Notes:

Thank you all for the wonderful journey that has been this story. I'm still so bummed that this show wasn't continued and miss these characters on my TV screen. I recently re-watched the 13 episodes for the first time in nearly 2 years (I had to take a break from it for a while.) It still makes me smile and I admire all that they did with the short time they were given.

This story was started with every intention of being purely Jalton with Andy being the catalyst for bringing them together and then Amir snuck in there. Amir and Andy's relationship grew purely on its own and to date they are my favorite couple to have written. I had thoughts for other stories to explore their relationship more, but I don't know where it will go or if I will put the words to virtual paper.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Epilogue

Andy walked into the safe house silently. Preach had been thorough when he set the traps to notify him if the safe house had been compromised while the team was away. She bypassed the alarm easily and knew that her brother would have words with her when they returned. It was the whole reason for her trip. She had a couple people she needed to have words with on his team.

The current assignment for the team was simply an escort mission that ended nearly an hour ago when their charge was loaded back on a military plane headed stateside in one piece. It was exactly what they needed for the time being to recharge their batteries.

When she woke up in the hospital the second day, Amir had been there along with the team to say goodbye because they were spinning up again. No time to breathe, to process what had happened, because as far as the Army was concerned, their missio n had been fairly straight forward and was successful . The Army didn't know that it had been family. The CIA would never indicate that it had been a family affair. She was a field agent and basically did not exist in anyone's world except the ones that loved her.

She was healing well and had received word that the kids that they rescued had finally been reunited with their famili es Unfortunately, through the reunion process, more than a few additional Charges were handed out to the parents and guardians of the victims and she hoped that the trauma that they had endured did not scar the children too badly. When she closed her eyes, she saw those terrified eyes staring up at her and she knew that they would haunt her for the foreseeable future. The case had solidified her decision about staying in the CIA as an operative. She couldn't do it anymore. She had reached her breaking point with her tolerance for trauma and she wanted to tell her brother in person. She also wanted to resolve things with Amir.

Adam followed his team toward the safe house, the mission had been straight forward , easy and just what his team needed following their last deployment and their first mission back. Everyone seemed relaxed and moving forward despite his own demons haunting him. Jaz glanced back at him with laughter in her eyes at that moment and it soothed him in a way he wasn't ready to name but timed so well.

Jaz saw her first, sitting at the battered table scrolling on her phone. "Hey! What are you doing here? How did you get passed the sensors? " Her pleasure brought Adam around the corner to see Jaz hugging his sister and the rest of the team surrounding her.

Andy returned Jaz's hug with a smile directed to Preach over her shoulder. "Preach might have shown me a thing or two over the years." Andy hugged the man that was also like a brother to her before hugging McG , who swept her up and spun her around before settling her down. When she turned to look at her brother with a smile, Adam saw the flash of discomfort from McG's enthusiasm and the hesitant glance towards Amir.

"How are you feeling?" Adam questioned as he gingerly wrapped his arms around his sister. She wrapped her arms around his waist and gave him a reassuring squeeze back.

"Better. I came to chat with you before I head back stateside," she answered looking up into the eyes so like her own.

Dalton glanced at his team and they quickly made themselves scarce so that she could talk to her brother. Amir was the last to leave looking a little lost and also like he wanted to say something to Andy. Andy nodded towards him, letting him know that he would have his turn.

"So, what's up?" Adam questioned sitting in the chair across from the one Andy had sank into.

Andy looked at the brother that had helped train her instincts, had given her the soft place to land when she needed it, and given her the family she had so desperately wanted when she showed up on his doorstep all those years earlier. She never wanted to disappoint him and with her next words, she wondered if she would.

"I'm retiring from being a field agent. I can't take another case where a child's life is in my hands. I... I just can't do it anymore Adam. I'm sorry if I'm letting you down," Andy answered holding her breath. Who would have thought that after all these years, she still sought her brother's approval? She had always been proud of the man her brother was, even when he wasn't always proud of himself. She wanted him to know that his opinion mattered most to her.

Adam looked across the scratched and beaten round table that had followed them from Turkey and saw Andy worrying on her lower lip. It reminded him fiercely of that day so many years ago when she had showed up on his doorstep, determined to get what she wanted, but still worried she would fall short. "Andy, I would be disappointed if you stayed when you wanted out. You can't do this job by half. You are either all in or all out. I just want you to be happy. It's all I have wanted since the day you told me you were my sister," Adam answered with a smile. Her returning smile lit up her face and he was transported back to that day so many years ago when she had seemed so sure of herself and what she wanted when she joined the CIA. Andy was always so confident when she made a decision, but she also knew

Andy stood and pulled her brother to his feet and wrapped him in a hug that left him feeling a little sad that their days of field work together were already over. It also left him wondering how much time he had left in the field. Some people were just meant to be in the line of work that left scars, some got out before those scars were all they had and he wondered if the scars were all he would have left.

He also thought back to the conversation he had with Jaz in Greece. " I l ove you sis and I'm proud of you ."

Andy squeezed her brother a little tighter and shut hers eyes tight against the tears that threatened. "Love you too."

J az walked into the room in that moment and smiled at the brother and sister. Adam released his sister and proceeded to ruffle her hair as she stepped back and she playfully elbowed him in the ribs.

