Voile! The end! Thank you to everyone for coming on this journey with me and happy reading the epilogue! I hope you have loved this as much as I have!

Content warnings: pregnancy mentions

Don't forget that you can find me on tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now and that my ao3 account is wearealloflegendnow (even though I haven't posted there yet)!

~TLL~

Jake followed the advice of the GPS as they drove through the snowy landscape of Connecticut, the houses along the residential street all starting to blur together.

"Suburbia looks boring," Anna said from the backseat, finally yanking out her headphones so that she didn't have to listen to Jake's music. "I'm glad we live in the city. I love having things to do, you know, since I'm a responsible sixteen and my parents trust me and –"

"We never said you couldn't go to the concert," Rose said, "but, you need adult supervision which means you and Mandy need to convince either Brad or Casey to take you."

"Dad!" Anna whined.

"I was your age once and I had a fake ID. I know how things go."

"If you were allowed to have a fake ID, why can't I?"

"I wasn't allowed," Jake said with an eyeroll and then he realized his mistake. "If you mention this to my mother, you're grounded."

"Mom!" Anna cried.

"Jake."

"Two weeks, minimum," Jake promised, sticking to his guns.

Anna sighed loudly and crossed her arms. Jake waited for her to pull out some of the same arguments that she had been using for weeks – until she was inevitably shut down for a short time by the reminder that the last time that she didn't listen to them, she was kidnapped. She was only quiet for a moment before she was back to herself, looking out the window at the streets again.

"So, how much do these people know about us?" Anna asked. "Or do we know about these people?"

"These people are my parents," Rose reminded her. "And, not much. I only found them a week ago. We just thought that we might want to meet now, considering how close Christmas is."

"And," Anna said, sticking her head between the seats to look directly at her mother, "you're going to pop soon."

Rose rested her hand on her pregnant stomach. "I'm only six months."

"Sure there's not twins in there?" Anna joked. "They run in the family and you have one."

"And you'll be meeting her today," Rose said. "Promise me you'll be on best behaviour."

Anna laughed. "I have blue hair, Mom. No one expects good behaviour from a girl with blue hair."

"Her parents do," Jake said.

"Did your parents have expectations of you with green hair?"

"Gramps did and that's worse."

"Mom, Dad still has green hair. Do you have expectations of him?"

"Yes," Rose said, not missing a beat, "he has to be on his best behaviour too."

"We all do," Jake said.

"Your destination is on your right," the GPS chirped.

Jake slowed the car down, matching the house number on the mailbox to the one he'd punched into the GPS. This was it: Rose's biological parents' house. It was an unassuming, two story, white house, with a picturesque porch. Jake pulled in the driveway, parking behind two other cars. He turned the engine off and they sat and waited for a moment, staring at the house.

"This looks like every other house on this street," Anna said, breaking the tension. "They're probably pretty boring, Mom. You don't need to be nervous."

"I never said I was nervous," Rose said, but she reached across the console and squeezed Jake's hand, hard. "This is just a big moment and I need a moment to breathe."

"In, out, in, out," Anna chanted.

"What are you doing?" Jake asked.

"What? I thought that's what the Lamaze classes said."

"Out," Rose announced. "Everybody out of the car!"

"Yes, Mom," Anna droned.

Anna hopped out of the car, shutting the door loudly behind her. Jake watched her out the window as she crossed her arms over her chest and stared up at the house. Jake would have gotten out with her, but Rose was still gripping his hand tightly.

"If you're not ready, we'll put Anna back in the car and bail," Jake said. "They might not like it but if they're good people, then they will understand it."

Rose looked like she might cry but instead, she let out a shaky laugh at his words, squeezing his hand again. "Jake, they're not monsters."

"No but that doesn't mean you're ready."

Rose leant over the console as best as she was able and Jake met her halfway, kissing her like she knew she wanted to be kissed.

"I love you for that but we should go. I want to meet them and Anna's watching us thinking that we shouldn't be making out when she's freezing her butt off."

Jake laughed and then kissed Rose once more for good measure before he opened his car door and hurried around the side of the car to offer Rose his arm. The driveway had been well salted but he didn't want to take any chances of black ice. Anna took up the rear and, as Rose predicted, immediately complained.

"It's cold! You can kiss inside, you know? Mom has a ring; they can't be too scandalized!"

"Shh," Rose said playfully. "You're fine."

"I could have frostbite," Anna said defensively, but it was the last thing said as they went up the three shallow steps to the front porch.

Rose took a deep breath and then rang the doorbell. It only took a few seconds before the outline of a person appeared on the other side of the sheer curtains and for that person to pull open the door.

"Holy crap!" Anna screeched.

Aside from the fact that there was no birth mark wrapped around her arm, she was the spitting image of Rose, right down to the size of their pregnant bellies.

"Wow," the woman mouthed, and then she opened the door. "Wow! You … I was so worried you weren't gonna be real."

"I'm Rose," she said.

"My name is Heather," the woman responded, and they were already crying by the time they hugged, spread awkwardly out from each other. "Mom and Dad are just inside. You're not going to believe how excited they are."

"I think I get it," Rose said, transfixed by the movements of her twin sister as she led Jake and Anna into the foyer of the house.

