Sean silenced the moment Emma struck him, but though he rubbed his aching cheek with one hand, his other reached out and caught hers before she could strike him again. "I was nae laughin' at ye, Emma."
"He's dead," Jubes muttered to which the other teenagers all quickly nodded their agreement.
"Cassidy, do not dare -- "
"Hush, lass, an' listen tae what I have tae say. About a day after ye left, Bumpkin was upset but would nae speak tae any one." The kids nodded, hearing his words and agreeing to his recollection, but then Sean continued with news that surprised and delighted all who heard it. "Th' next day, I was walkin' by yer place 'ere, an' I heard this pitiful mewin' . . . "
Forgetting everything else, Emma asked breathlessly, "Precious?" Hope lit her beautiful, blue eyes as he nodded. "Aye. She took up wit' me, Em. I took 'er in, hid 'er, did nae even tell th' kids 'bout 'er fer I knew when ye came up, if'n he found me wit' a pet, ye'd near skin me alive."
Emma's eyes searched his with a frantic desperateness. "She's okay?"
"Aye, luv," he breathed, "she's fine." Unable to resist the mixture of relief and happiness that chased the fear and sadness from her lovely face, Sean pulled her close and further shocked Emma by kissing her. He forced himself to keep the kiss light, then swept her up into his arms. "Now come an' greet yer baby." There was no humor in his voice as he spoke the words, only relief and happiness.
As the two flew away, Emma for once not voicing a single word of protest, Jubilee called after them, "But if you get to have a pet, so do we!"
"Yeah!" Paige eagerly exclaimed.
"Si."
"A cat would be nice," Monet spoke quietly, and Jono and Everett nodded in agreement.
They had walked outside after their teachers, each feeling a warmth in their heart at the sight of their headmaster carrying their headmistress and Emma, for once, neither complaining nor being cruel.
"It's about time," Paige breathed.
"Yeah," Jubilee said as the others again nodded in agreement. "Maybe they won't have much longer before they're puttin' that collar to use."
As the boys looked at them in surprise, the girls threw back their heads in thrilling laughter.
Sean did not set Emma down until they were inside his quarters, and there, upon the blankets on his bed, Emma saw her little one, peacefully kneading the blankets. Her Precious looked as calm and contented as though she had never heard Emma's scream, and as Emma rushed to her and took her in her arms, the look in the cat's eyes told her otherwise. She had known, Emma realized as the Persian's tail wrapped lovingly around her arm and she began a deep purr, exactly what she had been doing all along.
He had kissed her, Emma remembered, kissed her, melted her to her very core, and literally stolen her breath away -- none of which she would have ever dared to allow him to do if she had been in her right frame of mind, but Precious' disappearance had scared her far more than anything else ever had. She turned to face the man of her dreams now, the man who meant so much to her but the knowledge of which she had only ever shared with Precious, knowing that her beloved feline could never speak a word of her growing love for the remarkable Irish man to any one. "Sean?"
Though he would have loved to have heard her say the words that would mean everything to him if only she would utter them, he knew she had been through a great deal in the last few moments and feared that she might still lack the courage to say what he so longed to hear. "It's okay, Em," he spoke quietly, once more closing the physical distance that separated them, "ye din't have tae say it." He pressed a finger to her mouth to silence her, then replaced his finger with his lips.
This time, Sean let himself linger. Heat seared through them both from the light touch of his lips against her own, and then he deepened the kiss ever so slowly. She nearly whimpered against his mouth as she opened her own, admitting him permission, and he swept his tongue into her mouth. His arms circled around her waist and pulled her so close that the cat who both had claimed as their own barely had room to breathe between the pressure of their heated bodies.
His hands caressed her, one hand moving gradually up to her face where he stroked her with touches as light as a feather. Emma's eyes drifted shut, and the trust she showed in him thrilled him. His tongue thrust deeper into her mouth, boldening his exploration of her sweetness until a frustrated "Meow!" squealed out from between them.
Sean and Emma separated just enough to allow Precious room to squirm her way out of Emma's arms. She leapt from her, jumped back onto the bed, and turned around, her tail wrapping around her beautiful body, to glare at them. Both mutants easily read the expression that shone clearly in her emerald eyes: How dare you!
"Like mother, like daughter," Sean chuckled.
Emma glanced at him, a wry grin teasing the corners of her mouth that was still warm from his embrace. "Indeed?"
"Aye," Sean replied with a wink as he wrapped his arms back around her slender waist and pulled her to him. She did not fight him, and his smile grew. Now that he had her, he was never letting her go!
"I suppose she does take after me," Emma relented with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "I do believe this entire encounter is her scheme."
"Oh, really now?"
"It must be," she replied in a hushed voice, her forehead pressing slightly against his as she drew as close to him as she could be without sharing the same skin, "for only she knew how I feel about you . . . "
Sean's heart skipped a beat, as it so oft did when this remarkable woman was near. "An' how is that?"
Emma draped her arms over Sean's shoulders and lightly clasped her hands behind his blonde head. "I love you, Sean Cassidy," she spoke and was about to speak her thanks that Precious had given her the courage, or what she would have called foolishness at one time, to admit that to him but Sean recaptured her lips before she could.
As they sealed their love with a fiery kiss that sent both soaring to heights of pleasure neither had ever known before, Sean could not help silently remarking that the adage he had spoken was indeed true. Both females were wondrous ladies in their own rights, and he could only hope and pray that he'd get to spend the rest of his life with them. He knew right then that only they would complete his life and that without either one, he would be miserable.
Emma rubbed against him much like Precious would have rubbed her head against his hand. She would never let him go, and together they would experience every happiness their world had to offer.
The End