Warning: from here on out, there will be spoilers for Independence. I've assumed you've read it already, but I think it's fair to have a warning, yeah?

SpellStorm – Oh yeah. Sometimes I like to think that everyone truly as a soul mate, but unfortunately it probably won't ever be like the Aces. I think that might be why we girls enjoy sappy romances. Ha! (:

CompleteChocoholic – Good to hear! I'm glad you didn't have to suffer through it. Makes me all happy inside. (:

PhyllisD – Thanks! Truly, it's an honor to hear that it sounds similar to something a published author would write!

Skylar – Lol thanks, I loved Significance, too. Now that Independence has come out, there will probably be a few spoilers for those. Yay!

amy-with-an-i – That's so true, and that's one thing I've thought about: perhaps it's just because Maggie wasn't full Ace, but Watsons and Jacobsons weren't supposed to ever imprint, right? Maybe that's just my own thinking, but whatever. I was still pretty happy with the end of the series!

**Guys. I think this might be the last full chapter. I plan on adding an epilogue one year into the future. I know, I know. It's sudden. But I realized earlier that this story is just for Nick and Elsie, really, because Maggie and Caleb deal with Marcus and the rest of the Watson family. So enjoy.**

The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.

Chapter Nineteen

I actually felt a little off in public, now. There was just the feeling that someone was watching me, waiting for the perfect time to strike. I knew deep down inside that it was probably just my paranoia, because there was no way Marcus could follow us around like that. He couldn't have been at the bedroom window when I woke up in Nick's arms, and he couldn't have been in the car behind us when we left the ranch, and he couldn't have been the guy riding the bicycle in the park, or the guy waiting in line at the nearest coffee place, or the guy behind the ticket counter when we decided to go watch a movie.

Marcus couldn't have been everywhere, I thought, but there was no erasing my fear. The worst part was that I wasn't alone with it, because Nick could feel every burst of fear that went through me. He could always ease it with a touch, but his warmth didn't always linger. It got to the point where he was always touching me. He squeezed me close at night, held my hand under the table or across the center console in the car. The only time we were apart was when one of us was in the bathroom, really.

Alexandra and Daniel were starting to get worried, I could tell. They managed to continue like there was nothing wrong. Daniel and Rodney went out in the mornings to work, and they didn't tease Nick about getting up and going with them anymore. Alexandra made breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and when I helped, Nick lingered at the kitchen table, eyes on me, out the window, and back to me. It became a pattern.

Weeks passed. As the days went by, we started staying in at the ranch a little more each day. I figured it was because it was the only place where the two of us felt safe, and even then, there was a fear that covered everything like a thin coat of dust. Nothing, we thought, would keep us safe.

I thought we'd come to an understanding the day that we had our first fight. I had wanted to continue to live our lives, and Nick had wanted to become a tyrant. We'd worked it out, deciding that we were just going to be cautious. But in the end, we fell into the habit of becoming overly cautious. We weren't taking all the precautions that we could've, but we weren't really living, either. It was sort of like a constant state of misery, only made better by the times we could smile at each other or joke as we watched a movie, this time on the couch instead of in a theater.

It wasn't all bad, though. During the mornings, we laid there side by side, smiling at each other in a cheesy way. We watched movies and joked when we found something funny. We went out to the stables and teased Scout with pieces of hay. We rode the horses and remained there for hours, brushing them and petting them and talking to them like they could talk back. Sometimes we went out to eat with Royce and Nolan, who eyed Nick like he was the danger. Slowly, though, Royce began to relax a little around Nick, and Nolan started joking with him like they were best friends. We even had dinner with my brothers and Maggie and Caleb, and they seemed more at ease with my life.

To me, the best thing was that my brothers no longer accused Nick of being a crazy, possessive, psycho boyfriend. Maggie managed to charm them to the point where Caleb seemed a little jealous when Nolan laid his flirting on a little thick, and Royce eventually stopped texting me every night asking if I was okay and how my day had gone. Instead, it became weekly, and somehow, that just felt right.

Nearly a full month of this had passed before Rodney walked in from a long day of work, looked at the two of us cuddled up on the couch and stated, "You guys need to get up and start living again."

Alexandra's face paled in the kitchen. Currently, all young imprinted couples were in similar amounts of danger because of Marcus and the threat his family posed. I could tell that she wasn't happy with the way we were acting, but she understood enough that she wasn't going to force us out into the world.

"Rodney," she said, slipping into the room. She smiled so wide that it was obvious she was feeling a little bit of panic. "They're fine."

"They're really not, mom." He said. "We need an intervention. Dad and I have been talking about it. You two can't be acting like this. We're supposed to go to reunification in a few weeks, and you guys are acting absolutely insane. What are you going to do when we're all stuck in the same building as the Watsons? Are you guys just not going to sleep? You're not going to leave your rooms?"

"Rodney," Alexandra hissed.

