NEVER TOO LATE
Chapter 5
A/N: This final chapter is a chapter of revelations, mostly from Felicity's point of view. Her behavior that night when Oliver had to walk away is explained by her back story. I believe this is what most of you who have been following this story have been waiting for. So here it is... Enjoy!
The alarm she had set the night before went off at 6:00 a.m. sharp, and for the first time in weeks since spring break, Felicity was excited to get up. She dashed to the bathroom to brush her teeth and went in for a quick shower, humming one of her recent favorite tunes as she lathered peach-scented body wash on her skin. She normally showered after her morning run, but that day, she didn't mind showering twice – before and after her jogging date with Oliver.
Yes, Oliver.
He had come to her dissertation defense the day before, and his warm smile greeting her when she left the conference room had been the perfect ending to a grueling yet successful academic exercise – the last requirement she had to comply to before she would be conferred the title of "Doctor." He had been waiting for more than an hour just outside the conference room where her defense had been held, pacing back and forth in the corridor. He had looked so adorable in his black jeans and grey Henley shirt, his scruff freshly trimmed, holding flowers in one hand, and a bright fuchsia foil balloon with the word "congratulations" and a trophy embossed on it in his other hand. Seeing him there had made her feel like a child watching fireworks on New Year's Eve for the first time.
He'd been there for her. She still couldn't get over it, even after they celebrated her achievement at Connor's Brew with Connor, Thea, John, Lyla, and little Sara over freshly brewed coffee and generous servings of chocolate ban-apple pie. He had been there for her, and she didn't have the heart to turn him down when he asked if they could run together again starting the next day.
More than a month ago, she would have regretted that decision. She most probably wouldn't even have said yes in the first place. It didn't mean that she wouldn't have felt miserable about it. She really, really liked Oliver. A lot!
Before he walked away the night of the gala, Felicity had already begun wishing that they would be more than just friends, and she had been thinking through the reasons why that was so. She was sure that it wasn't just because she was attracted to him, which was something that she had already learned to accept and embrace without feeling embarrassed. (Because, really now, what woman in her right mind wouldn't find Oliver Queen drop-dead gorgeous even at forty-three?!)
Felicity thought that Oliver was a wonderful man, mature and seasoned by life's challenges and by the tough choices he's had to make through the years. He was the exact antithesis of the billionaire-playboy that he had been before his father decided that enough was enough. He was kind and thoughtful, honest and gentle, and always considerate of others. He wasn't a genius with a pile of degrees to boast of, but he knew how to work hard, and he put his heart and mind into things that mattered in life, such as family and a future – which were the things that began to matter to her recently, the only things that were missing in her life, and the very things she thought she was willing to share with him for the rest of her life.
Family. Felicity had had a happy one until she was six years old. Before her father abandoned her and her mother Donna, she had a wonderful childhood. Her father had been there at the end of the every day, helping her with cool school stuff and teaching her everything he knew about computers before she learned how to learn all by herself with the help of books and the Internet. They had so many things in common – an above-average intelligence being the most salient trait. Her mother had also been there for them all day every day, minding their needs and managing the house, filling their seriously geeky lives with sunshine and laughter. But one fateful day her father left without so much as a farewell kiss, never to return. Felicity's world crumbled, and she spent the rest of her childhood and her teen years blaming herself for his absence. She was devastated and severely traumatized.
For many years, Felicity couldn't accept that mother-and-daughter was a family. Donna Smoak persevered, working three jobs just to keep them afloat, sacrificing quality time with her growing daughter to earn just a little bit more to cover rent, food, utilities, their basic needs, and to finance the education of a brilliant daughter whom she believed deserved a better chance at life. With her father gone permanently and her mother gone almost all day every day, Felicity had no choice but to learn how to survive on her own, hiding behind a tough-girl, aggressive front that had seen her through high school and secured her a college degree at MIT. She couldn't remember how it was to have a family, and she wondered what it would be like to have one of her own… with Oliver Queen… hopefully in the near future.
Future. Felicity was well aware that half of her life was gone. Her past had been like a bad dream, and her present was like a medically-induced coma. Sure, she was beautiful and brilliant (and she knew it). She had superior education and training. She had an impressive track record and work experience. She had a job that she was proud of doing. But she was also forty and alone.
