Disclaimer: I don't own Left 4 Dead 2 or its characters. I only own my OCs.

A/N: Hello, everyone! So, here we are... This is the final chapter, and as you'll notice, it's shorter than the rest of the chapters I've published, but hopefully its still as good quality as the rest. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you to everyone who has read, favourited, followed and reviewed this story! It really does give me a good boost in my confidence. Stay tuned because the sequel will be published as soon as possible.

Shin Maxwell: Thank you so, so, so much for being so supportive with this fic. I'm hoping to hear from you again when the sequel is published, and I really hope you enjoy this last chapter. :D

~ Not So Forsaken ~

- Chapter Thirty -

Ten Weeks Later

Splashing cold water onto his face, Nick leant over the bathroom sink, glancing up at his reflection on the mirror on the cabinet door above it.

His eyes were dark and bloodshot, his face pale and his hair tousled rather than in its usual slicked-back state. His white t-shirt clung to his sweat-peppered chest, framing his sculpted body just enough to reveal its toned and well-formed shape. The nightmares had gotten to him this time. In the weeks after the infection, nightmares had become rather commonplace considering the fact that he and his companions had endured rather severe trauma on their journey from Georgia to New Orleans. He imagined that many of the other survivors were also going through the same thing considering the horrors that they would've seen. Repeatedly being surrounded by death and other monstrous sights does that to people.

After spending almost two months on cruise liners and aircraft carriers in the middle of the ocean, the military had finally started moving people back to land. They'd managed to actually set up a zombie-free zone in Pennsylvania, and had fortified borders around small sections of the state before then starting to increase said borders to therefore increase the amount of space that they would have to house the survivors. Nick and his friends had been disturbed to find out that indeed they were carriers, and that carriers were the only people left. With CEDA currently working on some kind of cure to rid the carriers of the last strands of the virus, the various ships had been commanded one by one to come into land and the survivors were transported to designated homes in the safe zone.

Nick and his fellow survivors had been placed in a one-storey house with three bedrooms on a quiet residential street in some shitty little town that he hadn't even cared to learn the name of. They'd only been there for a little over a week and it was still hard to adjust to sleeping in the comfort of a real bed or to have more than one change of clothes. Looking back at his reflection, he could see what the exhaustion was starting to do to him. At least he didn't have to go and work a job in his current state. The military hadn't gotten as far as handing out jobs to people yet, and Nick, like the others, was trying to enjoy the free time he had to catch up on much-needed rest.

Knowing that he needed to go back to bed, Nick dried his face on the soft blue towel that sat on the white railing to his right before readjusting his black pyjama pants. He carefully made his way out of the white and blue bathroom, almost visibly startling when he nearly walked right into Rochelle, who was leaning against the coffee-coloured wall of the hallway he was stepping into.

"Damn it, Ro..." He whispered, "You scared the shit out of me..."

"Nightmares again?" Rochelle asked him kindly, rubbing some of the sleep out of her eyes as he nodded, "Me too."

"I'm gonna head back to bed for a few hours." Nick said, rubbing the back of his neck, "Might be able to get some more sleep."

"Yeah, I wanna do the same," Rochelle murmured, "But, Ellis is up and he'll want a hand with breakfast so... I dunno..."

Ah, Ellis... It had been touch and go with Ellis for the first few days. CEDA had done stupid amounts of tests on him just to be one-hundred-percent certain that he wasn't going to turn after his encounter with the Hunter. His wound had healed beautifully. There was light scarring on his arm where he'd been attacked but other than that, he was okay. Unfortunately, however, Ellis had succumbed quite severely to the nightmares and flashbacks that came with the trauma of what they'd all gone through. He was even in therapy for it, just like a lot of other survivors. Nick had considered therapy briefly, but he decided against it. What the hell could a shrink even begin to understand about his thoughts and feelings anyway? They'd probably accuse him of having some kind of creepy attraction to his mother or something stupid.

"Oh... You might not be able to go back to bed for a few hours." Rochelle said with a small gasp, "We're having guests over for breakfast, remember?"

Nick's expression became sour. How could he forget? It had been four days since none other than Francis, Louis and Zoey had been dropped outside the house across the street by the military, which had become their designated home for the time being. Since then, Rochelle and Ellis had been trying to take the opportunity to spend as much time with Francis and Zoey as possible and both of them saw it as some divine intervention that the other three survivors would just happen to be moved in across the street from them. Nick still had a lot of resentment for the loud-mouthed biker, but for the sake of Rochelle, who was clearly very infatuated with him, he was trying to make the effort to be civil. He was also coaching Ellis on how not to be creepy, since he wasn't exactly taking his time when trying to court Zoey, to a point where some of his behaviour may have come across as stalker-like. As for Louis? Well, while Louis' overly cheerful temperament could be annoying, the guy was smart, and Nick liked intelligent people, so he was able to get on with Louis quite well. With the unpleasant reminder that Rochelle had just given him, Nick knew that he wasn't going to get more than an hour or two of sleep before he'd have to actually make the effort to look like a functioning human being, so, with a disgruntled shake of his head, he tried to appear more cheerful by giving Rochelle a very forced smile.

"Well, I'll see you in a little while, I guess." Nick sighed, reaching out to gently pat her shoulder affectionately, which earned him a small smile in return.

Rochelle watched him go, brushing a strand of her curled hair out of her face. After having her dreadlocks taken out so that she could actually get all the zombie guts and other gross stuff out of her hair, Rochelle had decided to embrace her naturally curly hair, and after spending some time styling it and playing around with it, she was enjoying have thick, big curls in her hair instead of the dreadlocks she'd had when she'd met the others. Coach and Ellis had often complimented how young it made her look, which was a nice boost for her. As she continued to watch Nick head back to his room, she bit her lip with worry before slipping into the bathroom to get ready to start the day.

