Jill found many things different about Louisiana than what she'd known in Lyre and Animalia. For one it was a lot greener. Parts of Lyre and Animalia had some green, particularly in the more mountainous areas to the west of town as they got closer to the California border and the Sierra-Nevada Mountains, but most of the trees there were conifer trees of some kind, Jill wasn't quite sure which. Most of the broadleaf trees that had been planted had come later, particularly when the Browns began turning the land they had set for their livestock to roam and eat grass on into an apple orchard, and was heavily dependent on irrigation. Louisiana was different and even as her plane came in for a landing, she could see that the state was much greener and with a very different ecology from where she lived in Nevada. That was something that made her curious about things that went beyond seeing Beauregard again.
Getting through security was something of an adventure, particularly as the people there apparently had instructions to make sure that she was up to date on her vaccinations to make sure the Animalia Virus in her system wasn't infectious. It was something that took some time and Jill eventually had to put the security staff on the phone with her doctor back in Lyre to actually tell them that Jill was up to date on her shots. However once that was done, Jill was able to make her way out and as she came out of the gate area of the Baton Rouge airport, she found the man she was there to see pacing by an area of seats where some other people were waiting. It was Beauregard and she made her way toward him. As he finished moving in one direction and then turned to head back to where he'd started, he noticed her and Jill could see his face brighten.
"Miss Jill!" Beauregard said happily and turned to her, "You made it..."
"Yes, I did," Jill nodded as she stood before him. A few other people there in the airport stopped and noticed, but Jill really didn't care.
"I was a bit worried," Beauregard spoke and pointed to a television screen that was running through the various flights coming in or departing, "the screen said your flight had come in but I could find you... no one said they'd seen you come along through the halls."
"That was the security," Jill answered, "they wanted to make sure I was up to date on my vaccinations and wouldn't take my word for it. I had to call my own doctor and they had to run through some proof to make sure that my doctor WAS my doctor and not some random person I'd called as part of some conspiracy and then confirm that I'm up to date on my vaccinations so that WHEN I go on some raping spree that I'm not turning people into Alligators..."
Jill watched as Beauregard gave a frown and a very heavy sigh. He then took her hands in hers and patted them softly.
"I'm mighty sorry you had to go through that," Beauregard spoke, "there's some local law that was passed that was designed to make sure that the Animalia Virus wouldn't be a threat to be some kinda contagion that would spread like it was like something seen in some kinda zombie movie. It equated to making sure that all Animalians that live in the state remain up to date on their shots and that any Animalian coming into the state was already up to date on their shots..."
"I gathered that," Jill answered.
She knew that not every Animalian in America lived in Lyre or Animalia. Most did, and most that had even come from outside of Lyre and Animalia ultimately moved to either Lyre or Animalia, but that was mostly like Martha and Richard who had fallen in love with an Animalian and soon had reason to move to Animalia. There were some that did come into Lyre to get their dose of the Animalia Virus and then returned home. Though, from what Jill knew, the number of Animalians in the US that didn't live in Lyre or Animalia wasn't very high... perhaps only a dozen or so spread across all the fifty states. However, she did know that the infectious nature of the Animalia Virus when it was first discovered had been something that made plenty of people nervous, INCLUDING Animalians.
"And thank you for waiting," Jill then said to Beauregard, assuring him that she didn't hold anything against the security people, "I would have been heartbroken if you weren't waiting..."
"It's Christmas and you're a nice woman," Beauregard answered with a small smile, "And even if things don't work out romantically... you're nice company and I'd like to hope that we'd still be friends. And in that sense it wouldn't be right to leave you in the cold."
He then took Jill by the arm and began to lead her toward the baggage claim. Jill smiled and followed him along. She could feel his excitement at seeing her and it felt like he was just as happy to see her as she was to see him. They made their way through the baggage claim where Jill found that her suitcase made it through the security process a lot quicker than she did and . She collected it and rejoined Beauregard. From there the two of them made their way outside, where Jill found the temperature a bit cooler than she expected.
"Brrrrrrrrr," Jill managed as she felt a shiver go through her whole body, from her head to her tail, "I thought it was warmer here."
