Couples Thereapy- Chapter Nine- Keller and Galen/Epilogue

I had a way then losing it all on my own
I had a heart then but the queen has been overthrown
And I'm not sleeping now the dark is too hard to beat
And I'm not keeping now the strength I need to push me

You show the lights that stop me turn to stone
You shine it when I'm alone
And so I tell myself that I'll be strong
And dreaming when they're gone

Galen elegantly spun Keller and pulled her back against him before dipping his laughing Soulmate.

It was one of those rare moments where Keller went along with the princeliest of Galen's nature. Secretly, she enjoyed dating a prince despite her… rough reputation. Another thing she secretly enjoyed was dancing. She knew it was completely not her, but Galen's hands, gentle but firm, on her waist and how he moved with that easy grace that Keller found very enticing.

With their therapy session the next morning, dancing with Keller in the gazebo in the mansion's vast gardens was Galen's way of reassuring her that she had nothing to worry about. He loved her, no questions or boundaries.

Galen spun her again, enjoying the way the golden lights played off her silky hair, giving it a shine that belonged in a shampoo commercial.

"I didn't know you were an Ellie Goulding fan." Keller teased, breaking the silence. Not that the silence was uncomfortable, but Keller found herself needing to hear his voice.

"I didn't know you knew who Ellie Goulding was." Galen smiled playfully.

"Please." Keller rolled her eyes. "She's the new 'British Goddess' as Morgead so bluntly calls her."

"The new British Goddess? Who were the others?" Galen asked.

"Emma Watson and Bonnie Wright." Keller replied with a dry smile.

"Oh." Galen laughed. Keller's heart lifted. She never heard enough of that sound, Galen's laugh. It was tragic really. Out of all the Soulmate couples, Keller and Galen were probably the most distant. Everyone else found things to do together and time to spend. But between training, princely matters, and the Apocalypse they just didn't have time.

But at least they knew they loved each other. And nothing would ever come between the bond they shared.

Of course Iliana came to Keller's mind. But Keller had diminished her fears of Iliana stealing Galen long ago. When they first came to the mansion, Iliana had in fact made a point of avoiding Galen at all costs. Of course they did talk now, but neither of then wanted Keller to be insecure. She had been insecure most of her life and she didn't need to feel that way with the one person she could finally trust wholly.

Still, it didn't stop the possibility of Iliana and Galen as a couple from crossing her mind. Oh, yes, she'd thought about it. But she never dwelled on it too long. Galen had chosen her. It was really all she needed.

"What are you thinking about?" Galen asked, gently interrupting Keller's thoughts.

"Us. And everything going on." Keller looked over her shoulder at the mansion.

Galen knew what she meant instantly and frowned. He removed a hand from her waist and cupped her cheek. "I don't really want to think about that right now." He whispered softly.

"Me too." She murmured. "But I can't help it. I'm too much of a worrier."

"I think it's the cat in you." Galen teased and playfully tapped the top of her head where her panther ears appeared.

Keller made a face at him but then rested her head on his shoulder. He stopped dancing and they just stood, holding each other.

"Screw therapy." Galen whispered in her ear. "This is what I need. What we need."

Keller nodded, inhaling the smell of his skin from the juncture where his shoulder met his neck.

Laughter interrupted their peaceful bubble. Mary-Lynnette came running past the gazebo, laughing merrily. Ash appeared seconds later from the trees, chasing his Soulmate a devilish merriment in his eyes.

Mary-Lynnette evaded the circle of his arms for a second, but she got too cocky and moved to her right, Ash sidestepped her and wrapped his arms around her waist, bringing her up against him. Her laughter ended as he pressed his lips against hers.

Ironically, Starry Eyed began playing the exact moment they appeared.

"I want to be like them." Keller announced in a wistful murmur.

"You want me to be a douche?" Galen asked with his eyebrows raised.

"No," Keller didn't even bother rolling her eyes. "I mean, they're one of those couples where specific things remind people of them. Like this," Keller gestured to the speakers. "Starry Eyed, it works perfectly for them. I think of them every time I hear it. But do people think of us whenever a song comes on, or they see something?"

"Is that what you really want Keller? To be one of those ridiculous couples people are always fussing over about 'how cute they are together'?" Galen asked.

"People don't do that." Keller retorted, blushing despite herself. She knew she was being ridiculous, but even she had her girly side.

