I've been sitting on this for a while folks. It's just a little peak into the lives of a grown up Ness and Jake. Hope you like it.

Epilouge

"Morning," she whispered, quietly leaning over the two little black haired children curled up between them as she crawled onto bed with her husband. The little girls weren't their biological children but they were their children in all the ways that mattered.

After Ness finished medical school—as Dr. Renesmee Black— and a few more years spent following Jacob's career to California, they had finally decided to set down roots once again on the Pacific West Coast. Jacob had started his own freelance design business, going over prototype designs for hybrid engines sent in by various motor companies.

He'd become a specialist of sorts in green, alternative motor design during his time with General Motors, and was now well regarded within the field. Chevy had been sad to see him go, but Jake and Ness wanted to live in a way that only a small town like Forks could bring them, not with the hustle and bustle and plastic of north Hollywood. His bosses had been more than patient and understanding with his need for extended periods away for treatment, but the freelancing option fitted in better with Jacob's cyclic ability to work.

With their move back to the Quileute Valley, they'd been ready to start a family. The place they called home was where they wanted to raise their children, Closest to the lands of his people.

But fate had other ideas for them.

Four years of trying with three late stage miscarriages, and a prematurely born still-birth had led them to the heartbreaking decision that maybe they weren't meant to have children of their own. Instead Jacob and Renesmee Black decided to become long term foster parents to two beautiful little girls from the S'Klallam Tribe. That was three years ago, the adoption finalized almost eighteen months later. All four members of the Black family couldn't have been happier about it.

"God, what time is it?" he asked, his voice still heavy with sleep as he lifted his head up off the pillow and reached out his hands to pull his wife close to him as she walked around to his side of the bed.

"Six-thirty," she answered back quietly, sitting on the mattress and leaning down to press her lips gently to his. "You have a new baby niece, by the way," she smiled, letting him pull her down and stretching her five foot one inch height next to his and snuggling into his bare chest. He'd learned to always sleep at least with boxer shorts on once the girls had arrived to their home.

He jerked up a little, clearing the last of the sleep as he suddenly remembered why his wife had been out most of the night, "A girl?" he smiled, "Finally. Maybe now they'll stop."

As of 4:49am that morning, his sister Rachel and her husband Paul now had their fifth child. The girl they'd hoped for to help even out the chaos of the four boys they already had; two of which we're now thundering down the hallway of the Black's home into their Uncle and Aunt's bedroom.

"Uncle Jake!" yelled the second eldest, Alex, as he pushed open the partially ajar door, "Liam took the blankets off my bed and took them out to the TV room!" he screeched, coming to stand by the large king size bed.

"I didn't!" Liam yelled, running into the bedroom a second later. "His just fell on the floor."

Jacob sat up, so did both little girls who had previously been asleep next to him, "Sssh boys," he scolded his nephews, "no yelling, the twins are still asleep."

The twins, Robbie and Ryder, were two and a half years old, and had kept Jacob up most of the night while Ness had been at the hospital helping their mother deliver.

Eight year old Liam huffed, "but I didn't steal his blanket."

"Yes you did!" said his brother in response.

"It really doesn't matter," Jacob said, shifting to sit all the way upright, his five year old daughter Ava, snuggling in closer. She'd learned how to ignore her cousins brawling.

"Did you notice that Aunty Ness is home?" he said as she too sat up, still dressed in the tailored slacks and button down she'd had on for most of the long night.

Their other daughter, Zoe, sat up then in surprise, turning and facing Ness, "Mommy, you're home!"

"I am sweetie," she laughed holding her arms out as six year old Zoe climbed over her sister and father.

"Did the baby come out?" she asked.

Ness nodded, looking up to the two boy's still standing by the bedside. "Come here boys," she said, holding her arms out. Jake and Ness shifted so that there was room for all the children on the bed between. "I have some amazing news for you!"

Liam and Alex scrambled up, tucking up under between their two, girl, adoptive cousins.

"Did mommy have the new baby?" Liam asked.

"Yes," Ness answered her little arms reaching to hold both her nephews. "And her name is Sarah Amy, the same name as your mommy's mommy and your daddy's mommy."

