Surprises (Attn: Lysira)

[Jack]

“Jerid, you're not entirely right,” Carilyn said, walking down the corridor from the Library to the Kitchens.

Jerid frowned, his gold-green eyes flaring at the accusation. The Indigo Asha'man rarely showed emotion, but when someone challenged him about a ter'angreal, he got passionate.

“With respect, old friend, I've studied this object since your mother was in swaddling,” Jerid said.

It had been like this most of the morning, since Jerid has asked the younger Indigo to research a ter'angreal associated with memory. It had been one of the first objects of the Power Jerid had discovered, as a Soldier no less in an abandoned part of the Grey Tower.

Carilyn was an old friend, and one Jerid had mentored in the history of ter'angreal when she had been a novice. She had quickly risen through ranks and blossomed into a fine young Aes Sedai.

Murandian by birth, she had the temper to go along with her birthright and an sharp mind to match. Her heart shaped face only began to show signs of agelessness that came with the Oaths, and her green eyes could bore holes into the soul.

Her sun-gold hair was woven into a single braid and she was dressed every part of an Aes Sedai, in semi-elegant lavender gown that fit her slender frame. Most noblemen would have described her a sight of beauty and not thought her as the daughter of a simple innkeeper and village Wisdom.

She was also an emerging authority on objects of the Power despite Jerid's instance that she dedicate herself to the studies of Talents. What knowledge she knew proved that the Indigo Asha'man was getting complacent in his own expertise.

“Aye, and you've had about as much luck as a common sellsword trying to best a Halfman,” Carilyn said.

“And here I thought Aes Sedai were incapable of exaggeration,” Jerid bemused, almost smiling. The truth was, he enjoyed the rare banter with the other Indigo. It almost made him feel welcome in the Tower.

Since returning, he had been considered a pariah among most of the Ajahs. Since the fall of the Walker Manor in the Caralain Grass and his presumed death, rumors had persisted of his survival in direct correlation with the deaths or disappearances of … shady Brothers and Sisters from all three Towers.

Carilyn had been one of the few to welcome him back, and a reunion with Miahala Ives Sedai has been one of his more pleasant encounters.

And she almost made him move beyond the pain of losing his Warder Sienna Calin. The few times Jerid had lost a Warder rather than release the bond had been sharp and long-lasting, but with Sienna the pain was twofold. She had been his lover and at the time three months with child.

And for perhaps the second time in his life, he had deferred to tradition and kept her beside him up until a Dreadlord killed her.

“Let's see, you nearly get yourself killed twice while interacting with a Portal Stone, it alters your personality and you still can't move beyond the fact that it's flawed,” Carilyn said, breaking his mind free from the past.

Before he could object to her last point, Carilyn raised a finger.

“It's flawed because every ter'angreal you crafted since that replicated its properties have shown it can't interact with Portal Stones,” she said.

Jerid nodded his head in acceptance at that one fact. But he didn't bow down.

“The ter'angreal has some relevant connection to Portal Stones,” Jerid said. “It just needs to be paired to the right one.”

Carilyn threw her arms up in defeat. “Blood and ashes, were you always this stubborn?”

“Never stubborn, only dedicated.”

Carilyn smirked. “Aye, but for how many years before you gained the cord? And after that, how many people became enamored with you because of your 'dedication'?”

They turned a corner, passing two Asha'man who shied away from them … or rather him.

Jerid blinked at the question and Carilyn's eyes danced, almost like a giggle.

“You noticed and didn't paid heed, Jerid Walker. It's probably what drove most crazy. Rumor tells that the Healer M'Hael himself fancied you briefly.”

That got a laugh from Jerid, if somewhat bitter. Lucan had been good, if brief friend to Jerid, but things went south after … her.

“Yes, in a way,” Jerid said. His tone left it a subject not to be discussed further. She dropped it and instead took another approach.

Carilyn gripped his hand in hers as they rounded the corner.

“Perhaps we can discuss such similar topics, or perhaps prove you wrong about that ter'angreal over dinner tonight, or perhaps wine,” she said coyly.

Rounding the bend, Jerid almost responded but suddenly stopped short lest they run into another person, his hand disengaging as he thrust an arm in front of Carilyn to stop her.

Jerid's gold-green eyes immediately recognized the woman in front of them.

