A Surprise

Epilogue

"Hana?"

The girl literally jumps when Jen calls her name, and turns around with eyes wide as saucers. "Oh," Hana says, one hand still placed over her heart. "It's just you." She blurts out, then quickly realizes that her words might be considered rude. "I mean, hello, Mr. Lee. How are you?"

"I'm well, thank you." Jen replies, stifling a laugh. Ruki's obviously spent the day terrorizing her poor assistant while they were busy setting up for tonight. "Do you know where Ruki is?"

"Miss Makino – I mean, Mrs. Lee," Hana amends, casting him an apologetic look that soon turns into a rather amusing expression of confusion with a dash of awkwardness as she tries to figure out how she should address Ruki when speaking to her boss' husband.

"She prefers Miss Makino," Jen supplies helpfully, taking pity on the girl.

"Right," Hana smiles nervously, heaving a sigh of relief. "Miss Makino is in the powder room. That's just down the hallway, next to the ladies' room. She said she was going to get ready there."

"Well, the party's about to start so I think I should go check on her." Jen tells her, sparing a look at his watch. Fifteen minutes until people are supposed to start arriving. "Thank you, Hana."

He leaves the girl to whatever it is she's doing - probably wrapping up some last-minute preparations along with the rest of the people in the room. Jen's actually surprised Ruki didn't stick around until every last detail was settled and to her liking; she's put more effort into this event than their wedding. The thought makes him laugh as he knocks on the door that bears the words powder room.

"Who is it?" A muffled voice calls out, and he hears the click of heels on tiles as Ruki approaches the door.

"If this were a fairytale, you'd have recognized me by my knock alone," Jen says, smiling when the door opens to reveal Ruki, one hand holding her hair up in a loose ponytail.

"Unfortunately, you're not Prince Charming." Ruki quips with a smirk, walking off. He locks the door behind him and follows her to a long mirror, watching as she twists her hair up. She tries to pin her bangs up a few times but gives up when they fall out of place for the fourth time, and leaves them to frame her face.

Jen leans against the counter and turns to face her. "You look nice," He smiles as Ruki tugs on her sleeves. She's wearing a black jumpsuit, and it's nice enough that she won't look out of place tonight in a sea of formal wear. The fabric looks like the same airy material her wedding dress was made of, and Jen remembers that Ruki had developed a fondness for chiffon after that dress. She fusses over the neckline, seemingly unhappy with the way the top stretches across her bust. The jumpsuit does look quite… snug. The slightly wider flare of her hips is clearly outlined but Jen doubts anyone would believe his wife gave birth just four months ago.

"Yamaki warned me not to show up in jeans," Ruki mutters, pulling at the waistband of her outfit. It's not sitting quite where she wants it to but at least this is more comfortable than a dress… especially since most of them wouldn't zip up past her chest. She turns to Jen, reaching out to fix his tie. It's a bit of a joke between them, that Ruki's more skilled at knotting a tie thanks to her years of private school uniforms. "You look pretty good yourself. I haven't seen you wear this shirt in a long time, though."

"I had to change twice," Jen laughs at the memory. "The second time around, I was already running late so I just grabbed whatever I could find."

Ruki frowns. "I told you not to carry her around after you've changed."

"But how could I resist?" He asks, looking rather helpless. "You know she does that thing where she reaches out for you with those grabby little fists and her huge baby eyes."

"Yeah, and then she spits up all over you." Ruki reminds him, speaking from experience. "And you've got to stop giving in to her. You're whipped, and a four-month-old baby is calling the shots."

"Your four-month-old baby is calling the shots," Jen grins, winding his arms around Ruki's waist. "You know Makino women are my weakness."

"Oh, now she's my baby?" Amusement laces her words as Ruki settles both hands on Jen's shoulders to balance herself when he suddenly pulls her closer.

"She's always your baby," He shrugs. "It's just that she happens to be mine too, when she does impressive stuff or behaves exceptionally well."

"You are unbelievable." Ruki laughs, bringing her hands up to frame Jen's face. She draws him closer and finally kisses him.

"I've been wanting to do that all day," Jen tells her when she pulls away.

"Jen, I left home less than three hours ago."

"Four hours ago," He corrects. "Besides, I'm allowed to be unreasonably needy and clingy. We're still newlyweds."

