A\N – Ok, my lovelies, Epilogue! We are done! I'm so glad you lunged with me on this journey and so thankful for all of your reviews and opinions, that you followed and (I hope) just like me felt happy and sad for Kelly and Harper! I feel blessed to have all of you! I'm waiting for you to review the whole story!

I know that some of you probably imagined a thousand ways to kill me for the last chapter but their situation is so difficult and unique that you can't honestly tell me you know exactly what you'd do if you were Harper.

I wanted to finish it before the new year arrives. Feel good that I did! :) Merry Christmas to everyone! And happy upcoming New Year! I hope this year all your wishes and dreams will come true! Hugs to everyone:)

Anyhow, this is the last piece to complete the puzzle. Enjoy!

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THREE MONTH LATER

Kelly didn't think that there was any chance he'd be able to move. He spent three last hours in the gym making punching bag a pancake. With every punch delivered his shoulder screamed louder and louder. It took long hours for him to stop because if Kelly was honest with himself he'd admit that the physical pain reduced the mental one. And God knew Kelly needed that.

Andy was gone. His best friend died, perished…

Kelly didn't want comforting, didn't need time to weep in solitude, wasn't about to drink himself into oblivion. Kelly was just angry. No, he was more than just angry. He was livid…fuming…enraged. He wanted somebody…something…to pay for what happened to Andy. And punching bag was a solution enough.

After he couldn't feel his shoulder anymore and the amount of sweat on his wifebeater and skin was enough to fill a small lake in central Africa Kelly took a very long shower all the while trying to feel the numb muscles of his back.

He went straight home after his fruitless encounter with the punching back ended. Fruitless because by the time he got home he was hurting not only emotionally but his body was burning as well. For a couple hours pain seemed to lessen as he boxed with the shadow of the demise but everything came right back as soon as he stepped out of the training room.

Kelly prayed for some sleep. Dreamless painless sleep where he would just exist without having to think who was really at fault with Andy, how he blamed Casey every minute of every day, about the pain that was the only constant thing in his life besides his job and the ultimate loneliness he was facing.

As the clocks neared ten the darkness seemed to consume every element in the room much like Kelly's whole life in general.

Kelly turned on his side, closed his eyes slowly and started hoping for a sleep full of emptiness.

When he felt a hand on his shoulder the first thing on his mind was that Shay came home and decided to check on him. But the touch wasn't full of that sisterly affection he usually felt when the blonde paramedic half-hugged him or punched him in the arm. No, it was a small hand with feather-like caress, with slightly cold skin and a long-lost familiarity to its touch. Kelly considered the possibility that he was still dreaming but then again the trace of the hand seemed so real that the dream-theory shattered shortly.

Kelly sat up swiftly and almost hit his head on the shelf above the bed.

"Careful!" Kelly became painfully aware of the voice.

Two and two together he already knew even before the lights were on that Harper was sitting right next to him on the bed.

He looked at her, a wave of shock and surprise still had him under. She looked different. Her chocolate brown hair was longer and reached her shoulders in light waves in contrast to a straightened vision she used to wear her hair. Her skin was still porcelain white but the white wasn't sickly, almost as if it wasn't pale but was at the same time. Her cheeks acquired a minor natural blush. She was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and dark skinny jeans and from what he could tell she was still tiny and fragile. But her eyes…her bright blue eyes were shining as if two fireflies settled down there.

"Hey, hero." She spoke first, smiling a small smile.

"Harper?" Kelly finally choke out when he realized that he's been staring at her for at least five minutes straight.

"In flesh and blood."

"What are you doing here?" He was glad it didn't sound like an accusation.

She looked down and back at him with sad expression.

"Well…I couldn't exactly let you go through this alone." She took a more comfortable place on the left side of the bed her back to the headboard.

"I thought you were in Boston." Kelly's voice was sliced with suspicion.

"And I thought you would have gotten your hand fixed by now. It's a miss-miss."

He looked at her as if she's officially gone crazy. Maybe that was the case and she just escaped from the clinic…

"Relax, I'm still in Boston. Well, technically I am anyway. My program is taking six to eleven months but…I have two days off…for good behavior."

"You make it sound like prison." Kelly finally crawled back to his position on the back and was looking at his ex-fiancée down up.

Harper produced a noise that sounded like a bitter laugh but didn't elaborate.

They spent the next couple minutes quietly neither exactly sure how to start.

"I'm sorry about Andy."

"Yeah…" Kelly pulled his one of his hands to cover the light from the lamp on the bedside table. "How did you know anyway?"

"I'm keeping tabs."

"Dawson?"

