The next day…

Ten and Ronan stood at the back of their suite at circus watching the chaos. The kids filled in the seats at the front of the box. There were empty popcorn boxes and cotton candy wrappers everywhere. Ronan didn’t know where they had the room for the goodies after all the cheeseburger sliders and nachos they’d eaten earlier.

“This is the life,”

Ronan said.

“What being at the circus?”

Ten looked at Ronan as if his husband had a screw loose. He’d had enough of the circus to last forever. The only reason Ten was here at all was because Everly wanted to share this experience with all her friends. There was no way he could deny Everly anything.

“No, I hate the fucking circus!”

Ronan said with a laugh. “Look how happy the kids are. Everly hasn’t stopped laughing all day.”

It had been a different story when they’d gotten home from Boston the day before. Everly hadn’t been able to stop crying. Ten and Ronan had taken turns rocking her until she finally fell into an exhausted sleep. When she’d woken up, it was as if the trauma from the day before hadn’t happened at all. He knew a point would come when he and Everly were going to have sit down and unpack everything that happened. Today wasn’t that day. Neither was tomorrow.

After the chaos of the shooting, Nava had been cleared of any wrong doing in Vincent’s death and Jack’s murder. Faulk decided each of the shootings were in self-defense. He’d known no jury in the world would convict a woman who’d spent the last forty years being beaten and abused.

Everly popped out of her seat and ran toward Ten, who scooped her up. “Baby Bertha’s gonna blow chunks any second.”

“Truman!”

Ten shouted, pointed to Bertha, who’d started to spew like Old Faithful. Ronan rushed toward the little girl.

“I guess there’s nothing wrong with your gift after all, huh?”

Ten had been relieved when his daughter had been able to access her gifts again. He couldn’t imagine his daughter without them.

“I told Bertha that four hot dogs was too many. She should have listened!”

Everly giggled and hugged Tennyson tight. “I was scared when I couldn’t see your nightmare or read you.”

“I know you were, honey, but I wouldn’t have loved you one bit less if your gifts went away.”

“I know you love me, Dad. When I worked with Madam Aurora the other day, we talked a lot about my gift. Do you want to know what she said about me not being able to see what happened in your vision?”

Ten wasn’t quite so sure he wanted to know. “Yeah, sure!”

“She said something bad was supposed to happen to me, that’s why I couldn’t see what was coming. Aurora wouldn’t tell me what that thing was, but I know it was bad. She thinks my gift was protecting me.”

It was an interesting supposition. Ten would have to call Aurora to thank her for keeping that little bit of information to herself. “What do you think?”

“I think my gift needs to cut it out. I don’t need to be protected. I need to be able to see everything. I’m not a baby. I can handle anything, as long as I have you and Daddy.”

“We’ll, it’s a good thing for you that we’re not going anywhere.”

Ten pressed a kiss to the top of her head. He set her back on the floor and she ran off to sit with her friends, thankfully away from where Baby Bertha had erupted.

“Everything okay?”

Ronan asked.

“Yup!”

Ten agreed, wrapping an arm around Ronan’s back. In this moment, everything was as right as rain.

Ten would let tomorrow take care of itself.

THE END