An unknown number called his phone, and while any other day he'd ignore it, with the situation at hand Dewey had every reason to suspect the caller was Ghostface. He answered the call expecting to hear the raspy voiced but smooth talking killer on the other end, but instead he heard - "Gale?!" he said in utter shock. "What do you mean you're at Kirby's house? How did you even get out of the hospital? *Why* are you out of the hospital?" he asked, a mix of anger and worry lacing his voice. She ignored every question he spat out and revealed that Jill had called and told them that Sidney wasn't picking up any of her calls, but Sidney said no calls were made to her phone until Tatum rang her up.

When he heard Gale yell out to, presumably, Sidney or Tatum, or both, he hit the gas pedal even further down than it already was. Suddenly the call was dropped, and he tossed his phone to passenger seat and grabbed his radio from the dashboard. "This is Sheriff Riley. I need all available units to converge on 329 Whispering Lane. Six people, possibly more, are in the house, one being our killer. Keep your sirens *off*," he called in, not bothering to rehook the radio's speaker to the dashboard as he ended his line. Due to his speed and use of back roads, Dewey finally arrived to the Reed's residence, pulling in silently as his sirens had been switched off miles back.

He opened the door and got out, softly shutting the door behind him. With his pistol held to his side, he crept to the front door of the house, his shoes just barely scuffing on gravel. He placed his side on the door, listening in for any rustling of clothes, heavy boot footsteps, or a scuffle. When all was silent, he grabbed the doorknob and turned it slowly, just slightly pushing the door open enough for him to peak inside and survey the area - nothing. Gun still at his hip, he swiftly entered and raised his weapon for any incoming attackers. The lack of noise put him on edge. He knew this was the right home if the puddles and stains of blood on the ground and walls were anything to go by, but there wasn't a single identifying noise.

All except for the muffled voice coming from upstairs. He immediately aimed his pistol to the staircase and slunk upstairs with his back on the wall, peripheral vision allowing him to see if anyone was going to begin following him up the stairs. The voice got louder and louder, up until the point he reached just outside the room it was coming from - it sounded like Jill. She didn't sound particularly frightened, as a matter of fact it sounded authoritative, and rageful; his suspicions were true. Listening to her poor excuse for the murders made him sick, and angry - fame. That's what this was all about? She couldn't stand to hear another day of how her cousin got all the attention, of which Sidney never wanted in the first place?

He snapped from his thoughts when he heard an all too familiar click - it was the safety latch of a gun, and Jill had one right to Sidney's head. He turned into the doorway and lifted his pistol to aim right for the back of Jill's head. He gave Sidney just enough time to see him and give a witty retort to the unknowing killer before pressing his finger down on the trigger, blowing a hole straight through the girl's throat. Jill dropped her gun at the sudden pain erupting from her throat, pulling her hands up to clasp around her neck to block the open wound from spurting blood out any further.

She collapsed to the floor, muscles seizing at the sudden shock that hit it's system. Her eyes were wide with alarm and perplexion, almost as if saying *How could I have been caught off guard?*, and blood seeped through the cracks between her fingers. Dewey's gaze held on the girl's face for an agonizing minute, grim satisfaction almost hitting his features. He did what he said he would do - kill the last Ghostface. He felt elated in the moment knowing he gotten what he wanted, but he was soon disgusted with himself. No, he didn't regret firing a bullet through the girl's esophagus to protect his loved ones and the people of Woodsboro, but getting any sort of satisfaction from killing another person was against everything he stood for. In a merciless act to an unmerciful killer, he shot right between the girl's eyes, ending her for good.

He finally managed to pull his eyes away from Jill and find Sidney. "Are you okay?" he asked, tears unconsciously pricking his eyes. He hated killing, always had, even if it was towards someone actively trying to kill him, but it was never about whether or not he should've or shouldn't have pulled the trigger, it was about losing a part of himself. He had hated it back in '99 in Hollywood with Bridger, and he hated it here. Dewey only ever wanted to resolve things with as little death as possible, so that the perpetrators could be locked away, left to rot in a cell and think about how their choices led to the rest of their lives being lived behind barred walls. But this was how it was meant to be - the killer always died in the end.

"Wait," he suddenly thought. "Where's Gale, and Tatum? And Kirby?"

Sidney's heart leapt with relief as she saw Dewey standing in the doorway, gun aimed at Jill's head just before Jill spoke. Her eyes caught his, and her lips twitched, not quite smiling as her gaze shifted back to Jill.

"Yeah. Karma's a bitch, and it's come to blow you away."

She remained hunched on the ground, unflinching and unresponsive as Jill's blood spattered over her face and hair. Inches away from her, Jill choked on her own blood, twitching and seizing, just before Dewey shot her between the eyes. As the girl's movements stopped, her features going slack, Sidney lifted her head slowly, shock evident in her eyes. She didn't stand, her eyes drifting back down to her dead cousin on the ground, and then back up to Dewey. She saw the tears in his eyes but couldn't cry herself, nor offer him comfort. Not then. Not yet.

