A/N: A part of me still can't believe that this story is actually finished. It's surprising how much it grew from the one small scene, which made it all start, and I can't help but feel a little sad now, that it's over. I would like to thank everyone, who was with me for this half a year, either sharing their thoughts with me or reading silently. I certainly hope that it was as much fun for you to read, as it was for me to write.

Epilogue

Many years have passed and life has moved on for everyone. It wasn't idyllic, and nobody expected it to be; there have been both pleasant and difficult events for all of them, and they left them with bigger experience for the years, which were still to come.

Less than a year after their friends, Sue and Jack welcome their own little boy to the world. Ryan Hudson turned out to be everything his parents could only hope for him to be. From the very young age, he was known around the neighbourhood as a little angel; his blonde hair, big, expressive brown eyes and a charming smile easily earned him this name. His personality didn't really ruin it, either. Having inherited a lot of his mother's best traits, he was a very sensitive, kind, understanding and most of all, caring person. Mixed with his father's protectiveness and inability not to act if someone was doing injustice to anyone he cared about, which in a boy expanded also to random people in his environment, made him a person, who was always ready to stand up against anyone, who was trying to hurt someone or even called them names, no matter if it was his older sister, one of his friends or just another child, who he never even talked to. It surprised anyone, who have never witnessed it before because he was generally a calm and quiet child, and they would never suspected there was such a propensity inside him.

It was not a shock to anyone, who knew about the close friendship between their parents, that him and Oscar Manning quickly became inseparable, and even when they left for college, they chose the same one – even if two completely different courses - and were living in the same room. Their bond was practically like that of the closest of brothers and the whole world could see that their opposite personalities made them both have a wonderful influence on each other. It was Oscar, who always tried to fight his friend's introverted disposition, to get him out of his shell and in contrary to all the Hudson family, was succeeding. From the youngest age he made sure that Ryan was not sitting unnoticed somewhere in the corner, what he would surely choose, but having fun with the other children. On the other hand, Ryan's calm personality was always able to tame Oscar's a little wild tendencies and very often allowed him not to get into trouble. There were a lot of other examples, but one thing was certain – this friendship was the best thing, which could happen to them – and in fact, to their parents as well.

Both, the Hudsons and the Mannings were pretty certain that if it wasn't for their boys, their friendship might have not survived after the birth of Cassidy Manning. The sorrow Jack and Sue felt, just a couple of weeks after losing their second son, made it very difficult to stand being in their friends' company.

Little Peter was born in the twenty-second week of pregnancy, when his mother was brought to the hospital because of being in a car accident on her way to pick Emily up after her figure-skating practice. Jack knew something was wrong the moment he got a phone call from his daughter asking where he was; for a while he started to wonder if he didn't mix something, as it was always him picking her up, but no – it was Sue, who was supposed to do it, just this one time. Only a few minutes later he got another call, this time from the hospital. There was an accident caused by a drunk driver and his wife was taken to the operation theatre in a very bad condition. When he got there, he found out that they had to deliver the baby if it was to have any chance to survive, and even though thanks to all the machines the boy was alive, the truth was that almost everything was against him. He lived barely few days and lost the fight just a couple of hours after his mother's first visit to the NICU, which she kept insisting on from the moment she regained consciousness and was finally allowed.

It was a very difficult period and they couldn't imagine their pain could ever lessen. They may have not planned or expected to have the third child, few years earlier agreeing that their age was not exactly behind them since Jack was after forty and Sue was nearing it, but it didn't make them love him any less. Being respectively ten and six, Emily and Ryan could both – more or less – understand the situation, and even though their parents tried their best not to allow them to be affected by it, it wasn't completely possible.

At first there was only a huge sorrow inside Sue and Jack, but then it was also joined by even bigger anger. Understandably, it was in the biggest part directed at the young man, who caused the accident, especially that he got out of it with practically no injury other than a broken arm. Their little boy wasn't the only victim, there was also a recently married couple riding in the third car, which was a part of the crash. The awareness of what he did was overwhelming for the man, too. Even though in the end it turned out not to be entirely his fault, as he fell a victim of his friends' joke, who thought it could be funny if they added him a little treat to his drink, his conscience wasn't able to cope with the whole result and it wasn't two weeks later, that he took his own life. Other than him, they couldn't stop the anger from coming out every time someone said they were sympathising with them; how could they, having no idea what they actually felt? Yes, there was also this very tiny, and a little ridiculous, part of them, which was angry at their friends. They couldn't blame them for being happy with their daughter, it was the most natural thing in the world, but it was way too difficult for them to stand watching it and thinking, how they weren't given the chance to do the same. It was only after almost two days of desperate searching for their sons, over half a year later, that they were brought back together. When the boys were found, they couldn't even be angry at them for such a stupid attempt of reconciling their parents, what they actually managed to succeed at. Over time they somehow managed to accept the whole situation and move on, finding a huge consolation in their two older children and who they grew up to, but there was a part of Sue and Jack, which was never going to heal completely.

