“You have a very weird way with words, but I know what you mean. It’s pretty much the best way my life has ever been ruined too.”
“I’m glad to hear that, because it’s a little hard to undo now.”
The two of them cooed and cuddled their new babies until the doctor took them away and gave Aileen the promised sedative. She heard Yakov telling her that he’d be there when she woke up and smiled, looking up at the ceiling as she drifted off. There, directly above her head was an entire montage of Michael Myers photos and she laughed before fading away into the nothing.
After a few days of recovery, she was allowed to take the babies home. They had hired Hannah’s sister, Sarah, as a full-time nanny, but they might as well have had three. Hannah and Ruby were constantly in the nursery, making funny faces to make the babies laugh or helping put baby lotion on them after baths because they liked the way it smelled.
Often, it was like an assembly line of babies being handed from where Aileen was washing them in the tub to Yakov, who would dry them and hand them to Sarah. She would pass the first one along to Ruby or sometimes, Ruby, if she was on night duty and keep the next one for herself until all six were clean, dry, lotioned, diapered and put in their cribs.
“I don’t know what I would do without such a wonderful family,” Aileen told all of them, as she had come to accept Yakov’s staff as a part of their family unit, even the bodyguards, two of whom remained. The other two had been dealt with accordingly after finding they were the ones responsible for letting Kevin onto the grounds.
With the babies all in bed and sleeping peacefully, Yakov and Aileen let the night nanny take over and made their way up to bed. Aileen stripped down and climbed into bed beside Yakov who had already gotten comfortable in the oversize king bed and cuddled up to him. He leaned down and kissed her, exploring her mouth, slowly, tenderly before pulling back to look at her.
“You are an amazing woman. I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” she replied.
They drifted off to sleep in one another’s arms, another day behind them and another to look forward to on the horizon. It was a good life, despite being completely unexpected and unwanted. Sometimes, it seemed that the universe around you conspired to make you happy, to save you from your own worst self. Aileen could no longer remember anything about before she was in love with Yakov and had his children.
Best of all, she’d given up nothing she wanted to have this. She was still taking her classes to get her accounting degree and one day, she would have her CPA license. She thought of her father and wondered if he would have been as proud of her as she had been of him. Her mother had been weak, but that had never been Aileen and she had proven it time and time again, but now, it was her time to just be content, to just be happy. She was looking forward to achieving her career goals in the not so distant future, but it would never compare with what she had discovered she was missing as the wife of an incredible man who his clan was already beginning to adore as their leader and the mother of six beautiful children.
This was what life was all about. It was not about being alone. It was about being happy, being with someone who wouldn’t let you be alone, but also wouldn’t hold you back from your dreams. It was about being with someone who made it their mission in life to give you what you wanted where they could and let you take what you wanted when that was where you needed to place your dreams. It was beautiful and it was exactly what she and Yakov had between the two of them.
Years might pass, passion might fade, but they would always have a love that held them fast together. No one could take that away - neither dragon, nor human nor death himself could ever rip away the deep-seated love they possessed for the other. This had been the dream they had never had, but deserved. This was the reality that ended the nightmares she had once become lost inside.
The sound of a single cry went up in the night around them and she found solace in knowing exactly which child it was without even having to go and look. She stayed awake until the sobs settled into tiny hiccups and finally, silence, as Sarah got their baby girl back to sleep. The doctor was right, the youngest sister of five brothers and a dragon leader would never have a thing to fear and it would make her strong in a way her mother had only learned to be since meeting her father. It was beautiful and it was right.