Epilogue - Joanna
Three Years Later
The apartment is chaos.
Beautiful, wonderful, loud chaos.
"Mama! Mama! Can I give Leo his present now?" Daisy bounces on her toes, six years old and practically vibrating with excitement. Her pigtails, the same style she's insisted on since she was four, swing with each movement.
"After we sing happy birthday, sweetheart," I tell her, adjusting the "ONE" balloon that keeps trying to escape toward the ceiling.
Our son… I still can't quite believe it sometimes.
He sits in his high chair, chocolate cake smeared across his chubby face, looking absolutely delighted with himself.
Leo has Danny's dark eyes and my nose, and right now he's grabbing fistfuls of cake and shoving them in his mouth with the single-minded determination of a one-year-old.
"He's making a mess!" Daisy giggles. "Leo, you're supposed to eat it, not wear it!"
"Let him have fun," Danny says, appearing behind me with more napkins.
His hand finds the small of my back automatically, the way it always does. Three years together and he still touches me like he's making sure I'm real. "It's his first birthday. He's allowed to be messy."
He's wearing a blue button-down I bought him last month. The first dress shirt he's owned in probably forever. Sleeves rolled up, top button undone, but still more formal than his usual t-shirts. He'd protested at first, said it was too fancy for a one-year-old's birthday party.
But I'd seen the way he looked at himself in the mirror. Stood a little straighter. Liked what he saw. He's been doing that more lately. Seeing himself the way I see him. The way everyone here sees him.
"Joanna, this cake is incredible!" Erin calls from across the room.
She's holding her newest baby—a girl this time, just four months old, while her seven-year-old attempts to convince her ten-year-old brother to share the toy car he brought.
"Seriously, you should open that bakery already. You'd make a fortune."
"She will," Danny says with absolute certainty. "Another year, maybe two. Once Leo's a bit older."
He says it like it's fact. Like my dream isn't just a dream anymore but an inevitability. Like he'll make sure it happens no matter what.
Even after three years, he still does this. He believes in me harder than I believe in myself sometimes.
"Uncle Danny, look!" Erin's older son, Thomas, runs over with a drawing. "I drew you fighting a dragon!"
Danny crouches down to examine the picture seriously. In it, a stick figure with massive arms is punching what I assume is supposed to be a dragon. "This is amazing, Tommy. Can I keep it?"
"Yeah! You can hang it at the gym!"
"I'll put it right next to my locker."
Thomas beams and runs off to show his sister.
Danny straightens, and I catch the smile on his face. The genuine joy. This man who once told me he didn't deserve happiness, who thought he'd never have a family of his own, is surrounded by people who love him.
Our family.
"Danny!" Archie toddles over, Chloe following close behind to make sure he doesn't face-plant. He's fourteen months now, just a few months older than Leo, and already obsessed with Danny the way little boys always seem to be. "Up! Up!"
Danny scoops him up easily. "Hey, buddy. You having fun?"
Archie babbles something incomprehensible and pats Danny's face enthusiastically.
"I think that's a yes," Rampage says, appearing with his arm around Chloe's waist. "Thanks for inviting us. Archie's been talking about 'Da-Da-Danny' all week."
"Anytime," I say. "We're glad you could make it."
Chloe smiles at me. We've gotten close over the past three years. Two women who fell in love with fighters everyone else was afraid of. Who saw past the violence to the men underneath. She gets it in a way most people don't.
"How's married life treating you?" she asks, nodding at the simple gold band on my left hand.
I look at my ring. We got married six months ago in a small ceremony at the courthouse with just our closest people there and feel that same flutter I felt when Danny asked me.
When he got down on one knee in our bedroom after putting both kids to bed and said he wanted to make it official.
Wanted everyone to know I was his and he was mine.
"It's perfect," I say honestly.
"Good. You both deserve it." Chloe squeezes my hand. "Rampage and I have been talking about making it official too. Maybe next year."
"You should. It's worth it."
Danny's still holding Archie, but his eyes find mine across the room. Even with kids and chaos and cake everywhere, he looks at me like I'm the only person who exists. Like I'm everything.
I mouth *I love you*.
He grins and mouths it back.
"Okay!" Daisy announces loudly. "It's present time now, right? Please say it's present time!"
"Let's do cake first," I say. "Then presents."
We gather around Leo in his high chair. Danny sets Archie down and moves to stand behind our son, his big hands gentle on Leo's tiny shoulders. I stand beside them, and Daisy crowds in close, not wanting to miss anything.
