Alright Everyone, I worked so hard on this part. I've had it done forever but I just tweaked it and moved it and then added a few more sections. I would like to thank you all for sticking with this, it was really long. A lot longer than I thought it was going to be. I really am sad to be done with this story it kind of held a special place in my heart. Again, this was another eighteen month long fic. It's time to come to a close, and there will not be a sequel. I had so much fun writing this fic, I hope you had half as much fun as I did, then we both had a great time. Thank you so much for taking time to read this and leave feedback, it's been a great ride! Also Madame Bovary belongs to the wonderful Gustave Flaubert.

Epilogue-Many years later

"And here we have Hannah Bella-Marie Evans who is nominated for Best Actress..." The announcer pounced on them as they walked down the red carpet.

"Good Evening, Miss Evans, how does it feel to be nominated again?" She asked.

Hannah held tight to Ben's hand as they were questioned. She knew her parents were watching the show right now. Along with her little brothers.

"It feels wonderful." She had been nominated two times previously. She had won one for the first film she had done when she had been just sixteen. Then when she was a little older. Now her third film nomination she had portrayed Emma Bovary, in Madame Bovary, critics say she for sure had the Oscar for that one.

"There are rumors that if you do win this Oscar you'll marry Mr. Barclay here."

They both blushed heavily.

"Well?"

"We would prefer not to answer that one." Hannah spoke truthfully.

"How long have you two been together?"

"Since I was a freshman in high school." Hannah answered.

"And you're not married?"

Hannah shook her head.

"Well, how did it feel to play someone such as Madame Bovary?"

"Wicked." Hannah answered with a giggle. "It was a lot of fun. The costumes were phenomenal and I just really enjoyed working in France again."

"I'm glad." The announcer said. "And I wish you the best of luck."

"Thank you." They turned to enter the auditorium.

"And the winner for Best Actress..." Julia Roberts announced.

"Hannah Bella-Marie Evans, in Madame Bovary." The crowd sent up a cheer and the music started. Hannah was shocked.

Hannah made her way onstage after kissing Ben and smiled at the audience.

She looked radiant, Max thought as he and his family watched his firstborn on the television.

She accepted the trophy which was heavier than she anticipated. The dress she wore was gorgeous and had been made just for her. If you looked really closely you could see the tiny scar on her chest from her many open heart surgeries.

"Wow," she said into the microphone. "This is really an honor. I've wanted this since I was five years old playing a Christmas elf in a play put on by the sixth grade class." The crowd chuckled. "I have a few people I'd like to thank." She said.

"I'd like to thank the directors and especially Anita Davis for overhearing an argument with my mother in a shopping mall. If it wasn't for you none of this would be happening." She looked directly at her parents now. "Finally, I'd like to thank Mom and Daddy." She said with meaning. "Without them, it truly wouldn't be happening, from Mom saying yes to be that Christmas elf because I was technically too young to play her. Also to my parents for giving me the chance and relocating the family to Paris for the summer of my first film. Holden, Caleb, Kailyn, you mean everything to me. Thank you so much. Everyone." With a wink at her family through the screen and a kiss blown to Ben she exited the stage.

Max watched his baby girl and wife set the final veil on her head. "You look beautiful, my darling." Liz told her quietly.

"Thanks, Mama." Hannah hugged her mother and tried not to cry again.

"You ready, sweetheart?" Max asked from the doorway and had to choke back tears.

"Hi, Daddy, so what do you think?" Hannah turned for him to study the dress.

"It's gorgeous." Max told her. And she was. She was the spitting image of her mother at twenty eight. "But not nearly as gorgeous as the girl wearing it."

"I'm hardly a little girl anymore, I'm getting married now, and I think I'm more of a woman now." Hannah laughed so she wouldn't cry. She was a famous movie star, men wanted to date her, women wanted to be her.

"You're my little girl." Max hugged her. "You'll always be my little girl. You are so beautiful. Ben better treat you right if he knows what's good for him." Max told her.

"He will, Daddy, he waited for me." Hannah assured him. He had wanted to marry her earlier but she had wanted to establish her career before settling down. He had endured countless movie premieres, parties, and months of her absence while she did just that.

"I know." He told her. Surprisingly they had been able to pull off this wedding without too much press. They had allowed one official photographer and that was it. "Let's go, princess."

"Thank you, Daddy, for everything." Hannah said once more before joining her life with another man.

