“Really,” Carol confirms. “He told meaaallabout you. About how you’re his little chéri, and how you love to paint, and how you’re the bravest girl he knows.”
Something shifts in Immy’s face. Recognition, maybe, or memory. She takes a tentative step forward, then another, until she’s standing right in front of Hurricane.
“Daddy?” she asks again, her voice smaller now, hopeful.
“Yeah, baby girl,” Hurricane says, his voice thick with tears. “It’s me. I know I look different, but it’s still me. I promise.”
Immy studies him for a long moment, her little face serious. Then, slowly, she reaches up and touches the scars on his face, just like I did moments ago.
“Does it hurt?” she asks.
“Not anymore,” he says. “Not when you’re here.”
And then, miracle of miracles, Immy throws herself into his arms.
Hurricane catches her with a broken sob, pulling her against his chest and burying his face in her curls. His whole body shakes with the force of his tears, and I watch as our daughter, brave, beautiful Immy, pats his back like she’s the parent comforting the child.
“It’s okay, Daddy,” she says. “You’re home now. You don’t have to be lost anymore.”
I press my hand to my mouth, crying so hard I can barely see, but I can’t look away. I can’t stop watching this impossible reunion, this miracle I never dared to hope for.
Lani appears at my side with both twins in her arms, and she looks at me with tears streaming down her face. “Are you ready?” she asks gently.
I nod, unable to speak, and together we move toward Hurricane.
He looks up when we approach, his eyes widening as he sees the babies in Lani’s arms. One has his dark hair, the other is lighter, but both have those unmistakable ice-blue eyes that mark them as his.
“Hurricane,” I say softly, kneeling beside him. “Meet your twins. This is Lynx.” I gesture to the boy. “And this is Katrina… Trina.”
“Named after the storm that made you,” Lani adds quietly.
Hurricane’s face does something complicated, pain, joy, love, and grief all tangled together in an expression so raw it’s almost unbearable to witness. Slowly, carefully, he reaches out toward them, his scarred hands trembling.
Lynx, fearless as always, immediately grabs Hurricane’s finger and grins. “Dada?” he asks, trying out the word.
That breaks Hurricane completely. He lets out a sound that’s half laugh, half sob, and carefully takes Lynx from Lani’s arms. “Yeah, buddy,” he chokes out. “Yeah, I’m your dada.”
Trina is more cautious, watching him with serious eyes, but when he gently strokes her cheek, she reaches up and grabs his scarred finger in her tiny fist, holding on like she never wants to let go.
And that’s how Bayou finds us when he finally pulls himself together enough to come closer, Hurricane on his knees, surrounded by his three children, with me pressed against hisside and his twin brother standing over us with tears streaming down his face.
“Welcome home, brother,” Bayou says, his voice thick. “Welcome the fuck home.”
Hurricane looks up at his twin, at the mirror image of himself before the scars, before the amnesia, before everything, and something passes between them that needs no words. Bayou drops to his knees and pulls his twin into a fierce embrace, and the two of them hold each other while the party around us erupts into chaos.
Grit lets out a roar of joy and tackles Hurricane in a hug that makes the bigger man grunt. Hoodoo is cheering. Raid just stands there shaking his head like he can’t quite believe what he’s seeing. South keeps saying “Holy shit,” over and over like it’s the only phrase he remembers.
But it’s when the rest of Defiance starts calling, brothers from other chapters who dropped everything when they got the news, that the reality truly sinks in. The backyard fills with phones on Facetime to see it for themselves—leather and loyalty, and the brotherhood he died protecting.
Except he didn’t die.
He survived.
And now he’s home.
Carol stands off to the side with tears in her eyes as she watches the reunion. I catch her eye and mouth ‘thank you,’ but it feels inadequate for what she’s done.
She saved my husband.
