Same disclaimers as always! Last chapter of the actual story, y'all. Enjoy!


"Alright, Sis, you're out of your mind, I've never met any of your friends," Mike Wells laughed, taking a swig of his Corona. Even after being her legal guardian for the past 10 years, his younger sister was still full of surprises. "What changed?"

"I have," she shrugged, "I suppose. According to Melina…"

"Melina's a girl's name. Thought your shrink was a guy," he raised his eyebrows.

"I'll get to that later, but let me finish," Kylie cut him off. "According to Melina, if I am to move past my issues, I have to face them head on and work through them. I have to be open to change. So this is me being open to it."

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little freaked out by your sudden change in attitude, but go on," her older brother prompted her.

"I hated the way you treated me like a little kid when we were younger. You always wanted to know what I was doing every second of every fucking day. Therefore," she exhaled, "I felt like you didn't trust me."

"That's fair," Mike nodded in agreement. "Looking back, I went a little overboard with the big brother crap, and for that I'm sorry. But the way I was with you was the only way I knew how to deal with losing Dad. Remember how I woke you up that night, to tell you that Dad was dead?"

"How could I forget? You woke me up at one-thirty in the fucking morning," she grumbled stiffly.

"I…I watched him die," he swallowed, recalling how their father got shot on duty. "He'd taken me for a ride-along that day in Detroit. And you know how shitty it can get over there. He was following up information from an informant about this huge meth lab they'd been after for the past two months. He told me to wait in the car, keep the door locked, and that he'd be back in thirty minutes at most."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Kylie frowned, taking a sip of her beer.

"It was two days before your thirteenth birthday," he shook his head. "I couldn't bring myself to ruin that. As you can probably predict, thirty minutes passed and he didn't come back, so I followed him. Right when I stepped through that door, I could tell something wasn't right. And I didn't have a gun yet, either, so I'm sure you can imagine I was scared shitless."

"Can't you just jump to the part with Dad and be done with it?" Kylie wasn't up for revisiting her past yet again after having done so with Melina for the past hour, and also before formally introducing Lance to her brother.

"No," he shook his head firmly. "I know you don't want to hear it, but you have to. Alright?"

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes.

"So when I went in, I smelled blood. It was fresh, couldn't have been more than five minutes old. I followed the smell down to the basement. I should've taken the hint when that door was unlocked that something was up, but I didn't want to believe it. But I sure as hell wasn't ready for what came next. The guy who'd told my dad about the meth had betrayed him, and was holding a gun to his head. Another guy was dead on the floor next to them. The informant was only in it for the money, and I guess Dad forgot the past week's payment or something like that, because he was fucking pissed."

"So he basically told them where the meth lab was, only for him to turn on Dad later? Didn't Dad have backup?"

"He said he wouldn't need it," Mike shook his head bitterly. "Real stubborn of him. I guess we know where you get that from. Anyway, after what felt like ages of standing there, I couldn't take it anymore. I had to do something. I felt something at my feet, and what do you know, there was a loaded semi-automatic 1935 Beretta. So I put it behind my back and said, 'Yo, I think you dropped something,' and dropped one of the flasks on the shelf. And it would've worked if Dad hadn't said, 'Mike! No!' and given us away as father and son. He ended up shooting Dad, but my distraction was enough for him to get shot in the gut instead of his head."

"You can still die from getting shot in the gut," Kylie crossed her arms. "If the bullet was shot close enough, it could penetrate the rib cage and potentially get to the heart."

"Yeah, well I didn't know that back then, did I?" he threw up an arm angrily. "He knew his shot didn't kill him, so he was going to go for another one, but I stood in front of the guy before he could do anything, telling him he'd have to go through me first."

"You what?!" she screeched.

"I know, I know," he waved it off, "but I knew the guy. He and Dad were close. To this day, I still don't know why he did what he did, but at the time, I figured if he really cared about my dad at all, he wouldn't shoot me in front of him. I'd completely forgotten that I still had that 1935 Beretta, until Dad suddenly shot him dead from the ground before he could do anything. His last words to me were, 'Son, what'd I tell you about carryin' a loaded gun without the safety?' to which I said, 'If the safety's off, and the gun's loaded, that means I intend to use it.' And just like that, he was dead."

Mike paused as he allowed a tear to run down his cheeks.

"Mike…" Kylie rushed over to give her brother a hug.

"I watched him die, Kylie," he wrapped his arms around her. "According to the coroner, had we gotten him to the hospital even just a few minutes earlier, he might've had a chance!"

"He saved your life," she gently pointed out, taking the rare opportunity to comfort her older brother. "Just like you saved his. You gave him a little extra time, Mike. If that guy had shot him in the head like he'd intended, you wouldn't have gotten that last moment with him. You wouldn't have gotten to say good-bye."

