Okay...

This is the second finale update. So if you haven't read chapter twelve which is the first part. I really hope you do so. It might make things make a tad more sense :)

The penultimate chapter!

Flippin 'eck.

Next chapter I have a few thankyous to make but for now, enjoy, gasp and review!

Ben

Chapter Thirteen- Finale - Forever Is Tomorrow Is Today: Part Two

Previously…

Carlos decided to leave town…

Gabby saw Carlos kissing another woman…

Lynette's actions had repercussions when Eliza reported her…

And Susan struggled to pick between Mike and Ian…again…

If only. Those must be the two saddest words in the world.

If only. The words of regret.

Susan Mayer had experienced some discomfort during her pregnancy but as she woke that morning, the pain in her lower abdomen was greater than any she had endured before. As she staggered into the kitchen, she found Julie was already up and had begun to fill in her college application forms.

"Geez. You look rough" her daughter called as Susan just managed to reach the bottom of the stairs without keeling over.

Susan grunted to Julie and began to rummage in her cupboards for some aspirin with a kick. She found a bottle that had expired two years ago and swallowed four of them dry.

"Ian called"

Susan leapt up from the table she had just collapsed in an exhausted heap at. She pressed her finger to her pursed lips and strained her ears to check if Mike had stirred upstairs. He hadn't.

"Well what did he say?"

"Nothing much. Just that he wants to meet you by the lake."

"By the lake?" Susan asked, looking perplexed.

"Yeah, he said to bring a bottle of wine, it'd be more romantic"

"God British men are ponces"

Susan turned to examine herself in the mirror. Her hair resembled a bird's nest and her pores seemed to be declaring war on her; sprouting black-heads in every place possible. Her friends always teased her about the way men swooned for her but in reality; she could never comprehend why any member of the male population would find her at all attractive, never mind love her.

Nevertheless she ran a comb through her tangled hair, applied a pale shade of lipstick, grabbed her car keys and left to meet Ian at the lake.

It was only when she'd left the cul-de-sac that she remembered that she had forgotten wine and the fact that the previous evening she had told Ian that she was back with Mike. For good.

Eliza had been unable to keep up her pretence that she was oblivious to her involvement in Lynette's arrest. After five minutes in a car with a distraught Tom, she had admitted to it. Firstly, because she felt ever so slightly guilty and secondly because she wanted to remind him that she had the upper hand in the situation.

"This feud of yours has gotten ridiculously out of hand..." he told her.

He's speaking to me as if I'm in fourth grade. No wonder. If he's talking to her like a piece of dirt too then it's obvious why Lynette has been so unhappy. Poor bitch, I've done her a favor.

"…so just go in there, apologize and drop the God damn charges"

"Over my dead body" she spat as they pulled up at the station.

She grabbed her handbag, got out of the car and slammed the door behind her.

Although she couldn't quite believe it, Gabrielle Solis had cleaned. Not only cleaned, but cleaned of her own accord. She had cleared out both of her wardrobes and had given them a thorough going over, even sorting out some of her older outfits to discard.

At around noon, she heard her doorbell ring and she went to answer it.

"Carlos?"

She saw Carlos' eyes flick from the tracksuit bottoms, to the all purpose spray and then to the gloves she was wearing.

"Are you all right?" he asked and he began giggling like a small child.

"Oi!" and she pushed him backwards slightly.

There was a moment of silence between them and then Carlos caught on that he was lingering on the beauty of her laugh.

"I need to talk to you" he said.

"Oh, well you best come in then."

Tom had managed to bribe Mrs. McCluskey to look after the kids for a few hours. He had told her that she could use any method that she preferred to get them to behave. He had also told Bree Hodge to keep an eye out as she tended to her shrubbery just incase she heard any of them screaming.

When he had last spoken to Lynette she had asked him to carry on as normal. Much to his disgust, he hated being told to be normal. That meant you blatantly weren't normal to everyone else around you as they were wondering why you were pretending to be normal in the first place.

As he wheeled the trolley that he was pushing around to the boot of his car, he noticed someone waving to him from the other side of the parking lot.

Eliza

Tom Scavo was usually a calm and reasonable man. He was never driven to the point that he lost control of his temper. Even when his kids had set fire to the Christmas tree last holiday season, he had managed to remarkably keep his cool.

