Chapter 36 – Prologue - Judgement Day
DeeVeeNaAGee: You can't be serious!
Littlepicklebell: lol! oh my gawd
BernieDee: Totally serious, you shoulda seen my mothers face though.
BernieDee: she looked like she swallowed about three dozen chilli peppers. hilarious.
DeeVeeNaAGee: So she knows that Lyd lost her virginity at 15 then?
BernieDee: yup yup.
Littlepicklebell: has she gone psycho-mom about it?
BernieDee: nah, how could she? It was like 5 years ago and there's nothing she can do about it. it was horrid though 'cause obviously she got all worried-mother and came up to my bedroom to ask if I 'had…any…questions…or…things to tell her?'
DeeVeeNaAGee: Oh my God, she was asking if you slept with Danny?
Littlepicklebell: nooo, how embarrassing!
BernieDee: I know, tell me about it. I was like 'mom, look, I know
BernieDee: you worry Danny and I are gonna screw and he's gonna
DeeVeeNaAGee: Er…
BernieDee: blow my mind so bad that I'm gonna become a complete nymph
BernieDee: but don't worry, he swears he won't ever touch me without protection' :-)
DeeVeeNaAGee: Danny!
Littlepicklebell: Danny!
Dee screeched in laughter from where Danny had picked her up and dropped her on the floor, stealing her seat at her computer and typing away to her best friends with a devious grin.
"Danny!" she echoed her friends, laughing while she scrambled to her feet and gracelessly dropped herself onto his lap, shoving his chest gently with her elbow and pretending to be angry while he laughed.
"What?" he asked with an innocent expression that didn't quite blot out the mischievous glint to his eyes, wrapping an arm around her waist and hugging her into him so her back pressed completely to his chest. "I didn't say anything they didn't already know," he protested with a grin.
"Augh! You're impossible, you know that?!" she huffed, keeping her own amused grin under wraps as she typed her apology.
BernieDee: sorry bout that. ignore him ladies, he's just bitter
DeeVeeNaAGee: Isn't he always? :p
Littlepicklebell: ha! lol
Dee snickered, "Hey, Big Fat Liar, take a look at this," she taped the screen where her friends were good-naturedly insulting him, causing him to fake anger and slam a hand down on the desk.
"Damn them! Don't they know who I am!" He over-creased his forehead to show just how false his fury was before his lips slowly lifted into a grin as he shifted below her, taking the expression of someone who'd just been struck by a particular thought as he gently tipped Dee off his lap only to pull her back into it so her legs wrapped round his waist and her nose brushed his with their proximity.
"I," he began to clarify, still grinning as he reached round her and tapped 'Brb ;)' on the keyboard without having to take a peek, "am your boyfriend, and, consequently, obviously, the most amazing guy in the world," he finished against her mouth, his confident smile playing against the seam of her lips.
"Is that so?" she murmured back, her own lips lifting up in the kind of smile he had come to recognise as the one she only wore when they were teasing one another like this.
"Mmm hmm," he confirmed, what he was claiming almost slipping his mind completely as he brushed the tip of his tongue against her bottom lip, making her back straighten in the tense, heated way he'd also come to recognise over the months they'd been together.
"Oh," she mumbled, eyes closing so that she was looking down at his hands on her hips through her bottom lashes only. "Well," she gave a small shrug, sucking in a breath as Danny's grinning lips dropped against her neck, pressing lightly to the heart of her throat and making her tilt her head back in submission. "I guess that's ok."
He laughed softly against her throat, kissing his way up it until he hit her jaw, nuzzling into her hair for a second before his lips travelled up her cheek and finished there with a delicate peck that made her stomach flutter.
"Glad you agree," he mumbled into her cheek, kissing it once more before pulling his face away and waiting for her to relax against him again before he continued with what he was thinking. When her head dropped down from its held back position she had taken to give him access to her throat he looped a stray lock of blonde hair behind her ears and smiled, slipping his hands from her hips round her completely so he hugged her waist in. "I'm only playing," he offered, looking at her gently, "about us sleeping together I mean," he clarified.
Dee looked over his face for a second before her lips gently curved up into a smile, parting them a second later to let a quiet chuckle escape through them, "I know." She pressed her index finger to her lips then to his nose to transfer the kiss. "I know you were."
"Well good," he gave her a brighter smile that cut through some of the sexual tension and tenderness that was still clinging to them strongly. "Because," he continued, one hand reaching down from her back to pat her butt, "I wouldn't want my little water-sprout to feel pressured, would I now?" His face lit up with the teasing expression she saw so often, causing her mouth to drop open and her eyebrows to shoot up in the exaggerated insulted look she usually took on in reply.
