yeah, i suggest you refresh your memory on the story if you forgot it! ;D i know, im such a terrible updater. could be worse i suppose. So, here is the last chapter! woah, went by so quick ;D

She froze in place, turning on the balls of her feet so her body was facing him. She was sure that Nick could hear her heart pounding inside of her from where he was standing. As she turned her face revealed her scared side. She looked like a terrified puppy, lost in the dark.

"Can we talk?" he asked, waiting for her to meet his gaze before he saw the real damage he had caused. She was always the brave one, from day one. He was the shy one, how was it working out like this?

"Here to tell me how much you hate me again?" she spat the words out. It was all she had been hearing all week, and while she didn't mean to say it, they came out on their own.

"Miley, please... I want to work this out," he begged. It had hurt him just as much as he had hurt her, and he was sure he knew that too. Miley softly nodded, bringing him to her room.

Nick looked around, studying it. It was the first time he had been in the house but Miley's room was exactly how he pictured it, all the way down to the collage of pictures. He walked around to her bed, sitting and looking around. He looked at the bookshelf, seeing his name on the spine of one he pulled it out. It was worn thin and in perfect reach for Miley to grab it while laying down, he knew that that's what she did too. It had a picture of the two of them on the cover, him kissing her cheek gently and her smiling like the world could never end. He started flipping through the pages that were all filled with pictures of him or the two of them with cute captions underneath. He grinned, closing the photo album and ran his finger through the rest.

"I like it," he finally said of her room. Miley nodded, sitting down on the bed, tracing her bed sheet. "So, how have you been?"

"I've been better," she spoke softly, Nick had to strain to hear her.

"Yeah," he let out a harsh laugh. "me too." Then there was silence. Neither of them knew what to say. Miley felt out of her element, Nick didn't want to make things worse. But it was him who had to start the conversation and they both knew that, because if he didn't he would never be able to understand. "You're really good with her."

Miley let out another soft nod. "How much of that did you hear?"

"Enough," he gave a cheeky grin but Miley's expression didn't change. Her face was still glum and hurt. "We really need to talk." he sighed. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I guess I just... forgot to mention it."

"How do you forget to mention you have a daughter, Miley?!" he exclaimed, amazed. "I saw you with her, she isn't someone in school you honestly do forget about when you get home. She's the one that you leave home and you think about at school. You love her, I see that, my Mom sees that, your mom sees that, even my brothers see that, so why did you keep it from me?"

"I was afraid of this."

"Maybe it wouldn't have happened if you had told me from the start," he said gently, seeing that it was upsetting her even more. If she got a little more scared there would be no talk. She would stay silent, afraid. "It took a stab at me, knowing that I wasn't good enough for you to not tell me the truth."

"I-I'm sorry that I hurt you, but you have to understand... It isn't that you weren't good enough for the truth, you just deserved so much more than that," she was on the verge of tears but was fighting with every ounce she had not to let them fall. She was afraid that one day, she would start crying and never be able to stop. She would stay broken forever, with no Prince to save her.

"But I didn't want that, Mi. I didn't want better – I don't think there is better. I wanted you!" he brushed the hair away from the front of her face, tucking it behind her ear. Past tense, wanted. It was true love, but with love comes confusion, heartbreak, and most of all, unmeant words, and unmeant feelings. "I didn't care who else came along, you were the only one I could ever picture myself with." A single tear rolled down her cheeks when she saw how much she had hurt him, she had ruined their relationship. "I'm sorry for hurting you too. I realized I had went way to far the other day. I thought about it again and again after, and you were only trying to protect me."

"It's fine. I deserved them," she mumbled, hardly able to trust her own voice anymore.

"You didn't! You didn't deserve them at all, you were already going through as tough of a time as I was but I just made it worse by forcing you to hear every word I said. You need to know that I didn't mean them."

Miley nodded, wiping the bottom of her eyes so she wouldn't fall into an outright sob.

"Baby, please talk to me," he plead. "Look at me. Do anything."

She hesitated but looked up anyways, the tears fogging her vision. "I miss you – us."

"Sh," he soothed. "come here." She crawled into his arms, cuddling into his chest, inhaling his scent. He started to stroke her hair, drawing small circles on her back. "I miss us too, that's why we need to work this out. Okay?" she nodded, starting cry which made her dig her face into him even deeper. "You know, you have to actually talk to me for that to happen?" he tried to lighten the mood.

"I know," he heard, muffled. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Because I love you, Mi... a fight can't stop that," he explained. "Caitlin is a beautiful girl, by the way."

"Thanks," Miley muttered.

"Lighten up," he nudged her. "Tell me about her."

"Caitlin?''

"Yeah."

She rolled her face so she was resting her cheek on his chest, Nick wiping the tears before returning to stroking her hair. "Well... she's three."