"He's right." Daniel said. The two of us had been quiet the entire time Rodney was talking, but the moment his dad chimed in, Nick tensed. I knew that he looked up to his father, and he hated disappointing him for any reason. He's not disappointed in us. I whispered to him. He's just worried. And think about it. We really are acting like a couple of hermits.

What about Marcus? Nick thought. We have every right to be cautious.

This isn't caution. This is fear. I looked at him directly in the eyes, making sure he looked right at me. Rodney and Daniel said that we needed an intervention, and suddenly, I agreed. I'd thought about it when Nick was asleep at night and I was still lying awake, but I never acted on it, because Nick was right. We were safer like this, hidden away on the ranch, amid his family and the horses. And we were safer with Caleb and Maggie and my brothers, because Marcus wouldn't dare take on a fight if he was outnumbered. They were right, I realized, one hundred percent. And just like that, I was sort of disgusted with our behavior. What kind of Ace acts like this? I don't want to live in fear.

My words, combined with his brother's and his father's, seemed to wake him up a little bit. Nick's fingers relaxed, though his hands stayed wrapped around my hand. "Dad," he said suddenly. Everyone stopped, because during this whole conversation, Daniel, Rodney, and Alexandra had talked about us without including us. We probably could've been in the other room, because everyone looked a little shocked when Nick spoke up. "We get it, okay? We can't continue on like this. But… but it's going to change. Peter's already put in a complaint that will be seen to at reunification. Hopefully after that, we'll be safe."

Alexandra's eyes softened. Daniel's did, too, but his kept a bit of hardness that said he still wasn't jumping for joy. His gazed connected with Alexandra's, and I watched their expressions as they talked to one another. To Aces, it was clear what was happening. I never realized how expressive someone could be even when they weren't talking out loud. I'd had conversations with my friends using only facial expressions, but I didn't realize how they accompanied even silent words. It was all a little… strange.

Rodney didn't look amused in the least. He stood on the other side of the room, with his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes hard as he glared at the entire room. I liked to think that he was frustrated that Nick and I didn't even feel one hundred percent comfortable in the place we called home. I knew that it was the men's job to take care of the girls, meaning that even Rodney felt the need to protect me, even though we weren't imprinted. The entire family was on edge because of what Marcus had done to Maggie, and what he was attempting to do to me.

"We'll be okay," I announced out loud. "We really will. We just needed time to… acclimate." I said. I didn't know if it made much sense, but it was better than everyone just staring blankly at each other. Rodney sighed, but he uncrossed his arms, which I read as a victory. Alexandra and Daniel looked away from each other and focused on me.

"We're going out," Nick said. This time, his words not only shocked his family, but me, as well. I hadn't been expecting it, and I hadn't felt it hiding in his mind. But he stood up, tugged his boots on, and waited for me to pull on my sneakers. Rodney shrugged and headed towards the hallway to his room. Alexandra slipped back to the kitchen silently, like a ghost. Daniel stood there in the living room though, watching us.

"Where are you going, son?" He asked.

"To the barn," he answered. "I want to take Elsie out for a quick ride. We'll be back before dinner, I promise." He continued. He knotted his fingers through mine, nodded to his father, and led me to the front door.

I liked the confidence I felt in Nick. I could feel it bouncing around in him and shooting to me. Together, we decided to move on. Together, we decided that we would make a difference. I liked the fact that we'd made the choice as a team instead of independently. Maybe that was what had been so wrong in the last month or so. I'd decided one thing, and Nick had decided the other. But now we were working as a couple, like Aces were supposed to work.

Nick and I slipped into the barn, where Scout greeted us with a peppy meow. We hadn't been out to see him recently, though Alexandra was out every morning and evening to feed him. She'd connected with the cat on a deeper level than the rest of us did. Still, he came up to my side and pushed his head against my head, coercing me into petting him.

I stayed where I was as Nick went and saddled the horses. When he was done, he told me in my mind. "Sorry, Scout. I'll be back before dark. I promise." He meowed in return. I scratched him behind the ears once more before hurrying out to where Nick was waiting.

In the past month, I'd come really far on my riding skills. I didn't struggle to get up on my own anymore, and was usually able to remember the rein commands as we rode. I rarely freaked out and forgot. We'd even stepped up from walking to trotting, which was harder than it looked because I had to be in complete sync with the horse's movements. Soon, Nick said, I'd move on to cantering, and then galloping. I wondered if comfort and ease within nature was one of Nick's imprint visions. I hoped it was. I liked to focus on the fact that our dreams were slowly coming true, even in a roundabout way.

And then my pessimistic side would say that we had both died, and we were just riding our horses together in our afterlife. And then I'd push it out of my mind and tell myself that what I'd seen was going to happen to me as I was living.

I put my foot in the stirrup and took a hold of the horn, pulling myself up. I settled into the saddle and then we were off, moving quickly from the barn to the lake where Nick and I had had our first real date, where we'd splashed each other and laughed. Back then, it had felt like nothing could happen to us. Back then, we were invincible, not worried about a thing. I wished that we could go back to those days, and hoped that after this entire fiasco with Marcus, we could.

