Epilogue - Kyle

[One Year Later]

I walked in through the back door, rubbing the towel against my hair to keep it from dripping on the floors. We may not be living twenty-first century anymore but that didn't mean we should act like cavemen and destroy these nice wood floors.

Yeah... not my words. I honestly didn't care about the wood floors or how nice they might be. It wasn't like we were having guests over anytime soon. Who the hell did we have to impress? But... I did care about the girl who cared about the stupid floors. Ella had been trying her best to add some sense of 'normalcy' to living in the Inn. And that meant sometimes being asked to dust the non-working chandelier or some other equally ridiculous task. It kept her happy and honestly, it kept us all happy. Made the place feel more like home rather than just somewhere we were staying. It felt more permanent even if we all knew it might not be.

"I swear to God, Joel. I will stab you with this knife if you don't quit it," Ella's threat carried through the house and I grinned making my way toward the kitchen.

"It's just a tiny piece," Joel said sounding too innocent to be truthful. He and Ella still butted heads a lot, but in some ways, she was closer to him than I was. When they weren't threatening each other's lives, they actually got along pretty well. They talked. A lot. If I were the jealous type, it might've bothered me. But Joel wasn't the type to share his emotions with other guys and that left him Zero and Ella to talk to. He needed someone. God knows we all did.

I walked into the kitchen to see Ella holding a knife that was currently pointed at Joel and might have been scary if anyone thought Ella would actually stab him. She still got squeamish over skinning whatever animals we managed to bring in. Even the fish.

"Why don't you put down the knife, baby," I said slowly and she shot me a glare that quickly turned to a confused smile. "I thought you were fishing?"

I shrugged. "No bites. And it was hot so I went for a swim." Her eyes hung to my chest as I walked around the large island in the kitchen. I tried ignore the mild limp to my step that I wasn't sure would ever go away, and wrapped my arms around her from behind. She let out a groan, pretending like it bothered her.

"Get your wet body off of me," she said, a smile in her voice. She made no effort to pull away from me though, so I pulled her closer and then reached around and plucked a piece of watermelon from her cutting board, plopping it into my mouth.

"What the heck, El?" Joel complained. "You threatened my life when I tried to steal a piece."

I grinned at that and stole another piece. "She loves me," I said to Joel as I popped it in my mouth. "Mmm. Best watermelon I've ever had." Ella hung her head, shaking it a little at the nonsense before taking pity on Joel and letting him grab a piece for himself.

The garden had been Jamie's idea and since she helped with it at the church, she knew what she was doing. Thanks to that girl's green thumb we had fresh vegetables after too long and had been living pretty damn good. The fruits had been Ella's idea. We'd had strawberry early in the spring and had been waiting a solid month to eat this damn watermelon. We only had the one, for some reason the rest planted hadn't produced any melons. She was a little protective of it, excited about how well it was growing; the thing had to be ten pounds.

She'd been waiting for the perfect day to cut it, which it turns out was this morning.

"What's the occasion?"

"No occasion." She spun in my arms, smiling up at me. "I just really wanted it today. I was going to bring you down a bowl."

"You're sweet." I lowered my mouth to hers, tasting her lips, a hint of watermelon lingering there. Her hands, that had been resting on my forearms, slid up my arms around my neck and into the hair at the base of my neck. I deepened the kiss as she slid her fingertips down my spine inducing shivers and making my cock twitch while she sucked on my tongue. This was going to get out of hand if I didn't stop it soon.

Somehow I managed to pull away from her and met her eyes to see the passion burning. She lifted an eyebrow, biting her bottom lip.

Like I was going to turn that down.

I bent, gripping her hips and hauled her up over my shoulder smiling at her squeal.

"Wait," she said through laughter, her hands playfully beating at my bare back. "Kyle, wait."

Knowing what it was, I spun around quick enough that she giggle at the movement and pointed at Joel. "Don't eat all the watermelon." Quieter, I asked Ella, "Good?"

"Mhmm."

I spun back around and her squeal was cut off with her laughter as I moved with purpose out of the kitchen. If anyone was in the living area, I didn't notice and started to job up the stairs, Ella bumping and bracing herself with her hands on my back. I slowed down a bit when my leg threatened to give out. I didn't have pain most the time but occasionally I felt like it might buckle on me.

Because she was as aware of everything about me as I was about her, Ella noticed. She stiffened and offered to walk at which point I grabbed a handful of ass and told her she wasn't going anywhere.

It wasn't long before I was laying Ella down on the bed and climbing over her lowing my body onto hers grinding our hips together. Ella let out a sexy moan that hit me in all the right places. I pulled away long enough to pull her shirt off, tossing it away before I bent back down, taking one pert nipple into my mouth. Her hands were all over me, exploring like she might find something new, like she couldn't get enough.

