32. The Miracle of Grace

The happy newlyweds—specifically Var and Lena—enjoyed their brief honeymoon to its fullest extent before Var refused to continue because Lena was clearly in the final stages of pushing. Not ten minutes later, he received the first baby as it was born—a son, just as she predicted. Less than five minutes after that, the second twin arrived into Var's waiting hands, and he announced in surprise, "A girl, Lena."

"Really?" she breathlessly said, her voice tired but delighted as she cradled her tiny son against her chest.

Var nodded and stared down at the perfect baby in his hands, which fully engulfed her. With mixed emotions, his eyes took in the head of black hair, still matted and wet, the ruddy skin, each limb, each tiny finger and toe. He loved her already, as her surrogate father, but he also felt a pang for his daughter. Would she have looked like this, perhaps? The infant had cried out once for her first breath, then quieted down immediately. Her eyes remained closed.

"May I see her?" Lena requested, apparently cognizant that Var needed a moment to come to terms with the situation.

"Of course." Var carefully transferred the baby to Lena's chest beside Liam, the baby boy, who had already found his mother's breast. Then Var attended to their cords after milking them of extra blood and clamping them off.

"They're so beautiful," Lena murmured, gazing down with full eyes.

Within seconds of laying her down, the baby girl began fussing and squirming. Var figured she must be hungry, so he helped Lena maneuver the baby nearer her food. As soon as he touched her, the baby calmed down, but she didn't show any interest in eating. Since she seemed content enough, however, Var returned to his tasks. Once again the girl cried quickly and insistently.

Lena spoke to the baby in a soothing falsetto, expressing her love and concern. The baby's wailing only intensified, and Lena looked at Var in consternation. "What do you suppose is wrong?"

"No idea."

"She was calm when you were holding her. Would you like to again?"

"Sure." Var scooped up the baby and shifted her to the crook of one arm; she instantly fell silent. "Hello, precious," he said in the higher tones everyone automatically assumed when speaking to little ones. "What's upsetting you?"

He looked at Lena and shrugged. "She obviously can't answer that, but now she seems fine."

"She was upset that I tried taking her from her dada," Lena suggested, her eyes loving.

Emotion welled in Var's eyes and throat. "Maybe," he said when he could. "Sorry, Lena. I truly am happy, I just wasn't mentally prepared for a girl."

"Come sit with us," Lena invited, patting the bed beside her. "Sam can clean up the rest and attend to the placenta."

Var accepted her offer and sidled up next to his new wife and their new babies. This whole day had seemed like an amazing dream, and Var felt immensely grateful for his two new roles.

"So what should we name her?" Lena asked after they had admired the babies for a time.

"I don't know. Do you have any ideas?" He gazed down at the scrunched up face, so peaceful against his arm.

"None. I've been mulling over boy names."

"Maybe we'll figure it out after we see her when she's awake. Odd that she hasn't opened her eyes yet, don't you think?"

"It's not completely out of the ordinary. Tage didn't open his eyes for at least a full day. But Liam is so alert right now." They cooed and interacted with the baby boy, who stared with bright eyes at his mother. "He has Will's cleft." Lena set her fingertip on the baby's chin. "Yours too. Handsome like your father," she crooned.

"With blue eyes like his mother."

"Most babies' eyes are blue," Lena said. "Though I've heard Aunt Arya talk about Zadí's being different."

"They were green when she was born," Var said. "I still remember Arya commenting that it was unusual."

When Liam drifted off to sleep, the joyful but exhausted new parents joined him, having eaten heartily of the food Sam brought into them. The baby girl never peeped a complaint so long as Var continued snuggling her, so he nestled her next to his chest, while Lena did the same with Liam. With the babies between them, Var and Lena faced one another, and Lena's final remark before slipping into slumber was that she would finally be comfortable now that the babies were here.

They awoke the next morning to the baby girl rooting around in search of some milk. "You won't find any over here, sweetie," Var murmured to the infant. "Shall we try mama again? That's where you'll get what you're looking for."

According to Lena, Liam had nursed consistently throughout the night, so Var took the boy for a while to give Lena a chance to feed her daughter alone. Unlike the previous day, the girl latched right on and nursed determinedly until she clearly indicated that her need was satisfied by pulling away and fussing.

"Maybe she needs to burp," Var said.

"I think she just wants you again," countered Lena. "So why don't you try?"

