To Capture a Captain's Heart (closed)

[heartofcourage]

"I suppose that I can forgive you." Dylan said with a soft smile towards her husband as she pulled him in for a gentle kiss. "Just remember that she's a little girl with ideas of her own. You don't have to fuss over her all the time."

Kayla grinned towards the two of them as she took Ashleigh to sit in a quiet spot of the hall. Sitting down on the soft bench, she looked at the fair headed baby, smiling at her as she yawned and stretched. She was a beautiful baby and it made Kayla wonder what it would be like to have a daughter of her own.

 

[KieranSoares]

"I know... I just worry. I wonder if I'm doing the right things. Though I suppose if I keep going like this, I'll be greyer than Van before I'm thirty," Ashien murmured with a smile.

Christopher found his way to Kayla when he noticed her alone, and he quietly sat beside her, just watching her face as she thought and looked down at Ashleigh. The girl was entirely different from any blood Ghis alive. Kate was quite different thanks to emerald eyes and red hair, but Ashleigh especially stood out. Blonde hair had simply never entered the Ghis line.

 

[heartofcourage]

"She's beautiful." Kayla said softly as she glanced up at Christopher with a soft smile. "And one day, we'll be holding our own little one like this. Papa says I might not have many chances, but we can make them count."

 

[KieranSoares]

"We'll have our own one day, love, by whatever means." Christopher kissed her and smiled down to the infant. "She's going to be one of the luckiest little girls in the world, with a family like yours. Even so far away, she'll have all sorts of aunts and uncles who love her."

 

[heartofcourage]

"I know I already love her with all I have." Kayla murmured as they stared down at the perfect creature that had been born from her brother and his lovely wife.

Kayla glanced towards Christopher as she cuddled the little girl close, knowing that he had gone through a lot of heartache in his life. He had never known his parents, raised by the soldiers in Monaghan until he was taken in by the lord and lady of the realm. She knew how much family meant to him and how dearly her held everyone close.

"We will keep our personal life secret. Let everyone speculate all they want." Kayla said softly. "All that matters is that we are happy and healthy."

 

[KieranSoares]

"It would probably be better that way for everyone involved," Christopher agreed. Even their most trusted didn't need that kind of worry or sympathy on their minds beyond what was necessary.

 

[heartofcourage]

"And when the time comes, Papa will be here in a heartbeat." Kayla murmured as Ashleigh opened her eyes and stretched in her soft pink blanket.

"Hello, little love. Welcome to Norway." Kayla said with a smile to the little girl who smiled up at her with her father's infamous grin and cooed her joy. "You, my love, are going to have a life full of adventure and joy."

 

[KieranSoares]

"She'll have friends all over the place. With the local werefolk, the court, all through London... and no doubt she'll learn to be very patient when her father wants to paint her all the time," Christopher chuckled.

 

[heartofcourage]

Kayla grinned at her husband as he commented about their niece. Her heart was healing and it would take time for her to be back to her normal self. With Christopher and her family at her side, she knew that she would get there.

Dylan watched the two of them, glancing over at Ashien and taking his hand to squeeze it. "We are very lucky, Ash."

 

[KieranSoares]

Ashien drew Dylandra in against his side with a smile. "I knew Kay would love her." Looking at his wife a bit sheepishly, he offered quietly, "Sorry I'm so... protective."

 

[heartofcourage]

Dylandra leaned in and kissed her husband's cheek gently as he apologized to her in a sheepish way with that lovely grin. She was head over heels in love with Ashien, just as she had been from the very first moment that she had met him.

"I suppose I can forgive you, love." Dylan murmured as she rested her head against his shoulder. "Ashleigh...well, that might be another story."

Ashleigh adored her father. She always lit up when he was there, cooing and squirming the moment that her eyes were set on him.

"She loves you. I would say that based on her beautifully painted nursery and that little Highland pony in the stables when she can't even sit up on her own means that you love her too."

 

[KieranSoares]

"The nursery was just a project I thought you'd enjoy doing with me, and the pony isn't just sitting and waiting. I'm training him so I can teach children to ride..." That had been an afterthought, of course. His original intent was all for Ashleigh. Her simple existence had probably saved him. Since his scarring trauma in the war to protect Inverness, he hadn't been quite the same and Dylandra had often caught him in nightmares or pacing with his hand clenched on the handle of his sword as if he were back in a war camp waiting for an attack. But Dylandra's pregnancy and Ashleigh had kept him so busy that he'd had little time to think on the horrors of the past and, as such, he was starting to properly heal on the inside long after his body had mended.

