Aka Amy

"This is actually kind of nice," Hailey commented as she took in the view. "I'm glad you suggested this sis. I honestly thought it was going to suck, but I have to admit I'm glad we're doing it."

I smiled, "Same. And I have to admit I had no idea it would be this nice? I just thought it sounded cool, but I had some second-thoughts when I found out it was a four-hour trip. But yeah, it's nice. And the view's all right too."

The two of us were standing together on an outside deck of the ferry, leaning against the railing as we looked out across St. George's Channel and the Irish Sea. There were a handful of people on the deck but most of the other passengers stayed inside, probably because the wind had a cool bite to it this morning. We'd set out from the port at Rosslare Harbour about two hours earlier, and we had another couple hours to go before we reached Pembroke Dock in Wales.

The ferry was bigger than I'd imagined, it was a legitimate ocean-going ship. About a hundred and seventy-five meters long and twenty-five meters wide, it could carry something like fifteen hundred passengers, a hundred trucks, and more than five hundred cars. There were almost two hundred cabins for people who wanted a private room and a bed, plus it had a restaurant, a bar, shops, and so on.

"So what did you want to talk about?" I finally asked. "You got me out here on deck so we could talk in private, right?"

The four of us had been pretty much together since Wednesday evening, after me and Tess wrapped up our visit with Niamh.

We met Hailey and Alex in Wexford town like we planned, and we did a little touring there before we had dinner then got a couple hotel rooms for the night. We spent almost all day yesterday sightseeing in and around the town, then turned in the rental car. And after dinner last night we took the train into Rosslare Harbour where we had a couple rooms booked.

Instead of having breakfast at the hotel we slept in a little later, then the four of us ate on the ship after it set sail. We'd all just finished eating when my sister asked me to come out on deck with her. Tess and Alex were both waiting inside in one of the comfortable lounge areas.

Hailey gave me an awkward smile, "It's about some of the stuff you and Tess learned on Wednesday? The family tree stuff you were telling me and Alex about over dinner that evening."

"What about it?" I asked with a frown. "It's got nothing to do with us, that's Tess's family not ours."

My sister grimaced, "Yeah... One thing she mentioned stuck out to me, so I emailed mom Wednesday night from the hotel room? And we had free wifi in the hotel again last night so I checked my email and got a reply back from her."

My frown deepened and I shrugged, "So? Spit it out Hailey."

She was still grimacing as she explained, "When you and Tess were talking Wednesday night, she mentioned some missing relatives right? Bridget and Elaine? That rang a bell for me. I know you and I have only met our nana a dozen times, but you know her name's Elaine right? And I was pretty sure she originally came from Ireland."

"No way," I shook my head. "Nana grew up in Montreal, so did mom. Then they all moved to Kingston when mom was twelve or thirteen. There's no way our nana's related to Tess's family."

"Sorry sis. You might want to have a look at what mom sent me yesterday," she gave me an apologetic smile as she handed over her phone, where she already had the email up on the screen.

I had some butterflies in my stomach as I started reading it. Apparently Hailey didn't tell mom why she was asking, she just mentioned we were in the town of Wexford that evening and she remembered something about our nana being from Ireland. She asked if mom knew when her mother was born, where she was originally from, and anything else about our nana's family history.

And mom wrote back that her mother Elaine was born in nineteen thirty-seven in Wexford, but Elaine's mother brought her to Canada during the second world war. They settled in Montreal, and our nana grew up there. She met and married our papa there, our mom was born there, then the three of them moved to Kingston in the seventies when mom's dad had to relocate for work.

Finally, mom wrote that she didn't actually know too much about her grandmother's history apart from being originally from Wexford, and that she was born in nineteen thirteen. Mom wrote that her grandmother's name was Bridget O'Niell, and that she spent the rest of her life in Montreal, where she died in the year two thousand.

"Those are the same names and dates, aren't they sis?" Hailey asked. "Bridget born in nineteen thirteen, Elaine born in nineteen thirty-seven? When we get back to Canada, maybe you and Tess should pick a weekend and drive out to Kingston to visit nana? For one thing she'll probably be super happy to see you, but you can also try and find out if she knows more about her mother's history. She should at least know her mother's maiden name, if she was originally Bridget Cleary."

