A/N: Okay, guys, last chapter. I hope you enjoy it and feel that it ties things up sufficiently. I've struggled with this one for the last couple of chapters, and I really hope that doesn't show. I just never know how to wrap up the trials of this little group (see Life After if you don't believe me). Please let me know what you think, at any rate. Thank you very much!

"Well it's good to know where I stand in decisions regarding our daughter," Doug said in a sulky tone as he stood in the doorway of the bedroom with his arms folded over his chest.

Jack raised his head off the pillow and studied Doug for several moments; then he flopped back down, put his hands over his eyes, and groaned exasperatedly. "Please don't blow this out of proportion," he said. "I'm begging you. Let it go."

"I don't think I'm blowing anything out of proportion. I think I have every right to be mad about this. It's sending Amy the message that your rules are the only ones that matter. What Jack says goes; Dougie's just a mere stepdad, after all."

"Damn it, Doug, you know that's not true. And if you wonder why she's such a drama queen, step back and look at how you're acting right now. All I did was tell her that forbidding her to see one of her closest friends wasn't fair. Do you know that imposing rules like that on a teenager almost always backfires? What if we kept it going, and she came to us in a month to tell us she's pregnant with his child?"

Doug grunted. "Bite your tongue," he said.

Jack sat up again and looked at him. "Now are we going to keep arguing, or can we put this aside and try to enjoy the rest of our night?"

"I'm not finished arguing," Doug said, but Jack could tell he was starting to relent. He uncrossed his arms and wandered casually over to the window that looked out over the creek. "Are you going to make it up to me?" he asked with his back turned.

Jack smiled, relieved. "I'll see what I can do," he said. "Why don't you—"

"What the hell!" Doug interrupted.

Jack sat up, alarmed by the sudden fury he heard in Dougie's voice. "Huh? What's—"

Doug turned away from the window, letting the curtain he had pushed aside drop back into place. "Well, this was a great solution, Jack. Excellent parenting." He reached for the shirt he'd carelessly dropped by the bed and pulled it on over his head as he started out of the room.

Bewildered, Jack got up and followed him down the stairs.

Amy felt the kiss to the tips of her fingers. It was exhilarating, intoxicating, almost frightening in its intensity. When at last they pulled away from each other and she saw the same feelings mirrored in his eyes, she was breathless and speechless. Ben studied her face for several moments.

"I've missed that," he said. "I can't tell you how much I've missed that."

"Me too."

He took her face between his hands and made her look at him, a sudden uncertainty clouding his eyes. "I just want to make sure ... Amy, is this for real? I need to know that. I don't think I can take losing you again if you're not sure. So tell me before this goes any further. Tell me if this is what you want. Tell me if ... if I'm what you want."

"You always were," she said in a voice that was barely more than a whisper.

His eyes shone with the reflection of the moonlight as he studied her face intently for signs that she was saying this just to pacify him. When he found only simple sincerity looking back at him, he relaxed and pulled her toward him again. As they kissed, he lowered her gently to the ground, and they lay on the dewy grass, holding each other. His hands moved to caress the soft blonde tendrils of hair around her face, and they both were lost in the infinite tenderness of the moment.

The sound of the screen door on the back porch banging open jolted both of them out of their dreamlike state, and they sat up with almost comically identical expressions of surprise and alarm.

"Get up," Doug said to Amy as he came down the porch steps toward them. "Go inside."

"Dougie, what's ..."

"Don't make me tell you again! Get in the house, now!"

Amy flinched a little at his tone and looked up as Jack came out the door and stood at the top of the porch steps, surveying the scene before him. "Dad, we weren't doing anything wrong!" she appealed. "Tell him to back off!"

"Doug, what is it?" Jack asked. "What happened?"

Doug's gaze was fixed on Ben, who seemed to be having trouble getting to his feet. When he finally gained his balance, he immediately backed away from Doug.

"You've got some nerve, kid," Doug said to Ben. "Groping my daughter in our backyard. Are you that incredibly stupid, or do you just have a death wish?"

Ben didn't miss a beat. "Both, I guess," he said. "I'm sorry, Sheriff, I just came here to talk to Amy."

"Looked to me like you were doing a hell of a lot more than talking," Doug snapped.

"I know, sir, and I'm sorry you saw that. I—we were—I didn't mean—" he trailed off helplessly, catching Amy's eyes over Doug's shoulder. He took a deep breath and looked back at Doug. "I love Amy, Sheriff Witter," he said in a much steadier tone. "I love her and I wanted her to know that. I came to tell her that."

There was a brief silence during which Jack moved to stand next to Amy, putting his arm around her shoulders. Doug turned to glance at her, and then returned his sharp stare to Ben. "Is that supposed to make me feel better about you two rolling around outside our bedroom window in the middle of the night?" he asked, but his tone had softened considerably, and they all heard the change. Some of the tension had melted out of the situation. Amy relaxed a little.

"I hope so," Ben said quietly, the corner of his mouth twitching in a near-smile.

Doug's expression remained solid as stone, and he reached out to grip Ben's shoulder with one of his large hands. "Listen to me, Chambers, and listen good. Don't you ever let me catch you rolling around with my daughter outside our bedroom window—or anywhere else, for that matter. If that happens, it will be the last rolling around you ever do with anyone. Do we understand each other?"

