Epilogue
Mimi Tachikawa sat on the floor of her apartment and held up a stuffed animal to be inspected by the ten-month old baby girl.
" Oooo. Oooo." She responded lifting her chubby arms to try to grab it.
Mimi laughed, picked her up and handed the child the little stuffed toy. " That's right, it's the neatest thing in the whole world."
The door of the apartment opened and Matt Ishida walked in a big grin on his face. " How are two of my girls?"
" We're good." Mimi struggled a little as the baby grabbed her earring.
" Hey, she has good taste." Matt laughed.
" Honey, if you aren't going to be helpful; don't speak." Mimi teased as she disentangled herself. " So what's in bag?"
Matt pulled out a child's dress.
" Awe, it's so cute. But where is she gonna where it?" Mimi questioned.
" I figure we could bring her along to one of the social things." Matt answered, setting the dress down and taking the child from Mimi.
" Ta-Ta" She squealed, placing her hands against Matt's face.
Mimi frowned, " You know she won't let us; it's too risky. Although," Mimi got a pensive look while examining the pair, " we could say she's yours."
Matt made a face, "Mims, your parents hate me enough as is, let's not give them any more fuel please."
Mimi rolled her eyes, " Yeah, well I suppose her eyes are a bit darker than yours."
The door opened again and Yolei walked in with a big smile. " There's my girl!"
The baby started squirming immediately trying to get to Yolei.
Yolei took her from Matt, " How's Momma's girl? How is my Cammy?"
Mimi piped up, " She was so good today. Took her nap and everything."
Yolei looked astounded, " You took your nap? Who are you and what have you done with my little girl." Yolei dipped the baby upside-down, drawing a giggle from her.
***
The four were sitting in the living room chatting. Yolei looked up and admitted, "I finally called Mantarou."
Matt smiled, " That's good. Are you going to see him?"
Yolei looked nervous, " Yeah, day after tomorrow. He seemed to want see me."
" Yolei, you ran away almost four years ago, of course he wants to see you." Mimi assured her.
" I just don't know what I'm gonna say to him." Yolei resettled Cammy on her lap. " He's gonna want to talk to my parents."
" Would that be so bad?" Matt questioned.
" I don't know; maybe not." Yolei fidgeted. " It's been so long. How is TK?"
" He gets to come home for a few days next week." Matt recounted. " It's a slow processes. Oh yeah that group thing that Mims and I do with him is gonna be Tuesday."
Yolei nodded, than laughed. " So that's the night I get to run around the apartment naked."
Mimi started giggling, " As long as you are fully clothed by the time we get home at nine. You'd be too much of a distraction to my lover there."
Matt snorted, " Yuck, she's my little sister."
Yolei couldn't help but grin at Matt's reaction. " So nice that I'm loved." A knock at the door sounded in the apartment. " I'll get it, it's probably some traveling salesman."
" I hope not with the rent we're paying." Mimi complained.
Yolei shook her head and answered the door, " Can I…" Yolei stopped mid-sentence her brain froze in place she couldn't manage to finish her thought. Instinctively she drew Cammy closer to her chest.
" Dat? Dat?" Cammy pointed at the man standing in the doorway.
Yolei never took her eyes off of Ken, who stood in the doorway looking completely defeated. Davis and Cody had been patrolling the digital world, and said that they had lost all trace of him, a few months after she'd been rescued. They said it was like he just left.
Ken was staring at the sight in front of him in disbelief. Yolei's beautiful face hadn't changed, but it wasn't her he was staring at. The baby squirming in her arms was what held his attention. The little hair on top of her head was lavender colored, but her eyes were dark blue; they mirrored his.
When Matt had heard nothing, he assumed there was something wrong. He rounded the corner and clenched his fists. " What are you doing here?" Matt demanded.
Ken stiffened, he knew he didn't stand a chance against the older man and chose not to respond.
Matt placed his hand on Yolei's shoulder protectively.
Ken hadn't missed the motion and figured that Yolei must have needed someone to help her raise the little one.
Matt's voice was completely unforgiving, " Get off of my property."
Ken turned to go, but a voice stopped him.
" Wait." Yolei's voice wavered. " I want to talk to him." Yolei looked up at Matt pleadingly.
Matt grunted and took Cammy in his arms. " You have five minutes starting now." He disappeared into the apartment.
Yolei pulled the door closed behind her and the pair of old lovers stood silent in the hallway.
" Why didn't you tell me?" Ken quietly inquired.
Yolei felt tears burn her eyes, " I wasn't sure before I got rescued, than I didn't dare come near you."
There were tears in his eyes, " You could have told me."
Yolei shook her head, " No because I would have come back."
" Would that have been so bad?"
" My baby deserved more than pretty cage." Yolei sniffed.
