Disclaimer: I do not own the Underland Chronicles...sorry Mom...

XOXOXOXOOXOXOXOXOXOXOOX

[Edited]

Gregor read the letter three more times. She expected him to write her back. He didn't think Melissa would appreciate him sending secret letters to a girl. Even if she lived in a whole different kind of world. He sighed as he stood up and put the scroll on his bureau and walked out of his room. He was tired. All that happened today was starting to sink in. He walked into the living room and Lizzie was in there, doing a puzzle with Boots. Gregor smiled, Boots and Lizzie didn't seem to mind that they were leaving.

Lizzie had said that she didn't have any close friends anyway and that she was learning one way or the other, plus, she'd see Jedidiah again. Boots didn't have a problem. She wasn't as naive as she used to be, but she was only in second grade, and his parents probably rallied her in with the idea that there would be much more fun things to do in New York.

Gregor took a seat next to Lizzie. She was gazing down at the puzzle, thinking about something. Gregor knew it wasn't the puzzle, because this was only one-hundred pieces, and Lizzie could do this in placed his hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump slightly.

"Liz, you okay?" He asked. Boots looked up at them. Lizzie shrugged.

"I...I guess Dad's right about moving. I mean, I don't have a problem with it, I just...have been thinking a lot about what would happen if we did go back." She said, looking at the puzzle, putting in a piece. "Not to mention the Underland." She said, looking up at Gregor this time. "It's kind of weird that we actually can live without them, you know? After all those years when they consumed our life." She looked back down at the puzzle. "No one even came in contact." She said, breathing in and out slowly.

Gregor knew she had been talking about Ripred. He and Lizzie had an interesting time together on their last trip to the Underland. All the things that Ripred had told Lizzie and didn't tell Gregor...like how he used to be a father. It was hard to picture the rager rat a dad.

"Hey Boots-" Lizzie started.

"My name is Margaret." Boots answered, getting a piece in the puzzle. Gregor and Lizzie looked at each other. Gregor smirked.

"We've been calling you Boots since before you can remember, Maggie." He answered her.

"Well, it's about time you guys start talking to me like everyone else has at school." Boots/Maggie answered.

Lizzie didn't continue with what she was going to say.

"Actually..." Gregor started. Lizzie looked up at him. "Getting back to what you said before...about contact...I just got a letter from Luxa." He said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"You did NOT!" She almost squealed. "What about? How's Ripred?"

"She didn't say a lot about Ripred, but now we're in contact with them." Gregor smiled. "So get a piece of paper and write something to Ripred, I'll send it with my reply to Luxa." He said. Boots clicked. Gregor and Lizzie stared at her.

Boots didn't do that often. Only when something of the Underland was brought up. It wasn't brought up often, usually just between Lizzie and Gregor, but Boots was almost always with them. Gregor's head turned towards Boots. He looked around the house, only to spot what he was hoping wasn't there.

There was his mother, burning holes right through him. Meaning she had heard Boots speaking like a cockroach. Gregor gave her a half-hearted smile. His mother sighed, and walked over to him. Boots seen their mother like this only a few times, and knew this meant she wanted alone time with Gregor. Boots stood up, and walked into Lizzie's room. Gregor swallowed. He didn't like it when his mother was like this.

"Gregor...when we get back to New York...well...you know I can't control you anymore. Your a year from being an adult, but can you please take warning from me?" She asked. "Please don't go down to the Underland. Just, after everything...you can't.." She said. Gregor sighed. He knew this was coming.

"Mom, it's inevitable. It's like...destiny. There's something that pulls me down there. And I just got a letter from Luxa"

"Luxa? Now there's a name I haven't heard in eternity. At least not from you. What's going on?" She asked him. Gregor chuckled nervously.

"N-nothing big, Mom, just...she just sent me a letter." He said. His mother looked at him anxiously.

"She isn't asking you to come back down, is she?" His mother asked. He shook his head.

"She doesn't even know we're going back to New York." He said. His mom looked down at the floor. "She just wants a letter back."

"You might want to talk to your girlfriend before you go, get things cleared up." She said, and nodded at him. Gregor got a little angry at his mother. Of course she would bring up Melissa. If only to torment him more about Luxa. He didn't want to tell Melissa about what was going on. He sighed and nodded at his mother.

"Yeah, I'll go call her over." He answered.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Gregor had waited to tell Melissa about his moving until when she was with him, so he could tell her everything was going to be okay. It wasn't going to be for them, but she would move on. He was sitting on the couch in their living room. The television was off, and he was tapping on his knee, anxiously awaiting her.

Knock, Knock

Melissa...

