So you've returned... For the very last chapter... Thank you so much for sticking through until the end. I hope you enjoy this story's conclusion. Here you go, my precious readers. Enjoy:

xxxxxx

Gale stared at the wall, at a very ugly framed picture of a flower as she sat on a stiff couch in the waiting room of the hospital. Her legs were drawn up next to her and she leaned against Dewey who had his arm wrapped around her shoulders. For the first time in hours, she was dry, and felt warm and safe.

A few feet away, Sidney sat in a chair that was next to the couch. She flipped through a magazine much too quickly for her to actually be reading it. She seemed nervous. The three of them were waiting to hear news about both Randy and Cotton's conditions. They knew Randy would most definitely be fine. He had been completely capable of moving around along with the rest of them for several minutes after having been shot. His wound was clearly not as serious at Cotton's. Cotton seemed to have been hit right in the chest, which could easily result in death.

The last they had heard though, Cotton was in fair condition. The bullet had narrowly missed everything important and had gone clean through him. It seemed like he would recover just fine over time. Of course, anything could still happen, but for now, his condition seemed favorable. They still hadn't been allowed to see him though, as he was likely still being worked on by the doctors.

When they were allowed to see him, Gale was going to be sure to let him know how much they appreciated him going up on that roof and trying to keep the others safe. Cotton had been very heroic in that moment, and though it hadn't worked out how they hoped it would, it was the most heroic gesture she had ever seen from him. So many people thought Cotton was a strange, questionable person, but he was nothing like that at all. He was perhaps the most misunderstood person Gale had ever met. People saw him, and they saw a murderer, even after he had been proven innocent. No one understood the man. She could relate to that. Gale was not exactly a hero, but she wasn't the monster some people seemed to see when they looked at her.

After the three of them had given very simple statements to the police at the crime scene, the sheriff had agreed that they could all accompany their friends to the hospital before giving their more in-depth official statements later. Since the killer was dead now, it didn't seem like such an emergency to get everything down on paper. They also still needed to talk to Randy and Cotton, who had more pressing matters to deal with first.

Gale cuddled closer to Dewey. She was so glad he was alright. He had been so reckless to his own well-being when he tackled Xavier and told the others to run. It was noble and brave of him, and it was fairly likely that things may have gone down entirely differently if he hadn't made that move when he did, but if Jones hadn't shown up immediately after, Dewey would be dead. Gale would certainly be too. Sidney and Randy probably would have come back to try to help them, and then they would have been killed as well. Their survival tonight had been largely thanks to a whole lot of good timing, and even more luck. It would have been so easy for things to have ended in much more bloodshed and death.

As much as Gale didn't want to give the man credit, it seemed Sheriff Jones had saved them all. Dewey's heroic move may have kept everyone alive for a minute longer, but without Jones, they would have been killed anyway.

She looked up toward Dewey, who wore a small bandage on his forehead where Xavier had hit him. A bruise was forming under that bandage. That must have hurt a lot. Gale frowned, "are you still feeling okay?" she wondered, "you could have a concussion."

Dewey smiled down at her, "I'm better than ever, Gale," he reached over and brushed some hair behind her ear, "I'm just really glad you're okay. I don't know what I'd do without you."

Gale felt her lip tremble slightly, "let me know if you feel dizzy or anything," she averted her eyes, instead choosing to stare across the room at a potted plant. She could not get all sappy with him, even if she did want to wrap him in a hug and cry tears of joy at simply being here with him right now. She loved him too, and was so grateful that he hadn't been killed tonight. But she didn't need to cry over it right here in front of Sidney or in front of the various other people who occupied this room. She wasn't the sort of person to display emotions openly like that, especially not in public.

She looked over toward Sidney, who had by now made it to the end of the magazine she had been flipping though. Sidney sighed and put the magazine down on the table next to her before staring toward the room's door and nervously shaking her foot.

"Sidney," Gale called out to her. The younger woman looked up, "Randy's going to be fine," the reporter promised.

"I know," Sidney forced a small smile but then frowned again, "this has just been a really long, really stressful, really awful weekend."

