(AN: Wow, I can't believe I'm nearly done—just one more chapter after this and it's all over! (sniff) But I won't dwell on that right now. Here's the next chapter—C/W, angst, fluff, all those things that apparently I'm well-known for…)

O.o.O

After dodging traffic and running up the stairs to the Wanda's apartment, Cosmo found himself hesitating at her door. True, she had wanted him to come—but was it just to yell at him? Was she still mad at him?

Cosmo gulped in apprehension, and, squinting his eyes shut in preparation for the worst, knocked three times on Wanda's door. He probably would have recoiled in horror moments after this action, but he never got the chance to—the door was opened in an instant.

"Cosmo!" cried Wanda, throwing her arms around his neck. Cosmo, still overcome with shock and nervousness, slid his right arm around her shoulders—his left was still clutching his briefcase and box of cheese.

Wanda pulled away. "How are you?" she asked, grinning from ear to ear. Well. She obviously wasn't upset at him anymore.

"Wonderful!" said Cosmo truthfully. He couldn't look at her and feel otherwise. She did look different from the last time he had seen her, however. Her hair was shorter now, and she was wearing her waitress uniform. But she was still gorgeous.

"Come on in!" Wanda motioned for Cosmo to enter. Timidly, Cosmo stepped inside.

"You have a nice place," he said, looking at her living arrangements.

Wanda blushed and shrugged. "It's nothing much, but thanks, whatever works, right?"

"It's nice!" Cosmo emphasized. Suddenly remembering the box he was carrying, he handed to it to Wanda awkwardly. "I got you some cheese…"

"Oh, thank you!" Wanda opened the lid to find a box only about half full of various cheeses.

"I… I ate some," said Cosmo sheepishly, mentally kicking himself and his cheese addiction. Great way to win her back, doofus. Now all she thinks of you is that you're a greedy slob who loves cheese more than her!

But Wanda just laughed. "You and your cheese," she said, shaking her head fondly. She set the box of cheese down on a shelf and pulled out a scrapbook. "I actually have something for you, too. I made a scrapbook of all the magazine and newspaper articles about you when you were riding your unicycle… remember?"

"Of course I remember," said Cosmo, as Wanda flipped through page after page of covers from "CYCLING MONTHLY" and other magazines like that.

Seeing one of the pictures, with Monkey eagerly poking his head out of the basket, Wanda laughed. "How is Monkey these days, anyway?"

"He's fine—he likes to help me mow all those lawns."

The two were silent for a few moments, the only sound the rustling of each page Wanda turned.

"I was gone a long time…" said Cosmo faintly.

Wanda closed the book and looked at Cosmo, almost sadly.

Another pause.

"I'm sorry—" both Cosmo and Wanda began, then laughed at their unison.

"Sorry," giggled Wanda. "What were you saying?"

"You go first," said Cosmo. Whatever Wanda had to apologize for probably wasn't as bad a crime as Cosmo's, at any rate. She had to go first!

Wanda rubbed her arm distractedly. "Well… what I want to say is… I'm sorry for anything I ever did to you that… that hurt you," she finally managed to say. "I was messed up for a real long time, and… I'm sorry."

Cosmo was shocked. Well, okay, so Wanda had hurt him, but she had a perfectly reasonable excuse for leaving—she just wanted to be loved by someone who could love her more than Cosmo, right? Who cared if Cosmo was hurt by that—he had his Monkey—but Wanda needed someone to love her the way she deserved—something that Cosmo could never do!

He opened his mouth, about to say all this (or at least try), but a sharp knock on the door interrupted him.

"Knock knock!" said the woman who opened the door, with pink hair and pink eyes just like Wanda, although noticeably different. She was holding the hand of a small girl, whose white hair was in pigtails.

"Heeeyyy!" Wanda said fondly, picking up the girl. To the woman she said, "My schedule's changed, so I don't need you to pick her up next week."

"Okay. Gotta go, I'm double parked."

"Alright, bye, Leslie!"

"See ya!" The woman shut the door and was gone.

Smiling, Wanda walked back towards Cosmo, still holding the girl in her arms. "This is my very good friend, Mr. Uhsmith," she said to the girl. "Can you say hello?"

"Hello, Mr. Uhsmith!" said the girl with a smile, showing off all her brilliant small teeth.

"Hello!" said Cosmo, looking at the girl in wonder. Was that… Wanda's daughter? No, she couldn't be…

"Can I go watch TV now, Mommy?" asked the girl.

