Risa

Risa never thought she could love someone.

That she could ever open up to anyone more than her name and maybe a few of her favorite things. After being stuck having to hide, and not just her existence, but her emotions and feelings. It's unhealthy, she knows, but she was a ward kid, she was better off divided than taking up space. Connor Lassiter was never in her path, not until he barged in and demanded to stay. Her heart was stone, reserved and not for anyone but herself to do damage to. Stoho had made her tough, wise and not prone to let others in, but boy did that Lassiter boy see right through that. Now, some twenty odd years later Risa lay in bed with the once famous AWOL unwind. She could feel his eyes on her as she kept her eyes closed. She let them flutter open to look at him. A grin spread over his face quickly and she shrugged.

"You could just take a picture." She teased. "It will last longer."

Connor just shook his head at her words. "No, I'd rather look at the real thing." He reached over and touched her arm. "Plus I can't touch a photo..."

Risa just sighed at Connors comment. He always said things like that. At first it made Risa feel odd, like the two could never enjoy light flirty banter but now things were different and they could afford to humor each other. She smiled and leaned forward to peck his lips.

"Ew!" A young voice chimed in.

Pulling away from each other, the two adults find their little daughter in their bed. The toddler crawled forward, once everything was clear of kisses.

She pouted. "Hey, what about breakfast?"

Connor reaches over and ruffles the little girls bedhead. "Oh, we didn't forget, we were just waiting for you to bring it to us in bed!"

The little girl giggled and pushed his hand away. "No!"

After his hand gets moved away, Conner quickly picks her up, holding her in his arms as she starts to squirm. Risa knows that he loves to hold her and tickle her. He used to do it to her all the time when they dated, had time to relax and not look over their shoulder. She smiles and watches Connor relentlessly tickle the girl in all the spots he knew were very ticklish.

"No?" Connor asked. "No you won't bring your lovely parents breakfast in bed? What good are you? You must face death by tickle monster!" He spoke in deep character voice.

The little girl began to squeal. "Never!" She giggled loudly. "Momma save me!"

Risa had pulled herself away from their playful words because of how much they scared her. Yes it had been years since the unwind accord was banished but before then she'd told herself the possibility of kids would never be. How could she bring a child into the twisted world of unwinding? A cry broke her thoughts and she sighed, getting up from the bed scolding Connor and Cecily.

"Look what you two did, you woke up Ren."

And as she left the room she heard there childish chuckles from being in trouble. Risa was quick to get to Ren's room. She came up to the boys crib seeing his red face as he cried out. It seemed his mothers face was all he wanted to see, as the boy began to coo. Risa bent and reached for the baby boy. She rested him in her arms and she bounced him lightly.

"Shhh," She kissed the top of the boys head. "Baby is just fine, mommy is right here."

The little boy was quiet, with a few cooing sounds as he reached up his arms to touch Risa's now long hair. She smiled down at her son, her head tilting slightly as she watched her son. Looking over the small child's features, the small resemblances to Connor and then the ones that resembled her. Though Connor always joked that Ren was his mini me, she knew that the boy looked more like her. Same with Cecily, where she took more of Connors looks. After a moment of bouncing the boy in her arms, she heard talking in the other room. Three voices? She left the nursery and wandered down the hall, the voices getting louder. Connors she could hear, the other were male and female. Entering the living room she sees the faces of the unknown voices.

"There's my little nephew!" The blond male laughed. "I've been wanting to see you, but me and Mira have been busy with our work."

Connor stands with his arms over his chest, he shook his head. "Oh, it's fine Lev, man we're glad you weren't here with all the other five billion people that attacked the house to meet the new guy."

Risa watches as the two boys continue their conversation about Lev and Miracolina's work. The two had gone on to become the presidents of the corporation, Life Print, that now distributes to the medical field, organ printers. They as well take care of the state kids, orphaned kids, kids that are down on their luck. They are kind of a big deal, probably bigger than they were when Connor was known for being an AWOL. Their work single handedly took care of getting rid of unwinding, an d made way for actually saving lives. Miracolina stepped closer to her and she held her arms out.

"Could I hold him Risa?"

Risa nodded with a smile. "Of course you can."

Handing the child over to the other girl, Risa can't help but smile as the other girl beams at being able to hold the child. She laughed lightly.

"So, when will we be coming over to hold your child?"

Miracolina just laughs, shaking her head. "Oh, no." She bounces the little boy and then makes faces so the boy gives a toothless grin. She keeps talking. "I don't think Lev wants kids. Trust me, I've tried to mention it, talked about Cecily used...you guys as an example...but, I don't know." She sighed. "Our work is really important to him, and so are the kids we work with, they kind of fill the need for a child for us."

"Okay, whatever you say." Risa laughed. "But you have one and I'm the first to hold it."

Mriacolina nods joining the their laughs together. However both girls attention gets pulled to both Connor and Lev, as well as Cecily who must have come running in at the sound of Lev. He's holding her in his arms and all three of them have smiles on their lips.

"We're going to go take Cecily to school, and then we'll be back." Connor informs the two.

Risa nods and pecks her husband and daughter's cheek before they head out the door with Cecily. Mircolina does the same with Lev and the two boys leave with a gleeful Cecily.

The rest of the day was spent with Lev and Miracolina. It was a pleasure to have them back over, catching up on the way both couples were living their lives. It was exciting to know that the two of them would be stepping down from such a high title to be able to be normal young adults and just live life. They were thinking of moving into the neighborhood. Connor went on and on about how much Cecily was enjoying school and how excited he was that Risa gave him the boy that he wanted. She let him talk, thoughts buzzing through her head. That was what she did though, and she enjoyed keeping to herself. Later the couples parted their ways and Risa and Connor went on to pick up their daughter from school. The entire drive the little girl sat in the back seat talking all about her day. All that herw friends had giggled about and all the things that her friends told her about and the daily fun of second grade. Only when they got home did she start to talk about what she had learned in class. Cecily sat at the kitchen table as Connor and Risa began to prepare their dinner.

"History class was really interesting today, we learned new stuff. Mr. Graham taught us about the old days, like when you were young." She tilted her head to the side as she brushed her dolls hair.

Risa and Connor gave each other a look but they allowed the girl to keep talking.

"Oh, really? Hm, things were very different back then. Very, very different."

Cecily nods. "Oh yeah, we read about that."

Risa lets go of the spoon she had been using to stir the soup they were going to have for dinner. She turned to look at her daughter sitting at the table. The little girl, so innocent seemed to take no notice in her mothers worry. Before Risa can interrupt, the girl keeps talking.

She shook her head. "We read about the government, how things were ran." She shrugged. "There was a big bad group...I think it was Protective Citi...citizenship..I think. Or maybe it was something else. Oh, and there was a thing that parents made kids do…"

Risa's eyes grow in horror as the child keeps going. She can't know about that, Risa never wanted her daughter to find out about all that they had to go through. That the girls existence was never even a possibility until things changed. She tuned back into what her daughter said.

"It was so weird, You and daddy were in the book!" The little girl thought about the word and then she tilted her head. "Why were you and daddy in the history book?" She began to ask. "And would you and daddy ever un….uh, unwind me?"