Kailyn watched her sister dancing happily with her new husband. At twenty four she had a Ph.D, and a second major. Because she couldn't read, write, and generally learn for so long she had put her all into it after Liz had taught her the essentials of reading. She hadn't had much of a social life because of it and had decided now was the time to start. She had caught the bouquet and took that as a sign.

She was pretty enough, she knew, she wasn't stunning like her sister or mother, but she had a quiet beauty. She stood and let the soft material of her bride's maid dress swish against her legs.

"I thought all the Evans women were small." Someone said from behind her.

She whirled around not hearing anybody join her outside.

"I'm the exception." She said, and nervously tucked her hair behind her ear.

He was tall and was leaning against the doorframe. His fair hair fell into his eyes and Kailyn had the urge to brush it aside.

"You'd be Dr. Kailyn Evans then?" He asked.

She nodded. "You would be Mr..." She crossed her arms over her chest. After sixteen years of living with the Evans, she still had a natural fear of men. It wasn't as bad as it had been when she was eight, but she was still nervous around them. She glanced around to see if anyone was out there.

"That'd be Dr. Ethan McGowan." He smiled at her.

"Oh, pardon me." She said. "I didn't know."

"Not very people do." He stood and walked towards her. Slowly, he thought to himself, she frightened easily.

"What are you a Doctor of?" She asked curiously.

"Psychology." He answered. "And history and sociology." He didn't mention the other majors he had. "All before I turned twenty six." He smiled.

That caught her attention. He was so handsome surely he had better things to do sit in a dorm room and study.

"Actually, I enjoyed being shut up in my dorm room. It was my favorite Saturday night activity."

"How'd you..." She asked amazed.

"Psychology." He said. "How about you?"

"Microbiology, hardly anywhere as interesting. But I have a major in history." She admitted.

"Quite interesting, actually." And she was so pretty, and tall, he needed a tall woman. "How tall are you?" He asked.

"Five eight." She said looking at him. It felt wonderful to have to look way, way up at him. "You?"

"Six three." He looked down at her. "You were adopted, right?"

"Yeah. When I was nine." She nodded; it used to make her feel funny to talk about it, now she didn't care.

"Will your father come shoot me if I were to kiss you?" He asked.

"Yeah, he flipped when Hannah went to homecoming with Ben. Took Mom forever to talk sense into him. He'd enlist Holden's help as well to make it look like an accident."

"He's eighteen."

"He doesn't care, he'll probably get Caleb to help too."

"He's sixteen."

"They're built." She laughs. "It's a competition to see who can be the most built. I think Holden has the advantage right now, he's on the school football team."

"Interesting past time." He smiled. "I never really was into that stuff in high school. Can I kiss you?" He took a step closer to her.

She didn't answer. She had been kissed over the years but none of them had really done anything for her, except make her uncomfortable. He stepped closer and claimed her mouth. Sinking into it she wrapped her arms around his neck for anchoring. He sure didn't feel like he didn't spend his time body building.

He stepped back but she was still closely wrapped around him. "So, do you know my sister or her husband?" It had never occurred to her how he was here.

"I work with Ben." He smiled.

Kailyn sat down on a bench watching her sister laughing at something Ben whispered in her ear. Alex came and danced with her before Kyle came and asked for her hand. Alex expertly turned her away and Kyle wasn't happy. They set into one of their age old arguments over who got to hold Hannah. Ben came and settled it by whisking his bride off.

There were reporters outside the gates trying to get in on all the details. She stared at them before turning around to watch her sister.

"Have you always been in Hannah's shadow?" He asked.

"Not really her shadow, I just chose to stay out of the spotlight and Hannah respects that. She mentions the family now and again, but we keep out of the spotlight. We get a lot of publicity from Daddy, but usually Hannah keeps us low." She didn't want the public life.

"You caught the bouquet, I noticed." He said.

"Yeah." She nodded. It was at her seat.

"What do you say we put it to use next month?" He asked her.

"What? I don't even know you!" She said to him.

"Well, you'll get to know me, you'll love me, and then we'll get married and have little doctor babies."

She looked at him. "How do you know we'll get married and have little...doctor...babies?" Her cheeks flamed.

"Because we move quicker than normal, you're twenty four and have a Ph.D, I'm thirty and have three, I think we're not the kind of people to move slowly."

"You're right."

"And I love you."

"You don't know me!"

"Well I'll get to know you and you'll love me as much as I already love you."

"Alright." She had never been one to make decisions so quickly but she felt completely right as she slipped her hand into his. It was the first male hand she had held since Max when she was a little girl. Hand holding involved a sense of trust she didn't give to any man.

