Jennifer slept fitfully that night. She hadn't wanted to leave Nick, though she knew she had to. If she had stayed, they would have fallen into bed together and been deliriously happy for the night and maybe in the morning, but they would have been left with Nick's guilt and confusion. She needed to leave him to take care of things for himself and decide what he wanted.

And Jen had plenty of confusion of her own. She told Nick she loved him. She wasn't entirely convinced that was the right thing to do. It was very clear to her that she loved him, but would it help or hurt him to know? On the one hand, she wanted to let him know that she was serious about him, that she wanted to find a way forward together, and perhaps that would help him to know where she was coming from and decide if he was in the same place. But on the other hand, did that just add more for him to worry about, more guilt and responsibility on his shoulders? For all that Jennifer knew about Nick, she had not spent enough time with him yet to fully know how he would react.

But what was done was done, and they both had to go on. Jen tossed and turned in her bed amidst the flowers and trees in the fairy realm, though it did help her to know she was home. And she woke up feeling troubled but determined. She would go to the palace, and she would talk to Terry and Bernice, and she would see what her options were.

She'd stupidly told Nick she loved him without knowing what the future held. There was every chance that she would be prevented from seeing him ever again. As far as Jen knew, Nick was the first human who had been allowed into the realm in more than a generation and she was the only fairy to spend so long in the human world at a time.

The anxiety built inside her as she flew as fast as she possibly could to the palace. Her wings were aching by the time she landed, but the physical exertion had helped distract her for just a moment. She saw Matt on his patrol and she gave a small wave to him. He looked at her strangely, and she was certain her entire demeanor begged the question of whether she was alright, but Jen just gave him a tight smile and walked through the grand entrance hall.

Jerry flew down and landed on her shoulder and nuzzled her cheek.

"Hello there," she said softly, pausing to stroke his head with her finger. "Anything you can do to help me?"

"There will be no ending," the death watcher replied.

That, like everything Jerry said, could be taken in quite a few different ways. Jen decided not to press the issue. She needed to find Terry and Bernice.

"Ah, great timing, Jane!"

At the familiar incorrect name, Jen turned to see Sir Terry flying down through the towering tree trunk to land in front of her. "Good morning, sir," she greeted. "I was hoping to speak with Queen Bernice today, if she has any time."

Terry nodded. "She sent me to find you. I was going to check your house and then the human world if I needed to. Glad you've come in."

Jen frowned. She had been coming to see Bernice to discuss Nick and the possibilities for their future. Why would Bernice need to see her? "Is there anything wrong?"

"Not wrong. But that birdie finally made himself useful. Bernice wants to tell you herself," Terry explained.

Jerry took off from Jen's shoulder, and the three of them hurried up to the royal quarters where Jen formerly resided.

"That was quick," Bernice noted, seeing Terry bring Jennifer in.

"She came by to see you. Found her with Jerry in the entrance hall," Terry explained.

"Jennifer, did Jerry say anything to you?" Bernice asked.

Jen knew the importance of the death watcher, and though Jerry spoke to her quite often, she'd never been asked to relay messages before. She usually just shared the ones she thought were important. Though this one probably was important. It felt important. "He said, 'There will be no ending,'" she said.

Bernice nodded. "I know he doesn't often make sense, but I think I can parse that one. He came flying in here yesterday and pecking and squawking until I followed him."

To Jen's recollection, Jerry had never behaved like that before. But he was an unpredictable thing.

"He led me to the Hall of Royals," Bernice continued.

Jen's eyes widened at that. She knew of the Hall of Royals, of course, but had never been there herself. It was one of the most magical places in all the fairy realm. It housed portraits of all the former kings and queens of the fairies, created by magic. Most fairies, when they died, were placed in a sunflower to be returned to the realm. When a king or queen died, their body would be brought to the Hall of Royals by the next king or queen, and their magic would return to the palace and the portrait would appear in the wall. No one but the royals could enter that room.

Bernice went on, "I'm not sure if you know, Jennifer, but along with the portraits is a history of the realm. A queen of the fairies isn't much good if she doesn't know everything about our history. And it was to the history that Jerry led me, pecking at me as I turned pages. Eventually I got to where he wanted me to look, and I'm glad he did. I actually remember this particular bit of history, but I didn't think of it during all of this."

"What was it?" Jen asked.

A strange little smile appeared on her lips. "When I was young, younger even than when I had Josh, something rather strange happened in the realm. One of our warriors was on patrol in the human world and found a woman there. They talked, they agreed to meet in the woods again, they continued to meet in secret. And they fell in love. She was a human, he was a fairy. He wanted to be with her, and he asked permission from the king, my predecessor, to join the human world. And he was allowed so long as he never revealed our secrets and never used his magic or revealed his wings. I remember being in court and seeing it happen. I thought no fairy would ever agree to that, to deny our very nature and existence. But the fairy agreed. He shed everything that made him a fairy and posed as a human so he could be with that woman he loved so very much."

"I had no idea," Jen breathed in awe. So it wasn't impossible. It wasn't unprecedented. If she gave up everything in the realm, she could be with Nick. But if anything, this knowledge made Jen feel even worse. Could she do that? For Nick, for the life they might have together? Jen agreed with Bernice, that it was impossible to deny her own nature, her own magic, her own existence. And besides, Nick already knew she was a fairy. He already knew all about them. She couldn't hide from him.

"You know, I never really thought much about that. Richard was the fairy. Terry knew him, didn't you?" Bernice asked, turning to her beloved consort.

Terry nodded. "Good bloke. Sort of quiet, but clever and strong. Never would've pegged him for the type to go all moony over some woman."

"Most people would say the same about you, Terry," Bernice pointed out, eyes shining.

He smiled affectionately at her. "Yeah, well, guess none of us are immune to falling in love."

Bernice turned back to Jennifer. "The reason I tell you about Richard is that the history that Jerry pointed me to had more information than I knew about that story. Despite him living as a human, he was still a fairy and his magic was still tied to the realm and to the history. It seems that he and his human, Nancy, had a wonderful life together. They got married and had a child very shortly thereafter. And a number of years after that, they had two more children. But because Richard lived as a human, he could not care for himself as a fairy needs to. He grew quite ill and didn't have enough magic or ability to get to the realm in order to heal himself. He died about fifteen years after leaving the realm to be with Nancy."

Something niggled at the back of Jen's mind. Something about this sounded very familiar. Something else was going on. Something that would put all this into perspective.

"That first child was a boy and the younger ones were girls. Richard and Nancy named their son Nick."

The penny dropped and Jen felt her heart drop into her stomach. "Nick?" she breathed. "M-my Nick?"

"That's why Jerry found him. That's why he's been so in tune with you and with everything else. That's why he's so sensitive to the magic you've given him every time you kissed and whatever else. His father was a fairy. Magical blood runs in his veins."

"That's why he has a tattoo of the palace tree on his body," Jen realized. "He got it in honor of his father, and he said he drew it himself, but his father might have drawn it for Nick when he was little."

"He's one of ours," Terry said, confirming Nick's true identity.

From his perch on the back of a chair, Jerry added, "Brought to light." There was a very satisfied tone to him with that.

Jennifer just sat there, dumbfounded. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know what this meant. But it did seem to indicate meaning in Jerry's earlier words. For Jen and Nick, perhaps there would be no ending.