"I'm not a water-sprout!" she grumbled, protesting the nickname he had given her almost a month before when she had been so nervous meeting his mom at dinner that she'd spat out her mouthful of water when Ms. Miller had asked how her son was in bed, deliberately trying to shock her just to see whether the girl had the guts and nerve that were needed to keep her son in line.
Although the response hadn't been one that declared her to be a hard-to-shock, in-control chick, Ms. Miller had liked her immensely anyway, reasoning that if this girl could somehow reform her son into the much more sensible, caring, conscientious boy she saw in him these days—without sex, too, she guessed correctly—then she definitely didn't need to be made of steel to get the seal of approval. Besides, according to Ms. Miller, the look of happiness on Danny's face those days was enough to guarantee her approval of his girlfriend from the start.
"Sure you're not Water-Sprout," he continued, giving her the exact look one would give to a child they were humouring as he patted her butt again. "Now let's go grab me a soda before we go out," he suggested, taking her upper arm in his hands and pulling it up in the gentle guiding grip that recommended she climb off him so he could move.
Dee made a grumpy, gruffy noise of irritation as she clambered out of his lap but they both knew she was only playing along, secretly humoured by the nickname, though still a tad mortified at the same time.
"Where we going tonight anyway?" she asked curiously, leaning down onto the desk and typing her goodbye to her friends. They sent her off with the repetitive farewells that seemed compulsory over instant messenger. She grabbed her jacket, tugging it on as she watched Danny grin and shrug in a secretive manner, easing her hair out of the collar as she eyed him closer. "Where we going?" she pried again, more curious now.
"That's for me to know, and for you to stop asking about," he finally responded, ushering out of her bedroom in front of him, following her down the stairs as she complained about the secrecy. He laughed at her gentle whining and just draped his arms over the front of her shoulders as they headed into the kitchen, making them walk slowly so not to trip over one another. Her hands instinctively reached up and held his in front of her as they walked despite the playful names she was calling him as they went, but Danny only laughed, shaking his head when they reached the counter in the centre of the room and leaning against it, letting her go.
"I'm not telling you, you'll find out when we get there."
"But why can't you tell me? It's not our anniversary, why's it a secret?" she continued with increasing curiosity, pulling a soda out of the refrigerator and tugging on the ring, taking a sip as she always did before she handed it to Danny over the counter.
"Just because," he reasoned loosely, offering nothing else but a smile before he gulped down some of his drink and set it onto the kitchen island, reaching behind him to the dinner table and pulling his jacket off the chair he had left it on when they had arrived home from school together an hour previously.
"Just because is not an acceptable response," Dee grumbled, wandering round the kitchen island and pouting at him as she positioned herself between the countertop and her boyfriend. Her lips stayed pursed together in the centre to form a full upset pout for a moment longer, but Danny only grinned at her and adjusted his jacket's collar, shrugging at her silently before he leant past her and took up his soda, gulping at it more than he would have just to avoid talking to her, Dee knew. She narrowed her eyes at him, aware that he was being devious, but another beat passed and Dee realised playing him at his own game was a much better way of getting what she wanted.
Holding back a grin as she did so, Dee uncrossed the arms she had folded across her chest a moment earlier and set her palms behind her on the counter, letting her body lean forward just enough for the movement to be noticeable, narrowed eyes softening to gaze at his partially-blocked-by-the-soda-can face as she spoke, voice low and silky, calm. "If you tell me I'll fuck you."
"Arck, arck," Danny choked, soda can immediately pulled free from his lips while he coughed on his drink in surprise.
"Tha's playing dirty," he finally grumbled when he recovered, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand and making Dee chuckle. She beamed brightly and batted her lashes at him innocently, moving closer so her chest pressed against his, naive expression still evident as she did this.
"Whatever do you mean?"
Danny narrowed his eyes at her, glaring briefly, before his lips betrayed his previously unheard humour and turned up. He shook his head lightly, looking amused, before the can was sat down indefinitely and the playful blonde in front of him was pulled firmly against him with arms around her back, his lips dropping down onto her neck. "At least you learned from the best."
