Epilogue

(2nd version)

Troy carefully treaded past the slippery step before turning around to offer a hand to the little boy behind him. But the boy shook his head defiantly.

"I can do it, Dad," he grumbled. And as if to show off his skill, he raced up the tricky steps and up to top of the hill in under two seconds. He turned back to gloat proudly at Troy. "See, I told you I could do it. See you down at the lake." He shot off out of Troy's view towards the familiar path downhill towards the lake.

"James, get back here!" Troy shouted after him as he hurried to climb the last few steps as fast as he could with the precious weight he was carrying at his hip. But the boy ignored his father and carried on downhill. Troy looked helplessly at the woman behind him.

"Sharpay?" he complained for intervention but she merely shook her head.

"Let him," she said calmly. "He knows his way."

"He could slip on those rocks!" Troy argued.

"Then we pick him up, bandage him and give him a good talking to," replied Sharpay.

Troy raised an eyebrow at her and was about to retort something when Sharpay beat him to it. "He's a big boy Troy, he can handle himself."

"He's five years old!"

"Correction, he's a five-year-old with my blood running in him. He'll be fine. He knows his way around here. He's been coming here since he was two."

Troy gave her an appalled look before turning his attention back to his son. Troy watched in horror as the little blonde tyke skipped the last few steps down the hill, past the large rocks and didn't hesitate to jump into the water.

"James!" Troy gave one last futile cry before his heart stopped completely. It only resumed beating when his son's head bobbled up the water's surface. He turned to Sharpay. "I swear your son will be the death of me someday!"

"Yes and it's always only 'my son' you'll blame," Sharpay sniped back at him before she began her descent down the hill to follow the little boy.

Troy just rolled his eyes at her and followed at her heels at a more careful pace. Whenever little James misbehaved, Troy had a habit of referring to him as "Sharpay's son." He seemed to be more Sharpay's son than his. Everything from the golden blonde locks on the little boy's head to the calculating, unruly personality he had inside was all Sharpay's. The only things Troy can claim that James got from him are the blue eyes.

Sharpay reached the edge of the lake but didn't dive immediately. She sat down at one of the rocks and watched James as he began doing one of Sharpay's weird vocal exercises in the water. She soon joined him and mother and son began a duet of "Mah! Mah! Mah!"

Troy just shook his head at them. His son most likely was going to end up a drama king and not an athlete like he wanted. He attempted to teach James to play basketball but so far the little boy was more interested in using it as a prop for his own invented dance routines than shoot it in the basket.

"You're my only hope," Troy whispered to the little pink buddle that was strapped to his chest. The two-year-old gurgled and turned her big blue eyes towards him. Troy kissed the top of her head, which was now growing an evident shade of dirty blonde. It was a source of comfort to Troy that this baby looked exactly like him. In fact Troy liked to think of her as a female version of him in diapers. "You're going to be just like Daddy, aren't you, princess?" he said as he continued his slow descent down the hill.

"Hurry up, Troy!" Sharpay called impatiently to him in between vocal exercises.

"Your mommy's so demanding," Troy complained to the baby. "But I've got you on my side."

To his surprise, however, the fruit of Sharpay's womb defiantly kicked his stomach before she uttered a singular: "Mah!"

"Traitor," Troy muttered to his daughter.

"TROY!" Sharpay hollered again.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" he shouted back as he picked up the pace down the mountain. "Next time, you bring the baby," he told her when he finally reached the edge of the lake.

"Well next time we'll make her climb herself. I bet she can get here faster than you," Sharpay sniped before turning away to talk to some fish that just arrived.

Troy was out of comebacks and decided to keep his mouth shut. Years of being with Sharpay taught him that she can argue for all eternity and never let him have the last word.

He gently put his daughter in the water. Once she was in it, she eagerly began floating and splashing as if it was second nature to her. Troy knew she would do that. Babies under-two usually have the natural ability to swim. It happened to James too when he was that age. Troy would just have to be sure to give his daughter swimming lessons later so she could retain the ability. Right now, he was content to let her float around.

He felt a movement near him and wasn't surprised to see Mano and Kau'i followed by several little fish.

"Hey Troy!" Kau'i called out.

"Hi Kau'i, Mano! We're back for the summer again. You seem to have a new brood here. Are you two mating now?"

"Yes. Kau'i here is a nice female. Very fruitful, as you can see," said Mano proudly before he started introducing his fingerlings one by one.

Troy could only nod. He still wasn't used to the way the fish could weigh each other's worth based on how many offspring they can produce.

"This is my daughter, Lucy," Troy said when the long introductions were over. He put his baby near his fish friends and the fingerlings swam away and hid behind their parents in fright.

"Can she understand us Troy?" Kau'i asked.

"No," replied Troy. "I don't think so. It's the same with James. I think Fufu only granted the fish talk ability to Sharpay and I. But we promise to teach our children to love fish so they can still look after your descendants in the future. James already loves the family." He nodded to his son who appeared to be quite at home being surrounded by the school of fish that tickled him. Most of the fish were already familiar with James from the past summers they brought him to the lake. They no longer consider him as a threat even if he couldn't talk to them. Kau'i began to lead her fingerlings to get acquainted with Lucy. The baby was a bit wary at first but with Troy's coaxing for a few minutes, she learned to let the fish touch her gently.

While Kau'i and her babies were having fun with Lucy, Mano sidled up to Troy.