"No," she said honestly in response to his question. "No."

At his question about the others, her far away expression cleared somewhat, and she stood, starting to lead him back downstairs.

"Living room. They're hurt," she warned him, more life coming back into her voice with her concern for them. "They all have been stabbed. That's Trevor by Jill- none of this was him. And the other one downstairs is Robbie. She- Jill made him attack them. She said...she said that she told him she would kill him if he didn't."

Reaching the living room, she dropped on her knees in front of Tatum and Kirby by the couch. Behind the couch, Gale, still conscious but playing dead, peeked through her eyelashes. Seeing Dewey and Sidney, she let out a relieved breath.

"Dewey- I'm back here."

When Sidney pressed her hands to Tatum's stomach, Tatum's eyes opened.

"It's over," she said quietly, and only when Tatum reached up to cup her cheek did she start to cry.

He hurriedly followed behind Sidney as she led him back downstairs and into the living room. His heartbeat began to pick up speed when she told him that Gale, Tatum, and Kirby had been stabbed, and his mind couldn't quite put together how quickly Jill had put this all together. So it was Jill and Charlie from the beginning, but when Charlie was killed Jill had to get herself a new partner and so threatened the other cinema kid Robbie into doing her bidding, tricked Trevor into letting him take her to Kirby's house, had Robbie dress as Ghostface and attempt to kill Kirby and Sidney all the while Jill took care of Trevor - all in the span of a day. Jill was smart, and that scared him more than any of the other Ghostfaces; sure, they were smart too, but Jill was smarter, quick enough on her feet to rework her plan when her partner was unceremoniously killed.

Dewey's mind clocked back in to reality when he heard Gale call for him. He went behind the couch and found her lying on the floor, arm wrapped around her belly to pressurize her knife wound. He gently unwound her arm and placed his hands over the new wound, giving her a chance to preserve her energy from having to squeeze her torso. "Gale," he all but whispered out. "It's all over. She's dead - Jill's dead. It was her the whole time, hon. She orchestrated the whole thing to make herself look like the victim."

He bent down and placed a kiss to her lips, then proceeded to rest his forehead against hers. "She can't hurt you anymore. I shot her in the head, so she won't be coming back."

Gale lay back, letting Dewey take over helping her. She is pale, her hands shaking when she let them fall back at her side, but she was still alert, eyes locked on his as he knelt in front of her. As he kisses her, then rested his head against her, she let her eyes close, breathing in his scent.

Dewey seemed to be speaking to reassure himself more than her, but Gale didn't mind it. She let him talk, explaining to her what she had mostly overhead from the living room floor. Whispering back to him, she told him, "I'll be okay. We're all going to be okay. You did what you had to."

She knew that Dewey was no doubt in shock, both from the act of killing his second person, even in defense, or from seeing her, Tatum, and the others so badly hurt or dead. Although she was in pain and somewhat stunned by things herself, she tried to keep her breathing as even as she could, both to try to control her pain and to keep him calm.

With Tatum, Sidney sobbed almost noiselessly, her fingers pressed against Tatum's stab wound, but her cheek pressed into her bloodied fingers, head bowed against Tatum's stomach. Tatum's hand on her face shifted slightly, pressed gently against Sidney's head, and she said nothing, simply holding her hand there, holding onto Sidney the best she could in comfort even as Sidney held onto her.

Soon they could hear the front door being opened and feet storming through the Reed front door as both officers and paramedics came through, assessing the situation and moving to tend to the three wounded first. Sidney moved aside reluctantly as they started to stabilize and lift then onto gurneys, with Kirby starting to return to consciousness as she was being lifted into the back of one of the ambulances. Sidney followed behind as Tatum was loaded, intending to get in with her. She threw a look back at Dewey and Gale, face stained with tears as she checked on them.

He would've flinched had he not known his officers and deputies were going to be arriving. He continued to hold Gale as Hicks directed her officers to search the house until EMT's rushed inside. He passed the reigns to the professionals to aid Gale's wounds, hovering close enough nearby to where the paramedics still had the room they needed to work.

With her already injured arm and stomach, the EMT's didn't take any risk in making Gale walk, loading her onto a stretcher and rolling her out of the house. He entrusted Hicks to deal with the aftermath and joined Gale to one of the ambulances. He caught Sidney out of the corner of his eye and saw that she was looking to them.

He turned to her and saw the tears that stained her cheeks and continued to slowly fall; it was a look that said *"Will you be okay if I go?"*. He nodded slightly to her, himself too tired to put much effort into a full nod. He joined Gale inside the ambulance, never taking his eyes off her.

At the hospital, he walked alongside her gurney as far as he could before he was forced to stay in the waiting room, but not without placing a chaste kiss to her temple and muttering "I love you."

He had only been sitting in the waiting room for fifteen minutes before he got restless, despite his body's protests. He wanted to just get up and pace, but his legs refused to pick him up. Sidney was there too, arriving not long after Gale and he had with Tatum - poor Kirby was transported alone, but he was sure Hicks or one of his officers informed her parents of what happened to their daughter and what had happened inside their home.