"Mommy and daddy have mommies?" Little Alex asked confused.

Ness and Jake met eyes over the heads of the children, the memory of all the lost mommies and daddies in their mind. "Yes sweetie," she said, dragging her eyes form her husband and the haunted look he still occasionally had when he remembered the loss of both his parents all those years ago. "Mommy and Aunty Becca and Uncle Jake's mommy was called Sarah and your daddy's mommy name was Amy, they both died a long time ago. And we all miss them and that's why your new baby sister's called Sarah Amy."

"Like, I'm really William because Grandpa Billy died a long time ago, too," explained Liam, the boy too wise for his eight years, but still so innocent to how his words could affect the adults in the cozy room.

Jacob swallowed hard, "Yeah Buddy." He smiled through tight lips, roughing up the boys hair as a distraction. "Why don't we all go sort out this blanket mess and have some cereal? Then we can get ready for when your dad comes to get you. You wanna go see your new baby sister? How about you girls?" he asked turning to Ava and Zoe. "We'll go visit Aunty Rach and her new baby when Uncle Paul comes?"

There was a cacophony of cheers and a scramble off the bed as the kids, still in jimjams, ran down the hallway to the TV room. Jake held back, leaning on the door and looking back at Ness as she sat still dressed on the bed.

"Can you get them breakfast, Jake? I just want to have a few hours sleep," she said standing and unbuttoning her shirt.

He watched her as the light blue, cotton blend fell from her shoulders, revealing the silky white bra that was holding up her still pert and beautiful breasts. He'd never tire of looking at this woman.

Pushing off from the door frame Jake stepped across the room and picked up his wife and held her against him. "God I love you," he said, his voice deep and husky and he lifted her and kissed her hard.

She smiled as her lips pressed to his. "Are you okay?" she asked as she hung, suspended in his arms, her feet dangling below. He'd been home from his latest stay at the in-patient clinic in Port Angeles for seven weeks now. A readjustment of his medications put him back on track, but she always worried when he was reminded of Billy or Sarah.

"I'm fine," he sing-songed, placating her worry.

"I thought we might go to the cemetery after the hospital, tell your mom and dad the good news," she smiled, looking at him for his reaction.

He's eyes were tender but restrained. She could practically see the time worn words of his mantras washing through his mind. "That's a great idea," he said, nodding and giving her a light kiss. "What about you? Was it hard to watch her do it? You're not too sad? I wish I could have been there with you," he said putting Ness back down on her feet.

"You wanted to see your sister push a baby out of her vagina?" she smiled, arching a brow and purposefully deflecting and giving him the freedom of crude humor.

"Oh god, no! Ness!" he cringed, covering his eyes and his ears and gagging. "You know what I mean."

She did. Rachel and Paul Lahote had had no difficulty falling pregnant. She'd had no issues carrying to term and she'd had no real distress delivering five healthy, strong children. It did make Ness a little sad. Maybe even a little jealous. She could only do the first step in the three required for a biological family. But she'd come to terms with it long ago. And that morning, when she'd come home to her husband and her two girls, the genetics really didn't matter. She had her own babies in all the ways that mattered.

"Yes Jake, God, settle down, it's only a vagina," she smiled, loving his reaction to the mention of his sister's nether regions. "Stretching to the size of the biggest grapefruit you've ever seen," she continued, her hands making the shape of a large 'O' to illustrate.

"Would you stop?" he laughed, picking her up again and this time tossing her on the bed. "I know what you're doing."

"It's funny!" she giggled as he launched himself on top of her.

"It's not funny. It's an abomination for a brother to know such things about his sister," he fake pouted. He helped her unbutton her slacks and pulled them down her still toned thighs.

"What are you doing, babe? We have a house full of kids," she cautioned, looking over to the still open bedroom door and listening to the sound of the Nickelodeon channel wafting from the TV room down the hall.

"I want a new mental image of a vagina. A much nicer, un-stretched, looking one," he said seriously, starting with his hands at the edge of her panties and yanking them down.

She wiggled her hips, pulling her panties back up, "I'm sure you have plenty of mental snapshots to cure you of your corruption."

