I'm really sorry about the long waits guys, but I'm really focussing on school and somehow I'm procrastinating continuing this story.

Anyhow, here's the last chapter!

Ross's POV

That morning, my mind is blurrier that usual. I'm not sure why, but something is bothering me. As I walk Austin to school, I keep on nodding, while Austin tells me about a dream he had, not really hearing what he says.
''I was being chased through a candy cane forest by a Viking, grandma and a peanut vendor. They were throwing cantaloupes at me! Then, it got weird.''
''That's nice, buddy'' I try to convince him I'm listening.
''It wasn't nice, I almost died!'' he tells me while looking at me weirdly.
''Sure, we can do that.'' I tell him, unaware to the fact that Austin noticed I'm not paying attention.
''Have a good day at school, dude, see you later.'' I mess up his hair by quickly combing my fingers through it and push him towards the big doors. Austin starts walking while turning his head to look at me for a moment with a confused look and then enters the building.

Not wanting to leave just yet, I walk towards the big school fences and lean against them. Attempting to clear my head a little, I start thinking. It feels like something troubling has happened, but if it hasn't happened to me, to who then?
Suddenly, I hear a familiar voice, and the fog in my mind rises a little. I turn my head quickly and see Laura walking hand in hand with Ally, both laughing. Is she…?
As a response I feel a pain flashing behind my eyes, like I'm looking straight at a big, bright light. I squeeze them shut and rapidly put my sunglasses on, which happen to still be in the pocket of my jacket. I avoid looking in Laura's direction and focus on Ally, running to the school doors. What is my mind trying to tell me? Should I talk to her, or walk away? Does this mean she is bad news or that she's in trouble?

Suddenly she's there. I didn't even notice her walking my way, but now she stands right in front of me so, even if I wanted to walk away, I won't be able to now.
''Hey, I just wanted to let you know I'm sorry about yesterday.'' She speaks softly. I can only blink, and my mouth opens a little, but no sounds come out. I try to figure her out, while she's talking.
''Ross..''
When she says my name, I feel like I'm in a completely different place. I squeeze my eyes shut for a second and all of a sudden I am in a different place. I see Laura kissing someone, and strangely, he looks like me. But then the person changes, his hair turns darker, his body shrinks and his eyes get smaller. I don't hear what they say, but the figure pins Laura against the wall. She looks scared and helpless and I want nothing more than to help her, but I'm unable to move. They start to talk louder and I hear Laura calling for help.
''Help me! Ross, help!'' she cries loudly and keeps struggling. Then I see the persons face. Jason.
''Laura! Laura, hold on!'' I yell and try to run to her once again, but my feet feel like they're connected to the stone floor.
''ROSS!''

''This was a bad idea.''
And I'm back. This is all I hear before I see Laura turn around and walk away, her hair waving on her back. I wait a second to process what I just witnessed, and it makes sense now. It was a dream, but the sign is clear. Laura needs my help.
''Laura, wait! I gotta talk to you about something! Wait up!'' I call and I walk after her. Her body shocks for a moment hearing my voice and picks up her pace. I begin to run, trying to keep up with her and I get closer. When she notices me almost being next to her she starts running away from me. Shocked, I stop running and call her one more time.
''Laura, don't run away, I'm sorry! Just let me talk to you.'' But she's too far away to hear me now. I give up and walk home.

Laura's POV

With a loud bang I close the front door and lean my back against it to catch my breath. I ran the whole way home and I feel my feet protesting against every movement. Kicking my heels off and dropping my jacket on the stairs I walk to the living room and crash on the couch. Why does every conversation with that guy have to be weird and awkward? I don't think I'll ever be able to look at him again.