"We are parents," Ruki steps away, putting some distance between herself and Jen's hands. "Not crazy hormonal teenagers. We went through that phase ten years ago."

"Yes, and then we became crazy hormonal college students, and after that we graduated into crazy hormonal grown-ups, and now we're crazy hormonal parents."

"Unbelievable," Ruki mutters, shaking her head. She reaches out to grab her clutch, swatting Jen's hand away as he tries to pull her back in. "Come on, you. We don't have time to be crazy hormonal; we need to be sensible grown-ups for this thing and then we need to rush home to be responsible parents."

Jen gives in with a sigh, and wraps an arm around Ruki's waist as they leave the powder room. "Did you ever think you'd say that?"

"About us being sensible grown-ups and responsible parents?" Ruki asks. He nods and she goes on. "No, but remember that list of things I thought I'd never say?"

"That should be an real list, just so that we can see how many things we've actually crossed off." Jen suggests.

"My point exactly," Ruki smiles as they enter the ballroom. A quick headcount tells Ruki that almost everyone is here, so she leads Jen to their table and they sit down just as Yamaki takes the stage to deliver a quick speech on the partnership between Hypnos and Prometheus. He touches on the mutual benefits they'll reap, with Prometheus getting access to Hypnos' information and funding so that the two organizations can build a better future for all of humanity. By the end of Yamaki's speech, she's convinced her boss has probably talked quite a number of their guests into contributing to the project.

Doctor Allaire's speech, on the other hand, seems to go on and on without really drawing any reaction from the crowd. Ruki's always known that Yamaki is very efficient at playing the PR game but Prometheus' lead scientist and his struggle to deliver his speech makes her boss look like a celebrity born to be on stage.

Halfway through, Jen leans in and whispers: "this would have been so much more bearable if the speeches were scheduled after dinner."

"It's a buffet," Ruki mutters. "There is no after dinner, there's only a second helping and a third and so on. If this happened after the buffet starts, no one would be paying attention."

"True," He concedes with a shrug and they join in on a round of applause as Allaire finally wraps up his speech. Hana takes the stage then, and she thanks both men for their inspiring words before announcing the start of dinner, much to everyone's delight. That should have been Ruki up there, but she'd pulled rank and gotten her assistant to do it instead. Hana looks much more comfortable on stage, anyway.

"Come on, then," Jen says, pulling her to her feet. "I know for a fact that you skipped lunch, and there's no way you had anything to eat here."

"Hey," Ruki protests. "I had half a sandwich… I think." Jen thanks her for proving his point and leads her to the buffet, only to find Yamaki in their way.

"Jenrya," He smiles, clapping the younger man on his shoulder. "If you don't mind leaving food and your wife behind for a bit, I'd like to introduce you to some people." The older man points out a group of people across the room; Janyu stands amongst them.

"Sure," Jen shrugs, turning to Ruki first. "Just make sure you get something to eat, alright? I'll be back in a bit."

She waves him off and watches as Yamaki leads the way to the group. Doctor Allaire is the first to greet them and Ruki laughs, wondering how Jen is going to deal with him. The man is brilliant but long winded, so she probably won't be seeing Jen anytime soon.

At least the event is going off without a hitch, though. Ruki had deliberately opted for a buffet rather than a sit-down dinner, hoping to encourage people to move around and mingle. Now, she observes complete strangers striking up conversations with each other as they navigate the buffet line. As Ruki joins the line, she finds herself next to Evelyn Belgarde, a scientist she vaguely recognizes from a few of her meetings with Prometheus. As soon as the woman speaks up, Ruki sees why she's always been so quiet during their meetings.

"Ruki, yes?" Evelyn smiles, pronouncing her name with a heavy French accent. She chooses her words carefully, looking quite uncertain of herself. "It is… so nice to see you."

"It's nice to see you too, Evelyn," Ruki switches to French and hopes that she can still communicate in the language. As far as extra languages go, Jen gets more use out of his Mandarin than she does of her French here in Japan, and she might be a bit rusty at this. Still, the whole point of this evening is to foster strong ties between Hypnos and Prometheus, and her attempt at making Evelyn more comfortable instantly endears her to the scientist.

"Oh," The woman laughs in delight, her eyes lighting up as she reverts to her native tongue. "You speak beautiful French. How did you pick it up?"