"But nothing's as good as a fresh shot Ness, nothing. And anyways, I missed you last night."

Ness had just finished putting Ava to bed and Jake had been running them a romantic bath— with candles and all— when the home phone rang at a quarter to nine last night. A frantic Paul babbled, before a much calmer Rachel took the phone asking if they could mind the boys… because she was in labor.

So that had been the end of the romance. The candles were blown out and the unused bath was emptied. Ness got dressed into her doctoring clothes after they quietly moved the sleeping girls to their marital bed. They remade the little beds for the extra children and set up the porta cots.

The Lahote tribe had arrived 20 minutes later, leaving Jake with the fun of getting two, two and a half year old boys, a six year old and an eight year old back to sleep, while Ness followed Rachel and Paul to the hospital.

Ness and Jacob still maintained a very healthy sex life, even with the introduction of two children as an instant family, and he didn't deal well with missing out on his daily quota.

"Jacob, I love you with all my heart and soul, but you are not getting into these pants while we have four…" she interrupted her speech to listen to the burgeoning cries of the young twins from the spare room, "…make that six children wide awake in the house."

He sat back on his heels, letting her up so she could wrap her robe around her. "Let me help you get Robbie and Ryder settled" she suggested, "and then I really have to sleep. Just two or three hours, please. Or I'm going to be zombie tonight."

"Tonight? Oh shit!" With all the excitement of the imminent arrival of the family's new addition and the chaos that always accompanied Rachel and Paul Lahote's offspring, Jacob had totally forgotten about the party tonight. The eminent Doctor Carlisle Cullen, finally, at the graceful age of sixty-seven, was retiring from medicine. "Don't you have to finish off your speech?" he asked her.

Ness nodded, her shoulder length hair fanning out on the pillow below, "that's another reason why I need a few hours sleep. I'll finish it this afternoon. Let me help you get the kids some breakfast and then I'll get up when Paul gets here and come with you guys to visit Rach."

"All right, my beautiful wife," he said, leaning in and kissing her long and hard. "But you can do diaper duty while I get the coco pops." He pulled away abruptly, dodging the playful tap he was going to get and pulling a t-shirt over his bare chest.

"Totally fair," she giggled sarcastically, as she caught up to him and slapped his ass on their way through the door.

"What? I've got enough disturbing images in my brain for one morning thank you very much."

"Come on Jake," she called as she finished braiding Zoe's hair, tying it off with a ribbon that matched the black velvet one on the little girls dress.

"Come on girls, grab you coats," she said quietly, ushering them into the garage. "We're getting in the car!" she yelled to her husband who, as always, left it to the last minute to get dressed and was, once again, making them late.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," he said, jogging down the hallway.

Ness turned and stopped dead in her tracks. She folded her speech, written in her neat loopy cursive, into her clutch and ogled at the sight of the handsome man now standing in her kitchen. It's was a black tie affair, a celebration that the Clallam County Hospital District were putting on, in acknowledgment of the retirement of their head of department at the hospital.

"Oh god, Jacob, you look so hot!" Ness purred, sliding up to him in her four inch strappy pumps. Her hands smoothed over the lines of his chest under his jacket.

"Oh, so now you want to show me a fresh shot of your vagina. Now that I'm all dolled up," he smirked looking down at her, clicking his tongue at the back of his teeth in that way that he knew drove her wild.

"If only we'd organized for the kids to be babysat tonight," she smiled up at him, her chin resting on his sternum, "we might have been able to slip away after the speeches," she said with an air of nonchalance. She didn't let him see the way his gaze scorched through her, the way he still set her alight after all these years. She'd had, after all, fifteen good years to master the art of secret seduction with the magnificent man.

He groaned, leaning over and inhaling the exotic scent she still used in her hair. "Maybe we can still slip away," his hands holding his wife, gliding down the backless number she had on, his fingers leaving goose bumps over her spine in his wake, before cupping over her pert bottom and squeezing. "Just for ten minutes, like that time at Bella and Edward's wedding."

