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EPILOGUE (Part One)

He walked back from the fields surrounded by his friends. Gradually, the crowd of Jafari men dispersed, each to their own home-tree. His was still the last home in the village, so he finished the walk by himself, stomping through the leaves that were just beginning to fall.

He smiled when he saw Hoshi standing over the outside cook-fire, a dark-haired toddler wrapped in her skirts. Looking up, she smiled and waved, pushing impatiently at the hair the autumn breeze was twisting into her face.  He walked faster, coming to her side and giving her a heartfelt kiss.

"Hey, darlin'. And howdy to you, too." Leaning down, Trip grabbed the little boy and tossed him in the air. The boy screeched in utter glee.

Mila shot out of their home-tree. "Trip! Please do not do that! You know it frightens me," she scolded.

Trip looked sheepish and handed her the toddler. "Sorry, Mila. I forgot—the kid loves it." He smiled disarmingly.

With Volus back in her arms, she was willing to forgive. She smiled at him. "Tiron will be waiting for us."  She touched Hoshi's shoulder. "Goodnight, Hoshi." To Trip's surprise they exchanged a tearful hug. Next, Mila turned and threw her free arm around Trip's neck.

"G'night," he said, patting her awkwardly. He watched her leave and turned back to Hoshi. "Y'know, I don't think I'm ever gonna get used to that huggin' thing."

"Mmm," Hoshi said, continuing to stir the food. Trip dropped down on a tree root, watching her. She was wearing the rose-colored dress, his favorite, leaning over the fire again. From where he sat, he could see where the open collar on the dress exposed an enchanting amount of her throat and chest. This distracted him for a while, but he gradually became aware of the silence stretching out.

That worried him. It had taken a long time for both of them to recover from what happened to Malcolm, but Hoshi especially had struggled with guilt and sorrow. As the months passed, she came around slowly, settling back into their old life. They were happy again.

Except for the past few days. Hoshi seemed distracted. He had found her crying the day before, and she nearly took his head off when he asked her about it. Sighing, Trip decided to just wait her out. She would come to him eventually.

As if she could read his mind, her head came up and she smiled at him warmly. She walked over and sat down, leaning against him. Feeling a little more confident, he gave it a shot. "So, what were you and Mila talkin' about?"

She wrapped her arms around her middle and smiled enigmatically at him from under her lashes. For no reason he could put his finger on, he suddenly felt very nervous. "What?! Hosh, you're bein' a little spooky."

"I love you, Trip." She giggled. A very scary giggle, in his opinion.

"Hosh…" he started. She took his hand and splayed the fingers across her abdomen. His eyes got huge, and he beamed.

"You're kiddin' me."

She glanced down, suddenly nervous, then met his eyes. "No."

"Aw, Hosh…I'm just…well, that's amazin'." He snatched her against him, squashing her face into his shoulder. She squeaked and said something against his shirt.

"Ish nosh sho…"

"What?" He released her enough to allow her to breathe. She smiled up at him, cheeks pink with excitement and hair blowing in wisps against both of their faces. "I said, it's not that amazing, considering how we spend most of our time."

Trip's jubilant expression changed to a leer. "Ya know, we gotta celebrate." His hands drifted from her across her back, down to her rump. "Whadda ya say we take tomorrow off?"

Hoshi grinned. "You talk too much," she told him. And proceeded to show him more interesting things to do with his mouth.