Okay, this is the final chapter. Please readright to the bottom of the page, there are some important messages at the bottom.

11. Starting Over

Butch was giving his statement to the police, as Princess was dragged off. Suddenly, there was the sound of a car horn hooting. Butch turned round.

"Hey, Butch," shouted Eddy from behind the wheel, "Its time for you to come home!"

"Give me a minute," he called back, "I'll just be a minute."

He continued giving his statement for another five or so minutes, before Eddy started hooting impatientlyagain.

Butch wondered slowly into the hospital. So slowly in fact that Eddy had to keep stopping.

"Come on," he said eventually, "At this rate she'll be discharged by the time we get there!" Butch just sighed. "What's wrong," Eddy was confused, "you were fine in the car."

"Yes, but the last time I was here, I was running away to go have a drink. Now I've got to face her again. Do you think it will be okay?"

"Oh," said Eddy slightly smugly, "I don't thing it will be too bad!"

"OW!" yelped Boomer again. Buttercup was managing to have a laugh at the scene in front of her.

"How did this happen?" she croaked, (still feeling pretty ill).

"Well," Blossom was studding Boomer closely, "to get back here quickly, Boomer was required to draw fire while I…" she looked at the kids, "err, Sonic went round the back to take them out."

"But it needed to be a BIG distraction," Boomer mimicked Blossom's voice. "I'll never look at the cancan the same way again, OW!"

"Found another one," said the Professor, pulling a bullet out of the agonised Ruff.

"Hey, there's one down here," said MJ, "can I pull it out?"

"Err, I better do it," Blossom said hurriedly.

"Has it occurred to anyone that we're in a hospital?" suggested Edward. Buttercup nodded.

"But don't tell them;" she said quietly, "this is keeping my mind off thin…"

She stopped, because the door had been pushed open slightly. Butch put his head round the door.

"Err, hi?" he said. Everyone stopped, (well, Boomer hopped around in pain, but everyone else stopped.)

"Ermm, the nurse said that Bubbles can see people now," Eddy's voice floated into the room.

"Great, let's go see Bubbles," said the Professor slightly too quickly. But no one argued and they all filed out until Buttercup and Butch were alone.

Butch entered and closed the door. He tried a brief smile.

"Are those tubes painful?" he asked. Buttercup glanced at the tubes running up her arms and nose (or up the area where her nose should be).

"Not to bad, relative to the pain of..." she stopped.

Butch sat of the bed carefully (not wanting to cut a tube.)

"It's okay," he said gently. "I'm sorry I ran off, I really am. But am back now, so we can start over and try again."

"But its such a low chance," said Buttercup sadly.

"Then we'll have to keep busy," her husband said softly. He putgently took her hand.Buttercup smiled.

"I thought I'd lost you," she whispered, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"I thought you'd be mad."

"I will be later."

"Oh." Butch sighed. "You know I would never leave you," he said "quietly, "but I think I nearly died inside."

"But you didn't?"

"It was close," he admitted, "but I had this really strange dream…"

Butch stopped. He'd just sunk his hands into his pockets and something was in one of them. He pulled it out. It was a promotional pamphlet, entitled So Your Dead. He gaped at it.

"What's that?" asked Buttercup. Butch looked up.

"I don't know," he said.

That's it! I hope you enjoyed it. Please sent me a review and tell me what you think, I want to hear your opinions.

Important Message: You may or may not have noticed that I only started this story a week ago, and now it's finished. The reason for this extremely high update speed is that as of 1200 GMT tomorrow (December 17th) I will have no internet connection until afterthe new year (the 9th of January).

So please note that as well as not being able to write stories, I will also not be able to read yours! But please all of you keep going with them, and I'll catch up with all your other readers after Christmas.

Also note that this is not an excuse for you not to review this story.

I will be writing another sequel over Christmas, and that will appear in the New Year, so if you're interested keep an eye out for it. Also, if you have any questions related to these stories, or any issues you want me to expand on, or just a good idea, please tell me.

Oh and here's a sneak preview of the next story.

"So you want superpowers?"

"Yes," said MJ desperately, "I'd do anything for them!" The stringy red creature smiled evily and clicked his claws.

"I think we can arrange that!"

Have a great Christmas, and keep writing!