The long night was over.

It was hard to believe it could ever end, just like with every other nightmare, but then one morning Quinn was awakened by the sound of Rhys' comm link beeping urgently.

The harbinger moved sleepily against her, his arms wrapped around her, taking the time to kiss her good morning before answering with a tone that said the news better be urgent:

"Speak, Kol, and make this worth my time."

Quinn could hear the familiar, harsh laughter of the other harbinger.

"It's over, Rhys," Kol-Eresh said then. "The long night is passed. The winds are dropping by the minute, the skies are clearing up. We live for another year and I finally get to go someplace where I don't have to stare at your face all day."

Rhys laughed in response, the news rousing them both from their sweet slumber. Quinn pushed the Fermanoli coat off them, imagining she could feel the cold dissipating around them. It was probably just her imagination because the temperature would catch up to the change of weather slowly, but it was the point that mattered.

"Excellent news, Kol," the harbinger said, his deep voice uncharacteristically joyful. "Check the readings outside before you order the main gate to be opened."

"Yes," Kol-Eresh replied tiredly, deadpanning. "I will certainly do the sensible thing only because you reminded me of it."

The other harbinger shut the comm link and Rhys turned to Quinn, an amused look on his face.

"He's a handful, isn't he?" Rhys asked. "I should make him a head shorter for his insolence."

"Is it an insolence if two harbingers speak like that to each other?" Quinn asked teasingly, knowing that Rhys considered Kol-Eresh as close to a brother as he could find.

"It is if he's speaking to me," Rhys said, climbing on top of her and kissing her deeply again.

"This is what I've been missing," Quinn purred, running her hands over her fated's firm, muscled chest. "You growling like that, treating the world like it's personally insulting you."

"You'd be amazed at how often that happens," Rhys said, kissing the delicate flesh on her neck, making Quinn shudder in delight.

"Only Nayanors," Quinn swore. "Only Nayanors would be so arrogant to think that the gods take personal interest in them. Or fate. Or anything else that the word "eternal" doesn't even begin to grasp."

Rhys laughed. Quinn loved hearing that. The sense of relief was almost palpable in the small room. She knew that as a Nayanor warlord, Rhys wasn't afraid of anything, but the burden he'd carried throughout the long night had still worn him down.

With the rations running out and no end to the storm, Quinn had seen the harsh lines of his face turning to stone as he contemplated extreme measures.

It had been too cruel to tell him the news Quinn had only just learned two days ago, but now she was completely free of fear.

When Rhys pushed a hand between her legs, she moaned softly before she remembered to push him away slowly but firmly. The harbinger gave her a questioning look.

"If you want to be teased, just say so," he groaned at the back of his throat. "We have all the time in the galaxy now and I intend to learn every inch of your body until I know it by touch like a map."

"That sounds amazing," Quinn agreed, "but I need to tell you something first."

Rhys drew back, looking at her with those amazing forest green eyes of his full of concern. She knew the fears that lurked in his heart, how badly he didn't to lose her now when they were so close to fortifying and making sure she never had to suffer again.

Quinn showed mercy. She'd been considering drawing it out, enjoying the moment of making the harbinger guess the wonderful surprise in their life, but she couldn't hold it to herself anymore.

"I went to see Cassie yesterday," she said. "I took her to the healers for a check-up."

"Yes, I know," Rhys said, cocking his head to the side and looking at her with worry. "Is there something wrong with her? Or you?"

"No, no," Quinn said. "We were just there to confirm Cassie's progress. The healers were very pleased with it, telling us that her body had completely accepted the transplant, making her the fourth or something of Terran women who has managed that."

"That is great news," Rhys said carefully. "Was that what you wanted to share with me?"

"No," Quinn admitted. "The healers said something else. As we were both there and I had been feeling a little under the weather, they ran a check on me. You know how they get. After how you dealt with the insurgents, they're all desperate to prove their loyalty."

Rhys humphed.

"It's how Luminos is ruled," the harbinger said roughly. "No Nayanor would follow weakness. I'm pleased that they fear for you. It's how it should be."

"Anyway," Quinn continued, running her hands gently across Rhys' wide chest, hearing the harbinger groan appreciatively. "They ran the scan on me to see if there was anything internal they needed to be looking out for. Turns out there is."

Rhys almost winced.

"You said there wasn't anything wrong with you, my love," he said, leaning down to grasp her chin. "My love..."

"There isn't," Quinn whispered, all the pent-up emotions spilling out from her all of a sudden.

For more than a week, she'd been feeling a bit sick. At first, Quinn had refused to let the healers look after her, saying they had bigger problems than her feeling "weird" with the rations slowly running out and people suffering.

Then the healers had told her and at that moment, Quinn had no idea how she'd kept it from Rhys for a whole two days.

"I wanted to tell you when everything was alright," she said quietly, her voice shaking a little. "I needed to have a moment of peace to tell you that I'm pregnant. We – we're going to have a son, Rhys."

The look on the harbinger's face could have warmed up the entire fortress on its own. Quinn took great pleasure in seeing her fated speechless for the first time, running his hands gently over her naked belly.

"Are you okay?" she dared to ask after a long moment had passed without Rhys saying a word.

"Okay?" the harbinger repeated, barking a deep laugh. "This is everything I've ever wanted. From the moment I saw you, it's all I've ever wished for us."

