Page 178 of Requiem
Therapy has changed him in little ways. I love seeing him playing music from his soul again. He’s been an avid writer since returning home.
Nova nuzzles my leg with her rope. I chuckle, sitting up straight when I snatch it. “I’ve played with you all evening, girl.”
“Aw, she missed you,” Heather says with a smile.
“She’s my baby,” I say, my voice jumping as my body jolts from her pulling on it. “Of course she missed me.”
Heather suddenly gasps. “Wait,” she says, pointing between us. “When are you two having kids?”
I nearly choke on my drink and fall over from Nova tugging harder.
Jude snorts, watching my inevitable defeat.
“Oh my god,” I wheeze.
“What?” Heather asks innocently.
“You can’t just launch that at people like a grenade,” Jude laughs. And it’s a laugh that reminds me of when we first fell in love.
Heather shrugs unapologetically. “You guys would make beautiful children.”
“Terrifyinglybeautiful children,” Kami adds.
“Those kids would come out wearing black hoodies,” Finnick interjects.
Jude laughs harder, ducking his head while I hide my burning face against his shoulder.
“We’re making up for lost time first,” I explain finally, still laughing. “That’s the plan right now.”
Jude nods softly beside me. “Yeah. We’re happy either way.” His voice quiets slightly after that, though the smile never fully leaves his face. “If it happens someday, amazing,” he says. “And if not…” His thumb brushes absentmindedly over my knee. “I still get her.”
Emotion catches unexpectedly in my chest.
Heather makes the softest wounded sound imaginable.
“Jude, you would be the best dad,” Micah informs him, his voice more serious.
He smiles up at his best friend. “Thanks, man.”
Another moment passes between them, staring at one another. None of us will ever truly understand everything they went through together, or the bond they share.
“I did have a dream once,” I whisper, and everyone looks at me. “It was of us and our…” I look up at him, realizing that I never told him about the dream. “Daughter.”
An emotion I can’t quite place flashes across his face.
Vanessa leans forward from beside Rachel and Alaric. “Okay, sohypothetically,”she says, “if you had a girl someday, what would you name her?”
I glance instinctively toward Jude. The second our eyes meet, something soft shifts across his features because he already knows the answer. We’ve talked about it before, quietly in bed late at night when sleep wouldn’tcome easily. We were talking about our future, and what it could look like. He then told me about this name and why it mattered. And after that, he asked my permission.
And I agreed.
Jude looks back toward the fire. “Rose,” he says softly.
Heather tilts her head. “Why Rose?”
For a second, the fire crackles between all of us while Jude stares into the flames. And then he answers quietly. “Because they grow in impossible places.” His voice stays calm, though emotion flickers briefly across his face. “Through concrete, through cold…through anything.” A pause. “And they’re still beautiful and soft. Even after everything.”
Silence settles gently around the fire afterward. My heart swells, and my throat constricts.
