“What’s so funny?” Roderick asks, getting emotional himself.
“I went up there because some traveler told me about flowers he saw growing in the pass. The way he described them, I knew they were peony. I wanted to find one to bring back to you.”
Her crying then overwhelms her laughter, but she pushes through it to finish her words
“To give you something that is valuable and precious beyond words like you’ve been doing for me. To tell you that I’m tired of walking down that road and fighting the urge to turn and run back to you and never leave you again because I miss you so badly when I’m not with you. But now that I know that you planted those flowers as well, I’ll have to go find new ones.”
Alba smirks as she finishes, forcing a chuckle out of Roderick even though he, too, is tearing up. They embrace again, but after a moment, he pulls his head back and looks affectionately into her eyes. She smiles at him playfully, leaning up and kissing him suddenly, unexpectedly.
Years later, she does find something precious beyond words to give him, but it is not some rare treasure that she finds growing in a serene mountain pass. Rather, it is something that she grows inside of herself. A beautiful baby girl.