Hello!

I'm on a fanfiction roll, peeps.

Special shout-out to Miss Mango, Becks7, Amgine, Wolvmbm, Dana and my mystery reviewer who have consistently put a smile on my face with their reviews. Thank you! It means a lot to me.

After the Fall: Epilogue Part One

Two and a half years later

"Oi Toots, get a move-on!"

"Hold onto your pony," the blonde replied smartly from the bathroom, finishing her eye shadow and lipstick with well-practiced precision.

Wheeler shook his head with a grin, not bothering to correct her. He turned to their guest, who was seated comfortably at the kitchen table with an amused expression on his face. "Naturalised American citizen for 6 months now and she still can't get em' right."

Kwame laughed, glancing at his friends and feeling a deep wave of affection towards them. "And how many languages have you mastered over the years, my friend?"

"Does swearing in Russian count?"

"No."

"Then one…"

The African man chuckled, glancing at Linka as she hurried past them, giving her fiancé a one-fingered salute.

"She appears to have picked up some of your bad habits, Wheeler."

"Yeah. So damn proud."

Linka grabbed her handbag off the back of Kwame's chair and headed towards the kitchen. She seemed to stop half way, before changing direction and heading back towards the bathroom again.

"Baaaabe," Wheeler groaned, eager to get on the road.

"Do you have the bottles?" Her voice was muffled, drowned out by the sound of toiletries being rifled through.

"Yeah."

"What about the formula?"

"It's in Mom's car."

The tinkering sounds in the bathroom fell silent, and Linka strode out, heading for the bedroom with an apologetic smile. "Ten minutes, boys!"

Wheeler watched her go, flopping onto the couch with a resigned sigh. "I swear we're taking more stuff for Em than we are for ourselves," he said, eyeing the three large suitcases propped up beside the front door.

Kwame smiled, listening to Linka's soft voice from inside the bedroom, cooing to the sleeping infant. She emerged several moments later, cuddling the baby to her chest.

He had to admit, motherhood suited Linka. In all honesty, parenthood suited them both. Emma had been a surprise, but an extremely welcome one. Kwame had soon discovered that his two stubborn, fiercely independent friends from similarly traumatic family backgrounds turned into absolute moosh around their five-month-old baby girl.

Emma had been the final piece in the puzzle, and the pair absolutely doted on her. Wherever they went, Emma went. Grocery shopping, picnics in the park, road trips.

Wheeler and Linka were rarely home on weekends, making the most of their time off. The three were simply happy to bask in each other's company, or in the company of friends and family.

Wheeler was absolutely besotted with 'his girls'. He was determined to give them the life that he himself had been denied in childhood, and Kwame had no doubt that the American had succeeded.

Linka seemed softer now, more content. She smiled a lot, and it was very obvious that she and the American were very much in love. Kwame was absolutely thrilled for them; he had always hoped for this outcome. The sexual tension between the two while working as Planeteer's had always been explosive.

Wheeler had always been very open with his feelings for Linka whilst in the group, but the Russian had buried them for reasons Kwame had never quite understood. He supposed it was to do with her background.

Kwame still carried a lot of guilt about the way he treated Linka after Wheeler had left. He had blamed her. It wasn't until much later that Gi had admitted to him that the Russian had suffered severe depression in the six months that followed. But she hadn't appeared to hold a grudge. He was thankful for that.

Both himself and Gi had departed the Planeteers not long after Linka. They both felt it was time to pass on the ring-bearing responsibility to a new generation of youngsters. They'd done their time. Gaia hadn't been surprised. It had almost been like she'd expected their resignations.

He turned, noticing Linka approaching him with the little bundle in her arms.

"Would you like your Uncle Kwame to change your bottom before we go?" Linka said in a lilting, sing-song voice. She gave him a mischievous grin as she passed Emma over to the African's waiting arms.

"Better you than me, man," Wheeler commented. "She's been pretty ripe, lately."

Kwame peered down at the bub, dwarfed within his embrace. She was a tiny whip of a thing, with fine facial features like her mother. The hair was most definitely from her father, but with lighter undertones; more a strawberry blonde fuzz that covered her scalp.

Emma slept on, even as Kwame dropped his index finger down onto her palm. She immediately closed her fingers around him; her long eyelashes twitching and her lips slightly parted. Kwame smiled down at her. He found her quite precious.

Kwame stood and wandered into their bedroom to change her. He knew their cottage like the back of his hand. Kwame often stayed with them for a few days at a time when visiting the US with the company he now worked for.

Kwame grinned down at the infant, watching her bawl her fists up. She whimpered, then sucked happily on her knuckles as Kwame diligently attended to her needs, humming an African tune he'd learnt in childhood.

"All finished, sweetheart," he said softly, pushing the press-studs back together on the pale pink romper she was wearing. He picked her up and pressed her against his chest, inhaling the pleasant scent of baby powder. Kwame left the bedroom and wandered contently around the cottage with her, checking out the most recent renovations.

It hadn't taken long before Linka and Wheeler had made the decision to leave New York, and Wheeler had uprooted his impending little family to a quieter lifestyle on the northern outskirts of Scranton, Pennsylvania. It was still close enough to New York for work, but he primarily worked from home anyway, making the commute to Manhattan once a week for meetings and conferences.

The cottage was on an acre of land and was in a very run-down condition when they discovered it. But Linka especially had seen the potential, with its faded fibro panel cladding and the gorgeous bull-nose verandah, which stretched around the exterior of the house.

