Yes, this is the fabled last chapter. Regardless of any of the mistakes, I couldn't be more proud about this story. I really turned out great for my first ever attempt. The entire time I was writing this, each time I finished a chapter, I kept thinking, Okay, one chapter down, but how many more pages can I write before my muse craps out on me and I'm left with another unfinished fic?

Yes, because I am that optimistic about my own abilities. :-\

Anyway, to celebrate, I'll be posting a Warren/Layla oneshot I've had on my computer for a while now, so... look for it! :)

4

It was Sunday. Thankfully, Lila Tenny was in prison, locked up with Seismic and Shock and all of her little henchmen losers, along with her mother and her henchmen.

Turns out, crazy Lila Tenny was born barely a year before her mother's own weapon, the Pacifier broke thanks to the Commander and backfired on Sue, turning her into a baby. Lila was promptly shipped off to foster care, where she went through one foster home after another. She had issues from the beginning, but somehow managed to keep her powers hidden from all of the people she knew. But she didn't actually have the clear psychotic break they had all witnessed at Homecoming until a year ago, when she saw her mother being locked up in jail and went off the deep end.

Lila apparently did some research, connected the dots, and decided to finally start following in Mommy's unhinged footsteps.

Everything was back to normal.

Well, sort of.

Layla looked up from the crappy paperback novel she'd bought in the gift shop. It was a poorly written romance novel about a beautiful redheaded nurse who'd fallen for her patient, a handsome man who had been in a car accident and badly injured. The man was going to be sent to jail as soon as he healed, about to be wrongfully convicted of murder (any similarity to real persons, living or dead, was coincidental and not intended by the buyer- ha). Sadly, she couldn't stop reading the shitty thing.

Warren had been shipped off to the hospital immediately after Lila had been incapacitated by Will and Jenna Frost. Layla hadn't left his side the entire night, much to his chagrin.

If there was one thing Warren hated more than being called nice, it was being babied.

Warren was sent to the hospital with a concussion, along with a few shattered ribs, a severely bruised collar bone and a broken arm. Luckily, he appeared to be healing amazingly fast, no surprise considering he was a hero.

"Can I leave yet?" Warren asked her impatiently.

Layla smiled, but didn't look up from her book. "The doctors said they won't be able to release you until the afternoon. !2 o'clock at minimum. It's only…" she paused to glance down at her simple silver watch with mother of pearl face. "9:45. You have at least another two hours and fifteen minutes to go."

He grumbled, but didn't bother to say anything more. Layla peeked up at him, and was unsurprised to see he was busy glaring down at a crappy paperback of his own. It was some kind of mystery-thriller she thought he would like. He hadn't complained about the book at least. That was one thing.

And he also wasn't complaining about her company. He may not have liked being babied, but he certainly didn't mind her specifically. Layla didn't pretend as though she hadn't noticed; while he spent all of his spare time groaning about when he could finally leave the hospital, but he never said anything about how much time she spent in his hospital room in the past 48 hours.

There was only one point where she actually left the room of her own volition, other than the times when his mother came in to visit or his doctors needed to check up on him. That was when Will came to visit, the afternoon before. He and Warren talked for a while, but then he asked speak to Layla and they left the room, walking down the hallway in search of privacy.

Will apologized to her. For everything- Lila, not telling her about Lila, breaking up with her because of Lila, avoiding her- all of the crap he'd done in the past month and a half.

Layla had forgiven him, of course. He was still one of her oldest and closest friends. She wasn't going to stop talking to him all of a sudden just because he lied to her in a poor attempt to keep her from getting used as one of Lila's pawns.

However, when he tried to insinuate that they could get back together, if she wanted to, she was forced to draw the line there.

"I know you only dumped me because you wanted to save me," Layla told Will quietly as they stopped in the middle of the hospital's hallway. "But when you did, I realized that some of what you were saying was true. You remember when you told me that you needed to understand yourself better first before you could continue our relationship?"

Will nodded wordlessly.

"Well, after we broke up, I figured out that I needed to understand myself, too. And I actually learned a lot. One of the things I learned was that you and I… we just don't work anymore," Layla said sadly, reaching out and holding one of his hands in her own. "You're still my best friend, and I wouldn't trade that for the world, but I don't think you and I could work as a couple. We've grown up in a year, and that can bring changes."

Smiling drily, she added, "Besides, I think you would work so much better with a certain icy blonde." She winked. "I saw you two at Homecoming. There were sparks."

Will laughed at her, clearly happy to have his best friend back, with no repercussions. "Those 'sparks' were nothing compared to what was going on with you and Warren on Friday. If what I had was sparks, you guys had an entire fireworks show."

