I meant to post this yesterday on the fic's birthday (Yup! This story is one year old now!), but I wasn't pleased with it until I had my beta (my brother) look over it. I'm sorry it's so short and so long-coming, but that's just the way it was.

Thank you glittering wolf for your review on the last chapter and your regular reviews of the other chapters previous! Thank you so much!
Thank you to the Guest for getting my subtle Hetalia reference. (Heehee~ I regret nothing!)
A big thank you also to kcrb0202 who not only faved my story but reviewed practically every chapter and read it all in one sitting!

I do not own Red vs Blue. RvB belongs to Rooster Teeth.

Wash stepped through the wreckage and broken glass of what was the back door. His foot was smarting now from kicking it down, but he managed to limp through the kitchen and get to the knife drawer just before Maine barreled up the stairs. Looking back on it, he was most likely bringing knives to a gunfight, but it was all he had. He actually didn't even intend on fighting his brother anyway.

Maine stared him down now on the main level. Thankfully, for what may have been Wash's only piece of luck, he was unarmed.

Wash stood back and pointed the knife at him, making it clear that he wouldn't use it unless it was necessary.

"I'm going to call the police, Maine. I'm gonna call the police and they're gonna take you down. And, this nightmare will be finished."

He walked slowly over to the ancient, landline phone that was plugged into the

wall. He left his cell phone with South.

"It's over, brother. You'll finally get the help you need, and those kids will get homes. And then-"

The phone began to ring in David's hand. He ignored it and let it go to voicemail.

"Why hello, David."

Wash's heart stopped.

How in the world did he know that he was here? Somehow, it just seemed like one of those things that would happen to him though.

He reached over and hit 'answer' then 'speaker.' He wasn't letting Maine sneak up on him for something as stupid as a phone distracting him.

"The old man himself. I should be glad. I should be."

"Yes, I have realized it's been a while since we've spoken, son. Can I still call you son?"

The southern drawl made bile rise in his throat.

"No. You cannot," he barked, "Whoever it was, you or mom, gave me the name David. The least you can do it use it."

There was a pause and he could almost see his father nodding. He was accepting the rules of this game and arranging the cards in his hand.

"I am certain you have a lot questions, David."

"Just one: how do I turn off this speaker?"

Wash fumbled around with the phone receiver. It was harder than it seemed when he couldn't look to see what he was doing. He wasn't taking his eyes off Maine for a second.

Maine growled. He wasn't happy that his father had the nerve to call, to speak, to communicate language in his presence!

"Well, and my prodigal son returns," he said, as he heard Maine's rumbling. "I have been wanting to speak to you for quite some time, Jermaine."

All that earned was a hiss.

"I'm sure you must not have a very high opinion of me, but give me the chance to clarify some of my actions that you may have been too young to understand. I was proud of you, son."

David was just as shocked as Jermaine.

"I was always proud of you. Perhaps I was too proud. I wanted you to be perfect. I saw what you were capable of. I only disciplined you because I cared about you the most. You grew up to have an ambition that everyone, the whole world should envy. You never let anyone get in your way. You are strong. You are one of the strongest people I know. I have never been more proud, and I love you, son."

There was a long, silent pause before David snapped.

"That is the biggest load of crap I've heard -ever! Of all time! You're a liar and a horrible father! You never loved him! Or any of us! You abused him! You never loved him!"

Maine took an aggressive step forward and growled fiercely, this time at Wash. David couldn't believe it. After all this time, two to three seconds of "explanation" was all it took for Maine to believe their abusive father?

Why did their father call anyway? What could he possibly gain by having Maine on his side? Then it hit him. It must have had something to do with the kids. And Wash was in the way.

"Jermaine, I am an old man now. And I would love to meet my grandkids. I will die happy if you put your poor father at ease with the knowledge that his beloved son has forgiven him. If you love me, please kill David."

"Wait. What?!"

The reaction was immediate. Maine reached on top of the cabinet in the kitchen to bring down the gun he'd been hiding. He took half a second to ready it then shot.

"N- Ugh!"

David fell to his knees and abandoned his knife in favor of trying to stop the bleeding. The shot hit him practically bull's-eye in the chest. And oh was he in pain. He tried to back up against the wall as Maine slowly paced over to finish the job.

"Father?" A child's voice called from behind the door that locked the entrance to downstairs. He must have been alarmed at the sound of the gunshot.

Maine hesitated and let out a growl of concern.

"We will move the children far away. Attend to the matter at hand!" their dad commanded. "Kill him, Jermaine!"

Maine loomed over Wash as the length of the blonde's life began to tick down to seconds.

"You know, Maine. Why wait?" He labored for breath. "Before Dad gets a hold of them and does the same to them that he did to you! Why don't you move them right now?"

"It's him!"

The door flew open as a future genius must have learned how to pick locks from his father. The children, except the infants, came crashing into the room. Wash recognized the loudest voice being Theta's as he and Delta rushed to his side.

