Epilogue

Six Years Later
Saturday, June 2, 2018

A warm breeze blows through the air just as Olivia steps out onto the back porch, the balloons that Elliot had tied at haphazard intervals around the railings at the insistence of their daughter flying around.

"Mommy, mommy, is it almost time?" Putting the pitcher of lemonade down on the table with other drinks, Olivia catches Kara up in her arms as she comes bouncing over, brown curls flying out behind her as she runs, always going.

"It is almost time, baby," She grins, leaning in and kissing her nose, the little girl scrunching her face up. "Maureen and Danny should be here in a few minutes, Lizzie said she and Hannah were on their way, and daddy's in the house with your brothers and Katie and some others now," Olivia tells her. Kara grins, but then frowns, tilting her head.

"I wish Rellie was here."

A pang in her chest, Olivia agrees with her. "I know, baby. Me too," Liv sighs, not needing to go on further, as the sliding door opens again and Kara's face lights up.

"Katie cat, Dickie, Brookie, Mary!" She exclaims, and Olivia laughs, putting her down so she can go greet her siblings and Brooke. She watches her daughter as she animatedly moves from person to person, Maureen and her husband arriving with their three month old son creating another commotion, Kara begging to hold her nephew, and then getting excited when Lizzie and her fiancee Hannah arrive. Olivia watches, greeting them all and taking her grandson from Kara at the earliest possible moment, inhaling the sweet baby scent.

"Eli, let's go, get down here," She calls up towards his open window. "No more video games!"

"Coming, ma," The eleven year old calls back, and he appears shortly before Don, John, Finn, Kathy and Rob arrive.

Almost the whole family.

xXxXx

"Liv, what's wrong?" The kitchen is silent, the happy laughter and talking drifting in through the screen door. Olivia looks up at Elliot as he walks in, watching her put the candles on the Moana cake.

"It's just...always an emotional day," Olivia mutters, looking anywhere but her husband until he reaches out, gently tilting her gaze towards him instead of the cake. "And you wish she were here?" Elliot guesses, Olivia nodding, eyes stinging.

In eighteen years, she'd forgotten the pain. The thought seems impossible now, after 19 hours of labor, following six weeks of bed rest, after having to actively participate in forcing her body to do something that seemed impossible. It feels like her body is ripping open as she pushes, and finally feels the release, and after a crazy moment, hears a soft cry.

And then a squirming, crying, tiny little human is placed on her chest, and Elliott is kissing her head, she thinks he's crying, and all she can do is look at this little girl, their little girl, in wonder. She'd been strong enough to get her here. She'd done it. "Hi Karalynn," She finally breathes. "Hi baby," Olivia whispers.

It's Linda's voice, cutting through the cloud, that jarrs her into reality. Linda, directing them not to clamp the cord too soon, how to collect it. And her mind shifts to two floors up, where the kids are waiting outside Ariella's isolation room for news. Where Ariella is in isolation.

She hadn't seen her in weeks. The middle of April had brought Ariella back to the hospital. The cancer had reared its ugly head in again, so quickly. And shortly after that, the preeclampsia forced her to bedrest. First at home, and then in the hospital. She hadn't been able to see Ariella, but she knew from the look on the kid's faces, Elliot's face, Taylor's face that it was bad. A week previous, they'd started the high dose chemo to eradicate the bad marrow in preparation of the transplant.

And now, she watches as Linda ensures the safety of the cord blood, as she strokes her new baby's back, kisses her head. Watches as it leaves the room with Linda...the saving grace they'd been waiting for.

xXxXx

Hours after giving birth, the earliest that she can get out of the bed, Elliot's wheeling her up to the oncology floor. He stops outside of the room, she can't even go in. She's too much of an infection risk. But this has to be enough for now. He helps her stand, Lizzie coming to her other side, and she can see through the window. Taylor's covered in hospital garb, sitting beside her.

Her stomach turns. This is the worst she's ever seen her. She looks like a ghost, a shell, with tubes and wires everywhere. But the heart monitor is steadier than its been in days, as though she knows. The IV bag connected to her now is Kara's gift. Her savior.

