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A/N: First of all, before I even start this last... installment (?)... I just have to say that this is the longest chapter I’ve ever written for this story. Been working on this for weeks and weeks and weeks on end... I think. And, if I’m even more correct, this’ll be the longest chapter I’ve written. Ever. But I’m not sure.
For ReganMercy... here ya go! Now shut up and read! Love ya, Sis!
“EPILOGUE”
“Bouncy, bouncy baby,” she sang as she bounced Regan on her hip. “Giddy up! Giddy up!”
Regan, her blue eyes glowing, laughed.
Six months had passed, and it was Dylan’s birthday. Blaze had learned that from Rose when they got home the same day Dylan was shot. And then Tyler had to keep his wife from strangling the twenty-one year old. Well, now twenty-two.
Tyler sat on the back porch while Rose manned the grill, and he stared at his old badge. Blaze chuckled. “The Big Man told her to take it and stuff it in her bra, huh?”
Tyler smiled. “That’s what she said. But only she’ll know. Both Dylan and God.”
Blaze looked at Dylan, who was still bouncing brown-haired, blue-eyed Regan Lea Holten on her knee. He listened to them as they squealed with laughter.
It had taken about fifteen minutes for Dylan to snap out of it, and in that time, they had closed her eyes before her eyes even had time to dry up.
Rose dropped down beside her sister. “Rogue! Rogue, don’t die on us! Come on! The nightmare’s over with! There’s Skittles galore, Regan will be coming any day now... The Big Man can’t time you just now. Please, Rogue!” She started to cry uncontrollably, placing a hand on Dylan’s arm. “Please...”
Blaze sighed. He did everything he could to make sure she got out of here alive. But it seems like he failed. The second love of his life was murdered by the same person...
“I promised I would take the bullet for you...” Rose continued. “I’m sorry... I shouldn’t have pushed it away... I shouldn’t have pushed you away...”
She sensed it? Which meant that Dylan had received a family she deserved to be in. One that would watch her back. One that could tell when something was wrong and would do anything they could to fix it.
Dylan’s corpse smiled. Wait. What? “You better not be kidding about those Skittles gallery. If you were... go to CVS and get four bags full!”
Rose stopped crying and looked at her sister. “Rogue?”
She opened up one brown eye and her smile became wider. “That’s my name!”
“You... were only bluffing?”
“No. I was only kidding. Why would I be a buffalo?” Dylan gasped and her other eye opened. “Can we get buffalo wings from somewhere?”
“Don’t ever scare me like that again!” Rose reached towards her “younger” sister, looking as though she was going to murder the girl herself, but Tyler caught her in time. “How could you do something like that?”
She only shrugged the best she could, still grinning. “Happy Halloween!”
It had been a good one. That stunt almost had Blaze crying. But it had also made him persuade Tyler to pull into the CVS parking lot so that he could get those four bags of Skittles. Only to see her smile more.
“Hey, buddy,” Tyler said, getting his attention again. “Do you have that gift?”
Blaze’s hand went to his jacket pocket, felt the small bulge there and smiled. “Sure.”
His friend laughed. “Why wouldn’t you? I saw you staring at it in the kitchen right before the ladies walked in.”
“Yeah...” Blaze sighed, still smiling. “You have a beautiful daughter, Ty.”
“Ah, you’re just covering up the fact that you’re looking at my sister-in-law.”
He blushed. Caught.
Tyler laughed again. “How can you hide it? I know how you feel about her.”
Who didn’t? Blaze was pretty sure Rose had something to do with the matchmaking deal because every time he was around, she left them alone. Not that there was anything wrong with that...
There was absolutely nothing he hated about Dylan Alessi Halo. She was everything that he’s ever wanted... or needed. Someone to talk to about everything. Someone he could actually imagine spending the rest of his life with. Comforting her during the thunderstorms of both the world and life. Even when he was around Stormy, he’s never felt this way.
There was a clanging sound from up ahead. Rose was banging a wooden spoon against the cake pan Dylan had brought out. A suggestion made by the young woman’s inner child. “Food’s done! Get your butts down here!”
Regan was crying because of the loud noises and, as he got closer, Blaze saw that Dylan was trying to comfort her. In a matter of seconds, the three-month-old baby was calm again and started smiling at her aunt once more.
