Three Months Later...
The aftermath of war was never the happily ever after that people thought it would be. It was wishful thinking to believe that everything could instantly go back to normal. Despite the serum and the fact that the council was gone, the council's actions had left a dark mark on the Vepar people that would take a very long time to disappear. Many of the infected had died in the initial months before we'd discovered the cure, and all those that we had saved carried memories that would never go away. I had hoped that they wouldn't be able to remember their actions after the serum was administered. But of course, that would be too easy. Counseling centers had been built all over the world to help out the previously infected to come to terms that the raging monsters they'd become weren't really them.
Veon as a whole needed to be almost completely rebuilt.
There was no government in place, but as my husbands were the de facto leaders of the rebellion, most of the responsibility fell on their shoulders to help try and put it back together. They left first thing in the morning and came home late at night, exhausted and overwhelmed. I tried to help where I could, but I still had a newborn to take care of, so I could only go with them for a few hours each day when their parents would watch Rory. I spent most of my time trying to help the women who were still being retrieved from the secret camps that the council had set up to perform experiments and the Khonsu camps where women were also imprisoned. There was not a moment of the day that I wasn't tired, but after a lifetime of not really knowing what my purpose was in life, it felt like maybe I'd finally figured it out.
The Khonsu remained a threat, they always would be, but without the resources that the council had been sending to them - something that set off world-wide horror throughout the Vepar people after it was discovered - the Khonsu would never be the threat that they were.
I'd decided to stay home today, needing a break due to the sleep regression that Rory was currently going through. I was rocking her in her bedroom when Derrial popped his head in, immediately gravitating towards Rory.
"Can I finish up?" he asked eagerly, already reaching for her. I nodded, giving him a soft kiss and leaving him to put Rory to bed.
Thane and Corran walked in the front entrance just as I was grabbing a glass of water.
"Pet," Thane murmured exhaustedly, scooping me up in his arms and spinning me around as he kissed me fervently. Corran grumpily pulled me out of Thane's arms and leveled me with another kiss that had me seeing stars.
What we felt for each other only seemed to intensify each day, and it was hard to believe that I was actually loved so completely by three different men...aliens.
After Corran set me down, they both eagerly got dinner from the kitchen and then settled down at the table to eat. I noticed right away that they were quieter than usual. Derrial was eating as well now, and although they were tired every night, they still always kept up conversation with me. Tonight, there was only pensive silence.
"What's going on?" I finally asked. And it was like the three of them took a collective breath.
"Today was an interesting day," Derrial finally answered. "The three of us were asked to take over the council and become the leaders for our people."
I wasn't that shocked. They'd basically been in that role since the council fell. They all seemed very weird about it though.
"What aren't you telling me?" I pushed.
"That would mean that we would have to stay on Veon," said Corran carefully. And I nodded with a frown. I wouldn't have expected anything else.
"We want you to make the decision," added Thane. "If you want to go home, we'll say no."
And there it was. The issue that was obviously tearing them up. If they were appointed as the head of Vepar society, then my dreams of returning to Earth...they would remain just that...nothing but dreams.
Except...I couldn't remember the last time I'd thought of Earth. I tried to look inside of me for that longing that I'd constantly felt in the beginning when I'd come to Veon.
And I couldn't find it.
How could that be?
It was like it didn't matter anymore.
It took me a few minutes. A few minutes where I knew the guys were waiting desperately for my response. In the beginning, I would never have believed them that they would actually give up on ruling to return to Earth with me. But now...I didn't doubt it for a second.
And it just reinforced it for me that I didn't need to travel back to Earth to be home. They were my home. Rory was my home.
I was home.
"I don't want to be anywhere but here with you," I finally said truthfully.
"You don't need to lie to us," said Derrial exasperatedly, and I went up to him and grabbed his face with both hands.
"I've learned that home is a person...and not a place. I've told you this before, and I'll tell you again. I would go anywhere if it was with the three of you and Rory. And I would be happy there. My love for you has no regrets."
There was a long silence, and then the three of them were on me at once. My happy cries filled the air as the three of them let me know just how happy my words had made them.
Corran
Eight Months Later...
It didn't matter, I told myself, even as I performed the test. Rory was ours no matter who her father was. And that really was how I felt, how we all felt. But as she grew more every day...there were just so many things about her that I recognized that I was beginning to think wasn’t just a coincidence. Because they were all things that I did.
Like the fact that she was already talking in almost complete sentences despite being just a little over one years old. And the fact that she could already recognize and identify numbers and words. Her IQ was off the charts, as mine had been. And although she had the sweetness and personality of her mother, the rest of her, including her eyes...they seemed to be just like me.
And that's why I was here, even though the others would kill me, performing this paternity test.
I placed the lock of Rory's hair into the machine and waited with bated breath. The machine made a small whirring sound as it analyzed the data.
And then it was done. I pressed the button that would show me the results with trembling hands. I was really regretting doing this, because there was no way I could be her biological father.
But Melba Cryon had been the scientist that did the transfer. We had always gotten along, and I’d frankly been shocked to find out that she was working with the council. I’d always considered her a friend before that.
I shook my head. No, it was better to keep low expectations. It didn’t matter. This was just for science’s sake that I was even doing this.
And then I looked at the results.