What kind of life was waiting for her as a spinster? In just about a decade or maybe less, she would enter into menopause. She'd start having terrible mood swings, unpredictable hot flashes, and erratic blood pressure, and soon her OB would be placing her on hormone replacement therapy. Just the thought of that frightens her. Would a guy even consider dating someone that's already headed downhill? Oliver would, she thought. But would Oliver still want her when her breasts and her ass begin to sag like deflated balloons? Would he still find her desirable when her golden locks turn silver-grey, when the wrinkles on her forehead and the chicken feet at the corners of her eyes can no longer be concealed with makeup? And even if he and she ended up together, would they still have a shot at having even just one child? Felicity was well aware that her biological clock was ticking fast, counting down to her last few years of possibility, which was one of the significant reasons why she had bravely allowed herself to develop feelings for Oliver and let their friendship to grow. This was aside from the fact that she had seen in him the very qualities that she considered to be non-negotiable in a very-near-future husband the moment she decided that she wanted out of the safe but sad world she had built herself.
Husband. Yes, husband. As her fortieth birthday had drawn near, Felicity had wondered what it would be like for her to settle down with the right guy for the right reasons, and she had decided that if she ever came to the point of meeting that person, she was going to make it very clear that she wasn't looking for a fling or mere boyfriend material. She was looking for someone to commit to for the years that remained in her life. She was too old – no, mature is the better word – for fleeting romances and childish break-ups over petty differences. If she was going to take the risk of loving again and giving her heart away one more time, that someone better be worth it, and she might as well commit to that relationship all the way to the altar. At this point in her life, she had felt that she had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
For many years Felicity had convinced herself that being single was best, and she had gotten used to the safety and security of withdrawing into that comfort zone. She had been fearful, anxious, and suspicious of anyone or anything that might burst the bubble of aloneness that she had been comfortable in. Yet ever since she met Oliver, something inside her had awakened – the desire to be with someone special, the yearning to love and be loved. He had stirred up that longing within her, and she couldn't shake it off even if she wanted to. Because she didn't want to. After months of getting to know him better, she wanted to be with him, to try being in a relationship again, and she was only waiting for the right opportunity to let him know.
In the beginning, she had been too scared to try that she had managed to deny her growing affections for him; she had promised herself that she would never cross the line between being friends and being lovers. However, the more she spent time with Oliver, the more she experienced what it meant to be cared for, loved, and desired. The more they got to know each other and did things together, the deeper her fondness of him and her feelings for him grew. The more he showed her kindness and affection, the more she responded with admiration and respect. She had somehow been able to keep those responses buried in her subconscious, to keep her emotions at bay, and to keep herself from initiating any serious talk about the status of their relationship. But on the night of the gala – after he placed that diamond-studded Star of David pendant around her neck and brushed her nape with his fingers, after he swayed her lithely in his arms on the dance floor, and finally when he kissed her good night at her doorstep with his hands cupping her face – the dam had broken, and she had let go.
Felicity let go of her fears and her inhibitions and reveled in that moment. She kissed him back and let him envelope her in his firm yet loving arms. She put her arms around his neck and invited him in for a nightcap. She was going to tell him over a glass of red wine, but one thing had led to another, and they found themselves on the couch, enjoying the onset of making out as if they were twenty years younger. It had been long time since Oliver had kissed a woman that way, and much, much longer since Felicity had been similarly kissed and touched by a man. They had both been lonely for so long, and they hungered for that kind of intimacy. And so, at the heat of the moment, they were oblivious to everything else but the rush of an insanely splendid mixture of pleasurable sensations and intense emotions. Everything was happening so fast, and they were both unraveling and losing themselves in each other. They had thrown caution to the wind and forgot about any notion of restraint and responsibility that had characterized their growth into mature adults through the years – and that, without having talked about where their relationship was headed yet.
Auspiciously, before they had crossed the point of no return and did something they both would regret, an unexpected move triggered Felicity's trauma and snuffed out the flame that had been ignited between them. Oliver's hands had travelled down from her arms to her hips and when he had begun to caress her there, she suddenly pulled back and pushed him away. Calling it anticlimactic was certainly an understatement for both of them. For Oliver, it had been definitely frustrating and confusing. For Felicity, it had been upsetting and unnerving – a temptation to regress to her old, self-preserving strategies for coping with life's harsh realities.
