Dell's death was quite sudden, but not entirely unexpected—he was quite old, and at his age, dying of natural causes would definitely be enough. Out of all the family members, Jimmy was the most affected; he shed his tears, but it wasn't a drawn out grieving process. At the funeral at the beginning of December, it had not rained—the sun was shining as the pastor from their church conducted the graveside funeral service. After saying the final prayer over the coffin on its pyre, everyone left white roses in his memory. Everyone had worn black on such a beautiful day.

By Christmastime, a lot had gone on, but in the Darling family, December was a big month—after Toby's birthday and before Christmas, the children and Britta celebrated the feast of Saint Lucia at home every year on December 13. Aside from the lighting of candles and songs being sung with Elina playing the piano, sweet rolls were made for that evening. The sweet rolls weren't just for the children and Britta, but for everyone. Dot and Bette both liked them, but now they were a reminder of Mr. Loring, who had presented them to the conjoined twins on their first outing together. Jimmy liked them as well, but did not participate in the activities. Like attending church, it just wasn't for him. He managed to sneak a peek and watch his beloved youngest daughter use her powers of fire to light all the candles at once by concentrating on just one.

January started the new decade—it was now 1980, and with this new decade came great changes already in the first month. Toby, who had been applying to colleges all around the South, was not only accepted to two of the five he applied to, but he got a full boat football scholarship to the University of Alabama. This made everyone pretty happy, and Britta was proud that her son was getting an education. Annika, who still faced bullying from her younger brother for undergoing a sex change operation, was far from happy about his acceptance to college.

She had started taking testosterone treatments via injection the same month, and she had gone once a week to the hospital to get them. Her body size increased with enlarged muscles, her voice got even deeper, and a part of her external anatomy got bigger. Blood tests also were weekly, making two days out of the week deticated to doctor's visits. Annika was proud of herself and felt confident in her own skin for the first time, and even started to find a male name to go by; Annika was no more, and 'she' officially became a 'he' in the Darling household.

"Call me Adam," he said.

"Really?" Jimmy had asked. "That was a quick decision."

"Adam James Darling," his new son said, looking at his father with a smirk.

"Alright," Jimmy replied. "Adam."

Britta had watched her husband and new son hug roughly to celebrate the next phase of his transitioning to the male he was born to be. She still disapproved, and the day she found that stubble had grown on her 'daughter's' face, she was shocked. In fact, she didn't associate with Adam very much unless she had to, as if it were at dinner or being together with the family. Christopher and Jules also got used to their new older brother being around, but Toby was still shaky on accepting the issue. He had let some slurs fly out of his mouth, but as time progressed, he tried to keep his smart mouth under control and actually made an effort to try. The newly-enlarged muscles on his former sister's body were enough to send chills of fear down his spine—he did not want to get beaten.

In February, Jimmy had given his wife Britta a blood-red teardrop garnet pendant on a silver chain for Valentine's Day. He had surprised her when they woke up that morning, leaving the small, velvet box that contained on her bedside table. He was awake when she opened it, and her expression was priceless—the garnet sparkled to perfection, and the silver was sterling. It wasn't everyday he gave her jewelry, as the money to purchase it was not always readily available, but when he did, she loved every bit of it. As she kissed him out of gratitude, he remembered the first gift he had ever given her—it was Christmas 1953;

"Hey, how was the food?" he asked; she had been sitting in one of the pre-set audience chairs with her leg crossed over her other one and her hands on her lap.

"Very good," she said, looking at him.

"Did you like my present?" he asked with a charming smile. Britta's lips parted so a slight smile could form, but she had no idea what he was talking about.

"Huh?" He sat down next to her and looked into her eyes.

"I'll give you a hint. It was red," he stated, winking at her. Remembering the small ruby red heart on the gold chain, she nodded slowly as the image came to her mind.

"Oh," she said. "It was very…thoughtful. Vacker."

"What?"

"Oh, it's what we say when we describe something beautiful," Britta explained. Jimmy smiled warmly at her, gazing into her eyes and sighing.