"I have a much better plan up my sleeve Chief, and it's gunna need much more than ten minutes." Her little fingers gripped the lapels of his jacket, pulling him down for a kiss. Her pink lipstick smudged and smeared as their lips caressed like adolescents.

He pulled back, grinning down at her, "What plan, you naughty girl?"

"You know how Seth and Jaakko are coming home for Christmas?"

"Yes," he said with a slow drawl of already guessing what she was about to say.

Seth had set off after high school, traveling and living like an unwashed beatnik though the greater continent of Europe for the first three years of his adult life. He sexed his way through the more liberal of the European countries, working at bars and resorts, moving from bed to bed with little to no direction for far too long for Ness or Leah or Sue's likings. He eventually cleaned himself up though, got a good haircut, and some hot clothes and found himself a small apartment in Monaco to base himself. He got himself a steady job onboard the gigantic luxury yachts of the rich and famous and that was here he'd met his blond, Finnish, man-boy… Jaakko.

He'd come out to his already presupposing mother towards the end of senior year and by the time he came back to La Push to visit— four years after he'd first left— he was at home enough in his own skin and with his own sexuality to bring Jaakko with him. The two had married five years ago in Norway, in front of all of Jaakko and many of Seth's family, Jake and Ness included. The two lived and worked in Oslo, coming home to visit once or twice a year.

"Well he's home," Ness continued, "and Jaakko is desperate to see Ava and Zoe. Sue said there's more than enough room for the girls to have a sleep over, and their bags are in the trunk already and Sethy is going to come get them at nine." Her face morphed into its angelic brilliance as she smiled with the smooth delivery of her little surprise for her husband. A night just to themselves— and a long, much deserved, sleep-in in the morning— was exactly what the doctor ordered. Dr. Renesmee Black loved prescribing such privileges to herself.

"You, my tiny dancer, are fuckin-A," he hummed, his lips vibrating over hers as he pulled her in close once again, his hardening crouch pressing into her stomach. His hands played with the silky bare skin of her back, tracing the line of her shoulder blades that were on display in that exceptional dress she had on. The Big Chief already counting down the hours until he could get the front of the dress revealed too. The man couldn't wait to have her all to himself, alone… in the house they'd made a home.

"Yuuuuck!" whined Zoe from the internal garage door. "That's so gross you guys."

Jake and Ness pulled apart infinitesimally, chuckling as they looked over to the little girl and her scrunched-up, pre-pubescent face.

"You're meant to be in the car" Ness giggled, laughing at her daughter while still happily wrapped up in Jacobs's arms.

"I think I forgot Mr. Bunnyface," she said, her head tilting to the side, horror-stricken. Still, she was quite used to seeing her parents' outward display of love and affection on a daily basis.

"Well, go get him," Jake said, letting his hands fall from Nessie's hips and motioning to the child to hurry.

"I think Mrs. Kissyface is on Ava's bed, too," Ness called out down the hall. "Will you please get her for your sister, too?"

"Okay," came a muted, distant reply.

Ness laughed again, looking back to her husband and reaching up to wipe the mess of lipstick off his face. "Here," she said softly as his dark brown eyes shone down to hers, the love and devotion zapping between them. "I think that color looks better on me."

The finger food had been served and everyone was taking their seats at the laid out tables when she walked in.

"Oh," exclaimed Ness, taking Jake by the hand and nodding towards the slim woman in the long black dress as she walked up to Carlisle and Esme. She was greeted warmly, kissed and hugged like the daughter she was. "I wasn't sure they'd make it," Ness said, the air of pleasure in her tone.

"They got back yesterday," he answered, his fingers brushing over the sensitive skin of her exposed shoulder blades.

"Oh, she didn't call. I want to know how it all went," Ness said, catching the woman's eye and waving her over to the empty seat next to her. "Bella," she said warmly, standing and kissing the brunette on the cheek, left and then right.

"Oh Ness, thank god you're here. I was praying that we wouldn't have to be at the oldies table," she gushed, sitting down and pouring herself a glass of white from the selection of carafes already on the table.

