Last chapter! Thanks for coming on this little ride with us, it's been a blast to share this ditty, and to my fellow collaborators, you guys are awesome and I hope I did it justice!

This is pure fluff. As always, let me know what you think, and ENJOY!

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The early hours of morning had come to be their time; just the two of them sitting in his office while he settled Amelia back to sleep, desperately willing his insomnia to leave him alone for a few hours. He loved these times, when the house was totally quiet and everyone was asleep. Tonight he was feeling especially melancholic – it was the kind of mood that would bring on troubling dreams; not quite violent enough to cause him to wake the house, but just disturbing enough to rouse him from sleep. Spending time with a weary baby in his arms kept those dreams at bay a little longer, and he cherished it.

Tonight was especially poignant; it was Amelia's last night alone with them. Ruby was being discharged tomorrow and she and Christopher were planning to stay one night in Ballarat before taking their little family home to Adelaide.

Lucien was hardest effected, naturally, and wasn't afraid to show it.

He had forgotten, in his lifetime of grief, how lovely it was to actively parent. With Li he had been hands-on but often absent; work always took a precedent, as it did for so many men of his age and generation. He was present for the fun stuff – the family holidays or the bedtime stories. But the day-to-day was so often left to Mei Lin and their nanny. He forgot just how much work babies were, but also how much joy they could bring. Tiny little people still being formed by the world, as yet untouched by its cruelties and injustices. Just spending time with Amelia made all the pain of yesteryear feel easier to carry.

"I'm going to miss you, Miss Millie" he said to her quietly, smiling as her fingers slipped uncoordinated into his mouth. She was still fascinated by his beard, and grabbed it whenever she was held close enough to get a grip. He took her fingers gently between his teeth and chomped on them dramatically, making noises that brought a giant smile to her face. On her bottom gum, right in front, the tip top of her first tooth was coming through the surface of the skin, white against an otherwise pink grin.

The baby liked the sound of his voice, he thought, and even at her fussiest she could be calmed down if he just spoke for long enough. So far he had talked her through every one of his patient files for the day and sung her a Chinese lullaby that Li loved, the words dredged up from the back of his memory. But still she wouldn't settle; tonight was a fussy night, her gums aching the closer her teeth got to breaking, and he brought her downstairs to avoid waking Jean.

Come tomorrow everything would be different – nights would go back to being quiet and lonely affairs, their days would no longer be dictated around the organised chaos of a baby's schedule, and the house would remain perfectly spotless, devoid of any rattles or bibs or teething rings around the place. It was always going to be that way and yet still the sadness took him over, and he cuddled Millie close where she sat against his chest, the two of them reclined in his office chair.

He and Jean made a good pair, he thought, with the help of their little village of friends and family. They would have run a wonderful home, in another life that he rarely (if ever) let himself think about. This dysfunctional family had found their rhythm with one another, and Amelia – for all she was a new and impermanent fixture – had fit right into their mould. Not having her around would be like losing a limb, and he wondered how Jean would cope with him being her shadow for a time, seeking out her company as comfort. Of course, he sought out her company anyway, because he adored her, but he could already feel his neediness building and Amelia hadn't even left yet, so Jean would undoubtedly have to extricate him from her side in due course.

"Can I tell you a secret?" he said, voicing his ponderings out loud in the hopes of getting Amelia to fall back asleep. The baby looked at him, and he shifted her to lay in the crook of his elbow, tucked up all safe. "Yes, I think that would be alright. You won't tell anyone else"

He stood, and started slowly pacing around the surgery, swaying as he walked, the movement always calming. The door was almost completely closed to muffle the sounds, and only one lamp sat on in the corner, leaving a distinct feeling of night time over the place. It was positively serene.

"I don't think anyone here truly comprehends just how much I love your Grandma Jean" he said. He kissed Millie's forehead. Her eyes were starting to blink slower and heavier.

"Some people think we're together because we live together and it's convenient" he said. He knew the rumours that had abounded for years; the persistent negativity the dogged them just because they happened to be near the same age and under the one roof. Just because a romance had eventuated didn't mean his hackles weren't raised in Jean's defence.

"Some people say unkind things about Jean" he said. "A lot of people say unkind things about me"

He huffed at himself. So many unkind things. He fished a dummy off his desk and put it in Amelia's mouth, sensing she was only a few moments from sleep. Sure enough, she started suckling almost immediately, and her eyes got heavier still.

"But I want to share something with you, Miss Millie" he said. He continued his pacing, softly patting her bum as he went. "I love your Grandma Jean all the way to the Milky Way and back again"

Her hand came up and hit him in the jaw softly, then fell back against her body, uncoordinated.

"Past the moon and all the stars, beyond the universe"

She gurgled around her dummy, obviously fighting sleep in any way she could, trying to keep herself awake with sound and movement, the battle almost lost. She lifted her eyes to look at him and Lucien smiled, the look on her face caught between consternation and interest.

"Yes, I know, it's true. You can look at me like that all you like, but I'll tell you something, your Grandma is the most amazing person I've ever had the pleasure of knowing"

The baby's eyes blinked closed, almost stayed that way, opened again, and then closed once more for good. He kept walking and bouncing, enjoying her weight in his arms.

"She is kind, exceedingly generous. She is forgiving, Lord knows she is, or else why would she be with me?"

The baby sighed in his arms, one last act before she drifted off for good, and Lucien kissed her brow as he kept walking, this time for his own comfort.

"She's so clever too. I think one day you might be just as clever"

The stillness of night settled over him, the last person in the house to be awake, and he walked a few more paces and made sure to take note of everything – the smell of the room and of Millie's soft baby hair, the temperature (middle-of-the-night cold, but not freezing the way Ballarat was prone to be), the sound of his footfalls as he walked the room, the exact brightness of the soft yellow lamp in the corner and the way it played shadows on the walls.

So many of his memories were fragments of the whole; if he had known when he was younger, before the heartache set in, to cherish instants like this, he would have taken far more rigorous notes and never taken for granted that it could be gone in an instant. If he had known back then that lazy days with his wife and daughter would be taken away forever, he would have hidden them away from the world and spent every waking minute making memories to treasure. But he was older and wiser now, and so he committed every tiny detail to memory to savour and relish for the rest of his life. His second grandchild; the next generation, and namesake of his beloved future-wife. His heart swelled with the heat of gratitude, that for all the pain he had landed here, in this exact moment, with all the promise of the future nestled safely asleep in his arms.

"I love your Grandma Jean so much" he said, his voice cracking with the emotion. "And I love our family. And I love you, Miss Millie. So very much"

He landed his lips softly on her head, closed his eyes, and breathed in. When he pulled away he ran the pad of his finger gently down her cheek, and she didn't stir which made him smile.

"I'm the luckiest man alive" he whispered.

As though sensing it, he turned to see if someone was standing at the door, and sure enough there in the gap was Jean, her shoulder resting on the door jam and a look on her face like she was close to tears. He wasn't sure what she overheard, but it was enough.

"We're lucky to have you too, Lucien" she said softly, and pushed herself off the doorway to walk towards him.

He smiled at her in that way that made her knees weak; in that way that conveyed without a shadow of a doubt that he was madly in love with her. He was a vision that pulled at very particular heartstrings, standing there in the dim light with her granddaughter in his arms asleep, talking about how deeply he was in love with their life. In love with her. She stopped right in front of him, a smile on her face. Her hands came up to cup his elbows, a gesture like she was helping him hold the baby, and she stood taller, the two of them leaning in to share a soft kiss over the top of Amelia's head. His eyes stayed closed when they broke, their foreheads staying together for just a moment, and one of her hands raised up to cup his cheek, stroking his beard softly.

He opened his eyes to her touch, smiling at her with open reverence.

"I think she's asleep now" whispered Jean, her gaze flicking over his face as though making her very own special memory.

"I suppose I should go put her down" he whispered back. Jean gave him a look of understanding.

"We'll be sure to invite her back for a visit again soon" said Jean, knowing that he was already mourning the loss of his cuddles. "Easter isn't so far away"

"Egg hunt?"

She huffed at him, holding back her laughter so as not to disturb Amelia, eyes shining. "If you like"

"Marvellous"

She grinned at him, and then nudged his arm just a little to get him moving towards the door. He led the way, Jean falling just a half-step behind his shoulder, following him upstairs to Amelia's room. He placed her gently in her cot and they waited a breath or two to see if she would rouse. She didn't, dead to the world, and her dummy fell out of her mouth in sleep. He took it and placed it off to the side of her head, and they smiled before tip-toeing out of the room again. He pulled the door behind him, leaving it ajar the way Jean liked, and then turned to face her where she stood in the hallway.

This was their goodnight; she would retreat to her room across the hall and he would proceed downstairs. Not for much longer, but for now that's the way it was. He stepped up to her in her space, and she watched him with a defiant glint in her eye, not stepping back, her head tilted to be able to look up at him. He smiled and placed his hands on her arms, stroking up to her shoulders and back down to her elbows.

She leaned in and kissed him, slow and deep, the kind of kiss that tried to say so much. He returned it, and his hands slid slowly around her back to hold her in place at her shoulder blades, encasing her in the circle of his arms as her own came around his waist to rest against his back.

They broke their kiss but didn't move away from one another, and she leaned into him demanding a hug which he was all too happy to provide, pulling her firm against his chest and clutching her there. They held on to one another tightly, unmoving, and the swell of gratitude built up in his chest again as he took stock of this moment and realised this was his future. For the rest of their lives they could be like this; surrounded by family, wrapped in one another, and looking forward to future visits from tiny babies whom he adored.

"I love you" he whispered, tucking his nose in her bed hair, his eyes closing.

"I love you too, Lucien. So much" she said. She turned her head to nose at his neck, placed a quick kiss against his chest, and then reluctantly pulled away, her hands lingering on him even as she initiated their break. He never wanted to let her go, but it was the middle of the night and they both needed their sleep.

"Goodnight, Jean" he said, watching her step towards her room.

"Goodnight" she replied. She stood at the doorway and watched as he reluctantly turned around and headed downstairs, turning once to look at her with a smile from the stairwell, before he disappeared for the night.

She went to bed feeling, not for the first time, that she had to count her blessings and count them again, just to be sure they were truly as numerous and wonderful as they seemed. It felt dream-like, some days, to measure her life and see that it was so rich and so full of all the love a person could want. They had their trials – everybody did – but somehow the road had led her here, and she was overcome with the need to hold it tightly, no matter the hardships or challenges living with Lucien Blake brought.

And as for the man himself, he slept soundly that night, a sense of rare peace filling him from his hair to his toes. He had a family once more; different from before, and adopted in many ways with their house full of misfits, but they were all a family nonetheless. Jean's sons had accepted him into the fold and Christopher trusted him with his daughter, which brought Lucien no small amount of pride. His own child and first grandchild were safe and happy with Mei Lin, and even if he longed to be able to see them in person it was more than he thought possible only a couple of short years ago, and he could accept it. And soon Jean would be his wife. That thought alone was enough to bring a smile to his face, unbridled joy in his heart. He slept soundly that night and dreamed only of Easter Egg Hunts and the sound of children laughing.