She had spent days and weeks thinking about what had happened that night. She turned it over and over again in her mind, analyzing and over-analyzing it until hear head hurt. It wasn't until she had gathered the courage to open to Caitlyn and talk things through (after she had broken down in tears in front of John and Lyla) that she finally admitted why what happened had happened.
The only hands that had ever caressed her hips had been Cooper Seldon's, and he was the only man that had ever known her intimately. He was her first and only real relationship, and before she met Oliver, she had persuaded herself that he was the last. Rubbing circles on her hips while kissing her passionately had been Cooper's signature move that had her yielding each time to his hints that she satisfy his manly urges.
At the time, Felicity had constantly struggled with guilt for turning her back on her values. Donna Smoak was a cocktail waitress in Vegas who got in and out of relationships like she was changing clothes, but she had raised her daughter with dignity and the values of the Jewish faith that her parents and grandparents had passed on to her and that she had taken lightly. Donna believed that her daughter was precious and special, and that her daughter deserved a better life than the one she had wasted early on when she gave herself completely to Noah Kuttler, who later on abandoned her and her daughter.
Back then, Felicity had gone back to school after working for a year at Palmer Technologies at Central City. (She had left her job when she found out that her boss, Ray Palmer, had only started seeing her to make his ex-girlfriend Anna jealous.) She then had started her master's degree program at MIT on a scholarship and soon had fallen madly in love with her professor, who was only a year older than she was, and who was the only man she had ever met that exceeded her expectations and came to par with her own brilliance and intelligence. She had craved the attention Cooper had given her, and that took precedence over any moral code that she had previously set for herself. She had rationalized her love affair with Cooper, thinking that she deserved to be happy for once, having been deprived of love and attention ever since her father had vanished from her life. She had thought that her relationship with her graduate school mentor was filling that void inside her, even when her gut kept nagging that something wasn't quite right with Cooper. Even if her mind kept scolding her that what she was doing wasn't right.
Felicity's romantic relationship with Cooper had lasted for almost two years, and she had started to wonder when he would propose. She was on her last semester of graduate school when she found out that he was married. The young Mrs. Seldon had knocked on the door of her dorm room the day before midterm exams were supposed to start, balancing on her hip a two-year-old boy who was the splitting image of Cooper. The red-haired woman had introduced herself and had confronted Felicity about the illicit love affair with her husband. The woman yelled at Felicity and called her ugly names. She spitefully accused Felicity of destroying her family and threatened to file a complaint against her at the Office for Student Affairs for seduction and immoral behavior if Felicity did not immediately end the affair with her husband.
Felicity had been shocked. Cooper had been cheating on his wife and kid with her for close to two years! How could she not have known?! Felicity had tried to explain to the young Mrs. Seldon that she was unaware that Cooper was married, but the red hair wouldn't believe her. For days she had cried herself to sleep and sometimes spaced out while attending class.
Felicity had also been utterly humiliated. Her roommate had looked at her differently from then on, and every girl on that floor that had heard the Seldon woman's screaming and cursing gossiped about her even when she was merely an earshot away in the dorm or at other places on campus. The star student of the ICT department had been become the subject of nasty rumors, which, thankfully, had not escalated to the point where someone would have reported the indecent affair to school authorities resulting in the revocation of her scholarship and a dishonorable dismissal.
Felicity had hated herself. She had wallowed in guilt and self-blame. She couldn't believe that she had stooped so low as to be someone's mistress. She berated herself for falling for Cooper's charms without even checking up on his background, for being blind to the telltale signs that he wasn't being totally honest with her, and for believing in all the lies and lame excuses why they couldn't go on dates as much or be seen together in public, especially on campus, in the guise of teacher-student propriety. She successfully convinced herself that the scandal was all her fault. After all, she had the ability and the means to look into Cooper's personal life. Simple cyber-sleuthing would have done the trick. But she had chosen to trust him when she dove into the relationship heart first, thinking that going behind his back was a breach of that trust. She was dead wrong, and she regretted it with all her might. She'd been the "other woman," and Cooper had a little boy, for crying out loud! The man didn't even care to explain himself and had never apologized for what he'd done.