"Gladly." They switched babies again, and Var held the little bundle to his shoulder, pulling a soft baby blanket over her back. He patted her gently, and some air bubbles escaped, but truly she acted content simply to be with him. "Shall we bathe this morning?" he suggested.

Lena agreed, and Var helped her through the process, as well as rinsed both babies, whom they finally dressed in preparation for their introduction to Var's and Lena's families and closest friends. Once washed, the babies looked quite different. Their skin tone had begun to normalize overnight, and their soft hair now appeared more natural. Liam's was dark brown and curly. The baby girl had darker hair, almost black, and it spiked away from her head in gentle tufts.

Lena was sore from the previous day's exertions, not to mention giving birth to twins, so Var carried her to the meeting place, while she carried both babies cuddled together on her chest. Next to Liam, her twin, the baby girl seemed perfectly easy. Or maybe she could sense that Var was still holding her, only less directly.

They arrived in the royal family's private lounge just in time for the scrumptious breakfast spread. Every Dragon Rider who had come for the wedding and their respective families were present for the gathering. There were so many little babies to go around that Var and Lena found they didn't have to relinquish their hold on their twins right at first.

After the meal, Var occupied one of the oversized sofas with his mother on one of him side and Lena and Liam on the other. Lena's daughter continued to cry whenever Var attempted to hand her to anyone else, so he finally decided to keep ahold of her and let everyone come over for a look. And everyone did: Var's grandparents, parents, and siblings; Lena's parents and siblings; Brom, Brin, and their families; Nefin, Keeta, and his family; Hanna and Ajh—who unsurprisingly looked a little sleepy—and last but not least, Gerik and Ana, whose friendship had deepened during the previous months, by all outward appearances.

After the long line of admirers dispersed, Lena got Var's attention by nudging his shoulder. "Look! Look at the little smiles! He has my dimples!" Liam captured their hearts with his unconscious sleep smiles, which did indeed reveal that he had inherited his mother's endearing dimples.

"That's precious," Var said, unable to look away.

Until, from his other side, Var's mother said, "Oh Var, she's finally opening her eyes! Look and see! Are they green?"

Var's eyes swiftly found the baby girl's face, his heart suddenly pounding in his chest. From across the room, Arya spoke up and sharply said, "What did you just say, Willow?"

Var's mother glanced at her longtime friend in surprise. "Just that her eyes look green. Wouldn't you say, Var?"

Var nodded mutely, gazing down into the eyes that gazed straight back up at him, alert and aware. He knew those eyes. He would have recognized them anywhere.

Zadí's eyes.

By now, Arya had made her way over, after handing one of her twins off to an eager holder. Zadí's mother bent over Var's lap to see right into the baby's face; he turned her slightly toward Arya.

"Her eyes," Arya breathed, tears filling her own. "The first baby I've seen in eighteen years who has green eyes . . . like . . . Zadí's."

"Zadí's," Var whispered at precisely the same time. By now the room was utterly silent. "But how?" He glanced at Lena, as if she might know.

Lena's cheeks were covered in tears. "Because she's yours, Var," she quietly said. "She's yours and Zadí's baby. Now I remember the dream I had the morning Will died. In it Zadí asked me to do this for you and for her. I agreed but knew it meant that Will would die, if you and I would end up together. I woke up and immediately forgot the most important details. Until now. Somehow, in some miraculous way, I was able to carry Zadí's baby in her stead so that your daughter would have the chance to live and you would have the chance to be her father."

Var stared with wide eyes and just managed to choke out, "Thank you," as he pulled Lena into him and kissed her forehead. "Now I remember a dream I had some months ago too," Var went on, addressing his wife. "Back on the Isle, before we parted ways, I dozed off while you sat on Will's bench. It started as a nightmare where I saw him and Zadí dead or dying again. But after that, I came out of the darkness into a mountain meadow filled with flowers. You and Blackfire were there. Two children played at your feet, and they called me dada when they looked up. The little boy was definitely Liam, now that I've seen him. Curly brown hair, blue eyes—they stay blue—and the cleft chin. But the other child was a girl, and in the dream I was amazed because she had black hair and green eyes, just like Zadí, and I couldn't understand how that was possible."

