The landing is soft. We barely tumble as the ship sinks into its dock. Without masks, without special kits or equipment, only the BDUs on our backs, the rifles in my VIPERs' hands, the battery packs at their hips, and the scowls on all of our lips, we wait for the hatch to open.

They took away my rifle. I can't hold it right anymore. It was the one thing I expected to ground me, but I've already floated away. In these weeks since our evacuation, I've been abandoned, incarcerated, branded, and neglected—but none of it matters. Not when my happy ending is coming four years faster than anticipated.

A real partnership in all the ways two can have one.

Little hairs on the back of my neck rise. Thoughts of our immediate future whirl chaotically – I'll tell him, he'll react with anger, refusal, and maybe, eventually, forgiveness, acceptance. Love.

Partnership. It will work. We have time to make it happen.

They're only genetics, I remind myself. If Dean has taught me anything, it's that family is made of stronger stuff.

I glow from some darkened place below my ribs. Is this what hope feels like?

One crack at a time, the door lowers, and we're exposed to the brilliance of a bustling harbor. The port teems with flocks of aliens. They color a webbed network of thin bridges in their kaleidoscope of foreign garb. We've landed in a stunning metropolis. Thousands of beings stroll over the structures that rise and fall in complex arches like braided strands of silver hair.

Our hatch connects with one of the bridges. A Tadj rushes to meet our own SCOPE tech with a tablet in its hand. "Welcome to Peerozeek," he says.

I sweep the whole port with wide curiosity. This planet is so ethereal in comparison to the surface-level emptiness of Heedeem – that stone and dirt hellhole. The sky is a delicate white tinted with blue. The stars sparkle despite being a bright day, appearing as jewels embedded in a watery sky. All the beings, even the strangely disfigured species, seem more beautiful here. This Tadj, for example, with his moony pink eyes, has a sparkling glow haloed around his mushy head.

Beautiful.

All the landing pods around us are filled with a myriad of ship shapes. Some are small and some are large enough to stretch back into the atmosphere. ARC10 is a behemoth among ants, but even the atmosphere of this planet can't give it the hazy makeover of the whimsical. It still looks like chunky vomit from a diseased animal.

The space directly to our right is empty. Lights flash in slow pulses like the heart rate of a giant. This is where ARC9 will land in just a few short minutes. This bridge will hold Dean, who will soon hold me, who will also be holding my son. It will be the first meeting of our family.

No. I gulp down my too-bright hope. There's a chance he'll rage. He'll be so mad, so disgusted by what I did with Kai, he'll make this voyage a new kind of hell for me.

ARC9 sparkles as one of the brighter stars. It descends like a meteorite from the periwinkle sky. We wait for the ship to slow when gliding through the atmosphere and, more graceful than a drop rejoining a puddle of water, ARC9 lands.

A knot forms in my stomach. He's here.

Despite the air being cool and moist, my lips crack. My throat dries.

"Is it him?" Coodi asks.

She must feel my trembling body next to hers. My little jerky nod is all I can manage to spit out.

Hayomo separates herself from our party. The farther she walks ahead, the more I believe her hand in my life was nothing more than a hallucination.

She struts to a wide, hexagonal platform where other ships' crews greet each other, doing whatever it is that these species do to say hello. I'm not watching them. I'm willing the door to open and for Dean to come running out. I'm imagining his face, the one I'll get to hold in my hands and the neck I'll wrap my arms around. I'm imagining his hard body pressed up against mine.

My son kicks.

I flinch from the hard hit to the gut, startling Coodi and Grant.

"Is he kicking again?" Grant smiles down at me with awe of miracles in his eyes.

"I'll let you feel him later. Right now the kid's being a pain in the ass." I shift to try and get comfortable again. All this standing is murdering my hips. But I'll wait, Dean. I'll stand here and wait for you.

The doors open. One massive hatch slides to the side, and a platform unravels like a tongue. It meets the bridge perfectly, tip to tip.

I can't breathe.

Two VIPERs step out, their rifles at tactical position.

And behind them. Yes. It's him. Dean towers over the rest, his arms and shoulders high and his gaze forward. His head turns side to side, scanning the crowd below.

He's searching for me.

His eyes sweep our small group, but he doesn't see me. Like a hard hit to the side of the face with a bat, my fear from the View Room materializes.

He doesn't recognize me.

He doesn't know to look harder at the pregnant woman large enough to be a storm cloud.

The need to duck, to find cover, to hide behind the others is fierce. But I hold my ground. Reapers don't hide. Not even from scorned love.

They approach the hexagonal platform that intersects the bridge of ARC9 and ARC10. It's a large enough space where all twelve of us can comfortably get the exchange done.

Hayomo steps into their territory — good fucking riddance.

Dean is just across the platform. His hair is short again. It clears the way for me to stare into those hazel eyes I know so well. He's still searching for me, confused, even a tick nervous. I know those features so well. It's the pinched looked every time he'd come hunting for me in the piles of debris after a Topside disaster.

