*****

EPILOGUE - BIRTH

'I think I'll take a moment, celebrate my age ... The ending of an era and the turning of a page ... Now it's time to focus in on where I go from here ... Lord have mercy on my next thirty years ... Hey my next thirty years I'm gonna have some fun ... Try to forget about all the crazy things I've done ... Maybe now I've conquered all my adolescent fears ... And I'll do it better in my next thirty years ... My next thirty years I'm gonna settle all the scores ... Cry a little less, laugh a little more ... Find a world of happiness without the hate and fear ... Figure out just what I'm doing here ... In my next thirty years ... Oh my next thirty years, I'm gonna watch my weight ... Eat a few more salads and not stay up so late ... Drink a little lemonade and not so many beers ... Maybe I'll remember my next thirty years ... My next thirty years will be the best years of my life ... Raise a little family and hang out with my wife ... Spend precious moments with the ones that I hold dear ... Make up for lost time here ... In my next thirty years ... (Tim McGraw: 'My Next Thirty Years')'

Midgar. Afternoon.

"Push, honey. Just one more."

She grit her teeth as she pushed, the pain searing through her as their child finally slid its way into the world. Sweat glistened on her forehead and her hair was drenched.

"It's a boy!" The doctor announced as the baby let out its first triumphant cry of life and was placed on his mother's stomach.

She smiled a tired smile that spoke of sheer exhaustion, "I told you it was a boy."

"I never doubted you, sunshine." He kissed her softly and brushed her sweat-drenched hair away from her face. Looking at his son for the first time, fresh from the womb, he announced, "He's beautiful."

She was too tired to respond, but just held his hand in her own as the last physical bond between mother and child was cut and he was taken to be bathed, weighed, and measured.

The nurse walked over to them, beaming happily as she placed the freshly bathed newborn in her arms. "Congratulations! He's a healthy 7 pounds 8 ounces!"

He gazed down into the innocent blue eyes of his son as he sat down on the edge of the bed. She smiled at them both as she touched her son for the first time. "He looks like his daddy."

He half smiled, half smirked in response. "Poor kid."

She laughed at him and brushed her finger against the soft skin of her son's cheek. Without pausing, she spoke the name they'd chosen for their son. "Nicholas Lockheart Reno."

*****

He sat next to his wife, his legs dangling next to hers over the side of the makeshift stage. Elena's idea to have a street party celebrating the completion of the first of many new buildings in the old Sector Seven had been a success, and they had taken a few minutes to rest from the dancing and games of the festivities. He placed the cigarette in his mouth and fumbled in his pocket for his lighter. Before he could light it he felt her tug the cigarette away.

"Hey!" He exclaimed, trying to get it back from her. "I told you I'd quit when we had a family."

She simply smiled back at him and broke the cigarette into two. "Exactly."

He quit smoking that very night.

He smiled. He remembered clearly the night she'd told him, and looked down at the child he cradled in his arms as his wife got much needed rest in the bed. The others had come to visit, bearing gifts for the baby, and had gone again, ushered out by a stern looking nurse as she announced that visiting hours had ended.

"I never thought I'd see this day," He spoke in a faint whisper, half to himself, half to the child that slept, safely cradled, in his arms. "I don't deserve any of this. I'm just an orphan, a former Soldier, a former Turk. The things I've seen, the things I've done." He shuddered involuntarily remembering. "I'll teach you everything you need to know, but I only hope that you don't walk the road I did." A tear slipped from his eye, over the crescent scar, and down his cheek. He was grateful for both the darkened room and for the sleeping audience.

"But if you do, I'll still love you, and I'll hope that you find what I did. A second chance." He sighed and looked out the window, gazing into the starlit night. "I've got you, your mom, and somewhere, when we find her, your sister."

His fingers lightly touched his son's smooth cheek as the infant slept blissfully through his father's entire talk.

"I'm not going to blow the rest of my life. For you, for your mom, for your sister, I promise."

- FINIS -

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks to all of you for reading, reviewing, commenting, and bearing with me!! It's because of you that this went from the planned ten or so chapters to being the first in a three-part trilogy. I'm 95% happy with this story, but I'm not going back into it again to revise it. I'm done with it and moving on to other projects. Yes, really, I am.

Now go read "Madness Reborn", Ms. C's first story! (http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=811424) :)