Author's note:

I do not own Moose and Camille or anything.

This is the last chapter I'm uploading- thanks guys for being such awesome readers and reviewers (: You guys always make me smile with my sweet reviews and so I hope you guys like this nice and long chappie. Its just for you all!

He is late again.

She cannot help but frown now, looking at the clock hanging in her unusually crowded dorm room. 10.15 pm. The party started at 6 and she has not heard from him at all since it started. She stifles a sigh, and struggles to stamp down that hurt flaring up in her. This is so like the Halloween party- only this time, it's her birthday and she can't promise that she'll forgive him as easily if he got caught up doing Pirates stuff. She pulls out her phone, flips through her inbox till she sees the last message from him at 7.30 pm.

CAM FORGIVE ME:-( COMING DOWN AFTER FINISHING UP LAST MIN PIRATES STUFF. BE THERE IN 15 MINUTES. KEEP WARMING UP THE DANCE FLOOR… I'LL HOT THINGS UP WHEN I GET THERE ;-)

That was almost three hours ago and she resists the urge to text him for what will have felt like the hundredth time tonight. She wants everyone to get out of here, curl up in her own bed, pull the covers over her head and cry. She wishes that tonight weren't her birthday. She wishes for once, just for once, he could put her first. She wishes he loved her enough to do that.

She bites her lip then, sets down her phone at the edge of the table even as Kathleen, one of her friends sidle up to her, fighting her way through the throng. "He's not here yet?"

She shakes her head mutely no. God, she is being such a killjoy. Her friends- her other friends have been so sweet to organize this party for her, her first party away from home and yet here she is, moping over a non-existent best friend. Kathleen shakes her head, tsks, looks at the clock and yells over the music. "He's a jerk. Don't let him ruin your night." She holds out her hand, "Let's go dance and have fun! It's your day Cam."

She smiles then, an almost real smile and lets herself be pulled out into the middle of the dance floor where she dances, and she forgets almost about her best friend who is absent from her party.

11.08 pm.

The party has just wound down, with the last of the stragglers leaving, her girlfriends helping her to clean up the place and leaving with hugs and birthday wishes. And still he is in absentia. By now, she is genuinely, horribly upset although some of her fury has dissolved into worry. It's not like Moose to miss her birthday party at all. Maybe something happened to him on the way down. Yet, she's more inclined to believe that one of the crew just started a dance battle and he lost track of time, any minute now he will pound on her door, barge in here and apologize profusely.

Only this time, she's not sure if she can find it in herself to forgive him.

She sits down on the couch and rubs her face tiredly, being careful not to smudge whatever remains of the makeup job her girls have given her. She looks down at herself- attired so unusually for once in a inky blue dress with a full skirt and fitted bodice and her fingers fist around and she struggles not to cry with the weight of disappointment. Her girls had bought the dress for her, claiming that if she showed up in this, he wouldn't have been able to take his eyes off her. And she'd believed, for a few minutes in that dress, maybe, just maybe she could have been beautiful for him.

God, she is such a fool.

She swipes a little at her moist eyes, pulls a tissue from the box nearby and dabs at her eyes. She is so very tired and so very disappointed. She should just go to sleep, and deal with everything else, deal with him tomorrow and enjoy what's left of her birthday.

Suddenly, there is a loud knock on the door, startling her even as she dabs at the last of her tears. "Moose?" She stands and makes her way to the door, but hesitates with her hand on the door. She's not sure if she can handle it right now. She's too tired, she might just blow up, and she kind of doesn't want to see him right now. Yet, a glance at her watch- 11.13 pm- tells her that her birthday's not quite over and 47 minutes is better than nothing.

She opens the door.

Jacob's swarthy figure stands on her doorway and she feels again that inane whoosh of hurt, like going down a rollercoaster and having the breath taken right out of you but she tries to smile. "Hey Jacob, what's up?" She has never seen Jacob leave the Vault before, the though strikes her as ludicrous but true- and something like dread begins to uncoil in the pit of her stomach. Is something wrong? Where is Moose?

The right hand man's face is as always stoic but tonight it even seems to betray a certain tension and this does not help her nerves. "You have to come down to the Vault. Something's happened."

She swallows and moistens her lips. She knows that she should say something appropriate to answer him, but for the life of her, she cannot think of anything. "Is… is everyone okay? Where's Moose?"

Jacob's brow creases a little at the mention of that. "Moose? I haven't seen him since the afternoon when he left the Vault to say that he was going to go for your party… you mean he didn't show up?" His frown becomes more pronounced and her anger slithers away abruptly and for a second there, worry swarms her mind relentlessly- where is he then? What could have happened? She'll never forgive herself if anything happened... why was she so petty to be angry at him for not showing up?- but she nods in response to his question.

"We don't have time for this." Jacob turns away a little as if trying to compose himself again. "Just put on some shoes and come with me to the Vault." His eyes flit briefly down her frame and she realizes with some embarrassment that she is still wearing her blue party dress and this is the most formal that she has been in front of a Pirate. She swallows, wishing she could have thrown on a jacket before answering the door. "Should I change…?"

"We don't have time. What you have on is fine." He gives her a lightning quick smile. "Just put on some shoes and we should go."

She looks around, where are those darn high heels that she'd been coerced into buying? And her gaze falls on a battered pair of navy high top sneakers lying haphazardly by the cupboard and she hesitates to put them on- even she is fashion savvy enough to know that sneakers and dresses do not go well together, but one look at the impatience that is creeping over Jacob's face and she slides them on and they leave together.

