A Reunion Long Overdue

[tsukikoko]

If it weren't for the bundles of innocence sleeping peacefully against him, soothing his heart and soul which each tiny breath as he looked down upon them, Tsu might have been pacing, a snarl in each breath he took.

He understood, logically speaking, why he hadn't yet been able to see his wife, after her rescue from Atol's clutches. Understood she needed treatment for any lingering magical effects and for her condition to be monitored and ensured to be stable. He understood. 

But that didn't mean the wildness of his wolf was any less fierce, or his humanity any less desperate, to see and smell and hear her.

He knew, too, that she would want to see their children; with even more desperation than even he himself, when he had retrieved them from the care of the wonderful Sara Summers. He didn't know how he'd ever repay her, for keeping them safe. She'd simply smiled, in that genuine, beautiful way she did, and told him all the thanks she needed was to see how much he cared for them.

So it was that he sat outside a medical room - Rhys' room - with three sleeping babies either laid on his remaining arm or slung to his wide chest, waiting for the final okay to go inside. He did wonder, with a small chuckle, how he would explain the stump of regenerating arm to his wife, once she saw it.

[Sharei]

"Mr. Hemming?"

When Tsu looked up there was a doctor standing in front of him. The man was the primary physician for his wife, and with a small smile, he indicated the door with the edge of his clipboard.

"You can go in now."

Despite being the Director of Law Enforcement, Rhys hadn't been given a big, fancy hospital room. The necessity of her condition meant there could be no windows, even ones protected with the WDSA glass, just in case something dangerous tried to make a grab at her in her weakened condition. She'd been gone too long and spent too much time under strange magic to be taking any chances.

But it was bright and warm despite that, and Rhys looked to be in good health when Tsu entered. She was sitting up in bed and finally, finally, wide awake. Her red eyes went to Tsu, the lines around them exhausted, but when she saw him - and the kids - her expression cleared.

"Tsu!"

[tsukikoko]

Tsu's expression, caught somewhere between beaming smile and teary, almost torturous relief, hardly seemed enough to encompass all the emotion that threatened to explode inside him. If he were a younger, more inexperienced werewolf, or just one less in control of themselves, he would have been liable to shift on the spot and howl (or possibly even wreck the room). Such was the intensity of feeling, to see her whole and healthy again.

He thought his heart might burst from his ribcage.

The large man crossed the distance to her in barely a few seconds, his forehead dipping to her own in a show of affection - since he couldn't place his remaining arm around her while a child lay upon it. He was careful, even now in the midst of his emotion, not to jostle the babies awake. A ragged breath escaped his lips,
"Darlin'..."
Before he captured his wife's mouth in a heartfelt kiss the scarred man couldn't hope to rein back from.

[Sharei]

There were no words between them as their mouths met. It was love, it was desperation, it was relief. Rhys threw her arms around Tsu's shoulders and just held him after the kiss, letting the emotion ride out of their frames. Only when she felt she had a handle on herself did she draw back, allowing her thoughts to turn in the direction of the children.

Her children.

"Are these...?"

Of course, they were. She could feel it so instinctively that the words were unnecessary. She reached tentatively for one of them, breath held.

[tsukikoko]

He nodded as he turned his gaze to the babes, smiling once again, only able to tear his eyes away from Rhys because the children encompassed an equal level of devotion in his soul. Carefully, so carefully, the werewolf slid the baby boy laid across his arm into the embrace of their mother. For a moment, their son stirred, nestling closer to the familiar scent of his mother with a babbling croon.

Tsu turned his attention to the two still slung to him then, beginning the careful process of extricating their sleeping forms so that Rhys would be able to see more than just the back tops of their heads.

"All three." He murmured tenderly. "Sara kept them all safe."

There was a sudden pang through his chest, a slight rise of guilty, protective inner hackles, that he had been unable to keep his children safe; he was grateful to Sara, beyond grateful, but the old werewolf sometimes wanted to savage himself for being so helpless while his entire family were trapped on the island.

With a slow exhale, he tried to let the feeling go. Now, in this moment, wasn't the time for such sour thoughts, especially when nothing could be done about what had already transpired.

[Sharei]

The weight that settled into her arms felt surreal, and for a moment she was almost too afraid to look at the child in her arms. How many hundreds of years had she waited for this moment? Yet now that it was here she felt joy, surely, but trepidation and anxiety along with it. What if this was a dream? A fever illusion?

But as Rhys finally lowered her scarlet eyes to the babe any thoughts of that flew away. She gazed down into his perfect, chubby round face and felt a flutter of something deep within her soul. This was their son. Her son. Her beautiful baby boy. Rhys drew her fingertips gently across the child's brow, disturbing his short hair. The baby shifted, nestling closer, and Rhys' heart welled with emotion.

"They're perfect," she said, passing their son back so that she could reach for another.