"Yes you can, just keep it low." Wanda placed the girl on the floor and watched her trot off to the living room, flopping down in front of the TV and turning it on rapidly.

"You're…" Cosmo stammered, "you're… you're a mama!"

"I'm a mama, alright," said Wanda, gazing lovingly at the girl.

Cosmo's mind swam. If Wanda was a mother, he was painstakingly deducing, that meant either one of two things. One, Wanda was married, which totally killed the ghost of a chance Cosmo had at winning her back. And two, nearly worse than the first option… Wanda was not married, but a single mother.

He could remember when he was a child, and he was playing with a kid he knew from school. Mama Cosma had talked about Cosmo's new playmate to him that night—in a small town, you know everything about everyone.

"I pity that poor boy, and do you know why? His father might as well be non-existent. With your father it's a different story; it's not like he had a choice in leaving us… dynamite does that to you… but that boy's father left his mother all alone to raise her child, without any help at all! I swear, sweetie, if I had my way, all the men who get women pregnant and leave them to be single mothers would be arrested."

If Wanda was a single mother, then that meant that some low-down guy had abandoned her to raise her daughter all by herself, and that made Cosmo angry at that guy—whoever he was—for doing such a thing. He would much rather have Wanda married than that—if she was married, at least that meant that she had found that man who could love her like she needed to be loved!

"Her name's Castle," said Wanda quietly.

"Castle?" Cosmo repeated. "…I like that!"

"I was hoping you would," said Wanda, giving Cosmo a rather strange look. "I had no idea what to name her—if she had been a boy, I would have named her Cosmo."

"Like me!" said Cosmo, smiling with joy.

Wanda also smiled, one of the strangest, saddest, most loving smiles that Cosmo had ever seen. "Like her daddy."

Cosmo, despite himself, laughed. "Her dad's named Cosmo, too? I never thought my name was very common!"

Wanda still had that strange smile on her face. "You're her daddy, Cosmo…"

Cosmo's limbs turned stiff.

WHAT had he DONE?

It was him!—HE was that lousy guy who had done such a terrible thing to Wanda, had left her alone to take care of her daughter—HIS daughter—THEIR daughter!

He was a daddy! All this time—how old was she, anyway? Three, four—he had been a daddy all this time and had had no idea!

How could he have done such a thing—

His daughter! He had a daughter!

"Cosmo—" Wanda laid a hand on his shoulder.

"What—what—I've done something terrible, haven't I?"

"Oh God, no—if anyone's done anything wrong, it's me." Wanda turned and looked at Castle again. "Besides, look at her. Isn't she beautiful?"

Cosmo stared, opened mouthed, at the child. Her bright silver eyes were glimmering with excitement as she watched her TV show, her lips parted in awe, creating a slit in that perfect, chubby, childish profile of hers. She sat there, in front of them—the visual emblem of Cosmo and Wanda's love, for she was of both of them.

"She's… she's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," Cosmo choked out, tears filling his eyes. Realizing what he said, he added hurriedly, "Besides you, of course!"

Wanda laughed and shook her head. "No… she's far more beautiful than I am. She's… she's my angel."

She was an angel—Cosmo couldn't believe it. Now he had two.

But…

"But tell me," Cosmo managed to choke out, trying to talk through his tears and his contracted throat, "tell me, is she smart or is she…" Cosmo pointed to himself, finally smiling almost abashedly. "Or is she stupid like me?"

"Oh, Cosmo." Wanda looked so gentle, so caring, but Cosmo didn't know if that was because Castle was smart or… not. "At her preschool… you should see her. She's so curious, always asking questions. She's got a short attention span, so sometimes her mind wanders, but when she does stay focused… yes, she's very, very smart."

Cosmo began to cry again, this time for relief and joy. Thank God his daughter wasn't a moron like him! She was smart, and beautiful, and PERFECT.

Wanda noticed that Cosmo was leaning towards Castle, hesitantly, as if he were about to enter a prohibited zone, so she motioned to the living room—"Go on! Go and talk to her!"

And Cosmo, as if treading on eggs, approached his daughter.

"What are you watching?" he asked her, softly, as not to startle her.

"Bert and Ernie," replied Castle, not even taking her eyes off the TV. "They're fun to watch… but my favorite shows come on later." She turned and looked at Cosmo, smiling—if she noticed the remnants of his tears she chose to ignore them. "They're violent! Mommy doesn't let me watch them that often, but she says now that I'm four I can watch them every so often. And eat candy."

Cosmo smiled. "Candy and violence! Yay!"

