Hannah was pulling at her mother's hair, trying to gain her attention as she spoke to the couple before her. "You are two of the most honorable people I have ever met and I understand that it is a lot, but I ask that you consider the offer."

"We will discuss it with the family tonight and try to have an answer for you in the morning."

"You may take as much time as you need."

"Thank you," Emma said as she brought her eyes to the small baby in the other woman's arms.

"Kahlan," Richard called out as he and Cara made their way toward them. "They found Nicci."

Horror filled her mind at once, remembering what they had discussed with the wizard. The woman had given him his magic back and she clearly remembered the Seeker saying that she would only do it if she believed he needed it. Their friends walked away as she turned, her emotions easy for them to read. "Where is she?"

Richard smiled, trying to put his wife's mind at ease as she clung to their daughter. "If it's alright, they will bring her body here."

"Her body?"

"She was dead when they found her. They sent word in the journey book that they found her chained and beaten in a small cabin near the boundary."

"She's dead?" she repeated part of his words quietly. "She didn't give your magic back to you?"

"We don't know. It's impossible to tell how long she had been dead, they only know that her body was cold."

"The danger may still be out there."

"We don't know if there is any danger, Kahlan. It's been months without any incident, maybe that's the way it's going to stay."

"That's not my experience."

"I know, but things are already different. Why can't they be for the better?"

"Because too many great things have already happened to us."

Wrapping his arms around her, he touched his forehead against hers and shared her breath. "This is our life now. We're going to keep it this way. We're going to keep our family; our people safe."

"I know. I just wanted to hear it in your voice."

He kissed her briefly and pulled back, smiling. "We should learn more when they arrive with her body."

"When?"

"They're three weeks away, but I've sent a few more Mord'Sith to help and maybe quicken the process. I don't want to go longer than we have to find out what's going on."

"This could be a trap, Richard."

"I know, but it's all we have. If we find a reason for her death, it could explain everything."

Lowering her voice, Kahlan looked down to their daughter, who was now pulling on the tooth that hung around her father's neck. "We don't have to wait for her body. You can talk to her, Richard. You can ask Nicci what happened."

"I don't want to use my magic that way. There are consequences for how I use this and I don't know what it will do to me. I don't want to hurt you again."

"I know."

"We'll find answers, Kahlan. I promise."

Nodding, the Mother Confessor sucked in a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking."

"It's alright."

"Come here," she said quietly, making sure he heard her as he looked away. Bumping her shoulder against his, she grinned. "Hannah needs to be fed." He stared at her blankly, making her smile widen. "She'll be asleep in hour and I will have no choice but to wait in our room, alone and half naked until she awakes." Richard felt his body stiffen, wishing they were alone in their bedroom that moment. Leaning up, she brushed her lips against his cheek and turned away, walking as slowly as possible, knowing his eyes were on her. "I'm still having trouble with my memory, Lord Rahl."

******

"What are you thinking?"

Looking up, Kahlan blinked in confusion. "I'm sorry, I wasn't listening."

"What were you thinking?" Richard asked as he walked over to the bench in the center of the garden.

"Look at her," she said with a hint of a smile, motioning to their daughter, who sat on a thick blanket playing happily with a horse her father had carved for her. "She's been playing with that for over an hour."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"She's never known the kind of evil others have brought upon the world."

Sitting down beside her, the Seeker took her hand. "She will never know Nicci, Kahlan."

Meeting his eyes, she shook her head. "It's not just Nicci. Darken Rahl sits in our dungeons, our council too. The moment she looks up from that toy, she-"

"Is that why you brought her out here? To make sure she didn't see them bringing Nicci's body through the gates?"

"She likes it out here."

Richard chuckled, looking down to Hannah, who banged the wooden horse against the ground. "I told you she was like you."

"I didn't want her to be there when they bring in her body."

"I don't want her to be there either."

The brunette straightened her back. "I thought I was overreacting."

"You're trying to protect our daughter, Kahlan. That's not overreacting." Sitting down on the ground, he flattened his legs to allow his daughter to crawl onto them. "Hi, Hannah! Are you having fun?" She giggled and allowed him to roll her onto her back so she could stare up at him. "I was gone for a few minutes and now you're so big!" Tearing his eyes off of their daughter, he looked to his wife, who watched silently. "Come here, enjoy the little moments with us."

