With winter over, the burden on the mill was beginning again, withh batches of flour needing to be ground so the village could keep eating bread and baking their pies and treats. This time of year, they could afford to work the mill only in the mornings, leaving the afternoons free for the miller's family. With Harry Green, the miller's grandfather-in-law, sat out on the porch and dozing in the spring sunshine, Millie made her way across to the mill from the house, little Ella settled in a sling against her back as she carried lunch over for Nate and Jonas, their apprentice.

Unafraid of hard work, Nate had taken to milling right away, eager and happy to learn a trade that didn't include hunting mutants, farming, or knowing how to read and write. It wasn't that Nate was stupid or didn't know how to do those things; it was just that he'd always longed for a simpler way of life, and he'd found just that here at the village mill.

It was always noisy inside the mill, but the door was left open when they were working, no matter the weather. Millie paused outside the door, peering in to catch the attention of the millers with a smile. "Lunch time!"

If it wasn't for all the hard work, Nate might have risked becoming fat the way Millie fed him, but he wasn't complaining. Like his brothers, he had found family life suited him and he enjoyed a good day's work. Hearing Millie, he slapped Jonas and on the shoulder. "Time for lunch, Joe," he informed the lad, though he had probably heard for himself.

Jonas grinned, wiping one floury hand over his forehead as he reached to divert the water away from the wheel again, letting the mill rest while the millers did. As the machinery groaned to a halt, the sound of Ella's cheerful yelling made itself known. "Da-dadada-dada-da!"

Nate laughed at the sound of his daughter's voice beckoning him. Whether she'd been found on their doorstep or not, little Ella was definitely theirs, and he'd fight anyone who said she wasn't. "I reckon I'm bein' summoned," he told the teen with a grin.

"You better get down there, then, sir," Jonas answered cheerfully. "I'll lock down and bag up. We got everything done for the morning, anyway."

"Don't be long or Millie will come looking for you!" Nate warned, genuinely fond of the young man. As far as Nate was concerned, there was nothing like good honest work, and though he might not realize it, he was most like his father in that way. With that said, he made his way out of the mill in search of his wife and daughter.

Millie was waiting outside the mill, Ella leaning over her shoulder from her comfortable sling. The little girl crowed delightedly as Nate came into view, making Millie laugh. "She's been gabbling about her Dada all morning," she told her husband fondly.

"'Course she was," Nate said, without apology, as he came closer. "She missed her Dada, didn't you Elliekins?" he asked the little girl, reaching over to tickle his fingers beneath her chin.

Bright-eyed, the infant girl giggled back at him. "Dada, dadada, dada-adada," she gabbled cheerfully over Millie's shoulder, apparently absolutely convinced that she made as much sense as everyone else.

Nate wiped his hands on his pants, convinced that was all he needed to do before he could take her in his arms. That done, he leaned over to brush his lips against Millie's before reaching for their little girl. "Well, come on to Dada then, so Mama can take a break."

Ella squealed happily as Nate lifted her out of the sling, legs kicking excitedly for a moment before she settled against him. Millie chuckled. "Maybe one of these days I should do the milling, and you cook and clean," she suggested teasingly.

"I 'spect you work harder than I do," Nate admitted with a grin, as he snuggled Ella in his arms. "She being a good girl today?" he asked, though he already knew the answer to that. Ella was always a good girl, unless she was hungry, sleepy, or not feeling well.

"She's always an angel," Millie assured him cheerfully. "A bit of an escape artist, though - she's discovered how to roll. At speed." She grinned at him. "She made it halfway to the door before I caught her."

Nate clucked his tongue, in mock scolding and playfully batted Ella's nose. "We're gonna have to make a barricade to keep you safe, ain't we, you little imp?" he said, in a teasing tone of voice, not expecting an answer. "She's sure a handful, ain't she?"

Ella blew a happy raspberry at him. "She's a merry little soul," Millie agreed with him as they mounted the porch together. "Grandpa, wake up. It's lunch time."

Harry opened one eye. "I wasn't sleepin'," the old man insisted, despite the snoring that had welcomed them back to the house.

"Just restin' your eyes, eh?" Nate said, predicting what the old man would say. He and Old Man Green were actually quite fond of each other, and Nate was grateful to the old man for teaching him his trade. There was a reason Ella was such a happy baby, and that was because of the love that surrounded her.

"All the better to see my great-granddaughter with," Harry agreed, rising painfully onto his feet. With Brona's help, he'd regained most of his ability to bear weight on his leg, but he would never walk without a stick again. "Looks like the Becketts really did move on," he added conversationally.

Millie glanced toward the little homestead that bordered the mill grounds. "I wonder who'll take it now?"