"I'm very glad you liked it," he said. "I bet it will look beautiful on you, Britta."

The best part was that she hadn't known it was him. It wasn't like he had put his name on the tag, anyway. At the time, they hadn't even been together—they were good friends. She had been brought from Sweden by Elsa that October, and Jimmy befriended her even though her English was not very good. She got the chance to learn not only the language but what true friendship, and love, was like. That ruby red heart pendant was one of the only pieces of jewelry she had owned other than her wedding ring and a simple gold cross.

Christopher, who had met a local girl and had starting dating her on the week of Valentine's Day, had given her a box of chocolates and the best perfume he could buy with his own money. The girl was named Leanne, and she was a naturally charming individual from her soft-spoken voice laced with a Southern accent, to her dirty blonde-colored hair and her soft blue eyes. He met her while at the convenience store, and he had helped her reach for something while he was running out to get milk for the family. Jimmy and Britta had met her and got a very good first impression of her; she was so polite, yet very opinionated with topics like politics.

As for Elina, there was school on Valentine's Day; almost every subject bored her except for her Accelerated Algebra class. She had always been good in math, and every answer came easy to her. However, she hated the quadratic formula and polynomials—those just were ridiculous with crazy concepts. She understood them, but didn't like them. That night, once everyone was asleep, she heard a strange pattering sound on her windowsill. She was woken up, and she walked to the window to see David standing down on the grassy terrain and staring up at her. She opened her window and stared down at him in shock, seeing he had a single red rose in his hand.

"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair," David said, feigning a British accent; he sounded so well, but Elina was uncomfortable.

"David!" she hissed under a whisper. "Do you know what time it is?"

"I don't got a watch," he said. The girl rolled her eyes, moving her loose platinum hair behind her ear as she looked down at him condescendingly.

"No! David! Leave!" she hissed forcefully, emphasizing her point as she directed her finger toward the dirt road that connected the farm to the rest of town.

"I ain't leavin' 'til you accept my gift," he said stubbornly, the rose still in his hand.

"Gift?" She remembered the rose.

"Yes!" David whispered, his blue eyes gazing up in the darkness of late evening.

Elina reluctantly put on some shoes and a thick cardigan that had been resting on the back of her desk chair, quietly tip-toeing down the stairs to open the front door and step outside in the crisp air that almost nipped at her nose—it wasn't so cold that it froze the legs beneath her nightgown, but it was cool enough to make one think it was autumn rather than winter. Her long, snowy-blonde hair was loose and hung freely down her back, cascading in its waves like a waterfall in an enchanted forest; once David saw her, he approached her and presented her with the crimson red rose. As she took it, she felt a sharp prick in the tip of her middle finger—she looked to see that a thorn had punctured her skin, and it was bleeding.

"Ow!" she grunted.

"Oh, not again," David said, shaking his head.

"Damn," Elina whispered, taking the small puncture wound to her mouth to suck out the blood to make it stop bleeding. She looked over at David, feeling the fresh, iron-tasting blood flow into her mouth from the cut the thorn made, and her fiery gaze was contemptuous. I could get in trouble for this, she thought to herself, I just have to stay quiet.

"I told the florist to try and remove all the thorns, considerin' last time, you bled," he explained, keeping his voice as quiet as he could. Elian removed her finger from her mouth and looked down to see that a bit of blood was seeping out of the cut, so she bit at it until it stopped before looking at him to see a loving look in his eyes.

"I guess you're prone to thorn pricks," he said.

"I guess so," she answered.

"I…also got something else," he said, taking something from his pocket—it was a piece of paper.

"What could you possibly—"

"Just listen, alright?" David asked—Elina's tone of voice seemed to bite him where it hurt, but he persisted. He was very much attracted to her and wanted to make her his despite her father's wishes and her willfulness to follow the rules to save herself from discipline. She stood there and listened; it was a poem:

"Now that you are here
I have nothing to fear
With you is where I belong
I know it, I feel it so strong
Nothing has been more clear
That it is your love I hold so dear
Deep inside is the cry of my heart
I never ever want us to part
I am a hopeless, romantic man
Doing the best he can
To show you for sure
That my love for you is pure
I will do whatever it takes
I don't care about the stakes
You and only you I want
A prayer I know God will grant."