I gasp when a loud ringing disturbs the quiet environment and turn my head in the direction where the sound comes from. Sighing, I rise up to answer the phone. While I pick it up, I walk back to the couch.
''Laura Dawson speaking, who's this?''
''Good morning, Miss Dawson. Miss me yet?'' I hear man on the other end of the line.
''Jason.'' I state angrily. I thought this day couldn't get any worse, but I didn't count on this. Annoyed, I start pacing around the room.
''Good to know you still remember my voice. You know, since you'll still hear it weekly in the future.'' I freeze in the middle of the room.
''What do you mean with that?''
''You didn't think I was just gonna leave you alone like that, did you?'' I hear him smirking. My grip on the phone tightens.
''We've been together for such a long time, sweetheart. Don't you think I deserve some of the money we earned together?'' I gag hearing him call me that.
''The money we earned? We? I was the one working all day! Don't you dare try to tell them you were the one bringing in money!'' I yell through the phone. He laughs at me in response.
''Oh, Laura. Naïve, sweet, little Laura. You, out of anyone, know I can be very persuasive. Oh, don't forget that you were the one leaving poor little Ally alone all day. I can't imagine that poor girl having to miss her mommy all day, not having any connection with her at all. Say, if you were the judge, who would you trust more to take care of her?''
''You wouldn't do that. You know how much I care about Ally! They will never believe you!'' I yell crying. ''You can't be that horrible.'' I start feeling sick and can't stop crying.
''I guess you don't know me that well, Laur.'' And with that he hangs up. With my mouth still open and wide eyes I let the phone slip out of my hand and hit the floor. I drop down and land softly on the couch. Leaning my elbows on my knees, covering my red and damp eyes with my hand palms, I let out a loud scream.

Ross's POV

After opening the front door, my eyes land on the doormat, which is covered with white envelopes. Sighing, I pick them up and throw them on the big stack of others on the dinner table. Unwilling, I take a seat and start sorting them. Most of them are the same as usual, ''Dear Mr Moon, We have recently sent you a number of letters to remind you that the balance of $7580 was overdue.'' And more like that. I put my hands in my hair while reading the others. I know it would be the right thing to move to a smaller place, now that Austin and I have too much space here since Kacey left. But I just can't.

Flashback

Kacey and I sit on the hanging chair in the garden, sipping wine and talking. Well, I do the talking while Kacey keeps her eyes on her phone and lazily nods once in a while.
''How was work today, babe?'' I ask her, trying to get her to say anything at all.
''Fine, how was yours.'' She answers, not even taking the effort to make it sound like a question. I give up and refill my glass once more. Kacey readjusts her big silver glasses who hide most of her face and keeps scrolling through her phone while taking another big slug. At that exact moment Austin comes up behind us and scares us with a loud BOO. The loud sound shocks Kacey and she spills a few drops of wine on her new white blouse.
''Dammit, Austin! Look what you did!'' she yells at him, trying to wipe the stain away, but only making it bigger. Austin looks at it with big eyes and a trembling lip. She storms inside, throwing the glass in the grass on her way in. I turn to Austin and sign him to come over. He walks to me and I pull him on my lap.
''It's okay, little buddy, that wasn't you fault. Mommy was just a little clumsy. And can I tell you a secret?'' I ask him, winking. He nods with a smile. ''I didn't like that blouse anyway.'' I whisper in his ear and hold my hand up. He giggles in his little hands and returns my high five. I keep cuddling with him until he looks up at me.
''Dad? Can you promise me something?'' I look down and smile assuring.
''Anything, bud.''
''Promise me we'll never leave. I like it here.'' He says while laying his head on my chest. I nod while pressing my lips against the top of his head.
''I promise.''

Laura's POV

After the break down, I somehow managed to get my face tolerable for the world and step through the front door to pick up Ally. With my head down and hair covering my face I try to send the message that I wasn't available for any form of contact. I step through the fence, I cautiously search the playground through my eyelashes. No familiar faces or one particular face. So I walk to the back of the square ground and stand with my back to the fence. I look up and noticed the sky being particularly dark. It's cold and the wind sends a signal that a storm is coming. And with my mind completely in a different place, I totally forgot to change my heels and bring an umbrella. Shivering I wait for all hell break loose, and see the big dark cloud coming closer and closer. I close my eyes and prepare myself for the rain to hit me any second now.

But it never came.
I slowly open one eye to see that the space around my feet were dry, although a feet further the stones were a darker shade of grey because of the rain. I look up, expecting to see the dark clouds, sending rain down, but finding a big black umbrella keeping me dry. Lastly I look next to me, to find a big hand clamping the hand piece that supported the umbrella. I raise an eyebrow and follow the arm up to its shoulder and discover a pair of dark brown eyes to look down at me.
''Ross…'' I whisper staring at him.
''Hey.'' He greets me with a shy smile. He's dressed in a black leather jacket but I see that he was prepared on the cold weather. Large dark circles form under his eyes. Guess I'm not the only one with problems.
''Thanks, for… Keeping me dry, I guess.'' I thank him, not knowing what to say exactly.

