Several months later

Tabitha was now immortal as Kainen had taken great pleasure in having sex with his mate without using a condom. It hadn't taken long at all for Tabitha to absorb enough of Kainen's seed to accomplish what he intended.

At the moment though, the two of them were arguing, which rarely happened as usually they got along great, like mates did.

"Absolutely not," Tabitha all almost shouted. "I will not invite my parents to my nuptials. If they couldn't support me when I wanted to be an artist then, why in the hell would they support me when it comes to marrying the love of my life? I can see it now and they would show up only to tell me you weren't good enough for me, and try to convince me that marrying you was a mistake and not to ruin my life. Then they would try to persuade me to go back to college and become anything except an artist."

"You haven't seen them ever since you went to college though, because they wouldn't support your dreams to be an artist," Kainen said. "You really have no idea how they react, as it's possible that they have since realized they made a mistake in not supporting you when you told them you wanted to be an artist."

"Then they should've approached me if that was true," Tabitha said her chin jutted forward stubbornly.

"I know you told me that you felt they needed to be the ones to make the first move towards a reconciliation, but they might feel you wouldn't be receptive to any overtures on their part," Kainen told her seriously. "Or it could even be that they have too much pride to be the first to try to make amends, so it's up to you to make the first move whether or not you feel that they should be the ones to do so, since they're the ones that argued against you going to college to become an artist."

Why are you so determined to have me try to make up with my parents?" Tabitha asked her mate her anger cooling slightly so that her reason came forward once more.

"Because they aren't going to be around for centuries like my family is love," Kainen told her his voice calm and reasonable. "You don't want to regret at least not trying to mend the rift between you for centuries to come. If you at least try to make up with them, then you won't regret that you didn't take any action when you could have. If they'd actually been bad parents, then I could understand not trying to mend your relationship, but from what you've told me, they were actually good parents until you decided to be an artist and they didn't support your career choice. Parents make that kind of mistake all the time, as they have dreams for their children that those children don't want to fulfill, and so they react badly when that child tells them they want to be something like an artist or an actor or a mechanic or even something like a cook."

Tabitha listened and her anger began to cool a few more degrees. She suddenly understood why Kainen was pushing her to mend her fences with her parents, as he was right they weren't going to be around for centuries.

She was lucky that neither one of them had died yet, as her father had had several heart attack scares after she had left home, or at least that was what she had heard.

"You need to be the bigger person and extend a hand and a way to do that is to invite them to your wedding," Kainen said. "Have your mother help plan it and she'll understand that you're trying to mend what is broken. If they cause any kind of trouble, try the tactics you think they will, then you can honestly say you tried and wash your hands of them," Kainen said.

"I'll think about it," Tabitha said her anger having cooled.

She hadn't really been mad at Kainen anyway, just at the situation, probably because she knew deep down that her mate was right.

"That's all I ask," Kainen assured her. "I can't force you to try to mend fences, but it would be in your best interest that you did so. We have enough family members that have parents who were far worse than yours and weren't interested in being fathers or mothers to their children and tried to force their expectations onto those children. Either that or they were totally uninterested in playing a parental role in their child's life just deciding to basically ignore their children or make snide little comments within their hearing."

"That would be horrible, even if that kind of thing doesn't seem so bad to other people who never had that happen," Tabitha winced. "Still, to have one of your parental figures, keep making snide little comments probably all untrue about their son or daughter would certainly cause that child to have very little self-confidence in themselves."

"My family even has a few members that were physically abused as well, not just mentally and emotionally," Kainen told her. "This is why you are lucky believe me. Its not unusual for parents to object to a career their child wants to pursue. Sometimes, even a lot of times, neither party tries to make amends for hurt feelings for all kinds of reasons, stubbornness, pride, that kind of thing."

"And before they know, it is too late to try to make amends, as their parents are dead due to old age, ill health or accident," Tabitha said and Kainen nodded solemnly.

"Exactly, which is why I'm trying to get you to make amends now before it's too late. You told me that your father's health isn't the best and he's had several heart attack scares so you need to at least try to mend the rift before one of those heart attacks is bad enough that it kills him. There's only so much that medical technology can do, though he has more of a chance of survival due to that kind of medical condition then he would have if this was centuries ago. However, if he has a heart attack bad enough that he dies instantly and you never at least tried to make up with him then you'll regret it for the rest of your life," Kainen told her. "You don't want to carry that regret that you didn't at least try to forge a bridge for hundreds of years."

Tabitha nibbled her bottom lip thinking, then nodded decisively, giving in without further argument as Kainen was very right. Until she had told her parents what courses she wanted to take in college, they had been loving and supportive of her, their only child. She supposed, she was still rather mad at them, even after all these years and her father at least had a lot of pride, as Kain had already indicated. Her father wasn't likely to make the first move until it was too late.

"All right, fine," Tabitha verbally agreed. "I'll call my mother, but be warned, that if they start in on me about not marrying you then I'll slam the door permanently and they'll be no hope of a reconciliation."

