You Will Be In My Heart

Yes, this is a little contrived and a lot sappy, but oh well. I've been slacking on my Bryn fics a lot for the past I don't know how long...have to do something about that soon...

Sinbad smiled as he opened the door to his cabin and peeked inside, careful not to make any noises that would awake the sleeping resident. Pushing the door further ajar, he slipped inside and stopped, giving his eyes a moment to adjust to the relative darkness. The room smelled different this day, a soft milky scent he remembered from a few years ago…

Bryn looked up and smiled as he closed the door silently, her face a mask of love and contentment. Sinbad felt a rush of that same love steal over him as he gazed at her, sitting up and leaning against the headboard of their big bed. He stepped over to her side, craning his head to see the tiny, blanket-swathed bundle she held in her arms.

"He’s beautiful," he said softly as one minute hand waved with a small jerky motion. He caught the hand and it wrapped itself around his finger. Bryn chuckled, a low, musical sound.

"Aye," she said, her soft smile lighting up her face with love as she gazed at her son. "Just like his father." She settled back against the soft pillows, her body tired and still somewhat sore, but the child in her arms more than making up for it. A strand of dark, silky hair fell across her face, and Sinbad reached up with infinite tenderness to brush it away.

"No," he said, his voice lowered to a soft murmur so as not to wake the child held securely in his mother’s arms. "He looks like his mother."

Sinbad sat on the edge of the bed and looked reverently at the tiny hand grasping his finger so strongly. The perfect fingers, right down to miniature fingernails. He bent his head gently and kissed the hand. Wonderingly, he breathed in the scent of his son, faintly milky and also a clean, baby scent unique to newborns. His son shifted in his sleep and burbled softly. Sinbad smiled a smile of absolute joy.

"I take that back," he whispered. "He looks just like himself. Like Jaden."

Bryn smiled again—she didn’t think she’d ever stop smiling now—and reached out with one hand to trace the contours of Sinbad’s face. "Like Jaden," she agreed.

Blue eyes locked with her dark brown ones, blue eyes intense with their emotion. "You have made me so happy, Bryn," he said, raw emotion in his voice as well. "Not just because you have given me a son. I mean the years we’ve been together, the time we’ve spent just you and me." He leaned forward and touched his lips to hers in a gentle, loving kiss. "You’ve made me complete, Bryn. Before, I didn’t know what I wanted. Now I know that what I was searching for my entire life was this—the peace I have here with you. You’ve given me so much, Bryn, and I haven’t the slightest idea how I could ever go about repaying you."

The baby moved again, wedging his thumb firmly into his mouth, and both parents smiled. Bryn moved slightly, offering the child to his father, and Sinbad took his son into his arms with infinite care. "My son," he whispered, proud and loving. He moved, settling in next to Bryn and leaning against the headboard.

"You don’t have to repay anything, Sinbad," she said, chuckling a little as she spoke. "You are my family, all of you on the Nomad. Not only did you give me a place to stay when I had no memory and no past, but you gave me a home. A home is more than four walls and a roof over your head, love. A home is family. A home is love." She brushed loving fingers over the soft wisps of dark hair crowning their baby’s head. "And when we found out about my father, you didn’t turn away. You kept your faith in me, and you kept right on loving me." She leaned her head against his shoulder, closing her eyes and basking in his warmth. "That’s more than most people would have done. That’s more than I would have asked of anyone, let alone my father’s worst enemy."

Sinbad settled his son in the crook of his arm and used the other hand to gently cup Bryn’s chin and turn her face up. "You are not your father, love. You are you, and nothing in the world can change that. You are my heart, and nothing can make my love for you go away. I may not like your father, but that has nothing to do with you." He gave her a soft smile and bent to kiss her lips again. "I love you."

"And I love you," she whispered back before settling down in the blankets and Sinbad’s arms and drifting off to sleep.