''No problem. It looked like you needed it, so I stepped in at the right time.'' He shrugs.
A small moment of silence comes, it's somewhere between comfortable and awkward. I try to come up with the right words to fix whatever there was going on between us.

''Ross-''
''Laura-''

We look each other in the eyes for a second and laugh at the awkward moment. Before he could say anything I start speaking up.
''Look, Ross, I'm sorry about all the things that happened between us, I don't mean, like…'' I start mumbling when I realize how couple-y that sounded. He smiles like he knew exactly what I meant.
''No worries, we're both dealing with stuff right now. The least we can do is help each other out. I mean, if you want to.'' He asks me cautiously. I sigh at how comforting that sounds, but then remember how that went last time.
''Sure, but I'm gonna try not to cry in front of you this time. No more deep conversations, at least not now. We should start a club where we tell each other our problems with the help of chocolate and cheap wine.'' I told him half jokingly, half seriously.
''Sounds like a plan, Laura.'' He said, softly bumping me against my shoulder. I blush a little, hearing him use my name in a complete sentence, in a conversation that wasn't about my problems, but just as two normal people having small talk.

''So, Austin, huh?'' I start a new topic.
''Yup, that's my little guy.'' He says while smiling proudly. I can see in his eyes that he really cares about him, like I care about Ally.
''You look like an amazing dad, from what I've seen.'' I tell him and look up again.
''Thanks, Laura, that means a lot coming from you.'' He teases me while he nods at me.
''Oh really? What do you mean by that?'' I ask him while laughing.
''Have you seen yourself with Ally? She adores you, I bet you're a great mom.'' He admits, in a serious tone, I can see he really means it.
''That must be one of the biggest compliments I've ever gotten.'' I tell him with a big smile while looking at my feet. I hear him shrug and I look up to see him look up.
''Well, then they weren't that great at giving compliments. I got a bunch of better compliments ready for you.'' I saw him blush a little. I now realize this is one of the only times I saw him without his sunglasses on.

''Oh.'' I can only respond on that statement. The rain has slowed by now and I can really feel the cold wind now. Unwillingly I shiver, cursing that I didn't bring a warmer jacket.
''Are you cold? Here, hold this.'' He quickly says and hands me the umbrella. I take it from him with one hand and watch him unzip his leather jacket.
''You really don't have to-'' I try to stop him but stop talking when I feel the warm cloth being draped over my shoulders. It brings a warm tingling through my body immediately and I close my eyes for a moment to enjoy it. I feel a finger wiping something off my forehead and my eyes snap open. I see him standing in front of me now, bending down a little.
''You had a raindrop right there.'' He whispers, moving that same hand to my cheek.
''That's okay.'' I whisper back, still eying him as he comes close. He holds my cheek with one hand and pulls my chin a little up as he bows his head down to meet me in the middle. I see him look deeply into my eyes and closing them, and I do the same. Our lips are about to touch when a loud sound interrupts us.

Children come running out of the building, but we don't see them. His hand still on my cheek, we keep staring into each other's eyes. I blink twice before I start smiling and I see a smile appearing on his lips too.

''Mommy?''
''Dad?''

Ross quickly removes his hand from my cheek and puts it in his pocket. I awkwardly fix my hair and look at Ally, who stares at me with her head tilt.
''Hey, buddy, how was school?'' Ross asks Austin while kneeling in front of him.
''Great, can Ally come playing at our house today?'' he asks Ross while pointing at Ally, who has her backpack in her tiny hands. I sign for her to come to me and hug her.
''Well, I guess we should ask her mom if she's okay with that.'' Ross grins while looking up to me.
''Mom says she's okay with that.'' I grin back as I help Ally put her backpack on her back and lead her in front of me so she can walk next to Austin. As the kids walk to Ross's place, I feel Ross grabbing my hand. I look at our intertwined fingers and smile while looking up to him. He smiles back and we start walking.
''So, I guess first date is at my place. I've got the chocolate and wine, just in case.'' He says, winking at me.

There yea go, this is the end!

Actually enjoyed writing this last chapter, plus I needed to finish it today, which is already tomorrow in my timezone which is why it's hella long

Thanks for reading!

Love