I sunk to my knees, something I’d never done before Ella had come into my life. And now it was something I found myself doing often.
I was Rory’s biological father. Melba had used my sample that I’d submitted.
My love didn’t feel any different, I felt more complete somehow. Rory had been mine in all the ways that counted, but now I could say that she was my blood as well.
I had originally decided I wasn’t going to mention it either way. Ella would be disappointed in me that I even tested it, but I think she would understand. She knew the way my mind worked, the questions that always burned inside. But now that I knew the results, I was burning to tell the others.
I flew my craft to our home. Ella had loved our safehouse by the Cardian sea. She’d loved looking out and seeing the colorful forest and the lavender sea right outside of our door. We’d expanded it, making it an actual home instead of a temporary safehouse and now it was a strange mix of an Earth home and a Vepar home. But then again, maybe it wasn’t so strange. We were a mix of Earth and Vepar, after all.
I heard giggling as I walked in the door, and I immediately headed to the living room area where I knew my family was gathered. If we were home, we were all together, always.
Rory was riding around on Thane’s shoulders, giggling wildly, as he galloped around the living room floor like he was that Earth creature, a horse I think they called it. I snorted at watching the fierce Thane, former captain of all of Veon’s special forces, pretending to be a horse of all things. Derrial was wrapped around Ella on the couch. He was whispering in her ear, I’m sure trying to convince her to sneak off with him while Thane kept Rory busy. She was laughing and pretending to say no, but I knew that if I wasn’t coming in with my news, he would have her in the bedroom sooner rather than later. We couldn’t keep our hands off of her.
She held a gentle beauty that only grew more attractive to me every day. The Vepar people had unanimously called for her to be the first human placed on the Veon Council, and she was now overseeing Veon-Earth relations. She of course immediately made substantive changes to the way the Vepar treated her planet, namely that we weren’t in charge anymore. We were working together. And there were no women being kidnapped any longer for fertility experiments. She had unwittingly been the factor for changing the fate of her world. And I knew that she would never recognize how truly remarkable she was.
Ella’s face lit up when she saw me, and Rory struggled to jump off Thane’s back to toddle towards me. Her brain was far ahead of her age, but things like walking were still about average for others her age. Similar to how I’d been.
“Dad!” she screeched, and I picked her up and swung her around, savoring the sound of her little laugh. She yawned just then, signaling it was time for a nap.
“I’ll go put her down and be right back,” I told Ella, Thane, and Derrial. Ella blew Rory a kiss and then gave her own giggle when Thane took advantage of the empty spot on the other side of her.
“I love you, Daddy,” Rory cooed as I laid her down. “When I get up from my nap, can we go over prime numbers again?”
I laughed, throwing my head back. I had never laughed before Ella had come in my life. Now with her and Rory, I found myself doing it all the time.
“We’ll do prime numbers, and I’ll teach you all about what happens when a black hole swallows a star.”
Her eyes lit up, and she snuggled into her blankets, eager to go to sleep so she could wake up again. She was a little ball of energy. And all mine.
I left her room and walked to the living room, where my family had not so mysteriously disappeared from. Smirking, I walked to the bedroom where I knew Thane and Derrial would have dragged Ella to take advantage of Rory’s nap. It’s what I would have done.
Ella was already half undressed when I walked in. Derrial and Thane were eying her like they were going to eat her.
“I have some news,” I said carefully. Ella sat up and looked at me.
“What is it?” she asked nervously.
“I did a paternity test,” I blurted out.
“You did what?” gasped Ella, her face filled with hurt. “I thought you said it didn’t matter?” Thane and Derrial looked like they wanted to punch me.
“It doesn’t...it didn’t. But surely you’ve seen things about Rory that have made you wonder?” I hurriedly explained.
Ella hesitated, and I could see that she’d had the same thoughts as I did. She hadn’t known me as a child obviously, but Rory’s thirst for knowledge and her gold-hazel eyes couldn’t be missed.
“What did it say?” asked Derrial carefully.
“I’m her biological father,” I told them, unable to keep the smile from beaming out of my face.
“What!” the others exclaimed at once. “Melba must have used my sample for the implantation. Not sure how she could have done it accidentally, so it must have been her way of trying to apologize for what the council was making her do.”
Ella was softly crying, and I knelt down in front of her. “Why are you crying? This should be happy news,” I whispered to her softly.
“I just don’t know how I ended up getting everything I wanted, when I didn’t even know how badly I did want it,” she said.
And my grin grew even wider.
“Lucky bastard,” hissed Thane, clearly jealous. He pulled her down to the bed and tore off his shirt.
“What are you doing?” Ella asked through her happy tears.
“Trying to make a baby, of course,” he smirked at her.
“But we already know we can’t do this the natural way,” commented Ella, and Thane’s smirk only spread.
“But we can certainly try our hardest,” he told her as Derrial came up beside them.
“I’m in,” added Derrial, stripping off his shirt.
I had a feeling that I’d be having to get the lab ready sooner rather than later for another transfer.
“Are you coming?” asked Ella throatily as Derrial kissed his way down her neck while Thane finished undressing her.
“Always,” I said as I walked toward them, beginning to strip as well.
We couldn’t have babies the natural way, but I would always be up for trying.
Any other thoughts soon disappeared as the three of us took turns with our mate. Our Ella. Our everything.