This was their happily ever after. It wasn't a fairy tale. It wasn't a perfect, unblemished ending. It was partial. It was earned. It was the quiet peace after a long and terrible storm, the knowledge that they had built their sanctuary not in a place, but in each other. And now, within its fortified, loving walls, a new life was beginning. A life they had fought for, planned for, and brought into being with their own hands. A life that would never know the sound of a gunshot, only the sound of its parents' hearts, beating as one.