Kailyn tried to keep her hand still but she had to test it. She pulled her hand from his and it slipped out easily, he didn't restrain her. He did give her a hurt look though. She smiled and took his hand and squeezed gently. He returned it and Kailyn smiled up at him. "Now, I think Daddy might shoot you. Both his daughters in one year."

"Maybe we'll just have to run away, because I'm not going to lose you." He looked at her with a half smile.

"I don't want to lose you either." She agreed and gave him another small smile. She squeezed his hand again and turned to go back inside.

iOne month later/i

"We didn't just see that, Liz, tell me we didn't." Max said looking at his youngest daughter.

"You did, Max." She smiled.

"She's holding his hand." Max noticed.

"I know." She looked up at her husband. "She's grown up so much, Max, thank you for fighting so hard for her, our baby."

"I would have done it for any of our kids, Liz. She was ours the moment, you opened that door twenty four years ago and I saw you standing there with her in your arms."

"Oh, Max..." Liz studied her husband. "You make me so happy."

"I try." He tried to shrug it off. "I owe you."

"Not anymore, Max, that was so long ago, I don't even think Hannah remembers it." Liz said. "I don't remember much of it either. We may have lived a different kind of life those first few years, but we got back on track."

iSix years later/i

"Kailyn, how are you doing?" Hannah poked her head in the door.

"I'm a little tired, to be honest." Kailyn said.

"I bet." Hannah walked in. "Ethan's having a ball bragging about his daughter to everybody. Daddy's ecstatic about having a granddaughter." She sat on the edge of her sister's bed.

"I tried." Kailyn blushed. "How's Aaron?"

"Good, he wants to come in and see his Auntie Kay though. He was so excited when we told him we were coming down here to see you guys."

Hannah and her family moved further north where Hannah was close to work and her family. Kailyn had chosen to stay close to home and raise her children.

"Why don't you let him come in?"

"I wanted to see you first, she's so beautiful, Kailyn, it'll be hard with four little geniuses running around."

"Thank you, Ethan is very proud of our 'doctor babies' as he calls them." Kailyn laughed. She lay back against the hospital bed and settled Ashley more comfortably to her.

Kailyn held her daughter tight in her arms and looked at her, knowing she wouldn't have the same awful childhood home she had grown up into prior to the Evans.

"You're getting that look in your eyes, Kailyn, don't think about it." Hannah said.

"I know. Thank you for sharing Mom and Dad with me, Hannah." Kailyn looked honestly. "I've seen what a close knit unit a family can be and you just let me in. Thank you."

Hannah was stunned into silence, it had never occurred to her to do otherwise.

"You didn't even realize you did it." Kailyn said. "I just wanted to say thank you."

"That actually leads into my next thing, actually." Hannah answered.

"Ben, come on." Hannah called towards the door.

Aaron walked in and saw his aunt. "Hi, Auntie Kay."

"How are you, my darling?"

"Good, look at my sisters." He said proudly. He ran next to his father.

Two little identical blonde heads popped in the door and Kailyn's brows creased.

They looked around the room and their faces brightened when they landed on Hannah.

"Hi!" They greeted as they ran to her.

"These, are our daughters." Hannah picked up one of the bright eyed little girls. "We're going to adopt them. They're such sweet girls, Kailyn, we love them so much already. Since Ben came from a larger family, he would have liked one of his own, but that's impossible. We discussed it right after Aaron was born."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Kailyn asked.

"We wanted to wait. We've been visiting them for a few months, but we didn't want to tell the family until we were sure they were ours."

Hannah and Ben had been given the go ahead to attempt for kids; Hannah's heart condition would not be an issue. The first trimester had gone beautifully. Then, late in the second trimester there were complications. After a short, grueling seven and a half month pregnancy, Aaron Benedict Barclay had been born weighing just under three pounds. Luckily he didn't suffer from any long term effects and was flourishing under his parents' care. There would be no more children for Hannah and Ben, but Aaron's childhood would not be lonely with so many cousins. Now it looked like there would be more siblings.

As if Kailyn's final thoughts were brought up her mom and dad walked in followed by her young brothers.

Max smiled happily at his family and pulled Liz aside.

"Are you happy, love?" Max asked. "No regrets?"

"Completely happy, Max. No regrets." She laid her head on his chest and watched her family

Content Hannah squeezed Kailyn's hands as all three little girls were welcomed to their family.

The End