She'd been out for five days. Linda said it wasn't bad. Insisted that she was just healing, it had been a big ordeal, and her body needed time. They were pumping her full of fluids and anti rejection drugs. But five days was a long time. Finally able to see her, she held her hand to Ariella's cheek, leaned in close. "You fight this, Ariella, you hear me?" She whispers. "You fight this. You don't just get to leave me with a job and your dad, you sisters and brothers, and a new baby. You don't get to leave me things to keep me occupied, or expect Kara to be a replacement. You don't get to leave," Olivia says forcefully. "You have to come back to us, you have to watch her grow up, Rellie, she's so, so perfect, she's so beautiful, and you have to meet your baby sister."

"Hey, I think she's going to go into destruction mode if she doesn't get cake soon," Lizzie laughs, sticking her head in the door. Olivia nods, sticking the sixth candle in.

"We're coming," She smiles at her stepdaughter, moving to pick up the cake. "Liv," Elliot sighs, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on. It's Kara's birthday party," Liv says, leaning up to kiss him. "Get the lighter, will you?" She asks, and he sighs, grabbing the candle lighter from a drawer in the island, lighting it and holding it to the six candles.

"I've got it," Elliot says when Olivia goes to pick it up, letting her lead the way out to the back, where everyone's gathered at the large outdoor table. Kara's bouncing in her seat, grinning, but then her eyes light up, and she's jumping off of her chair.

"RELLIE!"

"Linda said it's a bad idea, Liv. It's not going to change anything," Elliot insists, but Olivia ignores him, walking forward.

"I'm their mother. I know." She insists, cradling one week old Kara in one arm, trying to put the gown on with the other. Elliot concedes and helps her, tying it behind her as she wraps one around Kara like a makeshift blanket, taking her inside of Ariella's isolation room.

"Rellie, it's us," She says gently, sitting beside her bed. "Mom, and dad...and Karalynn. I brought her to meet her big sister," Olivia says softly. "Your baby sister is here, Ariella. She needs you to be in her life, honey. You need to wake up, please," She begs, carefully taking Ariella's hand, and pressing it against Kara's cheek. She stays like that, Elliot wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

Five minutes pass before she feels movement. It's not Kara's, but Ariella's. Her hand, bending to form to Kara's face. Catching in her breath, Olivia's eyes fly to her face, and Ariella's looking back at her with a small smile. "I'm not goin' anywhere," She whispers hoarsely.

"There's the birthday girl!" Ariella exclaims back, catching Kara as they meet, spinning her around.

"You're here!" Kara shouts, hugging her tight. "You guys came, you came!" She laughs, holding on tight to her sister, reaching out with one arm to hug Taylor as well.

"Hey, I have not missed one birthday party, you think I was going to start now if I could help it?" Ariella scoffs at her, "Nuh uh! Now come on, come on, we don't want to eat cake with wax on it, we've gotta sing happy birthday to the birthday girl, the big six year old birthday girl," She says, putting Kara down in her chair.

"I'm actually six years and six days old," Kara informs her smartly, sitting down in her chair. "Ok daddy, ok! Everyone's here now!" She smiles.

"Yes smarty pants, but your party is today," Ariella says, poking her nose, leaning down and kissing her head.

Grinning, Elliot puts the cake down, and they all sing happy birthday, Ariella sliding over to her parents as they do, wrapping her arms around both of them. Only after they've finished the song and Kara's blown her candles out, and the cake is cut does Ariella get to say hello to everyone else.

"We wound up wrapping last night, and we were able to catch a red eye from Heathrow to Miami, and then from Miami to JFK," Taylor explains. "This was after she conned everyone into working through the night before to get everything they needed, and she knew we'd be late, but she had to get here," He says, Ariella leaving Lizzie and Hannah to slide over.

"Of course I did," She says. "Like I said, I haven't missed a birthday party her whole life, not gonna start now if there's any way around it. Especially when it's today, of all days. June second, wake up day," Rellie says softly, wrapping her arms around Olivia.

Wake up day...the first day Olivia and Elliot were able to have all of their kids together as one family.

xXxXx

That night, after everyone besides them and the kids and their spouses had gone home, they were gathered in the family room. Kara was on the floor, playing with new toys, and the others were sprawled out on couches. Olivia had gotten up to refill her glass of water, and had stopped to look at the family photographs lining the wall of the dining room.

