A/N: Sorry for the late update! I've had such bad writer's block with this story now that it doesn't follow the movie any longer! Well, I hope you like this chapter, thank you all to those who reviewed and please don't forget to review this one! :) I think I'm going to end this story and that the next chapter will be the last. I don't want to keep dragging it on, and honestly I feel that it has finally came to an end.

Words in Bold = Another Language

Italics = Flashbacks

Italics/Bold = Letters, dreams

Trapped in Time

Chapter 20

She couldn't breathe. Her ears were ringing to the point that she couldn't hear anything, but the quick beating of her heart. She was pregnant. It couldn't be possible! Estrella felt sick to her stomach once again and she leaned over the bed and vomited once again, the woman holding her hair back once again. Once she felt like nothing else would come back up, the woman sat up and thanked the older woman for the water and a mint leaf so that she may wash out the remains and foul taste from her mouth. The woman said she would leave her be to process what it was that she had discovered, not that Estrella really paid much attention as her mind had gone blank except for one word repeating over and over again.

Pregnant.

Estrella couldn't believe it, let alone wrap her mind around it, and wondered how one night could have had her pregnant a month later?! Then she frowned as her thoughts went to Godfrey and wondered if he had something to do with her being with child. With a sigh, she lies back down on the makeshift bed and tilted her head to the left, looking down as she placed her hands on her still flat stomach. Ever since she had come to live in that world, era, the woman never once thought to have children, let alone have a family. In reality Estrella thought she would die once the war started or before it ended, all the while protecting Balian.

Pushing the tunic up, Estrella knowing that it belongs to Balian, she touched her skin as though to be closer to the small being growing inside her. She was then startled when a familiar, larger hand, placed itself on top of her right hand, turning her head to stare into the love filled eyes of Balian as he was kneeling at the side of the bed. Her heart stopped, then started again, thudding with the familiar love inside of her and hated herself for feeling it. Estrella started to wonder if it was the hormones that the little creature inside of her that was making her be so emotional, or perhaps she was just so tired of running.

"Would you have left if you knew you were with child?" he quietly asked, reaching with his other hand to brush her hair form her still pale face.

"I do not know, and perhaps we will never know." she tells him truthfully. "Balian," she started, but he stopped her, shaking his head.

"No, why did you do it? Why are you running from something that is inevitable?" he asked with the obvious pain and confusion in his voice. "Because you cannot deny that you are in love with me as I am with you. I can see it in your eyes, even now, and I still cannot fathom why you wish to continue to run?"

Estrella shakes her head, her vision becoming blurry due to the tears. "Because I do not belong in this era, nor do you deserve someone like me but rather a woman who acts like a lady of this time!"

"First, you are more of a woman than any lady that we had met in our journey." Balian tells her seriously, "And what do you mean that you do not belong in this…era?"

At Balian's confusion, Estrella begins to tell him of her story and how she had come to live in that world. What she did not tell him, however, was that his story was basically a fairy tale–though not the actual events, just merely his story. She explained how she would rather have him, and the others, believe that she had the foresight that has now been lost after killing her twin then think her to be mad who is from the future. Balian did not say a word throughout her tale, a frown gracing his handsome tanned face while his brown eyes did not leave her green ones. The woman now wondered if she was in the right of telling him the truth, he might now think her to be crazy and take her child from her once he or she is born.

"I must say," Balian finally starts, Estrella waiting on baited breath. "It now makes perfect sense in how you knew so much of medicine and how strange you both spoke and acted when we had met."

Estrella exhaled the breath she didn't know she was holding, chuckling quietly. "Yes, I was still trying to get used to act and speak properly."

Balian shakes his head with a smile, moving so that he was lying next to her, his right hand returning back to her exposed stomach as his left arm moved underneath her head. "I love you this way. Just the way you are is the reason why I had fallen in love with you." he leaned down to kiss her slowly, "And why you are now having my child."

Estrella closed her eyes tightly before reopening them to stare at the confident eyes of the man she loves. "Balian…" she started, not really knowing what to say.

"We will get through this together, I promise." he leans down, kissing her slowly, lingering on her lips. "However, just know if you decide to run again, I will come after you." he kisses her once again, "And I will never stop looking."

Estrella sighs, shifting so that she was on her side, Balian's hand sliding from her stomach to rest comfortably around her waist. "Perhaps I should stop running then. Not that I'll be able to get far in a few months' time since I am carrying your child." she then brought up her left hand to cup his cheek. "I am sorry."

"You are here, that is all that matters." he mutters as he leans down and kissed her softly at first, then hungrily before pulling back a second later. "I also have something to give back to you." he reached into his pocket and held the beautiful flower ring with the sapphire diamond in the middle. "This belongs to you, not only due to my father giving it to you as a promise to protect me, but due to my rightful heir to give to my wife."

Estrella tried to swallow the lump in her throat as tears prickled at the corner of her eyes. "Balian, I…"

"I want you to be my wife in the eyes of the church now that we are husband and wife before the eyes of God and about to have a child together." Balian grins down at her, "If you continue to deny me, I will simply continue to follow you all the way to the end of the Earth."

