Chapter Twenty-Nine – "Happy Endings Pine Valley-Style"

Previously: The first twenty-eight chapters.

"Make love to me," Kendall requested of her husband when they got back to her place. Actually, it was more of a demand than a request.

"That sounds like an order," he observed, his eyes shining.

"You betcha," she confirmed, turning. "Now unzip this damn dress, and no back-talk."

Slowly, he began unzipping her, gently kissing her neck as he unzipped. "And here I thought you could handle zippers all by yourself. Sorry. Was that back-talk?"

She faced him, her unzipped dress beginning to dip off her shoulders. "I can do zippers, if I have to. But I'm better at buttons."

She began unbuttoning his shirt with a silent determination that thrilled him to his core.

"Mind if I take a shower first?" he laughed, half-heartedly fending off her advances. "That dump, or what's left of it after the explosion, could use a good going over with a mop and pail."

"I could use a good going over too," she informed him, unbuckling his belt. "But not with a mop. And not with a pail." Her come-on might have been more erotic, she realized, if she wasn't collapsing with giggles as she continued her seduction. But Zach didn't seem to mind.

Naturally, the phone began to ring.

"Don't you dare answer that," Kendall directed. "I mean it, Zach. Leave that stupid phone alone and rip my clothes off right now. Or else."

"Or else you'll leave me for always and ever?" he asked, picking up the receiver. "Are you threatening me, Lovely, with the death and dissolution of Zendall?"

"Shut up," Kendall grumbled, slipping off the rest of her clothes and kicking them away.

"Whoever you are, you couldn't have a worse sense of timing," Zach told the caller, never taking his eyes off of his no longer clothed wife.

"Zach, it's Derek," the caller said. "Ethan and Gina have escaped somehow. We've set up roadblocks. Don't you start looking for them, Slater. I'm getting pretty sick of amateurs trying to do my job. Sit tight, and I'll keep you posted."

"You do that," Zach replied, hanging up and going back to Kendall.

"Anything important?" she asked as she unzipped him.

"Importance is a relative concept," he replied, sweeping her off her feet and carrying her into the bedroom.

"That's what I always say," she agreed, right before she became incapable of coherent thought for a wonderful while.

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"I'm so glad Dixie wasn't involved with Ethan in any of that," Di told Tad, handing him the last piece of pizza.

"Dixie Who?" Tad asked happily.

"I'm in love with you, Sherlock," Di said with all her heart. "Did you know that?"

"I suspected as much," Tad said. "That's one mystery I solved eons ago."

Di laughed, overjoyed that they were bantering once again. "Mastermind! Tell me, how did you ever come to solve that particular mystery?"

"Elementary, my dear Watson," Tad replied. "The tip-off was you let me have the last piece of pizza!"

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Derek had called Amanda, asking her to come to the Station right away. She couldn't imagine why.

"Amanda!" Janet cried out when she walked in. "Why haven't you been returning our calls?"

"You shouldn't worry your Mother, Mandible," Trevor told her, embracing her. "You know how crazy she is about us!"

"I'm sorry!" Amanda apologized. "I thought I was calling you both! Did you get new cell phones or something? Didn't they let you keep the same numbers?"

"They froze our old numbers," Janet complained. "Who knows why? But we're saving a bundle on the new Plan! Oh, Amanda! Did I forget to tell you about it?"

Amanda blinked back tears of joy.

"It doesn't matter, Mom! Really! I'm so glad to see you both! You have no idea!"

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Scene: The Tree House. Jonathan and Lily are celebrating her solution to the Mystery.

Jonathan: Lily, you did it! Now everybody in town knows how smart you are!

Lily: I couldn't have solved the Mystery if you hadn't helped me, Jonathan. We make a wonderful team.

Jonathan (embracing her): We sure do!

Lily put down the discredited Script and smiled at Jonathan. She couldn't remember being this happy in all of her young life.

"Jonathan, I think my Dad likes you more than he used to like you," she said to her best friend. "His face was less red than usual when he saw us together at the Dump."

"That's only because he turned pale, Lily," Jonathan agreed to disagree. "I'd like him to like me, but I guess that will take more time. Anyway, all I really care about is whether you like me!"

She thought that through.

"I don't like you anymore, Jonathan," she informed him.

"You don't?" he asked, his heart sinking and breaking at the same time.

