Epilogue: On an impulse (reprized)

A/N: Open Office is having fun changing my documents language to 'English(Canada).' That's really annoying. Note that this is the last chapter in this part of the story arch. I may or may not later decide to write a sequel. I have a conflict which I still have unresolved from this story, which would make up a story of its own. However, I currently want very much to get away from this story and may decide never to write the sequel.

Kari's POV

"So... How long have the two of you been going out?" My mother asked, and I realized that I had told her that T.K and I had been 'Only friends' when I'd been trying to convince her to take T.K in for a few days.

"Only a few hours. I swear, I didn't lie to you. T.K and I were only friends when you asked." I said, blushing. It was true, but I probably should have told her sooner that what I had previously said was no longer true.

She just rolled her eyes, "I'd say that you were lying, but I really don't care right now. I'm just glad you are safe and sound."

I smiled, glad that I didn't have to argue with her right now. Normally, I would have seen that as an accusation of lying, and been offended, but right now, I just wanted to get home.

T.K's POV

As I got into the passenger seat of Matt's car, I swept with relief. I was both safe and free. I had started with safety, and willingly given it up for freedom. Getting it back had been pricey, although mostly because of my sheer impulsiveness.

Had I planned in the beginning, I would have had somewhere to run to in the first place. But, in my impulsiveness, I hadn't called Kari to make sure she was home, learned she wasn't, and then called Cody. I'd done that once I was outside, drenched in the cold.

Then again, I probably wouldn't have run away in the first place had I known that Kari wasn't home, instead, I probably would have opted to wait two days. But if I'd done that, I'd never have met Johnathan, and I wouldn't have spent the night with Cody.

And, had I not spent the night with Cody, I might never have found the courage to tell Kari how I felt. I really couldn't second guess my first decision; my entire life was built in a perspective around it.

But I should have known better than to make the same mistake again, and learned to control my impulsiveness. Today, though, I'd proved I hadn't learned my lesson, and rushed in to deal with my mother.

Had I spent ten minutes thinking about it first, I could have had Matt and Cody there as backup from the very beginning. But instead, I'd rushed headlong to confront what I felt was the 'evil' in this situation, without first thinking through the consequences.

And, in doing so, I'd gotten trapped in a situation in which I was overpowered. Had Kari not have come to save me, I wouldn't have lived to tell the tale. Even as it was, I was responsible for my own broken hand, and her injured hand.

I could forgive myself for making a mistake that caused me injury. In a way, making mistakes was my right, as long as I learned from them... And, while I might not have a great track record at learning from my mistakes, I had the feeling that this one would be hard to ignore. But I couldn't forgive myself for making a mistake that led to the injury of another, especially if the 'other' was Kari.

Matt snapped me from my contemplation by asking, "What's up?"

"Just taking it all in, you know?" I said, buckling myself into my seat, face flushing with embarrassment as soon as I realized I'd been holding up our ability to leave, "Sorry."

"No problem. Had it been one, I'd have said something sooner. Close your door."

"Right." I said, closing the door.

I suddenly realized that the sun was still well above the horizon, and felt extremely disoriented. It felt like the middle of the night to me, and yet it was still day.

"So, how are you feeling?" Matt asked as he started the car. He sounded a little concerned, and I did understand why, after all, I'd had my hand broken today, and then I'd passed out.

"Well, my hand hurts a good bit, and I'm very disoriented by the fact that the sun is still up." I admitted, and then continued "Other than that, though, I'm fine."

"Good. I mean, your hand hurting is to be expected, but it's good to know you are alright other than that." Matt said, sounding almost as relieved as I felt, as we finally left the hospital parking lot.

The time between then and when we arrived at our father's house was mostly quiet, as neither of us knew quite what to say.

As we got out of the car, an irrational fear crept through me. I felt as if i was imposing myself upon my father. Of course, this made absolutely no sense, but I had already acknowledged to myself that it was irrational.

That said, I had no idea what was going to happen next, so a little fear made sense in context. Still, this felt like the wrong kind of fear to have. After all, I really hadn't chosen to impose myself here, and my father had always been grateful to have custody of me in past.

We reached the front door, and Matt unlocked the door and opened it. As we walked in the door, my father greeted us, saying, "Sorry I couldn't be at the hospital. I had work that had to be done."

Matt and I exchanged amused glances; he ALWAYS thought he had work that 'had' to be done, or at least that he thought had to be done.

Even so, this was just the way he was, and it was fairly easy to deal with.

"It's cool." I replied, "Have you set up a place for me to sleep yet?"

"Not yet" My father replied.

"Alright" I said, "I'll just take the couch in the guest room. I need to rest for a while now... I'm exhausted." The guest room was my room whenever my father had custody of me. It was upstairs, and had a couch, which could be unfolded to become a bed, and a television.

"Alright, should I wake you up for dinner?" Matt asked.

I was hungry, although I'd been altogether too distracted to realize it previously. Had I not been as hungry as I was I would have declined this offer; all I really wanted to do was sleep. However, at the moment, I was hungry enough that I probably wouldn't be able to sleep through the night, so I accepted the offer.

"Yes, please do." I said.

I might have contemplated what I'd done and what had happened to me more, but I fell asleep almost as soon as I lay down on the couch.

I had a dream closely resembling the fight I'd actually had with my mother, from beginning to end. This would be the only time I would ever have this dream, and I would learn later that re-experiencing an event, so long as it didn't happen repeatedly, was actually an important part of healing psychologically.

I awoke when Matt gently opened the door, and announced quietly that it was dinner.

"T.K." he said, "Wake up, dinner is ready."

"Thanks." I mumbled, as I slowly stood up.

"No problem" Matt said, beginning to walk back downstairs to the dining room. I followed him, and sat down for dinner directly across from Matt.

"You OK?" Matt asked, noticing how tired I was.

"Yeah, I'm just a little tired. I did just wake up, though."I replied.

"Just making sure." Matt said.

"Thanks... the sarcasm was unwarranted, wasn't it." I apologized.

"It's fine, you're tired, I understand." He said.

"Seriously, though. Thanks." I said.

"No problem." Matt said.

We didn't really talk for the rest of the meal, although this was probably because Matt and Dad were to worried about me to really start a conversation not involving me, and I was to tired (and hungry) to engage in conversation.

When we were done eating, I went back to the guest room, but this time sleeping wasn't half as easy. I wasn't as tired,because I'd slept a little already.

On top of this, I couldn't stop thinking about Kari. I wanted to know how she was doing, as well as talking to her one last time before I slept.

I finally gave up on just falling asleep without at least texting her, so I did so.

You still awake? I typed, not wanting to wake her up in case she was as tired as I was.

About a moment later, her reply arrived.

Yeah, barely. the text read.

I smiled, and sent her another message. Alright. Just wanted to say "good night".

Her reply was Good night with a heart made out of a less than sign and a three.

I smiled, and fell asleep only a few minutes later still smiling.

A/N: And... it's done. This chapter was written in a plane. In a car. On my brand new Droid. On my laptop. In Georgia, Washington, and Florida! No, really. That's because I'm on vacation. I wanted to type the less than sign and the three, only fanfiction[dot]net kept eating my less than sign... it probably thought I was trying to use HTML code... and the sites document editor deletes its own name...

Hopefully the chapter makes sense. I read it over, but I'm fairly tired right now, so I could have missed something very important.