AN:
So, this is the final chapter. The story of 'The Shepherd & The Shield' concludes with this one and I'll be back with the next fic in a few months. Still got a bit more plotting and planning to do before I get to writing that one.

Anyway, thank you all for your kind reviews. Those were always much welcome and made my day whenever I got to see them.

Hope you all enjoyed the story as much as I did writing it.

(Oh, um, if you're a Callie Shaw fan, this might just not be for you. I'm kinda sorta getting rid of her character in the next story!)

Chapter 24 - Conclusion

It was Sunday afternoon on All Hallows Eve. Frank Hardy stretched lazily and let his head drop back on the backrest of the couch and closed his eyes. They had only returned in the evening the day before, dropped off at home by Arthur Gray again. He was still tired and although the splitting headache had now abated down to a mild annoyance, it still hurt.

He was relieved to be home once again, done with the case, and the incredibly bizarre turns it had taken before they had crawled out of all the tangled webs, mostly unscathed. He was also happy to be in the company of loved ones; his mom's laughter and his dad's indulgent chuckles at whatever Chet was saying, the sound of quiet chatting between Tony and Joe behind the couch next to the living room window and the presence of his girlfriend, Callie Shaw, who was seated next to him with his hand entangled in hers.

He felt her move closer to him and he inhaled a lungful of her perfume before she spoke, her tone definitely annoyed, shattering that momentary peace he was enjoying so thoroughly. "But what did you do exactly at Lincoln, Frank?"

Frank sighed. He had just finished explaining to her what he and Joe had done during their week off. She had listened patiently at first but had gotten irritated gradually when she realised that he was leaving a lot of events out of his account.

Frank kept his eyes closed and spoke softly. "As I said, we went undercover, found out the real culprits who were behind the bad stuff that's been happening there and came home."

She withdrew her hand from his hold and shuffled some more. After a moment, Frank could feel her narrow-eyed gaze trying to burn a hole through his skull. He let out another weary sigh and opened his eyes. "What?"

"Why are you being so secretive all of a sudden?"

"Why are you so inquisitive all of a sudden?" Frank asked calmly. "You know sometimes we can't tell you everything that happens during a case–"

The truth was, he didn't want to talk about everything just yet. Out of all their friends, only Chet knew about the supernatural event that they had intervened to sort out. Even he didn't know any details other than Joe and Frank had managed to save him from an unnatural drowning. There was a lot they had learned in the past few days, from the conversation they had with the Saunders girls, but that was information he still hadn't had the time to process and understand in his own time and pace.

"Why the hell not?" Callie snapped. "I need to know, especially when you return hurt, like this." she pointed to the stitches on his forehead, almost stabbing him with her finger which he narrowly avoided by flinching away.

"Callie, this isn't even the first time–"

"Oh, wow! They do travel in style!" Joe exclaimed suddenly, loudly, saving Frank from an argument Callie was just about to start. He stood up from the couch and walked over to the window to stand next to Joe and peered into their driveway.

There was a motorcade of three cars in front of their home, big, gleaming black luxury limousines with tinted windows. As they watched, two black-clad men got out from the front vehicle to run back and open the doors of the car in the middle. The last car's doors were opened by its occupants, who made no effort to wait for their security.

The first one to jump out of the limo was a silver-haired beauty. She was dressed in a pair of shorts, sneakers and a baggy Lincoln jacket. She let out a ringing laugh at something she heard from the ones inside.

"Temperance." Joe grinned.

Another silver-haired, identical beauty in a pair of slippers, jeans and a long-sleeved shirt that looked twice her size followed the first one out, smiling shyly.

"Constance," Frank said and winced when he heard Callie huff behind him. He hadn't heard her walking over to see what was happening.

Then they both leaned in to help their sister out of the car, firmly ignoring another two flustered agents of their protective detail. The third silver-haired beauty, dressed in a simple long dress and knee-high boots looked fragile still, and she leaned heavily on her sisters. But the grin she had on her face was bright and radiant and full of joy.

