Disclaimer: It's fanfic, meaning I don't own anything or make any money off of it. It's a labor of love. Please don't sue me.

This chapter is rated T.

Epilog - No Time Like The Present

Max sat in front of her laptop, reviewing the notes she'd hastily typed. She'd left work early when she'd heard the news. It had made her almost physically ill. The court had sent Eliza to Aliceville prison in Alabama. Medium security, not supermax. Apparently the judge had decided that Eliza had cooperated fully, and bought her story about the coded book. She sat looking at the

notes she'd typed up. She had promised Mike before they'd been married that there wasn't a Joe room in her future. Well, the apartment was way too small for that, even if she wanted to go there, and Mike wouldn't have it anyway. So if she couldn't have a Joe room, she'd have a Joe folder on her hard drive.

Of course it could all be a coincidence that she had gone to a medium security facility from which an escape or a rescue might be more easily arranged. Maybe the judge was just that stupid. Or maybe the squid was about to surface. There was no way of knowing. But it was time to start keeping track. She looked at her computer clock. Mike would be home soon. Best to close this out now. She clicked save, and thought for a moment about what to call the folder she'd created. The scientific name for the giant squid was Architeuthis. She typed the word, but as she was about to hit enter, she thought better of it. A code name should be easier to spell, for one thing. She hit backspace a few times, and saved the folder as Archie.

She closed the window, leaving open the other writing project she'd been working on, but hadn't told Mike about. This was something else she had said she wasn't going to do, at least not yet. But she'd decided it was time.

II

Mike opened the door to their apartment, and found Max sitting on the couch, in jeans a T shirt and bare feet, her open laptop sitting on the coffee table. "How are you?" he asked.

"I'm OK."

"You didn't sound like it earlier."

"I let it get to me."

When he sat down next to her, she greeted him with a kiss, and curled into his arms. "You sure you're gonna be all right?"

"I haven't had a nightmare in four months, and I'm not going to start. I don't even want to talk about this. Let's talk about something cheerful. What are you planning for Dennis' bachelor party?"

"Well, Dennis isn't really a strippers and debauchery kind of guy. I thought maybe we could get a bunch of tickets and we'd all take in an MMA match. Or maybe charter a boat and go deep sea fishing. I think we'll probably do MMA. If we go fishing, some of the guys will get seasick, and they wouldn't enjoy that."

"MMA sounds good He'll like that. Did you get something to eat?"

"Yeah, we stopped at the gym to work out. After a hard day of going through all those financial records for that front company...anyway, after the gym we stopped off for burgers and beers."

"Sounds good. I warmed up some of that leftover chicken. Excuse me for just a second." She rose and disappeared into the bedroom.

He sat for a moment and considered turning on the TV. He reached for the remote, but as he did so, he noticed the laptop. A word processor was open. Max never brought work home. He looked at the screen, and began to read what she had typed. He scrolled down the page to read more of it.

He was suddenly aware that she was back, sitting down next to him, and sliding back into his arms. He kissed her , and as he did so caught a familiar scent. That fragrance. She'd worn it before, that first night he'd finally been well enough to make love to her again.

"I thought you said you didn't want to write a book yet," he said.

"Well, I thought about it. We were going to start a family.. Children are expensive."

"That's what I've heard," he replied. "When do you want to start a family?"

"Well, like you said the night you proposed. There's no time like the present."

Musical Finale - Home To You By Dusty Hughes