Her fingertips dragged around my hips and over my abs before dipping into my shorts and grabbing me. She worked me with her hand until it was all I could focus on. Not wanting this to be over before it started I grabbed her wrists, pulling her hands off me and pinning them above her head. Ella smiled, hooded gaze locked to mine. Her long hair splayed out wild in a halo around her head. Pale skin, dusted with freckles was already flush with pleasure. Fuck, I could stare at her all day.

"You're beautiful."

"Baby," she whispered as I sucked and nipped my way down her neck. "I need you."

She had me. She so fucking had me in every single way.

One arm stretched out, I waited for Ella to inch closer until her head rested on my chest and then curled my arm around her body settling my hand on her naked hip. I squeezed her closer and kissed the top of her head. She moaned, sated and entirely content in my arms. "I never want to move from this spot."

"What's stopping you?"

Absently, her fingers ran along my abs. Ella made the cutest disgruntled noise at my question.

"Promised Bambi she could be my lab assistant today."

We didn't have a real lab, but Ella had claimed one of the empty rooms on the top floor that looked like it had been an office. She'd cleared out the desk and emptied everything from the filing cabinets to make room for all that she needed. Right now she had a big collection of books and that was about it. I'd found her a microscope and occasionally, when we run the generator, she'll sit up there and stare at samples of Zero's blood for long enough that I'm sure she has every quality of it memorized. Understandably, most of the time she devoted to working on a cure was spent reading the books, looking for answers I wasn't sure she would find. I doubted most were actually helpful to what she was doing, but she read through every single one. She often poured over her father's journal trying to deconstruct what he'd done but without use of any of the equipment we managed to pick up from school science labs, she couldn't make much progress.

That was going to change though. We'd kept it from Ella, but the other guys and I had been doing up some reading as well. The electrical kind. More than one of the houses had those solar panels installed on the roof so we'd been working on a way to install them on the roof of the inn. With power we'll have use of refrigeration and be able to keep food longer which was a major bonus, but more so Ella would have access to the power she needed to make a dent in this.

And she would. Because she felt like she needed to. I thought there were probably still goons at Hudson working on one, but if they'd had success we'd heard nothing of it. Ella had this though, whether it was guilt or curiosity or something else, she was driven. And when she got the power she needed, she would be unstoppable.

"Lab assistant?"

She shrugged. "She wanted to help and I couldn't say no."

"Does she know how boring it's going to be?" I teased.

Ella halfheartedly swatted my stomach. I caught her hand.

"Ditch the kid," I whispered. "Stay in bed with me."

"Maybe another hour," she conceded.

"I can work with that." She gasped as I shifted out from underneath her and rolled my body on top of hers, claiming her.

It was longer than an hour, but eventually we went back downstairs. Bambi quickly found Ella and the two disappeared. I figured it wouldn't be too long before the younger girl got bored and came back down stairs. I dropped onto the couch, listening to the conversation as Joel and Atlas discussed the plan for tomorrow's run. We went out once every couple weeks. Thanks to the garden and water supply, it was about all we had to do and sometimes we didn't even need to go that often.

Zero and Hunter walked through the living room, both laughing and holding hands. It was nice them both laughing so much. For Hunter it wasn't so out of the ordinary, but for the first few months after we got here Zero remained closed off. She'd talk with you, but she wasn't smiling or laughing - nothing like she is now. She was grieving which was expected, and at the time we all were, but Hunter especially had been really concerned for a while at how closed off she became.

Eventually, she started joining the rest of us in the evenings. Sometimes we played stupid games or just talked. She watched at first and finally participated. I wouldn't call her overly friendly, or outgoing even today, but she joked. She smiled. She laughed. And because she did, so did Hunter.

"Since Ella has Bam preoccupied, we're going for a swim," she said not making eye contact with anyone.

"You probably don't want to come down there for the next hour—Ow," he said when Zero not so discreetly elbowed his stomach. "Two," he corrected. Zero rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything else, instead dragging him off.

"If we can find a good truck, we should haul back some of the panels," I suggested.

Atlas nodded. "We're not looking for much. The girls put together a list; some drug store finds and back up canned goods. It's pretty straight forward. It'd be nice to get out to the farm if we can."

It had only been a couple of months since Zero relented to Atlas' endless requests to check out this farm. He didn't want to live there, content to stay far away from too large a population like the rest of us, but he wanted Zero to meet her family. She was the only one of us who had any left, whether she remembered them or not.

