Author's Note: I finished this story over three years ago. Well – this version of it. I guess it really isn't over yet. But with the completion of Sins of the Saints, the companion piece to this story from Two-Bit's point of view, I thought it would be fitting that Bee get her own crack at an epilogue, to tell us what happened after the events of the story. So that's…fifty chapters of their story. With more to come, I hope!

I'm gonna let Bridget take it from here.

Happy reading :)

XXXXX

1972

I got out of Tulsa as fast as I could.

My senior year of high school, after our spring production of Oklahoma! (I know, I know. But what do you want me to say?), my drama teacher, Mrs. White, called me into her office.

"You have real talent," she told me, smiling like the dickens. "And I know of a few schools that are very interested in you."

"What do you mean?" I asked, still unwilling to accept that I had any true talent. That there wasn't always someone better.

"I mean that you've made quite an impression. Two leads in two years. And several solos in choral performances – in your first year performing with our choir. You must have hidden it for some time, but there is true talent there. You need to go somewhere that will nurture that talent, appreciate it."

"So…not here."

"Not here, Bridget."

It was sort of thrilling to discover that I'd gotten auditions at schools such as Julliard and Carnegie Mellon. Dad was excited as well, and his new wife, Viviane. The only problem is that I'd have to move pretty far away. Well – a problem in their eyes. To me, it was welcome. I wanted to go back home. Tulsa was never home, and it never would be. So when my acceptance letter from Julliard came in the mail, I was absolutely over the moon.

But Two-Bit? Wasn't.

But that wasn't what ended it for us.

That was my fault.

Or maybe it was Lyndon Johnson's. Or Nixon's. I don't know.

In 1966, I met him. In 1967, I told him I loved him. In 1968, I lost my virginity to him, and moved back home. In 1969, he went to Vietnam and I broke it off with him because I'm a coward. And then nothing important happened until this year, when I graduated from Julliard and Dad had his heart attack, when I went back to Tulsa for the summer to be with him. Because Viviane couldn't take care of him alone.

And so it was three years after I'd called it quits, three years after he'd almost died, three years after I'd watched the moon landing from some druggie's apartment and went to Woodstock that I saw him, in all places, at the grocery store.

And I remembered that I still loved him, and that I was a damn fool for leaving him.

XXXXX

"Bee Stevens, my, my."

Needless to say, he took me completely by surprise. I knew who he was immediately – how could I not? His hair was longer and wavier, so I guess he ditched the buzzcut pretty early on. I'd never seen him with one, so I had no idea if it looked good or bad on him. And he was just smiling at me, like he wanted to laugh (because of course he did). For some reason, I was embarrassed. He looked almost exactly as I remembered him, but he looked twenty-four. I still looked like I was seventeen. Viviane told me that I ought to at least try to look respectable walking around town, and that if I was ever going to get a man I shouldn't wear pants and sandals. So I wore a dress of a decent length, feeling like Carol Brady or something and not a thing like me. I like Viviane, but sometimes…you know. How she wants me to be is not always who I really am – not anymore.

But some things must stay the same, because I could feel myself blushing like crazy. It took everything I had not put my hands to my cheeks to hide it. "Hey, Two-Bit. How are you?"

"I'm good!" He looked me up and down. I hoped he could still see me. "God, you look…you look beautiful, Bee."

God, if I wasn't blushing before…"Thank you. You don't look half bad yourself."

"Yeah, guess so. Thanks. So, uh, what brings you to town?"

"Well, I just graduated and all, so I thought…ya know, maybe I'd come back. See Dad and Viviane. At the very least, spend the summer before I get out there and really look for work."

"You're lookin' to work?"

Two-Bit bit his lip, like he instantly regretted asking that. Because he knew who I was. Knew what I wanted. He'd always known, and he'd never stopped me. "Of course. What else?"

"Well. Just – not that you can't! – I just…well, I figured maybe you had a new beau or something, and, ya know…"

Oh, that was rich. A new beau. Yeah, right. Viviane had tried over and over to get me to date – and probably marry – one of her friends' sons. I've gone on a few dates, and here's what I'll tell you: none of them were Two-Bit. Seems I've been carrying a torch for him these three years. "I was just gonna be his little woman, wait on him hand and foot, something like that?"