“Aww...” Dylan cooed. “She’s just so adorable. This cute little bundle of joy came from you, Rosie?”
Blaze saw Rose blush, then she turned to the grill with a scowl on her face. “Want one or two?” she muttered.
“No, seriously, Rosie. Are you sure Tyler didn’t have any happy pills of his own? Hard to believe that he didn’t use a full bottle of Viagra.”
Rose’s face turned a deeper red, and her grip tightened on the tongs. “That information can’t be shared.”
Dylan gasped. “So that means he did—”
Blaze quickly placed a finger of her lips to make her hush, making her start blushing as well. “If Rose says she can’t say, you have to keep it at that,” he said quietly.
The only answer he got was a gurgling sound from Regan.
Regan’s mother put a hand on his shoulder. “Thank you, Josh.”
“We don’t want you murdering her on her birthday. That’d be contradicting what we said six months ago.” He removed his finger from Dylan’s lips.
Rose nodded her head with a sigh. “I know. She just... has this way of frustrating me sometimes. But then again, I can’t imagine life without her. If the bullet was to really hit her heart instead of Tyler’s badge, I don’t know what I’d do.”
“Me neither,” he whispered. He watched as Dylan ran the sleeve of her gray jacket across one cheek, as though she was trying to wipe away the pink tinge that was still on her face. She was holding Regan in a gentle grip, her arm wrapped around the baby’s waist. An image that would be imprinted in his mind forever.
“Forever is a long time,” Rose had told him about two months ago. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
He could back out now, but he’s gone so far without giving up. Why stop before he’s almost there?
But what if she didn’t want his gift?
Remember what she said all those months ago? a still small voice whispered.
On the day they met...
Auburn hesitated. Finally, she muttered, “Everyone knows that if you decline something someone offers, it’s like brushing away a gift they give you...”
He had also explained that to Rose at least a week ago.
“She thinks gifts are un-returnable. When she says that, she usually follows it up with the example of the gift Jesus gave us. The gift of salvation.” She had given him something like a glare, putting her hands on her hips. “I sure hope you know what you’re getting yourself into.”
He hoped so, too...
“Unidentified Flying Wiener!” Dylan shouted, bringing him back to the present.
Right before he got whopped in the head with a steaming hotdog. He yelped as his right cheek burned. The hotdog had fallen onto the porch, right in front of the cat. Shawna sniffed the piece of meat (if one could call it meat), then batted it with her paw for a few seconds before scooping it up in her mouth and scampering off.
Dylan handed Regan to Rose, then jumped up and walked up to him. “Oh, poor Jaws. Got hit with a wiener and didn’t know what to think.” She shook her head with a smile, then leaned forward to blow on the burn. “Were you in DreamLand?” she murmured, making his heart beat faster.
“W-well... sorta,” he stammered. All he had to do was turn his head to the right...
Rose laughed. “Speechless, huh?”
All he did was blush before Rose laughed at him again.
Dylan looked at her one-third sister. “Hotdogs aren’t the only thing we’ve got, right?” She gave her a look of pure disgust. “I don’t understand how you can eat that stuff.”
Rose rolled her eyes and muttered, “You sing about them, yet you don’t eat them?” She sighed. “Sure. Hamburgers are here, too.”
“Good. Because I thought that we had to swing by McDonald’s.” Her eyes grew wide. “Happy Meals!”
Rose shook her head and scoffed. “I sure hope you know what you’re doing, Jaws...” Then she said in a louder voice, “Step right up, grab your food, shut up, and eat.”
Dylan smiled and shook her head. “Big Man told me not to. So I’m not.”
Blaze sighed in relief. He could say that she was joking about the whole Big Man thing, but what if she was right? Like she was when she took Tyler’s badge six months ago?
As he focused on the woman in front of him, he saw her frowning. A bad sign for a day like this. Blaze cleared his throat and said quietly the first thing on his mind. “You look pretty today.”
She looked up, and he saw a bit of pink on her cheeks. “Thank you,” she replied after a moment.
Go ahead, idiot, compliment her more. I think she likes it. “You look even more beautiful when you smile.
That at least got one side of her mouth tipped up a little bit. But her eyes glittered a lot, so she could be too miserable right now. All the lady needed was a few words to brighten up her day. But he wasn’t going to stop there today.
