It had been over 8 years since Mulan had left her village and her parents' home.

It was time to go back.

Shang's mother had died when he was a boy and his father had died in the Hun war. Mulan and Zhou were his only family.

She had received word that her father had fallen ill. She did not want him to die without meeting his grandson.

Mulan's mother and grandmother greeted them at the gate. They had not known about her marriage or her son and fussed at her for not returning years ago.

Li Zhou was immediately whisked away to be spoiled and loved on by his grandmother and great-grandmother, while Mulan and Shang went straight to her father's side.

Fa Zhou was resting, but at Mulan's voice, opened his eyes.

"You should not have stayed away so long. You should have come home right after you were married."

He did not and would never know they were married only recently, even though Zhou was over 7.

He would never need to know any of the real circumstances around his grandson's birth. If he had, the former war hero no doubt would have mustered enough fatherly protectiveness and raw strength to jump out of bed and kill Shang in a heartbeat.

Shang, Mulan, her mother and her grandmother took turns keeping vigil by Fa Zhou's bed for the next 2 weeks. Just before he died, he told Mulan he loved her and was proud of her and that her husband and son brought honor to the family. He told the younger Zhou he was honored that he was named for him.

With her mother aging and her grandmother nearly 80 years old, Shang and Mulan stayed at the Fa house. There was nothing holding them to their former village.

Zhou now had his mama, Baba, grandma and great-grandma by him every day. Mulan and Shang had talked to him on the way to her parents' home about not saying anything about Baba living in a different house for so long or that they had just gotten married. Hopefully, he wouldn't forget.

Mulan still had nightmares and the first time she woke up screaming, her mother and grandma appeared at the door immediately. She passed it off as flashbacks from the Hun war.

But her grandma didn't seem convinced and after her mother had returned to bed she still stood in the doorway staring at Shang.

"Grandmama, I'm fine." She turned away without a word, but not without one more sharp look at Shang.

Often Mulan caught Grandma staring angrily at Shang. What in the world?

Many weeks later, Grandma cornered him.

"How old did you say Zhou is?"

"7"

"Because he told me when his birthday is, and he's nearly 8, which would have him being born right after the war ended, which would mean Mulan got pregnant only a couple months after she left home."

Shang stood in disbelief. Absolutely nothing got by Grandma. This was where Mulan got her courage and spunk and smarts. The Fa family was fearless. They never missed a beat.

"Well...? I'm listening so start talking, pretty boy."

"The ancestors kept telling me Mulan was being threatened by someone close to her, and I thought it was Shan Yu. It was you! You discovered she was a girl and forced her, didn't you? Then married her after you knocked her up."

He lowered his eyes in shame of his behavior towards this remarkable woman's granddaughter.

"Well? Answer me, you piece of shit!"

He nodded. It was pointless to lie. She saw right through him. "I did force her. Many times. I'm sorry."

Grandma's eyes narrowed, her face reddened and her fists clenched and he briefly thought she was going to kill him. After the toughness he had seen out of Mulan, he had no doubt Grandma Fa could do it.

The Fa's were fighters. Fa Zhou's war heroics were legendary far and wide.

Mulan had grabbed the cannon from Yao and ran up to where Shan Yu was charging them and fired into a steep slope filled with snow, causing an avalanche to bury most of the Hun army.

After triggering the avalanche, her gut bleeding from Shan Yu's sword, she had plucked him out of the snow and saved his life.

Even stealing her father's armor and joining the army took an incredible amount of courage. She had been the one to retrieve the arrow atop a 100 ft pole with the two 50 lb weights.

Now an 80 year old woman one-third his size had him sweating profusely as she stared deep into his soul. She glowered at him and didn't back down. The Fa's *never* back down. This he knew well.

"I thought so. You're lucky Fa Zhou isn't alive anymore. He'd have killed your sorry ass on the spot had he known what you did to his only daughter. I won't tell her mother what a lousy dirtbag you are. But you better watch your back. The Fa's never let a wrong go unpunished."

With that threat, she walked away after one final burning glare, leaving Shang in shock.

He sat down on the grass. Had he really thought they could come back here to live and no one would ever figure out the truth? How foolish.

From now on, whatever Grandma Fa wanted, she got. Shang would make sure of that. Shan Yu had been less frightening.

If she even hinted at needing something, he got it for her right away. He always brought her tea in the morning and evening. He opened doors for her. Fed her lucky cricket. Mulan and her mother thought he was the sweetest man for doing this for her. But Grandma Fa knew she had him by the collar.

Months later, she cornered him again.

"I just want to know. Did she fight back?"

In answer, he showed her the many scars Mulan had left in her struggles against him. Knife wounds on his chest and neck and arms, deep bites on his shoulders and arms, gouges in his neck and cheeks, a deep scratch by his eye, knife wounds and gouges on his back and a huge slash mark on his gut.

Grandma's eyes got huge. "Mulan did all that?"

Shang nodded. "Let's just say I trained her to be an excellent soldier."

"I figured those were battle scars from the Huns."

"She's a fighter, all right. She fights harder than any Hun. You Fa's never back down."

Grandma actually cracked a smile and shook her head.

"Never."

Then she got serious and bore a hole into his soul with her eyes. "Never mess with a Fa. I'm watching you, pretty boy. If you ever hurt her again, I'll kill you myself. I'll always be watching over Mulan, and watching you, even after I die."

Three weeks later, she fell ill. She summoned Mulan to her bedside and threw everyone else out.

"I know what Shang did to you while you were in the army. I knew Zhou's birthday and figured out you got pregnant soon after leaving home and cornered him about it. Let me tell you, I scared Pretty Boy good and he 'fessed up."

Tears ran down Mulan's cheeks. No one else ever knew what she went thru.

"You're a strong, brave woman, Mulan. I lived thru something similar at the same age. That's how I had your father's older sister. We Fa's are fighters and we never back down. Remember that."

"I love you, Grandma."

"I love you, too, Mulan."

"Pretty boy showed me all the scars you gave him. I'm proud of you for fighting as hard as you did. The Fa's never back down and we fight with everything we have."

Mulan laid her head on her shoulder and wept, relieved to finally share her silent suffering with someone who understood. Grandma quietly stroked her hair and let her cry as sobs shook her body. Reluctant to leave, she stayed by her Grandma's side all night.

In the morning, she was gone. Grandma had died in her sleep. Little did Mulan know, Grandma had shared her own secret for the first time, with her. No one else had ever known the truth about their first child's birth, other than Fa Zhou's father.

She had been kidnapped by bandits on her way to the Fa house to be married, and raped repeatedly. She escaped with her life, and went on to marry Mulan's grandfather.

But the horrible ordeal had left her pregnant and battered. Her new husband claimed the child as his own and no one else ever knew differently.