This is a FanFiction of Expiration Date by MikaelaBender, she posted the challenge in the latest chapter of the book if you are interested. Make sure you check out her story! I've never really written a fanfic before, but here it goes... hope you enjoy it!

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Iris—

I watch my three children running around the yard screaming and giggling with glee. Sam, seven years old, tall and skinny with medium length brown hair. Arrietty,  five years old, who looks almost exactly like the dear friend she was named for. And lastly, Colton, named for the man who saved my life. The one who gave up any chance at happiness to save mine and those of my family. Three years old, stumbling around after his older siblings on his short little legs; he looks exactly like his father.

It has been three years since that day; Mother's Day. Late in the evening to be precise. The society sent in troops to attack our compound. Well, more like the Preeminence sent the troops. Jonas sent them. He sent them after me. Bitter as he was, he wanted to kill me and my unborn child along with his father and two siblings. He wanted to destroy my family.That is why my children only had four, two, and not even one years to live. He didn't want me to be happy after I left him; after I found out what kind of a monster he really was. He knew he could kill us. It was past all our expiration dates. We were too much of a threat. A generation of expired people living happily. The society couldn't stand how we managed to exceed the lifespans they had planned for us. Yet we did. We did it once, we did it three more times; saved the people we loved from their untimely deaths. Colton gave his life to ensure that.

 He had always acted like he hated me but deep down he had loved me. After he threw himself in front of the bullet that would have killed me and my unborn child, he told me so. He loved me and hoped that this single act of selflessness would be enough to attain for all the atrocities he had committed during his life. I didn't know it was his expiration date. I didn't know he would die until he rolled up his sleeve and showed me while lying in a pool of his own blood. He said he didn't want his life to be a waste. If he died, he wanted it to be in order to save me. He told me to run, and so me and my small little family ran. Ran until we couldn't run anymore and then kept on running. We came to this little paradise. An oasis in the middle of the desert. Self-sustaining and lovely. I break away from my memories as someone wipes away the tears from my face that I didn't know had even started to fall.

I look over into the eyes of my one true love sitting on the bench beside me. A deep blue sea with waves crashing against an unseen beach. He has been staring at me and now that I have noticed he gives me a sheepish grin.

"What are you looking at?" I ask laughing at him and his infatuation with me that has not faltered since the day we met.

"I was just wondering what you were thinking about. Why were you crying?"

"I was just thinking about Colton and all that happened three years ago."

"To tell you the truth, I've been thinking about that all day too. I still can't believe he loved you." he says with a laugh at the last part. "I mean, he always made it clear he hated you."

"Apparently no one really knew him for who he was. I guess Vienna was the only one who ever got close enough to start to see it."

"Yeah. But just so you know, I love you more than he ever did."

"I know." I say with a laugh, "I love you too Erik."

He closes the space between us and relishes in it a bit too long it sounds like from the chorus of "eeeewww" and "groooossss"  I hear coming form our children. We pull away and burst out laughing at the innocence of children. If only they knew what it took to make each of them...

"Dowg piwe!" Colton yells in his sweet little voice and they all start running toward us.

Erik and I get off the bench and lunge onto the ground and are quickly swarmed and smashed by three little bodies on top of us laughing gleefully.

"I love you guys so much!" I say to each of them and in turn give them all a kiss on the cheek. 

"We love you too mommy! Happy Mother's Day!" they all scream, some forming their words better than others.

"Alright guys," Erik says with a sly smile. "Who wants... ice cream?"

"I do, I do, I do!" they all yell simultaneously. 

"Well then let's go!" Erik says with equal conviction. Then, quieter to me, "I got the ice cream from our wedding...Happy Mother's day!" Before I could answer he took off running, I following soon after.

We all run back to our little house and I look over watching Erik. He is the happiest I have ever seen him. Ever since Molly, I don't think he ever thought he would be truly happy again. He certainly never dreamed that he would have a family. An entirely expired family at that. But here he is, with me and three children, happy. I love him with a burning passion and that is reciprocated ten times in full. I never thought I would be able to forgive him for all the hurt he had caused me in the past and for beating up Jonas in that one rebel attack, but here I am now. I now know why he did it. I now see what Jonas really was. Who he really was. I could have never lived like that. I loved Erik all along but I didn't want to admit it. I finally did, and it was the best decision I ever made. It made me happy. It makes us happy.

I break away my gaze when he looks over at me and we laugh running the last distance to the house and break out the mint oreo ice cream; the same ice cream we had at our wedding. We all sit in a circle, a small little family, taking spoonfuls right out of the tub enjoying all that we have, and at the same time remembering all that we have lost. I look around at the faces of the people I love and finally feel at peace. I realize, here in this moment, that everything that has happened up until this point, all the hardship and fear and loss, is nothing compared to the overwhelming happiness and joy that I experience now. I would do it all over again just to reach this point. I look at Erik and can tell he is experiencing the same phenomena as me. He smiles and I smile back. I lean in and kiss him on the lips not caring about the ice cream being smeared all over our faces. Our three children squeal and Erik and I laugh along not once dropping each other's loving gaze. 

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Make sure to read Expiration Date by MikaelaBender!