Lysander stood before his residence, very late in the evening. He hadn't been there in over a year. It was emotional, and frightening. His wife and daughter would have every right to hate him. He feared the anger and retribution in their eyes.
Riley supported him on one side, seeing how frail the man was. Since he had wanted to come here anyway, he gladly accepted the General's assignment to take the former traitor home. A trial could commence when things settled down in the city.
If Riley had to guess, the fact that Lysander had tried to repent and break off his cooperation with Rhone, only to be kidnapped and thrown into the Darkness for a year, would merit a fair amount of leniency. Then again, the man had opened the door for an enemy to be in the very heart of Klain.
Lysander knocked at the door. It was opened by the butler, who stared at him with disdain at first for the unkempt, dirty man who dared disgrace his master's residence with his filthy presence. The entire house had been awake waiting for further news of the battle and expected perhaps a messenger, but as the butler looked at Riley and back at the man he supported, recognition slowly dawned in his eyes.
"Sir?" He asked slowly. His eyes flickered back to Riley, who gave him a charming but emotional smile.
"I am home," Lysander replied hoarsely. "Please let my wife and daughter know, so they may decide whether to allow me entrance."
The butler opened the door wide to usher his master and in, heedless of the words.
"Allow me to draw you a bath, Sir," The butler offered. Though the Provider had been hit by the deluge of the flood, he still bore his scraggly beard and the marks of neglect of a year in the Darkness. "I will fetch you some food as well," His eyes took in the fact that his master's ribs stood out against his shirt and his gaunt cheekbones threatened to tear through the thin skin that covered them.
"Who has come?" A voice called from the top of the stairs.
"Hello, Dierdre!" Riley called back, "I brought you a visitor."
"Riley?" Ashley called from another part of the house, and came running into the room, only to freeze when she saw the frail form clinging to his arm.
"F... Father?" She stuttered. A thump was heard from the stairs as Dierdre dropped a book from her hands.
"Heart? My Heart?" Her voice choked, and Lysander's face flooded with a rush of tears.
Both women stood in stunned silence for a moment, and Riley feared the worst. He was hoping he had done the right thing by bringing the man home, but, after all, he was the root cause of most of the heartache these women had endured in their lives.
But he had brought them joy as well.
Dierdre was the first to break the spell hanging over them, and ran to throw her arms around her lost husband. "Welcome home, my Heart. You are back where you belong."
Ashley tentatively joined the hug, making the little family complete, in body and in spirit, for the first time in a long time. Riley stepped back to give them room, cautiously withdrawing his physical support of the older man.
Tears were abundant, and silence reigned in the home for a while. There were no words for what each had endured, and those tales could wait for another time.
Riley slowly backed his way out of the room, feeling like an intruder in this sweet family moment.
"Don't you dare leave here, Riley. I can only assume you helped save the city again, and then you brought my father home. The least you deserve is a well-cooked dinner." Ashley chided.
He looked down at himself briefly. Although he had cleaned up a little and changed uniforms early in the day, he felt inadequate to sit at their table.
"Isn't it a little late in the evening for that?" He asked.
"It's never too late for you," She left her father to her mother's ministrations with a final squeeze, and drew Riley into a side room.
"Are you all right?" She turned to him with concern, lifting his arms and walking around him to check for injuries.
He chuckled for the first time in a while.
"I'm all right." He assured her, catching one of her hands in his. She stopped in her tracks as if she had been shocked by an electric current, her gaze locked on their joined hands. Her eyes traced up his arm, and finally high up to his face.
"I'm all right." He said again, and her eyes welled with new tears. Her worry had been extreme. The sounds of battle had been terrifying. The screeches and rumbling--it sounded as if the mountain would fall down around their ears! But she feared not so much for herself as for Riley. She had no doubt he would be near the center of it all.
Looking over the woman's shoulder into the hallway and moving her slightly behind the door and out of view, Riley pulled Ashley into his arms. She threw herself willingly into them and cried out her anxiety.
"I'm sorry--" She said, "I shouldn't be crying, you've been through so much" she hiccupped, "more than I have."
"You crazy woman, why do you apologize for being in my arms? It's exactly where I want you. You can cry your eyes out if you want, just as long as it's into my coat." He smiled and she laughed lightly, wiping her face with a handkerchief she drew from a hidden pocket in her dress.
"Then I'll cry forever," she teased, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist and nuzzling her face into his jacket.
He leaned down to lay his cheek on the top of her head and sighed contentedly. How could the embrace of so small a woman lend him such strength?
____________
Finn tightly clasped Gabe's hand, smiling down at him. After the initial chaos had abated, Gwen had faithfully delivered her little brother to her waiting arms just outside the wall.
Waving away the questions with an unreadable face (she'd been practicing a neutral facial expression), Gwen simply told them all would likely be well for a while, and that the things which the Void had sought were better left unknown and undisturbed.
Finn had chafed at that, but there was not much she could do to force information from the grey-haired Fae. At least she had her brother back. Her husband squeezed her other hand, sharing in the precious reunion.
Stepping into the Shermans' residence, the three found a small feast. It was almost bizarre to see this celebration in the face of what they'd just been through, but a shout of "Surprise!" rang through the room.
Gladys and Victoria had been cooking and baking together, both for the wounded soldiers and to stay busy while Dr. and Mrs. Sherman had tended to their many wartime duties. When Mayra brought the news that Roland and Finn had married to break the curse, the three women couldn't let the occasion pass without a little bit of pomp.
Finn's eyes welled as she took in the cakes, treats, and meal that their friends had managed to pull together. She and Gabe ran to their father, who stood in the corner smiling widely.
As he hugged his children tightly, Phillip's wary eyes surveyed his new son-in-law. Roland gulped under the scrutiny. As the embrace came to its end, the older man extended a hand to shake his, and Roland released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
"Thank you, for... probably far more than I know about," Phillip said uncertainly. Roland smiled at that.
"These past days and weeks have been a blur in my own mind, I can hardly imagine how you must feel being bombarded with so much at once." He assured.
The uneasy moment passed, and Mayra began urging everyone to eat. Peter came out of the sick room to join the festivities and congratulate the couple, though his eyes tended to linger on his nurse.
Toasts, stories, laughter, and sorrows were shared. There were plenty of all, tangled together in a mess of emotion that no one could quite wade around. The dead were remembered, the living celebrated, and the tales of adventure relived through new eyes. Tears, both happy and sad, abounded in the room.
Ezra had been lost, and Captain Grayson, along with almost all the men from Finn's former village. Each name was spoken and remembered with a sad reverence.
Gabe sat on his father's lap, reveling in the strength of the elder as he coped with all he heard. As the evening wore on, he fell asleep there, and was carried away for the night by a doting Phillip. Victoria was sent to bed with Mayra, as most of the rooms in the large house had been co-opted as sickrooms for the wounded.
The other adults gradually excused themselves from the celebration, and the newlyweds were finally left alone.
"Oh!" Finn said suddenly, "I just realized Victoria's sleeping in my bed now."
"Mrs. Sherman let me know that they moved your things to my room already," Roland assured her.
"Oh?" Finn's eyebrows drew together before shooting to her hairline in sudden realization. "Oh!"
"It's temporary. Many things will change in the city, and if it meets with your approval, I'll find us a place of our own soon. For tonight, however, we'll be sharing my old bed." He smiled uncertainly, awaiting her reaction.
"I see," was all Finn could manage in reply as her face burned.
Roland laughed as heat flooded his new wife's countenance. Though the day was strongly bittersweet, with joy and deep sorrow mixed, the sight of his bride's blush was perhaps the sweetest thing of all. He took her hand with a smile to lead her to their room.