Alrighty kids, this here is the end. I hope you like it. Thank you for reading and reviewing. It's bittersweet finishing a fic, especially a lengthy one. It's nice to have it complete, but I miss interacting with you guys about nmbc stuff. In any case, I have a minor query for anyone in the mood to give an opinion. The details are in my profile. Thanks again!
PS: Argh, this file manager! I had little rows of tildes in-between the parts of this epilogue, but the file manager doesn't recognize them. Thus, this looks much prettier on my word processor than it does here. Sorries.
EPILOGUE:
And just like that, talk in Halloweentown changed from Sally's impending dissection, to the upcoming wedding. Even the Mayor's flagged interest in the whole endeavor saw some rejuvenation. He would be front and center, performing the ceremony after all. He'd never officiated at a wedding and was as always highly in favor of something new for his resume. The majority of the ghoulish citizenry viewed the event as a most peculiar and curious spectacle. Whether or not they completely understood its implication, few objected to free food and a party.
Dr. Finklestein wrote a letter, tersely worded but no less binding. It was his admission in writing that he no longer desired any claim to Sally. The letter arrived one windy afternoon, some weeks after the delivery of the heart. Standing in the the kitchen, Sally slowly read the missive aloud. She giggled when she came to the line:
"Jack is free to do whatever he wants with, or to, my former creation."
Jack winced and set down his teacup.
"Why that's a terrible thing for him to put it! Gracious!"
"It's what we wanted, isn't it?", Sally laughed. She topped off Jack's tea with a small copper teapot.
"Yes, but... That doesn't sound very good.", he said.
Standing behind his chair, Sally lay her head on Jack's skull. She crossed her arms around his boney shoulders.
"I don't mind. But, I don't think you should do anything to me by the lakeside."
"Duly noted.", agreed Jack.
The Fishgal wasn't certain if Sally had told Jack about the heart. She hadn't asked her not to. As a light rain fell across the square one evening, Jewel could be seen, hurrying the doctor along in his wheelchair. It was the first time she'd been out in weeks. The strange couple hurried past, and for a moment Fishgal's gaze met Jack's. He smiled at her and mouthed his thanks. She nodded in response, feeling a distinct warmth inside. She'd never known anything quite like it before. It felt nice. Not quite enough to keep one cozy all night, or to extinguish every ember of wistfulness, but still. It was nice. She'd done something that not everyone would have, and she'd made others happy. As the warmth began to subside, Fishgal wondered if it would ever come back. It did, not quite two years later, when she had almost forgotten the feeling entirely. It welled forth in her clammy soul as she watched an unusually anxious Jack help his enormously pregnant wife up the stairs to their house.
Lock, Shock and Barrel didn't attend the wedding. Shock declared it "boring", and the boys offered no argument. Barrel couldn't have cared less either way. Lock shrugged it off. As he lay in his bed, listening to unfamiliar music float over the hillsides into the treehouse, he wished he had someone to whom he could brag. He had kissed the Pumpkin Queen. Lock would have been even more impressed with himself, had it occurred to him that Jack was the only other person who could claim such a thing.
END