Sunset
Jaime and Steve Austin sat contentedly together on the front porch of their cottage by the lake. They loved it there so much that twenty years ago they'd decided to make it their permanent home. Today was their Golden Anniversary - fifty years of marriage - and although they were now 78 and 82, they'd had the good fortune to remain robust and healthy throughout their lives.
The previous day, their family had thrown a combination Golden Anniversary party for them and a Welcome to the World party for someone very special: their first great-grandchild, Angel. Their entire family had been there: all four of their children, thirteen grandchildren, and the baby. Jaime's eyes had misted over as she held the tiny new person in her arms and cooed softly, as she had so many years ago with her own babies. She was awestruck by the perfection of the miniature fingers, toes and face. When she handed the baby to Steve (who'd been patiently awaiting his turn), she continued cooing, grinning and making baby talk until Steve handed the baby to her mother for a nap. Steve smiled at his wife. "We could always try for another one..." he suggested, only half-kidding.
"At our age, wouldn't happen," Jaime laughed. "But it would sure be fun working on it!"
Now, as they sat watching the sun set over 'their' lake, they reflected on the party, and how good it had been to have everyone together again, and for two such joyful occasions.
"Ever think we'd live long enough to see our first great-grandchild?" Jaime mused.
"Well, Rudy always said we would. He was a great man, wasn't he? An absolute genius; I still miss him." The elderly doctor had lived to be 91, and had researched and worked right up until the week before he died.
"Who'd have thought there'd be a new Doctor Wells to carry on his work?" Jaime marveled at the thought. "And Cynthia is just as brilliant as her grandpa was. Between him and Oscar, I think there was a race going on to see who could work harder in their old age." Oscar had 'only' made it to 79, the stress of the job taking him directly from his desk one late evening.
The bionic program, itself, had ended with Steve and Jaime. Steve had only experienced mild difficulties, but her bionics had nearly killed Jaime when her body rejected them. It had been decided to gather all the research information they could from the two who were already in the program, and maybe sometime, far in the future, more lives could be saved when technology became more advanced.
"Jaime, you used to say you wished I'd let you die when you had your accident, that you never should've been made bionic -"
"I was wrong," she told him, "and I'm so sorry for heaping that kind of guilt on you. I'd have missed out on so much..."
"We'd have missed out," Steve said, kissing her tenderly. "You know, I like doing that now as much as I did before we were married." He kissed her again, with every bit of love and passion that had grown between them in fifty years.
"Still remember that far back, Old-Timer?" Jaime teased.
"Well, I do remember when my hair used to be brown." Jaime's eyes widened in mock surprise. "You got off lucky there, Sweetheart," Steve told her. Jaime's hair had remained the color of spun gold in sunshine all of her life.
She wrapped her arms around Steve's still broad, muscular shoulders. "I was lucky all around. I love you, six million times over."
"And I love you, too," Steve said, smiling at the woman in his arms, the sunset and life in general, "six million times more."
END