At last, the chapter where the whole story comes together—the last chapter will be right after this. Again, I own none of the characters here.

WHACK!

"OW!"

No kidding…Beau would be feeling that lump in the morning…that is if Vanilla allowed him to live by then. Man, that woman had a good arm! Beau couldn't help but wonder how he had forgotten that.

"That...was for haunting my dreams all those years!"

WHACK!

"That...was for worrying me sick ever since that spat between you and Bunnie!"

"And this...," went through Beau's ears right before the wizened rabbot closed his eyes and braced himself for the next bop on the head.

A soft pair of lips graced his cheek instead. His oceanic eyes open in shock as Vanilla pulled away and smirked down at him. "...is for throwing your life on the line...just to protect our daughter."

Though saying Beau was "a little stunned" would have been an understatement, the buck gave a nervous chuckle and a blush. "Good to know this ol' cony did somthin' right." He rubbed the back of his head. "Really, though, Nilly, you shouldn't have come here…even if Eggman is no longer controlling us."

At these touching words, Vanilla softened her expression and smiled honestly.

Beau returned the expression and interpreted it as a sign to continue. "You know you're pretty much beating a dead horse here, so, aside from coming here to come to terms with the past, there ain't much else I can imagine that could drive ya to come here of all places."

He had her there...for the most part. Vanilla picked at her gloves and looked to the ground. "I suppose...to reconcile something else as well?"

A curt "Tch" escaped Beauregard's lips. He stood up and neared his wife until only a few centimeters existed between them. Since she was facing him, Beau, using his organic hand, lifted Vanilla's face by the chin so they could be eye-to-eye in more than one way. "You were expectin' just plain, ol' simple Beau then, huh?"

Vanilla chuckled in spite of herself. "Believe me, Mr. Rabbot...even as Beau, you were never simple. You loved the simple things in life, yes. As a person, however...that's another story, I'm afraid."

The Grandmaster smiled at his spouse's witty and on-spot humor. "Ah still love the simple things, Ms. Vanilla. Ah also got good intentions. They just don't seem that way to other folks. You get where ah'm comin' from?"

"In a way, yes...," she nodded...but then her smile dropped back into a frown, "it was still cruel of you to leave."

Beau shook his head forlornly then turned away, unable to endure her pleading eyes any longer. "It would'a been cruel not to leave. And you're right. Ah could never take back the agony Ah put the three loves of my life through."

He sounded so sincere...He sounded like...'The old Beau...No, Vanilla, that was a long time ago. For all you know, the man in front of you as much of a stranger to you as you are to him.'

And if he was...well...at least Vanilla could say that she didn't give it—this whole crazy trip—a shot. She couldn't say she didn't try.

With a deep breath, Vanilla took a risk. She needed the truth. "Beauregard...Bunnie said—"

"—what she and Ah wanted to believe...what we needed to believe...otherwise the war woulda' been too much...Vanilla..." Two large, gloved hands took smaller, petite gloved hands as Beau peered off intensely into the warm depths of his spouse's eyes. "If only Ah could count how many days Ah spent wonderin' how you and Cream were...whether ya'll were happy...whether ya'll were safe..."

His robotic fingers brushed the hair out of Vanilla's eyes. She did not flinch this time at their touch. "You have every right to be chuggin' hellfire at me...and I'm sorry."

Beau even went so far as to offer the crook of his arm as a subliminal suggestion to allow him to escort the dear woman back to her "entourage." Vanilla took his arm...

But she made no move towards the door, inaction at which Beau raised an eyebrow. She merely stood there, her eyes closed, a grand yet serene smile starting to bloom.

"Alright, what 'blasphemous misdeed' did Ah forget?" Beau rolled his eyes, joking on account of his suspicions that Vanilla had one more accusation to grill into him.

No glare came his way.

A finger cut him off instead, stroking his lips from side to side tenderly and slowly as the digit's owner spoke in a loving and seductive whisper, "Beau...shut up."

A ten-gallon hat coming to rest on the desk was the last sight Vanilla barely noticed before she was lost in her husband's marine gray eyes. The man leaned towards her until his warm breath trickled down her cheeks.

He had her at his mercy the second he purred, "Don't mind if I do."

I love these two as a couple. Don't judge.