Gale frowned as well. No matter what, all the people who had been killed were still gone, and all because Xavier wanted his fifteen minutes of fame. Sidney's father was dead. Nothing could change that. And he had only been killed earlier today. So much had happened since then, but the news was still fresh. Sidney had a father this morning, and now she didn't.

"Why don't you come sit over here with us?" Dewey suggested, as he patted the seat next to him, "there's plenty of room."

Sidney hesitated, "alright," she finally agreed. She took the spot on the other side of Dewey, who wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

Gale glanced past Dewey and at Sidney, "I know this really sucks right now, Sidney," she frowned, "but you're going to get through it. And I know that you know that... You don't need me telling you to be strong or reassuring you that the pain will become less intense as time goes by..."

"I know, Gale," Sidney glanced toward the reporter, "I'm no stranger to death. And I get what you're saying. This sucks. It really, really sucks. But in time, I'll get used to it. That's how it was with my mom, and with Tatum... and that's how it will be with my dad. It's a reality, whether I like it or not. It'll get easier over time."

"We'll be here for you, Sidney," Gale promised, and she meant it, "my cell phone is sort of part of a crime scene right now, but I'll get another one, and you can call me any time."

"Thanks, Gale," Sidney smiled.

The three of them looked up when a staff member from the hospital made her way into the room, "Meeks family?" she looked toward the three of them on the couch and then over at Randy's parents, "You can come back and see him now. Is it just the five of you?"

Gale looked toward Randy's parents. She didn't want to speak for Randy's family. Maybe having Gale there wouldn't be appropriate. She liked Randy just fine, and definitely wanted him to be okay, but they were never exactly friends.

"Yes, it's just the five of us," Randy's mother spoke up. She had tears in her voice. Gale frowned. The poor woman had lost her daughter just a few days ago, and now her son had been shot.

"Alright. Right this way," she led them through some double doors and down a series of hallways until they reached Randy's room.

Randy's parents immediately rushed toward him. His mother hugged him while his father made some comment about his injury and about Randy being tough as nails. Randy laughed.

Gale smiled. It was nice to see Randy looking happy.

As soon as his parents had gotten their overwhelmed joy out of their systems, they stepped back long enough for Sidney to give Randy a quick hug, "I'm glad you're okay," she spoke to him.

"I'm glad you guys are too," Randy looked at Sidney and back toward Dewey and Gale, "mom, dad. Did I tell you that Dewey and Gale sort of saved me and Sid?"

Gale frowned. She didn't really save him. That was all Dewey.

Randy's parents glanced over toward them for a moment before focusing back on their son, "really?" his mother spoke.

"Sure," Randy smiled, "All four of us were probably about to be killed," he began, causing his mother to wince, "sorry, mom, but it's true. We were about to be shot, but then Dewey tackled the guy and told us to run. I guess we were kind of in shock, but then Gale told us to run too, and she stayed behind to help Dewey while Sid and I got away."

His mother turned toward Gale and Dewey, "thank you both so much. You have no idea how thankful I am."

Dewey smiled, "No problem. I was just trying to do my duty as an officer of the law. Protect and serve."

Gale forced a smile, "it was really Dewey who kept him safe. I was just kind of there..."

"You could have run too, Gale," Sidney reminded her, "but you didn't. You stayed behind to help Dewey, which meant you stayed behind to stop the killer from hurting anyone else."

Gale didn't argue, but she still felt she was being given more credit than she deserved. She stayed behind to help Dewey, not anyone else. Dewey was the one who took action. Gale just stayed with him. She hadn't tackled Xavier. She hadn't told Sidney and Randy to run - not until Dewey already had.

Dewey must have been able to see her thoughts on her face, because he put his arm around her shoulders and squeezed her in a half-hug, "you certainly saved me," he reminded her, "you knew Xavier was going to kill whoever was left behind. That meant that if Jones hadn't shown up, I would have died either way. But you stayed behind to make sure I didn't drown. I was likely going to be shot either way, but you stayed."