He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "Sounds pretty bad when you put it like that."

"It's okay, Two-Bit. Really."

"I'm sorry for even suggesting – "

"Seriously, Two-Bit. It's alright. Uh, there isn't anybody. I'm not with anybody. Vivi keeps trying to set me up with guys, but I can't say she's exactly been successful."

There was something like hope in his eyes. "That so? Then, uh, tomorrow, mind if I stop by your place? 'Round six? We could get a drink or something. Catch up."

I smiled so hard my cheeks hurt. "I'd love that."

XXXXX

Two-Bit must have the patience of a saint because when we went out for that drink, I cried. I cried because my father was sick, and he was the only real family I had left in the world and I couldn't stand it if he died. I cried because even though I looked the same I'd changed so much, so how could I even imagine him wanting to take me back? I cried because he shouldn't take me back because that last letter I sent him must've broken his heart. I cried because Two-Bit almost died over there, in a country none of us could ever really know. And I cried because Two-Bit said I had him, and I didn't deserve that much.

Needless to say, we got the hell out of there.

"You can be real confusing sometimes. You know that?" Two-Bit asked me. The two of us were walking around downtown. I was trying to cool off. I walked around with my arms crossed over my chest, shivering even though it was the middle of June in Oklahoma. And I kept a respectable distance between the two of us, knowing that this wasn't like when we were teenagers walking around hand-in-hand. He'd clearly grown up. I hadn't.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled. "About what happened back there. I…I don't know."

"Yeah you do," Two-Bit said softly. "You know why."

I stopped walking, and he stopped, too. He always seemed to be one step ahead of me. How was that fair? "No, I don't," I repeated, but even I wasn't convinced this time.

"Bee –"

"Fine," I spat. "You wanna know why?" He nodded. He was always so casual. With his stupid fists shoved into his stupid pockets and that stupid look on his face. I was trying to hate him. I was trying to hate him again. Like in those early days that we knew each other, when he would flick paper footballs at me and shoot me that cocky, smarmy grin every time I whipped around to look at him. I was trying to summon that up so that this wouldn't hurt so much.

I keep forgetting that I never really hated him.

"I must've broken your heart," I whispered bitterly – at the end of the day, actually hating myself for what I'd done. "It must've killed you to read that letter and then get shipped off."

Two-Bit nodded. "Yeah. You could say that."

"Then you shouldn't even want to be seen with me. What would your family say? Your friends? They must hate me as much as you do."

"They don't hate you," Two-Bit said. "I don't hate you, either."

"I need you to," I sobbed, already working myself up again. "I need you to," I repeated, "because you'd be better off if you did."

Two-Bit sighed and closed the gap between us. We were standing in a ring of light beneath a streetlamp. Must've been late for it to be this dark. "Why?" He asked. "And don't I get a say?"

"Because you don't know who I am anymore. You don't know what I've done or who I've become –"

"Don't I get a say," Two-Bit continued, repeating himself, "in whether or not that's true? If I'm really better off hating you? I mean, I won't be able to decide if I do if I don't know what you've done," he shrugged. "And my god, Bee – it can't be any worse than anything I've done."

I looked up at him in surprise, wishing he hadn't said that. Wishing we could just have a conversation without Vietnam getting in the way. Wishing I'd just stuck it out. Wishing I'd – ahem – grow a pair and tell him everything. Two-Bit always had a way of teasing the truth out of me. And I had a feeling that's what he was doing now.

"Don't say that," I mumbled. "You had no choice."

He shrugged. "Sure, I had choices. It just turned out that the best choice was to go over there instead of dodgin'. C'mon – walk with me, kid. You can tell me."

See?

"What do you think it's like? On the moon?"

I stared at the tiny black-and-white set, sitting on this guy's couch with nothing but my panties on, watching as America put a man on the moon. It was riveting television, that was for sure. I took a puff off the joint I was sharing with the guy's (I can't even remember his name now, just that he'd passed out right after we'd done it) dealer, Wes Wheeler. I remember Wes real well. I remember how much he scared me, how helpless I felt when sitting next to him. How he seemed to know so much more about the world than I did. Like just then. When I asked that question, he just laughed at me.