A slender woman nearly a foot shorter than the Indigo channelers, with eyes that could be dark black pools in the right light stood in front of them. Her stance was that of a Warder, one who might have been in the middle of her forties, still young.

In Jerid's eyes, she hadn't changed since they day he had last seen her.

“Brother, would you know our almost unfortunate victim,” Carilyn asked cautiously … and almost possessively.

Jerid didn't respond. A mix of emotions roiled through him, barely visible in his eyes as he looked at the woman in front of them. It was but a few seconds but it might as well been a life time.

He had heard she returned, but only just recently. Nothing escaped his ears. But he didn't want to dare think it true.

And now it was.

“Aye, Sister,” Jerid murmured, reverting to his Altaran accent in surprise. “This is Lysira Walker Gaidar. My wife,” he added without thinking.

[Bella]

Lysira Viathene Walker Gaidar Little by little, Lysira was settling back into Tower life. It seemed to be happening very quickly, and slowly at the same time. Cade seemed to be enjoying it, at least, and not bothered by the necessity of their being here. He had always been an easygoing, somewhat unflappable boy growing up and he hard turned into an almost serene young man. She could not be more proud of him, for how he carried himself and handled life around him.

If only his mother did so well, but then, perhaps she had, once upon a time.

Time in the Yards had felt good. She had never let her skills lapse, even while living in Cairhein, but it felt good to find the intensity of her working out here. Her bow arm burned slightly, and she loved it. She had bruises and nicks all over her arms, but she adored each and every one of them as well. She almost felt alive again.

At the moment, of course, she was not sparring. She was walking through the halls on a relatively unimportant errand. A Gaidar was never lacking awareness of her surroundings, but neither was she on edge like on the hunt. She was dimly aware of voices coming around the corner, since her hearing had always been exceptional, but because she was not expecting the people, she did not fully recognize who she heard until she came around and...

Jerid.

How had she not known that he was in the Tower again? Her heart stopped for a moment, taking her breath with it, although she did not do anything so feminine and silly as faint away. She just wondered, for that moment, if she might actually drop dead.

Seeing his face sent a bolt of lightning-like pain through her, soul deep and multi-faceted. Her dark eyes instantly glittered with complex emotions as she held his gaze, not even noticing the woman with him. Thank the Light she didn't have a voice to worry about using, because her throat went so dry she was sure it would have been impossible.

'Jerid,' she signed, finally tearing her eyes away to the other person. A woman, of course. She bowed her head in respect to the Aes Sedai, as befitting rank and station. But her focus was instantly drawn back to Jerid. Her husband... Once beloved. Once bondmate. The father of her son. The accent born of his emotion. The way he called her his wife. All the interceding years turned into a maelstrom. Oh, Jerid...

'I did not expect to see you...' Her hands hesitated, as if stuttering. '...here.' Truer words would have been "ever again," but she chose to not say them.

[Jack]

Jerid's mind immediately adapted to Lysira's hand movements. His skills in understanding the silent language hadn't diminished, but increased over the years.

Meeting the Gaidar known as Mouse had caused him to improve already impressive knowledge, mostly because since the moment he had met her in the Band of Brothers Inn as a newly raised Asha'man had prompted him to learn more.

He had been enamored by her almost from the beginning. And what had started as a promising friendship had catapulted into love, marriage and fallen with … well complications even he had not seen forthcoming, both of the heart and his own stupidity.

Don't you mean weakness? a thought asked.

“Your wife,” Carilyn asked, almost surprised. She did nod her head in repentance and respect of the Gaidar in front of her, but there was an almost territorial air about her.

Lys, I had only heard you had returned yourself, Jerid signed almost on instinct. His hands flashed just as quickly and fluidly as when they had been together.

Then he recalled himself and his company. Carilyn wasn't versed in hand language.

“Lysira Gaidar, may I present Carilyn Sedai of the Indigo Ajah,” he said formally. “Sister, please meet Lysira Gaidar, hero of the Battle of Lights, past Gaidar Captain, one Master Caden Ives' best pupils.”

“And your wife?” Carilyn asked, her eyes still on the diminutive Warder.

Jerid inclined his head, his eyes also still locked on Lysira. He absorbed every minute movement she made, every glitter her dark eyes made.

“Lys was my Warder, the finest the Yards under Master Ives had ever produced and the first one I bonded as an Asha'man,” Jerid said. And betrayed. He pushed the thought aside. “And she is mother of Caden Walker, our son.”