"They're not little," she responded with a smile. "This is one of those moments I want to remember forever."

Hannah squealed as Kahlan moved toward them, her arms thrusting out in her direction in the hopes she would hold her. Sitting down beside him, the Mother Confessor leaned against his shoulder and grinned, both watching the baby crawl onto her lap.

It wasn't long before sleep pulled at Hannah's eyes, silently calling her as she pressed herself between her parents. She felt his eyes on her, almost studying her as she looked up to him. "What's wrong?"

"You should get some rest too," Richard said quietly after a long moment. "You haven't been sleeping very well." She was about to protest and tell him she was alright, but when she opened her mouth, she couldn't. It had been weeks since she had a good night's rest and each day she felt like she was lying to him by pretending she was fine. "Do you want to tell me about them?"

"What?"

"The dreams you've been having that wake you in a panic."

"You've known?"

Nodding, the Seeker looked away from the depths of her eyes and out to the rose bushes before him. "I did." Before she could get her next question out, he answered it through a whisper. "I didn't say anything because I didn't want to push you into talking about it and then some nights I would fool myself into thinking maybe it wasn't anything to worry about, but... Each time you woke up, I could feel your heart racing as you tightened your arms around me and I knew that if I asked you in one of those moments, you'd let go of me."

"They're only dreams."

Looking back to her, he frowned. "Neither one of us believe that. You once dreamt you killed me and you refused to believe that was only a dream." Releasing a heavy sigh, he shifted beside her, pulling their sleeping daughter into his arms. "I know you're dreaming about us, Kahlan. The way you look at me when I wake up and how tightly you're holding Hannah..." His wife remained quiet, her eyes on the blanket beneath her legs as her husband stood. "You don't have to keep this pain, whatever it may be, to yourself."

"They're only dreams," she repeated again, only quieter.

Taking a few steps away, he turned and looked back at her. "I think this must have been how you felt when I couldn't talk to you about my magic."

Coming to her feet, she picked up the blanket and walked past him. "It hurts, doesn't it?"

He watched her leave in confusion, his mind trying to figure out what she had been dreaming, while he silently cursed himself for letting it go on this long. "It's a stabbing pain of fault," he answered through a whispered when she was completely out of his line of sight. Hannah began to wiggle in his arms, bringing him to rock gently as he walked back to the palace, hoping to keep her from waking.

***

"Have you seen Kahlan?"

Cara turned from the dungeon entrance and was met with a frantic expression on her friend's face. "Not for an hour."

"Where was she?"

Pointing through the trees, the blonde sighed. "She went that way, saying she had something she needed to do."

Richard frowned, knowing the only place built within the thick forest. "Cara, I need you to watch Hannah."

"Why?" the blonde asked instantly. "You're right here with her."

"I need to talk to Kahlan and I won't want our daughter to go out there yet."

Taking the small baby into her arms, the Mord'Sith pretended to be annoyed as the little brunette pulled at her lips. "Your face is going fall apart before you grow another inch."

It was difficult for the Seeker to hold a straight face as he hurried through the trees, knowing what else his friend would be saying to his daughter.

He found her where he knew she had gone, a place she had gone to visit only twice before. Kahlan was sitting on her legs, her head bowed in what seemed to be a prayer to the body enclosed in stone before her. It was brighter than he anticipated as he came closer to her, the two torches she had lit filled the room with their glow. He wanted to say something to tell her it was him, who was with her, but the way she shifted her body told him she already knew.

"Are you alright?"

"I don't know," she answered truthfully, surprising him. "I was hoping I would find some kind of answer here."

"Answer?"

Looking up, she reached out her hand for him to take and motioned for him to join her on the ground. "My mother always had an answer to give me, even for the questions I didn't know I wanted to ask. I thought that if I came here and asked, the spirits would allow her to answer me."

"Has she?"

"No."

"I'm sorry."

"Why? You haven't done anything-"

"Exactly. I knew something was wrong and I did nothing. I thought about asking, but I didn't." Sitting close, Richard turned her so that she faced him. "So I am asking you now. Kahlan, what's wrong?"

