"I'll miss you."

"Oh please, you'll see me afterwards."

"But I won't see you in action or whatever, li'l darlin'."

Valkyrie rolled her eyes and slapped my leg. She leaned her back against my chest and rested her head on my shoulder.

She and I were outside in her backyard underneath a tree. Romantic, right? It had been a few days since the whole giant incident at the Sanctuary. Bespoke was still tryin' to find someone to take me on as their little helper. Thank God no new cases had come up so that meant that Valkyrie was free to sit around with me all the time.

I had finally gotten to ask her if whether or not we were still a part of a team was a good or bad thing. She told me that the policy was that no partners or team members or the likes could have any romantic relationship. So, since we were no longer together as a team, we were free to have at it all we wanted.

So yeah. Valkyrie and I had just been sittin' around all day. I wanted to stay in bed with her all day, but she insisted that we at least get up for a while. She never said returnin' was out of the question…

I tilted my head to look at her. The sadness and stress on her face had disappeared once my sentence had been all cleared and stuff. No longer did she look like she was gonna cry. And Hair Boy (who's sorta come around to the idea of us together), Funny Bones, and Bespoke have all made it very clear that if I ever hurt Valkyrie or make her cry blah de blah, I'd be seriously injured myself. A part of me knew they were jokin', but the other part knew that I should probably be a bit careful. But Valkyrie made me happy, and I'm pretty sure I made her happy, too. So far we were doin' okay.

She and I sat down in her kitchen a few days ago and had the talk. We talked about what we wanted from each other and how we could make it all work out. Valkyrie was surprised when I demanded that we talk it out. She told me she was surprised at how "not insane" I could be. Oh, I still rather liked killin' people, yeah, but I wasn't about to go off and kill 'cause I wanted to. I felt like me and Valkyrie was the right thing. I didn't wanna go screwin' it up. So now, officially, we were together.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" she muttered in my ear.

"Yer just pretty, that's all," I replied just as quiet. "I like lookin' at you, li'l darlin'."

She hummed in happiness and kissed me hard. I could feel her turnin' around in my lap so she was facin' me. I held my hands on her hips firmly and kept her close to me. It was probably about to get a little too serious for outside, but we were stopped when someone behind us cleared their throat. Valkyrie wrenched herself from me and stared at the person there.

"Oh. Oh, uh, hi."

"Sorry for interrupting you two," Tanith said, smilin'. "I just came to say goodbye."

I stood and helped up Valkyrie. Tanith kept her gaze on me.

"You're leaving already?" Valkyrie asked sadly.

Tanith shrugged. "I've actually been in the country for a long time." She broke off and looked a little sheepish.

"Right, you've been helping Skulduggery," Valkyrie said a little accusin'ly. "Forgot about that."

Tanith smiled. "Blame Skulduggery for not telling. He was too afraid of what you might do or say if you found out I was helping. And he didn't want you to get hurt. You know how protective he is." She suddenly turned to me. "Speaking of protection," she growled, "you better make sure she isn't hurt at all when you're around. I'm sure you've heard this a lot, but we'll all make you miserable if Valkyrie's hurt in any way at all."

I nodded tiredly. "I know. Cross my heart and hope to die."

Tanith seemed satisfied with that. She turned again to Valkyrie and continued, "Anyway, knowing I was here probably would have brought up some pretty bad memories. I just wanted to stay out of the way for the most part."

"Did you help Skulduggery escape when he himself was kidnapped?"

Tanith nodded. "I was pretty surprised when he said he was captured. Not like him, really." She smiled. "So anyway, I have to get going. I'm heading back to London for a while."

"Why are you leaving again?"

"I'm not ready," she replied softly. She looked at me sadly. "No offense Sanguine, but I felt pretty ashamed of what I went and did."

I tried to laugh that off but couldn't. Tanith looked guilty for her comment but didn't take it back.

"I'll come back soon, though," she added quickly. "I talked with Ghastly for a long time…He's fine with me, but I'm not. I promised I'd come back within the next year to see how everything is."

"He really likes you, Tanith," Valkyrie said. "He's waited for a long time to see you again. He also hasn't even looked at steak since you left."

