The shadowy figure crept with the stealth of a silent cat through the dark night. A wind had swept up out of the west hours ago so that the smell of sea and surf permeated the air around him. He could hear the ocean crash into the rocky shoreline below, but only processed it with a small part of his brain. The rest of his consciousness was focused on his goal and as he worked his way over the rocky terrain he hoped that goal was worth his while.

It had been a long time, but he still recognized the small cabin on the shore. The room he had checked before that, very carefully not trying to break his neck climbing the wall, had been empty and it looked to have been empty for quite some time. So he had worked his way to the cabin in hopes that he would find his goal there.

The window was awash with light and he quickly flattened himself against the wall below said window when it suddenly opened. A familiar figure smelled the sea breeze blowing in from the ocean and leaving the window opened turned back to the cabin's interior.

He peeked over the edge of the window and seeing that the person had their back to him he crept slowly through the window. He should have known it wouldn't work to try and sneak up on her. The woman turned, brown hair tied back in a somewhat sloppy knot at the back of her neck, the riot of curls already starting to work its way free. She took on a defensive posture he knew so well, ready to kick his ass if she needed to, but she couldn't quite manage it as gracefully as she used to. He felt his mind go blank with shock at the same time her face did.

She blinked. He blinked. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing seemed to want to come out. Finally he managed to get the squeak out of, "It's been a long time, Pryde. You've changed."

Kitty Pryde took one look at a man she had thought dead for a good six months and felt the shock start to fade away with his gallish comment the world still spinning dizzily on its axis. She glared at him and blowing a stray bang back from her forehead snapped, "I didn't CHANGE, Peter Winston Wisdom. I'm pregnant, not fat."

Pete would have spoken, a question foremost in his mind when she grabbed her abdomen and bent over double, panting as she did so. She was moaning when Pete reached her side in a second flat, his arms supporting her and he heard exactly what she was moaning, "Nooooo. Not now. It's too soon dammit."

She looked up at him, her eyes much too large in her pale face as she said, "Get the phone off of my bedside table. CALL Moira immediately...number 2 on speed dial. I need her at the med bay. Tell her it's the baby." Pete stood there, afraid to leave her as she gasped for air and she snapped, "Dammit Pete I'm in labor and...it's complicated. Just get on the damn phone!" She leaned back against the wall as Pete bolted for the phone. For the first time in 30 plus years he was scared. Scared out of his mind. There was something seriously wrong with Kitty, that's all he knew. His instincts were screaming at him that it was true and he had learned a long time ago to trust his instincts. He hit the number that Kitty told him to punch and as Moira came on the phone he snapped, "Kitty's in labor. She said to call you immediately. Get an ambulance or something to her cabin, NOW!" He barely heard Moira's, "Who is this...wait Peter Wisdom is that you???" before he slammed the phone down in it's cradle and was back at Kitty's side.

**************

It was almost a half an hour before anyone even came near him to tell him what was going on. Pete was sitting in the waiting room, his elbows on his knees and his head resting in his hands when he felt a hand rest on his shoulder. He looked up, hoping to see a doctor. What he saw was Kurt Wagner looking down at him, compasion and some anger in his face. His eyes reflected a great deal of concern, not for him he could tell, and a good deal of fear. Kurt sat beside him, handing him a cup of coffee as he did so and asked, "What are you doing here, Heir Wisdom, after all of this time?"

Pete glanced at him from the corner of his eye and then studying his cup of coffee answered, "This was the first opportunity that I had to get back to the land of the living and not be dead anymore. We had to track some people who wanted me dead down before they killed the real me. Jardine's dupe got killed first, so I thought faking my own death might be a good idea. Figured no one in the X-men world would give a damn one way or the other if I was dead or alive. Then I heard, through the grapevine, after we got the other guy before he got us, that Kitty had been trying to contact me about something important. So, I had to wait a bit before I could get transport, subtle transport, out here, but I came as soon as I could. I would have used the front door except I figured she'd probably slam it in me face for making her think I was dead. She probably would have decked me anyway if not for the fact she went into labor."

The anger slowly disappeared from the other man's face and Kurt slowly nodded as he studied the opposite wall, "Well that makes sense anyway. I thought I was going to hear that you were just getting her back for dropping you by making her suffer and then Brian and I would have had to make you suffer."