Nate frowned at that. He'd liked the Becketts and was worried someone might take over the homestead that wasn't quite as friendly. "Why'd they wanna move on?" he wondered aloud. "Thought they were happy there."

"They were a long way from family," Harry commented, following them into the house. "Folk like to be close, if they can be, mostly. Won't stay empty long, though."

"Dale and Eli ain't close," Nate pointed out, with a frown. He couldn't help wondering whether it was him. He and Eli had had their disagreements over the years, but his brother didn't dislike him so much that he had to live so far away, did he"

"They've been close all winter," Millie pointed out, laying out still warm bread from the baking to go with the cold stew leftover from last night's dinner. She never let anything go to waste. "Maybe they'll take the hint and find somewhere closer once they're back out on the edges."

"Maybe," Nate grudgingly admitted with a faint shrug. "I worry about them out there all alone," he added, moving over to pour himself a cup of coffee while juggling Ella in one arm. It was no secret that Nate worried about Eli and Dale when they were out there so close to the border; they both did.

"You're not the only one who worries," Millie assured her husband. "And now they have little Noah, too. But we can't force them to stay in the village - whatever they do, it has to be their choice." She pulled a small pot from the oven, mashing together a potato in a generous amount of flavorsome gravy from the stew for Ella.

"There's land closer to the village," Nate reasoned, thinking aloud, more to himself than to her. "They don't gotta go way out there to make a living. Hell, there's the Beckett land. They could live there," he pointed out, just realizing it, though it was more than likely someone else had already claimed it.

"Maybe you should talk to your brother about it, then," Harry suggested, dragging the little high chair over to the table as Jonas jogged into the house from the mill. Millie smiled at the boy as he hurried to wash his hands and face before joining them at the table.

"Seems not," Dale agreed, leaning back into him. "And you thought babies would be a sore subject for Cody and Brona these days." She flashed him a warm grin, watching as the little group finally made their way toward the house, loaded up with as much as the men would allow them to carry.

"I'm not afraid to admit when I'm wrong," Eli remarked with a grin. The old Eli might not have been so quick to admit that, but he had changed. He touched a kiss to his wife's cheek. "I'm happy for them ....and for us," he said, rarely opening admitting his feeling in such a way, but today was a special day.

There was a happy whoop from Nate, who picked Brona up and spun her around. She was like a little sister to him, after all, and had been practically since she'd wandered into their lives.

Brona's giggle was loud and heartfelt as she was spun about, Nate's delight at this news of another new addition to the family somehow more exhilarating than her own had been. Now all they needed was for Millie to get pregnant, but the mill already had Ella. There was no danger of anyone feeling left out.

Cody laughed at Nate's reaction to the news, trusting him completely with Brona, knowing she was like a little sister to him. "Looks like we have more than one reason to celebrate," he pointed out.

"I got a few bottles in the cellar I've been saving for a special occasion," Nate said setting Brona back on her feet. "You and Cody staying the night?" he asked, hopefully.

"With you or them, sure!" Brona enthused happily, flushed from the open enthusiasm with which their news had been greeted.

Millie giggled, hoisting Ella higher on her hip as the group made it up onto the porch once again. "Oh, I reckon we'll find somewhere for you to bed down."

"Today is the best day ever!" Nate said, with a huge grin. And why shouldn't he be happy' Eli and Dale were going to be close by, instead of out near the border, and Cody and Brona were having a baby. Not much could have made him happier. He threw an arm around Millie, kissing her cheek and then Ella's. "You hear that, Elliekins" Noah is moving in next door and you're gonna have a new cousin!"

Ella blinked, smiling along with Nate purely because he was smiling, and gabbled something in her entirely made up nonsense that made perfect sense to her. Dale chuckled at the little girl's enthusiastic response, leading the way into the fully furnished house that just wanted a few personal touches to be theirs.

Of course, Ella didn't understand what her father was saying, but that hardly mattered. Nate's joy and enthusiasm was contagious enough that even Eli was laughing.

"Come on, let's have a look around," he said, willing to give everyone a tour. Of course, they'd all been inside when the Becketts had lived there, but now that the house was unoccupied, Eli was anxious to move in and make it their own.

It was a familiar sort of layout - a large kitchen and larder separated from the sitting room by the stone hearth, rooms above for sleeping, and both a bathhouse and outhouse for necessaries. Dale couldn't help smiling as she looked around, delighted with the house as they found it.

"It's so much bigger than I remembered it being."

"Big enough for a family," Eli remarked with a smile, happy Dale seemed pleased with the house; the fact that it was so close to Nate and Millie was a bonus.

"We were wondering what happened to the Becketts," Nate mused aloud, reaching to take Ella from Millie's arms to give her a rest.