Dylan frowned again. “You know... compliments usually mean that people want something. Believe me, I do that to Rosie all the time. Always commenting about her pretty green eyes, saying that she’s getting a bit taller and more beautiful every day. I even commented on her wedding ring. So... shiny and prettyful. I even tell her that I’d give anything to have one of those.” Her eyes widened, and she picked up her food as though she was afraid of saying another word.
But that was all he wanted to hear.
“So... what do you want?” she asked quietly after she swallowed.
Instantly, he wanted to blurt out everything he wanted and/or needed. Marriage. A house. Children.
Dylan.
It’s best to start off small and work you way up. You never start anything big. That’s what Stormy used to say. And she was right.
“Um... have you ever been in love?”
Nice, Parker. Real nice.
She didn’t answer automatically, which made his heart sink. But then he was shocked when she said, “Sure. Depends on what kind of love you’re talking about.”
“Tell me about the kind of love you mean first.”
Dylan lowered her gaze again. “The kind where you hold a certain someone to your heart. And you’ll simply just fall apart once they leave you. Even the mere thought of it makes you sick to your stomach. You can’t figure out how you managed to live life without them.” She lifted her head again and grinned widely, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “You know. Sort of like what I feel about Regan. That little baby is just so adorable!”
There was something she wasn’t saying. Why else did she look miserable?
Blaze gave her a smile of his own. Best to say what was on his mind and heart now rather than never. “I thought I k new what love was months ago, when Stormy was still alive.”
Her eyes darkened a bit more, and she seemed to struggle with the smile, because it was twitching a bit.
“But,” he continued, “that all changed a day after her death. When I accidentally walked into a young woman with auburn hair and amazing brown eyes.” Actually, that adjective was the only one he could use... but it didn’t quite fit the description.
Instead of breaking out into smiles, though, she flinched. Not a good sign.
So he continued. “From the first moment I saw her, I fell in love with her. Just like I’m in love with you, Dylan Alessi Halo.”
The cat chose this time to jump into Dylan’s lap and began purring. “Hey, Shawna,” she whispered to the feline.
Okay, so maybe he lost to the cat. And he was half tempted to take Shawna’s method of doing things by jumping into Dylan’s lap... but that wouldn’t look right and then Rose would never forgive him. So he just had to do it his way or no way at all...
Only one thing left to do, but it wouldn’t be easy.
“Dylan... will you...? W-will you...?”
She looked up at him, a question in her eyes. “Yes?”
For a moment there, he thought she had answered his question before he had even asked it. But then he cleared his throat. Getting out of the chair, Blaze moved until he was in front of Dylan, then slowly dropped to one knee. He pulled out the black velvet box he had been carrying around for hours. “Um...” There was no other way to say it. “Will you marry me, Dylan?”
Shawna yowled and jumped off of Dylan’s lap, then pranced towards Rose, hissing as she went.
“I wasn’t asking you,” Blaze told the cat.
Dylan mumbled something, but he didn’t catch any of it. She then shook her head frantically. “I can’t!”
What?! “Why?” He didn’t add any anger to his voice, because it wasn’t needed. What he didn’t exclude was the disappointment, the shattered hope.
“Because... my past. You don’t understand!”
“If you explain it, maybe I will, honey.”
Her eyes filled with tears, but she squinted her eyes a little before they could fall. How do I know you won’t be like Daddy.”
“I won’t—”
“He just used me for his own purposes! Then he would just throw me away! Sure, he would say he loved me, but that was only at night...”
Blaze smiled warmly at her, ran a hand through his light brown hair. “You don’t have to worry about that anymore. Not all people are like that. And that’s not what love is. They say that love is kind, right? So... if it hurts you and it scares you, that’s not kind at all.”
“I’ve always heard people say that love bites. So that means it does hurt.”
“No, not all the time. If that person’s not the right one for you, then yeah, it does bit. But, once you fall in love with the right person, all your wildest dreams will come true.”
“Really?”
Blaze shrugged. “Eh, I don’t know. Mother used that line on me when I was in high school. But it could happen.” It could happen if you take the first step: accept my proposal.
Dylan gently took the box out of his hand and opened it. Her eyes widened when she looked at the ring. “Good God!” she exclaimed.
Rose ran over to them. “What is it?” she asked, then looked over Dylan’s shoulder. With feigned surprise, she said, “Wow. A ring. A pretty one, too. So, what’s your answer?”