"Why don't you ask Neil Armstrong? If he comes back."

"They'll come back," I said, absolutely sure. "I'm sure they know what they're doing."

Wes snorted. "You're too quick to trust."

"Trust who?"

"Everybody. And everything. You're a damned pushover, Stevens."

I narrowed my eyes at him. Wes was mean. He was just one of the number of mean men – mean people – I'd met. But I still rode in his van when we went to Woodstock. Still stood in Times Square with him on New Year's. And it was never just me and him – this was the first time. I don't know if I was trying to be his friend or what. But whatever I was trying to do, it had been a mistake. "You can call me Bee. That's what all my friends call me."

"Bee?" Wes repeated, laughing at me again. "What're you, ten?"

"No," I said, petulant. I looked away from him – from his cold, brown eyes and stringy hair and perfect teeth and army jacket – and looked back at the set. What I wouldn't give to be on the Moon just then, just to get away from him. "For your information, my boyfriend calls me that," I informed him, even though it was a lie. Even though I'd already sent that letter telling Two-Bit I couldn't bear to do this with him while he was gone. When he could die.

"You have a boyfriend?" Wes drawled.

"Sure do. He's, uh, he's in Vietnam right now."

Wes scoffed. He hated that war more than anything else, which was saying something. "Well, I ain't your boyfriend, Stevens. And I sure ain't your friend."

"Gee," Two-Bit said softly. "Sounds like a real charmer."

"Real asshole, is more like it," I sighed. The two of us were sitting in a park on a bench, staring out at a pond. "But that's the sort of company I kept."

"Mm," he hummed. "They were all like that?"

"No," I said, suddenly defensive. "I made real friends out there. Like the ones I have here. Some of them were, some of them weren't. Good people, that is." I sighed again. "Mostly, Two-Bit, I'm just sorry about what I did to you."

"It's okay," he said, always too quick to forgive me. "I get it, Bee."

"How?" I asked, sounding whiny even to my own ears. "I…how could I do that to you? Run away like that." And that's what it had really been – running away. Just like my mother had down. Just like his father had done. All those years ago when I'd asked him whether or not we were going to end up like them. Looks like I had. Running away from my problems, hiding from them. From him.

When I'd last written him, I hadn't seen him in several months. Letters and phone calls. It was over the phone when he'd told me his number had come up. Not long after Steve Randle's had. I hadn't cried then, but I had afterwards, alone in my room. I was supposed to go home that summer, but I didn't. Told my father there'd been a change of plans. Because I couldn't go back to Tulsa and be face-to-face with who I believed was a dead man walking. When I finally did return home that summer, the week after I'd gone to upstate New York and before I had to head back to Julliard, Two-Bit was already gone.

I'd done the one thing I'd tried so hard to avoid.

"I wanted to run away all the time," Two-Bit said, laughing. "Instead, I ran straight into a goddamn bullet."

I laughed a little. "But now you're some sort of hero. Bet you look real sharp in your uniform and all those medals," I teased. If I didn't know better, I'd say Two-Bit's smile almost looked shy.

"I don't know about that. But I guess I'll let you be the judge," he said, winking. I laughed again and he just stared at me, smiling.

"Bee."

"Yeah."

"I'm not sayin' you didn't hurt me. I'm just sayin' that I get why you did it. I get that you were scared. And that's okay. Are you scared now?"

I nodded without hesitation. "Of course I am. I don't know what to do now. Now that I've graduated. Now that Dad is sick."

"I could help you figure it out," he offered. "Or just…help you, period."

"You don't want to do that," I whispered. "I'm…I'm a very different person now."

"So am I!" He said cheerfully. "I think we ought to get to know each other again."

XXXXX

So that's what we did that summer. When Missy and Cherry heard we were seeing each other again, they were a bit surprised, to say the least. And Viviane and my father were…worried.

"He just got back from war," my father said gently. I was sitting with him in his room, for once in my life allowing myself to not be embarrassed by spending time with him. So I sat in a chair while he sat up in bed reading something, and I was fixing a skirt I'd torn doing…we'll just say I was doing something neither my father or step-mother would approve of.