Felicity spiraled down into depression and dropped out of MIT's masters program. She cut off all ties with Cooper and with all her friends. She went home to Vegas and lived with her mother again, which was a clear indication of how desperate she had been, because she had sworn to herself after high school graduation that she would only resort to go back to Las Vegas and stay with her mother if, and only if, she had nowhere else to go and no one else to turn to. She stayed with her mother for two years while she recovered emotionally and psychologically from the trauma, taking odd jobs and short-term projects in and around the city as a free lance IT specialist. It took her that long to regain some degree of self-confidence, but with Donna by her side, patiently and lovingly encouraging her and cheering her on, Felicity was eventually able to bounce back and find the strength and boldness to pursue her ICT profession once again.
On her twenty-fifth birthday, she applied for an entry-level position in the IT department of Queen Consolidated and was immediately hired by none other than Robert Queen himself. She picked up the pieces of her broken heart, packed her bags, kissed her mother goodbye for the third time, and moved to Starling City, hoping for a fresh start. After ten years of outstanding work experience in a Fortune 500 company followed by two years of graduate studies in Starling City University and three years of teaching in the ICT department, Felicity Smoak thought that she had gotten her life back.
She thought she had moved on. She thought she had healed. She had even dared to take a step of faith by letting Oliver into her small circle of friends and allowing their friendship to bloom. She was thrilled at the prospect that maybe, just maybe, life was giving her one last chance at having the family and the future she had only dreamed of before. Everything had been going well between her and Oliver until that night when his warm and tender hands had touched her where it mattered. What he had meant to be a gesture of love and passion had triggered her past trauma, conjuring up all the horrible memories and feelings of guilt and self-hate that she thought she had already forgotten and forgiven herself for.
In the past several weeks of not seeing Oliver since spring break, Felicity had ample time to process what had happened that night and why. She'd spoken with her mother about it, and Donna had been a patient and insightful counselor. Caitlyn had also been a phone call away and a dependable shoulder to lean on. Felicity realized that she will never forget her past with Cooper, but that didn't mean she couldn't rise above it. She realized that there will always be times in her life when she'd remember how much it had hurt, but she didn't have to let it hurt her anymore. She realized that because she had already forgiven herself, she could move forward with head held high. She could love without fearing that she was going to be lied to again, or that she was going to mess up somebody's family all over again. John and Lyla had congratulated her one afternoon when she shared with them her musings, and they happily reaffirmed that she was no longer the person she used to be. She could do this, because she had become someone else – someone ready and willing to be with Oliver Queen.
Initially, Felicity had been utterly miserable for pushing him away, especially without giving him the benefit of an explanation. She had wanted to call him the very next day after he left her apartment, to ask him if they could talk, but she hesitated. What would she tell him? How was she supposed to explain to him about Cooper? What would he think of her when she tells him that she had had an affair with a married man? Her fear of being rejected had been greater than her desire to make things right with him, so she stalled over spring break, until her worries and anxieties got the better of her, and she decided that opening up to Oliver was never going to happen and that she would never be ready to pursue a serious relationship with any guy, for that matter, because she'd already been damaged.
But the more she missed Oliver, the more she began to rethink her position. Gradually, her heart and her mind changed as her mother and her friends talked some sense into her and patiently goaded her back to the realm of reason and reality. Just about the same time that Oliver had started sending her coffee and treats, Felicity had come to acknowledge her true feelings for the man and to realize that she truly cared for him more than a regular friend usually does. The evening before her dissertation defense when Connor came bringing her cinnamon rolls and an espresso from his father's kitchen, Felicity thought it was about time she reciprocated his thoughtful and courageous attempts at reconnecting with her. When Oliver turned up at her dissertation defense the next day, Felicity was overjoyed.
And so, there she was on that delightful Saturday morning near the end of spring, heading out the door to meet Oliver for their morning run around campus. Once more.
"Hi!" Felicity greeted Oliver spritely.
She approached him from behind, and literally so, because he appeared to have bent over to tie his shoe and had not noticed her coming near. His spandex-covered bottom was in full view, and Felicity had to shut her eyes for a moment and take a deep breath to keep herself from ogling him inappropriately. This was her second chance, and she didn't want to mess things up between them by giving in to lustful thoughts at a time when they were just beginning to rebuild their relationship.
"Hey!" Oliver returned her greeting warmly.
He had just straightened up and turned around only to find Felicity standing right behind him with her hands crossed in front of her chest. She was looking up at the sky, avoiding his gaze, which was a good thing for her, because if she hadn't been pretending to be cloud-watching, she would have been undoubtedly embarrassed by the way his gaze was fixed on her figure.
