"I don't care what you do to me, but I don't want you to hurt me. I've had enough hurt already in my life. More than enough. Now I want to be happy."

Haruki Murakami

EPILOGUE

Daisy laughed, the receiver pressed on her ear as she heard Erika's talking about little Andrew.

"Oh Erika, it's the same for Thomas"

Daisy's eyes moved to little Thomas and Enos, the baby on all fours and Enos lying down on his belly on the floor, in front of the baby, face to face, Enos' mouth gently grabbing Thomas' pacifier and taking it away from the baby, provoking a brief moan and then a laugh 'till the baby took back his pacifier from Enos.

"Enos, don't steal Thomas' pacifier!", a false reproach to her husband, but she couldn't help but laughing every time she saw Enos and Thomas playing that way; as soon as Enos came back from work, every day, he started playing with little Thomas, and Daisy couldn't say who of them (Enos or the baby) had more fun.

"What if…. I won't be able to be a good father?"

Enos' fear about not being a good father was lost in the past: he was a great daddy, and Thomas loved him. Enos was now aware of his ability to take care of Thomas and to be a good father.

Thomas was born in November, eight months after the wedding, after a epic run to the Hospital, Daisy in labor in the car and Enos driving the same way as he was chasing Bo and Luke, his repeating "Daisy, don't let the baby come out, arrest him" driving her crazy, as she could decide when the baby had to come out. In that moment she would have killed Enos, because of the painful labor (she was pregnant because of Enos and she hated him for it), because of his crazy driving and because of his silly advices (Don't let the baby come out? arrest him? was it a jail-break?). But now, every time they thought about it, they couldn't help but bursting out laughing.

Thomas was 14 months old, and he was a peaceful and cheerful baby, with ebony straight hair (as Enos) and green hazel eyes (as Daisy).

Her eyes still on Enos now lying down on his back and singing a funny song, the baby sitting on his belly, Daisy kept on talking to Erika, their relationship becoming stronger and stronger in the last two years: two sisters-in-law talking about their pregnancy and then about their baby, exchanging experiences and advices, so their first meeting (not so friendly) seemed so distant and surreal.

In effect, Erika was the only one Daisy could talk about such things: the time she ranted about the difficulty of breastfeeding a baby who's teething, Bo and Luke ran out the room as two mice chased by a cat, because of the embarrassment, uncle Jesse started to cough as he had asthma, and Enos told something sly in his innocent and angelic way. Many times in the past Daisy wondered if Enos was really innocent and naïve so that anything apparently sly from him was simply involuntary, but along their life as husband and wife she was understanding that, no, he wasn't so innocent but he had a peculiar humour, a mix of innocence, sweetness, shyness and a surprising slyness: a peculiar innocent and funny slyness.

Bo, Luke and uncle Jesse came to the little yellow farm every day, to visit her while Enos was at work, and helping her with the baby (especially uncle Jesse, who seemed young again after the baby's birth), but there were some things, women's things, she couldn't talk about with that bunch of men around her.

Erika and Josh came sometimes to visit her and Enos, the same way they went to visit Erika and Josh, the two women talking about women' things and the two men talking about men' things (especially police's things, being Enos a cop and Josh an ATF's officer; Erika too was an ATF's officer, but she preferred to talk with Daisy of women' things).

And Miss Kate too came to visit them, time after time, the first times with Doc Martin or some nurse since she wasn't able to leave the Institute without someone by her side (she feared the "outer" world), but lately she came all by herself, with her little car, with no fear any more. She loved the baby, and people started to talk about a new special friendship between Miss Kate and Rosco, another reason to explain Miss Kate's frequent coming to Hazzard (there were too much rumors in that town, for sure).

Daisy laughed again as Erika said something to Josh Baldini, in Italian, and after Erika's words she heard Josh complaining he taught Italian to Erika just with the effect the woman could now insult him in two languages. They were a funny couple.

Enos told Erika about their parents after Andrew's birth, in the softest possible way, and Daisy knew how much Erika was hurt because of it, but she recovered from that news thank her child and husband. Rose Strate and Andrew Salinger were still in Enos and Erika mind, and it still happened Daisy heard Enos crying in the night, especially during the months after their wedding, but, as time went by, those tears became more and more rare, even if Daisy knew it was unrealistic to think Enos' past would have disappeared from his mind and heart: he was simply getting used to it, accepting it and hang on his new life.

After her talking with Erika, Daisy put the receiver down and she walked to her husband and her baby, "May I play with you, babies?"

Night.

Sitting in their bed, Daisy looked at the baby sleeping in the cradle on the side of the bed, and then at Enos sleeping by her side.

The baby moaned briefly and Enos answered him with confused words.

Daisy laughed, but even if she tried to muffle her laugh, Enos woke up, looking at her.

"Why are you laughing? Did I say something strange in the sleep? I hope I didn't ask a vanilla mega-pudding… or worse", he sat up and he yawned, rubbing his eyes and then looking at her with his smile, a mix of innocence and slyness.

Daisy slid her right forefinger on his bare chest, "Do you want a vanilla mega-pudding, sugar? Do you really like vanilla so much? My vanilla's perfume too?"

Enos held his breath, his muscle tensing under Daisy's touch; she still had a great power on him, and he loved that teasing tone, something remembering him their past times, times when that tone made him running away. Past times.

"Thinking about it…. well… in effect, I wasn't dreaming of vanilla pudding", he took her hand and he gently kissed it, keeping on kissing her forearm and then up to her arm and neck, "Vanilla, you smell of vanilla, so, no… I wasn't dreaming of pudding, after all."

From her neck up to her lips, lips against lips, and then they slipped under the blankets, a joyful bundle moving in the moonlight entering the window and drawing a lit square on the bed, little shadows dancing in it as it started to snow, the first snow of that winter.

Thank you SO much for reading it. I'm surprised and happy of how many people read it and keep on reading it. I LOVED writing this story and I hope you loved reading it. :-)) Now that you arrived at the end of the story, if you want, leave your final opinion, what you liked the most.. or what you didn't like or you thought it could be better/different.

Bye, see you on the next story, "Shattered" :-))