"In my dreams, I wake up in some forest with you and Zedd. You're sitting across the fire, staring into the flames, the way you do when your mind is telling you something differently than your heart. I lay there, just watching, like I used to and then you look up and meet my eyes." Kahlan looked away, back to the stone. "I used to wish you would look at me like that."

"Like what?"

Returning her eyes to his, she frowned. "Like I was no one to you."

"Kahlan-"

"I can't take the look in your eyes and I jump up, coming to you the way I'd imagined doing so many times."

"And you confess me," he whispered.

"It was how I always thought it would happen. Every minute I spent with you, I was so afraid I would lose control."

"What happens after you confess me?"

She looked away again, her body remaining close, but feeling far away. "Once I realized what I've done, I tell you wait there, that is would return."

"But you don't."

"No," she answers quietly. "I go far enough into the woods to be sure I cannot see you and kill myself."

"Kahlan," he started in an attempt to sooth her. "You would never-"

"Never what?" she asked before he could finish. "I did confess you."

"It didn't work," he stated factually before he sighed. "But that's not the point you're trying to make. Kahlan, listen to me. No matter what happened or could have happened, this is what should have happened. This is our lives. I know that you've been taught that these things won't happen to you, but they have. You and I are married, we have a daughter and for the first time in years, our people aren't afraid. This is what was supposed to happen to us. Everything you and I have been through helped get us here. It all set us up to live in this moment together. Kahlan, I know that it must be difficult to put aside all that you've been told and that this week is especially hard, but-"

"This week?"

"Tomorrow's the anniversary of your mother's death." Richard pulled her into his arms and shifted both of their positions. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he brought her back to his chest and leaned into her. "That's part of what's upsetting you, isn't it?" he asked softly against her ear. "Your mother died when you were young, leaving you to learn so many things on your own. You're afraid it will happen to you and our children."

"Many Confessors die young."

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you." He tightened his hold on her and kissed the side of her head. "Or our daughters. I promise you that they will have the life we want them to. The old ways will not exist for them. You and I have changed everything, Kahlan. There isn't a reason to fear anymore."

"You always know what to say, don't you?"

"No," he chuckled. "But sometimes I am lucky with the truth."

Turning her head slightly, she looked up at the stone and smiled. "My mother would have liked you." Leaning back, she relaxed in his arms and pulled them tighter around herself. "A few weeks before she died, she told me what I needed to look for when it came time for me to choose my mate." She nearly laughed as he laid his chin on her shoulder. "She knew what kind of man I would want for my children."

"Do I meet all of your requirements?"

Nodding, she turned her head completely and met his eyes. "All of them. Even the ones I never knew I had." He kissed her briefly and grinned, finding the wide smile on her lips more than comforting. It was something he hadn't seen in a while. "Do you mind if we sit here for little while longer?"

"No," he answered through a whisper, almost as though he thought he would awaken the dead. "Will you tell me more about her?"

"I feel like you already know her."

"I know a part of her in knowing you. Tell me what you remember the most about her."

Closing her eyes, she let her mind travel back to the time she spent with her mother in the Confessor's Palace. "She was the kindest woman I have ever known."

******

Nicci's body laid lifeless before him. She was covered in dried blood, her blonde hair stained a dark red. Richard knelt down, wanting a better look at her to understand what had happened. Part of her bottom lip was gone, appearing to have been bitten off during one of, what was sure to have been, many beatings. Her nose was broken and there was a long gash that led from her left eyebrow, all the way to the bottom of the right side of her neck, stopped by the Rada'Han. Her throat was slit, but it didn't appear deep enough to have killed her quickly, leaving him to conclude that if she gave him back his magic, she had the time to do it.

The blonde's wrists were scuffed and bloody as well, giving him a clear picture of her pulling against her chains in an attempt to get free. Her dress was ripped to the point of making him wonder why they had left the small pieces on her body.

"Why did they do this to you?" he asked through a whisper. "Cara, what do you see?"

"She was tortured. Whoever did this either wanted information or wanted to watch her suffer."

"Does it look familiar to you?"

Shaking her head, the Mord'Sith uncrossed her arms and knelt down beside him. "No, but they could have picked up other skills. If they wanted answers, she gave it to them. They would not have left her like this had she not. Only a few of her fingers are broken, but her knees are gone. That always gets their tongues moving. The cut on her neck was probably done when she was chained to the wall of her cell, it's not deep enough to have caused much pain. They would have opened with it."

