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B.J Sandburg Epilogue.
"You are worried," Blair accused. "Admit it."
"I'm not worried, Chief," Jim said patiently, running the brush down greying curls. "Do you want this in a pony tail, or should I plait it?"
Blair closed his eyes in contentment as Jim threaded sensitive fingers through his hair and stroked his scalp. "Plait it, please."
Jim deftly began plaiting the waist length curls. "I don't see any reason to worry. We raised those girls to be capable of dealing with anything. Besides," he added, "I'm not entirely convinced it's gonna happen."
"It'll happen," Blair said, nodding wisely. "I'm sure of it."
Just then the phone rang and Jim jumped across the room.
"Not worried, eh?" Blair snickered.
Jim answered the phone and his eyes widened. "Ammie?" he squeaked.
"Told you so," Blair murmured as he trotted into the kitchen and picked up the extension.
"-fine, Dad," Ammie was saying. "How do I sound?"
"Amazing," Jim said.
"Hi, honey," Blair said. "You sound very sexy."
"Thanks, Daddy," Ammie chuckled. Her male voice really was sexy, slightly deeper with a lovely bass tone.
"How are you handling it?" Blair said, glancing at his watch. It was barely six AM. "Happy Birthday, by the way."
"Thanks again," Ammie said. "But I'm handling it just fine. In fact I feel great! It's Michael who's having the hard time."
"I can imagine," Jim inserted dryly.
"Can you guys come over? Give him the benefit of your experience? As you know, he never really believed it was gonna happen."
"We don't want to intrude on this, Ammie," Blair worried.
"Jordan's coming over too," Ammie informed him. She lowered her voice. "Michael's walking around in a daze, bumping into walls and apologising to furniture. Please, Dad, Mom, we want you here."
Blair melted. The twins only called him Mom in truly intimate moments. "We'll be right there," he promised firmly.
********
Blair and Jim pulled up outside Ammie's apartment block. Blair favoured his bad knee as he climbed out of the jeep, and as usual Jim rushed around the hood to help him. The sun was well and truly up now, painting the wet streets with golden light, shining through the branches of the May trees.
Blair accepted Jim's help and leaned gratefully on his strong shoulder for a minute. Getting old was a bitch, even if Jim did make it look easy at times. Still dragging Blair to the gym every week, he had recently begun teaching self defence classes to senior citizens down at the Y.
"Michael's got a lot to process," Jim said thoughtfully, looking up to Ammie's apartment.
Blair followed his gaze, even though he didn't have a hope of seeing whatever Jim was focusing on. "You see him?"
"Yeah," Jim confirmed. He raised a brow. "He's up there on the patio talking to a plant."
"Is it the ficus I gave him for his birthday?"
Jim frowned. "I think it's a cactus."
"Ppbbtt," Blair dismissed. "Fat lot of good that'll do him."
Jim tilted his head. "I hear Petra's car."
They turned to see Petra's old truck puffing up. Blair watched in delight as the passenger door was flung open and Jordan came bounding out.
"Dads!" She shrieked, leaping over. "Look at me!"
"Jordan!" Blair greeted, oofing as his daughter lifted him up in leanly muscled arms and hugged him tightly. "Mind an old man's ribs," he chuckled.
"Jordan," Jim said in wonder as his oldest turned her exuberance on him. "Look at you."
"Am I sexy or what?" Jordan said excitedly, posing like a male model. Tall and well built as always, she now had a square masculine jaw and broad shoulders. Her shoulder length brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail.
"Amazing," Blair whispered.
Petra, Jordan's other half, jumped out of the truck.
"Hi, Petra," Jim called. "How are you taking this?"
"In stunned shock," Petra confided. She greeted both her fathers-in-law with a hug. "I woke up this morning to this big guy looming over me, kissing my brains out."
"Ouch, and you're still alive to tell the tale?" Blair winced at Jordan.
"She knocked me on my butt," Jordan said ruefully, rubbing the offended spot.
"You're lucky I didn't shoot you," Petra said wryly. Plump and red headed, she had a fiery temper that even her partner wasn't immune to. She also had the biggest heart in the whole world and loved Jordan more than her own life. Blair studied the curious fascination in her eyes and breathed a little more easily. This pair would make it through the year.
And maybe by the end of it Petra would have that baby she'd been talking about for a while. Stranger things happened.
Blair glanced at Jim, catching his lover's eye and winking. As usual they were both thinking the same thing.
"Let's go see Ammie and Michael," Jim suggested, leading the way.
Ammie and Michael's apartment was chaotic. The TV was blaring away in the lounge room, and Michael was still on the patio, now haranguing a particularly attentive maidenhair fern.
"Dads!" Ammie cried, rushing out of the kitchen. Blair bore another masculine hug, then pulled back, studying his daughter with a smile. If Jordan was sexy, Ammie was drop dead gorgeous, long red gold hair streaming over her shoulders, perfect masculine heart shaped face, high cheekbones and dove blue eyes.
"You look great," Jordan breathed, and Ammie turned from her fathers to her sister, studying her twin in fascination.
"So do you," Ammie said wonder.
They stared at each other for another moment, then burst into giggles.