"Jaz, take care of this guy for me, won't ya ?" Andy requested as she stepped back and winked at the other woman.

Jaz laughed and watched as Andy walked out of the room, leaving her and Top to smile at each other. "She should visit more often, it's nice having another girl around! " Jaz declared laughing.

Andy went in search of Amir and found him sitting out in the courtyard of the home. Looking at the man that she had spent years in love with and how his profile still made her heart skip a beat. In the days since the end of her mission, she wondered how to approach the subject that had hung between them for years until they finally were reunited .

"Do you know what today is?" he asked her from his seat without even looking over at her. His hand was wrapped around his phone as if it held all the answers he could ever need.

"Yes, I remember. I've never forgotten," she answered with a smile before moving to stand before him. He looked up at her with the intense brown eyes that she would know from a hundred yards out. He finally stood and she could smell the toothpaste he had used recently and the cologne she had given him years before.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" he asked holding her steady gaze as he tucked his phone away.

Reaching up to the clasp of the necklace she wore, she un-clipped the chain and brought it back together in front of her with a gold ring twined in filigree and diamonds dangling at the end. "It was your mom's and I thought you might want it back. I had papers drawn up to annul our marriage , I left them with your gear . I know y ou thought I was dead and I assume you have moved on. I wanted to give this back because it should stay in your family and should go to the woman you want to spend your life with when you decide you are done with this world," Andy explained as she took his wrist and twisted it so that his palm lay face up for her to drop the jewelry into. She couldn't look him in the eye because she didn't want to see the relief she thought would be there when she let him off the hook.

The gold pooled warm in his hand and the ring winked in the light from inside the house. Andy closed his hand over the family heirloom he had thought lost when he had lost Andy all those years ago. Amir remembered the night he gave her his mother's engagement ring when he asked her to marry him after they completed their first mission.

They lay curled up in Andy's room near Langley and were sharing cold take out. Amir was teasing her for all her skills that chopsticks still stumped her and he knew. Andy Dalton was the love of his life. The vice that held his heart tight since his sister's death loosened as Andy helped him find his way back to the boy he had once been.

Andy grinned over at Amir and she felt happy . Genuinely and wholeheartedly happy to be alive in that moment with him. "I love you." She stated it with simple conviction as she leaned over and pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth.

"How do you feel about marriage?" Amir questioned as they returned to eating.

"In what terms?" Andy asked for clarification.

Amir set down his carton and rolled to kneel before Andy on the mattress. He watched her pause in her chewing and swallow slowly before setting down her own food. The wariness didn't surprise him. Andy liked to know what was going on at all times, needed the facts and rarely was taken by surprise.

He pulled the ring his mother always intended for his sister out of his pocket. "Andrea Dalton, will you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?"

"I thought I had lost this when I left you in that house in Germany. " Amir looked up at Andy and saw the nerves in her eyes.

"I kept it safe in case you wanted it back. I thought your mission was only going to be a few weeks and when they told me you were n't coming back, I wanted to get it back to your family, but I didn't know how to tell them their son was gone too. When I recommended you to Adam , I was going to mail it back when my mission was over."

Andy realized in her own head that it sounded like multiple excuses . She still deeply loved Amir , but truthfully, she knew that years had passed and he may no longer feel the same .

Amir looked down at the ring again. He never stopped thinking of Andy as his wife, but he had carried that quiet pain for so long that it wasn't as simple as returning to their married life. They were not the same people they had been standing on the beach in Florida. She was not the same woman that had carried exotic red blooms to match her red and white dress and walked toward him . Her hair that had been down, blowing in the sea breeze wasn't even the same color, and he fell that much deeper in love with her. Now she had grown into a stronger woman, one that could look him in the eye and he no longer had to second guess that she felt as deeply for him as he felt for her. He no longer felt the need to hold back a part of himself, afraid that she wouldn't look at him the same after he shot her.

Amir removed the ring from the chain that had carried it around the world. He stuffed that golden links in his pocket but held the ring in his left hand. With his right hand he picked up Andy's left and he returned the ring to its rightful place on her ring finger.

"Good times and bad, all the days of my life," Amir repeated looking her in the eye. Andy swallowed hard before Amir cupped her cheek and leaned down to kiss her hard. "You are my wife. I don't want to pretend otherwise."

"You going to tell my brother?" Andy questioned with a smile on her face.

"Not a chance. You tell him," Amir answered with a laugh. "Happy anniversary ," he added when she laughed as well.

Adam stood in the window watching his baby sister laugh with Amir and knew that she had finally found home. Amir was also happy, and he wondered how long his invisible man was going to want to remain on his team. Judging by the ring that he gave his sister , he would probably be having words with him shortly.

"Looks like Andy finally found her family," Jaz stated standing beside him , handing him a cold beer.

"She always had one, she just needed to accept that we had all adopted her already," he answered giving her a meaningful look. Jaz nodded and looked back towards the couple.

The End.

Notes:

Thank you again for the journey and I hope you all have found other shows to love and write about. I'm hoping that I can find another show to write about because I do so much love writing. I just keep getting attached to shows that are ending (Arrow) and I'm hoping that Green Arrow and the Canaries gets picked up because I want to explore those relationships a bit from the beginning. We'll see.