"Almost three years ago. And you went to war, too," I reminded him. "You both have Purple Hearts."

"Right," he said gently, obviously not wanting to rock the boat.

"He's not dangerous," I defended.

"No," Dad conceded. "But he is…restless."

"So am I."

"You have several opportunities ahead of you, Bridget," Dad said, his tone warning. "I just don't want anything to happen to that."

"Nothing's going to happen, Daddy. He's always been good to me. You know that."

He looked unsure, but nodded and went back to his book. I knew what he was trying to do. And I got it, but I needed him to stop. Besides – it was me who broke it off. Because I was the one who got scared. It was Two-Bit who was giving me the second chance, not the other way around. And it was quite the second chance – we fell back into things so easily. It felt just like that year before I left. We almost had a rhythm again. And we mostly kept to ourselves – long drives, long talks. I stopped by to visit him while he was working, and he showed up at the house at any and all hours. Missy and Cherry wanted to hear everything – What's he been saying? Is it the same? Do you actually think this is gonna work, or is it just a fling? What have you been doing? Where have you been going? – and his buddies, who knew him probably better than anybody, seemed to be asking him the same questions.

"It's starting to get on my nerves," Two-Bit grumbled, slamming his menu down on the table, shaking it and causing our water to slosh over the top of our glasses. I pressed my mouth into a thin line and mopped up the mess.

"They're just looking out for you. And they have good reason to."

When we were teenagers, we didn't really go on proper dates. Even after we had stopped sneaking around. It was always driving, or sitting at the A-and-W, or…simple things. You know what I mean. But now everything felt different. Sitting in restaurants. Doubling up. Seeing shows. Going to parties together, and people knowing we were together. Like one unit.

It was all moving very quickly.

"No they don't," he sighed. "You're one'a the best things that's ever happened to me, kid."

I didn't want to cry in the middle of a diner, but he sure was trying his damnedest to make me. Probably unintentionally. Probably. "Does that mean you've forgiven me?"

Two-Bit looked surprised. "Yeah. I have."

"When?" I pressed, really wanting to know. "Because what I did? Was awful."

"Sure –"

"And unfair."

"Yeah –"

"And cowardly."

"Bee," he sighed. "It was all those things, sure." He leaned in. "But I have to tell you something, and I don't know if you're going to like hearing it."

"Haven't like a lot of things I've heard lately," I muttered, thinking of Dad's and my friends' and my own concerns. Of Two-Bit's friends'. I wanted so desperately for it to be true that he'd forgiven me. I'd do anything for that to be true.

"Seriously, Bee."

"What is it, Two-Bit?"

"Bee," he began, "when I was over there, I had a lot of time to do a lot of thinking." He smirked. "Now, I know – that's not usually my move. But it's true. And yeah – I thought about you a lot. I wasn't angry so much as…upset, I guess? Kinda worried, actually," he admitted, "because I figgered that you must be hiding something. That somethin' was really wrong, ya know? But it wasn't until I got my sorry ass shot, lyin' in that field thinkin' I was gonna die that I actually got sorta pissed. You wanna know why?" I couldn't speak, so I just nodded. "I thought I was gonna die angry at you. Worried about you." Two-Bit's voice finally had some venom to it. I wanted him to be angry at me. Until that happened, we'd never move past this. "And that was a shitty feeling. So not only was I thinkin' I'd never see my family again, or Darry or Steve or any of those guys, I was pissed 'cause all I could think about was you – over here – and how the exact thing you were worried about was about to happen. Jesus, Bridget. I wouldn't wish that feeling on anybody. I was about to lose everything, and you got to sit at home and pretend it never happened. Just forget me."

"I didn't want to," I said, my voice sounding empty, even to my own ears. Because if it didn't, I'd be crying again. "I was real mixed up back then, Two-Bit. I knew it was a mistake. I knew that. But once that letter was gone –"

"That was that," he cut in. "Ya know, I thought I'd never see you again."

"I did, too."

Two-Bit narrowed his eyes. "I meant what I said, when I took you out for that drink a while back."

"Meant what?"

