Things I Almost Remember: A Selection Story

Reunited

Johnny, Connor, Lucy, and Jansen hid out in a makeshift camp in a cave in the mountains in Northern Angeles for the days after their escape from King Marid's prison. For the most part, Johnny and Connor were kept in the dark by Lucy and Jansen, but they were glad just to be out of Marid's clutches and to be safe. The days past of gathering berries and nuts from the nearby wood and taking turns keeping watch. One day when it was Lucy and Johnny's turn, Johnny asked a question he had been longing to ask her.

"What happened to Kerttu?" he asked. "I know General Leger left you with her in an attack, and I know Kate woke up on the side of a road in the woods, but I don't know the missing piece."

Lucy breathed in heavily and sighed.

"Marid's soldiers were on to us, and Aspen had gone ahead. "Kerttu and I were running through the woods in the darkness. She tripped and hit her head hard on a rock. She was passed out, and I couldn't carry her and run. So I...so I left her. I didn't want to, but I knew it was likely she wouldn't be recognized if she was found alone. I wrote a note with just her first initial, just a K, I think that is why she started being called Kate."

"She told me the doctor told her her name was going to be Kate after she was taken to the hospital," Johnny said, nodding slowly.

"I never knew what happened to her," Lucy said, folding her arms across her chest. "I prayed every day she was safe and cared for."

"She really had to fend for herself," Johnny said. "She had to survive a youth home and then traveled around the country on her own working and hoping to find her family."

"I think I knew she could get through. I knew she had to be her grandmother's granddaughter," Lucy said. "Queen America was one of my dearest friends. I was her maid when she was in The Selection, and over the years, her children and grandchildren became family to Aspen and me. I swore to Kerttu's grandmother I would protect her, and I sometimes fear I failed her."

"You didn't," Johnny said. "She is so determined and strong. She is just closed off because she is afraid to let people in after everything she has gone through. Kate is so like the Kerttu I knew, but so completely different at the same time, but I love who she is now as much as I loved her as a child."

"I hope I get to meet..." Lucy suddenly broke off as she heard a branch crack.

"Do you hear that?" she asked.

"Be very still," Johnny said stepping in front of Lucy. She pushed him to the side. 

"Kate is not the only one who has learned how to take care of herself over the last ten years," Lucy said, giving Johnny a small smile.

More branches cracked, and Jansen and Connor came out.

"What is going..." Connor began before Jansen put his hand over his mouth.

"Be very quiet," Jansen said. "If it isn't them, I don't know if..."

There was a rustle, and then suddenly, Kota appeared in the clearing near the cave.

"Singer, good to see you," Jansen whispered. "Did you bring them?"

Kota nodded and gestured to someone in the distance to come over, and then out of the trees came Kate, Ahren, and General Leger.

"Jansen, he's alive?" Lucy breathed, putting her hands over her mouth. "Oh Aspen! I can't believe it." She ran over and threw her arms around her husband.

"Oh Lucy," Aspen said, tears dripping down his face as he held his wife in a tight embrace.

Ahren and Kate looked on at the Legers with smiles, and then, Kate's smile faded as she turned slowly to face Johnny. The two just stared at each other in silence. Connor didn't even make a joke. After what seemed like an eternity, Kate slowly walked to Johnny and reached her hand up to his bruised face. Tears began falling down her face.

"Oh Johnny," she said, gently stroking his cheek. "What have they done to you?"

"I deserve it for everything I did. I'm so sorry, Kate. I should have never lied to you or used you like that, and..." Johnny began as Kate put her finger to his lips.

"My uncle told me you didn't take the money, that you said your reward was me being back with my family," she whispered. "I know you, Johnny, and I know who you are inside. I know too how I feel about you, and I shouldn't have let my fear and cynicism close myself off to you. It was torture for me in France after you left. I know you. I know you helped me fix my doll when her arm came off even though Connor teased you about it. I know you let me fall on you when you were helping to lift me up into a tree and my foot slipped."

"You remember those things?" Johnny breathed taking her hands in his and leaning his forehead against hers, his lips nearly brushing hers.

"I know you knew who I really was even when I didn't want to believe it. Because of you, I know that I was and am Princess Kerttu America Lena Koskinen of Illéa, and I need to stop Marid and end the suffering of my people at his hand," she said, her navy eyes looking straight into his brown ones.

Johnny gave Kate the smallest of smiles and whispered, "I am at your service, Your Highness, for the honor of our country and for my love for you."

Then, he pressed his lips to hers, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

When they broke apart, Kate gave Johnny the kind of smile he had not seen from her since before the attack on that Christmas night long ago.

"I love you, Johnathan Abernathy," she whispered, resting her head into his chest.