Wahoooo!   Got an A in physics, and made the Dean's list so I'm doing the happy dance.  Consider this a reflection of me basking in  parental and personal pride.  This will be the last chapter of the story although another series should be following shortly.  Many thanks to everyone for commiserating on my school work, and of course for reading and reviewing this story.  Enjoy.

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Sunlight pours over my face and arms, bringing with it warmth and light.  It doesn't seem right that the sun is shines, it feels as though the world should cease to move now, that life should stop.  The sounds of activity outside are wrong, blasphemous, because this great tragedy has occurred and the universe hasn't stilled in mourning.  That's the way the world works though, it still spins on its axis even when a life has been snuffed.  I roll over carefully onto my right side, draping my left arm over the waist of the woman beside me.  She sighs deeply and cuddles closer to me, twining her fingers through mine and wrapping my arms tighter around her body.  I grunt softly as she rubs against the knife wound in my gut.

"Sorry baby," Maxie murmurs the words softly as she rubs her face catlike against my hands and arms.  Less than a week had passed since we had prevented the Familiars from taking over the world.  Only a few days since we'd laid my best friend in the ground.  My hands clench unconsciously as I flash back to the day after his burial.

The dew lies thick and chilly over the grass on the green.  Only the disturbed dirt of a fresh grave shatters the bucolic setting.  Max stands quietly by my side, her fingers absently stroking the barcode at the nape of my neck.

Another woman kneels a few feet in front of us, looking for all the world like a fragile broken doll.  She has settled herself so close to the edge of the grave that her knees are slowly turning grey from the mud that soaks into her pants.  Her right hand touches the earth, and her left hand touches her stomach completing the circuit.  Leaning forward, she rocks herself lightly like a swimmer about to plunge into the water.  We've kept a constant watch on her just in case her misery takes her too far, but deep down we know that she's safe.  She would never risk the gift that she carries within her.

He hadn't known when we'd said our final goodbyes that he'd be leaving a child fatherless.  CeCe herself hadn't even guessed until a few days after the battle that she'd been pregnant.  Racked with grief over Biggs's death the vomiting and dizziness, and the lateness of her period had been written off as symptoms of stress.  After a two days of crying she'd finally become so dehydrated that Max and I had dragged her to the infirmary.  It was then that Kate had given her the news, that she'd lost her lover only to gain his child.

We'd felt so stupid, Max and I.  Neither of us had had any clue that the two of them were together.  I can't help feeling that it should have been me.  Even if Maxie was devastated by my death, and I liked to think that it would affect her at least a little bit, I wouldn't have left a child without a father.  It should have been me to make the sacrifice.

"He saved the world you know, it wasn't for nothing.  He saved CeCe, and his child, and pretty much the whole human race."  She turns gently in my arms so that we are facing one another.

"It should have been me.  Now some little boy or girl will never know their father because he had to play hero and save my life.  Damn it Maxie, he should have let me take the knife."  Unmanly tears are sliding down my cheeks now, hot and slick and shameful.

"You're a soldier Alec, you know better than that.  He accomplished his mission.  In the end that will have to be enough."

"But."

"Hush."  She places her forefinger over my lips and leans her forehead against mine.  "It was a gift Alec.  The best gift anyone could give you.  Now don't fuck it up by doubting yourself.  You just have to accept what's happened and honor him by living your life to the fullest."  I can't help myself, the giggle that I'd been suppressing halfway through her speech escapes and I burst into a peal of genuine laughter hugging her tightly to my chest.

"That's beeeaaautiful Maxie."  Her angry face is ruined by the repressed shudders of laughter that are shaking her ribs.

"Shut up hot boy."

"No really Maxie, you should write for Halmark."

"I said shut it!"  I silence her imprecations by covering her lips with my own.

