"There's an old lab not far from here," she explains. "It should still have the supplies we need. We can take him there and see if he reacts to the virus." She glances at Nathan, her eyes boring into his skull like twin holes of suspicion. "You have no problem with that, do you?"

"He shouldn't," another woman says from the back of the group. "Not if he really is who he says he is. We need to know for sure."

"Of course we aren't idiots," Delta snaps. "We're just making sure." She gives Nathan a long, hard look before nodding once, satisfied with his answer. "Alright then, let's go see if your story checks out."

I look up at him as he speaks, my heart swelling with love and gratitude. We may not have had an easy road, but somehow we managed to find each other again in the end. And now, here we are, sitting together under the stars like two old fools reminiscing about our past while enjoying every moment of our present.

"You know," I say, taking his hand in mine, "sometimes I wonder if this all could have turned out any other way."

I return his smile, feeling warmth spread through me at the words. "Yes," I say softly. "We did." And as we sit there together under the stars, watching our grandchildren play in the distance, I know that no matter what challenges may come our way in the future, we will face them together. Because we're not just partners anymore. We're family.