Edward mirrored Lis' smile, warm and full of obvious affection, though he thought her apology completely unnecessary. "Would one of you like to fill me in on tomorrow's dinner" I seem to have missed the memo." Or more likely, to have forgotten. He took up a bit of chocolate cake on a fork while he awaited an answer, the mail forgotten for now.

"I do believe someone made a request for hunter's chicken," Lis said with a faint smile that blossomed brighter as Lila bounced in her seat.

"Oh, can we?" the little girl exclaimed excitedly. "With the hickory sauce, not the barbeque sauce" Can we, Uncle Teddy?" Despite Lis' firm grip on the kitchen, Lila was still of the opinion that everything went through her uncle.

Edward arched a brow, unsure why Lila always asked his permission when he had very little to do with the cooking. "What do you think, Lis?" he asked with a glance toward his wife. "Think Lila can have hunter's chicken without spewing barbeque sauce all over the dining room?" He turned back to his mail, mostly to try and hide the smirk from his face.

Lis laughed, flicking her black hair out of her face. "I think, as long as the cook does not tickle her, she should be able to have her wish granted," she mused, her laughter growing as Lila launched herself out of her own chair to hug her aunt. They had an advantage in their growing relationship in that Lis and Lila had already known each other for three years; becoming aunt and niece had only removed the need to be constantly polite. With Lila on her lap, Lis took a sip of her tea, both pairs of eyes looking across the table at Edward impishly.

Edward smiled warmly back at them, feeling like he was part of a real family again, and though Lila wasn't his child, he couldn't have loved her more if she was. "Oh, I meant to tell you," he said, as he went back to flipping through envelopes. "Zahan's parents would love to have you two become pen pals."

Lila's face lit up happily. "Oh, yay!" she declared, clapping her hands together. "I already writ a letter, but Mummy said not to send it until you said I could. Can I?"

"Yes, of course you can!" he replied with a grin. "I'm sure she'll love hearing from you." He looked back at the mail, brows furrowing as his gaze settled on one in particular. He paused a moment, as if debating whether or not to open it, before turning the envelope over and carefully tearing it open.

Lila grinned, quite happy to be held on Lis' lap and steal bits from her aunt's slice of cake while Edward went through his mail. "You can post it tomorrow, when you come here after school," Lis suggested, pretending not to notice the pilfering. "To make sure that you have the right address." She smiled at Lila warmly, glancing up to find her husband frowning at the letter in his hand. "Is everything all right, querido""

Edward pulled the letter from the envelope, his eyes moving over what was written there. "Oh," he said, as if he was taken a little off guard by the letter. "It's the final paperwork from, uh..." His gaze darted to Lila a moment. "From the lawyers."

Lis raised her brows. "Oh, I see." Her smile softened as she kissed Lila's cheek. "Little Miss Lila, I saw the first roses in bloom in the garden this morning. Would you like to take one home today?"

Lila lit up happily at that thought. "Oh, can I really?"

Chuckling, Lis shifted the child off her lap and moved to the kitchen, to find the safe scissors that should be able to cut through the stem. "Be careful of thorns," she warned the little girl, who nodded and hurried out through the door.

Turning her attention back to Edward, Lis moved to join him. "Have you decided truly that this is what you want, querido?" she asked him gently. "I will stand by you, whatever you choose."

"Well, it-it doesn't really change anything. I mean, God forbid anything happens to her parents, but if it does, they want to make sure she's well cared for," he said, looking over the legal document again before carefully folding it and returning it to the envelope. "This isn't something I can decide by myself, Lis. If by some act of God, I was to become her guardian, it would affect your life, as well as mine."

"You love her, querido," she reminded him softly. "For your sake, I will love her, and in time, I will love her for her own sake. We will be able to look after her, should something happen, and would it not be better for her to go to someone she knows and loves if such a thing should happen?" She smiled, bending to kiss his tousled hair. "I think the decision is already made."

"Yes, but..." He frowned as she dispelled his worries with a single kiss and a few comforting words, though there was still a small something tugging at his heart. "What if we have children of our own?" he asked. Though neither seemed quite ready for it yet, both wanted a family someday.

Moving to crouch by his side, half-an-ear on the babble from outside as Lila chattered to herself over the rose bushes, Lis looked up into Edward's eyes. "Why would that change anything, querido?" she asked him in her quiet way. "If we were to have Zahan, then she would have little brothers and sisters. This is Rhy'Din. People do not think twice about such things, and neither shall we. We would not love her any less than any children we might have together."