Wanda, watching them, shook her head in mock despair.

O.o.O

Later that day, Cosmo and Wanda took Castle to the park.

Castle ran off to the swings right away, catching sight of some of her friends instantly. Cosmo and Wanda watched her from their park bench, not saying anything for awhile.

Finally, Cosmo turned to Wanda. "Wanda… I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for—"

"Cosmo, you have nothing to be sorry about. I'm the one who should be apologizing, a thousand times over."

"No, but Wanda, really, I'm sorry! I'm sorry I didn't love you enough—I guess I'm too stupid to—"

"What are you talking about, Cosmo?"

Cosmo hesitated. "When you left… you never said anything, but I know why. That night… that night I was finally able to show you how much I loved you, but it wasn't enough, and you left. I could try harder!" he added hurriedly. "I love you more than I could ever know, but I just don't know how to tell you, or even show you—"

He was silenced by Wanda's slender hand touching his mouth.

"Cosmo, listen to me. Of all the people I've ever known, of all the people who have claimed to love me, none has loved me with a fraction of the love that you have. There's no way I could ask for anything more—I don't deserve what you give me, Cosmo! That's why I ran away. I didn't want to ruin your life. I didn't feel like I deserved your love… you needed someone better. I still think that," she admitted.

"I don't want anyone else," said Cosmo simply.

"I know." Wanda stared at her feet, not looking upwards. "Which is why I'm the one who should be apologizing here. I was scared and so I ran away, and I hurt you in the process, even though I was trying to protect you."

"Do… do you still love me?" Cosmo's voice was hardly a whisper, as if he were afraid of the answer.

"Yes," Wanda answered without hesitation.

"Then why have you—"

"I was scared, Cosmo. Scared and stupid." Wanda still wasn't looking upwards, so Cosmo cupped her face in his hand and lifted up upwards. Trembling, she said, "The real question is, after all I've put you through, do you still love me?"

"I could never stop loving you, Wanda," said Cosmo, feeling himself tremble as well.

"You deserve so much better than me, Cosmo," whispered Wanda.

"I told you, I don't want anyone else but you. You're the one who deserves better."

"I love you," said Wanda quietly. "I'm still scared to admit it… I don't want to get hurt again, but I know you won't hurt me, Cosmo. And I really need you right now, more than ever."

"Why is that?" asked Cosmo, absentmindedly running his fingers through her hair.

"I… I'm sick."

Cosmo sat up straighter. "You're sick? Have you taken Tylenol?"

"It's not that kind of sickness," sighed Wanda. "Tylenol doesn't help it. It's… it's some sort of virus, and the doctors don't know what it is. They say that five years or so ago, this virus was non-existent, but now…" Wanda laughed starkly. "Now people who make really stupid choices, people like me, are starting to get it. Anyway, the doctors don't know how to fix it."

Cosmo grasped Wanda's hand, a wave of panic and alarm overtaking him. "Will you get better?"

Wanda instinctively squeezed Cosmo's hands, looking down again. "I don't know," she murmured.

"You will get better," said Cosmo firmly. "You can come back home with me, you and Castle. I'll take care of you, and you'll get better, I promise."

"You asked me to marry you," said Wanda. "Would you still marry me now? You have every reason in the world to say no, but if you did… we could take care of each other. Would you marry me, Cosmo?"

Cosmo froze, his eyes bulged, and he began blurting out nonsense syllables, going into complete shock at what Wanda had just asked him.

"Cosmo?" asked Wanda, growing worried.

Cosmo's mouth shut as he gazed wonderingly at Wanda, trying to get the word of assent out of his mouth. Now he was asking even more questions in his head—like what had he done right this time? Why was he wondering? Why didn't he ANSWER her before she changed her mind?

Finally, Cosmo's head slowly went down, then up, then down again, and his mouth formed the word "yes".

And Wanda understood completely, and smiled as she laid her head against his shoulder.

O.o.O

(AN: I can't believe I have only one more chapter of this story! (Did I already say that?) Just to warn all of you who haven't seen the movie, the last chapter will be sad. Well, sad, but it will have some happy moments, so… bittersweet. There we go. Bittersweet. I'll probably have a really sappy ending author's note too.

Of course, the wait will be a bit of a long one (although it's probably normal coming from me). I won't be able to update until after March 25, as I'll be on a mission trip for the week before that. And when I get back, I've got my other story to update first.

See you all come chapter the last… sniff… I'm gonna miss this l'il parody…)