 

[heartofcourage]

Dylan smiled as Ash mentioned that the pony was for any child that wanted to ride. She knew the moment that he had come home with the stoat little horse when she was in her last months of pregnancy that he was thinking about their unborn baby. She saw the excitement in his eyes as he considered that perhaps the little boy or girl might love horses as much as he did. Ashleigh was too little to let her wants be known, but she was sure that the little girl was bound to share one of her father's passions.

 

[KieranSoares]

Noticing her smile as she looked at him and remembered how excited and scatterbrained he'd been when it came to preparing for their child, Ashien raised an eyebrow at Dylandra. "What?

 

[heartofcourage]

"Nothing, love." Dylan said as Ashien looked at her with a questioning gaze. "I'm just trying to decide what I'm going to do with you."

She leaned in and kissed Ashien, only stopping when she felt someone press against her side. Glancing over, she smiled down at Burke as he seemed to be done playing with the other children.

"Hello, little love. Are you having fun?" Dylan asked their adopted son, laughing as he nodded and then reached for Ashien to pick him up.

 

[KieranSoares]

Ashien scooped up Burke without hesitation. He wasn't too unlike Valentina's boy Alex, but he was a little older and had never spoken much even if he was perfectly capable. "Tired, lad?" Ashien asked him softly, having had a deep love for the boy since he'd come home to find Dylandra had taken him in, even if they hadn't thought it would be permanent then. Burke shook his head, and Ashien chuckled. "I see. Not tired, but tired of other people." Burke quietly laid his head on Ashien's shoulder and was content just to sit still.

 

[heartofcourage]

"We'll go to our room soon enough." Dylan said softly as she brushed Burke's hair back. "Ashleigh needs to nurse and then I think we all could use a good nap after that long boat ride. Mama had a rough time on the water."

 

[KieranSoares]

Burke looked to her worriedly when she said that, leaving Ashien's arms to come into her own. Soon Ashleigh was returned to her father's arms and all the little families split off to rest a while after all the excitement and the long journey. Hrolf and Skoll followed Christopher and Kayla as ever.

 

[heartofcourage]

When they returned to their rooms, Kayla thought briefly about doing some paperwork in her office. There was always a mountain of work to be done and she never seemed to get through everything. Instead, however, she turned and kissed her husband deeply, giving him a soft smile when their lips parted.

"Thank you, Chris. You have no idea how much good this does my heart." She said softly.

 

[KieranSoares]

"I'm pretty sure I have some inkling, or else I wouldn't have done it. But it was hard to keep it a secret," he chuckled. "I was sure you'd notice me sneaking around and the kitchens and guard getting prepared."

 

[heartofcourage]

"I had no idea." Kayla said with a smile as Christopher confessed the amount of trouble he had gone through to make sure that everything was ready and perfect. "And surely there is a way that I can repay you."

 

[KieranSoares]

"Kay, this was as much for you as it was for me. I couldn't stand to see you so down anymore," he told her, taking her hands. "You hardly need to repay me. It's what we do. We're partners in more ways than one. It's our job to pick the other up when they fall."

 

[heartofcourage]

"You know that I'll repay you sooner or later." Kayla said with a smile as she kissed her husband one more time and then pulled him towards their balcony where they could sit and relax as they looked out over Trondheim and the water beyond.

 

[KieranSoares]

Christopher brought out a small bottle of cider for them as they relaxed. He looked over the city fondly. It reminded him of Dublin and Edinburgh; bright and sometimes dangerous to the unwary, but full of honest hardworking folk and a deep, rich culture. But Trondheim was even more special to Christopher's heart because it had deep-set traditions tempered with an understanding for the new, but no patience for those who forced their own ideas on the populace. Only those who knew the value of respect got anywhere in Trondheim and most of Scandinavia.

 

[heartofcourage]

Kayla enjoyed the cider as she relaxed against her husband's side, their dogs sitting in the bright sun of the balcony without moving. It seemed that they all needed this moment to survive and to reaffirm that they would be alright in the end.