David went into panic mode at first because he knew that they were in the line of fire, but, when he looked at Maine, he could literally see him battling the conflict out in his head. On the one hand, Maine had the only way of gaining approval from his dad or he had the love of his son and adopted sons/nephews. The children would be scarred for life if Maine shot Wash in front of them. Jermaine's head jerked from side to side as he was torn between what he should do. The kids yelling at the blood and pulling at his legs and crying out from confusion.

"What's going on?!" called the scratchy voice over the phone.

Those were all the words Jermaine and David's father got out before David pulled the phone down and dialed three numbers. Grunting in pain as he felt his life leeching out of him, he ripped the phone from the phone jack to ensure his dad couldn't call back before a white light took his vision.

Wash was in court… again. A familiar sight, but it wasn't the type of court he had to endure when he was a kid. He didn't withhold any of the truth which made him guilty of trying to take the law into his own hands. He learned the judge and jury didn't take kindly to an attempted vigilante especially when the attempted vigilante indirectly traumatized some kids who shouldn't have ever seen a man almost bleed to death.

He was nineteen years old. The law said he was a big kid. He was going to big kid prison. He was bitter about it to say the least. He was the good guy in this, after all. He regretted none of his actions though. The only thing he regretted was that his father wasn't joining him, his brother, and his sister in jail too. Double jeopardy and the lack of evidence in fact that the phone conversation didn't record once it was answered. Worst phone ever.

Because no good deed goes unpunished, right! All David's siblings were either dead or in jail now, and, as if irony wasn't present enough, Maine being arrested meant that Sigma had no other relatives to care for him either. Sigma and all his cousins were now being shoved through the foster system. It was like history was repeating itself in the same carousel of suffering.

Once upon a time, there was a little boy who suffered into a man. He was named David, like the King of Judah, but he never knew who named him, and no one really called him that anymore. They called him Wash, like the act of cleansing. And his story included characters that all tried to do the right thing.

After all:

She protected her family.

He liberated his family.

He tried to keep a smile.

He protected her.

She protected herself.

He followed the rules.

She left her family.

He built his own.

So how else could their stories end but by saying that they all lived happily ever after? But, then again, lying wouldn't be the right thing.

Let's just say that they were a family.

And that even through darkness and pain, they made some good happen.

Because if you ever wondered why you're here… I think that might be it.

Well, that's all folks. The story that I started one year ago yesterday is now, finally complete. I can't believe I've actually written a completed fanfiction or even stuck to writing something like this for a whole year!

So this chapter was particularly hard to write considering that there is no Alpha character in my story. I needed Maine to have a sort of make-up with the Director because I needed him to have to try to kill Wash like in the canon, but I needed a reason. I was really struggling when I remembered that Maine is pretty much a psychopath and wouldn't catch the flaws in logic that the Director presented him. Just like in the canon, the Director says that they were going to let Maine see the Alpha, but they really didn't know where he was anyway. They just needed Wash dead and Maine restrained. It was the only way to go about that so I tried to incorporate that into the fic. I also tried to make Maine's concern for his son and nephews interfere with his want of affection from his father and that is what causes him to malfunction just as in the canon it was Alpha merging back with his fragments. I also needed Wash arrested when he didn't really do anything wrong in this one because he left South alive. So I hope my reason was good enough. I also tried to touch on a bit of the bitter!Wash we see in seasons 7-8 of RvB after Wash is arrested in canon. All in all, the whole keep it kinda canon in an AU thing was challenging but fun to write. I enjoyed writing this fic and I really hope this ending chapter resolves it for you.

And thank you!
I seriously couldn't have done it without the reviewers and favs and alerts and hits and other encouragement. This has been my most successful story so far, by far. I'm so glad that I've even had consistant reviewers too that kept bringing me up and keeping me motivated every chapter! I also have many people who gave my story a place on their list of faves. I, myself, don't fav things often so I know what an honor it is for my story to be faved by someone. Also, all you who alerted but neither faved nor reviewed, don't think I didn't forget about you. At least for me, I've alterted stories but never reviewed yet I felt like their biggest fan. I understand.

Thank you for putting up with my sporadic updating, crazy theories, twisted AU, dark images, long author's notes, and attempts at fluff. Thank you to all of you! I'm so happy that you stuck around and that I have finally brought you the conclusion of And Our Dad Was Leonard Church.

What's next, you ask?
Well, there will not be a sequel. I feel that this story is just best as a stand-alone. However, I am not done with the RvB fandom yet. I have a crossover that I will shamelessly promote as I have already started and now plan to finish. It's technically a crossover with the book, Maximum Ride. However, if you know RvB, I wrote it so it can be a sort of wing!verse AU. So basically, Freelancers with wings. I know, right? I can't get enough of the Freelancers. Anyway, that is next on my agenda. I can't promise when the next chapter will be up for that, but it won't be crazy long. (And if you are a Hetalia fan, I invite you to check out my Hetalia fics. Just another shameless plug.)

All in all, thank you all so very, very much for reading!
Happy Easter~!

Looking forward to it.