He spots Moyra and smiles in recognition. He looks around and glazes over again not registering me standing right in front of her.

Until he does.

And his eyes go wide as stars.

I give him my customary sideways smirk in greeting. With a lifted chin and a tap of my finger to my nose, I let him know that yeah, it's me. Janika Lorn.

We walk until our two teams are no more than ten feet apart. If there was a breeze, it would carry that familiar Dean smell over to me and I would wish to embrace it forever.

"Freyer." Hayomo stomps to a brisk salute. Dean returns it.

"Birgar." To Dean's side, Birgar, small and portly as ever, clicks to the same brusque greeting. The two men don't seem worse for wear after four months aboard ARC9. In fact, I think Birgar might look plusher.

One of the militiamen picks up Hayomo's duffles and walks past the others, probably dropping the load off at her new ship. A militiaman from ARC9 does the same with the standard military bags he brings from his own ship.

I step forward to Hayomo's side to face the ARC9 commanders. "Birgar. It's nice to see you again."

Birgar gazes at my middle and scowls.

"Freyer." I smile wide.

Dean beams as if lit from the inside by the sun. "Hello, Commander Lorn."

My gloves fill with the sweat from my palms.

Hayomo and Birgar disappear into a different conversation. My VIPERs break their lines to shake hands with the team behind Dean and greet their friends.

He stands with me, toe-to-toe. Both our hands remain on our weapons. His eyes are more loaded than any rifle we possess. I suddenly lose my ability to rationalize anything.

"Glad to have you aboard, Freyer." I fidget in place. "At least you'll be reunited with your favorite," I scan the small crowd for listeners, "recreational sleep-aids, or, at least what's left of them," I say to Dean as everyone else disappears out of range.

He steps up to me, looking at the wide expanse of my middle. He laughs. "We did it."

I can't do this now. Not here. I don't know why I thought we could save this conversation for later. I just want to bask in the exuberance of a happy reunion. Can't I even get that?

"I can explain later. Right now, I'm sure you're more concerned about the state of your precious trunk. Nothing was intentionally set on fire, I promise."

He looks at me, brow furrowed. His smile falters.

Fuck. Not now. Keep it light. "Let me show you around your new palace."

Birgar steps forward. "I would appreciate a tour. Yes."

I spin around, confused.

"Commander Freyer, will you join me? We have much to discuss." Hayomo calls back to him.

No.

My attention flicks back and forth between Hayomo and Dean.

Careful not to let my bump hit him in the crotch, I close the distance between us. "It's not you? You're not joining ARC10?"

He shakes his head, still staring at my middle in confusion. Finally, he looks at my eyes, icy dread swelling up behind them. "Tell me it's mine."

I can't answer. My panic rises as Hayomo and Birgar glare from opposite positions on the bridge. I wish I had something in my hands to clutch as I dangle from this dangerous position.

"You said you'd wait."

Not now. Not now. Not now. "I have waited."

I sense the crowd disappearing behind us.

"This happened before you got all mushy on me and started spouting your goddamn waiting crap. I didn't know what to do. I was a free agent."

"It's his, isn't it?" He backs away as if there was a chance I'd attack him.

"Yeah. It could be. It also could be yours. I honestly don't know."

He exhales one of those enormous gusts I know and love so much. He's still Dean.

"Does he know?"

"I think so."

Flatts bellows out a single laugh from behind me, startling me.

Our moments of shared space and eye contact used to be comfortable. I know that has changed when I struggle to keep hold of his gaze. He looks away.

"I have to go," he says to the sky above me.

"Dean—" I have nothing to fill this void. There's a little part of me that has already broken down into body-raking sobs. Another part is so pissed, I'm sure steam is billowing from my ears.

Then there's another part that puts up the walls from the past.

Stuffing down the choking fear of watching him retreat, I gather my courage and call out. "You told me once that family is more than biology. It's more than contracts, or whatever the URE tells us it is. You told me family is made by love."

"I thought you didn't want this to begin with." He spins around, gesturing to my middle. "That wasn't the problem, was it, Janika? The problem was me. You didn't want me."

"What?" I stagger at the thought. "That's not it at all." My wall crumbles as I watch his heartbreak.

"You didn't want to be with me. It was never about the HHP."

This sudden insecurity sweeps my legs out from under me. "No," I yell into his chest. "The Human Hope Project was the scourge of my existence. I'm glad we didn't give them a single bit of us to profit from. This?" I point to my bump, "This was one terrible fucking night that was a desperate accident when I thought I was completely alone. You were with Connie. Simon had disappeared. I was fucking alone and barren."

He can't look at me.

On the outside, he's grim and angry — his hard brow is set in immense concentration. Behind his eyes, from my vantage point, I realize it's a cover. He's unmoving, unstaring, unsettling on the surface while his heart must be cracking from the pressure underneath.