"When I was younger," Ruki explains as the line moves and they pick up plates. "My mother got into acting and thought of moving to France, since they were offering her better roles than most other film studios. We ended up staying here, but she still dragged me along one summer to promote her movie so I decided to pick up the language, just to make things easier for myself. And I had a partner to practice with, so it was easier for us to learn together and converse in the language to make sure we didn't forget it."

"It's always easier when you have a friend," Evelyn agrees as they help themselves to the food. "I'm trying to pick up Japanese now, since Doctor Allaire is making me part of the liaison team. I tried a few years ago but it was so difficult. Now though, with five other scientists, we're all helping each other."

"I'm sure you'll get the hang of it pretty soon," Ruki smiles encouragingly. "The writing might be a bit harder but all of our work will be in English, so at least you won't have to run everything through Google Translate."

Evelyn shakes her head, seemingly in dismay. "English," She groans, handing Ruki the serving spoon once she's had her pick of vegetables. "That is another headache entirely."

"Tell me about it," Ruki mutters. "I've been learning that my whole life and some of their sayings still don't make sense to me."

"Especially the American ones, no?" Evelyn agrees. "And the spelling differences! With an O or a U? With a U or no U? Ah, my poor head."

Ruki laughs once more as Evelyn pulls exaggeratedly pained looks for comical effect, and she's so absorbed by the scientist's antics that she nearly shrieks in surprise when someone places a hand on her back. "Well, it looks like you've made a friend."

"Jen!"

"Oh," Evelyn smiles, quickly arranging her features into a normal smile. There's not a hint of embarrassment over being caught by a stranger while making funny faces, and Ruki decides instantly that she likes this woman. "Is this your French partner, then?"

"No, that was Renamon, actually. My Digimon partner?"

"Ah, yes!" Evelyn nods in recognition as Jen turns away from them to pick up a plate of his own. "Such a beautiful fox. Is she not here tonight?"

"She's at home, actually." Ruki says, wondering if she should add more to it. Evelyn seems nice enough, so she offers up some personal information. "She offered to babysit for the evening."

"Yes," Evelyn waves one hand around, as if grasping for a piece of conversation she'd overheard. "I heard about a baby, I think. Congratulations! What is the name, if I may ask?"

"Rika," The name draws Jen's attention, and he turns back to them. For his sake, Ruki switches to English. "And this is my husband, Jen."

"Hello," Evelyn reaches out to shake his hand. "You were in some of the meetings too, yes?"

Jen nods. "A few of them, but I was mostly just holed up in R&D."

"Research?" Evelyn asks uncertainly.

"Yes, and development."

"Then you are part of the team!" Evelyn smiles warmly. "I look forward to working with you." She turns back to Ruki, but is interrupted before she can say anything.

"Evelyn!" A woman walks up to them and tugs on her arm. "Doctor Allaire is looking for you," She hisses in rapid French. "Come, quickly."

"Yes, yes, I will." Evelyn waves the woman off, and turns to them with an apologetic look. Jen looks a bit lost, and concerned by the newcomer's sharp tone.

"The boss needs you?" Ruki asks.

"Unfortunately," Evelyn sighs. "It would appear so. I will see you later?"

"Sure," She agrees. "We'll be around."

"Good," The scientist smiles, picking up her plate. "It was nice meeting you," She says to Jen in English before rushing off to the table where Allaire is now holding court, summoning various people to his side. The doctor looks a lot more confident and bossy, now that he's off-stage.

"She seems like a nice lady," Jen offers as they navigate the buffet table.

"I like her." Ruki shrugs, piling food onto his plate.

"If you keep doing that," Jen warns her with an amused smile. "I'm going to make you eat half of this stuff."

Ruki holds up her own plate, which is already full even though they're only halfway down the buffet table. "Why do you think I'm using yours?"

Jen laughs and lets her have at it. She's probably going to end up just picking at little bits of everything, leaving him to finish the rest. "You only like her because you get to show off your French," He jokes, getting back to their conversation.

"Is that why you hang out with Chinese people?" Ruki retorts, trying to find room for some salad. She gives up and hands her plate to Jen, telling him to head back to their table while she gets them drinks. They settle in to eat a while later, entertaining various guests as they wander up to the main table where Jen and Ruki are seated next to Reika, who steals both of their phones to squeal over pictures of Rika.

Reika hands his phone back to Jen when an alarm goes off. "Is that your cue to leave?" She asks, passing Ruki's phone back as well.