Pete didn't feel much of anything as he asked, "What is wrong with the baby?"

Kurt blinked, his head swinging quickly to look Pete in the face, "Nothing is wrong with the baby. Why?"

Pete felt confusion enter his face in a furrow developing between his eyebrows, "Well something is wrong dammit. Kitty said it was too soon and said that it was complicated. Last I checked labor itself wasn't that complicated. So, what is going on?"

Kurt sighed and running his hands through his hair in obvious agitation responded, "The baby IS fine Pete and before you have the gall to ask, yes it is yours."

Pete rearranged his fingers on the styrofoam cup, "I knew that within like three seconds of the question entering my mind. I know Kitty and how loyal and loving she is. Even if she did break up with me it would take a long time for her to start dating again. That and I can do the math. Don't know statistically how it happened, but it happened and we'll deal with it. I love Kitty and want to make a relationship work, if she'll have me. But that is neither here nor there. What is up with the pregnancy that would put such fear into everyone's faces?"

Kurt sighed again, and laced his fingers together, resting his elbows on his knees much the same way Pete was. He leaned forward enough that all of his weight rested on his elbows and tried to give Pete the short version, "For the first three months everything seemed to be okay. Kitty was EXTREMELY morning sick, but Moira figured that was just Kitty's body reacting to normal pregnancy.

Then Kitty had a black out in the beginning of her forth month and Moira did some tests. Kitty had blackouts at the start of her pregnancy but we had thought they passed. We didn't realize that Kitty's mutant powers were causing them. We found that Kitty's unique mutant physiology wasn't taking the baby well. It was putting added strain on Kitty's naturally intangible body and so Kitty's body was responding by discorporating further, perhaps to remove itself from the threat that it was perceiving, we're not quite sure. Or it might have been the body's way to make sure the baby was well protected until it was born, except it went somewhat haywire. Whatever the cause, we had to keep Kitty's stress levels so low in the next six months that we thought Kitty was going to go insane. Any stress could have caused premature labor, and the pain from that labor in Kitty's unbalanced state could have caused her to discorporate forever. It's the body's natural instinct to remove itself from pain and Kitty's body is no different. So, we kept her under constant surveilance via bio-reading devices and such and made sure she was so relaxed that it was pathetic.

When she was in her seventh month we started to let her work again because we found the work actually helped to focus her concentration to what was going on in the here and now. So she's been building computers and working on a new A.I. program for all of Muir Island to keep her focused. She's at the beginning of her ninth month, the baby is healthy, and your visit comes along and just that shock threw her into labor. She had you call Moira because they have been preparing a room that will have much the same effect as the anti-disintigration chamber Kitty spent some time in a while back when she got severely injured and almost discorporated completely. She was using all of her concentration to stay solid long enough to get to that room so that she doesn't lose the baby." The sentence trailed off and the sadness entered back into his face, "But, we're not sure what will happen once the baby is born and Kitty is too weak to fight off the intangibility. She might just be intangible for a short period of time, or she might discorporate forever. We just don't know. We've never dealt with this kind of situation before."

Kurt glanced at Pete then and seeing the shocked and horrified look Pete was wearing reached into his overcoat and pulled out a pile of what looked to be envelopes, held together with a black tie he recognized, "In the event of her death she put in her will that you would get custody of the child if you were still alive and were in her words 'faking out everyone' and if you did not step forward when news of the birth came out she gave me the honor of being the child's guardian. I just found that out about ten minutes ago when the computer uploaded the will at the news of Kitty's labor. I went to her room and found these while I was packing up some of the things she might need while she is in recovery. Since they are addressed to your old flat in London, I'm assuming she'd want you to have them. Maybe it will give you some insight into what she has been feeling the last nine months."

With that Kurt got up and walked off, probably to check on how everyone else was doing. Pete glanced down at the pile of letters in his hands, and figuring it would take his mind off of what was going on right this second, he undid the simple knot the tie was done up in. As it fell away from the letters Pete refused to admit his hands were shaking as he opened the first envelope and pulling out a sheaf of papers started to read.

March 16

Love,
Katherine

Pete felt his heart beat faster and shook his head. It figured that she would have broken up with him for those reasons. God had he been blind. He shuffled the letter to the bottom of the pile and pulled out the next one, knowing that this was probably the best chance he'd ever get to find out how Kitty felt about him still and what made the woman's mind tick.