Oliver stared at her from head to foot, briefly admiring her attractive athletic look, which he really missed seeing. Like her, he had to shut his eyes for a moment and take a deep breath to keep himself from gawking at her inappropriately. He'd been given a second chance, and he didn't want to ruin things between them by giving in to lewd thoughts just as they were beginning to rekindle their budding romance.
"It's a lovely day for a run. Don't you think so?" Felicity remarked, snapping him out of his private thoughts.
"Yeah," Oliver replied. "Any day is a lovely day for anyone with a chance to run with you."
"Oh please! Oliver, you did not just drop a cheesy line on me, did you?" she teased.
He laughed. "I guess I did," he answered, "but I don't regret it. And, I'm not taking it back."
She smiled. "Don't worry, I won't make you. It was a sweet thing to say." Her smile widened as her face flushed a reddish hue. "Come on, let's go. I'll race you to the amphitheater!"
After running the perimeter of the university grounds three times and making good time, Oliver and Felicity decided to jog back to the atrium of her apartment building. On their way, they passed the greenhouse of the Institute of Botany near the parking lot of the College of Science. The gardener was just outside the greenhouse, watering some potted herbs there. The guy had earphones on and was listening to music and didn't bother to notice his surroundings as he went about his chore. Oliver had already jogged past him scot free, but Felicity did not fare as well. She thought she could hop over the hose no sweat, just like Oliver did just a second or two ago. But as she passed behind the gardener, the man stepped into the greenhouse and yanked the hose towards him without looking back. Felicity's foot got caught! She tripped on the hose and landed hard on the ground, screeching loud enough for Oliver to skid to a stop and look back.
As Oliver ran back to her, Felicity tried to get back on her feet, but as soon as she shifted her weight on the injured foot, she winced in pain and stumbled back down on the moist grass. She attempted to stand on her own a second time, but the excruciating pain on her ankle was too much to bear. Oliver knelt down beside her and cupped one side of her contorted face with his hand. "Are you okay?" he asked with a concerned look on his face.
Felicity bit her lip so that she wouldn't bark "Do I look like I'm okay?!" at him, and just shook her head. She was in pain. Her entire right side, including her hair was also covered in some grass and wet soil. Surely he would understand if she had actually snarled at him for asking such a dumb question. It didn't help that the gardener hadn't even noticed that he had injured someone and was still busy watering plants inside the greenhouse.
"Where does it hurt?" Oliver asked her.
"My right ankle," she answered, lifting her leg slightly to show him. "It got caught in the hose and I tripped. I must have twisted it."
"May I take a look?" he asked, smiling at her.
In the midst of an accident, her pair of blue met his pair of blue, and at that exact moment, they both knew. They had already reconnected and gained each other back.
Felicity nodded, and Oliver proceeded to remove her running shoe and her sports sock. He examined her foot and her ankle. An angry bruise was beginning to form and turn a reddish-purplish color on the very spot she was massaging with her fingers.
"I think it's just a sprained ankle, but it's better if we have a specialist take a look just to be sure. I can take you to the hospital, if that's okay with you? It might be a good idea to have an x-ray done as well," Oliver suggested.
"O—kay," Felicity replied. "Help me get up."
Felicity lifted her arms for him to pull her up. He was going to, but he had a better idea (and so he thought). He shifted to position and prepared to carry her. He slid one arm under her knees and placed his other arm beneath her back.
"What are you doing?" Felicity asked incredulously. She had a pretty good idea what he was about to do.
"Well, you can't put pressure on the ankle, so you can't possibly walk the last five hundred meters back to your apartment. I'm carrying you the rest of the way," Oliver explained.
"You can't!" she exclaimed.
Quickly realizing the implications of those two short words, Felicity immediately tried to clarify what she meant. But what came out of her mouth was, "Not that I don't think you are physically able to lift me. What with those firm and well-tone muscles of yours? Of course you can! I meant that you can't possibly carry a grown woman all the way back. You might drop me or something. Not that I'm too heavy. Of course not! I'm not overweight. I eat right and exercise too, as you well know, because I try my best to stay healthy and fit and well within my BMI, and-"
"Fe-li-ci-ty…"
Her name rolled out of his mouth with a mixture of tenderness and intensity that took her breath away, cut her off at mid-babble, and rendered her speechless. He, on the other hand, fought an inner battle as his eyes shifted from her eyes to her lips, which were just inches away from his own.
