Forgiveness and Punishment

Epilogue 57

Karen says even as she takes a child and brings them to her breast. "Yeah, Melissa wonders why you would stick that name to any one."

"She fits the name. That and I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't of met Melissa all those years ago."

"You'd likely be dead by now." Travis tells her with a straight face. 

But at Karen's glare he starts cracking up which startles the child he has in his arms and he starts screaming bloody murder.

It takes several minutes for Trevor to calm down once more.

When he gets Trevor to calm down he looks back up at Karen. She sees tears in his eyes. "I can't thank you enough, Karen for giving me a chance after all the pain I put you through. You should have told me to go to hell and left the seethe after being trained in your psychic abilities."

"And miss tormenting you for the rest of my life?" Karen looks at him with a bland face but a glint in her eyes that he almost missed. 

"Brat. Seriously. Thank you for giving me a chance and for giving the seethe a chance. I love you more than I could possibly tell you."

Karen looks up from looking at her daughter. She smiles at him and says, "I know. I can feel your love for me. You've shown me a thousand different ways in which you love me. I never knew it was possible for someone to love me like you do. Thank you Travis, for loving me."

"Loving you is the easy part." Travis tells her.

Karen looks puzzled, "Then what's the hard part?"

"Not screwing things up like I had at the beginning."

At the mention of the beginning it's Karen's turn to have tears in her eyes. "How did you ever forgive me, Travis? I killed your son and nearly killed your maker." Although she doesn't have the bond with Melissa that Travis does, Melissa made sure that there is a bond of love between them.

They spend a great deal of time together. Melissa was the first person to congratulate them when Travis finally asked Karen to marry him and mark him. Which lead her to marking all of them to keep the jealousy from happening.

Melissa promised that she wouldn't take any more bonded. She doesn't want more lovers at this point. The others agree with her.

"Because, Karen, I didn't like who I became when I held the hate and resentment in. I had to let it go before I completely lost myself. I'm very glad that I did too, or I would have missed out on the greatest thing in my life."

"I thought I was the greatest thing in your life, Travis?" Melissa asks looking hurt, standing in the doorway.

"You are the second greatest thing, tied with my children." Travis assures her.

"Humph, well at least I am tied with the children and not after them." Melissa pretends to be hurt.

They all laugh at her actions.

"I just wanted to say, thank you and I am honored that you wanted to name one of your children after me. Don't be too shocked if she wishes to change her name when she gets older."

Karen smiles softly, "I won't be. Thank you for everything, Melissa. For giving me a second chance at life. From what I did, you shouldn't have.

"Just why did you give me a chance instead of torture me to death?"

Melissa looks at her sadly, "That had been my intention, then I read your mind about your past and growing up. It paralleled mine too closely for me to ignore. You had it even worse than I did and so I gave you a chance. I'm glad I did, since you ended up saving my life and my child's life."

"I owed you, Melissa."

Melissa shakes her head no. "No, there was no debt once you became my bonded."

Melissa takes the somnolent baby in her arms as Travis places his son into Karen's arms to feed.

"They are strong. They will be a great asset to the seethe." Melissa says looking at her namesake. "Will you be taking time off from your duties or will you be going back to work with Travis next week?"

"If it is alright with you, I will take time off from my duties. I wish to do the majority of the care for them. They grow so fast, that I'm afraid to blink and miss them."

Melissa looks sadly at the baby in her arms. "Yes, they do." There will be no more children for her. Timothy has flat out refused since Travis is married to Karen and with the brothers deciding to find their own lovers and possible wives.

Timothy talked Karen into finishing her assassin training once she finished her psychic training. Travis sends her out on missions to keep his enemies from declaring war. One did and they almost lost TJ and Tad did lose his arm.

At least Travis and Karen remain to her, even if they are their own family unit.

"Don't ever leave me." Melissa tells them seriously.

"We won't Melissa, we won't." Karen tells her and hands her her now sleeping son.

"Thank you, I'll take care of them you both get some sleep." Melissa tells them as she goes out of their room.

"Sounds good to me." Karen says and is already mostly asleep.

"Me too," Travis says and crawls next to his wife and pulls her close. "Me too, " he says once more before they are both sound asleep.