Chapter Two

A/N: I decided to carry this on. It will have a limited number of chapters, and will consist of the memories and thoughts of the people who hold Kel and Neal in their hearts as they stand at their grave. (This chapter explains the whole Kel Neal thing.) As always, read and review…

We stood at their grave, mourning their loss. Her glaive lay across it, there was nothing to signify him. I drop to my knees, my hand opening, letting a small red velvet box fall onto the freshly turned dirt.

"They got it wrong," I whispered. "That should be me, I was her lover…"

Yuki gingerly knelt beside me, a hand on her swollen belly. Wrapping me up in her arms, I rested my head on her shoulder.

"Dom," she told me, "Words cannot describe their relationship. They did love each other, but not the same way they loved us. They were the perfect platonic relationship, he got her through her page years and kept her from becoming too cold, she kept him relatively sane and well nourished. They were like twins, both totally aware of the others emotions and presence. No-one other than them truly understood their relationship. I was almost jealous at first, but then I saw how much she loved you, and how her love for Neal paled in comparison.''

"But she fought the healers, why would she do that? Wyldon told us that she seemed to have lost the will to live." I sobbed.

"I knew her when she was very young Dom, and she used to fight the healers then. Once she grew older, she stopped fighting them, she learned they were helping her. But she was terribly wounded, and had just watched her best friend, and brother die. In her mind, I don't think she knew that she wasn't fighting Scanrans anymore. She went out the way she would have wanted to go."

I lifted my head off her shoulder and looked at her through teary eyes. She looked tired, and drawn out. A single tear was sliding down her pale cheek.

"Yuki," I said. "Neal loved you more than he could say, his poetry even improved when he was waxing lyrical about you. He wouldn't have left you willingly." I noticed her shivering. "Come on," I told her, "Lets get you back in the warm. We can't have you catching a chill, not in your condition." I stood, and helped her to her feet. Reaching into her obi, she removed a pair of fans. Handing them to me, she said, "Could you please leave these here?"

Bending down, I place the matching fans into the dirt, either side of the stone that will remember their names.

"Yuki," I ask, "What do you plan to do now?"

She sighed. "I thought I may return to the Isles, raise the child there."

Taking her hand, I led her back to the horses. "I wouldn't want that. Your child is the only heir to Queenscove now that Neal is gone, and Uncle will want to spend as much time as possible with his only grandchild. Your friends here will help you raise him."

As I helped her into the saddle, her brown eyes met my sapphire ones. "Those aren't the only reasons you wouldn't want me to leave are they?" she asked.

Swinging myself onto my horse's back, I caught her gaze again. "No, they aren't. I feel I'm going to need you in the months ahead, and I know you aren't going to admit it, but you will need me too. I want to help raise my second cousin, and I want you to know that I will always be there for you if you need any help at all."

She gave a small smile. "Thank you Dom, I think I will stay now, if only so you can educate my child on what their father was like when he was younger."

I smiled in return, and as the moon rose, we rode slowly back to the fort.