The pair had purchased the property and moved in just after Linka had hit her first trimester. They had begun making improvements immediately, starting with new flooring and fresh paint both inside and out. Wheeler was currently in the process of renovating the kitchen.

Linka like to joke that the only reason why they bought a property on land was so her fiancé could get his hands on a ride-on-mower. Kwame could just imagine him; steering the mower with one hand and clutching a cold beer with the other while making untidy figure eight's in the grass. Wheeler had always managed to find joy in the simplest things in life.

The African man heard a car approaching, tyres crunching over the gravel driveway. He repositioned the baby and padded barefoot out onto the verandah, shielding his eyes against the summer sun. A small red sedan lay parked under a tree and a familiar figure had jumped out. Kwame raised his hand in greeting as Janet Wheeler hurried towards him, her arms outstretched.

"Oh, hello my little princess!" she exclaimed as Kwame readily handed the baby over, chuckling at Janet's enthusiasm. "Grandma's missed you. Hi, Kwame!"

Kwame smiled at Wheeler's mother as she covered the infant in soft kisses.

"How have you been?" he asked politely, his eyes peering over her shoulder and noticing another figure exiting the car.

"Good, really good," she said, meeting his eyes for the first time with a grin. "Excited about being on babysitting duty for the weekend!"

Kwame nodded as Wheeler passed him, lifting the bags down the steps towards the waiting cars.

"Hey Ma," the American said over his shoulder, then nodding towards the unknown man heading towards Janet. "Hey John, how are ya?"

Wheeler tossed the suitcases in the back of the car, before shaking John's hand. A tall man with greying hair and a beard to match, he stood chatting to Wheeler for several moments, before striding over to Kwame and introducing himself.

He watched on as the stranger tickled Emma under the chin. Janet passed her over to him for a cuddle and together they made their way inside the house to find Linka.

Kwame quirked his eyebrow as Wheeler climbed the stairs, scratching his head as if trying to remember what he may have potentially forgotten.

"Going to fill me in on John?" the African asked him quietly as a look of recognition passed across Wheeler's face.

"Oh! Um, yeah, Mom's been seeing him for a while now. Nice guy actually, treats her really well," he said, glancing towards the older couple seated on the lounge, both utterly distracted by Emma. "He takes her away a lot, cruises and stuff."

"That is wonderful," he replied warmly. "I'm sure your mother is enjoying the distraction."

Wheeler chuckled, glancing at Linka as she entered the living area and greeted the older couple warmly. "Mom's had other things to be distracted about lately. I think she's a little obsessed with Em."

"Well, it was lovely of her to offer to come to Las Vegas with us all."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Wheeler said, sinking down to sit on the porch step. Kwame joined him after a moment and they sat. Wheeler chuckled, his blue eyes lighting up. "3 nights in Vegas… Mom practically invited herself."

"It will be wonderful having everyone together again," Kwame said, a thoughtful look passing across his face.

Wheeler nodded. "Have you heard from the others?"

Kwame pulled his phone out of his pocket, checking for any recent messages. There were none. "Gi will be on the plane by now, and Ma-Ti and Camilla would have arrived this morning. Last I heard, they had checked in and were exploring."

"Cool," he said. "God, I haven't seen Ma-Ti since he left. It sucks with him living in the middle of nowhere."

Kwame nodded in agreement, excited at the thought of seeing the youngest team member after all these years. Whereas Kwame and Gi had chosen to stay closer to civilisation after the Planeteers, Ma-Ti had returned to his remote village in South America with his wife.

The only mode of contact had been via mail, which could take up to three months to arrive, if not at all. Kwame had written to him about the impending reunion, giving his previous team-mate plenty of time to respond.

Ma-Ti had been thrilled to receive his letter, and had trekked to the nearest town to call Kwame using the phone number he'd included. They'd chatted like old friends, their conversation brief due to the poor signal. Ma-Ti had taken the specific details down and had promised to find a way to catch up with them.

Wheeler sat for a moment, pondering a sudden thought. "Does Ma-Ti even know about Linka and I?"

"I didn't mention it. I could barely hear him during our conversation."

Wheeler shrugged and jumped to his feet, dusting off his cargo pants. "You got anything else you need to grab? I'm gonna start rounding up the natives."

Kwame shook his head. "All good, I will wait for you in the car."

The African stepped into the back seat and sat down, attempting to connect his seatbelt to the anchor point behind the baby capsule. After several tries he succeeded and he sat back, watching Wheeler shooing people outside towards the vehicles. Janet and John headed towards their sedan with a wave.

Linka was the last to exit the house and Kwame chuckled as she descended the steps, turned suddenly with Emma and ran back inside the house. Wheeler threw his hands in the air with a groan and followed her, his shoulders slumped and his hands now buried within his pockets.

They finally exited, locking the front door and approaching the SUV. Linka's pretty floral halter-neck dress blew around her hips as she reached the car, rising on her tiptoes to plant a soft kiss on her fiancé's lips.

She passed the baby to Wheeler and smiled apologetically as she slumped into the front passenger seat, watching her partner strap the child in. "Forgot my phone charger," she explained to Kwame, a wide grin lighting up her face.

"We good?" Wheeler asked, hopping in and turning to glance at his passengers.

Kwame gave him a 'thumbs up' sign from the back seat as Linka nodded, resting her hand on his thigh and squeezing gently.

"All righty. Let's do this."

Part Two will be the reunion. There will be drinking, gambling, stumbling and maybe even another cause for celebration ;-)