A/N: I've actually had this written on my computer for a while now, but hadn't gotten around to editing it due to work and the holidays and such. I was going to first post this on my , but decided to just post it publicly, considering that it was just the last two chapters. Posting both together since the story is now complete.

Enjoy!

Chapter Fourteen: Misty's Choice

The sun rose quickly the next morning, burning Misty's retinas as she lay in her bed motionless. It was empty aside from her. She and Rudy had agreed months ago not to see each other until the wedding. Misty wasn't sure if this was actually a good thing now. The next time she would see him would be when they were about to say their 'I do's. Would she be able to view him without fury seeping through her cracks? She wasn't so certain.

She lifted her body into a sitting position, her hair plastered to the side of her head. She started raking her fingers through the matted mess as she began to think. Did she want to go through with this after all? She glanced at the alarm clock on the nightstand. Her sisters would be up to her room to help her get dressed soon. She glanced over at the shimmer of white hanging at the end of the closet. The knot in her stomach got tighter.

She dragged herself out of bed, every muscle in her body aching. She stretched for a few minutes, hoping that that would get some of the knots out. It was only one restless night, but she got up feeling like she had sprinted a marathon. She was going to need an IV of coffee to get through her day.

She snatched a blue towel from the back of her vanity chair and walked out of her room and into the bathroom. She stripped off her sweaty clothes. The cool air felt good against her bare skin.

She turned the nozzle and warm water began to stream out of the shower head. She let it run for a minute before stepping in, allowing the steam to begin to build in the room. She stepped into the jet stream of water with a sigh. That was more like it.

Thoughts of Ash kept popping in her mind as she was shampooing her hair. How could she have been so stupid? She should have known that he hadn't stopped calling on purpose or even had forgotten. She should have known better. Ash was not like that. Sure, he was often busy with training, but he had never forgotten before the calls stopped. Why would that have changed? She felt like an idiot.

What could she do though? It was too late. He was about to step onto a boat and sail out of her life forever. There was nothing she could do about it, hours before her wedding. She couldn't change her course now. Everything had been paid for. The guests were all here. To call off the wedding now would be cruel. It would leave Rudy in the most precarious position.

She was running out of time. The sand had almost completely fallen through the top of her hourglass, suffocating her. This was it.

Ash was an old dream. It was sailing away toward the horizon. She would have to accept that they were not meant to be.

She shut off the faucet, standing in the tub for a moment to let some of the water drip off her before grabbing a towel. She dried off her body with towel, feeling the rough terry cloth drag across her skin. She wrapped the towel around her body, and walked back out and into her room across the hall.

She was mid-way through drying her hair when her sisters started filing in, already dressed in their bridesmaid dresses, makeup and hair perfectly in place. Daisy was the first to arrive. She gently grabbed the hair dryer from Misty's hand and took over. Misty made no objections, her mind too caught in the storm of her emotions to really care. Lily and Violet stormed in just after her hair was fully dry.

They had Misty get into her wedding dress first, helping to button every button and tie up every ribbon. She put her hand up to throat as they did it. The lump in it would not go away regardless of the numerous times she tried to swallow. It felt like the dress was trying to suffocate her.

Mahri came in to check on them, dressed in a bridesmaid dress as well. She closed the door behind her, apologizing profusely for taking too long. Misty's sisters told her it was fine. They had everything under control anyway. Mahri sat down on the bed while they finished lacing up the dress.

Daisy made her sit down at her vanity. Misty was careful to sit down in a way that wouldn't disturb the gown. Violet held out a thin bathrobe behind her. Misty slipped her arms in and tied the sash around her waist. Violet made sure that all over her hair was gathered and pulled out of the robe before they got started with her hair, Mahri included.

They each had a curling iron and were working on a section. Misty's eyes fell on the power strip in which all four irons were plugged, dreading what it was going to do to her future electric bill. She looked back up, her eyes resting on the youngest in the room. She watched Mahri as she helped her sisters prepare her hair. Her soon-to-be-sister-in-law had become the younger sister that she had always wanted. To leave now would not only break Rudy's heart, it would devastate her as well. Her heart dropped. What kind of person would she be if she did that?

It took a couple of hours to finish getting Misty ready for her wedding. They still had ninety minutes to leave and get to where the ceremony was to be held. It was plenty of time when one considered that part of the way was to be taken by motor boat. Misty glanced at the clock once more. Less than an hour until the first ferry of the day left port. She wondered if Ash was already aboard. She wondered if in a year from now if there would be another who would get to enjoy the taste of his lips, someone who wasn't as stupid as she.

Once Lily had sprayed some setting spray on her face to keep the makeup in place, Misty slid her feet into her open toed shoes. They, along with her dangle earrings were her something blue. She fastened the straps around her bare ankles, slowly and deliberately. She would have given anything for time to slow down—anything to give her more time to think this through.

She lifted her body off of the chair, allowing her body to become fully erect. Lily and Violet had snatched a couple of tissues and were crying. Daisy was beaming. Misty couldn't bear to look at them.

She stepped in front of the full length mirror hanging on the front of her closet door. She looked at the redhead dressed up like a white frosted cupcake. She knew that she should have felt excited, but she wanted to vomit instead.

"Ready, sis?" Daisy asked with a warm smile.

"S-sure."

They all marched out of Misty's room and down the stairs in a sort of procession. Misty couldn't help but feel as if she were walking on death row. Was this really to be her fate?

They exited the cottage and headed towards the river where they were going to take a boat most of the way to the ceremony. They went at a slow and steady pace, for all of the women were wearing heels. Misty still couldn't shake the impending sense of doom that loomed over her.

