Epilogue
December 2025
"Fashionably late again, Luke?"
"Never too late to miss Dad's holiday party, Aunt Mo!" Luke slammed the driver's side door of the rental SUV and moved to the backseat. "Our flight was delayed."
Jaylynn laughed and shook her head as she stepped out of the passenger's side. "He was out partying with the team late last night again. I had to drag him onto the plane."
"Funny," Luke shot back.
Maureen chuckled and shook her head, coming down the driveway. She kissed Jaylynn on the cheek and smiled widely as their son, five year old Tyler, hopped out of the seat with his father's help. "Hey little man."
"Hi!" Tyler kicked at the ground with the toe of his sneaker. He then tugged on his father's leg. "Where's grandpa?"
"Inside," Jaylynn told him. She grabbed her purse out of the car and took the keys from Luka to set the alarm.
Tyler dashed away from their small group and ran up the front lawn at top speed. Luke laughed and jogged after him. He scooped him up and rested him on his shoulders before disappearing inside.
"It's really great to see you. How's England?" Maureen tucked a strand of her straight dark brown hair behind her ear and crossed her arms over her jacket.
"Great," Jaylynn smiled. "We just bought a house in Manchester this past summer. It's good for us because Luke doesn't have to commute that far anymore to train, and it's good for Tyler because it has a great school system. His first year term has been great so far. He's on winter break right now until January."
"Public or private school?"
"Public. Luke and I are against sending him to boarding school. We decided that's definitely not for us or for any of our children."
Maureen nodded. "That's exactly how Harvey and I felt when we were raising Audrey. We had some many opportunities to send her to a boarding school but felt that she'd be better off at a private school in Los Angeles. That way she could still live at home."
"How's she doing now?"
"Good," Maureen smiled. "She'll be twenty-five in February. Not married yet, but she's seeing this wonderful guy named Trevor. He's in the Navy. But anyway, enough about me, how are you feeling? With everything?"
Jaylynn blushed and shrugged. "Things are going pretty well. Only four more months to go."
"Is Tyler excited about having a little brother or sister?"
"He hasn't really said much about it, but I guess he is." They reached the front door, but before they walked in, Jaylynn turned around and smiled. "How was your birthday last month?"
"Oh honey, I'm fifty-two." Maureen lowered her voice to a whisper. "But I partied all night!"
"So, before we sit down to eat, I'd like to congratulate my son on being named European Player of the Year," Mark smiled. "Because I'm glad to know I didn't send him to Liverpool and use half of my retirement pension in the process for nothing!"
Everyone laughed and clapped in the spacious living room, raising their wine glasses and beer bottles alike. Mark's holiday parties had become somewhat of a tradition over the past five years, ever since he purchased the house in West Hampton, Long Island. He had retired from SFP four year before at the age of fifty after twenty-four long years and many great achievements.
Besides selling the loft in 2018, Mark also remarried in October of that year. His second wife of seven years, Sarah, was outgoing and energetic and also seventeen years Mark's junior at the age of thirty-seven. Their two children, six year old daughter Grace and two year old son Cody kept Mark young at heart, even though he was quickly approaching his fifty-fifth birthday in February.
Although he had kept his relationship on civil terms with Jackie for the sake of their three grown children, Mark was surprised when she too had flown up for Sydney for the holidays with her husband, Billy. Jackie had remarried years ago, even before Mark had, but never had any other children.
Mark was also happy that all three of his grown children had made it to Long Island for the holidays. Twenty-eight year old Luke had flown in from Liverpool with Jaylynn and their five-year-old son, Tyler. Twenty-five year old Hannah had flown in from Sydney with her husband Bobby and one year old daughter Mackenzie. Twenty-one year old Nicole had driven down from Boston with her boyfriend, where she was finishing up her senior year at Boston University.
All the names and faces were hard to keep track of at times, but Mark was happy to have his extended family with him. He was glad that now they could all be civil towards one another, and was glad that his three older children were getting along quite nicely with Sarah and their two younger step-siblings.
"Okay, Dad, let's eat," Luke laughed, hugging Jaylynn loosely around the waist. "My wife is eating for two!"
"I got a little brother or sister comin'!" Tyler shouted.
Everyone 'aww-ed' at this and continued on into the dining room, except Mark.
"Jaylynn, can you come here for a minute?"
"Sure, Grandpa," she smiled, watching as her husband and son went ahead into the dining room.
Mark laughed and quickly cleaned his glasses on the edge of his shirt. "It's good to see you."
She smiled and glanced up at the pictures displayed on the mantle of the fireplace. "God, you two looked so young here. How old were you?"
Mark took the picture down from the mantle and scanned it with his eyes. Jaylynn was right—they did look young. If he remembered correctly, the picture had been taken the summer before Roger had met April. "Oh, I don't know. Twenty-three or twenty-four. Roger had just told this obnoxious joke and I guess Collins caught us in mid laugh when he took the picture."
She smiled and took the picture from him. "I miss him."
"So do I. Every day. Sometimes I come home with the kids and Sarah's making dinner and I'll smell something that reminds me of him. It's funny how you associate so many things with people. Or I'll be driving and a song that he used to listen to years ago will come on the radio—or better yet, an old single of his band's. When I hear something funny or stupid, something I knew his sense of humor would have appreciated it, it's hard."
"Have you talked about him with Sarah?"