Galen gave her a questioning look. He remembered that just this morning Ash and Mare had been teasing each other about something stupid and Hannah had gushed about how cute they were as a couple.

"I… I just want to be remembered. I want us to be remembered as Galen Drache and Raksha Keller, not Galen Drache of the First House of Shapeshifter's who chose a common shapeshifter over the Witch Child."

"And you don't think we will be?"

"No! The Night World… It… Won't put us down in history as a couple of Circle Daybreak. We'll be an accident couple of the Royal House."

"Keller… If we don't go down in the history of Circle Daybreak, then nobody else is either."

Keller blushed again, feeling even more ridiculous. How did this even come up?

"Look, all I'm saying is, is… I don't even know what I'm saying." Keller groaned. This is why she never talked about her feelings. She could never express herself in exactly the right way to get her point across.

"Look, Keller, unless you're suggesting that we're characters in a book with a group of crazy, hormonal teenage girls writing about the other couples and barely ever writing about us, then I don't exactly see your problem." Galen said, chuckling despite his Soulmate's distressed mood.

"No, you're right. I'm just being stupid." Keller laughed weakly. "Now c'mon, I promised Rashel I'd watch the latest episode of Pretty Little Liars with her and the rest of the girls."

"How was Pretty Little Liars?" Galen asked upon entering the kitchen the next morning.

"Absolutely ridiculous." Keller rolled her eyes. "But it's so addicting."

"It is!" Poppy looked like she wanted to say more, but James clamped his hand over her mouth.

"I'm not really in the mood to hear more about Pretty Little Liars right now, Poppet." Judging by the bags under James eyes he had heard about it all last night.

Poppy stuck her tongue at him and ducked out of the kitchen, ignoring Paul as he came in.

"You two ready?" He asked Keller and Galen.

"Yes." They both answered.

"Oh, my God! It's left It's sanctuary! JEZ GET THE CAMERA!" Morgead yelled up the stairs after seeing Paul in the kitchen.

"I'm the shower, idiot!" Jez called, only audible to the vampires.

"Aw, damn." Morgead cursed. "Hold on! I'll be right back!" He ran out to go get a camera.

"Go, go quick." Paul pushed Keller and Galen out the door.

"So, how are you two doing?" Paul asked once they reached his office.

"Very well, thank you." Galen answered.

Awkward silence.

"So, uh, you guy can go ahead and do your thing." Paul made a motion with his hands.

"We don't need to. We talked last night." Keller replied.

("AWWWW DAMN!" The Daybreakers whined.)

"Oh. Okay. You sure you got everything off your chest?" Paul asked.

"Well, not quite yet." Galen leaned over to Keller, gently taking her face between his palms. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Paul looked pointedly at the ceiling as they kissed.

"So that's it?"

"Yep. I'm not feeling insecure or upset or jealous." Keller shrugged.

"And I'm not feeling needy or frustrated or insecure either." Galen took her hand and gently squeezed her fingers.

"Huh. Okay then. Bye." Paul gave a sort of salute/wave goodbye.

~Epilogue~

-A week later-

Thierry knew sending the Soulmates to do that was a good idea. There was no yelling or arguing Soulmates, no more ridiculous pranks, and believe it or not, the lamia cousins were even getting along better.

"I'm glad you decided to do this." Hannah snuggled against his chest as they watched the History Channel (more to laugh at it than get any real information.)

"It worked pretty well didn't it?" Thierry asked and kissed the top of her head.

"No, I'm just saying that if I got to choose my Soulmate, I would choose Galen." Jez told Morgead.

"What's wrong with me?" Morgead asked.

"Nothing." Jez rolled her eyes, indicating this wasn't the first time Morgead asked that question.

"Hey, at least she's not picking a fictional character over you." Ash glared from the corner and Mary-Lynnette shushed him by slapping his with City of Ashes.

"Is Mare doing that to?" Quinn sighed and looked hopelessly at Rashel, nonchalantly reading Clockwork Angel, her eyes widening here and there.

"What is it with woman and fictional characters?" Delos groaned.

"They're perfect." Maggie drooled over Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters.

"C'mon, Percy's thirteen in that book!" Delos exclaimed. "Actually, I think he's still twelve!"

"I was thirteen once." Maggie retorted and went back to the book.

"At least your Soulmate hasn't completely fled from all human contact." David glanced at Gillian in the far back corner with the least natural light, hunched over A Great and Terrible Beauty.