"I'm sorry, Two-Bit. I really am sorry."

"For what?"

"For being too scared. When I heard you were going over there…I was too scared to think about what would happen if I lost you. It was easier for me to cut ties. And hell – I almost did lose you."

"But you didn't. I'm still kickin'."

"Guess you are. Still doesn't excuse what I did. I should've just grown up. I'm not really good at any of this. Doing adult things. I'm so…so naïve, I guess. And I always have been. Probably always will be."

"Well, that's what you've got me for, ain't it?"

"Do I really have you? Really?"

"If you'll have me."

Oh. Oh. Right after he'd said that, that's when I'd started to cry. I forgot how easygoing Two-Bit was. How easily he could forgive – at least, forgive me. The people he cared about. But I wanted him to be angry at me. It just seemed as if we were never going to get to the point where he really and truly shouted me down.

"I know you did," I whispered, answering my own question.

"Good. At some point, Bee," Two-Bit continued, his voice heavy, "you're gonna have to forgive yourself. If you can forgive me for all the horrible things I did over there, and I can forgive you, then we gotta start workin' on forgivin' ourselves."

God, that sounded nice. I reached across the table without thinking and grabbed his hand, neither of us saying a word, but that one gesture saying everything that needed to be said.

XXXXX

Things got a lot better from that point on.

XXXXX

"–the haul from Manhattan to Woodstock isn't really much of a haul. But it still felt like this big thing, ya know? Like we were doing something important."

"I bet. Wish I could'a gone," Two-Bit said. He and I were sitting on my back porch, passing a joint back and forth. Dad and Viviane had already gone to bed, so we were in the clear. And we were adults now – what could they really do? "Pony wrote me about it."

"He was there?" I asked, surprised. I couldn't imagine him blending real well into that environment.

"No," Two-Bit smirked, "but he sure wanted to be. I…I don't know if he'd'a liked it real well."

I laughed softly. "That's what I thought."

We let the silence settle back between us. After a summer back in Tulsa, I still had no clue where I was heading. The theatre scene in Tulsa didn't exactly compare to Broadway, or even off Broadway, but I still needed a bit of time before I started that process, no matter how many calls I'd received, offering work. All I knew was that I didn't want to stay here, not really, but I did know that what Two-Bit and I had was good. Finally, truly, good. Early September, and I think I can safely say that things were back to how they used to be. But there was still so much that we had to discover about each other after so much time apart. I must've asked him about Vietnam every other day, when we were alone. Never in front of our friends or parents. I told him more about Wes Wheeler, about every crazy experience I'd had back home.

We were so intrinsically different. He'd had to go and fight in a war that I had been vocally, vehemently against, willing to take to the streets to prove it. Even though he kept his hair long and smoked pot, he still dressed like a cowboy, even if I didn't dress like a socialite anymore, not really. The past few years of our lives had looked so different. So how was it that everything still felt the same?

"You sure have seen a lot, Miz Bee."

I smiled softly and rolled my eyes. "You've seen a lot more than I have." I shook my head.

"Nah. We've just seen a lot of very different things. That's all. Bee?"

"Yeah?"

Two-Bit looked a bit nervous. "We've always been real different, ain't we?" I nodded, noting that it was a bit strange that I had just been thinking about that exact thing. "But, uh, I want you to know that's never bothered me."

"That's never bothered me, either."

"And, uh, really, I think I love you for it. That you're so different from me, I mean. And that ain't the only reason, but, uh – Bee, I gotta tell you somethin'."

I narrowed my eyes. "Okay. You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Then what's up?"

Two-Bit reached into his pocket and as soon as I saw it, my eyes went wide. "Bee, I uh, I asked your father if I…if I could ask you to marry me."

I think I choked on my own spit. Married? Him and me? Together? Married?

The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea.

"You want to marry me?" I asked quietly, still staring at the little black box, which he was rolling over in his hand. Two-Bit looked at me like it was a stupid question.

"Of course I do," he whispered, his tone not at all matching the expression on his face. "I mean, I don't wanna marry anybody else," he said, trying to joke. But I knew he meant it. "So – yeah."

I pressed my lips together in a poor attempt to hold back a smile. "So?