"Willow," Frank and Joe both said together, genuinely happy to see her so alive again.

"If that is some sort of a spell to summon beautiful clones, you'd better share it with the rest of class, Hardy," Tony clapped Frank's back.

"That's the Saunders triplets," Joe chuckled. "We met them last week."

"You need to take us along on these trips, my friend," Chet declared, gawking at the girls. "We don't mind working holidays, not at all."

Joe hurried over to open the door and Frank shrugged at his mom and dad. "We've got visitors."

"The entire family of New York's mayor, Clinton Saunders," their dad said mildly, exchanging a glance with their mom. "A little forewarning would have been nice, Frank–"

"Hey, I didn't know they were gonna show up, unannounced!"

Then there was a loud raucous commotion at the door, and Frank went to join his brother in welcoming their new friends to their home. There was a lot of shouting, laughter, hair ruffling and hugging before they could lead the party inside their living room.

There was a round of introductions where Frank and Joe both got hearty handshakes and teary hugs from the mayor and her wife before the adults excused themselves into their dad's study at the mayor's polite request to speak to their parents privately.

Frank exchanged a glance with Joe and found him frowning at the closed door of their dad's office space.

"Don't worry. They just wanted to talk to your mom and dad about how awesome the two of you are," Willow said from where she was draped over their couch next to Constance.

"And possibly invite all of you to dinner at our place sometime," Temperance, who had chosen to lounge on the armrest of the chair Joe was sitting on, added. "Maybe even to stay a few days with us."

"We are also terribly sorry for barging in on your get-together," Constance said, smiling at Tony, Chet and Callie apologetically. "Mom and dad wanted to see Mr and Mrs Hardy right away and we needed to drop these by, as promised." She took the backpack from one of the agents who had followed them in with a nod of thanks and gave it to Frank.

"What's this?"

'Everything we have about you guys," Temperance said. Frank noticed that they were avoiding talking about the specifics of the not-so-usual stuff. "Since you're very new to your gig and all. We thought the information might help."

"Oh no, they've been at their gig since they were kids," Chet added with a grin, obviously thinking that she was referring to their crime-fighting habits. "They are like two Pitbulls with bones when it comes to solving cases–"

Willow flashed a dazzling grin at Chet that had Frank worrying might give their friend a stroke. "I believe they are very good at what they do as well."

"Thanks for these," Frank said. "We really need all the help we can get."

"So what do the mayor's daughters usually do for Halloween?" Tony asked with a flirty grin.

"We go to boring parties and smile at boring people for the first half," Temperance mock-complained.

"Then we go home, dress up and throw wild parties."

"I love wild parties," Chet and Tony declared together.

"What about you, Callie?" Constance asked with a smile. Frank wasn't sure whether she saw the look of irritation Callie managed to wipe off her face before smiling back politely with a murmured reply.

Before they could talk any further, the door to their dad's study opened and their parents emerged. Judging by the relaxed expressions on their faces, Frank figured nothing alarming had been discussed. Yet.

They all left after another round of thanks, hugs and handshakes, just as quickly as they had arrived. Chet and Tony took their leave soon after that, Tony saying that he had to work and Chet letting them know that he had to help his parents with some chores.

Callie had initially planned to go out with Frank, to check out the mall and the Halloween celebrations in the town square. But after the departure of the Saunders group, Frank felt that his girlfriend's mood had plummeted even more. He was secretly grateful when she took her leave as well, after giving him a harried kiss on the cheek and a mumbled promise to see him back at school the next day.

Joe found him after a while, where he was sitting on the floor, looking out of the floor-to-ceiling lounge window at the spot on their front lawn where the motorcade had vacated.

"Where's your girlfriend?" his brother asked, handing him a coffee which he took gratefully. The weather had taken a turn during the past hour, and there were rain clouds gathering in the sky, bringing a chilly gloom with it.

