Three months later.
Jay stood in the kitchen watching steam curl up from two cups of chai as the kettle clicked off. He'd built the house himself, turning down Reed's tech solutions and Sue's force field suggestions with a polite shake of his head while the Ancient One raised an eyebrow and nodded in understanding. When his kids asked about the house someday, he wanted to point at the boards and nails and say he'd built this with his own hands.
He poured the chai and added honey to Domino's cup before carrying them outside to where she sat on the porch with her feet up. Out in the field, Luv rode on Bonk's back, the dino having grown truck-sized at the boy's request and making galloping sounds that sent Luv into shrieking laughter.
"Careful!" Domino called out. "You fall and scrape your knee, I'm not kissing it better."
"Yes you will!" Luv shouted back.
"Yeah," Domino said quietly, a smile tugging at her lips. "I will."
Jay handed her the chai and sat beside her so they could watch Luv play in a universe that existed because they'd fought for it. Domino sipped her chai thoughtfully before speaking.
"I've been thinking about the wedding."
Jay leaned forward, his mind already racing through the weeks of planning he'd done with sketches and guest lists and Bobby on speed dial while Wade and Peter fought over who got to officiate. "Yeah? Did you decide on the flowers? Because I was thinking—"
"We need to delay it."
Jay's cup wobbled in his hands as confusion washed over him. "What? Why?"
Domino took his hand and placed it on her stomach, covering it with her own warm palm. "I want to fit in my wedding dress in the pictures."
There was a beat of silence as Jay's mind caught up with what she was saying, his hand staying where it was while hers kept it pressed against her. The teacup slipped from his fingers and shattered on the porch, though he didn't notice because he was already pulling Domino close and burying his face in her shoulder. No words came, just the overwhelming need to hold her while she held him back and waited.
After a long moment, her grip shifted slightly. "Jay? You okay? Say something."
He pulled back to look at her, his eyes wet with tears he didn't bother hiding. "Is it real?"
Domino cupped his face gently between her hands. "Yeah, baby. It's real."
He kissed her with everything he had, and when they parted, he was smiling through tears. "Best gift you could have given me."
"Dad?"
Luv stood at the edge of the porch with one hand on Bonk's neck, looking between Jay's tears and the broken cup and his mother with growing concern. "What happened?"
Jay wiped his eyes and opened his arms wide. "I'm good, buddy. Really good, and I have news."
Luv tilted his head curiously as he approached.
"You're going to be a big brother."
Luv's eyes went wide as the word came out in a whisper. "Really?"
"Really," Domino confirmed with a warm smile.
Luv stared for two heartbeats before throwing his arms around Jay's neck with explosive enthusiasm. "I'm gonna be the BEST big brother! I'll teach them everything! How to fly! How to make galaxies!" He paused, reconsidering. "How to pet Bonk the right way!"
Bonk barked and wagged so hard his hindquarters wiggled while Jay laughed and pulled both Luv and Domino into a hug that felt like coming home.
The baby shower happened two months later with Sue handling decorations that made balloons float and change colors while the cake hovered without support and streamers rearranged themselves when people walked under them. Jean brought gifts from the X-Men including baby clothes that would grow with the child, a crib Rouge built and Hank modified to play lullabies, and a mobile with holographic stars showing real constellations.
The Ancient One brought a wooden rattle wrapped in cloth, explaining that it was enchanted to always return so a child shouldn't lose their favorite toy. Domino hugged her without thinking, and the Ancient One—who'd lived centuries and rarely showed affection—hugged back with surprising warmth.
Bobby wheeled in a cooler containing seventeen flavors of ice cream, though these weren't random selections but specific ones Domino had mentioned in passing over the last few months. Small comments about cravings she didn't expect anyone to remember, yet Bobby had kept a list and tracked down every single one, including a regional brand that didn't exist in this universe anymore.
Domino started crying, which made Bobby panic. "They're good flavors, I promise—"
Jay had to sit down because he was laughing too hard while Domino hugged Bobby and continued crying. Luv made a banner in crayon that read "WELCOM BABY" with the E backwards, and Jay hung it above the crib with such fierce protectiveness that when Reed offered to fix the spelling, Jay said no in a tone that ended the conversation immediately.
Jay built the nursery by hand without using his powers, just wood and nails and determination. Reed watched for ten minutes before offering to design a self-assembling bot, but Jay declined while hammering. "Thanks, but I need to do this myself. I want to build it with my hands."
Reed nodded with understanding. "I built Franklin's crib the same way and took three tries. Sue still teases me about the uneven leg."
Jay smiled at the shared experience. "Then I'm in good company."
The nursery came together with pale yellow walls and a bookshelf Luv kept filling with his favorite stories because he was convinced his baby sister needed to know about Captain Underpants. Jay carved a rocking chair with constellations etched in the armrests, and above the crib he hung a mobile he'd made himself rather than using Hank's holographic one. Something simpler felt right, so he painted wooden stars and moons in different colors that spun in a breeze existing only in this universe's still-developing physics.
One evening, Domino found Jay standing in the nursery doorway just staring at what he'd built.
"You okay?"
"Yeah." His voice came out quiet and thick with emotion. "Six months ago I thought I'd lost everything, and now..."
He didn't finish because his eyes said everything his words couldn't.
Delivery day arrived with the Ancient One preparing a birthing chamber where time moved differently and pain could be managed without being eliminated entirely. Jay paced in the hallway while Bobby tried to reassure him that Domino had the Ancient One, Sue Storm, and Jean Grey, which was the most qualified medical team in existence.