As she listened, she felt somewhat uncomfortable—she had met him the November that passed, and even though he seemed to really like her, she could not feel anything back; unless, of course, the feelings were so deep she would need a jackhammer to dig into her heart just to find them. She bit her lower lip, but before she could look up at him, she felt his lips crash against hers so suddenly she couldn't shake him off as easily as most would. His arms were snaked around her waist, and she grunted a bit.

"Mm-"

He held her so close to him that her breasts, not in a bra and therefore perky from the cool draft that crept up the front of her nightgown, pressed against his hard body. She felt quite warm, and he loved how she felt against him in the cool wind that blew that night. Just holding her and feeling her soft, sweet pink lips incited arousal in him as he felt his member grow in his pants, yet he tried to keep it under control—Elina was only thirteen, and he was seventeen; it just wouldn't be kosher. Plus, if he had tried anything with her and she became with child, he would have two big issues to face—if her father, Jimmy, found out, he would have him by the balls to rip them off. If his devoutly religious father found out, he would do one of two things; disown him, or worst case scenario, marry the girl. Nah, he thought, she'd be too young anyway.

Elina finally got the strength to push him away fully, and when she did, she was unaware that her powers had been stimulated—he winced as he felt a burning sensation where she had her hands on his shoulders and successfully pushed him away. She gasped as she saw two holes with black charring around the edges and where her fingers had been. Through the holes, Elina could see redness and blistering on his shoulders and near his collarbone. David looked down at her in horror, an anguished look in his eyes—he was in shock.

"Elina…what…you…" He trailed off in disbelief.

"Oh my," she muttered, looking at the burns she accidentally created on David's body in horror. Her secret was out.

"It hurts," David said, his fingertips grazing the injuries she had inadvertently caused him.

"I…I…"

"How did this happen?" he asked, looking at her as if she had three heads. Elina knew she had to explain herself, but what if he didn't understand? Not even Lily knew about her hereditary abilities—she began to worry.

"I…oh no!" she whined. David noticed the black, sooty handprints on his shirt with the charred holes through the palms and looked at her, terrified and anxious.

"I'm so sorry," she cried, shaking her head with disbelief as the wind blew her white-gold hair back off her face. David's horrified stare did not intimidate her as much as the thought of being treated badly for being different.

"I ain't gonna stand here," he retorted coldly, feeling the cold bite the fresh burns in his shoulders. Elina grabbed his hand, despite the risk of being caught, and led him into the house and to the kitchen, where she took a paper towel and soaked it in ice cold water, putting ice cubes in it as she folded it. She had David sit down and she knelt before him, his now shirtless body exposed as she tried to treat the burns she had created.

"Ah!" he winced as he felt the cold on the affected areas. Elina smiled sadly, the embers in her hazel-green eyes burning up at him softly as she applied an even amount of cold on his shoulders.

"That handprint," he said. "How did you burn me?"

"It's a long story," Elina replied, looking at the second-degree burn she had accidentally inflicted. She sighed, her eyes widening ever so slightly.

"I must be crazy, but…are you a witch?" he asked. She shook her head and chuckled.

"No. I'm a Christian," Elina said.

"But you burned me somehow," David replied. She alternated the cold application to the other burn, and he winced once again; it sure had been quite painful.

"And I'm trying to fix what I did," she replied, sounding cross as their eyes met.

"So you did burn me," David concluded. "How?"

"I…" Elina paused, sighing. "I was born with it."

"What?" He was clearly confused; do you not understand simple English, she thought.

"I was born with…the power to…create and…control fire," Elina repeated.

"But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ," David said, quoting the Bible like his father would. He had been a Sunday school student his whole life and knew scripture like the back of his hand; his father just reinforced it at home. Elina just looked at him, disapproval written across her face; sure, she was a Christian, but didn't quite know what he was trying to say.

