Alice's POV

I heard a scream for my name. It sounded familiar, but still caught me off guard. Something very hard to do. My head snapped up instantly, Jasper's too.

Hope. We ran toward the sound; it wasn't a pretty sight.

"Alice," she shrieked at, what I'm guessing was, the top of her lungs, "Help!"

The young girl, who I considered my daughter, was standing on top of what was about to be a sinkhole filled with water. My first reaction was to reach out to her, but the ground quickly caved in below her feet.

"Alice!" she shouted again as she fell into the deep hole. As she fell down the thought struck me: she is terrified of water and she can't swim.

My motherly instincts took over as I ordered Jasper to get a ladder, and I jumped in after her. I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I knew my goal; I was going to get Hope out. Alive.

Before I knew it, I was pulling her to the edge of the water. Jasper had lowered the ladder down so we were able to reach it. She was holding onto the side as well as me.

"I can't! I'm going to slip! I can't do it!" she was crying now, more than before.

"It's ok," I reassured her, "Listen, I'll climb up beside you. Ok? You'll be fine!" she began climbing slowly up the ladder as I began scaling the wall of mud and rock and concrete.

Hope's eyes were completely focused on her hands and feet, although, she would occasionally look at me for guidance. I kept talking to her to distract her, she would only nod or shake her head.

I was at the top a few seconds before her. Jasper pulled her up, she immediately jumped into my arms. I hugged her so tight and with so much love, we both collapsed to the ground, still hugging.

"Thank you! You saved my life!" for once in my life, I finally knew what it felt like to be a parent, to have a child. I glanced at Jasper, who just stood looking at us in awe.

"Well, I'm your mother, it's what we do." I sighed. I was waiting for an objection to the 'I'm your mother part', instead she just smiled lightly.

"And you're the best one this world has to offer." It felt like my heart had begun beating again. 'the best one' the words kept going through my head. She really thought of me as a mother?

From the corner of my eye, I was able to spot the rest of my family staring. I could tell they'd been there for a while, but I didn't loosen my grip on Hope, I stayed like that with her in my arms. I could stay like that forever.

Jasper interrupted our hug by crouching silently next to us, a large grin covering most of his features. His worried expression faded into nothingness.

"Hey," he began, chuckling lightly, "hate to ruin this spectacular moment, but can a father get in on some of this love time?" he smiled sweetly at us as Hope jumped into his welcoming arms.

Jasper sat on the grass, one of his arms outstretched, beckoning me back into the hug. I shuffled towards them, as Jasper wrapped his arm around me he kissed both of us on the head.

He sighed. "My two beautiful girls."

I giggled a little at the sweet words that came from my husband.

We all hugged again, before laughing at the previous shenanigan. It had gotten pretty late and Hope began to yawn and get tired.

That's when it hit me. I had it all. All I ever wanted out of life. Laid right in front of me, like my destiny written in a prophecy. Everything that I ever, ironically, dreamed:

A family