A/N: woohoo! now this has been an awesome ride

thank you so much for reading. and thank you to Demon for betaing.

~~ this is chatnoir putting everything off to update this fic.... hehe... finals this week... .... 3 essays due tomorrow .... have I even started? .



Thank you to:

Brynne: lol… well… I have the worst time writing a mad Syd… so… she just had to be happy. :)

valley-girl2(2) : hehe… I won't even comment about ff.net… if I do… you'll get a rambling of 3+ pages. Singled spaced. ;) lol. Well… now that the epilogue is actually finished… well… no… not really…. It really doesn't cover much. The fight scene is all Demon. She's great with that stuff. Thanks! I really don't find out that test score until tomorrow… and then, my final is on Thursday ::rolls eyes:: can I say how much I hate school right now? Hehe… two reviews! I feel honoured! Hehe… thanks for the birthday wish! It was actually Sunday, December 14 :) thanks for remembering!

'sally': hmm.. first off… since it's still December 15th on the west coast… HAPPY BIRTHDAY (and hopefully it is… if you are 'sally' on the sd-1 boards ;) ) I'm glad you loved it :) haha… I want this story to end… isn't that sad? I still have like… 3 other WIPs to finish!

total vaughn lover: travelled to sd-1 recently? I reviewed there ;)

Lor: lol. Well… hopefully I got the French right in this last chapter because… well… if it isn't… ::blush::




Epilogue

April 17, 2005
Los Angeles, California
National Cemetery
3:01 PM

She trudged up the lone hill in the cemetery. It was a clear sunny day in Los Angeles, free from smog due to a surprise rain shower the day before. However, lament was like a fog in the air, clinging to every air molecule in the sky. Passing by every grave, she gave brief glances at the names and lowered her head in respect. Jonathan Love, Isabelle Bockman, James Levin, Lauren Reed, Michelle Marksburg. She stopped and kneeled down at the grave of Michael C. Vaughn. Her pant legs were beginning to soak the moisture in the dirt. Inscribed on the grave stone were the words Beloved son and friend. Will always be loved in both life and death. Died for his country. Simplistic words that only a handful would fully understand—words that grasped a deeper meaning.

"It's been seven months, Vaughn."

Tears were trickling down her deathly pale cheeks. "You promised you'd be here!" she screamed into the oppressing air.

Whispering, "You promised you'd be here… you said six months… you promised it would only be six months." Her voice rose in a crescendo. "YOU PROMISED!"

She stared out into the distance, collecting her rampant thoughts that have been building for nearly a month.

"And I believed you. I believed you." A broken sob ripped itself out of her lungs.

Trying to stop the flood of tears, she wiped her sleeve across her eyes. The make up was long gone after a night of drinking. Long gone were the promises she made so long ago of not self-destruction. They were gone, just like the promise he made to her. Lost in an instant. Just… gone.

"Vaughn… I came here…" she breathed. "I came here to say good-bye."

The letter he gave her seven months away was still tucked away in the deep caverns of her pocket. Reaching in, the crumpled letter shook in her hands. "I know you tried to explain everything you could in your letter… how you signed up for this project before you even met me… the reconnaissance mission…" She tried to stifle a hiccup. "How Devlin threatened you with treason and going against direct orders when you didn't want to… how everything was set up… how it was all last minute in your hotel room… how you didn't want to leave me…" She laughed a dry laugh full of bitterness. "And how Sark is actually deep cover MI-5 sent out with the same responsibilities you were…"

"But why? Why didn't you come back? You promised… and you never break your promise… I'm worried, Vaughn. I know that the only reason you'd break a promise is if you can't go through with it… I'm worried that you aren't here anymore. And if you're not here, there's no one left to catch me when I fall. I can't live like this anymore…

"I'm thirty years old, Vaughn. Today. I don't think I can do this anymore. It has been three decades of deceit, lies, treachery. My mother… Sloane… The scheme Sark put both of us through… making me believe that I miscarried when there wasn't a baby there to begin with… but rather that I diverting your attention from the mission so he had to come up with a way to make me hurt you… And goddamn it, I wanted that baby to be real and alive… Hell, my own father knew you were out there, and he still let me fall down. He let me destroy myself out of guilt and sorrow. He didn't care if his daughter had died. It's all for the country. But I don't believe in that anymore. I don't want to do it anymore… I have to move on. I have to leave this old life behind. I can't stay here with the memories.

"And as much as I love you, I need to let you go. For two years, I've been chasing after this dream… almost killing myself in the process… I don't have that type of patience anymore. I can't help but feel that I've been cheated out of the good things in this life.

"I love you so much… but this is really killing me. I'm moving away from LA. I've cleared it with Devlin. I'm leaving the agency and entering the Program. I don't want to live a life in which all the people I love are taken away. It has happened too often. My soul can only take so much… It's not strong anymore. It will never be strong again. You know why?"

She began to trace the letters of his name on the stone. "You were my strength. And now you're gone."

Her fingers were drubbing away the thin layer of dirt and dust that lay on the imprint of his name. She lay down the white roses in the flower jar next to his grave.

"I need to go. Always remember that you have a part of me. And I promise you, I'll never forget the man who pulled me away from this life. I'll always love you."

She dug a hole in the dirt on top of his grave. After twisting the white gold ring off her finger, she kissed it.

"Good-bye, Vaughn."

As the ring fell to the ground, she felt a presence behind her, as if a spirit was blowing away.

"Leaving? And here I was, expecting a welcome home kiss."

The voice startled her.

"Weiss… I'm not in the mood for those types of games."

Suddenly, she felt hands on her hips. Waiting her to turn around.

Slowly, she turned. Fingers wiped away the tear tracks on her face. "Please tell me I'm dreaming, and never let me wake up?" She captured his lips in hers.

Only to draw back… "This is about when I'm supposed to wake up." Ten seconds passed. She reached a hand up and brought it around his neck. "Oh my god… you're real."

He pressed his lips against hers again. "Je t'aime mon ange. Je suis désole que je suis en retard."

"Welcome home, Vaughn."

~the end~

(FINALLY!)



Wraith: April 23, 2003- December 15, 2003