"One of their brothers owns the land next to our old homestead," Dale explained. "They want to join the lands and make a farm, but they're planning on fortifying it first." She smiled, glancing at Eli. "They were pretty happy when we approached them about swapping lands."

"It worked out well for everyone," Eli agreed.

"And you're not far from the village," Cody interjected, which was good in more ways than one. Not only would they be closer to family, but closer to the village, in case they were needed in some way, not to mention farther away from the threat of mutants.

"Sorry we kept it a secret, but we wanted to surprise you," Eli confessed, though that much seemed obvious.

"It was worth it, to see the looks on your faces," Dale added in satisfaction, yelping softly as Brona pinched her teasingly.

"I may never forgive you for letting me worry about you guys going back out there at this time of year with a new baby," the youngest of the bunch informed them archly, though she was smiling.

"We've been thinking about it for a while, but once Noah was born, we knew we couldn't go back out there," Eli explained. "When the Becketts suggested swapping farms, we jumped at the chance," he said, smiling at Dale and their son, obviously enraptured.

"It'll be so nice having you nearby," Millie interjected. "Close by, but not stuck inside the village with all the nosy parkers and their gossip."

Brona chuckled. "Anyone who voluntarily lives in the village must have the patience of a saint," she agreed.

"It's not that bad," Cody said of the village, but then he didn't live there - he only worked there, and as the village's schoolteacher, he was something of the village darling.

A few years before, Dale would have taken this as a challenge to lay out exactly why being in close proximity to the village was a bad thing in her book, but now she just smiled, shaking her head as she looked away. "So ....I guess I should boil a kettle and we can settle in properly, huh?" she suggested.

But Cody had had an entirely different experience in the village than Dale had, and he only spent a few hours a day there. Working there and living there were two entirely different things. "I can tell you all the gossip though," he added with a smirk. "Now that we're all here, is there anything you need us to do?" he asked, his question mostly directed at Dale, but at the others, too.

Dale bit her lip, not really wanting to give orders, but to her surprise - and possibly to her own - Millie was the one who spoke up.

"Well, the animals need settling in," she said pointedly. "And the beds probably need making, and the larder needs stocking."

"I'll let Jonas know we're done for the day," Nate said, handing Ella back to Millie temporarily, so he could talk to Jonas and finish up at the mill before returning here to help Eli and Dale settle in.

Dale gaped a little, unused to seeing Millie and Nate in their element. They were usually the quiet, biddable ones. It hadn't occurred to her before this moment that the two quiet ones also ran a mill and a house, looked after an apprentice and a grandfather, and were raising a daughter in their own quiet way.

Brona chuckled. "Well, I'm going to guess that no one is going to let me do anything that seems heavy, so I volunteer to stock the larder," she offered cheerfully.

It didn't really come as much of a surprise to Eli or Cody to see Nate and Millie take charge. After all, they did live right nearby, and the couple had seemed to instinctively know what needed to be done.

"Honestly, Cody, I'm kind of impressed that you don't know what a rutting grizzly sounds like," Dale countered with a mischievous look on her face. "You've lived further out in the wilds than I have."

"But you're the only one who's lived in the mountains," Millie pointed out quietly.

"I didn't say I didn't know. I said how do you know," Cody pointed out with a smirk, though he didn't bother to add whether he actually did know or not.

"We were hunting mutants, not grizzlies," Nate added helpfully, not quite understanding that this was all in good fun.

"You'd rather I said he sounded like a rutting mutant when he snores?" Dale asked, her grin wide and wicked for a moment.

Brona rolled her eyes. "Why is it necessary to compare him to a rutting anything?" she asked laughingly. "It's pretty clear he knows where everything goes, he made a baby."

"Because rutting is something I do so well," Eli informed them, practically bragging.

This time it was Nate's turn to snort, while Cody interjected,

"I wonder what Dale has to say about that."

"Do you really want to know?" was Dale's answer, coupled with a rather dirty laugh.

Millie turned pink again, glancing away as her grandfather guffawed with laughter.

Cody laughed. "Not really!"

"I think what really matters is that we're all here and we're all together and we're all family," Eli said, circling back to the original point of discussion and away from the subject of whether or not he was good at rutting.

"And our kids are all gonna grow up together," Millie added softly. She'd been an only child, and lonely with it. She hoped none of their children would feel that same loneliness in their childhoods.

Even if they didn't have many children, their children would always have each other, not to mention the other children in the village. "And speaking of kids," Eli said, looking over at the way the little ones were starting to droop. "I think it might be time to tuck someone in."

Harry followed his glance. "It's around time to close up the house for the night," he ventured, looking over at Nate and Millie. "I don't mind keeping an eye on the little one if you want to come back here once that's done."

