Ok...well...I recently re-read this story and as I was finishing up, I realized that I never answered what happened to JC...if anything. So I sat down and wrote the epilogue. If anyone is still interested in this story...awesome. Happy reading. But hopefully this will tie things up a little better for everyone.

Enjoy!

Epilogue

I smelled the scent of his cologne as he entered the room. It had been years since I had remembered having that scent in my nose, but I recognized it immediately. I was too tired and sore to open my eyes, but I could tell that he made his way to the chair that was next to my bed, the one that my father vacated less than an hour ago. I let him sit there for a minute while I took in the smell. It was an aroma that gave me a small sense of security, as I remembered the times that he would comfort me in times of turmoil.

"Have you been sneaking in here every night?" I weakly asked, still refusing to open my eyes or even move for that matter. Everything hurt from my toes to my head. The pain medication was taking the edge off for the most part, but still, so much of my body just ached.

I heard him let out a muffled chuckle, "Yeah," he finally admitted. "I waited until they would leave then I would come in to sit with you for a while." His voice was barely above a whisper, like he was still trying to hide his presence.

"How did you know?" There was more to that question than it seemed, and he knew it. It ranged everywhere from how did you know where to find me to how did you know when to come.

"I've been watching you for a while now, kid. You think that you could get rid of me that easily?" I attempted to smile at the nickname. Just like I call Henry 'kid', I never realized where I picked up the habit until now. Yeah we were both kids when we lived together, but he always called me kid, even though I was only a couple of years younger than him and it had been such a long time since I had heard him called me that.

I finally moved my head, slowly, to his direction. I opened my eyes to slits just wide enough to see him leaning back in his chair with his knees spread apart. He rested his elbow on the arm of the chair making his hand the perfect height to hold his head up as he leaned. "So my dream…"

He laughed again, interrupting my thoughts. "Yeah...I was telling you stories."

"Just like always," I managed a small smile, but it hurt.

"Yeah, just like always." He repeated. "You always loved my stories."

"You told the best stories. Imagine my surprise to learn that they were real. How long have you known?" I asked. Again it was a loaded question. And this time he needed to clarify which to address first. I could tell that he wanted to give me all of the answers that I desired; he just didn't know where to start.

"How long have I known…" he pulled on the word 'known' for a bit before he continued, "…that you were in Storybrooke? That you found your parents? Or that I was your cousin?"

"Yes." I replied. I wanted the answers to all of those questions and more.

"A while," was his response. "Long enough to know who you were and what you were destined to become. It was hard to not tell you the truth, but I knew that you wouldn't believe me. You would chalk it up to being one of my stories to make you feel better. It was something that you had to find out on your own."

"How did you find out?" I was so curious. How did he know who I was before I did?

"My mother," he paused for a moment. He seemed like he was looking for the best way to tell me, "she never really told me how she knew, but she always said that you looked like him. It wasn't until the day that she told me who my father was, that I figured out who 'him' really was."

"Have you talked to them?" my mind was going in a million different directions. I my thoughts felt like a ping pong ball that fell from the table and was bouncing around aimlessly.

"You mean your parents?" I weakly nodded a response, "I haven't. They don't know that I'm here."

"Oh, they know." There was no way that they didn't. Everybody knows everything in a small town, especially if you were once the reigning monarch of their former land and your daughter is the savior.

"What makes you so sure?" I had to laugh; well I tried to laugh since even taking a shallow breath was a chore. But he was always the older brother questioning the little sister.

"Are you kidding? If you've been watching me, then you know who they are, which means that you know that 90% of this town is loyal to them. I can guarantee that they knew that you were here the first time that you walked through the hospital door and they knew that you were in my room the minute that you peered in to see me in a coma. What I don't get is why they didn't confront you? Or why my father denied you being here when I questioned where you were?"

"Are you telling me that they are suspicious of new people?"

"No, no. Just insanely over-protective," I knew what he was thinking. That I went from one extreme of having no one to the other extreme of having two people who loved me so much that it hurt. "So, these stories," yeah we needed to get back on topic. "How much was real and how much did I make up while I was in my coma?"

"I'll tell you what, you ask, I'll answer. How does that sou…?" He didn't even get the thought out of his mouth before I cut him off with my first question.