I didn't know what she meant by that, but apparently Tanith did 'cause she suddenly looked pretty depressed.

"Right," she said, tryin' to be calm. "I'll…see you both."

Valkyrie looked pretty distraught to have to let Tanith go again. She hugged her tight and didn't let go for a while. Tanith didn't hug me. She simply shook my hand, though I didn't mind. I didn't really wanna hug her either.

Tanith turned and ran after that. We heard the roar of her bike as she sped down the roads to leave again.

Valkyrie had a tear on her face when I looked over at her a minute later. I stepped close to her and hugged her tightly. She brought her arms around my neck and returned the embrace. She pulled away when she had no more tears in her eyes.

"She'll be back," I muttered.

"Yeah, yeah."

I smirked and kissed her temple.

After sittin' back down in our position before Tanith came, Valkyrie quietly asked, "You remember what Nye does to me whenever I go to see it?"

"It makes a copy of you or whatever, right?" I said, tryin' to recall what she had said.

"I agreed to that for two reasons: so that it could heal me in case I got hurt, and so it could…get the Remnant out of Tanith." She sighed. "It wouldn't have it any other way. I had to agree to that or else it wouldn't have made Tanith better."

"How is it you're so nice to everyone else but me?" I joked softly.

Valkyrie laughed and kissed me again. We kept it PG, though. We had to break apart when my phone started ringin'.

I answered it, vaguely annoyed.

"You and your new partner have a case," Ghastly replied on the other side. "He's heading over to Valkyrie's right now. I'm assuming you're there."

"Yeah, I'm there."

"Hi Ghastly!" Valkyrie called out.

I could tell he was smilin'. "The new guy should be there in a little bit. Be on your best behavior, then, Billy-Ray Sanguine."

He hung up after that. I shut my phone and stood up. Valkyrie was smilin' real wide.

"What's that for?" I asked, referrin' to her smile as I made my way to the front door to wait for the new dude.

"What?" she asked innocently.

"You know somethin' important, don't you?"

She didn't answer me and kept her lips tight. I rolled my eyes and slung my arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek. "Mmm, li'l darlin'."

"Yes, Sanguine?"

I looked to the street and watched a car pull to the curb. The driver's door opened and out stepped…

Oh, God.

Valkyrie started laughin' her face off.

"Ready, partner?" Apollo Downs asked happily.

"Yer not a detective!" I shouted at him.

"I was just promoted the other day," he explained. "We're going to have fun!"

I looked at Valkyrie who was really tryin' to restrain her laughter.

"You did this on purpose!" I realized, turnin' to Valkyrie.

"Ghastly wanted to make you suffer just a little," she replied happily. "I said this was the best way."

"Sneaky little-"

"Oh, suffering will build your character!" she said and pushed me towards the car. "Have fun! I'll miss you!"

I glared at her as I slipped into the passenger seat. Downs turned the ignition and drove down the street and turned.

Valkyrie had managed somethin' truly evil. I was rather impressed with it, actually. Downs turned to me and explained we were headed to…somewhere; I don't remember where. I kinda wondered if he'd let me sleep on this car ride, since I hadn't really been gettin' that much at night anyway…

I was watchin' him babblin' on and on, though.

So, ya know, probably not.

Thaaat's it! I felt the need to end this chapter like I ended the first chapter. So yep.

I just want to thank you all for your incredibly kind and encouraging words. I was so worried for this story in the beginning, but it turned out to be something kind of awesome. I really appreciate you all. Like, really.

Right now I have plans for a strange Labyrinth fanfic. Y'know, the bizarre 1986 movie with David Bowie made by Jim Henson. Yep, that one. I recommend it. It's so weeeeird and not, y'know, AMAZING, but it's still good. Interesting story with a lot of different interpretations.

I'll try SO hard to not abandon you guys, though. I promise I'll try my hardest to not forget my other fanfics~

But I've suddenly remembered I have a crossover fic kind of forming in my head...I dunno, I'll see where it goes. Also I never managed to work in the line, "Everything's bigger in Texas."

So yeah. Again, just thank you. You're all awesome! Thank you all for reading! Sorry for any mistakes on this last chapter! :DD