Nate considered, looking from one to the other gathered around. "Been a long day. I reckon we should call it a night," he said, turning to look at Cody and Brona. "You gonna be okay here?" he asked them both, meaning with Dale and Eli.

"There's more room here than in yours at the moment, Nate," Brona reminded him gently. "Even with Jonas spending the night with his parents."

"Besides, if this place turns out to be haunted, we're going to need sacrifices," Dale added, her expression completely deadpan.

Nate's brows furrowed in somber concern. "The Becketts never mentioned no ghosts," he said, not quite getting that Dale was joking or that she was offering up Cody and Brona to appease them, if there were.

Eli chuckled. "Relax. It's a joke, Nate. No one is sacrificing anyone."

Millie hugged his shoulders gently, rising to help her grandfather up and onto his feet, trusting Nate to collect Ella from where she was dozing next to Noah.

Brona rose to hug Nate herself. "We'll see you in the morning," she promised, "before we head back to the farm."

Nate followed Millie to his feet, smiling when he found Brona hugging him. "Congratulations, little sister," he whispered, as he hugged her back, repeating what he'd said earlier. He truly was happy for her and for his brother.

"It's about time, huh?" she murmured through her smile. "You'll be joining us in this state soon, I'll bet."

"Maybe," Nate admitted, but he wasn't really worried. They had Ella and they both adored her. Their family was complete enough for now, and if they were lucky enough to have another - one of their own making - well, that was even better. Fond of her as he was, he kissed her cheek before pulling away to give Cody a hug, whether he wanted one or not. "We'll see you in the morning," he told his little brother before going to fetch Ella, gently enough that she didn't wake.

The baby girl grumbled a little as she was lifted up, cuddling into Nate's arms without actually waking up at all. Millie grinned, impressed, her arm already supporting her grandfather almost absently. As much as the old man didn't like to admit it, he needed help to move around even with the stick.

"Breakfast at our house, then?" Millie suggested. "We can yell for you."

"Not too early!" Eli called back, though they had all become early birds since their arrival in Pax, which was why they were making it an early evening.

"Eli needs his beauty sleep," Cody teased.

Nate chuckled quietly and might have said something if he wasn't afraid of waking the little angel in his arms.

"He's plenty beautiful already," Dale defended her husband with a grin, gently scooping Noah up onto her shoulder as she spoke.

Brona snorted with laughter. "You're biased."

"Yes, she is," Eli admitted without apology before moving to the door to walk Nate and Millie and her grandfather out. Did he care that Dale thought him perfect' Not a bit. He thought the same of her.

"It's a pleasure to have you for a neighbor, Eli," Harry told him, shifting his stick to the other hand to shake Eli's firmly.

Millie smiled her shy smile. "It is," she agreed with a nod.

"Thank you, sir," Eli said, giving the older man the respect he was due. "I'm sure we'll enjoy living here." And hopefully, they'd all get along and be able to help each other out. It seemed like a perfect arrangement, all around.

The night outside rang with the odd barking howl of the mutants in heat calling to one another - a horrible noise, but one that did not signify any danger to anyone inside their homes.

"I'm sure you will." Harry nodded to Eli, taking Millie's arm once again.

"We'll see you in the morning," she promised, glancing back for Nate and Ella as her grandfather headed over the porch.

"Night," Eli said, standing guard on the porch while Millie and Nate escorted her grandfather and Ella home. Though the sound of the mutants howling to each other in the distance set his teeth on edge, he made no mention of it. "Make sure you lock up!" he called, almost as an afterthought, though he was pretty sure they knew well enough to do that already.

"Speaking of which ....we should probably check the barn and the shutters," Dale mused at his back. "It's about time to turn in."

Brona glanced up. "We can do that," she volunteered herself and Cody. "You guys should settle in for the first night in your new home."

"Are you sure?" Eli said, turning to find Dale at his back, along with Cody and Brona. He didn't want to admit it, but it had been a long day.

Brona laughed. "Yeah, we're sure," she confirmed. "You just shut up the top and get yourselves and that little one to bed. We can handle the barn and down here."

Dale smiled gratefully. "Thank you."

"Don't be long," Eli told them both. "And take a gun," he reminded his brother, knowing they could never be too careful.

Dale took his hand, giving him a gentle tug toward the stairs. "Come to bed, darlin'," she told him, drawing him away from his little brother at last.

It was their first night in their new home, with their family close by. Yes, the mutants were noisy tonight, but they were noisy during every breeding season. The mill and the homestead were close enough to the village to be safe. This was home now. They were just going to have to get used to that feeling of safety. What a shame.