We reached the tree where we had once tethered the horses. Nick tied them up and we walked down towards the water hand in hand. We were pretty silent on the way down, each us of locked in our own thoughts. But now, I felt Nick open up to me. He squeezed my hand and brushed my hair out of my face.

"Do you really think we're going to be able to move on?" He asked softly.

"Yes," I murmured back. I put a hand on the back of his neck, closing my eyes as our comfort went from one to the other. He sighed against my cheek. I drank him in, reveling in the fact that we were here, we were together, and we could do almost anything if we put our minds to it. "I think it's just a phase. We don't trust ourselves yet." I told him. "But one day, we'll realize that we're stronger together than Marcus could ever hope to be. And you've protected me against his every attack." I reminded him.

Nick looked away. "I'm worried that one day I'll mess up. One day, I may not be there like I'm supposed to be. Like that day that I went out with Rodney and dad, and you were attacked in your dream. I remembered the way you were screaming in my head. I don't think I could handle that again."

"Stay with me," I said, "and you won't have to."

He smiled then, and kissed me a little harder. His hands kept a tight hold on my waist, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. We stood there, kissing and laughing and talking and planning for what seemed like forever. We skipped rocks on the water and counted to see who won. It slowly got darker until the sky turned a shade of pinkish-purple that told us we'd better get a move on if we wanted to get back to the house before it became dark completely.

I stood up and wiped the dirt and grass from my jeans, running a hand through my hair. When I got back to the house, I was going to need a shower. So was Nick, for that matter. I found myself hoping that things wouldn't go back to the way they were when we got back. I wanted to continue to talk like this, to plan our future together. I wanted to talk about the house we'd have, and the horses that we'd keep in our barn, and the cats that would run around the house. Deep down inside, I could imagine the children that we might have, coming to our bedroom in the dead of night from nightmares, or begging us for a dog, or making a mess in the kitchen.

I wanted that life in front of me, more than I had ever wanted it before. Before I met Nick, I didn't have a real plan for my life. I was taking everything day by day. I couldn't imagine spending the rest of my life with Paul, who sometimes seemed to like his videogames more than he liked me, but I couldn't imagine what my life would be like without him. I had no idea what I was going to do in my life, or what kind of job I was going to have. I had no clue as to what I was going to do when Royce decided that I was too old to stay at home. Everything was just blank.

And then I'd met Nick, and he changed everything. At first, I was unwilling, because I didn't want anything to control me against my will. But within time, I realized that I wanted what I saw with Nick. For the first time in my life, I actually saw something to look forward to. And now, as the sun continued to lower into the horizon, and I looked back on the month that the two of us had spent scared to leave the house, I realized that I wanted everything that I'd seen with him. I wanted to have adventures, and to learn more than I thought I could ever know. I wanted to travel the world, go to college and get a degree. I even wanted to get married to him, because I knew it was only a matter of time.

"Elsie," Nick said suddenly, breaking me away from my thoughts. I turned to look at him as I started to climb the slope. Ahead, I could see the top of the horses' heads as they listened the world around them, their ears pricking forward and swiveling around as they picked up on sounds I could never hope to hear. "Wait."

I paused. "What is it?" I asked, glancing back at him. Nick was still standing on the banks, looking out over the water. I backtracked a few steps and went to stand in front of him. "What?" I repeated, my eyes searching his. I tried to reach for his mind, but he'd brought his door down. There was something that he didn't want to tell me just yet.

He looked into my eyes. "Do you love me?"

"Of course," I answered flippantly. He didn't say anything else, and I realized that he wasn't joking with me. He was being scarily serious. "I love you more than anything in the entire world," I said quietly.

The corner of his lips twitched up at that, and he reached for my hand. Our fingers twined together, and I waited for him to say something. Something was on his mind, he just wasn't telling me. I started to worry a little, because what kind of secret could he be keeping from me?

"Elsie," he said again. "Elsie Gray." I felt my eyebrows draw together as I looked at him. What was wrong with him? "I love you more than you'll ever know. Loving you is a part of me, and I can't imagine what my world would be like without you. You're everything to me." He slowly knelt down onto one knee in front of me. My heart immediately started to pound. I could feel it in my head, in my throat. He kissed the back of my hand and gave me my favorite smile. "Elsie Gray, would you do the honor of marrying me?"

"Yes," I whispered.

Last chapter, guys. It's a little bittersweet, and it's a little fast. But I realized that I wanted to end this chapter of Nick and Elsie's lives and allow Maggie and Caleb to continue with theirs. It's their job to handle Marcus, not Nick's, and not Elsie's. (Especially since they're my characters, not Mrs. Crane's. Ha.)

This is the unedited version, because I'm lazy. Please forgive any grammatical/spelling errors.

Look forward to seeing the epilogue around Monday, okay? Thanks for reading! Leave me a review! Peace (: