InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity 9: Subterfuge ❯ Happily Ever After ...? ( Epilogue )

 

 

 

'Now how many lovers would stay …
'Just to put up with this shit day after day …
'Now how did we wind up this way ...
'Watching our mouths for the words that we say …
'As long as we stand here waiting …
'Wearing the clothes or the soles that we choose …
'Now how do we get there today …
'When we're walking too far for the price of our shoes …'

 

-'Absolutely (The Story of a Girl)' by Nine Days.

 

 

 

~~Twelve Years Later~~

~March 2086~

 

 

 

 

 

Valerie stepped into the house with a blast of frigid air, though the snow was holding off for the duration. A moment later, a huge whoop rattled through her as the people gathered in the living room erupted in cheers.

 

"Mommy!"

 

Breaking into a smile, Valerie laid her coat over the back of a small chair beside the table near the front door and hunkered down to catch nearly-six-year-old Cailien as he charged out of the living room. Silvery hair flying out behind him, he laughed as Valerie caught him in a warm hug before kissing his round little cheek soundly and sparing a moment to tweak the cute little triangle-shaped ears atop his head. "Hi, baby."

 

Cailien wiggled and pushed against his mother's shoulders. "Did you buy me something?"

 

Heaving a sigh despite the smile on her face, Valerie shook her head. She should have known when she told Evan she was going to skip part of his Super Bowl party in favor of going shopping. Cailien, ever the opportunist, hopped around in his excitement.

 

"Okay," she said, handing him two bags from Rafferty's Toys. "One's for Rourke, so make sure you give it to him!" She had to raise her voice as she spoke since Cailien grabbed the bags and took off again.

 

Shaking her head, Valerie slowly pushed herself to her feet, making a face as she braced the small of her back and stretched. Then she grabbed the envelope that stuck out of her purse and headed for the living room.

 

The twins already had the boxes of Lego—Power Puppies special editions—torn open and the pieces dumped out on the floor, and Valerie smiled. "Not even a thank you? Rourke? Cailien?"

 

"Thanks," the two muttered in distracted unison without looking up from their task.

 

Valerie hadn't actually expected more than that, anyway. After all, Mom wasn't nearly as cool as the Lego, right?

 

"Welcome home, Valerie!" Gin greeted without taking her eyes off the television.

 

"Hey, baby! Spend a lot?"

 

Valerie pursed her lips and shook her head again since her mate hadn't bothered to look away from the television, either.

 

"Hi," Cain said.

 

"Hey, Valerie. That was pass interference, you damn moron!" Bas bellowed.

 

"Who's winning?" eleven-year-old Jackson asked as he strode into the living room just ahead of his uncles, Hayden and Connor.

 

"The Patriots are down by three with two minutes to go," Bailey rattled off.

 

"Sweet," Jackson remarked, breaking into a grin that reminded Valerie a little too much of the boy's father.

 

"I thought you were a Patriot fan," Bas said.

 

Daniel, who was sitting beside Bailey, grunted. "He's running a betting pool at school. If the Patriots lose, he'll clean up."

 

Bas snorted. "Great. My nephew's a hustler."

 

Daniel and Bailey exchanged looks then grinned.

 

"Mom, did you pick up more apple juice?" the hustler asked.

 

"No, I forgot," Valerie said, ruffling Jack's hair in passing.

 

Jack cast his mother a long-suffering look. "That's okay," he assured her. "Guess I'll just have a beer, then. C'mon, guys!"

 

"You will not," she called after him.

 

Bailey's cell phone chimed, and he read the message before leaning back to look past Daniel at his father. "Mom says that they're just about done at the salon and that she hopes the game will be over by the time she gets here." It didn't surprise Valerie that Sydnie had opted out of the day's festivities since she hated everything 'football' with a passion. Instead, she'd volunteered to host a girls' day out for Olivia and the third of Gin and Cain's triplets, Daniella. She was a complete surprise at the time. Gin had found out that she was carrying twins right before Evan and Valerie's wedding, but they hadn't realized that Daniella was in there, too, hiding behind her brothers until her dramatic entrance.

 

"Oh, tell her to pick up more beer!" Evan said.

 

"Evan . . ."

 

"And some pretzels," he added.

 

"Kill him! Kill him! Don't let him run away with the football!" Gin screamed. "Ba-a-a-aka!"

 

Valerie cleared her throat. "Evan."

 

"And apple juice!" Jack called from the kitchen.

 

"And apple juice," Evan reiterated.

 

"Evan!"

 

He blinked and glanced at Valerie, breaking into a wide grin as he held out a hand to her. "You bellowed, my baby?"

 

She ignored his gesture, dropping the envelope onto the table and planting her hands on her hips as she pinned Evan with the most formidable glower she could muster. He raised his eyebrows at the look. "Why do I get the feeling I'm in trouble?"

 

"Because you tend to get into a lot of it?" Cain suggested dryly.

 

"He kind of does," Bailey mused with a sage shake of his head.

 

"All the time," Daniel added.

 

"If you're talking about the other day when we accidentally caught that rug on fire, that wasn't my fault. It was the twins," Evan said.

 

Bas grunted. "It's a miracle your homeowner's insurance hasn't cancelled you yet."

 

Evan chuckled. "It was just a rug, so I didn't have to report it."

 

"Fire trucks are cool!" Cailien hollered.

 

Valerie tapped her foot impatiently. "Ev-an!"

 

"Have I told you that you look beautiful today, baby?" Evan asked, smiling in an overly innocent sort of way.

 

Her gaze narrowed a little more. "Don't you 'baby' me, Roka," she muttered.

 

"Oh, the game's back on!" Bas said.

 

"I love you?"