His head was hung low, arms resting on his knees. "It didn't make me feel better," he mumbled, directing the conversation to Sidney. "Killing Jill. I don't...feel better," he added, confused as to why completing the goal he sought out for - killing the second Ghostface himself - didn't put him at ease.

Sidney sat, motionless, in the waiting room outside the ER, having rode over with Tatum in the ambulance as Dewey had with Gale. She held her hand any time she could without being in the way of the paramedics, talking to her when she was awake, but unsure of what she was saying or if it made sense. Tatum had passed out on the way to the hospital and hadn't regained consciousness by the time they arrived, and that had done nothing to put her at ease. Nevertheless, like Dewey she stayed by her as long as she could, and she too parted when made to by telling the other woman she loved her.

Sitting in the waiting room with Dewey, she slumped in her chair, making eye contact with no one. Occasionally she felt more tears well up and spill over, and she made no effort to hide or stop them. It was always so difficult when it was over. So many lives senselessly lost, so much blood and fear and pain. It was wearing and agonizing, and so Sidney sat silently and let herself release just a little of how much she had held back of how she felt.

When Dewey spoke, she turned her head slowly towards him, having almost forgotten his presence. She understood what he was saying; it was all too true. It was easy to hyper focus on catching the killers and putting them to justice. Living with it after was the part that was haunting and raw in its pain. And it did hurt to kill, every time, almost as much as it hurt to lose people she loved.

"I know," she said softly. "It never feels better."

"I should be happy, shouldn't I?" he asked. "I mean, I'm happy that this is all over, and that nobody else is going to get hurt, but...why am I not happy that I got what I wanted? I wanted them dead, and now they are, but I feel...nothing," he continued, trying to piece together his conflicting feelings, They hurt his sister and wife and they killed his baby, so why-?

...Oh...

His baby. They were still gone. Killing Jill didn't bring them back.

Realization washed over his face and his eyes glossed over with tears. His arms came together and hugged around himself as he leaned back into his chair and sat almost motionless. "My baby..." he said, almost unintelligible.

Sidney listened numbly to Dewey's thoughts spoken aloud, unsure if he meant them more towards himself than her. She turned her head slightly toward him, reaching to take his hand in hers. Her hand is covered still in blood, both Tatum's and Kirby's, and her face is still stained with dried tears and Jill's blood as well. Nothing about her looks happy or okay, and she voices that to him quietly.

"Of course you aren't happy," she said quietly. "They won't kill anymore, but they're still dead teenagers. She was my cousin, Dewey. My own cousin. I changed her diaper when she was a baby. I tried to protect her. I had no idea how much she hated me or who she was."

Her chest rose and fell with a long sigh, and a few more tears fell as she squeezed Dewey's hand. "It never feels good to see people die, no matter who they were."

She bit her lip, thinking of Kirby; she had no idea how long the girl was left bleeding or if she would be okay. Gale and Tatum had pushed themselves beyond what was medically okay for them today and both ended up stabbed again; she was especially worried about Tatum, who had been having difficulty walking and now was stabbed yet again.

"They got hurt again," she said almost to herself, even as Dewey made the realization again of his baby. "They could have died. They..."

She moved closer to Dewey, putting her arms around him, and cried quietly with him, her chin on his shoulder. She said nothing, simply holding him, grieving with him.

He took her offered hand into his, squeezing lightly, unbothered by the blood soaking her hand. It was true that a remorseless killer was now dead and unable to hurt anyone else, but that killer was a teenager, misguided by their hate and envy. He didn't feel bad ending Jill's reign of terror, but he wished she had found help before going as far as she did.

It didn't matter now though, because it was all over. Well, not entirely. There were people who had been murdered in the past couple of days, and now several families would be mourning their family member's premature loss. He remembered that after the first Woodsboro murders that his then superior, Sheriff Burke, held a ceremony to honor those who had lost their lives - Steven Orth, Casey Becker, Arthur Himbry, and Kenneth Brown.

Dewey felt it necessary, as the current Sheriff, that he do the same for the people that lost their lives in Woodsboro's second attack - Marnie Cooper, Jenny Randall, Olivia Morris, Rebecca Walters, Deputy Adam Hoss, Deputy Anthony Perkins, Kate Roberts, Deputy Gordon Jenkins, Trevor Sheldon, and Robbie Mercer, as he too was a victim of Jill.

He was hesitant to put Gale and his' unborn child on that list as nobody had even known of their existence, however they still lost their life - he'd have to consult Gale.

He wrapped his arms around Sidney too, rubbing her back with his hand when she softly wept. There was a beat of silence between the two before a doctor approached. "Excuse me Sheriff, Ms. Prescott," the doctor politely interrupted. "I don't mean to bother, but I'd like to inform you that Mrs. Riley, Ms. Riley, and Ms. Reed are all stitched up and stable.

