Roommates & Soulmates

3rd Epilogue: Jace's Family

Three years later

Despite seeing it with his own eyes Jace wasn't quite ready to accept reality. Jace had witnessed the first ever so hesitant beginning with joy but now that the hesitation had turned into momentum he wasn't quite so joyful. Okay so that wasn't true. He took back the thought almost as soon as he thought it. Jace was joyful. His life was - as far as he was concerned - perfect. That didn't change the fact that his living room floor looked like a tripping hazard, there was peanut butter on the wall and toy blocks stuffed into all the shoes. .Long gone were the days when Jace could put Felix down and have him stay there. Now the pitter patter of tiny feet announced the arrival of chaos.

A great explosion of noise broke his concentration and Jace turned to see little Felix holding up a toy as if declaring that toy the winner of the entire universe. The sound that he was making weren't words but Jace knew if Felix chose he could string together a simple sentence. Jace had stopped counting how many words Felix had sometimes after his second birthday. Before that he'd tracked them quite diligently. He had a notepad app on his phone that contained Felix's first dozen or so words. Once he started making primitive phrases Jace had decided to quit while he was ahead.

Jace sometimes could hardly believe it had been so long. His little buddy was growing up so fast! Felix looked like such a little kid standing there in his t-shirt and pants holding up his toy in triumph. Jace could hardly believe he was the same baby that had once fit perfectly from his elbow to wrist.

Jace could recall as though it were yesterday the moment he'd first held his son in his arms. Annika had, naturally, held Felix first, but later when she'd been taking a very well deserved rest - somewhere between her biting his chest so hard he bled during a bad contraction and her screams during pushing Jace had decided that if men had to give birth the human race would have died out centuries ago - Jace had went over to the bassinet and picked up the infant for the very first time. He remembered so well how it felt. The warm love that had erupted within him had been new and wonderful. Jace could remember the peaceful expression on the newborn face so perfectly and though he knew this was still Felix he couldn't help but be in awe that this toddler before him was the same person as the newborn had been.

His once bald newborn, now had a thick head of blonde hair. Felix's eyes were changing colour, currently a light green. Annika was sure they'd be golden just like daddy. His face was very round and completely adorable, with chubby little cheeks and a slightly turned up nose.

"MA-MA" came Felix's extreme's loud cry as he decided the toy was no longer needed and chucked it across the room. He toy flew through the air with surprising speed. The kid was powerful!

Jace snapped himself out of his nostalgia and went over to pick up his son.

"This is dada time. Mama gave you to daddy so we could have some fun," Jace told his son.

"MaMA!" Felix repeated.

Jace decided he needed to up his game so he lifted Felix in the air and swung him around until the little toddler was giggling like mad.

"Weee!" Jace said as she swung. "Weeeee! Up, down, up down. Felix goes all around."

Felix's laughter was to Jace the most magical sound in the world. He found he would go to almost any lengths to get his kid to laugh. Everytime he lifted his almost thirty pound toddler in the air and spun him around, Jace was thankful for his upper body strength. Even his endurance was not endless however and eventually he had to stop the game.

"Again, Again!" were Felix's thoughts on the matter.

"Daddy's arms need a break," Jace told his son. "In a few minutes we can play again."