Carlos

"Brad! We're heading out in five!"

His wandering mind was yanked back by the squadron commander's call. Suddenly the heavy clunking of droids moving into position echoed across the small clearing, and Carlos was surrounded by men and women slapping him on the shoulder and shaking his hand. Alec and Emily too. Looking into the eyes of the men he'd gotten to know in the past few months, Carlos realized he was glad things had worked out the way they did. The whole reason he'd become a cop in the first place was because he wanted to make a difference. Most of the time you went through your career tackling case after case, hoping but never knowing whether what you were doing left an impact on anyone's life.

It was really cool to see the members of Brad's platoon and realize that he had definitively played a part, no matter how small, in changing the entire future of their society for the better.

A zipping sound split the air, and men, women and machines started jogging through it.

"Carlos, Alec, thanks for everything." Carlos turned to see Brad standing there, hand held out to him, anticipation shining on his face. "None of this would have been possible without you guys. We won't forget it."

Carlos nodded, holding out his own hand for a quick shake, then shifted his gaze to look over Brad's shoulder when he turned to talk to Alec. Keira was still standing where Brad had left her, and she gave Carlos a trembling smile when he caught her eye. She hadn't moved, however, and hardly daring to hope, he walked over to her.

"Hey. You ready?" he asked softly. He wasn't entirely sure what he meant by that, but it seemed like the right thing to say. Keira shrugged, and a single, solitary tear traced down her cheek.

"As I'll ever be, I guess. It seems impossible that this is the end." She waved her hand toward the shrinking portal, which zipped shut when the last of Brad's platoon stepped through. "Liber8 is over, Kellogg is out of the game-at least for the moment-and Alec is finally where he belongs. Thanks to the Freelancers, we know what we did worked." Wiping away another tear, she wrapped her arms tightly around herself. "It's hard to believe that things are going to just…be normal."

"For a while anyway." Carlos hadn't heard Alec walk up behind him, but the boy-no, man, he really needed to stop thinking of Alec as a kid-walked past him and wrapped his arm around Keira's waist.

"You going to be okay?" he asked her softly. "I know Brad asked you to go with him." Giving her a lopsided grin, Alec squeezed her a little tighter. "I figured we'd be cleaning out your apartment this afternoon. Emily and I were already arguing over which one of us got to keep that crappy carpet in your dining room."

Keira laughed, hugging him back. "To be honest, I thought I'd be going too. All I've wanted since I got here was to go back home. But…" Smiling over at Carlos, she lifted a hand, and without a second thought he caught hers and squeezed. "Then I realized I already was."

Keira

In the end, it had been easy. Watching Brad walk away from her after she'd told him she was going to stay, Keira had expected pain. Regret. Instead, she felt light. Almost happy. For the first time since she'd been sucked through Alec's cursed time travel device at Liber8's execution, she finally felt like she was where she belonged.

"You ready to get out of here?" Alec asked, giving her waist a final squeeze before letting her go. "I'm starving, and Emily says that new Italian place on 3rd is to die for."

"Everything's homemade," Alec's girlfriend assured her with a grin. "You'll love it."

"Sounds good to me. Carlos?"

Realizing her hand was still hanging on to Carlos's she tried to pull it back, but he just squeezed a little tighter and refused to let go.

"Works for me," he said easily. "I have to swing by the station first and pick up some paperwork, mind if I meet you there?"

"Fine by me. Keira, you want to ride over with us and we'll drop you off back here on the way home?"

Keira bit her cheek to hide her laughter. It had taken some doing via some dubious legal channels, but they had managed to get Emily's record completely expunged and her name legally changed. She and Alec were almost unreasonably excited at the fact that she could go "home" without having to look over her shoulder. It was the 200th time in the last few weeks Alec had managed to drop the word "home" into the conversation.

"No, thanks. I'm not sure I could stand breathing the same air as you two lovebirds that long. It might be contagious," she teased, winking at Alec to let him know she was kidding. The truth was, she was happy for him. After everything he'd gone through, Alec deserved to be happy. And if she felt a small pinch in the general vicinity of her heart that Alec's relationship with Emily had worked out so well while her own with Brad had bombed so spectacularly, well, that was nobody's business but hers.

"Alright, we'll see you there." Hand in hand, the couple walked off. Carlos laughed.

"Seems funny to see him looking so laid back," he said dryly. "Seems like every time I've seen him in the last few years, we've been hopping from one crisis to another." Looking down at her, his smile faded, and he reached out with one hand to gently tuck her hair behind her ear. "You going to be okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I really am." Still smiling, she gently squeezed the hand she still held, enjoying the relaxed intimacy of the moment. "I've spent so much time since I got here trying to get home that I forgot something important."

"Oh?"

"Home is where the people who care about you are. Greg and Sam…they're gone," she said softly, wincing a little at the sharp, swift prick of pain. It was better than it had been though. "I don't think I'll ever be able to forget them, but I think…I think I'm finally starting to move on." It was, she admitted to herself, as though they had died-which, for her, they had. Or as good as.

It was her secret, the one she still hadn't told Carlos. When the Freelancers hopped forward in the timeline to guarantee the future of Brad's squad, they'd quietly done some checking for her as well-although the secretive bastards hadn't bothered to tell her anything about it until she confessed to Catherine that she was thinking about going back. Or forward as the case may be. Greg was alive, and working at SadTech, but he was married to someone else. Sam had never existed.

It was the last, she knew, that had sealed her decision to stay.

She herself was remembered fondly in Piron's manifesto, but Catherine hadn't told her more than that, saying that she would have to choose her future for herself. She was angry about it at the time, but now, Keira was glad. For the first time in years, her future was an open book.

"The people I care about-and who care about me-they're right here." Looking into her partner's eyes, she smiled at the almost unnoticeably release of the tension around them. He'd been worried, she realized.

"What about Brad?"

Keira wondered if Carlos knew his lip curled, just a little, when he said the other man's name. "I think…I think I liked the idea of Brad more than Brad himself," she confessed, shaking her head. "And I feel really, really bad about that. He was a great guy, and I hope he's happy, wherever he is. He sacrificed everything to come back here and change the future. He deserves to be happy."

"What about you?" Carlos stepped forward, tugging on her hand so she followed. The air was crisp, and Keira leaned against her partner as they crossed the clearing and headed back toward their cars.

"What about me?"

"You deserve to be happy too."

"I know. I do!" she insisted when Carlos looked at her skeptically. "I'm going to work on it."