"Of course I'm not thrilled to know that Mrs. and Ms. Riley left our custody and stole one of our buggies, but I'm *willing* to let it slide, especially since our equipment has been returned to us in one piece. They're both asleep now, but the anesthesia should be wearing off soon. If you'd like, I can lead you to their rooms," the doctor explained.

Sidney's head lifted as the doctor approached, and she pulled away from Dewey, wiping her eyes. She gave a small smile as the doctor mentioned Gale and Tatum stealing the buggy to get to Kirby's house- only those two would do something so out of the box in their determination. They were lucky they hadn't been further hurt than they had been, or that they weren't being arrested for theft, hijacking, or both.

She looked over to Dewey as she stood, slipping her arm through his. "Go together? I kind of don't feel like splitting up right now."

She was still feeling shaky, and with neither Gale nor Tatum awake, wanted to stay close to him.

He stood with her as she looped her arm with his. "Yeah," he said. "I don't want to be split either."

He looked at the doctor and asked, "Is there any way we can have Gale and Tatum in the same room?"

The doctor couldn't help but chuckle to himself. "Considering that they're not in critical condition, and because your wife was so determined to stay out of her own room last time, we can move Mrs. and Ms. Riley to a double patient room," he said, willing to compromise for the pseudo-family. "Come, I'll take you to an empty room and have them moved there."

With Sidney attached to his arm, he walked alongside her to an unoccupied double patient room. They sat patiently until both Gale and Tatum were rolled in just minutes of each other. They were both still asleep, the anesthesia still working its way out of their systems, and had all their equipment hooked up to the plugs in the walls.

The two departed from one another and sat almost back to back beside their partners, Gale and Tatum's cots just next to each other. Dewey grabbed Gale's hand, that didn't have tubes sticking out of it, and gently held it. He pulled her hand to his lips and pressed a soft kiss to it.

"How's she look?" he asked Sidney, checking over his shoulder to make sure Tatum's chest was still rising and falling.

Sidney was relieved by Dewey's request and the doctor's response to accommodate it. It had felt wrong to have to split her attention last time, and although Gale had spent most of her time in Tatum's room anyway, Sidney didn't want her to exert herself further trying with a new stab wound to her side. As the women were moved in, still heavily asleep from the anesthesia, Sidney looked over at Gale, seeing Dewey holding her hand and giving it a kiss. She looked okay to Sidney, just tired and pale, and as Sidney turned her attention to Tatum, she focused on her girlfriend, looking her over carefully.

Tatum too looked paler than normal, but she was breathing on her own and steadily, and she was warm when Sidney took her hand. Sidney smoothed back her hair with her free hand, her palm lingering against Tatum's head as she spoke to Dewey.

"She seems okay...God, I can't believe these two," she said softly, shaking her head. "Breaking out of the hospital practically naked with stolen scalpels and a golf buggy? Are they absolutely insane?"

She shook her head, her voice cracking as she kissed Tatum's knuckle. "I love her so much, Dewey. I can't imagine my life without her. It hurts every time she gets hurt. It feels like I let her down somehow. And it feels so unfair. She lives with pain every day, both of you, and I'm fine. It isn't right."

"I think reckless is a more fitting word," he said, turning back to Gale and placing a hand to her forehead. "But I knew that since the day I met *both* of them."

His face softened as she spoke of her love for Tatum. He knew the two were close ever since their first play date, but he never would've expected them to become partners; of course he wasn't bothered by it though. He too felt like he let Tatum, and Gale and Sidney for that matter, down whenever they got hurt, especially during the original Woodsboro murders.

There were many mistakes he made that night, and leaving the Macher house unattended was one of them. He didn't regret getting to talk and share his first kiss with Gale, at least now anyway, but he never would've left the house if he knew the killers were there - maybe then he could've saved Tatum from all the pain she experiences now from her injuries she sustained as a result of that cat flap.

And maybe Gale's cameraman, Kenny, would still be alive - he didn't know much about the guy, but he definitely didn't deserve to die, and killed with a throat slit no less. Maybe he could've helped Sidney if he didn't let Ghostface sneak up behind him and stick a knife into his back.

To say he was 'glad' to be the one to take the brunt of the more lifelong damaging injuries in the subsequent attacks after Woodsboro would be an understatement - he'd take on a whole clan of Ghostfaces at once if it meant Sidney, Gale, and Tatum could get away unscathed.

"If I didn't have you guys as my family, I don't know where I'd be, or who I'd be," he said sincerely. "You're all so brave, and smart, and *incredibly* stubborn - I couldn't be prouder of who you've all become. You never deserved any of this, Sid, not even since the very beginning of all of this, no matter what *Billy Loomis* said. And because of him, he dragged my sister, your girlfriend, and my wife into it too - none of you deserved this," he ranted passionately.

"If I could take all the hurt you and Tate and Gale experienced because of these ghost-mask wearing psychos, I would," he continued. "I'm a husband, an older brother, and your future brother-in-law, I should've been able to protect you."

