Disclaimer: I do not own Austin & Ally. All rights and reserves go to Kevin and Heath Productions, It's a Laugh! Productions and Disney.

Okay, guys, this is the second last chapter. I may or may not do an epilogue. I want to thank everyone so far for being a part of this. This probably sounds like a sell out but believe me – you all mean so much to me for sticking through all 40 chapters. I hope you liked it. xx

#fearsandfatalities | tweet or instagram a photo with this tag and I'll follow you. amyleepower

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Life is confusing. It goes from making total sense to being totally destructive to making sense again. But once everything's back to normal, it doesn't feel normal. Sometimes it's better, sometimes it's worse.

This is better.

Ever since I told Ally how I felt last week, we've been even closer (I didn't know it was possible). Both her and her dad went back to work, Trent and Dex's trial passed and sent Trent to jail for a long time. Dex was to complete a full week of community service – in other words, 168 hours. Luckily for him he was able to do this throughout the course of 3 months. Unluckily for him, 2 of these months were summer. He and Dez were closer, too.

Surprisingly, Trish was warming up to Dez. Not in the romantic way like Ally and I are still convinced will happen some day, but in a friend way. Sort of like Ally and I were before. The duo went to a Zaliens convention yesterday. I decided to stay with Ally and finally finish that song.

When I entered the store yesterday, everything felt like old times. The guitars were still hanging there, Ally's songbook was on the counter, begging people to peek inside. Ally was as protective of it as I imagine she'd be with our kids someday.

I mean-

Uh-

Yeah, whatever, I do dream about it.

Sue me.

Anyway, after she finished her shift and her dad took over, we had gone upstairs to finish the song we'd been trying to write for months. Everything went well, the melody, the harmonizing. We did decide to keep the song to ourselves (including Dez and Trish), though, because Ally wanted to make it a duet and her stage fright was still dominating her confidence. It felt like a more genuine song when we kept it to ourselves, really. It was more personal. I loved it.

It was still about escaping our fears. We realized that the problem wasn't in escaping our fears, it was in admitting that we were afraid. After all that has happened we truly had an appreciation for the song – and each other.

So today, Dez and Trish came to Sonic Boom to hang out with me and Ally. Everything felt... perfect. We talked and played music – it turns out Dez was sort of good at the piano. No body knew because he never tried. He didn't know, either.

We all teased Trish about her new job at Sally's Sodas. Except she was kind of excited about it because she was a taste tester.

"I thought I'd get little paper cups with tiny samples," she had said. "But they give me a bottle and basically I need to report how it tastes every day. That reminds me-" she had pulled out 4 bottles of a blue carbonated drink- "I asked if we could all try it and my boss gave me 4 samples of the next 3 ideas." She had handed us each a blue bottle, then from her bag she pulled out 4 red bottles and 4 black bottles. "The red is strawberry-pomegranate and the black is combination drink or something." She read the labels. "Oh right, it's sort of a mix between Dr. Pepper and root beer. It's good, I already had some. I just told my boss I didn't so I could have more." She laughed and took a big gulp from the black bottle and Dez joined her. I tried the blue one and it tasted like blue raspberry and watermelon. It was delicious. All I could think was that I was so relieved that this company wasn't making questionable flavours. These actually worked.

And from that point on in the day we just talked as friends. I sat with Ally but we didn't do that couple-y stuff that Trish gags over. I think we sat in the practice room for hours. Next thing we knew, it was dark and Mr. Dawson brought us all sleeping bags and a pizza.

"I called your parents," he had said. "It's cool if you crash here. I'm going home, I love you, Ally."

"I love you, too, Dad," she responded, beaming at him.

And with that we wrapped ourselves in blankets and kept talking and eating. We eventually ran out of the sample drinks Trish brought us because they were so good, but we moved on to actual marketed drinks which all paled in comparison. Like cream soda and Pepsi and ginger-ale were generic drinks that seemed awfully lame after the others. But they were still good and still sugary enough to keep us awake until 3 am.

And since it's 3, that brings us to today. But I don't usually consider it the next day until I wake up. So I'll just cuddle up behind Ally on the floor for now and sleep off the sugar and pizza and happiness.

I grin and go to sleep.

ALLY'S POINT OF VIEW

I had that dream again. I was trapped in the bottom of the mall with Trent, evilly holding me captive. He had a gun so I wasn't stupid enough to test him.

But Austin was.

He barged through the door, startling Trent and making him fall. He runs over to me and holds me close. I hold him tightly, knowing something bad was going to happen.

"Say goodbye, Ally," Trent warns, standing and aiming the gun at me.

No. "No, Trent," I reply. He looks at me quizzically. "Not today." And since it's my dream, the "camera" that focuses on the scene in your dream (you know what I mean) shows my hand, suddenly holding the gun he had.

I aim it at him, shoot, and wake up.

I realize that Austin's arm is wrapped around me, sleeping like a baby. I smile, check the time – 5:30 am – and go back to sleep.

We're going to be okay.