"Yes sir."

Doug held Ben's gaze for another long moment, then nodded and started back toward the house. He paused when he reached Jack and Amy, and pointed a finger at her. "You're a smart girl," he said firmly. "Don't you do anything stupid."

"I won't," she assured him. When the screen door slammed behind Doug, Amy turned to look at Jack. "What's he talking about?" she asked, genuinely puzzled.

Jack sighed and laughed wearily, shaking his head. "We'll discuss it later," he said. "Don't stay out here too late." He started away, then turned back and looked at Ben seriously for a moment. "You don't want to forget what he said, okay? He doesn't kid around when it comes to this girl."

"I know, sir. I don't either. Believe me."

"Good man," he said.

When he was gone, Ben and Amy looked at each other and laughed. "That wasn't pleasant," she said. "Sorry about that."

"Well, it could have been worse. I'm still alive. But my life did flash before my eyes when I saw him." The two of them moved to sit side by side on the stone steps of the back porch.

"Did you mean what you said?" she asked.

"Of course I did. You know that, Lindley."

She smiled. "I know. I just wanted to hear it again."

"I love you."

"I love you, too." Her eyes sparkled in the moonlight.

After a moment's silence, Ben took her hands in his and voiced the concern that was weighing on both of them. "What are you going to do about Andy?" he asked. "About telling him?"

She bit her lip thoughtfully. "I don't think I have to tell him anything," she said. "He's already made up his mind about what he thinks is going on with us. I guess all that remains is confirmation."

"Are you afraid?"

She hesitated, not wanting to hurt Ben's feelings by telling him that yes, she was terrified of what Andrew would say, of what he would do, of the very real possibility that she would lose his friendship forever. Her silence told him all he needed to know. He put his arm around her and drew her close to him, rubbing her shoulder comfortingly.

Suddenly a long shadow fell over them, and Amy gasped and jumped a little in Ben's embracing arm. They looked up and caught sight of Andrew standing a little ways outside the circle of light from the porch lamp. Even in the dimness, Amy could see the strain on his face, the hurt reflected in his eyes, and she fought the urge to go to him, to comfort him. That wasn't her place now. Not anymore.

No one seemed to know what to say for a few moments that stretched into an awkward eternity. Andy broke the silence first, keeping his gaze carefully away from Ben and looking directly at Amy. "You don't have to worry about how to tell me," he said in a funny, hoarse voice that didn't even sound like him. "I'm not an idiot. I might have been blind all these months, but I'm seeing things pretty clearly now."

Amy took a deep breath, her heart pounding in her chest as if she'd just run a mile. She couldn't read his tone. For maybe the first time in their lifelong friendship, she had no clue what was behind his words. "Andy..."

He held up a hand to stop her. "What sucks the most is that you didn't have the guts to tell me yourself. I mean, how long would you have strung me along? It's been a long time, Aim. And when did you realize that you had made the wrong choice, huh? Did you know that all along?" His blue eyes held hers steadily.

She was determined not to cry, even though his words stung like salt in the wounds he'd inflicted earlier this evening. "No," she said, and it was only partially a lie. "I thought I was doing the right thing."

"You were wrong."

She looked down at her hands.

Ben cleared his throat and said quietly to Andrew, "Don't do this to her right now, man. I think you've hurt her enough for one night."

Andy's blue eyes met his former friend's green ones unflinchingly. "You're right," he said. "I have. But I think after fourteen years of friendship and almost one year of more than that, we need some closure. Do you think you could leave us alone and let us have it?"

Ben and Amy glanced at each other, and she gave him the tiniest of nods. He took a deep breath and stood up. "Yeah," he said. "I can do that." He resisted the urge to look back at them as he went to his car. She noticed that, and silently thanked him for his trust.

"I'm sorry," she said to Andrew after a period of silence that seemed to go on far too long. "I didn't want things to happen this way. I told you that. I messed up, and I don't know what else to say. I guess there's nothing left to say." She had prepared herself for the pain that would come when he began flinging malicious words at her like he had done earlier, so when he said what he said, she looked up at him in genuine surprise.

"I'm the one who should be sorry," he said. "And I am. I messed up too, Aim. Way before you did. I messed up last year when you first told me how you felt about him. I just couldn't deal with that. I was too wrapped up in the way my feelings for you had changed. I couldn't stand the thought of you and him together when you didn't even realize that I was in love with you. So this is partly my fault because I pushed you to be with me when we both knew it wasn't really what you wanted."

He came over to sit on the step next to her. "It's not your fault," he said. "I'd rather you be happy with him than miserable with me."

She looked at him with tears glistening in her eyes. "Do you mean that, Andy?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I really do."

She wanted to throw her arms around him and cry from the relief of knowing that she wasn't going to lose him, and only a day ago that would have been all right, that would have been easy. Now even such a simple gesture was tangled up in a complex web of meanings and feelings and implications. So she settled for a watery smile and a whispered "thank you."

When he walked away, back into the shadows that swallowed the world that lay beyond her back porch, she thought the tears would really start to flow. Tears of relief, tears of heartache by association, tears for what might have been.

But the tears didn't come, and the night stretched out before her with the day fast on its heels, and days after that to explore the mysterious realm of love and to marvel over the immense strength of the bonds of friendship.

THE END