Author's Note: Okay, it's a good bet that this is the last chapter. I'm losing my thunder, lol. Anyway, thanks for all of the thoughts guys, this has been fun!

.

.

.

Interregnum

.

.

It has been three months and five days since the reckoning- when both the dead and the living began to rise. The zombies are somewhat human, and the humans are, well, somewhat better.

The world is still a terrible place, cloaked in danger and in darkness, but there is a tinge clinging stubbornly to it and Julie Grigio, formerly Julie Cabernet, knows exactly what it is: hope, that one shining light that leapt out of Pandora's Box along with the blackness and despair. It is the primary driving reason why she is currently walking unafraid down a silent side street in a dilapidated bloodstained city with dusk falling over the skyscrapers like a blanket.

She's not scared because she is holding R's warm hand in one of hers, swinging it loosely as they walk, and in her other she holds a black coated Mossberg 12 gauge shotgun. The shotgun is mostly a safety precaution, General Grigio would not have let his daughter leave the relative safety of the human stronghold without it. Actually, he hadn't wanted her to leave at all.

Looking backward, he hadn't had much of a choice since he'd botched the initial merger talks with Goldman Dome due to his ruthless despair. Julie and R were a last resort, the only emissaries that could in complete honesty get the frightened citizens of Goldman Dome to see the hope that shone at the end of a long dark tunnel.

Julie knows it was a huge risk for them to knock on Goldman Dome's front door, especially for R, since it seems the whole world knows the creature he used to be.

Goldman Dome had not been as far gone as her city though. She smiles as she remembers the children first creeping forward to touch R's scars with wonder: healed bullet wounds, random scratches, and bite marks from Boneys. All chilling evidence from his past life, though that evidence is saved by warm skin and gold eyes that are a far cry from undead ethereal grey .

They hadn't said yes to a relationship with Grigio's Stadium city, but Julie and R hadn't gotten shot either. That was always a plus.

Julie quits thinking over what she could have done, might have said. She and R laid out bare the truth, there was nothing more to do after that but go home. Goldman Dome will either join forces with their odd little community, or they won't. Strangely she doesn't want to go back to their city, not just yet. It's funny when she thinks about it: most girls dream of walking with their lovers through sparkly glades or pretty parks, skipping stones in ponds or feeding ducks. She's holding hands with R while they take turns kicking a empty Cola can down a broken street, basking in the companionable silence.

Julie can't remember ever being this happy. She probably has, but it's buried under a lifetime of disappointment.

Stars are starting to twinkle through a darkening purple sky and the shadows are getting longer when she squeezes R's hand, coming to a stop.

"We should probably find a place to hole up," Julie tells him, watching the skyline go rapidly from burnt orange to a dangerous maroon. "I'm tired and my feet hurt."

She decides that isn't a lie, not quite, though the main reason is that she just wants time alone with R, to have him all to herself. Her city is a beautiful place filled with monsters and people coming together and rediscovering hope, but it is not exactly a place when the saviors of the world can get serious alone time often. Especially when the walls are so damn thin, the neighbors can hear you boil water.

R grins at her, a wicked twitch of the lips that says he knows exactly what the subtext of her speech was, what she is really after. He doesn't call her bluff. Instead, he slides a hand through her thick blond hair and bends down and kisses her soundly.

"The airport is only a few miles away," he suggests. "Old times' sake?"

Julie rolls her eyes. "You just want to go back to your lair so you can drag all your loot back to our room."

His grin widens. "C'mon, some of that stuff was cool."

"Hoarder," she says affectionately. "Okay, lead the way to the house jet."

R chuckles and squats down in front of her. "Would the lady like a ride?"

They both know she isn't tired in the least, that she's only trying to finagle the equivalent of a post apocalypse date into happening, but Julie isn't one to turn down free piggy-back rides from R. That would be silly. She slides the shotgun strap over her head so her arms are free to wrap loosely around his neck. His hands curl under her butt, fingers twining to form a chair that occasionally gives her hind end a cheeky squeeze.

She loves the press of his hipbones on the insides of her thighs, his hands gripping her legs, his shaggy black hair tickling her check and neck, and the woosh when he stands. Piggy-back rides are awesome. It's weird seeing the world from his height, even if he is only half a foot taller than she is.

"Comfortable?" R asks.

Julie tucks her nose into the neckline of his hoodie, one of her favorite things to do, and inhales. "Mmmhmm."

R's much longer legs can cover a lot more ground more quickly than she can, even with his burden, and it's not long when they are creeping quietly into a silent empty airport. Or rather, R is doing the creeping while Julie keeps her eyes peeled for trouble.

Julie would like nothing more than to nibble on his ear, or tickle him and try to annoy him into dropping her, but the flickering shadows created by dying florescent lights do not allow for fooling around. The Boneys are less of a threat than they used to be, and random feral zombie encounters are rare, but Julie figures it's common sense to not poke Murphey's Law in the eye with a stick if she doesn't have to.

