Hey! No, I'm not on hiatus. And this was supposed to be posted a few weeks ago but all my electronics got confiscated :/

I feel like I've come a long way with this story; I re read the first few chapters I wrote on Fan fiction. Not only do they lack length, but my writing seems to have improved. I'm so happy and proud of the great response I got for this story, my first FINISHED story (or, it will be really soon). Thank you all for coming on this amazing journey and hopefully you will like my new story, which I shall be starting fairly soon, called Stay With Me.

Big shout out to Zanera, my official Beta, TREX IS DA BEST, my tandem partner and faithful reader and KRC (whose name shall not be revealed from request), who helped with the mushy and mature topics approached in the story that Zanera and I just couldn't handle. Angel of Calamity- you keep me sane when I feel like going berserk and off my rocker! There are too many people to name, but if you reviewed, you made my day at least once, and I will always cherish your comments. (Sorry if that's really cheesy)

Fang got to start this story, so I am totally destroying my pattern and making Max finish. (instead of putting this at the end of last chapter, it just deserved a small chapter to itself.) Forward warning that it is cliched, cheesy, pretty rushed, meaningless, not that great... :)

Disclaimer: I do not hold any claims for James Patterson's ideas.

Without further to do or say, I present the last and final chapter :)

[Later]

Well, as much as I'd dreaded the moment, The Talk with Nora/Cora/Ingrid wasn't actually so bad. I'd tried to keep is casual, yet steely and meaningful. Mostly: keep your mittens off my man.

We'd picked a huge garden to have a talk about 'life' that had been coming for a while. The rustling sound the tree leaves made when the wind blew was strangely therapeutic. I sat under the cool shade of a willow tree in some three quarter length jeans and a thin light yellow loose, short-sleeved top, with a sketch book lying next to me. I didn't draw very well, but the shrink I had been seeing for a few weeks prompted me to try drawing to relax and find inner peace.

Fang and I had been forced into couple counseling: has your partner cheated on you? The name they'd given their program made me want to gag, but I went along anyway, so as not to lower Arianna's view of me. I was treading on fine water, and she acted like the touching speech in the hospital had never happened.

The very young man mentioned was sitting at a bench a while off, to make me feel better and more comfortable, listening to his iPod (which was his method of relaxation) and with his face turned to the light sun rays.

My hair had been trimmed to just below my ears and I had a new side fringe, as if to cut away all the problems I'd faced. I wasn't likely to forget what had happened, but I just tried to agree with people more than usual. A bright green head band pushed the hair that wanted to blow into my face out of my eyes.

I saw my ex-best friend walking gradually along the winding path. She shielded her eyes from the sun, and spotted me, under my favourite tree. She grinned and hurried across the soft, springy yellow-green grass and collapsed besides me.

"Hey, N-C-Ingrid!" Real smooth, Max, I congratulated myself.

"My name is Cora now, Max." I understood. Cora looked at me awkwardly, and then cleared her throat. "I guess I have a lot to explain. I'm not going to mince words. Mother has persuaded me to see someone I can talk to, but I think words mean nothing if said to the wrong person. You and I have a lot of things to say to each other. You see, when I found you'd had sex with my boyfriend- ex boyfriend- I was so mad. You have no idea.

"First, you skipped town without a whisper. Do you know how humiliating it was when I insisted you were just taking an unexpected holiday and you'd be back, only to hear from Lara Middlebury that you were GONE? No, you don't- oh, that's right. Because you skipped town." I grimaced guiltily. This whole mess was pretty much half my fault. Cora had always been the nicer of us two back in high school. She was less scheming and plain cruel, but always joined in if I brought up anything.

I took the opportunity of a new place to change. And I made it happen. By immersing myself in nice crowds and studying, I forgot about the old me. I had created a chance for myself and by remaining slightly boring and unsociable, my bad attitude slowly ebbed away.

"Look, Inga-Cora, I wasn't a good friend at all. I was a bitch. Every time you got a boyfriend, I immediately set on charming him and stealing him. Alan, Brett, Connor, Duke, all of them. But then I was mean to them and dumped them. So you wouldn't take them back, and I'd embarrassed them. I was a horrible, manipulating skank. Can't you start to see why I had to go?"