"We're a might warmer than Nevada on average, Miss Jill," Beauregard said politely, "but we aren't in the sixties to eighties every day. We do have a winter with temperatures in the forties and maybe the fifties at the warmest. Once in a great while it gets into the thirties and if the roads are wet, we close school for the day so that no one has to go out on icy roads and get hurt... but right now most everyone's on Christmas break."
"And why I've come... to spend Christmas with you," Jill smiled.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And Christmas turned out to be wonderful. It was different from what Jill had typically had in Lyre, but Beauregard practically catered to her every need and want and showed her everything that he said he wanted to share with her. He'd taken her on a bit of a back country drive from the airport back his home. It gave her a good look and various Nativity scenes made out of painted plastic on various lines and plenty of looks at the lights that people had decorated their homes with. A lot of that was very pretty, though that was ultimately a byproduct of what Beauregard had wanted to show her.
That drive had been intended to show her a lot of the backwoods and swamp areas that were the places he wanted to protect, and Jill found herself rather impressed with what Beauregard knew with regard to wetland wildlife and the ecology they needed. It wasn't something one would expect from a real estate developer, but Jill did like it. From there it was also part of the trip to his home, and Jill was greatly impressed by it. Compared to what she'd seen in Lyre and Animalia it was a mansion with a full garage two floors and an attic. In terms of land area it covered twice the size of her own small home in Lyre did, though she also felt it had something that seemed to combine Victorian and Modern designs and actually did it rather well. The most surprising thing was that written in white lights across the garage door was: "Merry Christmas, Jill."
"You've certainly gone all out on this," Jill commented as Beauregard lead up a small set of half steps that took them onto a wood floor in a entryway near his garage.
"I wanted to make sure you felt welcome," Beauregard answered, "do you want something to eat? I can put something together quick if you like..."
"No... I'm good," Jill spoke, "though I am a bit stiff from the plane..."
Beauregard nodded and soon provided her with a quick tour of his home, showing his large kitchen, attached dining room, the living room, and then the multiple bedrooms that were on the second floor. Some rooms were pretty Spartan, but there was a sort of décor that Jill noticed things that many of the things that Beauregard had bought to decorate his home reflected local wildlife. That was soon reflected the following day when Beauregard gave Jill a tour of his property. His home was built close to the edge of a large bayou that was complete with reeds, overhanging trees, and water plants that were there as well. And on the edge of the water he'd had something a viewing platform and dock built. When he showed it to Jill, he made clear to point out viewing plaques that he'd set up so that local children could have field trips there to get a look at what local wildlife and potentially see a live Alligator even if they didn't go to a zoo.
"You've certainly done a lot to protect places like this," Jill commented off hand as she looked out. It was too cold for swimming, but neither was it too bad, but there was a quietness to it that was nice.
"Yes," Beauregard answered, "not like a real estate developer, I'll admit... but I love it greatly. I built my home here with the fairly typical sort of rich man's escape from the big city and what not... but then.... well... one spring I looked out to see a family of ducks come out of the reeds and walk along my lawn... The ducklings were cute and it was beautiful, and in a way I was touched. Then came a day while I was at work... and one agent got a call from a guy simply looking for land... the area that was open that my company could work with was a place like this..."
"I take it this buyer wanted to drain all the water for something else," Jill commented.
"Some kinda mega-plex or somethin, I think it was," Beauregard nodded, "but for some reason all I could remember as I talked with him was those baby ducklings and what that would do to others like them. It inspired looking more into nature and things more than I'd ever done before. And that of course lead to my admiration for the American Alligator as it's been a natural protector places like this... among other things."
Jill slowly nodded. From all that she'd seen, it was clear that Beauregard had become quite the naturalist. It was something that she could respect and on certain levels was a part of her accepting him as a potential date and suitor. The rest related to how much Beauregard bonded with her as a person, as while much of what she'd seen looked nice, if she was nothing more than either arm candy or a business asset for Beauregard, she'd prefer to remain single and in Lyre. Thankfully though, Beauregard had also shown a great deal of curiosity in her as a person and tried to treat her right. In fact, she'd found over the course of the Christmas vacation with him that he'd set out to try a couple of the meals that Jill had been particularly partial to after she became an Alligator... and he didn't do too bad at that. That was another plus...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Christmas morning came with some amount of commotion. Jill was actually awoken from her sleep by Beauregard saying hello to someone downstairs. It wasn't super early, but earlier than what Jill would have expected for December 25 and she was also a bit surprised that Beauregard had guests. She did enough to get dressed and have the gifts she'd wrapped ready and came downstairs to find Beauregard shaking hands an elderly couple and a younger woman with a small gaggle of children.