"The Rada'Han would have prevented her sending me the magic wouldn't it?"

"Yes."

Relief flooded through him as he came to his feet once more. "Have her buried, please. I need to deliver some good news to my wife."

"She should see the body for herself," the blonde offered.

"Will you bring her here?"

"Of course, Lord Rahl. Kyra will stay with Hannah."

Grabbing the blonde's arm, he stopped her. "No, bring her to Chase and Emma, then ask if they've thought about the Mother Confessor's offer."

******

"Kahlan?"

"Mmm?"

"Are you alright?"

Opening her eyes, she smiled. "I am. Care to join us?" She was sitting in her bathtub, Hannah resting on her chest as warm water surrounded them.

Richard let out a low groan and knelt beside them. "I would love to join you, but I don't think she should see what I want to do to you in there." Their daughter opened her eyes and reached out to him, grabbing the necklace around his neck with a happy squeal. "Hi, beautiful!"

"Dada! Dada!" She babbled loudly, pushing up from her mother's chest.

"She missed you."

Taking her into his arms, he lifted her out of the water and hugged to him. "I missed her too!" he said excitedly, before meeting his wife's eyes. "Both of you."

"How did it go?"

He chuckled, shaking his head. "As well as it could. I don't think our people are ready for this kind of change."

"We don't have to do it, Richard. There must be another way around it."

"I'm not going to go back to the People's Palace, Kahlan. I can't stay away from you, from my family."

"We'll always be here."

"I know, so will I."

"Richard-"

"I'm not going to change my mind, Kahlan. If we're going to have a family together, we need to be together. The people don't understand this, but they will, I promise. As long as we hold firm, they will see and they will see the benefits of combining our lands."

Both of their eyes dropped to Hannah as she wiggled in his arms, crying softly as she tried to find a comfortable sleeping position. "I'll put her down," Kahlan said as she started to get out of the water.

"No, no." He grinned, stretching his left arm out to stop her from moving. "I'll do it. You should stay there, naked and waiting for me."

The Mother Confessor met his eyes with a seductive gaze, lifting herself just enough to expose the top of her breasts to him. "The water is beginning to cool, Lord Rahl. You'd better hurry before I freeze."

Walking swiftly to the crib across the room, he debated on whether he should take an extra few moments to dress their daughter before returning to his awaiting wife. To his delight, he saw a small, clean; light blue dress sitting on the edge of the table beside the crib. He slowed his pace as Hannah giggled, allowing him to bring her arms through the soft cloth. Leaning down, he brushed his nose against hers and made a series of noises that fueled her laughter. When she began to settle down, he laid her down into her crib and gently covered her with a light pink blanket. It wasn't long before she closed her eyes and turned her head away from him, falling asleep almost instantly. He stood there for another moment, admiring the beauty of his sleeping daughter.

"Everybody's right, Kahlan." He turned around and faced her with a grin. "She looks so much like you."

Reaching out for him, she smiled. "I see a lot of you in her."

Closing the distance between them, he pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside before removing his boots. "Sometimes she looks at me the way you do."

Grinning Kahlan hooked her left index finger in the top of his pants. "What look?"

"The one you give me when I make a joke that you don't think is funny."

"She loves your jokes," she countered softly, pulling the laces of his pants loose. "She laughs when you're with her."

"Laughing with me and at me are two very different things."

"But she is laughing." Pushing the fabric down his legs, she let her eyes linger on him for a moment, his manhood directly in front of her face. He was ready for her, he always was. Stepping into the warm water, he sat down and brought her into his lap. Leaning back, he stretched out his legs, running his hands over her back and sides. "How long until your next meeting?"

He smiled, drawing her closer. "I don't have another. I knew if I had another, it would continue through the night and I didn't want to miss an opportunity like this."

"You will always have an opportunity like this."

Pushing his finger into her hair, he pulled her face close and sucked in a breath as it left her lips. "I hope so."

"What does Lord Rahl require of his wife?"

He growled deep within his chest, the huskiness in her voice, the seductive and playful way she bit at his lip set him into a roaring fire of desire. In just as heated of voice, he told her, "I require everything."

******The End******