April 7

Love,
Kitty

He didn't even ponder that letter, although a part of him wondered if she ever had gotten rid of the break up box. She had obviously kept the tie if nothing else, so perhaps there was hope after all. He shuffled the letters again and quickly unfolded the next one, not even caring what was going on around him; none of that had nothing to do with Kitty.

May 2

Kitty

He didn't know what he felt when he finished reading that letter. He tried to put himself in Kitty's position and only felt as if his guts had been opened by a razor blade. Leave it to Kitty to be so self-sacrificing that she'd not tell him she was pregnant with his child because she didn't want him to have any more responsibility put on his shoulders. So, he thought blankly, the child was his. Somehow he had known that before he had read that letter. No matter what Kitty's friends had told him, he would not have believed any of it before he heard it straight from Kitty. Because, he knew in his heart, Kitty would never lie. Not to him...not to anyone.

He had known the child was his all along, and that's why he hadn't asked Kitty that one question when he was in the cabin. Because in his heart he had always known the answer. Kitty may have had some feelings for that kid...Rugby...Rigby...whatever the Hell his name had been...but they had not been strong enough to destroy the love she had held for him in her heart. He felt no small relief at that. He, at this point in time, would take Kitty and the child no matter what or who the father was if she simply told him she wanted him, but it was always good to know that the trust and love you had put into a person was verified upon occasion. He would have forgiven her for screwing up if she had gotten pregnant by sleeping with that Rudy guy. She was young and when you are young you can do stupid things. No one, not even Kitty, was above mistakes. No matter how mature she was for her age, she could still have gotten sucked in by a fun loving, hippie liberal with lots of charm.

Pete had made his share of mistakes when he was younger. He wasn't going to fault anybody else for making them. Peter Winston Wisdom was many things, but a hypocrite wasn't one of them. At least his father had taught him that much.

He opened the next letter and as he read, he couldn't help but feel his heart tear a bit.

August 17

Dear Pete,

I don't even know why I'm still writing this journal anymore. Any hope I had of ever hearing from you again has been torn to bits. I just read the report from X-Force. I just read that you were dead.

For the LOVE OF GOD PETER! Why couldn't you have had your guard up at that one crucial moment? You got a bullet in the back of the head! What the in the HELL were you doing with your guard down?!? You were the one who said to me, "Always have your guard up Pryde. You never know when the person you are talking to is a friend or a foe, no matter what their form. And you have no idea when the shadows could move to reveal something you're not going to like."

Why, oh why, couldn't you have listened to your own advice Peter? Why did you leave me alone?

My friends are being super nice to me right now, because they are afraid of my mental state. I can understand why. I'm pregnant, have been trying for months to get ahold of you to tell you that I still love you, want you back, and that you are going to be a father (I would have waited for that until we were in person, but was about ready to just write you yet another letter and tell you so. You had a stack of 50 letters or so waiting for you at your London flat, did you know that? Probably not. If you had read them, maybe I could have protected you so that you wouldn't get shot). Instead of getting the phone call I wanted, I get a third person report from X-force telling me that you had been hiding out with them and that you were now dead. Not the way I wanted to ever get a call about you Pete.

I contacted Romany and sent her flowers and we got together this week. She was shocked to see me pregnant, but she said since she was your beneficiary that she'd try to do everything in her power to see that the pension got turned over to me to see to the raising of our child. I told her not to bother. I contacted my dad's bank...the ones in charge of my trust fund, and we talked and made arrangements for me to get my trust fund a year early. My Uncle, since my dad is currently missing, gave his consent.

My mom has disowned me and said I was no longer her daughter when she found out I'd gotten pregnant out of wedlock. Well the good girls always lose that way I guess. We're held to a higher standard of conduct then dirty girls and so we have a lot further to fall. I really could have used her support during this, but that's my life in a nutshell when it comes to my parents. They're good people, but when it comes to being there for you when the chips are down...they can be one tremendous letdown. And people wonder why I matured so fast. It was because I not only had maturity and brilliance way beyond my years, but because I had to. I think a part of it is that my mom can't relate to me very well. We're too much alike her and I I think. And I remind her too much of dad.

Oh God Pete, I wish you were here. I'm sobbing as I'm writing this. If I could drink I'd be drunk right now, but due to my condition that's not going to happen. Because you see, there is more than one reason I need you here. I need your strength to help support mine.