"She left early," Frank muttered, sipping his coffee and enjoying the warmth of the mug in his palms.

Joe stayed silent, contentedly drinking his own hot chocolate. He knew exactly when to pry and when to keep silent, letting Frank open up in his own time.

"She got mad," Frank said after a long silence. He was unsettled. Callie's sudden mood swing had left him confused and maybe a little guilty. He just wished she had given him some time without pushing him for things he wasn't ready to talk about with anyone except Joe. "She was upset because I didn't tell her about the blazing hot platinum blondes I've been spending the entire week with."

It wasn't a lie. She had snarled as much the moment the Saunders family had left.

In his periphery, he saw Joe wince and then shake his head, before letting out a soft chuckle. "Oh, brother, if any of the triplets heard her, they'd have smacked us all on the backs of our heads. They treat us like the annoying little brothers they always wanted but never really had."

"I know," Frank sighed. It was the truth. After everything they had been through together, the three girls did view them as brothers. Frank also felt that they seemed to have developed a certain protectiveness towards them, which had driven them to take him and Joe under their wings. "Try explaining that to Callie…"

"If you want to tell her about what's going on with us… well, you should, you know," Joe said after a while. "You don't have to keep secrets from her if you don't want to."

Frank thought about it. He was glad that Joe wasn't adamant about keeping the entire thing a secret. But, something told him that it was not the time. Not yet.

"I don't think I want to, Joe," he admitted quietly. He saw Joe's shoulders relax a fraction after hearing that. Even though he was offering, it was evident to him that Joe wasn't really ready to announce the newly-discovered, wholly strange side to their lives either.

"We don't know everything about this deal yet," he continued. "I don't want to talk to anyone about it until I've processed it on my own. How about you?"

"I feel the same."

That agreement settled, they spent the next few minutes in companionable silence, finishing their beverages.

Somewhere far away, lightning flashed, etching a silvery branch all across the dark grey clouds. A faint boom of the thunder echoed shortly after, bringing with it the first few fat drops of rain.

A slow grin stretched on his brother's face, brightening his eyes with a gleam of anticipation. Frank knew then what was coming, and he made no effort to hide the answering smirk on his lips.

"It's the night of the Samhain," Joe said. "This is when we're actually supposed to be doing the job…"

Frank stood up and extended a hand to his brother. "You wanna go for a drive?"

Joe clasped his hand and hauled himself up off of the floor. "You read my mind."

-oOo-

The massive waves crashed against the rocky promontory, frothing up the white foam against the rough, sharp-edged surface. The stormy ocean was engaged in a never-ending war against the barrier, to bring it down, to swallow it whole and bring everything that stood above and over it down in one fell swoop. The booming sounds that echoed around the cliff were louder than the furious thunder rolling in the skies above.

There wasn't really anything much to be swallowed by the ocean, even if it ever succeeded. Apart from the ruins of an abandoned warehouse that stood upon the highest peak of the cliff, there was only a small thicket, surrounding the entire rocky formation, which was home to a lot of critters, bugs and small animals.

The peak of the rock formation was isolated, and it knew no one but the seagulls, crabs, shells and other hardy sea creatures. Today, the night of the Samhain, it didn't even have the company of those sea creatures, but for the drizzle that foretold the arrival of heavy rain.

A few minutes after midnight - the greatest in-between of all things when veils lost their substance to a dangerous point - a silvery tear tore up the skies above, casting a faint light over the cliff edge's desolation. A faint figure manifested above the ruins of the long-forgotten building, witnessed by nothing but the raging ocean and the rioting winds of the night.

She grew until she acquired the shape of a woman - a tall, dark-haired, pale beauty whose kind brown eyes glinted like obsidian in the silvery light of the tear above.

"Thank you, Goddess Hecate, for all you have done," her voice had a hollow quality like it was just another breeze that got lost in the gale around her. "I shall go and find my brother now… as you wished."

The end.