Epilogue

It was a rare, warm day in Maynardville, Tennessee; at least for this time of year in the small, southern-American town. Elsie was stretched out on a sun-chair, taking the opportunity to soak up as much of the sun's rays as she could. In a cradle beside her, shaded by a white parasol, the newborn baby boy kept himself amused by playing with his tiny feet. He had been named after his late grandfather, Albert, which technically made him Albert Marigold the Third.

Albert had been born a few weeks earlier, somewhat of a surprise to his mother, who had only become aware of her condition after arriving back on American soil. It had explained the cramps, nausea and dizziness that she been experiencing, but all the same, after doing the math, she couldn't figure out why she hadn't noticed earlier. By the time she had even considered the possibility, she had been almost five months pregnant, barely showing on her malnourished frame.

When the war in Europe was finally declared a victory to the Allies, Aldo, Elsie and Utivich had spent a week at the OSS base in France before shipping back to England, where an America-bound ship awaited them. They spent almost a month in England whilst papers were organized, medals awarded and soldiers were honorably discharged. Elsie too had been awarded honorary medals to recognize her efforts alongside the Basterds. But medals meant nothing to her. What she wanted was her friends back by her side.

They arrived at the New York port ten days later, parting ways as Utivich was greeted by his family. Elsie had watched as his sister and mother pulled him into a hug, their sobs audible as they held him. He gave her one last little wave as she passed him.

Aldo and Elsie had discussed what they would do when they arrived back in the States, but Elsie really had nowhere to go. She had sold her grandparents' land before leaving France, acquiring a decent amount of money; yet she was having trouble imagining herself starting over somewhere new.

That's when Aldo offered for her to stay with him. She had accepted his offer almost immediately.

Arriving on his property which was nestled comfortably between two mountains, Elsie became reacquainted with Aldo's wife, Catherine. Catherine had watched Elsie a number of times when she was just a small child, while Aldo and Elsie's father had gone out on 'business runs'. Elsie's had loved to play with their son and daughter, who were now well and truly grown up and moved out, with families of their own.

As it reached mid-afternoon, Elsie looked up from the newspaper she was reading and glanced over at her little boy, who smiled at his mother with a kind of sweet innocence that she hadn't seen in a long time. With his blonde hair and blue eyes, he looked a lot like his father, acting as a constant reminder of the events that had taken place in France.

But today she had the opportunity for some well-earned rest and relaxation, especially since Catherine had gone to see friends in Memphis and Aldo had left a few hours ago to 'take care of a few errands', as he had described it.

Making sure that the fly-net was secured over little Albert's crib, Elsie lay back and closed her eyes, enjoying the warmth of the sun as it fell across her white sundress. She slowly drifted into a peaceful doze; a nice change to her usual nightmare-filled sleep. It wasn't all bad, though; her being startled awake by the horrific dreams often coincided with Albert's cries for a diaper change or some form of nourishment. And since he was a good excuse for not getting enough sleep, she rarely received any awkward questions about the dark circles around her eyes.

A short while later, she was woken by the sound of car-tires crunching across the dirt road that served as Aldo's driveway. Aldo stepped out of his car, dressed in clothes similar to what he had often worn as a Basterd. He paused, surveying his front yard with his hands on his hips, before shutting his door and walking towards Elsie.

"'Ey, Else. You awake?" he asked.

She opened her eyes, squinting one closed against the glaring sun, and sat up to greet him.

"Sure. I was just catching some shut-eye while I had the chance."

"So you should. But I need to tell you something. Somethin' kinda important."

Elsie grabbed the glass of lemonade from the small table beside her and stood up, taking a few mouthfuls of it.

She didn't drink alcohol anymore, not only because it conjured up too many bad memories, but also because she had been drinking whilst pregnant without knowing it. And since she was breastfeeding, Albert certainly didn't need any more alcohol introduced into his system.

"I asked Catherine ta stay with a friend for a couple a days, so it'd just be you'n me today. Make things easier, ya know."

"What are you talking about?" Elsie frowned, growing uneasy.

"Well..." Aldo sighed and turned his head to look back at the car.

Elsie dropped her lemonade when she saw who was getting out of the open car-door, the glass shattering in the dirt by her feet.

Donny's movements were slow, careful. He stepped out onto the lawn and began walking towards Elsie with a very prominent limp.

Her first reaction was to burst into tears, collapsing back onto the sun lounge as her legs became weak. This wasn't really happening. She was hallucinating.

Then she felt a big familiar hand on her shoulder.

"Else?"

Slowly opening her eyes, she raised her head and saw that it really was him standing before her. She sprang to her feet and embraced him tightly, savoring the moment for as long as she could. Donny let her take her time, knowing that it was as hard on her and it was on him; probably even more so.

He could feel her tears soaking through his shirt.

"What the fuck?" she murmured into his chest. He smiled. Same old Elsie.

Grabbing her gently by the shoulders, he moved her back so he could get a proper look at her. She hadn't changed a bit since he had last seen her, that fateful night in the cinema, though she looked much healthier, like she was finally eating real food again.

"I don't understand," she said.

"Let's go inside," Aldo suggested, "He can explain it better than I can."

Taking a deep breath, Elsie slowly managed shook herself out of the state of shock that had engulfed her and turned to get Albert. Donny had taken a step towards the house when he turned to see what Elsie was doing. When he saw her lift the baby out of its crib, he was a little shocked himself.