Carilyn blinked, not at the mention of a son, but at the name. She almost spoke but stopped short. Jerid almost knew what she was about to say. You named your son after the legendary Freak of the Yards.

Instead she merely bowed her head in respect before looking at Jerid. “I believe you two have some things to catch up on.” She touched his arm, almost intimately. “Remember, dinner tonight so we can discuss more about how wrong you are about that blasted ter'angrel of yours.”

She nodded to Lysira and murmured, “A pleasure to meet you, Gaidar. You remind me very much of Brother Walker's last Warder.”

Before Jerid could speak, Carilyn walked past them. Light but was she jealous?

You're a fool, Walker the voice in his mind echoed.

He ignored it, his eyes on Lysira. He almost acted on impulse. How much impact could a hug, a kiss do?

As an Asha'man, as a past High Seat, he knew. It could break nations, divide families, and even create a civil war if the situation warranted it and the people involved were iditots.

But the woman that stood before him was one of the few he had ever trusted, or fell in love with.

They were alone now. He could have acted on those impulses. If she stabbed him because of it, he could accept it all the more because of his Ebou Dari upbringing.

Instead his hands flashed, the first thought that dropped into his mind.

How fares Caden? Where is he and how has he grown? Jerid didn't once consider to ask if their son was safe. It was insulting to think that a trained Gaidar would leave her own child was unsafe.

Jerid took a step forward, almost raised a hand to Lysira's cheek to caress it. More than anything, he wanted to see his son. One that was alive and whole.

One that's grown to young manhood, not slain by the Black Ajah. he thought.

A son who had grown up without his influence. A good man raised by a good woman.

How are you, my Lady? he signed almost mediately.

[Bella]

Even in her...somewhat shocked state, Lysira missed nothing. This...Carilyn Sedai was surprisingly poor at hiding her emotions for a channeler old enough to show agelessness. The way she spoke to Lys, and to Jerid, hinted at things that sent--yes, even this many years later--a streak of angry jealously through the Gaidar. She was only human, after all, and had many hurts piled upon each other. What claim did she have now, anyways? Still, she felt it, but did not let it show like the Indigo did.

It was something of a relief when she departed, in all honesty.

Lysira's full attention could now be on Jerid. She saw minute movements in his body. If it were a fight, she could have read what he was about to do. As it wasn't (yet?), she wasn't sure... No, she had a good idea what they meant, but she worried that her own emotions were fooling her.

Twenty years ago, after she had watched Caden Ives march away with the body of Miahala off to the Borderlands to die and be buried, Lysira had fled the Tower. She had fled with Jhered, her translator and then-lover. He had been good to her, in those days, and cared for her and she for him. But she had never been in love with him. She thought she had been, but time quickly showed the truth of that. And whatever he may have tried to believe, he had never been in love with her either.

The little Gaidar that the Tower fast learned not to underestimate had only ever been in love with one man. And now he was standing before her, but was it him? She remembered what had broken them apart, yet the way he spoke, those little movements, it suggested...

She was ashamed to feel her emotion pooling on the edges of her eyelids. This had been too much, too soon. She hadn't been ready; had not had the time to emotionally fortify herself against this possibility.

Swallowing hard as she wrestled herself under control, or tried to, she signed with faintly trembling hands. 'He likes to be called Cade now,' she said with a faint smile. 'Our son has grown to be a fine man. Smart. Gentle. Kind. He's here in the Tower, prowling the library at the moment.' She hesitated to tell him why they were both here. She would, but maybe not at this exact moment.

Her feet betrayed her and she stepped towards him as well, but only raised her hands to speak. My Lady... Damn him, and damn herself for her heart. 'I...' Again, her hands paused. 'I am glad to be home. I never should have left.' Lysira tilted her head, in that way she always had and had yet to break, gazing up at him with her shining, glistening black eyes. 'And you?' Although she was almost scared of the answer.

[Jack]

So many years ago, Jerid had met a Gaidar in the Band of Brothers, one he would later bond and fall in love with. Those intervening years hadn't come without hardship, especially when the Black Ajah had tried to kill her and their then unborn son.

But those years had also been some of his happiest. Of course, fault for the shattering those days rested with him. While there had been some brief hope of reconciliation, the Portal Stone had changed that.