I have been pretty sick this entire pregnancy...at least when it comes to dizzy spells. Well the last month I've been having blank outs on top of that. I'll just suddenly wake up somewhere and not know how I got there. Moira ran loads of tests. And the results came back.

My body is rejecting the baby.

At least the mutant part of me is. At least that is the best guess Moira, Hank, Professor Xavier and I have been able to come up with. In moments of stress my natural consentration to stay solid gives out and I phase. Since my mutant powers went through that transition years ago I've known that. What I didn't know is that my body would see my first pregnancy as an added stress to my body and would try to retreat from the stress of the baby. My body was phasing so deeply to try and escape the added physical strain that I was almost discorporating during those blank outs. My mind was even retreating somehow, which was a new development for me.

It is either that my body is retreating from pregnancy or that my body is trying to constantly protect the baby and I from outside threat by phasing us so deeply that nothing can harm us. Either way, my mutant powers could potentially kill me and the baby. Any severe stress this late in the pregnancy could cause my body to start and discorporate, which will cause the baby, in a moment of self preservation to cause me to go into labor. Which means that not only could I die by not being able to stay solid, but my baby could be born so premature that it won't be able to survive either.

Hank wanted me to abort the baby for my own protection and they would try to develop a drug for me to take should I ever become pregnant again. He doesn't think I'm going to make it through the pregnancy and that the baby won't make it either. I told him in no uncertain terms that I'm going through with it. I'm going to move to Muir permanently. No jumping back and forth to America to help and save the world...I have to save my own world right now. I'm going to work on staying calm and relaxed for the next four months and I'm going to have a nice healthy baby, no matter what happens to me. I'm responsible for this life now and I'm going to make darn sure that it is born healthy if nothing else.

I made out a will that said that if anything were to happen to me and you were around you'd be the guardian of the child, but since you're...dead...Kurt will be given custody of the child. I think he'll make a wonderful dad.

Amanda thought it would help my chances of survival if I had you or Illyana here with me. Because I guess you were the first person I ever shared a bond with that was a close to the bond that Illyana and I shared. In times of trouble I could sense when either of you was in trouble and needed help and when I was around either one of you, but especially you, I felt more centered, more grounded and stronger and somehow better than I was when I wasn't around you. She thought it might have been something mystical in origin or even something beyond that and was hoping that you'd help to ground me here and keep me from discorporating completely. But, you're gone now. And no amount of hoping or loving you is going to bring you back.

I'm so sorry Pete. About everything. I hope you hear me right now and realize how much I love you and have loved you. Don't worry Pete...I'll keep our baby alive for you.

I love you so much my soul feels like it has been shredded into a million pieces. God I love you Pete. Why did you have to die? Not when there was so much I wanted to say?

Kitty

Pete refused to admit that the moisture at the corners of his eyes could be tears. He hadn't cried since the day he told Kitty about his mother and that had been all of the old guilt coming down on his head. That day had been the first time ever he'd cried about his mother's death. It had been the first time he'd let his guard down with anyone enough to let the emotions hit him. He felt all of the emotions he'd felt since the breakup hit him now.

He'd been so busy trying to figure out who was trying to off him that he'd worn an eyepatch and trained a bunch of undisciplined juvenile delinquents to blow stuff up in a more orderly fashion to try and lie low for a while. It had worked.

He'd been tracking down members of Black Air and taking them out before they took him out and the lives of those he loved for so long he hadn't even slowed down enough to remember. The process of going along like a runaway train so you don't have time to think and then drinking yourself into a stupor to sleep and not remember your dreams had worked for him for a long time. He had a feeling he'd never be able to do that again. Not if the depth of emotion he was feeling now was any indication.

Kitty's grief had reached up and hit him like a brick. He had always thought that if he died that no one would really care one way or the other. He'd been so wrong that he felt somewhat stupid. Romany, he knew, would not believe that he was dead until it had been verified by 150 sources or so because she knew that in his line of business lies were everything really. Kitty, on the other hand, had too many people die on her in the past and since there was a body, something that in her line of business you didn't get to see too often, she assumed that it was true until proven incorrect. So, she had mourned him and with such a depth of love and emotion that he felt as if he was in some type of shock. He didn't deserve the depth of love that Kitty showed in that letter. But she felt it for him. Pete Wisdom, he thought, you are a lucky bastard to have love like that shot your way. Kitty had even tried to take normal tracks of conversation in her letter to try and pick up the pieces of her life after finding out about his staged death. Unfortunately the normal conversation upset him even more.

