Afterward, we lay tangled together in my rumpled sheets, both of us breathing hard, both of us grinning like idiots.
"So," I said, tracing lazy patterns on his chest, "that happened."
"That definitely happened," he agreed, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. "Twice."
"I was keeping track. And now, I need water," I murmured against Jimmy's shoulder. "And you probably do, too."
"I'll get it," he said, but I was already sliding out of bed, suddenly aware of my own body in a way I hadn't been in weeks. I felt powerful, feminine, alive.
In the kitchen, I filled two glasses from the tap, the ordinary act feeling surreal after everything that had happened. When I turned around, Jimmy was there, wearing nothing at all, watching me with an expression of quiet wonder.
"What?" I asked, suddenly self-conscious.
"You," he said simply. "Here. Real." He stepped closer, taking one of the glasses. "I keep thinking I'm going to wake up and this will all have been a dream."
"It's real," I said, touching his face. "We're real."
We drank our water standing there in my kitchen, and somehow that simple act — hydrating together in comfortable nakedness — felt as intimate as anything we'd done in the bedroom.
We went back to bed and dozed for a while, wrapped around each other like we were afraid the other might disappear. When I woke up, the golden afternoon light had faded to deep purple twilight, and the rain had stopped. Jimmy was stillthere, still solid and warm beside me, his arm a comfortable weight across my waist. The digital clock on my nightstand indicated we'd been lost in each other for hours.
I reached over to my nightstand and carefully placed Cap's letter in the drawer. Not hiding it, not throwing it away, but keeping it close while moving forward. He would always be part of me, but I was ready to write the next chapter of my story.
The next chapter that included Jimmy.
"Hey," Jimmy said softly, his voice rough with sleep. "You okay?"
I turned in his arms, studying his face in the dim light. He looked peaceful, content, younger somehow than he had in weeks. This was what happiness looked like, I realized. Not the absence of problems, but the presence of someone who chose to face them with you.
"We're going to be okay, aren't we?" I asked, the question coming out more vulnerable than I'd intended.
Jimmy's arms tightened around me, and I felt him press a soft kiss to my forehead.
"Yeah," he said, his voice carrying absolute certainty. "We are."
I settled deeper into his embrace, feeling safer than I had in months. But there was something restless in the way his fingers traced patterns on my shoulder, like he was working up to saying something.
"What?" I asked, recognizing the signs.
He was quiet for a moment, then: "I keep thinking about what you said. About wanting kids."
My heart did a little flutter. "Yeah?"
"I want that with you," he said simply. "I want all of it. The chaos, the sleepless nights, the tiny firefighter costumes for Halloween."
I laughed, turning in his arms to see his face. "Tiny firefighter costumes?"
"Oh, absolutely. And I want to teach them to make bread and read them bedtime stories about brave princesses who save dragons instead of the other way around." His voice grew softer, more serious. "I want to hear them call you Mama."
The words hit me right in the chest, warm and perfect and everything I'd been afraid to hope for.
"How many kids are we talking about here?" I asked, trying to keep my voice light even though my heart was doing somersaults.
"However many you want," he said immediately. "One, five, somewhere in between. I'll be there for all of it." His hand found mine in the dim light. "I'll be the guy cheering you on when you're Chief someday, staying home with the kids if that's what it takes. Hell, I'll pack their lunches and make TikToks about what a smoke show their mom is in a turnout coat."
I burst out laughing, partly from the absurdity of the image and partly from pure joy. "You did not just say you'd make TikToks about me."
"Oh, I absolutely did.”