The meeting was about as awkward as any of us expected, but it was good for her and it seemed good for them too. She didn't like to make the trips up there but they'd made good trading partners. Maybe once a month or so we'd head up that way. Atlas wanted to go soon because he was sure they'd have chicks. After the first time they'd given us eggs, he was sold on us having chickens of our own. With all the libraries we'd been hitting up, he'd stashed a few kids books away for the children living there.

"We'll head out early then, give ourselves time to look for a truck," Joel said. "If we have time, we can hit the farm."

"This is going to mean a lot to her," I said, hoping they understood. Aside from missing little luxuries, we were, all of us, fine without power. When it got cold, we had fire as the days got warmer, we opened up the windows and let in a breeze. It was doable. We'd been doing it for long enough that it felt normal. And in reality, we weren't expecting things like the air conditioner to work after sitting for so long. This may have been for everyone; we'd all appreciate being able to turn on lights and refrigerate water. But it would mean everything to Ella.

"Whatever, bro. I'm just looking forward to movie nights," Joel tried to play it off because that's how he was, but I knew him better than that.

It was early evening when Zero cornered me, a nervous smile pulling at her lips. We didn't talk much, the two of us, alone like this so my interest was piqued.

"What's up?"

She combed her hair behind one ear and kept her eyes focused on the ground. Okay. Now I was really curious. I could count on one hand the number of times I'd seen Zero visibly nervous.

"I need a favor." Her piercing blues eyes finally looked into mine. "And I need you to keep it between us."

"Is everything okay?"

She rolled her lips into her mouth and then scrubbed her hands over her face. "Yeah," she said, forced. "No... I don't... I don't know. Maybe both?"

"Alright," I said. "Stays between you and I. What's the favor?"

She took a deep breath. "I need you to pick me up something," she said meaningfully.

"You're going to need to be a bit more specific than that."

Zero's eyes flitted around to make sure that we were alone. "I'm late."

"For what?" I asked without thinking. Zero gritted her teeth and waited for me to catch on and when I did I couldn't hide my shock. "O-oh. Um... uh... yeah." I nodded. "Shit. Yeah. I can get that for you."

"Thanks," she said sagging in relief. "I don't want to worry Hunter and if I asked Atlas he'd make a huge deal and the whole house would know..."

"It's fine," I said still shocked by what she was asking for.

She reached out and grabbed my hand, giving it a quick squeeze. "Thank you, Kyle."

She ran off as if anxious to get away from the awkward conversation.

I walked toward the stairs, off to pull Ella away from whatever book she was reading and down for dinner.

A pregnancy test. Damn. Part of me couldn't fathom it. A baby. Bringing a baby into this world. That part of me wanted to judge them for being so careless. But we'd been careless too at times. And would it really be so bad?

Maybe it could work. The zombies were dying out. They were still there but not the overwhelming threat they were a year ago. Or even six months ago. Decomposing bodies could only last for so long, turns out. Of course more outbreaks were a threat to anyone still living, but we were more concerned with bands of people wanting to take what we had than with the zombies.

I leaned in the doorway of her lab watching Ella flip the pages of a large text book. As predicted Bambi ditched her a while ago though she lasted longer than I think any of us expected. Ella didn't notice me at first, intent on whatever it was she was reading and lost to the world around her. Finally sensing my presence she looked up, smiling when she noticed me in the door.

"I missed lunch, huh?" she said wrinkling up her nose. "Did they eat all my watermelon?"

I grinned. "Oh, baby, that was gone hours ago," I said trying not to smile when she pouted her lip out a little. "They're setting up for dinner if you're hungry."

Ella held her hands out and I pulled her out of her chair. Her arms went around my waist.

"I missed you," she said.

I chuckled. "You could have come downstairs."

And then, because I didn't keep anything from Ella and because I wanted to see her reaction, I said, "Zero asked me to pick up a pregnancy test."

She pulled back. "You're joking." I couldn't read her expression as I shook my head

"Dead serious."

"Wow," she said quietly and then tilted her head, a slow smile working it's way across her lips. "Babies. Can you imagine a tiny little human running around this place?" She smiled scrunching up her face like she was worried I'd think she was crazy when she said, "It's probably wrong that I'm sort of excited if she is."

"I don't think so," I said realizing as the words came out that I really believed them. It wouldn't be such a horrible thing, babies running around this place. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but once the thought was in my head, I knew it was a thought I wouldn't be able to shake. "It's just so... normal, you know?"

"Maybe it's okay to try to be normal again."

Was it? God, I hoped so because trying to start a life here? A real life. Something more... it sounded pretty damn good.

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:]] This is it! Thanks again for reading!!!!

I will post at least a couple things in Zero's POV -- But I'm moving in a couple days so it'll be the end of next week before I realistically can have anything up.