Emerald Skies

Allies

Ch 24; Allies

"Have we taken 'skipping the county' as an option?" Laura asks.

We were literally running out of ideas here...

"Remember- that wouldn't work with the band and all." Ross reminds her. "You had suggested that we pretend the band broke up, but then I said that wouldn't work 'cause the whole band would have different stories about why Riker and I just up and left." Ross concludes. "Where have you been this whole conversation?"

Laura rolls her eyes.

"And- uh, we kinda can't break up the band." I remind.

"Well what if you and Ross were just taking a long-term vacation away from everyone else? In Egypt?"

I drop my face into my palm.

Laura sighs loudly. "Okay okay- so no skipping the country." She gives. "This all sounds way too complicated anyway, there has to be some simple solution to all this right in front of us that we just aren't seeing." She slumps back in her chair. I found it comical that Ross and I were occupying her bed while she was forced to take the chair in the corner in her own room.

"Let's look at the root of the problem here." I state.

"We've been over this a hundred times." Ross moans. "Why can't we just do this every now and then? Sneak out and see each other here and stuff?"

"Do you really want to have to sneak around every time you want to see your brother?" Laura asks him. "I know that now that the two of you are together again all you want to do is be with him, but that isn't going to solve the problem at hand. You can't just ignore the root of the problem here."

"I'm not ignoring it..." Ross grumbles. Though, I have a feeling Laura wasn't referring to me and Ross in this situation.

There's quiet for a moment.

"Right." I say- to no subject in particular. "So, the base thing keeping us from seeing one another is society's views on incest." I restate. "But, since we can't change society's opinion-"

"We have to go one step up, which is to change mom's opinion." Ross says in a monotone voice, as if he were tired of hearing this over and over again.

I'm trying to work through this Ross, and your inability to comply isn't helping here.

"So how do we make mom believe it's okay for us to be together like we are?" Ross questions. "We can't. There's no way she-"

"Wait."

We both look to Laura, who had a conniving look upon her face; as if she's just had an epiphany. It scared me.

"What?" I finally give, and her scary smile grew wider.

"No one says we have to convince her that the two of you can be together. We've only said that we just have to convince her."

Laura... Where are you going with this...?

"I knew I was right- the answer's right in front of us! It's so obvious!" She excites. "We're going to convince Stormie Lynch all right. And in doing so, we're going right to the root and convincing society while we're at it."

Shit. I hope to god this isn't going where I think it's going.

"What are you talking about?" Ross asks Laura. "We already said that it's impossible to get people to accept what me and Riker are doing."

"You and Riker; yeah." She says with a snicker. "If word got out to the media that the two of you are together, your lives would pretty much be over."