So sorry for the delay, but here comes the last chapter to this little story (never wrote something so short, I think:))

Disclaimer: Not mine (for details, see Prologue)

Epilogue

When Liz started to come around, the first thing she was aware off were the sounds around her. There was water running somewhere and something was sizzling as if someone was cooking something in a frying pan. Even stranger was the sound of someone giggling. Waking frfom an unconsciousness which was as deep and dark as hers had been, you wouldn't expect someone to giggle. Next thing she became aware off was the cozy warmth and the heavy material laying upon her, obviously providing her with the warm temperature she had been craving for sometime now. If she was honest to herself, since she had left her old life behind and got stuck in Cuba.

Footsteps yanked her out of her thoughts and she tried to open her eyes but failed twice before finally managing to crank them open into small slids and closed them again when light burned into her retinas. When the footfalls stopped and she felt a presence standing next to her prone form, she tried to open them again carefully, smiling when she saw Dembe's familiar face looking down at her expectantly and with a grin on his face.

"Good evening, Elizabeth." He murmured. "It is a pleasure to see you alive and well."

Liz felt tears shooting into her eyes immediately. A watery smile appeared on her lips.

"It's good to see you too." Liz whispered and tried to hold on to the tears, threatening to fall down her cheeks.

"Where's…?" Liz stopped herself, turning her head to look around the room, but finding no one else in it.

"Agnes is in good company." Dembe answered, reading her mind. "She seems to be quiet taken with Raymond."

The weak smile on Liz' face vanished and concern was evident in her features, but before Dembe could question her. Liz started to speak again.

"He hates me, doesn't he?" her voice was quiet, almost only a breath, forcing Dembe to lower his head slightly in order to hear her.

"Hate?" he asked surprised. "He was still mourning, you know?"

"Still?"

This one word made Dembe flinch and the surprise grew into something more. Did she really expect Raymond not to mourn? Had she hit her head somewhere along the way?

"He was devastated." Dembe finally clarified, feeling bad about the satisfaction he felt when he saw the tears appear in her still heavy lidded eyes.

When she didn't say anything else, Dembe patted her arm and smiled halfheartedly.

"I will get him now."

Liz looked after his retreating back and felt panic rising in her chest. How could she meet him? How could she look into his eyes and bare the disappointment, which for sure would be present in them?

No matter why it would be there. If because she had let him think that she was that or because she actually wasn't and he had her back as his biggest burden. She started to feel sweat gather on her palms and forehead and the crazy idea of running flew through her brain, only to be dismissed when she heard footsteps growing louder. She couldn't move. She felt paralyzed and her throat was starting to dry out and constrict painfully. Before she could gather her newly found strength and leap up from the sofa to hide somewhere, the footsteps stops and Liz felt his eyes on her like laser pointers.

Turning her head slowly in his direction, she felt like fainting when her eyes finally found his. She had missed him. She didn't want to admit that to herself before because she knew that if she did, she wouldn't be able to stay away from him too long. She could see his eagerness to come closer but she couldn't explain why he didn't. Rooted to the spot, Red just watched her until she started to wring her hand together. Abruptly he started to move towards her, albeit slowly, and when he reached the sofa, he calmly took place opposite her in a comfortable looking armchair. Liz watched him lean back and look at her, obviously waiting for her to say something. But what could she say? After a moment, she chose the easiest thing to say.

"I am sorry."

She didn't dare to look at him and opted to stare down at her hands. She knew he knew her well enough to hear the sincerity in her voice, but she also knew that he had done horrible things to people for less than what she had done and although she usually wasn't scared of him, now she wasn't sure what to think or feel, except sadness and embarrassment.

"What are you sorry for, Lizzie?"

Red's voice was impossibly deep and Liz could almost feel the gravel in it. He was hurt and disappointed. Of course he was, Liz scoffed at herself.

A few minutes went by without any word making its way over her lips but then she decided it was time to bite the bullet.

"For not being really dead."

Those words made her eyes water and she simply closed them, titling her head even further away from him. The gasp she heard coming from beside her, she wasn't able to decipher. In her mind all their moments together were flashing chronologically and she filed her actions into neat piles of "burden", "failure" and "relationship-building".

"What?" if possible, Red's voice sounded even lower and somehow closer to her, but Liz didn't turn around. But she did owe him an explanation and frankly she felt to weak to keep on playing games.

"Tom told me." She started, feeling the first tears falling. "He told me what a burden I was becoming to you and with Agnes' birth…" for a second the air in her lungs was gone and she had trouble sucking new one in. "I…I…I knew…that by keeping me alive you have risked…so much. And I knew that someday your patience would be…at the end…"

Before she could utter another word, she felt hand on her cheeks and strong arms pulling her face towards Red's face, which to her surprise was only inches from her own.

"I have no earthly idea, what you are talking about, Elizabeth." He breathed against her skin, looking into her eyes. "Tell me what he said." He demanded, not letting go of her.

Liz shivered and violent sobs started to rise in her chest until it was too painful to hold them in anymore.

"He told me you wanted to get rid of me or Agnes. Because it was getting to hard to keep us all safe. We…I was becoming a burden to you and…"

"And what?" he asked quietly, trying to suppress his anger. "You believed him?"

"It seemed…possible." She told him defensively. "You risked your life for me for months…and then Agnes…" she shook her head in defeat.

"Did you really believe that I could hurt you or your daughter?" red asked calmly, his face a stone mask, illuminated by the soft light of the fire burning only a few feet away from them.

When she failed to answer, Red leaned away from her, never letting go though.

"Do you have any idea, what I have gone through? What I am still going through after your death?"

The silence dragged on and Red continued.

"I saw you die, Elizabeth. I held your limp hand in mine, kissed your forehead believing it was the last time I would be able to see you…touch you." He breathed in deeply, not embarrassed by his tears that were pooling in his eyes. "My life, as unworthy as it was anyway, have become empty and my soul, which had been hanging on to my body by one thing thread…has floated away together with your life, Lizzie. Can you imagine that?"

Her sobs gout louder and for a second she was afraid to hyperventilate, but then she simply catapulted her body forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, feeling his body heat warming her insides, making her feel alive again.

"Oh my god, Red, I am so sorry."

Although Red accepted her desperate hug, he still shook his head in disbelieve.

"How could you believe a pathological liar, Lizzie?" he whispered into her ear, breathing in her unique smell, which he had missed so much.

"I felt…guilty."

Tears in her voice, Liz felt suddenly as if a big stone had been lifted from her shoulders. Yes, she felt guilty. For everything. For being a burden to almost everyone in her life. For endangering her daughter and for not being there for her father enough just because of her carrier. She felt guilty for killing her biological father through that obviously destroying Red's life.

"You need to stop this, Lizzie." Red whispered. "I know you feel guilty but taking steps like this? That is just wrong."

"Will you…will you forgive me?" Liz stuttered, knowing it couldn't be that easy and it would require a lot of patience and understanding on both sides to regain the trust in one another.

"As long as you are with me I can try."

And although this answer wasn't as ideal and romantic as Red would have loved it to be, he knew that he simply wouldn't have any other choice than to forgive and love her. She was his soul and he would never part with her, even if he was a monster.

The End

Although I know that this ending is not as "happy" as usually in my stories, I hope you could enjoy it at least a little bit. I want to thank every single one of you who took the time to write a comment and make my day feel a lot better every time:)

I am planing to write a longer story next, butthe wind has been slightl taken out from uner my wings after the season finale...but I'll come up with something! Promise!