Cora stared at me, mouth open. Yeah, so I'd pretty much insulted myself. No biggie, do it all the time. "Together we owned the school. All the guys wanted us, waited on us and even the un-single guys flirted with us. Captain," I pointed to myself, "Co-captain," I pointed to her. "Of the cheer squad. All the girls wanted to be us, with us or like us. But when you told me secretively that you were in love with your boyfriend, I was so jealous. I only got one night stands, or weekly changing boyfriends. So I set my mind on him.

"I planned it all out but then this guy slipped something into my drink. I was drunk and drugged and then, there he was. We went into the private bar and well, you know…"

Cora looked disgusted and all those feelings I'd pushed way down were rising again. I felt physically sick at how vile a person I'd been. Luckily Angel, Iggy and Gazzy had the sort of brains that only remembered the good times. My parents were too forgiving, sweeping the whole issue under the rug and never bringing it up as I'd begged. They'd sensed a change in my attitude and wanted to give me a chance.

"I can never forgive you." Cora said simply. But she already had a free look in her eye

"I know, and I can never forgive you." I returned. I couldn't- now that I was older, I knew that I was in love with and loved Fang. Maybe it wasn't forever, but it'd be a damn long time for sure. What Nora had done was despicable, in the same sense my actions had been. A drug and alcohol influenced mind of a 16 year old could hardly compare to that of a 20 year old's brain. I wasn't making excuses; just weighing the facts.

Cora grinned, and then sighed gustily. "I'm even sorrier about Fang. I just… When I was sure you guys were into each other, I knew stealing Fang would be a really hard blow. I swear we didn't go any further than some under the shirt stuff... " I'd already heard this from Fang, but it was nice to hear it repeated.

"But I really do like him. Plus, he's an excellent kisser and totally fit. If you ever want to ditch Fang for my loser of a brother- yes, I didn't miss any of those flustered looks- call me. I'll be there!" I laughed. Nate was OK, but all had been revealed; Angel and Ella both decided to move on. His cute little grin and ways could sweep someone else off their feet, but their friendship was too important to lose over a guy.

I'd overheard Iggy and Ella really getting into a conversation about science. He was boasting his knowledge and Ella actually didn't have to feign interest. She may appear to be a girly-girl, but she was a true tom boy at heart.

I had a question for Cora, "Wasn't kissing Fang sort of like kissing your brother, though?" I shuddered at the mere thought of having to kiss either Iggy or Gazzy. Cora laughed.

"No, he's not related to me by blood in any way. Nate belonged to our father's first marriage, I his second and Arianna is his third wife. However, Nate and I were always quite close as children, and eventually father agreed to house us together and when he decided he wanted to marry Arianna, we were bundled along to greet our future family. My mother was not a kind lady; she was spoilt by father and only cared for wealth and social position."

Sounded a bit like someone I knew.

"Nate's mother died when he was born, so he never knew her. Then father divorced my mother but she refused to acknowledge that he sent her the papers. Nate was raised by my mother, but she became unbearable when there was a rumour going around that father was having flings with younger girls. She stormed around in drunken rages and together we begged father to let us live with him. He is quite an understanding man, and he would've already taken us in had it not been for the fact that he was often away on business. My mother finally signed the papers, and we were free of her forever."

I nodded my head in sympathy. "So who was the lady who was always at home when I went over there?" Even though I was cruel to everyone, Cora and I had had a real friendship. Yes, I was certainly jealous of her relationships, but we truly connected over most things, away from the ongoing popularity contest known as school.

Cora smiled gently, remembering, but offered no explanation. I guess that information would have to wait. But there was no hurry, we had a long time to rekindle or friendship, if that's what we both wanted.

"Truce: No more stealing guys and no more rivalries?"

"Totally no more stealing guys. But who said we can't thrash you guys at tonight's Trivia at the girls' high school?" I shook her outstretched hand firmly.

"And Max, if Fang cheats on you, or if you cheat on him. Don't give up without a fight. He's a keeper. We'll see about tonight, won't we, my dear frenemy. Your team is going down." She winked and walked off happily, picking a flower of its stem and inhaling its smell deeply. Fang came over and bent down, giving my hand a squeeze.

"What did she say?" he wondered curiously, probably staring at my disbelieving face.

I smiled and pulled down on his arm, lifting myself up, grabbing my notepad.

"That's for me to know, and you to never find out." I started to pull Fang along the faded brick path.

Fang chuckled, raising an eyebrow challengingly. "Oh yeah?" A smile teased the corners of his mouth.