Sidney snorted slightly at Dewey's calling Tatum and Gale "reckless." This was a very fitting word for them both, all right, and although it was something she loved about them both, it was something that also drove her crazy. Tatum's recklessness could be what made her fun and funny and brave, the perfect person to stand up to cruelty and to go have a fun night out with. It could also make her heedless of her safety, and that was the part that scared Sidney.

As Sidney listened to Dewey tell her how much he admired them all, herself included, smiled very slightly. She wasn't used to thinking of herself as exceptionally brave or smart, although Tatum often told her that she was both and more. She felt her eyes well up again when Dewey told her that she had never deserved any of this, and a few escaped when he mentioned Billy's name, what he had said.

Billy Loomis had said a lot to her over time, much of which had stuck with her, even as she tried over the years to dismiss it and shake it off. Even before the night of the murders, he had said so many things to her to imply that her mistrust of him was unearned, that it said she was damaged and unreasonable, that she was unloving yet simultaneously too sensitive. He had manipulated and gaslighted her until she could not be sure what was real and true of what she felt or who she was, and he had twisted her memories of her mother until she had difficulty separating the women she was to her as a mother, the person she was as a woman, from the woman who broke up families, cheated on her husband, and Billy and others stated deserved murder. Each time the killings started, it was because someone believed all over again that Sidney was a person who deserved it, and that other people's deaths happened because she was deserving.

Logically, she understood none of this was true. Emotionally, it was a terribly hard thing to hear over and over without taking on at least some shame, at least some responsibility.

Still crying a little, she reached between the beds for Dewey, taking the hand that wasn't in Tatum's and joining it with Dewey's not on Gale's head. She squeezed, the four of them now connected through each other, and when Gale stirred, looking up at Dewey through blurred eyes, and mouthed his name without saying it aloud, Sidney gave his hand a last squeeze. Leaning to give Tatum a kiss on the forehead, she whispered into her ear, "I'm right here, I'll be right back, Tate," before moving closer to Gale.

Gale was still somewhat out of it, coming out of the anesthesia, but she saw Dewey and Sidney standing over her and felt with this that things must be okay. Under pain killers, she didn't feel any pain yet, and she asked fuzzily, "Not dead?" to make sure, just in case.

Sidney laughed a little, laying a hand on her left arm lightly. "Not dead. Surprisingly. I don't know which of you came up with the idea of hijacking a golf caddy to leave the hospital with, but I'm still mad at you both for it, just so you know."

He squeezed Sidney's hand back when she joined hers with his. When Gale awoke, he too leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead, just as Sidney was doing with Tatum. He chuckled lightly at Gale's first words, although his face didn't contort with humor.

"I second that," he said, agreeing with Sidney. He was mad that they risked their safety when they were already injured, but that anger was more out of worry and fear for their lives. "You were both lucky to have *someone* able-bodied to ensure those stab wounds didn't do any major damage. If Sid wasn't there, I..." he cut himself off, unable to finish the sentence - *I could have lost you both too*.

Tears pricked his eyes and he buried his face into the crook of Gale's neck. "We still have to make our family," he murmured. "I don't want one if you guys aren't here to stay a part of it."

He lifted his head just enough so that he could make eye contact with her. "I'm not angry at you, or Tate," he clarified. "But please, you can't scare me like this. I need you - I can't imagine a world without you, or Tate, or Sid in it."

Gale was still barely awake, able to process what was being said to her but not able to form a lot of words to respond. She closed her eyes in response to Dewey's kiss, silently wanting further contact, and took his mild reprimand with argument. Her reply was slow, still drugged sounding and late in coming.

"I just had missing arm. Tatum barely walked. Told her to stay."

Sidney rolled her eyes at this, knowing both that Gale was going to see herself as more functional than Tatum despite having to literally sneak out of the hospital and also knowing that Tatum undoubtedly had refused to listen.

"Why don't we try actually taking medical advice and staying your ass here until a doctor says you can go?" She suggested, sliding her hand down to Gale's to take and squeeze her hand. "You might end up with less holes in your body if you do."

Gale moved her head a little as Dewey put his face into her neck, wanting to hug him but unable to lift her right arm in its sling or her left arm with the stab to her left side. She held his eye contact as he looked up at her, emphasizing his need for her, and murmured back, "Couldn't let you go alone. Jill was off. We knew."

"Not an excuse. You could have called Dewey, you could have called the police to go ahead of us, you could have done a lot of things," Sidney pointed out. "You have to care about your life more than that. Both of you. You matter to us more than you can seem to get through your head."

She let go of Gale's hand when she heard Tatum moan beside her and quickly turned to her, moving beside her and taking her hand. Tatum's eyes were still closed, but she was coming awake gradually, mumbling all of their names.

"I'm here, sweetie, we're all here, we're all okay," Sidney told her softly, stroking her hair with her other hand. "You're okay. Dewey and Gale are here too, we're okay."

"Where," she mumbled, eyes still shut, and Sidney tried to answer without knowing what she wanted to know.