They were awakened in the middle of the night by a door slamming open and a soft, warm body pouncing on the soft nest they’d made. Sinbad gave a muffled exclamation as the thing latched on to him.

"Bryn? Light, please?" he asked groggily. Bryn opened her hand and a soft globe of golden light appeared, one of the many products of her final mastery of the wild magic that flowed through her. They blinked at the sudden onslaught of light, and Sinbad gave a relieved sigh. Staring back at him with wide, frightened eyes was their oldest child, dark hair disheveled, pixie face fearful.

"Kallie, come here," Bryn said in her maternal voice, holding out her arms with loving exasperation. The girl curled into her mother’s protective embrace, burying her face in Bryn’s small shoulder. "Hey, what happened?"

"H-had a dream," she shuddered, small hands clinging to her mother. She choked back a sob and squeezed her eyes shut tight, as if trying to erase the memory of the nightmare.

By this time Sinbad had lit a lantern, so Bryn was able to extinguish her magical light and wrap both arms around their trembling daughter. The noise, however, had wakened the newborn boy, and he whimpered from his cradle as his father walked by. Sinbad paused and picked him up carefully, to prevent him from crying, and carried him over to the bed as well.

"—spiders, big scary spiders," Kallie was saying, gesturing with her arms. "and then, and then…"

Then she burst into tears.

Bryn rubbed her back soothingly, kissing the top of her head. The four-year-old girl simply buried herself further into her mother’s arms and closed her eyes tightly, continuing to cry. Her tears set the baby off as well, and suddenly Sinbad found himself in the middle of two wailing children. He held his son, bouncing him gently, trying to calm his tears, but nothing worked.

"Bryn?" he asked helplessly, looking to her. Bryn smiled at his lost expression and kissed her daughter’s dark hair again. She continued to rub her back, and began to sing softly.

She took the girl’s small hand in hers, holding the fingers gently.

Sinbad watched, mystified, as the tears slackened from both children. Even his son, his Jaden, who couldn’t understand words yet, quieted at the sound of his mother’s soft, sweet voice singing. The spell she wove with her words and the melody was soothing, lulling, and Sinbad smiled.

The baby stilled completely and turned his soft blue eyes up to his mother. Sinbad watched the tears dry up and a dreamy smile steal across his son’s innocent face. He sneaked a glance at Bryn, and his breath was taken away by her beauty. Her hair shone in the dim lantern light, her eyes dark, fathomless orbs with melted stars dissolved in that brown. He swore she’d never looked as beautiful as she did in that moment, singing to their children and holding their firstborn daughter securely in her arms. A sudden rush of tenderness stole upon him, and he knew that this precious magic she was weaving had nothing to do with anything but pure love.

Kallie looked up finally, abandoning the safety of her mother’s shoulder, her eyes stained with tears. She gazed up at Bryn with unabashed love and adoration, settling back into her mother’s embrace and listening to the song as it wove about her.

"Do you want to stay here tonight, Kallie?" Bryn asked softly, her eyes understanding as she gazed upon her daughter. The tearstains on the small cheeks shone slightly in the dim light of the lantern as the small child nodded.

Sinbad leaned over and placed his now-sleeping son back in the sturdy cradle, making sure the infant was warm and comfortable. When he righted himself, he gave his daughter a hug and a kiss. "You okay now, Kallie?" he asked, ruffling her dark hair affectionately. She nodded and returned the hug, yawning.

"I love you," Sinbad whispered as she lay down between him and Bryn. He wasn’t sure who he was talking to; maybe the room at large. Everyone he cared most about in the world was on this ship, and most of them were in the room with him. He smiled and reached out over his sleepy daughter, giving Bryn a soft kiss. "Thank you," he whispered.

"Don’t mention it," she murmured back, settling down with their daughter in her arms. "All the problem needed was a little love." And she closed her eyes contentedly, prepared to sleep out the night with her family close by, happy, content, and safe.

(song by Phil Collins from the Tarzan soundtrack)