"So how many offspring do you have now, Troy? When are you bringing the rest?"

"Oh Lucy and James are the only children I have," Troy replied and was rather amused by the sputter of astonishment from Mano.

"Only two? But it's been so long. Shouldn't you have a few hundred by now at least?"

"No," Troy shook his head. "We humans don't produce as much as fish do."

"But only two?" the fish continued in disbelief. "But you will have more, right?"

Troy shook his head again sadly. "I'm afraid not. Sharpay can't bear anymore. After Lucy, it's just too dangerous. She can lose her life if we tried to have more children."

Troy recalled how Lucy's birth nearly killed Sharpay. She had serious birth complications that Troy thought he was going to lose her. He never felt more devastated on those critical moments when the doctors raced to save her. She managed to pull through in the end but the doctors warned them that she couldn't have another baby. He didn't really mind. Two was enough for him. The important thing was he had his wife alive and well.

"Tsk, tsk," Mano clucked. "You poor, poor creatures. It must be the curse from your wish."

Troy just gave the fish an amused nod. Yes, it might have been the curse. But he could no longer tell. There were days when he felt he was cursed. Sharpay wasn't exactly the easiest person to live with. She was demanding, vain, sarcastic and egotistical. Sometimes he felt like a hen-pecked husband. But on most days she was considerate, loving and sweet. Their lives weren't perfect. Their relationship certainly wasn't. They had their rough times. They broke up twice while they were still dating and he had other girlfriends in between. And even after they were married they had their differences. He almost filed for divorce once when James was two. But through all their troubles, they somehow managed to come back to each other stronger and deeply in love. If he added up all the good things and bad things and compared them, the good always outweighed the bad. He knew he could never love any woman like he loved her. No one could make him happy like she did.

He turned to see Sharpay approach and she called out to Lucy. He watched fondly as his baby girl eagerly swam towards her mother's waiting arms before he remembered his other child.

"Where's James?" he asked Sharpay.

"Out there swimming," she replied nonchalantly as she picked Lucy out of the water then began cooing affectionately at her.

"You let our five-year-old go swimming alone in the lake?!" Troy exclaimed.

"Relax Troy," Sharpay said calmly in-between coos to the baby. "I asked the fish to look after him. He'll be fine."

"But he could get hurt," Troy argued.

Sharpay gave him a condescending look. "Have a little faith in your son. He knows the lake. He's been here since he was two. How old do you think I was swimming here alone? Besides what danger could he possibly get into?"

Troy had to concede to her wisdom this time. Anyway as long as the fish looked out for him, James was more or less safe.

"Fine," said Troy. "But if he's not back in fifteen minutes, I'm looking."

"Alright," Sharpay said irritably. But she leaned in and kissed him briefly on the lips. "You worry too much."

"That's because I love you."

"I love you too," she replied before bringing her lips to his again this time for a full kiss. He kissed her back while his hand grasped her waist and caressed her bare back. He would have continued further but Sharpay pulled away. He remembered that Lucy was still on her hip supported by her one arm and she was demanding to be put back into the water.

"We'll continue this later," Sharpay promised. It gave a tingle of excitement through him. She put Lucy back in the water and let her float to her heart's content.

"Troy! Troy! Sharpay!" a frantic voice shouted and Troy immediately recognized Nahoa.

"What is it?" Troy asked.

"It's James!"

Troy felt his heart plunge and he could see from Sharpay's face that she was equally frantic

"We tried to warn him, but you know he doesn't understand us," said Nahoa.

"Warned him about what?! Where is he?!" Sharpay shrieked. She picked Lucy from the water and clutched her to her chest. The baby wailed in protest but neither Sharpay nor Troy paid heed. They were both focused on Nahoa.

"We couldn't stop him Sharpay, I'm sorry!" the fish exclaimed.

Troy feared the worst and was about to dive down and search for his son in the dark waters when he saw James' head rise from the water in a distance. Sharpay handed Lucy to Troy and swam as fast as she could to towards their son. When she got to him, she enveloped him in a hug before bursting into hysterical tears while inspecting him for signs of injury.

Troy slowly made his way to his wife and son with Lucy clutched tightly to his arms.

"James, are you hurt? What happened?"

His son shook his head and Troy couldn't find anything wrong with him. He was busy pushing his mother away who was now raining kisses on his blonde head.

"I'm fine Mommy, I'm okay," he said when he finally freed himself from her caress.

The sound of James' voice was enough to calm Troy down.

"What happened James?" Troy repeated. "Where did you go?"

"I was just exploring the lake with the fish. I found something interesting that you've got to see…" He gave a long pause for dramatic effect.

"What?!" Both Troy and Sharpay demanded impatiently.

Their son lit up in an excited manner then declared: "I found a cave!"

Troy and Sharpay stared at each other and turned pale in unison.

End

A/N: Yipee! Another fic completed for me! I want to thank all of you who supported this story until the end. We can all look forward to seeing HSM 3 and new canon. So far the trailer and the little previews they've been showing are looking pretty good. I'm already starting to get inspired by some of those scenes particularly with Sharpay in that hot Chicago-inspired costume. If I get some time to write in between work and finishing my Narnian fic I'll probably do a few a one-shot or two otherwise I want to wait until the new movie comes out before I launch another multi-chaptered fic.

Again thanks to all your fabulous reviews and to all you readers who kept on reading this and kept pestering me to update when I went on hiatus with this story.