He touched her cheek gently, pulling Quinn in for a deep, lingering kiss that made her squirm and arch into his arms. For some reason, laughter bubbled up from inside her, without any particular reason or because something was funny. She simply couldn't contain all the happiness inside her for another moment without expressing it somehow.

"I take it that you're happy," she teased her fated, seeing perfectly well the effect it had on Rhys.

A month ago, she wouldn't have believed a Nayanor could smile like that.

"The happiest I've been since the moment I saw you," Rhys said, pressing a soft kiss on her lips. "Nothing else is as important to me as you and our son. I swear right now I will never let anything happen to either of you."

Quinn kissed him in response, loving the way the harbinger chuckled into the kiss, pulling her up onto his lap and cradling her there. Even the cold that still reigned in their quarters didn't bother her at that moment. It seemed like the happiness that burned inside her was banishing everything else around her.

Rhys seemed to have other things on his mind. He pulled back from the kiss and looked around in their small rooms with a frown on his face.

"This needs changing," he said with a distasteful tone. "Now that I know of your condition, I will have our real quarters set up immediately. I want you to have all the comforts this cruel world can offer while you're carrying our son."

Quinn smiled, shaking her head. She reached out her hand and turned Rhys' head back to look at her.

"Stop that," she said with a smirk on her lips. "I knew you'd be like that. All men who are going to be fathers are and I figured Nayanors would be even worse. Don't worry. You yourself told me what kind of troubles women have gone through to have babies on this world. If they managed, so will I."

Before Rhys could reply, Quinn continued, looking around.

"Besides, I kind of like it here," she said quietly. "Sure, when I get big as a hippo and need more room for myself and the baby, the real quarters will be welcome, but for now... This is the place where I've been the happiest I've ever been in my entire life. Even with the long night raging outside. Even with the poor rations and the cold.

"I loved every second of it, because I was with you. I loved the fact the bedroom was so small that I was never really out of your arms, that I would wake up in the middle of the night and feel your body next to mine. I loved seeing the shadows play on the walls when the fires burned and talking to you about my day.

"I'll move to the new quarters when they're done, but there's no hurry. This right here is alright with me."

When Quinn turned back to Rhys, her fated didn't say a single word. The look in his eyes said all she needed to know, filling her entire body with the light of knowing she'd never be alone in her entire life. That right there sat her fated, the man who would do everything to keep her and their baby safe from all harm.

The best thing was, she now knew he could.

Rhys gently lowered her back to the bed and they stayed there for a long time, not caring about what went on in the outside world now that it was clear it could survive for a while without them. The harbinger kissed her passionately and the small quarters heated up fast as they celebrated their love and everything that was still waiting for them in the future.

* * *

Roughly eight months later, Cassie leaned down to look at the newborn baby boy.

"He is gorgeous," she said. "Have you decided on what to call him?"

"Rhys named him Geor," Quinn said, cradling her son, unable to tear her eyes from her child.

It was very hard to get anything done or focus on her work with building the new safeguards of the Gechs when there was such a bright bundle of joy in her life.

"After the fortress?" Cassie asked with interest.

The glowing sapphire diadon was visible under her white shirt, shining through it like she was literally burning from the inside. Quinn didn't think she'd ever get used to seeing it. As odd of a sight as it was, it had made Cassie quite a commodity. As one of the few Terran women alive who had survived wearing the implant, she could do more than the others.

After fully healing, her sister had discovered that she had stamina and strength she definitely hadn't had before. Now she could go to places other women couldn't, working as a middleman between the warriors and the women the raid ships still kept bringing in.

"Yes," Quinn said. "It's named after his father."

Cassie nodded, smiling to the baby who cooed in Quinn's arms, reaching out for his aunt.

"He looks strong," Cassie said approvingly. "That must make Rhys glad."

Quinn laughed.

"It's his first son," she said. "It's a wonder we even have this moment of privacy. I thought it was bad when I was nearing my term, but now he doesn't leave me unguarded for a second."

Cassie nodded, glancing at her with a curious look in her eyes.

"Hey, Quinn," she said, hesitating. "Do you ever wonder what might have happened?"

"What do you mean?" Quinn asked, finally raising her eyes to her sister, a frown on her face. "You're not still thinking about the night outside, are you? I thought you didn't have those nightmares anymore. You're alive, we –"

"No, no," Cassie said, shaking her head. "Not that. I've dealt with that. I mean the day on the cruiser ship when I pushed you into the pod. Do you ever wonder what might have happened if it hadn't gone that way? If you'd stayed with me or if our roles would have been reversed?

"I'm so glad for you and Rhys. It just scares me sometimes that it all came about because what I did messed you up."

Quinn snorted, considering that, but the answer was right there in front of her.

"Don't worry," she said, returning her attention to her son. "All of this would still have come to be, I'm sure of that. He would have found me."

Cassie nodded, agreeing. It was nice to see her sister smile so effortlessly again. As they resumed admiring her son, Quinn let her mind drift back to Cassie's question once more.

It would have been nice to think that perhaps Cassie's misfortunes could have been avoided, but as for her... Quinn was certain.

The bond between her and Rhys was strong enough to triumph over any twists and turns life might have thrown their way. The love she was experiencing, living in now, wasn't a possibility or a chance.

It was as unavoidable and as certain as fate itself.

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