"So…?"

"So are you gonna ask me?"

Two-Bit's face fell. "That's the problem. I would, but Thom didn't exactly give me his blessing."

That made me feel about as miserable as he looked. I almost couldn't believe he asked in the first place. I automatically knew that Dad had said no with the best of intentions. I'm sure he was very nice about it. And I'm sure he had what he thought to be a good reason. But it still made me mad. I was twenty-two for Christ's sakes, and if I had grown up enough this summer to make amends with the biggest mistake I've ever made, then I was old enough to decide if I wanted to get married.

And I did.

"Fuck that. If we wanna get engaged, we should get engaged."

Two-Bit suddenly leaned in, sitting closer to me than he had been before. "You serious?"

"Of course I'm serious. I mean, it's real sweet of you that you asked him. My dad means a lot to me, but at the end of the day, it's not up to him. It's up to you" – I pointed to him, then back to myself – "and me. So, do you want to marry me?"

"Someday, yeah."

"So – ask me, then."

"Really?"

"Do I need to do it for you?"

"No. Jesus. I'm a big boy! So – Bridget Stevens – do you wanna marry me?"

I leaned in and kissed his cheek. He would later deny it, telling me there was no way I could tell in the dark, but he was blushing. "Of course I do. Now – let's see this ring!"

XXXXX

"Was your dad mad?"

Missy, Marcia, and Cherry were all examining the ring on my finger, of which I was extremely proud. I wasn't aiming to make anyone jealous, but it did feel kinda nice, being officially off the market. I guess there was still the old me lurking underneath, the one who cared about these sorts of things.

"Yep," I answered cheerfully. "But when Viviane told him he'd better settle down or risk getting his ass sent back to the hospital, he calmed down. I don't know how long it'll take for him to come around, but there's not much he can do to stop us."

Marcia shook her head in amazement. "Just wait 'til he sees you in your dress and walks you down the aisle. He'll be over it then."

I hummed in the back of my throat. "I don't want to have to wait that long," I said quietly. "I hope he forgives me sooner than that."

"I'm sure he will," Missy assured me, Cherry nodding along. "At the end of the day, you two have always had each other. He won't want to be mad at you on your wedding day."

"Everyone's gettin' married," Cherry sighed. "Y'all are leaving me and Missy here behind!"

"You'll get there when you get there," Marcia said, waving off Cherry's worry. This felt just like old times – lounging around in Cherry's room, all stuffed onto the bed, lying across each other in the late summer heat and chatting about boys. If this didn't feel like high school, I don't know what did. But this time, instead of worrying about getting a boyfriend, it was worrying about getting husbands. Which wasn't at all like high school – this felt like a whole new league.

"You're right," Cherry said decisively. "After all, not all of us go to college just to get our MRS."

Marcia scowled playfully. "Shut up. Jeff's a nice guy. And Bridget, you would've loved the wedding."

I frowned. "I know," I sighed. "I'm sorry I had to miss it."

"It's okay."

It didn't feel okay, but she seemed to mean it.

"Is it strange?" Missy asked.

"Is what strange?"

Missy shrugged. "After all these years…after everything that's happened between the two of you, all the way back to when you met…I mean, I was there. When you met, that is. Did you ever picture yourself marrying him?"

To be honest, I didn't picture myself ever getting married this soon. "I…I dunno," I said honestly. "But now that it's happening…" I let myself smile. "I like the idea of it real well."

My friends matched my smile and seemed to get even closer to me, Missy and Cherry hugging me and squishing their cheeks against mine, Marcia squeezing my feet, and all of them squealing with delight.

XXXXX

1975

"Congratulations, Mrs. Stevens –"

"Miss," I corrected the doctor. "Miss Stevens. I'm not married yet."

The doctor's face fell a bit. I shifted uncomfortably on the examination table, the paper crinkling. It was cold in here, wasn't it? It was. "Oh," he said simply, then tried to recover with a smile. "Well, I still believe congratulations are in order. You're definitely pregnant. Hope that helps put some of your concerns at ease."

