TEN YEARS LATER…

It had been ten years since the last battle against the grown-ups and the kids had been victorious. In those ten years, North and South London united and agreed to help each other, setting aside their old rivalry. With Nicola's help, Ed and Brooke moved into power and ruled over North London while Adelaide and Jordan ruled over South London. But their union wasn't an easy one; tension and the differences between the two sides were still clear, even after fighting side by side in the final war. South London Crew were still hesitant to allow an alliance, and it took almost a year and a half for them to even find peace and find a place to talk like rational people.

A few months after the war, Adelaide had given birth to a healthy baby boy she named Jordan Jacob after the man who'd saved her life and his father, just to help keep DogNut's memory alive. She'd also given birth to a baby girl she named Esme several months beforehand (named after the original Esme, of course), and she had yet another baby on the way; a happy little family.

Warm sunlight shone down on the field, the sound of children's laughter filled the air, almost drowning out the sounds of insects buzzing around. In this world; there are no more sickos, no more bad people, no more surviving – just living. Perhaps one day Adelaide would tell her children about the world that came before this, how dark the world was before they were born. Her children know nothing about the sickos or David or anything their parents did to survive. They don't know their playground is also a graveyard, soaked in the blood of those that died so that they could live. Perhaps one day they would understand what happened before they were born, but for now all they cared about was spinning as fast as possible and having cuddles from their parents, normal for children their age. Adelaide knew that in a few years, they would start to ask about the world their parents had lived through.

But, how can I tell them about that world without frightening them to death?

Adelaide was brought out of her moments of thinking by her son playing with some of the tools her guards had used to clear a path to her home, despite being told not to touch them multiple times by both her and the guards themselves. "Jordan, honey, be careful with those! Mummy doesn't want you to hurt yourself!"

Jordan huffed loudly, throwing down the tools dramatically and stormed off to the other side of the field to play with some of the other children, causing Adelaide to chuckle a little to herself as she watched her son. Every day, Jordan reminded Adelaide more and more of his father; they had the same dark hair and bright eyes, quick temper and their undying desire to protect their family no matter what that seemed to be imprinted inside of him since birth – or since conception as Harper had once joked.

Perhaps he'd inherited the desire to protect their family from his mother since she was known to be one of the most over protective parents in the city but then again, most people were. Even Edison was more protective than Adelaide was over his daughter, but it was to be almost expected by now. Even after the sickos had been defeated, that fear had been ingrained in every kid's memory and it was unlikely that it would ever really go away. There was always that sense of fear that the sickness would come back and once again, they would be thrown into a war zone.

Adelaide kept a close eye on Jordan and the other children while also trying to sew up a hole in one of Jordan's shorts. Sewing was never Adelaide's strongest points, and she did manage to prick herself many times through the shorts and to her exposed thigh. She regretted deciding to wear a dress when she did that but she liked wearing dresses; to her, it meant that she didn't need to go out and kill sickos, she could be a mother without having to protect her family and her people from the horrors that used to exist.

The fences and gates that surrounded South London were left to rot and rust; there was no need for them. The small neighbourhood Adelaide lived in was filled with families, giving her children many friends to play with, even some that would come from the North Side. After the months of feuding and hating Ed over political nonsense, the pair finally became friends once again and allowed their children to play together, and would give each other emotional support whenever they need it most.

The sickos might be long dead but the scars and reminders were still inside Adelaide's mind, locked inside and would never really go away. They were a part of her now, and she could pretend they weren't there as much as she liked, they would always remain.

Picking up Esme from the small playing crib beside her and resting the infant's body on her hip, Adelaide stood up from her chair to see her husband coming towards the house and was with Jordan, causing her to smile as she looked back towards her daughter, giving her a gentle squeeze. "Look, there's daddy! Daddy's home."

Adelaide had "married" Jordan Hordern in a small and private ceremony several months after Jordan Junior was born, but they both decided to wait until the sickos were properly gone and all tension between the North and South side had died down before they properly started a family; they wanted their children to live in a safe environment, one where they didn't need fences or guns to make them safe. It wasn't easy, but they managed with what they could.

Married was in inverted commas because it wasn't quite official, at least in the eyes of the old law. Their version of a wedding was having Adelaide dress in the whitest dress they could find and exchanged vows taken from a movie before presenting wedding rings they had to search for days to find. But they were happy with it; it was simple, and didn't take too long to prepare.

Jordan – her son – already knew that Jordan "Senior" wasn't his real father, and that his real father died protecting his mother from "bad people" when he was still in her belly. She'd showed him the picture she had of him many times and told him that he reminded her of his father every single day. But Jordan Senior still loved Adelaide's son as if he was his own, just like Adelaide had wanted him to.

Jordan's sight had significantly diminished in all the years since the war – he was on his last line of sight by that point and they both knew it. He'd taken regular trips to the North Side to see if there was anything they could do to either stop him from going completely blind or perhaps give him some of his sight back. It wasn't just because of Adelaide that he wanted his sight back; he wanted it back because of his daughter whom he loved so much and his second unborn child that he would want to see with his own eyes rather than hear about how beautiful his child is. So far, they hadn't found much but they refused to give up hope and took things one day at a time.

After greeting Jordan with a quick kiss and a hug, Adelaide placed her daughter down for a nap, knowing full well that she probably needed sleep after crawling around in her little play crib for most of the day.

But a few hours later, Adelaide was placed on high alert as she heard her daughter screaming for her mother. Adelaide's nightmares were like that; everyone in the house doing their own thing and one of her children would scream and when Adelaide would arrive, her child would've been devoured by a sicko and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Adelaide ran into her daughter's room as fast as her legs would carry her, soothing her as she cried into her shoulder while her mother gently rocked her back and forth to calm her down. Adelaide sang a soft lullaby to her daughter to calm her down – the usual routine that almost always worked. Her daughter fell asleep almost an hour later, with Adelaide retiring to bed soon after Esme was put down to sleep.

When Adelaide awoke, the sun was just about to rise from the horizon. Everyone else was still asleep but Adelaide couldn't bring herself to go back to sleep, she'd been asleep for almost twelve hours by that point and she guessed she'd had enough rest. Climbing out of bed, she removed her husband's arm from around her waist and walked slowly and quietly downstairs to their living room.

On the mantelpiece above the fireplace, the pair had placed various framed photographs upon it – of lost friends and family and other memories that had happened over the last ten years. A small smile came over Adelaide's face as she looked over them all before picking up a certain one and gently traced the face on it with her fingertips.

"Good morning, DogBrain, I take it you'll want your usual for breakfast."

THE END

Note

This is the end of Beautiful Crime – thank you all so much for your support; it really means the world to me. But this is not the end of Adelaide's and DogNut's story, however – I've posted another story about them and it's called Run On Love and I hope to see you all there although I probably won't start properly posting it for a while since I'm working on other stories which I'll tell you about now;

I have posted another fanfic set within the Beautiful Crime/Enemy universe. It's called Power & Control and it's with David (despite my hatred for him) and I hope you guys like it as much as you liked Beautiful Crime.

But if that's not your thing; I have posted another fanfic set within the proper Enemy universe. It's called Monster and I'd really appreciate it if you guys went and read it.

By popular demand (well, not really, like two people voted and they're my friends but whatever), the story I've chosen to focus on is Power & Control. Although, depending on motivation, I may write a little on Monster and Run On Love.

Hope to see you all in another story;

Lorna.