A/N: And we have reached the end! Thanks for tuning in :) Fingers crossed we can get an ending as happy as this one. Should we form a prayer circle? Anyway, thanks again and enjoy.

Also, let me know if you catch the dialogue I borrowed from another show :)

Three words that became hard to say

I and love and you

I and love and you

I and love and you

Charles sucked in a sharp breath of air.

Could he meet her?

As much as he wanted to, he wasn't sure he could take another tired explanation or well-meaning rejection.

But surely she wouldn't reach out in the middle of the night just for more of the same?

Who was he kidding...he knew he would go no matter what. Just for once more touch or one more glance. Any brief prolonging of their connection.

He had to take the risk.

He dressed quickly and typed a reply.

Where do you want to meet?

The bubble with three dots appeared immediately, and she replied within seconds.

The public library?

He felt his heart stutter and a rush of hope run through him.

The library was their special meeting place. Surely, surely she wouldn't taint it by bringing him bad news, as the sea glass carousel had been.

He scribbled a note for his daughters in case they woke up and he wasn't there. They would deny it, but he knew they had been checking up on him the mornings he slept in, especially lately. He didn't want them to worry.

He grabbed his coat, then shut and locked the door as quietly as he could before he hailed a cab. If the driver thought his destination of choice was odd for the hour, he didn't show it. Charles was grateful for the silence, running through what he might say to her.

She would say her piece, he decided, then he would offer up all his compromises. He would do whatever it took to make it work. He was not ready to give up on their relationship.

He wasn't ready to live without her.

They arrived quickly and he tipped the driver handsomely. When he pulled away, Charles spotted her across the street.

How she managed to look so lovely at half past four he had no idea.

She looked both ways and made her way toward him. She didn't look subdued or ready for battle. If anything, she looked relieved, if not a little anxious.

She approached him slowly, a shy, uncertain smile on her face.

"Hi," she said quietly.

He swallowed thickly. "Hi."

They stood in silence for a moment, the air between them thrumming with electricity. Then she gestured at the stairs and said, "Can we sit?"

So this was a siting conversation...that was not a good sign.

But he took a seat on a step beside her, bracing himself for whatever was coming.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly, her face angled downward and her eyes seemed to be focused on the concrete in front of them. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

He felt his heart start to break all over again. Was this why she had called him here? To apologize again?

"I don't think I explained myself very well, the last time we talked, and what I did say wasn't very good in terms of an explanation. That wasn't fair to you. You deserve more than that. We..." she trailed off. "We have been through too much for that to have been the end of our relationship. I screwed up, and I'm sorry."

"Liza..." he began, ready to put a moratorium on her apologies, but she interrupted.

"But I didn't ask you to come here for more of my apologies."

Even now, she could still read him so well. "Okay."

She bit her lip, trying to think of a good way to explain what had happened to her in the last few hours. She knew no matter what she said, he would be wary, and she fully accepted that she would have to regain parts of his trust. But if she could be allow herself to be completely vulnerable, to place her entire heart in his hands, maybe his trust in her could be fast-tracked.

"Um, do you remember Dr. Wray? From the Defining Decade?" She waited for him to confirm before she continued. "I have an appointment with her. Sometime next week. I...there's just some things I need to sort through on my own. I mean, on my own but with a professional. Stuff I can't— and wouldn't — expect you or Maggie or anyone else to handle solo. It wouldn't be right, to ask any of you to shoulder the weight of this deep-seated anxiety. So...I'm trying."

He thought that was fair. It was surprising to him, in a way, that she was seeking therapy of her own accord. No one had pressured her into it, and it seemed like she was doing it mainly for herself. He would be thrilled, of course, if her self-discovery was tied to him. But he suspected that even if things didn't work out between them, she would still keep trying to grow. That was just her nature. Maybe he should consider it as well.

"I've been trying to come up with reasons we shouldn't get married," she said, pulling him out of his thoughts. "But the truth is, none of them matter. Every one of them was either irrational or an easy fix."

She was saying all the things he wanted to hear, but he knew better than to get his hopes up just yet.

"And, um, I realized that I don't care. I mean, I do care. But not about that stuff. I care about you. And your girls. And it's like...my life isn't even real to me unless you're there and you're in it, and I'm sharing it with you. And, um...I don't know why I didn't figure things out sooner, and I'm sorry it took me so long to figure it out. And I'm sorry I hurt you. But I know now, what I was scared of and I'm not scared anymore. I'm here. I'm going to therapy and I'm here, ready to start a life with you."

He felt like his brain had frozen, and the only thing he could think to say was, "What?"

"It's a long story, but the short of it is, when my mother died, my father was never the same. He didn't live, he just existed. And for a long time, I resented him a little for withdrawing from his life like that, because I couldn't understand it. To me, marriage was just a contract between two people who agreed to be together and, in my case, be parents. Of course, if I had lost David, I would've been sad. But in the long run? I would've been more sad for my daughter than for myself. So I couldn't make sense of my father completely breaking apart."

