You all have to understand how saddening this is. I can't believe this piece is coming to an end, so is this year. It makes you wonder how time flies. Well, we humans cannot pursue immortality itself, but to seek immortality within memories. (I'm feeling really touchy, ok?) Again, please give me any suggestion on how to improve, and also, if you wanna read fanfic on other books, movies or even songs, write it to me on the reviews or give me a private messaging. I'll sure to do my best. Here it goes, the epilogue.
If my dear love were but the child of states,
It might for Fortune's bastard be unfather'd'
As subject to Time's love or to Time's hate,
Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gather'd.
No, it was builded far from accident;
It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls
Under the blow of thrilled discontent,
Whereto the inviting time our fashion calls:
It fears not policy, that heretic,
Which works on leases of short-number'd hours,
But all alone stands hugely politic,
That it nor grows with heat nor drowns with showers.
To this I witness call the fools of time,
Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime.
Sonnet 124
It has been exactly three year since the fall of Mortmain. Tessa was beginning to count the days till Will's promised return. She had not seen him since that day he left the funeral, though occasionally, she would hear news about him, slaughtering a doomsday monster in Antarctica, stopping a mayhem in India, but never in England. In fact, all his doings were never even close to Britain. He was a hero, admired by many, and these years she had become a mother.
A few weeks after the funeral, it was apparent to everyone that she was pregnant. Brother Enoch had pronounced she was going to deliver a pair of twins. However, to her relieve, the shadow hunters never really asked her who the father was. Charlotte and Henry had kept her under their roof, becoming a pair of over-protective godparents. In these few years, Tessa had repetitively her worth in the Institute, leading the investigation effort of the cousil, and she tried to raise her children in the London Institute.
Looking in the mirror, she can see her body and face that used to slight, becoming more swollen. Only her eyes seemed the same, she hoped Will would still have some clue who this woman is.
She straightened her dress, tried to summon an authoritarian-like face, and headed out her room. Almost immediately as she stepped out the corridor, she heard a scream and knew she needed it.
She hurried down to the dining room and her heart was pounding. "William? Harriet? Where are you?"
"Up here, mother!" The little boy said, dangling upside-down the curtains.
"William, you get right down here." He descended, obviously unwillingly. Together with him, a girl climbed down shakily down.
"WHAT in the angel's name are you doing with your sister?" She stared straight into his eyes.
"Nothing, I swear." But his eyes were too wide; she thought bemusedly, he could not lie as convincingly as his father. He had Will's blue eyes, but somehow, with the mixture of Tessa's shape shifting genes, the moment they took him under the afternoon sunlight to examine, his hair turned miraculously golden, like a ray of sunshine. His twin sister, on the other hand, looked vaguely oriental, with ink black hair and high cheekbones, but her had unmistakably, Tessa's grey eyes.
"It's not my fault," she said in her high shrill.
"Get dressed, we're leaving for the city of bones soon." It was the day of victory, and the day of death. She knew it was mundane of her, going to commemorate Jem every year, but she could not bear the thought of Jem truly leaving her, leaving them. After spending some moment in a quiet corner of the silent city, she was about to leave with the twin when she saw a figure in the corner of her eye. Alarmed, she whirled around and saw no one. Was it Will, she pondered, had he finally come back? Now, as a mother of two, was she ready for Will? For a thing, she did not know any other time she could be more ready. She was much more mature, compared to when she first came to England. The presence of Harriet was a constant reminder of Jem, but the reminder no longer brought a jab of pain. Instead, it brought back a gentle kind of sweetness, and Jem was in the past. Yes, she thought, I am ready.
"Mommy, are you alright?" Harriet's big wide eyes starred at Tessa.
"Yes, I'm fine dear." She hugged her in one arm, William in the other, and there was her little family and almost her whole world.
In one sunny afternoon, Tessa had let her children loose in the Institute's yard. Soon they were running around together with Henry Jr., and she was watching them from a distance.
Suddenly, a person appeared out of nowhere, and was approaching her. It was… Will? The dark hair and pale complexion… it had to be. She rushed towards him, and it WAS Will. He looked like he has aged at least ten years, when in fact, he had only left for three years. He was smiling sadly, but she grinning at him. Together, they embraced, and Will's lips found Tessa's. Tessa forgot about the children for the first time in years, and kissed him back.
Slowly, she realized the infernal racket of the children had ceased. Releasing Will, she saw that the twins were running towards them. Will looked slightly puzzle, then his frown was gone and understood.
"Our children?" he asked. She found it hard to speak, so she nodded.
"Daddy!" She did not know how the twins knew, but maybe they knew in their blood they were somehow part of Will as well Jem and Tessa.
Both kneeling down, Will and Tessa held the twins, close to their hearts. Tessa felt a kind of relieve, one that came a bit late, but came none the less. Deep in her heart, Tessa knew that a torturous chapter of her life had finally ended, and a new and hopeful one had just begun.
~End~