He departed from Gale with a parting kiss, however he still held her hand, and leaned over to see Tatum. "Hey Tate," he said. "How're you doing?"

He could tell she was completely out of it and that she couldn't give a definitive answer to whatever pain she might be feeling, but he needed some sort of confirmation from her that she was doing okay.

"You could've gotten hurt much worse, you know," he reprimanded. "What would've happened if Sidney wasn't there? You could've died, that's what.

"We've lost enough people," he said, reminiscing on the innocent teenagers, his deputies, and his baby who had all lost their lives. "I don't want to have to see your guys' names on the list of victims - we already have one Riley on there, and that's one too many."

Tatum is taking in maybe half of what Dewey is saying, still not fully with them. Sidney, seeing this, gives Dewey an understanding look even as she squeezed Tatum's hand.

"Dewey, she's not getting everything you're saying right now, I can tell looking at her. Believe me, we will all be having this discussion again when she can."

"I told her not to go," Gale repeated, to which Sidney snapped back at her.

"Yeah, and you know Tatum well enough to know you shouldn't have told her you were going at all. Gale, she couldn't even walk without you helping her, you had a huge part in her going with you. She literally couldn't have gone without you helping her."

At Gale's guilty look and her eyes sliding down, Sidney sighed, realizing tears had come back into her eyes. She blinked several times, seeing when she looked back over at Gale that she was mentally reassigning blame to herself for Tatum's new injuries even as she didn't speak.

"I'm sorry," Sidney said quietly, still fighting for control. "You were both stupid and I'm using Dewey's word, reckless, but it wasn't your fault that she would want to go or that she's hurt. I'm just...he's right, Gale. We can't lose you. Either of you. I can't... I can't even think about it."

She squeezed Tatum's hand a little harder until the other woman cried out softly, her eyes still groggy as she looked up at Sidney. Seeing Sidney's emotion, she started to get anxious, her voice slurred as she called to her and her brother for an explanation she still couldn't fully take in.

"Sid...Dewey? What...?"

"Shh," Sidney leaned forward to kiss her lips lightly, then gently rubbed her fingers over Tatum's brow, trying to calm the creases forming. "It's okay. Everyone is okay."

Gale, still turning over both Dewey and Gale's words, has yet to let them go in spite of Sidney's apology. She knew that Sidney was right, and Dewey too. She could have died, and worse, she had helped Tatum into a situation she couldn't have entered alone.

And Tatum had been hurt as a result. Again.

She bit the inside of her cheeks, Dewey's words to Tatum feeling like a pointed refrain to herself. "We already have one Riley on the list of vidtims." That one Riley was their child- her child. She had put herself in a situation where Tatum had been hurt and their child died. And then, barely two days later, she did the same thing all over again.

Gale heard her own voice as though it was a stranger's, distant and soft and uneven. She wasn't even sure who she was speaking to- Tatum, Sidney, Dewey? The Riley who had no name?

"I'm sorry. I...I was wrong. I was WRONG."

It isn't a thing she easily, if ever, admits, especially when there is any part of her that had been right. And she had been right- the killer was at the Stabathon, and Jill had been suspicious. But she could be right and still do wrong.

It was shocking to hear Gale admit what she did was wrong, but he could tell it was a big deal to her, not just in that she admitted it but that she never liked being wrong, and vehemently denied that she was if she truly believed her judgement.

And it was true, she and Tatum were wrong to leave the hospital, but he couldn't bring himself to verbally tell her he agreed. It was clearly taking a severe toll on her psyche, so he left his argument there, sure enough that his point was made.

He returned closely to Gale's cot and kissed her knuckles. "I'm not trying to sound mean," he assured her. "I just don't want...I can't lose you."

To switch the topic, he decided to bring up his idea about a memorial. "I was thinking the department could hold a memorial," he said. "Like Sheriff Burke did for the first Woodsboro murders," he added, the word 'first' tasting sour on his tongue - it was bad enough two other murder sprees occurred after the first, but it was worse to have another one in the same town where it all started.

Gale lets Dewey take her hand but doesn't squeeze back, eyes far away. She is mentally back in Kirby's house, watching Tatum stabbed, knowing she can't get to her, that this is her sister in law's fifth stabbing in two days and she had enabled her to receive it. She has no thoughts now of her own new injury. Her mind is fixed on Tatum; she has a sudden and new understanding of the responsibility that Dewey had felt for Tatum's injury fifteen years ago. But to Gale, she was far more responsible than he was. She was 47, not 25, and had 15 years of dealing with serial killers behind her. She should have known better than to risk her sister in law, should have gone alone or not at all. And the baby...

She kept thinking of Dewey's words. One Riley on the list of victims. Would their baby be part of the memorial? How do you remember someone who never drew breath to begin with? Someone the rest of the town never knew, that she and Dewey never knew?

Sidney nodded, seeing Dewey's effort to switch topics and latching onto it. "I can provide the things for Kate," she said quietly. "I could for Rebecca, but her family may do better with that."