I step closer, my extended belly presses into him. He flinches.

My fear breaks. Seeing him so repulsed by my body makes me furious. I've had enough of fear. Now I'm pissed.

"This is my child and I've worked too hard to try and protect him from all the shit trying like hell to fucking end me on this goddamn voyage. This is my life now."

He doesn't blink. Just stares, brow furrowed in anger.

"For some reason, we couldn't make it work between us. Biologically or with whatever the HHP had in store. But everything else, there is no better fit in the world than you and me. I didn't want this to happen with anyone but you. But it happened. Are you going to accept that?"

Dean crosses his arms.

I grab his plate carriers by the straps and pull him down. "Yes? You're in? Good. I'll meet you on NOHA and we can proceed with plans as previously outlined. If not, good-bye, Dean. Get on your ship and go. I'm not holding it against you."

He doesn't move. I can barely even tell if he's listening.

He faces away despite being so close to my lips.

That's not the reaction I expected. I have one last weapon in my arsenal. Once used, I'm done. I'm empty.

"I love you." I can't control the hitch in my voice. "Doesn't that make us family?"

With my VIPERs around me and the hum of ships behind us, I pulse with the need for action.

"I'm still waiting. I'll never stop. If you don't want anything to do with me, tell me now." I want to hold him there to kiss him.

He doesn't say another word before jerking away.

Alone. The air around me is so cold. The space between us grows as he departs, returning to ARC9.

Stopping a few feet away, he glances at me over his shoulder. My hope perks again.

"How's my father?"

I scoff through the shattering volume of my breaking heart. "I threw him out our airlock three days in."

Dean gives me the half-lidded look of irritation from our past. He rolls his eyes and returns to his ship.

Both ARCs bustle in idle. ARC10's clanking simmers under the hum of the more sophisticated ship. Just like our last minutes on Earth, I watch him walk away.

Maybe this time forever.

I don't want this goodbye to be as bad as the last one. I stand my ground and vacillate between running to him and hijacking his lips. I wonder if I let him walk away now it will be easier years down the line when I see him in passing on NOHA and not remember what it felt like to put my hand in his.

He follows his VIPERs and Hayomo back toward the bridge for ARC9.

My lips part and my decision is quick. His name is at the precipice of my tongue when he stops.

He stops.

Half way on the bridge, no more than fifty feet from my arms, he stops and I watch his chest expand and deflate from the back.

He turns.

He runs toward me.

Dean lifts me with one arm behind my shoulders and his lips crash into mine. Fingers weave through my hair, disheveling my braid.

My VIPERs whoop and cheer behind us.

His breath, lips, and tongue are warm. I throw my arms around his neck and pull him closer, making him melt into me so we won't have to be two lonely entities in an empty universe anymore.

Dean backs away but never lets me go. His face is streaked with wet splotches, but none are coming from his own eyes. They're pressed there from the tears that came from mine. He wipes them off my cheeks with his thumb, pressing against my bone just the way he did when we were home.

"Hey, no black hole yet," I mumble into his palm.

The lift of his lips in a particle of a smile tells me he's attempting to move past the hardest part of our reunion.

"There's still time for anything to happen, but the good news is that you and me here means ARC10's navigation is fully operational. There's a cluster of idiots somewhere in the galaxy who are shit out of creds right now."

Dean bends down to silence my rambling with his lips one more time.

I open my eyes to make sure he's real and this isn't a dream.

In my peripherals, Flatts makes elongated kissing faces at Love who shoves her face away.

"You're right," Dean whispers. "You're right. We're family. We always will be no matter what."

My heart soars. The words seem more natural now that I've broken the seal. "I love you."

When we break apart, we notice our two teams watching us like we're a spectacle. Coodi's face is streaked with black bars across her cheek, swipe marks running off the sides. Her nose is red and her breath rattles as she sniffles.

"Orra Coodi, you sentimental sap," I say, wiping away my own evidence. "Don't let me catch you turning into mush anymore. We've got a lot of work to do. How long until liftoff?"

At our side, I notice Moyra's joy is gentle and full of I-told-you-so smugness.

"How about a drink?" Hayomo asks as she approaches, adamantly ignoring my closeness with an already-contracted man. There's something sparkling around her own eyes. Mirth? Mischief? I can't tell. "I'm told they have something similar to wine on this planet. I'll be damned if I leave before getting my hands on a flask of it. Let's move out. All of us."

The VIPERs cheer again and fall in line behind her. Dean and I are statuesque as the rest move around us.

"You coming, Reaper Boss?" Love wraps a friendly arm around Flatts' shoulders as they take the rear of the traveling party.

Dean drops in for one more kiss. I close my eyes and relish in the warmth. "We're right behind you guys," I say against his lips.

"Sure you are." Flatts' snide remark receives a single laugh from Love. Even though her voice drops, I can still hear her loud and clear. "Hey, she can't get double-pregnant, can she? Is that a thing?"