(COMPLETED) The Lunar Chronicles - Winter's Summer

Part 6

"Captain?" Cress said, drifting through the Rampion's hallways, looking for Thorne. She had been reading one of the books he had gotten her on their last trip to Canada, and by the time she had finished she realized it had been four hours since she had last seen him.

She poked her head into every room, looking for where he might be. Engine room, podship dock, cockpit, until finally, she came across the captain's quarters.

She leaned in and saw Thorne sleeping soundly on his bed, boots still on and one leg hanging off the side. Cress walked in so that she could readjust his blanket and put his leg on the bed, but when she had successfully lifted up his leg, Thorne's eyes darted open.

Cress jumped back, and put a hand on her chest, trying to stop her heart from beating so fast. "Sorry," she whispered, trying not to make excessive noise in case he wasn't ready to get up yet and wanted more sleep.

He tilted his head to look at her. "You tryn'a tuck me in, Cress?" He said, giving the smile that melted Cress's heart each time.

"Sorry," she said again, backing out of the room. "I'll let you get back to sleep."

Thorne waved her off, sitting up. "I wasn't-" he started, his words cut off with a huge yawn. "Sleeping," he finished. He stretched once, then reached forward to check his port messages.

"You know it's not bad that you were sleeping. You've been working really hard the past week, trying to get all the last of the cure from Luna to Earth, and we were invited to Cinder and Kai's fancy dinner tonight,"

"Cress."

"which we had to turn down because of our schedule, and then Australia had a little outbreak, but still,"

"Cress."

"I know you hate it that we don't talk to all of our friends on a daily basis like we used to, and that you really like going to New Beijing, but you shouldn't feel bad..."

She trailed off because she could see he wasn't listening, his attention held by the portscreen.

"Cress." He said again.

"What?" Thorne put the portscreen back on the side table and stood up, a ridiculously wide smile on his face.

"I'm gonna be an uncle!" He jumped up and started running around the Rampion, banging off the walls and whooping, never once dropping the dopey smile.

Cress stood in the captain's quarters door. "What?" She said again, this time more interestedly. Thorne stood in front of her, talking a mile a minute.

"The comm I just got was from Winter and she said that she was pregnant and I'm an uncle and you're an aunt and I just... I'm so happy, Cress. I love it. I love it already. Boy or girl, I will show them how to fly the Rampion and open Cinder's control panel and..."

He started choking on his words, overcome with emotion. He started crying, thin streams of tears pouring steadily down his face, as he sank to his knees. Cress knelt next to him, rubbing his back.

She had never seen Thorne care this much about anything. She loved him so much in that moment, seeing him caring so intensely it was tearing him apart. And she also loved Winter, and the child she was carrying. She was overwhelmed with love.