"Yes," Ruki sighs, getting to her feet. "I had no idea it was eleven already."

"We've been here forever," Reika tells her. "I thought you would have noticed that by the fact that I've drained half of your battery just looking at pictures."

"Why don't you come over and see the real kid sometime?" Jen suggests, standing up. "We're free this weekend."

The older woman quickly agrees and they work out a time and date before bidding her goodnight. Yamaki finally returns to the table just as they're leaving. He thanks them for their work these past few months and lets Ruki talk him into accompanying Reika when she visits this Sunday.

After a few more quick goodbyes to Janyu, Evelyn and Hana, as well as familiar faces they encounter on their way out, Jen and Ruki finally leave the hotel behind and head home. Ruki kicks off her heels as soon as they get into the lift and holds the shoes in one hand, padding along in bare feet down the tiled hallway of their floor until they reach home.

"She's asleep," Renamon says as soon as the door opens, letting them know to keep their voices down.

"It took us a while and a lot of silly faces, so try not to wake her up." Terriermon adds with a yawn, ambling off to his room. He's ready to go to sleep now that he knows both Ruki and Jen have safely reached home.

"Thanks, both of you." Ruki sighs as she bends down to carefully place her heels on the floor instead of just dropping them, knowing how loud they can be when they hit the hardwood floor. "I don't know what we'd do without you," She tells Renamon, sitting down next to her partner.

"It is no burden to care for Rika," Renamon says quietly, waving off the need for gratitude. "She is as dear to us as she is to you."

Ruki doesn't doubt her words. Renamon has taken quite a liking to the baby, and she's their go-to babysitter these days. When Ruki had first returned to work, she'd nearly had a breakdown over what to do with Rika, even though her grandmother offered to come over and take care of the baby. After numerous disasters during the short two months she'd been on maternity leave, including one that had almost ruined the entire partnership with Prometheus, Yamaki had been desperate to get Ruki back to work and had drawn her away from the temptation of staying at home with Rika by offering her a flexible schedule and short hours. As long as she gets her work done, her boss had said, he doesn't care if she spends only an hour a day at the office. Torn between being a stay-at-home mom and helping out her boss, who was obviously in distress, Ruki had been at a loss until Renamon had stepped in, offering to care for Rika personally. Now she spends all of her weekday mornings with the baby until Ruki gets home at noon, and is always happy to babysit when the baby's parents are called away for meetings or events. In short, Renamon has been a lifesaver these past few months.

"Still," Jen insists, coming to stand near the sofa. "We'd be lost without you, Renamon."

The fox stands up. "You are most welcome," She says finally, with a smile. "I suggest we all get some sleep now," Renamon reaches for the remote and turns off the TV. "Today has been quite long and you have one more day of work ahead of you."

Her Tamer groans. "I totally forgot today isn't Friday." Ruki tells the both of them, looking exhausted at the idea of tomorrow. She's got a full day ahead of her, with afternoon meetings to look forward to instead of a day with her daughter.

Renamon laughs and tells her she can live through one more day, and bids them goodnight before she retires for the evening.

"Come on," Jen says, pulling Ruki to her feet. "Let's just check in on Rika and then we can get to sleep."

Ruki takes the lead and nearly runs to the nursery; today's the first time she's been away from the baby for nearly the whole day. Renamon left the door slightly ajar, so she doesn't have to worry about fiddling with the doorknob as she slowly pushes the door open to reveal their sleeping baby. Jen trails in after her, and they slowly make their way over to the crib.

With her blankets carefully tucked in and a tiny bolster next to her, Rika sleeps peacefully and soundly. Her face scrunches up every so often, presumably in reaction to whatever little baby dream she's having. Ruki is almost scared to reach out and brush back loose curls that are starting to take on a strawberry-blonde tint.

She holds her breath when Rika breathes out a tiny whine the way only babies can, but thankfully her daughter sleeps on. Jen takes his turn saying good night to the baby before they both quietly tip-toe out of the room, coming to a stop by the door. He leans against the frame and she rests her weight against him, and together they watch their sleeping daughter like the creepy stalker parents Ruki sometimes thinks they are. But creepy stalkers or not, they're parents now. There are days when Ruki still can't quite wrap her head around it but the one thing she does know is that she loves being a mom.

