One Year later

Mallory sat on a park bench, watching her son, Asher "Duke" L'orange play on the ice with Regla. The puck they were using zipped across the ice, resulting in Asher yelling "I get!"

Regla skated over to her and sat down. In the past year, he had healed from the fiery wreck his car had exploded into. His feathers were almost grown in, the only evidence of his burns was the blackened discoloration of his beak.

"He'll be a pro one day."

Mallory smiled, looking at him. "Like his father was."

Regla mirrored her. "Yeah."

…...

Asher chased after the puck as it spun and whistled across the ice. It came to a rest on a patch of frozen snow. He picked it up and straightened to see a grey feathered duck in a black leather trench coat coming to a halt in front of him.

The stranger knelt to his level. "Hello."

"Hello," Asher returned, his eyes, deep hazel like his mother's, trained on the duck.

"Is your mother here?"

…...

"Mama,"

Mallory caught her son as he threw himself into her arms. "I found the puck."

"Well, that's good...otherwise Regla would have had to get you a new one."

Regla snorted, "I would have just stolen one from Wildwing, the guy has enough to last him a lifetime."

"There's a person too," Asher said, studying the puck.

"A person?" Mallory glanced down at him. "Who?"

Asher looked around unconcerned, and pointed to a duck walking across the ice towards them. The walk was familiar. Mallory felt her hands go slack on her son as she watched the duck come closer.

Next to her, Regla stopped breathing, "I'll be damned."

Asher slid out of her arms and sat in between the two adults. Mallory rose to her feet, staring at the figure who let his hood fall back.

"Hey kid,"

Mallory was close enough to reach out to him, her hand gripped his arm, not believing he was real.

"You were dead."

Duke cupped her face with one hand, "no, I'm not dead." He glanced at Regla who had also risen to his feet. "The Brotherhood got me out before it happened. I'm sorry I didn't come forward sooner."

He had changed in a year, his hair was shorter and Mallory immediately noticed his patch was gone, his left eye no longer milky white. Duke picked up on her attention drawn to his eye.

"It's fixed, almost. I can't see out of it still, but it looks normal." His gaze drifted to Asher sitting on the bench. "He's ours?"

Mallory looked behind her and nodded. "Asher L'orange."

Duke shifted, "fitting name."

He's named after his dad." Mallory hugged him, "His father's name was Asher too."

Duke held onto her, fairly surprised at how she had found out his first name was Asher. Then he saw Regla give him a smile.

"I should go,"

"What? Go?"

Duke paused.

"You're not staying," Mallory stated disappointed.

Duke turned, staring at a figure in black in the distance. Mallory looked in time to see the figure back away and disappear.

He turned back to her, "I'll stay." He ran his hand through her hair and began to walk towards his son with her by his side.