Just like they suspected, Emily's fascination with ice-skating didn't pass, quite the contrary. She was the happiest of girls, when her parents signed her up for the special skating classes and with the passing years, her love for the sport only grew. She wanted to become a professional figure skater and was on a very good way towards it, being not only very talented but also hard-working, but the contusion she suffered at the age of eleven crossed out her chances. She was very heart-broken and the fact, that it wasn't that long after the tragedy, which occurred in her family's life, didn't make it all any easier. She got over it, however, with support from her family and friends, especially Mia Durham. Nobody had any doubts, that it wasn't only because of her mom, but also - and probably mostly because of this girl, that despite having no hearing problems, she truly became a part of the world of the deaf. She, and a couple of her friends from the special school, were who Emily started to spend most of her time with and when she announced that she wanted to become a teacher for the deaf and hard of hearing children, nobody was really surprised by her choice.

She had no problem achieving it and her love for the children only helped her become the favourite teacher of almost all of her students. Now, influenced by her son's hearing loss, resembling that of her mother's very much, and the effect it had on her relationship with the boy's father, she also started to engage in the actions of the local organisation, which's main aim was to help hearing people understand the deaf ones around them better. Emily herself, was the most active in all the actions, which were directed at the parents of deaf children. She hoped that thanks to her efforts, less of the kids were going to suffer the same fate as her own child, abandoned by his father, who could not accept his difference and understand, that it didn't have any influence on the quality of life he could have. Even though she didn't show it, she was very crushed by her ex-fiancé's behaviour, but Tanner managed to put the pieces of her heart back together. He was her pride and joy, her everything and it was very obvious for anyone, who ever had the chance to see them.

Even though she swore that she was never going to allow any other man into her life in order not to have her heart shattered again, Jack and Sue could see that she started to slowly change her mind, all because of a guy, who she met during one of the bigger events she helped to organise. He seemed to be the perfect proof, that all the efforts they were putting into their task were very worth it and they suspected it was what brought their daughter closer to him in the first place. From the very beginning they had no doubts, that his attempts to get to know her better weren't caused only by his interest in what she was doing, but in the woman herself. Seeing how happy he seemed to be making both, Emily and Tanner, even though their daughter could not be completely aware of that yet, they only hoped that she was going to give him a chance instead of stubbornly clinging to the decision she made few years earlier.

They also hoped that Ryan was not going to follow his father's footsteps, when it came to relationship with the woman he was very obviously head over heels in love with. All the people, who had the chance to witness the development of Jack and Sue's relationship, could see the astounding resemblance between it and their son's relations with Cassidy Manning. For a very long time he used to see the girl as his little sister but it was clear that when he returned to his home town after finishing college, something between them changed. Despite what they were pretending, their relationship moved well past the point, in which it used to be. Having the chance to spend much more time with her than an occasional while every now and then on his visits during college breaks, after she convinced him to let her work part-time in the veterinary clinic he opened, he noticed that she wasn't the child he remembered anymore. He fell in love with her well before he realised it and everything suggested that it wasn't any different for her. Bobby wasn't very happy to see that but he was still convinced it was still way better that his little girl chose his best friends' son as her "object of affection", than any other random boy. Despite the six years difference between them, what he regarded as a huge one at her age, he could at least feel at ease that Ryan wasn't going to hurt her. And while the Mannings respected his lack of hurry in moving things forward with Cassidy, and his parents hoped the reason behind it wasn't the same, which prevented his father from acting on his feelings many years before, he could only smile. They couldn't know that he simply wanted her to pursue her dreams of finishing college and becoming an architect first, or about the kiss they shared and promise they made to each other just before she left to study, but they were to find out soon enough.

As to Jack and Sue, all the years and experiences have only brought them closer. When he thought of what they had, he wasn't able not to be thankful for the second chance with her he has gotten. He couldn't imagine that his life could be any different, it would surely be horribly miserable. It was a good thing he was a determined man and didn't give up, when his chances at happiness with her seemed to be gone. Instead, he got what he has always dreamed about and for that, he was forever going to be grateful.