Great. First, Two-Bit and I get engaged without my father's permission. Then we can't set on date, creating a three year engagement. Now, I was pregnant. Of course. Maybe it was the universe trying to get our asses in gear, but still. I couldn't imagine being a mother, couldn't imagine Two-Bit being a father. It was such a foreign concept to both of us, something we'd never really talked about. Joked about, maybe, but never really sat down and talked about it. I guess I want to be a mother. But then again, I've never really thought about it. I've been too busy working to think about that sort of thing.

Guess I was going to have to start.

"Miss Stevens?"

I broke out of my reverie and looked back at the doctor. "Yes?"

"I was just saying that you're two months along now. I also have a few other things you should know about –"

I just sorta tuned him out and wordlessly accepted every piece of literature and prescription he gave me, and robotically scheduled my next appointment.

XXXXX

"So."

"So."

"Pregnant."

"Yep."

"That means…a baby."

"It does."

We were both lying in the dark, staring straight up at the ceiling. I know he didn't like it, but I was keeping distance between us, not really wanting to be touched for the time being. Now that I knew for sure, I could feel my body changing. Something was kicking in. I didn't feel like me, and my body didn't feel like mine. I felt foreign. I was starting to get sick of not feeling like myself. There had been too many times over the years where I felt like somebody else.

But I wanted desperately to love this baby. And I knew I was attached to it. My hands hovered protectively over my abdomen at almost all times. I was dreading telling my father and Viviane. The only way to make this even remotely alright was to get married as soon as possible, or possibly risk being written out of the will. I knew in my head that my father loved me, but I couldn't help but feel as if this would hurt him, even though I'd be giving him a grandchild.

Everything was always so complicated. Why was everything always so complicated?

"I'll call my father tomorrow," I said into the stillness. "Start planning everything."

"Okay."

Two-Bit sounded as scared as I felt. Actually, I bet I sounded pretty scared, too.

"I'm sorry."

I rolled over so I could face him. "Why?"

"Because every time you tried to bring up the whole wedding thing, I freaked. If I'd just grown a pair, we could've already been married, and then we wouldn't be having this problem."

"It's okay, ya know. I'm not mad."

"Yeah. But you're scared. And this time, so am I."

"Then we'll be scared together."

"I don't know if I can be a dad, Bee."

"You can," I whispered, then sighed. "And we're going to get married, and I'm going to…" Suddenly, the thought struck me that I was going to be very, very pregnant when this happened, and my breath hitched. "…and I'm going to find a dress that will fit, and my family will foot the bill, and it's going to be great. Darry got Jackie pregnant before they were married, and that all worked out."

Two-Bit snorted. "Yeah, but it's not like his brothers cared. Do you think we'll have to go down to Tulsa to do this?"

I closed my eyes and sighed through my nose. "Oh, probably. No way all those people would want to fly out to New York to see some pregnant lady get married."

"Hey," Two-Bit sorta chastised, but then he moved right on. "Guess we could ask Pony to do the whole thing in Chicago. Meet halfway, yeah?"

I snorted a laugh. "We're gonna have to get married in Tulsa, Two-Bit."

He sighed. "If they say we have to, I guess we will."

They said we had to.

XXXXX

"I can't believe I was engaged to you for three years."

"Yeah, well, believe it, Honey Bee, cuz it's over now. Now get over here so I can get that dress off ya."

"What? You don't want to have sex with me like this. I'm huge."

"Fine, then. Sleep in it."

"…oh."

XXXXX

"Mary?"

"Yes, Mary. What, you don't like it?"

"Oh, it's fine, it's fine. Just that Mary Elizabeth sounds sorta uptight. I can't get any goofy nicknames outta that."

"I'm sure you'll swing something," I assured him, patting his hand with my right and holding Mary close with my left, my eyes never leaving hers.

XXXXX

1977

"You, my dear, are a baby-making machine."

I suppose, if two babies in roughly two years qualified me as one. I don't know. They just…happened.

"Yeah, well, it takes two to tango, pal. And he is most definitely your son, considering how much grief he's already given me – and a month early, no less."

And then Two-Bit piled onto that grief by telling me that he'd promised Ponyboy that he'd name our son Dallas, and I think I nearly died when I heard that.