He got up and opened the door. He smiled at her, and she smiled back, her dark blue eyes, almost violet, the sun was gliding across her pale skin, her bright blonde hair was up in a pony tail. It took him forever to get it, but then he realized it. She looked amazingly like Luxa would if she was blonde. Melissa's cheekbones weren't as sharp, and neither was her intelligence.

"Hey, babe, what is it? You sounded worried." She said, walking in, passed him. The familiar sent of her perfume went past him. He breathed deeply, taking in what would be the last time he would smell her when they were on good terms.

"You probably want to sit down for this." He answered, looking down at the floor. She then got worried. He sat down next to her. Gregor looked into her eyes, so naive at the moment. He wanted to remember this moment forever, of them. Of normal. His eyes looked over her face before he started.

"Is it about Maggie?" She asked. Melissa was the only one that Gregor could think of that transitioned into calling Boots Maggie without having a hard time.

"No...and yes." He said, thinking about it. "I'm going to tell you some really upsetting news." He said. He felt his heart fall with the lines of her face. "Dad...well, Dad's got a promotion offer. In order to fill the promotion," He paused. "We have…" He paused. Melissa's eyes dug into him. "We have to move back to New York." There, he said it. Now for the water works. He looked up. Her face stayed emotionless. "Missy...you okay?" He asked.

Melissa's face stayed without movement for a long time. Then, she gave him a kiss on the cheek, and walked out the door. Gregor felt sick to his stomach. This bothered him more than if she would've cried. He got up, and walked to his room.

She knew. She knew they wouldn't make it. She knew there was no way to stay close to him. He thought of her. Fondly, and remembered how they had met.

Gregor first met Missy when he entered into his eighth grade year at Northfeild, Virginia Middle School. She sat in the back of the class, her hands shaking almost violently. She looked up at him. His heart stopped.

He'd seen eyes like this before. More purple, but definitely in this shade. The dark blue beckoned him, like an old friend. He sat down, putting his backpack next to his desk.

"Hi, I'm Gregor. I'm new." He started. Melissa bit her lip.

"I'm Missy. I'm nervous." She answered.

"About?" He asked. The shaking stopped for a moment.

"It's not normal, you know?" She said, looking around. Gregor starred at her. Not normal? If anything, with Gregor's background, the first day of eighth grade was definitely normal. "They put us all in this room, and beg us to perform correctly so they can get money from our standardized testing. But guess what? They don't care if we fail our classes!" She started shaking a bit. "The whole education thing is out of wack. I hate things that aren't normal."

After that, they became friends. Melissa picked up on things when they were against her moral code, when they were a bit offhand. Something about her thirst for normal registered positively with Gregor. It became easy to thing of the Underland as something abnormal, and to hold onto this life with Missy.

Sophomore year he asked Missy to go to the dance with him. It took a lot of prodding, because she was such a nervous body. Said that friends going to the dance together was weird. Gregor smiled.

"Well then, wanna go as my date? You wanna be my girlfriend?"

Their relationship only went as far to incorporate kissing for a long time. Missy was nervous about anything more than that, and Gregor wanted to make sure that Missy didn't catch hand of this brilliant battle scars.

But, eventually, things went a little wacky. She asked to go the beach.

It took about a half hour of her pestering him to take off his shirt. His parents were totally against the idea of him swimming publicly. When he did take it off, Melissa started to tremble.

"What happened to you?" She asked, freaking out. "That doesn't look like a car crash!"

The car crash thing he told kids when he wore shorts, or t-shirts only worked for the gashes. Not for the big claw marks down his chest.

"He got attacked by a bear when he was little." His mother answered, trying to comfort Missy. His mother loved Missy, simply because of how normal she longed for things to be.

After that, Missy stayed away from public places where he would have to show off his scars.

About a year ago, she began tracing them with her fingers. The ones on his arms. When they went swimming in the back pool, the ones on his chest where the Bane had cut through him. It was something she did to comfort herself. Gregor didn't mind. It was a sense of comfort to him as well.

Gregor had a feeling her tracing his scars wasn't about to make things much easier.

XOX

Gregor looked at the plane through the window of the airport. He sighed again. He had spent the last few days packing. The moving vans had already started the drive from Virginia to New York to take the furniture and the car to their new house just outside New York City. His parents weren't big on driving for long periods of time.

He looked beside him at his girlfriend. She had been his life. The very thing that held him together as he watched memories of Luxa, Vikus, and the lot fade slowly. Now the emotions were present on her face. She looked at him and smiled weakly. She was falling apart. It was too much for her. She was so fragile, so weak. He took her hand. She looked down and away from him. The pain was so evident, Gregor almost lost his strength himself.