Dylan looked at her sister with a childish look on her face. “If I say yes, please don’t give me Tyler’s stash of Viagra, okay?”
The twenty-one year old (Rose’s birthday had been somewhere in June) glared at the birthday girl, blushing furiously. “Oh, ha ha. Very funny. My sides are splitting. Quit with the Viagra comments!”
Nah. Tyler needed it the most.
The ring had a gold band, and it even had little emeralds that surrounded a diamond in the shape of a heart. Jaws claimed that she had stolen his heart from the moment they met, so he choice this ring above all the rest. Of course, Dylan had planned on giving his heart back to him since stealing wasn’t right, but once she opened her mouth, Rosie nudged her and whispered in her ear, “It’s a gift. One you deserve.”
Yeah, but stealing? That meant jail. And jail was mostly for meanines like The Dark One. Brain, right?
Jaws walked over to her from beside Tyler, smiling. Almost without warning, he leaned down and kissed her softly. And this time, she didn’t have to wonder about his feelings for her. “Think this was what the Big Man was talking about earlier?” he murmured.
Dylan grinned back and nodded her head slightly, reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck.
“What were you thinking about a while ago?”
“Oh, something.” Planting a small kiss on his cheek, she sighed. “And I thought we had enough excitement months ago.”
“That incident only made me keep in mind how special you are to me.” He frowned. “This is crazy.”
“Everything’s crazy, silly. Even Big Man was crazy when he created irony. I mean, how often do you hear of a lazy bum running an entire mile without stopping—and doing that again four other times in a week?” Thinking Jaws might get the wrong idea, she added, “Crazy as in the good kind, the kind that’ll make you laugh. Not as in Dylan-crazy.”
“Being the way you are istn’ bad. In fact, I’d hate it if you were different.” Jaws smiled again and turned her loose. “I’m gonna go call home and tell Mother and Greenleigh the good news.”
As he walked away, Dylan caught sight of Rosie. The young mother smirked and mouthed two words.
My turn.
Dylan now knew what she meant. Since Dylan was the one who tied Rosie and Tyler together,, Rosie probably thought it was payback.
And it was a good thing, too.
She had always thought that she was too crazy for love to be paying her any attention. But she was wrong.
And nothing could change that now.
Ever.
COMPLETED!
Started: 6/5/06
Ended: 11/4/06
A/N: Huh? What? That’s it? It’s over! No! Don’t tell me I’m finished with it!
No, seriously. This was my reaction when I wrote the word COMPLETED on here. It was heart shattering. And I seriously wanted to hit someone. I never had this problem when I finished The Dark One. What’s my deal?!
Hey, Regan! Guess what? First posted this story on D.G’s birthday! Isn’t that cool? I never figured that out until 9:09 p.m. Kinda... freaky...
Okay, let me just go on with what I wanted to put here in the first place. This story basically means that even though you go through the worst thing possible, it’ll soon turn out to be the greatest thing in the world. Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better. And sometimes with the bad comes the good and with the good comes the bad. And you just never know what the heck will happen in life.
Look, I know I killed off one too many people in this story. Like a little boy and Dylan’s father and the leader of the mob... Strange thing is this: I only figured out that women were not supposed to be in the mob until AFTER I typed up Chapter Eighteen and posted it. So it was kinda like, “Too late, but oh well!” But going back to the killings... only ReganMercy knows this since we go to school together, but I had had planned on killing Dylan off in the first story I wrote. But she snapped at me one too many times and got all “Do whatever I tell you, Sable, because I’m brilliant and blah blah blah...” Just kidding about that last part. But she really thinks she’s brilliant...
I forgot to add one more thing to this. You know Blaze’s mother and the whole Mr. Woo character? Well... they split up after Ellen caught Jon and Greenleigh... I just got caught up in the whole proposal thing to even worry about putting that in there!
Okay, long author’s note. And it was a really, really, REALLY long chapter. SIX PAGES LONG! Sorry, but that’s the longest I’ve ever written story-wise. Okay, okay. AND fanfiction-wise...
I guess my next project is a story called Amazing Love. I’m already on Chapter Two... so I’ll be writing more on that one and posting it as well somewhere down the line.
This bites. I have to close this somehow... I enjoyed writing this one, folks! (Glad I didn’t kill off Rogue?)
-Sable McPherson