Chuckling quietly, Dee pressed her hands to his chest and dipped her head so her nose caught under his jaw, nudging it up to tilt his face up, delivering a smiling kiss to his top lip only when she succeeded. "Of course. Now let's go wherever it is we're going 'cause I'm getting too curious." She began to pick up and replace her feet on the floor impatiently to illustrate this, and unable to resist it, Danny caved, nodding while he laughed and, taking her hand, leading her out of the Slacks kitchen with no further complaints over her playful teases.
Ten minutes later Dee turned to face him with a frown and lifted an eyebrow, looking dubious, then turning back to look out the window again as if she could have possibly been wrong. "We're going to Bella's?"
"No," Danny disagreed lightly, turning the car's engine off and undoing his seatbelt. "She has the address of the place I'm taking you, and I haven't had a chance to stop by and get it yet. You stay here," he ordered as he opened his door, slipping out of it and ducking back down to look into the car at his girlfriend while he continued to address her, "I don't want you being all nosey and trying to look at the address while I talk to Bell."
Dee hopped out of the car at this without missing a beat. She smiled wildly at him once more, batting her lashes sweetly as she trotted after him down Bella's front path.
"I said you can't come in," he told her sternly when he reached the door, stopping in front of it with one hand on the handle.
"Pleeeeaaaase?" she begged, pouting her lips and clasping her hands together. "I promise I won't look, I just wanna say hello to Bella." Her lashes flittered again. Danny groaned.
"You really gotta stop pulling these faces at me," he relented, knocking on the door as he spoke, adding as if it were an afterthought, "or I just gotta stop being so damn weak." His expression suggested that he was annoyed with himself, but Dee knew otherwise and she chuckled at him, linking her arm through his and leaning into him, reaching up to plant a peck on his jaw by why of thanks for letting her come in after all.
A moment later the door opened, and Dee beamed warmly at Bella's younger brother Chris, saluting at him when he did so to her. Danny raised an eyebrow. "Long running joke," she offered by way of an explanation. "Long story." She chuckled and looked back to the younger boy, peeking behind him into the foyer.
"Is Bella in?"
"Yeah, she's in the lounge being lazy. She said to invite you guys through," Chris answered and he let the door open fully, jerking his head behind him and signalling for them both to follow him through to the living room. Danny shrugged and gestured in front of him, signalling for Dee to walk through first.
"Why thank you," she chirped with a smile, amused by the chivalry and wondering vaguely if it had anything to do with wherever they would be going once they got the address. She stepped inside, waiting as Danny closed the front door behind them, and then she began forward, moving into the lounge and shrieking when a huge shout of, "SURPRISE," greeted her.
"Oh my God," she gasped, throwing a hand over her now thumping heart as she leant back into Danny, staring around her at the smiling faces of all her friends and family, able to see immediately that every member of hers, Bella's, Vina's and Danny's direct family were scattered around the room as well as a lot of familiar faces from the play she had enjoyed directing so many months before.
"A little caught off guard?" Danny chuckled beside her ear, and the entire room laughed warmly at her continuing reaction.
"Yeah, just a bit…oh my God," she repeated, stunned. "What the, what are you all even surprising me for?" Dee asked, confused and amazed, only then noticing the banner across the back of the room that read 'CONGRATULATIONS' in giant capital multi-coloured letters.
"Your Hebbington acceptable letter came through today!" Lydia finally supplied, pushing past the three college friends of hers that Dee had had such a good time with the weekend she had visited them before Christmas and shoving an official looking unopened envelope into her sister's hands. Dee's jaw almost dropped.
"What? But you haven't even opened it, what if I've been rejected?" Her heart fell with an unpleasant feeling 'plop' into her stomach even as she said it.
"Then we party to forget," Vina offered with a shrug to her left, smiling brightly, and Dee stared about her in amazement. Even if that was the case, and everyone was willing to have a party regardless of her rejection, Dee knew the last thing she would feel like doing would be putting on a brave face and living it up, not after all the hard work she'd put in to be accepted, not after all the things that had happened because of it.
"Go on, open it," Danny prompted excitedly, and the supportive hand he slipped onto her hip was the only thing that gave her the strength to open the envelope in front of all those people, all the people who would be expecting her to be accepted, who had thought it was enough of a sure thing that they had planned a surprise congratulations party to celebrate. She felt sick with nerves.
Taking a deep breath, Dee slid the letter free of its wrapper and unfolded it slowly, eyes drinking in the official letter head before skipping down to the first few words.
"It is our pleasure to inform you," she read aloud in blissful disbelief, her voice giving a thankful wobble as she was cut off by the happy screams of all the people in the room around her. She laughed, almost crying in relief as Danny scooped her up and swung her round, setting her down in front of him in the perfect place for her family and her best friends to swarm round her and immediately eclipse her petite figure with hug after hug.