"Hey…Hey." He soothed, touching her chin, turning her face toward him, but she pulled away. Tears started to develop on her face "Missy? Com'mon, babe, don't cry."

"Just don't, Gregor." She answered. He loved her so much. He hated seeing her so upset. "You are leaving, alright? I don't want to hurt more than necessary. I love you. I just don't want to watch something that's mine walk away. You know, when your plane leaves, I'm probably never going to see you again, right? You know were over once your gone." He looked at her, watching her lips. He looked down at the floor. "There's a whole relationship. Everything we've worked for. I'm just so upset, I don't want to think about it." She hiccupped.

Lizzie and Boots looked over at her. Concern on both the girls' face.

"I know." He answered. "I'm sorry, really." He said. "If I had a place to stay, I'd stay with you. But there isn't. And my sisters need me. I'm so sorry, please…" He was started to tear up himself. "Stop crying.."

"I can't stay her, Gregor. I've got to go home." She said, she stood up. "I'll miss you, Gregor." She said, she stated walking away in a hurry. Gregor jumped up and ran to her. He turned her around and kissed her as passionately as he could muster. It was a strong move in their relationship. They barely kissed in general. Her lips glided against his, half protesting, half letting herself go in the moment. He put his arms around her waist, and pushed her closer to him.

Suddenly, a woman over the intercom called his flight. Melissa pulled away, and he held onto her for a moment. He pushed his forehead against hers.

"I love you..." He said, feeling himself start to crack, tears threatening to leave his eyes. It was as true as ever.

"I love you too. Goodbye, Gregor." She said, turning around, and walking away.

Gregor felt a tear run down his cheek. He wiped it off quickly, staring at her as she left. He was going to miss her terribly. He felt a hand on his shoulder. Startling him, he took around. His dad stood there and nodded.

"Com'mon, son." He said. Gregor looked at his dad, and nodded, walking towards the plane.

"There goes my life." He whispered, looking back to see the last flash of Melissa.

XOX

Gregor got off the plane, and walked into the airport he'd entered in an angry frenzy four years ago. JFK. He looked at Lizzie, who was trying to walk and read at the same time. A smile formed across his face. Lizzie was doing something so natural, so…Lizzie-esque, he almost forgot this was a big deal. She would always find herself a fantasy book to lose herself in.

Boots was skipping, holding both is parents hands, swinging slightly. Gregor couldn't help but smile now. This was the Boots he knew. She wasn't very energetic on the plane ride. Now she was being happy.

Miss Cormaci had her car parked out in the parking lot. She was sitting on a chair, waiting for them. Gregor smiled as he tapped her on the shoulder.

"Gregor? Is that you? Well, you've grown quite a bit, now, haven't you?" She said. Gregor was a good two feet taller than her now. He looked at her and nodded. "And Lizzie...look at you...and Boots! You've all grown so much!" She said. She took Boot's by the face, kissing her forehead. His parents started smiling now "The moving vans are at your new house, waiting for you to unpack."

Gregor smiled as he got in the car. They reached their house two hours later. It was a lot bigger than their past apartment here, or even the house back in Virginia. There was a sense of pride looking at it. He got out of the car and walked toward the door. He looked at his sisters and they walked up.

"Ready? There are four bedrooms. The master bedroom, the big one, Mags, is mom and dad's. But the rest of them are free. The room you get into first is the room you're stuck with. On your mark, get set, go!"

All three of them ran as fast as they could into their new future.

XOX

It took two days to get every thing unpacked. The absence of his grandmother was as evident in this house as in the last ones. She had died shortly after his trip home from the Underland. That had pushed his parents to move. To escape the burden of grief on the old house. To escape the past.

But her things were still here. Her snow globes, the smell of her perfume on an old throw blanket.

That day, Gregor was watching television. He hadn't gone much. The loss of Missy was starting to weigh on him. He was with her for two years. He couldn't get over it. The hurt, the love. It was so evident, he was pushing himself into depression.

"Gregor..." His father came up to him. "I think you need to take a walk, or something, you've been sitting there all day, and it's not healthy." He said. Gregor groaned slightly, then looked up at the ceiling.

"Fine." He said. He got up and walked out the door. Gregor started down the sidewalk, he didn't know this side of New York. He just continued walking, might as well get to know it. He turned alley ways, and crossed streets. As he walked he remembered he'd never wrote that letter to Luxa. Guilt flooded his heart.

He walked for miles. He caught a few taxi's, paying for whatever he needed to. He was on his way to Central Park.

He walked into the park, finally. Nostalgia hit him like a brick? He ran, looking for it. There is was. He stood there, and stared, and the memories overflowed.