Everyone starts singing happy birthday: off-key and enthusiastic and Leo looks around at all these people singing to him with this expression of pure wonder. When we get to his name, Danny's voice cracks slightly with emotion.
He's been like this all day. Overwhelmed by the fact that we have a son. That this little boy exists because we exist. That he's a father, something he never thought he'd be, never thought he deserved to be.
But he's incredible at it. Patient and gentle and so full of love it sometimes makes me cry just watching him with our kids.
We finish singing and everyone claps. Leo claps too, even though he has no idea what's happening, and everyone laughs.
"Make a wish, big guy," Danny says softly, leaning down to kiss the top of Leo's head.
"He can't wish yet, Daddy," Daisy says. "He's only one."
"Then we'll wish for him. What should we wish?"
Daisy thinks very seriously about this. "That he grows up strong like you and nice like Mama."
Danny's eyes meet mine again. "That's a perfect wish."
He helps Leo blow out the single candle, which is mostly Danny blowing while Leo watches, and everyone cheers again.
As I cut cake and hand out pieces, as Daisy presents her gift to her baby brother (a stuffed dragon that matches her rabbit), as our apartment fills with laughter and love and the beautiful chaos of family, I think about how far we've come.
Three years ago, I was a single mom cleaning up blood in an underground fighting ring, convinced I'd never have anything more than survival. That love and happiness and a real family were things that happened to other people.
And then Danny walked into my life. This enormous, terrifying man who protected me without being asked. Who let me take care of his wounds. Who told me his darkest secrets and didn't run when I told him mine.
Who gave me everything I never knew I needed.
"Hey." Danny appears beside me, sliding his arm around my waist. "You okay? You look like you're thinking hard about something."
"Just happy," I tell him. "Really, really happy."
"Yeah?" He pulls me closer, presses a kiss to my temple. "Me too. Never thought I could be this happy, you know? Never thought I'd have all this."
"You deserve it, Danny. You deserve all of it."
"So do you." His hand moves to rest on my stomach, and I freeze.
He doesn't know yet. I haven't told him yet. Was going to wait until after the party, until we were alone and the kids were asleep. But he's looking at me now with this expression—hopeful, questioning—and I realize he already suspects.
"Joanna?" His voice is barely a whisper.
I cover his hand with mine. Nod.
"Are you—" He can't even finish the question.
"Eight weeks," I whisper back. "I found out yesterday. Was going to tell you tonight."
Danny's eyes go wide. Then bright with tears. He pulls me into his arms, and I feel his whole body shaking.
"Another one," he breathes. "We're having another baby."
"We're having another baby," I confirm.
He kisses me then, deep and sweet and full of everything we are together. Everything we've built. When we break apart, we're both crying.
"I love you," he says. "God, Joanna, I love you so fucking much."
"I love you too. So much."
"Mama? Daddy? Why are you crying?" Daisy's suddenly there, looking concerned. "Are you sad?"
"No, sweetheart." I crouch down to her level, Danny doing the same. "We're happy. Sometimes people cry when they're really happy."
"Oh. Okay." She accepts this easily. Then: "Can I have another piece of cake?"
"After you eat some real food."
"But cake is real food!"
"Nice try." Danny ruffles her hair.
She runs off, and Danny helps me stand. His hand hasn't left my stomach.
“We're going to need a bigger place."
He's right. This apartment is already bursting at the seams with two kids and all their stuff. Three will be impossible.
"The bakery might have to wait a bit longer," I say.
"No way. We'll make it work. Both." He's got that determined look now. The one that means he's already planning, already figuring out how to give me everything I want. "I've been saving. Made some good money these past few years. We can afford a bigger place and the bakery startup costs."
"Danny—"
"I'm serious, Joanna. You're opening that bakery. I don't care what it takes." He kisses me again, softer this time. "You've given me everything. Let me give you this."
Across the room, Leo starts fussing. Daisy's trying to show him how to play with his new dragon. Erin's kids are arguing over the last piece of pizza. Rampage is telling some story that has Chloe laughing. Our apartment is too small and too loud and absolutely perfect.
This is my life now. This beautiful, chaotic, unexpected life with this man who loves me like I'm something precious.
Who believes in my dreams as much as I believe in his goodness.
"Okay," I say. "Let's do it. Bigger apartment, bakery, all of it."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. Let's build our future."
Danny smiles and pulls me close again.
"Already have everything I need right here," he murmurs against my hair. "Everything else is just extra."
And as I stand in his arms, surrounded by our family, our friends, our children, I know he's right.
We already have everything.
Thank you for reading it!