"But I never got to. He died before I could."

"Dad was never really openly sentimental," she reminded him. "Goes with the job. What he did with you? That was his way of saying good-bye."

"You're right," he sniffed. "You know I didn't technically have to be your legal guardian, right?"

"I'm not sure about the finer details of the will, but yeah, I think they told us that. Why?"

"Looking back, sometimes I think it would've been easier if we'd just moved to Dallas with Uncle Thompson and Auntie Jillian, but taking your whole life and transferring it to a place you only spend two holidays a year at isn't all that easy, either. I thought of you, mainly. It would've been a big change for either of us no matter what we chose, but with you about to start 8th grade, I knew it would've been hell for you to adjust to a new environment, so I chose to take care of you myself."

Kylie already knew that last part from her sessions with Lance, and further affirmed from her newer sessions with Melina, but to hear it from her brother personally was a different thing entirely. She knew she had been selfish when she didn't treat him as well as she should have, considering how much he was giving up for her, but the past was the past. "Thank you, Mike."

"So who did you say was coming over again?"

"I didn't," she smirked.

"You've never brought home anyone before, if you were even dating anyone," he said suspiciously.

"I was, but that's beside the point. Don't think just because you've got your nice shiny badge and gun that I'm afraid of you. If this were the old me, this wouldn't be happening, but this is the new me, and I'm trying this thing called letting people in. This guy is really important to me, and I want you to meet him," she said with finality.

"Cool," he nodded. "Let me just get my gun…"

"Oh no, you don't!" Kylie stopped him.

"Relax, I was kidding," he laughed.

Before anything else could happen, the doorbell rang and Kylie flushed.

"Shit, I haven't gotten ready yet," her hands flew to her face as she realized her hair was completely undone and her face was bare.

"Honestly, he doesn't care," Mike said, chugging the last of his Corona. "Don't keep him waiting."

Kylie looked from her brother to the door before quickly twisting her hair into a bun and opening the door.

"Mr. Bass," she smiled.

"Miss Minogue," he nodded, straightening his tie slightly lightly kissing her on the lips and offering her his hand. "Shall we?"

"We shall," she smiled.

As the two lovers appeared in the dining room, Mike nearly fell out of his chair. "Doctor Sweets?"

"Hold up. Y'all know each other?" Due to her excellent observation skills, she usually caught onto these things, but this time, she was genuinely thrown for a loop.

"He conducted this psychological evaluation I had to pass as part of the FBI final exam," Mike explained. "Given all the shit I've been through, I was pretty fucking sure I failed that. Thanks, man." He held out his hand for Lance to shake.

"You don't give yourself enough credit," the young psychologist shook his head with a smile.

"So you and my sister, huh?"

"If that's cool with you, yeah," he replied politely. "We'll be seeing a lot of each other now that you're officially an agent. This won't be awkward, will it?"

"You're the first boyfriend she's introduced to me, so I'm a little new to this. Just don't hurt her and we're cool," the lone blond in the room held up his hands in surrender. "Kylie's a smart girl. Maybe not Zack-smart, but she's got a good head on her shoulders. She doesn't give herself to someone that easily. You must be a pretty great guy. So you two have my blessing."

"Thank you, Mike," Lance smiled, wrapping an arm around Kylie's waist. "I'll take good care of her."

"You better," he gave his sister's new boyfriend a warning look.

"Alright, quit the alpha male crap," Kylie stepped between them. "I don't know about y'all, but I'm starving."

"Yeah, me too," Mike said quickly, not wanting to ruin their dinner.

"Same," Lance nodded, following the two siblings into the kitchen.

Lance was right, Kylie Wells concluded. It had indeed been an uphill emotional battle, from confronting her past and accepting the fact that Zack had been placed in a mental institution, to proving herself worthy to Doctor Brennan, but in the end it would all pay off, and it all came down to how she viewed herself. From an early age, she had a strong sense of independence, which in turn caused her to distance herself emotionally from others at a certain point and also to challenge authority from time to time. The reason she and Zack were able to form such a strong bond was that neither of them felt the conscious need to rely on others, yet when it came down to it, they were there for each other, whether they asked for it or not. It was a long way to go before she would fully come to terms with her past, but with others supporting her, perhaps the road to recovery wouldn't be as bad as she thought.


So that's it! For the actual story, that is. It's not completely done yet. The epilogue is still to come. And a couple of you have expressed interest in a prequel, so I'm considering doing that as a continuation to the one-shot I already posted (the link is on my profile). I can't thank you all enough for the support I've been getting on this! Have a wonderful week, y'all!