So this has been a while longer coming than anticipated. Due to writer's block (again) and a horribly messy, busy week at work, I just havent had the inspiration or the energy. But without further ado, here it is, three years after it was first started - the very final chapter of SLOJ. Enjoy, and dont forget to leave me a review!
~DC

Chapter 21 – Final Goodbyes

It was half an hour later that two pairs of footsteps were heard on the stairs. Within moments, the door was pushed open and Lawrence appeared. He wandered in, clutching Buzz under his right arm. Lizzie hovered in the doorway, watching with what Jessie perceived to be an affectionate demeanour.

"Lawrence, you need to put Buzz down." Lizzie now instructed. "You know the rule, no toys at the dinner table."

"His name isn't Buzz!" Lawrence protested, but deposited Buzz onto the bed anyway. "His name's Mr Lightyear!"

"Yes. His name is Buzz Lightyear." Lizzie agreed, but Lawrence folded his arms.

"No. MISTER Lightyear," he insisted, determination showing on his little face. Lizzie could be seen stifling a look that merged somewhere between shock and amusement. She didn't have time to say anything further because from downstairs her mother's voice could be heard calling them for dinner.

"Food!" Lawrence yelped, snapping out of his brief sulky mood. He made for the door again, and as the little boy passed by Lizzie, she ruffled his hair affectionately. "Go wash your hands kiddo, I'll see you downstairs."

Before she left, Lizzie shot a look at Jessie on the bed, and the cowgirl doll giggled shortly to herself. Lawrence's little temper burst reminded Jessie of Andy when he used to get angry at his mother as a small boy.

Buzz raised himself into a sitting position when the coast was clear, and Jessie hopped up from her place on the bed to give her boyfriend a hug. "How was it downstairs?" She asked, kneeling down besides him, and Buzz shrugged.

"It was fine. Got showed off to Lizzie's parents, and then Lawrence had me on his lap throughout an entire episode of some show that had superhero turtles in it." He frowned. "They'd clearly be no match for Zurg."

Jessie wrinkled her nose. "Sounds a bit far fetched to me," she commented. She fell silent for a moment, as Buzz stroked her back.

"You know, Lawrence is going home today." He murmured to Jessie. She glanced at the space toy, her heart beginning to break all over again.

"But it seems that you just got here." She whispered sadly, a pout forming on her otherwise pretty little mouth as she laid her hand on his thigh.

"Well, how about we do something to keep us thinking of the other?" Buzz suggested, with a twinkle in his eye.

Jessie laughed, lifting her hand from his thigh to lightly smack his forearm. "Behave yourself," she smirked, amused, before another idea entered her head. "How about…?"

Without giving it a second thought, the cowgirl hopped up from her kneeling position, spotting the laptop sitting by itself at the very bottom of the bed. She ran over to fire it up; thanking her lucky stars that Trixie had taught her multiple times at Bonnie's how to switch on electronic devices such as this. She fiddled with it for a moment after the main screen loaded, then clicked on the buttons as Buzz looked on from his spot nearby.

"Firefly?" Jessie called, and the Little Pony fluttered closer. Before Buzz knew what was happening, Jessie was next to him again, physically dragging him off the bed and down to the floor.

"What are you doing?" Buzz asked, perplexed, as Jessie pushed him back over towards the closet.

"Just wait there. You'll get the idea." Jessie grinned, letting him go and darting away to just shy of the bed. There was a good metre of space between them now as she turned up to look at the bed, where Firefly hovered just a few inches above the laptop.

"Would you care to do the honours?" Jessie called to the Little Pony, who bleated in response and used her little front hoof to hit the spacebar. A song blared from the small speakers on the electronic device, and the cowgirl's face broke into a smile.

"Now I've, had, the time of my life…"

To her further amusement, after the introduction to the music was done and she began to dance to the music, she saw Buzz's eyes widen and his jaw drop slightly. She giggled inwardly; she'd never seen him drool so much over her dancing. She thought back to the Spanish dance, which he had basically taken the lead in and she had been forced to ad lib her steps to match his. With the tables turned, she wondered how he'd fare.

