A/N So here we are. At the end. Ending yet another story of mine. The third one too! WHOO!
This is of course bittersweet cause this is one of my baby stories even though it has driven me mad like kids do!

There are some time skips here. Sorry if there is some confusion!

More at the end!

Chapter 18

Epilogue

Many people come into our lives and leave as soon as they come.

As soon as the helicopter landed in a city in Southern Ireland Bex was taken away. On the medical chopper they had done their best to keep her alive in the time it took to get there. Many clothes had been stained of blood and they had attached some liquid too her.

She was gone when we landed.

I opened my heavy eyes to a semi dark, sterile smelling room. I sat up slowly and shook my head. I groaned, feeling my side as one continuous bruise.

My clothes had been changed, no longer wet and slightly bloodstained. No one was around and that didn't feel right. I got up and made my way out of the room.

It was hospital that was for sure. The lights were dim so it must have been late there. I followed the noises it heard till I came to a nurse's station.

They directed me towards the ICU level. Bex.

I hurried up there, but not before one of the nursed made me take a pain pill to help with head. I had just been in the recovery area where as Bex…

I finally found the room. It was also dark, machines hooked to my best friend. A ventilator was pushing air into her, helping her breathe. I sucked in a gasp. She didn't look like Bex. There was an elderly looking man next to her, holding her hand. he was asleep, his head tipped back while snores emanated from him.

But she looked good as dead. The machines said differently. I was informed that she was being sedated so she didn't feel the pain or be irritated by anything. She couldn't risk the loss of more blood after four transfusions.

I felt my throat clogging up. This was my fault. My fault she was in this situation, half dead in front of me.

I started to quietly sob as arms around me tightly. My dad (Joe) escorted me from the room and let me cry into him. "Why?" I sobbed as she soothed my hair.

"Shhhh, baby." He murmured just like mom used too.

I looked up at his haggard, tired face. He was still recovering from his ordeal. "Where is her family? Why is Grant the only one in there? Where is everyone else?" Tears traced my cheeks.

Joe let out a breath. "Bex doesn't have any family, Cam. Except for her Grandfather who is with her now." He looked down at me. "They died, Murdered actually. That's how Bex became who she is today."

I felt myself breaking into more sobs. There was so much I didn't know. My friends had whole other lives I didn't know about. I buried me face in his shirt. "Liz and Jonas are at the Irish Headquarters filing report on the event. Macey is currently in a different room with her now patched leg. Zach… Cam… he's gone."

They leave little foot prints in your heart that never go away. They have changed you and you will never be the same person you were before them.

Without Zach being strong really wouldn't apply to me. It started with my mom. He helped me. Than he broke my heart and he will never be forgiven for that. But now he is gone.

It had been a month after the incident. The list was gone and the whole COC seemed to have shut down.

They never found Zach. He was disappeared and it was suspected that the COC had collected his body from the angry sea. Catherine was heartbroken, her sobs coming out broken.

I walked across the green of the temporary house we had been given. Macey was sitting on a swing by a lake. She had been very quiet since Zach was pronounced dead.

"Hey Mace." I came up beside her swing. She looked up, her blue eyes deep with emotion. She didn't' say anything but looked back out at the lake.

We were quiet and I sat beside her.

Silence was there for a while. Then she spoke.

"I knew. I knew he was going to do it." She said softly.

"What?" I looked at her.

"He told me that if it came to it he would sacrifice himself for you."

I stared at her. 'You knew Zach…"

"Yes. He trusted me with that secret."

So that's what their private conversations had been about.

"He died… for me?" my voice squeaked.

Macey nodded and tears sprung up. "I've always been left alone. My family was not one for comfort and when I came to Gallagher I had been kicked out of more schools that I knew what to do with. I was a mess. But Zach understood. He understood. And that was one of the things I loved about him."

I looked at her. She… "Macey…" I turned.

"He did some much for you. He was with Winter for you. He sacrificed himself for you. He really loved you. You were just too stupid to see it." She got up and hurried back to the house. The words stung.

I connected with my real dad even more than the fake one. I was much more like him than I was my mom. We both couldn't stand soggy cereal and both seemed to have the work methods.

We shared our memories about Mom. He told me of the time that she broke his nose when they were sparing when they were both at school. I told him of the stories she used to tell me at bedtime when I was a kid and so much more.

We visited my old home and I collected my belongings. He went into mom's room. Her clothes faintly smelled like her still. He fingered her jewelry and her pillow. "He took good care of her right?" he had asked. I nodded.

"Rachel." He smiled sadly and knelt by her side of the bed and peered under the bed. He came out bearing a box. "Come here kiddo." He gestured to me. I sat next to him and he cracked open the box. Pictures filled the inside. Of me. Of my dad. Loads of other people.

"Her family. Everyone she loved. And she loved a lot." He smiled drawing me closer. I smiled at that.

Here's the thing about people. That even though they are gone, a part of them will always be with you.

Bex was healing nicely. Macey was … well Macey. Liz was smiling and had currently devoted to a new book. Flynn had returned from giving his account to the German government. Jonas was busy with his new job. Grant was happy, having taken interest in his new work partner. he seemed to have no reason to rekindle his relationship with Bex. My gang was good.

But there was no Zach. He was gone.

Now that I think about it, it makes my heart ache. Still.

It has been three months. And I missed him. I never thought I would say it again. But I did. I missed him. I missed his hair and his smirk. I just missed him.

Now I sit in my new room, with the sun coming in the windows. Spring is finally bursting and after a long, interesting winter it feels like a relief. I think it's time to put the past behind me and look forward. Past the lies I was told and the fakeness of my life.

"Cammie?" Bex stuck her head in. She was just getting up and about but stayed mostly confined to a wheel chair. I still thought of it as my fault that she was like this.

"Hum?" I looked up from my messy handwriting.

"This just came for you." She wheeled herself in and handed me an envelope. It was battered, obviously being in the mail for a long while.

"Who's it from?" I asked reaching for the knife I had from my toast earlier to slit the envelope.

"No return address." She shifted, wincing in her chair. I frowned as I pulled the letter out of its home.

"Well they achieved the anonymous factor." I said. Bex chuckled a small bit.

The paper unfolded quickly and as soon as I saw the handwriting I felt my jaw drop.

Really think you can get rid of me that easily?

~Z

I stared at it for a moment, then burst out laughing.

A/N THE END! Gosh this story is long and boy was it getting on my nerves. But really I've had this ending since the beginning. I never wanted Cammie to end up with someone or get what she really wanted in this story. So I like the ending. I feel it ties it up nicely.

And there won't be a sequel. Sorry! This story really wasn't supposed to go beyond a one shot and I really want to focus on TBoaL and INO (Beginning of a Legend and It's Not Over). I might write this new story I have in mind but not till like summer… and that will depend on my time and such. I might have a job (joys of being the driving age. WOOOT) and I might be contiueing my aerial silks (which starts on Monday. Another WOOOT)

Thanks for all the reviews and the support during this story and some of the long waits I know where annoying. Thanks to Sparkling Amethyst for the tiny bit of beta-ing she did in a few chapter (that really didn't last long and no longer exist. Oh Well)

Hope you all enjoy and continue to read!

Lingering thoughts?