A Jerid from another life, an inverted mirror, had merged into this world. The Warder bond snapped it and he was faced with a Lysira and Caden who had never died.

It had taken years for the damage to mend itself, for a soul to repair itself and meld with another.

And she hasn't changed, not once. She still appeared the same diminutive Gaidar he had come to love, with eyes deeper than a forest pond that he could get lost in.

Of course, he wasn't blind to how time had crossed her path, or hands that trembled with what looked like hesitation.

He eyelids flickered, almost as if he had blinked in surprise. Caden here?

Cade.[/] Leave it to their son to be independent and choose his own path.

Part of Jerid wanted to leave, to find their son in the Library. How was it that he could have missed him? Well, the debate with Carilyn had obviously taken up much of his concentration.

But why had they returned to the Grey Tower?

They're qualities he inherited from his mother, Jerid signed. He had made a hard decision not long after the Portal Stone to distant himself from either Lys or Caden. Then came their departure with Lysira's parents and her lover.

And yes, you should have left. Jerid responded after a slight delay. It's brought peace to his life as you make it sound.

He took another half-step toward the Gaidar. Again there was desire to at least try and calm any disconcerted feelings she might feel.

He cocked his head, almost debating his response to why he had returned home.

“My own homecoming hasn't all been warm welcomes,” he said after a moment. “There were some 'accidents' after the Caralain fell and a few deaths involving some channelers who were decisively ... shadowy.”

His eyes left Lysira briefly, a powerful, painful memory in his wake. He had lost Sienna in one of the encounters.

“But it's home and I should have come back years ago,” he said, turning his gaze back to Lysira. “It's good to see you,” he added, taking another half-step toward the Gaidar.

“Lys,” Jerid murmured, almost like a prayer. “Welcome home.”

[Bella]

Although years ago, she had been angry, and hurt, and a myriad of other emotions, she had come in the intervening time to not blame Jerid entirely for their fracturing. Yes, the Portal Stone...but she had spent much time reflecting that it took two. If they had both given each other a chance, maybe they could have worked it out. They could have at least tried, instead of fleeing and hiding in the arms of others. And she put that fault on herself as much as him.

What he said drew a faint, rueful smile to her lips. 'I gave him peace by giving him all of mine,' she signed. 'Life has not...' She stilled her hands, curving them back into her chest like she had regretted what she'd begun to say. She bit her bottom lip, which was a gesture she thought she'd outgrown.

She never should have left. She could have given her son just as good a life here, and perhaps kept herself better in the meantime. He had a happy childhood, over all, but she didn't know what future she had truly built for him. Maybe here, there'd be a better chance for that.

Holding her response, she existed in those moments of perfect silence that she was good at achieving. Her own feelings surprised her. She was not surprised to hear about the "shadowy" fates. Jerid Walker had always been more soldier than most of his fellow Indigos. It had been something she'd loved about him. But to know that as such, he was not being welcomed back as a Brother of the Tower should be, she felt a surge of protectiveness in her breast; a distinctly warder-like feeling.

He kept stepping towards her and she felt her body still, warring with surprise and a desire that he would continue to do so. Seeing him like this, seeing how he looked at her and hearing his voice... How many times had she thought of him over the years? She was sure he had moved on from her, and she tried to distance herself from the past and memories and regrets, but now it all hit her with the force of cavalry charge.

Finally, she lifted her hands again. 'It is good to see you too,' she said honestly. 'I would be lying to say that I haven't missed you, even after all this time.'

[Jack]

The bitten lip, the rueful smile, the very way she stood.

Lysira must have endured so much in silence with only support from so few. Jerid's gold-green eyes watched her, for once betraying nothing to the Gaidar who perhaps knew him best.

He had never stopped caring for her, nor loving her. But at the time in years past Jerid had done what he had thought what he should have done for one he loved so much ... leave her to her own devices.

And when she had taken her interpreter and sparring as a lover, he hadn't objected. Then he had been a stranger, another man struggling with whom the Portal Stone had so much changed.

Lysira had appeared happy, and their son seemed to have a strong foster father. But things had appeared to change. He could inquire, could probe, could even contact what eyes and ears he had left in Cairhien.

No. He hadn't the right. Jerid's path had diverged, he had taken other lovers, two other Warders. First there had been Corsedai, whom he had let believe he was dead the first time he had falsified his death. The second time had been Sienna Calin, whom only after Liana en'Damier had convinced him, had he first bonded and then fallen in love with.