I stopped walking and turned to face him. "What was that 'oh yeah' for?" I demanded.

Fang chuckled lightly, and placed his hand on my waist. I swatted him away with my book laughingly. Fang shrugged, "I'm just betting everything I have that I'll be able to convince you to tell me." Fang bent down and brushed my lips with his. Just his touch alone sent my heart into overdrive and my head swimming. I eagerly parted my lips, ready for more kisses and Fang straightened back up.

"Nuh-uh. Only if you tell me what Cora said." I could see where this was going and stuck my tongue out at him. I dragged Fang further down the path, enjoying the feeling of my hair blowing around. Fang jogged a few steps to catch up. He looped his arms around me and forced me to a halt, next to a white hexagonal rotunda.

"Max, I have something really important to ask you. NO! I'm not proposing, stupid. Gosh, you should see your face. Before I ask you my non marriage related question, I have to…basically beg if we can start afresh. I realize we've only gone on about three dates, and none of them were official."

I smirked. "Depends what your definition of date is. If it's having your hand up my shirt, I'm pretty sure that's more than three," I teased.

Fang's face turned a dark shade of red but he was grinning crookedly. "Hey, you like it when we get that far."

"Okay, okay." I tried to change the subject so I could find out what Fang's question- not related to getting married- was. "You can take me on our first official date tomorrow night. You know, I'll probably be moving out soon."

Fang looked surprised. "What? Why?"

I shrugged, "I'm not The Nanny anymore."

Fang swayed us and brushed back a flyaway hair that had somehow gotten trapped between my lips. "No," he agreed. "You're not the Nanny anymore. But I prefer it like this." He gently cupped my chin with one hand, keeping his other arm wrapped around my waist.

I stared into his pit less eyes. "Why do you prefer it?" I wanted to know.

Fang smiled, bending down to hover a centimeter from my lips. It took every muscle in my body to stop me from lifting my face to close the distance.

"Because I wouldn't be allowed to do this," then he leaned down ever so slowly and just as our lips were meeting- snagged my sketch book from my hand.

"Oi, come back here! Fang Nicols! Give that back!" We disturbed the pigeons, running through them causing them to jump up and fly away, squawking in protest.

"You still need to ask your question!"

Suddenly Fang had disappeared. I looked around- he couldn't have run that fast. It was mainly open grass. I muttered to myself and waited for him to re appear (with my book).

He lightly dropped down from the tree I had been standing under. He held out the book and I narrowed my eyes, not trusting the innocent look in his eyes one bit.

"So you want me to stick around so you can mock me about my hideous art skills?"

Fang's lips twitched. He flung the forgotten sketch pad on the ground and pulled me up for a proper, tingling kiss.

"Max! Our cheerleading team has made it to nationals next year! You have to put it in your diary right now. AHHHH! Ella and I are so excited!" Angel and Ella jumped up and down, squealing.

I turned to them both. "I would love to be there for you girls, but I won't be here."

Angel looked confused. "You're going away to college now?"

Fang chuckled. I could feel his warm breath on the back of my neck. "No…"

[Beforehand]

"It's customary in my family for the family business and inheritance to be passed on when the son turns 23. I've decided to spend my last year free travelling on my own ship." Fang smiled wistfully, as if he was already on that boat, exploring the world.

I bit my lip. It all sounded wonderful, but what did it have to do with me?

"I want to see this world! In my belief, you only get one life- at least as the person you are. I want to do everything, try everything I can. But- I would also like someone to travel and be happy with..."

He trailed off, wondering to see if I had caught his drift. I smirked- at least I could put off college for another year.

I nodded my head. "I like boats."

I now know it isn't money, possessions and just experiences that make life worth living. It's who you spend them with that makes moments memorable.

And there you go. I had a better last paragraph, but FF deleted it and I couldn't remember :/ I know these last few chapters definitely weren't my best work, but I'm excited about my new story. So, please add me to alerts or check in again :) Thanks to everyone who reviewed one last time.

I might do a few chapters as afterwards, I haven't decided if they'll be added here or a new story. Not in the immediate future, but I already know what the chapters will be about.

Shadowhunter: no hiatus, just me being lazy and paying more attention to my other story. Sorry :)

BTW, I have a Tumblr: . if you want to check that out. ;) I would appreciate a follow if you have Tumblr and just tell me who you are, I'll follow back.

The last sign off from SallSall for The Nanny,

Have a lovely day. :D