"We're so proud of you sweetheart," her dad beamed as he gave her a warm embrace, stepping back to let her mom do the same, the awkwardness that would have once been in the gesture barely detectable after several months of trying their hardest to finally relate and communicate with one another.
"We knew you could do it," Mariah Slacks praised with shining eyes, and Dee wiped away a happy tear with a chuckle, looking about with an expression not unlike still present incredulity.
"I still can't believe you all took the chance to throw this party anyway."
"There was no chance," Lydia laughed, hugging her sister for the second time. "Mom knows the head of the drama department there—"
Dee looked over at her mother without a seconds pause, mouth dropped open. Her mom only laughed quietly and smiled back at her, "Through the gallery," she explained.
"And Danny asked her if she could ask the Head of Department to send through an extra copy of the letter for them so we could see if we could throw the party, and she did."
Dee was almost too surprised to even realise that her friends were hugging her now, finding her eyes were travelling back and forth between the two people she would have guessed were least likely to plan something together, let alone something like this. Her mother and Danny, arranging all this for her?
Her life couldn't have felt more different from the life it had been at the beginning of the school year if she had done something as drastic as dropping out and moving states. Her mom tried to be around more now, tried to show it when she was feeling proud and caring and connected, and on top of that Danny was, well, part of her life, something that she would have never predicted all those months before. He was in her life and so comfortable in it, so beautiful and entirely giving, always there to make her laugh and smile, and often blush, it had to be admitted. And now she was going to Hebbington, the college of so many high school graduates' dreams.
Lucky didn't even begin to summarise the way she felt.
"We knew you'd rock it," Vina grinned into her ear when it was her to time to hug her, and a moment later she was passed along to a clapping, chirping Bella, who almost squeezed her breathless while she declared, "You diiiiddddd iiitttt!"
"I did it," Dee confirmed with an ecstatic laugh, squeezing her friend back, sniffing away the tears she felt silly for crying. "I did it."
Staring around her, drinking it in, Dee was almost too happy to even see everything, almost too amazed to be able to tell all the faces apart, to be able to see the difference between Carl and Mel gathered together close, whispering in the corner, and Lydia and Brendon, the guy who had been introduced as her sister's boyfriend soon after her arrival an hour before, smiling, dancing in the centre of the room.
Vina and Bella were laughing and joking with Misha, Laura and Andrea around the sofas, learning that they liked the girls Dee hadn't seen since her first and only visit. The younger Morton children, though admittedly not all that young, were arguing over which song they were going to put on the stereo next, and Danny's mom was chatting happily with Vina's parents near the food table. The Slacks and Morton parents were talking with each other and with a few not-so-integrated acquaintances from the play nearby, and everyone was smiling, everyone was having a good time.
Dee just couldn't find the one face she had been looking for.
"Lookin' for me?" a voice murmured against her cheek as arms wrapped themselves around her waist from behind, and Dee smiled, chuckling softly as she let one hand slide back round to the back of Danny's head, holding his lips into her jaw.
"Actually, yes. Where're you go?" she asked lightly, turning in his arms to smile up at him, shifting her own arms to snake round his neck.
"Bathroom. Miss me?" he chuckled, dipping his head to nudge her nose with hers.
"Mmm hmm, but of course," she laughed, bunting his nose back. She beamed widely, glowing, and glanced over her shoulder, deciding she probably wouldn't be missed if they disappeared for a moment. Turning back to the boy she was never more grateful to be with, she took his hand, nodding her head in the direction that fell over his shoulder. "Wanna escape for a moment?"
"You read my mind," he informed her, and he smiled, squeezing her hand gently before he rounded and pulled her behind him quietly into the hallway, following it out to the kitchen and stepping out of it to the side of the house, pulling the petite blonde into his side happily as he began with her down towards the backyard.
"So how incredibly proud of me are you?" she teased as her arm curled round his waist, fingertips alone tucking into the front pocket on the side of his pants that were furthest from her, comfortable against his side.
Danny chuckled softly and looked down at her face, noting even in the darkness the playful sparkle he could see in her eyes, that little sparkle making him acutely aware of the feeling in his chest he'd been unable to ignore for such a time now already. "Like you wouldn't believe."
His lips pressed against her forehead as they curled up sweetly, and Dee sighed happily, the little pulse of breath tickling his chin cutely.