And the problem was the Indigo had fallen too much in love with so many people. If there was one failing, it was his heart.

She had died at his side, she and their unborn child.

And years later, it still hurts. All of the loss from all of them.

'You surely gave him your strength,' Sojin signed, taking another step forward. 'Peace is something he has but never been truly granted to his parents.'

His hands flashed quickly, almost too fast for even most component people to understand fluently.

Jerid stopped within a half-pace of Lysira. He could just reach out and touch her. He wanted to do as much. He didn't need the Warder's bond to sense most of what she must have felt.

They had worked well together even before they had bonded. They had trusted each other with a few intimate secrets.

"I missed you too, Lys," he murmured.

Light, but he was a flaming fool.

For once, Walker, don't be a flaming fool. The thought that crossed his mind didn't belittle for once.

No, he wasn't a fool. He was a pure idiot, and if the voice in his mind that had acted as his conscience for as long as he had channeled agreed with him, it was an idiot as well.

"Flame it all," he murmured.

His arms wrapped around her and he kissed her fiercely. Light, but fire pulsed through his veins. Passion overrode his senses, embroiled him in everything carnal. Ice and fire seized him and everything seemed to mold into one thing ...

No. The thought was firm, enough to realize Jerid held the Source. And perhaps for the first time in his life, he restrained himself.

The mesh of Spirit that was a breath away from melding with Lyrisa was held at bay.

But it was only a hair's breath. It took but a twist of Jerid's mind, at and it was a dagger's edge breath from doing just so.

"Lys, I ... " he was breathless. "You know ... " One kiss with someone so passionate, so much in love led to trouble. It was how he become bonded to Lysira in the first place.

This time she deserved a choice.

(OOC: I think the ball's in Lysira's court.)

[Bella]

It was him.

A tornado might as well have spun around them when he grabbed her. A shearing wind that ripped away the walls beside them, the floor beneath them, the ceiling above them. Beyond that, the maelstrom would shred the land and rend the sky. Everything could erupt in fire and then vanish for the feeling that surged in her when he kissed her.

When his hands first touched her, admittedly a small voice--the one that still held the hurt and years of loneliness and uncertainty--considered hitting him. She was a Gaidar after all, and the motto of her rank was always when in doubt, hit it with a stick...but that moment was short, and that voice was silenced fast. One could not live in the past. She had learned that as a child, who let her fear of the past almost destroy any chance she had for a present. One could not live in the future. She had learned that as a woman, who had let her uncertainty of the future surely destroy her present.

Were there second chances? They had fallen apart because she stopped knowing him after the Portal Stone, and she'd fled. But she knew him now. Again. The feeling of his arms and his kiss, she could tell the difference. The years were pulled away into the void of the storm created around them. Time was peeled back, opening like a flower to the moment when that passion had led to the bond.

Yet this wasn't the past, and she didn't feel like she was there. She was in this moment, but the eye-opening feeling of their history made her feel that this was her Jerid again. In spite of the intervening years, and the ways that they had grown, regressed, changed, stayed the same... She felt like she knew him again.

All this happened in the blink of an eye, or perhaps two. She had stiffened with the kiss at first. Shocked despite herself, despite her warder senses seeing that he was about to do so. But it was only a moment, the length of the skipped heartbeat, before she pressed herself into his embrace and returned his kiss. A tingling ran over her skin and she sensed...something. She didn't fully comprehend it. When he tore back and spoke, she too was breathless. She could spend hours working hard in the yards and not be so out of breath as she was at that moment.

Her black eyes pierced his, like she might crawl into his soul and examine it. Their strange color had always enraptured her. The silence again encompassed her as she did not reply to him, nor move to do anything more, while she studied him. Thoughts rushed through her mind, wondering at how her life could turn upside down so frequently in so short a time.

Maybe this was meant to be. She had returned to the Tower for her son, at first. And then realized it was for herself. Maybe the Wheel had determined that it was time to rebuild what was broken. That a son needed his father. That a wife needed her husband. That a Gaidar needed her Asha'man.

That a father needed his son, a husband his wife, and an Asha'man his Gaidar...

She had to at least try, right? She couldn't let past or future destroy her present again, and refused to live any longer with the regrets of not knowing.

For the first time in so long, she felt the serenity that she once owned enter her mind and body. A faint smile curved her lips and warmed the cool darkness of her eyes. She leaned back enough to sign.

