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She was born with a shock of dark hair and eyes a deep blue that is slowly growing brighter. I can’t decide if she looks more like Grim or Jud, but if I had to guess, from the light tone of her skin, Grim is her genetic father. I don’t plan on sharing my suspicion. Not only could I be wrong, but it honestly doesn’t matter. Miracle has seven fathers who adore her.
Even Grim will hold her, though he has a checklist of requirements that two other men have to sign off on before he’ll do it. He wears two layers of latex-free, medical-grade gloves and a surgical gown and mask, like a doctor. He wraps his handkerchief around his neck and keeps his shorn head covered with his trademark knit hat. He’s working on controlling his Gift more and more, and he can touch living things without harm, now. But he’s not taking any chances with Miracle. The rest of us understand his reasons, and even though we trust that he wouldn’t harm her, we’ve all agreed not to push him. Maybe, in his own time, he’ll gain the confidence to hold his daughter’s hand without any barriers or stroke her hair away from her chubby face.
Rev gives his sermon tonight from his armchair with Miracle in his arms. He starts by reminiscing about what we’ve come to call the Battle of New Orleans.
“Lazarus and Raptor didn’t win because they used their Gifts for personal gain,” he says. “We respected our Gifts. We acknowledged the Working and tried our best to listen to its nudges. We used the Gifts we were given for good. We used them to strengthen one another. To keep our clan together. We used them out of love.
“That’s why we won. And that’s how we’ll continue to win. Fighting for what’s ours is a way of life now. But if we stick together, pay attention to the Working, and keep our Heart at the center of all we do, nothing will tear us apart.”
“Hear, hear!” Grim says.
“Damn right!” Jud rumbles from beside me on the couch.
“Fuckin’-A, man!” Scrap says with a decisive nod.
I’m curled up with Jud on one side and Brawn on my other. When Jud slings an arm around my shoulders, I smile up at him. His one ice-blue eye smiles back. I call him my handsome pirate, since he wears an eyepatch over the other eye. It hasn’t come back, like the other one, and he doesn’t think it ever will. I don’t think he wants it to.
He hasn’t said as much, but I think he feels that missing one eye is justice for his brother’s death. I happen not to agree. I think he served his time for his part in his brother’s death, but then, I’m not the Judge. I’m just glad he can see his daughter grow and learn, and that he can study his maps and watch security footage and do all the things he loves to keep us all safe.
Love bigger than the sky fills my heart as I watch Rev with Miracle. He rocks her swaddled form as he preaches, and she falls asleep to the gravelly rumble of his voice. One of his long braids is clutched in her pudgy fist.
“Cora wasn’t given a Gift by the Working,” he says, snagging my full attention. “I used to wonder why that was. But now I know.” He smiles at Miracle, then he looks up at me. “Cora wasn’t given a Gift, because sheisthe Gift.”
Connection sizzles between us as I smile into his wild, intense gaze. Love, lust, trust, and belonging bloom like a garden in my chest. Jud and Brawn each hold one of my hands. Across the room, Grim’s eyes smolder with pure affection. Doc winks at me. Shep wears a peaceful expression as he gazes from me to Miracle. And Scrap, ever my flirt, waggles his brows at me.
Three years ago, I lost my mother, father, and sister to the Virus. I never thought I’d recover from that. I still grieve their loss in a thousand small ways every single day, but I’m okay. I’m whole again. I have a new family that has built me back up after the Virus tore my life apart.
The eight of us will always build each other up. We’re bound by love. Forever.
“Cora is the beating Heart of our settlement,” Rev goes on, “and the reason we were all led to this mountain. The Working gave her to us, our precious Gift, and we will cherish and protect her, and every offspring she blesses us with, until the end of days.”
A kiss on Miracle’s forehead marks a new beginning, the beginning of forever.
