Echo

Reunions Again

The week passed by in a heartbeat for Aurora, and the next thing she knew, it was already Sunday, and she was going to be seeing her grandparents.

"Alice, do you have everything you want to bring?"

Alice pointed at a kid-sized rucksack on a chair beside her. "All there!"

"Okay, cool..."

Sensing her mother's nervousness, Alice clambered up on to the chair and then beckoned to Aurora. When they were face-to-face, Alice hugged her mother and gave her a gentle peck on the cheek in reassurance.

"I love you, mommy."

"And I love you." Aurora told her in complete sincerity. "Are you ready to go?"

Alice gave herself a once-over. She was dressed in a very adorable cardigan-dress-and-leggings ensemble, but to prepare for the cooler temperatures outside, she was wearing a long, hooded forest-green hooded coat over her outfit. Around her neck was a dark blue scarf, while on her hands were matching dark blue mittens, and on her feet were yellow fur-lined boots. She felt like an exotic penguin because even she moved, she could only move her arms in a short range of motion and she waddled instead of walked.

"All ready!" Alice giggled as she dusted imaginary dust off her mother's own winter clothing. "What 'bout you and the baby?"

"We're both ready." Aurora told her as she helped Alice put on her ladybug-shaped rucksack and help her down from the chair. "And that was very nice of you to ask; thank you."

Alice became bashful as she took her mother by the hand and looked up at her. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yep! Let's go!"

And so they left.

Meanwhile, at her parents' house, Emily was waiting on Aurora and Alice. JJ had already left the previous morning on the train to see her family and meet her new nephew, so Emily was already feeling even more jittery because her girlfriend usually calmed her down, meaning that by the time she caught up with her parents, she was a bundle of nerves. They were also nervous, but for their offspring's benefit, they pulled themselves together and calmed her as best as they could.

When her jitters had somewhat quieted, Emily get a text from Aurora saying that she and Alice were very close by.

At that update, the elder Prentisses headed to the kitchen to check on the food, that it was progressing as it needed to.

Emily looked down at her baby bump and gave it a tickle. "What do you think, Little One? Your sister and your niece are almost here!"

The baby just wiggled.

Emily smiled and rubbed her bump, as always relishing in the fact that there as a tiny life growing inside there; attempting to get pregnant again at such a late age had been a huge gamble for a variety of reasons, especially when the doctors warned her that it would probably be the the last time that she'd ever be able to do it, so she was enjoying every moment of it.

And when she caught sight of herself in a nearby mirror, her smile grew as she reflected on the past twenty-five years. She'd come a long way from the last time that she, her daughter, and her parents had all been in a room together. Last time, she'd been in her mid-teens and recovering from fourteen hours of labor, and also quite inconsolable.

Now, she was twenty-five years older, for starters, and she even had a job where she hunted bad guys down (or as she'd told Alice, she and JJ 'slayed dragons'). The people she worked with were as good as her family, and speaking of her family, her daughter had one of her own, while she, Emily, was in a happy relationship with the woman she knew she was going to marry, the love of her life. They were even expecting babies together, happily expanding their unique family.