"It ain't Sunday," she said.

"That don't matter," David said. He suddenly felt like his father. "You're the devil in the form of a woman."

"No, I'm not," she said, taking the cold compress she had made away from his shoulder. "I'm a person. Just like you."

"Yet," he said, continuing his previous thought seamlessly, "you have bewitched me. I can't be one of God's children if I've fallen under your spell, Elina. In that case, teach me about your powers."

"What?" She sounded incredulous—how could he be this naïve considering he was older than her?

"You heard my words," David said, his handsome face staring up at her as she stood up to throw the makeshift cold compress away in the trashcan. "Teach me."

"I can't teach you," Elina said.

"Why not?"

"Because I was born with it. I didn't learn it," she answered.

"Well then, that'll give you more to work with when teachin' me," he said, trying to perfect his argument.

"No, I can't," Elina said. She then sighed, looking up at the ceiling with her pale white hands on the island counter. "It ain't that simple. I can't justteach someone. You either have it or you don't."

"That sucks for me, then. I wanted to learn how to light a candle, or create fires without usin' a match, or light a cigarette without a lighter," he said, standing up and looking down at the unfathomably beautiful girl dressed in nothing but her nightgown, a thick cardigan, and her shoes.

"Well, you can't if you don't have it," Elina repeated.

"At the very least, can I see you create fire?" David asked.

"Don't push your luck," she replied arrogantly. "Go home."

"I don't wanna go home, Elina," he said. "I wanna stay right here with you."

"You can't," she said with an emphatic whisper. "If my father sees you, he's going to shoot you."

"Then I'd rather lay dyin'," he proclaimed in a soft whisper, caressing the girl's angelic face as he looked into her eyes. Elina had an idea to get him out of her hair; she had never tried it before, but it was worth a shot. She centered her thoughts so that anything could be made possible by her power; she could control fire and lift things with her mind—why not try healing up his burns?

Elina placed her warm, pale hands on David's shoulders, and as he winced with pain, he gasped at the dim blue light emanating from the girl's hands as he felt a strange cooling sensation against his skin. The redness was going away, the blisters were becoming like flat skin again, and the burning pain from the injury faded away within a matter of minutes. She took her hands away to see what she had done to repair the damage, and was astonished to see that his skin went back to normal; as if she hadn't burnt him at all. David, amazed at what Elina could do, smiled down at her.

"You really are somethin'," he said. "Why didn't you done that sooner?"

"I didn't think I could," Elina answered.

David had promised not to share Elina's secret with anyone, but in the meantime, March was a slow month followed by April; it was a huge month for Adam. His transition to becoming a male was completed with the gender reassignment surgery he had been waiting for to turn his external female parts into functioning male ones. Audrey, the love of his life, had taken a flight down during the week of his operation and waited with him in the hospital for hours. Toby, Jules and Elina were all in school, but Jimmy, Britta, Dot and Bette and Suzy were also there for support—Britta still had reservations about the idea.

Adam had mentioned Audrey in passing to both parents, even though Jimmy knew she was his girlfriend; she was quite striking in person, and was just as beautiful as their son had described her to be both inside and out. Her hair was raven black and styled in such a way that it framed her chiseled, but defined face; a layered 'do with a light fringe. Her eyes were exactly like he described—blue diamonds, or like sparkling, clear, azure water that could be found in a lagoon on a tropical island. Her makeup was light, but highlighted her best features, adding to her overall peaceful persona. The family admired her and received her well, opening their home to her so she had a place to stay; they loved how through thick and thin she was by Adam's side with undying loyalty. Sure, she had proposed to take a break from their relationship, but she still loved him very much and enough to support him through this huge life change.

Two hours after waking up from recovery, Adam smiled as he saw his family walking into the room, including Audrey, whom he had seen the first day she came to Barnwell. It had been the first time seeing her in what seemed like forever, and he remembered wrapping his arms around her and refusing to let go; letting her scent ravage his nose; letting the feel of her body take him back to long, passionate nights; the sound of her voice the music to his lyrics...Audrey was his angel, and when he saw her once again in the hospital room, he smiled brightly and kissed her as she leaned down for him.