"That's fair," Kainen agreed finally smiling. "At least you would have tried to make amends and if your effort fail, then that's on your parents not on you."

"This is the only chance to try to make amends and if it fails, they'll never get a chance to see their grandchildren once they arrive," Tabitha warned, and Kainen, who nodded agreement.

"You extend the olive branch," said Kainen.

"I will," Tabitha promised, kissing Kainen on the cheek in thanks.

~~~Kainen and Tabitha~~~

Epilogue

Six months later, Tabitha and Kainen were married in a large ceremony since Kainen had a lot of family. Of course, there was no possible way to invite everyone, but Kainen did try to invite as many of the family as he could, even if some refused the invitation.

Tabitha had extended that olive branch to her parents indicating that she was willing to work on repairing their broken relationship, and her parents had grabbed onto that branch with both hands.

Still, it took time to resolve hurt feelings, so it was a work in progress, but at least progress was being made when it came to repairing their relationship.

Much to Tabitha's surprise her parents didn't try to urge her to break it off with Kainen, as they could see that he was good for her, and when they learned that it was him that had urged their daughter to make contact and at least try to make amends they had been grateful.

Now with the help of Tabitha's mother, it was the day of the wedding, where she and Kainen would be joined. Tabitha's father Charles had offered to pay for everything his way of making up for the argument about what Tabitha wanted for a career. Kainen wisely hadn't turned down his offer outright, but instead he and Charles had come to an agreement and split the cost.

This way, Tabitha's father felt like he was contributing to his daughter's, future happiness, and it didn't create any bad feelings like resentment between Kainen and Charles.

The mother, Theodora had been delighted to help her daughter plan and shop for the wedding, mostly because she had never imagined that she would be able to considering the rift.

The two of them had had a delightful time, choosing the decorations and the food, but Tabitha insisted that his future aunt-in-law was going to do any desserts and had explained that she was a baker, owning her own popular business.

Tabitha had said, that I've had enough of her desserts to know that the guests will appreciate that we hired such an excellent baker, especially since most of them are part of her family and are well used to eating whatever she creates at holiday events.

Theodora had given in without argument once she had tasted some of the dessert items from Magical Sweets that Kainen almost always had on hand. When it had been, it explained that Rose's mother had taught her everything she knew about baking Theodora had given in without argument.

Now the day had arrived, and Theodora sat in the front row as Tabitha's father proudly walked his daughter down the aisle to Kainen before going to join his wife, and everybody looked on as the two were wed. The ceremony was short and sweet, but the reception was long and joyous filled with laughter at old jokes shared, and new ones created on the spot.

Kainen turned bright red several times as his brothers and sisters teased him until Tabitha rescued him, taking him out to the dance floor.

Once they were dancing, Tabitha put her head on Kainen shoulder and said quietly, "Thank you for urging me to make up with my parents."

"You're very welcome," Kainen told her kissing her on the top of the head. "I just didn't want you to go around for centuries wishing you'd taken the opportunity to try to fix what was broken. Believe me, the world has enough tears of sadness, and regret to fill multiple oceans around the world. I'm only glad that you saw my point of view before it was too late to try to reforge the relationship between you.

"You could've been all stubborn and determined not to make the first move, but you saw my point of view and because you did your parents are again part of your life and they have apologized for the argument that caused you to break off your relationship with them.

"Trust me, it was very hard for your father to apologize for your argument, as most people have a lot of pride, particularly men, and that he did when you extended that olive branch just means he knows he was in the wrong and is willing to admit it if he gets you back in his life. He loves you enough that he forced himself to apologize just as you did to him. It takes a big man to admit he was in the wrong and now you have a chance to have at least a decent relationship with both your parents while they're still alive something that you would have regretted if you hadn't made that first move."

"You sound very wise," Tabitha told him with a teasing smirk to hide her overwhelming feelings of love for Kainen.

"I've been around awhile and I've learned a lot in that time," Kainen said simply knowing exactly what his mate meant. "Let's go get us some food, especially one of my mother's desserts before they're all gone, and then we can cut the cake, dance some more before we head on our honeymoon."

"I'm looking forward to being alone with you for weeks on end," Tabitha told him smiling as the two continued to dance before they headed for the buffet table to get them something to eat.

"Believe me, so am I," Kainen said, as the two filled plates with a lot of different items from the buffet and then went to sit at one of the tables in order to eat it and chat with anybody that came to congratulate them.

Kainen looked around the room, feeling quite content and very happy ever since he had met one Tabitha Appleyard now Hotchner and he expected he would remain so, for the rest of his very long life.

The two of them would forge a life together and have many children over their many centuries, and he couldn't be happier about that. He could barely wait to start having those children, even if they were going to have trouble finding original names for them. It was a problem he was happy to take on. What that meant was that he and Tabitha were going to have to be creative when it came to baby names and if they had to repeat the name so what, as that had happened quite a few times already.

This at definitely the way life should be.