Epilogue

Priest

One year later...

Running fast with my brothers behind me, I raced up the stairs, forgoing the elevator.

We were all out at my home site, putting the finishing touches on my new house, when we all got the call. Gunner and I took one look at each other before we dropped everything and ran for our bikes.

We didn't think.

Didn't care.

Today was the day.

Throwing open the emergency exit, Gunner and I rushed down the hall of the maternity ward to find most of our family milling around the waiting room. Stevie and Woodlawn stood near the window with Freyja and Athena as Henley held her son, Orion, in her arms. Mike watched while Beth sat on the floor and Gunner's triplets toddled around the room. Bailey sat rocking her daughter, Rose, and Skylar fed her son, Milo. Sugar sat in the corner with Martha Cohen. Cameron, Benjamin and Sean played quietly with little Finn. Scanning the room, I found Frank with Charlie in his arms while he talked with his brother George. Granny was close by as she held little Theodore and Fiona held little Beckett.

"Well?" King asked as the rest of the brothers rushed up behind us.

"Priest? Gunner?"

Turning fast, Gunner spoke first, "My wife?"

Claudia smiled and simply said, "Please follow me."

Doing as the good doctor suggested, Gunner and I followed Claudia into a room.

The second I stepped inside, I froze to my spot, unable to take my eyes off the love of my life, as Gunner rushed over to Sarah, giving her a hug, kissing her forehead.

"How are you feeling, baby?" I heard him ask.

"He's so beautiful, Cord." Sarah cried tears of joy as she stared at Phoebe.

I never thought.

Never dared hope.

It was all too painful after everything we'd lost.

When Sarah and Gunner approached Phoebe and I, offering us both our greatest desire, Phoebe and I thought long and hard about it, but in the end, we both knew what we were going to do. Even when Claudia told us after she'd extracted three embryos from my wife, that the chances weren't good.

We had to try.

Even if the universe denied us, we had to try.

And when Sarah took that first pregnancy test and told us it was positive, I dared not hope. But when Claudia found the heartbeat, everything fell into place, and I began to truly believe again.

For nine months, Phoebe and I watched in awe as Sarah's belly grew bigger and bigger with our precious cargo. The woman wanted for nothing. Phoebe and I made sure of it. Sarah had the most zen pregnancy on the planet.

Whatever Gunner's woman desired, she got.

It didn't matter.

Fate may have taken our dream, but Sarah had given us another chance.

A chance to do it right, and I swore to God and the universe I would.

I would forsake nothing again, because there, in my wife's arms, was our son.

Our beautiful little boy.

Tiberius Adam Dalton. We planned on calling him Tad.

"Shaw?" Phoebe cried as tears of happiness streamed down her face. "Come meet your son."

Slowly, I walked over to my wife, afraid if I blinked, my greatest dream would end.

Standing before her, she placed the small blue bundle in my arms. I stared at the most beautiful creature in the world, and when he opened his eyes and I saw they were green just like my wife's, my heart burst open as tears rolled down my face.

Turning to the most amazing woman in the world, lying in bed, her husband standing next to her, I whispered, "Thank you."

It hadn't been an easy journey for us, but we'd weathered the storm.

THE END