She exhaled. "I feel for Kirby. This time around she's the real final girl. We might have to collectively adopt her."

Tatum is starting to become more coherent, her eyes finally opening almost entirely. "Kirby's okay?" Her eyes slid towards her hands, as though checking that they didn't still have Kirby's blood on them.

"Kirby's okay," Sidney reassured her patiently. "You waking up, Tate?"

Tatum blinked, her expression continuing to slowly clear. "Mhm."

He too thought of whether or not their baby would be listed among those who lost their lives during Woodsboro's second murder spree. On one hand it seemed fitting considering that they were technically killed by a Ghostface - Charlie Walker - however on the other hand, some may argue that the unborn fetus wasn't deserving of a memorial if they weren't even born.

Plus, he had to consider what Gale wanted. If it were purely his choice, he'd have their baby a part of the memorial, no questioned asked, but he has Gale's opinion to consider, and if she felt their baby's death should be kept out of the public eye, then so be it. It didn't matter to him that he never met his baby, what he cared about was that they were unceremoniously killed.

If Gale too agreed that their baby be a part of the service, they couldn't exactly call them 'unnamed Riley baby'; plus, Dewey thought they were well deserved in getting a name. "Do you..." he hesitated. "Should our baby be in the memorial?" he asked lowly, loud enough for only Gale to hear.

"And...what would you have liked to call them?"

Gale's eyes slowly came up to meet Dewey's, so bright and clear with the ironic darkness of her thoughts that she wondered for a moment if Dewey had somehow heard them. As he leaned close, speaking about their baby, her breathing caught, and pain burned over her gaze. She didn't for once try to drop her eyes from him. This was a pain and a loss they shared, and as much as she felt it was her fault, a loss brought on by her own actions, it was Dewey's loss every bit as much or more.

She hesitated, part of her wanting to keep the baby private, to hide its loss and so to hide her own grief. But although that felt easy, it was also wrong. Their baby had existed and it should still exist. It would be welcomed and wanted, and it deserved to be recognized and mourned. It was the harded thing, but the right thing, and she slowly nodded, eyes bright with held back tears.

Thinking of a name was hard too. She didn't know if it was a boy or girl, so she ran through the unisex names she could think of. Alex, Frankie, Hayden, Harley, Jessie, Jamie, Lee, Payton, Reese- and ironically, Sidney, Tatum, and Kirby. And Charlie. Fucking Charlie. None of them were right.

And then one came to her. Rowan. It was a tree, she remembered, and it was a unisex name. She tried to remember a story she had heard about Rowan trees long ago and was pretty sure it had something to do with protection from harm.

"Rowan," she said softly, tears in her eyes as she met Dewey's gaze. "Its name is Rowan."

Across from them, Sidney is trying not to pay attention, aware that the two are sharing a private moment. Tatum, however, as she becomes more alert, has no such tendency and tries to look past Sidney.

"What's going on?"

Sidney moved deliberately to block her view, even as Tatum scowled at her. "Sid!"

She started trying to sit up and gasped; there will be free no movement from her anytime soon, even with painkillers. Sidney immediately took her by the shoulders to stop her, now letting her own anger show for the first time.

"Tatum, for fuck's sake, you've been stabbed in the back, the chest, and the stomach. Your ribs and sternum are broken and your vertebrae is still recovering. DO NOT MOVE FROM THIS BED OR I WILL TIE YOU TO IT."

Tatum looked at her wide eyed, unused to being talked to in that manner by Sidney; she's unused to seeing Sidney snap at all. And Sidney isn't done yet.

"Do you have any clue what it was like to see you two show up at a murder site when you literally could not walk by yourself? You didn't even have shoes, Tatum. You didn't even have clothes! How can you care so little about your life that you would put yourself in a situation where there was no possible way you could help and every possibility you would be hurt worse?"

"Sidney-" Tatum started, but Sidney had no intention of stopping yet, cutting her off.

"No, listen, for once, LISTEN. Do you think I want to get involved in things like this? You think I don't want to keep from having guns aimed at my head? I don't put myself into situations where there is no way to win out unless I am given no option, Tatum. You had no way to win and every choice to be safe. You have to start choosing to be safe!"

"I couldn't let you be in danger by yourself," Tatum said softly, looking down. "I don't want to lose you."

"And I don't want to lose you!" Sidney's voice rose, tears breaking free before she even realized they were a threat. She wiped her eyes quickly, but her voice broke.

"I don't want to lose you, Tatum. I still dream about you in that garage door. I still think of those minutes you were alone and bleeding in that loft. I can't lose you. Ever. You or Gale, but you...don't you know what you mean to me? Don't you understand?"

Tatum was sobered by her girlfriend's intensity and emotion, knowing that it was not something she usually showed. Her face remained serious as she nodded slowly, reaching for Sidney's hand.

"I'm sorry. I love you, Sidney. I'm sorry."

"Rowan," he repeated, testing the name on his tongue. A smile crept onto his lips and his eyes glossed over with tears. "Rowan," he confirmed.

