"Your love's like breathing in the salty air
Of summer on a private island just for me
Your love's like the feeling I get
When my favorite songs spinnin' in my head
Keep it play playin' on repeat
It's like flowers in the springtime
Every day is Valentine's
So good it's hard to describe
It's like Paris after midnight,
Dancing in the moonlight
That what your love,
That's what your love's like."
Cress sang as she sent a comm to Scarlet, asking how she was and if the reporters had ever left. It was bad enough when Scarlet was pregnant, but now that their daughter had been born, the reporters never left her front lawn. Just like the wedding, only worse. You can't change the day a baby is born the way you change the day of a wedding. Cress's fingers danced over the keyboard and she hit send, finishing the stanza of the song as she did. Once again, silence reigned over the empty house and Cress started reminiscing about her and Thorne's honeymoon.
For a week, the two had had a private island just for them. Inspired by the lyrics of Cress's favorite song, (other than the lullaby she was named for, of course,) Iko had planned their honeymoon around private beaches and Paris after midnight. kai had given them permission to spend a week on the private island the Emporer and his family vacationed on in the summer. Cress and Thorne had spent their week snorkeling, swimming, and snuggling during the magnificent sunsets. They then flew the Rampion to Paris and spent a week there, eating at French cafés and visiting the Eiffel Tower, one of the only standing monuments from the Second Era. On the final night, they danced around the courtyard of their hotel lit by the moonlight. It was all very romantic, and even now, two years later, Cress's memories of it were as vivid as if they were still in Paris.
She sighed, thinking fondly of those two weeks and stared across the empty table, wishing Thorne was sitting next to her instead of hunting down the criminals of the Eastern Commonwealth. After pardoning him of all his crimes, Kai gave Thorne the job of finding and arresting criminals in the E.C. Cress had joined him for the first few months but decided to return to the house they had bought together in the American Republic. She spent her time taking college courses online, majoring in computer programming. She missed Thorne dearly, but doing college aboard the Rampion was not an option. Besides, Thorne was coming back in 1 week, 6 hours, 40 minutes and 29 seconds. 28 seconds. 27 seconds. 26 seconds. Every second seemed to stretch longer and longer until Thorne came home.
"Yes!" Cress released the breath she didn't know she had been holding. She walked out to the bedroom, where Thorne was whooping and jumping around. They had been waiting for two agonizingly long minutes for a little plus sign to blink up at their anxious faces. "We're going to be parents, Cress!" Thorne exclaimed as he lifted Cress up into the air and spun her around in a circle of pure joy. She opened her mouth to beg Thorne to stop, to put her down. As fun and exciting as it was, the whirling was making her sick but she couldn't make a sound. As if he heard Cress's silent wishing, Thorne put her down and held her at arm's length, beaming. He surely expected Cress to share in his elation, but it was all she could do to keep the bile down long enough to run to the bathroom.
Cress shakily lower the lid of the toilet, relieved that nothing came up, and make my way to bed Thorne is lying on while he waited patiently for her to finish in the bathroom.
"We're really doing this," Cress choked out as she joined Thorne on the bed.
"No going back now," he agreed happily. There was nothing else to say. They were content just lying on top of the comforter and looking out the window at the snow dusted palace of the Eastern Commonwealth. Thorne pulled Cress closer and she fell asleep with her head on his chest, basking in the sunset that filtered in through the wall.
Thorne had two weeks off his job and had been home for three days. He had convinced his boss to let Kinney replace him for those two weeks, while he and Cress flew around Earth visiting the Rampion Crew and delivering the good news. The last day in the American Republic had been spent in a flurry of cleaning and packing, getting ready to depart for France to see Scarlet, Wolf, and their young daughter Red.
"Did you comm Wolf to tell him we're leaving?" Cress shouted at Thorne from the top of the stairs, a heavy suitcase perched next to her.
"Five minutes ago. That's everything?"
"Yes. Let's go."