"I know, but I should be in there—"
The door opened and Sue stepped out smiling. "You can come in."
Jay moved fast enough that he might have bent space itself.
Inside, Domino sat propped against pillows looking exhausted and radiant simultaneously while cradling the tiniest person Jay had ever seen, wrapped in a sky-blue blanket. "Hey," Domino said softly. "Come meet your daughter."
Jay crossed the room and sat on the bed's edge as Domino transferred the precious bundle to his arms. She was impossibly small with tiny fingers curling against his chest and a delicate nose and eyelids closed peacefully, her dark and white hair already showing her mother's unique coloring.
Jay's breath caught in his throat.
"She's perfect," he whispered reverently.
"She is," Domino agreed with a tired smile.
"Maya," Jay said, testing the name on his tongue. "God's reality. Our reality."
The baby stirred at his voice and her tiny hand flexed as if reaching for him. Jay looked at Domino with tears streaming down his face. "Thank you."
Domino intertwined her fingers with his. "We made her together as our gift to each other."
"Still," Jay said, his voice breaking slightly. "Thank you."
Six months later, they got married in the same field where Jay had proposed under a sky that had learned blue through patient observation. Sue and Jean handled decorations so flowers shifted colors beneath an arch woven from branches blessed by the Phoenix Force. The Ancient One officiated, leaving both Wade and Peter looking dismayed at being passed over.
Jay stood at the altar in a black suit, and Bobby stood beside him as best man while grinning like an idiot. The music began more gently than the Queen of Never had ever composed specifically for this moment.
Luv appeared first, pushing Maya's stroller with both hands and showing intense concentration from days of practice. The stroller had ribbons and fresh flowers woven through its frame, and inside Maya slept wrapped in a blanket that held starlight itself. Luv scattered flower petals with each step so they drifted down in spirals while Bonk walked beside him with a velvet pillow on his back holding two rings that caught the sunlight.
The guests made delighted sounds, but then Domino appeared and everyone fell silent.
She wore a white dress that flowed as she moved with her dark hair in soft waves over her shoulders and the Death Stone ring glinting on her finger. She walked alone because as she'd explained during planning, "I'm choosing this. I'm walking to you because I want to, not because anyone is giving me away," and Jay had loved her more for it.
As she approached, their eyes met and the universe faded until there was only this moment suspended in time. She reached him and they stood facing each other with the entirety of creation as their witness.
"Hi," Domino said with a smile that outshone stars.
"Hi," Jay replied, his voice thick with emotion.
The Ancient One cleared her throat and began. "We are gathered to witness the union of two souls who have fought for each other, bled for each other, and built a family against impossible odds." She paused to let the weight of those words settle. "I have witnessed many lifetimes and countless beginnings and endings, but I have never seen someone create an entire universe simply to give their family a safe place to exist." A hint of smile crossed her ancient features. "It remains one of the most direct solutions I have encountered."
Quiet laughter rippled through the gathering.
"Many of you stood beside them in their darkest hours and witnessed their struggles and triumphs. Now you witness them make a sacred promise, a promise this universe will honor." She turned to Jay with ceremonial gravity. "Do you, Jay, take Neena Thurman as your wife? To stand beside her through all circumstances? To protect her, cherish her, and love her for as long as you both shall live?"
"I do." No hesitation, clear and certain as gravity itself.
The Ancient One turned to Domino with the same solemnity. "And do you, Neena Thurman, take Jay as your husband? To stand beside him through all circumstances? To protect him, cherish him, and love him for as long as you both shall live?"
Domino's smile was radiant enough to shame the sun. "I do."
"The rings."
Bonk stepped forward so Bobby could retrieve them from the velvet pillow with exaggerated care. Jay took Domino's ring, simple silver with delicate engravings and "My Reality" inscribed inside as the name of their daughter and the universe they inhabited and the life they chose, then slid it onto her finger. Domino took Jay's matching ring inscribed with "Always" and placed it on his finger with hands that trembled slightly.
The Ancient One raised one hand in blessing. "By the power granted to me by this universe and all who dwell within it, I pronounce you husband and wife." Her expression softened into something almost warm. "You may kiss."
Jay drew Domino into his arms and kissed her while the gathering erupted in cheers and applause. Johnny's fireworks spelled "FINALLY" across the sky as Peter's camera started smoking from overuse and Bobby cried without bothering to hide it.
When they parted, both were smiling like idiots.
"Took you long enough," Domino said breathlessly.
"Worth every moment," Jay replied before Luv ran to them and threw his arms around both. "You're married! Mom! Dad!!"
Domino gathered him with one arm while lifting Maya from the stroller with the other, the baby's eyes opening to take in her parents on their wedding day. Jay wrapped his arms around all three, wife, son and daughter, and held them as if he could anchor this moment in eternity.
"This is everything I wanted," he said with his voice breaking.
The celebration continued with music and laughter while the Ancient One conjured food that tasted like beloved memories, and Eternity and Infinity Siblings painted the sky with colors that had never existed before this universe learned to dream. But for Jay, surrounded by his family, the rest faded into background noise that couldn't compete with the sound of Maya's tiny yawn and Luv's excited chatter about the ceremony and cake and flowers and how wonderfully Bonk had carried the rings.
Domino laughed, the sound pure and unguarded, and Jay was finally, completely home in the universe he built and the family he fought for and the reality he'd created from nothing but love and stubborn determination.
Maya settled in her mother's arms, tiny and perfect and theirs, while Luv continued his enthusiastic monologue and the celebration swirled around them like a galaxy finding its center.
This was his reality, and this was home.