But seeing her acting so friendly really infuriated him. How dare she make a fool out of his wife and then pretend that nothing had happened? Did she really think that he was a moron? A pushover? Did she really think that his family would take this lying down? No, she thought he hid behind his wife. Just like every other person that he had ever met since he had gotten married. No, Tom Scavo knew that he could stand up for himself. And he was about to prove it.

Eliza was glad to see Tom coming over. She had thought that he would be quite uncivilized about the situation and she would really be upset if that happened.

"I swear if I see you within 5 yards of me or my family ever again, I will personally see to it that you wouldn't be able to crawl that extra 5 yards if it killed you."

"How impolite"

"Are you insane!?"

"I knew you'd be totally immature and adolescent about all of this."

Tom was lost for words. The woman before him was actually psychotic. She began to shake her head at him.

"Lynette could do so much better."

Tom clenched his fists. It took everything he had inside of him not to throttle the evil whore right there in public. Then, as if she had just had a perfectly normal conversation, she began to strut towards the supermarket in the opposite direction.

Tom charged after her, bellowing "You get back here!"

Ignoring him, she crossed the road.

"All of this over some stupid, schoolgirl obsession! I mean, it's not as if Lynette's even in the wrong is it!? You were the one that abandoned her when you were the one person in the world that could've helped her! No, I know exactly what this is over! This is over your guilt. This is all because you can't face the fact that you lost her- and it's your, entire fault!"

Eliza whirled around in a blaze of anger. She edged towards him, shouting over the heaving car lot.

"No Tom, again, like most things in you life you're wrong. This was all because-"

Tom could have sworn he saw her body bend over backwards. The delivery truck hit her at such a force that it could have easily happened. He stood there on the opposite side of the road panting, attempting to catch his breath.

The truck driver leapt from his cab.

Several people dropped their groceries and dashed over to help.

A security guard frantically dialed for an ambulance.

Tom stood still.

"I'm leaving"

"Oh, so soon?"

"No Gaby, no. I'm leaving town. Well I was, now I'm not so sure. I just wanted to come say goodbye."

"Oh don't be silly? I wouldn't want to keep you. I'm sure Mindy wouldn't be impressed if she knew you were here talking to your ex-wife. Especially as she's dressed so sexily"

She waved her feather duster at him.

"I'm sure she wouldn't mind at all."

Gabrielle could read him like a book. They'd split up.

"Oh, well. Um. Where are you going?"

"I have no idea. I was catching the five 'o clock."

"Ah. Sounds like an adventure. Can I come along?" she smiled at him.

"Would you?"

Gabrielle almost choked.

"What?"

"Never mind. Silly idea."

"Oh... Yeah, of course."

"Well I'd hate to keep you from your closet."

He gulped the last of his coffee and made his way through to the hall.

"I suppose I'll see you around…?" he began.

"I hope so."

Not quite knowing whether or not to give her Husband a kiss, she drew him in to a hug and began to inhale his scent one last time.

"I'm going to miss you" she said.

"Well I don't have to go."

"No, that's right."

"But I suppose I don't really have a reason to stay…"

"Do you not?"

They both stood there for a moment.

Carlos wanted to kiss her.

Gabrielle wanted him to hold her.

"I'll miss you too Gaby."

And with that, he left.

When Tom returned home he found Mrs. McCluskey was not around. Parker bounded up to him with a smile on his face.

"Did you bury her in the sand box?"

"No! We've got a surprise for you…"

He took his Father by the hand and led him through to the kitchen. Lynette was sat at the table.

"Oh my god!"

He drew her in to a hug. He was aware of the three boys making quite realistic vomiting noises behind his back.

"But-?" Tom started to speak, but Lynette knew what he was about ask.

"I got released this afternoon. Eliza dropped the charges! Whatever you said to her when you picked her up this morning must've really helped."

"Over my dead body"

It was only now that Tom realized the true irony, and tragedy of that sentence.

Susan felt a surge of pain spread through her. She exhaled a large cry and she fell forward on to the grass, hitting her head slightly on the picnic basket.

She could hear Ian rush towards her from his car. If he'd left a minute sooner no one may have been there to help her. She half expected Ian not to. She had just reiterated the fact that nothing could change the fact she wanted to be with Mike.

"Susan? Susan? Can you hear me?"

Ian glanced down in panic. Blood had seeped through her skirt.

You can always spot those that regret.

The ones that wish they had made a a different choice, told them to stay, forgiven those that had betrayed them.

Regret is the insight that comes a moment too late.

But if we never regret, we never learn and if we never learn, we lose something that is most dear to us...

TO BE CONTINUED