"Now I know it's them," Petra retorted. "I'd recognise those giggles anywhere." She turned to Jim, who was staring at his daughters in enchantment. "The sons you've always wanted, hey, Dad?" she teased.
"My sons would have shorter hair," Jim retorted.
The group laughed, and Petra took her father-in-law's arm. "Let's go out and talk to Michael, hmm?"
Ammie nodded gratefully. "Please," she sighed. "He's not taking it well, poor dear."
"How's B.J talking it?" Blair asked.
Ammie's tension melted into a grin. "Fine. He walked out in his pajama's, asked for Rice Bubbles for breakfast, said Happy Birthday, Mom and then went to watch Samurai X."
"You shouldn't let him watch that nihilistic rubbish," Blair lectured.
Jordan giggled, hand over her mouth, and Ammie shook her head. "Come say good morning to him," she invited.
B.J was sitting at the kitchen table, shoveling cereal into his mouth, orange juice carton and glass next to him, eyes fixed on the screen in front of him.
"Good morning, boy," Blair growled.
"Grandpa!" B.J exclaimed, jumping off the chair and running around the table. "It's Mom's birthday!" he confided excitedly.
Blair caught the small compact five-year-old and hugged him tightly. "I know, and didn't she get a lovely present?"
B.J nodded. "She's a man for a while," he confirmed. He looked over at his mom and his eyes widened. "Jordan! You're a man too!"
Jordan lifted him in a hug. "You betcha, sport. Like it?"
B.J rested on his Aunt's hip, studying her assessingly. "You need a hair cut," he decided.
"So it seems," Jordan chuckled, then glanced from Ammie to Blair. "Let's go get you washed up and dressed, sport," she suggested. "Then we'll make breakfast for everybody."
Ammie sat down at the table when they left the room, picking absently at the stray Rice Bubbles B.J had managed to spread around the table.
"Oh, Daddy," she sighed. "What if Michael can't accept this?"
Blair wrapped an arm around her shoulder and hugged her to him. "He will, honey," he said firmly. "I know he will." He squeezed her tight and then pulled a chair over, sitting next to her. "A very wise lady once said to me; 'Love knows no gender.' She was right."
Ammie looked up at him hopefully. "How did Dad take it, when you first changed?"
Blair smiled as he recalled that long ago morning. Ammie and Jordan had heard the story a hundred times, but never seemed to tire of it.
"He fell on his butt," Blair chuckled. "And he stayed there on the floor for quite some time."
"Like Michael walking into the walls," Ammie nodded.
"But eventually we talked it out, and he accepted it. And you and Michael have an advantage over us," Blair pointed out. "You're already in love. We fell in love during that year, and then had to fall in love all over again once it was over."
"Maybe Michael and I will have to fall in love again?" Ammie said wistfully.
"If you're lucky," Blair agreed. He smiled at her surprised face. "Your Dad and I rediscovered each other," he said nostalgically. "It was wonderful."
Ammie frowned thoughtfully. "Rediscovered each other," she repeated softly.
"And Jim and I will help out," Blair offered. "We'll look after B.J, while you two sort things out."
"Thanks," Ammie smiled. She leaned over and engulfed Blair in a hug. "I love you, Mommy," she whispered.
"Love you too, my Ammie," Blair whispered back.
Jim entered the kitchen. "How about some of that for this old man?" he said, putting on his best pathetic look. Ammie chuckled and gave him a hug.
"How's Michael?" Blair probed.
"Waiting for his wife on the patio," Jim nodded. He chucked his daughters firm chin. "Go talk to him, baby. He needs to know it's really you in there."
"Thanks, Dad," Ammie said gratefully, kissing him on the cheek.
Jim rubbed his cheek ruefully as he lowered himself onto her recently vacated chair.
"Hope she remembers not to do that in public."
"People will think you've replaced me with a toy-boy," Blair grinned.
"Huh," Jim dismissed. "I can't even keep up with the toy-boy I have."
Blair reached out and tapped Jim's hand smartly. "That better be me you're talking about."
Jim grabbed his hand and held it tenderly, tracing the wrinkles on his olive gold skin. "Who else?" he murmured. "Have I thanked you for this most interesting life you've shared with me, Chief?"
"Not lately," Blair murmured, squeezing Jim's fingers lovingly.
"Then thank you," Jim said sincerely, smiling at him with bright blue eyes that could never be faded by time. "Thank you for our children. Thank you for our love. And I even thank you for the Sandburg-Ellison curse, although whether our grandson will be thanking you in twenty-five years is another matter."
Blair chuckled. "Another B.J on the loose. The mind boggles." He bought his other hand up and covered their entwined fingers. "And thank you," he said softly. "For the last wonderful thirty years. For our children. And for loving me right back."
"That was the easy part," Jim dismissed. He pushed the juice glass towards Blair. "A toast," he joked. "Here's to the next thirty years, love, may they be as interesting as the last."
"Here, here." Blair clinked his glass against the juice carton, and took a sip of the juice.
Jim lifted the carton and gulped down a mouthful.
Blair frowned at him. "Don't drink from the carton," he chided. He pushed his glass over and Jim sighed and filled it back up.
"I don't get away with anything any more," he huffed.
Blair chuckled. "I got news for you, Jim." He shook his head. "You never did." Then he dropped a wink at Jim, who winked right back.
The End.
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