He felt anger that Kitty was giving up her life for their child. He could tell by the defeatist tone in her letter that she thought she wasn't going to survive through this pregnancy at all and that her only shot was to keep their baby alive so at least one of them could live. He didn't want to give her up. Not for anything. Even if it meant the life of their child. As a matter of fact, he thought forcefully, he wasn't going to give either one of them up God dammit!

He stood up and grabbing the rest of the letters shoved them into the pocket of his coat angrily, not even noticing that he'd smashed his cigarettes in the process. He hurried over to the nurses station and seeing the girl behind the counter felt recognition hit him like a sledge hammer. The hair might be a little longer and a little redder after lots of time spent out in the sun during the summer months, but there was still the overly big eyes the color of the greenest moss and the slightly wolfish slanting at their corners.

He didn't bother with many formalities, "Rahne. Nice to see you again. I need to get into the labor room with Kitty."

Rahne's eyes reflected steely resolve as she replied, "I can't do that, Mr. Wisdom. She's in the middle of labor right now and in a very delicate pos..."

Pete leaned across the counter, purposefully invading her personal space until he was nose to nose with her so she could get a good smell of his resolve versus hers and looking her right square in the eye interupted, "NOW."

Rahne's nostrils flared, irritation washed across her eyes like ripples in a pond, but in the blink of an eye was gone, replaced by compasion and what might have been hope, "Okay. Aye. I think we can get ye in there. BUT we have to suit you up first. Right this way." And she walked off, expecting him to follow. Pete hurried after her and had to reflect that medical school was definitely good for the girl. She was showing some major improvement when it came to self confidence.

**********

Pain wracked her body in continuous waves. Her body convulsed of its own accord, her back bowing with the force of the contractions. She gritted her teeth and panted as she used every mental trick she could remember to try and stay in focus so that she could stay solid long enough to deliver her baby to the world. The labor spasm passed and she panted as much air as possible as she slumped back onto the pillows.

She heard the murmur of conforting words from Moira telling her to breath and the background noise of Hank giving readings on her condition through the blood hammering in her ears. And then the pain was back again and she felt her concentration slip a little as her mental scream of pain ripped across her mind. She barely was able to grab ahold of her focus again and focusing everything she had she solidified completely before she could phase out. She had blown the power dampeners they had on her powers in about ten minutes after the contractions had started. They still helped, but she was just too powerful of a phasing mutant for them to hold her powers in check, especially at this level, for very long.

As another wave passed, the physical exhaustion she was feeling started to catch up with her. She felt her focus slipping as she thought about escape from pain and just sleeping for the next fifty years. She heard Moira say something sharp to Hank and there seemed to be some panic in there, but Kitty was almost beyond listening. Her mind started to blank, not even noticing the amount of pain she was in anymore really. She started to drift.

And then suddenly she was brought back to the world of the living and the pain, when a familiar hand reached out and grabbed hers roughly and a voice said sharply, "Snap out of it Pryde. We have work to do and damn if you're going to get out of it."

She felt her mind snap back into reality with a rush, the pain rushing back in to hammer at her and watched as Pete flinched as her hand curled around his with inhuman strength. He held her hand just as tightly until the cotraction passed and she was able to talk again, "Pete...what...are...you...doing...?" He didn't let her finish as he put his right hand on top of his left where it was clasped with hers, "You think that I'm going to let you face this all alone, Pryde? When I can be here and lend you my strength? I don't think so."

She felt a measure of comfort with him being there and as the contractions got worse she managed to try and get across that he would have custody of the baby when all was said and done. Pete snapped her back to reality everytime her mind tried to retreat from the pain, and his hand in hers helped to focus her concentration on remaining solid through the long ordeal.

When the first cry of life and the jubulant cry of, "Congratulations" came from the other end of the bed, Pete felt such relief that he was just about laid out by it. Seeing Kitty in so much pain had taken years off of his life. When a second cry joined the first, Pete not even realizing that Kitty's hand had still been clasping his harder than he thought possible because it had long since gone numb, he felt his world drop out from under him in shock. The nurse assisting Moira smiled brightly and said, "You have a lovely boy and a girl. Congratulations." Pete, for the first time during the whole series of events, felt as if he was going to pass out.