"No, I definitely don't like you anymore." She counted to ten before she told him the rest. "I LOVE YOU!"

Saying nothing further, she leaped into his open arms and hugged him tight, forgetting completely, maybe for forever, that she didn't like to be touched.

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"Greenlee, I still can't believe you're here!" Ryan was saying to her. They were in the Penthouse, and everything seemed back in place, exactly as it was before he faked his own death (for her own good) and broke her heart (for her own good).

"I'm leaving for Vegas tomorrow," Greenlee told him emotionlessly. "This is our last night together. I'll always feel connected to you, Ryan. But I realize now that isn't enough for either one of us. We deserve more out of life and love than one another."

Ryan felt as if she'd punched him in the stomach.

"You can't mean that!" he gasped.

"Yes, I can," she sighed.

"I apologize for pretending to be dead," he apologized. "I apologize for nearly putting you through a wall when you told me you were pregnant."

"You were going through a rough patch," Greenlee told him. "I understand, Ryan. But we're over and out."

"I never loved Gina," he told her passionately. "I just needed you back so bad, I glommed onto the first Greenlee Substitute that came my way. I was a fool."

Greenlee sighed again.

"And my love for Kendall faded as soon as I saw you come out of the Big Black Building," he continued to recount. "Of course Kendall and I will always be a part of each other's lives and at some point in time I'll probably fall in love with her again."

"Too much information," Greenlee laughed. "I'll send you both postcards from Vegas."

"Vegas?" Ryan echoed, beginning to take it all in. "You're serious about that? Why would you want to go to Vegas?"

"I'm not sure," Greenlee answered. "I keep thinking my Destiny is waiting for me there."

"I thought I was your Destiny. I thought we were the Destiny Couple."

"That wouldn't be us, Ry," Greenlee said wisely, if not kindly.

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"Zach, will there always be a Zendall?" Kendall happened to be inquiring of her mate at that very moment.

Their passion spent, they were on the bedroom floor, not having been able to make it all the way to the bed, securely wrapped in each other.

"You mean, Zendall the Detective Agency?" he asked playfully, knowing exactly what she meant.

"I mean Zendall the US," she clarified. "Will we always be together, Zach?"

He wasn't going to lie to her. "The future is a guess, Lovely. You know that as well as I do. All we have is now. All anybody has is now."

That was so not what she wanted to hear.

"You can foresee a day when you won't want me?" she challenged him in a "how dare you?" tone of voice.

He shrugged. "Or when you won't want me. That's the nature of the lives we lead, Lovely. We're on shifting sand. Things go along placidly for a while and then there's a Sweeps Week or a Contract has to be renegotiated, and all hell breaks loose."

She couldn't accept that.

"How can we live our lives on shifting sand?" she needed to know.

"We live in Pine Valley," he reminded her. "Living our lives on shifting sand is standard operating procedure. It's what we do. It's who we are."

"I don't care," she said for the record. "Whatever happens, I will always, always love you as much as I love you now."

"And that's a lot, huh?" he laughed, kissing her again. And again. And again.

"What do you need me to tell you?" he asked her huskily.

She didn't hesitate. "That we will live in each other's love for all of Eternity."

"Okay," he said.

At which point Zendall became lost in each other, which they knew would always be the best place to find themselves. At least until the next time the sand shifted and all hell broke loose.

"Maybe we could do a movie," she suggested to him much, much later. "Does the sand shift less for movie stars?"

"Not really. It's the nature of our Business, Lovely."

"Maybe we could stay on television and do prime time. A Sit-Com." She got a brighter idea. "How about a Detective Show?"

"Isn't that what we just got through doing?"

"How about a SciFi?"

"Did that already. But that was in another timeline. You wouldn't remember any of that."

She certainly didn't. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Zach."

He grinned, loving her more every instant. "Then let's stop talking, Lovely."

"Lets!" she smiled, reaching for him.

So they stopped talking for the rest of the day and most of that night, and most of the next day. And they lived happily ever after. At least until November Sweeps. But that's another story!

Thank you, AMC for giving me such fabulous characters to borrow! Please, PLEASE write front-burner story lines for the Veterans! Thank you, FanFiction for existing! Thank you EVERYBODY for reading and reviewing! All together now:
ZEN IS DESTINY!