"How do you feel?" she asked him.

"Like I got the world in the palm of my hand," Adam replied, looking up at her with dazed, dark brown eyes.

"Hey, son," Jimmy said; he fully accepted his child as a fourth son, his eldest, of course.

"Hey, dad," Adam replied. He groaned in pain, touching the side of his torso under his arm—they had taken a skin graft to form a fully functioning male genitalia. It had been stitched closed, and the wound had been dressed while he was in recovery.

"What's the matter?" Bette asked with a concerned look on her usually cheerful face.

"They took skin off my side," Adam said, trying to relax back in the hospital bed. "Hurts like hell."

"Well, it'll heal up. Give it time," Jimmy said, looking down at the mop of long strawberry-blonde hair on his son's head. Adam looked back up at him, moving his frizzy fringe aside to reveal his rather pale forehead. Britta stared at her new son, but had not said a word to him at all, yet she was willing to speak to him once he said something to her. Adam was not to be released from the hospital so soon, but within an hour, the family agreed to leave.

"We'll leave you alone," Dot said shortly before everyone left—Audrey was the only one who stayed.

"You're staying?" Jimmy asked the young woman. She nodded.

"I can take a train," she said, her soft-spoken, airy voice filling the room as she sat in the seat closest to Adam's bedside.

"See you later," he said. "Get well, son."

"Thanks, dad," Adam said, watching them leave.

Once the room was empty with no one but he and Audrey there, he looked over at her, admiring her as she smiled brightly at him with pride. She was truly happy for him, and it showed in her pearly-white grin. Her blue diamond eyes sparkled at him as he reached his hand to caress her lower face, lifting her chin up so he could see the changes she had overcome herself; her hair style was shorter and more voluminous, and her clothing was a bit more sophisticated—he remembered her long, black hair loose and how she had been a fan of peasant tops, bright colors, frills and bell bottoms. Too bad the years of peace and love were coming to an end.

"You still look amazing, Audrey," he said with a blush. She looked at him and laughed gently, her eyes still sparkling at him.

"I didn't look good before?" she asked jokingly.

"It isn't that," he told her, grinning at her joke. He took a sigh, stroking the corner of her mouth with the side of his index finger. "You get more beautiful everyday."

"I'm so proud of you, Adam," she said, taking his hand and kissing his closed fingers gently. "No matter what got in your way, you still pressed through. You made it."

"And now I have a dick," he said. They both laughed so hard they turned purple.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"I love you," Adam said once he stopped laughing. He held her hand, and it was cool to the touch; she stared at him and smiled again, lost in his deep, dark eyes that looked so much like his father's.

"I love you, too, Adam," she said, a loving gaze directed at him.

With that, they embraced tightly; she leaned over and rested her chin on his shoulder, sighing with contentment as she felt his strong arms around her. A tear of joy was shed, and it rolled down her cheek as she smiled—Adam, on the other hand, took in her intoxicating scent, feeling her feminine form against his. He felt complete, whole, like himself. Everything was in perfect order, and nothing could ruin the moment.

"Is this the end of our break?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah," Audrey replied, letting go to stare into his eyes.

He leaned in and kissed her tenderly—he missed the feeling of her lips.

He missed her.

He missed everything.

He had moved back to New York with Audrey as soon as he recovered. It would take a full year for the name on his Social Security, driver's license, and other important documents to change to his new one. His family had all wished him luck on his journey back in his camper with Audrey in it with him; the one person who would miss him the most was Elina. As a woman, her sibling had taught her the difficulties of love. As a man, her sibling had taught Elina acceptance and tolerance of people's differences other than deformities like her father's syndactyly, Bette and Dot's conjoined body, or Suzy's lack of legs.

Yet the emotional tears of happiness would remain uncounted—in fact, there would be more tears to come.

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