Captains - Patrick Cripps

Epilogue

5:30pm Saturday 15th November 2025

The doorbell rung at Leni and Patrick's house, the two of them had moved in together back in 2019 and had gotten married back in February of 2022.

A fairly Pregnant Leni had gotten up from a chair in the backyard where she was watching Pat and their 2 kids play around and half walked half waddled to the door. As she swung it open she was greeted with 4 familiar faces.

"Len" Chorused Jack, Cassie, Ben and Tom as she welcomed them in

"Hey everyone, Pat's out playing with Max and Nick in the backyard" Leni informed them referencing her husband and twin sons

The twins had been born on the 17th January of  2023 making them almost 3 years old, when they were born Pat and Leni were ecstatic especially due to it being twins. They had always wanted at least two kids but then roughly 6 months ago Leni got pregnant again and was due to give birth in March.

"Rightio let's go out there then" Jack half shouted dumping some food on the kitchen bench before walking outside and greeting his nephews and Jack whilst the other 4 trailed behind him.

.......

"Hey look boys, Uncle Jack, Uncle Ben, Uncle Tom and Aunty Cassie are here" Pat announced to the two boys who were playing with a footy.

This announcement captured their attention and made them both run over to their Uncles, Aunt and Mother who were now standing on the porch.

Pat walked over to the others and greeted them all with a hug before going and standing next to Leni wrapping an arm around her instinctively.

......

The family of four plus the aunt and uncles were sitting around the dining room table eating dinner. It had become a tradition for there to be a dinner at least once a month of  just the 3 brothers, Leni and her family and Cassie.

Normally the boys and Cassie would bring their partners but they each had a prior commitment and weren't able to make it.

"So Jack how's your wife and kiddos?" Asked Patrick who was sitting next to Leni like always.

"Yeah they're good, They come back from France in a couple days" He told them, his wife being from France had taken their kids to visit her home country, Jack would've gone but he had other things on.

"Yay, we need to have a girls day with her" Cassie laughed, Leni agreed

"Hey Len how do you feel about turning 30 in a few days?" Tom teased

"Ugh don't remind me" She groaned causing everyone to laugh slightly

"I'm gonna have to be pregnant on my birthday. I won't be able to get drunk or anything" She complained

"Well we can make up for it another day" Pat reassured her with a laugh as he pressed a kiss to her cheek

"Mum can we go play in our room?" Max asked for himself and his twin

"Yeah sure just come back down later when I call you for dessert" Leni told them before they bolted out of their chairs and up to their room whilst laughing about who knows what

.......

After a little while dessert came and they all ate whilst watching a movie. It was nice, Leni enjoyed times like this because she could sit on the couch with her husband and sons and laugh at her practically siblings(Cassie,Ben,Tom and Jack) arguments.

.......

7:30am Saturday February 28th 2026

Leni and Pat were in the hospital. Leni was about to give birth, they had opted to not know the gender and were going to find out when the baby was born.

She was due in 4 days but had gone into labour early, when it had happened the couple immediately rushed to the hospital quickly dropping their sons off at Cassie's who would bring them when she came in.

Leni and Pat were nervous despite having gone through this before it was still nerve wracking.

At 8:12am a little girl was born.

Eloisa Aurora Cripps was born. Leni had convinced Pat to go with a more Italian name as Leni was Italian after all and didn't want all her kids having non Italian names.

The two parents were staring lovingly at their newborn daughter who was sleeping in her fathers arms.

"She's perfect" Pat hummed looking at Leni admirably

"She was a pain to push out, but it was worth it" Leni laughed

Eventually all of Leni and Patrick's family came in to meet her, Pat's family had come down to Melbourne a couple days prior to ensure they wouldn't miss the birth of their granddaughter/niece.

Leni felt content with her whole family surrounding her. Her mum had cried when she met her first granddaughter, she had done the same when she met her grandsons but Leni still found it heartwarming.

A few days later when they were able to go home they did so immediately.

Leni felt at peace with her own family of her two sons, a daughter and Pat.

She was glad she accepted Pat's apology all those years ago or else she wouldn't have some of the most important things in her life.

.......

A/N 867 words. Alright it's officially done, I'll make an announcement on my profile when i publish the first chapter of my next book but i hope you all enjoyed this one. I'm so thankful for all of you who have read this and i hope it's not one of those books you regret reading. I hope you didn't hate this ending

also for their daughters names i kinda just searched up italian girls names so uh yeah.

Love Ella xx

:)