They hung up their jackets and kicked off their shoes and followed Heather into the living room. Jake's first impression was that Rose and Heather looked the most like their mother, who bolted from her husband's side the moment she saw Rose and wrapped her arms around her.

"My girl," she whispered. "Oh, we thought we'd never see you again."

Rose's father let them have their moment, to offer his hand to Jake.

"I'm Carl, and this is my wife, Melinda. We're Rose and Heather's parents."

"I'm Jake, Rose's fiancé," Jake said, "and this is our daughter, Anna."

"Hi," Anna said, suddenly shy, the way she was with strangers, hiding half behind Jake. "Susanna. But I like being called 'Anna' best."

"Your oldest?" Melinda gasped, spinning around to face Anna while keeping her arm around Rose's shoulders. "Really? When you said you already had a child, we thought she'd be a little girl!"

"I'm sixteen," Anna said proudly. "I'm getting my driver's license."

As they normally had to, Jake and Rose stayed silent for a beat as everyone else in the room did the math.

"And you're still together?" Heather asked.

"We are," Jake confirmed. "The moment I laid eyes on her, I knew she was the one for me."

"That's so beautiful," Melinda said, reaching over to hug Jake and then squeeze Anna, while Carl reached for Rose for the first time. "You're our first grandbaby!"

"Other one is due on March twelfth!" Carl said proudly.

"That's when we're due!" Rose exclaimed, turning to look at Heather.

"Really? Blake is gonna be shocked! He should be here soon!"

"Your husband's name is Blake?" Jake asked, but only Anna seemed to find it as funny as he did.

"Do you know if you're having a boy or a girl?" Heather continued.

"It's a boy."

"Me too!" Heather said. "We've been talking up and down about names but we think we're going to go with Cash."

"We decided on Ash!" Rose gasped.

"I am in the twilight zone," Anna murmured to Jake, who couldn't help but crack a smile.

"Everyone, come sit," Carl said, gesturing behind him to the spacious living room. "Lots of comfy chairs! Melinda's got a roast going in the oven that'll be ready soon. She's the best cook, really, you're going to love it."

"I'm gonna go get some water," Anna said. "Dad, will you come with me?"

Jake knew what that tone meant; she was getting overwhelmed. It was happening less and less often as she grew up, making more friends and settling into herself, but Jake knew that she would never forget her isolation on the farm growing up. "Sure."

Jake made sure that Rose was comfortably settled on the love seat next to her sister before following Anna into the kitchen, which was still decorated with chickens from the wallpaper to the figures on the windowsill, like it hadn't realized that the 90s were oven. Anna opened one cupboard after another, taking down a glass, but she didn't make a move to fill it.

"What's on your mind?" Jake asked when they were far enough from the others. "I know there's something."

"Are you going to love me less when Ash comes?" Anna asked suddenly.

"What? Why would you say that?"

Since the moment that they'd found out they were expecting, Anna had seemed nothing but gleeful. She'd sat up with them to go over baby name books, had been at several ultrasounds, and had decided on the shade of green that the three of them had painted Ash's room.

"Mom's got her new family here and you're going to have your new family with him. I wasn't on purpose like he was," Anna whispered, as if she were ashamed or embarrassed to say it all aloud. "You didn't even know me until I was fifteen and you're going to see him be born and everything."

"Anna, I love you," Jake said firmly. From the moment that he had known she was his, he had loved everything about her. "Loving him isn't going to take any of that away and this new family is only going to add to how much love you get too."

Anna didn't crack a smile or even look at him, she leant against the counter, staring down at her feet, shaking her hair to hide her face.

"Look, I'm going to get to experience things with Ash that I didn't get to experience with you and that I regret not getting to experience with you, no matter that it was for the best that it happened that way," Jake said honestly. He leant against the counter with Anna and she leant into him. Jake put his arm around her shoulders. "But, I've gotten to experience things with you that I won't get to experience with him. You're always going to be my first baby and no one else is going to get to run up behind me on the street to tell me that I'm their father."

Anna cracked a smile. "I guess so."

"You're my daughter, my first child. Nothing's ever going to replace you. Nothing, okay?"

"Okay," Anna agreed, but almost unenthusiastically.

"Okay?" Jake said, bumping his hip into hers.

"Okay!" Anna exclaimed and then she finally giggled. "Okay, Dad!"

Jake kissed her cheek. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Jake filled her water glass for her and then one for Rose before they rejoined the animated discussion in the living room.

"Got you some water," Jake said, leaning over Rose to pass her the glass.

"Thanks," Rose said, taking it from him. She turned her head and whispered in his ear, "All good?"

"Yeah," Jake said, and he kissed her cheek, "all good."

Because, well, everything was perfect, wasn't it? Jake was sitting on the love seat opposite of Rose and her sister, his arm around his daughter's shoulders. His in-laws were eagerly talking grandchildren and asking questions. Rose and Heather were comparing pregnancies laments. The cheerfulness and the laughter of the group, combined with the smell of good food coming from the kitchen, was the perfect image of hominess. Carl and Melinda were already making promises to come to New York to meet Susan and Jonathan.

By the time the front door swung open and the big, booming voice of Blake declared, "I've arrived!" it was like they had been doing this together forever.

And, Jake realized with a deep sense of satisfaction as he helped Rose off the couch to go meet Blake, this was exactly what forever would be.

And he couldn't be happier.