Chapter Text
EPILOGUE
“Do you think we can go play?” Elena quietly whispered to Ally as they both stared at their sleeping parents on the bed beside them. They had been awake for almost ten minutes now and both were starting to get restless. Especially now that they could hear the others playing outside.
“I don’t know. I don’t want to get in trouble if we’re not supposed to.” Ally bit her lip as she watched Elena’s pout grow deeper.
“But I’m bored!” She whined and before Ally could stop her, her hand reached out to gently try and shake Hamish awake. Vera’s eyes opened and she quickly captured Elena’s hand before it could land on Hamish’s face and brought it to her lips for a quick kiss.
“Why don't we let daddy sleep a little bit longer, hmm? He had a long day yesterday.” A tired smile pulled at her lips as the blond nodded sadly. She carefully reached out further and cupped Elena’s cheek.
“Go brush your teeth and get dressed and I’ll be down in a few minutes. We can join the others after breakfast, okay?” She could tell Hamish woke up the second the girls leapt off the bed and shut the door a little louder than they meant to in their excitement.
“Good morning, Mrs. Duke.” Hamish mumbled tiredly while tightening his arms around Vera as he rolled until she was under him and nuzzled against her chest with a deep hum. The steady rhythm of her heart beating under his ear as her fingers sifted through his hair quickly lulled him back to sleep.
Vera startled awake when the door opened and closed quickly. She tightened her arms around Hamish when he grumbled and shifted closer in his sleep. She had thankfully already drifted back to sleep when Emilie’s voice floated through the door.
“Shhh, why don’t I make us breakfast while mommy and daddy sleep? Perfect, I make wonderful pancakes. And in the future girls, make sure you knock, okay? Sometimes mommy and daddy might be playing grown-up games…”
“Grown-up games? Is that what happened to mommy’s neck? Biting is allowed in grown-up games?” Elena asked innocently as she grabbed Emilie’s hand and followed her. Emilie quickly brought her free hand up to smother the burst of laughter that escaped at the question.
“Not always, but for your parents biting does seem to be a common occurrence when they play together…”
“Will they bite me when we play? I don’t want to be bitten! Biting is mean! Right, Ally? Mommy and daddy won’t bite us, right?” Elena’s absolute horror at the idea was the only thing keeping Emilie on her feet as her laughter increased.
“Noooo, sweetie. They just bite each other sometimes. They would never bite you girls. But that’s why we want to knock first before entering their bedroom. We want to make sure they aren’t playing grown-up games, right?”
Both girls nodded as they walked into the kitchen and climbed up on their chairs to help with breakfast. “So, who wants to measure and who wants to mix?” Emilie asked while holding up the measuring cups and whisk with a wide grin.
“But… Why not?” Ally and Elena asked with wide eyes slowly filling with tears.
“Sorry girls, I’m not playing ‘Magic Wands’.” Jack reiterated before turning away from the pouting girls to see Alyssa giving him a disproving look. “What?! I’m not crawling around on the ground pretending to be a cat…”
“But I… I was going to make you a knight though…” Ally said while lifting her stick with a hopeful expression as Elena’s lip trembled. Before Jack could respond, the group heard the front door opening behind them.
Vera froze at the sudden attention focused on her which caused Hamish to walk right into her. His arms quickly wrapped around her waist and pulled her back against his chest to keep her from falling. “Sorry.” His attention was quickly pulled down when he felt something bump against his leg.
“Umm, Em? What are you doing?” He asked as Emilie rubbed her head against Vera’s leg with an exaggerated purr before bounding after Lilith, Nicole and Gabrielle who were also crawling around with various degrees of realistic meows.
Surprisingly, Nicole seemed the least into whatever game they were playing.
“They can’t talk, they’re kitties now.” Ally and Elena grinned widely as they ran towards them and waved their hands for them to bend down so they could ‘whisper’ in their ear. “The boys are going to be knights!”
“Are they now?” Hamish looked up to see Randall, Fynn and Jack standing behind the girls and smirked. “I don’t know about Uncle Fynn, but the other two are familiar…”
“Nooo. Not Werewolf knights! Frog knights!” Ally’s eyes rolling dramatically as if it were obvious pulled an amused chuckle from Vera.
“What? Noo. Come on! I wanna be a werewolf!” Randall groaned with his arms crossed. The action got the “cats’” attention and Gabrielle immediately let out a warning ‘hiss from where she was playing with Sarene.
Randall’s arms quickly uncrossed as he straightened and cleared his throat.
“Fine, I’ll be a frog. But only if Hamster also has to be a frog!” He huffed while grinning towards Hamish who was glaring right back at him.