Oliver successfully resisted the urge to kiss her right then and there. He said, "Believe me, Felicity, I am well aware of how fit you are." He paused, staring right back into her eyes, hoping she understood what he was driving at. "It's okay," he continued, "I understand completely if you're not comfortable with me carrying you. But your ankle is injured, and I'd hate for it to get worse. I think I am physically able to carry you the rest of the way. I'm sorry if I was too quick to assume that you wouldn't mind me doing that. So now, I'm asking… nicely. Will you please let me carry you in my arms?"
Felicity blinked once and then hummed a very soft "Mm-hmm" as she nodded in acquiescence. The flutter in her stomach and the lump in her throat kept her from saying anything more.
"What was that?" Oliver asked. He had heard her; he merely wanted to tease.
"That was a yes," she muttered under her breath.
Oliver chuckled, and once more he positioned his arms underneath her. When he was ready, she locked her arms around his neck as he pushed himself up from kneeling position. Suddenly, he let out a loud, mortifying groan. "Ugh!"
"What?!" Felicity yelled as Oliver fell back down on one knee. He managed to keep from dropping her by supporting one of his arms with the thigh and knee that hadn't made contact with the ground.
"I think I strained my back!" he replied, still groaning in pain in between deep breaths.
"What?!" she cried out in disbelief. Now they were both injured. How in the world were they going to get back to her apartment?
Felicity slowly maneuvered herself out of his firm hold. Even with the back pain that burned and radiated to his extremities, Oliver had not let go of her. When she was safely on the grass again, he folded his knees and sat on his heels to relax a bit.
"How did that happen?" Felicity asked, more calmly this time.
Oliver huffed out a breath. "I don't know. This… hadn't been a problem with me before."
She wanted to ask him if he was okay, but she remembered how stupid that question had been when he was the one asking her a while back, so she relented.
"What are we going to do now?" she asked instead.
Oliver thought for a moment. Surely there was a solution to their predicament. "John?" Oliver suggested that she call their friend, hoping that John Diggle was on duty that day and could help them out.
"Right," Felicity replied.
She unfastened the Velcro on her arm band to free her phone and then made the call. It was a good thing John was working that day. Within minutes, his car pulled over right in front of them. John helped the two of them get up and get into his car. He drove them to the E.R. of Starling General. On the short ride to the hospital, Felicity explained what had happened, twice interjecting how angry she was at that apathetic gardener.
Just before the car came to a stop on the driveway of the E.R., John teased them. "Well, maybe this incident is just the kind of reminder that you both need," he remarked with a smirk.
"A reminder of what exactly?" Felicity asked John, turning to Oliver to see if he was just as clueless as she was.
"A reminder that you two might want to do something about whatever it is that you've been dancing around all this time," Diggle replied with a smug look on his face. "Because if you haven't noticed it yet, you two are not getting any younger."
No one could pay John Diggle enough bucks to make him stop grinning all day that day… and the days after that. Whatever happened between the time Oliver and Felicity were wheeled into the ER that morning and the time they were both discharged from physical rehab, John knew that his teasing had somehow worked. Because when he picked them up from the hospital just before lunch to bring them home, his friends quietly held hands during the entire ride back. And then, before Oliver got out of the car when they stopped in front of Connor's Brew, he and Felicity shared the most passionate kiss that John had ever seen between two people who were "just friends."
The following weekend was Connor's college graduation and Felicity's graduation from graduate school. Oliver invited his family and the Diggles to a special dinner at Table Salt to celebrate this major milestone in the lives of the two people that mattered most in his life now. Before his son, his parents, his sister, and their good friends, Oliver offered two toasts – the first was to his son and his future, while the second was to his future with Felicity Smoak – after he announced that he and Felicity were now officially… a couple.
A/N: The reason why this chapter ends rather abruptly with a summary of resolutions is that there will be a final update after this. The epilogue will clarify what happened in the hospital and narrate what will happen to Oliver and Felicity in the future, after that family dinner at Table Salt. I hope you stick around for that one.
As the story winds down to a close, you might consider bidding this fic farewell by leaving a comment or review that would encourage or help me improve. Your thoughts mean a lot. Thank you for following and reading this! I had fun writing it.