"Well you didn't think that were my precognitive visions!" That made Kelly smile. "Cause those have been off lately."

Kelly mused at how easy it was to sink into their pattern. But at the same time the change was evident. Obvious but subtle. Hidden somewhere in her eyes and laid out there in front of them.

"How are you doing?" Kelly managed to pull himself up so they would be on one level.

"You don't wanna talk about Andy?" Harper shoved the truth up Kelly's face without even flinching.

"I don't wanna talk about Andy! And about how Casey succeeded in getting him killed!"

"OK, tiger, take it easy!" Harper grimaced as if she was talking to an irrational child. "I eat by the schedule now."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Schedule schedule schedule! That's all I see." She made a little dance with her hands.

"Must be tough." Kelly glanced at the woman by his side.

"It is a definite killjoy. Bur we have to pay for our mistakes, you know." She smiled. "That reminds me…why the hell haven't you still done anything with that shoulder?"

And again her tone wasn't accusing more like "I'm disappointed…but only slightly because you have absolutely no responsibility when it comes to yourself so I'm kinda not surprised". That kind of tone.

"Didn't have time." Kelly sighed.

"Didn't have time." Harper mocked. "You're killing me! But you know, I realized something in Boston. Only you can help yourself. At least start…go check your shoulder. It's not gonna get better on its own. Sorry, no magic to waste on it."

"How did I survive without your smart-ass comments all this time?" It was more of a rhetorical question anyway.

Harper didn't bring Andy's death again in the conversation and Kelly appreciated it. They talked about her time in the clinic. She said that the first month was awful and nobody was allowed to visit. After that Jen and Mrs. Holmes became frequent guests. Gabriela came down once. Jonathan called all the time. It was strange but Kelly realized that he didn't feel a pang of jealousy when Harper mentioned her dancing teacher. There was something dull throbbing in his chest but if he wouldn't be searching for any kind of indication he would've missed it.

"Thank you." She said finally.

"For what?"

"Well among other things for doing what I asked. I asked for you to not try and contact me. And you didn't. So thank you for that."

"Anytime." He joked for God knows it was hard not to jump in his car, drive all the way to Boston, abduct her, throwing her into the trunk, and come back to their apartment where all the memories were stored.

"Sometimes I feel like I need to do the right thing." Kelly said out of the blue, his voice low as the sleep was catching up to him. "But I'm not sure what the right thing is."

"You should just ask me." Harper smirked good-naturally knocking another small laugh out of the firefighter next to her. "You need to get some sleep. You look awful."

"Thanks."

"Sleep! Now." She hissed and Kelly felt himself sliding onto his back.

"Will you stay?" He asked as his eyes began to shut down.

"For a little while." She answered after a small hesitation and when Kelly turned on his side, his back to Harper, she put her hand around his waist, hugging his form. Kelly took her hand in his and pushed it into his chest.

"I miss him." He mumbled on the verge of sleep.

"I know." She nodded into his back.

That night Kelly slept. For the first time since Andy died. His body was relaxed and his mind was somewhere else. He didn't remember any dreams but the sensation was pleasant and warm.

He woke up alone in his bed somewhere at lunchtime the next day. The bed was cold on the other side, the one that Harper occupied. By then he was ready to believe that he'd dreamed the whole encounter when he spied a piece of paper with Harper's neat writing on the bed night table. Unfolding the paper he read:

I couldn't stay until you wake up and I couldn't bring myself to wake you up either, you seemed in need of the beauty sleep. My friend searched a couple doctors who specialize in your problem area, their numbers are on the backside of the sheet. Don't be an idiot and use them.

When the time comes and you'd need to talk to somebody about Andy, you can come to me. That is if you feel that you'll need me.

Take care, hero

xo Pixie

The corners of Kelly's lips tugged up just a little. He turned the paper to find three set of numbers scribed there.

Harper was healing, he concluded. She looked different – maybe not exactly better but more alive. It wasn't going easy for her, that much Kelly knew. She refused to give any particular details about her treatment but told him the general. Maybe it was finally time for him to get a grip and start rebuilding his life.

Harper and his story wasn't over. Or maybe it was. Either way she's changed his life for good, gave him the ability to really appreciate and love that he thought he'd lacked since birth. Her visit was brief and seemed more like a piece of a dream but it gave Kelly a shove into the direction his life was supposed to go. Maybe seeing her moving on to make herself a better person was the push he needed, maybe the fact that after all that happened between them they knew that they were each other's dear people whatever happened but that day Kelly decided to stop the mess he was currently residing in. She believed in him, Andy believed in him…that was a proof enough.