"Where's Ed?" Jake asked, leaning over his wife and chastely pecking Bella on the cheek. The look of nothing more than friendship transpiring between the old friends. With age— and the maturity it brought— came the awareness. Bella learned to appreciate Jake as the friend he could be and to truly cherish the unadulterated devotion she'd somehow inspired from Edward.

"Parking the car in the back of the lot." She rolled her eyes and smiled. "You know how protective he is with the paintwork on the S60," she answered.

Bella Swan-Cullen, was a different person to the one who'd made so many foolish errors in her youth. But she still enjoyed the finer things in life and had a habit of dropping it into all conversations. And though, in Nessie's eyes, she would always be slightly marred by her double crossing of Jacob, Bella had become a regular and welcomed entity of her life. Following his work, Edward and Bella had moved to Seattle not long before Jake and Ness had moved back to Forks. After a frank and open discussion one Thanksgiving, one that was based on healing and maturity, the two women bonding over lost babies… and a whole lot of Merlot, the old adversaries' attitude towards one another changed forever. Ness would hazard to even go so far to say that she and Bella were friends, even.

"Tell me all about the trip," Ness bid, lifting her glass and sipping as Jake draped an arm around his wife's shoulder.

Bella smiled, her whole face lighting up, "Oh Ness, she's so perfect! Her name's Vanessa, and she's got the most gorgeous little face. And it took all that I had in me not to steal her away then and there."

"Did you get a photo?"

Bells scoffed, reaching for her purse. "Did I get a photo? Darn near filled up all the memory," she smiled, unlocking her phone and showing the empathetically interested couple the photos of the newborn girl from Little Rock, Arkansas they were set to adopt in just under three weeks.

"Oh she's gorgeous," Ness cooed, flicking through the images as Jacob watched over her shoulder. "Is the foster family nice?"

"Oh Yeah, they were so good. They've been fostering newborns for thirty years, Ness. Thirty! Little Vanessa is the seventy-fifth child to come through their doors. Can you imagine that?"

Edward made his appearance then, softly leaning two hands on his wife's shoulders and brushing his cheek to hers. "She may be number seventy-five, but she'll be number one to us," he smiled, shifting to kiss his cousin on the cheek and shaking her husband's hand. "Hello Ava, hello Zoe," he smiled, waving at the two girls busily coloring at the table next to their father.

"Hi Uncle Ed," they said in unison, barely looking up from their 'Frozen' coloring books.

He sat down, as the first course was served. The two couples passed the evening exchanging notes on their experience within the world of domestic adoption, with sporadic interruptions of spilt juice and toilet breaks.

The once cold rivals now turned friends, chatted and generally enjoyed one another's company over a well-made meal and even better wine.

Ness was thankful to have her speech allocated between the mains and dessert, giving her nervous tummy time to relax before the chocolate mousse was brought out. And god, was it good chocolate; with little raspberries dotted on top to boot. She was busy wiping Ava's face when the sleepy girls face lit up, her grin directed over her mother's shoulder.

"Jaakko!" Ave screeched, jumping off Jake's lap and running to the thin blond man kneeling down to hug her.

"Pikku tytöt," he called, his accent thick and rich, as he lifted her up. "How are you Ava? I want to see how good your drawings are now. I miss all the pictures you made for me last time."

Seth was a step behind him, already hand in hand with Zoe, who he'd found in the foyer playing with some of the other children at the event.

"Is it nine already?" Jake asked feigning surprise. He knew full well what time it was; he'd been counting down the minutes like Cinderella at the ball. Only…. nothing of his was going to change into a pumpkin… a giant sausage maybe… but not a pumpkin.

"Are you girls ready for a sleep over at Aunty Sue's and Uncle Charlie's? Seth and Jaakko told me they really want to see what you did at your ballet concert."

"You did a concert?" Seth asked the little girls, crouching down to them with devoted attention. Ava nodded shyly, the pride barley hidden in her eyes. "I can't wait to see it," he said encouragingly as Zoe, who was much less shy, held out her dress with delicate fingers. She placed her feet in second position and she readied herself to begin the four minute rendition of the nutcracker in the middle of the grand dining room. "Five, six, seven—"

Her count-in was cut off by her mother. "Not now, Zoe. Wait until you get back to Aunty Sue's house; I'm sure Uncle Charlie will want to see it too," Ness smiled, elbowing Jacob in the ribs as he began to chuckle. "Let's go over and say goodnight to Oma and Opa before you go," she said, ushering them towards her parents' table.

