The Monroe Legacy - G.3. Chapter 11 - Second Chance at First Love

A year passed uneventfully. Gray's nieces and nephews grew, he met Rachel's mother and the two of them fell harder for one another. There was no news of Eva until shortly after the six year anniversary of her disappearance, when a sighting of a woman who looked a lot like Aisha lead to another dead end.

 Gray sat quietly, musing on the last 24 hours, the panic, the hope and the disappointment. His one constant through it all had been Rachel, she had been calm, supportive and let him be a little bit crazy. Now she was tidying up the coffee cups and the papers and he could smell something delicious cooking in the kitchen.

Gray flicked the radio from the news channel they'd been watching to classical music and as Rachel came back through to collect more mess he grabbed her and pulled her into a hug.

'Thank you' he said, feeling her smile into his chest at they began to sway to the music.

They danced for a while, the calming motion and the peaceful music soothing Gray's nerves. A new certainty in what he wanted from life hit Gray as they swayed and he made a decision as fast as their first kiss and as right as everything which had happened since.

'Rachel,' he hesitated, wanting the words to come out right, to properly represent everything he was feeling in this moment.

'Rachel, I want nothing more than to stay here, like this, with you forever. But we both know that perfect moments don't last forever.  The next best thing I can think of is knowing that I have you forever, knowing that wherever I go and whatever happens you are with me'

They had stopped moving, Rachel's eyes glittering with tears as she began to understand what he was asking her. Gray took her hand, drinking her in, unwashed hair, sweatpants and all. She was perfect.

'Rachel please marry me. I don't have a ring but I can't wait to know. I'm sure of this, but I have to know if you're in it with me.' He waited, breath held.

'Always Gray. I'm always in this with you and my answer is yes', Rachel .,choked out, as happy tears began to stain her cheeks.

He barely heard the end of her answer as he leaped to his feet and pulled her in to a bear hug, kissing her face and her hair and feeling the happiest he had since the day that Eva had been born.

That consuming happiness carried them through the three months it took to organise a backyard wedding, a simple service for friends and family. They didn't have any bridesmaids or too much fuss as it seemed wrong when their first choice for bridesmaid couldn't be there. Rachel also steeled herself and sat Gray down to talk about children.

Their circumstances had made this a topic of avoidance as long as they had known one another but Rachel knew she wanted to be a mother and she needed to know that Gray wasn't closed to the idea of having another child. It was a painful conversation, uncovering the dashed dreams of a father who never got to see his baby grow, who imagined how she might look and what she might be doing. But Gray was determined not to deny himself another chance, Eva would always have her place and he would never give up on finding her. Until then, when the time was right, he would love for her to have a sibling.

Gray and Rachel exchanged rings at sunset on a September evening, Saffron cheering them on and Violet in floods of tears. Jet arrived on his newest horse and Sienna flew in with her new boyfriend, an English photographer who took some beautiful pictures to commemorate the day.

Gray could feel his parents there with them. Though he was still missing Eva, they had made the place a family home once more, a place where happiness could be found.

After a joyful but uneventful first year of marriage with no news of Eva, it was Gray who reopened the baby debate. Gray and Rachel were now co-running The Lonely Cactus, they had the financial stability to support a child and it was a good time for Rachel to take time off with no risk to her career, Gray would cover her absence. Rachel's face lit up when Gray said he was ready, she had been trying to find a sensitive way to raise the issue, she had just had her thirtieth birthday and her body clock was starting to tick a little louder.

It took three months of reckless passion and a home pregnancy test to confirm that they were expecting. Rachel was ecstatic and Gray was thrilled though he secretly hoped it would be a boy, to ease the slight guilt he felt at starting again. Rachel wanted the gender to be a surprise and given how rough her first trimester was, Gray let her have her way.

Rachel had morning sickness, lunchtime sickness and even evening sickness any time she was around poultry. When this phase passed, their new little one proved to be incredibly active and have sharp elbows, regularly keeping its mother up with its energetic kicking. When the baby. wasn't keeping her up, Rachel worried herself out of sleep. She worried that her termination might have done something to her insides, that she wasn't eating right or taking the right supplements. She read every pregnancy book she could get her hands on and often woke Gray up to make sure she didn't have the latest rare condition she'd read about.

By her third trimester poor Rachel was enormous and exhausted, Gray did everything he could to make her comfortable, cooking for her weird cravings, watching endless Hell's Kitchen reruns at horror o'clock in the morning when she couldn't sleep and massaging her poor aching feet.

By the time the due date arrived, Gray's fear had been replaced by excitement. Their unknown bump had already wormed it's way into his heart, nestling up against the place he reserved for Eva. When Rachel's contractions started, Gray had a slight panic attack when he couldn't find the suitcase before rushing them all to the hospital.

Rachel delivered a healthy baby girl that night, just as the first stars appeared and they named her for their mothers.

Lillia Hallie Monroe was as beautiful as a flower, big clear eyes, blondish curls and a peachy complexion. Gray could see Eva in her, see his mom in her, but she was her own perfect self.

Gray stood back and watched as Rachel gave Lillia her first feed, marvelling that he had been blessed to have them both in his life. He prayed again that Eva would come home and complete the picture but mostly in that moment, he was thankful for his second chance.

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Read Chapter 12 - Heart of Darkness