Her Song

Epilogue

**Van**

"Mr Williams? Mr Williams? Ah, there you are. Don't move to quickly or you'll be out on us again."

I blinked and the room gradually came into focus. The ceiling sure was high. Or maybe that was because I was flat on my back on a hard linoleum floor. A kind half concerned half amused face was peering down at me.

What the hell had just happened?

"Sit up slowly. We don't want you getting dizzy again."

I groaned and rubbed the back of my head as I sat up. I'd obviously gone down hard because not only my head but my hip, elbow and shoulder ached. "Bloody hell that hurts."

"Really?" came the sarcastic hiss from just above me to the left. "You want to tell me about pain right noooooowwww?" The last word came out in a feral grunt followed by harsh panting.

Ooooooh shit!

"Don't fret love. You're not the first dad this has happened to and you won't be the last." The mid-wife, Mandy, helped me to my feet with a cheerful smile. My determination to witness every aspect of my child's birth was not looking like one of my finer decisions right about now.

Knowing exactly where I should be, and making a firm decision that under no circumstances would I be moving from that spot, I took a seat back on the stool at Kim's side and took her hand. "Sorry Duchess," I apologised deeply regretting my decision to take a peep when Mandy told us that 'soon you'll be able to see the baby's head'.

"For what?" Kim's vice-like grip on my hand had me contemplating my future guitar playing abilities. "Passing out or impregnating me in the first place?" She was exhausted but there was that spark of fire that I loved.

"Uh...all of the above?" My response drew a snort of laughter from Mandy and a wan smile from my wife.

I never got tired of saying or thinking those words about her. My wife. Unlike Lucy and Bas who had planned and waited for the private, traditional wedding of their dreams, Kim and I hadn't wasted any time. When the tour rolled into Las Vegas Kim and I, along with our nearest and dearest - essentially our friends, her sister, and my father who happened to be in Vegas consulting on the sound set up for a big name residency - rolled into the Viva Las Vegas wedding chapel and Elvis made our relationship permanent.

Of course the wedding didn't exactly meet the standards of Kim's family. Her mother was stridently disappointed, she had hopes of renting a chateau in France for the event and Cordelia, who wasn't quite her step-mother, had set her heart on Westminster Abbey. I was only ninety-nine percent sure that was a joke. To his credit her father had stated his deep disappointment at not giving her away and had thrown her a post-wedding celebration at his country estate when we returned from our honeymoon. He left the guest list entirely up to Kim although he did ask if we'd mind inviting his good friend Sir Elton John. As if we'd have said no.

We hadn't actually been trying for a baby but somehow in the midst of the madness surrounding Polarstar's final tour dates in Los Angeles, the final party of the tour – and what a party it was, and a belated Caribbean honeymoon Kim had fallen pregnant. Unlike the first time she was pregnant, this pregnancy had been anything but easy. Not only did we have the anxiety regarding the potential for a miscarriage to contend with but we – and by we I mean Kim – had to deal with near constant morning sickness. For almost her entire pregnancy. Thankfully the band wasn't on the road but in a resting, ideas and writing phase.

Well that was all over now and here we were awaiting the arrival of our child into the world. Okay so I was waiting and worrying while Kim did all the work. Her blonde hair was a tangled mess around her head but her blue eyes were fierce with determination. She was the embodiment of a mother goddess.

Faster than I could have imagined possible Kim was pushing our child free of her body and when we were presented with our daughter I realised that I was wrong. There was someone I loved as much as I loved Kim.

Cradled in Kim's arms she was tiny. "Look at what you did," I whispered in awe, my head resting on Kim's shoulder as I gazed down at our pink-cheeked beauty.

"You mean what we did," Kim turned her head and rubbed her cheek against my face. She had never been as beautiful as she was in that moment.

"We did didn't we?" I grinned.

"Have you thought of any names?" the mid-wife asked.

Kim and I glanced at each other and smiled. Among the many names we had on our list we'd only picked one for a girl and looking down at our daughter I knew it was perfect.

I traced my finger down the side of her tiny cheek. "Welcome to the world Rhiannon. You are so loved."

The End