Disclaimer: I own nothing.

AN: It's been a while since I last updated. I know this but I lost my muse for this fic. Anyway, this is the end of the line folks. I have finally comeup with the right stuff for my ending. I hope that you guys could enjoy it. I loved writing this chapter. So on with the story.

The weather was perfect.

Helga found herself walking towards a place she's avoided too long. She carried with her a bouquet of lilies. When she reached her destination she placed the flowers on the grass covered earth.

Here Lies Matthew James

Beloved Son, Brother and Friend

Helga sat down without care for her dress. She glossed her fingers over the words on the headstone. She sat there in the quiet for a long while, completely unaware of anything else other than what was right in front of her.

It has been six months since she returned from Hillwood, a changed woman. She returned to find most of the people she knew got on with their lives.

Mr. and Mrs. James were both happy and relieved when she first went to see them. As though they knew she was in a better place than when she left three months before. Nicole was behaving just like a typical teenager, dating and hanging out with friends and completely happy with her return.

Her parents lost the worry look from their faces. They smiled more openly and whispered less often. Helga found herself talking to them again, about the normal stuff.

Phoebe called constantly. Helga welcomed her calls and talked to her about everything again, like when they were nine again only better.

Arnold would send her an e-mail once and awhile. Not constant. And he never referred to the letter he gave to Helga at all. Helga followed his lead and did the same.

The rest of her senior year was filled with late nights and early mornings. She threw herself into the experience. Going to class and chatting with her friends, ditching school in favor of hanging around at the mall, volunteering in the decorating committee for school dances.

When she returned from Hillwood she was determined more than ever to live her life. And it seemed that everyone noticed the return of the old Helga. Offers for dates started to come in again, she had always been in the popular crowd. But she often turned them down, unless it involved a group date. Some of the guys who asked her out understood, after all Matthew was probably the most-liked guy in the entire school, some just told her to get over herself, Helga found herself laughing at those guys.

Once she had a heart to heart talk with Matthew's best friend, Jason. It was from him that Helga found out how she was like the first year that Matthew died. He described her as one who wallowed in her sorrow, while trying to fix everyone who was broken. Jason told her how he hated the fact that she seemed so strong. Helga gave him a sad smile and told him that she merely bottled them up and in the end it cost her, her heart.

And this is where everything led her to, in front of her first boyfriend, first real relationship.

She told Jason she was going here today, after two years of not coming. Helga did not exactly know what to do, Jason told her to try talking to Matt, Nicole suggested the same thing.

"Hey you, I miss you." She began. The breeze seemed to pick up and to Helga it was as if Matthew was greeting her too.

"I graduated today. I gave a speech. Dad said I made everyone cry. I really didn't mean to, I was just speaking from the heart, just as you taught me." She traced her fingers over the headstone; she can't seem to stop touching it.

"It was about how I became who I am today, but for the most part it was about you. You gave me so much of yourself. Sometimes I wonder if I ever gave you as much." Her voice broke as she uttered those words. She felt tears flowing down her cheek.

"I hope I did. I love you so much, it almost tore me apart. I think of a lot of what-ifs, what if you never got into that car, what if I went to the party with you, what if you didn't have to drive that girl home, you'd still be alive. It was because you were so nice! You had to be the one to drive Megan home, maybe if she hadn't gotten so drunk you wouldn't have gotten in the car and the die, all because someone else did not think to do the same thing." Helga was weeping and she felt unable to stop, the words she was saying were the words she did not dare utter to anyone else.

It was a while before she managed to pull herself together. She drew out a handkerchief from her purse and wiped her tears away.

"I love you. And I know I always will. I didn't want to blame you for dying, but a part of me did. And I hated that part of me. I tried to recover from everything, but I just can't seem to, until I went back…to Arnold. I know how much you liked him. But despite all of your feelings you always looked out for me. And you were right. I needed him, as my back-up. He helped me. For the first time in two years I felt like I could be again."

"I know there will be times that I would feel guilty for moving on, but being the saint that you are, I know you wouldn't want that. But I won't be able to help it. I just want you to know that I think I'm still in love with him. I don't think I can stop." Helga paused for a moment, she felt like she was on the verge of an epiphany.

"Don't doubt my love for you. I do love you. This isn't about letting go, as you said all those years ago, this is about moving on. I never did let go of him, just as I won't let go of you. But I will move on and I have this insane feeling that moving on would lead me back to him. I won't denigrate our love. But my love for Arnold is epic and somehow I think that's how it's supposed to be and I guess his love for me is epic as well. It would explain why he did a lot of the things he did for me." She continued.

Helga leaned closer to the headstone and placed the photograph of her sixteenth birthday. She was eighteen now. The picture seemed like a lifetime ago. She leaned even closer and placed a kiss by Matthew's name.

"I love you, always will." Helga stood as she said those words.

"This feels remarkably like a goodbye. But it's not. I'll come often, just to say hi and give you an update. But this feels like a new beginning for me Matt. I really feel like I can actually be myself again"

Helga started to walk away. When she was near her car she glanced back. In her head she could picture Matthew leaning against his gravestone, looking in her direction a sad smile on his face. It did feel like a goodbye, but at the same time there was niggling thought going through her head, that it should have happened a year ago. Helga can't help but smile to herself, for the thought in her head sounded a lot like Matthew.

She looked up to the sky and grinned. She felt ready to take on the world again.

Helga got into her car and drove.

She reached her house half an hour later. She parked on the street and got out. Her parents were throwing her a graduation party. They wanted to hold it in some fancy restaurant but she insisted that she wanted it to be a small party, it was then decided that they would hire a caterer for a party at home.

She got out of her car and proceeded to walk towards the door to their house. At the corner of her eye she saw a figure leaning against their orange tree. She felt her stiffen at first, when she directed her glance at the person she relaxed a bit.

"Hey." Was the lone greeting.

"Hey Arnold!" she replied a sincere smile on her face.

At her reaction Arnold seemed to relax himself. Helga had a feeling that he was nervous. She couldn't blame him, she was nervous as well; she could feel butterflies fluttering in her stomach.

He smiled at her as he walked towards her.

"How are you?" he asked when he reached her side.

"I'm okay."

"Party?" he asked as he looked at the door.

"Graduation"

"Ah…had one of those last week"

Helga merely smiled; both seemed stuck where they were.

Arnold all of a sudden offered her his arm, to escort her inside. Helga looked at him blankly as though she didn't know what he was doing.

"Ready?" he asked, waiting for her to take his arm.

To Helga his question was loaded with everything that went on with them. It was as if he was asking if she was ready for them, to become what they were destined to be, an epic romance. She looked into his eyes. Blue to blue clashed. In them she saw hesitation and uncertainty, as if he too was questioning their timing.

A relative calm settled over her. It was time for a new beginning and she felt it when she was with Matthew earlier. She took Arnold's arm and instinctively Arnold knew that everything was going to be fine.

"I'm ready Arnold." Helga finally replied as she looked him in the eye.

Arnold pulled her closer to him and together they entered the house.

AN2: There you go, and end to this story. Hope you liked it and BTW the epic line is not from me, but from Veronica Mars, that's how a relationship in that show was described. Epic. To me that word is enough to summarize the relationship of Helga and Arnold. Anyway, that's it for SOLACE.