"Come on tytöt," Jaakko said, taking both girls by the hand. "I want to say hello to your Opa too."

The tall, well-groomed, blonde leaned over, leaving his husband with a quick kiss on the cheek before skipping off towards the other table like Dorothy on the yellow brick road, two little girls on each arm.

Ness and Jake stood up from the table then, moving over to greet their old friend. "Welcome home Seth," Ness said, reaching up on tiptoes to great him with a hug.

"Hey Nessy-bessy, it's good to be home," he said, hugging the tiny woman in his giant bear arms. Adolescence had been kind to Seth. A sudden growth spurt around seventeen had him towering over most, filling out and bulking up to rival even Jacob's size. But not quite.

"Brother," Jake smiled, clasping Seth's forearm with a wide hand, a friendly shoulder clasp with the other. "You ready to be 'Let it Go-ed' and sparkled out from my girls?" he asked his brother from another mother.

"Shit yeah! Mom's going crazy and already planning on making cupcakes in the morning and other shit. I'll be drawing the line at fingernail painting though."

Jake laughed, nodding, "I've learned clear nail polish is a good compromise if they're being instant."

"Right, I'll leave the rosebud pink for Jaakko," Seth grinned, watching his husband greet Nessie's parents like they were his own. "He's always bang up for all the girly stuff," he smirked, winking at Jake, knowing any kind of sexual innuendo always grossed him out. Seth was almost as good as Ness in playing Jake at it. It was too easy some times.

"Oh bugger off Seth," Jake laughed, not letting himself fall for the inference and using the term he'd learned from Nahuel so many years ago in London.

"I do, Jakey. Most nights." His eyes sparkled in cheekiness and genuine happiness… and of course at the opportunity to torment Jacob. Under all the joking and deflection though, Seth Clearwater was a truly contented man. In love and loving his life.

"None of that gay fucker stuff around my girls," Jake warned, trying not to smile at his old fiend's wit.

"As if," Seth scoffed back. "I'd say they have enough scaring from watching the two of you go at it like bunnies," his hand motioning between the Blacks. "I'm not going to add to their future therapy bills."

Ness broke into a full out laugh. "I miss you Seth," she smiled, squeezing Jacob's hand and linking elbows with Seth as the three of them walked over to table one.

"I still don't know why we can't babysit them," Marie said, holding Ava on her lap and squeezing the poor child half to death.

"Firstly mom, I wanted you to have a good time here tonight for Uncle Carl and not have to leave early; secondly, Seth and Jakk hardly get to see them."

"Well neither do your father and I," she retorted. "I'm well overdue for my fix," she said, leaning her face into her granddaughter's hair and inhaling. "Mmm," she grinned with eyes closed, a look of contentment on her aging face, "that's the good stuff."

Ness shook her head with a humoring snigger. She loved watching her parents with the girls. She'd known they'd love them simply because they were her children. But Ness hadn't anticipated the all-consuming devotion her parents both had towards both Ava and Zoe. It made her heart swell to witness such love.

Marie and Tony had taken the little girls on as their own flesh and blood, mollycoddling and spoiling them like all good grandparents should. They'd also finally set down roots, moving to the States not long after Ness and Jake lost their first baby. They'd wanted to be near their daughter and her husband… and their future grandbabies. Little would any of them have known that Jake and Ness had been instead, setting off on an arduous and heartbreaking journey of suffering and inadequacy.

The timing of their relocation had been fortuitous. Marie had landed a position within the Office of the Legal Counsel for the United Nations, giving them cause to move to New York and base themselves out of there, rather than Europe. Tony was content working at the NYC free clinic.

They were still hours away from Jake and Ness, but close enough to be by her side for each and every loss. Renesme was hoping they'd move closer, to the west coast at least, when they finally decided to retire.

