Author's Note: Well this is it people, the final installment of this story. Thank you all for your readership and your reviews. Now on with the story:

Chapter 21

Carly found herself starting to walk slowly down an unfamiliar school hallway unsure of where or how she got to this place. One moment she was safely in Freddie's arms and now she didn't have any idea of her location. She knew it wasn't Ridgeway and the closest thing she could describe it as was 'old' as something out of the what she had seen in old high school eighties movies: The Breakfast Club or Ferris Bueller's Day Off. She kept walking down the hall, stopping at every door to look into the window and finding the classroom empty each time. She also tried every door handle, but found each was locked and felt a growing fear in her stomach as each time she failed to open a door. The brunette finally reached the end of the hall and saw a sunlight pouring out of an open doorway.

She stopped at the entrance of the classroom and looked inside. She found a teenager she estimated to be about the same age as she, sitting in front of an easel with a lavender bandana around her head and painting. Carly watched and listened as the girl sung in a familiar voice, "Row, row, row, your boat, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream."

She didn't really know what to make of everything, but she did the only thing she could think of: Carly whispered, "Hello."

The teenager turned and looked to Carly in surprise before replying hesitantly, "Hello."

Carly instantly recognized the girl and the web-hostess covered her own mouth in shock.

The painter sat down her paint brush, stood up and looked to Carly. With concern evident in her voice she asked, "Are you alright?"

Carly lowered her hands and nodded her head. "I…"

The bandana wearing girl approached Carly slowly and in the next instance, Carly latched unto her and hugged her for dear life. A moment later, the slightly shorter girl returned the hug and smoothed the Carly's back with one hand. "It's okay," she whispered to Carly.

Carly closed her eyes and held back the tears as her head rested on the girl's right shoulder. This couldn't be real she thought. It had to be a dream like when she danced with all those cute boys, but Carly felt the warmth of the girl and heard the soft heart beat. She felt as real as any other person she could touch and feel.

After a few minutes of just holding on to the girl and she in return stroking her hair and her back in comfort, Carly lifted her head up to look at the brunette.

"Feel better?" she asked with a warm and accepting smile.

Carly lifted a hand and wiped the moisture away from under both her eyes. "Yes, thank you. I'm sorry for just—"

"It's okay. Sometimes we just need someone to hold on to," she answered warmly and gently patted Carly's shoulder.

"Thank you. I'm Carly… it's short for Carlotta."

She smiled brightly back at Carly and replied, "Carlotta? That's a lovely name. Hi Carly, I'm Taylor. It's nice to meet you."

She nodded her head hesitantly. "It's nice to meet you too."

Carly started glancing around the classroom and looked at how it was all set up to be an art classroom. She knew Spencer would get a thrill out of it if he was here. She looked back to Taylor and asked, "Where am I?"

Taylor motioned around. "This is a dream of my high school; I just didn't expect any company."

"I'm dreaming?" she asked with a hint of disappointment.

Taylor blinked and felt the sadness of the other girl, but smiled at the other brunette. "I guess you could say we're both dreaming, but I never thought two people could share a dream."

Carly took a moment to really look at the girl and noticed her attire: she was wearing a white floral dress with purple flowers decorating it and it went down to her mid-thigh, but also wore bell-bottom blue jeans and of course the lavender bandana tied around her head. To Carly, it was a retro, but stylish look.

"Mo—Taylor," she quickly corrected herself, "What's the date?"

"I don't understand," she replied with a genuine perplex look.

"The date, what year is it?"

"It's May, nineteen eighty," she replied with a troubled look.

Carly let out a breath. "I… I'm from two thousand eleven. It's September."

Taylor blinked at that answer. In a calm and to Carly's ears, a comforting voice, Taylor replied, "I guess you're just further down the stream than me."

"The stream?"

"Have you ever heard the nursery song 'Row, Row, Row, Your Boat'?"

Carly blinked. "Yes… my mother used to sing it to me."

"Okay," Taylor replied then led Carly to another easel where a painting of a flowing river was displayed. She picked up clean paintbrush and dabbed it into some white paint. She then quickly drew two boats on two different spots on the river: one further down the river than the other. She then pointed to the one upstream. "That's where I'm at and I guess," she pointed to the other boat downstream, "that is where you are."

"Time? The stream is time?"

Taylor nodded with a smile that comforted Carly in an instant. She realized how much she missed that smile from when she was younger. Taylor continued, "I guess dreaming is a way of talking to people on different boats." Taylor giggled and covered her mouth with a hand.

Carly couldn't help to join her in laughter. After both girls calmed down from their laughter, Carly asked, "So, what are you doing? I'm mean, I know you were painting, but it seems normal for a dream."

"I dream what I do and do what I dream," she replied with a small laugh.

Carly laughed again and replied, "That makes sense." She then let out a calming breath and noticed another portrait. She pointed and asked, "Who's that?"

Taylor grinned happily as she looked at the painting as well. "That's my boyfriend; his name is Steven."

Carly of course recognized the young man even if his image was thirty years younger. He had long hair and style as Spencer did before Grandpa Gibson gave him a haircut. He was also wearing a black leather biker jacket, white T-Shirt and blue jeans. "He's handsome."

"Thank you," she replied with an embarrassing smile. "He's very kind and sweet and do you know what else?"

"What?" she asked as she couldn't help but joined in the other girl's excitement.

Taylor leaned closer to Carly and whispered conspiratorially, "He loves me. He loves me and he doesn't think I'm odd. He said I was extraordinarily unique."