"Mr. Cooper?" That was all that I needed to say, he knew what I wanted to know.

"He's gone."

"Gone…as…in…"

"He died."

"Are you sure?" I needed to be sure. I needed to know that he was not going to come after me. Because if JC could find me, then so could he.

"Have I ever lied to you, kid?" I gently shook my head from left to right to answer his question. "He did his time in prison, and then died about two years ago from a heart attack. I even went to the funeral. Just to make sure," he winked.

"And your mom?" I wanted to know about her. She was always so kind. I could never figure out why she stayed with that man. Until I met Henry, then I understood. She stayed so that she could be there to protect him, or us.

I saw a sad smile cross his face. "She passed too…complications from alcohol poisoning. Everything was just too much for her. She turned to the bottle and never turned back."

"JC, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. She's better now. And if she knew that you found them and the way that you turned out, she would be so proud. I know that I am."

"I know that we are too…" I watched as JC's head shot a look to the door of my hospital room. My reaction was a little slower but the same nonetheless.

"Mom, Dad. What are you doing here?" I asked as I tried to push myself up a little on my bed. Before I knew it, both my Dad and JC were by my side helping me to my goal.

"Well, since you were awake, we wanted to be here when he made his stop tonight," my mother explained referring to JC.

"See," I said to JC, "I told you that they knew." He shot me smirk as he extended a hand to my father and then to my mother introducing himself.

"Nice to meet you, I'm…"

"The infamous JC…" my father finished for him as he graciously accepted his offered hand and shook it.

"Yeah…" he looked over to me, "I guess you could say that."

"So you are my brother's son?" I watched as my father eyed my friend up and down, drinking in every bit of his looks and demeanor. With both of them in the room, I could now see the resemblance myself. And I guess that I could now see why JC's mother knew. She saw the resemblance too, my blond hair and my tact. She had known my father's twin brother intimately, call it a sixth sense or whatever, the long and the short of it is that she just knew.

"How…How'd you know?" Again JC looked to me.

"Did I not explain this to you once already?" Even in my weakened state my sarcasm had not escaped me.

"Yes," He finally looked back to David. "James was my father; unfortunately, I never got the chance to meet him."

"Well, neither have I. But I'm told that I do a spot on impression of him."

"Dad, that was bad, even for you…" He lifted his eyebrows as a way to shrug off his bad joke. He moved to sit at the foot of my bed which allowed my mother to move to my side. He lovingly rubbed his hand up and down the side of my leg; an action that I would have flinched away from in the not so distant past.

My mother was quick to push my hair behind my ear as she sat down on the side of my bed next to my arm. "How are you feeling, sweetheart?"

"Sore, but every minute gets a little better." She smiled at me as she reached up and placed the back of her hand to my forehead. "Mom, I'm in the hospital, they are monitoring me." I said as I pushed her hand away.

"Pardon me for being concerned for my daughter's well being." We both looked over to JC when we heard him release a definite laugh. "And you," with a finger pointed in his direction she turned her motherly voice to JC. "Welcome to the family," her voice was softened and welcoming. "I'm hoping that we get to see a lot more of you, rather than you sneaking around."

"I think that you can count on that…" he answered. "Emma and I have a lot of catching up to do."

"I for one…want to hear these stories that my nephew has been telling my daughter." David's voice loomed over the room as he opened the new chapter in our lives with one simple sentence.

"I'd be happy to oblige." JC responded with a smile.

We spent the rest of the evening filling my parents in on the time that JC and I had spent together. We shared so many of the good times that JC and I had as kids. I really didn't want them to hear all of the bad stuff at once. They needed to be eased into that part of my life. But I could tell that it made them feel a little better about our situation by knowing that for a small part of my impressionable life I had one actual family member close to me; a sheep that had made his way back to the flock.

I watched my parents interact with my foster brother/cousin. They were so accepting of him, and thankful. They were thankful of what he did for me. It was good for them to know that everything wasn't all bad. Sure the lion's share of my life was not good, but it wasn't all bad either. And now I had my family. If I have heard my Dad say it once, then I've heard him say it a hundred times, "In this family, we always find each other." And that is exactly what we did.

-The End.