Three and a half years ago, I started writing this story. It hasn't always gone the way I originally thought it would, but today it finally reaches its end. I'm not sure if I like the way this final chapter works – I'm half there and half not – but I guess I'll see what you all think. So, enjoy!

Without Saying Goodbye

Yolei poured two bowls of cereal for her older children before sitting down to feed her youngest. Michaela and Reece dashed in, grabbed their breakfast, and ran back to eat it in front of the television, leaving Yolei alone with her husband and the baby. Watching closely as Erin drank from her bottle, she mused aloud across the kitchen table.

"I can't believe Mimi went back to America. I mean, what's for her over there? Sure, she's got her job, but all of her friends are here."

Ken concentrated on buttering his toast. "Mmm," he replied noncommittally. He loved his wife dearly, but she got too caught up in other people's business. What Mimi did with her life was none of their concern.

Not one to be dissuaded, Yolei continued. "And she said she was seeing someone here. I thought she was finally settling down. We could have had another wedding!"

Taking a measured sip of orange juice, Ken gazed levelly across the kitchen table. "I guess they must have ended it."

Yolei, seeing that Erin had finished, shifted to burp her. She sighed as she did so, saddened by all her friend had gone through. First there was the drama with Matt, then she'd had to raise a child all on her own, and now she'd lost this chance at romance. It was all so tragic.

"Yeah," she answered. "I guess they must have."

"Ken told me that Mimi's gone back to the States."

Kari and TK were on the train, sitting next to one another on their way in to uni. His hand rested on her thigh in an instinctive show of possession, and hers twined in with it, engagement ring glittering in the muted light.

"I hope your brother didn't have anything to do with it."

Chewing on his lower lip, TK replied. "Me too. But it seemed like they were getting along, don't you think? They behaved at our engagement party…"

Kari smiled. She knew that TK had always had a soft spot for Mimi, and that there had been a time when he'd hoped she would become a member of his family. In fact, though he tried to hide it, Kari strongly suspected that a small part of her fiancé still hoped for a reconciliation between Matt and Mimi.

Of course, he had always been defined by his hope.

"I suppose so," she eventually answered. "Mimi didn't try to poison his food, at any rate."

"Do you think she'll come to our wedding?" TK asked, eyes wide and struck with a sudden uncertainty.

"I'm sure she will." Kari comforted him with a squeeze of her hand. "She wouldn't miss it."

TK turned to stare out the window, tapping a thoughtful rhythm against the floor with his toes, and a playful grin crossed Kari's face. She leant in close, so that when she spoke her lips brushed across his cheek like an unformed kiss.

"The real problem will be keeping me from leaving you at the altar and running off with Davis."

TK whipped around, dismay colouring his features as Kari laughed at his response. "Not funny, Kari!"

"Kari says that Mimi's gone back to New York."

Sora looked up from her magazine as Tai crossed the room to hand her a cup of coffee. She sipped the cappuccino, staying resolutely silent and tucking her knees up close to her chest as she refused to meet Tai's pointed gaze. Sighing, Tai flopped down onto the couch next to her.

"Sora," he began tentatively. "You know I love you. And I forgive you for whatever you've done. But Mimi… she's my friend. She used to be your best friend. And she didn't deserve what you did to her. To all of us."

Sora didn't reply, her eyes instead locked on a spot on the page before her.

"Please, Sora. This is not who you really are." He placed a pleading hand on her knee. "You made a mistake. But for the sake of our relationship, and your relationship with everyone else, please, please try to make this right."

Matt lay in his bed and he thought about consequences. Good and bad, his life was built on consequences. Every relationship that had failed and every relationship that had succeeded. All that he was ashamed of and all that he prided. All his memories and his regrets and his joys and his miseries… they were what made him.

He was still contemplating this when his train of thought was derailed by a sudden voice from his bedroom door.

"I found the champagne. By the way, your kitchen is a disgrace."

He couldn't stop the grin from pulling at his lips as Mimi sashayed in, carrying a bottle of sparkling wine and two glasses. He gazed up at her, so real with her messy hair and swollen lips and her lithe figure wrapped up in a satin nightgown. She'd stayed. He'd needed her and she'd stayed and how could he not smile when he was the happiest he'd been in years?

"I'm so glad you told Yolei that you were going back to the States. I want you to myself for a while."

Mimi looked at the man lying naked before her; watched an uncontrollable smile spread over his features. This man, the only man she'd ever loved enough to let him break her heart. This man, with his easy good looks and the eyes that told their story right up until the happy ending. This man, who had convinced her that there was no place left to be but in his arms.

"You know, we'll have to tell them eventually. And I will have to go back to the States to sort everything out. This isn'tgoing to be as simple as you seem to think…" she paused halfway through her thought, looking down at the champagne in her hands before setting it on the bedside table. She smiled, and reached for the knot holding her gown together. "But we can talk about that later, I suppose. For now…"

Allowing the garment to puddle at the floor, she crawled into the bed and snuggled up to Matt's warm, hard-muscled body.

"I love you," he murmured into her hair. "Don't ever leave."

She clutched him harder, rubbing the smooth of her cheek against the ridge of his collarbone.

"I won't. I love you, too."

THE END. Roll credits! I just want to give special mention to anybody who has reviewed this fic (and anyone who reviews it now, hint hint) because without your feedback I probably would never have found the motivation to keep writing after three long years. So, thank you.

Emma's useless facts about nothing in particular

The statuette on Rolls Royces is called The Spirit of Ecstasy.