"I want another one," She decides as Jen's hands wrap around her waist. "I mean, give me a year or two – I want to enjoy our time with her." Besides, Ruki's nowhere near ready to go through nine months of pregnancy and half a day of labor all over again. "But after that we can work on another one."

Jen is quiet for the longest time, and she turns around to check on him. "What's wrong?"

"It's just," He smiles but it looks shaky. "We're married, we have a beautiful baby and you're telling me you want another one." One hand reaches up to frame the left side of her face. "Sometimes I'm terrified that this might all be a dream." Jen admits in a whispered voice.

Ruki settles one hand on his forearm and, with an unnaturally sweet smile, digs her nails into his skin. "There," She says simply. "Not a dream."

"Ouch!" Jen hisses, careful to keep his voice down. He pulls his arm away from Ruki and inspects the damage. "You know, a simple pinch would have been enough to prove your point."

"You didn't marry me because I'm the kind who'd just pinch you," Ruki shrugs.

He shoots her a thoughtful look. "You have a very long list of reasons why I didn't marry you." Ruki has nothing to say to that, so she turns back around to lean against his front while watching the rise and fall of their daughter's tiny chest.

"You know why I did marry you though?" Jen speaks up after a while, his lips close enough to her ear that his exhale sends a few strands of her bangs flying.

"You have a weakness for Makino women?" Ruki guesses, echoing his words from earlier this evening.

"Well," He says after a short pause, "that too, but mostly because I've been in love with you for as long as I can remember."

She laughs, nearly forgetting to clap a hand over her lips to keep the baby from waking. "Stop being so corny," Ruki tells him in between bouts of laughter.

"Fine," Jen says, hiding a laugh of his own against her shoulder. "But are you going to say it back?"

The laughter that was shaking her body comes to an abrupt stop. "You already know how I feel," She murmurs quietly.

"Yeah," He shrugs. "But sometimes it's nice to hear the words."

"Okay, fine," Ruki grumbles, turning around to face him. Her eyes are dancing with laughter. "I love you almost as much as I love that little munchkin of ours."

"Hey!" Jen cries, faking indignation. "She's been here for four months; I've been with you for a decade."

"Oh, come on," She grins. "As if you didn't instantly fall in love with her the minute you saw her."

"Yeah, but that's different." He insists. "I love the both of you equally."

"Fine," Ruki says, doing an impressive job of sounding bored and annoyed even as she laughs. She winds her arms around Jen's neck. "I love the both of you equally, too."

"Now you're just saying that to make me happy." Jen teases her.

Ruki rolls her eyes and pulls him closer. "Idiot," She mutters, covering his lips with her own to shut him up.

All these years later and it still works like a charm.

THE END

And that's the show, folks! It's been quite a ride – I had no idea I'd written sixty-something thousand words in a month, which must be some sort of personal record – and I think I'm all written out for now, but it was worth every late night last-minute writing binge. I'm off to recharge my batteries for now but I should be back before Christmas with the series of outtakes. Remember – if there's anything you want to see, drop a line! I'm accepting prompts until the twenty-first of December.

Well, here comes the huge drama queen thank-you speech: thank you to ZERO UNIT RGB, whose thoughtful reviews and messages have been such a delight. Your words were not only encouraging, but inspiring as well. There are some scenes in this story that I never would have written if we hadn't had our little fangirl exchanges. Thank you as well to LESMYSTIQUESTAR – your sweet reviews never failed to make me smile and always gave me a little push to keep writing, and if you just knew how much of a procrastinator I am, you'd know that's some sort of miracle. To PINK-WRITER, thank you for dropping a note even though you were late to the party. Most people don't really bother to say hi when they arrive towards the end.

But to the latecomers and the lurkers who've been here since the beginning, thank you as well. The reviews made this entire experience worthwhile but it was nice to know that I was writing for more than just a handful of people. It's so much more rewarding to write for ten people.

A huge thank you, as well, to AO3's NEODARKLIGHT. Your comments, especially the ones about Ryo, were eye-opening and have alerted me to an entire Digimon world I wasn't previously aware of. Your kind words were no less important, and I really appreciate them.

So… I guess that's it for now. Let's leave the new family alone for a bit and let them have some time to adapt to their new lives. If all works out though, we might drop in on them for a bit in the outtakes and see how they're doing, so this isn't goodbye just yet.

See you soon!

E Salvatore,

December 2014.