"Okay, what else?"

Miley was surprised he was asking but continued, closing her eyes. "She's almost always behaved. Strong beliefs. She has a lot of energy. Loud, fun, sweet. Thoughtful. She isn't afraid to say how she feels-"

"Like you," Nick smiled. "I loved that little moment at dinner by the way. I think she scared the crap out of Joe. Continue."

"She's very intelligent – she can read a little bit already – , she loves telling stories, it is her absolute favorite, she'll go on and on. Then, she likes coloring. Very athletic-"

"Where is that from?" Nick chuckled. "You can't play any sport."

"That's from her dad," Miley whispered, backing down. "He was extremely physically fit. That's why her hair is so straight too."

A course of darkness flashed through Nick's eyes. "What about your promise ring – to God?"

"It's a promise that I won't ever have sex again until marriage," Miley explained. It was a promise ring, just not a normal promise.

"How did this happen?"

She looked down even farther, almost ashamed. "I don't know. A party?"

"No... I feel like I'm missing the last piece to a puzzle I had been working on for months, like there's something more behind this. The way you're so vague, then my Mom telling me to let you explain," he trailed off before tilting her chin to look her in the eye. "There isn't anything else, is there?"

Miley squirmed, "Nothing important, no."

"That is half an answer," he pointed out. "I want the truth. After all this don't you think I deserve the full story?"

"I know you do, it's just... I don't want to put anymore on you."

"Tell me, Babe."

She nodded, nervous. "Well, it was a week or two after my thirteenth birthday. My parents decided to throw me and my aunt a surprise party at this really nice hotel. They had good food, it was like a buffet. Since my aunt's half of the party was old enough, they had alcohol. My boyfriend was a couple years older than me, and wanted to try a drink – he was fifteen. I told him not to, and most of the night he listened, steering clear of the alcohol, but then temptation got the best of him. A few more and he was drunk. He found me by the pool and it all comes down from there.

"He pulled me to our hotel room that we were staying at and he was so horny. All he could think about was sex, then after a while he started hitting me and I tried to fight back but I couldn't," she wiped her eyes. She had never gone into it this deep before. "He said I was useless and should just have sex, that kind of stuff. Finally I was too weak and could not fight him anymore. I tasted my lip bleeding and my stomach was so sore. I gave up – why'd you stop?" she looked to Nick's hand midair. It was supposed to be stroking her hair.

"You're telling me about getting raped and you're worried about why I stopped petting your hair?" he asked, amazed before continuing to calm her down.

"It was all my fault. If I just fought-"

"Hey, never say that. It wasn't your fault at all, okay? It was his," he kissed her forehead. "This must have been what my mom meant by letting you explain."

She giggled through her tears. "Probably."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Miley pushed her face into his stomach but he pulled it back out. They had to have the answers. "I didn't want you to feel tied down to me because of the sympathy. I wanted you to be free, I was done with the sympathy from everyone I told. I don't want it. At all."

"You won't get it from me," he promised.

"Good."

"I screwed up so bad," he said, angry at only himself.

"That's what we do, we mess up. We're humans."

"Will you be my girlfriend again, Mi?" he looked down while she looked up.

She sighed. "Are you sure you want to mess up again? You know now I'm not like other girls. I'm different."

"That's why I love you," his words sent a shiver down her spine. "Because your different. I would be messing up if I didn't chase after you."

She smiled, "You don't have to do this, you know that, right?"

"I need to if I want to be happy."

So there was a girl, searching for acceptance.

"What if they don't like me here, Momma?" she was so worried.

Then there was a guy, searching for something... different.

"I'm so tired of always striving for something but never knowing what."

Somewhere in between, they met.

"You are one amazing girl, Miley Ray."

Sometimes, when two perfect people looking for two different things meet, they find the one thing that changes everything. Love.

"I love you, Smiles."

Sometimes, it can be for the best, and sometimes it can destroy the friendship that the two of you once possessed.

"Nicholas Jerry Gray, sometimes I absolutely hate you," she remembered yelling down the hallway. Then, she fell in love with him only three weeks later.

A fight can ruin everything, as can a secret, but if you really love them it will only make you stronger, and the past will be the past.

So it was over, just like that. The next morning they were both found laying in each other's arms, resting peacefully. A picture of it was added to the collection of photos. Through the secrets and the lies, the two of them realized something. They found out what love really was. More importantly, they found out that they were both in the middle of it. And it was beyond their control.

They were in l o v e.

eh, the ending was pretty bad ;l. anyways, you all wanted a sequel. So, do you want it set like, right after or do you want it set like, ten years later? So Miley would be 26, along with nick, then Caitlin would be 13 and a teenager. That would show their future lives & Caitlin growing up. You all decide [; Reviews would be nice.