"I'm glad," she nodded, leaning her head against his shoulder.
"Actually…" Danny began, and Dee pulled her head away from him curiously when he stopped them both walking, dropping his arm from around her in order to reach into his back pocket. She continued watching him with intense interest, and creased her forehead inquisitively, smiling, when a folded white envelope was presented to her. "I'm hoping you could feel that way about me too."
"What's this?" she queried, taking the envelope from him and wondering what it was he was talking about. Of course she was proud of him; he was right on track for graduating now, and he finally seemed settled and happy, no longer feeling the need to sleep around or jerk about just to have something to do. Dee couldn't imagine anything at all he could do that could make her any prouder than she was of him for just being who he was.
He nodded at the paper in her hands, and she chuckled uncertainly, opening the already unsealed packet at his gesture to do so. She unfolded the paper, forehead still creased in concentration while she tried to read, mind becoming confused when her eyes and her ears were both inundated with information at the same time, Danny telling her as she read: "I figured maybe you shouldn't be the only one trying to get somewhere with your life."
"But what…" she began, trailing off when the words he had only just uttered connected with a printed sentence identical to the one she had read on her own college acceptance letter an hour before. "Dear Mr. Miller, it is our pleasure to inform you…" The frown melted away, and Dee's head shot up, sparkling eyes now positively blazing with happy disbelief and comprehension. "Oh my God, you're going to college? You're going to college!"
Danny laughed loudly when he was almost thrown backwards, Dee's entirely body jumping up to wrap around his in joy. "I'm going to college," he confirmed, nodding and chuckling.
"Oh my God," she breathed, barely noting she had been set back on her own feet by now, eyes glancing back down over the acceptance letter she hadn't even known might have existed. "Well this is so great, you're gonna study!"
"I am." His head bopped up and down in the darkness. Dee's mouthed was dropped open in a wide smile at him, laughing every other second. "I didn't even know you had applied anywhere. How come you didn't tell me?"
"Because..." he trailed off, smiling in a way that showed how unconfident of himself he was as he reached up, slowly scratching the back of his head. "Because I wanted to make sure the reason I did it was still around when I found out if I got in."
Dee tilted her head gently at him, her ecstatic face easing slowly into a confused one as she gazed up at his soft expression, unsure of what that look meant alongside the words she didn't quite understand. "What d'you mean?" she murmured quietly, eyes drifting down to look at the hand Danny was wrapping around one of hers, pulling them both up gently so she could see his fingers stroking the soft spot in the middle of her palm tenderly.
"Dee I've never ever felt the way I do about you about anyone else, or even at all…and I'm not ready to give that up yet. I'd always thought that when I graduated I'd up and leave Lipsly for wherever the hell I felt like going, because I never planned on there being a reason for me to stay. And then you became my reason…and I realised if I'm willing to stay here for you, then I'm just as willing to go away with you too."
He looped loose wisps of hair behind her ear, brushing his knuckles delicately down her neck until they hit her collarbone, sliding his hand out, open, to slip around the back of her neck, bringing her face into his and keeping her eyes connected to his in a way that was making his heart beat double-time just thinking about what he was going to say next, just knowing he was going to let her know everything he had wanted to say.
"If you want me to, if you'll let me…I want to come away with you in the fall. The college I got into is, just, right near Hebbington…I want us to try this for real, be together in college and for as long as I can keep you, Dee…"
He took a deep breath, closing his eyes briefly as he tilted his head up, inhaling the scent of her hair, brushing his lips up over the crown of her head, his hands gently pulling her entire body into his, holding her as if he were scared of breaking her, and infinitely reassured to find her wrapping her arms around him too, holding him as well.
"I've fallen in love with you," he murmured into her hair, and after a moment he realised there was a quiet about them that could only exist from a lack of Dee's intention to respond. The long, agonising pause that was quickly following his words made him open his eyes, staring ahead of him in the darkness with the horrible feeling that he had just said something he should but couldn't ever take back.
The silence continued, the girl in his arms not moving at all, and Danny let his eyes drop together again, rapidly becoming sure she was about to tell him she hadn't been taking it quite that seriously, she hadn't been planning on taking him with her when she left.
"Danny," her barely audible voice whispered against his shoulder, and the sinking feeling in his stomach plunged lower. Oh god, he'd just ruined it, hadn't he?
"I don't think…" her breath tickled his neck while his chest tightened, and the wince keeping his eyes closed deepened, "I have a suitcase quite big enough for you."