"Are you sure?" he asked, as he turned to face her, hope and longing in his eyes, not only to make Zahan a part of their lives - officially and legally - but also to one day have a family of their own. But before he got his hopes up and signed on the dotted line, so to speak, he needed to make sure she was sure and not just trying to please him.

"Of course I am sure, querido." She rose, kissing his temple affectionately. Of course she was trying to please him, but there was a caring streak in Lis a mile wide. She would do anything to make a life happier, even if all she could give was a smile, and he knew that about her.

He drew her down into his lap, even though he could hear Lila just outside in the yard, busily looking for the perfect rose. "You are the best thing that ever happened to me," he told her, brushing a soft kiss against her lips. No matter what happened, no matter the circumstances, she always seemed to know the right thing to say. He felt content, happy even, to know that she loved him, to know that she cared.

"Te amo, Eduardo," she told him, curling her arms about his shoulders as he drew her onto his lap. The hesitance in her when it came to expressing her love for him seemed to have evaporated since they had been married, no longer feeling that faint fear that perhaps she was not truly what he wanted. His grandmother's ring sparkled on her finger as she kissed him, not even stopping when a small voice made itself known from not very far away.

"Ewww," Lila declared, one fist full of the first roses of the year. "Boy cooties!"

Lila's face lit up in a happy smile. "So I get to meet her and play with her?" She hadn't even sent off her first letter to the little girl her uncle had suggested she be penpals with yet, and already Lila was very excited about meeting her. She figured that her Uncle Teddy was never wrong about anything. "Do I have to meet her mummy and daddy, too?"

"I think that might be a good idea, since they might invite you to stay with them sometime, too," he said, carefully rinsing her hands off in warm water and taking a towel to gently pat them dry. "Auntie Lis and I are going to be going away for a few weeks on our honeymoon. I'm not sure yet, but we might meet with them on our way home."

The little girl twisted to face him as he gently dried her hands, the tiny pinprick wounds stinging just barely now they were clean. "Won't they come with Zahan when she comes to stay?" she asked him. "That's what happens the first time I go and visit a friend. Mummy comes, too, and she talks to their Mummy, and then after that, she doesn't come inside anymore."

"Yes, probably, but they want to meet Lis and me in person before that. They're from Earth, you see, and they don't know anything about Rhy'Din. It's too much to explain in a letter." He moved to his feet, only long enough to grab some antiseptic spray from the medicine cabinet. "Hold still. This won't hurt a bit," he told her as he crouched down beside her again and gently sprayed her hands with the stuff, which felt cool on contact and helped numb the sting.

She finched back from the cold, but didn't whine, inspecting the drying sheen of liquid on her palms thoughtfully. "So you and Auntie Lis are gonna go and meet them and see Zahan," she considered, "and then if they like you, they'll bring her to here to meet all of us?"

"Something like that, yes," he replied, holding her hands perfectly still until the antiseptic dried. "Is that all right?" he asked, not wanting her to think she was being forced into any of this. It was all entirely up to her. He thought it would be good for both of them, but in the end, it wasn't his decision to make. He intended to keep in touch with Zahan, whether she and Lila became friends or not, but he thought Lila would be the best little ambassador Rhy'Din could offer.

She nodded enthusiastically, blowing on her hands to make the antiseptic dry faster. Much of her former timidity had been swept away by the friends she had made since coming to Rhy'Din herself, and she had turned into a gregarious little thing, happy to make a new friend when the opportunity presented itself. "I want to meet her."

"I want you to meet her, too. I think you'll like each other," he said with that soft smile of his. "There, now. That should be better, but don't forget to wash your hands, especially after you've been outside, all right?" he asked, touching a kiss to her forehead before moving to his feet and returning the antiseptic spray to its rightful place in the cabinet.

"Yes, Uncle Teddy." Lila waited until he was finished putting the spray away before wrapping her arms about his waist in a warm hug. "I'm glad you're home and you're happy," she said quietly. Perhaps it was an odd sentiment for a little girl who had only really known him through letters and presents for most of her life, but it was heartfelt, nonetheless.

He was a little taken aback by that hug, or more so, by the sentiment behind it. Though he hadn't known her either, except through letters and phone calls for most of her life, he had loved and missed her just the same. She was his flesh and blood, after all, the daughter of his sister, the one person who had always loved and supported him through everything. "I'm glad I'm home, too," he said, sliding his fingers through her hair. "I missed you," he admitted quietly, pausing a moment before continuing. "I'm sorry I wasn't here for you, Lila."

"You were doing important things," she reminded him, looking up at her uncle with trusting eyes. There was no question that Lila loved him; she wouldn't even have understood the concern he might have had that she wouldn't. "But you're home now, and that makes me happy."

