A/N: Final chapter! :( I will miss writing about the odd adventures of our favourite nerds. Although, now I look back... Our nerds haven't been that involved... Ah, well, don't worry, they're coming back in this chapter. Have fun reading the end of my little fanfic, and remember: If it doesn't work- Turn it off and on again!

I arrived at the IT department just as the others were setting up for the day. They all looked up as I dashed in.

"Oh, hello McKenna." Moss said cheerily. He didn't notice the look of horror on my face.

"McKenna?" Roy sounded concerned. "Are you alright?" I shook my head, and he hugged me quickly. "What's wrong, what's wrong?" he asked.

"It's Richmond." I said, my voice hoarse and high pitched. "He's gone."

"Gone where?"

"I don't know, I don't know." I whimpered. "Please, help me look for him?"

"Well… I'll have to ask Douglas for permission…"

"Please. Please ask him."

"Okay. Moss?" He let go of me to look at Moss.

"Hmm?"

"Help us look for Richmond?"

"Okay, then. I don't have much to do." We all went into Jen's office to ask her. She said yes immediately, and said she had been quite fond of Richmond once. I didn't ask. All I cared about was finding him.

We looked odd, roaming the streets together. A nerd with an afro, a red headed businesswoman, and a tall Irishman supporting a tearful near-invalid. We attracted a lot of attention between us, and we began to ask others to help. We stopped passers-by, told them what Richmond looked like, and asked them to help search. Many of them, surprisingly, said yes, and we soon had an unofficial search party going on. But still it was six pm before any news came. Roy got a call from a friend on the other side of the city, saying he'd heard about Richmond and thought he'd seen a Goth wandering around. We rushed over there, but there was no longer any sign. I was getting tired, and Roy insisted I get home. I told him I would take the bus, so he decided to sit in the bus stop with me until it came. I was silent for a long time, merely leaning on his shoulder as tears fell of their own accord. Eventually Roy whispered:

"You love him, don't you?" I nodded. "He's a lucky sod. If he had any sense, he'd be right here with you." I looked at him.

"Are you jealous?" I managed to choke out.

"Nah. Just… he'd be lucky. So would anyone. If you get my drift."

"Yeah. Thank you."

"It's no problem." We fell silent again. But after a while, I heard something. A tiny noise, barely registering with my ears. The setting sun shone in my eyes as I looked up. There it was again. Like… a sniff. My eyes widened suddenly as I saw the alleyway across the street. I got up and ran across the quiet road.

"Where are you going?" Roy shouted.

"Just stay there!" I called back. I dashed into the alleyway. But there was no one there. Or so it seemed. In a shadowy corner, curled up small on the ground, sat Richmond. His eyeliner was smudged down his face, and his shirt was dirty. He looked at me with fear in his eyes.

"It's okay, Richmond. I won't tell. I'll never tell. Just… please come back." My voice cracked, and the tears began again. He stood up slowly, keeping a cautious distance from me.

"Do you promise?" he asked.

"Yes! Yes, I promise. I will never hurt you again." He darted towards me and took me in his arms. I leant on him, crying so much I was surprised my tears hadn't dried up. He held me close, stroking my hair, trying to soothe me. When I had finally calmed down, he let me go and looked down at me.

"Did you read my note?" he asked.

"Yes. Were you serious when you said about… falling in love with me?" he was silent for a long moment.

"I was." he finally murmured. I smiled through my tears, and took a moment to pluck up courage. Then I stood on my toes and kissed him. He looked surprised for a moment, but seemed to decide that it wasn't a bad situation to be in. We stayed in the embrace for a long moment, before breaking it off and just standing there. He looked at me and asked:

"Shall we go back?"

"Yeah. Roy's waiting at the bus stop." We walked out of the alley, hand in hand. Roy stood up when he saw us coming. A smile broke on his face when he realised what must have happened. He hugged us both when we reached the bus stop. He raised an eyebrow at me, and I nodded. His grin grew even bigger. We didn't need many words for now. We had our happiness. That was all we really needed.

When we arrived back at my house, Richmond went straight up to his room to fetch his notebook. He tore out the note he had written, and flipped to his story.

"I finished it last night. Before I left. I wanted to leave it for you. But you didn't notice."

"I just wanted you back." I admitted.

"Well, it's nice to know I'm wanted. But do you want to hear it?"

"I would love to." He smiled and cleared his throat, then began to read out the tale:

'It was a warm June day in the city. In fact, it went beyond warm and could be called hot. Boiling, in fact. Raven sat in the dark of his basement room, scared to go outside for fear of the people surrounding him. He became scared around people, but this room was almost worse. He was kept here all the time. It scared him that he might never get out. They didn't want him outside. He sighed. Maybe his saviour would never come. He thought like this a lot. He had dark thoughts that didn't make much sense. It was like his brain was full of shadows. He carried on with his shadowy brain all night, until something made him jump. The sound of the machine in his room starting up. He stood as far away from it as he could, by the door. But the door opened, and someone walked in. She was scared, but she told him her name. She was Allegra, and she was new to this place. She felt sad for Raven in his room, which was unusual, because she was very happy. So she took him back to her home, and gave him roses. He stayed at her home that night, writing and learning how to be happy. And the next morning, they went back to try to explain to the people that Raven was kind. But they only made the people sad, so Allegra had to put him back in his room until they went home. That made Raven sad. His shadowy brain came back, and he felt like he shouldn't be there. At the end of the day, when they left, he could tell that Allegra was sad too. He tried to make her happy, but it didn't work. On the way home, some more people were cruel to Raven, and threw things at him. This made them even sadder. They ate dinner, and went to bed feeling sad. They stayed like that for a week, because Allegra had to go to work and leave Raven at home. Raven became shadowy again, and felt a lot of pain. But when Allegra got up one morning, she was very sick. She couldn't go to work, so she stayed at home with Raven. Raven tried to make her happy and better like she had done for him, but he wasn't very good at it. He wrote while he sat with her, and she asked him what he was writing. He said it was a love story. She asked him whose it was, and he said it was theirs. She asked him if he loved her, and he replied yes. And they kissed, and Raven got the same sickness as Allegra. But he didn't care, because they were in love, and that was all that was important. That was their happy ending.'

