First Love, First War, First Step |√|

Lucia

The moment I saw Meara walking the path towards my house, I looked down at the little girl cradled in my arms. I knew exactly what had happened, and I wondered what the young woman trudging towards me would be like.

"You knew everything all along," she said fiercely as soon as she met my eyes. "Ilania trusted you enough with all her secrets, along with my brother, while she left the rest of us in the dark.

"You knew she was going to die, and you knew exactly what kind of information she was having you hide. It was the kind of information that could get your grandchild and you killed."

I bounced Lucia lightly, wondering if she was so blind as to not see what was clearly in front of her face. "I was well aware of what the secrets I was holding for the two of them could lead to. Despite your preconceived ideas about the child I'm holding, I can assure you that she's not my granddaughter by flesh and blood."

Meara blinked slightly before bending to study the six-month child. I saw the moment that all the pieces clicked in her mind because some indescribable emotion crossed her face.

"Ilania...she, she had a baby with my brother?" She whispered. "That's why she wanted me to find you?"

Silently, I only nodded before holding out the child, her niece, to her. She took Lucia carefully, holding her like she was afraid the baby would shatter in her arms.

"When?" Meara breathed. "When did she have a baby? I never even noticed anything different about her."

"Lucia was born less than a month after Luke died. She was early as it was, and Ilania wondered if she would lose the last living bit of Luke," I said.

She gently traced a finger along the child's cheek. "When Luke died, I didn't think I would ever see him live on in anyone else. I didn't expect to find a daughter bearing his eyes when Ilania told me to find you. Did my brother even know before he died what he had helped create?"

"She told him moments before he passed on," I managed. "She didn't want to tell him until she had no other choice, but that wasn't the way she had imagined it."

"Can I see a birth certificate?" Meara asked, holding Lucia as close as she could to her heart without hurting the child.

"I can do better than just that. I'll give you everything that Ilania had left with me for her daughter and you."

After I had settled aunt and niece in a chair to get acquainted, I went to retrieve that box that had been entrusted into my care mere days before Lucia had joined us.

I toted the wooden box out and traded Meara for the child had become like my granddaughter.

"Luke!" Ilania's voice came from the tiny screen that Meara was holding. "I'm trying to take a picture. Can you put that camera away?"

A tear trickled down her cheek as her brother's voice echoed from the video, teasing Ilania until she gave up on trying to convince him to stop.

"Why did they take all of these?" She asked me, pulling out the stack of pictures and videos. "This was before either of them had to be even thinking of death."

"When you're involved in something like the Igniters or when you fall in love with someone you're told by a Law you can never marry, you're always thinking of death.

"Despite that ever-looming threat, they managed to live life like that wasn't a possibility. They had each other, and Ilania told me that they believed that every day that they had in each other's arms was a gift. Neither of them were willing to waste that."

A sob tore out of her throat. "I was so foolish. I thought that love had made Ilania weak, that she was more vulnerable because of what she had found. But she was only able to do what she knew needed to be done because of the love she had for Luke and their child. I miss her so much, yet I know she's only gone because of my actions."

I stood up and gently laid Lucia in her arms. "She knows you miss her. She knew that one day, the daughter that she was entrusting to your care would have questions, and she tried to make it easier for you. Ilania didn't want you to be alone, so she hung onto life long enough to direct you to Lucia."

"I don't deserve any of it," she whispered, staring tearily down at her niece.

"None of us deserve second chances, but none of us wouldn't be here if they didn't exist. The best you can do now is make sure that your brother and Ilania did not die in vain. Make sure that their memory lives on in you and in that child you hold. Don't waste the second chance that they gave you to help make this world a better place for the next generation."

I smiled at the young woman in front of me. "You'll always be afraid, and you'll always carry the scars of whatever hand you think you played in their deaths. Don't let it consume you though. Learn from your mistakes."

Meara timidly returned my smile before wrapping an arm around me. "Thank you so much for everything."

One war may have ended, but a whole other battle was just beginning. One that could tear the remainder of this family apart or one that could heal it from the wounds they had already suffered.