"Emma, a phone call for you!"
Mary Ellen called from inside the house. Emma dropped everything from where she was standing on the porch, and ran inside. Mary Ellen's smile was the widest Emma had seen in years. She shushed her sister when she tried to ask what was wrong, and made her find out for herself.
"Emma?" An all too familiar voice rang out, and Emma felt faint.
"B-Ben?" Emma cried, tears running down her cheeks. "You're alive?"
"Sure I am. I wouldn't let them kill me and not let me come back to you and my precious family."
"How did you get out?"
"It's a long story that I'll tell you when I get home. What is our baby? What name?"
"We have a son. Charles Benjamin."
"Daddy is coming home, Ginny." Emma kissed her daughter's forehead. It was later in the afternoon, and everyone who had seen her could honestly say that she was the happiest that she had ever been.
John Boy held Charlie while he sat on the bench. "I sure can't believe you and Mary Ellen and Ben got married before me. I still haven't met the right girl. Yet again, I have been away for years."
Emma smiled. "Did you meet any nice girls?"
John Boy was silent, and then he said softly, "I met a woman named Simone. She was put to death for being in the French Resistance. She was the most beautiful and brave girl I ever did meet."
That night, the four sisters, Toni and Serena talked together in the girls' room. Toni and Paul really were like part of the family now, and everyone had gotten used to them coming and going from the house. The girls had much to discuss, such as Erin and Paul's wedding, and Ben and Emma's living situation.
"Oh, once Ben gets back, we'd love to have our wedding. I can't wait." Erin said dreamily, fiddling with a strand of her hair.
Elizabeth sighed. "I'm going to lose another sister. You'll probably move away with him, and I'll just have Serena. I'm not sure where Emma is going to live, or Mary Ellen! I've gotten so used to having all my sisters living with me again, not that you ever left Emma."
Serena nodded, and smiled. "You're probably going to get married to Jonsey soon, Mary Ellen."
"Serena Burton!" Mary Ellen giggled and gasped. "Jonsey and I are just friends."
"Good friends." Toni chirped, and everyone laughed.
Emma yawned. "Well on the topic of Ben, I'm still not sure if we will move the kids into a house in Rockfish, Charlottesville, or even Richmond. I'd like to stay here at the house, but it might be too much of a squeeze."
"We can always manage a few squeezes if it means having my whole family here again." Elizabeth said and brought her big sister into an embrace.