*Rowan Riley*

He didn't know what made it click, but the name just fit. As far as he knew, Rowan was a type of tree that was considered a symbol of protection by the Celtics. While their baby certainly could've used that protection in life, they now had it in whatever afterlife they resided.

His attention turned to his sister and her partner as they argued. He too was surprised by Sidney's outburst, but he understood where she came from, after all it was his little sister and wife they were talking about. He remembered how he himself was this passionately enraged just a day or two ago, and he remembered too how Sidney brought him out of it.

He reached over and took her unoccupied hand. When he caught her gaze, his eyes pleaded for her to sit down in the chair beside Tatum's cot as to not strain herself any further from standing so rigid.

Gale smiled back, the expression small and sad, as Dewey repeated their baby's name. He seemed to like it, to hear the same ring to it that Gale had, and she nodded, repeating it softly.

"Rowan."

Her eyes shifted with his to Tatum and Sidney, finally tuning in enough to hear their argument. She said to Sidney quietly, "I'm sorry I brought her. It was wrong, like I said. I should have made her be safe."

She squeezed Dewey's hand as she added, "But it's hard to sit back and do nothing when someone you love is in danger. Both of you know this."

Sidney took a breath, trying to calm down, but her face is flushed, and her entire body is shaking. As Dewey takes her hand, encouraging her to sit, she does with jerky motions, tears still trickling down her face. Tatum, looking stricken and a little scared, ran her thumb over the back of Sidney's.

"I'm sorry," she repeated. "I am. I just...I hate to let you do anything sad or scary alone. You're my girl, Sidney. You always have been. I want the rest of our lives together, and sometimes I'm so scared it won't happen. If you go out, I'm going with you. I'm sorry but I would want to."

"Tatum," Sidney started, but Tatum shook her head.

"I mean it. I'm with you, all the way. Sometimes it might make me do stupid things but it's because I love you. Not just to be stupid."

Gale glanced at Dewey, eyebrow raised, because honestly she agreed with Tatum's thoughts. She was more or less on the same page.

He did know, and he knew it too well. That's why he had run right into the dragon's den back in '96, as he believed Tatum and Sidney were still inside the house. That's why he let himself be stabbed in the back several more times than he would have if he didn't call out to Gale through the speaker in the sound proof room. That's why he had went to Milton's mansion despite the danger in doing so.

Needless to say, he did his fair share of stupid things, but it was all to protect the people he loved; plus, one Ghostface attack after another tends to sharpen your skills, so as time passed he became more confident in his abilities, even if running head first into danger was a dumb idea.

He would've rather lived not knowing the knowledge that if Sidney were to ever be killed that Tatum would want to go with her, the same going for Gale if her look towards him had anything to say. He couldn't think of living without either of these women, but he knew they wouldn't want him to end it all if he lost any of them.

He wanted to be mad about it, that they were all willing to die if one of them were to be killed out of fear of being without said person, but he couldn't bring himself to be. His leg bounced to release the anxiety in his nerves and his hand squeezed tighter to Gale's.

Gale squeezed back, moving her free hand to cover and lightly rub his leg. As Sidney sniffed, trying to wipe her face against her shoulders with both her hands occupied by Tatum and Dewey, Gale reached to rub her back lightly. It was an unusual move for her, to show physical affection or or comfort to anyone but Dewey, but in the last few days, Tatum's impassioned words were still sitting with her, and she was realizing the other woman wasn't wrong.

Fear had kept her tightly locked inside her own self for most of her life. Fear of loving or being loved, or expressing love once she felt it, out of the pain or loss or rejection that could result. But Tatum was right. They were all in danger and had lost so much, for so many years. She had lost her own child, and any chance to have another unaided, partly out of fear of being unable to love it.

And she loved these women. As Dewey had said, they were her family. Without him- and she could not bear the thought of a life without him- they were all that would still tie her to the world. She felt a need then for them to know this, no matter how hard it was for her to say, and so she rubbed Sidney's back, and tried to reassure her.

"Listen. If something ever happened to you, Dewey and I would do all we can to take care of Tatum and keep her as safe as possible. I promise. I would drug her every night and make her sleep in a bed beside us if we had to. But she's her own person too, and she's telling you the way she loves you. Try to hear that part over everything else."

She paused, squeezing Dewey's hand a final time, and then reached to take Tatum's free one.

"But Tatum. Sidney's right. She can't be as safe as she should be if she's worried about protecting you. Sometimes loving her means keeping yourself out of it so she can come back safe to you. Look, you know Dewey wants to be your bridesmaid when you get married, it's been legal in California for three years now."

She said that lightly, but her next words came out awkward and stilted, as they had when she said them to Sidney the day before. "We- We want to see that, okay? Because we- we love you, Tatum. I- I do."

Tatum's eyes widened, and she broke into a smile, giving Gale's hand a squeeze back. It was more like a twitch, coming from her weaker left arm, but it was enough.