"Good morning, Jill," Beauregard spoke as he noticed her coming down the stairs, "I'm sorry if we woke you up..."
"No, it's..." Jill began.
"Whoa! She's a Gator!" one of the children, a young boy, spoke and began humming the theme to the movie "Jaws."
"Bartholomew! Manners!" the woman scolded, "I'm sorry, Miss Jill. Bart's a good kid, but he tends to get a bit excitable."
Jill was quiet as Beauregard approached began to introduce Jill to them.
"Miss Jill, this is my family," Beauregard spoke, "my sister Clara and her children Bart, Claire, Mary-Todd, and Ulysses. Next to them are my parents Eugene and Emma."
"Hello," Jill spoke slowly as she looked to them, feeling a bit nervous, as the only gifts she'd brought had been for Beauregard and she felt a bit nervous over whether or not his family would judge her.
"They always come over for Christmas and I figured it'd kill two birds with one stone," Beauregard told her, "seein' as how I'd like to hope they'd one day be your family too."
Jill didn't know what to say, and she did feel her heart flutter. She was hopping for marriage and a happily ever after, but it wasn't something that she wanted to force on anyone or come off as too eager for. She let each approach her and they did shake hands, though there was soon some excitement from Mary Todd.
"Your hand is dry," Mary Todd said that came out as something of a squeak.
"Of course, as a... Gator, I am a reptile," Jill told her, "we don't secrete slime and my scales would only be with if I'd been swimming recently."
"And you like Uncle Beau?" Mary Todd asked.
"He's been good to me... so, yes, I like him," Jill answered, "and he's been interested in me as a person... so that makes me happy to be with him."
"That's good to hear," Eugene spoke as he stepped forward, "Too many folks have been acted as though bein' polite and kind to people's gone out of style. Shame so many of 'em decide to get into politics."
Jill agreed with the man but didn't say much, particularly as she didn't want to get into a debate over politics. Jill in her time running a small bookstore in Lyre had seen enough of that to know that talking on politics at every turn was more likely to invite a fight more than anything else. That wasn't worth risking at a first meeting. All she did was nod.
"Can we open presents now?" Ulysses asked.
"Why don't we let Miss Jill get some breakfast first," Beauregard spoke, "and let your grandparents get some coffee."
Jill noticed that all four children frowned at having to wait on Christmas to open presents. She chuckled slightly as she remembered a time when that would have been her. The four children moved from the atrium and into the living room where Jill could soon hear them marveling at the tree. Beauregard's sister Clara went back out the front door to retrieve the gifts that they had brought. In the meantime, Jill slowly followed Beauregard to his kitchen. As he poked his head into his refrigerator to pick out some things for breakfast, Jill had slowly placed the gift she'd wrapped before leaving Lyre. When he turned around he saw the presented gift.
"I don't want to get in the way of your family's Christmas... but I did bring a gift for you, if you don't mind," Jill said slowly.
"I don't mind," Beauregard answered, "but you won't be in the way of my family's Christmas. To some extent... I had such a great time with you around Thanksgiving on that first date... I'd laid things out so that you'd be able to meet my family. Because if things work right... I'd have to become an Alligator too, right... I'm understanding your edicts right?"
"If you're wanting me to lay your eggs... yes, you'd need to become a male Alligator," Jill nodded.
"Which would be a big step," Beauregard answered, "and it'd be a step I have no problem with... Something to shake up so many parts of the world that look for differences to hate or money to be made... and ignore the things that are truly beautiful. Sorta like the wake up call that got me so interested in moving to preserve nature... But because it's a big step, I wanted you to meet my family and for them to meet you. Learn on what a marvelous woman you are."
"That's so kind..." Jill couldn't help but say.
Beauregard reached over the counter, took Jill's left hand and kissed it before he spoke, "Merry Christmas, Miss Jill."
"Merry Christmas, Mr. Shucks," Jill replied with a small smile.