Author's note : Final part of the epilogue!! End of the story!! WOO-HOO!!! Sorry, I'm just so happy I finished it completely! Most of all, knowing I did not give up just because of the language barrier and knowing the story was (surprisingly enough to me) liked are incredible reliefs. And you deserve many "thank you" for that, all of you who have been reading and reviewing this story this far. Hope you will enjoy that last chapter and appreciate it. I even dropped a little hint regarding what will come next. Ideas keep rushing through my mind! Remember: one story ends, another begins!! =D

Musical suggestions:

1) Lady in the Water OST: Charades, by James Newton Howard

2) Dinosaur OST: Track 1 (Inner Sanctum/Nesting Grounds) by James Newton Howard.

Kida could just not think straight. All she knew was she hadn't the slightest idea when she had undergone such pain for the last time. Probably never. Even though she was a proud woman, there was no way she could pretend she did not feel the pain this time.

In a desperate effort, she opened her eyes and quickly looked around her. She was in her and Milo's room, a place she associated with love, comfort and safety. Curtains had been thoughtfully drawn so no flagrant light could enter, and several fireflies-globes had been put across the room, gently diffusing their soothing dim light. She could hear, in the distance, some musicians playing relaxing melodies on their instruments, mostly pan-flutes. Dr. Sweet had argued it was very important for a woman who goes into labour to feel as comfortable as possible. He had said she only had to focus on her body and the baby. Every other thought should be pushed aside. But, in the name of the Great Kings, how could she feel comfortable when her entire being was in such agony? Surely he had been joking!! In which case, it was not what she would call 'funny'! While she heard herself scream in pain, her mind travelled into time and space, and she remembered the previous hours.

Everything then had gone according to plan. She was having a bath when she had seen the amniotic sac had broken. She had called for Milo, who had never been far away from her during the last weeks of her pregnancy, and he had come straight away, had understood what was happening, and had told her to calmly stay in the water while he would go and get Sweet. Amazingly he had not panicked for a second. Or he had extremely well pretended he wasn't panicking. Whatever the truth was, he had been there when she had needed him. Then, he and Sweet, followed by a couple of female servants, had stayed by her side. Both Milo and Sweet and jumped into the water, not caring about the fact their clothes were now completely soaked. Milo, being himself, had kept holding her hand and caressing her cheek, repeating it would be all right. She had even laughed at him, arguing that unless he had been a woman in another lifetime, there was no way he could assure such a thing. The huge doctor had urged Kida not to fight the contractions, and she had done as he had said, the agreeable contact of water around her body making her feel lighter and helping her to soothe the pain. But as soon as the contractions had begun to accelerate and last for more than a minute, he had carried her out of the water and laid her onto the bed.

"You're doing very fine, Kida. Keep pushing!"

Sweet's voice brought the Queen back to reality. When had all this started anyway? It felt like an eternity already! As the next contraction seemed to tear her body to pieces, she yelled out again, wanting nothing more but to die this instant, so she would not feel the pain any longer, though even in this state, she inwardly admitted she was an idiot of the highest order to think that way. She did not realize it immediately, but when she heard him speak, she knew she had called his name.

"I'm right here, Kida. I'm right here. Everything's okay." He soothingly said, but his words had upon his wife the exact opposite effect. Kida knew more than she felt her patience was now reaching its last limits.

"No, Milo!! Everything is not 'okay'!!!" she somehow managed to reply between her gritted teeth.

"Oh but it is, Kida. I've seen other women doin' much worse than you. Just keep pushing!" Sweet's voice conspicuously joined the conversation, as if everything that was occurring was nothing more than a picnic to him.

Kida shot him her darkest glare and sensed Milo slightly back away from her; it was enough for her to continue to take it out on him. She knew deep inside her she was being unfair, but, by the First King, why should she be the only one to be in pain?? So, she pushed her husband's hand away and roared at the top of her lungs.

"YOU DID THAT TO ME!!! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME?? I SWEAR, MILO, I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!!!"

She finished her sentence by adding a couple of some not very dignified insults that, even if they were spoken in Atlantean, left no doubt regarding their meaning and made Milo feel like he wanted to vanish in thin air straight away.

The mortified expression that spread on his face enabled Kida to feel some sort of perverted pleasure, and she was just about to utter a second sentence when Sweet spoke again.

"Don't reply, Milo. And don't pay attention to her words. It's a common thing for women who're in labour to insult their husbands. She doesn't mean what she said."

"AND HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT, IF I MAY ASK?"

"If you really wanna know, that baby of yours is nearly there 'cause the both of you were involved. Now push! I wanna see my godson!"