She is glad when they reach R's old jet home without a problem. R rolls the door shut and locks it, and they both breath a collective sigh of relief. R goes to see if there are any cans of food left over in the serving cart, but Julie catches his hand. It has been far too long since she has properly made out with him. She presses him up against the curved wall of the plane, raising herself up on tiptoe so she can kiss him.

It's a hard, fierce kiss that Julie tries to pour all of her feelings into, branding herself onto his mouth. R gives as good as he gets, making her toes curl and her skin tingle when his tongue licks along hers. She is in the process of trying to scale him like a spider monkey while at the same time not break their kiss, and R is helping by hiking her legs up around his waist, when her stomach rumbles impatiently. It is so loud in the quiet jet that Julie drops her legs from around him in embarrassment, holding her complaining guts in humiliation.

"I am so, so sorry," she mumbles, face blushing a bright fire engine red.

He laughs at her and pokes her in the stomach. The passion of the moment has evaporated due to her demanding tummy, but all of the affection is still there. R tugs Julie to him in a hug, giving her a gentle squeeze. "It's okay. Let's go feed the beast, before you take matters into your own hands."

Julie puts her hands on her hips. "Oh come on, I don't bite."

R gives her a look.

"Well I don't bite hard, anyway. Stop looking at me in that tone."

"Me? I would never," R said innocently, turning to root through the stewardess's long abandoned trolley.

Julie playfully swats his backside as she walks past him in search of bedding to put down on the hard, dirty floor of the plane. "Besides, I distinctly recall who exactly wanted to bite whom when we first met. You, buster, are guilty of wanting to chew on my fabulous hide."

R pulls out cans of bacon and beans, and cubed peaches. When he cranks open the first can the heavy sweet scent of sugared peaches and syrup fills the stale air of the plan like someone sprayed peach Febreze everywhere. Julie inhales greedily as she pulls off seat cushions, laying them out on the floor like a crude mattress. When R was a zombie, he pulled some chairs out of First Class in order to make space for his collection, so this is where she sets the cushions. She lets the heavy scent of peaches roll in through her nose, and memorizes its delicate tastes and nuances. She isn't sure when they're going to eat like this again. Nothing is ever certain with the end of the world.

R puts a dented tin spoon in one can and a plastic spork in another. Dinner is served. "I never wanted to eat you," he tells her thoughtfully. "I mean, I was pretty hungry that day, ravenous even. Then I saw you and it was like someone clubbed me over the head," R says honestly. "Even before the thing with Perry- it felt like I got a taser to the brain. I didn't know what you were, couldn't put to words what I felt, I just knew I couldn't let anyone hurt you. I had to-"

"Keep me safe," she says softly.

"Keep you safe," R agrees.

Julie finds all of the airplane blankets she can, and there are a lot of them, so she figures R must have raided other planes in his zombie days, and she spreads them out on the cushions. There's a few thick purple Yankee candles that smell like grape Koolaid buried under a pile of magazine. Julie sets them up and lights them a safe distance from the bed. R brings over the cans and they both strip fast in the cool air, leaving their dirty and grimy travel clothes laid out over the seats, then scramble under the blankets. It's not exactly chilly in the plane, but it isn't the tropics either.

R holds the cans when Julie gets comfortable, then he arranges himself around her when she's still. They end up enshrined in a massive pile of airplane blankets, with R half propped up on his elbow, tipping peaches into Julie's mouth. Julie is flat on her back juggling her own can of bacon and beans while she tries to catch the peach bits R is dropping onto her face.

He has terrible aim. Most of them end up in her mouth though, mainly because Julie is freaking starving and goes after the falling peaches like a shark after a baby seal.

When all the cans are empty, Julie tosses them into a corner, out of sight out of mind. She snuggles into R, wrapping around her arms around his back so she can stick her cold hands underneath him. R winces when her chilly feet follow suit, coming to rest on his calves.

"Geez Julie, have you been putting ice cubes in your boots?"

"Starting to regret rescuing me all those times?" Julie asks, grinning and waggling her icy fingers, reveling in his warm skin.

R grabs one of the offending fingers and kisses it. "Never. You're stuck with me, unfortunately. Though you do get into trouble more often than anybody I know."

"I don't do it on purpose," Julie protests, before she sees he's making fun of her. "Cheeseball," she mutters.

R smiles at her and smooths a heavy lock of blond hair off of her face. Julie closes her eyes when he touches her, concentrating on the feel of his hand on her face.

"Hey R?" she asks after a while.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think we won Goldman Dome over?" Julie says, tilting her head up so she can see his face. "Do you think they'll agree to the merger?"

R hesitates before answering, choosing his words carefully. "I think there's still trust that needs to be built. Those people are scared and lost in the dark, but they're trying. Even if it doesn't work we can't give up. We can never give up."

It strikes her again just how unique R is. His optimism, his desperate drive to be more than he is. Of all the cosmic workings, the Universe allowed her to crash into him. She wouldn't trade that for the world. Julie drops her head back onto his chest, and R holds her close. "I'm glad you found me," she whispers.

"Me too," R says it back. "Me too."


Fin