Carly felt a warmth in her chest and smiled bigger as she could feel the happiness seemingly roll off of the other girl. Carly looked back to the picture. "Kind of looks like a bad boy," Carly commented with a smirk.

Taylor looked away embarrassed.

"So you like the bad boys?" Carly picked at her.

Taylor blushed and looked down at the floor.

"I used to like them too. I think I got it from my mother," she replied with a laugh.

Taylor joined in her laughter. "I think my mom did too. My dad use to be in the Air Force and a fighter pilot."

Carly bit her lip to hold back her laughter before replying, "My dad used to be a fighter pilot in the Air Force too, but he's still in it."

"What a coincidence?"

"Yeah, a coincidence," Carly replied with a knowing smile.

Taylor offered a seat from one of the stools in front of some of the paintings and the web-hostess graciously took a seat beside the artist.

"You're quite good," Carly commented idly.

"Thank you," she replied in a bashful tone.

Taylor turned to look at her and asked, "Do you have someone special?"

Carly smiled and nodded. "Yes, his name is Freddie. I wish I had a picture to show you."

Taylor laughed. "Well this is a dream, maybe you have a picture?"

Carly furled her eyebrows and out of instinct reached into her pocket and was surprised to find a picture. She pulled it out and found that it was a headshot of Freddie. She handed it to the other brunette and she took the picture to examine it closely.

"He's really handsome. Is he nice?"

"He's very nice. He loves me."

"He does? I know how nice that can be."

"It's… it's wonderful. He loves me so much that he broke up with me one time."

Taylor's brow furled in confusion. "I don't understand?"

"He's always loved me since the day we met, but I never returned the feelings. One day I was crossing a road and didn't see a truck coming at me. He dashed out and pushed me out of the way and the truck hit him."

Taylor covered his mouth. She mumbled through her hands. "Oh my God."

Carly continued and as she spoke, her tone became sadder, "He broke his leg and his right hand kind of got smashed, but he's alright now. He saved my life. I guess I was so grateful that I just went for it and we started dating after that, but he realized that I really didn't love him like he loved me. He broke up with me, because he wanted us to both be happy. He said after the casts came off and I still wanted to be his girlfriend, he'd love that."

Taylor's eyes fell and gave a slight frown. She reached over and patted Carly's hand. "So what happened?"

"He stayed one of my best friends and for a year and I didn't say anything. My father told me I finally had to give Freddie a chance or let him go find someone to that could make him happy."

"What did you do?"

Carly looked down and tried to start ringing her hands, but Taylor gave her a comforting squeeze. "I let him go and that was the worst decision I have ever made, but Freddie gave me a second chance to fall in love with him, so we're together now."

Taylor smiled hopefully. "Do you love him now?"

Carly shook her head. "I keep asking myself that question, but the answer seems so out of reach. I care about him deeply and I'd never want to be apart from him. I keep having this feeling at times as if I'm falling and I felt it just before I fell asleep. I just want—"

"Him to catch you?"

Carly looked up with a look of complete shock at the artist.

Taylor swallowed nervously, "If I may… if say… my daughter was in a similar situation one day… I would tell her to let herself fall and if she felt the same way you just described, I'd tell her don't be afraid to tell him she loves him every chance she gets, because I don't know of a better definition of love than what you feel and want from him."

Carly blinked and let the moisture from in her eyes and let the tears roll down her cheeks. Taylor pulled her into a hug and Carly latched onto her. "Shhh… it's okay… everything is going to be okay."

"I love him?"

Taylor smiled as the other girl rested her head on her shoulder.

"I love him," Carly repeated this time with a little more confidence. "I love him," she repeated this time with a smile and the tears turned to ones of joy with a feeling of warmth and contentment overcoming her. She lifted her head off of Taylor's shoulder and the other girl pulled out a white handkerchief from the pocket of her dress to wipe away the tears of the brunette.

"Thank you," Carly whispered quietly as Taylor finished wiping her cheeks.

"You're welcome my little Carlotta," she whispered lovingly.

Carly tried to speak, but Taylor was quicker in a kind tone, "You have your grandmother's eyes."

Carly knew it was now or never, so… "I love you mom."

Taylor gave her a bright smile and let her dimples show and ran her fingers through some of Carly's hair to brush some behind her ear. "I love you too my little one."

"Carly?" a voice that seemed to call out from everywhere and nowhere.

In a sad and disheartening tone, Carly whispered, "I think I'm going to wake up now."

"It's okay. It was so nice to see you," she reassured the slightly taller teenager.

Carly latched onto Taylor and hugged her one last time. Taylor smiled and patted her back and whispered, "I'll see you again."

Carly held back the tears. "You will, I promise."

A pain of fear stabbed at Freddie's chest thinking Carly was having a nightmare at seeing her crying, so he tried to gently wake her up, "Carly?"

Carly blinked open her eyes and realized that her tears were blurring her vision. "Freddie?" she questioned seeing his blurred form.

"I'm right here," he whispered reassuringly.

She lifted up and grabbed him by the cheeks and the back of the head where her fingers ran through his hair and kissed him with everything she had: her joy, pain, anger, contentment, and her love. He was surprised, but kissed back a moment later. She pulled back and looked directly into eyes with only sparing a moment to wipe her eyes. "Freddie?"

"Yes?" he asked in concern.

Her lips hinted at a smile as she answered, "I love you."