No. Way.

"Deryn? But you look just like-"

Deryn Sharp, whoever she is, steps forward and gives him a hug. "Newkirk! Good to see you, mate. Didn't know you were stopping by."

"Wait, you know me? You're just like Dylan. Deryn? Alek, who-"

Deryn steps back. "Blisters, he doesn't know, does he?"

Alek grins. "You want to do the honors?"

How can this be? Is she somehow Dylan? He'd heard about these surgeries, but he didn't know Dylan was so girly. No, wait, he did, something about an afterparty after Tesla died, dressing up as a girl...

"Who are you?"

Deryn surrenders the child to Alek, and her manner seems like she's surrendering something else too. "Newkirk, I am Dylan Sharp."

"Wait- no, that can't-"

"Dylan was always me."

Alek steps in. "Newkirk, why don't you take a seat? A cup of tea or something?"

He stumbles back to the sofa, unable to take his eyes off the woman who was once a boy who was once his friend. "How did you-"

Deryn laughs and sits beside him. "It's bloody good to see you. You waited ten years though?"

"I- I was in America."

"Look, Newkirk," Alek says, "Dylan wasn't the boy you thought he was. It was Deryn, acting as a boy."

"And you knew?"

"Not until the very end. I was hurt, at first. But she's a good girl."

"Darn right I am. You married me."

Deryn and Alek exchange a loving smile that makes Newkirk's head spin. It's not that they're not completely adorable, but that this is his friend Dylan... In love with Alek. How can that be?

"So you... dressed up as a boy?"

"I pretended I was my own cousin. Dylan Sharp never existed."

"Your name is Deryn?"

"That's right."

It's taking a while to wrap his head around this, but- "Well, uh, nice to meet you... Deryn."

She smiles, realizing he's accepted the strange turn of events. "Of course, Newkirk."

"Tea? Coffee?" Alek calls from the kitchen. "And Deryn, can you take Hans back?"

"Tea," says Newkirk to Deryn. She heads into the kitchen to tell Alek and returns with the little boy.

"Newkirk, this is Hans. Hans, this is Uncle Newkirk."

"Wait, you don't mean literally Uncle. I'm not your long lost brother now, am I?"

Deryn laughs. "No, of course not."

"Just with the way things are going. Next Alek is going to be a princess."

"Relax, it's not that complicated. I wanted to fly; they wouldn't allow girls. So I disguised myself. Alek found out just after Russia. We fell in love, got married, had a kid." Then she smiles. "With another on the way."

"You're pregnant? That's fantastic, Dy- Deryn." It still boggles his mind that his once best mate has long hair and a child and a half and a husband. How did he not know? He should have found out. Alek did. And Newkirk knew Deryn longer. They were...

There was a girl on the Leviathan all along? If he'd known...

"Did anybody else know?"

"Volger, that blighter, and Barlow at the end."

"Barlow! Blisters, I forgot about her."

"Yeah, she's godmother. Alek and I are still working with her. And what are you up to?"

"I-"

"Newkirk told me all about it," says Alek, returning to the room with a few mugs of tea. "I can fill you in later."

"I can't believe you're a girl. And that you two have stayed in touch all this time."

Alek winks. "More than in touch, mate. She's one of a kind. I wouldn't leave her for anything."

"Meteoric," says a small voice.

Blisters! Newkirk didn't notice the beastie on Alek's shoulder. "Is that... Bovril?"

"The very one," Deryn says, unable to hide her smile.

"Friend!" Bovril cries, reaching out for Newkirk.

"He remembers me?"

"Bovril has an uncanny memory. He is rather perspicacious, after all."

"Perspicacious," repeats Bovril.

"So do you understand? It's not complicated, not really. Deryn and I and Bovril and Hans and baby... We're a family." Alek sits down across from Newkirk, beside his wife, and wraps an arm around her.

"That's crazy. I never expected..."

"Thank you for coming to visit though, Newkirk. It is nice to see you."

"And I'm glad you know now. I always felt a wee bit bad about that, never telling you and Hobbes and so on about my secret."

Bovril jumps across the table into Deryn's lap. "Mr. Sharp."

"I get that joke now!" Newkirk jumps up, smiling. "Bovril, you clever beastie."

Deryn laughs. "He figured it out before anyone else. Especially this dummkopf here. Took you good time, Alek."

"Took even longer to figure out I was in love with you."

"And I with you." They lean in for a kiss, and Newkirk takes it as his cue to leave.

"You know, it's been really nice to see you two again, and Deryn, it's nice to... I guess, meet you. But I really ought to be going."

Deryn hops up, very spry for a pregnant woman juggling a beastie and a baby. "You must come back for dinner or something. How long are you in town?"

"Thursday. You can contact me at the Savoy."

Alek laughs. "Living expensively, are we?"

"Just a nice vacation. I'm doing all right in America."

"Well, we'll contact you. How does Monday sound?"

"Splendid. Until then?"

"Auf wiedersehen, Newkirk."

"You darn blighters, always speaking Clanker. You know I don't understand a word of it!"

"It means goodbye."

"Oh. I could have figured that out."

"Auf wiedersehen!" exclaims Bovril.

Until I see you again.