"That is why, mother dear, I'm letting you steal them for a whole ten days after Christmas and why it's the third and most completing argument for you to say good night and let my babies go to bed."

"All right then. Steal my grandbabies from me," she sulked melodramatically.

"You do know they're coming back for Sunday lunch tomorrow?" Tony said dryly, taking Ava from Marie's arms and hugging the child.

"I suppose I'll just have to wait until tomorrow for more of my fix then," she smiled standing up.

Ness took Ava for a moment, hugging her tight as Jacob did the same with Zoe. "Be good for Aunty Sue and Sethy," he said, putting down one child to swap into the other for a goodbye.

A few more minutes of hugs and kisses and goodnights, and Seth and Jaakko were walking the girls hand in hand out the door, Mr. and Mrs Kissy-Bunnyface each gripped tight in little fingers, too.

It was well after midnight when Jake and Ness walked into their home, Ness a little happy on her feet from all the good wine. They never got around to that hot, quick fuck against a public bathroom wall like they hoped. But neither of them really minded. They were getting too old for those kind of shenanigans. He was more than happy to have his wife all to himself… just them… in their home… for the entire night.

Long and slow.

Starting with that dress.

"You looked really beautiful tonight," he said, wrapping an arm around her waist as she tipped back a bottle of cold water in the light of the refrigerator. "And you're speech was great. Just the right about of seriousness with jokes."

His lips dragged along the line of her throat, kissing a wet trail down to her collarbones and over the gold chain she wore around her neck, a little bunch of cherries that still nestled in her cleavage.

Ness held the bottle to her chest, as soft hum of pleasure escaping her lips. Her head was still back, her eyes closed, as she reveled in the thrill of his lips on her skin. After all these years he still lit her up from within.

"You tired?" he asked, gently taking the water bottle from her fingers and slowly bringing it to his own lips.

"No," she answered, mesmerized by the line of his jaw as he tilted his head back. She loved the way his larynx bobbed as he swallowed, and the wetness of his lips as they were covered in the cool refreshing liquid.

He took the little plastic lid from her other hand, blindly screwing it up and back in the fridge while his eyes bore into hers. The heat scorched between the two lovers.

With two firm, large hands on her hips he stepped her backwards, closing the refrigerator door with his foot. The assortment of novelty magnets that they had collected on their various travels around the world softly rattled and clinked where they were stuck holding up the girl's paintings and drawings.

The two stood in the kitchen, in the quiet darkness of their empty house. Her hands found their way to his shoulders, enjoying the way the white cotton stretched against his arms, appreciating the contrast between the tanned skin of his forearms to the crisp, white linen that was rolled up halfway.

"Good," he said back, ducking down and tucking a hand under her knees with a smile.

She squealed, a fun and joyous chuckle, as Jacob swept her up in to a bridal hold before setting off in the direction of their master bedroom.

Her arms wrapped around his neck as she let herself be carried, rocking against his sturdy chest with each step. Ness giggled at the adolescence of it, leaning her cheek against his collarbone and inhaling the rich musky spice that was that well known mix of his cologne and just… him. She still felt her ovaries tingle at that scent; that all-male fragrance that was simply Jacob Black.

As they stepped over the threshold of their bedroom Jake leaned down, kissing Ness as she pulled at his neck, pulling her lips up to meet with his. For several minutes they stood in the doorway, lips molding around one another's. Her tongue flicked against his teeth after his began exploring the ridges of her palate. Eventually they broke apart, panting a little and smiling.

Jake loved to see that soul lifting smile. Her eyes were shining bright even from the dim night light in the hallway.

"I love you, tiny dancer," he smiled, his voice deep and husky. The devotion and reverence still apparent after all these years.

"I love you too, husband," she said, reaching up for another soft, short kiss to his lips.

He placed her back on her feet then, turning on the lamp before standing behind her and helping her with the short zipper that held the dress to her trim waist.

She let the silky material pool at her feet, stepping out but still in her heels and panties. She'd not worn a bra with that backless dress she'd had on and Jake had been well aware of that fact all of the evening. He started to undress himself, kicking his shoes off as he unbuttoned his shirt, the bow-tie still hanging around his neck. He watched his wife as she carefully look off her earrings, her beautiful breasts and her chestnut-bronze, curly hair falling to the side as she tilted her head.