After a walk through the meadow behind the gym and through a patch of woods, they reached the two boats. Lily and Violet plopped into theirs without hesitation. They started the engine, waiting for the others to settle into theirs. The engine idled, the low rumble buzzing in Misty's ears.

She stared at the boat. To her, it was more like a hearse. This wasn't a wedding; it was a funeral—hers.

What was she doing? Rudy wasn't the one she really wanted, was he? He just happened to be there saying all of the things that she had wished Ash would have told her. Hadn't it always been Ash all along? What was she doing, letting the love of her life get away?

She couldn't so this. She had to sail back to shore. She was drowning in the thought of marrying Rudy. She was sinking further down into the ocean of despair. Would she ever break through?

She couldn't breathe. She was suffocating under all of this pressure. She clutched her chest, hyperventilating. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes as she gasped for breath, fighting to regulate her breathing again. Daisy turned, alarmed. She rushed to her side, her other sisters and Mahri watching on.

"Are you okay?" Daisy asked, holding onto her hand as Misty doubled over.

She had to break free. She could do it. She had to do it. Her life depended on it.

Her breathing eventually began to slow once more. Relief washed over her. She had forgotten how much her lungs like the taste of air.

"Daisy, I c-can't do this," she said once her breathing came back to completely normal.

"What are you talking about, Misty. Of course you can do this. It's just a bit of cold feet."

"No," she muttered. "I-I can't."

A moment of silence fell between them. Daisy exhaled deeply, rubbing her fingers against her temples. She closed her eyes and shook her head.

"You can't do this," Daisy said. It wasn't a question.

Misty whipped her head in Daisy's direction. She stood upright, Daisy mirroring her movements. There was a small smile on her sister's face.

"You might still have time," Daisy said checking her watch. "You might want to run though."

"Daisy—"

"Go! This is your one chance at like true love or whatever. Don't worry. We'll handle everything else."

"Thank you," Misty said to Daisy before turning to a stunned and silent Mahri.

"Mahri…I'm so sorry," she said before grabbing the hem of her dress with both hands, turning around, and breaking out in a run back towards the sea.

It wasn't the easiest thing in the world, sprinting through a forest and then a meadow in heels, while wearing a thirty pound dress. It was heavy, and with the sun beating down on her as she tore up the grass, she was sweating within minutes of being out there. Her legs were screaming at her as she ran as hard as she could under the conditions. It wasn't the same as swimming in a pool. Her knees and feet were screaming at her, but she didn't care. She had to get to Ash before it was too late.

Would it have been better to stop for a moment to remove her shoes? It might mean that she could run a little faster, but there was no guarantee. She didn't have time to risk stopping. She already knew that she was going to be cutting it close. She had to try though. Ash was worth it. If only she had realized that much sooner…

Misty picked up the pace a little once she saw the gym in the distance. She knew that she was going to feel it in her legs the next morning. She cringed as she struggled to get up the hill on the gym's back side. She silently cursed at herself as her eyes began to water. She was really out of shape. Why did she let her training regiment slack a bit because of all that wedding nonsense? Had she changed for Rudy that much over the years? As her legs screamed at her to stop, it hit her—she had slowly been giving pieces of herself away over the years, not enough to notice at once, but before she knew it, she didn't recognize herself any more. She wouldn't have known it if it weren't for Ash crashing back into her life. It was just another thing that she owed to him, she mused as she approached the gym.

She stumbled as she rounded the corner, throwing her hand out against the building to keep her balance. She stopped for a second, catching her breath. She checked her watch. Only seven minutes to go, and she still had to pass her house before even getting to the beach, which was a few minutes from the gym itself. How the hell was she going to make it?

She continued on, heading in the direction of the docks. She willed her legs to continue on, determined to not let them collapse beneath her. Six minutes. She could see the cottage in the distance. Maybe she could do it. There was still a chance.

Five minutes. She was nearly to the path that led around the house and to the beach. Just a bit more and she would be there. Time was slipping away. She had to make it. She just had to. There was no other option now.

Four minutes. A flash of red caught her eye as she passed by the white siding. She froze, turning to face what had grabbed her attention in a time like this. There it was. The bicycle. Ash's final gift to her was going to be what brought her back to him. She might have a fighting chance now.

Three minutes. She rushed to the bike, kicking the stand up with her heel. She struggled to push it to the path and swing her leg over it. She somehow managed to rest her butt on the seat with all of the fabric. She kicked off the ground and off she went.

Two minutes. She pedaled furiously, picking up speed. She let her legs rest once she no longer got any resistance. She let momentum do its job as she continued to speed down the dirt path that led to the docks and the beach. She had to be careful to not go off the path once she reached it. The sand would stop her almost instantly. Luckily, the path continued on the left side of the beach and all the way down to the dock. The unfortunate thing was that it had always taken a bit longer to go that way.

One minute. She was almost to the dock. The metal platform was within reach. The horn from the ferry went off in the background. It was about to leave any second. She pumped her legs harder in attempt to keep up her momentum. Was she going to make it?

Eleven o'clock. The boat was starting to pull away from the dock. She crossed over on the metal. She bike continued to vibrate as she traveled down the platform. The ferry was pulling further and further away from the dock. Her pulse quickened. It was going to be close.

Misty squeezed her hands on the breaks. The bike skidded to a stop. She dropped it. It hit the platform with a loud clang. She rushed to get out from under it and continued to run to the end of the dock, the hem of her dress dragging. It was almost completely in the open sea. She reached the end of the dock with only one thing to do.

She took a running leap, arms outstretched.