As she danced into the centre of the space available, her hips swishing in the way she'd seen the lady do in that dancing movie she had watched with Lizzie a few weeks previously, she noticed the other toys doing much the same as the toys had done that first afternoon in the playroom at Bonnie's – they gathered into a circle to surround her and her spaceman. She saw that Bullseye was peeking just over the top of some of the smaller toys, unable to assist her with turning on the music this time around, but he had a funny little smile on his horsey face all the same.

Returning her attention to what she was doing, Jessie beckoned to Buzz to dance forward and join her in the centre, which he did with some hesitation. She noticed, for an instant, that old shyness creeping back into him; the one thing that had intrigued her about him all those years ago.

As the music picked up, with some degree of shock Jessie felt Buzz's hand grasp hers and pull her close into him. It was almost as if he knew what she was thinking, because he suddenly twirled her around in a circle under his arm before he started to lead her around in some kind of tango style movement. As he let her go at last, she took a few steps backwards, continuing to shake her hips at him, noticing with satisfaction that he was still looking on in awe.

Jessie stopped moving backwards, having made enough space between herself and her beloved to carry on. She began to dance forward again, mouthing the words to Buzz as she did so.

"With my body and soul, I'll want you more than you'll ever know…."

As she met him in the centre once more, he wrapped his arm around her middle, a gesture she reciprocated, enabling them to walk in an opposite circular direction to each other. For a moment, their eyes met, but it was only brief, because suddenly Buzz had her at arm's length again. Their fingers locked together and he spun her, along his arm and into his embrace. Caught like that, with their bodies touching so she could feel the sparks coming off the heat between them, Jessie started to giggle nervously, unable to maintain her composure any longer.

She didn't quite know how it happened, but she suddenly felt Buzz shift behind her, as he grasped her slim waist firmly before suddenly dipping her, in a move that felt unusual but yet so familiar. It was their signature, the very same move he'd performed back at Bonnie's, she realised, that simple act of draping her backwards over his lap. Her hat skimmed the surface of the carpeted floor, and she felt a rush of elation surge through her.

He pulled her back upright and Jessie felt her face flush. Time stood still as they gazed into each other's eyes. It was nothing like the movie Jessie had watched with Lizzie, but the way Buzz was looking at her made it ten times more romantic. Without another word she let him pull her to her feet completely, and the two of them began to sway to the music.

A little cheer went up as Buzz enveloped her in his arms, and looking around, Jessie saw Firefly doing loop-de-loops above the bed, and chuckled softly. Laying her head on Buzz's shoulder, she noticed that Woody was down on the floor from his perch on the dresser, and was being unmercifully being bounced around by the yellow bunny Primrose, who was rather clumsy on her chubby feet.

A brush of fur against her arm made Jessie turn her head another way now, and to her surprise she saw Ted there just next to her, swaying around a very pretty female teddy bear. She had a big fake rose tucked behind her ear, and her cheeks were pink with some fake blush that the toymakers had swept onto it. Ted gave Jessie a wink, and the cowgirl winked back subtly with a smile.

As the song started to wind down, Jessie stayed wrapped up in Buzz's arms, even as the other toys started to disperse, chattering amongst themselves. As Jessie pulled back, she started to giggle a little, and Buzz smiled down at her. Their faces were inches apart, and suddenly Jessie closed the gap between them in a soft unyielding kiss.

"Jessie?"

The cowgirl doll half expected to see the space ranger behind her when she heard her name spoken much later that night. But it was not to be, she knew that well enough.

Lizzie had gone to town with Lawrence. It was the halfway point she had always chosen the last few years to meet Lawrence's foster parents in order to pick up her son, unbeknownst to her parents. Of course, she didn't need to hide him from them any longer, but old habits had died hard with the young woman and she had stuck to the routine to avoid confusing the small boy. However, while helping him on with his coat whilst in her room that afternoon, she had made a solemn promise to her young son to see him more often in future; rather than just Christmas and other special occasions.