As if to lend credibility to Var and Lena's dreams, Brom soberly entered the conversation. "Prior to the morning Will died, Lena was expecting only one baby, and had been for some weeks. Later that day, Rhunön called our attention to the fact that she was then carrying twins. Brin thought it must mean they were identical, but that couldn't have been true if she had conceived weeks earlier. I likewise don't know how this would be possible, but do miracles have to make sense?" He too came closer to see the baby with this new information. "Zadí's baby." He tenderly ran his fingers along her hair. "She does look exactly like Zadí did as a baby."

His mother nodded and entreatingly extended her hands toward the infant. "May I?" Var transferred the baby to Arya, and for the first time she didn't bawl to leave him. Arya—the baby's maternal grandmother—wept openly as she pressed the tiny girl to her breast and stroked her soft head. "Hello, sweet baby," she whispered. "Sweet, precious girl. My granddaughter." Eragon had also come nearer; now he knelt beside his wife and placed his hand over hers along the baby's back.

"Your locket, Var," said Ana from slightly behind them.

He turned to look at his small friend, who stood beside Gerik with her hand clasping his. His locket! Of course she would be the one to remind Var of that detail. He opened his locket and tilted it toward Lena so they could examine it together.

"Remember on the ship?" Var said, his sense of wonder deepening.

Lena dipped her chin. "It's her as a baby," she confidently said. "That baby will grow up to be this little girl. Do you have any name ideas now?"

"Yes," Var said without hesitation, and he reached out for his daughter. Arya placed her in his hands, and he cradled her in his arms, overwhelmed by love as he gazed down at her face. Rhunön's parting words—recalled to him through Lena's memory—ran through his mind: Grace will shine in your life if you can but weather these storms. "Her name is Grace. Izzie Grace."

THE END

A/N: Megan, SURPRISE! I have a loyal reader, Megan Lyle, who has faithfully read and commented after every chapter for the last almost four years, and we have corresponded some via FB messenger. She gave me a suggestion regarding Var's baby, and I told her I already had a plan in mind. She has been anxiously and so patiently awaiting the surprise, so I recently promised I would make it clear when the surprise was revealed. This was it, Megan. Var gets his own baby after all.

Well, y'all, I can't even begin to express how good it felt to type those two words above this Author's Note. I DID IT! I finished this story. It seemed to take forever, but now I can say it's done. And I'm so thrilled with how it turned out. I originally thought it would take Var much, much longer to heal and be ready to move on with Lena. Like, as in years after the twins were born. But as the story progressed, and new characters came into play, and I fleshed out events I had only vaguely and mentally outlined, things changed and he arrived at that place much sooner than I or he anticipated. It worked out so beautifully for them to marry just before the babies came, for him to already be committed to Lena before he ever knew she would be the mother to his daughter just as he would be the father to her son.

I love that their friends all came for the wedding (another unplanned detail), that they could all be together for this final scene. I'm so glad the last scene in the story wasn't a love scene (for a long time I thought it might be, before I realized that Var would fall in love with Lena so quickly). It was such a relief not to dedicate thousands of words to another sex scene or birth. If you've read my other book, The Cycle Continues, you've read enough love and birth scenes to last a lifetime, and really, the final resolution for Var and Lena was discovering that the baby girl was Zadí's and that they would have a second chance with her too.

I can't thank you enough for sticking with me on this journey. Your support has meant a lot over the years. I plan to take a break from writing for a while, but maybe someday I'll give a crack at writing an original story. If that ends up happening, I might come back here and post an Epilogue to this story with an Author's Note containing information about my current writing projects. Many fans have, at one time or another, expressed a willingness to buy something I wrote, so I might test that out one day. But for now, goodbye. It's been fun! I'd love to hear any parting thoughts!

Lots of love, Autumn :)

P.S. If you're curious, Nefin and Keeta's baby is a girl. She'll be born a couple of weeks after Lena's twins, and they'll name her Katee (pronounced Katie; they just switch the vowels in Keeta's name). Gerik and Ana end up together. Their dragons become mates, so the rest is inevitable, right?! One reader commented that she would have loved to see more about Brom and Brin, and I replied in a PM that I had originally intended to write a whole lovey-dovey chapter about their honeymoon, before I realized that I needed to streamline the ending and focus in on Var and Lena (although I couldn't resist devoting just one last chapter to Ajh and Hanna so they would also get their happy ending). But, as I also told her, perhaps someday I'll write a few one-shots with these other beloved characters and add them to this story listing. So many scenes of their day-to-day lives play through my mind, they're such a part of me now. I know you all love them too! Thanks again for helping me stick it out and bring them to their happy endings! Adieu!