Careful of the deep contusion on my left side she runs her hands the length of my ribs and resting one against my waist and fisting the other through my overgrown hair.  I brush my lips down the graceful column of her throat and rest them for a moment at the nape of her neck.  A small smile turns up my lips as my eyes trace the lines of her barcode.  It's a nice thought, knowing that Sandeman had made us for one another, but it really isn't important.  Transgenic, leader, savior, it doesn't matter.  Right now I'm lying beside the strongest, bravest, most noble woman I've ever met, and none of these qualities were built into her DNA, they're pure Max.

She pulls back to face me and notices my grin.  "What?"

"Do you have any idea how much I love you?"

"About as much as I love you?"  My heart swells like a balloon.  She said it.  She hadn't mouthed it, she'd said it out loud and it was the most beautiful sounding thing I'd ever heard.

"Nah, I love you more."  She looks thoughtfully into my eyes, and for a moment I feel nervous wondering what she sees.

"Prove it.  Show me."  And knowing a challenge when I hear one, I do just that.

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The late morning sun streams through the dinghy open window, the slanting rays illumining his dirty blond locks.  I run my fingers through them lightly, careful not to wake him from his exhausted sleep.  After all, he'd more than earned it after our early morning exertions.  I slide myself back under the thin sheets and nestle against his back preparing to join him in a nap, when the phone proves its uselessness by choosing this moment to ring.  Giving a bear like grunt Alec reaches a long tanned arm out and grabs the unlikely receiver in a death-grip.

"Hullo?"  A small spasm of annoyance passes over his face.  "Yes Mole, I know its ten o'clock, but as we aren't soldiers held prisoner but a super secret government agency anymore I was foolish enough to think that I might be allowed to sleep in."  His face flushes a suspicious shade of crimson.  "I don't really see how that's any of your business lizard boy.  What?  Honestly?  Oh my god!"  He drops the phone back onto the cradle numbly, and then turns to me with a flushed expression of excitement.  "She did it Maxie, Senator Burnhart kept her word."

"Congress passed the law?"  He nods, struck dumb, and gathers me to his chest.  A part of me is rejoicing, my people are free, there would be a great deal of raucous celebrating out in the streets of Terminal City tonight.

However, a part of me had gone cold at Alec's pronouncement, and even now as I lay in my lover's arms a chill sense of dread flowed over me.  Politicians never made deals without getting something out of it, and Burnhart had as good as told us what she wanted from us.  I had the distinct feeling that Alec and I had escaped one peril only to land ourselves in another, and this last time it had been such a near thing.  I can't bear the thought of losing him again.

He pulls me tightly against his chest and whispers softly into my hair.

"Whatever happens, we'll meet it together."

Fin

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Okay guys, I finally finished it.  I'd like to throw out a few thanks:  Panda007 thank you for the consistent feedback its great inspiration,

MM as always you are frighteningly perceptive about where I'm heading with the plot,

Fichic merci beaucoup!,

Eden glad to know that someone else reads Shakespeare,

ACB,

Wannabetranny, Yippee, and Fridanight thanks for reviewing it makes me smile,  

Lakergirl I do believe you made me blush a few times,

Candybabble I apologize for not updating quickly enough, but its nice to know that people anticipate updates,

 Em, M/A fan, and Ting I'm glad that y'all appreciate romance as much as I do,

Evil I'm glad that you found the story and that you enjoy it,

Jenna and Frances I hope I didn't leave you hanging for too long on the chapters,

the-true-cat thank you for recommending the website it was amazing!,

QuieraStrawberry9 and Sleepy if I were that good I'd be getting paid but thanks very much,

and to Belle I hope that you found Lost in the Grey and that you enjoyed it.   

Thank you so much to all of you for giving me encouragement and feedback.  I just love writing these stories, and I've already got the base of a new series planned out.  Y'all will have to be patient with me, I go to classes full time through the summer so class may still have to take precedent over my extracurricular writing.  However, I will as always try to balance college with frequent updates.  Please everyone don't forget to tell me how you liked this story, and I look forward to beginning on the next one.