"Oh, my. I read that book. It wasn't a nice book." Hannah winced, as if remembering something painful. "But it was really amazing."

"Let me rephrase my earlier statement, what is it with our women and fictional books?" Delos said.

"It's so enticing." Mare said absentmindedly.

"We're living a fictional book! Practically!" Ash exploded.

"Are you saying that we're characters in a book and there are several teenage girls writing stories about us?" Eric asked.

Everyone gave a collective shudder and the girls all put down their books.

There was silence. "So just to make sure, we aren't going to individual therapy, right?" James asked.

"Well if you are, then you'll have to find a new therapist. I'm leaving." Paul announced from the doorframe.

"Aw, so soon?" Morgead asked, not really disappointed.

"Yes." Paul eyed Morgead warily. "I've got to get back home."

"Aw, okay. Bye Paul." Hannah got up and gave her old therapist one last hug.

"Bye Hannah. Everyone." And with that Paul left.

Everyone waiting until the door clicked shut before turning on their Soulmates.

"Did you use my toothbrush again? Because I swear to God if you did I'm going to kick your ass so hard!"

"You need to stop wearing to much cologne! You smell like an ape even more than you already do!"

"You've got to stop being so needy."

"I swear if you put your hands down there again while we're in a public place I'm never letting you touch me ever again."

Thierry stared hopelessly at the Soulmates. "They… were faking it. To make sure they didn't have to go through the individual therapy."

"Or the couples therapy again." Hannah slumped against him.

"Well this bites." Thierry said (pun indented).

A vase clattered to the floor—and Thierry sat up in bed, gasping.

"Thierry? You okay?" Hannah asked sleepily.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. It was just a dream. Just a dream." Thierry shook his head. "I'm going to go get something to drink."

Dawn's rays filled the halls with dancing particles and normally Thierry would stop to admire and appreciate his superhuman sight, but Paul was dragging his bags toward the front door.

Maybe it wasn't all a dream after all.

"You're leaving?" Thierry asked, startling Paul so much he dropped his laptop case. Thierry caught it for him and handed it to him.

"My work here is done. Plus they intimidate me." Paul glanced at the ceiling where the troublemakers were snoring in their Soulmate's ears.

"That's fair." Thierry shrugged.

"Yeah… Hey can I have my last paycheck?" Paul asked.

Thierry went to one of the table stands holding vases for decoration. He pulled out a written check and handed it to Paul.

"Later." Paul turned, looking eager to leave.

"Paul, wait! I think I should let you know, the others put a camera in your office to record the therapy sessions. So we watched the sessions live. And some other stuff." Okay, it was a complete lie, but the look on Paul's face was priceless.

And his reaction.

"Thierry, why is Paul running down the driveway like you just spit fire at him?" Hannah asked.

"No reason." Thierry pecked the top of Hannah's head.

"So, he's leaving?"

"Yeah. Which really sucks because I was seriously considering individual therapy."

Hannah chuckled. "You never know, maybe there really is a teenage girl out there, writing stories about us. Maybe she will send us all to individual therapy."

"Okay, this joke is really old now." Keller piped up.

"Yeah it is." Thierry and Hannah agreed.

"Well," Galen put his arm around Keller. "At least couples therapy is all over now."

Aww it's ending! Dx Sniffles. My second most popular story. Ending. While my most popular story has only a few chapters left.

OH, MY BABIES! THEY'RE GROWING UP!

Anyway, sorry about the late update. I had kidney stones. Which is like excruciatingly painful. I had to go to the ER. Anyhoo.

Yeah, I didn't really feel like putting an AN at the top so I'm putting it all down here.

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ANYONE AND EVERYONE WHO HAS READ/FAVORED/SUBCRIBED TO THIS STORY AND EVERYONE WHO HAS FAVORED AND SUBCRIBED TO ME BECAUSE OF IT! I love you all! I hope I'll never disappoint you.

I hope you liked the ending. I think it's a little sloppy and I think I can do better, but honestly right now I'm too excited for POTTERMORE to really care.

Anything you recognize, I don't own. Especially not the books. Or this disclaimer. I love you Mel xD

And BTW, the song at the top is Lights by Ellie Goulding. And she's effing amazing so go check her out.

Thanks again for reading everyone!

TheSpiraloftheStairs

Evelynn