I sighed as I handed the phone back to my sister, "I'm not so sure nana would be happy to see me sis. Does she even know I'm a girl? I haven't seen her in a few years, and it doesn't seem like the sort of thing mom would tell her about."

"She knows," Hailey stated with a wry smile. "I visited her with mom and dad in December, for the holidays remember? You're right, mom wouldn't tell her anything but I sure did. She asked how come her 'grandson' wasn't with us, and I wasn't going to let mom misgender you."

She gave me a suspicious look as she added, "And funnily enough no-one but nana was able to say your deadname sis, which made for some awkward conversation until I told nana your new name and that you were a girl."

"Shit," I sighed as my stomach lurched and my face went red. "I'm sorry Hailey, that was an accident. It happened at your birthday, the same time I deleted my old image from all the pictures?"

Hailey smiled and pulled me into a hug, "I know Amy. It was pretty obvious at the time, at least to me. I'm sure mom and dad figured it out too. And for what it's worth, I don't blame you."

"Thanks sis," I sighed as I returned the hug. Then I pulled back and asked, "So nana knows I'm trans? And she's ok with it?"

She rolled her eyes, "I have no idea if she knows you're trans or what that even is. She knows you're a girl though and your name's Amy, and she didn't seem upset or freaked out about it. So like I said, you should go visit her. While you still have the chance. She's eighty-five, who knows how much longer she'll be with us."

I sighed again but nodded, "Yeah. Ok that's a good idea. But um, shit. Doesn't this mean Tess might be our cousin?"

"Third cousin," Hailey replied with a shrug. "If I remember right, based on what you and Tess were saying on Wednesday? Theresa's granny Mary would be first cousins with our nana Elaine. So Theresa's mom would be second cousins with our mom. And that means you and me would be third cousins with Tess."

She asked, "Did you ever do one of those home DNA tests? If not you and Tess should give it a try. Or at least get your girlfriend to do one, I have no idea if it would work for your magic goddess DNA. But I've done two, before and after your magic. If Tess does one we can compare mine and hers, to see if there's any matches."

"What would this mean for us if you're right?" I asked nervously. "Does this mean me and Tess can't be together? Are we going to have to call off the engagement?"

My sister stifled a laugh, "No sis. If I remember my consanguinity table from biology, there's eight degrees of separation between third cousins. It means you and Tess would share less than one percent of your genetic heritage."

"Not that it matters for you two anyways," she continued, "But even with hetero couples there's nothing genetically risky about third cousins getting married. And it's not illegal at all. Hell even first-cousin marriage is legal in half the world, including Canada and the UK."

"You might find some people who think it's weird, but so what?" she added with a shrug. "I don't think it's a big deal, and it's certainly not anyone else's business. The only reason I wanted to talk to you about it in private was this is all still speculation and coincidence."

I thought about that for a few moments, then finally nodded. "Yeah ok. You're right Hailey, it shouldn't make any difference to me and Tess. I'll have to talk to her about it though. And I'd like to find out for sure."

"Actually," I frowned as another thought occurred to me, "If you're right that means you and I are both direct female-line descendants of the Cleary family. The other two branches of the Cleary family came from Siobhan's sons."

Hailey smiled, "You and me, and mom, and nana. If I'm right, we're all Cleary descendants."

"Right," I grimaced again. "Let's not tell mom. Not yet anyways."

"I won't say a word," my sister replied with a giggle. "She still hasn't got over your big revelation at Easter, I'm not going to give her something else to freak out about."

After a moment she added, "I haven't told Alex about this either, incase you were wondering. I'll leave it up to you who you want to tell, and when."

"Thanks sis," I responded. "Could you please forward me that email from mom, next time we have wifi?"

"Of course Amy."

We both ended up staring out at the sea again for the next couple minutes, before another thought occurred to me.

"If you're right this actually answers another question I've had," I finally commented. "I've wondered a few times, why me? Why'd she reincarnate as me? She was an Irish goddess, I always thought I was from Welsh ancestors, so it didn't make any sense. But now... If you're right then I was the first Cleary girl to be born after Amy Sullivan died. You and Tess were too early, Niamh was too late."