Kitty's face was almost panicked as she asked, "Are they healthy? Please tell me their alive and okay!"

The nurse smiled at Kitty and Pete as she started to clean up the mess on the two squalling babes, "They're fine. Small and they might have to spend a little time in the neo-nato unit but they seem healthy."

It was then he felt Kitty's hand go slack in his and looked down at her in panic, "Hey, Pryde. Don't even think of giving up on me now. You hear me? The babies and I still need you."

She looked up at him, exhaustion marring her features, which were starting to look more and more gosphamer, as if she were slowly wasting away from him, "So...tired. Just want...to...rest." Kitty's eyes started to close and she felt her body and her mind drift. She knew that she was still in a severe amount of risk and would be for about twenty four hours and as long as a week...depending on what type of physical toll the labor had taken on her, but she knew that with only a small amount of her mind. The rest of her was already drifting away from all of it and not caring where it went. The babies were okay. That was all that mattered.

It was then she realized that her hand was still in Pete's. And his hand wasn't letting go and her hand wasn't becoming ghostlike. She couldn't really feel the bed, but she could still feel his hand.

She rolled her head and opening her eyes looked at him. His face was a mask of concentration as he kept a hold of her hand and his eyes locked on that hand as if it was holding his entire world, "Pete...what...are...you...doing?"

Pete glared at the hand harder and replied through gritted teeth, "I'm holding onto you. What does it look like?"

Kitty blinked, knowing she was missing something as she asked, "How?"

Pete clasped her hand tighter, if that were possible, "No one has ever tried to hold onto the phasing connection from their end have they? Well I guess you can do it because that's what I'm doing right now. And that means one thing Pryde. You drift away and give up? You're taking me with you."

Kitty felt panic erupt through the serenity that she had been feeling a moment before and tried to yank on her hand, "Let go Pete. I don't want to kill you!"

Pete's mouth tilted upward in a half-grin, "Good. Then you're just going to have to stay here with me won't you?"

Kitty felt newfound strength as she glared at him, "You are the most stubborn, pain in the ASS Englishman I've ever met you know that?"

Pete just grinned broader and replied, "You're just mad because I win this round Pryde. That's all. Don't worry. I'll make you feel lots better later."

And for the first time in months, as Kitty felt the reassuring weight of Pete's hand in hers and then the weight of the bed beneath her as she focused her mind once again, she felt a smile pull at her lips. Everything was going to be alright. She could feel it.

************

Kitty woke when the alarm sounded and yawning she moved to turn it off. And couldn't move. She pulled at her arm and then opening her eyes in irritation tried to figure out why she couldn't move it. And turning encountered a white shirt that was encasing a very male chest.

She looked at Pete's sleeping face and smiling snuggled deeper into his side. Her arm might be going numb, but at least she knew that she was safe and sound where she wanted to be. It had been a long week and Pete had never left her side, not letting her drift away if she had wanted to, which one she learned that he still loved her and wanted her back was the last thing she even thought of doing.

He'd sat and read all of her letters while she slept and he kept vigil over her. He now knew everything that had happened in the last months and how much she loved him. And she let him know her innermost thoughts when he became confused by how she turned a phrase or whatever. But the most important thing was that the two of them knew that they still loved each other.

Pete had sat with her during her time in the "molecule glue" chamber as she liked to call it. Anyone who didn't have her powers felt as if they were walking through a huge vat of mollasses, but it didn't seem to bother Pete. He just stayed with her through it all and loved her. He had also kept close track of the babies to make sure they were okay and kept Kitty updated on their progress because they couldn't come into the chamber with her. When she was out of it in four days she never wanted to go back into it again.

Pete murmured something in his sleep and pulled her closer, throwing his leg over hers as if to hold her to him always. Kitty kissed his lips lightly and then snuggled under his chin, letting the alarm clock ring for a couple more seconds before a male arm reached out and slammed down on the offending object. He then rolled over and hauled Kitty close again as he yawned, shifted and settled once again into a comfortable position. Before he drifted off to sleep completely, Kitty heard him murmur, "I love you, Cat." For Kitty that was the single most precious thing she would ever hear in her life. And she would never get tired of hearing it. For the rest of her life.

Fin