" I want to talk to you." Ken admitted.
" What do you call this?"
" You're trying to try up loose ends. I want to really talk to you." Ken moved to touch her face, but she pulled away.
" No." Yolei bit her lip, than quickly before she could change her mind. " Come back Tuesday at seven. I'll give you an hour." Before anything more could be said Yolei fled back into the apartment, slamming the door behind her.
***
Yolei was bouncing Cammy on her leg, as she impatiently waited to see her older brother.
Mantarou Inoue walked into the park and instantly saw his baby sister. She would be nineteen now, and he didn't fail to notice the baby on her lap. " Lees?" He questioned behind her.
Yolei looked up and offered a teary smile and smile to her older brother, who nearly crushed the life out of her. Cammy whimpered nervously at the new person, who was too close to her.
Mantarou pulled away and looked at the pair. " So, how are you?" He questioned.
Yolei shifted the still squirming Cammy, " I'm okay. How are you? Sit. Sit." She offered him a place on the bench. " This is Cammy."
" I'm okay. I've got a little one about this age now. Hi Cammy." He touched Cammy little cheek.
Cammy threw herself against Yolei's shoulder, and Yolei grunted in surprise. "I wish you wouldn't do that. How are double-trouble?" Yolei questioned about her sisters.
" One married; one engaged." He responded. " And you are?"
" Single." Yolei winced as her brother frowned.
" Who is he? I'll kill him."
Yolei touched her brother's arm. " I have several people willing to do that, and I don't want any of you to."
" Yeah, but…"
" No. This was of my own accord; my choice." Yolei defended.
" Why did you leave?" His eyes threatened to spill fresh tears.
Yolei shrugged her shoulders, " I don't know it was too hard. After Kari died and TK turned up missing, I just couldn't take the perfect family life. I felt like it was my fault, and I couldn't stand to be happy, when I knew the others were suffering." Yolei let the tears flow down her face.
" You could have come home." A familiar voice told her.
Yolei spun around to see her parents and sisters standing there. She was frozen in place, unsure of how to respond.
" Oh Sweetie, we missed you." Her mother threw her arms around Yolei's neck hugging her.
Yolei hugged her back; she hadn't realized how much she'd missed her family.
***
Yolei unlocked the apartment door as she struggled with the sleeping baby in her arms. She entered the house and found that her two roommates were wide-awake. She nodded as she walked past them and put Cammy in her crib before coming back out into the living room. She collapsed on the couch in a heap.
Matt looked over at her, " How did it go."
" He tricked me." Yolei smiled, " My whole family was there."
" So it went well?" Mimi asked.
Yolei nodded her head slowly, " Yeah it did. I'm really glad I got to talk to them. I'll probably be moving some of my old stuff in here, since my mom and I are going to sort through my old room."
" How'd they feel about Cammy?" Matt dared to mention.
" They took it rather well, although my brother wants to kill the guy."
" He'll have to take a number." Matt growled.
Mimi swatted him in the stomach, " Knock it off. What's in the envelope?"
" Pictures." Yolei whispered. " I had a camera…at the last…um…picnic before Kari died. I never got the film developed, cause I never finished the roll. My mom took pictures of my brother's baby boy and a few from my one sister's wedding." Yolei felt the tears running down her face again, but quickly wiped them away.
The three sat laughing and reminiscing about the old days, as the pictures inspired one story or another. A picture of Kari sitting next TK; bright smiles on both of their faces, brought a sobering reminder of what could have been.
" I always thought those two would get together." Mimi admitted.
" Every one did." Matt shook his head sadly. " Maybe one day we'll hang this one; once TK can handle it."
Yolei held up a picture of Tai holding Kari upside down as result of Kari tickling him. " I think I want to give this to him, but I don't want to hurt him."
Matt gave her hand a squeeze, " He'll love it; don't worry."
Mimi snickered, " Now this is one for the books." She dangled a picture of Matt and Sora kissing. " I think I'll send this one to Tai in the mail."
Matt grunted, " My lover is a bitch."
Mimi flopped against him. " No, no dear. I'm a princess every day, whether you want to be or not."
" That's the truth." Matt rolled his eyes.
" I kinda like this one." Yolei held up a picture of Mimi sprawled across Joe, Izzy and Tai's laps.
Mimi made a face, " That is a terrible picture! I was having the worst hair day." She pinched Matt's nose, " And no comments from the guy who takes longer to do his hair than I do."
Matt argued, " No, we're about even now."
Mimi walked over to the bookshelf and retrieved one of her scrapbooks.
Yolei grimmest, " No. That's the one where I'm fat in all the pictures."
" Not fat, expecting." Mimi countered. " And I'm looking for a picture of Tai and Sora anyway."