Estrella exhales a shuddered breath, giving him a small smile. "I guess I have no choice then, do I?"

"No, you do not." Balian tells her truthfully, chuckling quietly as he pushed the ring into her ring finger on her right hand. "Once we return to Jerusalem, we will have Hospitaler wed us, then return home to Ibelin."

Estrella sighs quietly, smiling as she brought up her hand holding the ring to his cheek. "I would love nothing more, my love. I am just sorry that I had ran away like I did."

Balian leans down and kisses her softly. "I am not, for it finally made you think of my love and of my wanting to be with you." he shakes his head, kissing her forehead. "Forever I had believed that I would never find love with another woman after the death of my wife and child. Now I will thank God each day for having brought you to me and healing my heart enough to find love and start the family that I so wished to have once again."

"If you wish, as we are not that far from your old village, we can visit the graves of your wife and child. Perhaps even visit your old workshop?" Estrella asks him softly, hoping she didn't cross the line with his past.

Balian smiles, but frowns as he thinks it over. "I had thought to return to France, to stay there as it is where I have grown up and lived. Now, however, I wish to return back to Ibelin with you, to live our life, to watch our children grow."

Estrella raises an eyebrow at him in amusement. "Children? And how many do you want exactly, because if you believe that I am going to deliver all of them, you have another thing coming."

Balian smirks, leaning down to kiss her, whispering against her lips. "At least one or two more, my love." the young woman hums against him, moving closer to his warmth. "Sleep, you are still weak and need to rest. Once you are well enough, perhaps we will visit the graves of my wife and child, perhaps even the blacksmith building, before returning back to Ibelin."

"Sounds like a plan." she whispered, already feeling herself falling asleep once again, this time feeling protected and safe with Balian's arms surrounding her. "I also want a puppy. I never had a puppy before."

Balian chuckles as she trails off, falling asleep once again. "When we return to Ibelin, I will give you a puppy." he whispered, placing his head on top of her head, holding the woman he loved–his wife–close to him physically and close to his heart.

D5D5D5D5D5

A week and a half later, Balian and Estrella looked around the burnt ruin of his once blacksmith building. Smiling, Estrella walks to the edge of the building, looking up at the Latin phrase that was carved into the blacken beam, a miracle that it even survived the fire. She then looked at the now blooming orchard that was behind and down the hill of the building, seeing just how lovely that city truly was, despite being so close to the mountains and the cold, harsh, winters that it brought. She wrapped her arms around her still flat stomach protectively, letting the warm wind of the spring season flow through her from the bottom of the hill and up at her.

They had said goodbye to the family that were generous enough to use some of their limited supplies for a feverish woman that they did not know. Of course, Balian being the person he is, had given them some of his own supplies to counter what they had used o Estrella. They were going to replenish it when they got to Balian's old village, and there were plenty of villages on the way, so they weren't worried of running out of anything, while the family was making their way to Paris.

Balian had also offered asylum at their home, should they ever need it, for the family of five were obvious gypsies. It only made Estrella fall in love with the man even more, and had promised the family as well that the guards and the townspeople to keep an eye out for them, to make sure that they will have safe passage to their home. The family–mostly the parents–were both grateful and surprised by their kindness and their humbleness and promise of a possible visit before going their separate ways.

"What a man is a man who does not make the world better?" Estrella recited the Latin phrase when she felt Balian coming up behind her.

Balian chuckles, wrapping his arms on top of hers. "Are you ready to go home, my love?"

Estrella smiles softly, leaning back against the strong body that was hers. "I am home. You are my home."

Balian smiles and kissed the side of her head before dropping his arms from around her and wrapping one arm around her shoulders, steering her away from the view. The couple walked through the ruin and to their waiting horses, wanting to get back to Ibelin and make sure that all was well. Once more, Estrella's thoughts went to the family of gypsies and prayed that their journey was a safe one, as well as wondering why the name of the youngest girl, Esmeralda, sounded so familiar and her purple skirt and white tunic with the teal corset. Estrella always did thought it to be cruel for even young girls to wear such corsets, but it was the fashion at the time, what can she do about now?

Shaking her head, Estrella gets on Elligero and looks over to Balian, whom brought his horse closer to her. "Let us go home."

"Rather than the slow ride we were on the way here, I think it's safe to go into a gallop." Estrella asked, giving him a look.

"Just trying to be careful, love." Balian tells her, smiling softly. "I don't want anything to happen to you or our child."

Estrella smiles, "I'm sure we both will be fine, I road Elligero before I was pregnant, and nothing was the matter. Come, I'm eager to get home and see how your lands are doing."

"Our lands, love. Ours."

With that said, they both started to ride south once again, slowing down only when they came to the pass of the grave belonging to Balian's late wife and child. Estrella, whom had bought some wild flowers, threw them down gently onto the graves, Balian grateful for her doing so, before continuing on. All Estrella could think about was the fact that she was truly looking for her future and was grateful for God or whoever it was that brought her to this world, this era, and find, not only a place where she felt like she belonged, but love and a soon to be family. Yes, she couldn't wait to get home to familiar lands and familiar faces, and finally sleep on a real bed.