XXXXX

1982

I think having the third baby pretty much solidified for me who I thought I was. Who I wanted other people to see. I've tried on many personas over the years. Some of them had been forced on me, sure. I didn't ask to spend my first eleven years of public schooling as a wallflower. I didn't ask to suddenly become queen bee when I moved down to Tulsa. But I chose to become the flower child I was in college and until I was married. I chose to work and work and work until it became too hard to do so anymore. I fell clumsily into the role of mother and wife. But with Lisa, our third and final baby, I guess I came to terms with that. Because love makes you do funny things. Makes you do things and become something you never knew you wanted to do or be.

In a way, I'm clinging to these kids like a lifeline. Like I've been hanging on to Two-Bit for sixteen years. That's almost twenty, if you didn't know, and twenty years makes two decades. And it's all gone by much too quickly. Is going by much too quickly.

"Hey."

I turn around. I've been sitting on the porch, waiting up. Lisa had already woken me up a while ago anyway, so I didn't mind waiting until Two-Bit got home. He was a silhouette against the light emanating from the kitchen, leaning against the doorjamb with his arms crossed over his chest. He still wore his hair long, not ever wanting to get close to the buzzcut he'd had while in the military ever again. That made it easier to look at him and still be able to see the guy I'd met all those years ago, even with the lines and tired look in the eyes. He still smiles easier than I do, but that's always been that way.

"Hey," I parrot. "You're home."

"I am," he sighs, letting the screen door slam behind him and coming to sit beside me. "Long night?"

I smirk. "They all are." But I shrug. "That's okay, though. It wasn't a bad long."

"Good." Two-Bit nudges me. "Hey."

"Yeah."

"You okay?"

I nod. "'Course. Why wouldn't I be?"

Two-Bit shrugged. "Dunno. You're just…sitting out here. Alone. And not just alone, you look kinda…lonely."

"I'm not," I whispered. "Good day?"

He shrugged again. "You could say that. Nothin' spectacular. Guys weren't up to their usual antics. Just a lot of chatter."

"At you?"

"I'm the barkeep. Who else they gonna wax philosophical with?"

I snorted softly and nudged his knee with mine. "Fair enough."

"How about you? Good day?"

"Yeah," I breathed. "Dallas was so excited this morning, going off to school for the first time."

Two-Bit's smile reminded me too much of his younger self, creating a nostalgic pain in my chest. "Yeah, that was cute. What was he like when he got home?"

"He couldn't shut up," I laughed. "He's certainly your son. I'm sure he'll have plenty to tell you once the weekend rolls around. Mary, too."

"Lis notice they were gone?"

I shrugged. "Oh, maybe at first. But she's easy enough to distract. All in all, it went pretty smooth."

Two-Bit's hand was suddenly on my back, rubbing circles. It was nice. I leaned into him, heaving a big sigh.

"They're good kids," I said, my tone leaving no room for argument – as if Two-Bit would argue against that claim.

"They sure are."

"And you're a good man," I added softly. Two-Bit looked over at me with that stupid grin on his face, that same one I remember seeing the first time I met him. The same one I stupidly fell in love with.

"Think so?" He teased.

"Know so. Thank you."

"For what?"

For telling me I looked good in red. For giving me that note about Vickie Harper and Dallas Winston. For kissing me on New Year's Eve, 1966. For the countless rides home. For the stupid nicknames. For forgiving me for what I did to him. For marrying me. For everything, really. But I didn't know how to say all that just then. So I summed it up.

"For never leaving me alone."

His smile never faltered, but his eyes softened, and I knew he got what I meant, everything that meant, how loaded a statement that really was. So for once in his life, he just nodded, and the two of us turned back towards the yard, towards the stars and the horizon in front of us, and waited for the sun.

XXXXX

(Really) THE END

AN: After four years, fifty chapters, and almost 200,000 words, I think this is a pretty good place to leave these two. At least, from their perspectives. In the next couple weeks, be looking out for something new! Well, sorta new. Seems there's a character here that's gonna continue to fill in some gaps…

Thanks for reading. If you're an original fan of this story or just now finding it, I'd love to take this opportunity to thank you for all of your support over the years. :)

'Til next time,

Abby