Hamish’s glare on Randall broke when Ally stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his neck while she smirked over her shoulder at Randall. That was no doubt in any of their minds that this was Vera’s daughter with that expression.
“Daddy doesn’t need to be a knight. He’s already married to the Queen so he’s a King, not a Prince. Everyone knows, only princes are frogs!” Her arms around his neck tightened as she kissed his cheek.
“What? No, he’s not… Wait, you are! No shit, dude…”
“Language!” Vera snapped while covering Elena’s ears and glaring darkly at Randall. The man flushed in apology at the scolding but Elena and Ally’s matching smirks as they stuck their tongues out at him had him crossing his arms and sticking his tongue right back at them. “Mr. Carpio!”
“What?! They started it!”
“Randall! Seriously?! Just be a frog already!” Gabby snapped, thoroughly done with his childish antics.
“I am! Jack is the one who was refusing!” He grumbled as he crouched into a frog pose and began hopping around with ribbit noises. He noticed Fynn had barely been hopping with him when Elena ran over near Jack with her ‘wand’ and a huge, toothy smile.
A smile that quickly slid into frown when Jack said ‘No, Elena. Stop asking!’ with a bit more bite than he probably meant to before turning and stalking away from them. Randall could see the girl’s tears bubbling up as she dropped her wand and ran back towards Vera.
“That’s not true, sweetheart. He doesn’t hate you. He just doesn’t want to play right now.” Vera promised while picking the blond up and kissing her temple as she swayed back and forth. Randall could almost hear the dangerous glare Vera was sending towards Jack’s back for making her daughter cry.
Without another thought, Randall started leaping after Jack with exaggerated ribbits until he was close enough to lick the man’s leg. “What the hell, Randall?!” Jack’s disgusted look did nothing to faze Randall. He was already looking back towards Elena who was watching on with confusion.
“Mmm, tastes like fly!” His tongue darted out again causing Jack to give a tiny yelp as he jumped away from him. “Come back here, fly!” He grinned up at Jack before leaping after him again and again until he was chasing the other man around the field that was filled with laughter now.
Elena had just given Fynn a kiss on the cheek to turn him into a human knight when movement at the edge of the clearing pulled the adults attention. The game was immediately paused as each adult closest to one of the kids grabbed them and started moving towards one of the houses.
“Emilie? Fynn?” Marsh’s strong voice cut through the sudden chaos. Both siblings paused in their retreat to Vera’s home and turned with Elena and Ally in their arms to see the older Knight trailed by two newcomers.
“Mom? Dad?” Emilie whispered with disbelief as her parents started running towards them. Her arms were stiff around Ally as giant tears started running down her cheeks. She couldn’t move a muscle as her parents’ arms encircled her.
“We went to the altar, but you weren’t there and we thought… oh sweetheart, we were so worried we’d never see you again.” Her mother was weeping as she started kissing any part of Emilie that she could reach without letting go of her. “We missed you so much, Emilie.”
Ally slowly started to wiggle out of Emilie’s hold when she felt Vera’s pain sneaking into her mind. She had almost gotten free when Emilie’s mom pulled back to see what was moving against her. “I want to get to my mommy.”
Emilie was still in shock, but her mom carefully pulled Ally out of her grip through her tears and moved towards Vera with Ally in her arms. Vera held her arms out for her daughter, but the other woman set Ally on the ground and pulled Vera into a crushing hug.
“You saved my children so many times. Thank you, Vera.” Isabelle Brandt tightened her grip on Vera when she heard her anguished thoughts. “Don’t even think about leaving them. She already lost a mother once. Don’t you dare make her lose another by pulling back.”
“You’re not going to take them back with you?” Vera could feel Hamish’s hand on her lower back as she asked the question and knew it was the only thing that was keeping her from sinking to her knees at the thought of losing Emilie and Fynn.
“There’s not enough room at our old place. We’re looking for a new home… seems like you’ve got a whole village going on in this clearing. I don’t suppose you have room for two more?”
Vera’s laugh was strangled as she nodded through her tears. “We have plenty of room in our ‘little village’.” She looked back towards Emilie and Fynn to see Emilie sobbing in her father’s arms and Fynn hugging Marsh in thanks before his mother pulled him into a hug.
Hours later Vera was sitting on the ground leaning back against Hamish’s chest as Elena slept on her outstretched legs. Cassie was sitting across from them with Ally in a similar position, but the girl was fighting with everything she had to stay awake.
Vera’s fingers trailed through Elena’s curls as they listened to the others swap stories around the fire. She hummed quietly when Hamish kissed her shoulder as his arms tightened around her waist.
They may not have gotten their happy ending in life, but this was far better.
This happiness would last an eternity.
THE END