Mark shook his head. "Not often. All she knows is that he was my best friend and that he died. She doesn't press the issue. I guess I feel like that chapter of my life is now closed. Look at it this way, Jay. Maureen and I…we're the only ones left out of our original gang. Christ, Mimi has been gone for twenty-five years. Collins for seventeen. Your father for eight now. It doesn't feel right to talk to someone about our lives, what we've done, what happened to us some thirty years ago unless that person was right along there with us—feeling the emotion, knowing what we had to go through. I love Sarah, but she understands. And that's the way it has to be, for now at least."
She reached out and set the picture back on the mantle. "But you told me eight years ago."
"I had to. Roger and I, we owed it to you. You were his daughter."
"She's pretty," Jaylynn smiled.
"Who? Mark questioned, resting his hands in the pockets of his khaki pants.
"Sarah. She's got this, I don't know, this aura about her that makes you want to just be around her."
He nodded. "Yeah, she's great. The kids are great. Everything worked out in the end."
"Does it feel weird? Having your older children and younger children separated by so many years?"
Mark chuckled and nodded. "Sometimes it does. Especially when I have one of the girls on the phone telling me about their husband or boyfriend. The other day I sent off Mackenzie's first birthday present to Hannah. And that afterwards I told Sarah how strange it was that I was sending off my grandchild's present when Cody, my own child, had celebrated his first birthday a year ago."
Jaylynn laughed. "You're not the first older parent and grandparent."
He nodded. "What depresses me a little bit is that by the time Cody gets out of high school, I'll be seventy years old, and you and Luke will be in your forties."
"Oh god, don't remind me," she groaned. "Thirty is coming my way faster than I'd like it to."
He shook his head with a grin. "Don't worry about it, sweetheart. You've got a long ways to go yet, and I'm certainly not going anywhere."
"Thanks," she smiled.
"Momma! Come on, Daddy's got your food!" Tyler shouted at the top of his lungs. "Come on, Grandpa!"
"All right buddy, I'm coming," Mark called over with a smile. "He's getting restless."
"He's always on the go. That's why I'm glad Luke got him involved in soccer early."
Mark smirked. "Think he'll follow in Luke's footsteps and become the next great soccer superstar?"
"Maybe," Jaylynn laughed. "Although he tells me that he wants a guitar this Christmas and everyone once in awhile I'll get out the old Fender of Roger's and let him go at it for a few minutes."
"Looks like he just might follow in Roger's footsteps after all," Mark smiled. "Roger would have made a great grandfather."
"I know he would have," she agreed. "But you're not doing so bad of a job yourself."
Mark chuckled and lightly wrapped his arm around Jaylynn's shoulders. "Maybe one day I'll teach him a few chords on the Fender."
Jaylynn smiled. "Now that is something I'd like to see any day." She threw a final smile back at the fireplace mantle, which held memories of the past and would hold memories of the years to come. "But maybe you should just stick to the video camera."
"Hey Mark, Jaylynn?" Sarah had just walked into the hall separating the kitchen and living room with a smile. She held up the digital camera she had in her hand with a laugh. "Can I get a picture?"
"Sure can," Mark grinned. "Smile!"
Well, I don't know really what to say! It's been a long journey with this story from beginning to end, but I doubt I would have made it this far without the wonderful reviews and many friendships I made over the past eleven and a half months this story has been worked on. At times when I doubted myself and my ability to continue with this story, I'm glad that so many of you pushed me to a conclusion. I'm proud of myself, and as of this date, this is the only story that I have ever written to a conclusion. That's a big milestone to me.
But first, I think some 'thank you's' are in order:
To Jan (Mister Pink): Thank you for being my constant source of entertainment online. We've shared many, many hilarious jokes over the past year and it's been great fun every step of the way. From Wilson to our favorite Trojan Man, we've heard it all. I love the wife! Thank you so much for supporting me! Sticks and stones, love.
To Michelle (DayDreamer731): Thank you for our great AIM conversations and being always willing to help me out every step of the way. You are too sweet, and I'm glad I've gotten to know you. Your talent as a writer continues to amaze me every day. hugs
To Kelby: Thank you for the emails and the support for my stories. I appreciate everything so much, and it's been a pleasure reading through your many reviews. I'm glad you've supported me for this long. I can't wait to read what else you're planning to post, because Another Second Chance was wonderful, and I can tell you already that I'm planning on re-reading it from start to finish this summer.
To DevDev: It's been a pleasure reading your thoughtful reviews. I'm glad you've stuck with me this far, and I appreciate them so much!
I could sit here for hours and thank each and every one of you that contributed to my 360 reviews for this story, but I want you all to know that you are all in my heart and I appreciate all of those reviews. I took the time to read them all, and like I said before, I would have never made it this far without them.
As for the future, I'm not really sure if I plan on writing anymore RENT-fics after November wraps up. I have a few ideas swimming along in my head, but I do have two other non-RENT fics incomplete right now. I'll see what the summer and my senior year of high school brings. =]
It's been a long, sometimes tedious year of writing Before You Wake. Sometimes I wanted to pull my hair out, sometimes I wanted to cry, but most of the time I had a lot of fun. This was my release away from the real world, and I'm glad that you all have been with me to share in it. So I guess this is me, saying goodbye and signing off for the last author's note of this story.
-Mari-