She was laughing now, he realised, and he pulled back, relieved to see her smiling brilliantly up at him, her laughter sweet and happy. "I'll get one though, of course," she chuckled, throwing both arms round his neck and pulling his face down against hers, kissing his lips repeatedly between smiles as the relief and then the realisation of what she had just accepted flooded through him, making him shout out gladly as he grabbed her up by the waist and pulled her up into the air, her excited shrieks echoing around the garden about them.
"Are you sure?" he asked, aware even as he said it that he couldn't ever think of another time his own voice had sounded so content.
"Of course! Why on earth would I let the guy I love stay in Lipsly while I moved away? Of course you're coming with me!" She laughed radiantly, throwing arms once again round his neck and giggling into it, mouth brushing against his throat joyfully.
"What? Wait…" His hands clamped down over her upper arms carefully, and Danny pulled her away from him slowly, watching her face stay brilliantly excited as she met his eyes in the darkness. "What did you say?"
"I said of course you're coming with me!"
"No," he said, shaking his head, one note of an unsure laugh parting his lips. "No, before that."
"Oh," Dee laughed, and she brushed hair from her eyes, her thrilled expression softening into one of superlative affection. "I love you," she murmured beautifully, lips turned up in one corner in a half-formed smile.
Danny's chest rose and fell in the hardest sigh of relief he had ever felt, and he laughed gently, unable to believe that he would ever feel so affected by hearing the three words he had always been so convinced he would never hear at all.
"Well in that case," he chuckled, feeling high, and his hands framed her smiling face, not for the last time, his head dipping down to the perfect level to allow their lips to meet, mouths cupping one another's warmly, arms instinctively slipping round chests and shoulders intimately.
"You really sure you wanna move away with me? I mean, ya know, college is college, but you've got that great little thing going at the garage, and your place is really looking good now that you swept the dust under that rug we got you..." she teased, pulling away, only one hand staying clasped on the inside of his elbow while her other gestured vaguely.
"Oh I'm sure," he laughed, pinching her lightly under her ribs to get her back for the comment. "We can always take the rug with us though you know," he suggested, looking half-serious, looping his arms round her waist. "And maybe my overalls? I mean, you could wear them to your first drama class, you'd be bound to make people curious then," he continued, continuing to appear genuinely serious in his proposals. "In fact," he began to add on, but Dee shoved at his chest with a giggle, narrowing her eyes at him.
"Oh shut up!"
"I don't know if I can though, just think about it, you could have tyres as your coffee table—"
"Argh!" she grunted and she turned him roughly to the side, jumping up at him and only just managing to hook her legs around his waist, sat against his hip because of it.
Danny laughed loudly at her, reaching round to hold her up before he began to run around the yard, making her screech.
"Oh my God, Danny you're gonna drop me!" she shrieked, holding on for dear life and yelling at him through her laughter.
"I won't, so long as you admit you woulda been devastated if I had never thought to move with you!"
"Dannnnyyyy!" she screamed, almost in hysterics, as he ducked them both under the swing set the Morton children had adored as children. "Danny, I'm gonna kill you!"
And it was then, when they were running around like children, and making just as much noise as one would expect from two such young beings, Dee realised her real life, her adult life, was just about to start. That night was the beginning of everything that would ever follow for her, for them both. And, right then and there, Dee realised, not for the first time, that she couldn't wait.
A/N: Done. Finished. Fini! …The End, basically. And I'm hoping you enjoyed it, because delays, tribulations and complications aside, I really have enjoyed writing this story, and completely appreciate every single ounce of support I have been given for it. So many of you have said so many wonderful things about this little fic, and the fact that you've enjoyed something I loved writing as much as I did means a great deal. Sooo, thank you to everyone who has ever reviewed, and even to those who may have read along without letting me know at all, because at least you liked it enough to read. Big kisses, well wishes, and here's hoping I'll see you around with my newer fics. Mwa!
Aimz
Thanks for reviewing Chapter 35: XXX, Letylyf, Geekchic, KiraLyrin, Crazy Zebra Lover, Kace08, Zoeyz-wolf, Attitude, Le Bonne Mascarade, Nickety, Samli, Bibble, Yisa, Jess, Inconsequential Me, Adu937, Tina, ZaraStar, Crazi azn angel, QuOtAtA, passion101, Faded Soulfire, ShadowWolf09, Murky, Destiny Violet, Roni, TricklingDust, Fo0lishme, Ghenne04, cbprice25 and Phoebs.