"Thank you both for taking care of our son," Randy's dad spoke up. He then looked back toward Randy, "maybe if you ever decide to go after a murderer again, tell us first?" he suggested.

Randy laughed, "It was pretty complicated, dad."

"What matters now is that we're all okay. Everything worked out," Sidney reminded them.

"Sidney, you're still welcome to stay at our house tonight," Randy's mom put her hand on Sidney's arm, "they're probably going to keep Randy here overnight, but you're always welcome at our home."

Sidney smiled, "thank you."

They all turned their focus back to Randy, who was now describing the feeling in his arm to his dad, "it throbbed so much. Getting shot is totally not cool. But I didn't even know I had been hit at first. Everything was so hectic, and I just couldn't believe it. But they gave me lots of pain killers. I can barely even feel it now. I bet I'll have one hell of a scar later."

"Oh, Randy," his mother frowned, "I hope not..."

"No, mom. It's cool," Randy countered, "it's a gun shot wound. Not everyone gets a scar like that. If this were a movie, do you think they'd give just anyone a gunshot and still let them live to have an awesome scar? No. Only the coolest guys get shot and live. If there were a sequel - which I hope there won't be," his eyes grew large, "I might be the coolest character in it. If you live through the first two, you'll probably live forever. He glanced back at Gale and Dewey and then over to Sidney, "right?"

"Let's hope we don't have to find out," Sidney laughed.

xxxxxx

The End

**(Cotton survives, by the way. I just didn't think another chapter after this one would be appropriate. The excitement of the story is done and I've already gone a full three chapters after the killer died. I think it's time to wrap this up, and unfortunately, having a scene with Cotton at this point just isn't logical. There's no way they'd be allowed to talk to Cotton, who had a chest wound, before talking to Randy, who was shot in the arm. This seemed like a good place to end the story, so it ends here. Cotton is okay though. He will just have a lot of recovering to do. They didn't tell us for sure that Dewey would actually survive at the end of Scream and Scream 2. We just assumed him not being dead immediately meant he'd live, and that's what it means for Cotton here. If you're gonna die in a Scream movie, it will be made very clear that you are dead.)**

I also thought it might be interesting for anyone reading this to know who all were my potential killers throughout writing this. Xavier actually wasn't even a part of my original plan. Gale wasn't even going to have a named camera man. That was an afterthought. I also always made sure to never have an alibi for certain characters up until near the end, so logically there could be many suspects. Their motives would have been mostly wanting fame/attention, but also potentially revenge, depending on who the killer ended up being.

Characters who could have ended up being the killer, and who I wrote specifically to ensure that they never had an alibi and looked at least a bit suspicious are: Sheriff Jones, Cotton Weary, Samantha(the young cop), Xavier, and Gloria(the waitress at the cafe.) Some of them were pretty minor characters, but sometimes when people get killed, it's not their boyfriend, girlfriend, or boss, or co-worker, or best friend who killed them. Sometimes it's someone fairly random.

The person who I originally was going to have be the killer was actually Cotton. But I kept writing bits about him here and there, and I felt bad for him. People always think he's the killer, but he's not a bad guy. Eventually, I didn't want to have him be the killer anymore, so I decided maybe it would be the Sheriff after all, but then I introduced Xavier and soon realized that he might be an interesting killer. I was also originally going to have both Cotton(as the killer) as well as either Randy or Sidney die in this story. But then I felt bad about that too... So I just killed Sidney's dad instead. Sorry, Sidney. O_O

One last thing: This is the oldest story I have ever fully revived and actually gone on to finish. I took an entire three years between two updates, and I'd like to thank all the channels that played scary movies during the month of October for bringing me my motivation back. I happened to catch Scream and Scream 2 on television and then I remembered this story. So thank you, to whatever channel aired it. That is the reason this story is finished now. And of course, thank you, readers, for all the reviews, which also motivated me to finish. This story ended up so much longer than I ever thought it would be. It's actually become my longest story yet, but it's finally finished, and I'm sort of proud of how it ended up. :D

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed this. It was definitely fun to write, and even though it took much longer than it ever should have, it's finally finished. Thanks for reading. :)