11.48 pm

The car comes to a halt and they both get out of the car quietly. The drive down had been equally silent, her asking what had happened from the beginning of the journey and his reply simply being, "Maybe it's best if I don't tell you more than you need to know." And so she'd been forced to spend the rest of the journey, wondering, puzzling, worrying even as she'd texted Moose one last time.

They walk up to the entrance of the Vault and Jacob knocks twice. It is a few minutes before the heavy latch slides back and one of the Santiago twins greet them at the door. He too is bereft of a smile, and if she wasn't worried before this, she is now, just at the sombre look on his face. "Hello Camille."

She attempts a smile, though it feels more like a grimace and he moves over a little to let her walk in first. She walks quickly into the main hall-

Only to see him. Moose. Her best friend.

She stops stock still then, her hands limp at her sides. She wants to strangle him, she wants to choke him, she wants to hug him until he has no breath left in him and she stands, paralysed- she can't decide what she wants to do first. He smiles that familiar crooked smile that she knows so well and walks towards her, "Happy Birthday, Chameleon."

Its then that she realizes he is limping slightly and there is a white, heavy cast on his right foot and her heart swells, in pain, worry, frustration- what happened there- but his arms come around her suddenly and automatically her arms go around him too but she clings to him more this time. And if she is not mistaken, he holds on to her too, tightly, longer than they've ever hugged before.

She breaks away first. "What happened?" She looks up at him and she wants to know so badly what in the world happened. "I texted you a gazillion times, you never replied. You never showed at my party." She tries not to sound like a petulant kid but somehow she feels the words come out that way and embarrassment flickers to life in her even as she makes out the shapes of all the crew standing around the room in the shadows, listening and watching them.

He laughs then a little, wryly though. "You haven't even realized."

"Realized what?" She looks around the room then and she sees a banner with the words HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAMILLE embellished on them, balloons haphazardly wired to certain parts of the room, and tiny flickering fairy lights that give the room an ethereal glow and make her breath catch in her throat. She looks further towards the table then, filled with food and something that looks like another birthday cake and presents piled precariously on a nearby chair. A surprise party. He was doing this all afternoon. She looks up at him then, her eyes wide. "You did all this?"

"The crew and I." He smiles, pushes some of her fringe away from her eyes. "But the idea was mine." His smile turns sheepish even as he looks down at his cast and she follows his gaze to his foot, wrapped in white gauze and plaster. "I was supposed to be at your party and bring you here. But on the way to get some last minute stuff for the party, I… I didn't look where I was going and I slipped into a manhole." She winces then, on his behalf but he waves it away, smiling still. "My phone got smashed up somewhere in there and I had to go to the hospital and all… so in the end I couldn't make your party and had to send Jacob."

Everything is sliding into place now, and she feels foolish for her anger, and ashamed at herself- he went to all this trouble, he even got hurt- and she takes his hand quietly, wishing that there was some way to take back all the anger she felt towards him earlier in the day. He squeezes her fingers in response. "Forgive me?"

She nods then, not trusting her voice even as she blinks back sudden tears. He didn't forget. In fact he was planning another party just for her. She smiles shakily up at him and he returns her smile.

"Alright," He pushes back the sleeve of his top and consults his watch. "It is 11.54 and 25 seconds so…" He pauses here, "we only have 5 and a half more minutes together of your birthday officially. Then we get to celebrate the day after your birthday together. So…" He signals to one of the crew and slow, classical music comes on. "Miss Gage, I do believe you owe me a dance."

She laughs then and she offers him her hand and he slides his arm around her waist to pull her closer and they begin to dance together.

"I'm amazed you actually know how to dance to a waltz." She comments offhandedly even as he leads her around the floor.

"I learned from that time in fifth grade," He chuckles to himself. "Remember? It was one of those extracurricular physical education classes in the middle of the year."

"Oh yeah, and the teacher wouldn't let us dance together!" She reminisces out loud for the both of them, laughter rippling through her words. "Cause we were always together and she said it wasn't fair for the other boys and girls…"

"And so I spent the whole time waltzing my partner over to you and spinning her away and taking you instead from that other dude." He wrinkles his nose in memory of that and they both laugh. By then they have stopped dancing around the room and are merely swaying from side to side, in time with the music.

"I really had a great birthday M." She looks up him and she sincerely means it. Even to be able to spend her first birthday away from home, in New York City- as long as he's with her, it is a great birthday.

"Really?" His eyebrows quirk up in what she can only call a challenging fashion. "Well I can only say it's going to get better."

She opens her mouth to ask what it is- and his lips touch hers gently in a way that makes her heart skip three whole beats. She kisses him back gently, her arms sliding up around his neck and his arms pull her closer. She knows she will remember this instance for a very long time, until she's old, gray and wrinkled but she can never forget this- her first kiss from her best friend who is not really only her best friend now. It is beautiful. It is memorable. It is… amazing.

They break away after a while, arms still around each other and she tiptoes and kisses him on the cheek again this time.

"Cam?" He looks nervous, but he is smiling that way that is so familiar to her, and even though she knows everything is going to change from now, she cannot help but think that maybe, it will not be that different after all. "Camille Gage. Will you please, go out with me?"

She cannot stop the answering grin taking over her face, and she nods even as he scoops her up in a huge hug and all around them the Pirates explode into cheers and laughter and the party begins.

And needless to say, this is the best birthday of her life.

Hope you guys liked reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it (: Review one last time pleaseee!