Kida's eyes went wide whilst Milo's cheeks turned into fireballs. Sweet chuckled, rather amused by the sudden silence that filled the room, and just when the Queen tried to reply, the most violent contraction yet made her forget everything else. When Milo saw her bit her lower lip so she would not scream, he had the feeling Kida was considering the whole experience like a fight against herself. While she breathed deeply, he ran his fingers through her sweat-soaked white hair. He saw the corner of her mouth curve into a tiny, tired smile and felt comforted by that small manifestation of affection.

But when he told her that there wasn't anything to be ashamed of if she screamed, she somehow found enough strength to reach out for the vase on her bedside table, and Milo ducked just in time –since when did he have such reflexes?- so it wouldn't hit him in the face. Instead, the vase cleaved through the air, propelled outside through a window, and finished its race against a wall where it exploded into a zillion pieces.

Audrey, Vinny and Mr. Whitmore, who were waiting patiently for the baby to be born and standing nearby that wall, suddenly turned their heads and saw the vase crash violently. Silence fell upon the three of them while they gazed at its remnants. Then they all burst out laughing. Audrey, more particularly, expected eagerly to see Galin since Milo and Kida had asked her to be his godmother. This was an honour she had barely dreamed about, and when she had asked Milo why they had chosen her, he had simply replied that she had been the first one to understand stealing the Crystal was synonymous of mass murder; that she had been the first one to join sides with Milo against Rourke, and that if she had not, then there would have been no Galin.

But their laughter didn't last for too long, for somewhere not too far away, a plaintive wail sounded clearly, purely, and Atlantis itself seemed to grow respectfully silent so the cry would be heard and cherished everywhere in the city.

Kida lay back, completely drained.

Pain still thudded through her head, inextricable and incessant. She felt more exhausted than she ever had in her life. That long ago day when she and Milo had protected and saved her entire city twice in the space of only days - that long ago time when every moment was the anticipation in the air before the hunt began... they paled with time and in comparison to the depths and the incredible bliss of what she was feeling now. Memories of agony still sparked their way across her muscles, shivering her exposed flesh in the air.

She closed her eyes. She smelt her own sweat, and then the scent of someone else as he returned to where he belonged. By her side.

Milo dipped his head down and smiled against the shell of her ear. "It's over. He is fine."

She felt his fingers tangle in her hair. She felt the weight of the baby as it was laid down into her waiting arms, wrapped into a warm scarlet piece of fabric. And as she looked down at amazingly soft, tanned, skin, at the fuzz of golden hair, at the tiniest sparkle of light in the child's deep blue pupils, she smiled. Her own eyes brimming with tears, she looked up and met Sweet's. He smiled his eternal joyous smile at her in return while he cleaned his blood-covered hands, finally allowing himself a moment of rest, his forearm travelling every now and then to his forehead to erase all trace of worry and sweat. The Queen returned her attention to her baby as he began to suck on his mother's breast, but then remembered something –or rather someone- important. Turning her head, she gazed at Milo, her Milo, who seemed unsure of what he should do or say next. She saw his tears roll down his cheeks, his breath fogging up his glasses as he looked down at the miracle that was before him, and she knew exactly which thought ran wildly through his mind: he had a family.

"I'm sorry for what I said." She whispered, finding even that felt exhausting.

Milo grinned sheepishly and chuckled, shy and intimated. "That's okay."

People had told him, "From the minute your child is born, your life changes." Of course he had not believed them. Now he knew they were right, all of his friends and acquaintances who were already parents.

Milo sat on the bed's edge, slightly trembling, and felt a surge of responsibility watching Galin, his son, a few minutes after his first breath, lying peacefully into Kida's motherly arms. So fragile, so strong, so beautiful. So alive.

"That was memorable, wasn't it?" Kida asked him, giving him a radiant smile which made the Mother Crystal's light look dim in comparison.

"Memorable? More than that. Unforgettable."

Milo felt his heart rise in his throat and bent down to kiss her. When he pulled back, he looked tenderly down and touched Galin's golden hair with his fingertips, a little bit afraid that he might hurt him. But the little prince closed his eyes as if he was savouring the contact with his father's hand.

"He knows you." Kida commented, smiling. Milo simply nodded. Then his gaze fell upon a curious detail. Very carefully, he lifted the stray bangs on Galin's forehead to reveal a tiny birth mark, lighter than the rest of his skin, in the shape of what looked like a full circle. Milo shrugged, and held Kida close to him. When the prince seemed to have gulped down enough milk, he retrieved his mouth from his mother's breast and gave a satisfied hiccup when tiny bubbles burst against his lips.

Milo and Kida chuckled, and it was only then that they heard the cheers that rolled non-stop and seemed to surge from every part of the city. But the little prince did not pay attention to them as he yawned his head-off, snuggling close to his mother before going peacefully to sleep.

"Welcome to Atlantis, Galin. Welcome home."

The End.