 

She snorted and grabbed the remote off the coffee table when she caught Evan, leaning slightly to the side to glance past her at the television. "Yeah, that really isn't going to work, either," she grumbled, hitting the 'mute' button, much to the collective displeasure of their guests.

 

It did the trick, though. Settling back in his chair, Evan finally gave her his full attention. "How was shopping?"

 

"I lied about the shopping," she said. "I mean, I did go after the fact, but I went to go see Isabelle."

 

"Isabelle? Why?" Evan asked, his smile finally disappearing at the mention of his cousin—Valerie's OB/GYN.

 

"Does the TV work in your truck, Dad?" Bas asked Cain, glancing from Valerie to Evan and back again, and then deciding that, whatever was coming, he didn't necessarily want to hear it.

 

"Of course it does," Cain remarked, placing his hands on the arms of the chair to haul himself to his feet.

 

"Oh, no, you all need to stay," Valerie insisted in a tone that left no room for argument.

 

Bas and Cain exchanged looks but remained silent as they settled back in their seats once more.

 

Evan was scowling. "You went to see Bitty? Everything's okay, right? Why didn't you tell me? I would have gone with you."

 

She sighed and rubbed her face. "Fine, Evan, everything's fine. Just refresh my memory, will you?"

 

He didn't look like he bought into her whole 'fine' statement, but he also didn't look like he was willing to argue with her, either. "Refresh your memory about what?"

 

She peeked at him from between her fingers that she still had smashed over her face. "When you were trying to talk me into having another baby, Roka. What did you say?"

 

Evan shifted his eyes from side to side, as though he were looking for someone to help him. Too bad Cain and Bas both looked like they were willing to stay as far away from the current conversation as they possibly could. "Well, I . . . uh . . ."

 

"I believe your exact words were, "We've already got three. What's one more, right?"

 

Cain whistled low. "You said that, Evan? That was . . ."

 

". . . Really stupid," Bas muttered.

 

"Thanks, Bubby."

 

"No problem."

 

Evan winced. "I just meant that we're kind of old hat at this now, don't you think?"

 

Valerie's hands dropped to her sides as she regarded her mate with a probing stare. Then she sighed, stomping over and grabbing Evan's hand. Pressing it with her own hand on the right side of her belly, she shook her head. "One." She moved their hands to the left side. "Two." And she moved them to the center. "Three."

 

Dead silence. Absolute dead silence.

 

It took Evan a moment to grasp what Valerie was trying to say, and when he still didn't speak, she swiped up the envelope and tossed it at him.

 

As he pulled out the ultrasound pictures, he slowly broke into a wide grin. "Hot damn! I'm the fucking man! Three of 'em! Three of 'em! I put three of 'em in there!"

 

"Oh . . my God," Bas muttered, reaching for the remote to unmute the game.

 

"That's so fantastic!" Gin exclaimed as she hopped up to hug her daughter-in-law. "Congratulations!"

 

"Thanks," Valerie said with a weary sigh.

 

Evan stood up to wrap his arms around her. "Triplets! That's awesome!"

 

She snorted. "You're totally cancelling your tour this summer," she pointed out. One baby, she could handle. Even two would be something she was used to. Three? She groaned inwardly.

 

"Whatever you want, baby!"

 

She sighed yet again, but she finally broke into a smile. Sure, she could handle another baby. That wasn't even the issue, but triplets? Triplets?

 

Even still . . .

 

It would be worth it, of course—entirely worth it, and it wasn't the idea of having triplets that frightened her. No, it was the anticipation of just how much more trouble Evan and his spawn could get into that did it . . . Good thing that said-spawn were cuter than sin.

 

Or maybe that was a bad thing; Valerie still didn't know.

 

'One thing's for sure,' she thought wanly as Evan sat back down and pulled her into his lap. 'Life hasn't been boring since the day I married him . . .'

 

And with those triplets to add to their family?

 

She could only hope that they were a little less hyper than Jack or the twins.

 

And she hoped they'd be girls . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can download this story in full in a variety of formats from Archive of Our Own. Just click on the "Entire Work" tab (and it will take a while for the full story to load, so don't worry if it seems like it's laggy or slow.) Then click on the "Download" button on the far right and select your format. (And since I've never PDF-ed Chronicles, Torrent, or Metamorphosis, you might want to grab those off there, too!) Wish MediaMiner would do that!

 

'Absolutely (The Story of a Girl)' by Nine Days originally appeared on the 2000 release, The Maddening Crowd. Copyrighted to John Hampson .

 

 

 

It's hard for me to believe that it's been just over seven years since I posted the first chapter of this story. If someone had told me then that it would take this long; that I would have so much go on in those years, I might have thought that they were full of it. I never set out to write something this long. That'd be crazy, and yet, I can't say that I am unhappy with the end result, either. I feel that I said what I wanted to say; I felt that the story unfolded just as I thought it would. I hope you enjoyed the journey as much as I did.

 

I did something the other day that I don't often do: I read through the reviews for this story to get a better sense of you all, and of me. It's so funny because I feel like a totally different person now, which is perfectly normal. Life is about change and growth. That's what I've learned. I mentioned a couple chapters ago that my father died earlier this year—a few hours before his eightieth birthday, actually. I just wanted to say thank you for your kind words. They truly mean the world to me.

 

 

 

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Reviewers
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MMorg
Usagiseren05 ——— sutlesarcasm
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Forums
lovethedogs
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Final Thought from Evan:
Hot diggity damn!
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Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic (will apply to this and all other chapters in Subterfuge): I do not claim any rights to InuYasha or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Rumiko Takahashi, et al. I do offer my thanks to her for creating such vivid characters for me to terrorize.
~Sue~