She paused, turning to face him. "And then I met you."

Charles felt his heart pounding in his chest, and he had to make a conscious effort to keep his breathing even.

"We read about it in novels, don't we? The moment the heroine and her true love lock eyes for the first time. They feel drawn to each other, despite never having met. Their connection is electric and magical, no matter how much either of them may try to deny it. That's how I felt the first time you came into the office."

"When I thought you were a 26-year-old assistant," he teased, giving her a playful nudge with his shoulder.

She nudged him back. "But I knew you probably wouldn't ever notice me. Age lie aside, I knew I couldn't have feelings for the boss. But...I couldn't not have feelings for you. It almost felt like the harder I tried to shove them away, the more we seemed to be thrown together. When you booked a room for me and Josh at that bed and breakfast, I realized I was on the verge falling. I tried to tell myself it would never work. I self-sabotaged. But you there you were. And then you kissed me in the Paramus Mall...and I knew. All the things you had said and done up to that point had been leading up to that. These abstract, from-a-distance selfless acts of love all became real and tangible when you kissed me. I knew after that moment there was no going back. But..."

"Things got complicated," he finished for her.

"Yeah, they did. You have no idea how hard it was to be in that office with you, to be in love with you, and think I couldn't have you. I couldn't let myself want you. But resistance was futile; we were inevitable. And once I had you, I was all in. Until I met you, I didn't know that people could be equal partners in a relationship. I didn't know that you could have both love and respect. I didn't know it was possible to know and be known by someone so intimately. I didn't know what it was like to be so completely and utterly in love with someone. It felt surreal. The ups and downs and in-betweens, I was ready. I was never afraid of our future."

"I think I have some idea," Charles replied with a grin. "If you'll recall, I did have a bit of a meltdown when I thought you and Jay were together."

Liza couldn't help but smile. "Oh, yes. I do recall."

His grin faded, though, when he considered the present. He swallowed. "So, uh...what changed?"

Liza's heart ached for him, the thought of him agonizing over what he had done wrong or could've done differently. She took both of his hands in hers. "Nothing. Nothing changed. Please know that...god, it's such a cliche! But it's the truth: it's not you, it's me. I thought I didn't want to be married for a lot of reasons. But the fact of the matter is, it's because I'm scared. Actually, I'm terrified. Co-existing with you simply as colleagues and friends with no hope for anything more was difficult enough. Even this past week, the idea of not being with you made me absolutely miserable. But I finally understood what happened to my father."

Tears were starting to slide down her cheek. Charles reached over and cradled the back of her neck with his hand, wiping her tears away with his thumb. This only made her cry harder, though, so he pulled her close instead.

"My father became a broken shell of a man because the love of his life had been taken from him. She was here one day, then gone the next. The person he had spent two decades with just...gone. And he was alone. Charles, I..." she trailed off, taking a few deep breaths. "The thought of losing you, permanently, forever...it's too much. How could I risk it? How could I allow myself to fall even more in love with you, to build a life with you, only for you to be taken from me? I couldn't do it. It was just easier to keep some distance between us so that I didn't have to risk being shattered if the worst happened."

He didn't quite know what to say, so he put as little space as possible between them. He held her there for a moment before he spoke. "And now?"

She pulled away from him slightly, looking him right in the eyes. "And now I've realized that's my issue to deal with in therapy, and I won't let it keep me from living my life any more. Now I know that I want to be your wife. I want the piece of paper. I want to be happily married to you. I want to move into your house and make your girls breakfast and take them to school. I want Caitlin to stay with us at Christmas. I want us to agree to visit the sea glass carousel any time we argue, to remind us of how much we love each other. I want to hyphenate my last name because I want everyone to know you're my husband. I want everyone to know that I love you."

Charles felt his vision go a little bleary, his eyes starting to well with tears. "I love you, too." He leaned over and kissed her forehead, her nose, and finally, lingering for just a moment, her lips.

When they broke apart, she leaned her forehead against his. "Do you still want to marry me?" she whispered.

"Only if you'll have me."

He felt her smile before he saw it. "I will always choose you," Liza said, capturing his lips in another kiss.

When they pulled apart once more, Charles stood and offered her his hand. She rose up and wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace; they fit together so perfectly. They stood in silence, letting the sounds of the city in the early hours of the morning settle over them.

It wasn't too long before a cab driver, likely preparing for his morning rush, passed by them with windows down and music blasting.

Liza and Charles both began to snicker, the unbelievable timing of it all really sealing their fate.

"Take my breath awaaayyyy..." the speakers blared.

Liza gave him a knowing look and said, "I love this song."

"I love you," Charles replied, the pleasure of that memory broadening his grin. "May I have this dance?"

And so they danced on the steps of the New York Public Library, long after Berlin faded into the distance.

Two months later, a feature ran in the "Books and Literature" section of The Times:

The New Power Couple of Publishing: How Charles Brooks and Liza Miller-Brooks are changing the game and raising the stakes, all while balancing life, love, and family.