A/N: This, unfortunately, is the last chapter to What it makes us. I hope you liked the journey and won't be disappointed by this last part of Emie's adventures. Please do review! :)

17. A life worth fighting for

Two weeks later, Emie and Henry had settled in an easy married life. As the hospital wasn't far from their house, he was going to work by foot, while his wife, as pregnant as she was, stayed home, taking care of their comfortable wooden house and garden.

She almost forgot that she was married. Henry wasn't touching her more than usual, only kissed her cheek when he left in the morning and left her to their bedroom at night.

The only change was that whenever someone crossed her path, she was no longer Miss Tate, but Mrs Lennings.

"Emie? Emie, where are you?"

She lifted her gaze from the last of her strawberries and waved Henry to come over.

He smiled and quickly headed to his wife, and she tilted her head in wonder.

"What is it?"

He smiled wider and waved his hands in the air in excitation. "We're going back home! Solomon and I have been granted passage back to England! Isn't it wonderful?"

Emie's eyes widened in shock and her first reflex was to look over at what she already started to consider 'home'.

But then, Henry walked to her and pushed a hand to her belly, and the touch unnerved both her and her baby. "Think about him. Don't you wish your child to be born in a safe place?"

She thought about it quickly. Of course she wanted her child to live in the safest place possible! But England being it, no, it didn't feel right.

Still, she nodded as slowly as she could.

"Alright, then. We'll leave in a rough week, I have to settle everything down with Charlie, he said he could help us find a house."

She hadn't followed anything more than useful and nodded grimly, before leaving her garden and locking herself in the bathroom, back inside.

She silently sobbed for a while before straddling James' letter in her pocket.

"So, what do you think, Emie?"

Two weeks later, Mr and Mrs Lennings were back on their homeland, and Charlie was playing guide for them in the charming town of Earltown. They were currently standing in front of a small but charming house, its white walls covered in ivy.

"It's...charming, Charlie, really. I can see myself living here." She said it quietly, quieter as she could when her heart beat so hard against her ribs.

Involuntarily, she detested Henry for making her leave France, the country where she had lived so much with James. In a sense, leaving France was leaving a part of herself behind, and she couldn't accept that.

But then, her baby made itself known, and she thought about it more than about its father.

Time passed by, and Emie's life was becoming less and less what she had hoped it to be.

By the time she was due, she lived every day like the previous, and Henry wasn't helping. He still refused to share the bedroom with his wife no matter what argument she could give, and pushed her to do the same tasks each and every morn.

She was tired, and bored.

She missed her time, she missed her studies.

She missed her work.

She missed James.

"Henry!"

Her cries echoed in the whole house, and Henry soon appeared at the bathroom door, wearing his black trousers, a white shirt slightly opened, and looked ready to go to bed.

Is wife was clutching her belly, and under her, a growing patch of water-like liquid.

"Is it...is it...coming?"

She nodded and a tear escaped her eyes.

Henry quickly took her in his arms and headed her towards their bedroom. Too late to make it to the hospital this late, and besides, he was a doctor.

Emie moaned in pain whenever a contraction tore her insides apart, and Henry chuckled at the names she called him whenever he entered her sight.

Soon she was lying down, her legs parted, spare beddings under her, each and every of her organs screaming in pain as the little being made its way towards the light.

"Emie, I need you to breathe heavily, like you know how. Then, you push, and release, alright?"

She cried in answer but started panting like she knew every pregnant woman did when the time had come.

The first two pushes were excruciating, as if something was stabbing her inside the womb, tearing her flesh apart, as if she was being eaten from the inside.

And then she felt it. It was coming. She opened her mouth and took a deep breath, and pushed harder than ever.

And the head was out.

And then it was out.

"Emie, it's a girl. It's a girl!"

She huffed and smiled, outstretching her arms immediately for her daughter.

Henry's face, happier than she ever saw it, approached her and a bundle of clothes made its way towards her.

Inside, a tiny and gorgeous baby was opening her eyes, two beautiful...blue eyes.

Emie chuckled and kissed her daughter's head before she squealed in awe.

"Welcome, Janie."

Henry knelt beside them and straddled the baby's head. "Janie. That's beautiful."

And their gazes met.

Many things were understood.

Nothing was more a proof of his undying love than Henry's absolute and immediate love for her daughter. And James'.

Emie felt so bad to make Henry live this at her side.

But then, he looked nothing if not content.

After he had tended at his wife and made sure she wouldn't bleed to death, Henry escaped the room to fetch some clothes for baby Janie.

Who had been eating like an ogre before falling asleep on her mother's chest.

Emie took her in.

Apart from her eyes, she looked little like her father. Maybe her hair would be more bronze than blonde, but that was all.

Hands, ears, nose, round face, everything screamed she was Emie's daughter.

She smiled at the sight.

Her baby.

"How is she?"

Emie cut her contemplation and looked as Henry entered back the room, as slowly and discreetly as he could not to wake the marvel up.

"She's sleeping."

He smiled kindly at the sight and slowly and carefully put his hands under the offspring, lifting her in his arms and cuddling her as he walked to her cot, next to Emie.

Seeing her angry stare, he chuckled softly. "You should take care of yourself as well, Mother."

Her glare faded and she looked at him with a renewed affection when she saw with which care her put her – their – daughter down in her bed, covering her with a thin blanket, stroking her rosy cheeks before turning back to her mother.

He caught her stare and his eyebrows met.

"What is it?"

Emie shrugged and ignored the pain when she sat up. She winced a little at the fading tear, but quickly plastered a serious look on her face.

Henry walked to her and sat next to her, eyeing his wife as if he was concerned she'd be ill.

"Emie, what is it?"

For all answer, she carefully took his cheek in her palm, and pulled him down to her.

Touching his lips with hers, carefully, slowly, but happily.

James might have died, but he still lived in Emie's heart.

No matter what.

Aw, it was soooo hard to write this one!

Review please, as it, I'm afraid, is the last line of this story... :/