had looked like it had seen better days; his trousers were covered in oil. She had no idea what he had been doing but he was dirty and she wasn't sure she wanted to know.
"Oh just barge in will you, don't knock. What was it you wanted anyway?" She frowned slightly.
"We wanted to know the real love story between you and Mr Braxiatel."
Benny almost choked. It always sounded strange when they called their relationship a love story. It hadn't quite been a love story but it had been one hell of an adventure
"Come on nobody is telling how it all happened a real true romantic story on the collection about you and Mr Braxiatel - how did he propose, please, Benny."
"All right me and Braxiatel," she laughed at the irony of it all.
Benny sat down and began to tell her story.
"The Irving I know now well let's just say he's not the man I once know. I had become psychological damaged you could say When he found me wandering around on KS-159. It's where the time rings brought me" she explained. “It wasn't even a collection when I first got here, not like the collection I once knew and he rebuild it from scratch.
She remembered it all too clearly. Jason's death, running away from Brax - him bringing her back home when she had gotten confused after she had simply gone into shock and had been so broken. She hadn't even remembered her name by that point and he had nursed her back to health. She had gone mad with grief had needed lots of care and attention, but the Brax that found her hadn't been the Brax she knew, who insisted she call him Irving. And despite his coldness and downright rude behaviour to others she had fallen for him, gradually trusting him as he slowly rebuilt his collection from scratch.