Ness crawled up the bed and reached over to place her jewelry on the side table as Jacob studied the way her ass moved in the black silk. He undid his belt, opening the fly as he lowered his trousers, his straining erection pressing against the silk of his boxer shorts.

He moved slowly up onto the covers, kneeling on all fours between her legs as she turned and rested back on the pillows. Their eyes pulsed with the love and longing between them, never breaking the eye contact as Jacob sat back on his heels. He slowly lifted her foot, holding it reverently as he loosened the ankle strap of her stilettoes. Removing one shoe, he let it fall off the bed. It landed with a leather slap on the floor as his strong fingers rubbed and pressed in her sole.

He let the foot rest back on the bed, raising the other and placing it on his bare thigh, the spike of the heal pressing into his tanned skin as he undid the tiny silver buckle by her ankle. He removed her other shoe, crossing it over his body to let it too fall to the floor. He lifted her leg, bringing it to his lips and kissing the petite instep of Nessie's foot. All the while, his eyes never left hers.

"I love you, darling. You're so beautiful, Ness. Do you have any idea how much I love you?"

She giggled in the dim light as his breath tickled up to her toes. She pulled away somewhat on reflex, and Jake let her foot go.

"Only as much as I," she crooned, pointing to her own heart, "love you," her delicate, naturally manicured finger pointing to him.

Jake took her in, his wife; his lover; his best friend; his soul mate. There wasn't an inch of her skin that he hadn't explored and reveled in. Still, after all the years of loving, it was far from repetitive. They still felt young and fresh, excited to re-explore curves and lines each time they fell into one another's arms.

Her skin glowed in the lamp light, her hair falling on her shoulders as she reclined in nothing but the silk detailed panties. Her knees were pressed together, her ankles tucked to the side as she lay back. Behind her, above the headboard on the wall of their bedroom, was the woven bear-grass and cattail reed tapestry he'd given her the first Christmas after they'd met. His symbolic gesture to her that she was his world. The traditional woven mat, that at the time he'd hoped had shown her that he wanted to spend the rest of his days with this little woman by his side.

The ha-tol-ka.

His gaze drifted over the wings of the mystical thunderbird, T'ist'ilal and the way they stretched out wide over the tapestry. He took in, for the hundredth time, the life affirming lightening depicted across the image landscape as the great bird gild, mid-flight, above the sea and land. There was a hint of a cliff just to the side of the scene and, as Jacob crawled up the length of his wife's diminutive body, he felt the connection to those cliffs. The place were, with only a handful of family and friends, they'd said their vows into the ocean breeze. The cliffs where he'd sat alone and broken, and where her heart had heard the call of his and pulled him back from the abyss. The cliffs where, after a night of soul mingling, body ascending, all-encompassing love, they'd jumped, naked as the day they were born, into the stirring waters below.

"What are you thinking about," she asked, her arms reaching for him and pulling him close. His chest pressed into her breasts as her legs wrapped around him, her warm skin heating him from within.

"Just how lucky I am, and how much I love you and our life," he answered, a hand gently sweeping a long curl back off her face.

"We make a good team you and me, Jake."

"That we do Nessie… that we do."

She lifted her head off the pillow, straining to press her lips to his. He stooped down, kissing her long and hard until her head rested back on the pillow. His hands wandered over her curves, over the soft swell of her stomach, and into her waist. His fingers found a breast, kneading and circling the hardened nipple as he continued to kiss her.

"Make love to me, Jacob," she pled, her voice deep and husky with need. Her fingers slipped down the valley of his spine, counting the vertebrae.

He lay his body across her, their skin touching at almost every point. Their passion pulsed between, their energy in sync and in harmony with the other.

"Always, Ness. I will love you forever," he said as his lips met hers once more.

And then he dove, heart, body and soul, feet first in to the depth of their love.

Yes, it's really over now...

Thanks so much for reading, so grateful for you all.

May the light within me honor the light within you. Namaste.

Marina.