Layla blushed and rolled her eyes dismissively. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said, lying badly.

Will continued to tease her as they walked back to Warren's room, and he and Warren had another long conversation before he said his goodbyes and left the room.

Dog-earing the page in her book, Layla closed it and stood up, leaving the paperback on her plastic chair. She walked over to Warren's bed, and hopped onto the left side with him. Draping a casual arm over his pillow, she nudged him with her side and said, "You know, we never talked about what happened right before you went off to fight Lila."

Warren looked up from his book to shoot her a quizzical look. "What happened?" he asked, eyebrows furrowing.

Layla rolled her eyes. "Knock it off," she replied.

He continued to look confused. "I can't remember," he told her. "I got a concussion, or did you forget, too?"

She lightly slapped his arm. "Stop being an ass."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Warren replied, keeping up a perfect poker face. "I'm being perfectly honest right now."

"Really?" Layla said, arching her eyebrows. "Because I think you would want to remember the part where you kissed me."

"I kissed you?" he asked suspiciously. "Funny, I thought you kissed me."

"So you do remember!" she cried triumphantly. Narrowing her eyes, she added, "But you kissed me first."

"You kissed me afterward," Will countered evenly.

"Did I say I didn't?" Layla replied, smiling down at him superiorly.

"I can't remember," Warren replied, his voice deepening significantly.

Layla's brown eyes twinkled. "Well, let me remind you."

In one smooth move, she leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to Warren's mouth. She tilted her head, slipping one hand to gently trace his strong jaw line with her thumb. He encouraged her sudden affection, wrapping his left arm- the one not in a cast- around her waist.

This was the first kiss she and Warren had shared that was relaxed and comfortable. Every other time, it had been passionate and hot and quick and totally frustrating. Layla found it very nice to be able to kiss him with as much languor as she wanted, without any concern for time or their impending doom.

That was why, a few minutes after resurfacing for the air they both needed, Layla found herself smiling happily.

"You wanna meet up with me at the Paper Lantern tomorrow, after school?" Warren asked her, speaking raggedly.

Layla tilted her head, breathing just as erratically. "You don't work on Mondays," she said, confused.

The corners of Warren's mouth tilted up into an amused smile. "I don't," he replied. "I meant as a date."

Layla laughed, a little giddily, but at the moment, she didn't give a damn how girl she sounded. "I'd be delighted," she replied, smiling down brightly as leaned down once more to kiss him.

Okay, so her life was far from perfect. In fact, her life was way too confusing to be healthy for a girl her age, but she was more than prepared to roll with the punches. After all, she had a boyfriend who was now a best friend once more, a friend who was now a boyfriend, another Psycho Bitch safely behind bars, and a few more close friends, all with adorably baffling relationships of their own.

Life was pretty good.

4

This isn't actually the first copy of this chapter. The first chapter was somehow eaten by my computer a few days ago, which caused me to nearly have a coronary, because I was already three pages in and had been working on it over a period of time, so I didn't remember everything exactly.

I decided to rewrite it today, and I think it turned out pretty damn good, considering I had to start it all over again, and I ended up making quite a few changes, and shortened it much more than I had initially anticipated. But I did know it was going to be short. It's a final chapter- I just needed to tie up the loose ends.

That said… oh my God. I finished an entire story! A chaptered story! I'm so proud of myself!

And, even better- I didn't have any ridiculously long pauses or hiatuses, and because I made myself finish this before I posted it, I didn't have to worry about reviewers threatening to kill me because I lost interest.

I even finished this in a timely manner. It took me about a month to write ten chapters. Of the same story. Without losing interest or starting something new. Wow. That's awesome for me.

But now it's time to 'fess up. Overall, I think this kind of sucked, regardless of what you guys may (or may not) think. Partly, I think it wasn't super great because it started out as an oneshot that became a sequel that turned into a trio that eventually snowballed into an entire chaptered fic. That was probably mistake number 1.

Mistake number 2 has to be the fact that I don't make any sense, do I? In… Christ, almost 4 years of writing, I should probably be better at this. At least, I shouldn't be making these kinds of plot mistakes. But I did. And I do want to apologize to everybody for that.

Lastly, I want to say I'm sorry about Warren. I think I did a pretty good job at conveying his personality, but I'll be totally honest when I say that I think he was out of character a few times. I wish that wasn't true, but…

Ah, screw it. I'm happy I finished this piece of crap, bad writing or none. :D

(Uhh… Like I said. w00t!! GO NEONAILS!! SHE CAN WRITE AN ENTIRE PLOT!!

Hahaha. She wishes.)