It had been heart-warming for Jessie to see the little boy hug Lizzie. The cowgirl was pretty sure Lawrence didn't know Lizzie was really his mother, even all that had happened. She herself had only learned a few choice snippets of what had happened downstairs from Woody, right before her outburst about Pamela back in the spare room. But she knew enough to put two and two together and come up with four.

She had already said her final goodbye to Buzz before Lawrence had even entered the room. Lizzie had told them that they were due to be leaving around four pm, and to say their piece before that time.

So at three pm, with heavy hearts, the cowgirl and space toy had found a spot that was privy to them both – the comfort of the cushion they had spent a night on together, that first time Buzz came to 'rescue' Jessie so many weeks previous. They dragged it behind the futon in the corner of the room, and rested there, Jessie with her head on Buzz's lap. They hardly said a word in those long minutes, but finally Jessie sat up.

"Don't miss me too much, will ya?" The sentence was careless, and tears sprang to her eyes as she voiced it aloud. Buzz's face dropped and he pulled the quivering cowgirl into his arms, hugging her fiercely.

"I'll try," Jessie heard his voice break a little as she buried herself against him, soaking up every last bit of him; how his arms felt against her back, how her head found the correct area of his chest plate to snuggle into, how his fingers entwined in her hair, how his breath made his chest rise and fall…

The last kiss, Jessie thought to herself, had been the most poignant. They had shared it right before Buzz entered the backpack and zipped it up around himself. She held onto that memory, not wanting to let it fade like the light outside the window had so quickly that day.

But at least they had gotten the chance to say goodbye this time.

"Jessie?" The voice from behind her made her turn this time; again, she knew it would not be her Buzz.

"What is it?" With a weary heart, Jessie looked up at her owner from her spot on the windowsill. She noticed that Lizzie had a look in her eye that the cowgirl couldn't quite place. In her hands, Lizzie held Woody and Bullseye, the two of which she placed down either side of Jessie. Woody flopped down into a sitting position and smiled at his sister as Bullseye nosed at Jessie's hat, almost blowing it off as he let out a little snort.

"You remember that evening when you were crying on the windowsill, and then we had that heart to heart?" Lizzie asked, and Jessie nodded, holding onto her hat as Bullseye continued to snort happily behind her. She reached up a hand to pet the steed, wondering what was coming.

"Well, you said your owner was moving to Nebraska?" Lizzie asked, and Jessie glanced at Woody, who shrugged. The cowgirl turned, nodding silently a second time at Lizzie's words.

"Well then," Lizzie grinned, spurred on by Jessie's agreement. "About Nebraska… I thought you, and Woody and Bullseye of course, might like to take a little trip."

"What? Where?" Jessie squeaked, her eyes widening. Next to her, Woody grinned, and Bullseye gave another happy snort.

"To Nebraska, of course." Lizzie laughed a little, amused by Jessie's reaction.

"Say yes, Jessie," Woody urged her, and Jessie whipped around to look at her brother.

"You knew already?" She challenged him.

"We were sworn to secrecy until Lizzie could figure out the details with Lawrence's parents this afternoon, but yes…" Woody grinned.

"Well…" Jessie thought for a moment, and suddenly all the images from the websites she had perused back at Amber's house went flashing through her memory bank, and her heart momentarily swelled in joy. She was going to get to see her Wild West setting after all! A small smile etched itself onto her features before she paused her thoughts to wonder aloud. "But….what's so important about Nebraska? Surely we're not just going there for the scenery?"

"Well," Lizzie continued her speech to the delighted cowgirl, "I thought we might go and pay a visit. It just so happens, out of all the places on this continent….Lawrence's parents live in Nebraska. I thought we could go and visit in the New Year." She paused, before adding…

"Buzz will be there, of course…."

~The End~