"You had a kid?" he asked.

"You're asking me questions?" she replied, bustling towards the house and towards Aldo, who was holding the door open for them.

Donny remained still for a moment as he let this development sink in. Aldo hadn't mentioned anything on the ride over. But it didn't change the way he felt about her, regardless of who the father was. Silently, he limped after her.

"Albie sleepin'?" Aldo asked Elsie as she finally joined them at the small, hand-built dining table.

"Yeah."

"I still can't believe that you had a kid," Donny said.

"I still can't believe that you're fuckin' alive," she replied, with a sharp edge to her voice. She stopped and took a deep breath to calm the turbulent emotions that she found herself experiencing.

"Yeah, about that... Maybe I oughta start from the beginning."

Elsie nodded, biting back another remark as she took a seat.

"I suppose you know that I told you to go lookin' for the Lieutenant on purpose."

Another nod.

"There was no way in hell I was lettin' you die in there. After everything that had happened, I knew I had to make sure that you got out alive. But after Omar and me carried out our plan, shootin' Hitler and all, I realized that there was no point in me dyin' too. I had to be with you. No matter what. So I took off the dynamite and threw it into the bunch of Nazis that were trying to escape, just so it would still do its job, you know. Then I got the fuck outta there. Told Omar to, as well. But he decided to stay behind and make sure the job got finished. As you can see," he gestured to his leg, "I didn't make it out of the cinema far enough to avoid the explosion, and when I woke up, I was in a hospital. Both legs broken, 2nd and 3rd degree burns on my back, arms and legs. Mild concussion from bein' thrown into the air. But I was alive; only I didn't know if that was a permanent thing or not. I was shifted from hospital to hospital in France for a couple of weeks, then I got shipped back to England. You guys had already left by the time I got there. Few months later I was shipped back here. I sent Aldo a letter to tell him what had happened-"

"Before you 'ave a go at me," Aldo said, holding his hands up to Elsie in defense as she turned to him angrily, "He told me not to tell you, in case he didn't make it."

"It was touch and go for a while. I caught some infection in one of the hospitals. I didn't want you to have to go through losin' someone again. You'd been through enough shit as it was," Donny explained to her, "But I managed to pull through. And as soon as I knew I was goin' to make it, I made up my mind to come and find you, so I could do this-"

He took something out of his pocket and placed it in front of her. It was a small box. She stared down at it.

"Open it," he told her.

Hesitating, glancing from him, to Aldo, then back to the box, she reached down and slowly removed the lid. Reaching inside, she pulled out a beautiful antique ring.

"It was your mama's," Aldo told her, "She gave it to my wife to give to you when she found out she was sick. I thought Donny could probably make more use of it than I ever could. My wife's already got a ring."

"Elsie. I know how much you hate your last name, so I was wondering if you wanted to use mine instead," Donny grinned.

Elsie slipped the jewelry over her ring-finger on her left hand, then held the hand out in front of her face and waggled the finger around to admire it. Then promptly burst into tears again.

"Stupid fuckin' pregnancy hormones," she growled, wiping furiously at her cheeks. She turned back to Donny, who was eagerly awaiting her response. "Of course I'll fucking marry you, you big idiot."

She moved over to him and carefully positioned herself on his lap, stopping to check his expression for any signs on discomfort, before putting her hands around his neck and kissing him.

"I think you should save that 'til the weddin' night," Aldo advised them, but neither of them were listening, too preoccupied to care.

"I can't believe you're alive," Elsie muttered, gazing into his eyes.

"Well, you better start believing," Donny smiled, "'cos you ain't marrying no ghost."

Just as she was about to kiss him again, crying sounded from the nursery.

"I can't believe you have a kid," he said again.

"Will you shut the fuck up about that already?" she told him, smacking him in the chest with the back of her hands as she stood up. He smiled.

"It's just weird to think of you as a ma," Donny mused, getting to his feet to join her.

Moving considerably slower than Elsie, (though he was hoping that would go away once he had healed a bit more), by the time he reached the nursery she was already holding the baby, rocking him gently in her arms.

It was a wonder how the petite girl had gone from shooting and scalping German soldiers without remorse, to cradling a baby like delicate china; the transformation was astonishing.

"What's its name?" Donny whispered, gently brushing his index finger across the baby cheek.

"He," Elsie corrected him, "His name is Albert; after my father and my grandfather."

"Albert," Donny repeated with a smile.

With the three standing close together, they looked the picture of a perfect family; albeit with a very, very strange backstory.

And though the kid wasn't his, Donny had already decided he would raise him as his own, hopefully along with a few more sons and daughters that were his. Little Albert was Elsie's son and in his eyes, that made him his son, too. Regardless of whom the father was; though he had a pretty good idea.

But Donny was wrong.

Elsie knew it, too, though she had guessed the same at first.

But, sometimes, when she looked down at the smiling baby, she caught a little hint of his real father. There was no evil glint in the baby's blue eyes, but Elsie swore there were times when his little grin looked almost… smug.

A/N: So there we have it. This story has a special place in my heart, being both the only story I have ever actually completed, as well as being set in within my favorite film. I will still be going through the chapters and fixing up whatever errors I come across, but I'm happy to finally have them edited and posted it all. I have ideas for either one-shots or extra chapters, but I'll see how things go. I'd love to write a little more about Elsie and Donny's relationship, especially now that they're finally together.

Thanks to those who read the whole thing! I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Until then xx