“We have to go to the next one, no matter what,” Shock says, telling him, specifically.
I twist my head to look at his face. “Why?”
“Something’s going to happen in the next few days that is going to… change things.”
“Good or bad?”
“I don’t know yet.” He takes a deep breath. “But we don’t have anything to worry about until there are three more of us.”
Arc’s hand spreads over my stomach. “Are there really three?”
I nod and lace my fingers in his, pulling Shock and Risk’s hands in, together. “We’re going to be one big, happy family. And I can’t wait.”
EPILOGUE
Five Months Later
ARC
Chrys looksat me with wide eyes andcan you believe she’s gotten worse?as her mother screeches at them over the comm.
The three sisters sit on our couch, trying to calm their mother down. It’s become somewhat of a tradition.
I’m not sure how Jessica did it, but a few months ago, she reprogrammed our comms—and theirs, and Richter and Laurel’s—to mute when the person on the other end of the line hit a certain decibel.
She did it for Trench’s sake, but I am very happy to benefit from it.
She calls, threatens to come visit, and eventually they remind her of all the reasons she doesn’t actuallywantto cross two galaxies, and then they try to console her with the weeuns… but that just makes her adamant that she will find a way to come meet her four grandchildren eventually.
Shock and Risk sit on the floor with our sons burbling between them while Kissu watches them like a silent guard.
I stand near the window, rocking our daughter and ignoring the irritated glances their mother sends our way.
“She hasn’t gone in on Jess about not having a weeun yet this time,” Trench says, wiggling a finger at his niece. “I wonder if she lost her script.”
“She hasn’t accused me of hiding her granddaughter from her yet, either. Maybe it’s just going to be a longer call than usual.”
Jessica turns to glare at me, and I remember that Trench isn’t the only one whose ears are too sharp for their own good.
Laurel has sat back against the couch and is making ooey gooey noises at her son, completely ignoring her mother and sisters trying to appease her.
Trench asks, “Are you going to grow up big and strong like your daddy? Or able to do back flips like your mommy?”
A whisper of a thought finds a foothold in my mind. “She’s not going to be a guinea pig.”
Trench’s brows pinch. “I don’t know what that is.”
“You don’t get to run tests on her. Not on any of them.”
“Of course not. I am nothim.” He smiles at her when she makes a fussy noise. “If we can’t find the answer in the data, we won’t find it at all.”
He looks out across the caldera, past our old outpost to the one we can barely see and his thoughts turn dark. But the outpost is never quiet enough for rumination.
The call disconnects and Chrys folds all the way forward.“Jesus Christ.One of these days, she is going to wind up on our doorstep, dragging Dad along with her.”
Richter goes to Laurel, picking up their son and pretending to toss him into the air over his head. The weeun never leaves hishand, but giggles profusely. “Riann has actually come up with a way that they could move here if they wanted.”
Three emphatic voices yell “NO” at once.
