FINAL CHAPTER! I want to thank all who have stuck with this from the beginning many months ago and who have reviewed so lovingly. This was a story I didn't write because I felt like I had to. I wrote it because I love it, I believe in what it professes, and above all, I believe in Miley. Thanks to all my faithful readers- you know who you are and you mean more to me than you'll ever know. Keep a look out for something new from me- possibly a Niley story or a Hannah Montana story following the characters after the final episode. I would love some feedback on that too!

I do not own these people, the book "Eat, Pray, Love" or the song Alive Again by Matt Maher.

Towards the Sun
Chapter 7

I woke up in darkness, surrounded by silence
Oh where, oh where have I gone?
I woke to reality, losing its grip on me
Oh where, where have I gone?

'Cause I can see the light, before I see the sunrise

"Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it."

LAX airport is insanity and whether that is because it is the day after Christmas and people are rushing home, or it's because of her, she can't tell. People are pushing around her without even a second glance, which essentially makes Miley feel much more at ease than she did before- that is- until she looked outside. They stand atop the escalator that will bring them down to the ground level and all Miley can see are the men in big sweatshirts and jeans with their giant-lensed cameras hanging around their necks. Her mind is queasy and Liam can tell. He drapes his arm around her shoulder and pulls her close to him so that for just a second, she can close her eyes against the fabric of his cotton t-shirt and take a worthwhile breath. She takes a final glance at the week she's leaving behind and takes a beginner's step towards the life she must learn to face.

When she walks outside she is met with flashes of light and voices shouting her name. They call to her and corral her like sheep and the voices and the lights, the questions, the requests, they pull her back and forth..

"Miley! Miley!"

"Where have you been!"

"Is it true you're leaving Hollywood for good?"

"Are you and Liam getting married?"

"Look this way Miley!"

She looks his way and suddenly, she sees everything. She sees who she was, who she wants to be. She sees the girl in a blonde wig who wanted this life more than anything in the world and the troubled one who would do everything to give it up. She sees her parents, as a whole, and Liam, as her second half, and the career she has sizzling before her, showing her all the magnificent things she can do, pleading her to keep on going. All these things were connected to each other and to her heart and anything outside of this world she has built for herself is unimportant. Everything else just serves to be a distraction.

"Please move," she says and pushes through the cameras and the crowd. "Move!" she tells them and they do in shock of her boldness. Miley was never one to be pushed around but somewhere in this city she lost her ability to stand up tall while everyone else was trying to squish her down. Slowly but surely, she is gaining that right back.

An airport attendant whistles to a taxi and it quickly pulls up to the curb. Amidst the sounds of cameras clicking and lights flashing around them, the man puts their luggage in the trunk and opened up the door for them.

His face is old, yet bright and heartening. As he holds the door open for her to slide in next to Liam, he smiles with a warm, toothy grin. "Good to have you back, Miss Cyrus."

What took me so long?
I was looking outside
As if Love would ever want to hide
I'm finding I was wrong

"Hello," the driver greets them in a thick Latin-accent, "Where you wanna go?"

"Toluca Lake," Liam says but fades out. "Wait a minute… aren't you from Tijuana? From the boat?"

Miley leans forward and gasps, "Rocio!"

Rocio turns around in his seat and laughs, "Ay chicos!" He takes Miley's hand and shakes it with tears building in his eyes.

"What are you doing here, man?" Liam asks.

"I listen to what you said! I talk to mi papá! I sold the boat and he sold his bar and together we moved here. We found jobs in taxi service. We have great things before us!"

"Amazing!" Miley exasperates happily and the irony of it all can't even begin to overshadow the wholeness she feels. If a few kind words to a man miles upon miles away can turn his life around for the better, and essentially make its way back to her own happiness, what more good deeds is she capable of? Why stop there?

They start to drive off onto the Interstate and into the blazing sunset over the hills of Hollywood that welcomes them into a warm embrace. Miley looks around and smiles. Los Angeles may be her home right now, but it doesn't have to be forever. She is not stuck here. She is not a celebrity forced to be in the limelight for the rest of her life. She can do what she wants with her life. Nobody is here to make her do otherwise, she has the power to make these choices for herself. She was foolish to think that she had to travel far away to find herself- or to find the person she wanted to become. Your treasure-your perfection-is within you. It may be deep in your soul, or in the folds of your overactive brain, but it's there. And it's up to you to reveal it, not to go searching for it.

Miley lifts her bag to her lap and sifts through it. She pulls out her book and smiles. Eat, Pray, Love. After this trip, it looks pretty old. There are some unknown marks and stains on it and there's some sand stuck in the crevices of the binding. She opens it at the most worn and torn looking tab she had put on the pages that inspire her. It was the first quote she had read from it, as she sat on the ground in the small bookstore she had found herself in so many days before.

"When you're lost in those woods, it sometimes takes you a while to realize that you are lost. For the longest time, you can convince yourself that you've just wandered off the path, that you'll find your way back to the trailhead any moment now. Then night falls again and again, and you still have no idea where you are, and it's time to admit that you have bewildered yourself so far off the path that you don't even know from which direction the sun rises anymore."

But this time is different. She isn't lost in the woods anymore- she's just found her way out. She's stepped out of the shadows and filled her lungs with nature's fresh breath and she's walking on life's path now. The darkness of the night has moved past her and the sun before her is opening up a world of chances, love, and action. Soon she'll be back in the recording studio or on the set of a new movie, and she'll be doing what she loves solely for the purpose of making herself be consumed by happiness.

She closes the book and scoots closer to Liam. He himself is even looking illuminated with hope and excitement at the face of a brand new life, a brand new day.

"To me, home is wherever you are," he whispers in her ear. She smiles through closed eyes and snuggles closer to him and he kisses her head softly.

As they arrive at a familiar rode, she spots her house behind the gate that shields it from the outside world. She smiles at it, thinking about a warm home-made meal and her own soft bed and the moments of quiet she has the ability to spend in it. As the taxi comes to a stop, they all get out. Rocio and Liam go to the trunk for their luggage as Miley stands in front of her house with her hands in her pockets, the book tucked under her arm, her hair dancing in the wind. A strong feeling of peace is winding its way through her veins. She removes the book from her side and stares at it.

She takes the money for the taxi ride and sticks it between the pages of the book. She hands it to him. "Here you go, Rocio." He looks at her questioningly but she persuades him to take it with a kind smile. "I hope this helps you and your family as much as it helped me."

They say goodbye and finally, move forward. They drag their bags down the driveway as the sun, a blazing ball of fire, sinks down the darkening blue sky. She carries her luggage through the front door. She's home.

You shattered my darkness
Washed away my blindness
Now I'm breathing in and breathing out
I'm alive again