The tradition had started at her and Elliot's wedding, which had occurred when Kara was just over ten months old, all of them gathered together. The next was from around Christmas of that year, and then the next from September 2014, the day Ariella and Taylor got married. Every December and any wedding was a new family photograph. In 2015, Dan came into the picture, and then in 2016, Hannah. Early 2017 brought Maureen and Dan's wedding, and in that years' Christmas photo, Maureen was pregnant.

"Hey," Ariella says softly beside her.

Smiling, Olivia leans over and kisses her head, putting an arm around her shoulders. "Hey,"

"What're you doing?" Rellie asks, and Olivia shrugs. "Just looking at how things have changed. How we've grown," She tells her.

"Mmm, I know," Rellie murmurs in agreement.

"Dickie's been dating someone. Maybe there will be someone new in this years Christmas photo," Olivia muses. Ariella nods slowly, looking behind them to catch Taylor's eye, motioning him up. Her husband gets up and comes over, nodding, and she grabs Olivia's hand.

"Actually, mom," she says, leading her forward. "There will be someone new in this year's Christmas photo..." Rellie say, and with her free hand reaches up. She's wearing a fit and flare dress, which she smoothes out over herself, turning to the side so they can all see a very defined baby bump.

"Someones, actually," Taylor adds as they all stare, shocked.

"You're pregnant?" Olivia finally whispers, and Ariella nods, taking the hand she's holding of Olivia's and pressing it gently against her belly.

"With twins?" Elliot questions, standing up and joining them, eyes wide.

Ariella nods slowly, her older sisters both screaming a little. "I'm five and a half months today, actually..." She grins. "We've been hiding it from everyone, especially the press, successfully."

"I understand the press but...why us, why me?" Olivia asks, both hands now resting on her daughter's belly.

Ariella looks down, Taylor putting an arm around her shoulders, rubbing her back. "After...the miscarriage, we didn't want to get everyone's hopes up again. We decided we weren't even going to tell anyone we were doing the IVF." Olivia nods, knowing how much it had affected them. A year after getting married, Ariella had gotten pregnant without any intervention. They'd been overjoyed, had told the family by eight weeks and the world by twelve. And then, at sixteen weeks, she'd had a miscarriage.

"It was so strange not telling you guys...especially you, mom, but I just...I was afraid. But now...we want to share this with you. We're both taking a hiatus, we're going to be at our apartment here in the city so we're close to you all."

"You're gonna be living here again, and I get two more babies?" Kara exclaims, and they realize she'd been paying attention for the first time.

"We're going to be living here in New York again, and you get two nieces," Ariella grins, the news sinking in to everyone else as Kara's eyes light up.

"I'll have a nephew and two nieces, daddy!" She exclaims, wrapping her arms around Ariella, resting her head against her belly. "Your dress is magic, I couldn't even tell there was two babies in your belly, Rellie," She says.

"I know, the stinky reporters haven't been able to tell either, Kare bear," Rellie laughs, eyes welling up.

"The two of you," Elliot says, making everyone aware that both Olivia and Ariella are crying happy tears. He wraps his arms around them, distracting everyone from the fact that he, too, has tears in his eyes. "Group hug!" Kara calls out, and everyone else moves in.

Olivia holds on tight to her daughters and husband, feeling so much joy as all of their kids, in laws, and grandchildren pool in. It was wake up day, and Olivia knew Ariella credited her, Elliot, Kara, Kathleen, Maureen, Lizzie, Dickie and Eli for saving her, but she knew just how much she'd saved them as well.

xXxXx

September 3rd, 2018

TaylorLautner tweeted: AriellaSnow and I are happy to announce the births of Lena Olivia and Evelyn Faith Lautner. Mommy and babies are all doing amazing.

Author's note: So, I don't know if anyone will even read this. It's been several years, so I wouldn't blame you. But sometimes, I go through and read old stories, and on this go round reading this one, the answers you guys didn't get started getting to me. This is not how I had intended to finish this story back then. While Ariella was always going to live, the journey was going to be more detailed. But, this is what I have for you. I hope this wrapped everything up nicely, and I even through that little tweet in there so you can rest assured, Ariella does give birth safely.

As always, would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you for reading. I'm sorry for leaving you on the hook for so long.

Jen