Upon reaching his bedroom door, Nick came to a sudden stop. Since they'd been in this house, for some reason, he always had to stop before he entered the room if he was returning to bed. Taking the doorknob into his hand, he clutched it tightly, slowly turned it and pushed open the white painted door, revealing the warm green walls of the bedroom shrouded in the darkness of the early winter morning, and the smooth, polished dark wooden floor which he carefully stepped onto. Looking over towards the bed, Nick let out a long, quiet, but relieved sigh.

Laying on her side facing him, her now shoulder-length locks tucked back over her shoulder, was Julia, breathing slowly and evenly, her left hand clutching the pillow that her head was resting on. Nick smiled warmly. He suddenly came to a realisation as to why he had to stop outside of his bedroom door. Maybe it was so that he could enter their room at that same slow pace every time in order to savour the sight of her laying there, still breathing, still alive and still with him.

The impact of hitting the car that the Tank had thrown her into back at the bridge had done more damage to her than just knocking her unconscious. It had caused her right lung to collapse, and she'd actually been left unable to breathe on her own, which went undetected until she eventually required CPR. As soon as the chopper had touched down on one of the aircraft carriers, she'd been taken straight to the medical bay, where thankfully, doctors were able to stabilise her, and she'd been returned to Nick's care after about nine days. He'd been with her every second that he could and he'd been thanking whatever God was out there ever since for the fact that she'd been saved. He hadn't been punished after all. She was physically fully recovered now, but psychologically, she had a long way to go before she'd be okay again. They all did.

Closing the door behind him as quietly as he could, Nick crossed the room to their bed, climbed in beside her as carefully as possible and reached out to brush a lock of her hair out of her face while easing the thick covers out from under her goosebump-covered arms to shield her from the cold. Winter was now upon them and like she'd told him before, she wasn't good with the cold. Nick decided to get wrapped up with her and he gently eased her into his arms like he did most mornings, taking the time to hold her.

If anyone had told him six months ago that he'd have softened this much, he'd have laughed in their faces. But, while he still had his harsh exterior and his bad attitude, Nick had managed to get in touch with his more sensitive side. He'd learned to allow his emotions to run their course properly instead of fighting them, and after sitting by Julia's bedside on the night of her surgery in tears, he realised how good it felt sometimes to actually get the shitty feelings out in the open rather than letting them eat him up.

He felt her burrow into his cotton-clad chest, so he tightened his hold on her, brushing her hair out of her face while running his other hand under her warm pink t-shirt. He felt her move her leg between both of his and she settled again comfortably, not stirring once as he carefully took her hand in his and kissed it. He still couldn't believe that she was still here. Everything had turned out okay in the end, and while society had a lot of work to do to become functional again, it was a relief that all of them had made it out of that mess without being too severely injured.

"Nick?" Julia whispered softly, lying still against his chest, "What time is it?"

"Just gone six." Nick said, glancing at the clock on his bedside table, "I'm sorry I woke you, baby."

"No, no, no, that's okay..." She promised sleepily, "Are you alright? Are you having nightmares again?"

"I'm okay, sweetie, I promise." Nick told her, his voice gruff and deep as he pressed his lips to the top of her head, "Go back to sleep. We don't have to be up for a couple of hours."

"Don't we have guests coming for breakfast?" Julia asked, her voice muffled by his chest.

"You bet." Nick laughed quietly, stroking her hair, "You can go back to sleep for a while, though. It's okay."

She settled against him again, sighing contentedly as she snuggled into his arms and the warmth of their bed, feeling him hold her close to him. Leaning his head back against the pillow, Nick closed his eyes as well, trying to focus on the soothing sound of Julia's breathing and comforting feeling of her heart beating against his chest so that he could maybe get a little more sleep before they'd have to get up and start their day.

Julia, who had found herself appreciating little moments like this even more after her brush with death, felt beyond contented as she felt her boyfriend's arms tighten around her. She remembered waking up in the medical bay of the aircraft carrier to find Nick beside her with red, swollen eyes and the remnants of tears still visible against his skin, and that was her first indication that what had happened to her had been very serious. He'd been holding her hand so tightly that it actually hurt, although she knew that wasn't his intention. When they were finally moved onto one of the cruise ships to join Coach, Rochelle and Ellis, Nick was beyond attentive to her needs. He followed the doctor's instructions to the letter, keeping Julia's stitches clean and making sure she had everything that she needed. It was a side of him she never thought she'd see.

Smiling to herself, Julia nuzzled against his chest, breathing in his scent as she shuffled upwards to rest her head under his chin, turning briefly to kiss his neck. She felt a small huff of laughter escape his lips and as he gave her one last kiss on the head, both of them tried to get back to sleep with the hopes of being a little more rested before their guests arrived for breakfast.

Around two and a half hours later, their dining table was surrounded by laughter, the smell of good food and the sound of Ellis gibbering away as he told one of his many stories about the infamous Keith, who they still didn't know the fate of yet. Coach sat at the head of the table with Rochelle on his left and Francis on his right, who were busy making eyes at each other over their breakfast. Ellis was busy serving up food with the help of Julia, who set a plate down in front of Zoey and then Louis, while Ellis set a plate down in front of Nick, who was at the other end of the table, and one down for Julia, who'd be sitting to his left.

With everyone finding their places, they all settled into warm conversation and tried to enjoy the normality of sharing breakfast with their big, unusual, but wonderful family.

~ The End ~

And there you have it. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this story. I hope you'll be looking forward to the sequel, which I've already started to write.

Goodbye, for now!