***
Yolei finished tiding up and house and changed her clothes. It took her forever to find something that fit, that didn't look awful. She was a mommy and she dressed like it.
Her eyes rested on the pictures that Mimi had framed on table. One of Tai and Sora on their wedding day and there were pictures of the other couples as well. The picture of Taylor and Joe included her little boy, Justice, and had been taken at Taylor's apartment last month.
The picture of Izzy and Lexi was a professionally taken engagement picture. There was a picture of Yolei and Cammy, from the day she was born. A picture of Davis holding a sign that read, " Losers get wasted; professionals get trashed," of course the irony was that the medallion around his neck symbolized the fact he'd been sober for six months.
There was a picture of Cody and his girlfriend, Solitaire, a gothic chick that still frightened Yolei at times, but she all and all she was pretty sweet. The picture of Matt and Mimi was priceless; TK had taken it the first night he'd been back. It looked so much like a picture Kari would have taken; everyone had jumped when they looked at it. The knock at the door startled her out of her memories. Instinctively she looked at the clock, it was seven exactly.
She opened the door and let Ken inside. He glanced around the apartment, as if looking for someone.
" They aren't here." Yolei assured him. " But they'll be back in a couple hours."
He didn't speak just walked over to the pictures on the table; he lifted the one of her and Cammy and stared at it. " I wish I could been there."
" No you don't; trust me."
" Yes, I do. I would've liked to have seen my baby be born." He argued quietly tracing the glass with his fingers. " And been there for her mother."
Yolei looked away for moment; she couldn't afford to lose control now. " Matt helped me through it. He's been good Daddy to her, and Mimi's been a good second Mom."
" What's her name? Her full name I mean." Ken looked as if he were struggling with some thought he didn't even understand.
" Samantha Camille Inoue" Yolei answered.
Ken could feel the tears filling in his eyes. " Can I see her?"
Yolei nodded, " Yeah, but don't wake her up." She led them down the hallway, and into the nursery.
Cammy was standing up in her crib pulling against the bars. She saw Yolei and put up her arms, whining to be held.
Yolei shook her head, " So much for that idea. She always has been a night owl." Yolei picked her up and walked over to Ken. " Cammy, this is your Father."
Cammy blinked at the new person, unsure of what she thought, but when her eyes caught sight of his silver cross all doubts were erased. She squirmed in her mother's arms and reached out to the new person.
Yolei shot Ken a questioning look, " Do you want to hold her?"
Ken nodded, but looked very nervous as the baby was transported to his arms. Cammy pulled as his cross and tried to put it in her mouth.
" No." Yolei spoke, drawing Cammy's attention for a moment.
Cammy dropped the cross with a pout, but quickly found his hair just as interesting.
Yolei couldn't help but smile at the pair; she'd been dreaming of this since Cammy had been born.
" Why Camille?" Ken inquired, " I'm assuming I know why you chose Samantha."
" Yes, I did name her after your brother, I was hoping you might meet her one day. I picked Camille because it was a name Kari had wanted to use when she had kids." Yolei admitted. " Kinda my last present to her."
***
It was five minutes to eight; Cammy was playing on the floor as her parents talked quietly on the couch.
" You need to get ready to go. Matt and Mimi will be home with TK soon and I can't risk all his progress." Yolei bit her lip.
" How is he?" Ken asked.
" He has good days and bad, but he's coming back. I knew he could." Yolei looked away.
Ken touched her face, he felt her tremble as he turned her face so he could see her eyes. " I've missed you so much" His voice shook with emotion.
Yolei pressed her forehead against his for a moment, than kissed his forehead. " I know. You have to leave now." She pleaded.
Ken dropped his head, " Do I have any chance? I want to be a part of her life. I want to be with you." He lifted his head and tears fell from his eyes. " Please, Yolei, I know I've made mistakes, but I've changed so much. Please, I need a second chance and I need your forgiveness."
Yolei started crying, but managed to keep some sense about her. " I forgive you." She took his hands, " And I still love you, but this second chance is going to take time. And our relationship will have to start as if I never knew you."
Ken nodded.
Yolei finally stood up and motioned for him to do the same; she picked up Cammy and walked Ken to the door.
He put on his coat and opened the door. They stood on either sides of the doorway, neither sure of what to do.
Ken kissed Cammy's head and she giggled. " Goodbye my sweet." Then he turned to Yolei and drew an unsteady breath. " I want to kiss you."
Yolei clamped her eyes shut, before she whispered. " You still have to leave."
Ken leaned forward and kissed her softly, trying to ignore how good it felt. He straightened up and walked away without a word.
Yolei walked back into the apartment with Cammy; the tears were flowing down her face. She put Cammy down for night, than climbed in bed and sobbed. "One day my love. One day we'll be together again."
THE END