As Carolyn wove her tale, Riddick kept to the shadows on the balcony behind the draped curtains where he could see but not be seen. As he listened to her soothing voice he rocked the babe in his arms. His mind wondered as his eyes fell on the face of each of his family gathered in the hall beyond. For on this night of their weeklong settlement party, it was family only. They had settled in well here and made a home for themselves, something he never thought he'd have in this lifetime.

His eyes sought out his wife as she held the rapt attention of everyone in the room. What had started out as a retelling of their journey for their own children had grown until it included all the children of their close-knit family. He could tell she was blushing as he watched her; she had always had a preternatural sense of him. With his eyes he traced the scar that ran from her ear, down her neck and across her chest. She had received that during the border wars those first few years when everyone was trying to piss on his territory and take it from him. Soldiers from the other camp had managed to slip into the Villa and Carolyn had been injured trying to protect their children. Rory had been kidnapped, Carolyn had lost the child she was carrying due her injuries and Prowse had been killed. No other land had dared challenge him since he retrieved his daughter and sought vengeance for his lost child and comrade.

He shook off the memories as Carolyn came to the end of her tale. Regardless of her connection with the Elementals she was still a woman ruled by her heart and her emotions. Riddick knew there had never been another woman like her. Not in this lifetime or any other. He parted the curtains and stepped into the chamber as Carolyn sat back in her chair, wiping a tear away. Riddick sat beside her, taking her hand, while holding the newest member of their family close to his chest. She squeezed his hand and reached over to rub the babes back when she heard a small voice calling her name.

"Lady Carolyn! Lady Carolyn!"

She looked over and saw six-year-old Karl, waving his arm where he sat to get her attention. Carolyn waggled her index finger at him, giving him permission to approach her.

"Yes, Karl?" she asked the small boy taking his hands in hers. "You have a question about the story?"

He looked up earnestly at her with two little creases between his dark eyes, looking so much like his Grandfather in this moment. "If it was so painful to have Kempton and Chatham, why did you have Jack and Nyx?"

Carolyn laughed and sobbed all at the same time gathering the little boy close to her. She smiled, looking over at his grandparents and then to her own children, "Sometimes in life you have to go through tremendous pain to know great joy."

She caressed the child's head, kissing his forehead and sent him back to his mother.

Turning to her husband she ran a hand from his temple to his chin, as she had been wont to do so many times throughout their marriage. She looked past all the scars and time seeing before her once again, the thirty year old she had fallen in love with and the man who still made her giddy as a schoolgirl with just a look. "And sometimes you love someone so much that you don't see their faults, you only admire their details."

Riddick smirked as he laid their first great granddaughter into her arms and then leaned over to kiss her much to the delight of their audience. "That's a whole lotta love Carolyn."

The End