'I have always only belonged to you.'

((OOC: The soundtrack of this post is this: https://youtu.be/fnAofkVHZOQ -- I'm not an Eminem fan, but I like this song and this particular video for it to go along with the message is so very fitting!))

[Jack]

All it could take was a flick of his mind and the mesh of Spirit could settle into Lysira. The desire was there, as searing as the kiss had been against her lips.

Yet he hesitated, not only out of respect for his former Gaidar and wife, but also because some wounds still remained too strong.

He had lost one Warder, one lover, not but just a few years ago. And he knew too well how that loss could burn into a channeler. More than one bondmate had been lost in his life. Including the one that had looked very much like Lysira.

That was another life, another world. And she wasn't the woman standing in your arms. What memories - what persona - had nearly displaced him had slowly integrated over time. The man he had once been had slowly reasserted itself, even though the altered memories still remained a constant companion.

By then, Lysira had been gone from the Tower, perhaps the best choice. He too had left for his own reasons.

But now she was here. Their son was here. And Light's sake, each needed the other for all the attention they seemed to attract. Before their split prior to the Portal Stone, they had made a good team.

The Pattern rarely grants us second chances, Jerid Walker.

Looking at Lys, watching her fingers dance as she commented, only cemented what his mind and heart told him.

He brought one hand to Lysira's face, traced her jawline with a finger and whispered, "You've always had my heart, Lysira."

Both arms wrapped around the small Warder's frame once more as he leaned in for another kiss. This one was more fierce than the last, the sensations only incensed by the amount of saidin he held in him.

The mesh of Spirit sank into her, countless threads intertwining in a complex yet intimate weave. It was one he knew all too well, and as they sank into her, the fierceness his kiss only intensified.

And then there was an explosion of emotion, of another mind sharing his presence. It swirled around in chaos, a thousand different feelings he tried to sort out as the knot tightened.

And then it stopped. His mind managed to separate the two. He broke the kiss, looked at the small Gaidar.

His breath caught and his heart skipped a beat. Light but she still was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen, and one of the most skilled.

"Lys .. " he whispered.

(OOC: Sorry for the belated response. It's been a hectic few days of running around without my head attached. Oh and surprise!)

[Bella]

Since the day a young man or woman put on the uniform of the Drin'far'ji, it was drilled into their minds what their purpose was: the bond, being the sword-hand and shield-arm of a channeler, protecting them as they did the business of the world and of the Wheel and the Light. It was what they trained for, and the message they breathed during their time in those early ranks.

Lysira had been no different, and she'd grown up under the tutelage and almost fathering of Caden Ives and later the example of her blood father, Benar Viathene, who had both been exemplary examples of all that a warder should be. Eventually, she had become a Gaidar herself and a trainer and a teacher. She had even become Gaidar Captain. Yet while she took pride and honor from all of those things, the fulfillment of her heart had come in three: to become a wife, to become a mother, and, in her Gaidar's spirit, to be a bondmate.

Since the dissolution of her bond with Jerid, she had been incomplete in that. No other channeler had ever pursued her, and she was never sure if she even wanted any to.

His kiss refilled the hole the loss of him, as a man, had left. And then as the bonding weave settled into her mind and exploded her awareness, the hole left by the loss of him as her Asha'man was also filled. It almost made her knees weak with its shocking power, and she had almost forgotten what it truly was like. She felt empowered, and humbled, all at once.

Lysira Walker Gaidar was whole again.

When he broke the kiss, she gasped and her eyes went wide, glittering with her myriad emotions. He said her name and the word was almost as powerful as the bond. She smiled softly at him, bringing her hands from where they'd pressed against his chest up to his face, almost like seeing him anew. Her thumb traced his bottom lip and her warder awareness suddenly asserted itself. She looked around and realized they still stood in the corridor. Thankfully, no one was there, but she laughed with almost embarrassment.

Almost, but not really.

She took a slow, deep breath and leaned back enough to sign again. 'Come,' she signed. 'We should go find our son. There is much to talk about.' The smile curved her lips again and her black eyes glinted again with humor, but something serious too. 'Don't think I'll let you go so easily a second time. You're well stuck with me now.'

((OOC: No worries, I figured you were busy. ^_^ I know how those hectic days go, but hope your head has been reattached!))