Hailey smiled, "I guess you won that lottery."

"I guess," I grimaced. "Anyways, we should probably head back in and see what our partners are up to. They're probably wondering what we've been up to out here. Thanks for telling me this stuff though sis. And thanks for not making a big deal out of it."

She gave me another hug, "You're welcome Amy. And thank you again for bringing me and Alex on this trip. The first half was a lot of fun, now I'm looking forward to the second half."

I hugged her back, then the two of us headed out of the wind and back below deck to find the others. That didn't take long, they were sitting together on a couple comfy seats next to some windows. They had a similar view to the one my sister and I had outside, but they looked a lot more comfortable.

"There they are," Alex announced with a smile, as me and my sister moved to join them.

Hailey sat down next to her beau while I took the seat beside my girlfriend. And as soon as we were comfortable Alex asked about our schedule for the next few days.

"If we're still planning to return home on Tuesday that leaves us with this afternoon, then three full days, and whatever time we have on Tuesday before we depart. What sort of plans do we have?" the enby asked.

I replied, "We can head home any time we want on Tuesday. And we have that five hour time difference too remember? We could head back at eight in the evening and get home for three in the afternoon."

"So let's work backwards from that?" Hailey suggested. "My vote is two full days in Cardiff, so wherever we are Monday morning let's head to Cardiff. We'll stay over Monday night, then head home Tuesday evening."

Tess asked, "What about your family heritage? Where are we going to look at that?"

I replied, "According to the stuff we got from dad, his great-grandfather was from Swansea? And before that the family was from someplace called Llandeilo."

"So why don't we spend this afternoon in Pembroke?" Hailey suggested. "Then tomorrow morning we'll rent a car and find some scenic way to get from there to Llandeilo? Then Sunday we'll head to Swansea, and Monday we go to Cardiff. How's that sound?"

After thinking it over I nodded, "Pembroke today, Llandeilo tomorrow, Swansea on Sunday, and Cardiff on Monday and Tuesday? That sounds good to me."

Tess commented, "Considering it's Friday and we're heading into a weekend, I think we should try and book accommodations in advance? Maybe we should find a hotel as soon as we get to Pembroke, then spend some time booking rooms for the rest of our stay?"

"That works for me," I responded. "We also need to find a car rental place, to make sure we can pick up a car in the morning."

Alex pointed out, "I'm pretty sure they have trains running in Wales. That might be an option, instead of renting a car."

"There's probably a train from Pembroke Dock," Hailey responded, "Like there was at Rosslare Harbour? Maybe from the docks all the way to Cardiff. I don't know if there'd be train service up to Llandeilo though. That's inland, about fifty kilometres north of Swansea."

I shrugged, "I don't have anything against the train, except then you're constrained to when the train's running and where the stations are. If we have a car we can take whatever road we want, whenever it's convenient. And we can change our minds, or stop and take detours if something catches our eye."

"Fair enough," the tall enby conceded.

That was the end of our itinerary planning for the morning, and the last ninety minutes or so of our crossing was spent with the four of us relaxing and enjoying the view. At one point Tess and Hailey went to have a look at the onboard shops, but neither of them bought anything.

The ship reached the ferry terminal at Pembroke Dock just a couple minutes late, then by the time we'd disembarked and got through the port facility and into the village it was approaching half-past one. The town of Pembroke was about five kilometres away, and there was indeed a train station that could get us there. It was quicker to take a taxi rather than wait for the train though, so that's what we did.

Luck was with us as we got a couple rooms in a nice hotel on the main street right in the heart of town. It was easy walking distance to an old castle, and there were loads of shops and restaurants and bars all around.

Once we were in our rooms it didn't take long for the four of us to sort out the rest of our stay. While there was in fact a train station in Llandeilo we decided to rent a car anyways, for the convenience. We also booked rooms there for Saturday night, along with rooms in Swansea for Sunday night and Cardiff for Monday.

With that out of the way the four of us set out on foot to find some lunch before our afternoon of sightseeing.