"That doesn't mean I didn't miss you while I was there, but I'm here now, and I'm not going away again," he told her, hardly realizing the truth of that statement until he'd said it. Things were different now - he had a family to think of, a new wife, and a life they were planning together. He didn't want to go away again and miss any of it. He'd find another way to make a difference right there on Rhy'Din.

"Except on your honeymoon," his niece informed him impishly. "'Cos you have to have a honeymoon, or you're not married properly. And I want you to be married properly, because I like Lis." She nodded firmly, as though her decision were final when it came to her uncle's marital bliss.

And as if that bit of child's logic made perfect sense. Edward laughed. "Yes, and I'll have you know we'll be sharing plenty of cooties on that trip," he teased back, blue eyes bright with warmth and happiness. "Shall we go finish our tea and cake before your mother gets here?" Thankfully, dinner was a few hours away yet.

"Will you make a baby then, then?" she asked innocently, inserting her newly cleaned hand into his in obvious expectation of being led back out to the family room and tea time once again.

"Would you mind if we did?" he asked, wondering what she might think of a new addition to the family, one that might compete with her for his and Lis' attention and affection. It was bound to happen sooner or later, anyway, but he was curious what she might think of that inevitability. He wrapped his long fingers around her tiny hand and started with her back to where they'd left Lis.

"Lynnie's having a new baby," Lila informed him as they moved along. "And Jon has two babies, and Bethany has two babies. Mummy isn't married, so I don't get a new baby unless you make one."

He opened his mouth to reply, just short of telling her that one didn't have to be married to have a baby, but deciding that was a little premature, he held off, rethinking what he was about to say. "You mean Piper, don't you?" he asked, with a small smirk on his face, amused by the simple logic of children. It was so honest and straight-forward and uncomplicated. It was refreshing in a way.

She nodded again cheerfully, releasing his hand to climb up into her seat at the table. "Lynnie's Mummy is Piper, and Lynnie asked for a new baby, and now she's getting one," she explained, as though this was all perfectly straightforward and exactly how you got babies in the first place. It made sense to her that you had to ask for one and really want it before it happened.

Okay, maybe not so simple. Edward frowned as she let go of his hand and climbed back into her seat. "I'm afraid it's a little more complicated than that," he said, though he really didn't want to have to explain how. He poured himself a fresh cup of tea before reclaiming his seat at the table, stirring in a bit of milk.

Fortunately, Lis came to the rescue at that moment. "Do you remember when your rabbits had babies, Lila?" she asked, returning to the table to join them. She had wrapped the roses up in wet paper and foil, tying them off with a ribbon she had found. "How much hard work they had to do before they managed it?"

Lila nodded around a mouthful of juice.

"It is just like that for people," Lis told her with a smile. "Sometimes it takes a very long time for it to happen at all."

Edward offered Lis a relieved smile and a nod of thanks for rescuing him from that one. He wasn't quite sure how he'd have explained in a way that the little girl could understand without getting too complicated and clinical. He didn't want her to believe in the stork, but she wasn't quite ready for the biological truth yet either, not to mention the fact that it wasn't his job to explain these things - that honor went to Brynne. "Sometimes it never happens," he added, helpfully.

The look of horror on Lila's face was very difficult not to smile at. "You mean you might never have babies?" she asked, absolutely mortified by that prospect. "But that's not fair!"

"Well, it's not a given. There are some couples who never have children and some couples who don't really want them. But, um..." He glanced over at Lis with a slightly shy smile on his face. "I think it's fair to say that we want them....someday." When that someday was, he wasn't quite sure, but first things first.

The smile that met his from his wife was just as shy, but just as hopeful, her dark eyes sparkling with promise. Lila looked back and forth between them, and groaned. "Now you're giving her cooties across the table," she complained comically, protecting what was left of her cake fiercely from the invisible "cooties".

"Be careful or I'll give them to you, too, you little imp!" he teased, leaning closer and reaching under the table to tickle her side. Thankfully, she didn't have a mouthful of chocolate frosting to spew at them again.

Cackling wildly, Lila threw herself off her chair to retaliate with enthusiasm, encouraged by Lis' laughter. If this was any indication, they were meant to have children, even if those children were adopted. This wasn't a house that was meant to be without the sound of happiness from young lips.

Edward howled with laughter at the unexpected retaliation. Whether he was ticklish or not didn't matter, reveling in the fun and laughter shared between the three of them, perhaps a hint of things to come in the future. Whether they ever had children of their own or not, there would be no lack of love in this house for each other or for the many children who called Maple Grove home.