I looked at Richmond in awe as he finished reading.

"That was amazing. Absolutely incredible." I said.

"I wrote our story down as it happened. But then it got to last night, and I thought that there wouldn't be a happy ending. So I gave us one."

"We can have a happy ending now, Richmond. We can do anything we want to." I hugged him tightly, and he kissed me again.

"You know what?" I said breathlessly. "That would make a really good kid's book."

"Yes, that's a good idea. And you could do the illustrations!" He smiled, a proper, big smile, and I couldn't help smiling back.

"I would love to. And we could try to get it published!"

"Yes. And all your money problems would be over."

"Richmond, you are a gothic genius. I'm going to go and start drawing now."

One year later

"Hey, Roy! I haven't seen you for ages!" I pulled him into a big hug, and he laughed.

"I know! It's been months. How are you doing?"

"Pretty good, I have to say. What do you think of the launch party?"

"It's amazing! I can't believe it; I had no idea Richmond was such a good kid's author. Or that you were such a good artist!"

"Thank you. Are the others here?"

"Yeah, I think Jen went to the bog, and Moss is around somewhere with his girlfriend."

"Moss got a girlfriend?"

"Yep. She's just as big a nerd as he is, so they're perfectly matched."

"Cool."

"Oh, here they all are." Moss and Jen walked towards me with a petite blonde girl between them.

"Hello, McKenna." Moss said. "This is Alix. She's my girlfriend."

"Hey Moss. Nice to hear you found someone."

"Yep." He beamed with such pride I had to resist the urge to say 'Aww'. But resist I did, and was soon pounced on by Jen.

"Oh, McKenna, look at you!" she hugged me so tightly I could barely breathe. "You're famous! And you look so different!" She was right about that at least. I had taken Richmond's advice and gone back to my gothic phase. I wore a long black velvet and lace off-shoulder dress with corseting and flared sleeves. The amount of eyeliner I wore was almost criminal, and I had my hair dyed deep black. But people had said that it worked, and that for the style of the book and the illustrations, it worked perfectly. So I stuck with it. We stood in a clump for a while, socialising, until I realised something.

"Hold on. Where's Richmond gone?" No one seemed to know, and I wandered around the huge venue for a few minutes, until I found him by the bar drinking a large glass of coke.

"I thought I told you not to drink that?" I said.

"It's just to keep me calm. And to make me happy."

"Okay then. I suppose it won't hurt just this once. Come on, come and see the others. They haven't seen you for ages. They'll be surprised, I promise."

"Alright then." We walked back to them, and Jen immediately began to stare.

"Richmond? Is that you?" he nodded happily. He looked just as different as I did. He had red streaks in his hair, a top hat on his head, and a black, fairly ordinary suit, with a white shirt and a skinny black tie. His smile just about reached his ears, and he was so much better around ordinary people nowadays. It was wonderful just to see him laugh, like he did at Moss's reaction, which was to spit out most of the drink he was holding. Roy just laughed with him, clapped him on the back and said:

"Good to see you, mate. And I'm sorry we acted like such bastards to you."

"It's alright." Richmond replied. "If you hadn't, none of this would have happened."

"Oh. Okay then." Richmond took out his pocket watch and said:

"We have to be on stage in ten minutes. We should go wait in the wings. And you four should go and sit down. There should be seats reserved in row A. If they give you trouble, show them this." He handed Jen a small plastic case.

"What is it?" She asked.

"My pass. They'll let you in."

"Okay. Thanks." They headed off towards the auditorium, whilst we walked to the stage door. We stood in the wings nervously, knowing that we would be speaking to hundreds of people any moment now. We were going to tell them our story, tell them how Richmond had gone from riches to rags, then back to riches, then rags again, et cetera. And how I had met him. Our story, the tale Richmond wrote for me, and how it really happened. We were going out there slightly differently today. Because now I had a black sapphire ring on my fourth finger. I would go out there tonight as McKenna Laetitia Adlinson. But soon, I would be McKenna Avenal. And I knew more than anything else, that it would be the best day of my life. To marry this man who I had helped pull back from the brink. I knew I would never leave him. And as the curtains opened, and we walked out onto the stage, I looked out at the sea of upturned faces. I saw Jen, Alix, Moss and Roy on the front row, waving, grinning like maniacs. I knew this was right. This was how it should be. This was my new life, and I was going to live it well.

Any reviews are still appreciated beyond belief, and what does everyone think about a sequel? Tell me your ideas and I'll do my best :)

Much, much love xxx